Wow, it’s been a really hectic but exciting few days, so that’s why I haven’t written since Saturday. So, I’ll try to catch you up. Staging continued on Sunday with more training. However, I felt a little better on Sunday, I wasn’t near as emotional. I still didn’t socialize on Sunday with the other volunteers. I just went back to my room and ordered a pizza for dinner and charged all my electronic items. I also spent time making phone calls and I chatted online with Rhonda. I also took a very long hot shower, washed my hair, and shaved, because I don’t know when I’ll have that luxury again!
On Monday, we met in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30 am and loaded a bus to the medial clinic. The amount of luggage was massive! The luggage wouldn’t all fit on the storage area of the bus, so some of it had to be put on the bus on the seats. We were at the clinic for several hours getting shots and our 1st dose of malaria medication. I was given the type that you only take once a week. After we left the clinic, we went right to the airport. We stood in line with all the luggage again for several hours before the ticket desk opened. We then all had to go through security, and then got lunch at the airport. Most of the PCV including myself exchanged around 100.00 US dollars for rand at the airport. I called Joyce from the airport to let her know I was getting ready to fly out and I also called Marea. We finally loaded the plane around 5pm. I had a back middle seat, and had to climb over people to make it too the bathroom. I didn’t enjoy the 17 hour flight, but somehow made it. The seats were very close together and I felt very squished in with the people on either side of me. We kept bumping elbows when we were trying to eat. The seats didn’t lie back at all, so sleeping was almost impossible. The airline had a decent collection of movies and TV shows to watch. I watched an episode of the Simpson’s and a couple of movies. I couldn’t sleep, and finally took some Benadryl to knock me out for a few hours.
We arrived in South Africa on Tuesday, and we all made it through customs with no problems. However, all the luggage wouldn’t fit on the bus, and the PC had to get two more buses just for the luggage. The bus ride to Marapyane College took about three hours, and we arrived at the college around 9PM South African time. It was dark, so we didn’t get a chance to see the views of South Africa on the way to the campus. When we arrived on the campus, I was surprised and a little worried to note that there was an armed guarded gate at the front of the campus!
After we excited the bus, we entered the dining hall to find that a meal had been prepared for us by one of the HCN staff that consisted of pap, fried chicken, and beef with veggies. Then, some of the PC language staff sang and danced for us in their native tongue. The dancing and singing was very enjoyable, and it felt like one of my first true experiences of Africa!! We were then given a handout that told us what dorm we would be staying in. We were then able to get our luggage. We were then told to go to our dorm and find the room with our name on it. The dorms were brick and looked nice on the outside, considering it was dark. The rooms consisted of a bed, closet, desk…the best part is that we each had a private room. However, the walls were paper thin, but at least there was a wall between me and the next volunteer! If you rolled over in your bed, the person in the room next to you could hear it!! The dorm had one toilet and two showers. However, we found out you could only run the showers one at a time, because only one side would get hot. We had to do a shower rotation, because after two five minute showers, the water was cold. I had two semi-hot showers out of three showers…I guess that was a pretty good record.
Our rooms had a new sheet set and blanket and a letter from one of the current volunteers. I immediately took a shower, made my bed, and finally got to be around 1:00 am…we were told to be at breakfast at 7pm. However, I woke up around 3am curled in a little ball freezing to death. The dorms didn’t have heating or insulation, and this time of year is the middle of winter in South Africa. I tried really hard to sleep, but I was too cold. I finally got up and put another pair of socks on and another shirt, and slept for about another hour. It seemed like a very long cold night!! We later compared notes on the bugs we found in the dorms and in our rooms. We all found the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen…the size of the palm of your hand. The rooms did have electricity…there was one plug in my room…thank goodness I had brought plug adapters with me!! Most people didn’t bring adapters and wasn’t able to plug anything up. The first time I used my hot iron, I had to use a plug adapter and a transformer because of the wattage\voltage difference and it worked fine. The 2nd time I used it, it blew up…so, I guess I’m going to be having some crazy looking hair!! I guess I’ll try to get a SA hot iron later on if I can find one when I get to go shopping that has the correct voltage already. I think after the 1st day or two, we all stopped trying to look like we did in the US, and came to terms with how we will look in SA…when you don’t have the resources, water, electricity, appliances, or even a mirror, you just give up!!
The next morning, I went up to the dinning hall for breakfast. I selected two sandwiches which I thought was an egg sandwich and a ham sandwich. On a side note, all the meals were prepared by a HCN that was hired by the PC that’s only job was to cook for us while at the college….she was told to only cook traditional food for us, so we could be use to it by the time we got to our host families. We had the same meal for lunch and supper everyday while at the college. I’ve figured out that I don’t like pap…it looks like mashed potatoes, but has the consistency of thick glue and water.
The day was spent getting shots (I think we’ll be getting 10 more shots in the next few weeks), and having trainings. We also had two tea breaks, which I think is a fairly common practice in SA. During the breaks and the extra time I had after lunch, I walked around the campus and took pictures. The campus seems to be about the size of ECC, but has many small buildings instead of the large ones like ECC.
The nights and mornings were very cold. It starts getting cold at around 6pm and just gets colder all night. It starts warming up around 11am…warm enough to wear shorts if shorts were allowed. Everyone has on coats and warm clothes at night and in the morning, and by noon everyone has on short sleeve shirts…it will take some time getting use to.
The PC gave us all phone cards, and we were able to call home on Wednesday. To get to a phone, the PC loaded us on a bus and drove us down the road about 5 miles. This was the first time we had been off campus and was able to see the surrounding area. The views really looked like what I imagined Africa to look like. The land is flat, the roads are dirt, dust is everywhere, there are only very few trees and mostly bush. The few homes we passed were dirt or concrete with metal roofs. The animals are not fenced, there are cows, goats, donkeys, chickens, etc. just wondering around everywhere…in peoples yards (dirt yards…there’s no grass), in the road, etc….I don’t understand how they keep up with which animal belongs to whom. The phone location was rather amusing. Like I said, we drove down the road about five miles, and there was a phone on the side of the road with nothing else around it but a few houses and a cow trail!! I called Daddy and Joyce and let them know I was safe in Africa and said to let everyone else know too.
Till next time…
Filed under: Pre-Service Training | Tagged: Peace Corps PST
