KwaZulu Natal

Sept. 28th
We are extremely fortunate! When we were interviewed by our Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD), of whom we are quite fond, we were asked if we had any preferences for site placement. We indicated that we wanted to learn Zulu and to be in the KwaZulu Natal province. Our training group known as SA22 because we are the 22nd group to serve in South Africa, is the first to enter KZN (“K Zed N” as it is commonly referred to). The other sector in country is essentially a health sector. They are known as CHOP volunteers (the community health and outreach project. They liaison with NGO’s (non-governmental organizations that do development work) in the area to work on capacity building mostly to address the astronomical AIDS epidemic that is at its worst here in the more rural areas of KZN. This sector was already working in KZN. Our sector is known as ‘The schools and community resource project’ and as I pointed out, we are the first to enter KZN. Nearly half of our training group received assignments in this region. I don’t want to imply that the best posts are here. A number of volunteers were actually placed in or right next to the world famous Kruger Park which is vast, spans three countries, and is the place to see the ‘big five’ (elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, and Rhinos). However many of the KZN sites are near or at the coastline that spans from Mozambique south to St. Lucia. This stretch of coastline has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. We are a bit inland, about an hour and a half from St. Lucia in a town called Jozini. The most salient environmental feature here is that there is a dam and a large lake. We are on the ‘dry’ side of the dam. It is in clear view if we walk down the road a bit. The opposing side of the lake is a biosphere reserve. Many animals surround the lake including, giraffe, antelope, and apparently elephants as well do come to drink from the lake. We won’t routinely see these animals from where we are. I don’t believe that swimming occurs in the lake. There are hippos and you don’t generally want to swim with them. The lake is a big draw for anglers on account of the endemic Tiger Fish that is found in the lake which is apparently quite an adversary and considered a bit of a triumph to catch. We are within at most two hours travel to a number of parks and reserves including Tembe Elephant Park, Ithala Game Reserve, Mkhuze Game Reserve, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, Isimangaliso Wetland Park and the Phongolo Nature Reserve and Pongola Game Park on our side and the opposing side of our lake respectively.
Our house is at the very top of a hill adjacent to the primary school which is one of the schools with which we will be working. The area is very hilly- enough for there to be a damn. It has cooled a bit in the last couple of days and we got some rain- something we hadn’t experienced in Mpumalanga province. But aside from that, it has been hoooooooootttt! I made the mistake of not wearing a t-shirt under my dress shirt at the high school last week and it looked like I’d fallen in a puddle. I was mostly sitting down and had to return to the house to get something and promptly afitted myself with the t-shirt which is how it will work from here on out. It is quite serene up here. This week school is on break. So it has been very quiet. It was over the weekend about nine days ago (today is Tuesday) that we met our principals at a hotel about an hour and a half south of here. We were there for three nights. And got to feast on the buffet provided which was a treat. Any longer and I would be fat as hell though, so it is good that we are cooking for ourselves now. One bit of information that came up at the workshop was that the ‘little house’ that we were to stay in fell through so the principals found us a new house. Typically, the APCD from Peace Corps sees the volunteer’s projected accommodations when s/he opens the site. Then, the trainee sees it during site visit which, as I mentioned earlier, we did not have on account of the teacher’s strike. I should say that some time the housing really does not work out for volunteers. Either promises of work to be done aren’t realized by the time the volunteer gets to site or the family associated with the residence ends up unable to function with the volunteer or vice-versa. In PC South Africa- unlike most Peace Corps countries- the volunteer's dwelling is on a family compound. In our case, that just means that our building is one of a few that are surrounded by a big fence on the top of a hill. Our hosting family is small: one grandmother, a mother and her boy and girl. We get along fine and are not at all in each other’s affairs. There are two graves alongside our house who I’m guessing were siblings of the mother?? I don’t know. I do know that one was my age and the other Stacey’s when they were put there. I could conjecture a guess, but we really don’t and may not ever know. So the house was a big surprise. I’ll preface this by pointing out that we use a pit latrine in the back and have no running water in the house. The spigot is outside. We have dealt with no running water previously at our site in Madagascar, so we bring with us some water management skills. This time it is even easier though as the hose can now (and will eventually when I purchase an additional span) reach right into the house where it can fill our basin. We do have electricity. Now get ready for this- the house itself: three bedrooms, shower area, large living room/dining room, full kitchen, kitchenette, storage space and garage! It’s certainly more space than we’re accustomed to- and it’s nice for a change. There is a dog here that had 4 puppies just a couple of days ago and another slightly older puppy. There are also a number of goats and chickens routinely circumnavigating the house. Anyhow, we’re feeling pretty good about the whole setup and we’re currently getting the house set up the best we can; we’re still waiting on some furniture from the Dept. of Ed which will probably complete the circle. The in-town area is small, but bustling. We don’t buy our food on the street as in Madagascar- it is all at a big supermarket now where a lot of food items are available. We’ll talk more about the town in time. One point of interest, the most popular and high falutin restaurant in town is KFC. The colonial’s giant bucket sits perched triumphantly above the rest of the town. I must confess I’m developing a taste for it!!!