Hello! Once again it would seem I’ve been very inattentive to my blog. One reason for this being that during the recent teachers’ strike I spent a lot of time visiting friends in different places, sans computer. The other reason is that usually when I come home from school I’m a lot more apt to sit in front of my computer watching television series or movies rather than thinking and processing life. Ah well.
So that strike…well it went on about three weeks and during that time us Peace Corps Volunteers were instructed not to attend to school nor to attempt to organize any projects. Thus, we had a lot of free time on our hands. I only had a few moments of boredom but for much of it I was happy to have the time to sleep in, exercise more, watch tv and movies, and visit friends. My last visit was with my nearest volunteer friend to go see Sally and David, with whom we celebrated Thanksgiving last year. They have a very peaceful and relaxing abode at a Catholic mission in a somewhat nearby village, at the base of a mountain. We did some hiking and file-sharing which was great, but I think what I enjoyed most was sharing meals among the four of us. Sally and David have a fully-equipped, mostly Western style kitchen complete with a kitchen table! It may seem like a small thing, but sitting down to dinner at a table where grace was said and conversation and laughs exchanged, was a true delight. I can’t remember the last time I did that. I do eat with my host family now and then, but as is common practice in South Africa, they take their plates of food and eat in front of the television. Usually when I visit other volunteers, although the food and company are equally amazing, one perches where one can with one’s plate balancing precariously atop one’s knee. So that kitchen table was really, truly something.
We’re now back to school, which I was little indifferent about. I’m very glad the strike is over though (well, we hope it’s over, but it’s technically only suspended while negotiations continue) mostly because the public health care workers were also striking and I was hearing very alarming reports of people being sent away from hospitals to die. My friend Nkomi told me that she was forced to go fetch her neighbor from the hospital where he was hooked up to oxygen and they sent him home with some medicine for her to administer. He died after 5 days. I don’t know any of the details or how critical his condition was, but still, it makes me wonder…there was also the issue of HIV patients not being able to receive their ARV’s. Also quite disturbing.
The only other thing I feel compelled to write at the moment is that Gogo has been blessed with three new kids. Goat kids that is. On Sunday I found out that one of her goats had given birth across the field to twins. I got to go see them when they were just starting to stand up and the mother was cleaning them off. They were cute, and most of the gross stuff was gone. The next day I came home from school and went around to the back of my house to peel an orange. As I was peeling it I looked around to see a goat standing in the patch of dirt right outside my window, with something very unpleasant looking streaming out of her behind area. She was making some strange noises and I suspected it may be happening again. So I went inside, closed my curtains, and watched LOST. A few hours later I emerged, and sure enough, in the same place, was the mother and her new baby goat. And the afterbirth. Gross. But I think the dog ate it.
