A Vicious Cycle

Today I walked halfway home from school with two Grade 9 learners from the high school next to where I work. We split up when I had to turn onto my road and they had to keep walking to reach their homes. Our conversation started like all the others do: How old are you?, what's your name?, do you like living here?, etc. It quickly took a turn. The girls started to talk about one of their teachers and her method of punishing the class earlier in the day. "She beat us today. The stick she used was too big." ("Too" in South African English is comparable to "so" in American English.) "Did she hit you on the hand?" I asked, making a hitting motion to my own hands. "Yes, look." They both held out their hands and showed me red marks on the heel of their hands near their wrists. The entire class was punished this way. For what, I have no idea, but regardless, it doesn't justify something like that. "Would you ever beat your students, Miss?" the quieter of the two asked me. "Never," I replied. "How would you discipline them if they misbehaved in class?" "I would keep them in at break, prevent them from having fun with their friends. Hitting learners doesn't solve anything, it just makes them scared." "That is a good idea, we like that idea."

Keep in mind, this is a conversation that I'm having with ninth grade girls. We're not talking about music or boys or America, we're talking about how they don't like being hit by their teacher. If that doesn't indicate the severity of this problem, I don't know what will.

Corporal punishment is "illegal" in South Africa and has been since shortly after the end of the apartheid era. I'm putting illegal in quotes because it's deemed illegal in writing, but is still practiced to some extent. I've seen it at my school, but not as seriously as reports I've heard from other volunteers. I've seen kids slapped with plastic straps that keep egg cartons closed, kids brought to the front of the class so teachers can hit them with a stick, and kids hit in the head with teachers' cell phones during morning assembly. It blows my mind every single time. Corporal punishment was alive and well in apartheid years and part of the reason it still exists today is because those who are teaching now were educated under the policy when they were kids, so it's a vicious cycle of violence.

Hitting kids is widely practiced in this culture, especially by parents at home. But hitting kids in the classroom neither makes them stop what they're doing or fixes the problem at hand. I've heard accounts from a volunteer friend of mine who watched a teacher hit a learner because he didn't get the right answer. I'm pretty sure he didn't say the wrong answer because he wanted to get hit; he either doesn't understand or is not being taught the information well, both of which are extremely viable answers. Needless to say, the volunteer stood up and very visibly exited the class because she was uncomfortable sitting by while this took place.

The learners act much differently around me than they do the other teachers at our school. Maybe it's because I'm new, and young, and white, and because they want to touch my hair, but I also think it's because I treat them like human beings. There's a very obvious sort of master/slave relationship between teachers and learners in school. Learners have to knock at the door and wait to be invited in before they enter. They curtsy or bow when they talk to adults. Many look at the floor or don't make eye contact. Teachers send kids to do stupid little tasks like going to the next classroom down to get their bag, or sending them to buy a snack from the women who sell on the school grounds during break, or having them ask the teacher in the next classroom if they can borrow their stick (this happened twice last week). I hope teachers will learn from my practices that learners don't need to be hit when they get an answer wrong, but maybe need a little extra help; that by "detaining" (word choice of my counterpart and principal) learners, they will cease to act out in class or show up late; and that not every learner is "naughty," they just need to be treated with love and respect. They're the ones who will be leading this country and this world in a few short years, so they need to be brought up right.

At Home in the Sand

Now that I've been living here for over a month and a half, it's about time I tell you something about where I will call home for the next two years (or just under that, now). The region that I live in is called the Elephant Coast or Maputaland, located in the north of the KwaZulu-Natal province. A travel book called this region "an eco-tourist mecca." You can see all of the "big five" (lion, elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, and buffalo) here, and you can also go to the beach and see whales, dolphins, and turtles. I sound a little bit like I'm trying to sell you something. Those are the big points; here's a taste of what I live.

My shopping town is called Manguzi. The name means "land of the mangos," which this certainly is. In my yard alone, we have at least a dozen mango trees. Their season is coming up in mid-November, just in time for my birthday. Manguzi is small and has just the basics: we've got two supermarkets (SPAR is better than Boxer), a Target-like branch called PEP, a couple furniture stores, and some other random stores. And there are lots of fruits, veggies, clothes, shoes, etc. sold on the street. I've been unable to find some things that I consider basics (cotton balls, for example) so if you want to send me anything, I'll never say no J

My village and new home is a short ride outside town. When I heard that I'd be living in a village, I imagined some sort of grid setup with neighbors at short distances from one another. Instead, I walk about one kilometer back on a winding sandy road to my house. I sometimes walk on the main sandy road that is wide enough for a single car, but other times I walk the one footpath that I know the route of. There are more walking paths than anything else, and I still have so many of them to learn (I asked my host brother to take a walk with me soon to show me some more of them).

I live about equidistant from the beach and the border with Mozambique. I've also looked into Swaziland from a hill up in the mountains on the South Africa side, so I think I'll have quite the collection of passport stamps when I get back to the States. There are lots and lots of four-wheel drive bakkies here, and at first I didn't understand it. I thought about why we use our 4x4 at home in New York: for those days when we get lots of snow and the roads are slippery and dangerous. Now I get it: the sand here is just as potentially debilitating as snow, especially right after it rains. The day we ventured to the ocean, we had to take a 4x4, and even then we got stuck a couple of times on our way out there.

At home, I live in my own space separate from the house, but on the property of a really wonderful family. At present, it is a little disjointed. My host mom is studying in Pietermaritzburg to become a pastor. My host sister, Zwelethu, is at college in Durban. So at home it is my host dad, two brothers, Ndomiso and Stanley (one sixteen in Grade 10, and the other twenty two, twenty three in mid-December), and gogo. I'm fortunate for the fact that the boys all speak great English, but it's made it so that I use Zulu very rarely. (I'm starting Zulu lessons with a teacher from my school this week, so I'll have the opportunity to learn more and be able to use it more.)

I'm really bad at estimating distances and sizes, but I think I'd say my living space is about 10ish by 15ish feet, maybe a little bigger than that. It functions as both my living and cooking space and because I live in my own place, all of the cooking is up to me. I really like cooking and I've always wanted to get better at it, but I've either been lazy or too busy when I was at home. Now, I'm doing it all the time, oftentimes because I'm bored and want to do something productive. I've been baking fruity things like banana bread and apple pear crisp, and I've been cooking lots of lentils, some potatoes, and butternut squash soup! I'm also perfecting an applesauce recipe. Being vegetarian here is easier than I imagined it would be. First, because there are lots of fresh fruits and veggies to be found, and second, because the meat selection is so repulsive that I wouldn't dare eat it anyway; the word "parts" is notoriously listed under the description of meat being purchased. South Africans are also really into eating things like chicken livers and feet. I think I'll stick with my lentils.

My room is somewhat of a bucket kingdom. I have two big ones for washing clothes, one big one for stored/reserve water, one for bathing, one for transporting water from my tap to my room, one for rinsing dishes, two for washing dishes, and one for peeing in at night when I don't want to walk outside in the darkness to my pit latrine that is often home to several small lizards. At the same time, I have never used so little or reused so much water in my life. When I wash dishes, if they need to soak overnight I use water from my bath to soak them in, then wash them and rinse them in one bucket of water. The water that I use to boil eggs becomes the hot water that helps loosen foods caked onto a pan. Before my bath water is dumped, it is used to wash my hands at the end of the day after hours of being around kids. Another seriously awesome statistic is the amount of water I used to bathe myself every day. I fill up one kettle full of water to boil (1.7 liters). It takes three bowls full of water to fill this kettle. When the water is boiled, I add six bowls of room temperature water to even it out. That totals around five and a half liters. There are 3.8 liters in one gallon. That means I use about one and a half gallons of water each time I bathe. The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water a day, of which baths and showers are at the top of the list for most water used. Most showers use two gallons of water a minute. My entire bathing process takes less water than one minute in the shower.

My school is one of five within walking distance of my house. There are three primaries and two secondaries; primaries are grades R (K) through seven, and secondaries grades eight through twelve. It has just over five hundred learners and eighteen teachers. Grades one through three have 3 or 4 learning areas and four through seven have like 7 or 8; this will change slightly with the new curriculum starting in January, but not by a whole lot. The learners will still make the jump from classes in exams taught in Zulu up to third grade and everything in English (hypothetically, of course) from fourth grade on. The exams being in English is not hypothetical, it is fact, but the instruction being in English is the part that does not always happen. I have spent the past two weeks observing classes. One teacher asked me how her class was as we were walking in one day. I told her it would be helpful if the class (English, Grade 4) was taught more in English and less in Zulu. She responded by saying that their Zulu isn't even that great in some instances. Cue BBM emoticon of a smiley with his hand over his eyes.

The area that I live in has some of the highest HIV rates in the province, let alone the country. The term OVC (orphaned and vulnerable child(ren)) is used a lot, and I imagine that's one of the reasons why. I've never lived in a place where the poverty is so evident. There are dozens of kids at my school who come to school barefoot everyday because they can't afford shoes. At least half of them show up wearing tattered button-down shirts, ripped sweater vests, and pants with stitches in the butt because they've obviously been handed down/worn for years without replacement. There is an up-side to the shoe problem: TOMS Shoes is in the process of signing an agreement with Peace Corps South Africa and they want us to start collecting shoe sizes of learners that don't have them. We will be doing shoe drops in our own communities sometime early next year. I've been torn on how I feel about TOMS for some time now; the idea of paying a little extra to make sure kids like my learners have shoes is a happy fuzzy feeling that everyone wants to be a part of, but what happens to the local economy of the shoe salesman? The local economy example has left with me my reservations, but the idea of being directly involved and seeing firsthand what my little extra money can do has got me rethinking my skepticism.

The climate and topography is unlike anywhere I've ever lived or visited before. There is no such thing as soil here; everything is sand. I have to sweep my house out at least every other day to get it all out. This place is hot. It's been ninety degrees Fahrenheit and people say "kuyashisa (it's hot), but this is nothing." Because that's actually true. On the hottest of hot summer days (coming up in December and January) it can get up to forty degrees Celsius; that's 104 F. That's madness. Also, this place is flat. Like, I saw a small hill and was overjoyed at land that was not all the same level. I'm missing the Hudson Valley like never before, especially now that it's my favorite season and all the leaves are changing colors and I can't see it. You remember the end of high school when you were so tired of everything that you talked about how much you just wanted to get out? I was that person, so I remember it well; and then I ended up staying and going to Bard. Anyway, it's times like this when I/you/we really realize the beauty of home. It's beautiful in a new way here, but I'm still always brought back to thinking about what it's like at home on this day, this season. And I'm left feeling really thankful for being where I'm from.

T.I.(S.)A.: This is (South) Africa

K'naan has a song called T.I.A., which served as the inspiration for the title of this post. The song talks about the more dangerous parts of Africa, specifically in Somalia where he's from. I know nothing about "the city we call Doomsday" or "my Somali niggaz [are] quick to grab the uzi," and I hope I never do. The T.I.(S.)A. I'm talking about is referring to the things I've seen in the three months that I've been in this country: customs, strange and admired; hand gestures; driving practices; etc.

Let's start with greetings. In isiZulu, there are greetings for one person and more than one person. "Sanibonani" is used for groups, "Sawubona" is used for one person. But the greeting you choose depends on the age of the person you're greeting. I can use "Sawubona" for someone younger than me or around the same age as me. If I see a gogo (grandmother), I have to use "Sanibonani" to demonstrate respect. If you're walking on the street by yourself and pass a group of people, it is your responsibility as the single person to initiate the greeting. This culture is all about greetings, even to people you don't know. Each time I'm on a taxi and we stop to pick someone up, they slide open the door and say "Sanibonani" to the passengers already onboard. The passengers respond to that person and they ask each other "ninjani?" (how are you?). Handshakes are also big here, but not like handshakes that we know in the United States. In most cases, you start with a normal handshake once, then you interlock thumbs so you're almost holding the other person's wrist, and then you do one more normal handshake. When you greet younger people, they will usually do the normal handshake followed by almost a thumb shake, where you press your thumbs together and until one person's thumb pushes left and the other's pushes right. Just like with me trying to explain how certain letter combinations sound, this description sounds over-thought and ridiculous, so I'll just have to demonstrate it sometime :)

During one of our training sessions on culture, our training director made a clear distinction between all of us as American trainees and he and his staff as South Africans: "Your country is obsessed with time. You're all always looking at your watches and showing up at 08:55 if you have a meeting that starts at 09:00. Here in South Africa, we may show up to something that was scheduled to begin at 10:00 at 11:00 or half past 11 because someone stopped us on the street to talk, or because we had to help a family member with something. We are more concerned with relationships than time and schedules." As frustrating as that is for someone who makes plans and wants to be able to say "alright, I'll be done with this meeting at 15:30 so I can get home to do x," it's refreshing to learn about the importance of individuals to this culture and its people.

Hand gestures: I've never seen the thumbs up sign used so much in my life, or used it so much myself in everyday goings on. The term "sharp" is used as a response to almost everything, meaning "good" or "great." It's pronounced like "shop" taking into account the British accent that South Africans have when they speak English because they're taught British English here (I'm going to make so many spelling mistakes when I first start teaching). The response we're taught to say when asked how we are is "Ngiyaphila" when responding for one person, "Siyaphila" for "we;" lots of kids just say "sharp" and give a thumbs up. The thumbs up is also used as a way to say hello, especially between taxi drivers. (When I say taxi, the vehicle described is actually a mini van with fourteen seats and a sliding door.) Speaking of taxi drivers and drivers in general, the only time the horn is used is to say hello to other drivers, followed by a thumbs up out the window. There has only been one exception to this practice that I have seen, and that was when we almost rear-ended a truck that stopped short in the middle of the road. Lines painted on the road might as well not be there, because no one abides by them; cars, trucks, and taxis pass each other whenever they want.

Still on hand gestures, when you say something funny, if the person you're talking to thinks it's really funny, they laugh and extend their hand to give you a low five. Sometimes they pat you on the back too. This response lets you know that your sense of humor is appreciated.

Terminology: there is lots of it. A "bakkie" is a pick up truck, and often the main source of transportation in rural areas like the one I live in. Many have bench seats built into the bed of the truck, some even have cushions. Some have caps, but most do not. People pack in the back and ride along long, mostly unpaved roads until they reach their destinations. Peace Corps forbids us to ride in one, unless we sit inside the cab with the driver. A "robot" is a traffic light. I have only seen one of these machines in cities. Soda is called "cold drink" and I confuse the hell out of everyone when I use the first one. French fries are called "chips." Students are called "learners." Math is called "maths." A taxi is called a "khumbi." "Shame" is used when something goes wrong; I usually say "that sucks," but South Africans would just say "shame." "Yoh!/Joh!" is like saying "wow!" "Eish!" is an exclamation used to describe being surprised in a negative way about something (does that even make sense in English?) "Eh heh" is like saying "uh huh," but there is a certain intonation on the e in heh; your voice goes up a little. What we call "bathroom" South Africans call "toilet," which sounds strange to us but is actually the most correct because a pit latrine is just a toilet; good luck finding a sink to wash your hands. A "braii" is a "barbecue." A "rondaval" is essentially a closed-in gazebo with a thatched roof; it's a one room home where gogos sometimes live, but some PCVs live in them too (a PCV is a Peace Corps Volunteer; I hope that one was easy). "Flu" is an all-encompassing term used to describe having a simple cough to legit having the flu, used here in a sentence: "I don't feel well, I have flu."

Terminology continued: "bowl" is pronounced like "bowel." What do we need for the party? Well, we could use some "amabowels" if anyone has extras. That's another thing: ama. If you add "ama" in front of a plural English word, you have the plural Zulu equivalent if such a word does not exist in the Zulu language. Words such as "amaplates," "amaspelling mistakes," and "amanonsense" are all some that I've actually heard used. "What what" is used like "whatnot," or when you can't think of the word you're looking for. "How?!" repeated a minimum of three times is an expression of disbelief or astonishment. I'm probably forgetting some good ones, but this is lots of them.

Religion: is so huge here. Mass can go on for anywhere from one to four hours. Prayer precedes any and all events, and usually includes a lot of yelling. Personal prayer is not like that in the United States. People speak out loud, yell, cry, hands reaching out, hands reaching up. This practice really fascinates me, regardless of the fact that I'm not the slightest bit religious. In our culture, prayer is contained and timed and neat. Here it is whatever one makes of it, whatever they need to say, and I like that a lot; the religion seems less organized, but in a good way.

Stores that sell general items and appliances at very discounted prices are called China or Pakistani shops, depending on the nationality of the owner(s). People pick their nose whenever they feel like it: on the taxi, at the store, in a meeting, at school, etc. I probably see more umbrellas when it's sunny than I do when it's raining; I guess people are more concerned about the strength of the sun than arriving to work with wet clothes?

Personal space is not understood or recognized here. Women carry just about everything on their heads, and it's more amazing than I can express. This country can harmonize like nothing I've ever heard before, even the kids; morning meeting songs at my school everyday are a daily treat. Friends hold hands and put their arms around each other's shoulders regardless of age. One can hold the wrist or hand of the other and it is seen as normal, without any of this "no homo" shit in the United States. People can be friends and show that they're friends and that's alright.

Goats and chickens roam freely: in the streets, on school grounds, on busy roads. Security guards check your receipt and sign it as you walk out of any grocery store. When there is a car accident or someone has a flat tire, there is never only one car on the side of the road. People stop to help out, to see what they can do for that person that is a total and complete stranger. This is called "ubuntu," and is specific to South Africa. "Ubuntu" means something along the lines of "hands washing hands," doing for others as you would do for your own family. It means stopping to talk for hours, and making extra food in case someone stops by right in the middle of your dinner. And it's one of my favorite things about this country, one that I think we as Americans can learn a lot from.

And last but not least, every sunset in this country looks like it's right out of the Lion King.