April 20

April 20, 2010

I’ve been back at site after vacation for two weeks now, and the time really has flown. A week ago, a dear friend from college who happened to be WWOOFing in South Africa showed up at my school and totally made my life beyond awesome for the past week…
She arrived on Wednesday right around the time all the students were rushing out to play sports, and was greeted by a ridiculous gaggle of students staring. I took her to the clinic to introduce her to my Kenyans at the clinic; we enjoyed several cups of tea and a huge bowl of popcorn. Mercy and Henry were warm and hospitable, as always, and I think they really enjoyed meeting Emily. We threw together a pretty tasty dinner (it’s definitely different having someone else to cook for/with!) and chatted a while about plans for the remainder of her stay.
Thursday was sports day. This means there were no classes. Instead, all the students were out on the soccer field, volleyball court, or netball court, playing sports or supporting their classmates. Initially, I thought we would be helping to officiate some of the matches, but thankfully, we got to observe instead. I’d never seen netball played, and was proud to witness my A girls beat the B girls. Volleyball was great fun to watch too, some of these students can really jump! Seeing them play volleyball made me miss my sisters who play… hope your teams are doing well, girls! We bopped around from court to field to court, taking pictures and chatting with my students. It was really great to see the students doing something they actually loved, rather than having knowledge crammed down their throats. After we’d had our fill, we embarked on a run along what has probably become my favorite route here. I cannot even express how nice it was to have someone to run with, especially one of my fellow cross-country runners! In the evening, some of the teachers were nice enough to cook for us – a really nice gesture, and pretty tasty food too!
On Friday, I left early to fulfill my duties as teacher “on duty,” and instead of beating the students with sticks (like many teachers do, unfortunately), I had several of them clear my garden plot. I imagine it was a lot of work, as the plot was terribly overgrown, but there were half a dozen of them, and I truly believe that many hands make light work. I taught my class and when I returned to change for our planned run, I found Emily in the garden, playing in the dirt. She looked right at home and clearly loved it, but I tore her away from the seeds and soil, and we went on our mission. Not only were we running, we each had a plastic bag to collect the wonderful fertilizer so many cows leave on the road. We returned with two plastic bags relatively full; she mixed it into the dirt, and began planting little seedlings in egg trays.
There was a blood drive at school on Friday as well, so my after break class was cancelled… I got a haircut instead. I swear, I was so spoiled with her here – she is one of the few people I trust to give me a good haircut! It was very interesting talking with the other teachers and some students about the blood drive. There were definitely some donors, but not nearly as many as one might have hoped. I think that because few people here have regular access to all the immunizations that we are so lucky to have in America, that they’re not accustomed to having needles jabbed into their arms. For this reason, the idea of having a tube connected to your arm to take away 500mL of your blood is relatively petrifying. So they’re too scared. I told the students (and teachers too) that every time you give blood, you can save three lives, and that may have pushed some over the edge of indecision, but I think some were still too scared. That, or they actually weren’t old enough. In order to give blood, you need to be 16 years old, and 50kg… I think these regulations are roughly comparable to those at home, but I’m not sure about the questions they ask each donor while waiting for the quick (iron?) test results. It seemed there were not nearly as many, and I wonder too if they do any sort of HIV follow-up. I’m certain they test the blood for HIV (obviously, you can’t give a blood transfusion of HIV+ blood, that’s just irresponsible), but if they do find HIV+ blood, do they contact the donor again? I’ll have to do some sleuthing.
Friday afternoon, we headed to another friend’s place to cook some delicious dinner and so I could show Emily the life of another PCV. We made risotto and ate bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar… something I haven’t had (or enjoyed so much!) since my time in Italy. I think/hope she enjoyed it there; I definitely had fun. The next morning, we caught a taxi to town to do some grocery shopping (it had been over a week and a half for me!) and other errands. There we ran into several other PVCs, so she really got the grand tour… We planned to meet up with another friend the following day to climb a nearby mountain, so slept relatively early on Saturday.
On Sunday, armed with several water bottles, some real Clif Bars (from AMERICA!), and some snacks, we headed towards the mountain that is closest to my home. Legend has it there’s a lake on top, where a snake lives. If you see the snake, you die (so it’s like in Pirates, how do you really know it’s there if nobody has survived to tell the tale?). It was quite a climb, and naturally about a dozen students and other village children (who were intrigued by the three white girls climbing the mountain) accompanied us. They would dart ahead and then perch and wait for us to catch up. The top of the mountain is huge, much bigger than I’d anticipated. We walked around a while before the students essentially grabbed us and brought us over to the lake. It wasn’t a lake by Minnesota standards, but I could see why Lesotho would be proud. We didn’t see any serpent of any kind (though I definitely told my students the next day we did), but there was something living in the water making occasional ripples.
The descent was long and tiring. My legs were pretty sore when we finally reached the bottom, and it felt wonderful to be walking on solid and even ground again, even if we did take the long way home. When we finally reached my house, Emily and I each did some laundry and then cooked an amazing (but overly spicy) dinner… and later baked two small loaves of bread, which we devoured. By her estimation (based on time and speed), we put in somewhere around 15 miles on Sunday… no wonder we were so tired!
Monday was busy, as usual. I taught my six classes, she relaxed, did laundry and tidied the house (almost like having a housewife, though she is anything but domestic :) !) After school, the generator was on to help some of the other teachers type papers for their classes, and we went for a nice run. The clouds were amazing that night – there were thunderheads behind us and in front of us; we could see some clouds pouring down rain and moving around. The sunset magnified it all; some clouds were lined with the brightest fluorescent pinks and oranges while others were purple and gold. It was an amazing time (and place) for a run.
In the evening, the teachers threw a small dinner party with more (spicy) chaka-laka and homegrown vegetables, so Emily got to further taste the local “cuisine,” and we were relieved of cooking, yet again. We went for one final farewell run on Tuesday morning, before I had to teach, and then we parted ways. It was definitely strange (after a week of having a house guest) to return home to an empty house! My cooking definitely decreased and I resorted back to some stir-fried veggies and popcorn as my staple. Ha.

Well, I’m sad she’s gone but happy for her that she’ll be trekking across South Africa and soon returning home, just in time for spring! Emily – thanks for a great visit… you’re welcome anytime! (You’ll be amused to know that the awkward teacher was asking when we could plan a visit to CT to see you… HA!) Hugs, girl!

With that, I’m going to bed.
All my love from Africa,
-Katie