The Loo ... without a view!

A couple of years ago, John and I traveled to New Zealand and hiked the Milford Trek on the southern island.  At one point, the trail took us over a high mountain pass where there was a pit toilet perched near the edge of the pass with its doorway facing back down the valley.  The scenery is breath-taking and that particular toilet is known as the “loo with a view”.  Hikers line up to use the toilet and take a picture of the view while seated on the toilet (yep, I did that, too).  I think of that particular toilet/loo often as I see the many outdoor toilets that dot the yards all around our neighborhood in SA. Unfortunately, none of the ones I’ve come across here in SA thus far have a view worthy of discussion.  Having used various ones at friends, neighbors, and schools here in our village, I am happy to say that the outdoor toilets at both of the houses where we have stayed have been among the best.  This is based on size of structure, cleanliness, toilet seat, and odor.

In our current house, there is actually an indoor toilet, but since running water is not available during the day, we use the outdoor toilet during the day hours and the indoor toilet at night when supposedly the water is “on.”  One nice thing about having only an outdoor toilet (staying positive and looking for the good in things is important here!) is when I would go outside at night to visit the loo, I was always in awe of the big sky, which has been clear and bright and filled with a billion stars!

While on the topic of toilets, it is true that PCVs can commonly be seen during or between classes with a roll of toilet paper under the arm or a wad of toilet paper in their pocket.  I read somewhere before we left the states, that this was one of the identifiers of a PCV… how true! One learns quickly that toilet paper may not be available at any toilet (particularly at the schools we visit), so being “prepared” is for most of us a one-trial-learning-experience.  I never leave home without some toilet paper in my pocket!

Bucket Bathing

The fact that we have no running water and I am taking a “bucket” bath daily was to be expected.  The PC pretty much prepared us for this and even included a session on how to take a bucket bath properly for the sake of maintaining good health and hygiene.  It’s a good thing I paid close attention during the bucket-bath demo!

I have gotten pretty good at gauging just how much cold water to add to the hot (boiling) water to get just the right temperature, and just as important, I can complete the whole “bath” without splashing too much water all over the room.  Nonetheless, the whole process is somewhat labor intensive:  carry wash bucket to wash room, boil hot water, add cold water, carry to wash room along with towel/washcloth and clothes and soap, bathe, dump used water into another bucket, rinse out wash bucket, dump bucket of used water in back yard, carry washtub back to bedroom or bathroom.  It sounds pretty straightforward (and is) but so much more time consuming than jumping in a shower back home.  Washing my hair is a whole other process, unpleasant enough to have me thinking of getting my hair cut even shorter.

At our previous site, our host family offered a “big bath” opportunity every Sunday morning.  Trust me, this was a huge deal!  We would fill a wash tub large enough to sit in and actually soak.  Heaven!  A regular bucket bath involves a plastic, round wash tub about 30” across, and bathing involves kneeling next to while cleaning the top half and then standing in the wash tub to bathe the bottom half (think of it as a full-body sponge bath).  By comparison, sitting/soaking in a tub is a real “ahhhh” experience.  A large soaking tub is a definite item on our shopping list for when we move to our permanent site! There is also much discussion amongst the volunteers about constructing solar showers. When the weather starts heating up, 2-3 showers/baths a day just might be the norm.

Things that go Boom, Boom, Boom in the Night

When we moved in with our host family, we took a couple of days to get to know the family, adjust to our accommodations, learn some routines and just settle in.  After a couple of days everything seemed just fine.  Then, it was early Friday evening and John and I were walking home from class and heard loud music coming from the direction of our house.  We originally thought it was a boom box on a wagon that had just passed by headed that direction.  Much to our horror, it was coming from a bar/tavern located about 100 yards in back of our house. I cannot even begin to describe how loud the music was other than to say that in our room, John and I could not have a conversation with each other without yelling.  Additionally, the window panes and metal roof were vibrating from the bass noise.  We asked the family about the music and they said yes, it’s a problem but that it happens every Friday-Saturday-Sunday night and that there was nothing that could be done (zoning in a residential is not so strictly adhered to).  I would say we suffered in silence but but it was anything but silent until 3am Saturday morning.  This happened again Saturday and Sunday evenings.  We were zombies in class on Saturday and by Monday, we were totally “out of it!”

We, of course, told our Peace Corps officials and they were sympathetic and they and others suggested that this was “just the South African way of life”.  Nonetheless, PC indicated that they would look into the situation.  As we were growing quite fond of our host family and did not want to leave them, we were hoping against all odds that the PC folks would find some way to deal with the errant tavern owner and get the music down to an acceptable level (just to note, the tavern had HUGE speakers stacked outside and these just happened to be directed straight in the direction of our house). On the following weekend, it was the same situation all over again and we began to feel ill from both the horrible noise and lack of sleep, and also the realization that we were going to have to move to another host family.  We were told on Tuesday that another home had been found for us and that we would move within the next few days.  On Wednesday evening we got the word that we were moving, and we had to throw everything together and leave.  On one hand it was a relief to avoid another weekend of unbearably loud music but on the other hand, it was very emotional leaving everyone in the family.  They are wonderful and kind people and we will miss seeing them every day. Of all the problems that we might have anticipated having in SA, we never dreamed that noise would be such an issue.   Some other PCVs have indicated that they, too, have to listen to bar music throughout some evenings.  Either their music wasn’t as loud as ours, or these younger people don’t mind staying awake until 3am listening to music!

Note: Where we moved to is about 1 kilometer away and we can still hear the bar music on the weekends … loud enough to even know which song is playing! Our building is not vibrating, so I’m going to ignore it.

Where in the World is Susan

It has been over a month since I left Atlanta.The journey began with two days in Washington, DC, a 1-2 hour layover in the Atlanta airport (ironically), and a 16 hour flight to Johannesburg-Pretoria, South Africa (SA).  Received text and this photo from grandkids as we were leaving. Couldn’t ask for a cuter and nicer send off.

Upon arrival, the PC group of 57 volunteers/trainees was bused north 2 hours to a small college campus.  We stayed in small dorm rooms with one person to a room, 8 persons per building, and were each issued a pillow, comforter and heavy blanket (much appreciated!).  Running water (hot included) and indoor plumbing somewhat made up for no heat in building (it’s winter here with evening temps in the 30’s…brrrr!).

The next few days were filled with lectures on every topic imaginable (SA funerals, weddings, gender roles, water/food safety, common illnesses, bucket baths, crime/safety, appropriate family/social behavior, SA history, SA schools, etc. etc.), language classes, placement and medical interviews, medical shots (to include rabies x 3, Hep A & B, typhoid, meningitis, flu and probably a few more I can’t remember), getting to know other volunteers, and some really good catered food.  The beginning language classes consisted of lessons on how to say “Hello. How are you? I’m fine and how are you?” in four different languages.  This is much harder than one might imagine as both the language vocabulary and structure are so different from anything we have ever known. Eventually, I learned that my assigned language is Sepedi, which in turns means that my site will be somewhere in the Limpopo Province, located in the northeast corner of the country.  This is actually pretty good and exciting.  This area has a bit of mountainous terrain and from what I’ve heard, lots and lots of local fruit, particularly mangoes, grapes, bananas and avocados – yum!

After five days, we moved to another location, also north of Pretoria.  There we were placed in the homes of host families where we will stay for the duration of training.  Host assignments was completed by gathering everyone in a large assembly hall and someone reading out a volunteer’s name followed by a corresponding host family name.  There were lots of smiles, laughter and hugging as we were handed over to the care of the host family.  A memorable experience!  Our host family was unable to be present, so their friend and neighbor, Jane, was there to collect John and me.  The PC van dropped us all off at our new home and we began the process of getting to know our family and new surroundings.  Our personal living space consists of one room – about 9x12 -- attached to the garage.  It contains a double bed, bedside table, wardrobe, and chair.  We will share meals and bathing area in the family living space. We should be quite comfortable for the time we are here.

Away we go!

Staging started today as we officially checked in for registration with the Peace Corps (PC).  The PC staff didn’t take one look at John and me and tell us to go home, so I guess we are really doing this.  As the PC staff stated, we passed from being “invitees” to becoming “trainees.”  With a bit of work and luck, in two months, we’ll become “volunteers.”  There are 57 people in our cohort (aka SA24, which stands for 24^th group to go to South Africa) and they are a great, diverse group of people. I can’t wait to get to know them better.  After several hours of orientation this afternoon, the getting-to-know-each-other has actually started with a bang.  Lots of group activities, most of which turned out to be quite fun and effective.  Tomorrow we load up the buses and head for the airport with lots of luggage in tow.  Speaking of luggage, it was fun sitting in the lobby a bit over the last day or so and watching people come in.  We were often able to correctly guess who was and wasn’t a part of our PC group based on the amount of luggage they were carrying.

After this entry, I will most likely not be able to post anything for a couple of months.  The training period is pretty intense and they want us to concentrate on learning language, culture, regulations, and skills, and not be distracted with much else.  For that reason, they will have us store our computers and pretty much limit our access to the internet until this two month period is over.  So, very likely, this is it until mid-September.  Hugs to all and stay well.  I will certainly try to do the same.