Muckity Muck

so i'm getting ready to leave my little room in the village for a 3
week trip. i'm finishing food, packing, tidying up. i decided to wash
some clothes and its sometimes easier to use the river than hauling
buckets of water, especially when the community taps are not on. so i
packed a bag and headed out for the river not giving it too much
thought. i wind my way down to the river, not finding my normal path.
weird. i hit the river with a surprise slip in the mud and managed to
catch myself on the overgrown tangle of reeds next to me. eeew! gross
mucky river swirling with an unusually strong current completely
hiding my usual stepping stones. staring down, i realize duh. both
roads are washed out from the rain. it rained all night. of course the
river is swollen and muddy! so much for laundry today. i turned and
wound my way back up the path regretting my lack of umbrella in the
hot sun.

Dying Ducks

football (soccer) is a very popular sport for men in south africa. at the matches, people blow a big horn/noisemaker called a kuduzela. it originally was a horn/antaler from the kudu that was used to summon villagers to meetings. now they are made of plastic and used as team spirit. since the 2010 world cup is in south africa, these noise makers and many versions are the biggest fad in toys. many children in my village constantly blow these mini ones. to me, the cheap wannabe ones in the village sound like dying ducks and i want to hurt whoever gave these out. i appologize to all those i annoyed with my noise makers when i was little.

Washed Out

I went into Pretoria this weekend. Bridget was leaving because she decided Peace Corps wasn't fitting into her life's plan. I had a nice weekend in the city, hanging out with Bridget when she wasn't doing paperwork. I also took all my clothes to the laundromat since i hate hand washing. I also found where the weekly farmer's market is and got some GREAT cheese for a grilled cheese and some fresh strawberries at a steal. I decided a treat was ok to celebrate the end of the school year. I really didn't want to come back to the village, but I needed to. I left Pretoria on time, but spent all day traveling. For some reason, it took over 6 hours for the less than 3 hour trip. I show up to my taxi rank and am waiting for a taxi to come. There were none sitting there because it was too late and most of the drivers had already quit for the day. Finally a taxi came, but the driver needed to talk to me. "You know there is no road into Mare, right? You'll have to walk. Is that ok?" Like I have a choice. So on I went. The taxi took me part of the way, then let me off to walk the last 2-3 miles. At this point, I regretted bringing all my laundry to the city, but at least I was able to make it back ok.

Stuck in the Mud

It rained. The bus slid off the dirt road into a bush and got stuck in the mud. The bush shopped it from sliding down the hill to the river. They tried to get it unstuck...but failed.

Week 16: Awards and Party

This week we had a simple party and awards ceremony. Each girl got a membership certificate, crochet hook (by request of the 'school board'), group photo, and their club book. We played hot potato, 3 legged race, and water balloon toss. Then we celebrated with rice krispie treats and juice. The girls had a great time. It has been a long, hard 16 weeks. I hope it was worth it. It is my hope that these 22 girls came away with something more than they started with and that they will carry it with them always.