Peace Corps Blog

Before and After

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Before and after two years of Peace Corps service. Before is from the airport after we arrived in South Africa. The after photo was taken with my host family, following my going away party.

What an amazing two years this has been...

My Aspiration Satatement

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:12:00 +0000

When I was invited to join Peace Corps South Africa, I was asked to write an aspiration statement that answers five simple questions and (ideally) helps to place volunteers appropriately within the country. During an intensive room cleaning yesterday, I uncovered a copy of my answers and read over it again. It struck me that my expectations and attitude when entering Peace Corps were realistic and pretty accurate to many of the experiences I had. Even my answer to the last question about what is to come after Peace Corps has not changed significantly. So I decided to share my original aspiration statement:

The professional attributes that I plan to use, and what aspirations I hope to fulfill, during my Peace Corps service.

Having worked at a non-profit and having run my own business for several years, I bring knowledge of business strategies and tools, which may apply to the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that I am working with. But more importantly, I think that I will simply contribute a fresh perspective. So easily, such organizations can get bogged down in certain details or overextended by too many different programs. In addition, local business strategies may prove ineffective or insufficient for the organization’s goals. In all these situations, simply having a different perspective to draw attention to certain assumptions or overlooked choices can prove immensely helpful. On top of this, I feel that my time will be most beneficially spent by helping fill the needs of the organization. As much as I may see different ways of doing things, it will be important for me to help the organization achieve and carry out its existing obligations and programs. This will both help the organization itself, and will also help foster a mutual trust and understanding. Overall, I have tried to keep my aspirations realistic in terms of understanding that change may be slow or difficult to achieve. In this sense, I understand that my contributions to the organization may be slow to come to fruition. For this reason, I am eager to try to contribute in other ways, through secondary projects within my community, such as tutoring or IT work. (Of course these secondary projects may be no easier to implement, but I hope to try to contribute in multiple ways.)

My strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

After reading the assignment description and talking with other RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers), I think the most important strategy will simply be patience. In order to instigate any change, it is fundamentally important to build trust and connections with coworkers in the NGO. Trying to instantly achieve change will be futile and insulting to people who have been working in these organizations for years. As a foreigner from an affluent country, I will be faced with the challenges of breaking down stereotypes and forming open and honest connections with others in the community. Without this, any changes I suggest will most likely end up ignored or will last only until my departure. In addition, even with the trust of coworkers within the organizations, it is important to seek change by providing guidance and making suggestions (i.e., let those closest to the organization instigate change, while I only try to help guide and shape the changes). This helps to empower people and will lead to longer lasting changes.

My strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to my own cultural background.

My strongest asset in adapting to a new culture is a skill I learned back during high school. Going to a rather small, new school (only 37 in my graduating class), one is forced to be friends with all fellow students. With such a small student body, students do not form smaller groups as would happen at a large school, but rather learn to befriend everyone. This generally involves being unassuming, welcoming differences (rather then looking for similarities) and exhibiting a patience and genuine interest in learning about others’ ideas and views. Although the cultural diversity in my high school is low in comparison to what I will find in South Africa, I feel that my experience has enabled me to connect more easily with different cultures, beliefs or worldviews, and this skill will be invaluable when I am immersed in such a different culture.

The skills and knowledge I hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve my future community and project.

During the pre-service training, my primary hope is to learn about the culture and customs of people living in South Africa. Undoubtedly, much of this will be learned from actually living in the community and working within an organization, but I imagine that having a 'heads up' to the different customs will help me to better respond and better adapt. For example, after reading about the central role of religion within the culture, I would appreciate learning a respectful and quiet way of avoiding the topic of my religious beliefs. Although I am interested in taking part in religious events, I would feel uncomfortable professing false beliefs. Learning to negotiate such situations in advance will be beneficial and will help ease the cultural transition, minimizing offense and missteps.

How I think Peace Corps service will influence my personal and professional aspirations after my service ends.

In terms of personal and professional aspirations following the Peace Corps, I am very open. Primarily, I am confident that my experience will serve as a 'consciousness raiser' (the term is borrowed from Richard Dawkins), in terms of helping broaden my perspective and understanding of the current human condition. In this way, I hope that I will achieve some level of personal growth throughout my experience. As for professional aspirations, following the Peace Corps, I hope to attend graduate school and pursue a Ph.D.

Students' Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Today, during some down time at the local high school, I started reading over grade nine students' English assignments. One of the first assignments was a simple "who I am" list of questions, and I found the answers encapsulated many of the cultural values of rural South Africa. So I have decided to share a few excerpts:

My Favorite Food

The answer to this question always started with porridge (also called pap, a thick white starch made from ground maize meal), bread or rice. The food here places heavy emphasis on such starches as a way of gaining empty calories, as often meat or vegetables are in short supply.

My Hero

The two most common answers were: "God" and "my mom and dad".

Here we see both the substantial emphasis placed on religion and on family. But you can also look at this and see a lack of strong role models within South Africa today (in the past there have been Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, but few new people are stepping up to take an important role as a model individual or hero).

Things I Like to Do Most

This one is divided by gender, with boys giving very generic responses (reading, playing soccer, etc). But the responses of the girl students all mirror this one:

"1. Wash myself
2. Wear clean clothes every day
3. Read my books
4. Cook for my grandmother"

I think that this response speaks accurately about a lot of the cultural values of the rural communities. The first two reference the very heavy emphasis placed on cleanliness, which is often associated with not being poor (people have often expressed to me that the poor wear dirty or wrinkly clothes). And regular baths are also a manifestation of this, with my family members often bathing twice a day – before work and before bed. You can see these values in other parts of life here, such as how dirt yards are often swept on a regular basis, to remove the slightest debris. Houses are also cleaned on a regular basis, with sweeping and polishing often happening weekly. I believe that this value of cleanliness stems from a number of sources, but it is a way of expressing control over one’s life and developing an outward appearance of success (especially in rural communities, where there are so few things to strive for or succeed at).

Describing My Family

Again, the answers here speak to the importance of families, with people often writing about their aunts and uncles as well as just their immediate family. These familial connections are extremely important here. For example, uncles play an important role in life, negotiating things like bridal lebola (the price a groom must pay to the bride’s father for her hand in marriage), but also stepping in if the father is absent from the picture. In addition, the answers to this question also emphasize the size of the family, with some children describing six siblings.

One answer:

"I have my younger sister her name is Asanda. And my big brother his name is Tshepiso. Also my mom and dad. They don't want to see me with dirty clothes or sleep without washing myself and dishes. And also my granny she wants me to cook for her."

This answer harks back to the previous description of the importance of cleanliness. But it also provides insight into how children are treated here. They are seen less as independent future adults, and more as helpers who can aid in the day to day activities. At home, young women are often put to work cooking and doing dishes and other tasks before they even reach adolescence. At school, teachers regularly ask the students to sweep or carry their belongings or go fetch them water, even during class.

Things I Like Best

I am going to just end with quotes from the answers to the last two questions, because I feel there are some very beautiful ones. One note first is that you see the work of the life-skills classes (classes that talk about everything from hygiene to self respect to preventing HIV/AIDS) in some of these responses, and it is nice to see that the message is sometimes getting through.

"Love myself the way I am"
"Respect the old"
"Eat too much"

My Greatest Ambition is

"Help people who are sick"
"Pass grade 12 and go to university"
"Believe god and love other people"
"To be proud of my culture"
"Be a pilot"
"To care for myself"

Photos of ga-Mathabatha

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:24:00 +0000

With the end of my service approaching, I have begun a new effort to capture photos of my community and some of the people within it. So today I uploaded 17 new photos, which show some of the destinations and people within ga-Mathabatha. The new photos appear at the beginning of my album called Peace Corps Site:

Peace Corps Site

Two New Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:03:00 +0000

My blog has been growing cobwebs, it has been long neglected. But school closed early today (the teachers ended up going home at noon, since tomorrow is a holiday), so I decided to come home and post two new entries on my blog. Scroll down to read them.

Enjoy!

Also, for those interested, I have started a Twitter account: nathanntg. I use it off and on, and post little day to day updates.

My Latest Endeavour

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Upon returning from my trip back to the United States, I began a secondary project within my community. Although I have enjoyed my time with my primary organization (Fanang Diatla, the care-giving organization I was originally placed with), there were many times where there was little work for me and I felt isolated from the rest of the community, as I only worked with a small number of people. So I decided to make the 25 minute walk over to a nearby high school, where I spoke with the deputy principal and offered my assistance with tutoring and career guidance. This was inspired by the number of 11th and 12th grade students that previously approached me asking for those exact things. But the school had other things in mind, and the deputy principal asked me if I could assist with teaching mathematics and computers (the school is still severely understaffed and does not have any qualified computer teacher).

Coming in the first week, I found that although the school had 12 new computers, they were useless (Windows was not activated, so you could not even turn the computers on). On my first day, I was able to fix the computers (it simply involved calling Microsoft to activate each computer), which was a welcomed change… now students could learn through practical work, instead of theoretical lectures.

Since then, I have also helped teach the 12th grade math class, where we spent a lot of time reviewing basic concepts (such as how to graph a line, and what the word arc means). In addition, I have helped with other math classes (one with over fifty learners in it) and have taught a number of computer classes. But now that the second term has begun, I have started to back away from doing too much teaching. As the end of my service is fast approaching, I realize that it makes more sense to work with interested teachers and help give them the computer knowledge or math knowledge they need to teach the classes. So now I have partnered with a few of the teachers, to help give them the computer and math knowledge needed. As I am not an ideal teacher (little teaching experience, and my language skills are not advanced enough to explain either computers or mathematics in Sepedi), this seems like a good situation; the teachers, who already have teaching skills, can then learn certain concepts from me and better pass it on to the learners.

Working with the school has provided some variety in my work, and a great opportunity to work and talk with more members of the community. Although there are some disappointments at the school, I am glad for the new addition to my Peace Corps experience and am glad to have something that will keep me engaged during the remaining months of my service here.

What's Next

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:54:00 +0000

As my Peace Corps service is coming to a close, I am gearing up for a big transition and the next step in my life. Briefly, I mentioned earlier that I was working on applying to graduate school. After months of waiting (and worrying that I was overly ambitious in applying to renowned schools), I heard from my first choice school… that I got in. This was back in March, but in the months since, more details have arrived.

So, much to my delight, I will be moving to Boston and starting at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the middle of August. The program is in their Engineering Systems Division, and is a Masters of Science in Technology and Public Policy.

When applying to graduate school, my primary interest was to look at the emergence of hierarchal systems on a societal level. Particularly, I have been drawn to how people increasingly fit into much larger systems (corporations, governments, etc), and how this leads to more innovation, but also the larger systems take on an identity of their own. For my applications, I ended up writing a statement of purpose that explains this concept in more detail and I have since posted it online (if you are interested in reading it, click here).

The program I will be attending is an ideal match for my interests, as I will be able to work with professors who specialize in such emergent systems and their role within businesses today. And I will be able to approach this topic from the angle of economics and policy, which provide great tools for understanding the catalysts of such emergence and how emergent systems can best be utilized in the coming years.

Over the course of the two year program, I will study the economics and policy and a science specialization (relating to human systems and business, most likely). In addition, between my work as a research assistant and my studies, I will select, research and write a thesis of my choice. Already, I have begun looking into potential research assistantships and contacting professors, which will help provide the research and focus needed to do this thesis.

Currently, I am quite excited about the opportunity of returning to academia. Over the course of the two years since finishing my undergraduate degree, I realize how important the atmosphere of learning and like-minded individuals is to me. So I eagerly look forward to MIT. But also, I have come to appreciate what an important transition is approaching. Over these two years, I have gained great perspective and learned a lot about both myself and people in general. Returning from a quiet, somewhat isolated rural life in South Africa and jumping into the business of graduate school (as well as living on the East coast for the first time) will be a substantial shift. In preparation for that, I have started writing down some of the important events and experiences of my service here, just so I will not lose track of what I gained and learned here. In addition, I will be returning to New Mexico for a few weeks prior to starting graduate school to ease into the transition and have some time with my family before embarking on my next two year journey.

Revolutionary Road and South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:02:00 +0000

At first brush, the two topics of this post seem very disconnected. But I'm going to try to connect them in this essay (it isn't really a good blog post).

Back in my senior year of college, I read the novel Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. While I was visiting home last month, I managed to see Sam Mendes's film adaptation of the story (in my effort to catch up on Oscar nominated films, several of which have not yet made it to South Africa).To briefly summarize the story, it is about a bright, young couple who share a yearning to explore and appreciate the world, to remain free and unattached to any specific way of life. But, with time, they become increasingly trapped both by obligations and by their own fears of leaving the stable, suburban life that they have built. Their sedentariness and inertia lead to depression, which in turn destroys their relationship and eventually their lives. Both the film and the book are emotionally devastating in their depiction of the pain of this downward spiral.

I feel the emotional impact of Revolutionary Road strongly in part because at times I myself have felt fearful of falling into a life that is entrapped and, in turn, leads to depression. Simply because I am conscious of this risk, I remain hopeful that I will be able to avert it. While driving through rural South Africa upon returning from my brief visit to the States, I was struck by how this fear and this idea of a sedentary, suburban life are specific to the middle classes (and above), and therefore are also specific to more developed countries.

This can be understood, I would argue, by looking at people’s needs. U.S. psychologist Harold Maslow proposed a "hierarchy of needs" that was useful for understanding people's motivations,¹ which I feel is crucial to understanding the depression depicted in Revolutionary Road. In his work, Maslow suggests human needs are grouped in a hierarchy (often represented as a pyramid, see the image at right). At the very bottom are the physiological needs, such as food, water, breathing, etc. Above that are the needs of safety, such as security, resources, family, health, etc. Maslow's concept was that a person would not concern himself with these needs of safety until all her/his physiological needs had been met. As people secure more and more of the needs of life, they move up the pyramid. At the top of the hierarchy are the needs of self-actualization - morality, creativity, spontaneity, tolerance, philosophical insight, etc.

I believe that it is these needs of self-actualization that were the undoing of the couple in Revolutionary Road, and that are the cause of much of the depression in middle-class people who should otherwise be content. Living in a middle-class, developed country, lower needs (such as food, employment, safety and security, etc) are more easily secured, allowing someone's motivation to be devoted to the higher needs of self-actualization. Seeking motivation, spontaneity, tolerance, creativity and such values can often be unrewarding endeavors. That is to say, self-actualization is hard to achieve and even harder to measure. So as people in middle-class America strive for these upper goals, it is not surprising that people become discouraged and depressed as the challenges prevent them from feeling a sense of accomplishment.

In less developed areas, such as the impoverished, rural communities of South Africa, the lower needs are less easily fulfilled. For many, physiological needs such as food and water are an ongoing struggle. I do not want to suggest that these needs are easier to secure. But for something like food, or even employment, there is a more tangible reward and, therefore, an easier measuring stick. A sense of fulfillment of these more basic needs is easier to come by. As a result, individuals of lower socio-economic status have a greater potential for fulfillment, making the devastation presented in Revolutionary Road specific to the middle class.

In terms of anecdotal evidence, the people I have met in my community have very achievable goals and focus on filling immediate needs, such as food and money. Conversations about morality and rational insight are almost non-existent here; instead, people focus on the substance and reality of survival. I would not claim that people are happier here, but I also rarely see evidence of depression, or a sense of giving up. When members of my host family return from experiencing more middle-class lives in the cities, I may then hear evidence of depression. One such person told me that he listens to music when alone so that he does not have to contemplate his life.

I believe that South Africa's changing economic status is increasing the risk for such "middle-class depression". The white population (which is generally a higher socio-economic status group than the black population) has a disproportionate percentage of suicides (26% percent of suicides involve white individuals, even though 10% of the population is white).² Yet the black population, which is experiencing rapid growth in socio-economic status (especially in urban areas), is also experiencing growth in its suicide rate.³ This can be partially attributed to increasing suicide rates among HIV positive people,⁴ but the increase in suicide rates predated the HIV pandemic.⁵ As South Africa increasingly becomes first world, and a larger middle class emerges, a "middle-class depression" will increasingly emerge here as well.

Although this topic may sound dark, I really write about this in hope of capturing the stark differences that exist between socio-economic groups in terms of attitudes and approaches to life. Here in rural South Africa, people devote each day to filling tangible needs, such as food, water, employment and caring for family, while in the middle-classes (such as those portrayed in Revolutionary Road), people's motivations for self-actualization are vague and harder to measure. This simple difference in motivation and need results in a vastly different approach to life and, as a result, different levels of fulfillment.

References

Maslow, Abraham (Harold). Motivation and Personality. 1954.
Schlebusch, Lourens. Suicidal Behaviour in South Africa. 2006.
Hoyert DL, Kochanek KD, and Murphy SL. Deaths. "National Vital Statistics Report," 47(19). DHHS publication No. 99-1120. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1999.
Schlebusch, A. "South Africans torch themselves in suicide epidemic." Digital Journal: Health. 09 February 2009. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/267248.
Hoyert DL, Kochanek KD, and Murphy SL. Deaths. "National Vital Statistics Report," 47(19). DHHS publication No. 99-1120. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1999.

Holidays in Mozambique

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:32:00 +0000

This past holiday season, a number of my fellow volunteers and I made a trip to Mozambique. This was my first significant trip outside of South Africa. We traveled north to a village on the beach, which also is a common destination for tourists (ranging from the increasingly popular volunteer-tourists to the guests of luxurious island houses with a private airstrip). From our beach-front hostel, we looked out to a scattering of moored boats, which often made early morning fishing excursions or day long trips out to the archipelago of islands. One of our days was spent taking a dhow (a type of sailboat) out to one of the closer islands, where we went snorkeling and had a lunch of calamari stew, crab and lots of fresh fruit.

The trip provided a fascinating glimpse at how much South Africa’s history of colonialism and apartheid have shaped its culture, values and society today. Once outside of South Africa, one becomes keenly aware of the racial tension that exists in and weighs on much of the country. In South Africa, much emphasis and attention are placed on skin color and a racial or tribal identity group, but while in Mozambique, such divisions and groupings are less apparent and less important. Riding around in the “chapa” taxis (much like the South African version, although often with many more people squeezed in), I felt less people observing me and less people questioning my presence and role in the country and society.

In addition, people demonstrated a remarkable level of hospitality and generosity. One evening, I went walking to a corner “shabeen” (bar), where a number of young men were sitting outside eating, drinking and talking. I was immediately offered a chair, as well as the calamari the men were already eating. As we sat, they kept encouraging me to eat more and one man ended up buying me several sodas (he was disappointed that I turned down the offer of beer).

Other highlights of the trip included:

Going sailing with a group of local fishers, who took us up the coastline and even let me steer the boat for a while. It was fantastically beautiful and peaceful on the water.
Traveling in buses filled with everything from chickens to televisions across roads like Swiss cheese (so many potholes). At one point, the road was washed out because of heavy rain, so we all had to get out, ford the little river and find a new bus on the opposite side.
An amazing meal at a little café south of where we were staying, which included homemade butternut squash ravioli topped with a sun-dried tomato parmesan pesto. Delicious!

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip and a great opportunity to see a different side of Africa, where commercialism has a less established grasp on the society. I have posted a handful of photos from the trip in my gallery.

Happy new year and I look forward to seeing friends and family on my upcoming visit home!

Diplomats

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:05:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thursday and Friday of last week were spent in Pretoria attending a grant signing ceremony hosted by the U.S. Embassy. I attended with Knowledge and Agnes from my organization, as well as a few fellow volunteers. The grant is called the "U.S. Embassy HIV/AIDS Community Grant," which supplies $10,000 in funding for the course of a year. My organization received the grant to help fund its five newest DICs (drop-in centers), where we provide food, education, shelter and psychosocial support to children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS.

Attending the grant signing ceremony was quite the experience. It was the first extended period of time I spent at the U.S. Embassy here in South Africa (the building itself is one of the biggest embassies and looks akin to a bunker). It was fascinating to speak with the employees of the embassy, who all had interesting jobs and a remarkably perceptive view of politics and relations in the Southern Africa area. In addition, it was revealing to see what a huge investment goes into foreign relations, political analysis, etc.

Just to highlight some of the experiences of the those two days - a time which is distinctly different from the average time spent in my village or around South Africa:

Timeliness. Although Knowledge and Agnes were an hour late in picking me up, we still made it to Pretoria and to the event with time to spare. Such timeliness is rare and so appreciated, on my part at least. So I decided to make Agnes and Knowledge tea. I even made Agnes some tea from Trader Joe's that happened to be a the U.S. Community Center. She was thrilled and called her granddaughter to announce, "I am in the United States now!"

Good food. Sue, Jo and Mokgedi, the embassy staff who organized the event, made sure to arrange for great food and refreshments. This included vegetable kebabs, chicken-tortilla wraps, delicious pastries, etc. So we ate often and well, which was a nice experience for Knowledge and Agnes, but I loved it too.

Jo's House. The grant recipients were all put up in a hotel, but us three Peace Corps volunteers were not in the budget, so there were no hotel rooms for us. Instead, we stayed at the home of Jo, one of the coordinators. Both she and her husband work for the U.S. government (in fact, her husband used to be a Peace Corps volunteer), and as a result, are provided a house in the nice Waterkloof neighborhood of Pretoria. Embassy provided houses are based on seniority and family size, and apparently Jo's husband has been with the department of agriculture for some time now (we did not actually get to meet him, sadly), as they had a stunning house. Having come here from several posts in Asia, there is remarkable Asian art throughout the house. All in all, it was one of the fanciest homes I have stayed in, and my description won't do it justice, so I took a few photos with my cellphone while there.

And Jo was a fantastic host, she spoiled us Peace Corps volunteers. We ate well, sat around in her living room talking and watching TV, and awoke to an amazing breakfast that was cooked just for us (she let us sleep in, telling us that the morning session wasn't critical for us). So we ate fresh omelets, cereal, juice, real coffee. Mmm!

Meeting embassy workers. For the second day, we spent time inside hanging out inside the embassy, learning about the reporting procedures and financial record keeping. But over the course of the day, I had a chance to talk to many people who work at the U.S. embassy, both from South Africa and from the U.S. They were such interesting people to talk with and meet, and provided a lot of very perceptive information on this country and its future. Of course, it was appropriate that I was with such people when it was announced that the corruption charges against (most likely future president) Jacob Zuma will be dropped on account of an outdated legal practice.

Life Update

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:42:00 +0000

Regretting my poor blogging skills as of late, I have decided to just post a nice list of things going on in my life these days. And also, I would like to say that there are a few blog posts in the works, which I will hopefully follow through with and post soon.

Hot - This is a one word update regarding the weather. It is the beginning of September, which one would expect to be somewhat spring-like. Yet it is quite hot these days, with heat-spells across the country that could reach 40 degrees Celsius (or 104 degrees Fahrenheit). My follow up: "I don't approve." I am hoping that this summer will have lots of rain and amazing lightning storms to match last summer, which provided some relief and cool weather in the evenings.
US Embassy: Community HIV/AIDS Grant - My organization has been awarded a Community HIV/AIDS grant, which will provide close to $10,000 towards the drop-in centers (DIC) where children affected or infected by HIV/AIDS can receive food, support and care within the community. The money will go towards a handful of new DICs, which are just getting going, and need assistance to buy cooking equipment (stoves, pots, pans), pay stipends for the coordinators and assist with transport costs. We learned of this grant several months ago through a referral by another Peace Corps volunteer in the area. It is exciting to see my organization benefiting from the grant program, and I will attend the awarding ceremony with Knowledge and Agnes later this week in Pretoria. During the ceremony, they will learn about the grant administration (reporting and tracking information), meet other people benefiting from the grant (which will hopefully lead to ideas being shared amongst organizations), and have a chance to meet the US Ambassador. I am excited to attend the event, and think that my organization is quite excited about the new funding that I was able to assist with in a small way.
Language Committee - I am now involved in the Peace Corps language committee, which is a group of volunteers seeking to improve and refine the language teaching strategies, so that future groups of volunteers will have better resources and will be able to make the most out of their language learning experience. Part of my involvement in the committee led me to visit the training for a new group of volunteers who will be starting service this week. Being there during there training offered me a fun opportunity to answer questions and share stories, as well as see what an exceptional job the new language trainers are doing. Over the next few months, I will be helping develop new lesson plans, which will hopefully facilitate the teaching of Sepedi for future volunteer groups, by providing greater structure to the language curriculum.
Training - Peace Corps has been scheduling a lot of training these days. Just completed a week of Life Skills Training, which is related to HIV/AIDS and how to educate people at your site about the disease. This includes behavior change education, rather than simply telling people the facts (that is, how do you actually convince people to start acting differently, which relates back to something I discussed before). Coming up in a few weeks, we will be meeting up together as a group again for the Mid Service Training, which will offer us a chance to come together, share stories and discuss what we hope to achieve with the next year of our service.
Graduate School - On that note, in some ways, Peace Corps is already starting to wrap up. Having been in South Africa for well over 14 months and having been an official volunteer for over a year, it means we are now counting down in some ways. With that, I am starting to do extensive research into graduate schools and graduate programs so that I can begin the application process in the coming months. The goal is that I will be accepted into a program starting in August or September of next year, and will head home in July or August (a two or three month early completion of service), so that I can prepare for graduate school. In many ways, that does not seem that far off (especially considering how many volunteers tell me that the second year goes far faster than the first, which is hard to imagine). Once I start applying to specific programs, I will post more details here.
Vacation - Inspired by the fun of spending last Christmas on the beach, several of my fellow volunteers and I are looking to do the same thing again this Christmas. Instead of just going to Durban this year, we are hoping to go into Mozambique and spend a little over a week relaxing on the beach, heading out to some spectacular islands, and other such fun. I can't wait!

That hopefully summarizes a lot of the big points going on right now. And soon I will have some more in-depth blog posts, looking at Peace Corps as a program, and discussing the important urban/rural dichotomy that exists within South Africa.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Essay

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:58:00 +0000

I was recently asked to adapt some of my blog posts into an essay that discusses the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa, as well as some of my experiences here. The essay is primarily based off an earlier post, where I discuss the disconnect between understanding and action with regards to the continuing HIV pandemic. In that post, I promised a follow up where I would discuss the causes for this disconnect, but never made that addition to my blog. So in the essay is also the long-ago promised investigation into the causes of the disconnect between thought and behavior here.

Please feel free to read or download the essay by clicking the link below:

essay.pdf (PDF document)

Lots More Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:11:00 +0000

It's long overdue, but I have finally posted lots more photos. The dearth of photos has been due to two things. One, forgetting my camera in Durban over Christmas vacation. And two, the slow upload speed over the cellphone connection. But both problems have been remedied at this point. Amazingly, I managed to recover my camera four months after I left it in a backpackers in Durban. As for the internet speed, I believe the local cellphone tower was upgraded, because now I get a 3G connection (which is amazing for a rural village anywhere in the world, much less Africa).

My parents came to visit in April, and we spent a little over two weeks traveling around the eastern part of South Africa. Just a brief overview of our trips:

One night in my village, ga-Mathabatha, staying with Agnes (the head of my organization)
Over to Graskop and Sabie
A four night backpacking trip from Sabie over to Graskop (not really backpacking, as we got to stay in outstanding little huts along the way)
Into Kruger, the amazing game park here
South, around Swaziland (staying at a guesthouse on a pig farm along the way)
Two nights in St. Lucia, an estuary game park along the coast
One night in Durban, with a breathtaking view of the Indian Ocean from our room
Up to the Drakensberg mountain range, where we stayed in the Royal Natal park
And finally, returning to Pretoria before my parents headed off

My parents brought many books and other niceties for me to enjoy, but one of the best was my nicer camera, which I had originally decided to leave at home. So along the way, I was able to make up for the lack of photos and captured some of the beautiful places and things we saw. And I have selected a few the highlight places along our journey, and have posted 27 new photos! You can see them by going to:

Album: Traveling South Africa with my parents
http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanntg/TravelingSouthAfricaWithMyParents

A Moment in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:35:00 +0000

South Africa hardly resembles the traditional images that come to mind when you think of Africa… the rolling savannahs and desserts, the tropical rain forest areas. In fact, the majority of the places I have visited thus far remind me more of home then of what I would envision when thinking of Africa. My site is nestled up against a mountain, which looks very much like New Mexico. Many of the open areas resemble the deserts of California. And as you climb into the mountains, such as the Drakensberg Range, you see rock formations that resemble Arizona and mountain lakes that bring back memories of Colorado.
Yet, every once and a while, there will be a view or a moment that resembles some traditional notion of what we expected South Africa to be like. Whether it is a stunning sunrise or the breathtaking moment when a herd of elephants crosses the road on all sides of our car. And when with other volunteers, we will pull out our cameras and comment that it truly looks like Africa. So I wanted to share one of those moments, when it was unequivocally a moment in Africa.

Three close friends and I were visiting Kruger National Park. Just to give a little background, Kruger is one of the largest game reserves in the world. It is about the size of Wales (and is now growing as fences between it and neighboring private reserves and other international reserves are being torn down). It is home to a vast variety of animal and plant life, scattered through out three major eco-zones and many sub eco-zones. Spending a day driving around Kruger, one will often pass from zone to zone and suddenly see a very different environment outside the window. Most of our time is spent driving around, looking for animals. But there are also well maintained rest camps, where you can stop for food or to stay the night.

So upon spotting a turn off for a baobab tree, we decided to go off and explore. The trees are stunning in size, and in formation, with extremely thick trunks (usually about 23ft wide). The trunks are used to store water (up to 32,000 gallons), allowing it to survive through the periods of intense drought. The one in Kruger did not appear to be in the greatest health, but gathering at the base, we were able to appreciate the magnificent size and stature of the tree.

We continued on the curvy dirt road, hoping to make our way back to the main paved road. Coming around a corner, we saw a feline approaching us. And three cars in the opposite direction crowding in to try and get a view of the animal who was walking straight towards our car. We had the good fortune to be the only car coming from our direction, so we had a stunning view. It was a mother leopard, and shortly after, we saw her little cub following behind in a shy manner. Although she seemed quite unfazed by the gathering cars, the cub would run off into the tall grass on the side of the road to hide every so often. The mother would stop and look back impatiently, waiting as the cub got its courage together to walk a little further along the road. You could even here it cry out – little meows emanating from the deep grass, where it hid. The pair walked right by our car, reaching distance from the window and continued on down the road. Simply said, we were awe struck. It had a beautiful body, dotted by rosettes of black spots on a whitish golden background. Its movements were quiet and full of grace. And interestingly, since then, I have learned that it is second most effective predator in Kruger (only outdone by the African Hunting Dog).

The leopard spotting completed the Big Five for us (well, three of us). We’d already seen lions, elephants, African Buffalo and a few rhinoceroses. And of course, we’d also seen giraffes, hippos, baboons, zebras, all sorts of gazelles and amazing birds of all varieties. While wandering the roads of Kruger, the amazing sights and beautiful landscape offer a strong reminder of the fact that we are living in Africa – in some ways, it is not so foreign feeling as we often think, but at the same time, there are some special, beautiful moments that are unique to Africa.

Photos (taken by my friends Abby and Megan)

See More Photos

Xenophobic Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:51:00 +0000

I have not updated my blog in sometime, and in light of the recent news coverage concerning South Africa, I thought it might be appropriate to make a short post updating people on the situation here. And I promise a longer, more personal post in the coming few days.

South Africa has been prominent in the world news over the last few weeks. And, as is often the case when an African country gets global media attention, it is the result of violence and unrest. There has been an ongoing set of attacks being carried out against African foreigners living in South Africa. The attacks are taking place in some of the worst-off Townships, where people are deprived of wealth, employment and opportunity. Motivated by a sense of jealousy and a strong feeling of xenophobic, the South Africans living in the areas have raided and chased off foreigners from other African countries, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, etc. The perpetrators claim that these foreigners are stealing housing, economic support and jobs that should instead go to South African locals.

The attacks have primarily be concentrated around Johannesburg and the rest of the Gauteng province, but in the last week, they have begun to spread to other poor townships in the North West province, the KwaZulu-Natal province and the Mpumalanga province.

The media here (and, to some extend, abroad) have been filled with graphic images and disturbing accounts of the extreme violence, including machete attacks and ‘necklacing’ (putting someone inside a tire, pouring gas on them and then igniting them). It is remarkably discouraging to hear these stories and see the awful violence that is surging, which has many parallels with the rebellious violence that existed during the end of the Apartheid era. Overall, over 42 people have been killed and at least twenty thousand people have been displaced. Huge refugee camps have been setup at police stations in Johannesburg and daily buses carry thousands of people returning to their home country, with the few things they can salvage from their home before being chased away.

The police have been attempting to control the situation, arresting over 400 people. Last night, in an attempt to bring around an end to the violence, president Mbeki authorized the army to assist the police in quelling the aggression and violence. They are expected to be deployed to the troubled areas today. Ideally, there presence might help bring about an end to the violence and scare people back into a peaceful state. But I fear the situation could just as easily escalate. The deployment of the army can result in increased unease and increased tension, as happened when the Apartheid government start placing larger forces in Townships.

I think that so much of this situation reflects peoples disappointment or sense of betrayal by the ANC government (African National Congress, which took over when Apartheid fell). The ANC made large promises about how South Africa would improve in terms of infrastructure, education and opportunity. And in many ways, the country has come a great distance – good water is available to more people, almost everyone has electricity and the economy has grown greatly. But in the excitement of a Black-led South Africa, the ANC promised more then it was possible to deliver. Combine that with an economic downturn, increased inflation, power outages and a huge influx of immigrants from Zimbabwe (fleeing Robert Mugabe) and from Mozambique, it is easy to see how tension has been continually increasing. The people most affected by these things turn to violence as a way to seek resolution, as that was what people were taught during the Apartheid era. Violence helped end that situation, so people have turned to it again, hoping that it will fix the current situation.

Of course, instead of helping, it is furthering the economic crisis here, driving down the South African Rand, discouraging incoming tourists and jeopardizing the 2010 World Cup (the first to ever be held in Sub-Saharan Africa) – all that, on top of the fact that tens of thousands of people are being displaced, hundreds are being injured and several more killed, where there possessions and shops are being looted. It is a remarkably grim and depressing situation, for a country that has so far achieved reasonable stability and good growth, following such a dark history and colonization.

How does this situation affect me? Beyond what I read in the news, there is little affect. And, to the best of my knowledge, this is true for all the Peace Corps volunteers. Volunteers are not placed in the townships surrounding Johannesburg, because of their already violent nature. Most rural communities do not even have a large foreign population. And on top of that, Americans do not really fall into the same competitive category in which other Africans are viewed. So, as it stands, the situation remains relatively safe for us volunteers. Peace Corps is monitoring the situation, informing us of new developments and, if needed, they will take appropriate steps to help ensure our safety.

For those interested in reading more about the situation, I would suggest:

Mbeki gives nod to army from the Mail & Guardian online – A recent news article from one of the best papers here, describing the current situation and the recent approval of army action.
Blog post by Abby – A fellow volunteers post describing the situation and echoing some of my sentiments about how disheartening the situation is.

Sore Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:50:00 +0000

Yesterday, after leaving at seven in the morning, I returned home at five in the afternoon (it was a long day of travel, one of those potential risks of deciding to commute long distances on a Sunday). I spent the weekend in the mountain town of Sabie in the Mpumalanga province, where the Longtom Ultra Marathon was held. I made a post about the event earlier, which briefly described the event.

Just to recap a little of the history: a few Peace Corps volunteers started the KLM foundation about five years ago. The foundation selects bright children from rural villages and then helps fund their education at one of the top private secondary schools in the area (for more details, I encourage you to view their website). The program partners with the Longtom Ultra Marathon, and gives current volunteers an opportunity to do fundraising and then to come participate in the race and spend time with fellow volunteers. Although the original founders have returned home, the KLM foundation continues to exist and new volunteers have taken on the task of organizing the race weekend.

First off, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who contributed on my behalf. I was surprised by (and am very appreciative of) how much people managed to give; it far exceeded what I was expecting from a little blog post. Letters and little gifts will be in the mail soon… Second, I was very impressed by the larger participation of our group. Over seventy volunteers came to Longtom and as a whole, we raised over $20,000, which is the best year yet.

For the weekend, all seventy of us stayed at the Sabie Backpackers, so there was lots of socializing and catching up with people who I haven’t seen since training ended back in September. Saturday morning, we got transport to the race start points. Two people in our group were actually running the Ultra Marathon (56km or 34.7 miles), while the rest of us were either walking or running the half marathon (the usual 21.1km or 13 miles). Of course, the mileage isn’t really sufficient to give an accurate picture of how challenging the ultra marathon is. It is important to remember that the Longtom run takes place on a mountain. So the first 21 miles are running up the mountain pass, climbing from 3,280 feet in Sabie to the top of the pass which is 7,053 feet above sea level. The lucky half-marathon people got to start at the top of the pass and just do the downhill section into Lydenburg (elevation 4,527 feet).

Having not trained (or really done anything physical for the last three months), I intended to walk and take in the stunning view. So sporting my hiking boots and cargo shorts, I started out at a slow pace in the back of the group, chatting with some fellow volunteers. But then I realized I should try to push myself a little, so I slowly picked up the pace and began walking faster. And that started getting endorphins flowing, which are bad news… Around 14km to go, I suddenly found myself jogging (not a good thing to do in hiking boots). And jogged for what amounted to a little more then half the race, even doing most of the long uphill section. I managed to finish in 2 hours 35 minutes, which I was pleased with. But best of all, I just felt so good for the rest of the day. My body clearly needed the exercise and to be pushed. I was tired, but just felt really positive and very alive. Hopefully that feeling will be enough to motivate me to train and run the whole half-marathon next year.

Of course, waking up yesterday and trying to move wasn’t as positive an experience. My calves burned and still today I feel quite sore. But the good feeling remains.

Thanks again to all those who donated to the KLM foundation! I think it is an outstanding program and a great way to create change by encouraging education and creating opportunities for children.

Unfortunate Events

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:50:00 +0000

The last two weekends have proved to be unfortunate for my organization. And I figure that is worthy of a quick blog post, and an introduction to crime in South Africa.

South Africa is not the safest country. Crime here is remarkably high, in fact, and has been one of the most difficult things to get used to. Until recently, all I heard was stories about crime that seemed pretty far removed and was generally isolated to the big cities. Walking around Durban, Pretoria or even Polokwane (a relatively small city and the safest provincial capital in South Africa), you see houses and businesses surrounded with high walls, which are topped with electrified razor wire. Many police carry machine guns. Malls and banks have security personnel who like they are ready to go into war (bullet proof vests, multiple guns, even some grenades). Just to get into the bank, you have to go through a special double-doored system that means that one door is always closed and locked. Most impressive is seeing the armored cars, which look more like tanks and are often escorted by a small tactical team with automatic weapons.

Many of the Peace Corps volunteers here have experienced minor crime in the city, such as wallets or cell phones disappearing, especially at hostels. In Polokwane, I have only heard about a few attempts at pick-pocketing. A number of people have also been mugged, often around Pretoria. And there are a few more unfortunate instances.

Hearing these stories has been disappointing and scary. South Africa, as a country trying to grow economically and move forward, is being held back by crime and continual perpetuation of fear within the culture. It raises important questions about what the country's biggest priority should be, in terms of development.

As to causes of the crime, people have written books on the subject, but I will just mention one short theory I have heard repeatedly. As the end of apartheid approached, people began preparing for a revolution and adopting more violent tactics. This involved training and arming people. Once the government shift was complete, people who learned to fight found that they were not getting the money or influence that the government-shift so often promised. And so people applied their skill set to crime to support themselves. This is especially exacerbated with the decreased sense of ownership in the government and public services (a sentiment that was promoted during the apartheid government, as a way of undermining their authority), leading people to feel comfortable destroying or taking.

Until two weeks ago, the crime here was pretty distant from my life. Although villages are generally safer than the cities, mine felt particularly safe. Many houses get left unlocked and there is a strong sense of community. I was warned about walking alone in one neighborhood of the village, but everywhere else, I have felt comfortable and safe, both during the day and at night.

But when I returned to my organization last Monday, I found the door to Knowledge's (my supervisor) office smashed open. The safe in his office had been broken open, with almost $5,000 missing (a huge amount, by local standards). In addition, two computers were missing, one from his office and one from the administration office (with this came the loss of a lot of important information and records). Police came and did a search for fingerprints, but they don't inspire much confidence. The break-in was the talk of the village, with everyone speculating that it was an inside job and talking about how unfortunate it was. But I was also impressed with the attitude of the people at the organization, who seemed undeterred in their everyday efforts.

This week, when I came to my organization, and heard that the home of Agnes had been broken into. She is the 68 year old woman who started our organization, and continues to run it. She was at home Sunday night, and her adult son was out. Four men showed up with guns, threatening to take her eleven-year-old adopted son if they were not allowed into her house. She of course let them in, and they proceeded to take, money, a laptop that belongs to the organization, her bank card and her car. She has not come into the organization since, but I hear she is doing well.

There is something tragic about seeing the people who are trying the hardest to help the community targeted by crime. Although the situation hasn't changed my personal sense of safety, it has changed my view of the village. And overall, along with other recent events, has changed my larger view of South Africa. I think much needs to be done here in terms of addressing underlying safety and crime issues and promoting a sense of ownership and investment before larger development issues can be tackled. And as a result, I think this brings up questions regarding what the role of Peace Corps volunteers within the country... but that is a subject for another day.

Just to close with some (dark) statistics:

"According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for assault and murder (by all means) per capita, in addition to being ranked second for rape and first for rapes per capita. Total crime per capita is tenth out of the sixty countries in the data set." - from Wikipedia, statistics from NationMaster: South African Crime Statistics.
"Interpol figures showed that, in 2002, South Africa experienced 114.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, the world's highest murder-rate and around five times higher than that of the second-highest country, Brazil. As of 1998, South Africa led the world, although by a smaller margin, in reported murders and robberies. A 2001 report by the Institute for Security Studies concluded that 'South Africa has high but manageable levels of property crime but an extraordinarily high level of violent crime. It is South Africa's high level of violent crime which sets the country apart from other crime ridden societies.'" - from Wikipedia

The goal of the statistics is not to depress or scare, but rather to backup my experiential descriptions with evidence.

Six Months

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:22:00 +0000

Just this week I realized that I have now been living in Africa for six months. It is amazing how quickly the time is going by here. First off, I figured it is a good excuse to post some long overdue photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanntg/PeaceCorpsSite

There are photos from when I walked to a hill that overlooks my village and a few showing my room, which I recently reorganized in an attempt to make it more personal and homey. That meant better organizing my stuff (so that everything wasn't sitting in piles on the floor) and getting a map and tablecloth.

The other day I was reminded of a fun story, which I had forgotten about. On the way to our first in-service training, back in December, I stopped by the site of another volunteer for a day. His site happens to be walking distance from a small-scale game reserve, so he and I headed over to the fence in hopes of seeing giraffes. Walking along the fence, we found a semblance of a gate (more like a place where you could crawl under the fence). My friend has been told by locals in the village that you could enter the game reserve there, so headed in. Maybe not the safest idea, in case there was some huge predators, but we walked along the dirt road and ended up seeing a huge family of ostriches (a male and a female, and about eight or nine little babies). So we sat a safe distance away and just watched as the meandered along, taking no notice of us, and picking through the grass for food. There was something very special about getting to sit and watch that.

Powerful People and a Request

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:48:00 +0000

For once, I am actually going to manage two posts to my blog within one week. This is just to tell a little story about my day today and to ask a small favor of friends and family at home.

Today, one of my organizations chief sponsors was going to visit. The sponsor is Anglo Platinum, the world’s primary provider of platinum. The company runs one of its many mines just near my town. Back in December, they asked us to prepare for a big visit from some of the people very high up in the company, who wanted to see some of the results of the corporate giving. We all prepared, setting up a nice room to show off some of the creations of the organization and the normal operation of the organization was halted for a whole day. In the end, they never showed up, frustrating me a good deal (it seemed so counter-productive).

Now this visit started out the same way. They said they would be here at nine this morning, so we prepared brochures and setup a nice meeting room with snacks, water and decorations (it amazes me how quickly the volunteers here can transform a room). The caregivers were not going out to visit patients, and instead prepared a song about “Anglo Platinum”, which they were going to sing to welcome our guests. By noon, there was still no sign of them and I had essentially given up on the visit.

But then we got a call saying they would be here in five minutes. Two vans full of people pulled up escorted by three police cars. The visiting group consisted of the chief executives and board members from both Anglo Platinum and Anglo-American plc, coming from all over the world (Washington DC, London, etc). Doing some research later, I found out that Anglo-American is the primary shareholder of Anglo Platinum, and is a large owner of De Beers and a number of other mining companies (essentially, they are a big deal; $38 billion in revenue). They flew in this morning to the local mine by helicopter for the annual board meeting.

The whole visit was rather surreal. They did not spend more than thirty minutes at our organization, ten of which involved Agnes talking to them. The rest was a brief tour of the bakery and some other facilities. Then they got back in their vans, having not touched the drinks or snacks prepared.

But they were all clearly very bright people and had many questions for me. The experience was interesting though for two reasons. One, the group consists of probably the most influential people that I have talked with in a while (ironic that I would meet them in rural South Africa). Second, it just highlights how strange corporate philanthropy is. So much of it is based on the appearances of success and it is often handled so poorly (too much control or too much burden is placed on the organization by the corporation), yet it is one of the main thing that keeps Fanang Diatla open, so clearly it works as well.

Now, I want to ask a favor of people reading this at home. At the end of March, about seventy other volunteers and I will be walking the half marathon in Sabie, Mpumalanga Province (near Kruger Park). This is partly just a good opportunity to see some more of South Africa and meet up with other volunteers, but it is also a fundraiser for an organization started by earlier volunteers. It supports the KLM foundation, which funds a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent secondary school in the area (called Uplands College). This is done with the hopes of potentially educating a future leader.

Part of the deal is to get different people to fund my participation. Although I don’t normally like to ask people to give money to an organization, I figured I should make an exception. If you can, it would be great if you could make a donation. You can do it online, securely through the website. Make sure to put my name in the white box where it asks for the Longtom person you want to sponsor. Or if you would prefer to do it by check, please make it payable to “Kgwale le Mollo (US)” and send it to:

KLM Foundation (US)
c/o Bowen Hsu
461 So. Bonita Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91107

And make sure to include a note that your donation is in my behalf. Thanks for your support. I will post on my blog about how the weekend is!

Christmas on the Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:40:00 +0000

For Christmas this year, I took my first vacation in South Africa. After being at site for three months, we were allowed to begin traveling and seeing more of the country (the rule is in place to help encourage us to fully integrate into our community and not run off in the beginning). And so for my first vacation, I decided to head to Durban, a costal city on the Indian Ocean in the southeast of South Africa. A number of other volunteers were also going to head to Durban (the beach is a pretty attractive first vacation).

I ended up arriving a day earlier then the other volunteers, because of complications in travel plans, so I stayed at a hotel in downtown for the first night. It was nice to have some time to myself and to unwind before meeting up with everyone. In the afternoon I headed down to the beach, which reminded me how much I love the ocean and how I hope to spend most of my life living near it. And I enjoyed a dinner at a place that essentially does Indian tapas, so you order a number of different main courses and each is a little serving. The night was topped off by a swim in the pool on the top floor of the hotel, under the stars, with a remarkable view out at the city (best of all, I had the whole place to myself).

For the first week of the vacation, eleven of us stayed at a house in Amanzimtoti (essentially a suburb thirty minutes from the city). From the house, you could walk down a long set of stairs and in five minutes, be standing on the beach. So, that is exactly what we did for everyday of that week… sat on the beach, under a big umbrella, and got up every few hours to hop in the water. The whole while, we ate good food. A few blocks from the house was a Woolworths Food (a higher end grocery store, similar to Marks & Spencer in London – in fact, owned by Marks & Spencer), a Fruit and Veg City (delicious fresh fruit, very inexpensive) and an Indian Bunny Chow place. Bunny Chow is essentially a half loaf of bread, partially hollowed out and filled with curry and vegetables (delicious, spicy, and it only costs $1.50 for meal’s worth). So one day, we spend a whole nine hours on the beach, with a group going up to get Bunny Chow, drinks and chocolate around lunch time.

On Christmas morning, Erin (the volunteer who found and arranged for the house) surprised us with decorations, including Christmas lights, a paper tree and a Santa hats (instead of stockings) with each of our names in glitter on them. It was such a nice way to start out the day. And then she went on to cook delicious eggs benedict, while Paul cooked pancakes. Before heading to the beach, we did a gift exchange. For a Christmas away from home, you couldn’t ask for much more.

On the last night at the house, we all decided to go out to do karaoke at a local bar (primarily Afrikaner). At the beginning of the night, I felt like we were annoying most of the people, being the typical Americans. But by the end, everyone seemed to be loving it. People were dancing on the tables. One volunteer was even going up to strangers and pulling them up to dance. And when the KJ (like a DJ, but for karaoke) announced the last song, the whole bar started chanting “one more!”

Justin and I departed the house the day before New Years Eve (it was sad to leave that great group), and headed into Durban on a very sketchy train. Probably not the safest means of travel, but it was cheap. For the next few nights, we stayed at a backpackers in Morningside (a rather fancy neighborhood, with everyone dressed nice, felt almost like Los Angeles). There were lots of good restaurants, bars and we were near an apartment where four other volunteers were staying, so we spent a lot of time with them. And for New Years Eve night, we ate Thai food and headed to a huge club with lots of people and danced well into the morning.

All in all, it was an outstanding vacation - so nice to have some down time and so nice to hang out with other volunteers. Now I have been back at site for a while, I am settling back into things here and am already feeling busy.

Transportation

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:47:00 +0000

It has been a while since I have posted (busy doing training with the Peace Corps), and since I am going to leave for Durban in a few days, I figured I should at least get one post up before I go. So I figured I would write on a very current issue for me: transportation.

South Africa is remarkable in the fact that it has a really efficient and successful public transportation system. Most notable is that it succeeds in serving the vast number of rural communities and villages throughout the country. But at the same time, it is just as effective within the cities. And, as much of the country doesn't own cars and depends on the system, a large industry has emerged.

The system is based on combies (or often they are just called public taxis; there is of course, metered private taxis within the cities). Each taxi is essentially a slightly bigger minivan, which can seat usually about 15 people (seat makes it sound much more comfortable then it often is). There are two in the front row, next to the driver. Then there is a sliding door for getting into the back area, and usually three rows of three and one row of four at the very back. Each seat has its own advantages and disadvantages. The back row is often an unfortunate area to sit, because four people in a row is pretty cramped, but as long as you are not in the middle, you get a window (so it is a trade off). The row right behind the driver is very spacious, but that means you can get stuck having peoples stuff in your lap. Big bags, groceries, babies, all might be handed to the people in that row. Sitting in the front is scary, because of the driving and because often you are expected to make change for people as they pay (and if you make a mistake, it comes out of your pocket). My goal is to always sit near a window...

Most of the vehicles are quite old, with doors that seem on the verge of falling off and wires hanging out under the dashboard. Twice, I have been on taxis that have broken down (one started smoking). One local blue taxi barely gets over 30MPH (50km/h), has a door that won't close, broken windows, no gauges in the dashboard and was probably built in the sixties. But there are also modern, nicer taxis, which are much more spacious.

Often, even when it is very hot, all the windows in the taxi will get closed as soon as it starts moving. People will complain about how hot it is, but still the windows remain closed. The most common explanation is that people are afraid of catching a flu. In addition, the lack of personal space makes it even hotter. People will be leaning into you, squished against you or falling asleep on you. And finally, you have all your bags and stuff in your lap, so you can hardly move. So my solution is to sit by the window and crack it just enough so I get a slight breeze, and then I try to go to sleep to pass the ride. This is sometimes hampered by the fact that a lot of the taxi drivers invest theit earnings into getting a sound system for the car, so they can blast music throughout the drive.

There are two main ways of catching a taxi. One is going to a taxi rank. In the cities, there are huge taxi ranks - hundreds of taxis, lots of people. There are queue marshals who keep the taxis organized and are often a big help in finding the right taxi. Of course, being a white person in a taxi rank gets a lot of attention (I have only seen one white South African riding a taxi), so there will be many offers for help. Taxis will wait at the rank until they are full, and then depart. For common destinations, this can be a few minutes. Other places, this means two or three hours of waiting. While you wait, a number of vendors come by offering the usual stuff - refreshments (soda, sandwiches, chips), newspapers, airtime (for cell phones) - and the bizarre - sling shots, razors, jewelry, cologne, hats, loaves of bread. And there is a interesting understanding with all the vendors. For example, if you buy something they don't have or if they need to get change, they leave the box with all their stuff sitting by the taxi, so you know that they will come back. Finally, when all fifteen people and all there stuff is squeezed in, the taxi gets ready to leave and the driver pays a small fee to the queue marshal. The alternative to catching taxis at the rank is just to stand on the side of the road. Taxis with space in them will drive by and honk occasionally. If you are going somewhere within the current village or city, you point down, otherwise you point up (in fact, there are a number of signs that are used for communication, but those are the basic ones). And then the taxi driver will pull over to pick you up.

The cost of the taxis is quite inexpensive. For within Polokwane (for example, to go over to the nicer mall with a movie theater), it is less than $1 (R5). For me to go into town, it costs about $5 (R30 to R36, depending on whether I get the direct taxi). If you catch the taxi at the rank, you pay the queue marshal. Otherwise, you pass payments forward and say where you are going from or coming from. Then your change will be passed back. For the most part, the system works really well and other people always offer to help.

When you see your destination, you just ask the taxi rider to get off. Usually you will say something like "after robot", meaning you want to get let off after the next traffic light (they are called robots here for some reason). In the village, I say "Ke fologa CellC box" (literally translated, I am descending at the CellC box, which is a bright red box at the end of my little road). Climbing in and out can be an adventure sometimes, as almost the whole taxi has to unload to let you off.

Now the reason that transportation is a current issue for me is because there is a little war going on between two local taxi companies. One company (the Peace Taxi Association) is made up of drivers from my village and a neighboring village and has been serving the area for a while, including offering rides into town. A bigger company from another, slightly separate village has moved in and is claiming that it should take people to the city and that Peace Taxi Association should not be allowed to (instead, it should only serve the local area). Now I do not fully understand the details of the fight, and I am hesitant to take sides, because I think it is more complicated then the explanation I received. But, the local taxi rank (a tiny place where you switch from the local taxi to the city taxi) has a small group of police officers all the time, holding big automatic rifles and driving cars that look like the SWAT cars from the US (the police here are intense). Apparently, when taxi companies fight, it can get violent, so the police were called in early. Now, both taxi companies have been essentially stopped from running rides into town. The last time I went, the police officer with one of the big guns told me I should just try to hitchhike on the highway (luckily, one of the taxi rank guys helped me catch a passing taxi from an unrelated company). Later that day, when I returned, the taxi was stopped at the rank by a police officer. The driver was told to give us each R5 back, since we didn't reach our destination and then we had to find an alternative ride from the local taxi rank into the village. Rumor has it that they are now impounding taxis that try to pass...

So I am a tad worried about catching my flight to Durban in a few days, but I have arranged a backup in case I cannot manage to catch a taxi.

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:20:00 +0000

A week late, but nonetheless, happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

The actual day of Thanksgiving was like any other, but last weekend I got together with a number of other Peace Corps Volunteers, as well as a few South Africans and a doctor from the Congo. It proved to be quite a relaxing get together and a welcomed break from life in the village. I started out my Saturday by seeing a movie (Heartbreak Kid) at the nicer mall in Polokwane. It was a poor romantic comedy with Ben Stiller, but after having not seen a movie for quite some time, it was surprisingly entertaining. From there, we began meeting up with other Peace Corps volunteers from the surrounding area (a total of eleven of us), and spent the afternoon doing the final food preparations. In the end, we had two smaller turkeys (you can’t really find normal, big turkeys too easily here), gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing (delicious), butternut squash, mashed potatoes (nice and garlicky), rolls, and my own contribution of roast bell pepper tarts. The day before, I spent the whole afternoon working on my first real attempt at cooking here, but I managed to pull it off, spilling flour on the floor only a few times and baking everything in my little electric hotplate/oven combo. And, of course, for dessert, there was pumpkin pie, apple crumble and even some chocolate chip cookies. My, was I stuffed by the end!

The whole experience was quite positive and it was so nice to catch up with the other volunteers, as well as meet some new people. Tomorrow, I head off for phase 3 of the Peace Corps training, where all the volunteers in my program will get together and spend a week doing additional training and debriefing about our first two months at site.

Quick Update

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:26:00 +0000

Just a quick update on life here:

I had first communion at the Methodist church in my little village (a new experience for me). I always thought the transubstantiation was just a Catholic thing, but I guess not. It was the second time I have gone to the Methodist church here that my host mother attends (and is quite dedicated to, she signs and wears the uniform that essentially looks like a red and white sailor uniform). Upon arriving, I learned that the preacher from a nearby city comes once a quarter to give out communion. So he gave a sermon, which was translated to English by one of the other men in the church, simply for my benefit. And best of all, he interrupted the sermon halfway through, just to chat with me, ask where I am from, what I am doing here and how I like Mathabatha. At the end of the sermon, we went forward and were given tiny little shot glasses with the blood of Jesus (it tastes surprisingly like red grapetizer, a sparkling grape juice that is quite popular here, very delicious) and a little cracker (tasted like cardboard, kind of a let down). But luckily we were given seconds on the blood, because there were more shot glasses than people at church that day. And to top the day off, there was a meal afterwards, and one of the church leaders told me to stay for, even though it was just the church leaders eating.
Three nights ago, I found out that my room, in addition to millipedes, has centipedes. Or at least it had one, until I promptly removed it from the premises.
For the holidays, I am planning a trip down to Durban. I am going to spend Christmas on the beach, in the summer. Crazy! But it will be nice to meet up with a lot of the other Peace Corps volunteers.

Hope everyone is doing well and happy Thanksgiving (in two days)!

A Disconnect between Understanding and Action

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:35:00 +0000

Thursday and Friday of this last week, I attended a workshop to SAQA accreditation. In brief, SAQA is an organization that has defined educational standards for certification; and my organization is interested in getting its training program accredited, so that the home-based caregivers we train actually receive certification. The workshop confirmed for me one of the overarching challenges hampering development in South Africa. For this particular workshop, we were working on writing policies and procedures necessary to achieve accreditation (for example, assessment and moderation policies, to ensure that testing is fair). For part of the day, we broke into smaller groups in order to draft sample policies for our own organizations, based on provided samples.

The big challenge that we continually ran into was a disconnect between the policy and procedure we were writing and the reality of the individual organizations. The people at the workshop could easily take the sample policies and procedures and rephrase them, but people seemed to not understand that these policies needed to reflect how their organization would actually function. If the sample procedure (which was from a large corporation) had six different departments involved in the process, then the newly written procedure would also reference six different departments. And when you ask the person, they will readily acknowledge that five of the six departments do not exist at their organization. Then pressing further, asking why they then included them in their procedure, they will answer that it was in the sample.

This sort of thought disconnect occurs often here. The most notable example is with HIV and AIDS. Talking to the average person, they will acknowledge that HIV is a huge problem and the majority of people know most of the basic facts of the disease, including how it is spread (there is definitely some misinformation and myth, but I was surprised by how many people knew the basic information about HIV). Even further, people will talk about how risk behavior and multiple sexual partners are contributing to the spread of the disease and that such behavior is a fundamental part of the spread of the disease. So then after such positive initial conversation with a person, I might ask him, “And what about you, do you use a condom? Or do you sleep around even though you are married?” And then contrary to the whole conversation, they will say “no, I don’t use a condom”, or “yes, I cheat on my wife” (maybe not as direct as that, but you get the idea). People have the knowledge and understanding about HIV and AIDS, but that information does not influence their behavior.

Numerous other examples of this disconnect between understanding and action exist. Another one worthy of mention is religion. The vast majority of people in South Africa are religious, especially in the rural areas (in fact, stating that you do not believe in god can result in exclusion, such as not getting a job). The majority of the religions are Christian based. And each person will talk about the important of Christian values, of dedication to your wife, of abstaining until marriage, etc. Yet, the statistics on multiple sexual partners, premarital sex and other similar behavior is staggering. One specific church (ZCC: Zion Christian Church), which is based in the Limpopo province and has a huge number of followers in the rural area, bans alcohol. Yet again, we find that the majority of the ZCC members still drink, although they will explain that it is not allowed.

The important thing about all these examples is that: 1) people understand the situation and have basic knowledge about what they should or should not do; 2) the behavior of people is contrary to that knowledge; and, most importantly, 3) people do not connect their own behavior with their understanding, they won’t even understand that they are doing something contrary to their thinking. This disconnect results from a series of different things, but I will address that in a later blog post.

Weekend Party

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Perkins) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:14:00 +0000

Just the other day, I was thinking how difficult it is to fully communicate the subtle difference between cultures. Most of my experiences here could easily be described in a few sentences, but I have come to understand that unless you have been here and experienced things first hand, those few sentences will only conjure up very familiar images. So I figured I would write about another one of my weekend adventures to capture that…

In a few sentences: “Yesterday, after a relaxed morning cleaning my room and playing with Beapo (the five year old grandson of my host mother), my host mom invited me to attend a birthday party nearby – someone was turning 21. I went and sat around meeting people, eating and eventually dancing (the dance steps were new, so I had to be shown). After that, one of the people I met at the party took me to see traditional beer being brewed, and from there we went to another house where I took place in a heated debate about international politics (not really participated, more sat on the side).”

Now, to really illustrate how those few sentences don’t really do justice to my experience, I will retell the day adding more detail:

“Yesterday, I woke up and decided that my room was in desperate need of cleaning. I borrowed the broom from inside the house, and began sweeping the mounds of dust that collect here, since there are wholes in the ceiling and the door has to always be open, otherwise the heat will kill me. From the time I woke up at seven, there was ‘house music’ blasting at the neighbour’s house (they were preparing for a party). Basically, house music is very electronic music that extremely repetitive. There are a handful of decent songs, but most (in my opinion) doesn’t really warrant listening too once. But, as is quite common here, songs got repeated again and again. Beapo came over and demonstrated his dancing ability by humping the wall outside my room. We then played around, and he taught me a few words in Sepedi.

In the early afternoon, my host mom headed over to the party to help prepare and said she would get me when it started. So I sat around reading Angela’s Ashes (amazing, by the way) until three when I got a one-word call from her saying “Come.” You have to understand that almost all cell phones here are pay as you go, so people are very careful with their airtime.

So I wandered over to the party. As is common here, my presence attracts a lot of attention. This happens for a number of reasons: 1) I am white and probably the only white person in the village at the time (there is a volunteer from Denmark here, but he was away for the weekend and will only be around until December); 2) I am from the United States of America; and 3) I can greet in the local language (and say a few other assorted, but mostly useless sentences). Wandering into the party, everyone stares and wants to greet me.

But to set the situation a little more, I should describe how parties work here. The vast majority of parties are for funerals, tomb stone unveilings and weddings (birthdays are rarely celebrated). It always takes place outside (often with a rented tent) and there is music, lots of sitting around talking and usually some dancing. Most of the men get very, very drunk. Some of the women also get very, very drunk (especially the older ones), but you won’t see them actually drinking from a bottle, because its frowned upon. For food, the host family usually slaughters an animal (probably a cow, depending on the number of people expected) the day before, cut it up and cook everything, so little is wasted. (Luckily, I haven’t seen the full slaughtering, but one day I walked past a recently slaughtered cow, which was being skinned…not pretty). And with all events here, there is a programme (to use the British spelling), a programme director, etc. It strikes me as oddly formal for a birthday party, but so goes. The programme always begins and ends with prayer, and for a birthday party, involves family members and friends and eventually the birthday boy saying a few words.

So upon my arrival, my host mom came and found me and ushered me over to a group of seats under a tree. This turned out to be where the older, important men of the community would sit, talk, drink and smoke (not just tobacco, I don’t think). I felt honoured. The man sitting next to me, who was nicely sober (due to his religion) and happened to teach math and science at a private school, so he spoke excellent English and talked to me about the political situation here. Three of his fives kids were also at the party, the youngest of whom was seven years old and was learning her fourth language.

A plate was brought out for me with porridge (or pap or bogobe depending on your language choice) and intestines of some sort (I think from a cow). There was a third animal part on the plate, but I stayed away from it. Simply said, the intestines are disgusting. The flavour isn’t that bad, but the texture makes me gag (luckily no one was watching the first time, then I figured out to take very small bites and avoid chewing). Worst of all, it felt like my mouth was coated with dirt after eating them. But this time around, they didn’t bother my stomach at all, which surprised me.

After sitting around with the men for a while (and having to put up with some of the drunker ones communicate in a bizarre combination of English Afrikaans and Sepedi, which even the others didn’t really understand), the part of the programme began. The local priest came and read a few sections from the bible. Then everyone started dancing, so I joined in. One woman dragged me into the middle and showed me the general step. Luckily, a man named Blessing/Charles/Hlabirwa (people have many names here) took over teaching me, as he actually used words instead of just pulling me around. Charles represents the general welcoming spirit that you generally meet here. He and I spoke for a long time, and he talked about how neat it was that I was living here and learning a new culture. He then purposed to take me to where the traditional beer was being brewed, so we walked along very rocky roads (more like trails) in the pitch black to a house a little ways away. We arrived at a small room where two women force a mixture of malt, maize and water that has fermented through a bag to separate the beer from the other ingredients.

Overall, I have decided not to drink here, as even having one drink can be result in being labelled an alcoholic, especially in the rural community where word travels very quickly. So all I had at the party was soda (or ‘cold drink’ as its called here). I was somewhat interested in just tasting the beer, but since Charles had explained to everyone that I don’t drink, I figured I wouldn’t confused the matter and stick to soda.

From there, I continued with Charles to a house that seconds as a little shop selling beer and cigarettes. Again, I was greeted by a number of people and here we began discussing international politics. A heated debate broke out after one man, Source, said that the United States was a member of the European Union. It took about twenty minutes for the other two guys to explain that no, not all countries belong to either the African Union or the European Union. I decided to not say much for the part of the conversation. But then we proceeded to talk about some real issues, such as colonialism, identity and power in the world.

At this point, I was feeling worn out and a little tired of drunken people rambling, so I decided to lead. Charles nicely walked me home, as it was dark and is supposedly not safe to walk alone at night (my supervisor at work said ‘a drunk man may ask you for money, and then if you don’t give him some, he will hit you with a rock’). Upon returning home, I found that my host mother was already in bed, but she had left a plate with lots of food out for me, because she figured I wouldn’t have eaten recently.

Climbing into bed, I was able to hear the music blasting at the party all through the night. Not the best night of sleep. But it was quite a fun day, such wonderful experiences and such neat people!”

Hopefully this will provide another little glimpse into life here. At some point, I want to begin talking about the larger political situation and the effects of HIV/AIDS here, but I figure for the first few posts, I should more just communicate some of my day to day experiences.