Ngiyajabula ukukwazi! (Litteral translation: I am happy to know you)

First, more updates on Cato life:

• They have set up a large white tent down the street from where we live. And I mean a LARGE white tent, like the size of a circus tent. Because we are on the hill we have a very good view of it, and rather unfortunately at times, that also means we can very easily hear what is going on in the tent. Mama informed me that it is a new church! Which is wonderful except that I found out the hard way that it meets every night. Every single night. Which is nice at first because there is lots of singing and its very upbeat and soothing most of the time, but come 9:00 when I’m trying to get ready for bed it starts to get annoying. Then at about 9:30 when I’m actually trying to sleep, it becomes very annoying. It is an African church, meaning there is no set time, but I think I have discovered that it starts around 7:30 most nights and then ends anywhere between 9:30 and 10:00. I hear some epic preaching most of the time, but its in Zulu so unfortunately I never understand. I know it must be inspiring though because it is followed by thundering cheers and even screaming at some points. Mama enjoys it though. She says she likes it being there because she likes to hear all the singing. As long as Mama likes it I guess I wont complain.

• There are Muslims in Cato? I’ve been hearing this strange moaning on a daily basis for sometime now, but there are so many strange noises in Cato that I don’t really think much of them most of the time. The other night we were playing stones outside and smu goes “Oh God, the Muslims are praying again.” And sure enough it was that same moaning sound I had been trying to identify. Smu then proceeded to mimic the sound, which gave me a good laugh.

And now a brief overview of my week! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for 5 weeks. Crazy!

Tuesday 21 February:

            Tuesday was pretty uneventful. We went to school, had two lovely, excruciating lectures from Zed about ethics and such. We had Zulu. Then I went back to Cato and hung out with Smu. Nandi (Elise’s sister) came over and Smu asked if we were going to go to church to sing with Nandi and Elise, so I said sure! And we left the house. Obviously first we had to stop at Silence Foods to get some chips (french fries), and then we went to Nandi’s house to pick up Elise. As I suspected, Elise had no idea that we were going to church, but after some slight confusion, we both embraced the situation and set off to church! After a little bit of exploration, we ended up at someone’s house. Elise and I were officially confused at this point, but again we embraced the situation and went inside. There was some confusing talk in Zulu that we didn’t quite understand, but there was no one else there besides us and the Woman who lived in the house. We were invited to sit down in the living room, so we obliged at Smu and Nandi’s insistence. After a few awkward minutes Smu and Nandi said it was time to go. Now Elise and I were extremely confused, and Nandi and Smu refused to shed some light on the situation, we finally found out later that we were really early for church and that people weren’t coming for at least another 45 minutes, so we went home. From that point on it was a typical night. I ate dinner, talked to my brother and Smu, and went to bed around 9:30.

Wednesday 22 February:

            Wednesday we started off the day with Zulu. I’m a pretty tolerable person when it comes to teachers, but uBeverly actually infuriates me. Oh! So first of all we had a Zulu oral. I did mine with Stef, and she was an American and I was an African, and we had a conversation about where we come from, what we do, and what languages we speak. I got a 20/20! (Probably partially thanks to Smu’s coaching). After that we went to our tutorial groups, which I also have with Beverly. We have a project due on Monday where we have to sing and dance to two songs in Zulu. There are so many options, from traditional Zulu songs to hit pop songs, and even the Circle of Life! Our groups are our tutorial groups, which is wonderful expect for the fact that Bev is our ringleader. She refuses to let us sing the songs that we want and she insists on choreographing our dances for us. And if you have been reading my blog and seen the picture of her attempting to Zulu dance… that’s all you need to know. Anyways, I wont vent too much, but let me just say that it is all the more infuriating when you hear Thula’s group outside belting out the Circle of Life (which only like 8% of it is Zulu) and Zahara (a Zulu hit pop artist).

            Anyways, after school I went to the Pav to go to the ATM and get in some free internet time at Mug and Bean (well free is relative, because you have to buy something there to use the internet…). My mama had also been working so hard the past week. She had to go to the hospital to get her meds and also organize the whole party at her house this past weekend and clean up from it. She was so tired the Monday night she was falling asleep on the couch at 6. I had asked her the other week if she wanted me to make dinner at some point, and she said no just bring home KFC! So I told her not to make dinner on Wednesday, and I would bring home KFC. Her face instantly brightened and she proceeded to give me a bunch of instructions! So while at the Pav, I went to KFC and got a huge bucket with 21 pieces of chicken and some fries. Then I went to Pick n Pay and got some rolls, a 2 liter Coke, and a tub of ice cream!

            When I came home with the goods, Mama was so excited! She gave me a big hug and told me I did good. Haha. She made an elaborate set up and both of my brothers came home for dinner! All five of us had our KFC, salad, rolls, fries, and then ice cream for dessert! Mama even bought some bananas and cut them up in the ice cream! Afterwards we all had a slight stomach ache from all of the food that we had eaten, but the sky was so clear outside so you could see all sorts of stars.

            Smu was so amazed and fascinated, and Orion was visible from our back door. I pointed it out to Smu and explained what it was. She thought it was so cool and kept asking questions about the stars and the universe. We also saw mars! And I had to explain why it didn’t look like it was moving even though it was orbiting the sun. I also explained why sometimes we can’t see the sun. It involved a lot of animated discussion and acting out on my part, considering I was trying to teach her all of this in her second language. She did very well though and I could tell she was trying hard to understand everything and digest the information. Then somehow we got on the topic of the big bang theory, which she thought was great! Until she realized that it conflicts with religion. She promptly halted the conversation and asked, “Wait. Wait. So… you mean to tell me… God didn’t create the earth?” Which was a more difficult question to answer. Thank goodness Lungelo was there to help out and to translate difficult topics into Zulu for Smu to explain. After some more talk about God and the religion vs. science debate, we realized it was already past 10 and that Smu (not to mention me) should go to bed. I said goodnight to Lungelo, locked up, shut off all the lights, and passed out.

Thursday 23 February:

            Today was our last clinic day, which was both sad and exciting at the same time. I have grown fond of a lot of the nurses there, and everyone is so welcoming and helpful, but at the same time we do a lot of sitting around and I can’t help but feeling like I’m in the way and in general being utterly useless. 

The front of the lovely Cato Manor CHC/

  

 This week I was in the ARV clinic, where my job was very similar as it was in the other departments, except that I also would take every patients weight, and only some of their blood pressures. It was all too strangely normal for a while, until the kids and malnourished patients started coming in. It was weird to think that every single person I saw was HIV positive, and seeing all of the little kids was sad too. Some of them were so skinny and others had really bloated cheeks, so they almost looked like chipmunks. The ARV clinic gives out a lot of porridge and nutrient rich cereal and drinks. They seem to have a good system. They are pretty organized (at least compared to what some of the other students have said about their clinic experiences), and they have doctors and counselors there to see patients. Most of the time I was just sitting around, observing, but I learned a lot about the filing system, their charts, and how to enter patients into the log book to keep track of who has been there.

            After clinic I went to House of Curries with the other girls to get some lunch and hang out. I went home and spent some time with Mama and then went into my room to take a nap. Right as I was falling asleep she surprised me with another lunch! After I washed both of our dishes she instructed me to take a nap. Actually she said, “You must have a snap.” Which I first heard as “snack” and was so perplexed as to why she wanted me to eat even more food after I had already had two lunches, and then realized she meant I must go lie down and sleep. I went into my room and slept for over two hours. I heard Smu come home after school and debated getting up to spend time with her, but I was absolutely exhausted, so I went back to sleep. Finally, at 4 I managed to drag myself out of bed. Mainly because I had to go to the bathroom, but also because I wanted to be able to sleep that night.

            I woke up to my nap to find Smu doing her homework. She then proceeded to come into my room and I helped her with her similes and parts of speech. Katie and one of the neighborhood boys (Uwami? I’m not sure exactly what it is or how to spell it) came over and him and Smu tried to teach us how to dance. It was very comical as always. When we went back into the house, Mama had dinner ready for us, so we ate.

            After Smu wanted to go for a walk, so we stopped at the store (a shipping container converted into a small shop) to get some corn puffs before going to Katie’s house. The kids were all playing outside so I went inside to say hi to Katie. A few minutes later Seth came into the room panting and barely able to talk, saying something about playing a game with the other kids where they tied him up. Katie and I were curios so we went back outside with Seth and played with the kids. It was a strange game where a crowd of kids stand in the middle and two kids run around them with a rope and try to tie them all up. The kids in the middle have to try to escape, and the last person to get out of the rope loses and everyone gets to tie them up. It was slightly terrifying but also hilarious. Shortly after it started raining, so all the kids dispersed and went home. We all went inside (Me, Seth, Katie, Rato, Uwami, Smu, and Nolisa) and the kids proceeded to pretend to be Sangomas, or traditional healers, and they would use rocks and clothespins to tell our fortunes and speak to the ancestors. They also played all sorts of singing and clapping games with us where they obviously made fun of our white people dancing.

            Also, highlight of the day, was Uwami and Smu asked me what color my poop was since theirs is brown and their skin is brown. I told them that mine was pink, and sometimes blue and they were amazed. Katie told them that hers was always blue, and Seth said that his was orange, which made us all look at him strangely. Somehow we managed to keep it up and convince them that ours also smells good. So now Smu is insisting that I don’t flush the next time that I go number 2. I also taught her the saying T.M.I. which was very fitting for the conversation. Anyways, after generations we went back to our house, talked to Lungelo for a little while, and then went to bed. 

These little guys were hanging out across the street from the clinic. Typical.

Friday 24 February:

            This morning we were the early pick up group, so Thula came at 6:55 to bring us to school. Although its early its nice because I have a solid 45 minutes before class starts to finish typing up my blog post and check my e-mails and go on facebook. You know, the important things. Pretty typically there was some miscommunication and poor planning on Zeds part, but it ends up being fortunate, because uBeverly is teaching the other SIT program and won’t come in this morning! So we now have until 10:00 to catch up on some work, meaning I will be working on my mortar board application and avoiding working my assignment due Monday. Oh well.

 This is our last full weekend in Cato. I can’t believe its pretty much over at this point! It flew by that’s for sure, but I told Smu we would have lots of fun before I leave. I might even be going into her school on Monday!