This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land

South Africa State of Mind

I am not speechless; rather, I feel I lack the capacity to articulate all of my thoughts and feelings about my experience here. South Africa has given me a knot in my chest. It swells and rises to my throat and spreads to my tear ducts when I hear that some children are only fed once a day through their school feeding scheme or that the concept of higher education as a form of advancement is more of an ideology than a practical option. The knot also grows almost to the degree of bursting when I look at the amazing landscape, think of the perseverance of the people and the potential for change. For better or for worse, South Africa has made its mark on me.

As the work situation remains at a standstill, I have been questioning my purpose here. Community integration has been nil, withs the exception of my self-initiated efforts to interview people for my Peace Corps Community Needs Assessment. The isolation has been a great time for reflection, but has bordered on unhealthy. I have identified community needs (e.g. computer classes, educational support in schools) and problems (e.g. lack of capacitated organizations/institutions). However, I am at a loss to my role in facilitating change. Peace Corps emphasizes that as volunteers we are supposed to work with counterparts to develop ideas, programs, solutions and trainings in order to create buy-in, community support and sustainability. Since I am not linked to the community I find this difficult to achieve.

The Wheels Go Round and Round

I have caught onto a variety of social, political and cultural issues in South Africa, but I was reluctant to write about them until I had more information. This is only a small start and I will post more about these issues in the future.

Agricultural Land Reform
This is a topic I will easily get in over my head talking about. I have a book on hold for me at the library so I can gain a better understanding of this issue. A quick summary: After the end of apartheid a lot of Afrikaner farms were purchased by the government and redistributed to black South Africans. This explains the drastic change in the demographics of my village. Land reform is a sensitive issue related to race and economics. In my village there used to be very large-scale and successfully Afrikaner-owned farms. According to one community member I spoke with, since the land reform (the government purchased 25 farms) farm production has dropped significantly and unemployment has risen 50%. The farms used to employ 300 people with 10,000 seasonal workers. General problems I have heard are that many new owners sold off farm machine parts for money thereby inhibiting long-term economic capacity and it is unclear what kind of working knowledge new owners had about running large farms.

Education
I met with the principal of the primary school near my home and he was quite helpful in giving me a picture of his school, as well as the education system in general. Public schools have school fees for each student, but some schools due to the income of their student population qualify as no fee schools. This grade school is one such school and it has 399 students and 13 teachers. The school has a feeding scheme as part of the National School Nutrition for Basic Health of Learners. It is served at 10:00am everyday and is in some cases is the most substantial meal of the day for students. The student to teacher ratio is dismal compared to U.S. expectations. The national standard is 1:38, but it is not strongly enforced and cannot be implemented when the hiring process and funding for teachers is slow. At best, the school I visited has a 1:39 ratio for grade two and at worst, kindergarten has a ratio of 1:62.

Unemployment
According to Statistics South Africa, unemployment is at 24%. Most of the social problems I have heard about stem from or are intrinsically linked to this. For instance, education is hard to obtain when your family has to choose between food and school fees. Also, many parents in my village did not go to or did not finish high school; therefore there is a cycle not promoting education as a form of advancement. I have heard from many people that it is difficult to encourage children to continue with school when they know they will work on a farm instead of going to university. Lack of unemployment also ties into drinking. In villages, it is difficult to find something constructive to do with your time if you are unemployed. In my village there are two liquor stores, one tavern and two shebeens.

Child Support Grants
According to www.sassa.gov.za:
• the primary care giver must be a South African citizen or permanent resident;
• both the applicant and the child must reside in South Africa;
• applicant must be the primary care giver of the child/ children concerned;
• the child/children must be under the age of 15 years;
• the applicant and spouse must meet the requirements of the means test;
• cannot apply for more than six non biological children;
• Child cannot be cared for in state institution.

It is unclear what a person’s income has to be to qualify for this grant. Unfortunately, I have heard from many sources (e.g. educators, caregivers) that teenage women often have multiple children and live off of the grants instead of working. In general, this is a problem with grants. Due to the lack of employment opportunities, sometimes it is more financially viable to live off of grants. I am still trying to find out how much the grants are per child.

The Role of Women
Village families that I have seen are more matriarchal, with a koko or gogo (grandmother) heading the family. Some men are absent because they are only able to find work in the big cities, but it unclear why the others are not present or held accountable. Even if women work, I think there is still a mentality that women are judged and identified by their family life. People here often assum I am younger than I am. Once I tell them how old I am, mainly men, have responded by asking me where my children and husband are. They are less concerned or surprised by the fact that I don’t have a husband, but that I don’t have children. Cue the line about how I am old and/or how I should find a South African husband. PC warned the female volunteers that we would be accosted with marriage proposals. I believed them at the time, but didn’t fully understand the persistence with which it would occur.

This weekend alone I was aggressively hit on by three men. It would have been fine in passing, but I spent a fair amount of time with each of them and it made me feel very uncomfortable. The first one was my hair dresser. He told everyone in the salon I was his future ex-wife and he asked me out. When I paid at the front desk I had to give my contact number (which I should have falsified) and he said he’d call me. Another man is distant co-worker I met at an event. At first I thought he was trying to connect with me regarding projects and then I thought he was trying to be my friend. Then it became apparent he wanted my number for personal reasons and he talked about coming to visit me. The third man was a driver and because the event was far away I spent almost four hours with him. I met his wife and he was still talking about marrying me. (Note: Polygamy is legal and practiced here.)When women get married a lobola has to be paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s. The amount varies, in the past it was paid via cattle, now it is affected by things such as, how educated the bride is or if she has children. I jokingly told him my lobola would very expensive and that he couldn’t afford me.

In all of these situations I think the men were joking more so than being serious. However, unlike in the U.S., I don’t know how to respond to that kind of unwanted attention, especially in cases when I know them in a work capacity. Despite my efforts to learn the phrase, “I have a boyfriend” in Sepedi, apparently, that is not a strong enough to deterrent against advances. I’ve been looking for awhile for a simple band to wear on my wedding finger. Obviously, I need to step up the search.
Recap

I hope this post gave you have a better idea of the challenges that impact my work and life. Some PC countries are labeled “posh corps,” because of their conveniences, ease of life, etc., and while Capetown, Pretoria and Durban are comparable to places in the U.S., there is still so much work to be done in the rural areas of South Africa. In today’s City Press, I read an article citing the national problem of thousands of people being without toilets (including pit latrines). One man quoted said he digs holes because waste management doesn’t come by his home. The article also delved into how the sanitation workers are not consistently provided with any protective gear. I’m trying to read a SA newspaper at least once a week to keep up with what’s going on. Right now, the big talk is surrounding elections on May 18th.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

New Digs

I moved into my spacious 200-300 sq ft studio last Tuesday. And I must say I’ve done wonders with the place. My kitchen consists of a small fridge/freezer and a table that holds my toaster oven/stove combo, French press, electric kettle and it also serves as a food prep area and dish washing station. Over my bed hangs my monstrosity of a mosquito net (frog green in color). I’ve already put up photos and magnets on my fridge and nightstand, taped up postcards from my adoring HoMH and hung up my Betty White calendar. My place only looks disheveled due to the lack of a wardrobe to place my clothes.

Also, for those of you worried about my safety (you know who you are), the welder came by and installed a burglar door and bars on the window. It’s pretty common to take these security precautions. I have been running to keep myself busy and relieve stress. PC says that being visible within your community is one of the best ways to stay safe. The theory is that once people know who you are they will have a greater investment in looking out for you.

The name of my village means: looking for each other. I have seen three areas of my village, but I suspect it is much larger. It is very different from the one I lived in for training. In my area there are no shebeens, livestock, homes with tin roofs or pit latrines, most people have cars and the dogs are domesticated. I have also discovered that there are black Afrikaner people living here. The village is now predominately black, but I know it wasn’t always that way. The high school is located several miles away on the other side of the highway. RDP houses (government projects) are found on that side with a mix of nicer homes. There is another cluster of RDP homes about a half mile behind where I live. My landlord took me to visit some of the people she used to prepare meals for and the conditions they are living in are deplorable. People are given housing, but there is no holistic approach to identifying their other needs (e.g. food, health care). Today I am going to the municipality to find out if I can go through town records or any other data sources to learn more about the village.

“Town” is two intersecting streets with:
-four bodega type markets
-gas station
-a hardware store
-post office
-taxi rank
-PEP Store (a chain that mainly sells clothes, air time, housewares)
-police station
-municipality office
-library (It has decent collection, a computer lab and it even has a book detector to prevent theft!)
-butcher (I can buy a chicken and have it personally dissected. Talk about farm fresh organic.)
-gas station
-small produce stands
*I may have missed a couple of stores, but I think my list is fairly exhaustive. In comparison to the descriptions of other PC Volunteers’ sites, mine is almost a bustling city.

My village feels a little more like a suburb, however when you drive out of town there is only land for miles upon miles. I am living in the back house of my landlord’s property. It’s a concrete structure with a tin roof. She also rents out five other rooms. In total I think there are 10 of us. Most of the women are students at the local nursing school. Even if I don’t interact with them very much, it’s nice to hear the hustle and bustle of other people and not feel so alone. We all share the bathroom and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I do not have use a pit latrine anymore! The bathroom has a flush toilet, sink and cold water shower (so I’ve been sticking with bucket baths.)

Flashback

Toward the end of training, we had a class discussion on child rearing. I told Jan that from my observations childhood in South Africa ends at a young age. I haven’t quite identified what age this is, but it is definitely before age 10. Babies are very coddled, but once children are old enough they start pitching in to help with chores (e.g. fetching water, caring for siblings, cleaning the house). It seems to be the reverse from American culture where children are often put above all and parents sometimes go without to make sure their children have what they value to be essentials. I shared with Jan the parable of a grandfather and his grandchild:

A grandfather tells the child to jump and promises to catch him/her. In one version of the story the grandfather doesn’t catch the child in order to illustrate that in life you cannot rely on anyone. In the other version, the grandfather catches the child and says that he will always be there for him/her.

I told Jan I thought the former story seems to apply to South Africa, while the latter applies to America. This was definitely what PC loves to call a “teaching moment.” As an American, I feel for children here. Their carefree youth seems short-lived and often times they don’t get the same affection and time that we are conditioned to believe are rights. Jan said parents don’t indulge their children because they want to prepare them for the hard times in life when they will have to go without things. For instance, in my former host family the children were always the last to eat in the family. I would serve myself a modest amount, but the largest portion would always go to the oldest brother who was the male head of the household. Sometimes I would see the two younger brothers and one of their friends sharing one plate of food equivalent to my portion. I am still trying to process the idea of when and how it is appropriate to teach children about the harsh realities of life. PC told us there will be times when we experience situations that go against our norms and values and it is not our job to change our minds or challenge others; rather, we must try to understand the mindset behind the perspective, belief or attitude.

Flash Forward

Unfortunately, my transition to site has not been easy. Work has been at a standstill. I attended the monthly community-based organizations (CBO) meeting and I introduced myself, explained my role and offered to assist any of the organizations (mainly spoken in Sepedi!). I gave out my number and hopefully I will receive some calls. In the meantime I am trying to work on my PC Community Needs Assessment and figuring out other ways that I can get involved with the community and/or organizations. It is a difficult task when I only have my landlord to assist me. This week I am planning to attend a CBO training session on Wednesday and a HIV, Tuberculosis, alcohol and drug abuse and teen pregnancy campaign event on Saturday.

PC tried to prepare us for the “slow pace of life,” but perhaps I failed to internalize that lesson. After the long application process and training, you are under the illusion that once you go to site you will start to do things. It is frustrating to know what you have to offer, but not knowing where to start and/or convincing people of your capacity to help.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”~Nelson Mandela

p.s. For news on SA read: Mail & Guardian http://mg.co.za/
p.p.s. New term that I was introduced to: FOMO—fear of missing out.