Winter Break and Kruger

There was a 3-week break between the second and third term of the school year.  Some fellow PCVs and I took advantage of the time off to do some traveling.

First we went to Polokwane where we stayed at the Polokwane Game Reserve.  This is the largest municipally-owned game reserve in South Africa. There are reasonably priced accommodations on the park grounds.  Also, since there are no large predators in the park, you can walk, run, ride a bike or drive through it.  Such a nice place.

Then we headed off to the Blyde River Dam and Kruger National Park areas. Kruger is amazing but you cannot get out of your car except in designated areas. It is such a large park you could spend days exploring it and, since we were driving faster than a crawl, I am sure we missed a lot. But we saw so many animals it became common-place to see a giraffe, a herd of elephants or springbok.

Our first day in Kruger we sat and watched one herd of elephants for quite some time and got to see an elephant warning the herd when a fast car approached. So we knew what was happening the next day when we came across a herd of elephants crossing the road. You can see in the picture below one elephant stood guard, watched us, sounded a warning and looked at us menacingly. It was the first time I was actually a little scared. An interesting fact: the older a giraffe is the darker is it's coloring.

Thank You

Hello Friends and Family, 

Thanks to you our Books for Peace Project has been fully funded! Now the books can be shipped, distributed and utilized in over 30 new community libraries. Thanks to you numerous rural community members will have access to educational and pleasure reading materials that will enrich their lives.

Thank you so very much for your support!  I will try to keep you updated - though probably not in a timely fashion.  Internet access at my new site does not allow for posting to this website and must wait until my computer and I am able to spend some time in a less rural area.  So please be aware of the reason for such long times between posts.

Hello Friends and Family, 

As you know, my site is the small rural village of Leokaneng 65 KM outside of Polokwane in Limpopo Province. Leokaneng is like numerous small, rural, impoverished villages in South Africa. It has very little in the form of educational resources. I volunteer at Leokaneng Primary School and have been asked by the principal to help with a library so the learners and community members can have access to reading materials for learning and pleasure. 

Also Legacy Giving After-Care and Mentoring Center, a volunteer organization in Tshaulu Village started by a very motivated South African, helps learners with their homework and other after-school educational activities. It too is in need of books. 

I have not seen a public library anywhere in South Africa and books here are very expensive. It is incredible to see how motivated the learners are to learn and how hungry everyone is for reading materials.  Last week I asked the first grade teacher if she had ever heard of Dr. Seuss and she had not. I showed her a “Green Eggs and Ham” book and she was thrilled and was sure the children would be also. 

Another volunteer discovered an American organization willing to donate 22,000+ library books all over the country to villages deeply interested in establishing libraries. The result is “Books for Peace”, a project that brings together 24 volunteers to create libraries in 30 impoverished communities across South Africa. 

Now we are working to raise the funds needed to ship those books to South Africa to help the people in these communities with their library projects. I could really use your support. I need to raise $333 per library for a total of $666 to pay the shipping costs for 1400 books (700 per library). If 26 people are willing to donate $26 each, I’ll have exceeded my personal goal. But any amount – even $5 – will make a difference and be really appreciated. 

Donations go directly to putting books into the hands of schoolchildren, and they’re even tax-deductible. We can only make this happen with your help! You can donate or learn more on our project website: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projdetail&projdesc=674-072 

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions and to share this project with your friends and contacts. 

Thank you for your help, 

Joni

New Site - New Address

Hello Everyone -  Things happen and they sure happened at my Venda site. Now I have a new site, school, village about 65km northwest of Polokwane so I am still in Limpopo. It is flatter and drier here and I have to learn a new language - Sepedi also known as Northern Sotho.

Many people in the village have lots of fruit trees in their yards as well as vegetables. At my home they grow oranges, mangoes, avocados, grapes, peaches, bananas and much more.  A neighbor grows pomegranate - yum.  And another grows lemons and pink grapefruit.  The oranges and grapefruits are seedless - a pleasant surprise.

Here is my new address:
Leokaneng Primary School
PO Box 962
0702 South Africa

Since it is so dry here, the picture on the left is an example of planting vegetables.   The ground is dug up and smoothed out so a dam of sorts is made around the planted area.  Then the planted area is watered daily.  Who knew that cassette tape would be good for keeping lizards from eating small seedlings.   The same type of depression/dam is created around the trees.

Cassette taping seedlings	Sugarcane & orange tree	Small but fruitful orange tree

One day a neighbor was riding by on his bicycle and saw a snake somewhere around our wood pile. I have not met a black South African who is not afraid of snakes and dislikes them very much. The Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer did a presentation on snakes and actually brought some of his pet snakes to the presentation and allowed us to take pictures with the snakes wrapped around our necks and bodies. They were very big snakes but perfectly harmless. I did not know to bring my camera that day so do not have a picture of myself with the snakes. And so I digress.

The whole neighborhood came out to catch the poor snake. I was rooting for it to get away but everyone moved piles of wood searching for it. When they found it they poured boiling water on the wood pile where it was. The poor snake did not have a chance. To be sure there are poisonous snakes in South Africa but all snakes are hunted and killed with the greatest zeal no matter if they are poisonous or not.

Boiling water on wood pile	Some of the snake hunters	Made sure it was dead

Big Guns

One Saturday I went to the tar road to catch the bus to Thohoyandou to do some shopping. While I was waiting for the bus I noticed the SA Police going past the bus stop more than normal and they had their lights flashing, but no sirens. Strange. Their lights are just small white ones that flash.

After getting on the bus, it stopped in the middle of the road in the next town and people began talking and standing up and looking to the side. I also looked and saw a white vehicle with a man getting out carrying a handgun with a very large barrel. A police car had stopped directly in front of the bus going in the opposite direction, another car was on the side and I think there was at least one or two others but do not know because I saw the man with the handgun and another with a rifle coming towards the bus. It was pretty unsettling because everyone on the bus spoke mostly Tshivenda. I did get one woman to tell me in English that they were looking for someone but she said she didn't know anything else. After searching the bus, the police left, put their guns in their cars and we drove off. We drove on picking up people and I wondered if a person who committed a crime would actually use the slowest form of transportation in the area as their get away vehicle.

These buses are not normal size - they are two buses joined together and they have an area that rotates in the middle for going around curves. The bus is really slow because it can hold a lot of people so it stops a lot along the way. It can take up to 2 hours to travel the 54 KM to town. And most of the time the seats end up filled up very early in the trip and the isle becomes crammed full of people. They will put as many people on the bus as they can get. Someone said as long as there is an empty lap, another person can get on the bus or taxi.

I met a friend in town who started up an after-school program for the children in two rural villages south of the next town over, Tshaulu. We rode the bus home together and he found out that the police were looking for 3 men. He is very interested because the bus was stopped in his town but he has not found out anything else.

I do not know if there is any correlation, but the following week someone entered my room while I was in the outhouse and stole money, a wind-up flashlight and my multitool. Made me realize this area is not as safe as I thought.

Snail

I have previously only seen cartoon pictures of this size of snail.  But a few days ago some girls saw me outside.  They came to our gate and one of them handed me a really large perfectly form shell. We do have a river someways from the house, but the ocean is quite far and this shell did not look like it had weathered, had no chips and was really nice along the edges.

I thanked the girls very much and notice that it looked like it was full of wet sand.  So I put it in the garden to let the sand dry and forgot about it.  A couple of days later I went outside early in the morning to brush my teeth and I saw this very large snail wearing what looked like my shell.  I went to the garden and the shell was gone and I was very glad that I had taken it to the garden and did not bring it directly into my room.  I continued to periodically check on the snail while I was getting ready for school.  For some unknown reason it decided to crawl up the outside wall of my house.  There isn't anything up there but a metal roof and I would think that it would be unpleasant for it to crawl along, if it could crawl along, the overhang and get on to the roof - but it was definitely feasible as it had climbed all the way up the outside wall of my house.

I wished I could have stayed longer to see what it did next, but I had to go to school and have not seen it since.

December 2011

Christmas in my village is about family. December is the time people come home who otherwise stay elsewhere for work. My shopping town, Thohoyandou, is extra crowded with the influx of people to the surrounding areas. The school year ended in early December and school is closed until mid January when a new school year begins. This is my first Christmas & New Years away from home - only one more to go.

Did not want to be alone and decided to go to a Coffee Bay on the Indian Ocean where a couple of other PCVs from our group were going. During in-service training, at the beginning of December, I did not book my bus and when I went to town the Monday before leaving I found all buses from Pretoria were fully booked until Christmas Day. It was an overnight bus that brought me to Umthatha (aka Mthatha) and then I kept asking about transport until I finally figured out how to get to Coffee Bay. My friends came from Northern Cape with a rented a car and it took them 1 1/2 hours to get to the Coffee Shack Backpackers in Coffee Bay so it was not too bad my getting there about 4 hours after arriving in Umthatha considering we had to wait for a taxi to fill up before it would head out.

Needless to say I did not sleep well on the bus and was pretty tired upon arrival. Very disapointed the internet access could only be accomplished on their computers for 10 Rand per 15 minutes - no Skyping family & friends. And my first night at Coffee Shack there was very loud music until the wee hours of the morning. Almost left, but decided to give it one more night and I am very glad I did. Many of the young people left and a more mellow crowd moved in. I met some very nice PCVs from another group and also met a man who works for the UN who does IT development. Who would have thought that on vacation I would have made such a valuable contact. There are also many very nice things about the place. The white sand beach is amazing.

Coffee Bay Beach

Flying Kites at Coffee Bay Beach

Hiking trails. Free coffee. Beautiful weaver birds that hang upside down on their nests and weave pieces of thatch and dried grass into them. The nests are enclosed with small openings for the bird to enter. They construct their nests high in the trees starting with a small ring they attach to a branch.

Weaver birds

More weaver birds

This local man is a drummer and drum maker. He also gives classes in drum making. He is repairing the top of a drum using a new piece of goat skin.

Replacing drum top using goat skin, string, wood and hoops

My respect for Coffee Shack Backpackers grew as I learn more about the place.  Coffee Shack is environmentally friendly and conscientious. They plant only indigenous plants, recycle and do many things to help the villagers of this remote community. Belinda, who runs Coffee Shack, says they are open all year and visiting is an even better experience in the winter because it does not rain, the warm Indian Ocean moderates the temperature so it is usually between 15 and 20 centigrade day and night and the area is less crowded than during summer break.