6/27/11
Long Days
So, yesterday, we got up to go to church. It started at 10:30am. When we got there, we were escorted to the front to reserved seats with water bottles for all of us. The music was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything that anyone was saying and my ears were hurting! There were people dancing in the front, and everyone else was dancing at their seats. People had whistles, the horns from the world cup, and were doing what sounded like a tribal call throughout all the songs. There was only one song in English – the rest were in Venda. The service had several, what I call “alter calls.” It was so much different from anything I had ever experienced. During the sermon, the pastor switched between English and Venda, so there was a translator. During one of the songs, our group joined in on the dancing. It was a line dance very similar to the Electric Slide, and the members of the church really enjoyed us joining in with them. After the service, which ended at 2:30pm, the pastor invited all of us to his house for lunch. Khutulani came with us – it was his church we were visiting. At the pastor’s house, we were escorted to a really nice room with big, fancy couches and a huge TV. One lady came around and washed our hands, and then another came around and brought us plates that were almost overflowing with delicious food. After we ate, we all sat around chatting with the pastor. He wants us to come back this Saturday for a bry (what we would call a BBQ) for the entire group. The people here are so nice and they will all go out of their way to help.
Yesterday I also experienced being called a “mukhuwa” (white person) for the first time. A few of the boys at the pastor’s house all wanted pictures with the mukhuwa girls.
Last night the entire group had dinner together. Each chalet was assigned something to cook, and then we all came together to eat and fellowship. Erin and I made pasta and rolls. We also had mini hamburgers, chakalaka, pap, and much more. We all had a really good time. The only thing missing from the night was a s’more.
Today was a long day as well. We went to Univen for a joint orientation. It was SUCH a long day. We had presentations to listen to, presentations to give ourselves, among other things. There were no Univen students on our project yet, so it is supposed to get worked out by tomorrow. Tomorrow, we are leaving at 5:50am to meet the chiefs of the villages.
6/28/2011
“It feels good to be a gangster”
We woke up before the crack of dawn this morning to make it to the villages to meet the chiefs. On the way there, we were fortunate enough to see the sun begin to peek over the mountains. So beautiful. We met Chief Lucas of Tshivbumo first. We had been instructed on all the protocols to follow when meeting a Venda chief, such as: not looking him in the eyes, don’t speak unless spoken to, women must lie on their left side with their arms covering their faces, etc… However, when we arrived, the chief was placing chairs in a circle under a tree. Since he was doing it himself, we were told that he would be much more informal than what we had learned about. Prof. Loius told him about the projects and we all got to introduce ourselves. He was very friendly and gave us fruit to take with us. Then we went to Tshapasha to meet the chief. It was much more tense there. The chief sat much farther from us and we sat on existing benches arranged under a tree. The slow sand filter is on his property, and there was obviously some tension. Despite all the “politics,” meeting the chiefs was definitely an experience I won’t soon forget. When we got back, we did some work with the reagents for all the water tests for the summer, as well as work on the water storage containers that everyone in the study will receive. Then I worked on my personal statement!!! I’m finally getting somewhere! Erin and I made stir-fry for Diana, Miki, and (the other) Rachel – our neighbors. Despite all the problems we encountered (the veggies being a frozen clump and trying to de-bone chicken thighs), it was a success!
I ended the night with a lovely fireside jam with Diana, Miki, Rachel, Ryan, Sid, Locke, Jimmy, Khut, and Dan. If the days continue like this – work in the day and fellowship in the evenings, this summer will fly by. It already has. One week down – 5.5 to go.
6/29/11
Glue and Buckets and Faucets…Oh my!
Today started off pretty early with trying to finish the water containers. When our Univen students didn’t show up, Jon gave me 3 papers to read about an experiment we may be doing later this summer. Definitely not light reading. A few hours later, we went back to the buckets. I drilled all the holes since I didn’t have enough arm strength to insert the faucets. After lunch, Elly and Kwhatiso got here to help. We did as many buckets as we could until we ran out of glue. Then the 3 of us sat around waiting for Jon to return with more glue. I learned so much about the 2 of them. They can speak at least 4 languages fluently. It’s important because South Africa has 11 official languages. I’m pretty sure they love science as much as I do, so I know we’ll get along just fine. Tomorrow, we’re going to Univen to meet 3 other students that we’ll be working with. There are so many behind-the-scenes things that happen around here, and it’s a little stressful since the group leader, Jon, is also the on-sight coordinator, I don’t know when we’ll ever get any work done.
Grocery shopping is definitely an experience. Nothing seems to be in the right place at Shoprite, and the groceries are split up by a random section of other things in the center of the store. The store is always so loud too. When you leave, guards check the receipt to make sure you haven’t stolen anything.
We made mac & cheese for dinner today, which made me really happy. I do miss velveeta though…
6/30/11
Flying Monkeys
The day started early with Elly and Kwhatiso coming over to help finish the buckets. While we were working, I hear our neighbors (Rachel, Miki, and Diana) squealing with delight. They had finally arrived – the monkeys. We had been told from the start about the “famous” monkeys that inhabit Acacia Park, but since we had not seen them, they clearly didn’t exist. That was definitely resolved today. I joined Rachel, Miki, and Diana on the hunt, as we followed them around taking at least 100 pictures each. They were just so darn cute! After going on our mini safari, I got back to work. Then the monkeys moved in. They opened all the trashcan lids and rummaged through EVERYTHING. The novelty had already worn off. The exact moment was when other monkeys were distracting us, one smart little guy waltzed right in to the ceramic filter team’s chalet. The monkey literally took Theresa’s sandwich off the table and left. After warding off the monkeys for what seemed like forever, it was finally lunchtime. And lunchtime brought about another realization – the effect of Colonialism. Jon picked up meat pies for lunch from a place called “London Pie Co.” America must have really been a rebel because we don’t do ANYTHING the English way.
After lunch, we met with 3 other Univen students that will be working with us this summer…er, winter. Rosie, Patrick, and Kimie. They’re all nursing majors. We went over the project and survey, and tried to finalize some things. Since then, I’ve been adding water to sterilized bags for our first day in the field tomorrow! I’m so excited to go into the villages and meet the people.
I keep forgetting to mention another strange event that happens at sundown every night. There is a mosque not far from Acacia, and you can hear the prayer call from our chalet.
7/1/11
In the field…
Today we started the real work. Last night, I filled sterile bags with boiled water for our sampling today. We left Acacia Park at 8 this morning to pick up the nursing students at Univen. We then traveled to Tshapasha to begin our work. We all started at the chief’s house to check in. Then, as the slow sand filter team went to work, the ABM team took off on foot to find our first 5 households. We went as one big group so everyone could get the hang of what we were doing. It was really interesting to see how people live in the villages. Collecting the water samples was very eye opening as well. When we swirled our sterile water in their drinking water storage containers, then poured it back into the bag, there was so much crap floating around. And people still don’t see a point to boiling their water before drinking it.
After we sampled the 5 households, we went back to the chief’s house to eat our packed lunch. The best part about lunch was seeing all the locals eating the very American lunch of PB&J sandwiches. They never eat things like that for lunch, so it was neat to see them adapting to a little bit of American culture. Next, we made some contacts about more households that have children under 5 for our study. To do this, we talked to women who work at the “crèche” – which is pretty much pre-school. Then it was off to Univen to work in the lab.
The first person to greet us in the lab was Dr. Samie. He’s pretty awesome. He’s originally from Cameroon, where he studied biochemistry for his undergraduate and masters work. He seemed really nice and I think he’ll be a lot of fun to work with. Mary, a Univen student, helped us in the lab. We ran 20 membrane filtrations before we packed up and called it quits.
We decided instead of boiling the water for tomorrow, we would pick up bottled water to save time. On the way back to Acacia, we stopped at Galito’s – a chicken place similar to Boston Market. After dinner was eaten and emails were sent, I started filling bags again. 60 bags later, and 16 hours after beginning the day, I can definitely say it is time for bed.
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