Chelsea bun, nom nom
Hello! I’m sitting outside my room (just on the opposite side this time), with a cat and some chocolate Leanne just gave me because she doesn’t like it. The sun’s setting, and a load of honeybees are buzzing in and out of some flowers that look like enormous Morning Glory. I’m wearing my sandals, Harriet’s little blue shorts, and my Ummemo t-shirt, and I’m covered in paint and dirt.
It gets dark so quickly here; it’s getting dark just as I write this. What have we been up to? Might just make this one a steam of consciousness type thing, so I get as much down as I can before Internets tomorrow, and Tiffany wanting her netbook back after supper (which is at six - I’m looking forward to it, I’m starving. Woops, inappropriate). Linn just took a photo of me, because apparently I look cute. And another. She’s photo mad, that girl.
A couple of days ago....no, wait, yesterday. Monday. Anyway, Paul, our monosyllabic bus driver, turned up an hour late in the morning and we were being all impatient and annoyed. Turned out his younger brother had died that morning. Such a TIA moment. So often we’ll only be able to sum something up by turning to one another and saying “TIA” (This Is Africa). When cows are grazing next to the main road, when skulls are randomly decorating trees.
Oh dear, Tim’s playing the piano. That does terrible things to me. Thank goodness he’s blonde and years younger than me, otherwise the Oxford/piano-playing combo would leave me utterly defenseless.
So, yes. We were continuing to paint the new buildings at Two Sisters today; Patrick hasn’t been able to get any money from the government as of yet, because he’s been using what is technically his own house. Now he’s finally got money (I presume from the film he was in - To Catch A Fire - which you must all watch immediately), he’s been able to pay for another couple of buildings just down the road, which had bare walls when we arrived, so we’ve been painting them. A big map on one side, a landscape, animals, flowers, and vegetables over the area they’ve set aside for a little vegetable garden. It looks great, and it’s a lovely feeling to know for definite that we’re going to leave behind a visible mark of our time here.
It’s after supper now, and some people are visiting one of the women who works here as cleaners, and Tiffany, Tim, Lachlan and Karin are playing chess. Not sure where Susan is, she’s usually the one who organises any board games. I do like the people here. I’m going to miss them - only two and a half weeks left. Such a strange feeling. I’m looking forward to seeing Joe again, and telling everyone about my trip, and starting my Masters. But the idea of going back to Sheffield does make me feel strange. I generally don’t like the idea of Going Back, because each period of my life is usually better than the last, and I tend to dwell on the negative times. I’ve had some of the best moments of my life in Sheffield, and I’ve become the person I am there, but I’ve also had a lot of horrible times and horrible things happen. I feel so removed from that here. Going Backwards makes me feel a bit scared and claustrophobic. But I suppose I can decide to start a new page; this year will be as much a brand new chapter of my life as it would be if I moved somewhere else...and I’ve got all the advantages of staying put as well. I know Charlie feels a bit worried about going back to Sheffield, because that’s where she started her anxiety disorder. I could obviously understand that after Joe’s feelings last summer, so I just tried to get her to think of returning to a New Sheffield, and I’ll try to feel the same.
Relationships here have settled into certain patterns. Maria and Liz are still very much out of the group, but Liz less so recently, which is nice. Lachlan and Tim unsurprisingly get on well, and Charlie gets on well with Lachlan because they’re both sporty and competitive. Tim gets on well with Charlie because they’re both first years at Uni; the babies of the group - popular and up for going out, but with a serious streak too. I get on well with Lachlan because he’s fun and sarcastic and full of excellent facts - being around him reminds me of being around Luke quite a lot. Tim and I get on because he’s sweet and awesome and clever, and just geeky and awkward enough for him and I to bond in contrast to Charlie and Lachlan’s energetic sportiness. Charlie and I get on because she’s absolutely lovely, and fun, and cares about things (she doesn’t eat Nestle!), and brilliantly horny all the time. It’s a relief to have another girl around that I can mention masturbation to without fearing I’ll shock their delicate sensibilities. Together me, Charlie, Lachlan and Tim make a bit of a team, with me slightly at the sidelines (because I don’t go clubbing with them when they go, and I’m more likely to go off and have alone time) and Lachlan and Charlie as the driving force. They’re both natural leaders, and when we had our weekend here (ages ago, when the others went to Mozambique) and it was us plus the lovely Susan (and the PCs, Kate and Harriet (or Karriet, or Hate)), we had so much fun. During the Mid-Project Review we had to make ‘Happiness Charts’, roughly illustrating how happy we’ve been at certain times during the project, and I was glad that was generally acknowledged to be the best weekend we’ve had here. Followed by the post-Mozambique crash when the others arrived trailing a big falling out with Liz and Maria in their wake, but more about that another time.
So yes, I enjoy spending time with that group. Karin remains as My Person, the one I can always talk to, and who I can be silly and needy and affectionate and grumpy to, without her judging me. I woke her up this morning by tickling her. Susan has become yet more awesome, with the most amazing sense of humour, and she gets on well with Karin, so the three of us can hang around together oftentimes.
There are certain people I just know to avoid contact with, because I know they’ll disrupt my peace of mind. Kate always annoys me, as does Maria. Liz is delightful in short doses, but no more. Leanne aggravates me. Linn is charming, but something about her mannerisms and accent puts me on edge. Harriet is delightful, we just don’t have much rapport. Tiffany is always fantastic generally as a person.
One thing about the Return From Mozambique Group Dispute is that Maria and Liz were moved out of the room with Leanne and Tiffany (partially to help separate them, partially because Leanne was about to kill one of them), and Maria was put into my room with Kate. Read above to see why this didn’t leave me feeling fantastic. A number of other previous occurrences that day, combined with the fact that I was left in a room with two people I didn’t like just because I wasn’t a grotty cow like Leanne and hadn’t kicked up a fuss, left me feeling unfabulous.
...Hah, it’s now Thursday, and Tim’s still playing the piano, and it’s still doing terrible things to me, and we’ve once more returned from painting at Two Sisters. It was a wonderful evening; we finally finished the painting, and it looks wonderful. Patrick and the children are very happy with it. I did more playing with the children this time, as there was less painting to complete, so Lachlan and I organised some games with them. They were clearly thrilled to have us back again - they might enjoy the painting in the long term, but in the short term it has just meant we’ve rather been ignoring them. I also got to spend some more time with the little boy I originally met at Two Sisters, the one with the sores. He’s so much better now, and happier, and a better weight. I finally found out his name: Sylvester. Which is clearly hilarious. Although he’s probably named after his dead father, or something equally un-amusing.
But yes, listening to Summer Breeze et al on the bus ride home, with the sunset over Mpumalangan hills and Hazyview, dust on the breeze, paint on my hands, I felt very very happy. And then when we arrived home there were chips for supper! Excellent times.
Om nom, homework. I should probably say something about the place we’ve been working at.
Okay, now I’m in bed, and Maria’s talking on the phone. Which is annoying. I’m tired, I should probably HALT. HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired) has become quite a thing, as Lachlan finds it helpful too. Although the H has been expanded to include Hot (re the whole 'being in Africa' thing) and Horny (re the whole 'being away for two months' thing).
Hilariously, it's now after the weekend, and I'm online at the Mall in Nelspruit. Mama called me just as I was writing the above, and then I went to bed, then Tiff went away for the weekend and took her netbook with her. What can I say? It's very strange to think that we're only here for two more weeks. Well, less now. Not a particularly pleasant feeling; when I get back I have to deal with reality. Odd to work in a township in order to avoid reality, but I suppose I mean my own personal reality.
We were all set to continue working at the ORT centre until the end of Project, but just before we left today we heard that the strike's ending on Wednesday, apparently. So tomorrow might be our last day at ORT. Which feels very bizarre indeed - I'd only just resigned myself to staying there. It feels like such a long time since we were at the school, it's going to feel like returning to the past or something. Not to mention that everything will be all up in the air and manic because of the strike, and upcoming exams. I've no idea what we're going to do. It was a mess enough when we arrived prior to the strike.
It will also be sad to say goodbye to the people we've got to know at ORT (Oneness Revival Team - don't ask, I don't know. Basically it's a place to keep children occupied during the holidays, and it stepped in to help in the absence of school, working alongside Tenteleni). About 200 children have been turning up, of various ages, and we've been running different sessions with them every day: Sports, Arts and Culture, Life Skills and Reading/ICT. Guess which one I've been working with. I've so loved our Library team (me, Karin, Tim, Tiffany, a couple from Lekazi (the other Tenteleni group we've teamed up with) and some local ORT volunteers, notably Tnomhlahla (sp?) who's lovely. It's brilliantly geeky; we bitch about sport, and the other day when we realised some of the older kids had swiped pens and I pointed out that it was probably better than, eg, stealing knives, Karin said "Well, yes, but the pen is greater than the sword", and we all laughed far too much. I'm so going to miss Karin!
Swaziland was amazing, such a beautiful country. On the Saturday, Lukas (crazy, crazy PC from Lekazi) took a group of us on a 'long hike', which turned out to be climbing the second largest granite boulder in the world. As Tim pointed out "When someone says 'Try not to rely too much on your hands' it's NOT A HIKE!" Considering my terror of heights, I got up fairly high (about a quarter) before it all got too much and I started to lose it a bit. Luckily around the same time, Tim and a few of the others decided to return down, and Tim sang Tenacious D and Flight of the Conchords to keep me cheerful. It was very scary, but coming down with Tim was actually really fun, possibly because of all the andrenalin pumping. Tiffany, who has done loads of climbing, decided not to go up because she thought it was insane to do it without ropes. This should have been a sign. Crazy Lachlan and Lukas, along with Charlie, Katie and a couple more from Lekazi, got all the way to the top. The rest of us went and messed around in a river nearby, which was SO MUCH FUN. Like when we went to the Potholes in Mpumalanga. And we went out for a meal that night, where we swamped the restaurant and they spend hours getting the food to everyone; apart from the table with me, Lachlan, Tim and Susan, who got everything early. That was also great fun.
On Sunday, we went to loads of craft markets and bought souvenirs, and the Reed Festival, which was incredible. 16 000 topless virgins dancing for the King. Lachlan said "As a feminist-minded republican, you must be loving this". I tried to concentrate on the music. As I did yesterday, when I went to a church service in Pienaar with Harriet, Karin, Susan and Maria.
Oh dear, twenty minutes. I'd really better go, I need to buy painkillers and food for the week. I haven't even emailed Joe, or Luke back. Next time I'm online I'll be about to leave South Africa, that's insane. Wish me luck going back to the school! I'm aware I've written much too much about personal stuff here and not nearly enough about the work we're doing, but I'll try and find time to do so in the next week.
So much love! xxxxx
It gets dark so quickly here; it’s getting dark just as I write this. What have we been up to? Might just make this one a steam of consciousness type thing, so I get as much down as I can before Internets tomorrow, and Tiffany wanting her netbook back after supper (which is at six - I’m looking forward to it, I’m starving. Woops, inappropriate). Linn just took a photo of me, because apparently I look cute. And another. She’s photo mad, that girl.
A couple of days ago....no, wait, yesterday. Monday. Anyway, Paul, our monosyllabic bus driver, turned up an hour late in the morning and we were being all impatient and annoyed. Turned out his younger brother had died that morning. Such a TIA moment. So often we’ll only be able to sum something up by turning to one another and saying “TIA” (This Is Africa). When cows are grazing next to the main road, when skulls are randomly decorating trees.
Oh dear, Tim’s playing the piano. That does terrible things to me. Thank goodness he’s blonde and years younger than me, otherwise the Oxford/piano-playing combo would leave me utterly defenseless.
So, yes. We were continuing to paint the new buildings at Two Sisters today; Patrick hasn’t been able to get any money from the government as of yet, because he’s been using what is technically his own house. Now he’s finally got money (I presume from the film he was in - To Catch A Fire - which you must all watch immediately), he’s been able to pay for another couple of buildings just down the road, which had bare walls when we arrived, so we’ve been painting them. A big map on one side, a landscape, animals, flowers, and vegetables over the area they’ve set aside for a little vegetable garden. It looks great, and it’s a lovely feeling to know for definite that we’re going to leave behind a visible mark of our time here.
It’s after supper now, and some people are visiting one of the women who works here as cleaners, and Tiffany, Tim, Lachlan and Karin are playing chess. Not sure where Susan is, she’s usually the one who organises any board games. I do like the people here. I’m going to miss them - only two and a half weeks left. Such a strange feeling. I’m looking forward to seeing Joe again, and telling everyone about my trip, and starting my Masters. But the idea of going back to Sheffield does make me feel strange. I generally don’t like the idea of Going Back, because each period of my life is usually better than the last, and I tend to dwell on the negative times. I’ve had some of the best moments of my life in Sheffield, and I’ve become the person I am there, but I’ve also had a lot of horrible times and horrible things happen. I feel so removed from that here. Going Backwards makes me feel a bit scared and claustrophobic. But I suppose I can decide to start a new page; this year will be as much a brand new chapter of my life as it would be if I moved somewhere else...and I’ve got all the advantages of staying put as well. I know Charlie feels a bit worried about going back to Sheffield, because that’s where she started her anxiety disorder. I could obviously understand that after Joe’s feelings last summer, so I just tried to get her to think of returning to a New Sheffield, and I’ll try to feel the same.
Relationships here have settled into certain patterns. Maria and Liz are still very much out of the group, but Liz less so recently, which is nice. Lachlan and Tim unsurprisingly get on well, and Charlie gets on well with Lachlan because they’re both sporty and competitive. Tim gets on well with Charlie because they’re both first years at Uni; the babies of the group - popular and up for going out, but with a serious streak too. I get on well with Lachlan because he’s fun and sarcastic and full of excellent facts - being around him reminds me of being around Luke quite a lot. Tim and I get on because he’s sweet and awesome and clever, and just geeky and awkward enough for him and I to bond in contrast to Charlie and Lachlan’s energetic sportiness. Charlie and I get on because she’s absolutely lovely, and fun, and cares about things (she doesn’t eat Nestle!), and brilliantly horny all the time. It’s a relief to have another girl around that I can mention masturbation to without fearing I’ll shock their delicate sensibilities. Together me, Charlie, Lachlan and Tim make a bit of a team, with me slightly at the sidelines (because I don’t go clubbing with them when they go, and I’m more likely to go off and have alone time) and Lachlan and Charlie as the driving force. They’re both natural leaders, and when we had our weekend here (ages ago, when the others went to Mozambique) and it was us plus the lovely Susan (and the PCs, Kate and Harriet (or Karriet, or Hate)), we had so much fun. During the Mid-Project Review we had to make ‘Happiness Charts’, roughly illustrating how happy we’ve been at certain times during the project, and I was glad that was generally acknowledged to be the best weekend we’ve had here. Followed by the post-Mozambique crash when the others arrived trailing a big falling out with Liz and Maria in their wake, but more about that another time.
So yes, I enjoy spending time with that group. Karin remains as My Person, the one I can always talk to, and who I can be silly and needy and affectionate and grumpy to, without her judging me. I woke her up this morning by tickling her. Susan has become yet more awesome, with the most amazing sense of humour, and she gets on well with Karin, so the three of us can hang around together oftentimes.
There are certain people I just know to avoid contact with, because I know they’ll disrupt my peace of mind. Kate always annoys me, as does Maria. Liz is delightful in short doses, but no more. Leanne aggravates me. Linn is charming, but something about her mannerisms and accent puts me on edge. Harriet is delightful, we just don’t have much rapport. Tiffany is always fantastic generally as a person.
One thing about the Return From Mozambique Group Dispute is that Maria and Liz were moved out of the room with Leanne and Tiffany (partially to help separate them, partially because Leanne was about to kill one of them), and Maria was put into my room with Kate. Read above to see why this didn’t leave me feeling fantastic. A number of other previous occurrences that day, combined with the fact that I was left in a room with two people I didn’t like just because I wasn’t a grotty cow like Leanne and hadn’t kicked up a fuss, left me feeling unfabulous.
...Hah, it’s now Thursday, and Tim’s still playing the piano, and it’s still doing terrible things to me, and we’ve once more returned from painting at Two Sisters. It was a wonderful evening; we finally finished the painting, and it looks wonderful. Patrick and the children are very happy with it. I did more playing with the children this time, as there was less painting to complete, so Lachlan and I organised some games with them. They were clearly thrilled to have us back again - they might enjoy the painting in the long term, but in the short term it has just meant we’ve rather been ignoring them. I also got to spend some more time with the little boy I originally met at Two Sisters, the one with the sores. He’s so much better now, and happier, and a better weight. I finally found out his name: Sylvester. Which is clearly hilarious. Although he’s probably named after his dead father, or something equally un-amusing.
But yes, listening to Summer Breeze et al on the bus ride home, with the sunset over Mpumalangan hills and Hazyview, dust on the breeze, paint on my hands, I felt very very happy. And then when we arrived home there were chips for supper! Excellent times.
Om nom, homework. I should probably say something about the place we’ve been working at.
Okay, now I’m in bed, and Maria’s talking on the phone. Which is annoying. I’m tired, I should probably HALT. HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired) has become quite a thing, as Lachlan finds it helpful too. Although the H has been expanded to include Hot (re the whole 'being in Africa' thing) and Horny (re the whole 'being away for two months' thing).
Hilariously, it's now after the weekend, and I'm online at the Mall in Nelspruit. Mama called me just as I was writing the above, and then I went to bed, then Tiff went away for the weekend and took her netbook with her. What can I say? It's very strange to think that we're only here for two more weeks. Well, less now. Not a particularly pleasant feeling; when I get back I have to deal with reality. Odd to work in a township in order to avoid reality, but I suppose I mean my own personal reality.
We were all set to continue working at the ORT centre until the end of Project, but just before we left today we heard that the strike's ending on Wednesday, apparently. So tomorrow might be our last day at ORT. Which feels very bizarre indeed - I'd only just resigned myself to staying there. It feels like such a long time since we were at the school, it's going to feel like returning to the past or something. Not to mention that everything will be all up in the air and manic because of the strike, and upcoming exams. I've no idea what we're going to do. It was a mess enough when we arrived prior to the strike.
It will also be sad to say goodbye to the people we've got to know at ORT (Oneness Revival Team - don't ask, I don't know. Basically it's a place to keep children occupied during the holidays, and it stepped in to help in the absence of school, working alongside Tenteleni). About 200 children have been turning up, of various ages, and we've been running different sessions with them every day: Sports, Arts and Culture, Life Skills and Reading/ICT. Guess which one I've been working with. I've so loved our Library team (me, Karin, Tim, Tiffany, a couple from Lekazi (the other Tenteleni group we've teamed up with) and some local ORT volunteers, notably Tnomhlahla (sp?) who's lovely. It's brilliantly geeky; we bitch about sport, and the other day when we realised some of the older kids had swiped pens and I pointed out that it was probably better than, eg, stealing knives, Karin said "Well, yes, but the pen is greater than the sword", and we all laughed far too much. I'm so going to miss Karin!
Swaziland was amazing, such a beautiful country. On the Saturday, Lukas (crazy, crazy PC from Lekazi) took a group of us on a 'long hike', which turned out to be climbing the second largest granite boulder in the world. As Tim pointed out "When someone says 'Try not to rely too much on your hands' it's NOT A HIKE!" Considering my terror of heights, I got up fairly high (about a quarter) before it all got too much and I started to lose it a bit. Luckily around the same time, Tim and a few of the others decided to return down, and Tim sang Tenacious D and Flight of the Conchords to keep me cheerful. It was very scary, but coming down with Tim was actually really fun, possibly because of all the andrenalin pumping. Tiffany, who has done loads of climbing, decided not to go up because she thought it was insane to do it without ropes. This should have been a sign. Crazy Lachlan and Lukas, along with Charlie, Katie and a couple more from Lekazi, got all the way to the top. The rest of us went and messed around in a river nearby, which was SO MUCH FUN. Like when we went to the Potholes in Mpumalanga. And we went out for a meal that night, where we swamped the restaurant and they spend hours getting the food to everyone; apart from the table with me, Lachlan, Tim and Susan, who got everything early. That was also great fun.
On Sunday, we went to loads of craft markets and bought souvenirs, and the Reed Festival, which was incredible. 16 000 topless virgins dancing for the King. Lachlan said "As a feminist-minded republican, you must be loving this". I tried to concentrate on the music. As I did yesterday, when I went to a church service in Pienaar with Harriet, Karin, Susan and Maria.
Oh dear, twenty minutes. I'd really better go, I need to buy painkillers and food for the week. I haven't even emailed Joe, or Luke back. Next time I'm online I'll be about to leave South Africa, that's insane. Wish me luck going back to the school! I'm aware I've written much too much about personal stuff here and not nearly enough about the work we're doing, but I'll try and find time to do so in the next week.
So much love! xxxxx