Pudulogo P.S. Plays Tough…PCV Proud as Ever!!

This past weekend we had a HUGE sporting event at our school (well at least ‘huge’ for us).  Another school traveled two to three hours to our rural school “in the middle of corn and sunflower fields” as the opposing team put it.  They had come all the way to challenge our boys in soccer and our girls in netball (a sport that is similar to basketball without the dribbling and the backboards).  It was a very exciting event for our students, teachers, and community.  It is the first time I have seen anything like this at our school since I have been here (almost 9 months now) and judging by everyone’s reaction, it hasn’t happened much before then either. 

Weeks prior to the event, students were busy practicing.  The boys could be found everyday after school out on the soccer field (a big semi-flat dirt surface with two twisted metal squares on each end of the field) and the girls on the netball court.  Unfortunately for the girls, the netball court had been over grown with patches of grass and weeds because the goats, sheep, donkeys, and cows couldn’t get access to it, unlike the soccer field.  As a result, the girls (and learners that received punishment for misbehavior during school) were put to the task of pulling grass and raking the surface level.  Just imagine American students having to sweep or polish the basketball court before playing or the football team having to mow the grass and paint the lines.  Hah!  American kids have it made!

After weeks of toil and labor the fields were in “playable” condition.  Unfortunately though, it is pretty hard to paint lines on a dirt field or court (especially when you don’t have paint).  So, the day before competition (during school hours of course) I was helping the teachers and learners to carve out the lines on the field according to regulation rules.  Then the learners mixed a liquid substance of lime and water and poured it into the trenches on the field to make the “lines”.  A clever idea.  Being resourceful.  When we finished, we were all pretty proud of our work.  It looked professional…compared to anything else we had ever seen in the area. 

Finally the day arrived and the learners were arriving at school earlier (on a Saturday) than when they normally do on weekdays for classes.  No surprise.  The kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement.  I was excited myself.  I love to see the kids get so happy, especially over something that they truly deserve, but are completely deprived of.  Coming from the United States I was lucky to have well organized sporting events, and lots of them, when I was a student.  I was able to explore a variety of sports and select the one best suited for my talents and interets.  Unfortunately, that kind of organization and regular sporting competition (with coaching) is not available for these South African youth.  You may be a student that really loves soccer, but you will be lucky if anyone coaches you (at least for more than the week before the competition) and also lucky if you get to play one game.  So, I was really excited to see this day come to fruition.  I was seeing something given to the children that they deserved to have.  To feel important and special.  Best of all…I had no part in it!!

The weather was cold and blustery, overcast skies and a slight drizzle…but that wasn’t cooling or dampening anyone’s spirits.  Around 10:00am the other team arrived in their Greyhound-ish bus.  The kids, in green track suits, jumped off the bus and intermingled with our kids, in red and blue.  Around 11:30am the games began.  The girls were divided into three teams…the A, B, anc C teams.  The girls would be playing three matches.  The boys were divided into two teams…the A and B teams.  The boys would be playing two matches. 

I was not given a job so I decided to employ myself.  I would be doing two jobs. 1) Taking photos and video of the games and 2) carrying around the school medical kit (which is never used except for hiding school money in…a ’safe’ place because no one ever uses it…HAH!).  Fortunately, the medical kit was never needed on game day.  Even if something did happen, though, I am sure my first aid treatments would not be needed.  Local remedies would have been applied.  At one village soccer match I saw the most interesting medical practice performed on a player.  When a player came hobbling off the field from a calf-cramp the coach knew just what to do.  The coach simply poured some of his 40oz (1.5L) cold beer on the players leg…that did the trick and the player was good to go.  AMAZING!  Fortunately, this was a school event and the beer drinking wasn’t to come until after the game was over…of course…so I was ready and armed with my brand new looking medical kit that was actually 10 years old. 

The games went outstanding.  Our players were all fired up and competitive as hell.  I think it was because they never get a chance to play.  When you only play one game a year, you are going to be hungry.  The longer you starve the lion, the hungrier it will be…and our boys and girls were starving for competition.  The girls won two of the three games, crushing their oponents.  The boys tied the first match of soccer and then won the second with a score of 3-0, thanks largely to our 15 year-old MVP in 6th grade.  He scored every goal for us!  No surprise since he was a man playing against boys.  I have the boy in class and he is wonderful.  He has had a tough life and I don’t want to take away any of his glory.  I was very happy for him.  He deserved it just as much as anyone else, perhaps even more. 

After the games were complete, we ate a fantastic meal…a true feast!  Spicy chicken, rice, gravy, cole-slaw, beet root, pumpkin, spicy beans, pap, and salad.  It was simply amazing!  Unfortunately, for me things were not to stay so appetising.  Soon after eating, the alcohol came out.  There I was, sitting in my grade 5 classroom-just turned into a tavern.  I couldn’t sit there and watch the teachers from both schools drinking alcohol on school property, in a classroom, with learners still present at school.  I don’t know if I was wrong to feel that way, but coming from the United States where teachers get fired for stuff like that, I just felt a bit uneasy.  I decided that the day was a success and good enough to call it a “day”…why spoil it.  So, at 4:30pm I packed up my bags, said good-bye to everyone and left them to be.  I walked home to my small 4×4meter room…saying proudly to myself, “Dang, Pudulogo Primary School kicked butt today!  Go Pudulogo!!” 

 

 

 

“Come to my rescue please, i am begging you.” he says

Dear friends, family, and visitors of this blog:

I have quite a different post today compared to my previous one.  This one happens to be far less humorous. 

I received another email from a friend of mine, Beatuss.  He is a young Maasai man about my age staying in a rural area of Tanzania.  Over the past month, he and his family have been suffering from flooding and related natural disasters.  It has caused them to lose their home and made access to food quite difficult.  He says, “we are depending on jungle fruits for living.”  He has asked ME for his assistance, being one of the few people he knows with the power to help. 

Unfortunately, I feel that my hands are financially tied to meet his requests for aid to build a new home and get food for the family.  As such, I could not sit around and do nothing while my heart was aching.  I am posting his letter on my blog for others to read.  Perhaps those who read this may be able to assist him financially or maybe just by passing the word on to someone else that can.  I am simply magnifying his voice so that his call for help may be answered. 

Please read his email below.  If you want to contact him and ask how to help, his email address is:

beatussp@yahoo.co.uk

Even as I sit in my rural village in South Africa…Iam feeling blessed.  Life here doesn’t seem so hard anymore after today. 

Cheers everyone, Adam

Hey Adam,

   It has been quite some times now since i wrote to you. My friend me and my brother and sister we are real dying with hunger and coldness down here, the truth is, since the disaster occurance not the government officials or the humanitarian agencies came to cherk on us except the nearby church which provided for us food just only once, Adam i know you are not in the position to help me but i hope you have friends whom you can tell them and they can help where they can, Adam we are dying, right now we are depending on jungle fruits for living and the place is still rainning, i see no more hope in life, i thought we were born to suffer. Please i need you right now, remember a friend in need is a friend indeed. Once again we are dying. Come to my rescue please, iam begging you.

I hope to hear from you soon as you read this message though i know i will be late to come to read the emails

Bucket Baths…everything you did (or didn’t) want to know!

Hello again and welcome back! 

I hope you like the new renovations that I have made to my blog site.  Whenever I get some free time, like a Saturday in the village perhaps, I take the opportunity to use the available time to learn things, such as how to run a web blog.  I keep learning more and more each time and am realizing that blogging isn’t as hard as I thought.  It is just one more example of all the things that I have learned  while being in Peace Corps South Africa.

Soooo, for this post I would like to start talking about some of the things that I have learned these last 10 months while being in South Africa, aside from making blogs.

Number 1:  HOW TO TAKE A BATH IN A BUCKET: I doubt many of you have had the privelage of taking a bucket bath, as we call them here.  If you have, I would like to hear from you.  Perhaps we could share our experiences, such as successful strategies and methods that are best to be avoided.  I am sure that many of you might be curious about how to take a bucket bath and so I will tell you.  

The first thing that any bucket bather must do is find a sufficient bucket.  The size and material of the bucket at your disposal varies.  I suggest getting a bucket with a color that suits your personality and matches well with the rest of your room.  My bucket is blue.  It is also good to get a strong bucket, a heavy plastic or metal…if your budget allows it. 

The second thing to do once you have your bucket is use it!  You will need to fill the bucket with warm water (unless it is the middle of summer in Africa when nothing sounds better than a cold bucket bath).  Assuming the weather is not set for “scortching” then you will want to heat some water for yourself.  I typically use my electric kettle, but others have been known to heat their water on a wood stove, wood fire, or pariffin stove.  

After you have heated enough water to fill your bucket to a wallowing depth of 4 inches, you can pour it into your beautiful plastic tub.  But be careful, you don’t want to pour to fast and possibly have some of that precious warm water splash out.  Now that the bucket is ready with water, don’t waste time!  Last night I got caught in a conversation and when I returned, my hot bucket bath was less than luke warm.  Before stripping down into your birthday suit, put down a towl, floor mat, or old blanket under and around the bucket.  Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can do this job without making a little mess.  You should also have your soap and wash cloth in hand. 

Now is the moment you have been waiting for…possibly been waiting several days for, because a daily bath just isn’t in the cards.  Quickly throw those clothes on the chair and get going, because damn! it is cold old there!  Start by using the wash rag and get your head wet and move down.  I prefer to put my upper body over the bucket and wash there first.  After wetting, soaping, and rinsing my upper half then I proceed to stand in the bucket and do the bottom half in the same way.  After going through the three cycles I jump out of the bucket and into a towl.  Dry off as quickly as possible…I don’t need to tell you to hurry though; the hair standing up on your arms will! 

Well, that is a pretty quick run down on how I have learned to take a bath in a bucket with only 4 inches of water.  The surpising thing is that when I finish, I feel clean!  It sure doesn’t beat a shower or hot bath, but it certainly makes you appreciate them more.  I suggest that you give the bucket bath a try.  Besides, most of the world is doing it!     

Below is a picture of me in my first bucket bath, a novice…I think I can safely say that I have advanced.