Gaining 5 Kilos at IST (In Service Training)

So I have officially been in South Africa for over six months! And to celebrate, SA29 went to a hotel outside Tzaneen for some In Service Training, which included planning a project with our supervisor, learning how to write grants, language training, resources, and scads of other things.

 

The trainings started at 8am and sometimes wouldn't finish until 6pm. Although it was great to learn about new resources, my favorite part was being able to see my SA29 cohort as a whole again. 

 

 

Pictured: Catching up after three long months of lock down (aka, we weren't allowed to leave our shopping town).

 

While at IST, I realized that I had won the supervisor jackpot. My supervisor and I are extremely close, and spent the better half of IST planning our project (we're going to turn an abandoned house into our library/computer room/resource center), and the other half laughing our heads off. I realized at IST how lucky it is to have a supervisor that I can talk openly to, and one who can give his own opinions as well.

 

 

Pictured: Myself and my supervisor talking about the project we have implemented and hope to implement in the community.

 

Pictured: One of the Peace Corps Staff, my supervisor, and myself at the end of my supervisor's training at IST.

 

After three months of eating rice and beans, eating buffet style for every meal definitely caused me to gain 10 pounds. When I got back to school, all of my students, including the teachers told me I had gained weight, especially in my cheeks. In America, I would be annoyed, but here it's a compliment, they're saying that you look healthy. So I sucked it up and said thanks.

 

 

Pictured: An average lunch during IST. How I hated to come home to eat rice and beans again.

 

Another incredible part of IST was how beautiful Tzaneen is. The landscape was incredible, and the weather was at least 5 degrees warmer than what I have been used to. I spent a lot of my spare time running through the trails, hiking to waterfalls, and killing my legs on all the steep hills.

 

 

Pictured: The view from my room. 

 

Pictured: Me next to a waterfall that was a 1.5k hike from the hotel.



 

Pictured: Me and Koko posing next to the waterfall.

 

Pictured: Me, Cat, and Katie taking a quick #selfie midway through a run.

 

Another amazing aspect of the hotel were the samango monkeys that hung out around the hotel. Samango monkeys are extremely rare, they are confined to the evergreen Afromontane forests of Southern Africa, which covers less than 1% of the land, so they are unable to branch out to other areas. If their habitat is destroyed, it is very unlikely that they will survive. On the bright side, the monkeys at the hotel were far from scared of humans (I was more scared of them), and at one point during language class, a samango monkey jumped on my table and grabbed another PCV's apple (while I went screaming in the other direction).

 

 

Pictured: Myself, and Courtney hanging out with a samango monkey. 

 

Pictured: Steven watching a family of samango monkeys.

 

Although I am one of the only Peace Corps Volunteers in my cohort to have a TV, my TV is very finicky, and is usually just a screen of white and black fuzzies, I was very excited to watch the always popular soapie, Generations, every night on a flat screen TVwithout having to mess with the wires during every commercial break.

 

 

 



 Pictured: Watching Generations.

 

 

Pictured: Shhhh, guys! Generations is on! You can talk again when the commercials come on!

 

Although it is winter, it can still get warm enough to lay outside and sunbath (sort of like Wilmington, NC in the winter). One our one "half day" of our ten days of In Service Training (yes we were in training on Saturday and Sunday), we all laid out by the pool, and enjoyed the sunny day.

 

 

Pictured: Just because it's warm outside, doesn't mean the pool is. Cameron questioning his decision of jumping in the pool. 

 

Pictured: Me, Koko, and Pasha laying out in the sun. 

 

Pictured: Enjoying some good music, good drinks, and good reads.

 

Near the end of the week, we were introduced to some amazing programs and resources.

 

- Brothers 4 Life - A program targeted towards men and boys as a club or a camp to bring awareness to medical male circumcision, correct and consistent condom use, and gender based violence.

- Zazi - A program targeted towards women and girls (mainly ages 14-24) as a club or a camp to bring awareness to intergenerational sex, dual protection (birth control and condoms), and gender-based violence.

- Grassroots Soccer - A program that uses soccer as a way to teach 12-18 year olds about HIV.

- Operations Hope - A program that teaches adults about finances.

- Souns - A program to teach young children to adults about letters to help them learn either their mother tongue or another language.

 

I cannot wait to implement these at my school, and in my community!

 

 

Now... back to reality with my always challenging, endearing, wonderful, and fun students. 

Life In Maklerekeng: PST (Pre Service Training)

Before my life of teaching English, and seeing exotic animals everyday, I spent two months living in Maklerekeng, getting Pre Service Training. PST is a way to dive into the culture of South Africa... with a safety net. I was surrounded by other Peace Corps Trainees from my cohort, as well as language tutors, host families, and Peace Corps Volunteers who had already been in the country for some time.

Here's a brief summary of what life was like during those two months.

Home Stay:

About a week into living in South Africa, we are taken to our training village to live with a host family for the next two months. These families are supposed to help us learn how to bucket bathe, hand wash our laundry, learn sepedi, as well as learn about the culture of South Africa. I absolutely loved my host family. I spent hours playing tag with my host nephews, I helped my host brother apply to universities, I stayed up way too late with my host sisters gossiping on the back porch, and got praised by my host mother whenever I spoke the few words of Sepedi I knew. During my stay with them, they gave me my South African name of Lerato Maako. Lerato meaning love, and Maako being my host family's surname.

Pictured: My host nephew passed out after a long day of running around with the neighborhood kids.

 

Pictured: My host nephews, and my neighbor playing with the water guns I gave as a birthday present.

 

Pictured: My host sister, Germina, me, and my host brother, Frans, hanging out in our front yard.



Pictured: My two host nephews hanging out at the house. 

Language:

South Africa has eleven official languages; Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. This is clearly seen through South Africa's national anthem, which is a hybrid of five of these different official languages. You can also see this happening in the ever popular South African Soapie, Generations, where the actors speak to each other fluidly changing from Afrikaans to Sotho to English to Tsonga without a blink of the eye. Most of my language learning came from watching this show with my host family every week night. My favorite word that I learned from the show is totsi, meaning gangster.

The language I was taught during PST, due to my placement was Southern Sotho, also known as Sepedi.

Pictured: My Sepedi notebook during language class.

Food:

When I first moved to South Africa, I briefly remember telling someone that I did not like South African food. But as PST moved on, I started to crave pap (a stable of every South African meal) covered in gravy, with tender chicken. While living with my host family I ate viennas (hot dogs), lots of chicken (fried, stewed, boiled), beet root, pumpkin (what we know as squash), chakalaka (a spicy mix of carrots, onions, beans, tomatoes, and green peppers), beef stew, and of course pap. Much of this food I covered in peri peri sauce (a spicy pepper), which made everything so much more delicious.

Street food is also very popular. After class, myself and the other PCTs would walk to a tuck shop (corner store), and buy french fries, or a kota. Kotas are my favorite South African food. Kotas are hollowed out bread, filled with french fries, polony, cheese, sausage, and achar sauce. Mopani worms are also very popular here. I ate one once, but for me, once was enough. There are some other PCVs who love them and eat them on a regular basis. One of the best parts of South Africa, is how cheap the fruit is here. I can buy a huge bag of avos (avocados) for the equivalence of $1. On top of that, my host family had a pomegranate and guava tree in our yard, so I could pick fresh fruit every morning before class.

Not only did my host family teach me about South African food, but I also introduced them to as much American food as I could prepare for them. Their favorite was macaroni and cheese, which I ended up making for them every Sunday night.

Pictured: Pap, stew, and pasta.

Pictured: French fries, and chili sauce from the tuck shop.



Pictured: The delicious kota.



 

Pictured: A mopani worm.



 

Pictured: A pomegranate the size of Sam's head.



 

Pictured: Tumi's not too sure what he thinks of mac & cheese. 

 

 

 

Field Trips:

To help better understand life in South Africa, we went on multiple field trips. We went to the
Voortrekker Monument, which is just south of Pretoria, to understand The Great Trek. We went to the Apartheid Museum, in Johannesburg, to better grasp what life was like during apartheid. We went to a tavern, to view the drinking culture in the villages. We also went to a mall in Pretoria to see the contrast between city life and village life.

Pictured: Walking up to the Voortrekker Monument.
 

Pictured: The entrance of the Apartheid Museum.

 

 

Pictured: Hanging out at a local tavern.  




 

Pictured: Eating dinner in Pretoria with other PCT.

 

 



Life in general:

Some of the best moments in Maklerekeng were the moments in between. Walking to class in the morning and waving and saying thobela (hello) to neighbors. Throwing birthday parties with other PCTs and sharing those experiences with host siblings. Being invited to the pool thirty minutes outside of town, and attempting, but failed to teach my host brother how to swim. Sitting in the taxi with the music blasting. Not being able to get into my house without having to play tag with the neighborhood kids first. Those were some of the best moments.

Pictured: Trees in the village in bloom.

 

Pictured: Although I do not bucket bathe where I live now, bathing in a bucket twice a day was a normal occurrence in my life while I lived in Maklerekeng.

 



 

Pictured: Handwashing clothes. 

 

 

Pictured: Holding my neighbor's son. 

 

Pictured: These two puppies walked me to and from class everyday.

 



 

Pictured: Celebrating a Peace Corps Trainee's birthday with my host siblings.

 



 

Pictured: The female half of my cohort!

 



 

Pictured: At a pool about twenty minutes outside of Maklerekeng, with another PCT and his host brother.

 





 

 

Pictured: Hanging out at the pool with another PCT and my host sister Germina.

 

 

Pictured: Be careful who you take pictures with because it might end up on a poster to promote an event!

 



Host Mom's Birthday Party/My Goodbye Party:

Celebrations are a big part of the South African culture, whether it's a birthday, funeral, or wedding, the whole community comes out to celebrate. Food is prepared for days, beer is bought, and music is pumped through the speakers nonstop throughout the weekend. While in Maklerekeng I went to multiple weddings and birthday parties, and each time was handed plates overflowing with food.

When it came to my host mother's birthday celebration, I knew that it was going to be big. On the Thursday before the event, my many host siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces started pouring into the house.

On the Saturday, the whole house and yard looked magnificent. My host family and I dressed up and got ready for a day of eating, drinking, dancing, and singing.

One important part of any event are speeches. Speeches could go on as long as two or three hours! Knowing how important this was, my host brother and I wrote a short speech to my host mother to express my love and gratitude of adopting me as her tenth child.

Pictured: Two of my host sisters making enough biscuits for over 300 guests for my host mother's 60th birthday party.

Pictured: My host mother with one of my host sisters dancing on her 60th birthday.

Pictured: Saying a speech for my host mother's birthday.

 

Pictured: Nancy translating my speech into Sepedi.

 



 

Pictured: Myself with Marry, my host sister's best friend.

 



 

Pictured: Holding my cake with my host sisters, Germina and Lea.

 



Swear In:

When our two months of training completed, it was time to swear in and shed our Peace Corps Trainee status and become real Peace Corps Volunteers. For me this was a bittersweet day. Swear in meant saying goodbye to my host family, as well as the other PCTs that I had spent the last two months training with. On the flip side though, it meant that I would start working in my community, begin my life for the next two years.

Pictured: Saying goodbye to my host family, before I moved to my permanent site.

 

Pictured: My cohort, after we got sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers.

 



 

Pictured: On our way to our sites!