On Being Poor

One of the aspects of being in Peace Corps is being paid like the locals do. This means that we make around the same amount as our counterparts and coworkers. Depending on where you work, it might be less, or your could be getting paid a whole lot more. Of course, every country is different. In South Africa, our monthly stipend is R2,700. When we first arrived, this equaled to exactly $270, but with the rand quickly falling, I'm now making more around $200 a month. This money is to be used to buy groceries, travel, entertainment, and scads of other things. I've been very lucky and haven't had to pay for rent, water or electricity. I've also been lucky because I was able to save up some money while working in the states, that I have used to go on holiday with.

The reason we get paid this little, is so that we can learn what it's like to live in these countries, and to figure out how to make it work. Peace Corps also doesn't want the volunteer to stand out, and to be buying luxuries while our neighbors are struggling to put food on the table. I've survived many nights on rice and beans, and have learned to embrace the 5 kilometer walk into town instead of spending money to take a taxi. When I grocery shop, I have given myself the chose of either a bar of chocolate or a brick of cheese, I cannot afford both. I have rationed my makeup so much so, that I am using the same makeup that I left America with.

For the most part, I haven't really minded being paid this little, and I have just allowed it to be an adventure. Besides $200 can go a long way in South Africa, if you allow it to. When I worked for City Year (AmeriCorps), I got paid 4x this amount, and struggled so much more.

Of course there is a time when the reality of the situation sinks in. At the beginning of my service, I acquired a litter of kittens, and one spade cat. I didn't really know anyone living in South Africa at the point, and was too worried about posting something on South Africa's equivalence of craigslist to find the kittens a new home. I found homes for some, and the rest just stayed with me. I didn't have much money, nor did I have a car, so the two feral kittens, stayed feral. I kept thinking about getting the female spade, but the cost of hiring a private taxi (that would allow a cat) and the vet fees were just too much. A year went by, and I forgot about it entirely, beside Tsotsi was the runt of the litter, she couldn't possibly become pregnant.

Famous last words, Tsotsi definitely got pregnant. Normally an outdoor cat, I allowed her into the bathroom at my house so that she could start nesting in my house instead of outside in the bush. Then while working out on a random Monday, Tsotsi's water broke all over my yoga mat. Throughout her labor, all I could think about was how could I take her to the vet if she has complications. I continued to search on my phone to see how long labor should take, and when to be alarmed. Luckily, after three hours, Totsi started popping kittens out. Four beautifully adorable kittens. 

As the week went by Tsotsi feed the kittens, bathed the kittens, and allowed me to hold each of them.

 

But by day 8, something was seriously wrong. Chicken was wandering away from the group, and was not feeding. He was breathing heavily, and meowing on and off. Bat was also struggling to eat, and was getting weaker and weaker by the second. Without a car, and with very little money, all I could do was hold them. I held Chicken in my hands, and Tsotsi quickly crawled in my lap and looked at her baby. We were poor, and we were helpless. I never felt more useless in my life. I didn't have a car, so I couldn't run out to the store to buy goat's milk (which is what the internet was requesting I do), and since it was already night, the private taxis would have doubled in price (it would have cost a whooping R240). I couldn't call a vet, because the price would have been astronomical. I was stranded, with four kittens, a new mother, without a car and without money. So I sat there and did what I could. I held the kittens, and I cried.

 Pictured: Chicken

Pictured: Bat

By the next morning, both Chicken and Bat were dead. Luckily, a few other Peace Corps Volunteers were staying at my house that week, so they helped me find a box, and dig a hole to bury the kittens in. As I buried the two kittens, all I could think about, was how much it sucked to be poor. Losing these two kittens, due to the lack of stipend I received, gave me a taste of what it's like to be truly poor. But for me, it was kittens that I lost, in many of these villages that peace corps volunteers work and live in, they lose much more than a pet, they lose children, mothers, uncles, they lose people. With hospitals so far away, and mobile clinics coming only every once and a while, many children die due to not getting correct medical attention. Unable to get to hospitals, people living in these remote rural villages are unable to receive HIV treatment consistently (not taking your ARVs on a daily basis is deadly).

Yes, I lost two kittens, two kittens that I had known for all of seven days, and I sat on my bathroom floor and cried because I was unable to do anything for them. But the reality is, is that so many people are losing family members, because there are no other options for them, there is no money, and the hospitals are so far away. I couldn't imagine holding a dying child in my arms, because I have no other option but to cry.

Sebotsi's Got Talent

Since I am the librarian at my school, I have had the opportunity to get know the students who frequent the library. A lot of the grade 11 and 12 students use the library time to find books for research projects, and to chat with me about university applications and life in general. It's been great for both myself and my students; I get to understand the difficulties they face everyday, and they get to know a little more about American culture.

One trouble that many students at my school face, is not being able to pay for the application fee for University. This is a unbelievably heartbreaking barrier. Can you imagine working hard through school to face the fact that you cannot even afford applying for a university? The fee for University of Limpopo costs R350, the equivalent of $25 (a year ago, it would have been $35). Now to put this in perspective, I get paid R2700 a month, which is higher than many of the parents in the village I work in. If they did get paid R2,700 a month, the application fee to one university is more than a 10^th of their monthly salary.

In the beginning of term 3, two of my grade 12 students came to me explaining that many of their classmates are not able to apply for university due to the high application fees. These two students didn't come asking for money, they came looking for a sustainable solution. A solution that would not help their class, but for the students that came after them. We started talking about different ways we could raise money for the grade 12 students next year. One of my South African friends who teaches in the city had just finished up a Talent Show at her school, and was able to raise a lot of money. I suggested doing a talent show for the school and charging each student R3 to raise money. The boys loved the idea, and we started working on a date for the auditions, a date for the actual talent show, and the age range that was allowed to participate in the school. We decided on grades 5-11, since grade 4 was too young, and grade 12 needed to focus on studying for their matric tests.

Auditions took place at the beginning of August. The day before the auditions started I had my two grade 12 students go to the grade 5-11 classrooms and inform them about the Talent Show. I recruited another teacher to help me watch and judge the auditions. From the auditions, we decided to take 10 different learners to perform for the actual Talent Show. We had a great array of students audition from comedians to dancers to singers. We posted the list of students who were a part of the show outside the library. For the next two weeks, I had the students come and practice their performances, and to give them feedback. I asked one of my charismatic grade 12 students to be the MC for the show, and gave him a script that he was allowed to deviate from whenever he saw necessary.

Our MC for the Talent Show
 

The week before the show, I asked a few Peace Corps volunteers to help be the judges for the show, since I felt it would be nice to have judges from outside the village. Plus, I would need to extra help when it came down to the show. I also made a program for the teachers, so that they would know what to expect during the show.

Wonderful peace corps volunteers sitting in as judges for the talent show.

Two days before the show, I started selling tickets. Of course, this is Africa, so no one bought tickets the days before. I was a nervous wreck the night before the show, thinking how I had only sold ten tickets. The next day, I asked four of my grade 11 students to help sell tickets, and the two grade twelve boys. Quickly sales spiked, and we were selling tickets faster than I could print them.

When it came to the show, I asked Nic and Zoe (my two Peace Corps Volunteer judges) to help set up the room for the show. We have two classrooms that has a divider between them that turns into a bigger room for performances and lectures. While they were doing that, I collected my performers to quickly practice one more time before they got changed into their outfits.

When it was time for the performance to start, I had two grade 11 students at the door to collect tickets and to let students in. After about twenty minutes, all the students had shuffled into the room, and the room was packed! I couldn't believe how many students ended up buying tickets!

Our audience!

My MC walked up on stage and got their attention to calm down, he then called Mr. Rangwato onto stage to open our show with prayer. Of course, since I'm really cheesy, I made all the teachers come up on stage, and sing a beautiful rendition of shosholoza, the only song that I could think of that we all know.

It was now the students' turn. They each came onto stage, and did their performances. Each one was received well, with lots of cheering. The MC congratulated all of them on their hard work, and praised them for how well they performed. When the performances were done, Nic and Zoe went to decide who were going to be Sebotsi's most talented, while my MC kept the crowd going with jokes and dancing.

When Nic and Zoe came back, they thanked all the students who performed, and then began giving out prizes. They prizes were a book, a pack of blue, black and red pens (something the students are lacking), notebooks, a CD, and a certificate. Third place went to the break dancer, second place went to a dancer (who was so excited she started crying), and first place went to a boy who recited a poem that he wrote.

 

At the end of the day we raised over R500. Enough to help two students send in applications to a university next year. The teachers loved the talent show, and are now planning to do another talent show next year.

Helpful tips for PCVs:

Every village is different, and every village has their own medium income. From what I knew about my students, was that they wouldn't spend more than R3 to attend the show, your village could possibly be completely different.

When you sell tickets to grades 6-11, write the name of the student on the front, so that the tickets cannot be stolen from one another.

When selling tickets to grades R-5, give their tickets to their teacher, so that they can hand them out right before the performance (otherwise they will lose them).

Ask the students to bring their outfits the day before the performance. One, so that you can make sure their change of clothes are appropriate, and two, so that the student will be prepared on the day of the performance.

Ask around to see if someone from the community can come and play music between performances and while the judges are deciding who has won.
 

Home

I haven't been back to my childhood home since December 2013, but I'm lucky to have a childhood home to go home to, and that I will be back in 7 short months. It's been such a long time since I've paralleled parked in front on my parent's house, my car shaded by the maple tree with the rope swing where I spent so much of my childhood on.

It's amazing to think that so much of my life I daydreamed of moving to the far away places in my books that my mother read to me before I went to sleep, and now, more than ever, I daydream of coming home.

I'm way past the halfway mark with my service in South Africa, and although I love the warm temperatures in the summers, the braais that last long into the night, and the way my students greet me in the mornings, I cannot wait to get back to Pittsburgh.

I daydream about eating boxes of Mrs. T's perogies (and yes, I have made them from scratch here in South Africa). 

I cannot wait until I can say something to a new person and they don't have to ask where my accent is from, and then going through the whole spiel of “Peace Corps, teaching, HIV prevention, Pittsburgh, Wilmington, Baton Rouge...” I look forward to walking my dog down Walnut Street, and seeing childhood friends along the way. I'm excited to eat at Pamela's, La Feria, Mad Mex, Buffalo Blues, and so many other places just walking distance from my house. I am so ready to be able to drive to a friend's house, or even to just the grocery store.

But most of all, more than anything, I cannot wait to arrive in Pittsburgh International Airport, and be transported back in time, to a place that has known me since I was a toddler. I can almost hear the chimes in the shuttle and woman's voice saying "To gates A, B, C, and D, please hold on." I cannot wait to see my parents greet me at the baggage claim, the same one we used when we would fly home from Scotland, and the one my sister and I used the first time we each flew back from university. 

I can picture walking out into the parking lot with my two oversized bags, and throwing them into the trunk of the car. I can picture driving home, through the Pittsburgh Tunnel Monster, and still being stunned on the other side of the mountain of just how beautiful Pittsburgh really is. 

I can feel the way the car bumps along the potholes as we drive down Fifth Avenue, making only a few short turns before parking outside of our house. My mother, always with the green thumb, would without a doubt have planted snapdragons, pansies, and an assortment of other flowers, and the smell of a Pittsburgh spring will fill my nose as I climb, two steps at a time, my front steps to my childhood home...

This is what I dream about now.

Tutor For the Future

Sometimes a great thing happens, and you aren't even expecting it. About a month ago, the school that I work in got chosen to be the test pilot for a new program called Tutor For the Future. This program donates a handful of tablets, and a program to help teach rural students technology as well as get them up to pace with the maths curriculum. Many of the students in my school are far behind in their maths knowledge, and struggle to do simple adding and subtracting. The program helps teach the basics as well as try to get the students where they need to be so that they won't fall behind other schools.

This program was designed for grade 6 and grade 7 learners. Each class is broken into two groups and are taught on two different days. For example my first grade 7 class (also known as “The Star Guys”) is taught after school on Tuesdays, whereas my second group of grade 7 (also known as “The Super Heroes”) is taught after school on Thursdays.

The first 20 minutes of class is devoted to a maths program where the students learn their multiplication tables. The next 20 minutes of class is a small quiz that asks of level maths questions. For example:

Jane has R40,00. She buys three ice creams at R12,50 each.

How much money does she have left?

Then after they've completed the quiz, they watch a short movie on the tablet that shows the student how to find the correct answer. Each student corrects their answers appropriately. 

The last twenty minutes is to watch another video that goes with the lesson they are learning that week in school. So if they are learning about perimeters, they watch a video about perimeters, or if they are learning ratios, they watch a video about ratios. 

When class is finished the students receive food, and we call it a day. The program started about a month ago, and already I can see that students are able to navigate a tablet, and their multiplication tables are getting much better. 

Books For Africa

Right before I moved to South Africa, the school that I now volunteer in was given 1,000 books to start a library. When I arrived, I took on the task of being the school librarian, and began to know the students who regularly came to the library to check out books. 1,000 books are not a lot if you think about it. About 250 of those books are English Readers (the books that we got in grade school with at level English stories). Another 500 of the books are primary school books (Where the Wild Things Are, If You Give a Moose a Muffin), and the remaining 250 books are middle school chapter books and adult chapter books (it ranges from The Magic Tree House books to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents).

It quickly became apparent that many of my regular library visitors had read and reread many of the stories, and that the library desperately needed expanding. Luckily for me, two other Peace Corps Volunteers announced that they were going to start working on a grant so that schools and drop in centers around South Africa could receive new books to start/expand libraries. Of course I said I would help out with raising money, and that my school desperately needed new books.

I was lucky because I was not exactly part of the grant, but I did help fundraise, and help with organizing the books arrival in Polokwane. When we finished fundraising, and the grant went through with Peace Corps, the money was sent to Books for Africa. Books for Africa, collect, sort and ship books from America to the different countries in Africa who have a high demand for books for libraries, or textbooks for schools. When you apply for BFA, you have to raise $10,300 to send a 40-foot sea container of books. This may sound like a lot of money, but the amount of books in one container can range from 20,000-28,000 which would average each book to cost less then 50 cents. The best part is that BFA doesn't just send whatever is in the warehouse, instead each person requests what their school, drop in center, or community needs. This insures that a primary school isn't stuck with 50 boxes of health textbooks.

When the money is sent to BFA, the books get transported by boat from Atlanta, Georgia to a port (in South Africa this port was Durban). From Durban, the books are put onto a truck and are driven from Durban to the place where the books will be sorted again and then distributed to the different organizations (this was 12 different organizations that Peace Corps works with around Limpopo, Mmpumalanga, and KZN) around South Africa. 

Luckily for me the books were to be sorted and distributed at my place. We rented another chalet and a group of PCVs came to help with unloading of the books. The books were to arrive on Tuesday, but Tuesday came and left and the books didn't arrive. 

Finally on Wednesday morning the truck arrived, and we began unloading the boxes on boxes of books. It was an absolute work out! Each pallet had a section of books, the English Literary books were the lightest and the heaviest were the maths textbooks.

Due to bad luck, the weekend following the unloading of the books was Comrades, and Bush Fire. Pretty much all of SA29 was at one of these two events, and we wouldn't be able to start sorting until after everyone returned.

Once we returned, the sorting began. This was one of the best parts. I loved opening the boxes and finding the treasures inside. The English Literary books were fantastic. We all found favourites in each of the piles. I looked out for Dora the Explorer books and Magic Tree House books, since these were two series that my students loved. Sorting took about two days, and it was hard to make sure that everyone got the books they had requested. 

On the Monday and Tuesday following this week the PCVs who had ordered the books had someone from their organization drive up to Polokwane to collect their books in trucks. Of course this did not go as planned. Some people came in small cars, and others didn't make any plans at all. Each organization got about 2,000 books each, which fit into 50 boxes. There was no way to transport these books without a truck. 

But finally all the books were gone, and were safely delivered to their final destination. When I brought my books to school, one of the students exclaimed “Mam! Are all these books for us?” “Yes, they're all for Sebotsi Combined School.” Which he responded by saying, “Mam, you are working so hard, you are doing such a good job, thank you!”

Words of Advice to New Peace Corps Volunteers

It might be because I've been bin watching too many episodes of Scrubs in the past month, but the motto that I've been living by is I can't do this all on my own, no I know, I'm no superman.

This motto has been keeping me sane for the past 481 days. For starters, the best part about joining Peace Corps, is that the group you swear in with is your windows to sanity. You can call home to talk to your parents, siblings, or friends, or talk to host country nationals, but no one quite understands your situation as another Peace Corps Volunteer. They understand how much you miss your family, they are the ones who knows how frustrating it is when a project doesn't go as planned, and they don't judge you when you meet in your shopping town and all you want to do is drink a glass of wine (or two) at two in the afternoon. 

 Pictured: SA29 celebrating one year in country!

 Pictured: Vacation in Cape Town with PCVs. 

Take this advice to heart, your cohort will become your best friends. They will be there to help out with any project, celebrate with you when you complete a grant form, and will take multiple different taxis, travel for more than six hours, and cross over two difference provinces, just to be there for your birthday. Do not alienate yourself from your cohort.

Pictured: PCVs after running a 10k/half marathon to raise money. 

The second part of the motto, is I know, I'm no superman. This you MUST take to heart. I think many people think that by joining Peace Corps, that they will change the world, and if not the world than at least their village. If you come with that perspective, you will not make it. We are not superheros. We are human. We are not going to save the whole world. If I can get 80% if my students to turn in their assignments on time it's a good day.

I stress myself out every day wondering if I'm being a good enough teacher to my students. I wonder if they are learning English quickly enough, and if the English they are learning is good enough for them to go on to University with. I worry that I am not teaching them enough about writing essays and comprehension. I worry that I'm not providing them with enough time to access the library. I worry that I'm not instilling them with ideals of compassion, working hard, and dreaming big. Mostly, I worry that I'm not giving them enough love that they need.

I get frustrated that my girl students are dropping out because they are getting pregnant, and I wonder if it's because I didn't teach them how to properly use a condom last year. I want to pull my hair out when a student drops out and my learners tell me it's because he's been huffing glue, and I wonder if I should have spoke to him more one on one. I want to cry when I learn that a top learner has dropped out because they decided they needed to be the bread winner of their family, and I cannot help but think that I should have noticed the signs and should have done a home visit.

There's only so much we can do as Peace Corp Volunteers. There's only so many hours in a day. As a teacher, I only have ten hours a day to reach my students. And I have to split that time between teaching English, Life Orientation and Computer Class, coaching Grassroot Soccer and Running Club, facilitating Zazi and Brothers for Life, and finally running the library. Between those are snippets of time and there's only so many students you can talk to one on one, and so many home visits you can make. It's tough, and sometimes you can't even see any progress.

I'm not trying to say that Peace Corps doesn't accomplish anything. It does, but not the big things. You won't get every student to be a straight “a” student, you might not even get one straight “a” student. But you will get a student who realizes their potential, and go from being the class clown to working hard. You'll get a student who will come to you and ask how to become a doctor, and you might find a better path for him at a school in the city. You'll maybe get some students who will tell you about the pact they made with each other and how they've promised each other to not have sex until they matriculate. You'll get another student who tells you how proud they were and their family was when you gave them a medal for being a top learner.

If I were to give you any advice as a new Peace Corps Volunteer, it would be; be sure to become close to your cohort, and to not expect to save the world.