Monday, October 18, 2010

One step at a time.

During PST (that’s Peace Corps lingo for “pre-service training”) they talk about this integration period after we first get to our communities that will be taking place during the initial three months we start living at our sites. This is the time when we are learning about our communities, our organizations, our host families, the language, etc. I thought that I, of course, would breeze through this integration thing. I have to say that this has just not happened. Okay, I will be fair. This has not happened…in my experience. Integration has taken much longer than three months (and still continues)...After the first three months at my site, I still felt like I didn’t know anything and didn’t fit in at all.
But, the good news is that after almost 8 months here in beautiful (and hot) Limpopo, I am just starting (notice that I say starting) to feel like I am getting to know my community. Okay, there are little chunks of time if maybe not entire days. For instance, I went to work yesterday and on my walk home, I was joined by a girl who knew me from the drop-in center. It felt comfortable. And the day before that, as I was coming home from my run, and the nurse from the clinic came out and we bantered for a while as she joked about coming on my runs with me (I don’t think she really wants to come with me of course). But, again, it felt good.

I say this because I am reminded of my perfectionist attitude about “getting it right” and that this should be easy. It’s not. This really slow integration process has been hard. But, slowly it’s feeling better. It’s still not easy but, finally, I feel like I am making progress.
Of course, I am leaving out the fact that there was a little girl that cried (okay, screamed) when she saw me today at church because she was still scared of me. Hey, one step at a time.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Gardening and Running.

There is excitement in the air…to create a permagarden! My weekend gardening workshop was fantastic and although I am not an expert (at all), I am very enthusiastic which should count for something, right? I hope that I can take what I’ve learned and put it to good use in my community. The idea behind permagardening is to create a small food garden for a family (or shared community garden). So, first, I plan to help my host father build a garden at his house. We’ll see how that goes and then maybe I will move on as my confidence grows (and I actually get a few things to grow). The first challenge is making compost and then “mapping” out the area that you wish to dig. The composting takes a couple of months so I must get started. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Oh, and my other exciting news? With not much planning and preparation, I ran a half marathon this weekend. It was a bit of an unplanned undertaking but I happened to be in Pretoria and learned at the last minute about the race so just kind of ran it? Surprisingly, it went quite well (I’ve been running in my village quite a bit) and I am excited about this newfound love of running which I thought died along with the first signs of my gray hair several years ago. We’ll see. I may now sign up for this insane event that takes place here in South Africa called the Comrades where you run for many, many hours. Sounds like something to look forward to, yes? I need things to look forward to…not quite as exciting as a shower and a cappuccino but you take what you can get.