Here is a poem by one of our bright young learners!

Alcohol Drug Abuse

I am Alcohol Drug abuse
I am a friend
A friend of everyone
If you want me you can find me everywhere

At the taverns, parties, weddings, weddings or bashes
But most people invite me
When they have stress
They always come
I welcome them 'coz we are friends

Hhe --- but be careful
I am the destroyer
I can destroy your youth your life every time
coz now you are strong or healthy and
I can take you to the groove

I don't mean that you have
to leave me alone
I am a friendly take care
of my friends
I don't have enemies in my life
you are always welcome if you want me

I am a remover of stress
I am the one who destroy's
the youth's future
I am the one who makes the you have fun
I will keep on doing it
But be aware
I can put you in prison

-Veronica Nkosi, Grade 8

Grassroot Soccer

My counterpart, the rockin' Bobet Motha, demonstrates the limbo!

Today I am going to try and make up for my failure to blog meaningfully about our experiences here  (a little bit, at least). One of the programs we're doing at our school is called Grassroot Soccer (or PC Skillz, but we never call it that). It's a 12 week soccer-themed program that teaches kids about HIV and AIDS. The lessons are engaging and fun and make talking about “vaginal and anal sex” easier. Well, a teensy bit easier. ;) The program focuses on things like abstinence, mutually faithful partners, having partners your own age, and using protection. I was told by a CHOP (health) volunteer that the HIV infection rate is 45% in our area, so this program is particularly valuable and appropriate for our learners.

In our circle

The program also incorporates fun activities called energizers and kilos which build enthusiasm and a sense of community among the participants. My personal favorites are “One coffee, two sugars,” and the “NJ Kilo.” I promise to try and upload some footage of the kids doing kilos. They love them. On the way home from school, we hear the kids doing kilos. They write about kilos in their English journals. And yes, they do retain a lot of the program's content, too!

Today, we did the limbo! Learners had to pass under the limbo bar (HIV) when it was held up high - when limbo-ers (limbobbers? limbologists?) were abstinent. Then the limbobbers (I like that!) had to try to get under the bar when it was held very low – or when they were in a relationship with someone 5-10 years older. We talked about who “got” HIV and why...being involved with an older partner was riskier. That person is much more likely to have had multiple partners and occasions to engage in unprotected sex.

So, while chanting “limbo, limbo, limbo" and clapping our hands, we learned about HIV and AIDS!

PS Where's the soccer theme, you ask? This week wasn't soccer themed, but most of them are!

Lined up and ready to limbo under the high bar!

Limbo, limbo, limbo!

Snaps

Mugging 

We bad 

Lovely ladies!

Beautiful smiles 

- Elizabeth

New Address

To any and all who are thinking about mailing us, please stop using the Kwalugedlane address. We're having problems with it. Please mail to:

Perry and Elizabeth Atterberry

c/o Hhusha Hhusha
PO Box 44
Malelane
1320

South Africa

...and please tell us when you mail something so we can anticipate its potential arrival. As always, put a low value or "no value" on the customs form, please! Putting value on something only ensures we'll get socked with an exorbitant duty! There are no real protections for lost mail anyhow (in other words, we'd never recover the value of the package). Thanks!

- Elizabeth

Cape Town Vacation!

View of Cape Town from Table Mountain

We decided to treat ourselves to a vacation in Cape Town before we got down to the serious job of teaching. On December 18th, we flew from Kruger International Airport to Johannesburg, then on to Cape Town. We booked accommodations at the Scalabrini Guest House, which is run by an Italian monastic order - all profits fund their social programs. We were given a very nice en suite room.

Pipe Organ in Cape Town's Oldest Church

Our first outing was a walking tour of the immediate area. Downtown Cape Town has a thriving outdoor market, and we spent many hours browsing artisan stalls. Also, Elizabeth found many old churches nearby she wanted to visit. That night we discovered that our guest house was two blocks away from "The Third Oldest Pub in Cape Town." Needless to say, we made a beeline for it. It turned out to be a tiny place on the ground floor of an old hotel, it was full of atmosphere and colorful characters. Just our sort of place. I had a local beer called Jack Black and heartily recommend it. We also got directions to the oldest pub in Cape Town and added it to our list of "Important Cultural Heritage Sites to Visit."

My thoughts exactly!

The next day we walked down to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront for a day of seriously touristy endeavors. There is a large mall there and we saw our first movie since arriving in South Africa, The Hobbit. Very good movie, but we kept comparing it to The Lord of the Rings, which was much better. After the movie, we stopped at one of the many lovely restaurants at the waterfront and enjoyed some nice local beers.

Groot Constantia Winery: Manor House Museum

The next couple days were devoted to seeing the sights on the Red and Blue Buses. These are lovely open top double-decker buses that take you through Cape Town and the surrounding area, with an audio description of the sights as you pass by them (We visited District 6 on this tour. Sadly, no aliens to be seen). The blue bus took us outside Cape Town to the beaches and some of the surrounding communities. We connected with the wine tour bus which took us on a side tour of the Constantia Valley wine-producing area. We took a winery tour and sampled the wines (you knew that was coming, didn't you?). They were nice, but didn't measure up to some of the excellent wines we've had since we got here (Saxenburg Pinotage, I'm looking at you). The red bus took us up Table Mountain where there's a gondola to the very top. We were going to ride it, but someone (Libby) started hyperventilating on the bus ride up, so that plan was nixed. We finished the day by visiting the aforementioned "Oldest Pub in Cape Town." Something of a disappointment. Unlike the "Third Oldest Pub in Cape Town," the "Oldest Pub in Cape Town" had had a facelift somewhere along the line and lacked all the charm of its lesser sibling. My advice: Stick to the third oldest pub.

View from One of the Wineries

Our private tour (a group tour, but we were the only two people to sign up that day) of the Stellenbosch and Paarl area wineries started early the next day. And when I say early, I mean we began tasting wines at 9:30AM. Our guide was a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic man who loved to talk about the wines and knew all the vintners personally. This meant they pulled out the good stuff just for us. When the people at the Backsberg Winery learned we were fans of the more full-bodied wines, they disappeared and returned with a limited-run red wine that was just incredible. We left with a bottle tucked under our arm. Things get rather hazy after that. We visited two or three more wineries before lunch, and by the time we sat down to eat, I was having trouble finding my face with my fork.

Canal Leading to the One and Only Hotel

For Christmas day dinner, we made reservations at one of the ritziest hotels in Cape Town, the One and Only. The hotel has a beautiful lobby, and when we arrived we were met by a waiter who presented us with complimentary champagne. The buffet itself was in Nobu restaurant, and offered traditional Christmas fare: Turkey with dressing and cranberry, roast beef and yorkshire pudding, roast pork...and all sorts of delicious appetizers, side dishes, and desserts. The food was fantastic and we had a lovely Christmas day. We even received gifts - African beaded keychains! One was a giraffe and the other a zebra.

Castle of Good Hope

Somewhere along the way, we also visited the Castle of Good Hope (a pretty cool place to visit, don't miss the Key Ceremony), the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, and the Airsteam trailer accommodations on the roof of the Daddy Longlegs Hotel. We ate at many excellent restaurants, drank a lot of fantastic wine, rode the Wheel of Excellence (Thanks, Xanax! Love, Libby), and took a boat ride through the canals at the waterfront. It was a very fun trip!

On the Wheel of Excellence Ferris Wheel

Airsteam Trailer Accommodations. Maybe Someday!

- Perry

School Kitchen

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I am mostly going to let the following photos speak for themselves. A few facts:

• This "kitchen" works rain or shine.
• Most of the prep is done in the open air.
• Hard-working lunch ladies serve over 325 students every day from this "kitchen."
• The school faces a choice right now between hiring a teacher for a required course or building a new kitchen building, because there aren't funds for both. We suggested that the better choice right now is the teacher. We have offered to help the school write a grant to obtain funds for a new kitchen.

Kitchen

Lunch cooking

Lunch ladies

Prep area and wood gathered for cooking fire

So, how many of our blog readers would be willing to donate towards a new kitchen? Peace Corps allows us to solicit funds in a few different ways. One way is through the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP). A few facts about the PCPP:

• Projects are put on the Peace Corps website for fundraising. You would donate online.
• All donations are tax deductible.

I'm going to place a poll in the sidebar. Please help us out by taking it, or leave us a comment. Thanks!!

- Elizabeth

Ersatz Thanksgiving

Yesterday, Njabulo and I gave our unconventional thanks – on Sunday instead of Thursday, without turkey, and minus the cranberry sauce shaped like the can and green bean casserole. Instead, we feasted on slow roasted chicken legs with gravy, apple-herb dressing, and steamed green beans. Traditional? Kind of. Delicious? Absolutely! We didn't have dessert, because I forgot to buy a pie tin while we were in our shopping town, but next weekend we'll enjoy a butternut squash pie. Gotta have something to look forward to, right?

On Turkey Day proper, we're meeting fellow volunteers for Ethiopian food in Naas. Perhaps it'll become the new tradition here in Peace Corps SA! We'll definitely be thinking of everyone back home (Maple Leafers, enjoy the interdenominational service for me, it's one of my favorites!) and giving thanks for what we have, which is scads more than what the folks around us here have.

For your viewing pleasure, I present a photo of our pre-roasted legs, liberally rubbed under the skin with sage and thyme butter and nestled on a bed of aromatics, which flavored the gravy. The following photo shows our delicious apple herb bread dressing, made with leftover homemade French bread, onions, celery, apples, thyme, and sage, and the glorious roasted legs after a high heat blast to crisp the skin. Lastly, there's Njabulo ready to dig in, and my plate of food after being drenched with velvety gravy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

When I took the dinner photos off the camera, there were some miscellaneous photos I'll add to this post. The first two are of a lovely little mosque we ran across in our shopping town. There are a lot of Pakistanis and Indians in South Africa, and even out in the very rural areas you'll find mosques in the villages. 

 

Next is a photo of our school. I hope to do a post about our school soon, but that might not happen until we start teaching in January. Right now, for us at least, nothing much is going on (hence my regular Facebook presence ;)). The learners (we call them students) that are writing (we call it taking) tests come to school, write their test(s), and leave. The grade 12s, who have been living at the school for weeks, study and take their matric exams (needed to graduate, or here, matriculate) and the teachers all focus their efforts on invigilating (we call it proctoring), moderating, and grading tests. No teaching – even though I wrote lessons and attempted to deliver them. I have graded plenty of exams, however, which has been eye opening – we're going to be spending a lot of time remediating English!

Finally, we have the rest of the game drive photos, thanks to our fantastic game drive guide, Elsa! She put them all on a CD for us, we just need to edit them and, since there are many, wait until we have free wifi at in-service training (IST) to upload them. Speaking of IST, we're headed to Nelspruit then Pietermaritzburg in two weeks for thirteen days of training, which means thirteen consecutive days of hot showers, flushing toilets....and a pool!! Then, two days after returning from IST, we're off to Cape Town. We're staying at a guest house run by an Italian monastic order, the Scalabrini Brothers. All profits go to their various social programs. Check them out, super rates and a great cause. Woot! We're excited! 

- Elizabeth 

Kruger National Park

Nomsa naNjabulo savakashela eKruger National Park futsi sabona tilwane kakhulu!!

KNP - Malelane Gate 

Two weekends ago Njabulo and I went on a a day-long game drive in Kruger National Park. We used Echo Africa and our driver was Elsa, who was an excellent guide. What an awesome day! It was raining at 5:15AM when we were picked up from the backpacker's (in fact, we'd had a truly spectacular thunderstorm the night before, storms are awe-inspiring here!), but by the time we were in the park it was just misting and the rain eventually stopped. Drives are taken in nine passenger open-sided safari vehicles, but we only picked up one other passenger, a nice gentleman from Portugal, so we basically had an almost private tour. At first, we didn't see many animals, but later in the morning, we saw a wide variety of animals all over the park, and very close-up, too! I think the only animals we missed seeing were the leopard and the wild dogs – must save something for next time, though!

Lichen covered "balancing" rock. Amazing geology here!

Njabulo took a lot of good photos – but we only have about half of them on our computer right now, because our camera battery died around lunchtime and we used the guide's camera for the rest of the day. She's promised to leave a CD of the photos at the backpacker's we stay at, so hopefully we'll have them next weekend. Njabulo also has some video he's promised to edit – we can upload that when we're at the backpacker's, too. For now, these photos speak for themselves. 

I've posted my favorites, I'll upload the rest to Picasa next weekend!

- Elizabeth

For me the most amazing part of the trip was being 15 meters away from a pair of white rhinos munching contentedly on the grass. Rhinos have a reputation for being belligerent, but these two were quite mellow. Which is good, because rhinos are huge, muscular, and run very fast!

- Perry

White rhino. We have video, too, stay tuned! 

Crocodile.

Baboon troop. Saw many baboons.

Gnu and impala. Impala are ubiquitous.

Hippos.

"Zebra" millipede crossing the road. Usually all black - guide stated "zebras" are one in a thousand.

Dozing lion. Could literally have reached out and touched him.

Vervet monkeys and baby. A-dor-able!

Tawny eagle.

Adult and baby warthog. Babies have wide whiskers that emulate tusks.

Southern giraffe. We saw quite a few of them!

Zebra.

Elephant and baby. We should be getting a lot more elephant photos on the CD!

Lunch stop, last photo with our camera!

That's all for now, more soon!