PST part 2

Training, where to begin explaining training. It is basically like I am back in college but longer days and harder classes. The first week of training pretty much consisted of sitting in a classroom from 8am to 5pm. There we learned to great in five different languages, got like six more shots, and spent hours going over the different aspects of our assignments and why we are here in South Africa. We would get up, eat, go to classes, eat, and go to bed. You basically were too jetlaged and tired to do anything else. It was very overwhelming at times. So over whelming that we have already had three volunteers leave.
At the end of the first week of training the instructors announced our target language, and intorduced us to our host families that we would be living with for the next six weeks. I was very excited to find out that I would be learning isiZulu because it only has three clicks in it. It has yet to seem like that makes it any easier, but I have an amazing language group and language instructor. I am part of the youngest language group in SA26 (South Africa group 26), but it has turned out to be a lot of fun. My language partners Andrea and Ted are super fun and we all get along really well, and Samke is a fabulous language instructor. We are actually doing great as a group.

After languages were ancounced the first week, all of the host families came to meet their new American children. It was sureal. As the host families started showing up they would all line up on one side of the parking lot while we stayed on the other side. It seemed like they were all whispering to eachother about which one of us they wanted in languages that we didnt understand. Then once everyone arrived we were ushered inside and called one by one to come up to the front of the room to be introduced to your new South African families. I'm pretty sure I was shaking as I walked to the front to give my host mom a hug, but I was extremely releaved when she greeted me in English. Now I love my host family. My mom speaks English which is super helpful for everyday things, and then I have two sisters who are 9 and 6. They don't really speak English, but they love to play with me, especially with my hair. They think my long hair is fake, but that doesnt stop them from always wanting to touch it and braid it.

In this area people live in cement houses with in roofs. There is no insulation in the walls or the ceilings, so at night it gets pretty cold. My family has a pretty nice three bedroom place with an attached kitchen. We have a flushing toilet, which is kind of a big deal, and running water. Most likely I will have neither of these when I actually get to my site, but for now it is a nice thing to have. So strange difference number one; to get to the bathroom you have to go outside, which at night is not really safe. So when we got to our families everyone was given a small bucket, this is our night pee bucket. If you have to go to the bathroom after all the doors have been locked you get to pee in your bucket in your room. I try to time my last bathroom run right before the family goes to bed so that I dont have to do that and so far I have been fortunate enough not to wake up in the middle of the night with the overwhelming urge to pee. It starts to get a little more complicated when someone has a runny tummy, but I'm sure you can guess how that works out. Strange difference number two; even though we are in a relatively large village showers do not exist. Even if you have running water there is no such thing has hot running water, so when you need to wash, you get to do it in a bucket.

This is my bucket bath. In the morning I wake up and boil two kettles of water, add some cold water until the water is a good temp, then take it back to my room. I put it on my chair and stand on a towel. You then take your washcloth and start to scrub. When it is time to rinse I move my bucket to the floor, get in it, and take my little cup that is used to pour water down myself. It basically sucks and is super cold even though the water is warm. For the next two years my back is basically never going to be clean because none of us have yet to figure out how to scrub our whole backs and to pour water down them without it getting all over the entire bedroom. However, the really fun part happens when you need to wash your hair. Turns out a lot of female Peace Corps volunteers end up shaving their heads because washing your hair sucks so bad. You basically put your bucket on the chair, flip your hair and head upside down and put it in your bucket. You then take your cup and pour water down your head, which also ends up going all down your face, in order to get all of your hair wet. Then you shampoo upside down, attempt to rinse all of it out, and if your feeling super motivated you repeat that process with conditioner. I have stopped conditioning my hair because it is impossible to get it all out. You are rinsing your hair with the water that is now full of shampoo, so basically conditioning is a huge waste of time and just prolongs that amount of time that you are freezing in your room. 

Strange difference number three; washing your laundry in the middle of your lawn which is also right next to the road is weird. I used to complain when I had to sit at the laundromat for two hours while my 3 to 4 loads of laundry washed themselves in the washer machines, but I will never complain about that again. Laundry here consists of four phases. Phase 1, wash. You fill a giant tub with freezing cold water, add the soap, add your clothes, and then hand scrub all of them. Today was my third experience washing my clothes and I still rubbed the majority of the skin off of my hands. So once you give up on trying to srub your clothes and end up just duncking then around a bunch, you toss them into another bucket of freezing water to rinse, which is Phase 2. After swishing them around a little there, you throw them into the final bucket of water to rinse again. Phase 3 is then to hang all of your clothes, including your nice Victoria Secret bras and undies up on the clothes line that is parallel to the public road outside your house. I have realized I'm not a fan of letting everyone in the neighborhood see my undies. Unfortunately there is no other option so I guess I will get used to it. Once they are dry you have reached Phase 4, ironing. South Africa takes appearence very seriously. If you look dirty they will tell you. So everything you own has to be clean and looking freshly ironed whenever you walk out of the house. I cant remember the last time I ironed anything in the states, but I am a pro now.

Speaking of phase 4 my clothes are probably dried by now, so I will finish my update on life in a South African village and school tomorrow!