Random Learning Experiences

Random things I have learned in South Africa.

11.      Cockroaches might possibly be the creepiest bugs on the planet. They are huge for a bug, they are ridiculously fast, they can crawl up walls, and it is basically impossible to kill them. I sprayed on with Doom (the most powerful bug spray I have ever seen) and then smashed it with my flip flop and the next morning it was trying to escape the trash bag! I never understood why people always said cockroaches will be the only things to survive nuclear war, but now I get it.

22.      Doing laundry by hand totally sucks. One, it takes forever. Two, how are your clothes ever supposed to dry when it rains for three weeks straight? It doesn't matter if you hang them randomly all over your room, when it is cold they start smelling like mildew before they ever dry and then you just have to wash them all over again. Three, it hurts. By the time you are done scrubbing all your clothes in a bucket you have no skin left on your knuckles. By the time I leave in two years I am going to have super scary old lady looking hands, and the only way to prevent it is to wear dirty clothes for two years.

Random side note: the first time I did laundry in my rural village my host mom told me that it was not appropriate for me to wash my underwear all at once. Apparently I’m supposed to wash each pair every morning after my bucket bath. I’m not gonna lie, I am way too lazy to do that seeing as I already wake up at 5:30 am to take my bucket bath, so I now have to wash all my underwear in my room in secret, which makes me feel strangely scandalous.

33.      Public transportation in a 3^rd world country is the scariest thing I have ever experienced. The cars that we are crammed in are so old that I’m worried they will fall apart if we hit a bump. Even if there are seat belts  there are so many people shoved into one seat that you wouldn't possible be able to use them, and all the gogos (grandmothers) would look at you like you are crazy. On my last taxi ride I was stuffed in the back between two very very large women, who were both enjoying a meal of fried chicken and fries while we were waiting for the taxi to fill. By the time they driver got enough people in the back to be satisfied I was basically buried between peoples bags and the arms of the ladies next to me. Honestly riding on these taxis makes me want to go on a serious diet, because maybe if I was thinner I would have a little more breathing room. Then when I really think about it, it probably wouldn't help, because the gogos here are sadly extremely overweight, and even if I lost 20lbs I would still come out of the taxi feeling like I had been crushed.

44.      Being able to saw is an extremely useful skill. Hand washing clothes is not a gentle process, and eventually they start to fall apart at the seams. Luckily, if you had an amazing mom growing up who taught you the basics of sawing (thanks mom!!!) you don’t have to spend your small Peace Corps allowance on new clothes! I ripped my favorite pair of yoga pants my fist week at site and almost started crying. Then I remembered I had black thread in my little sawing kit and I stitched those yoga pants right up. I only brought one pair, so I would have not been a happy camper if they were ruined.

55.      Fridays will forever be renamed Fat Fridays in my book. Fridays are the only day that I get to go into town and go grocery shopping. It is also the only day that I am able to meet up with the closest volunteer to me. When you only go to the store once a week, and you have to be able to carry all of your groceries back home on the taxis, you really narrow down what you buy. This basically means that I have gotten really good at buying only the essentials, and forgo the snack foods I used to buy back home. I have my weekly shopping list, and I never buy anything that is not on that list. For someone who loves having snack foods, this has made for a rough transition during the week. So my friend Krista and I have decided that when we meet in town every Friday we are going to indulge on the things we don’t have during the week before we get all of our groceries. This has translated into going to KFC (the only restaurant in town) and getting milkshakes and fries, and then getting a bar of chocolate at the store. I think that if we are pretty much eating rice, oats, and vegetables 6 days a week, going all out one day won’t kill us. We have also become friends with the people working at the local KFC, and they always seem very excited to see us, so we wouldn't want to disappoint our new friends by eliminating Fat Friday.