The Site

The site preference sheet consisted of 4 questions.

If you had to choose, which sort of site would you have:

Rural or Urban-  Rural

Near other volunteers or Isolated- Near other volunteers

Name up to two people who you couldn’t work with.

            None

If you had a magic wand and could have one thing at your site, what would it be?

            Easy integration

After dropping off the last volunteer at their site, Charlie and I started the trip on the road to our site.  After 20 minutes or so ,we reached the bridge that crosses over the Limpopo River and passed over the last concrete of our voyage.  Bumpier roads than the road from Chokwe to Mabalane exist, but they are few.  After an hour of dirt-road driving, I was used to the bouncing around in my seat, the air coming in from the windows was a relief from the heat, and the excitement of the trip grew when our school director told us we were at the halfway point (a very unique tree between the road and train tracks).  After a while longer, we suddenly see a water tower, and the whites, yellows and greens of concrete houses with tin roofs.  Mabalane appears to be an oasis amidst the sea of sand and shrubbery.

Our house is a small, two-bedroom and one large room concrete structure with a tin roof.  My favorite part is the latrine/bathhouse: a squat toilet with raised foot-pads, kingly; clean concrete with no roof so you can see the stars if you make the venture at night (don’t forget the broom, there’s other patrons in the latrine at night).   The stars at here are breathtaking, and new (if anyone is feeling generous, a southern hemisphere star chart would earn you honorable mention and perhaps a gift in return).  We’ve been putting a lot of work into the house, and it’s starting to feel like home.

If Mabalane is bigger than Plainfield, Iowa, it’s not by much.  I love it.  The walk from my house to the villa takes around twenty minutes, and another ten minutes to walk to the mercado and paderia (bakery) other side of town.  We make the walk almost everyday for fresh produce; it’s different living sem (without) refrigerator.  There’s always someone happy to talk with us, usually a future student who assumes the two new malongos (white people) in town are the new teachers.  We definitely get some stares, but most of the time it’s out of curiosity.  The kids always crack a smile if you wave at them.  The majority of the professors at the school are in their 20’s and 30’s, are welcoming to Charlie and I.  Boa ambiente.

 Tem um bom dia,

dylan

P.S. sorry it's taken so long for me to write, but we've been having a bit of a crisis here with energy and flooding.  I'll be adding more blogs in the near future hopefully.