The stars are so beautiful in Bushbuckridge!

Happy Wednesday!

On Saturday, I went with the group to Blyde river canyon which is the 3rd largest canyon in the world. I saw some beautiful views, amazing rock formations, and got to swim in waterfalls there too! For dinner, we ate at a 'pancake' place that is very popular in the area. The pancakes are kind of a mix of a crepe and a pancake stuffed with either sweets or savory treats. I got one stuffed with butter nut squash and feta. Yum!
Church! So great. This week I went with Eulanda, my older host sister, to her church (a different one from last week) called Zion. Again, I dress extremely modestly - hair covered, long sleeve shirt and long skirt. Most people dressed in the church colors, blue and white, however, we did not get the memo. As soon as we entered the church, the pastor welcomed us and thanked us for joining them as the first white people to pray with Zion ever. He told us that we are like angels to them and that we (Lan Sara and I) are lights on to the world. I felt extremely flattered despite the slight discomfort of so much praise.

A passage from the bible about love was read in Tsonga and translated to English for us. The remainder of the service consisted of various church members rising and sharing what their interpretation of the passage was...and low and behold most people drew connections to Valentine’s Day! (everyone is obsessed with Valentine’s Day here!) At the end of the service, they did a prayer for the sick where everyone formed a circle around the periphery of the church and in the center the pastors blessed the sick. During this time, all of the little kids came to stand near us, so we chose to play with them and hold their hands to make them feel comfortable with seeing white people probably for the first time. As we left, tons of church members approached us to shake our hands.

In the afternoon, I went with my host family to a traditional tribal dance festival. It was awesome and cool to be part of a local festival.
I've made quite a few observations about the Shangan community I'm living with from conversations with family and hearing from speakers.

According to my host sister, 3/4 of all girls here get pregnant out of wedlock - which is totally acceptable and due to many factors. Some girls do this to receive a money stipend from the government for each child they have (about $35 / month). Some get pregnant because many boy-friends refuse to use condoms in order to make sure their girl friends are faithful -which many times leads to pregnancy and spreading disease - another reason why the prevalence of HIV is so high here. Despite the high rates, there are many stigmas for HIV and few people get tested and disclose their status in fear of social discrimination.

Many interesting gender roles exist in the community. Polygamy is a widely accepted practice and many men have multiple wives that live in separate homes (usually without the husband at all). Many other men leave the village to find work elsewhere in order to support the family. The combination of the two factors, leave the village with very few male figures. The women raise the children and completely run the home, and family friends and neighbors play a large role in helping one another out. Especially in such a poverty-stricken area, families who have more food feed others and grandparents often look after the young. Mama Ivy is constantly feeding tons of people and cares for babies of villagers who need help. Because of this, there is s strong sense of social parenting in which all members of the community contribute to disciplining and raising a child.

The primary school system has much to be improved which is currently in the works of reform. There are no newspapers, no library, no internet café, and no community center. If anyone would like to have any of these resources, they must take a taxi to a bigger town 30 minutes away – which most people cannot afford. All politics are run by councilmen who are very stuck in the past and do little work for the underserved village people, and the chief is born into the position so there is no democratic process in choosing him. A lot of people I’ve spoken to think these men are corrupt. I have also been learning more about the resources here. Water is very scarce and not enough to support any large scale agricultural industry. Also this season it has not rained enough and consequently many of the crops have died. Yesterday, the group went to the district hospital about thirty minutes from the village. The road to get there was extremely bumpy and not super accessible. The hospital is highly understaffed, underfunded and with little resources. In the whole hospital, there are only 8 doctors! While touring around, I noticed so much overcrowding in the rooms. Many of the patients are there for TB, HIV, malaria, and chronic illnesses, and for the children, many suffer from diarrhea and respiratory infection. They claimed that the average stay of women in the maternity ward is 8 hours, including entering the hospital, birth, and post birth.

On a more positive note - I am treated more like a daughter now. I helped fetch water from the bore hole with a wheel barrel, helped mama cook, helped with the laundry... And now I am in the process of getting my hair braided from my host cousin Carola! Each day I love the family more and more. They are so wonderful and I really respect Mama and the daughters as being such kind and strong women.

Shab! (bye!)

Jess or Sinhle (my Tsonga name meaning beauty, also Eulandah's first name) or Jeska (my Tsongalized name, given by my host sisiters)