that's not the humidity you feel... it's AYOBA!

Today is the shortest day of the year... or the longest, depending on the hemisphere.  Down here, the sun set around 5pm and the thought of the days getting longer gives me a lot of joy.
Though the South African winter is heavenly, the short days sometimes make me feel like hibernating... which is what I did for the majority of last week, when my annual bout of coughing, sneezing, and general unhealthiness took over.  Those kind of symptoms usually rear their ugly heads come October at home (my brief encounter with pneumonia last year?  Anyone?)-- which makes me right on schedule, on southern hemisphere time of course.  Luckily, with some rest and TLC from my roommates, the World Cup holiday provided an excellent opportunity for recuperation.  As a bonus, I also got to spend some quality time with the Fitzpatricks, our longtime family friends.  They're here in South Africa to see some World Cup matches and to revisit a country they left behind back when my parents left, so it was really nice to have an adopted family for a little while.  They stayed at a friend's house in Umhlanga Rocks, a northern suburb of Durban that I hadn't visited yet, so I enjoyed seeing another part of the city.

The World Cup has been a very unique aspect to being my year as an Augustinian Volunteer here in South Africa thus far.  It's colored everything I've done, from geography lessons at St. Leo's to weekend plans to rearranged schedules and new safety precautions.  Though I was apprehensive about South Africa's readiness to host such a massive event, and though I still have some reservations about the impression that people who visit are getting of this country, I've been overwhelmingly impressed by the festivities thus far.  It hasn't been easy to be away from the kids we see five days a week ordinarily, but the sense of celebration that has taken over the city, the country, and most likely the world at large, is hard to ignore.  Even if "Wave Your Flag" and "Waka Waka" are played on repeat on the radio (or at clubs in Durban), I still feel a wave of emotion when they come on during half-time down at the fan parks on the beach.  I'm happy to deck myself out in South African gear for Bafana Bafana games, or drape myself in red, white, and blue to see the US play.

Meeting people from all over has been an amazing experience as well, especially when we get asked, "Oh, are you here for the World Cup?"  Though they could be pure social interactions, these encounters offer us an opportunity to explain our work here, and just last weekend we met a Yale graduate who is also a full-time volunteer, up north in Mtubatuba; his organization uses soccer as a vehicle for HIV/AIDS education in the bush.

It's hard to be a volunteer with a full-time job when the rest of the country seems to be on vacation; the influx of visitors to Durban alone have really boosted the energy of the city, and it's made it very difficult to return to our jobs come Monday.  Today was the first day of the holiday program we're offering to our learners at St. Leo's, and after a restless night last night and feeling generally apathetic about the prospect of working this week, I was so happy to see some of my students and spend the day with them, playing soccer, doing word searches, and feeling relieved knowing that at least some of them were keeping themselves occupied during this extra-long break from school.  Becca was a star and led the kids in a paper mache project which they all loved!  The camp will continue for the rest of this week and next week as well, and we've been assured that the numbers of kids will only increase over time.  It's nice to interact with our learners outside of a teacher/student relationship.  I only hope they'll remember who the teacher is when July 13th rolls around!

All in all, I continue to hope that this World Cup will result in more positive than negative for South Africa.  I'm nervous at the prospect of all the jobs that have been created for the month-long event becoming obsolete, and reports of missing children in some of the areas we work in have started to surface, but I hope that they come from misinformation and are no more than rumor.
In the meantime, all we can do is make an effort to keep the people we serve safe and happy, and let the rest of the month unfold as it will... and maybe enjoy a little ayoba on the side.

it thrills me right down to the marrow

I can't count the number of times I've sat down to post an entry here and share my crazy life over the past few weeks.  One appendix surgery, water and electricity outages, a midyear retreat, and a World Cup later, it's almost mid-June and sometimes the speed with which time passes is scary (especially when I mark my time according to blog posts!)

So, I'm going to cheat now and write a list of things that are important to mention, and write a real entry soon, hopefully with photos!

• We had two visiting groups, one from Villanova University and one from Malvern Prep, at the end of May... and they got the real African experience when we didn't have water and then didn't have electricity in the space of five days!
• My roommate Mary-Kate had to get her appendix out a few weeks ago, very suddenly, but with a couple of days in the hospital, lots of rest, and some good old-fashioned TLC, she's on the mend and is back to work for the most part.
• We had our midyear site visit from Pat, our supervisor back in the US, and though we had to rearrange plans because of MK's surgery, we had a really nice retreat and took some time to reflect about reaching the midyear point in our year of service... thank goodness we live next-door to a retreat house and got to get out of our house for a weekend!
• School closed last Wednesday for winter break, meaning a four-week break for the World Cup holidays which is a bit longer than usual.  We've organized a holiday program for some of our learners, which starts next Monday-- and I've been taking the time without the kids to organize the library!  It needs lots of work, but I'm happy to have some time to do it before our two-week camp starts.  I miss the kids a lot already.
• I got to go and see Johnny Clegg with some of my roommates and our South African friends last week, which was a really cool experience-- he had a band called Juluka during apartheid with a Zulu man named Sipho Mchunu, and was banned from playing in public spaces and things... now he tours mostly as a solo act, but seeing him the night before the World Cup kickoff was a big thrill.  How can you not love an artist who has a song with lyrics like I'm sitting on the top of Kilimanjaro; it thrills me right down to the marrow?!
• Last but not least................. the World Cup has arrived!  Everything is in full swing here, and while I had and still do have some reservations about South Africa hosting the event, we spent a lot of time at the fan parks down in Durban this weekend, standing on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean, deafened by vuvuzelas and sharing the excitement with people from all over the world-- and the significance of such a momentous event being held in this country is overwhelming.  I just hope it continues without a hitch, and that I can find some time to enjoy it and still keep working hard.  Some good family friends, the Fitzpatricks, are flying to South Africa today for some of the games, and I'm really looking forward to meeting up with them and seeing some friendly faces later this week.  I also ran into a guy who went to my university while at the fan park on Friday night; sometimes the world is a very small place!

Hopefully I'll find time to concentrate on some more reflective writing soon, but for now, I'll go on feeling very lucky to be in South Africa this year.

grade 3 goes mtv.

When Grade 3 won't pay attention at the end of the day, sometimes all you can do is dance to Beyonce.  But I'm almost positive I've never seen Beyonce dance like this...

worth 1000 words...

back to 'ubuntu'.

You know you live in South Africa when you go for your Saturday morning run and see what you are convinced is yet another pesky monkey... but upon closer inspection, it turns out to just be a cat.

And then you go two days without running water because "the reservoir is empty" and have to fill up buckets, jugs, anything you can find-- just to be able to wash dishes and brush your teeth-- when the eThekwini Municipality water truck trundles down the street.  You learn why Zulu women carry their heavy loads on their heads; who knew it would be much easier to walk back up Warwickshire Crescent once you learn to maintain balance with a couple of kilos on your head?  And then, after dutifully accepting that you'll have to suffer one more day before trekking to the parish at Kloof for a shower, the water spurts out of the taps and for the next couple of days, every time you turn on the tap you'll be thankful for the gift of running water.

Amidst homesickness, frustration, even fatigue, it's hard to forget where I am. Constantly being reminded of my surroundings has helped to bring me back to the reasons I decided to sign up for this crazy experience.
I stand at morning prayer with my students at St. Leo's, basking in the smiles on their faces, humbled by the devout way they close their eyes and fold their hands while they pray.  I watch the boys of Cottage 4 at St. Theresa's Home for Boys struggle through the choreography during a dance class, and can't help loving them even when they won't sit down to do homework.  They're getting ready to perform at Moses Mabhida stadium here in Durban during the World Cup, and the prospect of seeing them on TV might be the thing I look forward to most during this FIFA fever craziness.

I share frustration, sadness, and laughter with the three other girls in my community-- even sometimes sharing silence too-- and our level of comfort and closeness with one another is such a good thing to have.  We may spend every waking moment together, but we can't be completely tired of each other yet, and we're not, if our excitement about a weekend away together is anything to go by!

It's not easy to be a volunteer, and I have to admit that May has been the toughest month personally so far, but with the midway point in sight, I'm trying really hard to keep in mind the fleeting nature of time.  Before I have a chance to absorb all my experiences and feelings during my time here, that time will have passed and I'll be back in the US, heartbroken to have left my year here in the past.

And so, I'm repositioning myself and getting back to where I was before-- excited, motivated, and feeling very lucky to be able to nurture the friendships and relationships that South Africa's ubuntu has given me.
I am, because we are.

"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

the god of small things.

Sometimes, it's in the smallest ways that you realize someone is looking out for you after all.

Found by Becca, taken while camping in Scottsburgh this weekend.

a monday in may.

In many ways, I find it hard to believe that the first of May has come and gone.  Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the green is draining out of the trees and grasses and the flowering trees have long since shed their blooms.  But the weather continues to surprise us Northern Hemisphere natives, and with trips to the beach in what should be the onset of winter, I can't complain about the weather.

I find it really hard to keep up with this blog thing, which is hard to admit because I really enjoyed blogging previous to my arrival in South Africa, when my life was much more average and the most exciting things in my day were discoveries on the internet.  But the pace of my life as a volunteer has been very different than I'd expected coming into this year.

I have to take things one day at a time, because trying to think ahead, especially when I'm feeling stressed out or homesick and lonely makes the next seven months seem very long indeed.  Making lesson plans from one week to the next is about the furthest thing I can do in advance, and even that is a real effort most of the time.  With long workdays, language barriers (which are being broken down little by little, but still), and four hundred learners in the classroom a week, I'm exhausted when I get home at the end of a day, and by the time Friday rolls around, having a drink with my roommates and our South African friends is a real treat.  After laundry, a trip to the farmers' market, maybe some time at the beach or out in Durban on a Saturday night, and mass together with my community, all of a sudden Sunday night has come and gone and Monday rears its ugly head once again.

But I can't complain.  Though the days are long, weeks are flying by and I sometimes feel like time is passing too quickly.  Although I miss home very much, I'm very distracted most of the time which helps keep my mind off the many miles in between me and the people I love.  But I'm managing fine, and finding that I have very little trouble operating normally in a culture and society very different from that of the northeastern United States.  I had suspected in the past that I was adaptable, but I think being in South Africa has made me realize how grateful I am for the spectrum of experiences I've had thus far in foreign places, and how they've shaped me into a receptive, interested person.

In other, petty news...

1.  Our house is home to a mouse or two, one of whom I have named Wilbur.  He likes to scratch in the room where Becca and I sleep at night, just to let us know he's still around.  I wish he would eat the poison we left out for him but he doesn't seem to like it.
2.  We got two flat tires in one week in our big car, thus continuing to prove my theory that I have the world's worst luck with car tires.
3.  Though I've been much better at trying while here in South Africa, I still cannot dance, which my students love to point out every time we bring an iPod into class.
4.  South African avocados are huge, mutant things (photo to come), but have gotten me horrifically addicted to homemade guacamole.
5.  As my finances look quite shabby upon my return to the US come December, I have decided to bring the almighty bunny chow stateside.  Look for "Sinead's Bunny Chow Shack" franchises opening near you in 2011.

I feel quite guilty that my lovely family paid me an extended visit over the Easter holiday, and I have yet to prove that they were ever here... so as soon as I can, I'll get some photos up here and try to recap our whirlwind ten days together.
But I think I'm afraid to start looking through the pictures as it will just make me miss home (and Mum's cooking) all the more!

And thus ends the most scattered blog post ever.  Apologies.