Botshabelo: A place of refuge: March 2013

Spring Break

Before I go into my trip to Cape Town for Spring Break, I just want to briefly talk about something really important.

On Sunday, as we were climbing a mountain called Lion’s Head, Daphne and I got an important phone call. As we were descending, Daphne got a call from our roommate, Niels. He informed us that our dear friend Dee had passed away earlier that afternoon. This was devastating news. Daphne, Niels, and I had all developed an important relationship with Dee during our time at Botshabelo. Dee was the 1^st grade teacher I took the place of in February. She was a mother, a grandmother, a sister, a friend and a savoir. She had two children of her own and a black son she adopted. Dee was white Afrikaans and she comes from a generation of people who were (are) extremely racist and unjust. However, Dee was different. Dee loved all people despite skin color. She even worked closely with the SPCA in South Africa and adopted and fostered multiple stray pets. She came to Botshabelo when her family business went bankrupt and took a teaching position. Dee was ostracized by her family for adopting a black child and the only people that would talk to her were her children. Dee’s death will go unnoticed by many in her community and even her family, but I want to share with all my readers what a kind, loving, and beautiful person Dee was. Dee loved unconditionally, fought for equality and justice, and was a martyr for the underserved. May she rest in peace. We all love you and miss you, Dee.

I also want to share my time in Cape Town, so please enjoy these pictures. The first group of photos is from our time spent in Muizenberg, a surf city outside Cape Town. I quite enjoyed our trip to this beach. The amount of manly attractive surfer men was almost overwhelming. BABE ALERT, you guys.

The next group of photos is from our trip to Robben Island. This is the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years behind bars. It's a beautiful island off the Cape. Before Robben Island became a prison for political prisoners it was a leper colony. I actually have a silly story about the leper colony. Ok, so, when Daph and I were sitting in the tour bus on Robben Island, the tour guide started to explain the history of the leper colony. Daph's English isn't the best so I was helping her understand the tour guide. I was like, "Do you know what leprosy is?" and she goes, "Yeah, it's like this" and she bent her limbs all crooked and made this really weird sick face and all I could think was, "Yes... that's actually really accurate...". We were laughing so hard! But leprosy isn't funny, it's sad. Daph just does a really good leper impression. Enjoy these pictures.

Nelson Mandela's Cell

Nelson Mandela's bathroom!

A picture when all Robben Island Prisoners were released. Freeeeedom!

I feel like this would be a good time to start talking about apartheid... But, that will have to wait until next week after I have visited the apartheid museum in Johannesburg.

Of course, we also spent some time climbing the mountains of the Cape. Here are pictures of Lion’s Head Mountain. Daphne was not a fan of this mountain. Kathryn and I, however, had an amazing time.

Anddddd finally, please enjoy these pictures of mine and Daph’s adventure with great white sharks. I don’t have any pictures of the sharks because I was too busy puking over the side of the boat. After 5 hours in the choppy waters of the Atlantic, I was so sick I couldn’t even lift my camera for pictures. By the time I was actually in the water with the sharks, I was so worried I was going to puke on the sharks; I hardly noticed the great whites swimming next to me. All in all this adventure would have been significantly better if I hadn’t gotten so seasick. It was still really awesome, though. I bought a video of our trip, so I can just show it to anyone interested when I get home. Luckily, they didn't film me vomiting everywhere.

See the outline of the shark?!

So, that was my Spring Break. After we got back to Botshabelo, I had to clean up a hut that was previously inhabited by a man who is now dying of septicemia (his foot was infected with gangrene and now the worms are just eating his entire leg). There is just nothing better than coming home from paradise to clean up an infested village hut! I got some good pictures of this experience. We ended up burning everything because all his stuff was infested with bed bugs. Have you ever seen a mattress ripple when you touched it? I have! And not because it was soft. It was infested with bed bugs. Seriously, this hut was a public health petri dish. We called each other the 'Septicemia Clean-up Crew 2013'. I have never smelled something so vile. I even found maggots that could swim and they had little tails. I researched them and they are called Rat-Tail maggots. They are often found in sewage. These maggots even live in gastrointestinal tracts. That means the previous inhabitant of this hut also had these worms because I found them in his toilet. YOU GUYS, I am a scientist. Thanks, wikipedia.

After we cleaned and disinfected

I love Cape Town. I love Africa. I love these people. I even love Rat-Tail Maggots. Maybe I won’t ever come back home.

Christy

This past week we had 15 Norwegian visitors come to Botshabelo to volunteer for 5 days. The majority of their time was spent teaching the kids and cleaning up our garden. They also helped our kids make Easter baskets. It's a little early for Easter, so why they choose to make baskets is a little beyond me, but it was cute, I guess. At the end of the week we decided to show the visitors how we do Easter at Botshabelo and even had a practice Easter egg hunt with them. I will explain Easter at Botshabelo in more length once we have our real Easter celebration, because it's a very emotional and important holiday here. Until then, enjoy these pictures of our premature Norwegian Easter egg hunt:

Yesterday Dr. Braam (our in-house Dentist for 3 weeks) left Botshabelo. Since our Dentistry project is now over and I have stopped teaching 1st grade, my duties are about to change this coming Monday. I am hoping to start working more intimately with the village. Here is a cute picture of Dr. Braam:

Ever since Daphne and I started working with the Dentist, the villagers have started to get to know us. This is special, because the people in the village are especially weary of visitors. Usually the visitors ignore the villagers because the village is sort of dangerous. Many people have serious issues with alcoholism and there is a high rate of assault. Daph and I weren't even allowed to go in the village without an escort... Now, things have changed and we wonder around the village quiet often to do different odd jobs. This past week we have been going in and assisting people with feeding their dogs. The villagers aren't the best pet owners because of their limited resources, so we go and feed their pets and make sure the living conditions are acceptable. If the animals are in a poor condition then we report it to the SPCA and they get picked up. It's a strange job because it requires a certain level of assertion that is incredibly uncomfortable for Daphne and I. It makes me wonder about cultural differences concerning pet ownership. Am I just stomping around enforcing my Western expectations of pet care onto these poor, unsuspecting villagers? Is that appropriate? Sometimes I will literally be standing 2 inches away from someones face yelling, WHEN YOU GET YOUR PENSION MONEY YOU WILL BUY ONE BAG OF DOG FOOD OR I AM SEIZING YOUR PET! Part of me wants to consider rethinking my approach because it's terribly abrasive (South African confrontation is like this, though). I think for the 1st time in my life my loud voice and natural bossiness is finally doing some good! Anyways, speaking of pets... Daphne and I caught three kittens this week. We decided that each of us in the house would be in charge of a cat. I named mine Waffles, Daph named hers Puppy and Niels named his Diesel. We think Diesel is an ugly name so we have been calling his cat Gasoline in hopes that he'll change the name. This only irritates him.

Daphne only has one more month here and it makes me really sad to think of her leaving. As I type this, we are sitting at a restaurant in Magaliesburg using the free wifi and she's speaking really loudly in Dutch to her friends on her phone. Sometimes when Daph is really sleepy, she'll talk to me in Dutch and it's so cute... because I don't know Dutch and I'll just stare at her, waiting for a translation. Her English is really funny! The way she explains things is adorable. This morning she asked me, "Will you live in the bed forever?" instead of, "When are you getting out of bed?". When we say goodnight she says, "Ok bye" instead of "goodnight". Two weeks ago she got a terrible spider bite and she had to get a shot in her butt and kept telling people she got a shot in her "bump" (she meant to say bum). When she likes something she says it's 'horny'. As an example, she eats these egg-shaped chocolates with marshmallow and it's her favorite so she calls them her 'horny eggs'. When she's exhausted she says, "I am too tired for the world". When she's sad she says, "I am desperate". Anytime she says a long sentence she ends it with, "you know what I am meaning?". I can't wait to go to Amsterdam and visit her.

Enjoy these random photos: