Well, I have successfully lived through my first week in the bush. Mind you, I haven't really been "roughing" it. But I have been toughing it out. Those of you who have ever moved in with your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/lover will know there is a major adjustment period at first. Take that, coupled with not having anything major to do, and you have a rather oddly uncomfortable situation!
However, I've been trying to make the best of it and am continuing to live out Betty Crocker fantasies, including making sweet tea and chocolate chip cookies (out of the last bag of nestle chips!!!). Martha Stewart would be oh-so-proud of the hand painted labels I made for the different plants of the garden. And I believe that Wonder Woman and the Power Girls would be alarmingly impressed at the ferociousness with which I tackle zooming wasps with my kitchen tea towel (albeit takes me numerous attempts to zap the buggers). Even Bob Ross would be envious of my curling hair and my nimble paint fingers. Only thing is I think Farmer John would be little impressed with my failing muscles and flimsy efforts at pulling up the grass in the garden, for in the end the gardener, Myoba, had to lend a helping hand.
It's definitely taking some time to get used to being my own super hero, for during the day, that's all I've got! Johannes and I have been managing pretty well for our first week of domestic-dom. Mind, there have definitely been some squabbles and quibbles and oh, have I a rare one on my hands. I think of all the comments dedicated to "men" and their ways of being...being a bit unpracticed, I've probably always ignore a lot of that. But just imagine, for all the women who complain about their men's preoccupation with their sports -- well, with Johannes, he's preoccupied with finding elephant dung for the garden. Hmmm! But even still, he did all the laundry by hand this weekend and so, I'm in favor of the rare but true!
I will say life is pretty steady here. Kwa Zulu Natal experiences its rainy season during the summer and so the air is thick and sticky. I'd go so far as to say it's the density of New Orleans summer drudge. Johannes rises at 5:30 to begin his work and I struggle to fall back asleep with the brightness of the morning light. Myoba, the gardener/caretaker for this part of the farm, comes by every morning at 8 to collect the trash. He's teaching me spare bits and pieces of isiZulu and so, from him, I gather a very important ounce-worth of social time for the day. The morning tends to be dry and the animals stick to their coverings amongst the tall grasses. The dark, heavy clouds come out at about 3 and the earth starts rumbling in the distance. The birds call out tropical sounds but I have difficulty spotting them from the house. And in all this, I try my best to fill my day from morning til 5:30 when Johannes returns from work.
Our garden is starting to look good. I found seedlings at a nursery yesterday for ZAR 25 cents each!!! I stocked up our herb garden and planted some veggies to give us a head start. I also planted some material from seed, so we'll see if any of it actually makes it to our table. Johannes and I spent ages digging the rows on Sunday and we edged the space with some really beautiful leftover slate he found. Our well-intentioned game drive on Sunday turned rainy, and so, we spent the ride chasing heaps of elephant dung and shovelling it into the back of his massive Land Cruiser. Hopefully, it will make our clay-ish soil a bit more happy. While we wait for our crop, we're lucky the empty, neighboring house has mango trees to offer with the most delicious fruit ever.
Both yesterday and today I dedicated my mornings to looking for work at some of the local schools. The closest "big" town is roughly 25 miles away, taking about 40 minutes with all the dirt roads. Fields of sugar cane line the roads amongst the other neighboring game farms. I met some really nice principals and got a rather great tour of a few schools by one man, Mr. Swanepoel. He introduced me to the Department of Education and everyone I met seemed impressed with my work and ready to take me on The only barrier is the red tape standing in the way. This area is filled with un-qualified teachers and technically, I'm just another one. If I were qualified I could easily get a job in any of the schools of my choosing. But without the qualification I'm only able to fill current vacancies. So far I know of a couple vacancies and those schools are willing to have me, but the transfer paperwork might take 1-2 months to complete....so we shall see if there is work for me in that domain.
Today I visited a farm school much closer - 12 miles away. They seem desperate for good teachers and the life situations of the students seem dismal. Just to come to school these students must walk 2 hours each way. It was like this in the flat, dry Free State -- but here it seems even more unimaginable with gargantuan hills and dense heat to trudge through. I spoke with a teacher + the principal. The teacher, Ludno, asked quite frankly if I were South African. When I explained, he said he'd wondered because he thought there was no way a young, white South African female teacher would dare venture to such a poor, rural school. He's probably right - I think young teachers are a dying breed here anyhow, but I would imagine in the white population they are especially rare. The students all stared at me - probably because they almost never interact with white people. I realize this is a very different part of South Africa compared with anywhere else I have been so far.
I have a butternut soup calling me from the oven, but before I go, I just want to give a few details to accompany the photos/drawings. At the top, the green hill is from the leafy Transkei, which we drove through last week. The graphite drawing + detail are from a piece I started when I went out with Johannes to work one day last week - he had the opportunity to hire a huge planar/saw from Durban to cut up this fallen piece of African Teak. The wood was so heavy and huge, they had to cut it up in the valley where it fell. An extremely beautiful wood, it took these guys over a day to chop the whole thing into workable pieces! The other images are from the garden, seed pods Johannes brought back from Mozambique, 2 other paintings I did in Decembe, + 1 little painting of the view out our bedroom window.
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