“Screw You Guys, I Got It”

I’ve been living in flux for the last couple of weeks. Stuff got ugly at my homestay (for details, I’m accepting written inquiries), and I moved out. I’ve been staying with Fabienne, a friend and coworker at TVEP.

Her home is in Thate Vondo, an area in the mountains by the dam that waters Thohoyandou. I am currently hoping the real estate market up there improves so I might find a home where I will happily end my days.







Seriously.

It is that beautiful. Red dirt roads wind through rows of tall, thin evergreens and then past lemon and mango trees. The dam, which would more appropriately be called a lake, is nestled in green rolling hills that kind of make me think of Scotland - not that I’ve ever been. Its waters have been receding, uncovering the tops of trees that grew to maturity along the dam’s banks when it was much shallower. There’s also a small community of flooded rondavelds a little offshore. In my state of homelessness, I was hoping I could squat in one, lengthen the stilts a bit, bail out the water, take it on as a little fixer upper. After my morning jogs, I’ve been walking along the banks of the dam, scheming about how I might ultimately settle here. It would not take much for me to happily embrace hermitage.

My actual Thanksgiving Day was relatively nondescript. I went to work and returned to Thate with Fabienne. We had a braai, barbequed some veggie burgers, baked some potatoes, roasted some vegetables and had some wine. The dessert was the all-American S’More. I belong to the Torching school of marshmallow toasting - made unpopular by an unfavorable portrayal of one of our ranks: ‘Verno’ of Stand By Me. I flinch every time I see that scene. In any case, family holidays are not to be celebrated without families.

For Thanksgiving weekend, all the Venda volunteers trekked our way to Omar’s place out in the sticks. Omar is an education volunteer having the stereotypical Peace Corps experience. He lives in a tiny village with around 80 households. He has no electricity or indoor plumbing. When his water tank runs low, the Principal of one of his schools orders school children to bring buckets of water by wheel barrow to fill it. His outhouse is of an absurdly shallow depth; when you sit on the toilet, your feet stick out off the platform of the outhouse, making it impractical to try to close the door when you use the toilet. Inexplicably, he has a huge telephone pole in his yard.

Our Thanksgiving feast was awesome. Someone managed to find turkey, there was marshmallowy sweet potato (which mango somehow found its way into), stuffing, and pumpkin pie. I contributed, in lieu of my annual tofurkey, a purkey - that is, a pap turkey. It was an excellent substitute, perhaps better than the original and certainly easier to make. The pap is an excellent medium for molding. I will include it on my Christmas menu.







I moved into my new place this week and so, for those interested, I will be available by telephone for the first time in a couple weeks (there was no phone service in Thate).

My new living situation is sweet. I’m staying in a rondaveld and there’s a big garden ready to be planted. On one side of the yard is a mango tree, on the other a grape vine. I really hope this will be my last move for the next two years. I’ve been shuttled around more times than I care to think about in the last three months. I can’t help but be a little pessimistic though. Based on my own experience and the stories I’ve heard from Peace Corps Volunteers past and present, I can expect to move several more times if I live up to the average - the sad fact of what happens when you rely on the kindness of strangers to determine your housing situation.