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| Guess who made an appearance behind my house? The famous and rarely seen Tshane camel! |
Le teng borra le bomma? How are you ladies and gents? This last week and a half has probably been the most intense week I've had since I moved to Tshane. More intense than when I had lions sharpening their claws outside of my tent? More intense than the time I walked through the salt pan when it was wet and almost lost my life sinking in the muck? Yes.
In my last post I described how busy this past week was going to be for me. Monday, the 18th, I taught my first aerobics class at Tshane Police Station. The ladies who organized it had requested Hip Hop Dancing as the theme. I spent the day choosing music, choreographing a dance, and hoping that they wouldn't think my fly moves were stupid. All that worry was for nothing when, after the class, my "students" bragged about their awesome USA dance coach all over Facebook. The class was great: lots of energy, laughter, and fun people. We even had two men attend!
On Tuesday morning, I gave a presentation about Budgeting/Financial Management, Anger Management, and Stress Management at the Meteorology Station. I finished the workshop with a relaxation exercise complete with some Enya and a guided meditation. I received lots of thoughtful questions from the participants and they seemed to enjoy the relaxation. I was served tea and cookies afterwards, always a plus.
Later that day, my friend, Ashley, PCV from Lehututu, came to my village to spend the night and watch my GrassRootSoccer Club. She is thinking about starting a club at the primary school in her village. We donned our "sportswear" and went to the school. We waited for the kids to show up and after 30 minutes of waiting I went to their classrooms to find out what was up. The teachers had decided to keep them after school to prepare for their end-of-term exams. Unfortunately, they had neglected to inform me of this so I was pretty ticked when I had to cancel GrassRootSoccer for the week. Club Cancelled. Ashley and I went back to my house, cooked pasta, and drowned our frustrations in cocktails.
Wednesday morning, Ashley and I hitchhiked to Hukuntsi to attend a meeting we had scheduled with a man from the youth office. Having seen the need for women's empowerment, we wanted to plan a women's forum to discuss such issues as masturbation as a healthy alternative to sex, female condoms, and domestic violence. When we got to the youth office, our counterpart was nowhere to be found. Meeting cancelled. Boo.
I hitched back to my village and prepared for that evening's aerobics class: Kenpo! I was super excited to share kick boxing with my "students." They love Jackie Chan movies and who can't use some cool martial arts moves? I showed up at the police station only to find that there was a meeting going on in the room where we do aerobics. Me and my people waited an hour for the meeting to end and when it didn't, we had to cancel class. Class cancelled. Boo.
I spent Thursday resting because I was completely tuckered out from the events, or lack of events, during the week. I woke up from a nap and went into my kitchen to make dinner. When I turned on the tap all that came out was a slow trickle of water. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I went into panic mode and filled up all the containers I had. I managed to fill up the bathtub with about 5 inches of water before it went out altogether. In this village, we don't store water because it NEVER goes out. I spent Thursday night thinking about the ramifications of not having water. No bathing. No cleaning. Mathata. Problem. I have a rainwater collection tank in my yard, nearly empty, that I use to water my garden. The water in the tank is not potable and it is too salty for bathing. And I need it for my garden!
Friday morning the water was still out. I had about 10 liters of water stored in my freezer and fridge, enough to sustain me for 3 days. I decided not to exercise because I had a health talk to attend that afternoon and the last thing I needed was to get sweaty! The officer in charge of the prison informed me that he had arranged for someone to pick me up at 1:30 pm so I wouldn't have to make the 45-minute trek to the prison in the afternoon heat. 1:30 came and went. 2:00 came and went (the time that my health talk was supposed to start.) At 2:45 I gave up on waiting for the ride and set out walking to the prison. My health talk started an hour and 15 minutes late but I think it went pretty well. I talked to the men about what happens to your body after HIV infection using pictures of HIV, bacteria, and white blood cells pinned to a volunteer's shirt. I showed them how after infection, the viral load goes up, then down, then the CD4 count goes down. During the Q&A session we ended up talking about masturbation, extra-pulmonary TB, oral sex, you name it. They aren't used to having somebody, especially a woman, that will answer any and all of their questions. Masturbation is taboo here and I'm trying really hard to promote it as a healthy alternative to risky behavior.
Friday night, it rained: the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. We are in another drought season, not having had any rain for at least a month. I imagined my rainwater tank replenishing. Saturday morning my garden was very happy. All of my plants were perky and smiling. It rained again in the afternoon and then all night. I am convinced that all of the positive energy you guys sent this way helped us out. Sunday night we had a trickle of water and I filled up my bathtub to the top. Yesterday I was able to wash clothes, mop the floor, and then take a bath with the water I had saved in my tub. As of today, the water is running. Let's hope that it doesn't go back out anytime soon.
Last night I taught my second aerobics class. We finally got to do the Kenpo that I had planned for last week. It was a really good workout but I don't think my people enjoyed it as much as they enjoyed hip hop dancing. They requested dancing for Wednesday so I think that we are just going to do dancing every time! I have already made a playlist and when I go home for lunch I'm going to choreograph a dance! My ultimate aerobics idea is a Michael Jackson themed class, music, moves, and all. I'm still eating paleo and doing P90X. Between the P90X and teaching exercise classes, I'm losing weight. I'm getting some serious arm muscles from pushups and my new 3kg (~6.6lb) dumb bells.
This week is the last week of school for Term 1. Beginning Thursday, I have a 3 week break from school! I'm still going to be teaching aerobics and health talks at the prison, but I am looking forward to not having to go to school. Today is the last GrassRootSoccer practice until after the break. All that stands between me and my long weekend/break is one GRS practice and one aerobics class. OHHH YEAH! I plan to spend the break reading, meditating, working in my garden, and trying to convince Millie to sleep in her chicken house. Speaking of Millie Moo, she is eating grown up chicken food now. She's getting so big! I think we will have eggs soon!!!
My friend, Diane, is coming to visit me for 5 days on Saturday, April 6th. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a visitor here and to see my friend. We are going to eat good food (relatively), watch movies, and have a slumber party with Ashley.
So what did I learn from the mess that was last week? You know, I am a very result-oriented person. I'm all about getting things done, accomplishments, movin and shakin! Last week reminded me that I need to practice going with the flow. Nothing ever goes as planned here. It just doesn't. More times than not, things will not go my way. Having no water over the weekend forced me to relax, read, cross stitch, and rest. If the water had been flowing I would've spent all day Saturday washing clothes and sheets and cleaning my house. What I really needed was rest. Maybe not having water was a blessing in disguise. I know that I can survive a water shortage so I hope that the next time I turn on my tap and nothing comes out, I won't freak out. I'll resign myself to a relaxing weekend of being a lazy, dirty human!
Peace.
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