T.G.I.F...

Today is Friday... meaning that the NACCW [National Association for Child Care Workers] training is over... meaning that the four volunteers who have been living with me all week will probably go home today. Awesome.

I feel really bad about being happy to see them you leave. All this time I wanted someone to live with, but last week when they told me I was going to have four volunteers from Richmond living with me, I already knew I had a problem. Just from life experience, and I guess a little from studying Sociology, I know that if you get 4 people from the same area who all speak the same language [which is not your language]... they are probably only going to talk to each other and blatantly ignore you. My prediction was correct for the most part. It is like I can't win.

Day 1: volunteers arrive. they fight over who is going to have to be the one person to sleep in the same room as the foreigner. i introduce myself and they just stare at me blankly; i realize they don't speak english. i show them where the bathroom is and one just pulls her skirt down and uses the toilet as we are still standing there; i realize they are from a very rural community. i try to show them some of the projects i have been working on and they just talk amongst each other; i realize they do not care.

Day 2: apparently i am living with people who wake up at 5:30am [with the sun] and feel the need to turn the television on its highest volume and then talk loudly over it... i refuse to get out of my bed, despite the fact they are shouting in zulu over my head. and chicken bones cause ants to come inside. i hate ants. they are around the same age as me, they should know to throw the chicken bones far away. i can attempt to engage in friendly chit chat because i know what strikes up conversations with all girls: boyfriends. i show them a picture of andrew and tell them he is my "isoka." they are amazed that 1. i am dating a black person, and 2. somehow this black person is not from africa. they say he is handsome-- we at least agree on something.

Day 3: i am awake in my bed at the crack of dawn, once again. i fancy that they feel comfortable enough to just walk around shirtless after bathing, so i must not be too intimidating. they are unhappy that i have an ironing board, but not an iron [people here iron their clothes every single morning]... somehow an iron later appears in our room. cool. they like me now because i did their homework for them... i tried to read the whole thing and explain it in simpler terms, but they don't really speak english so the question "please explain a negative influence in the child's physical development" is a tough one. the fact that they graduated from high school, which is supposed to give english instruction, and they cannot even carry a conversation with me just shows how awful the school system is here. i offer them some homemade mashed potatoes a la brittan and they decline.

Day 4: i dont like being woken up at 6am to do your homework. they must think that i am nasty because i only shower once a day; they bathe in the morning, before ironing, and at night. i am quickly learning that there is no such thing as a "personal item" because if they see it, they use it. your hair spray, conditioner, food... not my toothbrush, though [that i know of]. i forget how communal people are here and everything is family style, everyone shares. unfortunately i was not as prepared to share but i guess i can deal with it. i learn some zulu phrases to tell them and they love that i am trying to speak zulu-- they think i am pretty goo! but they don't like me as much today because i made them do their own homework-- how am i supposed to write about their personal experiences? they asked me to just write down general answers to the questions and they will change the names.... umm, still not going to work if everyone has the same story. i give them my zulu dictionary and say that i am around if they want me to check their answers or explain the questions.

Day 5: more ants! and someone has my keys so i cannot get into my office or unlock my bike. please give me back my keys. and i am going to ignore the oil splatters all over the wall next to the stove... somehow they can't manage to properly throw away their leftover food, but they make their beds perfectly every day; i am not making my bed, so now i am the nasty [shower only once a day], lazy [refuses to get out of bed at 5am] and untidy [my bed sheet creases are not perfect and i don't iron my clothes] foreigner... what a label. i came home late and was greeted by a note on my bed, "B. SMITH PLZ DO THIS HOM WORK." ugh. so i write a note in return saying that i can't really answer these questions because it is about their training that they have been getting all week, but i have some ideas and i will write them down, they can ask for more help in the morning and we can go through it together. i also ask them to not wake me up at 5 o'clock in the morning since i am staying up late to do their homework.

Day 6: i can barely open my eyes, i am so tired... but i can't sleep with all the noise. what time is it? oh, 5:45am. awesome. that is only two hours before i was planning to get up. i say good morning and thank God that this will probably be the last sleep-deprived morning i experience for at least a little while. i greet them with a smile, and think my usual thought that i cannot be mean or bitter about the situation because it is just a case of cultural clash and a huge language barrier. tonight i sleep in peace.

I swear I am not impossible to please... it is true that before I wanted someone to live with and it is also true that as soon as I got some people to live with I started counting down the days until they left. Fortunately I am not really angry or bitter [although it may sound like it]; I actually find the situation to be more comical than annoying. I guess you just have to be careful what you wish for!