One Month

My school. :)

I’ve officially been living in Mukondeni for a month and in South Africa for over 100 days.  In three short weeks, I think that I have started to adapt well to my new life and my amazing view.  My past few weeks have been spent with my host dad – who is also my counterpart since he is a teacher at the school, my host mom, my 6 year-old host brother and my twin 8 month-old brother and sister.

I know I don’t post pictures or post on Facebook nearly enough, but I promise I’m still alive! Since I have posted last, I have finally gotten my room set-up, temperatures here are reaching the 100 degree level, I learned how to wrap a baby on my back, found my favorite spot to sit and to workout (its nice and shady), I visited one of the biggest baobob trees in the world, and said goodbye to the two 8 month olds as they moved in with their gogo (grandma). 

I found this new friend the first night at my site.
I believe he is a roach/spider/something else
hybrid.

Living in my new village on my own has given me the ability to see my service as it will truly be.  There will be a ton of time alone, there will be super frustrating moments when I struggle with tshivenda and the fact that I’m not even close to fluent in it, and there will be times in which I struggle to understand why I have to bathe in one bucket and pee in another all in my rondeval.  However, there will also be moments where my learners run to greet me and almost knock me down a hill, there will be moments when I skillfully use my tshivenda to communicate with my gogo and secretly dance around my room to Chelsea Dagger in celebration, there will be moments when I get to sit in my backyard and realize that after years of dreaming, I’m in Africa in the Peace Corps. My dreams have come true.  Life isn’t perfect and neither is my service.  There are moments that make me question everything I have ever wanted and have challenged me beyond belief, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have those moments back in America as well.  I’m living my dream watching as my 6 year-old brother has already made progress in his English and as the teachers tell me that they want to know all about how we teach in the United States and if I will teach them.

One of the largest baobob trees in the world.

The next few weeks (5ish weeks to be exact), I will be busy starting to put together a library with some help from teachers and learners at my school, teaching English to grade 6 and 7, continuing to try to meet everyone in my village and the surrounding couple of villages, and taking lessons on tshivenda.  Everyone feels confident that I will be fluent soon, but I’m not gonna hold my breath! Ha

The books that I found at school for the library.

My learners are always ready to help or learn. The top left is a picture of learners practicing their multiples by jumping and clapping every multiple of 4.  The top right picture are the primary learners rushing the car one day at school.  The bottom picture is my primary learner helpers helping me get the library organized by carrying desks.

Thanks for being patient with my updates!

P.s. The picture above is all of the books that I have for my learners and their library.  I'm in the process of requesting books from organizations, but even one or two sent my way could add up and help the learners at my school become stronger readers! My new address is listed below if you want to send books for our library or if you want to send me goodies from America. I'm really struggling with my access to new music, the lack of access to reese's, reese's puffs and cheetos. In case you were wondering. I also appreciate snail mail with dirty jokes, quotes and updates on the lives of people I love (that's you!). 

Address to send your love to: 

(Note: while appreciated, it is normally frowned upon to mail yourself to me, but visitors via plane are encouraged!)

Jessie Robinson

Luheni Primary School

PO Box 337

Dzimauli 0975

South Africa