Tuesday/Wednesday

I've been working for the last two days with the building team.  They're local guys working on projects that MCDC is building.  Finishing orphan centers, building homes for various people, maintaining the current ones, etc.  It's fun being the only American working with a bunch of South Africans.  They have all these funny questions about America.  Today a guy greeted me with "Hello nigger." because he thought it was a friendly greeting.  I explained to him the complicated history and that it all depends on who is saying it and he didn't really understand.  Pretty funny and an interesting commentary on how absurd some things are in our country.  Actually very similar to some things here.

While I'm off mixing concrete (well, watching mostly) the other folks here are still meeting with a million people in the most severe circumstances imaginable.  Early this morning I went along with Randy to meet an older man with HIV and TB.  I found out that there is a strain of TB that has been going around that is called EDR TB - Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis.  Basically, it just kills you.  This guy fortunately does not have that.  He is on his way back to health and Randy was dropping by to remind him that he has to take a taxi (South African for "really overcrowded van") to a far away clinic to get his drugs for the next few weeks.  The guy is barely walking and will make a day long trip tomorrow that will involve walking many long distances, miles probably.

I'm continuing to think about my involvement here and if I could come back long term.  It would be really tough for me to leave Philly.  There are so many parallels, it's kind of weird.  But part of me knows that I haven't really been doing much back in Philly and so either way I should probably commit myself to something meaningful at the end of this trip.

If I were to come here, I think I would be most interested in telling these stories.  Maybe setting up an internet cafe (hallelujah!) and stockpiling some good equipment so that kids could tell their stories and learn about other stuff.  Much like Philly, what would interest me most is simply living around people.  I am told that white people are not allowed to own property in the village, but that we can rent.  If I were to move here, I would definitely want to live in a village.

I'm going to keep feeling it out.  I'm sun burnt from being outside.  Believe it or not, sunscreen isn't for sale out here.  That's sarcasm.  Tomorrow I'm laying blocks with the guys.  We're building a one-room house for four orphan kids to live in.  I'm just enjoying my time with the building crew.  They're doing all the work.  I just buy Cokes for lunch, make jokes, and get made fun of.  One of the guys wanted me to get him into America.  I told him that I would get him there if he finds me an African wife.  A little later, some cows walked by and he suggested that they are strong and produce a lot of milk - good qualities in a woman, he said.  So I'm marrying a cow.  And they keep calling me the name of some WWE wrestler.  I'm not into wrestling so I have no idea what the are talking about.  But we all laugh anyway.

I saw a monkey today.  It was actually a small babboon.  That's for Anu.

Not having much luck with bandwidth.  I have a bunch of phone videos and will post them whenever it makes sense to do so.  Maybe when I get home.  It literally took me 20 minutes just to open my email tonight.  Last night I couldn't do it at all.

As for food, I'm eating well, but I don't know what I'm eating.  Today at lunch I had something called Ache which is basically fermented mango.  Tropical kimchee, I guess.  I ate it with a half a loaf of white bread.  Also had some kind of fish in a can of hot sauce.  The fish are just whole fish, head and all.  I didn't want to look like a whimp, so I ate one and acted like it was okay but that I liked the mango better.  I think I will just get used to feeling a little unwell.  For breakfast, I'm making eggs with this salsa stuff called "Chackalaka."  It's actually really good.  Tastes like Indian food.  Coke here is much better.  I think it is because it is made with real sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.  That's my guess anyway.  Funny thing is that even here, convenience stores are run by Indian guys.  I about died when I showed up at the village corner store and it was an Indian guy behind the counter.  We're talking about a store on a dirt road in the middle of a bunch of shacks.  Not exactly a prime business venture.  I went in with one of the work crew and I told him that I could speak Indian and then said "Watch this."  Then I said "Tikka masala, Ghandi, Darjeeling." and the Indian guy was all thumbs up and nodding his head.  So the African dude was impressed at the expense of some cultural sensitivity.  All in good fun.  I bought ten Cokes from him, so I hope he's okay.

Okay, going to bed now.  I'm glad the Phillies didn't make the playoffs.  I don't have a clue what's going on.  I don't even know what happend with the Eagles and T.O.  Perhaps one of these days I'll take the time to access some kind of news site.  A USA Today subscription here costs $1,500 a year.  That's dollars, not rand.  You can buy an acre of land and a decent shack for that much.

Good night.