Never Too Old to Finger Paint :-P

Saturday 7 November 2009
5:55pm
So, obviously the last blog did not get posted as expected. When I went to the internet café it was closed, even though the sign they should be otherwise. I haven’t been in town since. I had a blast painting the map at the orphanage, though! The kids were adorable and I even impressed myself with my ability to draw the general shapes of countries on a wall. Granted, Justine and I may have solved some border disputes or, more likely, created many new ones, but it looks pretty darn accurate. :)
That Sunday I was planning on getting back to my community via the 1:30pm bus, “Zinyane”. But, as I am constantly learning, no day in Africa will turn out exactly as planned in the morning. This day’s schedule was changed by the internet café being closed and the bus not showing up. Yup, there I was with my bags and groceries, ready to get home, and the bus never came! Also, within ten minutes the sky went from sunny to a downpour. Luckily, I was still with Justine, and we were already under the protection of the bus rank when the rains started. The sky cleared up just as we were making contingency plans. Now usually I would have just taken a khumbi to the next small town, Hluti (where my PO box is), and gotten on another khumbi that would drop me about 3k away from my house. Being a Sunday, already 2pm, and having a large load of recently purchased goods, I was never going to be able to make it home before dark. Walking in the dark is just NOT HAPPENING!! Instead, I went home with Justine, which proved to be the best decision all weekend.
We barely made it to her homestead when the sky opened up and produced the biggest storm either of us has ever experienced! Sitting on her bed we watched as rain came through under her door and the wind blew her roof (corrugated iron) up and down at least 5-6inches! With the rain beating on the tin roof and the thunder booming every 10-20seconds, we had to yell at each other to be heard. I would guess this lasted about 20-30minutes. After it calmed down we discussed how surreal that was. It felt like we were one of those “scary” rides at Disney where everything shakes, there are loud noises, and water keeps misting. Then we walked outside to see the damage. Her family’s thatched kitchen roof had completely collapsed, some of the corn was flattened, and the “main” houses tin roof had been pulled up along one side. We later found multiple power lines down and some power line poles snapped in half, along with massive trees uprooted! These were tornado-like winds and I was sitting in a hut during it! I called my family as soon as the cell phone network was back up, and they were fine. My homestead had gotten the rain but not the high winds. Phew.
After surviving the storm, what did we do? We made POPCORN and ate all of the cold food I had bought in town but would not survive without the electricity dependant refrigeration. Mmmm. :) All in all it was an enjoyable evening… after God’s heart-pounding Disney ride.
The following day, while waiting for the 1:30pm bus that I had wanted to take the previous day, I helped Justine paint the bus waiting “room” (a cement bench with roof) across from the school she teaches at. It states, “Abstinence is 100% effective against pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. SEX CAN WAIT”. The education system only officially supports teaching abstinence, which in some communities is hard for volunteers to break through. While painting, we talked about making this a much larger mass media project. There are two of these waiting rooms every kilometer or so on this main road between Lavumisa (South-Eastern corner of the country) and Nhlangano (South-Western corner). Any slogans, stats, drawings, education visuals health related (HIV/AIDS, TB, hygiene, etc) could be seen by TONS of people each day! Needless to say, we are getting a bit excited about making this happen. We will be turning to our communities for ideas and artistic talent. No doubt we would love any ideas you have too! My “coloring inside the lines” skill won’t quite be enough. :-P Thanks to a bus not coming, I may have my first PC project!


Another picture of Bondiswa! Although in pink, he is an adorable baby boy.

This is Gabi, my language tutor, running partner, neighbor, and my friend. She is sitting in my hut after a language lesson; we must have been looking at my computer.

Here is the map of the world in a close to final stage of the process. We still needed put a couple more coats of paint on the lighter colors, outline them in black marker, and label them. I certainly learned some geography during this project! Now hopefully the kids will too!

This is the bus waiting "room" that Justine and I painted. Now finished, it looks shnazzy... and educational!