Updates and a brief lesson in South African history

Here's whats new in the last week:

On monday we went to Amatikulu, our last rural village, and stayed for the week with community health workers. Community health workers are kind of like medical social workers, but with far less training. They basically walk super long distances to rural homesteads and question people about their health and report back to the clinic. It helps clinics keep track of what's going on in a community, provides a link between people who are ill and unable to make it to medical care and the local clinic, etc. They also do basic education, to teach people things like how make oral rehydration solution, when to take kids for immunizations, etc. Or at least that's the hope. Most of us left with the impression our CHWs needed a lot more training... Also, a little depressing the health situation of most rural people. In theory, its a good system intended to cover the health care gap in rural places, but doesn't work out quite as well as you wish it did. On the up side, I spent a bunch of my evenings hanging out with the gogo (it means grandmother) of the homestead, who really loves Jesus and I think maybe was convinced I was a missionary. But, we had good conversation (super random that she spoke english- none of her daughters did, only the grandkids). She can't walk well, so she sits on a mat and weaves grass rugs all day. She gave me a grass rug as a present which she had made right before I left. It is a really awkard shape to try to get back to America, but I like it a lot, so I'm determined to find a way to get it home.

We got back from Amatikulu thursday, and moved into the city for the next couple weeks. I'm living in another hostel with two other girls, and three more are going to join us on friday. Its a nice place, and low key, which is really good. Now that we're not traveling and have moved out of Cato, we have the bulk of our academic work due between now and april, which is depressing, and after having done nothing but draw a few pictures and maps since december, I am totally unmotivated to do anything academic.

Its sort of odd to be living in the city with white people. Probably the most clique thing you can possibly say about south africa is that there are two worlds here, a first and a third world, which coexist side by side. But its pretty true. And its real weird to go from living with Zulu families in what is effectively the third world, where you bathe with a bucket, and the water and electricity frequently runs out, and kids and chickens and stray dogs run around in the street and everyone is poor, to suddenly living in Durban, with running water, reliable electricity, showers, and internet access. The people that run surf and dreams are pretty typical white south africans, which makes them totally out of touch with whats going on in the rest of the country, and slightly racist (you can't totally blame them, everyone is here, it's kind of inevitable in a country where for 3 centuries your race determined everything about your life). The guy that owns the place is a native of south africa, and is convinced that south africa is 30% white. Actually, the answer is 9%, which kind of blows me away. He and his wife ask us a ton of questions, and were appalled at the idea of not having running water. Just so you are aware, slightly less than 1/2 of South Africa operates without running water.

The white population here generally has no idea what is going on outside the cities and rich areas where they live. They gate off their houses, with electric wires and razor wire and big scary dogs and burgler bars on all the windows and doors. Almost all of them hire out private security companies, because the police here are worthless. Which, crime is ridiculously high here, in part because starving people steal things, but also because the legacy of how apartheid was overthrown includes a lot of sabotage and violence. The ANC called to make the townships (where all urban black people were forced to live, and still largely remain) ungovernable in the early 90s. So, you can't totally blame them for protecting themselves, but in comparison to the townships and rural areas, where houses barely lock, and everyone just hangs out on the street and kids don't usually have shoes, it's odd. And its odd, because i feel like I can identify to a degree with the zulu population- obviously I don't understand what's its like to be a zulu or the experience of living here as a black person- but a lot of my views on south africa have largely been shaped by the opinions and stories of the people I've been living with, so I feel kind of out of place in the city, which is weird.

sorry this turned into a bit of a novel. congrats if you actually made it to the end!