First Day at Site

December 12th, 2008

When I wrote briefly about my site visit in November, I neglected to mention the fact that my house was not quite finished being built. I was assured by my head teacher that all would be completed by the time I returned and really I didn’t want to write anything that would have caused my mom to worry. After packing all of my things into the PC vehicle and sitting by while our driver ran a few morning errands, I arrived at Gwangwa CDSS at about 10 am.

I have come to the conclusion that I will be a much more patient person when I return home from this experience in two years. It’s inevitable as things here don’t always work out in as timely a matter as you’d expect them to. My house was not finished, though significantly improved from the last time I saw it. I was told that one of the carpenters involved had left town for a few days in order to attend a funeral, a common occurrence and delay of many projects and activities here.

Upon arriving, I really just wanted to settle into my home and community, but I reminded myself that everything will fall into place eventually and I graciously accepted my head teacher’s invitation to stay with his family for a few days while the house would be completed.

My head teacher, his wife, and their family have been nothing but kind to me since the day we met. His two sons moved all of my things, mountain bike included, into the same room I stayed in during site visit.

I spent the rest of my day sitting with the Kangulu family and their neighbors, reading Atonement, eating nsima and ndiwos (side dishes) prepared by Mrs. Kangulu and the girls, and periodically walking to my house to check on and encourage it’s progress.

Not quite the day I anticipated, but memorable nonetheless.