Trevor's Photo Journal

Not much happens at training. Each day is pretty much like the next, just with different sessions. The trainees live off in villages around the college we're staying at. Here they all just arrived, waiting around for classes to begin, seeing if any mail from home arrived ect. I always think of the Peace Corps vans in the picture as the "new" ones, because they didn't have them 2 years ago when SA18 was in PST. But they've actually been used by Peace Corps South Africa for over a year and a half; once again, a reminder of how long I've been here and how much will have changed when I leave.

Who needs an alarm clock when you have a cluster of peacocks outside your window. Of course it be nice if they didn't sound like a bunch of clown horns going off at 5am. I woke up so confused at this high pitch squawking happening outside, which had somehow been incorporated into my dream as a bunch of clowns on toy cars honking at each other. After two years in South Africa I've learned to sleep through the roosters - and even load House music - but these peacocks were something else. By the end of the week I might be able to sleep in, but I don't count on it.

Spent all day at The Ndebele College of Education preparing for a week with the new volunteers (still trainees in Peace Corps parlance). Got to sleep in a dorm room and watch movies on laptops. There happen to be no bowls in the kitchen, so my cereal this morning was eaten out of a pot. Many Peace Corps trainings are held on the old Education Colleges and it's weired being in them. The government has been shutting most of them down over the past 16 years and encouraging prospective teachers to go to full Universities to study education. So when you come to these colleges there are about 5 Peace Corps staff and 3-4 volunteers staying in one dorm and the rest of the place is deserted. Good for doing nice quite runs through.

Signing in at the Peace Corps office in Pretoria.  I don't actually come here very often.  In fact I think this is my first time back to the office since I did my extension medical checkups in May.  Spent a nice relaxing afternoon in the library here talking with a few current volunteers and just about to meet the soon to be volunteers just finishing up training when they return from the Apartheid Museum.

It's the last Friday in the month, universally known as pay day. I was passing by a local wholesalers today and saw this lorry filled with people just finishing their monthly shopping. In between all the people there are giant bags of maize meal, cleaning supplies, eggs, cold drink (soda) and many other food items. The truck had come into Barberton from one of the surrounding villages and the people were quite happy to let me take a few photo's of them. Once again, a major reason behind doing this project - I'd never have stopped to ask for this photo if I wasn't thinking about my picture of the day.

I'll be going to SA22's PST (pre-service training) for the next week. I've heard rumors that the internet access at the village this is happening at is spotty, so if you don't hear from me for a while expect a massive update on the weeks pictures next weekend.

On my way down to my center today I passed this group of boys. Check out their wire car! Cars like this are quite common. They use a rubber band or string to connect up the "steering wheel" to the front axle so the wheels can actually turn. Normally the wheels are bottle tops or other pieces of plastic laying around; but these guys used a few old beer cans. Not only is it a build it your self toy, but it's a recycled one. So many great things happening there, I only wish the school curriculum could capitalize on it more. But of course that would just take the fun out of fundisi (SiSwati for learn).

Oh and yes that is a WWE shirt the kid is proudly wearing. On of Americas most influential cultural exports to this area of the world; if you ever don't have anything to talk about with a 5 year old in the township, just ask him who his favorite "wrestler" is.

Some days one picture just isn't enough.  For the last four weeks there have been 6 volunteers from the UK with an organization called Tenteleni (Do it your self) working in Barberton. They're based out in some of the rural farm and mine schools; schools where the majority of kids only food for the day would be the school provided lunch.  We're now entering our second week of school strikes in the area and the Tenteleni volunteers who came all this way to volunteer for 8 weeks have found them selves with no schools to go to.  Two days ago they got the idea to a sports day in the location for all the kids not in school.

They selected a large soccer pitch down in Extention 10 (one of the "rougher" areas of the township) and today was sports day.  And what a success it was! Its amazing what a group of dedicated people can accomplish in such a short amount of time.  They arrived at 9:30am to find about 5 boys playing soccer on the field; by 10:15 when I showed up there were over 200 kids all over the field doing all sorts of different games! I had the best "job" of all, which was to basically walk around and talk to people taking pictures and making sure they had everything they needed.  Not only did a lot of kids turn up to play, but at least 15 volunteers from the township assisted with the games.  Since they were only told yesterday that's amazing.

Much to the dismay of the kids who wanted to play soccer we made them do about an hours worth of drills.  All they wanted to do was play matches, but they got the hang of the drills pretty quickly.  This guy knew how to head.

Some kids brought their own soccer balls.  This one is made entirely out of bread bags.  It was surprisingly fun to play with and shows why soccer is one of the worlds most popular sports; all you need is four markers for goals and some plastic bags for a morning of fun and games.

An anachronism from half a decade ago. Back in the days when the 5th graders on my street didn't have cell phones; yes, you read that right in the last few months three of the 12 - 15 year olds on my street got cell phones. Handy downs from their parents as best I can tell which never have airtime on them, so are mostly just used as gaming platforms and status symbols. Through out the location, and all over South Africa for that matter, there are pay phones that look exactly like this. Its actually uncanny how identical they all are I've seen the same green pay phone on abandoned corner shops in 100 person villages as on the streets of Pretoria and you see here - just around the block from my house. Because everyone and their grand daughter has a cell phone now, the number of times I've seen this phone used is about three. I remember the first weekend I was here feeling homesick as anything trying to call the US on it and getting nothing but voice mail.

The local fast food restaurant. There are at least three butchers in the location and outside them you'll find braii stands and usually a bottle shop near by. On weekends people hang around all day enjoying a relaxing afternoon and cooking up the meat right after buying it.