GRS PE

First couple of days have been, contradictorily, slow and hectic.  Last Friday there was a break-in at our site office so Pumeza, our site director, has been trying to move offices.  Today we showed up at the office and people had broken in again last night.  They made off with a laptop and some jerseys, but everyone is quite freaked out and refusing to go there anymore.  A welder came in this afternoon to fix the window bar that was broken (I have no idea how someone got inside squeezing only through a small hole in between the bars).

Besides, this we were busy the past two days running around meeting people.  Yesterday we went to a school and got to watch a session of an intervention with some 8th graders.  They played Find-the-Ball and learned a bit of basic facts about HIV, but it was hard to follow exactly what was going on because the sessions are held in the native language, Xhosa. 

Xhosa is a bit extra hard to pick up because it involves a few different sounds.  There is the big click in the roof of your mouth, which the q represents, like in Xhosa.  Then there is the kissing-ish sound (i) where you suck in with your teeth closed and your tongue touching the back of them.  Then there is the side click (x) that sounds like calling a horse.  Finally there is the spitty sound (hl) where your teeth are closed and you push air out the sides.  So far I am sticking to hello (molo) and thank you (ankuzi), but hoping to learn much more.

Today we met the coaches.  Jess and I were prepared.  Sarah, an intern from two years ago, had given us the hint that the coaches LOVE chocolate chip cookies.  Jess and I baked for a while last night and had enough cookies to go around to over 30 people.  We were able to chat up a few of them.  Gee is one of the oldest coaches and loved to talk.  He had stories about different bars in town, the World Cup, and GRS.  Mzee is the youngest coach at 20.  He is working for GRS while going to school to get a degree in graphic design.  He loves hip-hop and was enjoying trading artist names with us.  We ended up describing where we are from by referencing places where famous American artists are from.  He was an interesting guy.

Now we are home early because of our office complications.  It is the weekend so hopefully we will get to know the city a bit better in the next two days.  Come Monday we are back to work, but the staff will be meeting at our house.  Until then...