Week One-Makrepeni
Hello Everybody! So we have been living in Makrepeni for a week and a half now and have had a number of exciting, fun, and interesting experiences. The six of us arrived to the village on Saturday afternoon and got settled into our homestays. Callen, Kevin, and Kelvin are living in the old house of one of the teacher in the community, Depa, who has been extremely friendly and helpful in assisting us in our transition. Jessica and Kate are living with Depa’s sister and her family, two teenagers and three children, right down the road. We have spent a lot of time with Depa’s nephew Tumelo and his friends, who are all in grade 12, speak very good English, and will act as our translators and resources in the community for the next several weeks. We have been getting to know the community over the past week, learning how to live as villagers and perform the daily tasks. We learned how to fetch water, wash clothes, and take bucket showers on the first few days here, all of which were a totally different experience than anything we are used to. Perhaps the most entertaining and strange experience we have had so far is killing a chicken. With the help of Depa’s sister Elsie and a few local children, we caught the chicken, Kevin and Michael killed it, and then we plucked and cooked it. Yesterday we learned how to pound corn to make mealie-pap, the porridge-like staple of the local diet, using a giant mortar and pestle. This task proved to be extremely difficult and strenuous, deepening our respect for the local women and their strength. All of us have discovered this week how truly out of shape we are with all of the walking, carrying heavy things, and most of all, playing soccer. The local boys play soccer daily and all of us are attempting to learn how, Micheal being the most talented and the rest of us getting laughed at. Our group has spent most of the rest of our time talking to members of the community and determining the resources available for possible projects. On Monday we toured all of SMRC’s past projects to get ideas for improvements and new initiatives in the villages. We have attended a few training sessions and talked about our ideas and are very excited to start working in the community. Next week and the following week we will be running a day camp for the local children, who are out of school for winter break. Everyone is very excited to work with the children and all of the locals have showed nothing but gratitude for our presence here in Makrepeni. We will keep you updated as often as possible and when the internet will allow.
