South Africa 2011-2012

I’ve had some crazy and memorable experiences with Siyavuna lately: getting the vegetable truck stuck in a ditch, processing 40 kg of onions only to have the customer refuse them, arriving at a collection point and finding that the door to the building was locked (it was raining), and riding in the back of the vegetable truck while it was full of vegetables (quite a bumpy ride). I’ve also been seeing how issues such as coming up short on money when selling, farmers’ insistence that we buy produce from them that isn’t up to our standards, and farmers’ attempts to sell their produce with another’s card are handled. More routine things I’m getting used to include selling Siyavuna vegetables at the Rotary Club Flea Market that happens every Saturday, loading and unloading at the container where the vegetables are kept at night, helping to get local restaurants interested in buying from us, and, in general, driving: on ill-kept, narrow roads, on steep hills, in the rain, with a truck full of vegetables, on the left side of the road, while looking out for everything from goats to taxis to little children. Who knew working with vegetables could be so thrilling?

Us volunteers have also gotten to do some fun/informative things as a group recently like go on a community tour (though ideally that would’ve been done earlier), visit an AIDS hospital called Genesis (which works closely with GCF), and spend a weekend in Durban. The community tour was led by a social worker at GCF who took us through some of the townships and rural areas and explained to us a lot about Zulu culture and life in the rural areas. Many of the cultural differences were things that would’ve been really helpful to know earlier, but late is certainly better than never! Our trip to Durban was great; we got to see the Juma Masjid Mosque (the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere), the Victorian Street Market (a famous Indian market with souvenirs galore), gorgeous beaches, and uShaka, an enormous aquarium with fish of every kind, dolphin and seal shows, and, of course, more shopping. It was great fun.

I also got my picture in the local paper recently: some women showed up at the first collection point on Wednesday (two and a half weeks ago) and talked to us a bit before taking some pictures, buying some vegetables, and generally causing complete confusion. Soon I hope to have the entire article up on here.

Sorry for all the lists! Maybe next time I’ll have more deep thoughts.