Working 7 to 4 and Luving It!

Oct. 4, 2006

It’s a hard knocks life for Peace Corps Volunteers at Mountain High!!!

Just in case our friends at home believe that the Bond’s are busy saving the world in South Africa, it is time to describe our new occupations as hospital administrators at a Christian hospital high in the mountains of South Africa. At our age you come to see each new experience as a parallel and opportunity aligned with similar events in your life. So it is with our new jobs. We wake up to usually bright sunny skies at 6 (although we have had thunder and lightning storms the last two days) have a breakfast of toast and coffee and walk out our door around our house to the front of the hospital administration office where we open the office, turn on our computers and fling open the drapes to the breathtaking view of the valleys, hamlets, forests and flowers of Mountain View. Sometimes there is a mist hanging down in the valley, thousands of feet below. On the horizon one can see the buttes and mesas where the Zulus fought there wars against the Boers centuries ago. (The modern King of Zululand is a local resident much revered by the residents.) After getting organized for the day, we attend to various administrative duties designed to upgrade the management of the hospital. Some of the more unusual tasks today were Brendon’s job of writing the boy’s boarding school rules and my job to create new signage for name tags and hospital departments. Thank goodness I brought Print Shop with me. Everybody’s Peace Corps experience is unique! By 4pm it is time to knock off and take a hike through the mountain trails or the local forests. Another Day, Another Rand!
Our evenings are spent cooking dinner with the wonderful fresh foods found in South Africa. This is the first time in my life that my tastes have been hampered not by cost of the ingredients but by the volume of the item as we are limited in our grocery purchases to what we can put on our lap as we ride the 80 km up the mountain in the 15 passenger taxi kombi crowded with people of all ages, their children, packages and belongings. This last weekend we were told the daily taxi would be leaving at 7am for the ride but at 6:10am the hospital guard knocked on our door and said the taxi was full and waiting for us. Alas, it was the end of the month and a time when everyone is in town paying bills and shopping. Our hospital friends took pity on us and had the driver wait until we came running. We spent the weekend at a bed and breakfast in Vryheid and had a great time walking through the town, checking out the gardens and shops and relaxing in the beautiful patio of the B and B. We found a Presbyterian Church with services in English and a very sweet minister. We began to shop for groceries for the week on Sun. afternoon and began to realize the limitations of volume. Those teeny tiny gourmet tubes of pesto from Italy began to look great. Boxes of oats, cartons of milk and bottles of anything looked like luxuries in the land of two bags for a week and three home cooked meals a day. Life is different up here in paradise as there are no restaurants, fast food or 7-11 stores. What you carry is what you will have for the week so meal planning has some real benefit. I am anxious to plant a garden to assist in the task and am amazed at the size of the produce. Cabbages are the size of giant pumpkins due to the sun and great soil. Tomatoes are sold vine ripened and are firm, acidic and flavorful.
The Peace Corps expects volunteers to engage in a secondary project (besides their work assignment). The most compelling opportunity for me appears to be the creation of a recreation program for the patients here at the hospital. They are here an average of 2 months with no activities or entertainment. After a short time many begin to feel better and would like to have something to do. Some of the possibilities are Zulu beading projects, knitting, quilt making, wood carving, candle making, wood carving or gardening. Likewise, there are limited employment opportunities for the residents of the tiny villages in the area and it would be worthwhile to consider projects that could provide income for the locals. The hospital is the biggest employer in the area but its jobs are mainly confined to those with training and skills, which eliminates most of the local population. So it looks like there is plenty of work for two middle aged Americans as well as adventure and fun. The days fly by with no time to get homesick for family, friends and familiarity. In spite of the similarity to jobs we have had in the past, the difference is that we feel sorely needed here and our skills have been warmly welcomed.