Paradise Lost

 

 

Swazis are open, friendly. they greet each other with this secret handshake. They look you square in the eye. They ask probing questions. It is their way... they want to understand the way you see the world. They do not look for offense; they always give the benefit of the doubt. Have I ever felt so at home among strangers?

 

Gigi too feels a kinship with the world around her, but perhaps a little differently. It should be said that Gigi believes she communicates with animals. One of the horses in the Bolivian equestrian club once put its head on her shoulder and she took it for a hug. She kept hoping that this horse might feel that same impulse of affection on another one of our weekly visits but it never happened again. Still, her reactions catch me off guard. We heard a chirping noise outside during school one day. I told her, "Gigi, go see if monkeys are outside." Her response? "Those are probably monkeys who came because I was singing. I will go sing to them more.” And out she went.

 

I find myself really enjoying my kids these days in a way that is new to me. This week as we played Scattegories Gigi deftly defended "bees" in response to the category "A Way to Get From Here to There" based on an episode of The Magic Schoolbus. Her logic impressed me! While reading our answers for musical instruments that begin with “B,” we laughed till we cried when we realized Tovi listed "banshees" because he thought that was the name for banjos. 

 

I am thankful for these times of levity. Health issues for both myself and Danny have us planning an early departure from post. And I am utterly heartbroken. I will miss my friends. The language I was beginning to pick up. The views from the valley- I have yet to tire of them. The red, red dirt. The incredible birds- including a bright red one (southern bishop?), the black birds with the orange wing tips (only the royal family of Swaziland can wear its feathers), the guinea fowls, the owl that haunted our neighborhood and the geese that interrupted the peace of a quiet morning of school lessons or a service at church. I will miss our small box of a building at church, comprised mostly of Bandile’s family and the Sithole kids. The acappella worship songs sung too slow but with a sound like it was coming deep from inside their core. The Zulu songs with all the clicks.... The cheeky x clicks or the clucky q clicks or the tongue-smacky c clicks. Zulu and SiSwati are very similar- akin to Spanish and Portuguese. Yeabo. 

Vousile helping me with my Swazi wrap. 

Oluwafunmilayo challenging me to the world's slowest game of scrabble. She's an aspiring photographer.

Cheerleading chit chats with Elysa. 

Dominic’s first forays into youth group. Figuring out who he is.... His own person. A person who sees me washing dishes and hugs me saying, "You’re so dedicated."

 Gigi’s first real crush: "G.M." Guy...and his 7-year-old pledges of undying love on a birthday card or Sunday school craft. Love declarations to the girl who comes to church singing Irish sea shanties...

Put'im inalongboat till he's sober, 

Put'im inalongboat till he's sober,

Put'im inalongboat till he's sober earl-ay in the morning! 

Hide me in a longboat. How can we leave this paradise?

Asche

It's December but you'd never know it in our house. Outside the sun is blazing in full African summer glory. A little science tidbit for you: We are studying astronomy this year in school. In our investigations of the seasons, we learned that the earth is about 3 million miles closer to the sun during the Southern Hemisphere's summer than the Northern Hemisphere's one. We can feel it! Inside of our house the A/Cs are on full blast... nothing too unusual. Christmas in Miami is not such a far stretch from this reality. But what is noticeably missing are the Christmas tree, the Christmas lights, the hand-lettered stockings, a dozen years' worth of collected keepsakes and handmade ornaments, cards, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You." Even though we packed out our belongings from La Paz in May, and HHE (house hold effects) typically take about 2-5 months to get from one post to another, we are now outside of that time frame with no word on an arrival date. The kids have long outgrown their clothes; their hand-me-downs are in transit. Indefinitely. So the pajamas pants are now high-waters and all their shirts look like muscle tees and the dresses need leggings... at least we can make a Christmas tree out of the cardboard from the airfreight boxes that were abandoned at our house after delivery in August.

School is going really well. The kids have worked really hard, keeping a rigorous academic schedule, despite missing out on the breaks of the extracurricular activities to which they'd become accustomed. We've tried to make up for it with field trips. One of the more memorable outings was to the Mantenga Cultural Village. The hosts of the village preserve native traditions such as celebratory dances and models of the traditional homes from the Swazi tribes. 

Traditional Swazi homes had small openings that were low to the ground. This forced intruders to enter in head first, making it easy to bludgeon their heads if they were enemies. Despite the low regard for women in traditional Swazi hierarchy, the paternal grandmother of the family unit is considered particularly honorable in the community and her hut would be designated with a skull. Every wife would have her own hut and the grandmother's hut would be situated between them to help keep the peace. As we visited around the village, in keeping with Swazi tradition, the men on our tour, which are deemed more "valuable," would enter the buildings first. It was amusing to see European men smugly enter and leave their insulted counterparts behind. 

  During one of the dances, a girl pulled Noemie up to the front to teach her the iconic shuffle. It was one of those moments that you can really appreciate the gift that is this crazy lifestyle.

Danny played the hero a few weeks ago with another field trip. He coordinated our first foray out of the country and into South Africa, specifically to Ballito, a beach town on the "Dolphin Coast" where, indeed, the kids woke up to see dolphins out past the waves on our second day. It was a seven-hour drive but seven-hour drives in South Africa are way cooler than seven-hour drives through Florida. 

You see pick-up trucks going 80 mph with kids and adults bumping along in the bed of the truck. The roadsides are dotted with people trying to flag down strangers for rides, as hitchhiking is a totally acceptable and common form of transportation, since cars are cost-prohibitive for most. Cows graze on the grass that grows on the edge of the pavement, and children wave sticks as they walk along the shoulders of the highways. We even had to stop at a vehicular border crossing, which was a first for me. And thus we made a very picturesque drive to Ballito. 

We stayed at an AirBnB where, for the first time in months, we had a stable, decent speed of internet. How is it possible I've become so dependent on something I never had growing up? Having the option to visit a monkey sanctuary or a waterpark with waterslides, we chose instead to spend the cool, overcast days soaking in the Indian Ocean goodness. 

 Not so much the freezing water with its strong surf and threatening rip tides, but rather the sand and sun and salty, fresh air. There was a troop of lifeguards in training who braved the waves and we all watched to see if they would all make it out alive.  Given the weather and the fact that winter break was two weeks away, it was no wonder we had this vacation hot spot to ourselves.

 One of the interesting features of the Durban area beaches are tidal pools built into the rock cliffs where the water is supplied by the ocean flowing over the walls, allowing the water to keep from becoming stagnant, and allowing swimmers to swim in safety, assuming they don't step on one of the sea urchins that have made their homes in these man-made pools.

At the bay, the kids had a blast doing what homeschoolers do best- getting lost in the discoveries of the world around them. There was rock climbing galore, mussels by the bucket load, and at some point, Toby wandered off and had his own imaginary battle against the ocean a la Fantasia's "Sorcerer's Apprentice."

They clearly had a fantastic vacation, as short as it was, and on the way home we caught sight of a little critter having lunch on the side of the road. 

 Now when I say school is going really well, I might have to make an exception for Gigi for whom school and learning never seem to go hand in hand. She doesn't complete any worksheets and getting her to sit still remains a perennial struggle. Yet she somehow manages to shout the answers to Toby's oral review questions from the next room before he can come up with the answers.

Danny: How can I help you do better with school?

Gigi: You should quit your work.

Danny: If I quit my work, then we wouldn’t be allowed to stay here anymore

Gigi: Why do you say that?

Danny: Because my work is what brought us here.

Gigi: What?? Who hired you?!?