My dwelling place..it's a traditional Ndebele hut and it rocks!
This picture was supposed to go with the last blog post
To those of you who I may not have already expressed my unabashed love for this special day (as I like to call it) that occurs once a month. Pensions are essentially a form of welfare; different grants are given to old women (gogos), people who are disabled, and for each child under a certain age. The grants are dispersed at the house of the chief, who conveniently lives next door to me. This means that when the hoards of vendors come to sell their fruits, vegetables, meat, clothing, and other various supplies, I merely have to walk outside and I can buy them all for much cheaper than if I went to town. I like to support the local women who cultivate gardens and grow their own foods that they sell to others in the village for very reasonable prices. I’m talking about $1.50 for a bag of 20 oranges, $1 for six eggs, and $0.30 for an avocado! The other advantage is that instead of schlepping ten pounds of produce onto the taxi, then sitting with it on my lap for an hour or two, and then braving the 1 mile walk home from the bus stop, I only have to cross the road. Plus, today someone gave me a free cookie. But if I’m being honest, hands down the best part of pension day is ICE CREAM truck that travels around the village all afternoon, bringing along with it delicious treats and waves of nostalgia for my childhood when only the ice cream truck could turn of hours waiting for my sister to be done with soccer practice into a leisurely afternoon. I distinctly remember feeling extremely badass when I purchased bubble gum that was packaged to look like cigarettes (not sure which is worse, the fact that those were marketed and sold to naïve children or the fact that I was allowed to buy them).
Long story short, today was awesome. I wanted to buy 1 onion but they had to be bought in a package of 10, so I asked my host sister if I could give her money for 1 of her onions. She said “Don’t be silly I will give it to you for free. You are part of the Thubana family now”. Even though I had already felt that sentiment, that really made me smile. Ice Cream and family love…not a bad day.
I'm working on a new album of pictures but hopefully these can tide you over for a bit
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