22 June 2007

Well....we finally left the village out of boredom. Now in Pretoria waiting to attend our Close of Service conference. We are finished on 6 September!

As for life here...the strike continues on. Day 22! It is starting to get old. The government offered their best deal on Tuesday (7.5%) but only gave the unions a day to decide....this and they said if they don't except this offer it is back to their first offer which was 6.5%. Well, they didnt take it and the strike continues. I think it may go on forever as both sides are being very stubborn and aren't giving much. Unions are great.

At least we are now in a city. Running water. Good food. And some friends to hang out with.

Adam

18 June 2007

Well still at it....boredom has set in BIG time....

12 June 2007

Well, its Tuesday and the strike is still on. What does that mean…we haven’t done a thing for a while. Schools have been closed for 9 school days now. The public hospitals have also been greatly understaffed as well as nurses and police are still striking as well. Tomorrow is supposively a big day, according to the union leaders. The are asking EVERYONE else to strike with them. It is called a sympathy strike…kind of funny. But this is a one day country wide strike with as many people that will support it!? The other interesting thing is the union leaders said yesterday on the news that the government (by not giving them the 10% (yes, they drop from 12 to 10) raise that they want!?!) is forcing them, yes forcing them, to use violence to achieve their goals. This is NOT the right thing to say. The mass action here already can turn violent without getting a green light from the boss to use violence. CRAZINESS. I often feel like things here are very childish and this is the top of the pile for childishness if you ask me. Top down no one really knows how to behave…weird, never thought I would be the mature one!

What has the strike meant. Well for one, the hospitals are chaos (don’t worry o’worrying mother, use have access to the private hospitals) as many of the personnel necessary to run the place are outside picketing. I believe the number is at least 3 of people that have died due to the lack of care at hospitals. The news reported an expecting mother who had a miscarriage because no ambulance could be dispatched as there were no drivers. Supposively, the nurses that didn’t come to work today would be fired as there is a law that essential employees can not strike. We will see what happens with that. Others things…the mid term exam, which are important to grade 12 learners have been postponed indefinitely. That and all of the children have been on holiday for a week and a half without a end in sight…school holiday starts at the end of the month.

Believe it or not, we are MORE bored (can I say that). As we don’t do much as school as least there is always a hope that someone will ask us for pertinent help. Now, nothing. I do enjoy sleeping in though, especially since it is COLD when we wake up. The sleeping bag and two blankets make it so warm and cozy.

So, tomorrow could turn into mass chaos. We don’t know what PC will do with everyone but we think there is a chance we may get a evacuation if anarchy starts. Only time will tell. I think we will spend the day at home as the march will be happening in town.

Yup yup! 10% raise…to use that means $26, FUNNY!
Adam

1 June 2007

28 May 2007 (Happy Birthday, Kelly!!)

For the past week and a half we have been out at our friend’s village, helping him to paint world maps at his two schools. Our time there started out happily enough – we got the base coats down and started painting countries before the weekend hit. Then, Sunday, disaster struck… winter came! Noooooooooooooo! All through the day on Saturday it was chilly and windy, and then the clouds rolled in, blocking our heat source. Overnight, temperatures dropped fast and we huddled into as many layers of clothing and blankets as possible. In the morning, there was a layer of ice on a water bucket left outside. We had been dreading the return of winter, and now here it is. All last week the mornings were freezing cold. We would sleep in, as our fingers would freeze to the point of aching if we tried to paint in the early mornings. Thankfully, one of the map walls received afternoon sun, so we would suffer through painting the shaded map in the late morning, take a lunch break, and work on the sunny map in the afternoons. And so far, we’re surviving. Adam and I are both sleeping in our -20degree sleeping bags at night, with a thick furry blanket on top. And we’re once again drinking mass quantities of tea and cocoa. We finished the painting the maps on Thursday and headed back home. It was fun staying out in our friend’s village – it’s quite a bit smaller than ours and even more rural. His host family is great – the two little girls of the family, who were afraid of us to the point of crying upon our arrival, quickly warmed to us and then followed us wherever we went for the rest of our visit. It was a nice break from our regular routine, and I think we might go back out there again in a few weeks to paint one of the school’s crests above their new map.

There are some potentially exciting events brewing here in South Africa that may have a huge impact on us in the coming weeks. Public servants – teachers, police, and nurses among others – are threatening to strike. Last Friday, there were demonstration marches held in every town and city in South Africa by the biggest and most powerful teacher union. They are demanding a 12% raise, and will seemingly settle for nothing less. The government claims to not have enough money, and has offered 6%, which the unions rejected. Both sides are stubbornly holding their ground and the unions say that starting this Friday they will begin striking indefinitely, until the time that their demands are met. So we were advised by Peace Corps to stay away from school last Friday and will possibly be doing the same, indefinitely, starting this Friday, June 1st. The two groups go back to the negotiating table this week, so possibly something will be resolved in the nick of time. We shall see. It’s interesting to live in a country where unions are so powerful. I don’t believe US unions are nearly as strong. We have seen a number of strikes in our time here thus far, and unfortunately they tend to turn violent on occasion, which is why we are supposed to stay away from our work on strike days, even though some of the teachers didn’t participate. Unfortunately, the only ones really suffering through all of this will be the children whose already poor education will only be hurt more by a strike. It will be interesting to watch events unfold though, and this could lead to a boring last couple of months of our Peace Corps service!

(Update – 31 May 2007)
Well, it’s Thursday and still no agreement. The two sides have been negotiating all week, but the government has only raised its offer to 6.5% (although on the news they said this wasn’t an official offer…just speculation) and lots of other benefits that don’t include a salary hike while the unions still demand 12. I guess this is what they call negotiating! So unless there is a last minute reconciliation (which seems quite doubtful!) we will be out of work until this is resolved. So, I guess we will be reading even MORE books than we already do, and maybe escape to a neighboring city for a few days. I assume this won’t continue for more than a week, but in reality I have no idea how long the two sides will hold out. We’ll keep you posted!

Hope everything is well and good back there in the land of sanity and dedicated teachers…

Andrea