Diamonds Are Forever?

So, I'm well into the 2007 school year now....and all of a sudden, time is on my mind. I split my work schedule between 3 schools....and it has recently dawned on me that I have less than 3 school quarters left in my village. That means that I have less than 10 weeks at each school, and if you count all of the time spent dealing with unplanned problems and issues, that doesn't leave me too much time to do a lot more at my schools. Let's hope that I'm busier this year than I was last year.....but judging from the first few weeks of school, with delayed meetings and workshops, as usual, I'm trying not to be too optimistic and get my hopes crushed.

*****

One of the advantages of living in South Africa is that, when I really need modern amenities, I can find them. It might take me a while, or a lot of travel and hassle, but I can find and do most things that I'd like to. So, this weekend, I saw a new movie: Blood Diamond, starring Leo DiCaprio.

I'd heard about the movie, and was intrigued at the premise. I finally saw it, and was pretty impressed at the result. It's not a perfect movie...not even close. But it's well made, entertaining, full of small accuracies that I noticed and add to its effect, and well-intentioned. It's a movie that takes place in Sierra Leone for the most part, in West Africa....far away from South Africa. But South Africa is all over this movie.

First off, Leo DiCaprio pulls off a pitch-perfect South African accent. It's remarkable to see (trust me, I can tell). He peppers his dialogue with little South African-isms, like "lekker," "bru", and even the "k" word ("kaffir"). "Bru" was all over the movie...and it reminded me of some characters I've met at backpackers around South Africa...."grooovy bruuuu" (and for those who don't know, in South Africa the "k" word carries the same connotations as the "n" word in America). Granted, Leo doesn't play a South African, he plays a "Rhodesian" (Zimbabwean)....that explains the references to the Shona, the dominant ethnic group in Zimbabwe.

**a note: when I say Leo pulls off a perfect South African accent, what I mean is that he pulls off a perfect WHITE, ENGLISH-SPEAKING accent. Afrikaaners have a bit of a thicker accent. And a Black South African accent is entirely different. They don't even use the same words when they speak. White South Africans like to say "lekker" and "bru", but in my life, around black South Africans, I hear "sharp" and "brah" (rolling the "r" in "brah")

At times, the movie is even insightful. At one point, Leo says: "Peace Corps types only stay around long enough to realize they're not helping anyone." Whether or not that's an accurate assessment (its truthfulness would depend on the individual, most likely), it was one that caught my ear, and it's something I think about sometimes. So to hear it in a movie was surprising.

There are a few scenes that take place in South Africa....but only in and around Cape Town. They serve as a stark contrast to the poverty and squalor in Sierra Leone.....there's a scene showing a massive estate in the Cape, with well-manicured lawns and shaded trees, and the next scene shows an informal settlement, shanty-town in Sierra Leone. Then there's also a scene at the very end of the movie, where Jennifer Connelly is on the phone with Leo, and she is standing at the Cape Town waterfront with Table Mountain in the background, a beautiful contrast to the violence and destruction that the viewer has just been watching. But Cape Town is not all there is in South Africa...it does not encapsulate what South Africa is.

In fact, much of the movie looks as if it could have been filmed in South Africa; the landscapes are very similar. (I've heard that most of the movie was filmed in Mozambique, which would make sense) A few scenes (notably the scene where Leo gets in a fight with Djimon Hounsou, calls him the "k" word, and pulls a gun on him) really remind me of the landscape near my village.

There are also some scenes where the "Colonel" in the movie speaks Afrikaans....I'm wondering, were those scenes sub-titled in America? They weren't subtitled here, and I'm wondering if that's because perhaps it's assumed that a South African audience will understand Afrikaans??? Perhaps someone who's seen the movie in American can help me out there......

A few pictures....

More Updating

So, it has been far too long since I've updated. I'm back at my site now (have been back for over a week), and I have to say, my trip in December was amazing. It's sad to be done with it. Our road trip continued with great success following the bungee jump....we visited a number of destinations and they were all gorgeous. In Jeffrey's Bay (one of the surf capitals of the world) and East London I tried learning how to surf....wtith VERY little success. I can stand up on the board, but I can't ride a wave...I just get thrown off pretty easily. Buccaneers Backpackers in Cintsa is the best backpackers in South Africa. It's amazing! We played beach volleyball, used their free canoes and boogie-boards, and generally had a blast while we were there. On Christmas Day we were in Port St Johns...we went on a "hike" up to a pretty beautiful waterfall...the hike itself was really awesome, swinging on vines, crossing rivers, scrambling up hillsides, trying not to slip in the mud. And, finally, on December 26, we ended up in Durban. We said goodbye to the rental car that had served us so well, and said hello to about 20 other Peace Corps Volunteers who were also there. We were there for a week of fun....waking up late, spending the day at the beach, eating fantastic meals. Amazing Indian food, and (surprisingly) pretty decent Mexican food! I hadn't had a good chimichanga for a while before this trip..... (While in Durban we also had the opportunity to see the Tenacious D movie...disappointing, I have to admit) I've transitioned from "vacation mode" and am now back in "village mode".....school has re-opened, and I'm busy planning out my work for the coming year, until I have to leave in October. On the first day of school this year, I paid attention to the Grade R learners (South African version of "kindergarten"). There were so many cute little kids at school, standing at assembly. Some of their parents had brought them to school...you could see the age differences. Many of the little ones were brought by grandparents, since many adults live and work in Johannesburg and leave their children with their parents. And a lot of the parents were very young....some of them were probably not more than 20 years old. Some of the parents were high school students wearing their high-school uniforms, and dropping their kids off at primary school. It was an interesting sight. Then, obviously, the kids got scared, and tried to escape. So they were all grabbed and put in class, and then the teacher closed the burglar door and locked them inside while she had to go and take care of some administrative work. It was half-funny and half-sad to see a class full of about 75 young kids, many of them crying, some of them at the windows and at the burglar door, reaching out, trying to get free. I know that in many countries, children are always scared of the first day of school. The difference here is that they probably have good reason to be scared! They are setting themselves up for 13 years of extremely sub-par education and probably a lot of beatings along the way.