my first day at my new job

Blog 5. 

my first day at my new job.

I was well warned about Swazi time

If they say an hour expect a day

If they say a day – expect a week

If they say a week expect a month etc.

Now we had agreed that the classes would be Monday – Wednesday  9am – 3pm     Yebo?   That means yes

I turned up at 9.  Not a sewing person in sight and of course that meant no one’s veranda had been prepared, so I continued to drive the GSV  (Georgie’s Swazi Vehicle) to Janes place. A whole 100m.

Jane was still doing her daily routine – breakfast and getting Sister ready to go the care point for the day. (I take  it that care point is something like a day care service)  I will go with Jane next week to see what it is all about.

I tried to stay out of her way while she continued with her chores and patiently wait for others to appear. 

Next to arrive was Ncane -  don’t try to say this alone- it could cause problems.   She is also known as Make Maseko -  (instruction:  Make is pronounced ‘margay’ and it means a mature or married lady) and it is then followed by the last name.   I am called Sister Georgine  (not with an ‘a’) as Make Whitchurch is as strange to them as some sounds are to me.

Ncane was the original teacher of the group about 3 years ago.  She has been invited to come in for a while to answer any questions I may have. 

Slowly about 7 people turned up, and the latest was about 10.30.  Some are not sewing persons but were interested to find out what was going on -  read a bit further and you will understand this!

My plan for the day was to establish what supplies they have and don’t have – what is needed etc.  That was the easy part – they have no fabric!!  One pair of scissors that chew rather than cut, a few pins, some poor quality threads,  what is a tape measure?  What are patterns? Where are the templates for the things you make?   Did I mention they have been without a teacher/leader for over 8 months and so nothing was being done by them because there was nobody to do it for them.    Yes! It also became obvious that the person with them prior to me, made them all very dependent on her. 

Once I established that a shopping spree was in need they all had a reason for having to go to Manzini -  that was so they could get a lift rather than taking the bus.  I’m learning fast not to commit to any of these types of demands. And the easiest way is not to tell them what I am doing or where I am going.  Don’t get me wrong – I am not opposed to giving someone a lift if they genuinely have a need to be going in the same direction as me.

So plan B  for Monday was to see what they could do with a make shift lesson in being creative.  I had taken with me the roll of black plastic rubbish bags ( left over from my shower curtain)  and a bunch of crochet hooks – I had been told they either can crochet / or had been taught earlier in the year.  They were very puzzled about the ‘material’  they were to use and couldn’t quite get it!!!.  However for me it gave a good indication of who would jump outside their comfort zone and who would not.  So I’ve got some measure of them.  

As fast as I could cut the plastic into strips about 2cms wide they were crocheting round or square items.  No pattern – just a few stitches allowed and make your own pattern from this.  There was lots of cutting from me. And lots of laughs coming from the ladies -  as I don’t understand SiSwati – they could have been taking the ……….out of me .  -  who is this mad woman ?   making us crochet with this stuff?   It didn’t matter, at least they were happy and it filled several hours without any difficulty.  One lady who is not of the group, but interested, was left handed and try as I may I could not explain to her what to do, so I asked her to watch me from the front and try to copy.  She eventually got going, but with the most unusual style of crochet I have ever seen.  

Day one ended about 2.30 and with the instruction that tomorrow we are starting at 9.30 and we are going to use the material suitable for toddler size dresses and we are going to make a dress.

I got home and jumped into the shower with my clothes still on, put the plug in the bath and then after washing me and my hair I washed my clothes. While going through the supply bags all sorts of things were jumping out and for most of the day there appeared to be flying critters everywhere.

Day 2.   I arrived again at 9.30.   and you guessed it!!!!    What is SSDD ? -   Same stuff Different Day.

No one there, veranda not ready.  Jane unfortunately gets lumbered with all the organising of others.  I’m planning on working on personal responsibilities -   good luck with that - I tell myself.

Jane and I cleaned the veranda and got the fabric out of the supply bag along with a horde of critters quite happy to escape again.  We discussed fabric and pattern selection and I asked Jane to do the cutting.   She is probably the most skilled of all.  Rose then arrived and so we cut another lot for her.  Jane was off to a good start as her machine is well cared for and didn’t need any fixing, cleaning or jiggling.  Rose has her machine at her place which is not at Section 19 and so she was borrowing a machine.  It was not in good nick and she fiddled and oiled and cleaned and then got going, sort of.  A short while later Kumbuzi arrived and also wanted to make a dress.  So another cut out and repeated instructions.  Kumbuzi also lives elsewhere and had to borrow a machine.  After a little more of the same, number 3 was in the race.   I was sitting with Jane to give her the instruction for the next step and along came Kunyasili, and not to be ignored for long, she put a bundle of material in my lap and patted my knee to let me know she was ready for my undivided attention. 

Pretty soon number 4 was in the race -      not Melbourne cup contenders. . . . but we had something going – as like most people anywhere – there are competitive ones. . . 

I was hopping from one to the other with a series of instructions because they were all at different stages all day.   It was interesting though -  Jane, the most skilled, but low confidence, Rose the most confident, but loves drama. Kumbuzi the quiet achiever, with a vision problem and cannot see to measure a seam allowance and Kunyasili needing all the attention.

By 3 o’clock I was knackered and noticed a few silly mistakes happening.  We were making a very simple small person dress and clearly they were doing things they were not familiar with. I suggested we pack up and continue the next day. 

No surprises here – they requested a 10am start on Wednesday. 

I arrived at 10.15   I was hoping to catch them ready - but alas I will never be disappointed by these women, because there’s just no stress.  Jane had the fire going in the corner of her veranda and was cooking Maize on the cob.  Obviously not breakfast, based of the time, but because the maize was there to be cooked.  That’s just how it is.  It is cooked leaning up against hot coals/ash and sort of smoked.  We all ate one and it was pretty tasty- I thought of introducing butter, salt and pepper, but ate it their way.  Rose had arrived, so it was the three of us sitting on the edge of the veranda eating when a youngish male came by with my first offer of marriage.  I think it was the GSV that did it.   I told him not to get excited, I’m not the marrying kind and I don’t cook or clean or do washing all of which of course is a woman’s job in their culture.   OH hang on a minute that’s about the same as where I have been for the last 40 hears.   He was not put off, but we all had a good laugh, and there are no wedding plans.

I want to describe the building style here.   If you think of a square about 20 ft or so.  Half of this is the veranda and the other half is divided into half again and becomes two rooms that open onto the veranda.  The rooms are the living, sleeping and storage place for a family, regardless of size.

One end of the veranda is open the other is concrete block wall that creates a 3 sided enclosure where fires are lit for cooking.  Some of these are left to smoulder all day and reignited every time there is a need to heat something.  The people occupying the two rooms and be from different families and share the cooking space.

Now back to stitching….  Eventually we set up camp at Janes place this day and Kumbuzi sauntered in about 11.30. Unfortunately I had to leave at 1.00pm so not one of the dresses were finished.  We got pretty close. 

The top of the hills are in low cloud today. This s not my regular view.

While I was driving to work.

I have 12 kms to drive on gravel and doing about 40kph.  It is so peaceful and relaxing -  no radio, windows down with the cool morning air passing through the GSV and a fabulous carefree drive.  No bumper to bumper, no tail gaters, no silly idiots to make sure they get just one more car length closer etc.   I saunter along waving to all I see along the way.  I have mountains (sorry – ‘hills’ in NZ terms) on my left and an ongoing vista of green cane fields at my right and in front.  Further in the distance to my right I can see the outline of more hills.  The cane is grown in many small patches on a rotation so there is always a patch just sown and a patch being harvested and all other stages in between.  Doing it this way ensures the work is continuous, the mills are always processing etc.  the vast area of the low-veld is cane and occasionally maize crops.  There are a few major pumping stations in this area for the water to feed the crops and many sub stations.  The sub stations are all terracotta brick with green roofs.  When first I was driving through here, I thought I would use ‘this’ building as a landmark until I realised that there was more than one.  Just as well I realised this before I got horribly lost.

When I drive slow enough and have the windows down I can hear the birds and often see ones that are very colourful and unknown to me.   There is not much animal life in this general area due to the use of the land being for cane growing but there are many beautifully coloured birds.   I wish I could photograph them for you.  I watched a pair feeding outside of kitchen area.  I think it was a mother and chick as there appeared to be a teaching program happening.  The birds had a crown on their head that was black and white and opened out to fan when they were on the lookout for a sound.  The head and upper body was a really nice tan colour.  The wings when folded were black and white and resembled the lines of a Zebra. So attractive – I didn’t see them in flight so I do not  know how the wings would look.   I saw a pretty little one today in one of my trees – again outside the kitchen, the bird appeared to be the same colour as the new leaves on the tree, and ever so tiny.  Finch like. 

I am told that there are monkeys around here because we do back onto bush and there can be snakes.  There are a few feral cats around, but they seem to go as soon as they appear.  There are no dogs in our compound as the native Swazi people do not like to have pets of any kind, it is not in their culture to have any animals living near a human.  They consider it an offense / bad omen to have an animal in your house.

Shopping for fabric.

Thursday last week was our shopping day in Manzini for fabric.

We first went to the open markets that are there daily.  It was a maze of makeshift structures made from rough cut timbers each little stall had a raised timber platform and uprights that are denuded trunks of small trees with some form of cover over the top.  All fabrics are sold in either 2 or 4 meter lengths.  I have no idea where they come from, but the quality ranges from very poor to reasonable.  I am told that the best fabric in the area is in Mozambique – and I will need to go there one day soon !!!  

Teresa and I managed to spend a few emalangeni  - that is the currency.  About 8.5E to our $.  I thought we had heaps until I got home and worked out what we can make from what we have and of course we should have spent 3 times what we did to build up supplies.  After the market we went to another fabric retailer for the linings, threads, zips etc. and spent a bit more.  In hind sight it may have been better for me to go alone with the open cheque book. . . . .   I need to shop again next week.

Friday I started cutting out things for sewing and also cutting patterns from a heavy fabric – and hopefully they will not get lost.   Good luck with that, Georgie.

Friday night was a killer -  temperature was off the scale -  and it was followed by a day that will not be describe in this blog.   The temp was well over 40 ++++   I filled the bath and every hour or so hopped in to cool off.   By mid evening it changed and I was able to sleep with a light covering.  Sunday morning was a different story, quite cool in comparison but I still wore capri pants and little sleeve.  My fellow vollies turned up to brunch in long sleeves, and one was wearing a coat !!!

The photo at the top of this blog was taken on Sunday 13^th.  The AVI volunteers in Swaziland like to have a brunch get-together each month, and because I am out in the sticks on my own, they decided to come out my way this time.