“This eruption undoes stagnation”
-Björk
I remember stirring from my slumber on the 15 hour flight. Dawn was just about to break, and I
was grateful to have the window seat. The sky lit up with all the colors of the spectrum as the sun
rose, somewhere over the Rainbow Nation. An hour later, at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo
International Airport, I would be introduced to the Peace Corps South Africa Country Director,
and then our group of 34 volunteers would pack our lives onto a bus to travel to our next resting
place.
The bus ride was a silent four hour journey. Most of us were busy dreaming of all the familiar
faces we had left behind. None of us knew quite what to expect once we arrived at our
destination. We would later learn that not knowing what to expect would become our expectation
for the next two years; resilience and flexibility- the two qualities Peace Corps advocates as most
needful for making it through service.
The disappointment was palpable when we pulled onto a compound protected by razor wire, and
what appeared to be an abandoned building. But expectations aside, it was time to set foot on
Africa’s soil for the first time in my life.
One foot, now the other foot. I was home. Then, came the voices. Harmonic soul penetrated my
ear drums and suddenly I forgot that I was far from the familiar. A group of nearly 20 African
women and men, dressed in tribal patterns, bright blues, oranges, greens, yellows, and reds,
wearing embroidered hats, handmade traditional skirts and dresses, and adorned in beads,
erupted into song. We couldn’t understand the words, but we all remember how the spirit they
evoked pierced our hearts, and placed Africa inside of us, forever.
We spent one week in confinement, unable to venture to even a nearby store without security
and supervision. Then, we travelled to a rural area in Limpopo to be introduced to our host
families. We had no idea what to expect. We were told we would stay with the families for 8
weeks during our pre-service training. We would eat our meals with our hosts, some of us would
bathe in buckets, others would learn how to kill chickens, and how to eat porridge with our hands.
I would be lying to say I didn’t have some fears and anxieties, but love was burning at my core. It
was love that brought me to South Africa, love that would carry me through, and love that would
flourish as I came to terms with the strange and uncomfortable dynamics of my new life.