LEGKWARENG, GA-MATHABATHA, LIMPOPO, SOUTH AFRICA

Town sign...Name means "rocky place".  It is...very!  This is one of nine villages that comprise the larger village of Mathabatha, which is the name of the tribe (and family) which has authority over land use.

Morning walk.  Notice smoke on left; rubbish is burned here.

I have been here now a bit over a month, and have seen so many new sights and sounds from a city of over 8 million people to a village of 800.  My recent experience is Morocco has certainly been beneficial in quickly acclimating to life in villages. The main thing is to be cautious about having expectations.  For instance, don't expect water to come out of the faucet every time, don't expect people to be on time, etc.

The first week here in Limpopo was productive; had several wonderful interviews with women in the village regarding their lifestyle and how they handle money.  Much more yet to be learned, but I'm building rapport which is critical.  We go to meet with the tribal council on Tuesday and that will also give me more credibility.



Pay point market

The pay point is a building in the village where people go to pick up their social grants, which occurs, I think, in the middle of the month, but not sure if I understand that correctly.  There is a long queue not visible here, but there are numerous vendors set up that sell a few products; primarily cabbage, bananas, ahrcha (a very oily mango/onion/garlic/green pepper mixture), tomatoes, live chickens (which cost about $5) shoes, other clothing.  Since there are only little convenience stores near, this is a way people can buy household things needed.  I did buy some ahrcha(that is the way it's pronounced but not sure how spelled) and mixed it with scrambled eggs which was pretty good.  It has the mango pit in it, all chopped up which makes for interesting eating.  Notice the red dirt and rocky path.



The building on the left is the Burial Society, which is like funeral insurance   A group of people pay a set amount to join (maybe 100R), then pay every month, perhaps 400R.  Then when someone in your immediate family dies, you are given the money needed for the burial...the casket, food , etc.  The bakery on the right side of the photo is a part of the NGO that I am working with, and the goal is to make it not only sustainable, but an income-generating activity that will help support their social benefit programs.   There is a platinum mine nearby (remember that Stillwater Mine near Billings has South African connections) and they hope to secure contract with them once again to help support their customer base.  The management of the bakery is very lax so not sure how much I can do in this short of time.

Community surveys were done before I came, so spent part of my Saturday inputting data into a spreadsheet.  It appears that a survey is as good as the survey-taker, which appears to be questionable in some cases.  A young girl who will be working in this office soon also came in and I worked with her two hours today (and two hours yesterday) teaching her Word skills.