"I also really struggle with the lack of privacy," she said. "Everyone in my village knows when I wash my clothes or use the bathroom. If I have another volunteer over (male or female) there's a mass migration to my house and endless speculation and gossip. I hate that I can't walk or go running without someone calling my name every five seconds. It gets frustrating when I'm having a bad day to have to greet everyone and pretend to be happy. Homesickness and missing things from home is hard." "Hands down, the children are the reason I stay. For example, this morning, before I came here, I stopped at a school to drop off a geography test for a geography contest I had. I saw kids sitting in corners with their maps studying. That was an amazing feeling, to know that I inspired a kid to be that motivated," she said. "I also had a seventh-grade girl write me a thank you letter last year that was amazing. So often I feel like no one cares about the work I do here. But something like that happens and I know I'm making a difference to at least one person."
Cait Burkholder is about a year and a half into a two year assignment with the Peace Corps. in a village called Rasewana in the Modjadji area of the Limpopo province of South Africa
Living a World Away From the Santa Clarita Valley
By Jim Walker
Signal Staff Writer
Caption: A village in the Limpopo province of South Africa Photo: Peace Corps Volunteer Jenny Giboney Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0
"I got in trouble for clipping my toenails outside the other day. Apparently, that's not culturally acceptable," said Cait Burkholder.
You can imagine the setting: a pretty young American blithely clipping away on the steps of her tin-roofed room, which is attached to the outside of her "family's" house, in a small village in South Africa. There are the neighbors, staring and shaking their heads. She'll hear about it soon enough.
"Sometimes I still feel like I'm settling in," Burkholder said.
She's only 23, and two birthdays have passed since she's been home to the Santa Clarita Valley. She has no running water, uses a pit toilet during the day and a bucket at night. There's the incredible heat in summer, the lack of privacy, and the shattering of preconceived notions of how she was going to "help" as a Peace Corps volunteer.
And yet, Burkholder has never seriously considered giving up.
"I've never been at the point that I'm not sure whether or not I'll be here next month," she said. "I know I just have to work through whatever problems I have here."
Burkholder is about a year and a half into a two year assignment with the Peace Corps. She lives in a village called Rasewana, which is in the Modjadji area of the Limpopo province of South Africa. The nearest town of any significance is Tzaneen, where she was able to go online and share her thoughts for this interview. Her main job with the corps is working with school development and teacher training. "I help with implementing the new curriculum of South Africa. In addition, I do other community projects. Currently, I'm working on a library and a playground, as well as various HIV/AIDS awareness projects," she said.
SCV Days
Burkholder grew up in the SCV, and her family has lived in Valencia for 21 years. This includes mother Patricia, father Chuck, 18 year-old sister Caryn, and brothers Jake, 8 and Sam, 7. Cait Burkholder attended Meadows Elementary School and Placerita Junior High School and graduated from William S. Hart High School in 2001. While growing up, she participated in AYSO soccer, and ran cross country for Hart.
"Some of my favorite memories include rollerblading through the wash with my friends to get a smoothie, or catching frogs with my younger brothers. I really loved being involved with soccer and cross country. I had so much fun in both of them," she said.
After high school, Burkholder attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she graduated in 2005, with a bachelor's in liberal studies and a multi-subject teaching credential.
Why the Peace Corps?
"In high school I became interested in the Peace Corps for the opportunity to work in another country, as well as the ability to travel," Burkholder said. She felt the Peace Corps was particularly appealing as it allowed her to live in a third world country and get the full experience of the culture.
"I found this intriguing - going from Santa Clarita to Africa was an amazing possibility to me. Thus, I applied during my last year of college and came straight here," she said.
Burkholder explained that you can choose service in three areas in the Peace Corps - when you want to go, your job, and where you want to go. She wanted to leave as soon as she could, and knew, with her background, she'd be working in education. She wanted to go to Africa, and live in a rural area. At first, she was a bit disappointed to be assigned to South Africa, because she thought it would be too developed, compared to other African nations. As it turned out, she got her wish, even in South Africa.
"It is a single country where part of it is first world and the other part is third world," she said. "We do have many things other African countries don't have, such as regular electricity, easy access to food, etc. Yet, in the village, people still live in shacks. We don't have running water."
Patricia Burkholder said she was nervous letting her daughter go to such an undeveloped area of the world.
"It was unnerving, sending your daughter to an area that's unknown, with a high crime rate and a high HIV infection rate," she said.
In fact, one of Cait Burkholder's early blog entries shows a comment her mother made: "They only want your dental records so they can identify you if you're killed."
Patricia Burkholder added, "It was hard letting go, but she was an adult. To tell the truth, I didn't think she'd go through with it." She remarked that at one low point in Cait Burkholder's tour, her mother offered to give her a visit home. But Cait Burkholder declined, knowing it would be too hard to come home and then head back to Africa again.
Hitting the Road
In mid-August 2005, Burkholder began her journey.
"Initially, I had a big information packet to prepare myself with. Right before we left, we had a few days of training in Philadelphia, which was a basic crash course on what to expect. Then, once we got here, we had about two months of training in a rural village," Burkholder said.
She explained that all the volunteers in her training class lived with different families in a village and received training on the education system there, cultural norms, language, etc. She felt she was prepared as well as could be expected, but that you can never be completely prepared. Cultural shocks included bathing in four inches of water in a large bucket, and contemplating shaving her hair after she found a huge cockroach in it.
One of her earliest blog entries: "Some days are frustrating. Training can get monotonous and we are all ambitious people, with the ultimate desire to make it to our sites so we can 'begin saving the world.'"
Another entry, after one of the volunteers became ill and went home: "It hit us all pretty hard...Life is hard here. The food is different, the bathrooms different, the people different, the gender roles different, the safety issues different. Two years is a ridiculously daunting time period to us all right now."
On Oct. 13, 2005, Burkholder swore-in to become an official Peace Corps volunteer. The volunteers went their separate ways and Burkholder moved in with her family in Rasewana, where she would spend two years.
New Home
"The area where I live is absolutely beautiful. It's really green and I live across the road from a dam, which is nice for going on runs. People where I live are very friendly and the children are amazing," Burkholder said. "For the most part, my host family is great. I absolutely love my youngest host brother, Khutso, who is 8. I have a 19 year-old sister, Mapula, that's been great when she's home (not often as she's at university in Pretoria). On the other hand, I do have one host brother, Oupa, who's 19 and horrible. I've had problems with him being a peeping Tom and stealing my food. No one in the family can control him and he's a nuisance to everyone, so at least I'm not alone in my pains with him."
"As far as my family at home, I think my mom struggled with me coming here at first. I'm the first person in my family to leave the country, let alone live abroad. I think for her it's been hard to have me here. Yet, she definitely has become one of my biggest supporters. In the beginning, I think she really wanted me to come home, and now she is really excited about the things I am doing here," she said. "My sister came for Christmas this year, along with two of my friends."
The friends were Becca Coutin and Lisa Kinsey, who went to high school with Cait Burkholder.
"It was amazing to have them here. We went to Mozambique and went swimming with whale sharks. I'm still hoping my mom will visit, but I have my doubts," Burkholder said.
Patricia Burkholder said she's planning a visit to Cait in June.
When told Cait Burkholder doubted her mom would come, Patricia Burkholder said she believed she would follow through.
Asked if her other daughter was considering the Peace Corps after her visit to South Africa, Patricia Burkholder said yes. How does she feel about that?
"After the experience with Cait, I'd be OK with it," she said.
The Bad
Burkholder explained that there isn't much social life in the village, as far as organized activities. Boys tend to play soccer and many people are involved with church, but as for much else, there's not a lot to do.
"It leads to a lot of young people dropping out of school and the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS because there's not much out here to motivate," she said. "I'll never get used to the heat in summer. One of the things I've struggled with the most is my job. When I came here I assumed I'd be training teachers, but many teachers know how to teach well. They just don't care or aren't motivated enough to do so. Sure there are exceptions, but I always struggle with knowing that so many kids are missing out because teachers are too lazy to do their jobs."
Burkholder said there are other issues as well.
"I also really struggle with the lack of privacy," she said. "Everyone in my village knows when I wash my clothes or use the bathroom. If I have another volunteer over (male or female) there's a mass migration to my house and endless speculation and gossip. I hate that I can't walk or go running without someone calling my name every five seconds. It gets frustrating when I'm having a bad day to have to greet everyone and pretend to be happy. Homesickness and missing things from home is hard."
While Burkholder has been basically healthy during her stay, she's had a few health problems.
"I've had lots of stomach problems, but I boil and filter my water before I drink it, Burkholder said. "I haven't had anything real major. I had ringworm on one of my arms, which was itchy, but not that big of a deal - and I split my knee open but wasn't able to get stitches, so I have an ugly scar."
The Good
Despite the negatives Burkholder said there is much keeping her on the job.
"Hands down, the children are the reason I stay. For example, this morning, before I came here, I stopped at a school to drop off a geography test for a geography contest I had. I saw kids sitting in corners with their maps studying. That was an amazing feeling, to know that I inspired a kid to be that motivated," she said. "I also had a seventh-grade girl write me a thank you letter last year that was amazing. So often I feel like no one cares about the work I do here. But something like that happens and I know I'm making a difference to at least one person."
She's also been able to see a few of the tourist attractions. "I've been to Kruger National Park a few times," she said. "It's amazing to see wild animals only a few feet away from your car, roaming in the wild. That is until you make an elephant mad and it starts coming after the car."
Life in the Peace Corps
Burkholder said the people she works with have many needs.
"Motivation. Education. Apartheid left such deep scarring here that many of the villagers don't know how to improve their own situation. They are waiting for the government to do it for them," she said. "Unemployment and degradation play hugely into the rate of crime. In addition, people need more upfront HIV/AIDS education. People still don't talk about it. Sure they teach it in school, but people die constantly here and when asked what they died from it's always 'a long illness.'"
No longer in the relatively safe SCV, Burkholder is conscious of her safety.
"There's a lot of crime and violence in the country, but the village is basically safe," Burkholder said. However, she does take precautions. "I'm never out of my home compound after dark, and I avoid drunk men at all costs," she said.
Future Plans
With her Peace Corps tour moving along fast, Burkholder is thinking about the future.
"When I get home I, hopefully, plan to teach for a year or two and then potentially go to grad school and get my masters in something to do with educational policy," she said. "If I get a teaching job, I'll be home in August - otherwise October."
Her mother is looking forward to her daughter's return home.
"I am extremely proud of what she has accomplished but anxious to have her home. I'm also interested in seeing how she will transition back," Patricia Burkholder said. She said Cait Burkholder is starting to feel pressure now that her time in South Africa is growing short. There are many things she still wants to accomplish.
Burkholder said she would recommend the experience to others, but not to everyone.
"I would recommend this to a very specific type of person," she said. "It's amazing, but you have to be patient and be able to adjust who you are to the culture here. A lot of people I started with are no longer here, though through no fault of their own. It's hard and you have to be really prepared for that."
Would she do it again? "Perhaps when I retire in the South Pacific. That wouldn't be bad."
As stated on Burkholder's Web site, funding for her library project has come through. As soon as the Peace Corps Web site posts her grant for her playground project, those interested can donate funds to it. For more information visit Cait Burkholder's Web site at www.survivingsouthafrica.blogspot.com. There you can also see how to donate needed items to her library. You can e-mail her at cburkholder@gmail.com (but remember, she is unable to check e-mail regularly). For other information, including donating funds to Burkholder's South Africa projects, visit www.peacecorps.gov.
Copyright:The Signal
