Strikes and Bees and Bats

Workers of certain public sectors containing unions which are part of a congress that decided to strike for higher wages…unite!

Strike has been the name of the democratic game the past few weeks here in South Africa. The majority of teachers, along with health care workers and others, have been striking for higher wages and an increased housing allowance.

Striking is really a national past time here, right below soccer, rugby and braaiing (SA for barbequing). It happens often. Not only is the frequency quite high, but these strikes occur with much more zeal and gusto than the strikes I have seen in the U.S. It’s an art-form, really. When strikers protest, they often stage a “toyi-toyi” (or toi-toi..debatable and well just confusing to spell). This time-honored tradition involves a kind of high-step dance, knees coming up to their chests as people sing, chant and brandish various posters.

Now I think these toitoi-ers have it right. American strikers and protesters should take note. If you are going to picket and protest, do it with style, people. Turn those half-hearted, two-lined chants into harmonized songs. Coordinate your outfits. And by god, pick up those feet and move your body! Should South African labor unions ever see Americans strike, I’m sure their reaction would be along the lines of “Oh please. You’re barely trying. Can’t you do anything besides walk in a straight line and yell?”


As entertaining as striking is here, this whole business leaves me here in the village to entertain myself in the absence of my normal routine at the schools. It has been…challenging. The product of the American “busier is better” mentality, I have always experienced that delightful inverse relationship between time and productivity: the more free time I have, the less productive I am. Conversely and rather masochistically, when I am extra busy I get things done promptly. I become an efficiency machine.

To cling to the sanity I have left, I have been trying to spend more time on projects outside the schools. For example, a group of women and I are putting together quilts for HIV/AIDS awareness. We are using squares of fabric that the children decorated at my camp and plan on hanging them in four different schools. It is a fun project and is going quite well. My weekly Tswana sewing bee, I call it.
On the homefront, I have been cleaning my house and waging war against the bats currently residing in my roof. Right now, the current score (points generally determined as bats annoying me or temporary eviction of bats by me) is about as follows:

Bats: 764
Kristen: 5

I don't win often.

So the tedium, the bat fighting and the lack of real productivity continues, hopefully with an end in sight. In the meantime, the teachers continue to get their daily exercise high-stepping their way to a fatter paycheck.