A stolen camera and a turkey dinner…

It was Tuesday evening and I was packing for my week and a half thanksgiving/life skills training vacation when I realized that my camera, which I keep in a drawer by the side of my bed, was missing. Now I had not used my camera for about a month so at first I thought maybe I moved it somewhere else or let someone borrow it. I searched my room (which takes about 5 minutes to do, thanks to its size) and called some friends, and after nothing turned up, I realized that my 14 year old host brother had taken it. Why, might you ask, would I automatically assume it was him? Well…

First off, my host family told me he steals. They warned me a couple days after I moved in, which was great news to me, as you can imagine. Second, the kid likes to creep around my hut. My host family has caught him lingering around my home a couple times and I have seen him peeping in my windows, one time getting a full on naked view (poor kid!) Finally, the morning that my camera went missing, I noticed that when I came back from the outhouse someone had been in my room. It had rained the night before so there were footprints on my straw mat that were bigger than my flip flop size. I figured it was him and I quickly checked to see if anything was missing, but my money, phone and laptop were all sitting out and were all still there, so I thought I was safe. Thought I scared him off before he could do any damage. Guess I was wrong.

That night, once I realized what had happened, I ran next door to my family’s house in the pouring rain to tell my grandma what I thought happened. She told me he probably did take it, said sorry a few times and then asked me what I would do. Nothing. What could I do? He is 14 and clearly has issues so….

The next morning at 5 am my grandma woke me up to give me back my camera. She was standing there with my host brother and a neighbor (I still don’t know why he was there). I later found out (from my grandma) that my host brother had stolen money from his grandfather, disappeared for the weekend, came back with neighbors following him claiming their things were missing, ended up in the police station for the night, was beat by the police (best part of the story considering my host grandma doesn’t speak much English and this whole thing involved hand signals), and then returned to the house were he immediately stole from me. Glad to see he learned his lesson with that beating and all.

I am never having children- especially not a boy.


The next day, my life improved greatly as I headed off to meet the other 11 PCVs in KZN to celebrate thanksgiving. We all stayed at an Italian villa that someone’s supervisors own. It came complete with a pool, DSTV, enough bedrooms to house 15, and wonderful running water.

We spent thanksgiving swimming, cooking and drinking and I can say that a) thanksgiving is much better when it is with friends instead of family (no offense family) and b) after hardly eating meat (or good food) for about 10 months, I had a new love for turkey and stuffing, two things I normally hate. See, I am changing and growing. Thanks Peace Corps.

We then spent the next day chilling at the beach, eating leftovers and swimming in the Indian Ocean. For a girl from Michigan, such post-Thanksgiving day activities are unheard of. No snow- it is a miracle!!