Men and Marriage

I have come to the conclusion that men here like women that can put them in their place. Today I was talking to a man and teasing him that his shirt was too small (it was a woman’s shirt made to show off midriffs) and telling him that he should stop smoking because cigarettes would kill him. Apparently, he liked this because he was soon asking me to marry him. Then came his shocking proposal: he would pay my family 2 million rand for my lobola (payment man makes to future’s wife’s family in order to obtain her). Two million rand is more than 300,000 dollars (most lobolas are somewhere between 15 and 30 thousand rand). Even I wouldn’t pay that much for me (I’m a lot to put up with). In addition, he said he would stop smoking, drinking, start going to church, and cook for me (culturally South African men don’t cook, this is a huge offer). It was a very entertaining proposal considering the man doesn’t know my real name (I’m Makobo to the villagers).
I have also jumped very fast into the deep end. Within 11am on my first day at the schools I had met with a building inspector to attempt to convince him not to tear down a building that I want to fix and make into a community library and had committed to teaching a two day workshop on alternatives to corporal punishment for next week. It is now Friday and I have added teaching a second workshop to my schedule as well as created an entire yearly budget on Excel for one of my schools. Luckily, I thrive off of intense situations and stress at least for now will keep my mind off of being home sick. I’m wishing myself luck.