Paperwork VS Deployment

Week two. Week two at 6 SAI and I am starting to itch for stories that I feel these women are not telling me. Then again, I could possibly be trying to find stories that shock, scare, or bring tears to not only my eyes but the eyes of my listener. As I type this though, I find myself asking: “Is that all you care about? Shouldn’t the stories rather be true- a snapshot of these women’s lives?” I guess I arrived at the Grahamstown base with my expectations 100km away from where they should be. Listening back to these interviews though and creating follow up questions, I feel like I am slowly starting to lessen that gap.  

Week two saw me arrive at the base with my recorder at my side, pen and paper in my hand and a smile on my face- I was ready for interviews. But like today (Tuesday), I sat for a few hours waiting for one of the women Royden had organised to chat with me. At one point, I was ready for ANY woman to talk to as I was tired and started to feel disheartened. Then out of nowhere, I was told that Nombulelo Zuma who works in Human Resources (HR) and Sio Morodi who had worked in the Infantry section were willing to talk to me and I was ready for action. 

What I found most interesting about these two women is the difference in the experiences they have had thus far in the army. Zuma works in an office, she only joined the military as she needed a job and the Military welcomed her and her expertise. She hasn’t as yet been deployed. Then you get Morodi who said, 

“When I grew up, I used to tell my mum, you know what, one day I will serve the Country. I’d like uniform when I grow up…it was my dream to be in the army….”

Morodi has been deployed and working as infantry saw her on the ground, keeping peace in countries like Burundi and fighting with her team when conflict arose. I was intrigued by her dedication to South Africa, her interest in the countries she has been deployed to and her empathy towards the people who were suffering that she saw there. This clearly worried her as she spoke about it and then didn’t continue after I asked a few more questions. 

These experiences she talks about have an honesty that I appreciate. I also understand that there is only so much these women can tell me. Life of a soldier I guess. You leave certain privileges of being a civilian behind when you answer the call to be a soldier and that for me is still one aspect of these women’s lives that I find hard to understand. It’s like becoming a nun or a priest- you give away the life you knew for the calling.

Plans for this week? I’m going to watch a marching parade at an ungodly hour in the morning and I might even be able to watch some of these women in action with a gun! And I have follow up interviews with the four I have worked with thus far. There is one soldier who I am dying to interview- she is the only female mechanic at the base and she seems to be quite cautious of me. I am working on it though- I reckon she has some great stories to share. Until the next blog post! 

Nadia