A little while ago I was writing a letter when a bat flew in through the tiny slot between my burglar-door and frame. I reached up smacking it out of the air mid-flight, flicked it outside with my notebook, and continued with my letter. TIA… Oh, and Wednesday is now “Puff Adder Day”

So today, I went to the Center.

And it was the first time the kids where able to use it since construction began back in October. And its official I have turned over my keys to the Center to the Social Center Manager for her to be in control of from now on.

So SCHOOL IS OPEN.

And this is how America, the Peace Corps, its programs & people & its dollars really can make difference in the world.

The garden is a work in progress that is the responsibility of the Caregivers. But today I wacked weeds with a slasher and got couple of blisters as last day of work thank you.

So its all done. Thank you to all who have followed and contributed in some form.

Some time next week just for the heck of it I will post a before & after post to wrap it all up.

Anyway, now its find a job doing maybe something similar but in another part of the world.

The blog will continue but certainly there will be less news to report.

This is the last of line of students entering the School for the first time as it is all finished.

Some students at the school.

Winter is Coming… as the Starks of Winterfell say. ; )

But it is true, with the February drawing to a close, we all start to remember the bitter cold of winter that starts to appear in March. I’m starting to bring to boots out from under my bed and dust off that North Face fleece! I’m sure this is all old news to all of you and you’re excited for the heat of summer to return, but it’s hard for us all to remember that winter does come in Africa!

And with this winter comes the close of my service! Isn’t it crazy how fast two years flies! I have started selling things from my hut, and planning what will stay and what will go. I look around and am shocked at how much crap I have and how little I’ll be able to bring with me on my trip up the continent this August. Just enough for a backpack…

I’m also very excited that I found out my site will be replaced! That means that after I leave in the beginning of August, a new volunteer will be here at the end of August! My community is very excited, as is my counterpart. I must have done something right then, if they want another crazy American who eats weird things and walks too fast!

Although I can almost see the end of my service, it doesn’t mean that I’m done yet, by any sense. My gardening project for our orphan care point has been approved (finally!!). I will have the money in a few weeks and we will start buying fencing and gutters to get it all going! March 26 we will have a workshop for the caregivers at the care point on basic gardening techniques and on March 27 my counterpart and I will lead them in a basic Early Childhood Education and Psychosocial Support workshop. Bet you didn’t know I knew about all that did you? Turns out I don’t! But if there’s one thing I’ve learned here, its that you know more than you think you do, and the rest you can just fake! With a manual and a translator, there’s nothing I don’t know about! ; )

We’re also in the middle of two libraries at the moment… yes two! Our High School, thanks to all your generous donations and positive thoughts, is in the middle of the Books for Swaziland project. The librarian will attend a Librarian Training on March 1 to learn the ins and outs of a library, how to run it, how to make a check out system, etc. She is very excited and the school is excited for the books to come!

And finally, after a year and a half, we *hopefully* have found someone to build our Primary School a library of their own!! I have searched high and low for someone to build the structure, as infrastructure projects are a big no no for Peace Corps Volunteers here. Managing those projects and the money is a huge responsibility, pain and stress. Plus it is generally the sort of thing we avoid, “yes I have the money to build big buildings” and many times these projects fail for various reasons. So for these reasons we are encouraged to look elsewhere, be the link between the community and the organizations that do build buildings, taking us out of the money part and the managing part so we can focus on how to make this building sustainable and continue functioning long after we are gone. So, that has been my struggle, helping the school with applications and letters to various organizations, begging for help building a library. Finally, last week on a site visit from my boss, the Peace Corps Country Director, and a member of the Embassy, the Deputy Ambassador basically from what I understand, I was informed of State Department community outreach grants and encouraged to apply. What they didn’t tell me is that I needed to have it submitted in less than a week. Needless to say it was a crazy week, trying to get quotations for the building, making sure it fit in the grant’s budget, fitting it all around my prior obligations and then of course the storms knock the power out. But today, a few hours before the deadline, I submitted our request and got an immediate reply. Having dropped the name of the Embassy Official and his visit, as well as the fact that they seem to be trying to give this money away, I think there is a very good chance this will be a success!

This now means that we’ll need books for this new structure, if it comes to fruition. I am looking into some options for that and may be calling for help from you all back home once again, but if it doesn’t work out, with a new volunteer coming, I know this school will be able to participate in the Books for Swaziland project next year.

So with the care point garden, the two libraries, life skills classes and a possible HIV Support Group garden, these last 5 months are shaping up to be my busiest. That’s what everyone said, but you never do believe it until it happens. My biggest hurdle in all these projects now is time. It’s times like these when you really realize that two years is just simply not enough time. But don’t worry guys, I will come home. ; )

But with all these projects, it means there’s not a lot of time for the trips to town, which is fine. The work load ebbs and flows during your service, so sometimes you’re in town a lot because there isn’t much to do at site, and sometimes you’re the site rat who no one ever sees. I was able to sneak away for a few days for Valentine’s Day and my Birthday (thanks for all the birthday wishes and cards!). I hung out with Eric, ate pizza and saw a movie. It was nice to just have some normalcy again, pretending Spur was Applebee’s and the 4 theatre cinema was Willow Creek. But now it’s back to work for a while, which is good as well.

Anyway, I think that’s all for now. If anyone from the new group invitees (G10) is reading this, look forward to meeting you in a few months. Anyone remember when I got my invitation to Swaziland?? How long ago does that seem… and yet, not so long. Weird!

Love and miss you all!

Meg

PS: I tried to put some pictures up yesterday in town but Picasa was being slow and stupid. Maybe next time.

Wow. Every part of my Type A personality is screaming right now. I wrote the following blog at my house within the first couple weeks of January. I wanted to get some pictures from Cameron to go with it. Next thing I know, it is the end of FEBRUARY!! What happened!? I'm staying busy, that's for sure. :-) Hope you enjoy.

Vic Falls Vacation

I really want the beautiful pictures, which Cameron took, to show how much fun we had on our pre-Christmas vacation to Victoria Falls. The falls are between Zambia and Zimbabwe on the great Zambezi River. I had the pleasure of visiting these breathtaking waterfalls with my mother in March 2011, but just like the differing water levels over the falls this trip was also quite different and just as perfect… perfectly adrenaline saturated that is.

Within a few hours of arriving we both jumped off the Unity Bridge which connects the two countries. The following day we made our way down the rapids of the Zambezi River on individual inflatable kayaks. I can say that I probably swam more rapids than successfully kayaked, but it was a great day nonetheless. Our guide called it the triathlon: you hiked down and then back out of the steep gorge, you kayaked some rapids, and you ended up swimming even more of them!

On our last full day in Zambia we decided to go out to Livingstone Island situated right at the top of the falls. At the backpackers we were given two options for this adventure. We could boat out there or walk for a little less. As PCVs, we are certainly not adverse to walking or saving money, so we opted for the walk. Little did we know “walking” to the island means gingerly stepping from slippery rock to slippery rock, with strong currents up to your knees, holding on to nothing but the local guide and an equally terrified Cameron. Earlier in the year the water levels are so much lower that the way is dry and much less dangerous. What takes 30minutes to traverse then took us 1 ½ hours to safely cross. They were going to close down this activity all together within two weeks due to the rising waters. We got some great pictures at the precipice of the falls, but we chose the boat ride on the way back.

While on the island, though, you can swim up and across a current to jump into Devil’s Pool. This is a small catchment of water, held in by a small rock ledge, before tumbling over the edge. Cameron and I both sat on that ledge knowing that if we moved back more than a foot we’d be heading over as well.

With all of that unexpected excitement we decided to relax that afternoon and go out for drinks and then dinner at the Royal Livingstone Hotel, on the river, that night. We bopped over to Zimbabwe for our final morning to see the falls from that side of the bridge. It was certainly a spectacular view from both sides. From that point, though, we could see the places we were walking and swimming just the day before from a completely different vantage point. Great pictures were taken.

We hurried back across the border and bridge to grab our bags and make our flight back to Jo’Burg, South Africa. I guess I carried an unwanted souvenir back with me: a stomach bug. Our night at the Jo’Burg backpackers and 4 hour shuttle ride to Swaziland the following day was not so much fun. Luckily it didn’t last for more than a couple days.

Conference Money Update & Thank Yous!

This past week we received an update on how our fund raising efforts are going for sending our Teen Club members to the International AIDS Conference. Thanks to everyone who has already contributed to this amazing effort we are currently able to send two teens to the US! We are still working to get our numbers within our goal range of 3-6 awesome representatives, but this is such an overwhelmingly positive response. For those of you who donated for me or are planning on donating: thank you so very very very much!!! I couldn’t feel more supported and loved.

We also narrowed our selection of these stellar teens from 70 to 11, based on their age (must be 16years old or older to attend this conference), their attendance and participation in teen club, adherence to their medication and clinical staff recommendations. These 11 came into the clinic this past Wednesday for our first meeting and workshop. We discussed timelines, final selection process, conference requirements, conference programs, and then had a mini-workshop on scholarship/application writing and public speaking. These truly amazing teens will come back in this Thursday to hand in their scholarship applications and give a small presentation based on a question we gave them at the end of our previous meeting. Choosing the final six to register and submit, I already know, will be very difficult.

Christmas/New Year’s Eve

I hope everyone enjoyed this holiday season as much as I did. Even carrying back the stomach bug souvenir from the Zambezi River, I had a terrific Christmas day with my PCV family. We ate good food, went to the Christmas vigil service (complete with Swazi-fied manger scene  ), ate more good food, opened gifts from each other and Santa, listened to Christmas music the entire time, and watched one of my favorite Christmas movies: Love Actually.

Come to think of it, my New Year’s Eve was very similar. Same friends, same location, and the same caliber of amazing food and drinks! The only differences were that I was sans a stomach bug, we lit off fire crackers (per Swazi tradition) at midnight, and danced in our living room… ‘til 3am. It was a perfect way to welcome in 2012.

Visiting Site

The first weekend of January I took a trip to visit my host family, the Broodryks, and friends in Ekuphumleni. It is hard to believe that 5 months have come and gone since I have last slept in my thatched roof hut and dined on Make’s excellent emahewu (soured maize meal drink). To be honest, I was a bit anxious to get on my deathtraps, I mean public transport buses, and make the journey across the country. Luckily, the bus broke down only a little and I was to the Dlamini homestead by 12:30 on the Saturday afternoon. I’m also very grateful that the rare set of clouds had decided to follow me down from the mountains, cooling the blistering hot summer days I have not missed in the lowveld. It was probably only in the 80s. :-)

My family is doing great! I got to give everyone massive hugs, which they still laugh hysterically at, and twirl every child. Babe was home and even one of my sisis and her baby, who live off the homestead now. We played cards, talked, watched Cameron’s and my bungee videos (they were shocked), and made/ate every maize dish that I had not had since living there. They even kicked my bhuti, Lindo, out of “Zodwa’s house”, so I was able to sleep in my thatched hut yet again. The spiders and lizards missed me. :-P Lindo have even written “Welcome Back” in the house. It was good to be home.

Sunday I was able to walk up to A1 and visit my counterpart, Vusi, the Group 9 volunteer that was stationed in my community after I left, and the Broodryk family. This was also a wonderful afternoon spent relaxing, catching up, and even watching Extreme Home Makeover on TLC! Ha! I left to come back up to Mbabane on Monday with Johanne, who quite conveniently had to do some errands in the capital! No bumpy rattle boxes on wheels for me on the way back! Yay!

Data Collection/Grant Writing

The first Teen Club of 2012 was certainly a busy one! We are currently applying for grants to keep Teen Club going, and to do that we need to show that Teen Club works. To prove that these support groups are as awesome as I know they are, we are performing an evaluation of the program that includes 184 youth interviews, 4 volunteer interviews, 8 participant focus group sessions, and an interview with the coordinator: me.

So what is left is cleaning to make the center so it can be open for business and school

Pictured here are the 2 pre-school teachers & the Center's Manager they now have the keys and the future of the center in their hands. My responsibility for the Ward 4 Social Center is now officially over.

There is one part left to this and that is when the get to actually start school. The Center has already attracted more than the normal amount of children for enrollment. (technically, the PC paperwork is left also.)

I cleaned the toilets which where still covered in paint & then went home. It was nice to walk away knowing that the building will have a good life.

Here are some better photos of the mosaic (I had called it a mural, but I have been corrected murals are painted)

Before Grout

After Grout

The Whole Thing.

The Following is an article published in Forbes.

The Five Worst Leaders In Africa

Good governance is gaining ground in Africa. It’s happening at snail speed, but it’s happening nevertheless. African leaders are becoming increasingly democratic and are recording significant progress in liberalizing the political environment. They are more accountable to their citizens, and showing more respect for human rights and civil liberties.

But the bad eggs still linger – and there are quite a number of them. Late last year, I put a call through to my African followers on Twitter to nominate the worst African leaders of our times. I received over 800 responses. Based on those responses, these are the five worst African leaders of today.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is Africa’s longest serving ruler. He has ruled Equatorial Guinea, a tiny, oil-rich West African country, since August 1979 when he overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a bloody coup d’état. Equatorial Guinea is one of the continent’s largest producers of oil and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into prosperity for its people. The country ranks very poorly in the United Nations human development index; the vast majority of Equatorial Guineans hardly have access to clean drinking water. The country also has one of the world’s highest under-5 mortality rates: about 20% of its children die before the age of five. Many of the remaining 80% of the children don’t have access to quality educational and healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, the first son of the president, Teodorin Obiang (who is in line to succeed his father), spends millions of dollars of state funds financing his lavish lifestyle which includes luxurious property in Malibu, a Gulfstream jet, Michael Jackson memorabilia and a car collection that could easily make billionaires go green with envy.

José Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola

José Eduardo dos Santos is Africa’s second longest serving president. He took the reins of power in September 1979 following the natural death of his predecessor Agostinho Neto. To his discredit, Jose Eduardo has always run his government like it’s his personal, privately-owned investment holding company. His cousin serves as the Angola’s vice president, and his daughter, Isabel Dos Santos is arguably the wealthiest woman in the country. Angola is extremely resource-rich. According to the United States Agency For International Development (USAID), the country is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa and the seventh-largest supplier to the United States. Angola also has massive diamond deposits and occupies an enviable position as the world’s fourth largest producer of rough diamonds.

But for all its resource wealth, the vast majority of Angolans still live in the most horrid socio-economic conditions. 68% of the country’s total population lives below the poverty line of $1.7 a day, while 28% live on less than 30 cents. Education is free, but it’s practically worthless. Most of the schools are housed in dilapidated structures and there is a severe deficit of skilled and qualified teachers. According to the U.N. Children’s Fund, 30% of the country’s children are malnourished. The average life expectancy is about 41 years while child and maternal deaths are extremely high. Unemployment levels are very high. But José Eduardo dos Santos is unaffected. Rather than transforming Angola’s economic boom into social relief for its people, he has channeled his energies towards intimidating the local media and diverting state funds into his personal and family accounts. Dos Santos’s family controls a huge chunk of Angola’s economy. His daughter, Isabel Dos Santos has amassed one of the Angola’s largest personal fortunes by using proceeds from her father’s alleged corruption to acquire substantial stakes in companies like Zon Multimedia, a Portuguese media conglomerate and in Portuguese banks Banco Espírito Santo and Banco Português de Investimento among others.

Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe

Many Zimbabweans seem to think Mugabe is doing a stellar job. The country is on an economic rebound after several years of decline. GDP growth in 2011 was over 7% and the Southern African state has experienced single-digit inflation since 2009. The country’s agricultural sector is fast recovering after years of food shortages fueled by disruptions caused by Mugabe’s infamous seizure of white-owned commercial farms. Mugabe’s government has also recorded significant achievements in education as a result of extensive teacher training and school expansion projects: At over 80%, the country has one of the highest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.

But Mugabe’s inadequacies overshadow his achievements. For one, he has failed to deal with the ever-present problem of employment. The country’s high literacy rate does not necessarily translate into employment opportunities for its people. Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa: it’s over 60%.

Despite entering into a power-sharing agreement with the former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Mugabe still wields almost total control over government institutions – a feat he has been able to achieve through his use of violence and subjugation. He remains reluctant to allocate substantial political powers to the MDC, and human rights abuses in the Southern African country are rife. The 87 year-old megalomaniac has vowed not to step down despite having ruled the Southern African state for over 24 years. He is seeking re-election in the country’s presidential polls slated for later in the year. Analysts expect the election to be besieged by fraud as the previous one.

King Mswati III, King of Swaziland

Sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch presides over a country which has one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates: ver 35 percent of adults. Its average life expectancy is the lowest in the world at 33 years; nearly 70 percent of the country’s citizens live on less than $1 a day and 40 percent are unemployed. But for all the suffering of the Swazi people, King Mswati has barely shown concern or interest. He lives lavishly, using his kingdom’s treasury to fund his expensive tastes in German automobiles, first-class leisure trips around the world and women. But his gross mismanagement of his country’s finances is now having dire economic consequences. Swaziland is going through a severe fiscal crisis. The kingdom’s economy is collapsing and pensions have been stopped. In June last year, the King begged for a financial bailout from South Africa, and the country is at a dead end, so badly that it recently announced its withdrawal from the 2013 Africans Nations Cup, citing lack of finances as the principal reason.

Who Were Africa's Richest Dictators? Mfonobong Nsehe Mfonobong Nsehe Contributor

An African Dictator's Son And His Very Lavish Toys Mfonobong Nsehe Mfonobong Nsehe Contributor

Photos: Slide Show: The Most Corrupt Countries

Omar Al-Bashir, President of Sudan

Sudan’s President seized power in 1989 in a bloodless military coup against the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi- a government which was democratically elected by the people of Sudan. Soon after seizing power, Al-Bashir dispersed all political parties in the country, disbanded the country’s parliament and shut down all privately-owned media outlets. His reign has been characterized by a civil war in which over one million have been killed, while several millions have been displaced. Al-Bashir is still wanted by the International Criminal Court for instigating crimes against humanity, particularly in directing and funding acts of violence against the Southern Sudan. Famously corrupt, a diplomatic wikileaks cable revealed that Al-Bashir likely siphoned some $9 billion of his country’s funds into his private bank accounts in the United Kingdom.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2012/02/09/the-five-worst-leaders-in-africa/

In Northern HhoHho there’s a small but charming town named Buhleni. You’re sure to think you’re seeing an oasis when you set sight upon this beauty of a town for the first time. Situated about a half hour south of the Matsamo border, this weekend getaway offers an allure that only a town with both a bar AND a PEP store can offer. The aforementioned bar, gas station, and bus rank are the perfect places to have conversations with unintelligible Swazi men and not to be missed are the public toilets (pit latrines) which have overflowed and are no longer in service. Don’t drive too fast nor blink, for you just might miss this magic wonderland which would be a terrible shame since once a year this sleepy town awakens to become the social gathering place and highlight of its existence. Welcome to Buhleni!

King Mswati hosts the kickoff to the Marula Season with the Marula Festival in the Buhleni Royal Kraal. An event not to missed, Bo-Gogo (grandmothers) from ALL over Swaziland gather to drink, sleep, eat, drink, dance, sing, offer their marula to the king and drink some more. Last year I was ill prepared for such an event and though, for the most part, I found it fun and entertaining I did not enjoy the endless harassment received from the drunken men. This year things were different.

Not only did I know what to expect, but after living here for almost 2 years, I am more than happy to yell at inappropriate and disgusting men to teach them lessons on how to respect women and not treat them like dogs or as their own personal servants. I am no longer fearful of their opinions of me nor timid in my responses and it has SIGNIFICANTLY improved my entire service. Another reason why I enjoyed the festival significantly more this year than last? I had my Swazi friends with me and many people from my community there. These men and women introduced me to others, they protected me and they danced with me. It was wonderful to see them in a different setting. And last but certainly not least, I was prepared with marula of my own. It made for a more entertaining and relaxing day!

In the midst of drinking, dancing, and socializing, we also made sure we did our job as Peace Corps Volunteers. 9 of my fellow PCVs came out and we passed out condoms, talked about safe sex, had discussions on living and being healthy, etc. It’s amazing how easy and wonderfully rewarding it can be to talk about our work here in Swaziland, all while experiencing and participating in cultural events. I LOVE my job.

2-13-12   Brought to you by KFC   I’ve had the opportunity to meet all kinds of people on this epic adventure. One of my dear friends is the owner of all the KFC’s in Swaziland. Yes, KFC, as in Kentucky Fried Chicken- random I know. He called Kelley and I up last week and [...]

I am writing this from a backpackers in Mbabane in between watching a rebroadcast of the The Grammys. I am in town for the weekend to edit and compile the Swazi Sojournal, the monthly newsletter for The Peace Corps. Sometimes it really pays off to have this gig although it takes me away from site and from Addy for a few days. I also realized that not much has changed in eight months. People spending an inordinate amount of time and attention to marginally talented people. Although, Adele’s Grammy sweep of multiple awards has only been legitimized by how much Swazis adore her. I catch our bosisi singing along to her every time Addy plays her on our stereo (our laptop).

Things have been going quite well for us at site. Both Addy and I have been incredibly busy; a nice change of pace coming off an extended holiday season. School is almost a month in and things couldn’t go better. I have devised an ingenious (I think) way to control classroom behavior without resorting to corporal punishment; not that I haven’t thought about it from time to time. I thought that instead of spending all my time correcting bad behavior I would try to concentrate on rewarding good behavior. I created a chart with each class represented. I explained that at the start of every class they received five points. In order to keep these points they would simply have to be quiet and good for the entire class. Every time that I have to stop the class to correct behavior such as talking or disrespect towards another classmate I remove a point. The goal for each class is to reach 66 points. When they reach 66 points we will have a party or activity of their choosing. The students want everything from a day where they wear funny clothes, a singing/rapping day and a day where they can tell jokes and play sports. We will see how that goes.

Having a goal that the class is trying to reach collectively has amazingly been effective in encouraging good individual behavior. The classmates are diligent in policing each other and ensuring they reach their goal. At the end of every class I anonymously pick one student who embodies good behavior, write their name down and stick it in a jar. Every month’s end I have a drawing from those names in the jar. The winning student receives a prize and a letter sent home to their parents highlighting their child’s good behavior at school.

Addy and I are continuing our teaching at the Refugee Camp. We teach an HIV class on Mondays and an English class on Tuesday. Our English class has been an incredible learning experience as teachers. Addy has been amazing in preparing the lessons, doing countless hours of reading and organizing TEFL material and coming up with effective, succinct lessons. Teaching at the camp has been the highlight of our Peace Corps service thus far. Our students are hungry for anything that will help improve their situation. They are incredibly attentive and respectful. We have found a number of helpful counterparts who we work side by side with and rely on to carry out these classes. I have started teaching a Teacher Training class on Saturdays for the fluent English speakers in the camp. The idea is that they will carry on the class after we are gone along with developing leadership, teaching and organizational skills that will assist them in their future life plans. Working closely with our counterparts at the camp has been very, very encouraging.

We have also started teaching an English class at the local branch of the LDS church that we attend. Our class is small, but dedicated to learning English. We have received a very warm and receptive response from the members.

In other news I have started writing rap songs for local musician Djndez who wants to cross over into the untapped Swazi hip-hop market. It is pretty fun. He speaks limited English so I chock it up to specialized English tutoring. But really I am fulfilling my dream of becoming an African Rick Rubin (minus the awesome beard). I played him some Re-Up Gang and Lupe Fiasco. Blew his mind.

Until we see all your faces again. Keep us in your thoughts and drop us a line sometime.

came across an article today: 12 Reasons to Date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Enjoy.   12 reasons to date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer: 1.We can woo you in multiple languages. Who else is going to whisper sweet nothings to … Continue reading →

What a successful week! I am serving in the Peace Corps as a Health/HIV Educator and up untilnow I haven’t been doing much of that, but that is changing now. The Clinton Foundation (Bill Clinton’sorganization) has taken an interest in my area of the country. They trained about 50 Swazis in HIV Educationin order to send them back to their communities to get their peers to understandthe advantages of testing and then take an HIV test. The target was to reach 16-19 year olds sincedata shows that in the last 3 months only 3 males in that age group got testedin my entire inkundla (like a county). Iwas shocked by that small number since this is the country with the highest HIVprevalence in the world and an inkundla is not a small area. I definitely expected more than 3 people!

One of my friends who was also the driving force behind theYouth Club that we are starting was one of the people chosen to go to thetraining held by the Clinton Foundation. They were tasked with mobilizing the youth to get tested and they askedme to help.

On Monday we went to two high schools and a primary schoolto ask the head teachers for time on Wednesday to have an audience with theirstudents so we could talk about an HIV Testing event that would happen onSaturday. I was surprised how easilythey said yes and how accommodating they were. Within a 5 minute meeting the Head Teacher gave us a 3 hour block and heoffered a PA system and we asked to come in 2 days and that was ok. I don’t know how principals schedule guestspeakers in American schools, but this seemed too easy. Being a foreigner here seems to give all ofthe projects legitimacy. In America,foreigners are not treated the same.

Wednesday morning we arrived at the big high school, around900 students enrolled there! We startedwith introductions, then one of the guys talked about how HIV is transmittedand its myths, and then I spoke for 30 minutes about the advantages of HIVTesting. After I spoke we had time forquestions, and those kids had some very thoughtful questions. They know about HIV, they know people withit, and people who have died from it, but there is still a huge stigma attachedto it.

Then in the afternoon we spoke to the small high school andthe Grade 7s of the primary school. Thepurpose of going to all the schools was to mobilize the youth to come out fortesting on Saturday.

We must have done a good job mobilizing because Saturday’sevent was awesome! We held it at theprimary school. There was a DJ playingmusic, three tents for doing the testing, food, and prizes! They cooked a traditional meal that they eatduring important meetings: cow head, feet, and stomach… I went hungry, but theyall seemed to love it! At the end ofthe event, 72 people from my community were tested!! Success!

February 17, 2012 We are about a month into the new school year, and things are starting to fall into a nice rhythm.  Thanks to the tireless efforts by our principal, our school now has all seven teaching slots filled for the year and we are off to the races (literally, today a hired tractor […]

I'm going to SWAZILAND in JUNE!!! I recently accepted my anxiously anticipated Peace Corps invitation and am thrilled with my placement! I've been devouring any and all information about Swaziland I can find and am starting to prepare for the grand journey.

I'm off to great places, I'm off and away!

February 11th-12th, 2012

I had my first Swazi funeral experience last night/this morning. My family is going to funerals every month but I had never been to one since none were in my community and Swazi funerals are not just a day trip. This funeral was in my community and was for a cousin of all my host siblings. All my older host sisters came home and I attached myself to them so they could show me the inner workings of a Swazi funeral.

A Swazi funeral is a several day affair. Family and non-family come in from all over and help prep for days. The day before the funeral a large makeshift tent is erected. Its really quite amazing these tents. They just find large tree branches with forked ends. Shove them into the ground so they stand upright and build a structure that tarps are then spread across to create an enclosure. This enclosure is used for sheltering the guests and to house the worship part of the memorial service. Grass is spread over the dirt floor for people to sit on and I couldn’t help at one point imagine that Jesus’ birth manger may not have looked all that different from this. Animals roaming around, wind threatening to take the whole thing down, people coming in and out to pay respects. However, we were participating in a memorial not a birth.

A Swazi memorial service and funeral are combined into what is called a night vigil, and it literally lasts all night. To prove myself as strong African women I mustered up some adrenaline and stayed up all night, from sunset to sunrise. Around 8:00pm everyone begins to arrive and continues to arrive throughout the night. There were probably 200 people there, and if I had just been blindfolded and dropped into the setting I would guess it was a wedding not a funeral. The whole thing was strangely full of energy it was bizarre.

One side of the homestead has the tent, where a nightlong church service is held. Singing, preaching, and testimonials fill the surprisingly crisp night air. The other side of the homestead is a tailgating party. It’s marula season here. Marula is a small tree-grown fruit that Swazis home brew into beer. Women can’t drink at these social events but the men sure can. All the men had gathered around a giant bonfire, they sat on the tailgates of their pickups and drink marula beer all night. Being thee only white person, or mlungu as they call me, I was the main attraction for this drunken group of men. I got at least 10 marriage proposals and hours of unwanted attention. Thankfully I had a safety net in the large group of my female Swazi relatives. They helped me fight them off when it got to be 4:30 am and I couldn’t react fast enough to get myself out of the situation.

In between the drunken men and the tent was the outdoor kitchen. This is where I spent most of the night with all the other women. This is were a Swazi women shines. It’s her safe zone. They can gather, gossip, complain, sing, laugh, sleep, and most of all cook. I spent the first few hours of the evening inside this mud and stick hut that has a thatched roof and dirt floor, very worn from years of everyday use. I helped my host sisters, cousins, and aunts hand grind peanuts, chop cabbage and carrots, and make jelly sandwiches for the 3:00am teatime. There were up to twelve of us in there at a time. I loved listening to them talk. I didn’t understand much but it felt comfortable. We worked under the glow of the single light bulb that illuminated the hut. Gogo (grandma) sat in the corner peeling boiled beetroot. Her purple dyed fingers working diligently form years of experience as our shadows danced around her. Right outside the hut was another 10 women who were managing the three-legged pots that were boiling over a very large fire. The floor became so hot that once teatime came all you had to do was place the teapot on the floor near the fire and it heated up quickly.

At 5:00am, just as the hint of sunrise threatened the dark night, the entire party walked to the cemetery. We followed, single file at times, along the cow paths, guided by the faint sound of singing coming from the front of the procession. At the cemetery, located deep in the African bush under a tree, the crowd gathered around the gravesite. The women in the family had a chance to pay their respect at the site, a prayer was said and then the men took turns burying the casket. I couldn’t really see what was going on as I was standing in the back, but this was the first moment I realized this was a funeral. It felt sad. The man who died was my age. His name was Mduduzi, which means to bring comfort. He discovered or finally accepted he had HIV too late, and only started taking his ARVs (anti-retroviral therapy) a week ago. This one funeral was enough for me to emotionally feel the awfulness of this virus. Swazis are attending these funerals every month, why isn’t that enough to make them want to change their behavior to stop the progression of HIV?

By 6:00am everyone was back at the homestead and the meal we had been preparing all night was served: rice, samp, beetroot, cabbage, potato salad, beef, and chicken. I was on KP duty and washed everyone’s dishes. By 8:00am I was so exhausted, completely filthy, and now that it was daylight I was being shuffled around and introduced to the dignitaries of the community who were there. Thankfully my eldest sisi (sister) saw me when I finally got a chance to sit down and rescued me. She put me in a car and sent me home to bed. I slept for eight hours, woke for four, and then slept for another ten. It was glorious.

My family was really appreciative that I attended and helped with the funeral. I met a lot of relatives, made new friends, and truly bonded with my community. It was a crazy night that feels a bit blurry but a very unique experience.

February 6th, 2012

I did get to watch the Superbowl this year (not that I’ve ever really cared to watch it before, but it was a nice American thing to do). A Superbowl viewing party was set up at one of the backpackers in Mbabane (capital city) and a programming meeting was thoughtfully planned at the office so there was a reason for all of us to come into the city. The game didn’t start until 1am our time and lasted till 5am but most of us made it through. One of the volunteers even made a betting board and we all spent our hard earned PC allowance betting on squares. The winner got 700 emalengeni (1/3 our monthly allowance), sadly that winner was not me, but the betting board kept me much more focused on the game then I usually would have been. It was really fun to crowd 30 some people into a tiny room to watch. Some were more invested in the teams then others and rallied for support. I was rooting for the Pats because if I vowed my allegiance I got a fun sized Snickers bar. Snacks were passed around throughout the night/morning keeping us all awake. We all crashed around 5:30 and were all sadly up by 7:30 due to the body telling us that 7:30 would normally be sleeping in so we needed to be awake. I felt like I was in college again. Late nights, early mornings, a little hung-over, a feeling that sadly felt so familiar that it was comforting. The two hours of transport back to site were brutal and I was asleep by sunset but it was great to hang out with my fellow PCVs and celebrate this American “holiday.”

P.S. We may have gotten to see the game but we didn’t get any commercials L. We saw the same five commercials at every break, it was awful.

February 5th, 2012

I just discovered the best gluten free food to ever come out of Swaziland… Mealie Bread.

This excellent bread can be made without flour and it’s amazing. I helped my Make make it tonight and I swear I could eat an entire field of mealie bread. Here are the ingredients:

Fresh Mealies (aka fresh maize cut off the cob)Baking powderButterSugarPinch of saltFresh milk (straight from the cow if available)

First you pick some fresh maize and peel them preserving the leaves from the husk. Then you cut off the kernels from the cob, saving the cob (this really is a no waste cooking project). We did this basking in the cooler breeze that dusk brings in. We sat outside and worked as the chicken corralled around our feet eating every bit of maize we dropped. The only problem with this is that my white toes look very similar to maize kernels and the chickens couldn’t tell the difference…ouch.

Once we cut the kernels off we prepared the pot that the bread gets cooked in. I guess we kind of make an oven. You take the classic three legged pot and put a little bit of water in it and set it over the fire. Then you take the maize cobs and stack them on the bottom of the pot to create a shelf so the bread wont touch the water and then you let the water boil.

Meanwhile we ground the mealies up in a hand grinder. While I held the bowl to catch he grinds I complimented my Make at her ability to so quickly use the hand grinder. She just laughed and said this was not hard. She used to spend all day grinding the kernels by hand with a rock and then would have to walk to the river to fetch water after. That was hard work, today she says no one likes to work, they are lazy because nothing takes that much effort to do anymore. I guess Americans developed for a reason, so we had more time to go to school and/or to work at a job that earns us money. Here there are no jobs to get unless you go to University and Uni is almost impossible to get into so what really is the point of development? In the case of mealie bread the point is that we didn’t have to start making it at noon, but rather could start at 6pm and be done by the time Generations starts (very popular evening soap opera here).

Ok back to baking. After grinding the mealies you add the other ingredients, mix, and then scoop the dough into the leaves from the husks. The dough gets wrapped up in the leaves and then they get placed in the pot on the cob shelf and covered. Let them bake for 45 minutes and then take them out of the pot, let cool, and peel out of the leaves and eat!

It’s so amazing, taste just like corn bread! Kumnandzi Kakhulu!! (Very delicious).

So February 16th is the official ending date for the construction of the Ward 4 AMICAALL/Nhlangano Town Council Social Center.

Back when I was in the movie business projects always came to an end often times I was like great done what is the next job, other times I was sad that the project ended generally cause it was good one with good people. Well, this project has come to an end. And I am mixed, very happy to be done and completed since its been since October & the teachers are ready to move in, so that is the positive but this closes chapter of my life. Its a major accomplishment no doubt & something that is the highlight of my service. So now it is just marking time til I leave. With no more big projects in the works.

And so goes life.

But at least on Monday, I will be back since the Caregivers/Volunteers who benefits the most from the Center will be there to clean the whole place.

But Its done.

So really there is nothing left to do but smile.

And as for the last days activities, they finished tiling the kitchen & small store room. I paid the guy doing the floors, the last of money & expenses. I have one more payment left to make to his assistant that stayed late to help me finish a tile mural that I created for the area in the kitchen that they will be serving food out of.

For this mural, I got for free a bunch of busted tile pieces from the local hardware store, added bunch of our own pieces, painted quite a few Jackson Pollack style and spent the last 2 days putting it together cementing and grouting it and the assistant helped finish it off and make it look great.

But I guess as so goes the timing yesterday I busted my camera that has been with me daily. So I was forced to take the below pictures with my crappy cell phone camera.

So enjoy and thanks to all who have followed this blog, its not quite done yet. Since there are still some more updates to come. But for me all the hard work is DONE!

It's freaking me out that the next group is starting to get their

invitations. Assuming our schedules line up, they will be part of the

fifth group that I'll have known in-country. WHAT.If any of them are reading, I gave group 9 some tips this time last

year. I think I gave those posts a specific tag, but if not, they

started in January of 2011. So check there if yer interested.Also, I'm getting the vibe that they might recycle my site for one of

the lucky n00bs. So let me just tell you now: this is the greatest

family in the history of Swaziland. I might call Lubombo 'Dante's

Inferno', but this fam makes it bearable. So if yer lucky enough to be

my follow-up act, please know that 1) I tried hard not to fuck up yer

service by making dumb choices, 2) it's hot as balls here, & 3) Babe

is the jolliest ol fellow since Saint Nick.And you'd be lucky to live here.-- Kyra Berkovich

Peace Corps Volunteer

PO Box 1074

Siteki L300

Swaziland

Africa"It's a silly time to learn to swim when you start to drown."

In honor of Valentines Day where I was stuck in my hut sweeeping, mopping, waxing the floors, killing scorpions, spiders, and insects, hand washing a months worth of clothes and taking a 3 hour nap from the 100+F degree day and in doing so forgot about the holiday until facebook started blowing up with "I love you"s and "Best BF/GF" status', here is a wonderful and hilarious article about Peace Corps Volunteers.

12 reasons to date a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer:

1.We can woo you in multiple languages. Who else is going to whisper sweet nothings to you in everything from Albanian to Hausa to Quechua to Xhosa? That’s right. Only a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

2.We’re pretty good dancers. Yeah, we don’t like to brag, but after 27 months in Latin America or Africa we know how to move it.

3.We’ll eat anything. Seriously. No matter how bad your cooking, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have had worse and will eat it with nary a blink. Sheep’s eyeball? Water buffalo gall bladder? Grasshoppers? Bush rat? Bring it.

4.We know all about safe sex, thanks to our very thorough Peace Corps health training. In fact, there’s a chance that we’ve stood unblushingly in front of hundreds of villagers and demonstrated good condom technique with a large wooden phallus.

5.We’ll kill spiders for you. Well, actually, we’ll nonchalantly scoop them up and put them out of sight. Same goes for mice, geckos, frogs, snakes. Critters don’t faze Returned Volunteers.

6.We have great date ideas: wandering a street market, checking out a foreign film, taking in a world music concert, volunteering…. Romantic getaway? Our passport is updated and our suitcase is packed. With us, life is always an adventure.

7.We like you for “you”… not your paycheck. Especially if we are freshly back from service, a local joint with “character” will win out over a pretentious eatery. Living in a group house? No problem. Does it have running hot water? What luxury!

8.You won’t get lost when you’re with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Navigating local markets on four continents, we’ve honed an uncanny sense of direction. Or else we’ll ask for directions. We’re not afraid to talk to “strangers.”

9.Waiting for a late train or bus? Don’t worry, we’ve been there, done that. We can share lots of funny stories about “the bus ride from hell” that will make the time go quickly and put it all into perspective.

10.Our low-maintenance fashion style. Returned Peace Corps Volunteer guys are secure in their manhood and don’t mind rocking a sarong. Women often prefer flip flops to high heels. We don’t spend hours in front of a mirror getting ready to go out.

11.Marry us, and you won’t just get one family — you’ll get two! When we refer to our “brother” or “mom,” you’ll want to be certain we’re talking about our American one or our Peace Corps one. You might even get two wedding ceremonies, one in the U.S. and one back in our Peace Corps country.

12.And last but not least, we aren’t afraid to get dirty.

From: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2012/02/12-reasons-to-date-a-returned-peace-corps-volunteer/

Happy Valentines Day All!

- As mentioned previously, we have a monthly journal here that is written and published by volunteers. Last month was my first subission of what will be a monthly installation to the journal. My column will be about my favorite subject: FOOD! Growing it, cooking it and eating it! Here is a copy of my first article. I may have already posted some of these thoughts on our blog, so forgive me for repeating myself. -

The garden, it is a beautiful

thing. I have always loved the idea of being able to grow your own food. But I

have never really gotten past the IDEA considering the fact that I have never

really done it on my own before. Although

I grew up in a rural area in the state of Oregon and had a mother that grew,

canned, dried and froze a good portion of our diet, I did not consider myself a

gardener or claim to know much about the subject before coming here. I just

knew that it was a great way to grow up. The year before coming to Swaziland I gave

my green thumb a try and mostly failed with a few marginal, if you could call

it that, successes. However, despite the hit to my gardening confidence I/we

knew we wanted a garden here in the Swaz. It just all seemed to fit into the idea

of ‘the simple life”. It was part of our idyllic Peace Corps experience we had

dreamed about and we planned on giving it our best shot… whether the school

children mocked our pathetic attempt or not.

Success! It has turned out to be

even more exciting (can you call gardening exciting?) than I expected. Maybe

it’s just the overwhelming boredom that sets in and takes over your whole being

that has created such desperate circumstances that I would fall in love with gardening,

but I have fallen. I wake up most mornings at 6:30am excited to go check on what the garden is up to (and its up to a lot!). It is amazing how quickly things grow when it rains AND is sunny!

This doesn’t happen in Oregon. You get one or the other. When we came we found

obsessively swept, rock hard dirt without a green spec in site. Now, just a few

short months later, it has become a lush little ecosystem that has attracted

all sorts of birds and bugs and even the occasional chameleon. The best part is

that the transformation has not gone unnoticed.

Without even attempting it, the

garden has turned into the perfect medium for getting to know our neighbors.

Showing up to someone’s house to introduce your self is a whole lot easier with

a bag of veggies in hand. Ok, maybe bribing people to like you with food is a

little sketchy, but hey, it works every time! And if you are lucky a few of

them will be interested enough to come see the Umlungu’s garden, just to verify

that those green peppers really did come from your sweat and toil. Don’t be

fooled by my enthusiasm, we don’t have throngs of people coming to us to show

them how to garden. This is mostly due to the fact that people KNOW how to

garden. They have been doing it for generations. But when someone does come and

something sparks in them, when they see us growing a large variety of things in

a small area, when they eat the delicious veggies they get sent home with, they

are encouraged again that it is not so hard and they can do the same. That is

exciting! We have helped two neighbors start gardens since we’ve been here. This

makes us feel a tiny bit less guilty about all the times we choose to just sit

in our hut and watch movies.

Gardening…it has become so many

things. It is a satisfying and productive way to pass the long hours. It has

given us opportunities to make meaningful relationships with the people around

us. And, most obviously, it has fed us. Even after giving away a good majority

of what we grow, we can barely keep up with the amount of veggies that need to

be eaten daily before they rot, bolt, or get out of hand. Sometimes our salads

become so HUGE that we start experiencing something we’ve coined “salad

fatigue”! This happens when you have been eating the same salad for the last twenty

minutes, your jaw hurts and you just want to get on with it! The other

unexpected blessing of having a garden is the decreased need of a refrigerator!

I thought for sure this would be the first thing I went out and bought. Good

food is a HIGH priority to me. We held off on buying one and then discovered

that it wasn’t really needed with the exception of dairy and meat, which we

have mostly stopped eating at site. Being able to walk outside and pick our

food for that day has made the fridge obsolete. Well…that is not entirely true.

I may have succumbed to the purchasing of a fridge a long time ago for a cold

Gin n Tonic if it weren’t for Kerry and her freezer that is a quick jaunt down

the road! None the less gardening has become a necessity.

Come visit. We’ll feed you!

And since I love to cook, I’ll

leave you with a recipe inspired by the garden and recent rainy days.

Harvest

Tomato Soup

2-4 Tbsp. EVOO

1 good sized onion diced

1 carrot diced

1 green pepper diced

1 small bunch or greens (swiss chard, beet greens,

spinach, kale, etc.) shredded or chopped small

4 cloves of garlic (or more if you love garlic) diced

8 tomatoes diced

Salt + Pepper

Sautee the onion and carrot in the EVOO until soft and

then add green pepper. Let this cook for 15-20 minutes on a low heat allowing

the onions to caramelize. Once the mixture is lightly browned and soft add the

garlic and allow it to cook a few minutes until you can smell it. Don’t let the

garlic burn. This happens easily with the poor excuse for a pot that we were

given – no offence Peace Corps. Add the greens and let them cook down in volume

then lastly add the diced tomatoes. Allow this to simmer for a good amount of

time in order to let the tomatoes stew and become soft enough to mostly

disintegrate. Mash if you prefer a smoother consistency. Taste and add S+P. You

can also add a little honey or sugar to help cut the acidity of the tomatoes.

The carrot will help with this, but you may need a tad more balance. If you want

a little extra flavor add fresh herbs (or dried) like rosemary and thyme or

some chili flakes for a little heat. The beauty of any soup is that you can

pretty much throw in any combination of veggies or herbs or keep it simple. The

longer it simmers the more flavors it will have. White wine would also be a

delicious addition added after you caramelize your onions. If the soup is too

thick add a little water or broth.

Garnish with basil and a little scoop of yogurt and

serve with a slice of warm buttered bread!

So the progress is steady but slow. With basically one guy laying the tiles it is at his pace and I have come to learn that when he finishes his cement bucket it is an excuse to go home sometimes around 2pm instead of mixing new bucket (something his assistant normally does) and continuing the work. He doesn't seem to get that he doesn't get paid by the day and working longer on this job doesn't mean more money. It only means he potentially losing some other job. Yet, he is pushing (their phrase for working faster). And I think this is one of the main differences in work ethic between the US and Swaziland, even though he is working hard he is certainly not working long hours. But since the building has no power work can't be done after the sunsets. But it is all about taking away the excuses. Yet, sometimes they just ignore what I am saying since going home early is a normal viable option. I guess it is truly one of the great American traits that we have, we just work hard & long.

Some shoots of the main room where the children will be going to school. The dark color is help hide the dirt, etc on the floor.

And next that was completed was the Veranda, originally this was supposed to the same tile as the dark colored interior but after having to cut to many pieces to fit the diagonal pattern it didn't leave enough tile for the Veranda, (see the above picture on the right for small pieces example). So we went with the white tiles. It turns out the lighter color looks nice on the outside but it will show the dirt more.

And the bathroom is now finished also.

(Also if you notice around the sink it looks patched, we had to re-set the sink since it came lose, something Mom noticed when she was here.)

This last picture on the right shows the Veranda going into the bathroom.

So leaving only 2 rooms to go which are the kitchen & a small office/storeroom. And it should be 2 1/2 days left.

There’s a correspondence program that I would really love to participate in while I’m abroad, the Coverdell World Wise Schools program. Basically, they would match me with an educator with whom I would correspond monthly throughout my two years in … Continue reading →

BLOG POST 14 FEB 2012

Happy Valentines Day from Swaziland !!

Yes we do celebrate Valentines Day here, though a bit muted from the observance in the USA---or the USA simply too much “over the top” as it seems to be with a lot of things ? Anyhow, we have prepared some Valentines and put them on the beds of each of the children, so that they will have a nice Valentine Day surprise when they return home from school.

Ah yes, school. Thankfully school did start on time on 24 January….and since this break was about two months, and we have 29 schooling children, we were as you can imagine quite happy to see school start up again….in spite of the odd rumours that schools would be delayed, no money to pay teachers, etc etc. Bottomline is the schools opened as planned, and we are grateful for that !

As it is now mid-summer in Swaziland, the maize craze has taken hold again. You might remember that maize—corn—is the staple of the Swazi diet..and frankly, prior to coming to Africa we wondered if we would be eating maize, and only maize, three meals daily. I am happy to report we have quite the nice well rounded diet---but it is maize time again. In Ohio we used to say”” knee high by the Fourth of July”’…but here it seems we plant at beginning of summer (November?) and by about early January the corn is six feet tall, and now everywhere you go you see eating—we would call it “corn on the cob”. Basically, it is maize (corn) roasted in the husk, usually over an open fire, and then eaten hot…not unusual to see hawkers selling hot corn on street corners, or to jump on a bus and find a LOT of people chewing on corn cobs. I keep having visions of what Columbus, Ohio would look like in July/August if lots and lots of people were walking, meeting, driving….while eating corn on the cob. No butter or salt used here, and instead of holding on to both ends of cob, the preferred method is to hold ONE end of cob, like a baton, and simply knaw on the corn…..YUM YUM !

BIG NEWS BIG NEWS---Ellen ( our daughter) and Kevin ( her husband) are coming to visit. Plans are for them to arrive in Africa 1 April and stay about 11 days, and we are really excited about the trip….it is a LOOOOOONG plane trip, 16 hours in a jet from Atlanta to Johannesburg, but well worth it. We can not wait to see them here, and show them a little bit of our world.

ELECTRICITY in SWAZILAND—PAY AS YOU GO

Here is an interesting concept. We buy our electricity on a ”top up/pay as you go “ basis….just like top up phones in the USA. Works like this…we have a meter-in our kitchen!!—that shows us exactly how much electricity we have left….at this writing we have about 50 kilowatt hours. We use about 2.3 kilowatt hours daily….so we have about enough electricity left for about 22 days. So sometime between now and 22 days from now, I need to buy more electricity…go to shop tell them I want to get, say 400 kilowatt hours, hand over the cash, and they give me a receipt with pin code…I come home, load the 400 kilowatt hours..and we are good to go for another few months. Of course this is a boon for electric company—no billing needed, no fighting with customers about bills, no turning off elect if a customer not paying, and they get all the money in advance of use…but I also like it because no messing with bills or paper, and once every six months or so, I go buy six months worth of elec and we are done. Side note—for us, one kilowatt hour is about 10 cents USD….so we spend about 23 cents daily on electricity….or about $ 7.00 per month. Not bad. And we do have fridge, elec stove, lights, etc etc.

Not too much else today. Hope all good in USA, and the winter remains mild as we have heard.

Cheers, and love to all. Mike and Gail

In the past few months I have been getting more and more involved with my high school. From teaching classes, helping set up and run the computers, installing Wikipedia, and working with the teachers and students, I have come to LOVE and ADORE my high school. The headmaster and deputy are wonderful, kind, dedicated, and passionate people. They are at school from 7am-5pm (sometimes even until 6pm or 7pm) daily. On top of being administratively in charge of the school, they are also teachers- in charge of their own classes/subjects. Despite their long and exhaustive days at school, they are always welcoming, happy and receptive to anyone offering help to their school. The opposite might be said about one of my primary schools. Perhaps I’ve just spent too much time with them and now they are taking all I do for granted but I no longer look forward to going there. It got to the point where I was contemplating taking their library and offering it to the high school. But that would go against what PC is about, and not to mention-plain cruel. So when I heard that a school dropped out of the Books for Swaziland project because they couldn’t raise the money, I jumped into their conversation.

Eric: “What are we going to do now? That messes up the financial breakdown”

Me: “Are you talking about the school that dropped out? That sucks. Sorry to hear that.” Pause. “So…If you need another school, and want the money now now, my high school would LOVE to be chosen. I’m sure they are highly interested, and I would be more than willing to pay the money NOW. Let’s go to town.” (It should be stated that I have never actually approached my high school to ask if they wanted to expand their current library. I just assumed. Mainly though, I desperately wanted to work with them and offer this wonderful opportunity.)

Eric: “Woah. Shauna. Thanks, but we have a waiting list of schools.”

Me: “I know, but if you’re looking for money right now, I’m your girl.”

Eric: “Ok.”

Me: “So, I get the library?”

Eric: “Nope. I’ll talk it over with the others (those in charge of the Books for Swaziland project) and we’ll decide the course of action.”

Me: “Dang. Well, I’m always here. With the money. Just in case.”

-1 week later-

Eric calls while I’m on public transport to teach swim lessons. The annoyingly terrible Swazi gospel music is blasting and I am unable to hear a word that is spoken. I hang up. 20 minutes later, I call back.

Eric: “Yo. Your school still interested in a library?”

Me: “OMG YES. YES THEY ARE!” (I am now yelling and running around in a circle with excitement. Also- I have not asked my school)

Eric: “Ok. Just get the money to us asap.”

Me: “DONE, DONE, DONE!” (I proceed to talk fast and ask a lot of questions)

As soon as I stopped panting from the ridiculous hill I just sprinted up, I called my headmaster. After spending a few minutes on the phone explaining the project, he jumped on board. I knew he’d be as excited as I was! Well maybe not AS excited, but he could definitely relate.

So, NOW I HAVE 2 SCHOOLS getting libraries! Whoohoo! As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, there will be a chance for you to send any library materials (i.e. construction paper, scissors, markers, pens, pencils, paint, crayons, beads, etc.) to the Books for Africa warehouse in America, which will then be included in the cargo ship and given directly to my primary and high school. Though we finally have the address (written below), we are told not to mail anything yet. Books for Africa informed us that we need to wait until our shipping container is chosen. From there, we will have a very short period of time to mail the library materials to be included into the shipping container. So please, please start collecting all those art and craft supplies around the house- unused, collecting dust, and taking up space- and send them to Swaziland where you will make hundreds upon hundreds of children in my community happy!

PCV Swaziland- Eric Hall

Books For Africa

2971 Olympic Industrial Dr. – SE, Suite B

Smyrna, GA 30080

Please put my name, PCV Shauna Biggs inside of the box. This will ensure that the wonderful supplies you send end up at my schools.

SIYABONGA (we thank you!)

Last year’s preschool class was adorable.  I would get high fives every morning and they would come sit by me on the steps and try to ask me questions in English.  This year’s preschool class is…uh…determined. Last Wednesday afternoon I was finishing up some things in the library and two of the new little preschoolers […]

So I went to lunch and the guy doing the flooring made a decision on the style of the flooring that I wouldn't have allowed but it made sense. I debated having him change it but he was about 20 tiles past the change & would have meant ripping up & discarding those 20 tiles since they were cut specifically for the area. Put it this way Feng Shui would be blowing her top. (skip to the bottom for photos). But as I come to the end here, the phrase we used all the time on movie sets applies. "It is what it is" and as Titi has reassured me numerous times as I have fretted about some details, mistakes, minor stuff. "Nobody cares, it is great."

And normally I am not detailed oriented at all nor do I get bothered by the small stuff, but on this project the small stuff just annoyed me to no end. So as we only a have a few days left, I will be happy for it to be finished. And just walk away.

So the floor of the main room despite what I said above looks amazing:

The dark tile colors match the outside of the building orange & dark brown beautifully. And once completed this main room which will mostly be used as a school room will hide much of the children's dirt and since the tiles are ceramic they should withstand proved they are dropped heavy stuff on them.

Some work in progress photos:

And just some more flooring photos.

Ok for comparison of the opening paragraph.

The main idea was for the full size bigger white tiles to ring the outside & darker ones are the inside with a nice dialog pattern. But sense the room is not a perfect square and the door area has extra room. He decided to base the wall tiles from the edge of the door so when you first walk in it all looks right & in align. But when the doors are closed one wall has small tiles. The photo above on left shows the way its supposed to be. See the photo above on the right for the contrast of the white tiles. And the photo to the right is the front door with the full tiles. Hope that makes sense.

I don't think they have squirrels in Swaziland but one did come to the door.

This is exactly why I told bomake and bogogo to teach people to dispose of them in the pit latrine…

It's over! I can't believe it went so fast, but my flight out of Cape

Town leaves tomorrow morning. *sigh*

Sixteen days w/ the Oldsters in Hermanus & Cape Town, & all of us are

still alive & uninjured. A minor miracle since I went cage diving w/

great whites & drove through a wildfire, while my parents kept

forgetting to look to the other side of the street first before

crossing. I saved both of them from getting tagged a few times :P

Anyway, I leave tomorrow at 9am, they leave at 1700. I'm already

bummed out. I'll have to psych myself up for the sheer volume of the

bus rank, the screaming preachers, the constant harassment passed off

as culture & checking my hut daily for wildlife. Bah.

For now, though, I present you with pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150536449525958.377998.506270957&type=1&l=5b8ec53948

And so the last and final step to completion is finally in motion.

The main part of the building starting the one of the smaller rooms has flooring.

They are ceramic tiles that are tough and the coloring wont fade or easily scratch. Although, they are suspect to cracking. But not much can really be done about that since that is really left up to the people taking care of the building post completion.

The next couple of days will be busy and hard work. And more pictures coming then.

Cause this story is in

its final chapter.

If you don't have it, you need to download it. I have been in the Peace Corps office the last couple days for yet another training, so I have had a lot of time to bum around on the internet. Free Wifi! Google Earth can give you a better idea of the difference in how people live around the world. I like to show it to my Swazi friends and Swazi kids because their sense of space and land is so different than in America. Owning cows is a big deal here. The more cows, the more wealth. It is quite common for people to ask me about my cows in America. They don't understand how people live in houses with a front yard and maybe enough room for a dog to run around the back yard, but that's it. There are no pastures to keep your cows in the suburbs of Syracuse, NY. And to be fair, I still don't understand how they can live with so much space.

Obviously the scale of the pictures aren't exactly the same, but the difference is pretty crazy!

North Syracuse with the airport on the bottom right and you can see the NS Junior High with it baseball diamonds in the center.

Sinceni: my home is ton the bottom right and the main road to town is that dirt road along the left side. The L-shaped on the bottom left building with the red top has a butchery and a pool table and a shop right above that. Only 4 people live on my homestead which looks huge compared to the others around me which have more than 10 people living there.A closer look at my home. My house is the bottom right and my bathroom is the small one on the bottom left. All of the trees are fruit trees: mangos, papaya, oranges, guava, bananas.

  came across this picture of Swaziland on National Geographic’s website…I’m in love with the country, and I haven’t even gotten there yet.

Thanks ACMC!This week was kind of a holiday week. My mom’s coworkers ather hospital asked if the kids on my homestead would like some presents. Thesekids work really hard and are appreciative of the littlest of gestures. Thegifts were supposed to be for Christmas, then New Years, and eventually becameBlack History month gifts on February 1st. The gifts took a longtime to get to Swaziland, and it took even longer for me to figure out how toget the heavy boxes to my homestead. Finally they arrived and we had a littlecelebration in my house. ACMC Pre-Admission Testing Staff did great making the boxes and the kids were so awesome examining every little thingin their boxes of age-appropriate, glittery, battery-powered, possiblyeducational, Made-in-China awesomeness. I also enjoyed teaching them how to usePez dispensers and silly putty. And of course glowsticks. Those were enigmaticat first, just little plastic sticks. Once it got dark, we cracked them andthey went nuts playing, forgetting to even eat dinner. It looked like a hugerave party had taken place, seemingly even brighter by the fact the nearestother lights were on the Maputo skyline 60 miles away.

Glowsticks Yesterday, I had to make good on a promise I made backduring Christmastime that I would cook for the family “American food”. Being anItalian-American, nothing seemed more appropriate than some good ol’ pasta andsauce. My good friend Ruby visited and being a very good cook and gardener, shecontributed some kitchen know-how and fresh basil and oregano. Swazis do notwidely use herbs but Make insists I grow some now. We cooked over an open fire, which took a long time, but theslowness probably improved the sauce. I have never had to cook for such a bigfamily before, or use a cauldron, or cook inside a little kitchen which mayhave given me Black Lung, but it turned out delizioso, and Grandma Rosa wouldhave been very proud .

Cuties:)cooking up a storm

Random Swazi Thought of the Week: My bhuti is a traditionalhealer, and several months ago I had my “bones read” which is similar to a palmreading, but focusing on your ancestors. Apparently this same Grandma Rosa waspissed at me for not telling her grave I was going to Africa and she hasn’tbeen able to find me. Hopefully this Sunday Supper made up for it :).

Recently, a friend asked me, “What one thing do you thinkyou do the most?” I will answer that now: complain. And I think a lot of it hasoccurred on this blog, mostly for the sake of being funny, but its definitelyindicative of what volunteers do when they are all together. Its indiciativereally of what any group of coworkers do together, commiserate about theirworkplace i.e the snakes, the heat, the frustrations, etc. It makes it easiersomehow to get it out of your system once in a while.That being said, there are some pretty incredible aspects ofthis job. And I can say “job” now and also now answer the question, “So whatkind of work are you doing over there?” Since the beginning of January I havebeen working at the clinic mainly with clients taking ARV’s for HIV. I shadowthe workers at the clinic and watch them do what they do, and help where Ineeded. I have also enjoyed being in an environment where, by default, peoplehave disclosed their HIV status to me. Whereas it is usually a closely guardedsecret, for reasons of stigmatization and on account of it being an intenselypersonal matter. I have also been attending a few different support groups,comprised soley of women, who meet every so often and talk about problems theyexperience with their ARV treatment, side effects are numerous, and variousstigma issues they undergo in their lives. Its refreshing and makes the burdenof HIV that much more real to sit in these meetings, conducted in siSwati buttranslated for me, and to hear first hand the types of things people gothrough. I have so many questions but its more a place to listen, not contribute. Some areinterested in varying capacities to have me teach classes about adherence and managementof ARV side effects, and all are interested in projects of income generation,but that’s the next step. For now, I am just an appreciative guest of thesemeetings.Lastly, I have been going with my counterpart on home visitsin the community. Generally, these are people who are very sick, usually withfull-blown AIDS and suffering side effects, specifically TB. (Some tangentialPublic Health-y facts: TB is the leading cause of death in the world for peoplewith AIDS and 1/3 of the world currently has TB. Drug resistant TB is becominga huge problem in the developing world, and will likely spread to Westernnations if left unchecked. It’s times like these I am baffled that the vaccineis 150 years old and ineffective at protecting against all forms of TB, whiledrug companies work feverishly to produce a new “male enhancement” product orweight loss drug. Only in America would we want our men to be virile well intotheir older years, our women artificially thin and wrinkle-free, but our peopleutterly unprotected against potentially huge future health concerns. Justsomething to think about…)We visited one woman several weeks ago who had beenbed-ridden for quite some time suffering from a bad bout of TB. She livedalone, abandoned and friendless. Being sick, she could not plant maize so shehad nothing to eat, and she was not strong enough to fetch water thesignificant distance away that it was. I felt for this woman in a way I havenot ever experienced, utterly helpless and haunted by guilt of the excess thatis the world from which I come. I talked to my host family about the situationand they described other people who they have known go through similar things,whose families have deserted them due to fear or shame and who have to fighttheir battle alone. My counterpart and I talked to the support group in thewoman’s part of the community. We said that even though they themselves arestruggling with food and water scarcity, just the emotional comfort of someonecaring and visiting can make a huge difference. I am happy to say when wevisited this woman again, it was a much different scene. She was smiling,getting better, gaining weight and there were neighbors at her homesteadhelping out and hanging out. It was a beautiful thing to see people cometogether that way, and I was moved in a very significant way. It’s been greathaving such a broad sector, “health”, and having the opportunity to work withschool children, or really in an endless number of capacities, but I haveenjoyed working with openly HIV-positive people so far. It has been humbling andpowerful and confirmed my desire to go into a health related field someday. That being said, it has been wearing on me more than I have realized. It's unbelievably sad to see people dealing with chronic illness, no matter how prepared you think you are for it. AA comforting thought is from a book I recently read, Slaughterhouse Five. Billy Pilgrim travels back in time and has an epiphany: time is not a sequential thing like we are accustomed to understand, but a series of snapshots, like "a bug caught in amber", each inevitable but static. I really liked the book, and the embracing of death as just another one of those moments. As the Tralfamadorians say, "So it goes".

Random Swazi Thought of the Week: A cheese boy or a cheesegirl is what they call someone who is “lazy to work”. I’d also describe it assomeone who is a townie person and comes home to the rural areas occasionallywearing all their ill-suited tight pants and fitted caps, and has no interestin working the field or milking a cow.

One of thethings that has struck me since being in Swaziland is how the children play andthe toys they play with. Generally thekids have no toys and are forced to create their own. It is common to see soccer balls made out ofa bunch of plastic bags and toy cars out of dried mud or scrap fencingwire. And it is uncommon to see a toythat was bought from an actual store. SoI took it upon myself to create some toys to give as Christmas presents to someof the girls that are frequent visitors to my hut. Thanks to everyone that sent me yarn in carepackages. All of the yarn was given tome and I still have plenty left to make even more fun things! Hopefully I will be able to use it in my timehere. I started knitting these in September and had them finished for Christmas. To stuff them, I bought a pillow, ripped it open, stuffed the animals, and sewed them all together. It took me four months to makethese four stuffed animals. Now fourgirls have a toy of their very own.

The monkey is 2.5ft tall. He took forever to knit!I made his teeth out by crocheting plastic bags that I cut into strips to make a sort of plastic yarn.The girls love this doll!

This was the first one I made :)

Hey so I added a bunch of new posts and pictures. If you hover your cursor over the sides of the pictures a little arrow will pop up. Click it to scroll through a series of four pics! You may also notice that the ribbon of pictures at the top has been changed. All the pictures are ones taken with my camera! I hope to get a video up sometime soon (before I come home)

So I am now training for my first 21km which will take place in April. I was suckered into it in a pact I made with another volunteer. The deal was that if I ran in the Half, she would jump Vic Falls. Three things have affected this plan. One - she’s injured and is no longer running the race this year, Two - I found a much better bungee (216m fall!) that does not include having to get a visa and travel super far, Three - we were informed that some poor girl’s bungee came undone and she fell to the bottom. She’s reported to be okay but the reputation of the jump is not. Anyway, we pushed it back to next year. I however already signed up for the race and I have been hoping it will motivate me to run. Today was special. I walked to Mgululu with Babe wam’s (Babe wami, “my father” my attempt at being trendy with what has been coined BroSwati) at half-passed five and stood around in the sun until we stumbled home after noon. Oh yes, we complained the whole way bahaha. But it is a long walk. Over the past few months we have been taking shorter-cuts but we now go through a river, around one mountain, through some, sadly dried up, river beds and over a final mountain. Babe is in his mid 70’s. I just like complaining. Anyway, as soon as I got home, I changed and washed my clothes (2 hr affair). Then I vegged for a bit and snacked on: two bowls of msg-flavored popcorn (thank you Nicole), two forgotten sour candy canes (thank you sisi wam’s), aaaaand a partial bag of beef jerky (thank you David). Sounds like something one would eat when struggling through a boring college lecture. I really should have taken a mat out and napped under a tree like everyone else. Oh yeah, to bring some nutrition to that mess, I ate a fruit leather that I had lying around. So immediately after that I figured I should do my run. I had decided on a different route to keep things fresh. I was going to run up toward Bulandzeni stesh which is all uphill. I would then run down to make it about a nice easy 40min. Yeah. We were hit with a nice tropical storm a couple weeks back which caused some pretty significant soil erosion and the road was like running on a never ending treadmill of sand which has its elevation setting cranked up. A better way to describe it was like running up a sand dune again and again. For some reason my mood was very positive despite the feeling in my stomach and the dehydration. Having Swazi kids run after you screaming encouragement was nice and it helped me continue up the incline albeit in a zig-zag fashion as I dodged trenches and fought the nauseated feeling. Overall, the experience reminded me of my last semester when, after a long workout, I quickly ate 2 McDoubles and 2 McChickens (one which had jelly beans on it. Dan Cychosz you are a master of fusion cuisine, by the way I miss seeing how late we can stay at Parks “studying” and seeing how many Tootsie Rolls we can fit in our mouths). Ah, I miss fast-food…

Here’s how hot it has been. I had just finished speaking with someone and as he tiredly turned and walked/staggered away he accidentally kicked a napping dog in the head. The pooch was lying on his side and the kick came right up under his chin. The poor dog’s head snapped back and the physical shock seemed to open his eyes a fraction and pop open his mouth so his tongue fell out but other than that it did nothing and the three of us continued without miserable afternoon as if nothing had happened. None of you would believe me but I’m pretty sure I didn’t even laugh at the comedy of it until much later. The weather takes up a lot of conversational time I have. Some of it is due to my restrictive siSwati but a lot of it is cultural. I hear a lot of “Hawu Zama, lilanga liya shisa man!” (Exclamation: It is hot). It is usually followed up with “Ngifunamvula” or some similar desire for rain, which we seem to be cheated on this year. Such a conversation is at home in (insert something)-ville, of Midwest USA. Speaking of imvula, it is raining right now!! There is a really good chance that you have no idea how great this is. I have not bothered to heat bath water in nearly three months. That’s a lie I suppose since I added some leftover shaving water to my shower reservoir today. All in all I much more enjoy as cold a shower as I can get, especially for my late evening shower. Plus, the cost of refilling my Handigas canister is enough to offset any benefit being extra-uncomfortably hot has. The monetary cost is not the main deterrent but rather the fact that I have to schlep a five kay uphill with a substantial gas canister over one shoulder and then return with an even heavier one. I suppose the return trip has the convenience of being down a significant incline but Handigas it is not. Really, I could take a khumbi but I am too stubborn to pay the amount of a loaf of bread when I can walk and talk.

Sally the goat Jayiva make! Dancing Kumalos The kiddies Lubandze kaTsabedze: Sally the goat made quite a ruckus a few seconds after that pic was snapped. BoKumalo danced up a storm while the kids looked on.

So back on October 24th, 2011. We started installing windows, then the door, then the glass of the window, then we painted and let the tenant Mazinga move in, later came back installed the electrical, in Dec we installed the burglar door, and then took a Christmas break. In late January 2012, we kicked Mazinga out, temporarily, to install the ceilings and then the floors (plus, lots of paint touch ups). He was out of his place for about a week.

Well, on Thursday, February 2nd. Mazinga moved back into his room now 100% complete room. That is 101 days from start to finish. Granted a good 60 of those days he was in the room without ceilings & flooring.

So a very rewarding day and basically marks the moment that each day the Social Center comes to being totally 100%.

It sure has been a great ride.

Notice the electrical outlet, windows with burglar bars, curtain holders, painted walls, white ceilings and ceramic tiles that should last a very long time. It has it all including furniture. (Although the building has yet to have the electrical connection from the power line to the building installed so he outlet doesn't have any power.)

For some reason, many people tell me that I write a lot about food. Good chance seeing as how I occupy a lot of my time thinking about food. I cannot help it. For Christmas, I made supersized batch of pancakes. The family was overjoyed. A visiting bhuti from Johannesburg asked for a recipe and two of them each snagged a grocery bag with a few for the road. They even poured syrup into their bags. I laughed and was happy. Afterwards I ate with Babe and bobhuti. Our first round was a substantial cow liver, second was a goat head, and third was grilled pork: It Was Delicious. Later I had roasted potatoes and pork with Aunti and rounded off the day with a massive plate of food back at home (including fried chicken, beet root, and potato salad!). It feels good to be full. I ended the night with a passage from Isaiah and a few from Luke which I read to the family in siSwati. New Year’s brought iPitsa! I had built up a nice little supply of mozzarella and even a salami. Babe and a visiting sisi cut up some firewood and prepared a fire in the stove for me while I started my dough rising and cut up tomatoes for sauce. I don’t think they expected five pizzas but that’s what they got. They had a lot left over and saved it for lunch the next day. The next day I had planned to visit Aunti and cook with her. We set up shop and pumped out two pizzas in record time. Gogo of the homestead was overjoyed as was Aunti with the meat and veggie pizzas. I swear, each time I make pizza it gets even better than the previous time. The warm weather really makes for a fluffy, chewy crust that I find perfect to my liking. I realize that I miss a lot of food from home but that here I have easy and affordable (free) access to many foods which I do not get to have frequently at home. The fact that a neighbor can drop off a free bag of produce worth well over 50USD is pretty crazy. We have guava, mango, papaya, avocado, marula, and incozi trees on or near our homestead and I have seen peach and banana trees on nearby homesteads. When you visit you always get a healthy serving of fruit, or a large meal. I could still go for a JJ’s #9, a pot pie, an American burger, and a Samuel Smith. One meal. Just sayin’. I would actually rather substitute the pot pie with Grandma’s chicken hotdish. I suppose I will have to start a “Food Reintegration List”. Fyi Hampton, your eggrolls are already on that list.

Oh man, the PC life sure is tough! Tofo Beach Mozambique Those boats bring in some tasty fish It may look comfortable and asleep... December 9-13 Mozambique 2011! Beautiful weather, delicious seafood, great fun. Only downside was the horrific 16 hour spectacle that was the ride home. In a place where TB has such a presence and it is REALLY hot, why do we want the windows closed?

The other day [note: this was back in the first week of December] I got a bookshelf which I had commissioned and partially paid for in August. Make burst out laughing when I told her in my broken siSwati that I had ordered this one the same time as my last one (which I ordered and picked up in August). It looks darn nice next to my other shelf. I will have to post a picture or video tour sometime. In addition to my new shelf, I also added some mosquito netting to both doors and two windows. I can now have my doors and windows open with minimal bug interference. I still get little ones that like to crawl up in my clothes and bite me but TIA and anyway I could get those at home. I am pretty proud of my handiwork. I have the netting stretched over the burglar doors and secured with Bostik and rubber cement. To access the padlocks, I have cut rectangular holes in the netting and secured flaps with Velcro. There are still gaps which I can worry about later. I’ll wait and see if I get another snake or mouse. So far so good. I have had the occasional lizard on the wall and I once smacked a bat out of the air and tossed it into the yard for the dogs. The Velcro I got from Mum at home and I went into a sort of frenzy. I am not sure if it was the heat or the sugar from the m&m’s (and PEZ *thanks Fam and Linda Rud*) but I put Velcro on a LOT of items around the hut. UN-necessary. It was almost sad but at least my “improvements are utilitarian. I also hung up some maps of the world, USA, and Minnesota which have proven to be useful on several occasions. Seriously, I felt like I was 6 and just opened a much sought after Christmas present of Scotch Tape. FYI engineering friends who have been or do work at 3M, I found some branded tape that looked like it came from the 90’s. I also Bostik’d up a Chevron ad from a Wallstreet Journal which my dad had sent me. It was a two pager with an African girl and “AIDS IS GOING TO LOSE.” in large print. It was an ad corresponding to World AIDS Day on December 1st. I still find it encouraging despite the lack of World AIDS Day support on World AIDS Day in my community (seriously, ONE person wearing red?! and that’s all we got?). Must not be doing my job.

Today I got to enjoy a bit of Oregon Trail: Swazi edition while riding a khumbi the conductor jumped out as we approached a steep slope leading to a bridge. He came running back saying that the bridge was visible. We went slowly across and people were pretty tense, we were all dead silent (well, except for the khumbi which was coughing and sputtering as always, seriously they smell like two-strokes). It actually was not all that bad. There was all of an inch or so of water going over the top. The night had brought less and less of a downpour and by late morning it was more of a medium shower with moderate to heavy intervals. Anyway, it was fun to pretend that I was fording a river even though the risk of drowning was negligible in this instance. Sadly, the threat of snake bite, dysentery, cholera, etc. are not so farfetched.

Because we are well into the summer months, the community has been engrossed in field work and tending its homesteads. I have tried my hand at helping a few times. Very early on, I was told that I must purchase some boots (Wellingtons). I assumed it was to keep my shoes from getting all messy but found out later that boots are good for snake protection. I got my boots and tried my hand at plowing (happy with my spelling Mom, TIA we say plough). I was not very good. As with the majority of community members, we use a walk behind plow which is pulled behind a cattle team. Look at the MN state flag or in a museum if you don’t know what I’m talking about. It is long work which is made more difficult when the ground is hard from the lack of rain. The time I tried to plow was when the ground was such. The family was very happy with my desire to help and though they surely found it hilarious to see my pathetic attempts, Babe and Bhuti were supportive. Even I laughed when I dropped the plow and ran after it as the cattle kept pulling without regard to the sideways plow bouncing around behind them. I was told that it is much easier when the ground is compliant. The fact was we needed to plow now regardless of the rain’s arrival. I found out that one does not need to constantly manhandle the plow but to guide it along. It was actually rather fun. I am sure the novelty would wear off if I had to wake up before 4am, plow, go to class, return to plow until evening, and repeat. Rural students have a very different life from those townskid with their hair and whatnot. The community has at least 4 to 5 tractors which pull three-row plows as well as ferry water, firewood, building materials, and people. A neighbor came to plow with a tractor once or twice but for the most part, the fields tended manually. Time is now spent weeding the fields. This is likewise done manually row by row. I have been out a few times with Babe and Make. We use large hoes to weed around the plants. As can be imagined, it takes a quite a long time and tiring when the sun is hot (almost all the time). I usually help out in the afternoon to evening. I go to the Emphakatsi to weed the OVC fields on Tuesday and Friday mornings. We start at 6am which means I leave home around 5am. We usually weed until 9am or so. We range from just an elder and myself (we have a hard time not showing our disappointment those days) to well over a dozen people helping. It makes me happy when we have a nice turnout to support the orphaned and vulnerable children. Last Friday I also carried an open tray of 30 eggs. That was fun. I actually dropped one while I was trying to adjust my hoe which I carried in the crook of my arm. The tray was floppy before I started sweating on it and I was tired and sluggish before I started stomping around the rocks and sand in my boots. I was walking up an incline and the hoe was slipping. I watched in slow motion as the edge of the tray furthest from me (I was attempting to support the closest edge with my chest) bobbed up and down and shot the corner egg up into the air. I let the hoe slip and tried to absorb the motion of the drooping try in an attempt to keep more of the eggs from falling (30 eggs at E1 apiece is a nice chunk of cash). By grace the egg missed the rocks and landed on a little mound of sand. I took a break and decided that Make had been right to question my decision to carry them and the hoe as I stumbled to emphakatsi at 5am.

So I now have a lot of projects. The first and foremost is to encourage people to move from the discussion stage of our projects to an active stage. It has been a difficult past few months. People are busy with the fields, it is hot, schools have been out (they just opened last week Tuesday) and many are visiting other places. My work is primarily in the community. I have contacted a primary school and a high school this new term and have spoken with the head teachers. I am preparing some proposals for lessons, clubs, and ideas for improving the communication and cooperation between the community and the schools as well as with school personnel. I am working with some government initiatives and NGO’s, trying to help them increase their efficiency and effectiveness. I also discuss any and all issues that youth bring up: drugs, alcohol, school, bullying, lack of jobs, etc . as well as bouncing ideas of job opportunities with some older, out of school youths. I have no idea if they will be accepted and really I don’t care right now. They have been requested and after so much effort just trying to get people to ask me questions I am happy with that. I came with the idea that I could not force my agenda. That has only been reinforced. I am happy for that. It keeps me in check. One thing I did not expect was the lack of questions during meetings and more formal sessions. I figured when I asked for feedback on possible lessons, they would come. They didn’t. Things are starting to change now which is soooo nice. It all comes with increasing relations and comfort levels. I am being told things that are completely counter to what I was first told and despite the fact that they are mostly problems, I am overjoyed. In the beginning, people were saying, “Oh Zama, Bulandzeni is nice. We are happy. Things are good.”  Yeah. It was frustrating. I would ask about issues and all I got were the same ones over and over: we need water, we need food, we need sponsors for school fees. It is difficult to come into a community that you know/understand next to nothing about (at least nothing deep or fundamental) and say, “I’m here to help” and then have to repeatedly say that you cannot offer the help that is requested. I am happy that now I am getting into what I consider the real issues which deal with problems in communication, MOTIVATION: to stay in school, to work, to try to improve one’s condition, etc., and cooperation. I am happy to have deep enough relationships with a few people, of roughly each level social standing, who are comfortable enough to discuss these issues with me. I can finish my PC objectives quickly if I want, it would take less than a week. I’d round up some kiddies and adults and teach them about HIV: sciencey/statistical background, prevention, treatment, and effects on individuals and society, then work with service providers and improve their ability to work. I wouldn’t be doing my job however. I may be able to call it good after that. All that was intentionally vague. Our work is like that until you get down into the causes of issues our objectives address. I can teach about HIV to a bunch of kids but like back at home, they probably won’t listen to me until they want to. Adults, oh man, that is a much more complex issue.  I saw a saying on the wall of the high school head teacher’s office. “Paradoxically, a teacher’s role is not to teach but to cause others to learn.” Semantics aside, I thought the saying was pretty interesting. In English, we have the infinitive “to teach.” We define it as to give knowledge or instruct. This seems to imply that you can just insert skills or knowledge into people’s brains and let them go from there. It places the responsibility of transmission solely on the “teacher.” In siSwati there is the infinitive “kufundza” often translating to “to learn” There is also the verbal extension “-isa” which when added to a verb changes its meaning to be “causes to _.” So, “kufundzisa” has the meaning “to cause to learn.” To me it implies that one initiates an action in another to take on the responsibility of learning. The responsibility of knowledge transmission is shared. It starts with the teacher. The teacher has knowledge and a desire to give it. The student does not have the knowledge and may or may not have a desire to learn. If the student wants the knowledge the teacher gives it causing the student to learn. If the student does not want the knowledge, the teacher must somehow persuade the student to take the knowledge which also means the student learns. To me the siSwati phrase, “Thishela uyafundzisa” (The teacher is causing learning), has a much stronger meaning than the English colloquial equivalent of, “The teacher is teaching” (The teacher is giving knowledge). The English teacher could be teaching and yet students may not benefit in the slightest. If the Swazi teacher “uyafundzisa” then the children “bayafundza.” Now whether or not either teacher is causing children to learn is a different conversation but in in my opinion, in the pure denotative sense, the Swazis have a better version of “to teach.” I tried to explain this to a few Swazis but they had no idea what I was trying to say. It makes sense I suppose. They may have been taught that our English “to teach” was equivalent to their siSwati “kufundza,” at least the opposite was true for me. So yeah, that concept has been heavily on my mind for a while but seeing that saying really put something tangible to my thoughts. I cannot force my knowledge and skills on my community. I must cause them to learn them if I am to fulfill my job description. That is my hurdle. After that I get to look forward to application and behavior change. That will be fun.

so all that stalking the UPS man, and he decides to come when I’m out for coffee. I spied my package on the front porch from my car, and let’s just say my neighbors probably think I’m insane after seeing … Continue reading →

I’m starting to feel like waiting for mail is comparable to watching water, waiting for it to boil. Friday night, I received an e-mail from my placement officer saying that she had issued me an invitation for a health program … Continue reading →

It occured to me after my last post that some of you might be wondering what exactly I’m going to be doing in the Peace Corps and where this decision to serve came from.. So basically, the Peace Corps started … Continue reading →

So I received an e-mail from my placement officer, Kristen, today. She said that I’ve received medical approval from several countries, and that she would issue me an invitation as soon as she was able to, but that for my … Continue reading →

I spoke with my placement officer yesterday about how the process was moving along. She said that she’s already received approval from a few countries (she can’t tell me which ones), but she wants to wait and see what all … Continue reading →