This post is incomplete. I am having trouble with my connection and this is all that I can post right now. Please check back later for a completed post with more pictures and narrative. Also, look for a post in the next couple of weeks from my Mom!

The past 2 weeks have been incredible. Mom and Bobbo and Hannah (for the first week) came to visit. Here is a quick recap of the whole vacation:

Preparing for Mom, Bobbo, and Hannah to arrive. Mia and I (and Gaston, the cat) made a large Queen of Spades to welcome Mom at the airport.

April 27 (F) Mom, Bobbo, and Hannah leave for Johannesburg!!!! I am staying at Bombaso's to catch an early morning bus to Jo'burg to meet them.

April 28 (S) All of us arrive in Jo’burg and stay at the Protea Hotel OR Tambo Airport Hotel.

April 29 (Su) Travel to Swaziland; Drive North around Swaziland to enter through the Northern most boarder crossing, Jeppes Reef/Matsamo. Visit Emma’s homestead and family. Make is cooking a huge feast. Sitambo (samp and beans), Inkhukhu ekhaya (home chicken stew), and Lipalishi (porridge). Say hello to Gogo Matsebula laKunene and a few other surrounding homesteads. Derek/Mfanafuthi is home to eat with us and Babe pulls in just a few minutes before we were getting ready to head out. Drive to Big Bend, Swaziland and stay the the Lebombo Villa B&B.

April 30-May 4 Kwa Zulu Natal, St. Lucia, South Africa Stay at the Serene Estate Guesthouse in St. Lucia, on the edge of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Tembe Elephant Park

April 30 (M) Drive to St Lucia. Walk to the beach (we saw monkeys and hippos!), eat some lunch at the St. Lucia Ski and Boat Club then get a feel for the town.

Vervet Monkeys on our way home from the beach in St. Lucia.

Hippos on our first day at St. Lucia.

May 1 (Tu) After our phenomenal breakfast with the guesthouse we went to town to do some shopping and I got my hairs cut! Then we went on a horseback game ride! We saw herds of zebras, and since we were on horseback the zebras weren't even afraid of us, impala, wildebeest, water buffalo ( I think), and warthogs. Once we had all cleaned up from the ride we headed out to a fantastic dinner and hippo/crocodile hunt. Hippos are said to come up out of the estuary and into town at night to eat whatever grass they can find. We found two hippos and a small crocodile. One hippo was just standing in someone's yard, munching away at their yard! The other one was just on the side of the road, we saw it on the way to the jetty to look for the crocs. This hippo was HUGE!!

Turn off the surrounding lights to see this one better. He was practically in the road.

May 2 (W) We did a morning boat cruise through the estuary. We saw crocodiles, hippos, including baby hippos which are only 80 lbs when they are born, and tons of cool birds. Then I got my hairs cut and we went to the beach. The beach was awesome and huge. We had to walk for about 20 minutes through sand before we were anywhere near the water.

This was one of the many crocs we saw on the estuary boat cruise.

Nyala or Kudu, I'm still unclear of the difference and Mom's tour book only had a picture of one. Either way he was big and his horns were even bigger.

May 3 (Th) The big snorkeling day at Cape Vidal. Dunes and fish like I have never seen them, incredible. Then we drove through the Isimalango Wetland park. We saw a few animals, but mostly it was the views that were taking our breath away at this point. I won't even post any pictures, because you just have to go see it for yourself... Awe Some.

May 4 (F) Have our last Serene Estate breakfast and head for Jo'burg to drop Hannah off :( Mom, Bobbo and I stay at the Protea OR Tambo again. I wish I had more pictures with Hannah.

May 5 (S) Drive to Mbabane, Swaziland, this time we drive through the bigger and more commonly used Oshoek/ Ngwenya Boarder Post. We drive straight to Pick N Pay to pick up groceries for the Bombasso’s Volunteer Chili Fiesta for Cinco de Mayo and for all of the volunteers that could make it to share a little bit of home with Mom's home made chili. She made regular chili with a skyline twist and white chili with chicken. Yum! Bobbo grilled veggies and Mia was in charge of whipping up the 2 cakes we had for desert, angel food and chocolate. May 6 (Su) We (Mom, Bobbo, Eric, Matt, Mia, and Myself) pile into the Sportah-ge to drive to the homestead in Emkhuzweni. Mom cooks an amazing dinner again, this time for Make and Babe and which ever brothers are home. We/She made meatloaf with roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, and an avocado salad. Just before the meatloaf was ready Babe got home and had brought emahiya for Mom and Bobbo. Mia stayed for dinner, we dropped Eric and Matt off in Buhleni. Then we drove Mia home so that Mom and Bobbo could meet Gogo Kumedze and Make came with us to say hello. This night we all stayed in my hut. Mom and Bobbo got the bed and I was on the floor. It wasn't bad at all. Actually, even though Mom had given me previous warning that she might need to spend the second night in a hotel she decided that the homestead was fine. Mom and Bobbo even took bucket baths! We were in bed by 8pm though.

Eventually we got it all figured out. Everyone was so happy that night. What a great place. What great people.May 7 (M) We took Lihle to the Vet in Mbabane to get fixed (YAY!) and then, with a drugged up cat in the back seat we stopped by the Peace Corps Office and picked up Mia and the went to meet our friend Faith in Manzini. We had lunch at the mall and then drove back to the homestead. Even though we were stuffed after lunch we ate Make's always delicious beef stew.

May 8 (Tu) First day of school after the break between terms. Mom and I walk to school while Bobbo picks up Mia to meet us there after a very emotional goodbye between Mom and Make. We are there for a quick assembly and to pop into most classrooms to say hello. After our quick Hello Goodbyes we drove to Buhleni to pick up a few things for our picnic and hike in Bulembu, including Eric and Matt. It is such a beautiful place, definitely worth the drive which is about an hour struggling up an old mining road. After our hike in Bulembu Mom, Bobbo, and I drive to the Ezulwini Valley for our first night at Malendela's.

Bulembu, an old asbestos mining town. It took us an hour to drive there (the 19k) because of the condition of the road- about 19 kilometers from Pigg's Peak.

Mia and Eric. We went hiking in Bulembu about a week before the fam arrived. It was so beautiful I decided that we would have to find a way to fit a hike in with Mom and Bobbo.

Here is the view from Kenny Powers Peak (dubbed by Eric and Myself). This is where we took Mom and Bobbo (plus Matt, Mia and Eric) to have a little picnic. It feels like you are on top of the world.

May 9 (W) After another delicious B&B breakfast, this one at Malendela's, we find the Swazi candle factory, Gone Rural, and a few other shops to do some shopping. Then we head towards Manzini to do a few more errands, including pick up some steaks and veggies to grill a the Hlane Wildlife Reserve that night. We also collect two stragglers, Eric and Mia, who both join us at the game park. Then pick up Kyra on our way to Hlane. By the time we get there we find out that the evening game drive that we were planning on going on leaves in 20 minutes. Just in time. Kayla and one of her friends from home join us for the game drive and dinner also. The game drive was pretty cool, two and a half hours and an African sunset. We saw a mom and baby rhino taking a mud bath, a giraffe at the water hole, a herd of elephants, babies and mommas, nyala, kudu, impala, and a lion that was totally stuffed after a huge dinner. The lion didn't even move when our driver growled at him. Then we got back to our cottage (definitely worth it!), the fire was already going, and started prepping everything to grill. We finally played some hearts after dinner, with the Kunkel. Hearts is the origin of Mom's welcome Queen of Spades. We even got some euchre in too. A very fun day and night. I might even say epic. May 10 (Th) Say goodbye to the elephants, giraffes, hippos, and impala getting their morning drink at the water hole. Head back to Mbabane to have lunch with the Swaziland PC Country Director. He recommends Ngwenya Glass Factory to satisfy our afternoon shopping fix. It was a cool place, a lot of the surrounding shops had crafts that were made in Swaziland, most of which are crafted by boMake, teaching them a skill, and providing a fair and sustainable income. Then we return to Malandela’s B&B for Mom and Bobbo's last night in Swaziland :(

May 11 (F) After breakfast we have just a bit of time for a little more shopping. We check out the Gone Rural shop near Malandela's again and stop by the Ezulwini Valley Craft Center. Then I am dropped off at the PC Office and we say some more teary goodbyes. Mom and Bobbo drive to Jo’burg airport to catch their flight home.

What a funny thing perspective is, it is all that matters and doesn't matter at all at the same time.

The past 3 weeks have been intense, crazy, up and down, and full of changing perspectives that don't matter at all. Here is post to catch you up on most of that.

Let me take a moment here to issue a warning about this post before you get too invested: It is a hodge podge. It doesn’t make much coherent sense. I NEED A VACATION!

For all of you incoming volunteers, don't wait 11 months to take your first out of country vacation. Just don't. Those little trips within the country don't count for long. You really need to get away to keep your cool. My friend Megan says it very well: There’s an idea that you’re not a good volunteer unless you’re miserable (because you feel like you have to stay at your site to be a good volunteer). Having been there a few times I can tell you, you are a horrible volunteer if you don’t want to be there. Do your community a favor, get out if you need to. ...You’ll come back to site a better volunteer. Trust me.)

March 19th we started our Mid-service conference with a Counterpart workshop. This went so well and my counterpart was/is awesome, great, enthusiastic, motivated, and creative. I can't quite express how happy we both were at the end of the workshop, our Literacy plan for Emkhuzweni Primary School in hand. We both learned a lot and she got a view from the source of what exactly I am doing at the school. Wow, it was great.

Then the PC dropped the Youth Development schematic on us.... Splat. Our counterparts hadn't even left yet (though they had stepped out of the room). They made it very clear that this isn't really changing much, and it should fit in nicely with most of what we are already doing, open up some new opportunities for us and get the new group off on a good foot. But I'll tell you what.... It sure didn't feel that way. I felt like my world had been turned upside down and all the work I had been putting in to my school was falling out of my pockets like change in a turned out pocket, including the successful counterpart workshop. What would happen now? What does this mean for my work at EPS? How do I balance what I have already started, what I still wanted to do, and all of the new opportunities that I wanted to pursue and were now open to me with the YD schematic? And all of that while remembering to see my PCV friends, avoid losing my mind by taking vacations, and go to the darn physical therapy that my ankle would require (a week at least).

Grief and Loss... This was really helpful for our group. I feel like I personally got something out of it and I love how close our group feels now. It was a great opportunity for all of us to get to know each other much better. It solidified our Group 9 family like we hadn't been before. We talked about our personal losses, the losses most Swazi's suffer, the losses we suffer here in Swaziland, and forgiveness.

Unfortunately during this part of our MSC I got a call from my Make letting me know that one of Lihle's kittens had been killed. You remember them? Four of them: Chip, Gaston, Lumiere, and Belle. They had all been staying with me in my hut and in preparation for the conference I tied a sheet around my burglar bars on my window so that they could climb it to get in and out. Well, near this window I keep my ironing board. I imagine little, sweet Chip tried to climb the ironing board and it fell on her. She was crushed. What a traumatic thing, and there is more that makes it all a bit worse, but it’s not worth telling (too sad and stressful). Just know that it was incredibly sad and really exacerbated the whole situation and the way I had been feeling since the end of the CP workshop. This is where perspective becomes a funny thing. A Few days after I returned to site, a homestead right next to mine had a fire. Three buildings burned down. Everything in them was gone; a kitchen, a sitting room, and one other hut. A cat died. --- In the big scheme of things, and especially in Swaziland this is small potatoes. But Make and I were and are very upset and grieving, and trying not to blame ourselves, it felt like a big thing. So, with perspective, especially after grief and loss and the fire it would seem that this is not such a big event- but no matter how we looked at it, it didn't make us miss Chip less, or feel less sad about her untimely death. And I don't mean to play down the fire. That is a huge thing. Everything you own takes forever to be able to buy when you are living on about $3 a day. We are trying to help them however we can, it's hard to know what to do, but keep the family in our thoughts and prayers.

On a happier note: All of the remaining kittens have designated and good homes. Unfortunately, our friend Faith will not be getting a kitten. (I still haven't told him because it is too sad and I haven't seen him or talked to him since it happened. So, Faith, if you are reading this, I apologize for not telling you earlier. But if you want we can look for another kitten for you. Maybe at the Swaziland Animal Welfare Society http://www.swaziplace.com/saws/.) Also, while I was gone Make fed the kittens cinnamon rolls.... What a hoot!

After 5 days (Sun-Thurs) back at site figuring out how to deal with EVERYTHING that was going on, and also at school trying to maintain the work that I had already started (the English club and computer club, which were both exceptional during this week and definitely helped), I felt much happier to be home and could look forward to all of my opportunities in the community and my upcoming vacations.

Then it was time to leave again. I had to start physical therapy for my ankle that Friday. We had initially guessed that I would be there Fri - Sat and then would go straight to Lidwala's (a backpackers in the Ezulwini valley) for my planned staycation with Mia. Instead, I ended up traveling 2 hours for 1 hour of PT and then had to turn around to spend another 2 hours on transport to go back home. We would start my PT the following Monday. So, Saturday was a relaxing day at the pool with some mental recovery time, then off to Lidwala's. Which did exactly what I needed it to do. It felt like a vacation. On Monday I headed to the med hut for 4 days of PT.

And here we are....

I would be heading straight from the Med Hut to Pretoria, but I forgot to pack my passport (palm to forehead). So, I will be headed home tomorrow afternoon to retrieve my passport and re-pack into a smaller bag. I must say that I am very happy to see Make and the kittens before I go. I am really feeling close to all of them at this point. So, as much as it is a bummer to have to pay for transport back and be on the road by 430am Friday morning to leave in time to catch transport, I am happy that I will be going home. Not to mention that I will be able to unload the 2 AWESOME packages that I have received since arriving at the med hut. Thank you TINA (roomies forever!!) and Mom.

I apologize that this is kind of a downer post. But if you read it after reading or watching Atonement it might not seem so bad. Come on, get some perspective (but are you really any less sad?).

I love you all and miss you. I appreciate your support and these past few weeks (months?) it has really helped me get by and remember to try to be my best self, even though I am exhausted. Thank you!

The next post should be something fun and exciting with 2 out of country vacations right around the corner. Maybe I will even be able to get Mom or Bobbo or Hannah or all 3 to guest post.

Not that I don’t love teaching swimming lessons, but lessons nearly every Saturday, combined with standard social activities with other volunteers mean spending very few Saturdays at home, in my village. Today, I didn’t teach swimming lessons and it is amazing how fulfilled I feel as a volunteer. If going to school during the week is American coffee, Saturdays like today, on the homestead are like Italian double espresso.

Let’s look at my current school project: After School Clubs-

Yesterday the learners voted on which clubs they want to have offered after school. The voting was awesome, a ton of kids wanted to vote and they loved that I drew smiley faces on their hands after they voted so that I could make sure everyone only voted once. However, getting to the point where we could even organize a vote for clubs took some time. My first step was to put up posters, explaining what clubs are, why someone might like to join one, how to start a club, examples of clubs, etc. adding a new poster every other day. To make sure the information was making its way to the target audience (i.e. were the kids reading the posters?) I talked to classes, and informally interviewed individual students and teachers (because they’re overall support and understanding are crucial to the continued success of clubs). Unfortunately, I managed to slow down the process even more by stepping in a hole and rolling my ankle, which resulted in a sprain bad enough to merit a few days off of school. After the tennis ball sized swelling started to go down and the pretty purple and blue bruise started to set in, I made my way back to school just in time for the promised voting day. Anyhow, I put up my first poster 3 weeks ago and we just voted this past week. Don’t get me wrong it was planned this way, and I am thrilled that everything went well. Both the kids and teachers are excited about starting clubs, but that took quite a bit of time. There were small victories along the way, but even now we have yet to have our first club meeting, where as today, in itself, held a number of concentrated positive volunteer moments.

Here’s how today, Saturday, got started as such a satisfying day:

Last night while I was doing dishes, preparing myself for the potential disaster of counting over 100 votes in a room that was so hot turning the fan off was not an option; I had a knock at my door. I have had a few visits from the neighborhood kids around this time of day, so I had a pretty good feeling that I knew who was on the veranda (Phinda, Hlelan, Fakazi, and Lindo- all boys between 12-15 years old). I was correct in my guess and even more excited to see them when they told me they wanted to teach me to make guava jelly tomorrow (today)! This is something that I have been asking any kids in the neighborhood to teach me since I saw grades 6 and 7 at school learning how to do it in their Home Economics class. First of all, who doesn’t want to try guava jelly? Secondly, what is one of the best ways to reinforce a lesson you have just learned? (To teach it.) So, we made a date to start making the jelly in the morning, around 10. They would bring the guavas and I would provide everything else required to make the jelly (we did review the process and ingredients, I thought) including the pancakes to eat with the jelly, after we were done.

This morning I got out of bed a little before 8 and started to figure out what I needed to do before the boys arrived with the guavas. At 8:15 there was another knock at my door… Fakazi with the guavas. I had to tell him that I wasn’t ready yet and could he come back in a few hours. No problem, he was just dropping the guavas off right now anyway, he would come back. I ate some breakfast, whipped up some pancakes, did the dishes, and was ready to make the jelly.

Here is the recipe with some commentary and suggestions from what we learned this morning: (read completely before trying to make the jelly. This is some of the best advice from my Dad. Growing up my sister and I would call him at work, with a bowl full of half completed chocolate chip cookie dough, when we realized we didn’t have enough eggs. Love you, Dad!)

Start with a backpack full of guavas. Ok, well half full.

Peel most of the green and yellow off the guavas, until there is a slight pink under the light color of the rind. Peel away from your body and go slowly. The goal is to peel the guavas without any bloodshed.

Oh, wait. Did everyone wash their hands? Lindo? (Expect water that may, now, be more mud than water.)

Cut the peeled guavas in half.

You know you have enough guavas when the pot is about ¾ full. Add a few inches of water to the pan so the guavas don’t burn. We tried it without water first, believe me add water…unless you like crispy black flakes in your jelly.

Cover the pot and let simmer on med low until you can mash guavas into a semi pulp. We tried a number of tools for the mashing. A firm handled spoon worked best for me, but the boys insisted that we use the porridge stick (a long wooden handle with 2 dowel rods crossing through one end with about an inch and a half of dowel making an X at the business end of the utensil).

Ok, now mash the guavas to near mush. We only mashed the guavas partially to mush, and we had a lot of leftover guava stuff. I think that if we had cooked it longer and mashed longer we would have had more jelly and less leftover guava parts. Just do your best and learn for next time. It should be a little soupy too.

When you are satisfied with the mashy-ness of your cooked guavas then you can take them off the heat and sift, and by sift I mean mash the guava stuff through a strainer into a fresh bowl. What ends up in the bowl, from here on referred to as pulp, should be pretty runny, and the leftovers should be pretty solid and ‘dry’, or a dry as stewed guava leftovers can be. Again, just do your best.

Then juice a little bit of a lemon. Oh, you don’t have a lemon? No problem, Gogo has a lemon tree over there, be right back. OK, you have a lemon now? Should you juice the whole lemon? Yes. No wait, that’s half a lemon, then that’s enough… Just eye it and try it. That’s all I can tell you.

Ok, the lemon juice should be in your jelly jar, add to it the guava pulp and an equal amount of sugar (equal to the whole contents of the jelly jar thus far).

Stir it all around; give it a shake (with the lid on, of course). Check to be sure the sugar is dissolved.

Are you sure we don’t need to cook it again? Yeah, it’s done. It’s kind of runny, you’re sure? Yeah, it’s done. OK then, let’s clean up and eat. Whew!

Cooking with 12-13 yr old boys. I have later heard that you can cook the jelly again to make it like the thicker stuff that we are used to at home, but that is all I can tell you about that. I have a jar full of sugar and guava pulp in my (make’s) fridge, and it does me just fine, though next time I probably will try to do the second cooking thing.

After the guava jelly and pancake feast I did a little bit of extra cleaning up, since we ended up using Make’s kitchen. This included some laundry, shem. By the time I was done with laundry and a peanut butter and guava paste sandwich it was time to tutor Celomusa (an older, high school, guy that had previously asked me to help him with creative writing). This was an awesome experience. I haven’t had much opportunity to help any kids study or to tutor them since there aren’t any on my homestead, and the kids at my school are still kind of intimidated by me. Celomusa and I talked about the information you need to make a good story, the outline method of writing a story once you have the idea, and what to look for when reading to help you write. We also talked about religion, marriage practices, why people in America and Europe are different from people in Africa, both mentally and physically, and what else he can do to get to go to University. It was so fulfilling and now, I think I may have a regular study buddy!! YAY! I hope he feels free to bring his friends or at least encourage them to come by if they need any help with school stuff. Maybe I will be able to ask him to type (he also mentioned needing practice typing) one of his stories as a guest blogger in the future!

Do you see what I mean about school being like standard American coffee and this Saturday being like an Italian double espresso? Both are great, and have a place in my life, but to think that I miss my weekend espresso when I leave for a Saturday is… well, I guess it’s hard to know how to fit everything in your schedule, no matter where you live, but there is definitely something to be said for Saturdays on the homestead.

Cheers my friends, and here is to productive and fulfilling Saturdays.

I miss you all a ton! And just a quick shout out to my friends and family who have sent packages- you all really saved me (and my natural instinct to hoard food, thanks Mom). This past month we got paid about a week and a half later than we usually get paid, and let’s just say that I had budgeted down to 5 rand. The food and snacks you all sent honestly kept me eating that last week and a half. Thank you SO much! I know that I am not always good about getting a timely thanks to you all, but please know that your packages really do make a difference in my eating habits and morale in general.

Have a great week!

I don’t know exactly what it is about the past few days, but I am loving this place. It really feels like home; maybe its school starting, maybe its cooking and baking with Make and Mia, maybe its working so hard during the day that I can’t keep my eyes open at night, maybe its a combination of all of these things. Whatever it is I am definitely in the right place doing the right thing.

I went to the office on Monday and was welcomed by a number of WONDERFUL packages. Thank you!! I also made some solid decisions for my sanity at school. This term/year I am focusing on the kids. Last term was a little different because our title and job description was still ambiguous. We now have changed from Non-Formal Education Volunteers to Youth Development Volunteers. This change releases us from the necessity to be at school all the time, and to find stuff to do as it comes to us there. This arrangement made it really hard not to feel used, and kept a distance with the kids. I have decided that I will arrive at school around Lunch break, 11:00am, to hang out with the kids while they have their short 30-45min break during the day, and then I will stick around for the last hour and a half of school, reading, setting up the library, preparing for after school clubs. After school I have let a number of the kids know that I am available to help them with any homework or studying they need to do, whether it is in groups or individually. Hopefully this will be the basis for some really great relationships with a few kids to help start more exciting after school clubs such as Library/reading club, English Club, Life Skills Club, etc. I also plan to reach out to the younger kids by having an after school story time, just like Hannah and I went to at our local library on Sundays. Whatever happens, I am loving having/getting more time to spend with the kids. They are so full of life and energy and really interested in learning.

School started on Tuesday. That was a little depressing. We had assembly and then it was all around pandemonium. So, I took my leave and went to town to pick up a few groceries

The next day, Wednesday, started at 5:30am. Make, Siboniso (the boy who takes care of the cows on my homestead), and I started weeding the field behind my house. I started out pulling the weeds by hand, but the ground was so dry that I wasn’t getting a lot of root. So, for the first time I used a hoe. I don’t think that I did too badly. I only accidentally got one stalk of maize. However, I did notice Siboniso stealthily following behind me smoothing out the ground and getting the smaller weeds that I missed. Holy cow did my arms start to hurt!! After about an hour and a half with the hoe I went back to pulling weeds by hand around the pumpkins that grow amongst the maize. It is harder to hoe around there and the broad pumpkin leaves kept the ground a little more moist. Then at 8:30am I left Make and Siboniso in the field to get ready for school. Make wanted me to rest, but at that point it would have been counter productive. So, I had breakfast, bathed, and then did some of the laundry that I was piling up to do after school. At 10:15 I left for school, arriving around 11:00. I said ‘hello’ to all of the teachers that weren’t teaching at that moment and sat myself down with The Catcher in the Rye, which I have not yet read. All of the teachers that passed asked questions like: “What are you doing?”, “Why are you late?”, “Where have you been?”, “Why weren’t you here?”, “Why did you leave early yesterday?”. Deep Breath. “I am not a teacher, and I don’t have to be here any specific time.” Their responses amounted to, “Wow. You must be happy.” It feels like a shame. I would love to be busy with the kids all day, but there is just little use to me being there while the kids are all in class. Finally, the younger kids were finishing up their lunches, they are released about 15-20min before the older kids. Then they all gathered around to say ‘Good Morning’ and see what I was up to. The little ones are still getting used to me. Sometimes they run up and touch me, wait to see what I do, giggle, then run away. The more outgoing kids will come up and say ‘Bye Bye’, I’ll respond with ‘Hello’ and then they run away giggling. When the older kids get done with lunch they come over just to sit next to me, sometimes to talk if they have anything they want to ask, or I ask how they like their new classes, etc. This is all the slow process of getting to know the students and earning their trust and respect. I love it!! After lunch break I spent some time organizing how we are going to get our library stuff together. I taught the two Grade 5 classes dots and boxes. They loved it, and I showed them how to imagine the outcome of drawing their line before actually drawing it. For example: if I put my line here it will leave 2 boxes open for the next player to claim, but if I put my line here they won’t get any boxes. Problem solving skills anyone?! At about 2pm I headed home to do the rest of my laundry. Two hours later, about 5pm, I started making this amazing lentil salad that Mia got me hooked on. It has lentils, pasta, green pepper, tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, feta, balsamic, and olive oil. YUM! Everything is fresh and you just add as much as you like of each ingredient. A couple bowls of that and I was ready for bed.

The next day started a little later and this time it was just Make and me in the field at 6am. We finished weeding the field we had started the day before at about 8:30am. I used a hoe the whole two and a half hours! Again, I bathed and ate breakfast then headed to school early, at the request of the head teacher. He said that I must be at school before 10am to get the library stuff sorted out. I got there at about 10:15am. Turns out it was no matter that I was late because the head teacher wasn’t even coming in to school at all that day. …So, I found my same seat and started reading again. It was pretty much the same as the previous day, except this time I taught Grade 6 dots and boxes. Again, they loved it. (And I love those kids!!!) I headed to town around 1:30pm where I splurged and talked to a very talented local woodworker to make a bench and a washstand for my hut. I am SO excited for these 2 items. You all know how important hand washing is to me, and now I won’t have to bend all the way over to get soap and put my hands into the basin, not to mention the exciting prospect of storage shelves to get some of my toiletries off the floor!! I’m sure the kitchen/bath will fee like a new room. The bench will be under my front window, hiding my shoes and easily transportable for sitting on the veranda. YAY! On my way home from town a couple of boys who live at the homestead next to me asked if I would come teach them the game that I taught grade 6 today. How exciting!!! So, after I dropped my stuff off at home I went back and played dots and boxes and hangman with them for an hour or so. At 4:30pm I left them to keep playing together and ate a bowl of that amazing lentil salad, and went straight to bed. Yep, that’s right. I was asleep by 6:30pm.

Friday morning I got to skip the field work because I wanted to get to school for the assembly. Shem. That’s all I have to say. Mia joined me at the assembly and then we went around to classrooms making announcements about soccer for today. I then had a frustrating conversation about my new title, that the PC had not told the schools or Head Teachers about, and my plan of action. Oh, man. I was so riled up. Mia and I then left for home where we had some awesome baking time with Make and made stellar Banana muffins, rested with True Blood and were Make’s dish fairies. It turned out to be a great day!

Saturday was a day full of cooking (and doing my PC Volunteer Report Form), butternut squash soup, homemade applesauce, and helping Make with her first time baking chicken. It all turned out very well! I got to eat with Make and another Make from the Emphakatsi.

I realized that I really like how productive I am after a good workout in the morning. So, that’s how today started, with some pilates and a good 40 minute walk to get bread for breakfast. And look at that, 3 hours after I wake up Blog post done.

I miss you all so much. Even though Emkhuzweni is starting to feel more and more like home it is still missing all of my friends and family from home. In a way the more I feel at home the more I notice that you all are not here. I hope that if any of you have any interest in visiting that you can make it happen. Anyone is welcome anytime.

Love you!!! Stay well and take care of each other.

It really rained last night for the first time since Christmas. Finally. We have been desperate for rain. Our maize is still small and our tomatoes in the garden are nearly as hard as rocks, ripe.

For some reason the rain makes it feel a little easier to settle back into things at home after traveling around for the holiday season. It is like everything was holding it’s breath for the rain, and now that we’ve had some, breathing is back to normal.

The holidays included spending some great time with other PCVs and my host family, though I am sure that next year I will spend much more of the holiday season with my family. I did some awesome hiking with a group of PCVs at the coolest tree/rock house ever. We spent Christmas day cooking a HUGE feast at a backpackers. I got to spend some quality time with Make wami and bobhuti, usually cooking. Since school has been out for the holiday season we have eaten some amazing things: Pizza numerous times, including one time that I may have had the best pizza outside of Italy, Make made the crust and we didn’t even have any cheese, Cinnamon rolls a few times, a few different kinds of banana muffins, baked chicken, sautéed cabbage with carrot and onion, spinach with peanuts (one of my favorite swazi dishes), fried zucchini, onion rings, and fried green tomatoes. I ‘m sure that I am forgetting something but this is what I can remember for now. We also got a chance to watch some Planet Earth together which was quite a hit. After Christmas Make and I did some solid gardening together, mostly weeding. The New Year was also celebrated in good company, with other PCVs.

Since I arrived home after the New Year there has been a definite period of readjustment to a number of things at home, including a rural community where everyone expects you to stop and say ‘Hello’ to them, getting back into the SiSwati, and the fact that school is out until Jan 24th and technically I’m not even sure what I am doing when school does start again, so not exactly having anything to do back at home. Hopefully, now that it has rained, I will be able to help out in the fields a bit. However, Make is, rightfully, pretty concerned about me using most gardening tools with any sort of a point or edge.

Since being home I have read a couple of books, watched a few tv series and movies that I have on my computer, and cooked. Below I will put a list of the books that I’ve read, tv series and movies, and I will give you my recipes that have all been tested a few times.

Books:I started reading a series about Mary Russell, but had to quit in the middle because I loaned out my kindle, but I look forward to picking that back up.

I’ve been listening to Harry Potter on ‘tape’

The Year of The Flood, Margaret Atwood

The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

Both of these books were interesting and kept my attention. The Year of The Flood was a little sci fi for me, especially with an ending that lacks conclusion. I also was more than halfway through the book and felt like I still didn’t understand what it was about, and what exactly I was reading. Which is a huge reason why I stuck with it to the end. When I got to the end I finally felt some connection to the characters, and then was left with no conclusion for any of them. The Bean Trees was more my speed. It took some time to get into, but once I did I really liked the characters and the story.

TV and Movies:

Season 1 of The Wire Very good. I had to watch the first episode a coupe of times. I have a problem with series. I cannot stop myself from watching episodes one after another. I will try to take a break before I start season 2. Season 1 took about 2 days.

Season 1 SuitsAlso very good. This is a newer USA series and I highly recommend it.

PsychClassic fun, just watching what I have until I can get some more episodes.

French KissIt had been a long time since I have seen this one, and I have a really hard time with Kevin Kline in his role as a Frenchman. I still watched it 2 times

SidewaysSurprisingly good. I hadn’t seen this one before.

The Invention of LyingEh.

The Last King of ScotlandI was hesitant to watch this one because I was a little tired, I want’ sure what it was about and if it would keep my attention. It did, and I am very happy to have finally see it. I will watch it again when I can.

Love in the Time of CholeraGood, but slightly slow and frustrating. Good music.

Planet EarthWith the Fam. They loved it. Make actually had some of the ladies in the neighborhood over and they all watched it together. :D

True BloodI have seen all of these episodes but continue to watch them over and over again. I am learning to skip the parts I don’t like as much (maenad anyone? Ugh.).

The TudorsI’m new to this series but to be honest the incredible gender inequality, surrounding the King especially, is really hard to watch here. I think that I get enough of that in everyday life. Generally I find myself watching and asking ‘Why do I care?’.

Recipes: (to come later. I’ve written them and rewritten them a bunch of times for the family and friends lately. I will type them up soon, maybe later today.)

I miss you all so much!!! Please come visit :)

Love you! I hope that you had a great holiday season and that the New Year brings happiness.

Frog from Crocodile hunting, yeah it was just sitting on that leaf when we spotted it.Very fun Bomake at the Lobola.

This girl was very photogenic. We couldn't resist

 Hey kids, sit on that Hilux bumper and smile. Always cute photos of kids.

These two are brothers. The guy in the blue was telling me that his brother, in the black, could have 30 cows ready for my lobola by the next day. And we figure out that it costs about 8 cows to fly round trip to the US. That's my new skirt and scarf! I love them and can't wait to have another one made :)

 Kyra is taking the picture, on the right. Gugu is in the middle. It was her lobola (15 ->17 cows, 2 were pregnant and what to do with them had to be negotiated). 

We were pounding peanuts to add to the samp. Samp is chunky corn kernals and beans boiled together and then add raw peanuts ground into a powder.

It was rteally hard work and the sisi in this picture helped us. She was an awesome lady!! Kyra did most of the grinding then I did the sifting. Kyra then proceeded to arm wrestle several teenage girls. At least she beat 2 of them (an tied the other one ;) It was a very fun time!

 Capacity Building at Portugalia's Identifying an opportunity for capacity building

 Agreeing on the specials for PCVs, which ended up making the bar E.50 more per drink sold. 

 Crocodile hunting and Cow petting expedition

 How many G9s can we fit into a Khumbi?

 More still...

Hhohho Shenanigans, everyone included.

unsuccessful Cow petting

 Sammich. Holly this is in memory of our diving days.

 We had to bring our multi purpose tools. Just in case we had to gouge out any crocodile eyeballs.

Ok, so I know that there is a lot to catch up on, but if I think of all of that then I will never write this blog. So, here’s what happened today. I forgot to take my water bottle to the pool, and just found out that my Make thinks some neighborhood kids swiped it off of the veranda L We got to stop by Vusumnontfo, which was nice. We had a mini conflict with a khumbi driver. This was a major first. Usually you always want to be on the good side with the drivers, but this one wanted us to pay way to much for our ride. We got on the khumbi at Pigg’s Peak and told the ticket writer that we needed to go to Mkhuzweni, totally forgetting that we needed to get off of the khumbi early at Ngonini. Total, for Mia and I both, it would cost 44 Emalengeni to get from Pigg’s Peak to Mkhuzweni. Ngonini is about half way, about 11.80 Emalengeni. When we called ‘stesh’ to get off the khumbi Mia asked the driver how much it was and handed him 30E to cover both of us. He asked if we got a ticket and said that was how much we had to pay, and that we were 14E short and owed it to him. He was there arguing, we were trying to get change. Eventually we just left him with 6E extra and walked away (after he asked for our bags!!!). We were so mad and kind of confused. There is no way he would have ever asked a swazi to do that, or at least sat there and argued with them. But, we talked to a couple of people who have more experience with transport here, including a few Swazis, and found out that this in not standard and that we did the right thing and probably should have gotten change anyway.

This minor bit of drama followed quite a fun day at the pool. I had a delicious chicken salad and a chocolate milkshake. We swam and sat in the sun all day. I tried to write this huge rewind blog (not so successful). After we left the pool we went to Pigg’s Peak where we sat down and had a cold Coke, 3 Emafethi, and the best Swazi Chow Mein EVER!!! This is a big deal. There is minimal Chinese available in Swaziland and when you get it you take a risk of it making you a bit sick. But this was great! I sat down at the table and felt like I was at a hole in the wall in the states. When I walked out I walked back into Africa.

Here is a list of the things that you missed and I promise to catch you up on eventually, slowly, but eventually. I promise.

In Service Training Stolen electronics Typhoid Fever (maybe) (not me) Rambla’s fancy cocktail restaurant (we drank cheap drinks anyway) My Library Application got approved Please donate to our Library!!! (link coming soon) Dancing at Portugalia’s Capacity Building bartenders at Portugalia’s and dancing round 2

Mia’s Surprise Birthday Party Pizza Brownies Cupcakes Cake Make dancing Dancing in the rain What’s yours like?Hhohho Shenanigans Swimming (sort of) at Orion Ridiculous transport Windshield sunglasses, lost to the cause Grocery shopping in Pigg’s Peak Fruity khumbi rides (we were so squished fruit ended up poking people in various places) More crazy transport to Shauna’s homestead Penis pasta from Italy Crocodile hunting (attempted) Delicious food for the rest of the stay with Shauna and relaxing watching True Blood and Swamp People!!!Simunye Country Club Swimming and trampolineVisit with Kyra Saw an elephant on the khumbi ride from Simunye to her homestead Again watched movies and enjoyed a couple of cool days in the Low Veld

Just as I am finishing up this email Make came and knocked on my door. When I told her that I was typing a blog to you all, she told me to tell you all, ‘Hello’. I said how about ‘Sawubona’, hello in siSwati. She said, no Busisiwe. They don’t know Sawubona. But Hello and Sawubona any way J She also said to tell you all that she is happy to have me here with her, and Babe is happy too, and boBhuti, and Lihle! Make is SO cute.

I love you all and think of you everyday. I miss you all So much. Thank you so much for the packages and mail. They really make my week everytime something arrives.

Happy Holidays! Eat some extra deliciousness for me. YUM!

The group of volunteers headed to Umhlanga

Umhlanga Dancers  



Make's cat, Lihle, who for some reason frequently has her tongue sticking out.

 Maize field, clothes line, chicken coop, garden (to the right with all the trees), and latrine (to the left).



View of the homestead

 My hut. I stay on the right side only. A brother stays on the left side when he comes home. 



Inside the front door. The main living space.

Mini hallway/water closet, from the main space. Kitchen to the left.

Kitchen to the right, bathroom to the left.

5L of Neopolitan Ice Cream, because that's what we can get. It was really hot that day. We had arrived at my hut about 30 min earlier and have eaten about 2.5 liters already! :)



Enjoying Taco salad on the veranda. This was a serious treat!

Male dancers at Umtsimba (traditional wedding)

a bunch of neighborhood kids at Umtsimba

Getting ready to start dancing

Mia and her counterpart (Nelsiwe) pose with me for the first picture of the night at Umtsimba. 

 

I don't have a whole lot to post today mostly because I am too excited about these next few weeks. First of all, I do actually do work. However, the students will all be busy taking exams next week thru the end of term. There is then a month break in Dec. School will start again in Jan.

Here is a brief glimpse of the next few weeks:

Sunday, 11/6/11: Soccer practiceMonday, 11/7/11: Dark and stormy picnic in the woodsWednesday, 11/9/11: Got to Mbabane to visit PC office- research Tofo, load pics on blog, and get packages!!!!Friday, 11/11/11: GLOW mtg in ManziniSaturday, 11/12/11: Swimming lessonsSunday, 11/13/11: Soccer practiceSaturday, 11/19/11: IST begins (I have to have our Library App completed and my community assessment report).Wednesday, 11/23/11: IST ends, All Vol beginsThursday, 11/24/11: Thanksgiving with the AmbassadorFriday, 11/25/11: All Vol ends, day in Mbabane *shopping*, freedom party at Kathy’sSaturday, 11/26/11: Swimming, head home1st Weekend in Dec (dates TBD): Hhohho Shenanigans2nd Weekend in Dec (dates TBD): Visit to KyraDec 23rd Heading to Moz for Holiday!!!! Beach, Sun, Surf

Miss you all!!! Love you.

Can't wait to hear from you!

Glorious just barely begins to describe the macaroni and cheese that I am enjoying right now.

Here is a quick catch up:

On October 12th I taught grade 5 English all day. They were in the middle of learning about television so we did a group exercise where they worked together to write an episode of whatever show they like, or they could make up a show. We did this after reviewing genres of shows, and the idea of characters, settings, plot, and resolution. After doing this through both A and B classes I asked them what they wanted to do next… they all voted for a 20 word spelling test!!

On October 13th I gave my first Student Survey to grade 4. It went wonderfully and I have since also given the survey to grades 5 and 6. Now I am inundated with over 100 surveys that are waiting to be entered into excel in order to write this report for PC by Nov. 19th.

On October 14th I taught Grade 3 with Mia, who was visiting the school for what turned out to be an epic assembly. At one point Mia turned to me and said, “This looks like it could be a concert for a boy band.”! That was slightly painful. With the language barrier we had some behavioral issues. I tried to remedy this by handing out cards to each child, asking them to write their names on it. Then we made up some classroom rules. Then if a kid broke any one of the rules, then they got a mark on their paper and would not get a candy the next day. For the most part this actually worked. Then for practical arts we were learning about stop lights, the colors, what they mean and the words. Then we went outside and played red light green light. A very nice end to a trying Friday.

We have been continuing our soccer every week, and it has been going great! A lot of boys still show up but they are learning to play with the girls. Especially when Mia and I play with them. We have also learned that the key to successful soccer practices is to wear the kids out before we let them play a practice game. So we have started doing a full workout session before actually starting practice.

That Monday, the 17th, I decided to try to go to the office even though we had heard rumors of a transportation strike. Well I went, and as soon as I arrive in Manzini (the route to the office is Manzini to Mbabane then a khumbi to the office) MV our Security Officer for PC sent a message saying that there are planned strikes and that we should avoid Mbabane and Manzini, if you are already on route call me ASAP. So I called him and he told me to get to the office immediately and not to spend anytime in the cities. So I did, and then was trapped in the office all day with no food. Then a small group of us got stuck in the city and had a free night at a backpackers called Bombaso’s. That was a nice break, even though I had a sinus infection and had nothing to clean myself, sleep in and no toothbrush. Then on Tuesday we waited around to make sure that nothing was going to happen. Then we walked to the office to double check that nothing was going to happen while we were on route. I got on the khumbi to Manzini and got another call from MV, asking if I could get off before reaching the city because a girl who arrived in Manzini ahead of me was ordered off of the bus due to a transport strike. I couldn’t get off of my bus and when I arrived in the city left the bus rank immediately and waited for MV to get there. When he arrived an hour later, nothing was going on and he just walked us to our khumbis to get home. I got home at 3pm on Tuesday. Talk about worn out!!!The next day was grade 5 surveys. Then on Thursday there was a Goat Commercialization ceremony at a village near ours where our (Emkhuzweni Primary School) Drum Majorettes were asked to perform because the Queen Mother would be present. On Friday- grade 6 survey.

We have had our second swimming lesson day this past Saturday! Very fun, perfect weather. Except the sun was a little extreme. We got a ride from the hotel –Orion, look it up- to Piggs Peak because it is easier to catch one home from the city, rather than try to catch a one from the hotel. The person who picked (4 of) us up is a head teacher at a near by school, the brother in law of one of my teachers a EPS, and had a connection with a previous PC volunteer who happened to be from Kent State! His name is Dennis Desantis, Musa Shiba has lost contact with him and if you know Dennis please have him contact me. What a small small world :D Then we had some glorious KFC in Piggs Peak waiting for the lady whose school we run the swimming lessons. Then we got to talking, and incorrectly assumed that she would give us a ride home. No such luck. By the time we got to the bus rank the last khumbi heading to Buhleni had already left. So we had to take a khumbi headed to Matsamo, the South Africa border post and get off at a T junction where to get to Buhleni we would turn right. We had quite a task even spotting the junction stop in the dark. Luckily we moved to the front of the khumbi at the right time and asked the driver to let us know when we got to our stop, which was right then. We also asked him if he thought we could catch a khumbi to Buhleni from there. He said he thought so. And it turns out with good reason- he had called the last khumbi going to Buhleni and asked him to wait for us. What a nice guy.

Then early on Sunday we left to go to Manzini where a bunch of volunteers (both group 9 and group 8) were getting together at a….wait for it… PUB! to watch the Rugby world cup. Turns out I really like Rugby. It was such a great time and I got to meet some of the group 8 volunteers that I hadn’t met before.

Recently this week I had a talk with the thishela mkhulu (head teacher) about no longer being available to sub, after another day this week with grade 5 without a lesson plan, blowing in the wind, it was not good for me or the students. Especially, if after we start the new school year in January I want to teach any of my own –planned- classes. Then we talked about what I was thinking about for next year: a life skills lesson 1 day a week for grades 4, 5, 6, and 7; and I said that I could teach 1 English lesson a week for any grades or classes that wanted experience with a native English speaker, and my lesson would in no way be connected to the teacher’s regular curriculum; I also offered to run an alternative disciplinary option for teachers, a detention where students could be sent out of the classroom, or ordered to attend detention during break or after school with me where we would work quietly together.

Ok- that about sums everything up. Sorry if it was kind of boring.

I miss you all so much and think often about seeing you again, even though I still have about 21 months. Speaking of which, anyone is welcome to visit anytime!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!! OCTOBER 19TH I LOVE YOU!!!

This post will soon be replaced by a new post. I have a few things to update, and depending on when I get home tonight, or tomorrow I will tell you all about it. For now I am stuck in the PC office waiting for my head to clear up (allergies) and the transport strikes to be over.

I apologize that I did not keep my weekly promise/ritual of updating my blog yesterday. It has been a crazy few days.

Let me start from right now and work backwards, like that backwards episode of Seinfeld- the wedding in India. Okay, maybe it’s been a while since I’ve seen that episode or any Seinfeld for that matter, but just go with it, ok?

It is raining buckets, literally, and has been since about 2:30pm this afternoon (it is now 7:00pm) with the addition of some hail every here and there. Make and I just started ‘harvesting’ the rain water about half an hour ago (except for the really big barrel Make has, that’s been out the whole time, under the one dripping gutter) and we have already filled 13 buckets, the smallest one is 25 liters, and we have filled her 125L (This is a guess, it is for sure bigger than my 100L barrel but I don’t know how much, and believe it or not I am erring on the small side) barrel two times now! We fill our buckets with big openings and then use them to fill barrels kept inside and the ~25L jugs with smaller openings, then fill the first round of buckets again. Every single bucket possible is filled with rainwater.

When I got caught in the storm as it started this afternoon, the roads were already turning into colliding rivers. And remember that there is only one paved road here, so they are nasty mucky rivers. Even more nasty since I passed a Gogo this morning, on the way to school, with the back of her skirt hitched up around her waist just slightly hunched over a bit of grass on the edge of the road. This is not a normal occurrence, as far as I know, but hey, emergencies happen. And now whatever it was that has graced the road since our last rain is floating around in the rivers we are forced to walk through to get anywhere. I can’t even imagine driving, or at least driving and getting very far.

We saw the storm approaching as we (2 teachers and I) were walking from the prayer service all of the teachers attended at the families homestead to mourn the death of a student’s mother, who was also a nurse at our clinic, in the bus accident last week. We were going to deliver scones to the Gogo of the sons whose bus crashed, killing the mother, and several others, we had just been praying for. The sons brought Gogo to their home to receive visitors offering their sympathy for the devastation of owning a bus that has killed people. The bus was actually sitting in the side yard with a tarp over it. It seems funny, coming from a culture where we always look for someone to blame, to think that people are sympathizing with the bus service/owners for bearing part of the responsibility of that tragedy (the bus operator was also killed in the accident). The Elders of the woman’s family, she was also a Dlamini (like me, so technically, but not really, we were related on some level), were the ones at the homestead sitting in an empty house, with the exception of mats for visitors to sit on, receiving anyone who might stop by offering to mourn with the family. This is viewed as their job and they never leave, even to cook and feed themselves. So they rely on other members of the family to feed them.

We left school at around 1pm and went to pray. We sang a few songs and our school’s pastor (not exclusively) led some prayers in SiSiwati. Even though I could understand so little of it, it was incredibly moving. It made me think of a part in ‘The Poisonwood Bible’, that I am reading right now (huge spoiler alert!!! And for any one who hasn’t read it, go do it now! Really now, run.). It is when Ruth May has just died and Orleanna, the mother, puts her body out on the table under a traditional alter and all of the other mothers in the village, many of whom have also just lost children under different circumstances, come crawling on their knees to help Orleanna mourn her lost child. And whoever is the narrator at that time realizes that this is the same pain that these other families have been feeling this whole time; that they are not exempt from the pain and possibility of losing a sister/daughter in Kilanga. I think that I did a terrible job explaining that, but hopefully if, or once you have read the book, you will understand the comparison and realize, if you haven’t already, how anyone who has lost can help mourn and feel the heavy fog of sadness. Even when helping to mourn someone that you have never met, and never will. Just knowing that they were someone’s mother, daughter, sister, someone is enough. Then on top of that feeling, realizing that this is something that, as a part of their culture, Swazi’s have seemed to understand and accept more than I could ever imagine without coming here and seeing it for myself.

That pretty much covers today. For now I will skip the weekend and continue with the heartbreak and tragedies of last week. This bus accident happened last Thursday evening. A tire blew on a bus that travels from Manzini to Matsamo border post, SA. The accident was in Dvokolwako, which is about 30 min south of Mkhuzweni, and Mkhuzweni is the next to last village before Matsamo. So this hit our community hard. The news of this accident arrived on the same day that a boy in Grade 1, about 7, was deserted by his mother for eating his little brother’s fat cake. He showed up to school with his eyes welled up to brim with tears and a grocery bag not near that full of dirty clothes. We are still trying to figure out what to do. Last Friday also happened to be the day that we received an official SMS (text message) from our CD about 2 more volunteers leaving the program.

Talk about a bummer.

Luckily, Mia and I had already planned (thanks to Shauna who is the current Volunteer Swimming instructor) a pretty fun weekend of swimming lesson introductions, and an over night with some awesome people and awesome food. I actually got in the water and swam with the kids some, even though it was freezing. My own swimming instructors would never believe it, since one of the most prominent things I remember about swimming lessons was complaining as much as possible before I actually got in the water. So, now I will be teaching swimming lessons every, or every other weekend!! After integration we are also allowed to overnight any time we need a get away. Unfortunately, being so emotionally exhausted after the previous week and then physically exhausted after swimming lessons I was plum wore out on Sunday.

However, now I have rearranged my schedule to accommodate everything and myself. It looks like this: School Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; Girls soccer after school on Friday; Swimming lessons on Saturday, and Sunday to Monday are free for whatever, maybe more community work, but I’m not sure if I have that kind of energy. Re-reading this I know that it doesn’t sound like a lot for how exhausted I have been, but think about doing everything you do in a day with people all around you speaking a different language, all of the surroundings different and walking at least 30min to get anywhere, including to catch a khumbi these days, in scorching sun or pouring down rain. The way my schedule at school is going it looks like I will be sitting in on classes for this week, and attending a few meetings, then organizing on Friday. Hopefully, the following week I will be able to start surveys with the teachers and the students. I am actually supposed to type the teacher survey tonight, but I am just too tired and now with a roaring headache. The rain has stopped and my head has filled in the now missing constant pounding of rain, with just pounding.

Alright, next week I will post again either Monday or Sunday with happier stories.

Love you all and Miss you!! Please take care of yourselves and remember that everyone is someone’s someone.

A Hen on my homestead hatched 11 eggs/chicks last Sunday evening. Today, one week later there are only 6 left. Everyday I check on the chicks, and sometimes in the evening when they can’t figure out how to get into the chicken coop I help them in. Still, there are only 6 left after a week. I guess that may be why the have so many chicks to start with.

I also started school this week! Finally. There is lots of fun stuff going on and I have lots of new teacher friends, who are really all SO nice! I feel very lucky. They already want to plan a one night trip to Krueger. Hopefully PC will let me go, even though it will most likely be during integration when we are only allowed one night a month away from our villages. This month I already have too many things to do: I would like to go to the Orion hotel to get a tutorial about teaching swimming lessons, this will be with Kathy from the Perma-culture workshop that we did during training and will be an overnight thing, and obviously there will be a Halloween gathering at the end of this month. Eish.. what do I do?

Anyhow back to school- I love it, but it is incredibly tiring. I’ve asked the principal for one day off a week, to process, while I am still in integration. He said that would be fine and selected Thursdays for me. So, I have spoken to a possible SiSwati tutor about tutoring on Thursdays. Tomorrow I will be working with Miss Qwabe on our School Library application. Everyone is so excited about this opportunity! I will let you know more about it as we progress with our application.

Miss Qwabe is the school’s guidance teacher, and my main resource at this point for working in the school. This last week I shadowed Miss Q for 2 days and then shadowed the computer teacher. The other days were spent sitting in on meetings with the Principal and getting to know the school. So far I have drawn a map of the school and done a Key Informant Interview with Miss Q. I wake up every morning, hopefully before 6am, and head to school at 7am so that with the half hour walk I can get there before the 7:30am bell. Even though the bell seems to be more of a suggestion than an indication that school should start. Every morning the kids clean the school grounds, so if classes start by 8am we are on track for the day.

These next few weeks I will sit in on whatever classes are on my schedule for that day, I am taking 1 day to observe each grade. (Grades 1-8 are Primary school and then beyond that, high school is referred to in Forms, eg. Form 1, Form 2, etc.) Then break when the teachers have a break or when the kids have lunch 11:00am-11:30am, this is a whole other experience that I will talk about later. Then it’s back to classes until school is out. For grades 1-3 that is 1pm, for 3-5 that’s 1:30pm, for 6-7 that is somewhere between 2-2:30pm. Then I head home to tackle whatever home chores are waiting for me after rushing out in the morning, usually sweeping, mopping if it has rained, and cooking something, because by the time school gets out it’s a chore in itself to decide whether I am more tired or hungry. I usually bring a small lunch with me and eat breakfast at home, but everyone shares here, and I don’t mind it at all, but I am very hungry by the time school gets out and I get home. After all of this I usually rest for a couple of hours and then tackle an evening of bathing, cooking dinner (sometimes, if I don’t gorge myself too much after I get home from school), and getting ready for school the next day.

Now, school lunches-There is a bell at 10:30am which signals the monitors from each class/grade to go to the kitchen to go get the bowls for lunch. Each child has a number at the school and all of their books and their lunch bowl correspond to this number. Then the monitors hand out the bowls to each student, and they ‘line up’ at 4 buckets of soapy water to ‘wash’ their bowls before getting in ‘line’ to be served their lunch. They ‘line up’ by grade, the youngest ones going first. As for what the lunch usually consists of, this week there was no lunch served on Monday or Tuesday because of technical issues, then on Wednesday it was indegane, thin porridge, basically, runny grits, on Thursday they had beans, which I’ve heard is sometimes served with rice. Friday I was in a meeting during lunch so I didn’t see what they had, but considering how many children were loitering outside of the meeting hall I’m guessing it was indegane again, because most of them don’t like it enough to eat it and they just run around with their empty bowls for ‘half an hour’. Everyone eats with his or her hands, almost always. The adults usually make an exception when eating with me because I can’t do it, eat with my hands that is, not just because of the whole dirty hand germ thing, but also because it takes a different kind of coordination. I end up with food all over the table and myself. Then at 11:30am another bell rings and the children rush to clean their dishes in the same buckets and give them to the monitor. It has been a very interesting week, and a very fulfilling one, even though I am still exhausted.

Mia and I played soccer yesterday; really we just kicked the ball between the two of us. This was the inspiration and beginning of an idea to start girls soccer teams with the schools in our area. For whatever reason, girls never play soccer here. They play other sports, like netball and volleyball, but Mia and I are determined to equal out the opportunities. The boys do get pretty rough sometimes, which is why Mia and I started out playing on our own, instead of with a boys team. The boys are also VERY good and VERY competitive. As we were leaving the pitch a group of girls came running to us and said, ‘Please let me have your ball.’ It may seem like a strange question, but this is always how it is- I like that, give it to me. So, we said no, but that they should all come out next Saturday to play with us. They looked at us kind of funny, and then we asked if they knew how, if they could play, then they got excited and said Yes, of course. So, we’ll see what happens this Saturday (if Mia and I are around, this weekend is the weekend we are supposed to go for the Swim lesson introductions). Mia and I both played soccer and swam/dove respectively. Quite a coincidence, though Mia played soccer a lot longer than I did. Also, as we were finishing up playing around we saw a gigantic Millipede/Centipede, which ever ones are the big, gross, fat ones!!!

I finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho this week, I found a few passages that I feel are very apropos to my current PC life. I will leave you with those this week.

I love and miss you all. Thank you all so much for all of your unending support.

‘… people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want…’

‘Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.’

‘… so that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life… when we strive to become better than we are, everything else around us becomes better, too.’

No school this (past) week. Hopefully I’ll get some good news tomorrow and things can get moving. Though, I am SO tired today. It is hard to imagine having the energy for school tomorrow.

This weekend a bunch of volunteers got together for a September birthday extravaganza. We went to Manzini for coffee and donuts, (yes, that’s right real donuts), then to the office to pick up packages (AWESOME packages again!! Thank you!), then off to Mbabane to get a delicious sandwich (Chicken salad, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and bacon all on a toasted baguette) and party supplies . Sandwiches are a pretty big deal when you can find them here, for whatever reason it is rare to find a delicious sandwich. Then we headed to Sondzela’s, which is a backpackers on the Milwane nature reserve. We got there just in time for a dip in the pool (!) and to set up the tent. Then we got all showered and dressed up (which is a big deal here, I mean a shower?..amazing) and went to House on Fire, which is one of few dance clubs in Swaziland, and also attracts the many expats in the country. It was so fun, and nice to be with people that I don’t feel like I always have to try and be ‘on’ around.

Something else that I have been meaning to tell everyone who is even the tiniest bit inclined to visit: The flight is the most expensive part of the trip. The currency here (Emalengeni=Rand) is 7E to one dollar!!

Cold water highly is under-rated, cold anything else also under-rated, but maybe a little less so.

More updates tomorrow, even though it sounds like there will still be no school. Mia and I will be visiting Zama (Matt) in his village of Bulandzeni tomorrow!! Yay!

No School today L I cannot get in contact with my head teacher (Principal) either, which is slightly disconcerting. This means that today I am going to finish up Blade Runner ( I started it yesterday for the first time ever), eat breakfast, do some laundry, make my chick pea salad with tomatos, onions, oregano, and olive oil. Then Mia will come over to say ‘hello’ to my mother and we will head off to Matt’s where I think we will be making chicken soup.

Also, anyone who would like pictures: send me a letter with a memory card of sorts. This way I can send a full memory card back to you in a return letter.

This update feels so short compared to my usual novels. Enjoy.

OK. So, Make has been to church 3 days in a row now, they are doing some sort of marathon thing, and I am feeling like a total bum. Since it's Sunday and at my homestead everyone is allowed to worship as they like (and they all do, a lot) I have decided that to make myself feel better, both productive and thankful, that I will designate some time each Sunday while Make is at church to write a blog entry. It's hard not going to a Swazi church because one of the first questions people ask you when they meet you is, ‘Are you a Christian, where do you go to church?’. While I would qualify myself as a spiritual, and maybe a religious person, I am pretty uncomfortable with organized religion and even more so in this country. Now, in designating this time on each Sunday I can feel like I am having my own connection, and less guilty about telling people that I don’t go to church here.

Anyhow, I forgot to mention something in my last blog post, about our latrine. I saw one of the mice/rats that lives in there before I scare it out every time I have to go out there (usually it flees before I even open the door). It has a very cute face, but still gives me the shivers. I also have named one of the many lizards that is in there practically every time, even after my efforts to scare everything out before I even open the door. It fits quite nicely between 2 cinder blocks. I decided that his name is Earl because the way he looks at me reminds me of the song by the Dixie Chicks – Goodbye Earl. Not that I would ever try to poison him with Black eyed peas. Do lizards even eat legumes? I found his brother’s tail in my kitchen this morning. That was disturbing especially since I think that something has to be threatening it when it loses its tail. Which means that something bigger and scarier than a lizard was in my hut last night. It’s possible that this thing was Lihle, the kitten that my Make got. For some reason she left Lihle outside last night and the little stinker managed to climb in through my window. I think that I put her out (she has fleas and she really needs to be Make’s cat) pretty soon after she got in though, not to mention the fact that she is way more interested in human attention than catching any lizards.

Yesterday evening we got to go to one of my neighbor’s (Matsebula) Umtsimba (traditional wedding). It was so fun!! We got there in our traditional wear (emahiya) and greeted a TON of people who were just so excited to see us. We met a lot of really nice, friendly people who are so supportive and happy that we are even trying to ‘be Swazi’ (integrate). However, one thing that comes with traditional weddings is alcohol and in this culture a bunch of drunk men and boys can be very intimidating and sometimes scary. Luckily Nelsi, Mia’s counterpart came with us to help us diffuse some of the situations. For example, a married man refusing to stop talking to Mia and I while we were trying to watch the awesome dancing and singing (I have pics and videos that I will post when I get a chance to go to an internet café). By talking I mean repeatedly asking us why we won’t date/marry/go with him, all while being (very) in our personal space. We did answer his questions at first, you know the standard where are you from, what are you doing here, etc. but as drunk people anywhere will do, he forgot the answers and would just go through the cycle again. Oh well, it all turned out alright and I suppose things like this can really happen anywhere.Another little, but thing that I loved, was all of the kids! One little girl and her brother(?) came and sat by me as we were waiting for the wedding to start. They both hung out with us all night. Near the middle of the wedding I picked the little boy up so that he could see and he fell asleep on my hip. They reminded me so much of all of my cousins (kids) and Layla and Angie’s kids and Greyson and Shelby. I miss you guys!!!! It was a nice reminder of what really matters here though. I think keeping that in mind will be easier for me once school starts. The kids here are all so great, amazingly well behaved, and love any kind of attention. Heart melting stuff, really.

Speaking of school- I am not sure when that is going to start. There has been some issues with everything that needs to happen between the schools and govt before schools can start. I hope that they start soon. I am realizing that I really am waiting to get started on a lot there. I have tried to do some things in the community, but it is SO big and I don’t want to start something that I won’t be able to finish once school starts. I’m not even sure that I could draw a map of Mkhuzweni before I would get too busy with school, it’s that big (roughly 600 homesteads). I have however discovered one really awesome project for me to pursue, something that is community wide- A community English club!! It will be open to anyone in the community who is interested in practicing or improving their English. The idea was brought to me by a Rural Health Motivator (RHM) that I met while hanging out with Mia and her counterpart, while they were doing productive things. She came to me and said that she wanted me to teach her English. It is also a great opportunity for young mothers, who maybe didn’t get to finish school. So, I am going to start with it being targeted at those groups. I will go with Mia and Nelsi to the RHM meetings and rural baby weighings and set up a schedule with those who are interested. I am SO excited!!

Next weekend we are taking a mini vacation. It will be a celebration of all of the PCVs with September birthdays. I am going to take off school (if it has started) on Friday and leave early in the morning so that I have time to stop by the PC office to pick up some mail and packages (and maybe shower). Then we are all going to Sondzela’s backpackers, which is near the Milwane Nature reserve (we had a trip here during training) and DJ Cleo will be at House on Fire that night!! Yay.

OK, Happy Sunday everyone. I miss you all and can’t wait to hear from/see you.

Love-Emma

OMG! There is so much to say!

Umhlanga (Reed Dance) was so fun and beautiful. I even got to see some of the princesses and the king. Unfortunately, we had to leave pretty early since it started on Swazi time (which amazingly enough is pretty darn close to the Kunkel time that I have been adapting to my whole life :) and the Peace Corps has a one night away during the first 3 months of integration rule. Still, it was nice to spend some time figuring out how to move around this country, and tiring. We had to rush to make the last khumbi home and then do an in transit swap with a khumbi that was going to continue in our direction. I got back after dark, and it is scary walking here when you can’t see five feet in front of your face. Luckily I was able to ask the khumbi driver to let me off at the road to my house that is more populated and therefore a little wider, meaning that there is more space between the scary tall grass and me, that anything could pop out of. Also, all of the families that live along the bigger road know me. So if something were to happen I would ask them for help and they would not hesitate at all. This makes me realize the real importance of integration.

Then the next day back we went to meet the Inkhundla, which is a gathering (place) of bucopho (Headmen/chiefs) for the surrounding 5 chiefdoms including Mkhuzweni. It was very nice to meet all of them. They are seem very supportive of Mia and me, and are willing to work with us on anything. The Inkhundla is like the local court house, it is where any local issues are solved. Afterwards we went into town to see if my chair was ready and to get a few groceries. Chair was not ready….still chairless.

However, I did get enough groceries to make dinner for/with Make and Bhuti (Derek/Mfanafuthi). It is actually a pretty exciting point that bhuti has been home for the past couple of weeks. He is awesome!! I am a little sad that he went back to the University of Swaziland today.

This dinner Make and I made was unreal- it was so good. We made a veggie stir fry with chicken and then combined it with fried rice. YUM! After this night Make got a cat (Lihle) from Mia’s counterpart. So, as a thank you for the cat I invited her to family dinner that Saturday night (which now we have decided to make an every week thing) along with Mia. We all cooked together and it was again, amazingly delicious! I have to give a shout out to the Pilates Innovations crew in Columbus for sending me 2 wonderful packages with the spices that made all of this great cooking possible- Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! There is a letter in the mail to you all as soon as I get to town to mail it J The second dinner was pasta with a homemade sausage gravy. We sautéed the sausage with onions, garlic, and green peppers then added a ton of fresh tomatoes and spices/herbs. We made garlic rolls to go with it all and finished the meal with freshly sliced pineapple and sweet bananas. Yum!

Ok, I must apologize. I have been writing this same blog post forever. Hopefully I can finish it up today. School starts (or is supposed to start**) next Tuesday so, I have been trying to make my way around this gigantic community while avoiding the heat of the day to draw a map for my community report due at the end of integration. Seriously, this community is huge. I don’t think that one could walk around the village if they walked all day. I am supposed to be walking now but my phone is charging and Make doesn’t really want me to walk alone, so the least that I can do is take a charged phone with me.

** It turns out that school will not start on Tuesday.

A few days ago I discovered this AWESOME spot. It is perfect for just sitting and thinking. It feels kind of wild because there are no houses near by, even though it’s got paths running through it, and it sits opposite another hill/mountain so the view is great. It turns out that after further investigation there is another area of Mkhuzweni (imagine that, this place is HUGE) on the opposite hill from my homestead that feels the same way.

I saw my first snake a few days ago. It was dead lucky for me, not so much for the snake. It was a light mocha brown. I think it had been trampled by cattle. Hopefully that takes care of my snake quota for Africa.

Sorry that this has been so scattered. I guess that creating a post over a few days is a bad idea for coherence.. next time I'll be sure that I have plenty of time to write a whole update in one sitting.

I have been asked to make a contribution to the Swaziland Peace Corps Volunteer Newsletter, the SoJo. And since I have actually put something together I figured that I could also put it up here, for you all. It does, however, contain the recipe for emafethi again. In case you haven't tried to make them yet, this recipe is a little more detailed with the experience that I have had making them since I last posted it.

Waiting for emafethi. The addiction continues.

For those of you in Group 9 who know me, you also know that I have an addiction to emafethi. Well, being at site has not caused my sweet craving to wane at all. This started back home when I was in charge of running a seminar series for a bunch of grad students. For those of you who have been students, you know that the best way to persuade them to attend anything is to have food. I chose to have doughnuts and coffee at my seminars. They were every week. Of course that meant that I had at least one donut a week, and sometimes I had to go into the store (they were delivered for the seminar) to work out logistics, or to get lunch or something. Anyhow, it had been about two weeks since I had last indulged in an emafethi and about four days that we had been at site. Needless to say, I thought I was dying.

Mia and I planned to go to Buhleni, our shopping town a few days after we had arrived at site to buy the standard household things, as I’m sure most of the other G9ers did. It was an incredibly hot day around 1pm and we had just sat through about three hours of our fist Umphakathzi meeting under the big fig tree. Standing by the side of the road Mia called her Sisi, who had previously mentioned that she would like to go with us to town, to let her know that we were ready to go and could meet her there. She told Mia that it was too hot and she would come ‘pick us’. So we waited, mostly thankful for the ride. We got in the car and found out that Sisi actually had other plans for the day, the first of which was to go home for lunch. This was fine, no big deal, lunch and then a ride to town. Another three hours later we asked Sisi if she was ready to go to the store yet. She was, so we all piled in the car. When I say all, I mean all, including Gogo and Sisi (another one) who we had to drop off at home really quick before going to town. Ok. In the car, hot, windows down, on a dirt road forever, seriously about an hour!! Finally we got to Mhlume, and my Dramamine kicked in. Great. Luckily it only took about 45 minutes to drop off Gogo and Sisi, then we were back on the road. Sisi said that we would stop at a store on the way back, after she showed us off to some more of her friends in Tshaneni. By the time we actually got to the store it only had a few more minutes of being open. Luckily they let us in and we got to do some shopping, even if we didn’t get to explore our shopping town with a local guide. On the way back we had a nice leisurely drive passing sugar cane fields, monkeys sitting next to the road eating the sugar cane watching cars drive by, and a gorgeous sunset. Quickly, I called my Make to let her know that I was with Buhle and her sister, I was ok and I was going to be home late, not to worry. This was quite an adventure in itself, and then the icing on the cake, or the dough in the oil. We did stop in Buhleni, at one store, for one thing, emafethi. It was heavenly, I mean really. Mine didn’t even make it to the car and I was debating if I had time to run in and get another before Sisi drove off without me.

A few days later Mia and I decided to actually go to Buhleni to get a look around and pick up a few things. I had not had an emafethi since that day with Sisi. Little did Mia know that this adventure was going to turn into a hunt (or long wait) for the fat cakes. The first place we went to in town was the emafethi place, it’s past the gas station, near the shebeen in Buhleni (stop by if you ever get a chance, note the timing). They said that the emafethi would be ready at about 1 pm (who makes emafethi in the afternoon anyway?!). It was about 9 am. Could Mia and I use up 4 hours in the small town of Buhleni? Two tables, a few brooms and mops, and groceries galore later Mia and I walked back in to the sitolo. Were the fat cakes, by any chance, ready early today? About 11 am. No. So we decided that we couldn’t wait until 1 pm to eat and headed back out to He Provides Restaurant, previously Twinkle, for PCV famous fried chicken. It was delicious, but by the time we got done it was only 11:45 am. We were so hungry we both wolfed our food down. We went back to the sitolo, were they ready yet? No, one hour. Ok, so we went back to the woodcraftsman to figure out possible transport for the tables. 12:00. Not yet, but we didn’t have anything else to do. So, I asked Mia if she would mind waiting just 45 minutes sitting in the sitolo for the emafethi. She said no. That was her mistake, because the emafethi weren’t ready until around 2:30 pm. Every single person who walked in that sitolo sat down to talk to us about where we were from, how long had we been in Swaziland? what were we doing here? when were we leaving? could they come back with us? even if it was in a suitcase? where do you stay? no, really, where do you stay? what’s your real name? On and on. Then finally, after truly earning it, and making a few friends in the meantime, the emafethi were ready!! And oh were they amazing. I got 8, that’s right 8. I ate 2 on the way home, one when I got home, I gave 2 to Make (who also LOVES emafethi) and ate another one with her. The rest just had to wait for tomorrow, because I was full. Oh, emafethi. Unfortunately, I have a recipe for them.

So, as a reward for suffering through this story, below is my recipe for how to make emafethi. A little warning though, with this recipe they are quite a bit fluffier and more cake like. To make them more doughy and dense do not use self-rising flour and knead for longer. What’s next for the emafethi? Chocolate emafethi anyone?

Emafethi – using 2 cups of flour yields about 16, 1.5” (in diameter) emafethi.

2 cups of self-rising flour.2 tablespoons of oil.½ (about) teaspoon of salt ½ (about) teaspoon of active yeast4 heaping tablespoons of sugar

To make a bigger batch use 3 cups of flour 3 tablespoons of oil and 6 cups of sugar and increase the amount of salt and yeast only slightly, or follow ratios accordingly.

Mix all of the above ingredients together and stir thoroughly, until well integrated (haha, get it?). Then slowly add water to the mixture and keep stirring. I add water about a half cup at a time. You want the dough to be a little thinner that pizza dough, but not runny. Just so it sticks to itself rather than the sides of the bowl. Then I take the spoon out, put it in a cup of the remaining water, put a towel over the bowl to let the dough rise a bit.

While the dough is rising pour about an inch and a half of oil in a pot. If you use a bigger pot it takes more oil, but is slower to over heat. Vice versa if you use a small pot, it takes less oil but the oil can become too hot quickly if you are doing a big batch. If I am using 2 cups of flour I use a small pot (about 3 rounds of frying), if I am making any more than that I use a big pot. Heat the oil. The oil is ready when you sprinkle water from your fingers in the pot and it sizzles as soon as it hits the oil, not when it hits the bottom of the pan. Then take your spoon out of the cup of water and one at a time, by the spoonful, drop your emafethi dough balls into the oil. If the dough starts sticking to the spoon dip it back in the cup of water. The emafethi may stick to the bottom of the pan, so be ready with a pancake turner if they do. The dough will need to be rolled at least once while in the oil, cooking to perfection. They are ready when they are just golden brown. If the emafethi start coming out raw in the middle and burnt on the outside, your oil is too hot. Take the poor dough balls out. Let your oil cool and try again.

Good Luck!

Men's traditional wear. Sorry the boys weren't looking at the camera, the photos with their faces were totally inappropriate. Silly Boys Mia (My Village-mate) and me at Swearing-in. Women's traditional wear. The Ladies of Group 9, Swaziland. Ryan sitting with some OVCs in Makhonza during one of our applied language classes. View opposite the waterfall; at a cultural village we visited. Th waterfall at a cultural village we visited. It was a hike to get there, but it sure was gorgeous. Plus I was trying out some new settings on my camera. Notice how vivid the colors are? Sunset view from right outside my training village hut. View from the training center. My language group!! Me and Calile, my AWESOME language teacher :) Host Family appreciation, with Make Quality (Calile's host mother), Pila (my bhuti), and Make wami. Pila's Soccer Team Cutest goats ever were born on my training home stead. The Host Family...well most of it. And Pila, eating the ceramic fish, I taught him to do silly things while people are taking pictures earlier. It seems I've created a monster :) Home, home on the range. Yep Cattle graze 100% freely here. More traditional homes near my training homestead. Animals at the nature reserve. Can anyone identify these? Animals at the cultural village. Can anyone tell me what kind of monkey this is? That's right. We saw a real live Zebra at the reserve!

I love you all!! Take care.

So, I know I have been promising updates left and right, but I ran out of airtime which means no internet (except for free facebook). I apologize that I have made you all wait this long for a post, and also that it is so long. I hope you enjoy. I waited to post until I could include pics J

Let’s start with why I have no airtime and no money to buy more airtime. First of all, I tethered my computer to my phone’s internet. My phone is set up to run on certain settings to keep costs down, my computer is not. Then the money issue is because of a burglar door. I was doing really well with the money they give us, then I discovered furniture at the same time that my Babe decided that he wants me to be ‘too safe’ and we should have a burglar door put on an inside door that adjoins my house to another section that has no bars on the windows or outside door. Bye Bye money. Luckily, we get more at the end of the month and I should be peachy again. Also, as soon as my Babe gets paid we are going to split the cost of the door and PC is figuring out whether they have anything to contribute to the cause.

Here is a little story about moving to my new and permanent (for 2 yrs) host family:

Our moving day was a little bit of a disaster. There is another volunteer who is also staying in my village, Mia. Since she is a health volunteer and I am an education volunteer it should work nicely. Anyhow, the PC guy who came with us out to our site switched our assigned homesteads. So we got to the first one and he told Mia it was hers. Her Make was so happy and the home she got was beautiful, but it looked a lot like the picture I had from when we received our assignments. I said something to Babe, but he was pretty sure that he got it right. So, we unloaded all of Mia's stuff, told Make we would be back soon with a bed. Well, as we pulled up to the second homestead Mia and I were both pretty certain that our homesteads had been mixed up, because the house on this homestead looked a lot like the picture she had. Finally, he agreed to call Make, who actually scouted out the homesteads for each of us, and realized that they were opposite of what we were currently in the process of doing. So, we met Mia's 2nd Make of the day and went back to retrieve her stuff and drop mine off. My poor host mother!! Can you imagine expecting a foreign volunteer staying at your house, meeting them, and then everyone coming back and telling you that there was a mix up and the other volunteer is really yours. Oh man! She is a trooper.

My new Swazi name is Busisiwe, it means blessing. My Make picked it because she has 3 boys and it is now a blessing that she should have a girl. She and Babe also said that I should feel like this is my first home and that America is my second home. They are both so sweet. Usually it is just me and Make, because Babe works in a different village and my brothers are older and are either at school or working.

On the side yard of the homestead we have a papaya tree, peach trees, banana trees, and yes Mom, that’s right avocado trees (they are in season in June, I’m pretty sure)! I have a pretty big, nice house with 1.5 rooms. I say 1.5 because there is one big, mostly finished one and then a second, smaller room with unfinished (concrete) floors that I use as a kitchen/ bath. I also had enough room and money to buy a nice (you can't feel the springs) double bed and two beautiful handmade tables from a local craftsman who made them just for me (chairs to come). More good news for those of you who would like to have a quick visit to southern Africa, I don't have to take any time off for when people come to visit me!! I only have to take the time off when I leave my site. So welcome one and all!!!

One big project that I am really excited about on the homestead is a garden. I asked Make about it and she is so excited! She actually started digging the garden the other day, which is kind of bad because we are no where near ready to plant so the soil will dry up pretty quickly which means that we had to cut grass for mulch to try to keep the moisture in the soil. I don’t know how many of you have tried to cut grass as tall as you are with a sickle, but let’s just say my Make and I quickly realized all of the possible injuries that could easily happen while doing it, so she let me give it a couple of tries and then held on firmly to that sickle while I transported grass to the garden. My big task is to get a compost pile going. We’ve got it started, now we just need to keep it going.J Planting should happen as soon as I have enough money to buy seeds. I did bring some seeds with me from training but they seem to have been misplaced during the move. They should pop up sometime though.

The village is nice too. We are very close to a small town, which helps. I am meeting a ton of people. Mia and I have attended a community meeting (like a city council meeting) to meet all of the head people of Mkhuzweni. At that meeting they asked us to attend the community church service to be held the next Sunday, as it would be a good opportunity for us to be introduced to a large portion of the community (which is GIGANTIC!). We walked for four hours the other day and didn’t get through half of Mkhuzweni. The church service was very interesting, a lot of singing and praying in Siswati. It was a congregation of all of the churches represented in Mkhuzweni. The community church service is something that they do once or twice a year, usually everyone goes to their own respective church/service.

I also got to spend a couple of days in my school before it closed for holiday and from what I’ve seen I really like it too. The first day I was introduced to the school board and teachers. The second day I was introduced to all of the students. Babe (Principal) did a wonderful job of introducing me and made very clear that I am their volunteer and it is everyone’s responsibility to help me out and look out for me, really very sweet. I cannot wait for school to start again, even though I know that it means a lot of work. It is really hard to have little direction in such a new place.

Again, I apologize that this has taken so long. I am going to see if I can figure out how to email to update my blog and hopefully update more frequently.

So, I just spent WAAAYYY Too long trying to figure out how to upload photos. I am going to get this post out and try to put more pictures soon. Love you all!!!

This is a picture at the Nature Reserve we visited during training. I will let the kids out there tell you what all of the animals pictured are. Please comment on the blog with their names :)

Emma's words, posted by Emma's mom..................

Ok, so I have copy and pasted a bunch of questions from everyone’s emails so that I can make sure I answer everything and that everyone gets all the info. So this is an incredibly long email. I will have time (motivation?) to write to each and every one of you individually when I get a phone (hopefully). I am trying to save up to get an Iphone, which is crazy because I would never have had one at home! Here it offers the best communication options. Before I get to the questions, I will let you know what has been going on today. I just (that’s a swazi ‘just’; really it was like an hour ago) got back from town where I had to buy my first round of groceries. Those of you who have moved can attest to how crazy that trip can be for anyone, buying the staples, sugar, salt, etc. and real groceries to have food for the next 2-3 weeks all at once. Well if you can imagine it, it was even crazier here. I had to carry all of that stuff… of course I got a gigantic bomake (Bo- Ma-Gay) bag to carry everything all together, except for my purse and one reusable grocery bag that I always carry with me. Now, when I say this bomake bag is gigantic I am not exaggerating. It is about 10 inches deep 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, it’s big. My bag was not totally full, but close. As we were walking to the bus rank (think dusty, with lots of old VW and Toyota vans, and a ton of people surrounded by market stands), my bomake bag broke. Yep, leave it to me. My bag was the only one to break. So then I was wrestling this gigantic bag all the way to the Khumbi (koombi, the buses they drive around here). It really wasn’t that bad, but it was a ‘yep, I’m still me in Africa’ moment. In the khumbi, though, I had to sit with my bomake bag on my lap. I don’t think that my bum has ever been that numb. It’s about a 30-45 minute ride and we had to sit at the rank for a while because 9-10 of us with overflowing grocery bags wasn’t a full enough khumbi for our driver. He wanted to meet full capacity with 15 people!!!!!!! These are the kind of buses that have fold up seats so that there ends up being no aisle, and everyone has to get out to let one person out… Yeah.Anyway, here are some exciting things that I got at the stores in Nhlangano (n-a kind of hissing sound made in your cheeks-lawn-ga-no): bakery fresh bread that they put out on racks for the masses to swarm over while it is still warm, I may have over indulged with 2 loaves, and believe it or not wheat is cheaper than white at 5.50 emalengeni. I also got tomatoes, onions, olive oil (49 emalengeni, another splurge), flour and yeast to make emafethi (see my blog), potatos, carrots, apples, bananas, rice, lentils, beans, oats, and a few other things.As we are supposed to begin to cook for ourselves this coming Sunday (check the date when I wrote this, Fri 6/24/11, as I don’t know when I will be able to post), we have to prove that we can cook. So, we are having a cooking competition tomorrow. We are grouped together in random groups, which is nice because I am with a bunch of people that I don’t get to see very often, including my good friend Ginger (she brought an ice cream maker, so obviously we are making ice cream!). All the groups have to make an appetizer, entrée, and dessert, one of those things needs to be a fresh fruit of veggie (we have to prove that we know how to safely wash those things here [15 minutes in 1 tbs bleach/1 gal water and then rinse with treated water]), and we have to cook at least one thing from the cook book they have provided us with. My group is making caramelized apples wrapped in bacon as an appetizer. It was going to be dates wrapped in bacon but we couldn’t find dates today. For the main course we are cooking grilled curry chicken and veggies (peppers, onions, pineapple, tomatos, pineapple?) and then all of that in a lettuce wrap with avocado. Yum, right? For dessert we are making ice cream with a fruit salad. If you can’t tell from that menu we have been eating a lot of carbs lately.Now for your questions:Are you over the shock of this new country? It’s hard to say really. I am pretty used to things like bucket bathing and no electricity (even though being used to it doesn’t make it suck less), water is a constant struggle which is a bummer, but just another thing that has to be done (luckily my host make [ma-gay, mom] will always help me out if I really need it). But then there are things like men being seen as the most important always, which is shocking every time I witness something little. For example, in the US you usually don’t realize that when you are walking on a crowded sidewalk, or a full aisle of a store, both parties (men and women) work to negotiate the space. Here, if the woman doesn’t move fast enough to get out a man’s way, he will physically push her out of the way. Now, part of this is that we were in a really big town where space was frequently an issue, and for the most part we (PC trainees) were wandering around a little lost looking the whole time. I can imagine it was a little frustrating on the part of the Swazi’s too. This is also a male dominated culture. So, if a bunch of ladies are walking with 1 man and another man approaches the group, he will speak only to the man. I guess the PC is right when they say the physical things are easier to get used to than some of the cultural differences. I am actually getting used to seeing bugs EVERYWHERE and not being too grossed out.Do you have any regrets yet or is it just too new? No regrets. It has been quite a whirlwind though. Everything is in a whole different perspective. Ridiculous things happen every day to all of us and we are all learning the best ways to deal with them. The PC has put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we are in training and now is our time to make mistakes. So, we need to allow ourselves to do that.Have you seen any wild animals? No wild animals yet. We are just entering week 3 of training, and during week 5 we will go to a wildlife reserve. And well… I guess I have seen a few things. I saw a real live chameleon in the ‘wild’ the other day. I put wild in quotes because it was on the fire wood we were using to cook dinner and it just made it out of the stove as we were putting the wood in. It was really cool. Independently moving eyes, changing colors and everything. Are you welcomed by the folk of the town, village or community? I am very welcomed by my family. My bobhuti (bo-booty, brothers) and I are getting really close. I help them with their homework almost every night, and they help me with mine. I have been cooking with my Make (mom) every night too, though that will soon have to change because we will be responsible to cook for ourselves as mandated by the PC. I really like cooking with her, I can help her with healthy habits (though really the diets here are pretty well balanced when they can be), and she teaches me so much. In terms of the village, it is hard to say. Since we are training in big groups we kind of take over the village. Also, it is really hard to define a village. There are little stores all over, people selling things out of their homes, and neighbors are all so far away from each other (think little home on the prairie). It will be a bigger deal to integrate in our individual villages where we will probably be the only white person in the village and will be actively trying to become involved in the village instead of meeting with each other and PC staff to train.Do you have contact with other PC personnel daily? At this time Yes, or almost. We have training on MTWRFS and we have Sundays off, but the trainees usually meet up in our villages for social time. The way it is set up now we are in 3 villages. All of the Edu Trainees (18) are in Makhonza (Ma-kone-za), and the health volunteers are spilt up between 2 villages, Khiza (kiza) and Mashekesheni (ma-sahy-guh-shenny). We all get to see each other on the days that we go to Ngwane College for our training, usually once or twice a week. On the other days we meet with our language groups, anywhere from 4-7 trainees and a Swazi thishela (tee-shay-luh, teacher). My group is the best and we have the best thishela; her name is Calile (click, uh-lee-lay), she is about my age and very modern/western and funny. And then we usually have one culture session a day where all the trainees and bothishela in each village will get together.You have to tell me more about your .food--unless it's too gross to talk about. I mean, don't tell me if you have to kill anything. Ugh! But you can tell me how you are at cooking. The food is surprisingly not that different, except the fact that the 2 favorite ingredients in every dish are salt and Aromat (MSG and salt). You can buy chicken portions and beef portions frozen or refrigerated if you like, and have a fridge, or you can kill one of your own (most homesteads have a bajillion chickens). Cows are usually only killed on special occasions because they are the biggest, most expensive form of currency here. 1 cow = about 5,000 Rand. And you have to have enough cows saved up to buy your boys’ brides (seriously, everyone does it, EVERYONE [though not always with cows, sometimes you can just give cash. It depends on what the bride’s family wants and what you have]). I am still learning about this. It doesn’t even seem that strange to me anymore, and while this practice may seem really outdated to us it does not inherently indicate that kind of marriage. Most marriages these days are for love and the wife does play an equal part in the relationship (though mostly behind closed doors). Here is a common dinner: Lipalishi (lee-puh-lee-she) maize ground into meal with water, a lot like grits but it is not liquidy it is more like a cakey consistency, chicken boiled and broth, cooked pumpkin or butternut squash. These are the staples of each meal. It is amazing what you can do with maize meal. I already have 4 recipes for it, 3 breakfast and lipalishi. So you could exchange lipalishi with rice, chicken with beans (my fave) or beef, and squash with a fresh salad (which my make and I like best), or greens. This is every meal that I have had since I’ve been here. I haven’t had to kill anything yet, and I don’t think that I would have to if I don’t want to. Sometimes we have beets, sometimes coleslaw, sometimes toast, sometimes eggs. And the plates are always HUGE. A pile of lipalishi then topped with the rest of the stuff. I am excited to be able to cook for myself. I think that I will have oats and an egg for breakfast, leftovers for lunch and a lot of rice, pasta, veggies and beans/lentils, and Meat when I can, but without electricity or a fridge it is a bit of a gamble.How far away is the river and how much water can you get at one time? Do you walk there? Maybe you should just bathe in the river. The river is not really a river. It is a hose that comes from a sistern that catches water that runs down a mountain (hill) that would usually go into a river. The river is dry. So, my homestead is at the top of the mountain, and the ‘river’ is pretty close to the bottom of the mountain. It is pretty short on the way down and incredibly long on the way back J, I’d estimate (which means I could be WAY off) about 2.5 football fields?. I cannot ever get water for myself because you have to suck on the hose to start the siphon. You fill a tiny bucket and dump it into your bigger bucket, then suck on the hose to start the siphon again. I refuse to suck on the hose, plus according to PC I shouldn’t, it’s high risk behavior. WE do walk to the ‘river’. My bhuti sometimes brings a wheel barrow. I can carry two full 2 gallon buckets, but it is not fun, especially while I am walking next to make who has 25 liters of water balanced on her head! Luckily though she and I usually go together and that means that I have 2 full buckets of water! I wish that I could just bathe or do laundry in the river but it is seriously discouraged because of all of the things that live in rivers (bacteria and such, even ones that get in through your skin) and what frequently happens up stream in the rivers. Another bummer.Have you met Driehaus (Peace Corps Swaziland County Director--- went to Miami and is a former congressman from Cincinnati) yet? I have not met Driehaus yet, but we will meet him for a fourth of July event on Sunday the 3rd. I’ll let you know hoe it goes. Everyone here already knows that I really excited to meet him. They make fun of me for it.And, let us know about a typical training day for you. Typical training day for me…. I will describe a day in the village because days spent at the college are unpredictable. I wake up at 6am…it should be 5:30 and I don’t usually get out of bed until 6:15am. It is so hard when the nights are so cold and I don’t have any heat. Then I dump my bathing water from the night before, because you can’t dump once it gets dark (it is thought that at night the ancestors walk), I usually start some water heating to bathe in the morning, this is when I really bathe, at night I usually only wash my face, feet, and hands, and some water boiling to make into drinkable water. I can fully bathe with about 2.5 liters of water. While the water is heating I pick out clothes, Iron, and get everything ready for school. Then I bathe, get dressed and go to see what Make is up to for breakfast, which is usually something ridiculous made with so much care and love that I end up eating as much of it as I can; like an egg, a lettuce, RAMA (margarine brand) sliced like cheese and Aromat sandwich, oats or Incwacwa (sour maize meal porridge, that gets sour because it is left out in water over night), and then she has started pulling this trick where I am getting ready to leave and she throws an emafethi on my plate and says ‘What about this’ so that I have to sit down and eat it because she knows how much I LOVE emafethi. Oh, and tea. Always tea. This is something that has stuck from the British; we even break from school at 10:0am for tea break. Then I walk about 10 minutes downhill to my Thishela’s house where we will have language until after tea. Then we all walk back up the hill past my homestead to a meeting area (3 minutes past my homestead on top of the hill) for culture lessons. Then around 1pm we will all have lunch (whatever we’ve packed; my Make lately has been wanting me to come home for lunch since it is so close, but I like to eat with the other trainees) sitting around outside with a few random hungry dogs that always come around. Then we will go back to thishela’s to put our language and culture lessons together to form something resembling applicable. Then I get home about 4pm. Sometimes the trainees all get together and hang out before we go home. Yesterday some of us played hearts; it was very fun. Then when I get home I have about an hour of light to sweep my hut (which every good Swazi does at least once a day), and such (homework sometimes). Then it is time to start cooking dinner with Make. After dinner, which is usually around 7:30 or 8pm we pray and do homework (if it’s not done already). After all of that I go to my hut and start to heat water to bathe and set water to boil to drink. Sometimes when I might not actually need to boil water to drink, I do it anyway because it has been getting so cold, like tonight, and there is no heat. I usually get into bed about 9 or so. I try to stay up and read if I can. I just finished Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, it was very good. I recommend it. Which town/area of Swaziland are you in? I am in the village Makhonza. The nearest town to reference is Nhlangano. To be honest, I am not even exactly sure where I am in Swaziland. Let me know when you find out. JAre you in the training camp right now or are you in the home where you will stay for the entire time? I thought there were several weeks of training before they sent you off to where you would be living. I am in training right now. We only stayed at the college for a few days. In Swaziland they practice Community Based Training, where each volunteer stays with a volunteer host family and they meet daily in small groups, while occasionally all getting together for sessions at the college. There is one permanent placement that is near Nhlangano. We find those out on week 5, and are just starting week 3.Should I avoid sending “convenience” foods that are overpackaged? Should I always send bigger quantities of things so that you can share? Still anxious to find out how long things take to arrive there. Here are my current requests for packages: pens, individually wrapped candies, wipes, chohula, velveeta (any kind of cheese product), easy mac, nutella. It’s hard to say about the packaging, because trash is an issue here, but so is food storage. Selfishly I am going to say go with over packaged, but remember that I don’t have electricity. I have not received any packages yet… I don’t know why it is taking so long. I will let you know as soon as I get anything. I do know that some people have received packages already… I don’t know when those were sent. Also, please send any spices. They do have a lot here, but they are ridiculously expensive, 25 emalengeni for 1oz of Mexican spices!Do you have a SiSwati name? I do. Every trainee gets one when they move into their homestay. Mine is not uncommon- Bongiwa (Bohng-e-way), meaning to give thanks. There are 5 volunteers with this name. It’s weird having such a common name all of the sudden. Most volunteers get another one when they move into their permanent site.Is there a main house on your family’s homestead? Who lives there? What are the ages and names of your brothers? Have you been able to talk to your Gogo very much? My homestead is very unique. The homestead is in my Make’s name, which honestly NEVER happens because usually it has to be in a man’s name. My Make is actually pretty awesome. She stays in the main house by herself, she is unmarried and has none of her own children (this also never happens, there is some story behind it all but she hasn’t wanted to talk about it. An un-married, childless woman can easily become an outcast in this society) My Make’s main house is awesome. It is packed with nice furniture and is one of the nicest I have ever seen. However, we never spend anytime in there, except in the kitchen (which you walk into). I’m not sure why. On my homestead there is my hut, which I live in half of, the other half is storage, the main house, another 2 connected huts, and Gogo’s hut. Gogo’s hut is pretty nice, it has 3 rooms (main room, bedroom, closet) but is shabbier than Make’s. Most of my bobhuti stay in Gogo’s hut. In the main room there is a mattress that they pull down to sleep on. They are actually cousins, but Make takes care of them for her brothers and sisters, which seems weird to us but is very common here. I think that one or 2 bobhuti stay in one of the extra huts. The other extra hut Make rents out to anyone who needs a place to stay. My bobhuti are: Majahong (20), Sayatsheni (16), Phila (15), and Mvuselelo (9), then there is Sandile who is somewhere between Majahong and Saytsheni. I’m not sure about the spelling of any of these names. Majahong and Sandile are not always around. I’m not sure where they are when they are not here, but there are a ton of Semelane’s (Si-Milan) around and the kids all sort of float between homesteads. I talk with Phila and Sayatsheni a lot, I think that they are actually wishing right now that we were hanging out instead of me on the computer. I love Mvuselelo so much, but he doesn’t speak English all that well. He eats so much, always, even if he has just finished a HUGE plate, he can always eat more. He is sometimes in charge of gathering all of our cows (about 10?) by himself!!! What a 9 yr old! This brings me to talking to Gogo… My SiSwati is getting better, but it is still not great and the dialect here is different from what I am learning. In fact, we are so close to South Africa a lot of people here speak SiZulu, including my Make, which can make communication and learning a different language in school hard. I can almost never understand what Gogo is saying to me. From what I gather she recaps the last time she has seen me, says a prayer and then tells me how happy she is to see me. It is really very sweet, and she is truly incredible. I saw her across the hill the other day dragging a whole tree by herself! I was with a group of trainees when we spotted her, it was awesome. She can also recognize me as her granddaughter out of a group of white people.I love you all!!!

Emma

Hi, All!! I just copy and pasted a ton of your emails into a word doc onto my flash drive so that I can read them all at home and type and email to respond to all of your awesome questions!!!

So, here is my blog update to hopefully tide you all over until I can send emails back.

I know that you will find it hard to believe that I have discovered the Swazi equivalent of donuts. It too me about a week ans my Make taught me how to make them yesterday. They are appropriately named: Emafethi, pronounced Emma fatty (pretty much anyway). They are delicious. Here is a quick recipe:

# cups of flour = # tbs of oil = x2 #cups of sugar

->ex. 3 cu flour, 3 tbs oil, 6 cu sugar.

~tsp instant yeast and salt each.

add all ingredients.

add water until dough is about the texture of pizza dough.

Let rise ~15 min.

Drop by balls (tablespoon) into boiling oil.

DELICIOUS!!!

Love you!!!

Send more emails!

I have arrived!!! I tried to post the other day when I was in town but I had some computer issues.

I am with my homestay family in a village near the town Nghlangano. I have a Make (mom), 5 boBhuti (brothers), and a Gogo (grandmother). My hut does not have electricity or water. I am living my life by candles and a very handy headlamp. I am finding that adjusting to this way of life is not actually that hard. It just takes a little bit of perspective, and getting used to.

I will write more later when I get another chance to come to town to use the internet. Please email me or post any questions and I will get back to you with answers.

I must admit that right now, 24hrs before I will leave for Philly, I am in copy and paste mode. Get every last minute thing done as fast as possible. However, for your sake I will try to make this post personal and interesting, instead of posting exactly what the PC has sent me.

Tomorrow, June 6th, around 12pm I will start loading the car with 2 years worth of luggage.

(Please, please, please feel free to call me to say 'bye' one last time. I will do my best to call as many people as possible, but that is a lot of people.)

Hopefully, all of my luggage will pass inspection. We are only allowed a total of 80lbs and 107 linear inches for our checked baggage. I have been trying to weigh as I go, but I'm not sure how accurate my measurements have been.

My flight leaves for Philadelphia at 3:15pm. I know that some of you are thinking, 'Philadelphia.... I thought you were going to Africa?!' What will take place in Philadelphia is something that the PC calls 'Staging'. This event lasts aprox. 33hrs, and is an opportunity for all of the new Swaziland volunteers to meet each other, talk about motivations, goals, etc., and of course to get a ba-jillion vaccines. Tomorrow we will all just check in, register, and turn in some forms. Tuesday is the big day for the 'clinic appt.' and ice breakers. We will have that evening free and go out for our last stateside meal for 2 years.

Wednesday the traveling begins.... at 2:30AM. No, that is not a typo. At 2:30am we check out of our Philly hotel and hop on a bus to JFK airport. Our flight for Johannesburg leaves at 11:30am. That is a 15hr 25min flight my friends! We will arrive in Johannesburg at about 9am on Thursday, June 9th!!!!!!

From there we will catch a bus to Swaziland, tack on another 5 hours. Expected arrival in Swaziland is 4pm!!!!!

HOLY COW!!!

We will start training right away, even though we will not be moving in with our host families until the 14th of June. That means that I will have a family for my birthday!!!!

During training my time will not be my own, and every second will be scheduled for me. This means that I will most likely not be able to contact any one for the first 10 wks or so of training. No news is good news.

As soon as I get a phone, or have a chance to check email, blog, or facebook you will all know.

Please POST QUESTIONS. I will check the blog late on Tuesday (providing there is internet at the hotel) and respond to as many as I can. Any questions after that will not be answered for quite a while.

I will miss you all SO much. <3

OK. It's really happening. I have completed my first practice pack and everything is looking pretty good.

My official date of departure for staging in Philadelphia, PA is June 6th at 3:15 pm. I will check in to staging that evening. The next day is full of vaccinations and orientation/motivation type meetings. At 2:30am on the 7th we will hop on a bus and head to JFK in NY to catch our flight to Johannesburg at 11:15am.

After I get to Swaziland chances are good that I won't be able to send emails, update my blog, or phone for about 10 weeks. If the opportunity does arise I promise that I will post at least something short for you all.

Now, what you have been waiting for mailing info for my first 10 weeks. This bit of info also includes some good packaging tips, which you should heed. It's not uncommon for mail to be searched these tips will help reduce that possibility.

The Mail Situation:

Here’s the deal. Bring a few envelopes for those first letters you write before hitting up the post office. While you are in training (the first 9 weeks you are in Swaziland) you will be very busy. If you receive mail at this point, it will be sent to the Peace Corps Office in Mbabane (the capital city of Swaziland) and about 1-2 times a week the staff who oversee and run your training will bring the mail to you at your training site. So you will be able to receive mail and packages during training and it will be delivered to you. It would be very easy to send yourself packages before you leave America to the Peace Corps Office in Mbabane.

You will most likely be brought your package the first 1-3 weeks in training. So if you decide to mail yourself supplies, or you receive a care package, you will be able to get it during training. You will always be able to send mail to yourself to the Peace Corps office after you are an official volunteer; it just becomes a matter of getting to the capital to pick it up then hauling it back to your site. If you are very close to Mbabane, then it’s no problem to use the Peace Corps office as your primary address for getting packages. Some volunteers who do not live near Mbabane set up a post office box in a closer town.

After you complete training, you will be able to decide if you want an additional post office box. It’s a very easy thing to set up and volunteers who share a common shopping town often all decide to share a P.O box.

Here are some great tips for sending packages to Swaziland:

It takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for packages to make the trip from America to Swaziland, and in my experience three weeks is average. Flat rate boxes are probably the cheapest option from the US post office. Don't send things on expedited shipping, as they do not come faster than regular 'air mail'. If you send something through the postal service, use this address to have it delivered to the Peace Corps office:

Emma Wallis, PCTPO Box 2797Mbabane H100, SwazilandAFRICA

Note the stressed importance of Africa on the bottom of the address, Swaziland shares a very similar postal code to Switzerland (SD) and it only takes one keystroke form a busy postal worker for your package to end up in Zurich instead of Mbabane. Adding Africa severely diminishes that possibility. Many people believe putting Christian symbols or phrases (i.e. “Jesus Saves”) on packages reduces the likelihood that things will be stolen in the process. In general, though, packages make it here intact.

However, if you do send something through a courier service (such as DHL) then you must use the physical address where the courier will drop the package:

Emma Wallis, PCTFarm 188Gate 256 Muzi Road,Dalriach West, MbabaneSwazilandAFRICA

__________________________________________________________________________

I feel like my head is spinning.

I have finally given in to planning things. I have waited and waited as long as possible because I am worried that I am going to plan the rest of my time before Swaziland right away. This always happens, I put a few things on the calendar and the rest of my time is reduced to a few weeks or weekends. I guess I've realized now that time flies whether you plan it or not, so I might as well be productive and do fun things (as long as I can remember to do other stuff, like smart packing). I know that my departure date is months away, but I am already worried about things like packing, and learning SiSwati.

I am also realizing, after spending the day with my pandora, that I am seriously going to miss my pandora music selection.

Oh, man... I'm going to SWAZILAND!! I need to do more work on my packing list.

There is so much to celebrate today!! I finally sent in my aspiration statement and updated resume. I don't know why it was so intimidating, or why it took so long, but it is finally done! Luckily, I sent in my passport docs last week.

I feel like I am finally free now. I quit my job and essentially left Columbus about 3.5 weeks ago. However, I have had to travel back and forth every week since, and I have had all of this PC stuff to do. And now.... I'm free and it's Mardi Gras!!!

For some reason I felt like I had to essentially put everything on hold (especially everything Swazi) until I got my aspiration statement and resume done.

WooHoo! Now I have time to update my blog with more Swazi info and packing lists.

Wow! I guess I have some more research to do. The first Non-Formal English group to go to Swaziland.

Any one else?

Alright. I have submitted the email indicating my preference for Africa.

I must say thank you all for your comments. They really made me more confident. Confident enough to make a decision. I love this Peace Corps blog community!!!

I did preference Africa. However, I did give the Philippines a good thought (after my last post). In fact, for a while I had decided that I would prefer the Philippines. Then I came around again for Africa and knew that was the right choice for me. I also let me placement specialist know that, while I would prefer Africa, I'm sure that I would be happy with either program.

So..... We'll see what comes my way next!

Congrats to those of you who are receiving your invitations!!!!

I got an email from my placement specialist. She has identified 2 programs that are options for me.

1) teaching english in Asia, departing July 1st

2) teaching english in Sub-Saharan Africa, departing June 2nd

How do I figure out which I prefer? At this point the date is not an issue. My intuition tells me Africa. Do I listen to that?

Thanks to PC Wiki I have figured out that the program in Asia is in the Philippines and that the possible programs in Africa are in Mozambique and Togo.

I feel like since the PC program in the Philippines is the second oldest, that it is more likely to be the better developed program. Still, my gut says Africa.

If I got an invitation for the Philippines I would be happy, but now that I am given the opportunity to indicate a preference, I don't think that I can turn down Africa.

Africa. Asia. Africa. Asia. Africa. Asia.

Why do I feel like I should have some loyalty to Asia?

Logical (for me) Africa pros:

Romance Languages - I have italian and some remnants of French

People to Land Ratio is low - I have a fear of getting lost in crowds....sort of. This is an easy way to describe it. Not that this is something that I would let hold me back.

Hello! It's Africa.

(The only logical pro for the Philippines is the fact that it is the second oldest program.)

FYI: It is hard to be nominated to one program and then realize that everything you have learned, and been trying really hard not to count on, is now......useless? at least for the PC adventure.

I don't know if I would ever be able not to think 'What if....' if I were to ignore my intuition.

Wikipedia says yes. So, will I hear from my placement specialist tomorrow?

I hope so, because I might not make it much longer. I am so mentally exhausted after this weekend, trying to maintain a PMA and not be completely stressed about this situation. I don't know whether I am more stressed about the fact that I got an invitation, felt that security after waiting for so long, and then had it taken away, or about having to indicate a preference of one program (region/departure date) over another.

Here's to hoping that sleep will come easily tonight (fat chance).

I just got a call from my Placement Specialist that China does not actually work for me. There was a mistake in inviting me to that program.

Good thing I have been practicing so hard to be flexible and patient.

I will get contact on Monday with some possible program options that are a fit for me. More info on that then.

The funny thing is that the mis-invitation is not even the thing that is bugging me the most. The biggest thing on my mind is the fact that I am STILL unpacking, which means that my living situation is a mess. That is what is bothering me the most. How did I acquire so much freaking stuff? Oh well, at least this is something to keep me occupied.

This is a disaster. I just wrote the longest post ever. I went to hit 'Post' and it all disappeared.

Anyhow-

This has been the longest 2 weeks ever. It was my last two weeks at work and I spent every second that I was not at work or tutoring, moving out of my apartment. I know that the Peace Corps says not to do either of these two things until you have received and accepted an invitation, but I just couldn't wait.

I made arrangements to live with a friend in the area while I continued to work and wait to hear from the PC. This was very appealing, because then I wouldn't have to move a whole apartment in whatever amount of time I might have between invitation and departure. This was not a huge change. I have lived with Dan before, and this move eased my nerves a TON. I put my apartment on Craigslist on a Monday and the following Wednesday it was leased.... Wow, that was faster than I expected.

Then, a few weeks later, I decided that it was just time for me to leave my job. There were of lot of factors in this decision, and the pros to leave outweighed the pros of staying. One of the major pros of leaving, was that my schedule opens up so that I can spend more time tutoring and making myself more competitive for the PC. This, in conjunction with leasing my apartment means moving back home... still figuring out that one.

It just so happens (or I planned it this way) that my last day in my apartment and my last day at work were both Friday, February 11th. Hence the over reaction on Monday, when the PC asked for that questionnaire and resume.

It also just so happens (truly) that I got a call at 10:49 am from the United Sates Peace Corps Placement Office on Friday, February 11th. The synchronicity is unreal!!

I was terrified at first, because I thought that this was a final interview call. I had planned on looking over all of this info after my last day at work. I was not ready for this call AT ALL!! However, it turns out that this was just a call to let me know that I have been qualified to receive an invitation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karen asked how I felt about leaving at the end of June, I said that was fine. She said that she would send the invitation via UPS Ground and would I like her contact info right now, over the phone or would I like an email. I opted for an email, which in reply Karen said, 'Great, I'll send that right away with one more piece of information.'

Here is what the email said:

Emma,

It was a pleasure speaking with you today. I am happy to inform you that I have qualified you to receive an invitation, and identified a program for you. Congratulations for completing the final phase of the application process. The details -

Assignment: English TeachingRegion: AsiaDeparture: 6/29/11

You should receive the invitation in 5 – 7 business days. I encourage you to continue building your ESL teaching/tutoring experience with youth (middle and/or high school) or adults up until your departure.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about Peace Corps service.

Sincerely,

Karen

Those of you who are up on the Peace Corps Wiki Staging Dates know that this means CHINA!!!!!!!!!

I am wrapping up tutoring this week in Columbus, so that means that the chances of me being gone when the invitation is delivered are great. Forever Practicing Patience.

Yesterday, after blogging about my questionnaire, I started to really sort through everything.

I realized that no matter what any one suggests for any of this Peace Corps stuff, that this is my thing. I am the one applying, I am the one going.

Now, I am settling calmly in to the next stage of this 'great wait'. I'm sure that RAS will return shortly, but I am going to do my best to maintain this PMA for as long as possible.

OK. I lost it a little bit this morning. Here is the situation:

I sent in my updated resume and Education Questionnaire. I feel good about my resume and ok about my questionnaire. I did not write out long essays for each question (for a reminder about the questions see last post). The most I wrote was 2 paragraphs for one of the questions (though as essay could have been written about each of them).

The question that I am most concerned about is the standard peace corps question: Why do you want to be a teacher in a developing country? I just could not force myself to sit down and write a 3 page heart wrenching story about education in my life and the ability to gain so much while teaching others. So, I was honest but short. I figured that they have all of my other application documents, including my application essays.

Now, after some suggestions were received too late, I am feeling a teency weency bit nervous about my questionnaire (previously I had been panicking). The questionnaire did say that there are no right or wrong answers for the questions, that they are merely prompts to get you thinking......

So, just in case- Do people get this far in the process and not get an invitation?

Thank you all so much for your encouraging words! It is so nice to hear that I am not alone in this and that my experience does not deviate too far for the 'norm'.

I did receive a call from Suzy this afternoon. Suzy is the wonderful woman who preliminarily reviewed my application, from the Peace Corps Assessment and Placement Office. I just got a voicemail and an email from her, but she was SO nice. I found out that I need to update my resume, it can only be 1 page long. I also was asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding education in other countries, since I am nominated as an educator.

The questionnaire asked standard peace corps questions like: Why do you want to be a teacher in a developing country? and then questions about corporal punishment and memorization learning.

Very interesting. It seems like progress is being made.... kind of. She did warn me that it may be weeks before I hear from them again. So, those of you who are already in this stage that I am just entering- They know that you are waiting.

I was also asked to update an education skills addendum. I am trying really hard to not think that this is an indication that they do not think that I have enough experience. Really, really hard.

My fingers are crossed for all of us who are waiting. and Thanks again!

I am starting to get nervous. I still have not heard anything from the Placement Office. My toolkit still says, 'Your file is currently under consideration. Please review the information on this page to determine whether Peace Corps is awaiting any information from you.' Nothing. I can't even find out how to contact the Placement Office. I would just like an email addres to which I can address my concerns. Specifically, that I am worried they have forgotten about me.

It seems like most applicants hear from the Placement Office within a few days of being medically cleared.

How long do most people wait between being medically cleared and hearing about what comes next?

Woo hoo!! I am medically qualified for service!!

Now, while I am completely thrilled about this, I have to admit that I feel a little bit like 'now what?'. The letter says that I will move to the Office of Placement. What exactly does that mean? Should I call someone? Is someone going to call me? I suppose that I will just continue to wait... again. Until I can't stand it, and then of course I will have to call or email someone.

The good news is (I think), that my toolkit still indicates that my file is under review.

Hopefully another update soon.

Something to note--Do not send an email that you want an answer to right away, on a Friday. That being said, I did get a 'mytoolkit' update this weekend. The little check box was marked by the Medical section and this is what it said:

Complete. A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail.REALLY?! What does it mean? Now, I have to wait for a letter. Hopefully it will be here soon. Hopefully I have fingernails left by the time it gets here.

Here we go!...

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not really a daily tracker/journalist. However, I will definitely want to be able to keep in touch with friends and family as much as possible throughout my Peace Corps adventure (knock on wood), hence blog.

For those of you who have not heard about my decision to apply to the PC, here we go, from the beginning:

I applied to the Peace Corps at the end of September 2010.

I interviewed and got a nomination to teach english in Central Asia starting as early as March.

I have passed the legal and dental reviews.

I am still waiting on medical clearance.

Add in a lot of nerve wracking waiting over the past 4 months.

--Now you're caught up.

I feel like I have been waiting forever to hear about the medical review. Though, I actually have been waiting a lot less than a lot of PC applicants. They did request one extra form for the medical review that they received last Thursday, January 20th. Which, really it's sad, I was so excited to hear from them at all! I should hopefully hear something again really really soon, I think. My plan is to give them through tomorrow morning, and then I am going to try to get a hold of someone about the possibility of making my March departure.

The minimum amount of time that I will have before they ask that I leave is 6 weeks. According to the peace corps wiki, the only program left (given the 6 weeks) leaving in March for Central Asia is the Kyrgyz Republic departing March 25th. That means that my 6 week deadline is February 11th, 2 weeks. Commence freaking out!!!

Today I spent an un-disclosed amount of time searching other peace corps blogs trying to figure out if my situation is normal. Generally, I found the answer is yes, but that most people have more time between nomination and departure date (as addressed in the nomination). As it happens, finding this out does not really make the waiting that much easier! Imagine that. We are really cutting it close.

I have decided to start this blog now, because it really was a huge help reading about what other people have gone through. Hopefully this will help anyone else in a situation like my own.

** I added the fish to help pass time waiting...**