Wups… kind of let updating this get away from me. A lot has happened in that time such as World Cup, Family coming to visit, and getting a new site! New pictures are up from the family visit.

World Cup was fantastic! I got to attend a few of the games and saw many of the others. The vuvuzelas aren’t so bad as everyone made them out to be and when you’re in a stadium with 60,000 others it is really an awesome experience. I attended the USA vs ENG match, Ghana vs Serbia, Austrailia vs Serbia, and the third place Germany vs the cheaters (yeah I know Ghana should still have won from the penalty kick). They were all a lot of fun though the best game by far was the third place match as both teams were playing to play and we got to see some magnificent plays by some of the best players in the world. South Africa did an amazing job hosting the cup and should be proud for years to come; none of the doomsday that the media foolishly hyped prior to the games every came to pass and it should serve as a great stepping stone to bring South Africa farther onto the world stage. Following the games, I noticed a billboard in Pretoria that read ‘Today this is the greatest country on earth’; I definitely agree with this statement – South Africa should be proud of what they accomplished and it is just the beginning of what they can do!

At the end of the tournament I ran another marathon (big surprise there right?) and then met my Dad, Uncle, and Aunt down in Cape Town for a visit! It was great to see them (year and a half +)! We did all the ‘Cape Towny’ things like climbing Table Mountain in a cold/windy/drizzly fog bank and touring the waste water treatment ponds. Ok, my family is a bit weird… (the treatment ponds are one of the best places to see birds and my family had set up a guide). We also did more normal Cape Town activities such as going to the Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point, penguins, Wine Country, Robben Island, the botanical gardens, and general sight seeing. I did get back up Table Mountain on a nice sunny day for some amazing views and scenery (see pictures). We stayed in Fish Hoek and could literally walk out our front door and see most of False Bay. It was my first time to the Mother City and am defiantly going to need to get back at some point! – next year’s Two Oceans ultra marathon seems like a good excuse.

Following Cape Town we journeyed inland towards Port Elizabeth through the lower Koor. It was an area that isn’t talked about but is very pretty! Passing through quite towns with beautiful vistas and mountain sides was an excellent way to spend a few days! Then it was up to KZN for three game parks – Hluhluwe, Ithala, and St Lucia. Ithala is not well know but was by far our favorite; there were magnificent vistas and lots of animals (not to say the others were by any means ‘bad’). To wrap up our trip, we visited my (now old) site and spent a day in Barberton getting a geological and mining tour in one of the oldest areas of the world (rock there is 3.2-3.5 billion years old!). The last day was sort of a let down – we went to the Cradle Of Mankind which was sadly a complete waste of time… I think I learned more paleontology in elementary school than the tour and center offered. All in all though, the trip was wonderful and it was fantastic to see some of my family (and sad that others couldn’t make it)!

Finally, immediately following their visit, I was moved to a new location and new organization! I’m now living outside of New Castle, KZN in a township. It has somewhat of a ‘suburbia’ feel to it compared to my old village although strangely my internet connection is much (much!) slower here. My new organization is pretty amazing! They do all sorts of Home Based Care / OVC / HIV work and are extremely active in the community! I feel it is going to be a big and welcome change from the original HBC I was placed with which I was frequently the only one who would show up to work. My new org is wanting me to jump right in and has been eager for me to learn as much as I can about the organization and the community. It seems as the big ‘thing’ they are looking for are ways to improve organization administration (they have 70ish stipended workers) but they also have lots of other areas I’m sure I’ll be able to lend a hand and also learn myself a great deal!

Stay Well

On the 30th of May I finally had the chance to run the Comrades Marathon (www.comrades.com). It is a punishing 89 km / 56 mile race between Pietermaritzburg (PMB) and Durban and is the largest ultra marathon in the world – this year had 23,000 entrants! South Africans go crazy over the race – to give you an idea, the primary SA TV channel broadcasts the event. All 12 hours. Live. The entire course is lined with cheering spectators screaming your name (on the running bib) and singing Shosholoza which essentially translates from Zulu as ‘keep it up, keep working’. The clichéd saying of ‘The Journey Is The Destination’ really applies here. The race finishes through the packed streets of Durban and finally in a crowded stadium which you can hear several kms away. Crossing the finish line with the support of everyone and with your new friends you’ve been running with the past 4 hours is truly a South African experience I will never forget!

I was very excited going into the event but also a bit apprehensive. The longest I had ever run before was 56 kms / 34 miles and it had been extremely tough. What worried me the most was that this year was a ‘down’ run and had an incredible amount of downhill in the last third of the course which is hard on already tired legs – most runners I talked to who’ve done the ‘up’ say it is a lot easier on the body. The race starts well before dawn, with the sun rising about 12 kms in. For the first 2/3rds of the ‘down’ course it is mostly rolling hills with beautiful sights of KZN when you can see over the spectators. The route follows side roads off the main highway but some of it is on the highway itself. Occasionally you’ll come across encouraging road signs titled ‘1000 Hills’ and an arrow in the direction you’re going.

The second half has all the real downhill and by the end I was cringing every step down but could still power up the few remaining uphills. I drank dozens of sachets of water and coke, ate handfuls of crackers/sweets/potatoes/anything handed to me and devoured what seemed to be an entire orchard of oranges, finishing strong in just under 9hr25min. I had run up all the hills in the race and come in under 10 hrs – my two goals! To celebrate my accomplishment I had a giant Indian feast from the shop next to my hostel.

My body behaved rather strangely the next few days - I couldn’t sleep past 6 am and for the first 2 days, I wasn’t hungry at all (even for the after race Indian feast). Some of this may be because I decided to give blood the day after which I’m sure confounded my body and the nurse. (I hadn’t given blood the last 6 months as to not interfere with training and the next time I would be near a donation center would be several more months. My iron levels were fine though)

A couple facts about Comrades:

•The direction of the race switches every year. 2010 went from PMB to Durban (‘down’) so 2011 will go from Durban to PMB (‘up’).

•You MUST finish in 12 hours. If you are even ½ a second late, you are not allowed across the finishing line and you are not counted as a finisher.

If you’re a PCV looking to run the Comrades I have some suggestions based on my running habits. The following is the basics of my training. Bear in mind what works for me might not for you.

•Aug-Oct: 40ish km a week with a few ½ marathons.

•Nov-Jan: 80ish km a week and also ran my first marathon (Soweto) which I used this as my qualifier.

•Feb-Apr: 50ish km a week with as many marathons and ultra marathons as possible (I ran a total of 6 in my training – 4 fulls, 2 ultras).

•May: 30ish km a week. On May 1st I also ran my last training marathon at a gradual pace.

Some tips for perspective runners:

1. Check the entry dates online and enter ASAP! First time entries filled in 27 hours this year. Entries open September 1st 2010 for 2011. There is no late entry possible.

2. Join a running club. I had to enter as an International (extra R1100 entry fee) mostly due to not belonging to a club. A club will also save you temporary licenses fees on all the races you’ll do in preparation and provide a network of runners to train with. All international runners get is free shitty beer (you know it is bad when you’re tired and dehydrated yet you still don’t want it) and a plate of rice and meat (all of which you can just buy for about R30).

3. Find runners around you who are also doing it. Having running partners helps tremendously when you’re waking up before dawn for long runs.

4. Start getting in distance runs as early as possible. The distance is what you need most – those short 10km runs help, but it is the long 30+km ones that get your body where it needs to be.

5. Run your first training marathon in nov/dec and use this as your qualifier for Comrades. You don’t have to stress about times after this and can use all subsequent races to build your endurance. The Soweto Marathon is perfect for this (7th of November). Lots rolling hills, easy to get to, lots of support, and cheap.

6. From January to April run as many marathons / ultras as possible. DO NOT push for a PR. There is a huge difference between recovering from a marathon you ran steadily and one you were trying to set a time on. Organized marathons are great training as all the support is already there – you don’t need to carry (and learn to carry) food and water with you.

7. Walk every so often in marathons, even in the first half when you aren’t tired. You will be faster and less tiered overall. I usually walk for about 2 mins every 10ish kms.

8. Learn to change your pace when you are tired. Run on the inside/outsides of your feet for a while or lengthen/cut your stride. All of these use different muscles – muscles which aren’t as sore as your normal running muscles.

9. Train hills. Nothing will get you in shape better than running up and down hills near your site.

10. Rest! This is the most important part of training. Take a week off after each marathon and then get back to training with a few shorter runs. If something hurts take care of it!

11. Bring food. A few gel packs go a long way. Coke and assorted snacks at water stations work for me in marathons but for longer distance I need to eat when I want. Safety pin them into the waistband of your running shorts if you don’t have another method of carrying them.

Thanks to everyone who supported me and wished me luck! It was truly an incredible experience! Sometime I hope to run the ‘up’ as well but I’ll see where life takes me.

Stay well

Just finished my longest distance training planned for Comrades – two ultra marathons 56 and 52 kms respectively. The 56 went over a giant mountain pass… about 2/3 of it straight up hill while the 52 was a bit tamer. Rather amazing what a difference the hill made as I finished the easier race a full hour faster (4:50hr and 5:49hr).

Part of my ride back to site after the last race involved a rather chance encounter – in asking around for a ride in the direction I was going after the race (volunteers are poor!), I was offered one by Bruce Fordyce and his wife. Don’t worry if you don’t know, I didn’t know either, but it turns out he is basically a world legend of distance running, very similar to Lance Armstrong in the cycling world. In the ensuing ride we had a great conversation ranging from HIV to ornithology and got some great running advice to boot!

Readjusting to site after having been at training for long has been slow but going well. In the next few months with Comrades, World Cup, and family coming to visit I have a feeling I’ll be keeping pretty busy but hopefully will keep up the work at home as well.

Stay well

Last weekend I passed a decent step in my Comrades training – running a nice extremely hilly marathon. The course was very challenging but served as a terrific training for upcoming events which is another ¾ marathon in a week or so and a nice long 56km (Longtom) at the end of March. The 56km is actually part of a fundraiser which raises money for learners to go to university. If you’re interested in donating go here: http://www.klm-foundation.org/pcv/fundraising.php. After that I’ll have a good two months to get in shape for the real thing which seems to be rapidly approaching!

My role at the training for the newest intake class has been very fulfilling (and has kept me extremely busy!) It has been quite a change to come back to the land of databases, logistics, and organizing things! Hopefully many of the resources I’ve been helping create or track can continued to be used in the future as well as some of them have been sorely needed for a while. My role in training finishes at the end of the month (right before Longtom) but I should get a break in about a week to attend a training in order to assist with electrical knowledge education later in the year with some students. Should be quite fun though unfortunately I don’t know much more about it.

Training has been a lot of fun in the small opportunities outside of work – I have gotten know a lot of volunteers who are also assisting with training a lot better and have also got to know my old Zulu language instructor (who is also still with Peace Corps) a lot better. Sadly staff has been busier than volunteers have been and so we’ve been cooking them dinner fairly regularly (which is about all the spare time we get), but it has given us the opportunity to get to know them much better!

Lastly it has become glaringly evident that none of my clothing fit anymore… losing 35 pounds does that I guess though it really is annoying to need to wear a belt with every garment I own. Eating an ungodly amount of fruit and veggies along with training has its benefits I suppose.

Stay Well

At the end of the week I’ll be starting a temporary assignment assisting heavily with Pre-Service Training for the incoming group of health volunteers. I’ve already been doing work in organizing lessons and resources; the position should be a lot of fun and give me a very different perspective than most PCVs get about how Peace Corps works and ways to improve training and volunteer support.

Recently the Matric (high school graduation tests) results were released from the past term… for rural South Africa they were beyond abysmal. To pass this test learners had to score 30% or higher and there were many schools that had a zero percent pass rate, a school near a friend of mine had 3 learners pass. One solution that has been implemented in the vast wisdom of the government is to fire all under qualified and foreign teachers ostensibly to make room for recent graduated teachers who will be snapped up by schools in Gauteng (at least the good ones) and the cycle will continue. Additionally many volunteers in schools have said that the foreign teachers were often far better qualified and actually did the job of teaching which in an environment of even showing up to work isn’t even a guarantee is pretty good. Sadly I think the response to lead more xenophobia and do absolutely nothing to fix one of the worst education systems in the region.

My training for Comrades is still going well; I’ll be running a marathon at the end of February and then a short ultra (56km) at the end of March both of which should be good stepping stones for the 89km monstrosity. The ultra is actually a fundraiser in addition to a race. Peace Corps Volunteers are all raising money for it which goes to learners to attend one of the top ranked colleges in the country. If you’re interested in donating you can find out more here: http://www.klm-foundation.org/pcv/fundraising.php

Stay Well

I just returned from a vacation to the Drakensbergs which is a mountain range in KZN province and boarders the country of Lesotho. My hike took me from the beginning of the Sani Pass road north for about 100 km to an area called Monk’s Cowl and was absolutely incredible. I spent 5 nights out on the mountain range and ascended around 5000 meters trekking up the valleys and climbing up onto what is called the escarpment or the Roof of Africa. Unlike many ranges in the US, this mountain range has a relatively flat upper section called the escarpment from which the lower foothills falls away making for amazing views and great climbs to higher peaks. Words don’t really do it justice and I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures to my picasa site if you’re interested. I hiked through several different areas of the range and also climbed Mt Mafadi (3450m) which is the highest point in South Africa. I would highly recommend the area if you’re into hiking. The trip was simply incredible

Peace Corps can lead to some interesting experiences. One minuet you can be talking to your dad on the phone, wishing him a merry Christmas, the next the lightning/hail/rainstorm that appears is so intense you can’t hear your friend two feet away from you screaming at the top of their lungs for 20 mins. The hail was so heavy that it was hailing inside my friend’s house and we were all bailing out her house to prevent it from sinking. It was the most incredible (and deafening) storm I’ve yet been a part of.

Following the ‘flood’ we enjoyed a delicious dinner of roast, rice, and wine by headlamp and candles. Previously in the day we had the pleasure of visiting my friend’s supervisor and being fed a delicious south African meal, drinking umqomboti (traditional beer) and eating a slaughtered sheep with my fellow PCV’s host family, and hiking around her village. Good food, friends, and a Christmas I won’t soon forget!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! It might not quite be that time in the US but SA is slowly shutting down for the holidays... Christmas in summer is going to be weird. It has been a while since my last update; some things have changed quite a bit, some not so much. On the ‘work’ side of things, I’ve been helping out at a local ARV clinic but still trying to nail down my role with them. They serve the entire municipality for ARV needs – many of their patients traveling several hours to get their medication every month. Several thousand patients come through each month all serviced by one doctor and a handful of nurses who are all obviously very busy. Patients on ARV treatment have access to only three different mixtures of drugs and once the virus develops resistance to them there is little else to fight with. I was also selected to play a fairly active role in the upcoming training for incoming volunteers which I’m excited about. Peace Corps just held a very productive workshop developing improved lessons and material for the incoming group who will be here at the end of January. My role is still somewhat ambiguous but will be assisting with a lot of the behind scenes work that goes into the training… come February I should be very busy! In less exciting news, I think I’ve finally figured out how to prevent my roof from leaking all over my bed! A combination of membrane & sealant over all the nail holes on the top and hanging metal flashing under each log (which the nails go into) on the inside acting as a gutter system (into a bucket) has meant dry bedding for a while! Defiantly worth the R100 the materials cost in town though I got some strange looks carrying 2 meter sticks of wall-to-roof flashing. I’m still trying to figure out how to combat an uncommon occurrence with humidity in which water condensates on the inside of my metal roof and soaks everything but that thankfully doesn’t happen too often. Training for Comrades is going well. Up to 30 km as my weekly long run and should be increasing both that and my weekly distance as the weeks go by. For anyone who missed registration you still have a chance! They are going to reopen registration although you must be present in country the day they do it. Other than that, not all that much has been going on. My plans for Christmas involve going to a nearby volunteer’s house and cooking lots of delicious food as usually happens when volunteers get together. Following that I’m hoping to spend a week in the Drakensburgs hiking along the SA side of the escarpment but plans for that are still in the works and not set. Stay well and have happy holidays!

Toward the end of October Peace Corps held a gardening workshop in KZN I had the opportunity to attend. We learned quite a lot about water management and how to utilize relatively little space while producing lots of food with various composting and digging techniques. If you’re interested, pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/pcsaupload/PermaGardenWorkshop?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGOo8ed_tfGSQ&feat=directlink The workshop was one of the best I’ve attended with Peace Corps, mainly due to multiple language translation for our counterparts who don’t all speak English and concise lessons. This allowed for a much more involved workshop and I think everyone came away learning a lot.

Sadly this workshop was also a turning point for my service. My supervisor blew it off at the very last second which became the last straw of my active involvement with his ‘organization’. I don’t need to get into the rest of the details here but suffice to say that in the coming weeks I’m going to be trying to set up some programs with the department of Environment and ARV clinic in the area for food security. We’ll see how that goes.

In other news I just ran the Soweto Marathon which was my first real marathon on the continent. The course went throughout the township of Soweto and supposedly past many historical landmarks though I was too busy dodging taxis and climbing one of the dozen or so hills to notice any of them. This was my first experience with water stations here and instead of cups of water you get packets similar to water balloons. With these you basically have a few options: 1. Rip it open with your hands, causing it to explode on you and those around you. 2. Squeeze it in your hand, causing it to explode on you and those around you. 3. Throw it away in frustration, leaving a nice landmine for runners behind you. 4. Bite it open with your teeth and suck the water out. After exhausting options 1-3 everyone settles on option 4 which actually works very well and doesn’t requiring a forced pace change at water stations that drinking out of cups often creates. To make the race more challenging, the only type of food/liquid available was water and coke… the whole race… we didn’t even get a banana at the end. Despite everything I finished in a respectable 3h55 and had a good time hanging out with a Lesotho PCV who was also running the race. I also officially signed up for the Comrades Marathon next year though I am still waiting to see if my application made it in ok in very narrow window of opportunity for new runners to register.

Some new pictures should be up on my normal Picasa site as well as the gardening ones above.

Cheers

I just returned from a small step in my goal of running the Comrades Marathon next year. A half marathon was held nearby which I figured would be a good first step in training. The race was well attended and I got to meet a lot of runners, some of which are near me, which was a lot of fun. Apparently the goodie bags here one gets upon completion consist of baking flour and paint rollers which was somewhat bewildering, although I suppose far more practical than a lot of the crap that gets handed out in the States. All in all it was a lot fun and was a great race over rolling hills. The next step in my training is a full next month with the Soweto Marathon followed by an ultra (33ish miles) early next year. However plans are still very up in the air and dependant on my knees.

In my spare time, of which I have huge amounts of, I’ve started to teach myself a new syntax for programming (Python) and relearn a lot of computer science concepts which have fallen by the wayside since school. A fellow PCV recommended a website that has progressively harder and harder problems to solve which has provided something to do on many days which otherwise would have consisted of sitting in an empty office. I’m wishfully hoping I can start some form of class at the nearby high school teaching the very basics of programming but unfortunately practicality may not be on my side.

Spring is starting for real, although the rains have yet to come. Our garden is supposed to receive several dozen fruit trees which I hope we can obtain/plant before the rains come. We haven’t exactly been busy with much but every once in a while progress is made.

Recently I had a rather strange discussion with an individual regarding a youth program in the area. I was probing to see what all went on and when it came out ‘There are no youth here’. To the best of my knowledge this ‘program’ has been in existence for close to a year and sadly consists of a few people who run the ‘office’, yet are never involved with any groups, schools, or programs in which youth attend and instead are often more interesting having the title of ‘Project Manager’ or some such to put on their ever so important CV. I’ve learned that sometimes I have to pick my battles and this was not one of them. Unfortunately this mentality seems very widespread, especially among schools and NGOs in South Africa. There are those that have adopted ‘western methods’ (or whatever you want to call it) but an extremely common belief is that everything lies in how one looks and not what one does. Why do the work if instead you can have a job title or piece of paper indicating you are a professional? But hey, I’m just a silly American that runs too much, what do I know about how things work on the other side other world? Changing the subject…. I just returned from what is called the Volunteer Support Network training which is essentially a mentor system for the newest volunteers. Basically a group of my class assist with SA20’s questions regarding Peace Corps life and problems. It was nice to hang out in Pretoria for a few days and clear up a lot of rumors of current goings on in Peace Corps that sadly get butchered when relayed through 180 volunteers however Pretoria isn’t all that great. While the amazing Indian food and (not so amazing) Chinese food was tasty, I was ready to get back to site. Next week I have what is called In Service Training with the rest of SA19 which should be a good time to catch up, have a few drinks, and maybe even learn a few things that should help out at site. It will be back at our training college so I’ll get to see my host family from PST which I’m really excited about!

I’ve decided to stop being pseudo anonymous. email and picture links should be coming when I get around to it.

A new group of volunteers is currently undergoing their training at the same training location used for SA19. This coming week I’ll be helping in a small form of what’s called the Volunteer Support Network which is essentially current volunteers who serve as go-to people for the incoming class. Should be interesting to meet the new group! They will all be in Northwest and Eastern Cape province working in schools. At the end of the month all of my fellow volunteers of SA19 will also regroup for additional training at what is called In Service Training. So a whole lot of meetings and training to look forward though it will give us all the meet back up and hang out which will be a welcome break from site for a little.

My apologies for the long delay in an update. My organization has been ‘challenging’ (probably the best word to describe it here) and I’ve felt somewhat adrift returning from vacation. Opportunities are always present however and often found in unexpected places! For instance several days ago, upon returning from a (really long) run I met a group of 2ndary learners (aka high school students) who were playing soccer in a lot near where I live. While playing with them I learned they were actually an organized team and that other teams were in the area that they occasionally play against. Many of them are interested in trying to get a sort of league set up with game schedules and some equipment but just don’t know how… something I can hopefully help with in the future. Needless to say however, after 15kmish run and another hour of soccer I was ready to sleep for that day. Running and hiking have been my main forms of stress relief/relaxation here at site. I think they both have been a great form of community integration as both allow me to meet tons of people! Pretty much everyone knows who I am and don’t call me ‘white person’ anymore. The community also thinks I’m am crazy to willingly run to the next town or wander up into the hills for no apparent purpose but to return but I’m ok with that. Whenever I am asked ‘why’ I just reply with ‘why not’ to which nobody has given me a good answer yet. Running also allows me to practice my language skills outside my ‘work’ setting. Very frequently I will acquire a friend or two (who may or may not be completely intoxicated), that will run with me for a while and are ecstatic that I can speak siSwati! While the conversations vary quite a bit, they have taught me new vocabulary in addition to the location of most of the bars are since that usually where the drunks get off. Sala Khale p.s. some pictures from Mozambique are up, hopefully more when my friend gets over Malaria and can post theirs. Hush, I didn’t get it and have lots of Mefloquine. Stop worrying!

I just got back from a vacation to Mozambique which can pretty much be summed up as Amazing! We traveled to Maputo (the capital) and then up to coast to Tofu (near Ihmanbane) which is supposed to be one of the best beaches around. The country was amazing and very relaxed. It was very strange to be in a country where nobody spoke English (Portuguese is the national language) and even though Swaziland boarders Mozambique, siSwati didn’t get us very far either. It was nice to be in a place where going outside after 6pm is the norm and experience some delicious food and culture. The only downer was the tenacity of the street vendors who will follow you for a kilometer trying to make a sale. In Tofu another volunteer and I had a chance to do some scuba diving which was beautiful. There was an incredible amount of sea life to see and on one dive we got to see about 8 giant Manta Rays swimming around the reef we were diving at. We also go 30 meter certified so hopefully there will be a lot more diving in the future. While on vacation I also got to experience one of the less fun things about Africa. The day before I left I was apparently bitten on my back by what I can only presume to be a spider. Unbeknownst to me, this can inflame lymph nodes so badly that you think you have a hernia. For about a week the lymph node at the top of my right leg felt like a golf ball on fire. It’s better now and has made me a bit more apprehensive about the spiders that inhabit my room. Pictures of the trip soon I hope (I have uploaded some new ones from other adventures however).

I really miss the American concept of lines. They exist in South Africa all over the place… want to goto the bank? That will be a 2 hour wait in line. It is pretty much expected that any form of thing you might need to do will require waiting and you’ll have to make repeated trips until you magically show up with the right combination of paperwork. What really frustrates me however is that people have absolutely no concept of who has been waiting. One can be plainly waiting patiently at the front of a line and then someone will just plop themselves in front of you without batting an eye or acknowledging you when you ask what they are doing. Guess it takes getting used to. Oh well, going to Mozambique at the end of this week for several days with several other PCVs. Mozambique is supposed to be very peaceful and I’m looking forward to a change of scenery. Hope to have lots of new pictures up once I come back! I’ve made it 5 months which means we're allowed to travel officially. ok enough rambling

A young child growing up in rural South Africa there isn’t going to have all that many things to ‘do’ as can be imagined. However this just means they need to get creative. A few of the more popular options are: throwing rocks at cows, playing football/soccer, screaming at the top of their lungs for my host brother to come out of his house every morning at 6:30, and the Can Game. The Can Game is very simple, all that is required is a bucket, something to throw, and crush soda cans. The soda cans are easy to find since basically anywhere and everywhere is a trash can in South Africa; people will even say ‘We have a big littering problem’ in one breath and in the next thrown garbage on the ground… anyway, back to the game. You want the cans pretty smushed and flat and the more the better. The main objective of the game is for one team to get the cans into the bucket by use of their feet while the other team is throwing an object at them which slows them down. When I first encountered the game I didn’t really think much of it, however it seems as everyone all over knows how to play it in pretty much the same manner which is rather surprising. Hopefully I’ll have my camera next time it is played near my home and can post some pictures. Speaking of pictures, I’ve uploaded more pictures to my (new) image hosting site. If you don’t have the address goto my old one and there is a note up for the new one… or email me, or use telepathy, whatever works for you. Stay Well.

As of today I no longer live in a house in which all 3 electrical wires (ground, neutral, hot) all have a significant voltage above true ground! I’m a little unsure what to do as I have gotten in the habit of never touching the stove when it was plugged in or stirring with metal utensils. The problem seems to have been that the ground wire was nowhere close to true ground and has been fixed by fusing the wire to a pipe… although the common still runs at about +20 volts. Whatever, everything still works and nothing shocks me anymore so I consider it fixed.

Recently my organization was trying to get printer ink cartridges and it sadly was a perfect example of how critical thought is completely absent in society here. We had gone to town and at first the plan was to buy a new printer… because the other 5 we have are all out of ink… and clearly the solution to this problem is to buy a new printer (sigh). Fortunately that plan was dropped due to the fact that none of the printers for sale came with a new ink cartridge (and not due to any logical reasoning on my part about what a complete waste of money a 6th printer would be). The next solution was to refill the cartridges; however upon arriving at the store it was discovered that all the cartridges had be ruined by someone at home refilling them improperly with black ink. Even the color cartridges, clearly marked color, had black ink in them. Finally the decision was made to pay to use someone else’s printer every time we needed to print something despite my objections… a plan that will cost us even more than buying a new printer, let alone simply a cartridge. Experiences like this happen all the time. People know what 4 X 4 equals because it was learned in school. Asked what 4 x 40 is and they won’t have a clue. The most expensive, fancy phone at the cell phone store is bought not to use any of the software or functions of it, but because it comes with the biggest airtime package – an item that is completely independent from the phone.

The ‘Why’ has been completely removed from society mostly due to Bantu Education under Apartheid. The system basically taught extremely limited subjects in a manner where student response was nonexistent – the student absorbed and the teacher spoke. Remembering was paramount and thinking was discouraged. Sadly when the students grow up they know no other way in which to go about day to day life (or teach) and the cycle tends to repeat itself with only slight change.

Recently statistics have surfaced that indicate the HIV prevalence rate in the municipality in which I work is around 40%. That seems pretty damn high. How high? lets take a look with a brief simulation guided by the following rules: Take a random group of people who are sexually active and change partners once a year, 40% of whom already test HIV positive. HIV has about a 1 in 1000 chance to transfer per encounter (without the use of a preventative measures)… 365 days a year… so lets call the chance of a HIV negative person contracting HIV 1/3 – in other words after a year of seeing each other, there is a 33% chance the virus has passed from an HIV positive individual to their partner.Each year everyone gets a new partner. The chance a couple is the combination of an HIV positive and HIV negative individuals is thus (% Positive)/(Population) * (1 – (% Positive)/(Population). Hence the chance of a new person contracting the virus is then the transmission rate multiplied by number of possible couples that can transfer the virus. Following these rules Excel will calculate that in 10 years 95% of the population will have contracted HIV. The above simulation is very simplistic. It does not account for preventative measures such as condoms or testing. It does not account for the difference of infection rates between men and women. It assumes everyone has the same (and only) partner for one year. And, most inaccurately, I designed it in my head while hiking down a mountain. So clearly the results are inaccurate. Except they probably are not as inaccurate as one might think. Multiple partners are extremely common – most men who are not married see far more than a single female at once. Men will often offer to support a mother and child financially as long as they don’t use a condom… eat today or suffer in 10 years?Extremely few people ever get tested. Those who do are mostly women and rarely test more than once in their lifetime.Abstinence only education is extremely common.I have not yet met a women over the age of 18 who does not have at least one child.As many as 8 out of 10 women test positive in hospitals during child birth. 40% is damn scary. 4 out of 10 people currently will die from a completely preventable virus and that number will only rise. A complete shift of behavior is needed except that shift needs to come from all angles and all levels of society. The information is everywhere, getting people to understand it is the seeming insurmountable challenge.

A bit about what I’m actually doing. I am working for a Home Based Care organization which basically means that the organization has caregivers that go around the village and provided most types of medical care, essentially acting as nurses. If a patient needs medicine or further diagnosis they then are referred to the clinic or hospital. This is how most medicine is practiced here in South Africa, at least in the rural villages. There are nowhere near enough doctors in the country to have everyone one when needed and this method also allows those who are on ARVs or DOTS (monitored TB medication) to be encouraged to continue taking their medicine without going to the clinic. Sounds great right? Unfortunately I do none of this. The organization I work with (and all government offices in Mpumalanga Province from what everyone says) has not had funding since the beginning of the year. This means that the care givers who were making at least a little bit of money (50 bucks a month) now have had no income for many months. When I first arrived we still performed home visits but now we don’t and are effectively inoperable due to lack of funding. Instead we have been working on creating a multipurpose garden both to generate a bit of income for the organization, and to provide food for OVCs and patients in the community. While I know very little about planting and harvesting crops, I have been able to help with the planning and monitoring of the garden to help plan future endeavors there. In my spare time I have been slowly creating a database to monitor and track patient care and caregiver visits in the village. There is tons and tons of duplication and bureaucracy in the reporting of these facets of HBCs and hopefully (once we get our funding back) the program will provide easier recordkeeping and, more importantly, improved and more consistent patient care. I have also had a chance to work a little with some schools in the area; an avenue that I hope to expand a lot in the near future. Life Skills training and computer literacy is something that is sorely needed in my community. Overall however, life moves at a very different pace in South Africa. When I first got to site a fellow volunteer made a comment of ‘If I do two things a day it’s time to go home’. This is very true. Nothing happens at the speed or in the timeframe an American is used to. Some days are better than others. On the days that aren’t I visit far off places on my runs and often meet interesting people by doing so. I ran with a man wearing a Comrades Marathon (www.comrades.com/public_html/index.htm) shirt the other day… something to train for if my body can get ready in a year. Oh the US Embasy posted a link of SA19 Swearing In southafrica.usembassy.gov/news090402.html

So apparently males in South Africa aren’t really expected to know anything. I made banana bread this weekend for the first time in my electrifying stove and figured I should share… Ubuntu right? I brought some to my host family who then questioned if I had purchased it from the store! The idea that a male could cook something is just not really present in this very gender-role-ingrained society. I’m not sure how people think I eat.

Many things surprise me about how it is set up – the women cook, clean, shop, take care of the kids, and basically run everything along with taking care of their husbands. Men on the other hand have a much vaguer role that I’m not sure I can put delicately so I won’t. Lets just say I try not to partake when tea is served and it’s the women doing the serving and clean up while the only people actually drinking tea are men.

Perhaps my presence can demonstrate that men can in fact take care of themselves.

I also have been trying to cook pap to limited success… Pap, which I may have described before, is basically corn meal cooked like pasta with corn meal added and then a bit more corn meal added for additional flavor. It is pretty bland (ok, so it has no taste whatsoever) but is nice for an occasional change from rice which has proven indestructible… you can boil it dry, add way too much water, under cook, or over cook it and it still comes out fine… why yes I’m used to a rice cooker, why do you ask? I haven’t quite mastered the amount of corn meal to add when and it still turns out a little too crumbly. The nice thing about is you can eat with your hands since it is pretty sticky… you just don’t want to eat a lot of it.

Other adventures in cooking have included spaghetti sauce (which is pretty easy) and lots of quasi Indian food thanks to all the spices sent! I hope to figure out how to make tortillas in the near future once I acquire a skillet.

I had a bunch of extra data in my data bundle so i put alot of pictures up on my photobucket account and Facebook.

Enjoy.

The South African national elections were this week. They seemed to go fairly smoothly and the ANC won pretty handily even with a viable opposition. Made for a very strange week though with work as the elections sort of dominated everything else. I’m still very new to the community and I haven’t exactly found where I fit in with my organization yet but I’m sure it will come in time. April has had a lot of holidays which has made integrating into work even more difficult… for instance both next Monday and Friday are holidays making it a 3 day week. I caved in and bought a fridge from GAME (essentially walmart) so now I think I’m all caught up on stuff to buy. Went to Nelspurit to get it and poked around a fairly Americanized city. Was a little weird and a little sad… I was with my host family and we were the only mixed race group I saw in the entire place (and Nelspruit is the capital of the province!) I’ll post some more pictures this weekend hopefully. Slowly picking up more Swati but it is hard when people talk really fast and then when you ask them to repeat they just say it in English. It’ll just take time to get more comfortable with it I guess. I can understand a fair amount already… it’s just the speaking it back part that I struggle a lot with. Oh! Just learned I got (a lot) of world cup tickets!! And they are apparently transferable! Tickets are for both Pretoria and Nelspruit! Go get your entry visas :)

Today was really weird… I attended a workshop with our care givers along with some other folks in the community that was run by Soul City… most it was on HIV but there was a part where the attendants had done community maps and a bit of needs assessment around their own area of the village – just exactly what I’m here to help with right? Only there is a child in the room who won’t stop screaming , the brick room echos like crazy, the presentation is in Swati (which wouldn’t be a huge problem alone) and there is a crew of people outside the room with chainsaws cutting down a tree!… I’ve been here 10 weeks and this was the first time I saw a gas powered tool (or an electric tool come to think of it). I guess you can’t win them all… or even place some days. Got home and some neighborhood kids came by… I told em I was about to go running and they were really excited to come along - off they went to get ‘shoes’ and then off we went… on a 4kmish run with 5 eight year olds in tow… needless to say I got more than my usually amount of ‘what the hell are you doing white boy’ looks - but I’m getting used to that.

Peace Corps Volunteer! As of April 2nd I’m officially a volunteer! All 25 SA19’ers swore in without anyone ET’ing which is apparently a first for Peace Corps South Africa! 2-4-2011 guys! (yes, that is how dates are done here… it is very confusing) After a brief ceremony where I got to translate Zulu and Sepedi speeches into English, we said our goodbyes to our class and took the next step on our journey and bundled into whatever means of transport our new supervisors found to fetch us and our belongings in. I’m tasked with a Home Based Care organization that has a variety of facets to it. Primarily the organization does home visits to the surround community acting as nurses for those who need assistance and referring people to various other organizations when needed – TB or HIV treatment being the main two. We also have some OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) programs and are trying to start a vegetable garden but to what end remains to be seen (it may be for income generation or for care packages to OVCs or PLWHA (People Living With HIV and AIDS). Needless to say I have a lot to learn and a lot of people to meet. We serve several villages which combined are the size of a town and there are a lot of organizations in the area that fit into various facets of the community and my organization’s role. I’m fortunate to live in a separate structure from my host family and our section of town even has running water (when it is actually running, oh and apparently a lot of the time it is yellow). My host family has been very accommodating and has helped a lot with initially settling in. I cook on a 2 burner hotplate which likes to shock me whenever I touch it in bare feet… I still haven’t figured out exactly what the problem is – I checked the wiring of the stove itself and it seemed fine so I think that the problem is that the ground isn’t really grounded and has a voltage to it. Some more poking around with my multimeter is required though. Dishes and baths are done in a bucket. I’m still torn on whether to get a fridge or not… it gives a lot of cooking flexibility but can cost as much as our settling allowance alone. I walk everywhere and with the amount of hills that are around will mean I’ll be in terrific shape for backpacking! To ‘town’ is about a half hour walk down and up a hill (yes, uphill both ways ) where most items can be bought either at street stalls and shops or more commercialized stores – there is a supermarket and some furniture/clothing shops. So far everything is going well… I’ve gotten to meet with some PCVs who work in the area which has helped a lot to settle in as well. I can’t say I’ve really done much ‘work’ yet other than remove about 10000 (literally) viruses off my organizations 2 computers but integration takes a long time. I guess that is a little about where and what I’ll be doing! More to be posted as soon as I can! Oh! There is a

We’re far enough along in training now that we all got our sites few days ago. We’ve been visiting them for 6 days and then will go back to finish up training at our training site. My site is south of Nelspruit a ways, very near the Swaziland boarder. It’s in the mountains and is beautiful! Below is a picture I took outside my village while visiting my host family’s farm. The “village” I live in is a conglomeration of several villages and it’s all grown together into a somewhat largish town. It even has what might resemble an American grocery store (albeit a very poorly stocked one). I’ve been assigned to a (HBC) Home Based Care in town who is trying to start a youth program and an income generating farm along with their home care. It also runs some activities for OVC’s (Orphans and Vulnerable Children, who, on a random note, are defined here as having 1 parent missing). The town is large enough that many HBC’s exist and I think one of the tasks I may be working with is capacity building among the many organizations along with improved data collection but who knows – Peace Corps is an adventure and constantly changing. In the last few days I’ve met a LOT of people who serve various functions in town like school principles, community groups, other NGOs, and the Chief (whom I met while fixing his printer). There are also several other volunteers near me in Peace Corps’s education program and another health volunteer from my group who lives a few villages away. In order to return to training we all had our first real experience with the Kumbi system of South Africa. Basically imagine an old worn out VW bus. Now put 4 rows of bench seats inside and cram as many people in as humanly possible. Now crap all 18 or so people’s luggage in and set off on your merry way. I was traveling back with my friend and for some reason we decided to sit in the back row where, needless to say, my leg bones were longer than the space available to put them. I learned a valuable lesson at least – where not to ever sit again. Coming back to our training village was amazing though… It is where, as my friend put it, we learned to talk, to bath, to wash, and to live in South Africa. Felt like coming home.

Some of you may wonder why some details are left out of my blog from time to time. That is intentional. Since this is open to anyone who comes across it, I feel it is prudent not to share information such as my name and location in a public manner while serving in Peace Corps. That is not to say I won’t give it out; just not to whole world. Go Well

A few facts about South Africa and what I’ll be hoping to do with Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Program (CHOP) based on what we’ve learned in the last couple weeks · 20% of South Africans will test positive for HIV. Yes 1 in every 5. · 95% will test positive for either Latent or Active TB making TB the most prevalent opportunistic infection a person will die from. · South Africa has by far the highest per capita death rate from HIV in the world (900 per 100,000 I think). AIDS is also the leading cause of death in South Africa. · AIDS Awareness is everywhere… TV, radio, schools, churches… unfortunately a lot of people seemed turned off to the saturation of information and the information is often widely inaccurate. Much of it (PEPFAR funded programs in a large extent for instance) is abstinence only education which does very little for those who do not abstain and do not have access or knowledge of condoms (which is the vast majority of the population). · Testing is free and fast, however most of the population refuses to know their status for various reasons. · Cultural practices make having multiple simultaneous partners extremely common and relationships are male dominated. Women are often unable to insist on a condom. Heterosexual intercourse is by far the highest mode of infection, followed by mother to child at birth (without short course ARVs for the mother) · Like most afflictions, nobody thinks it can happen to them. A good analogy told to us is drunk driving – everyone knows its dumb, but how many can honestly say they have never driven or been a passenger to a driver who should not have been driving? It can’t happen to you right. · The stigma associated with AIDS is huge; people would rather die not knowing if they have the disease than seek testing & treatment. Abandonment and rejection often occur if a patient reveals their positive status while many others it as a death sentence. · ARVs are free to everyone once their CB-4 white blood cell count drops below a certain level and, when used properly, will reduce their viral load below detectable levels. However ARVs must be taken everyday for the rest of one’s life. Going on and off ARVs can mutate the virus creating drug resistant strains which can then be passed on. At one point, government grants kick in at a target threshold of CB-4 count creating an incentive of going on and off ARVs to maintain low CB-4 counts That’s a bit of the problem South Africa faces. I and the rest of my Peace Corps group will be placed mostly at the local level with Home Based Care NGOs. Our job will be to build capacity with that NGO and assist with creating sustainable programs and solutions within those organizations and the communities we are placed in.

Sanibonani! Ninjani?I see you! How are you? I’m here! In South Africa with Peace Corps! And contrary to what some may think, I have not been eaten by lions or monkeys. I did get to play with palm sized beetles like this one however. (ok so my connection sucks so you won't get a picture) I’ve been in SA for just about two weeks now and have gotten over the initial shock (I think). I am near the city of Bela Bela which is somewhat north of Pretoria. Everything around is beautiful landscape and villages. Everyday is a learning experience in almost every aspect of life. South Africans are extremely friendly and everyone greets each other with traditional greetings, whether you know each other or not. One of the first things we learned were the seTswana and isiZulu greetings so that we could say hello. I’m learning isiZulu as my project language but still don’t know really where that means I’ll be placed. Zulu is actually pretty easy, even with clicks and other unpronounceable words; it is very structured and is rather fun in that you can throw together a single word that could mean an entire sentence in English. I’m living with a host family in a village near our training center. The family consists of two sister gogo’s (grandmas) which is nice and relaxing… other volunteers are with families of varied size and sometimes have no time to unwind after training all day. Living in the village is certainly a change of pace from America. We do have running water which, knock on wood, hasn’t made me sick yet (it comes from a reservoir and nobody in the village treats/boils it). Running water is about it though… the toilet is a latrine, baths are done in a bucket, and laundry is done by hand in three buckets (because I suck at rinsing out all the soap in one rinse bucket). Men are expected to wear slacks and collared shirts which is a strange dichotomy living in a place where most roads aren’t paved and electricity is hit or miss (or dim). The dress does mean I have to learn to look presentable coming from a job where I could wear the same pants all week, and how to use an iron. Food in South Africa is sadly very bland and I already wish I brought a stockpile of spices. My host mother cooks pap and chicken… everyday. Pap, for those who don’t know, is basically corn meal and water cooked down, with corn meal added, stirred, cooked again, with then corn meal added. I do my best to avoid it but in a country with at times questionable food security it has its merits of at least filling you up (ok, that’s it’s only merit). We recently visted the Ndebele King and the chief of Seabe, both of which were great ways of learning more about the culture and way of life here in South Africa. A few pictures should be able to be found on my photobucket site along with a few of a brief trip to Bela Bela (Wam Bat in Affrican) which had a few stores and restuarnts. Oh and on a side note, if you ever want an appetizer like I tried to order in Bela Bela, be careful. There exists an ‘Appletiser’ as well which is basically sparkling cider and since I ordered it with my beer, my ordered food turned into a canned beverage. In our time off from training, I’ve managed to keep running. I’ve already explored much of my village (and the one next door) by jogging and hope to expand my area. The views are amazing and the sunsets and stars in the southern hemisphere even more so. In the next few weeks I’ll be learning more about Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Program (CHOP) which is what my Peace Corps group (SA19) is collectively know as. It has been an exciting first two weeks and I can’t wait to see what the rest of training has in store. Salani KahleStay well

So you’re going to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa…

You probably have tons of questions, especially regarding PST. This should help a bit. I'm currently a CHOP Volunteer in Pre Service Training in South Africa (SA19). Hopefully this can answer some questions you might have coming in.

This is based off my first few weeks of Pre Service Training (PST) for SA19. I’m living with a host family, training in language constantly, and don’t really know my project beyond Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Program (CHOP). Basically this covers some information I would have liked to know before arriving pertaining to PST and travel. Pre Departure TrainingBring your immunization and health records. If you got a yellow fever shot beforehand MAKE SURE you get the lot number of the vaccine and the WHO yellow book embossed stamp, otherwise you’ll get that one again and you’re out the 80 bucks you spent on the initial one. I was completely up to date on my shots according to predeparture medical clearance (minus yellow fever because I didn’t get the Lot #) and so far have received tetanus, typhoid, meningitis, and rabies (which is 3). Peace Corps considers any shot that wears off (like tetanus) to only be effective for two years so you can expect at minimum 6 (during the course of PST). If you bring money with you that you plan on using during Pre Service Training, change it at the airport in the states (or through a bank), you will not have time once you land and you won’t have access to any bank/money exchange until the end of PST. The exchange rate at JFK sucks but if you want the money for the occasional thing that’s your only chance. You do get about 100 dollars cash at your in-States training location to cover some expenses which is WAY more than you’re ever going to need in PST coupled with your walk around allowance. In Country PSTOnce you get to South Africa, Peace Corps grabs you off the plane, and, in 2 hours you are at the training college, far far away from anything you’re used to and the only store available basically sells bread and soap. In two days you’re in a village with your language group, living with a host family and taking language and training classes all day. If you didn’t bring something with you that you think you might need for 3 months, you are pretty much SOL. We were able to get plug adapters and areograms/stamps pretty early on and do sometimes have access to a pay phone for which you’ll get an initial calling card for. SA is 10 hours ahead of the Pacific Time Zone. Do not expect internet access anytime during PST. Actually, let me broaden that category to encompass everything – don’t expect anything while in PST and you will continually be surprised and rewarded instead of constantly being stressed out - you have an entire country, culture, and 11 languages to explore, enjoy. The water around the college and (in my) village is ok to drink; at least I haven’t had any problems… I drink it from the tap and never once had an issue. I did bring a steripen but haven’t felt the need to use it (yet). Cell PhonesIf you bring your cell phone, expect it to not work unless it is tri or quad band. It also MUST be unlocked, if you don’t know if it is or not, it isn’t; call your phone manufacture and find out how. A new simcard can be purchased for 10 rand (1 dollar) to work here after which you need to purchase airtime to actually use the phone. Simcards and air time can be purchased anywhere… phones themselves require a larger city. If your phone doesn’t take a simcard it will be very difficult to find a way to make it work. Internet capable cell phones are purchasable at the end of PST which can be connected to computers and whatnot. ValuablesValuables (like personal passports, credit cards, traveler’s checks etc) can be left with Peace Corps in Pretoria so you don’t take them to your PST host families. You can also lock your laptop up initially with PC until you assess the security at your host village during PST. All the villages I believe are pretty safe, just be smart about who/if you show your expensive items to. What to Keep during PSTYou do not need much during your home-stays in PST. You will get lots of bedding, a huge pile of language books, training books, a medical kit, other assorted medical supplies, and a mosquito net all to keep track of in addition to whatever you kept out of your non-essential bag. See below for some things I’m glad I’ve had with me during PST. FoodSouth African food is extremely bland. My host family makes chicken and pap (corn meal) pretty much every day. It will take a bit of planning and skillful negotiation to make sure you just aren’t eating pap all the time. There are a few vegetarians among us who haven’t had too many problems. There is (or was) a vegan as well… but I’m not sure she has been able to keep to that however. LanguageDon’t worry about the language. I’m learning Zulu which has clicks and pronunciations not found in any language I had ever heard of in school but in one week I could say more in Zulu than I could after two years of French in HS. You should come to SA with a bit of knowledge about the country, but most importantly come with an open mind and flexible patience. Forget what you know and listen for a while – it isn’t about you anymore. PST is very crazy and your schedule will change frequently. You also do not get many days off to do laundry etc. The following things I’m glad I (as a guy) brought for PST-Shirts with collars – yes, South African men wear them all the time, do you want to integrate or stand out? T-shirts are ok sometimes but bring enough collard shirts too.Slacks/non-jean pants -- again, most South African men wear something along these lines. Jeans can be accepted in some situations, but you need a couple pairs of nicer pants alsoJacket – you’ll meet a lot of people, like chiefs, kings of tribes… you’re shoulders need to be covered in these situations. (scarf’s for the ladies).Socks/Underwear/Clothing in general enough to last two full weeks. We do not have much down time. Washing and drying clothing takes a while.Alarm clock/watchFlash cards and highlighters for languageNotebooks for training and languageA few paper back books to readWash cloth (ok, a bandanna), and the quick dry MSR towels. Soap was nice to have the first few nights too before we could get to the store.Toilette paperComputer and a cable lockAddress and Phone numbers (remember, your phone probly won’t work)Plug adapters – SA wall outlets are the three large round pins in a triangle, many appliances here use the smaller 2 round pins (called African adapter I think). You can get a 3to2 pin adapter pretty easily, but for the 3 pin to American we had to beg PC to buy some in Pretoria and then sell them to us.Encyclopedia Britannica (Wikipedia isn’t offline yet and I love looking things up)Scissors / Leatherman / a few assorted tools / duct tape / paracord (rope)Water bottleEvery electrical thing I own (computer, razor, AA/AAA battery charger) works on 240volt 50 hz electricity. My charger is the Duracell charger that is purchased with 4 AAA’s in it (it didn’t say it was compatible until I opened it and my old one only worked on 120v/60hz. Most computers and razors should be travel friendly already.School backpack for trainingMaps of SA, the world, the USA. My PST host family absolutely loved looking at them… I’m going to try to get a few more sets sent to me so I can leave a set with them. AAA has world and USA maps for free if you’re a memberRunning shoes – I run every other day in my village and South Africa is beautiful. You also get to meet everyone in your village doing this. Again, all of this information really is geared toward PST only. I hope this helps in your journey into Peace Corps. Welcome.

This isn't really kyix--he won't have internet access for a few months yet. I'm his sister--he just called me earlier today and I remembered to ask him for his password so I could get some basic information out.

Things I learned, though we didn't have long to talk...

1) He and some other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) are being housed with a host family on a small farm. They have rooms within the house (I'm not sure whether anyone has to share a room or not). Their hosts are a grandmother and her sister. Prior to being with the host family, all the PCVs were together at one location; I think he goes to that location every day for classes.

2) The hosts feed them. kyix says he's offered to help cook (and I know he's a good cook) but they tend to get home too late for that. Also, they've only been there for 4 days, but I hope he gets to help because he said he wanted to learn to cook they way they do.

3) They have access to clean water (piped, from a reservoir) although water must be carried to the house (I'm not sure how far). The cholera influx from Zimbabwe has not affected Marapyane in South Africa yet. (Marapyane is the name of the town where he's staying)

4) He is currently going to a lot of classes, mostly about language and culture, and about their roles as volunteers with a non-profit organization. I assume they'll begin more actual job-related training later. He's beginning to learn one of the click-based languages (there are 11 common languages in South Africa) but I don't remember the name of it (sorry).

5) His hosts cook both over a fire and on an electric stove; he thinks there may be an oven but isn't sure if it works. (And it probably uses a lot of electricity.) We had some discussion about how to cook beets--anyone have any good ideas? Especially about cooking them on/in a fire? (We like to cook beets at home, but we usually oven-roast them or put them in borscht, neither of which sound like options for him!) Leave a comment with your ideas and I'll tell him next time we speak.

6) Lastly, he won't have any internet access for a couple of months, at least. I believe he was calling me from a pay phone with a calling card (which *appears* to have not cost my cell phone bill anything extra, but check the details of your plan if you're worried). When I hear from him, I'll try to post information here so that his readership can stay informed!

(Oh, It appears that he's set this journal to not accept anonymous comments. I don't want to change that without his permission, but if you don't have a LiveJournal account you can email me: n[removethisspace]moeur[atsign]syr[dot]edu and I'll make the connection.)

Best to all,

-nancy

Not the fun kind of shots either, although doing that and getting on a horribly long airplane flight might not be so much fun either. But no, we get yellow fever and malaria meds that apparently give you nightmares. What fun

I fly of JFK at 5:40 and land 5 mins later in South Africa, short flight right?!

It might be a bit before i can post again... we'll see once i land

Counting to 80 may seem like a simple process... but it took me the better part of two days. What exactly do I need for the next two years of my life given the very ambiguous posting I'm heading into with Peace Corps? The 80 pound weight limit came up very quickly and I have no idea how i'm getting all this crap back home in 2 years.

Going to Philly in the morning and then on Tuesday I'm on a flight to South Africa!! More to come when I actually meet people in Philly!

After driving out of Mississippi and promptly into a nice ice storm that decided to cover the entire eastern side of the US I ended up in Cincinnati to hang out with Alana, a good friend from Americorps. We drove around the city a bit, found Indian food for lunch, wandered around a conservatory, and then found the most amazing super market known to man... I wouldn't even call it a super market because this wasn't even in the same class. It was called Jungle Jim's and literally had anything and everything you could ever want to buy that was food related. It had an entire cooler display rack dedicated just to different types of butter... and 3 aisles of cheese. Anything from whatever part of the world you were looking for could be found, and even better, they had animatronic displays like Cambell's soup and Robin Hood. And they talked to you. Dinner consisted of whatever we found that looked tasty or unfamiliar such as cactus pears and bamboo shoots.

I got to visit my Grandma and Grandpa in AZ a few days ago along with aunts and uncles. Went and saw the Lion King among other things. Was nice to visit as I haven't had a chance to do so in recent years. Oh also got to see Hector the Brahma bull next door

Yesterday was my last day of work with Habitat. Construction crew and some other staff/regular volunteers all had a bbq which was a great low key sendoff. A little bittersweet; I really enjoyed building houses and leading these past two years but I know it is time to move on.

Half my apartment is packed... the other half not so much. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.

This is my first post... Just setting stuff up to look somewhat decent. Leaving for Peace Corps and Preservice Training on 2/2/09 and will be in South Africa on the 4th! So much to do before then!