For the last six months or so I've had little to say when it came to my life here in Swaziland, or at least little that didn't sound repetitive. Same old stuff with the life skills class, the library, with other volunteers, whatever. But recently I've started thinking about how that's probably true for most people, no matter where they are. Everyone has his or her routine, good days and bad. If nothing else, this will be an exercise for me in staying focused. I'm hoping that by keeping my posts short I'll be able to update more often...let's see how that works. So, in an effort to start fresh I'm moving my blog from www.krisinafrica.blogspot.com to www.uninterestingnarrative.blogspot.com. Anyways, here we go... Uninteresting Narrative.

- Posted from my hut

My new excuse for not having updated the blog in a while is my being out of town. What can I say? It was the busy time of the year.

August 23rd was the new group’s Swearing-In Ceremony in Pigg’s Peak. It wasn’t quite as fancy as ours, but they did have a few unexpected surprises. This year the Prime Minister actually made it so that was kind of cool. The U.S. Ambassador was there along with a bunch of the volunteers from my group. All of PSN got to spend the rest of the week with the new volunteers so we had a bonfire and attempted to make Smores one night and then showed them around the capitol the next couple of days. All in all, it was great seeing a bunch of new people excited to be here and to start getting to know their communities.

The 26th was the day the new volunteers were taken to their sites so after that we were free. As a treat to myself that morning I left for South Africa to meet a friend from California and spend a few days seeing the big country next door. It was a relaxing week, if not super-productive. As a treat to you all, instead of telling you all about it myself, this week I have a special guest blogger who can offer a little bit of a different perspective on what she’s seen of Swaziland and South Africa so far. So, here’s Kelly.

It’s been 25 days since I’ve arrived on this continent, and after dozens of hot and smooshed combi rides, staying the night in six different locations, carrying my belongings from city to city and meeting new people, I definitely have to say that my most favorite part so far has been the days spent in Zombodze. Whoa, what an opening run-on sentence! So far so good.

I flew into Johannesburg last month where Kris and I spent 5 long days. Johannesburg is really like any other large metropolitan city in the world- traffic, pollution, tall buildings, fast freeways, lots of people and busyness. I have to admit that it was nice going to the movies and eating popcorn, and I know Kris really enjoyed that; but, after seeing two Nicholas Cage films and Inception, eating out at restaurants, and the constant reminders of just how big Johannesburg is, I was ready to get out of the city. We traveled an hour away to Pretoria that is a much smaller city than Johannesburg, and really enjoyed walking around. After Pretoria we were planning to go to Nelspruit; however, somehow we ended up taking the wrong bus and going right back to Johannesburg… great! So instead we took a four-hour combi ride to Nelspruit and stayed at a really nice and friendly hostel there. The idea was to meet up with Kris’ sisi (sister) who is living there and attending the university, but it turned out that she was at home in Zombodze (Kris’ community) instead! So the next morning we decided to wake up early and head into Swaziland to get to Zombodze, which is where we are now.

For the most part we’ve been here in his community, but for about six days we traveled to Mbabane (Swaziland’s capitol) which is where the Peace Corps office is so that Kris and some of the other volunteers could have a “health week” and get checked out for any parasites, dental damage, diseases and things like that. Kris passed. Supposedly we only needed to be there for a few days, but the PC office called Kris and the other volunteers and asked them to travel to Mbabane earlier in the week. They did this since the country was currently going through a slight civil unrest and there were protests occurring in the big cities. Although it felt like we (or they) were in lock down for the week, it was super great being able to meet Kris’ PC friends who I’ve heard so much about. They were all really nice and it was great being able to converse with them one-on-one over where they’re from, what they’re projects are in Swaziland, and what they want to do when they return home. It really makes me think about what my next steps are in life.

Ok so: Zombodze. This is the name of Kris’ community which is only a short twenty-minute combi ride to Manzini (the second largest city in Swaziland after Mbabane). Since being here I’ve gotten to meet a good amount of his homestead family- the Mtetwa’s. I understand that Zombodze isn’t a very big community and so everyone seems to know each other, but I’m still under the assumption that his family is kind of a “big deal”. Even when Kris went to get his teeth cleaned a few weeks ago in Mbabane (2 hours away) the dentist said he was apart of the same family. It turned out that he was even at Kris’ homestead earlier in the summer playing the sax at a party! His babe (father), mother (can’t remember the siSwati name for mother), sisi’s, brother Kenneth and aunt are all nice and welcoming. None of them refer to Kris by his “American” name, but only by his Swazi name: Jobe. I have yet to meet his Gogo (grandmother), but I hear she only speaks siSwati, so that might be a bit of a difficult conversation for me to have.

Kris’ room here is like a little studio. He has a loft bed which gives him a lot more room for other things, like his desk that is built into his bed that is filled with PC papers and binders, LSAT prep books and stacks of books he is ambitious to read like Farewell to Arms, The Right to Privacy, Father of Frankenstein and The Fountainhead. He has a small little couch in his room that faces a little table with a stove/oven on it where he prepares his food, room to store his bike, and even a good amount of space in the middle of the room to lay two thin mattresses down for visitors when they stay the night. It’s a pretty nice set up he has here. Since being here we’ve done a ton of cooking- curry, fried chicken, stir fry, tacos, fried rice, sandwiches, Tuna & Ramen (I call this the Kris Special), and tonight we’re doing spaghetti and meat sauce. Is any one reading this?... Kris is doing the cooking!!! I thought I would never see the day! He’s actually pretty handy around here. Just a few days ago he was working on building screens to put on his windows out of mosquito net cloth to keep the bugs out of his room when he leaves the windows open in the heat.

Just by looking on a map, geographically, it’s easy to see how small of country Swaziland is. But man, looking at it on a map is nothing compared to seeing how small it is while you’re here. Kris has only been here for a year and yet it seems like we’re always running into people when we’re out and about. The first day in Manzini after traveling in South Africa we ran into Steph and Andrew, who are two of the new volunteers who just arrived in June, and while hiking yesterday we ran into one of Kris’ PC bosses with her husband and daughter. While picking up our laundry two days ago we ran into this really nice guy named George who is from Nigeria, who apparently Kris knew because George use to work at a computer store Kris would go to, and walked with us a few blocks almost all the way to the laundry place, just to chat. (I don’t remember the last time my watch repair guy stopped me on the street just to chat back at home…. Ummm yaa… never.) Maybe it’s just the culture here to be friendlier than I’m use to strangers being. While passing people on the street it is appropriate to wave or say hi whether you know them or not. I leave that to Kris who greets them in SiSwati while I just smile and wave. And whenever conversing with new people, the person you’re sitting next to on the combi, the lady at the laundry store, the person ringing our groceries, it seems to be customary to greet them, say hello, ask them how they are.

How I'm treated- everyone is really nice and seems to want to get to know me. I'm always asked how long I’ll be here and where I'm staying. I'm not sure if it’s just the culture, but after meeting new people they’re motivated to invite me to their home, or to their church… like the cleaning lady at the hostel Bombasos in Mbabane, or the random lady on the street who stopped to talk to me for an hour who lives near Pigg’s Peak.

Combies. I must have referred to them at least a half-dozen times already, but I have yet to describe what they are. Combies are combination vehicles the size of a big van and usually sit around sixteen people along with as much stuff (fruits, bags, children, buckets) that can be jammed in as possible until every square inch of the combi has been utilized. They can get pretty hot and uncomfortable as you can imagine, especially for the long rides, but the trips are priced really cheap so it’s worth it. The worst part about the combies (pronounced cumbies by the Swazi) is that the rank (depot) never fails to smell like urine.

I suppose this is something that I often take for granted as an urbanite living in my smog-filled home I call Los Angeles, but the night sky and stars here are amazing. At home, it’s only during times like meteor showers that I lay out on the ground and appreciate the sky, but being here I have the advantage of being able to see it whenever the sun has gone down for the day and the moon and stars light up the sky. When it’s dark at night and Kris and I are going from the outdoor sink to clean dishes to his room, I usually take a moment to appreciate the innumerous amount of lights in the sky and think of how big the earth is in comparison to our little bodies- and that while I’m taking that quick moment to stare into the sky, my parents, sisters, brother and friends are at home waking up and just getting their day started… half a world away.

So for the last week all I’ve really been doing is reading, thinking, lots of sudoku puzzles, going to town and cooking. All of that has been really relaxing and comforting, but we have also done a few other things as well. Last Saturday I went with Kris to a support group in town for kids in the greater Manzini area who have been infected with HIV/AIDS. Apparently they do these support groups twice a month (one in Manzini and the other in Mbabane) for kids (mostly teens) to get together with their peers and other people in the community who wish to help- some mothers, PC volunteers and other volunteers as well, and each meeting is usually targeted around a particular theme. The meeting we attended focused on their medications and why it is important to take them. The day was filled with conversations, games, skits, singing and dancing and ended by feeding the kids. As a volunteer here Kris is constantly surrounded by the realization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, whereas I’m not; but after attending the support group and hanging out with the kids, it definitely has gotten me thinking. After the meeting I asked Kris a bunch of questions regarding the kids such as “do their friends in their communities and schools know that they’re infected?” “Are they treated differently at school?” “Were all the kids who attended the support group born infected or have they recently contracted it?” He’s currently reading a book called The Invisible Cure that focuses on the epidemic in Africa and has offered to lend me the book next which will answer a lot of questions.

The day after that was Sunday and we attended church with his family at an Evangelical church. Every bench and seat in the one room building was filled with people singing and dancing, which was fun; however almost the entire service was done in SiSwati, so it’s safe to say that I didn’t understand a thing. What was helpful though was Kris’ aunt who I was sitting next to kept whispering to me what was going on, or what was being said that really helped me stay attentive. Even though I was thoroughly lost during the service, we were glad we went, and it seemed like his family and other people at the church were too. A few people came up to me to introduce themselves, asked me how I liked it and inquired whether we would be attending next week. We thought maybe, but seeing as it’s Sunday night right now as I write this, I can tell you that we didn’t.

Yesterday Kris and I went to a game park where we set up our tent, and went on a five-hour hike up to a peak called “Execution Rock.” I’m not going to lie, that hike got me pretty winded and out of breath! But once we got to the top and we were able to see what seemed like all of Swaziland, it was well worth it. We brought peanut butter sandwiches with us, but by the time we got to the top they were so squished and we were almost out of water, that I opted out of eating them. Kris however had no problem. It was a really fun hike with a lot of different scenery to walk through, and we even got to see some wildlife like hippos, a crocodile, warthogs, zebras and some type of deer looking animal. By the time we got back to our tent from the hike, we were pretty dirty and our legs were exhausted that all we did for the rest of the day was make dinner and play cards.

So that’s my interpretation of Swaziland and Kris’ life as a visitor. Hopefully I was able to successfully describe a few things that Kris has failed to mention in his blogs and that you’ve gotten a better idea of his life here.

Kelly

Well, there you go. That’s Swaziland through the eyes of someone coming straight from the U.S. Not quite the same as being here, but hopefully that’ll help. I have some new work stuff to write about and a bunch of photos to put up, but I think I’ll save that for next week. See ya then!

Hey all. Long time no blog, huh? It’s been a busy couple of months with the new group getting here and everything. The other problem with updating the blog has been the iPhone. I’m sure you will all feel my pain when I tell you my iPhone is currently not working. There were some problems with the last software update and I’m hopeful future update will fix the problem, but until then my Internet access is kind of limited. With that said, I’ll be trying to make it to the Internet café in town to update the blog a bit more often.

Over the last couple of months 37 new Peace Corps trainees arrived in Swaziland and almost the entire previous group has left. It’ll probably take a while before I’m used to seeing all of these new faces, and not seeing others, but that’s how it goes. One or two of us from PSN have been up at Ngonini (the training site in the northern part of the country where we also did our training last year) every week helping out with some of the training sessions. Some of the sessions weren’t very much fun to sit through for a second time, but getting a chance to hang out with some new people was nice. A couple of weeks ago they finally found out where their permanent sites will be. We made a big map of the country with flags all over to show where the volunteer sites and big towns are and then walked them out to their site so they could see where they’re going to be in relation to everything else. The next week was their OJT (On the Job Training) which is when they go to their communities and meet their host families for the first time. The other part of OJT was meeting up with one of us older volunteers so we could show them around the closest shopping town and our community. They have another couple of weeks of training left then it’ll be time for their Swear-In ceremony. PSN will be with them that whole week to show them around the capitol and for some other fun activities. One thing I’ve figured out from last year is that training goes by MUCH faster when you aren’t the one being trained.

Because it’s been so long since my last post, as a treat I have some new pictures and video for you all. There are a couple of random pics in there, but everything else is from a traditional Swazi wedding I went to last weekend with my family and another volunteer, Reid. The whole ceremony lasts three days, but the day I was there was when the groom’s family gives the bride’s a bunch of cows (naturally, the families with higher social status get more cows for their daughters). Then each family slaughters and skins a cow to eat the next day. Reid and I were given the chance to try skinning part of my family’s cow (I got the job done, but my technique needs some work) and my sisi was there to get some good video. WARNING: as you might imagine, some of the video might be a little graphic for the kids. Don’t worry, the zebra pictures should be fine. You can find the video on my YouTube page under "My First Lobola" or just click on this link: My First Lobola. Enjoy!

Well, hopefully I’ll have another update next week. See you then.

Hey everyone. Things have slowed down quite a bit in the last month, and by “slowed down” I mean I’ve spent much more time in my community, and that’s a good thing. I still can’t say I’m busy, but just being around here more feels like something good.

The big thing to happen this is month is our schools finally getting the books from the library project we’ve been working on for what seems like forever. Both of my schools were able to pick up their books last week and now it’s a matter of getting everything set up. One of the schools, Ludzeludze Primary, already has a pretty decent library so there’s not a lot for me to do. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be working with the school to find the best way to organize the new books with those that they already had to make sure the students are able to actually use them, but other than that it’s kind of all up to them. On the other hand, Zombodze Primary School has an empty room…that’s about it. Interesting fact: Zombodze Primary is one of the oldest schools in Swaziland and will be celebrating it’s 100th anniversary with a visit from King Mswati III next month. The room that will be the library is one of the original buildings and was actually a classroom used by King Sobhuza II, King Mswati’s father, when he was a child. So unlike Ludzeludze, the Zombodze school has some work to do to build a viable library for its students. The first step is to build shelves so I’ll be working with the school to try to get some funding to start work on that. The Head Teacher is really hoping to have everything set up by the time the King comes next month, but we’ll see how that goes.

After kind of disappearing for the last couple of months, I was pretty excited when the Principal of Zombodze High School said he still wanted to work together. Today was the last day of the first term so the students and teachers will be on break for the next couple of weeks, but when they come back I’ll be talking to the teacher in charge of the Health Club about me helping out. The high school also has a vegetable garden where they (somewhat successfully) grow food for student lunches and I might try putting to use what I learned at that gardening training last month. Since I don’t really have any space on my homestead this is probably my best option, but as long as I don’t mess up what they already have growing I don’t think they’ll mind me playing around a bit. There’s also a teacher here who stays on a homestead near mine who I was told would make a good siSwati tutor so I’m supposed to talk to her after the break about getting started with that. Right now it seems like the schools will be my main focus of work in my community, even if I don’t have a ton of face-to-face time with the students.

Swim lessons are also going on hiatus with the end of the term. There’s not a lot we can do as it starts to get colder here so we’d probably end up spending more time playing games indoors instead of swimming, but maybe next Spring. There’s also supposed to be a school nearby in Manzini that has a pool so I want to try talking to them about doing lessons since it would be a lot much easier for me to get there.

Baylor University is really active in working with children living with HIV/AIDS in Swaziland and there are several PCVs involved with them in one way or another. Last December they put on two one weeklong camps for these kids with a few PCVs working as camp counselors. They also do a children’s support group once a month and I’ve started helping out with that. The kids range from about 5 to 20 years old so everyone is split into groups based on age. Every month there’s a general topic (last week’s was “peer pressure”) with the kid’s doing a fun activity related to the topic and then the staff leading a discussion based on the activity. A lot of time is just spent playing with these kids who otherwise have pretty tough lives. It’s pretty clear this is something they look forward to every month, but I can’t say they’re the only ones enjoying themselves.

I’m sure everyone has seen the previous post about the Welcome Video being up on YouTube, but I just want to say it again because it feels good: I’M DONE!

One of the other volunteers, Kate, started teaching a yoga class at the gym in Manzini so a few of us have joined and started doing that. Two things I’ve learned so far: 1) I’m not nearly as flexible as I used to be, and 2) I have HORRIBLE balance (I blame my busted ears and gimp ankle). Still, it feels good to be able to exercise in a pretty decent gym again. Even though membership costs about the same in U.S. dollars as it does back home, it takes up a considerably bigger chunk of my paycheck here. But they have showers with WARM water, and what I’ve come to realize here is that you can’t put a price on warm water.

Well it’s getting pretty late here and I’m still undecided on whether or not I feel like making real food for dinner so I should get going. The good Internet café in town closed a couple of weeks ago and I’m not able to get online as much as I used to, which may be a good thing, so it’s not quite as easy for me to post to the blog or answer email. For the most part, I can do just about everything with the iPhone, it just takes a bit longer so some patience will be required. Talk to you soon.

P.S. Go Lakers.

-- Post From My Hut

Hey everyone. I have a bigger post in the works, but I wanted to let you guys know that the Welcome Video is finally up on YouTube, though in many many parts. The "YouTube" link to the left will take you to my profile, which then has links to all of the different parts (there are 24 in all so look around). Enjoy.

Hey everybody. Ya, it’s been a while, but I have a good excuse this time. I think I can count the number of nights I’ve spent at home by myself this past month on one hand. There’s been a whole lot of running around so it’ll be really nice once things settle down after next week.

A few weeks ago me and two other volunteers, Laura and John, went to a workshop on HIV/AIDS prevention in Gaborone, Botswana and it was AMAZING!!! First off, the per diem they gave us for the week that we were there was as much as we usually make in a month. They put us up in this pretty nice hotel right next to the really nice conference center the workshop was at. Pool, huge buffet, tv, and warm showers: it was almost a vacation. There were also two Botswana PC volunteers attending the workshop so they were able to show us around the city, which was waaaayyyy nicer than anything Swaziland has. We were able to get Chinese take-out one night and see Avatar in a real theatre the next. All of the fun stuff aside, a lot of information was covered during the five days we were together and it all looks like it’ll all be pretty useful here in one way or another. So the next step now is figuring out how we’re going to share what we learned with all of the other volunteers. John and Laura are working on an article for the next issue of our monthly newsletter and we’ll be putting together some presentations for our Mid-Service Training and the new group’s Pre-Service Training.

After getting back from Botswana, I had a couple of days at home until I had to leave for a gardening training the World Food Program put on for us for five days up at the place where we did our Pre-Service Training. WFP donates food to a lot of schools and Neighborhood Care Points all over the country and they want to start using PCVs to monitor the places in their communities getting food to make sure everything’s working as it’s supposed to. The first part of the training was showing us what to look for and how to report what we find, but the second half was teaching us actual gardening techniques and that was really interesting. We spent a whole day practicing making a compost pile and learning what plants go well together depending on what exactly you’re trying to do with your garden. All of that is meant for us to start on a small scale with a little garden on our homesteads, then hopefully people will see how amazing our garden is doing and then we can share these new techniques with others, and so on. My homestead doesn’t have a ton of space, but I’m planning on starting small by doing a few things in plastic containers and seeing how that goes.

Last Thursday was our big presentation of the Welcome Video to our bosses at the office. We had spent the three previous days in town working on the video, almost non-stop, including not sleeping at all the night before, and they still said we have more work to do. A lot of their comments were about some parts being too long and to try to cut out stuff that isn’t super important. We have to present the final thing next Monday so it can all be sent out April 1st, and we still have some work to do before then. The whole thing has been fun and all, but I’ll be a lot happier once it’s finished. We’re still going to try to put a lot of the video up on YouTube so I’ll let you guys know when that happens.

One of the girls here has a birthday coming up so we’re all going to go to House on Fire, the big concert venue in the country, to see this pretty popular (so I hear) South African band called Freshly Ground. We’ll be staying at the hostel on the game reserve so hopefully we’ll get to spend some time just hanging out in the pool watching the ostriches wander by.

Ya, it’s been a crazy month and I’m exhausted, but I’d much rather have things like this than how they were, with me walking to the store for some bread as the highlight of my day. With that said, it’ll be nice to take a day or two next week to just relax. All right, now back to sweating.

P.S. One of the presenters from the Botswana workshop just put up a bunch of pictures he took. Enjoy!

Hey people. I have a new post coming soon, but I just wanted to put up some pictures from the Botswana trip. Enjoy.

Hey everyone. Things are starting to pick up a bit now. I can’t say I’ve really started any real “work”, but there have been or will be a bunch of random things keeping me busy this month. I probably won’t be starting any regular work at my schools or clinic until next month (which might be a good thing considering its about 90°F in my room and even hotter outside) so until then I’m still looking for ways to keep entertained.

Book project update: the Peace Corps Partnership is fully-funded, hurray! For those of you who were able to help out with a donation, thank you very much! Because of you 30 schools or community libraries and several thousand kids will have access to these new books. I’m not sure how we’re going to do this exactly, but there is some sort of “thank you” in the works for all of the donors. We’re also trying to get some posters and other decorations donated from another U.S. group to help make the libraries look nice. We still have a couple of months before the books get here, but there will be plenty of pictures when they do.

Me and two other volunteers have also started working on a new Welcome Video for the next group of volunteers. They try to send a DVD with some basic information about Swaziland to the new group a month or so before they get here. Every few years they let the volunteers make a new video and we were lucky enough to have the money this year, which is especially a good thing since pretty much no one had anything good to say about the last video. There’s going to be a lot of interviews with people talking about the good and bad of PC life in Swaziland, pictures of all of the different regions, a lot of examples of some of the work we do, and whatever else we want to throw in there. I’ll be going to the sites of a few volunteers to film their communities so all of this free time I have right now will actually come in handy. We’re going to try to put the video up on YouTube once we finish so everyone back home will be able to check it out too.

A small group of us are going to try to go out to dinner for Valentine’s Day this weekend. The other week we found this kind of nice restaurant in Matsapha, the small town close to me. So the plan is to go out during the day and then take a taxi back to my place afterwards. Who knows how this will all work and being out at night always complicates things, but it’ll be an adventure if nothing else.

Last week I started doing swim lessons again. There’s another volunteer helping out this term, at least on some weeks, so it’ll be a lot easier to handle all of the kids. Now if I can only remember to bring the sunscreen next time I’ll be good.

Starting next Monday I’ll be in town all week for meetings. The first couple of days are Warden’s training for our Emergency Action Plan. In case something crazy happens, like a big natural disaster or someone tries to overthrow the government, there’s this whole list of steps we go through depending on how bad the situation is, everything from just having to stay at home to being airlifted out of the country. PC volunteers in two or three countries had to be evacuated last year, so these things do happen, but the chances of anything serious happening in Swaziland are extremely low (one of the benefits of living in an absolute monarchy). Each region has a warden from the older group and an assistant from the newer group who are kind of in charge of making sure everyone in their area is where they’re supposed to be if something happens and I’m the assistant for my region. I’m not sure what this means exactly so pretty much this training is just an excuse to hang out. Then right after that starts Peer Support Network training. I mentioned PSN before, but pretty much it’s a group of 7 of us elected to be people the rest of the group can talk to if they’re having a hard time with something and stuff like that. PSN also plays a big part with the training of the new group coming in June. I’m not sure what we’re going to be talking about next week, but it should be enough to keep us busy for a few days.

And then they finally got around to rescheduling the CDC HIV/AIDS workshop that was originally supposed to be in South Africa the first week of December for Botswana the first week of March. This thing has been canceled and rescheduled so many times I don’t really remember what the whole thing is about, but I’m sure it’ll be informative.

Wow, when I write it all out like that it actually looks like I’m doing something. Then I remember most of these things aren’t really helping my community, at least not directly, and that’s something I’m still working on. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to get down to work once things settle down.

Well I’m off to go wash my dishes before it gets any darker. Thanks again for everyone that helped out with the book project and to those that weren’t able to this time, don’t worry, you’ll get another chance. Talk to you guys soon.

Hey there, long time no talk. Things have been pretty up and down for the past month: at times there will be a million things going on and at others pretty much nothing. In general, this part of the year is as slow as it gets in Swaziland. The school year ends in early December and the new year doesn’t start until the end of January so the schools are shut down for the most part. The Incwala ceremony also takes place throughout these couple of months and a lot of community members are involved with that. This is similar to the Reed Dance that took place in September, but for the boys. I wasn’t able to go this year, but hopefully next year. With schools starting next Tuesday and the Incwala finished, things should be picking up soon, but there were a few exciting things that happened over the last month.

So, I got bit by a rat in early December. It was just sitting there in the middle of my room one afternoon. I tried grabbing it with a plastic bag and as soon as I got it, it turned around and bit me. Then I got mad. I tore my room apart when it ran into the corner, throwing bags and boxes everywhere. Finally, I was able to grab it by the tail and cover it with the bag. After throwing it in the trash pit on the other side of the homestead, I noticed my hand was covered in blood. For 3 days I had to stay at the same hostel in the capitol as last time and get 2 more rabies shots, which brings the total up to 6. Not sure what I could’ve done differently.

Christmas plans changed at the last minute, but it actually ended up being pretty fun. Half of the volunteers went to Durban, South Africa and everyone else was invited to our boss’s house for Christmas Brunch. I never expected to spend a Christmas getting sun-burned playing volleyball and swimming, but that’s Swaziland.

A couple of days after Christmas me and another volunteer, Kate, took a little rafting trip. Some of the rapids were pretty intense, at least compared to what I was expecting, and I got tossed out several times, but it was a lot of fun. The guides were so amazed by my ability to swim upstream to get back into the raft after getting thrown out they named the rapid after me. Ya, I’m amazing.

For New Years we all went to the big club/concert venue in the country called House on Fire. We spent the afternoon at a hostel on a game reserve hanging out in the pool before going out. It was a Michael Jackson themed evening so there were people with some interesting costumes. Overall, it was a good time.

Just an update, we’re still working on trying to raise money for the Books for Africa project. Almost all of the schools have come up with their money, but the Peace Corps Partnership still needs some work. I know it’s tough with the holidays and everything, but just consider it a late Christmas present to me. Here’s the link again: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-077& . Thanks.

All righty. Right now I have 2 PC volunteers who just finished their 2 years in Namibia and are traveling through Swaziland staying over tonight so I should probably go help with dinner. Hopefully it won’t be another month before I have some more to write about.

Ok, ya, I know it’s been a while, but I have some good excuses this time. I’ve been home for maybe 3 nights in the past 3 weeks and still haven’t seen half of my family so I’ve been a bit busy.

The first big thing was IST (In-Service Training). This marks the end of our 3-month long Integration period and we are now officially Volunteers, with vacation days and everything. IST was about a week of classes and meetings on all sorts of stuff: everything from meeting people from all of the different NGOs in Swaziland to learning about traditional healers. I’m sure most of the information will be useful, but being in class from 8-6 everyday got old pretty quick. This was also the first time everyone in my group had been together since August, so there was a lot of catching up to do. We stayed at this Catholic hostel-type-place in Manzini so it was kind of hard not waking up the nuns late at night. Right after the week of IST the volunteers from the group before us moved in for the All Volunteer Conference, a few days of more meetings with new information for the older group. This was the first (and possibly only) time EVERY Peace Corps volunteer in the country got together and things got a bit hectic. With about 60 of us, it had been about 6 months since I’d been around that many Americans. After about a day it became a bit too much for me, especially considering I had spent the last 3 months in relative isolation, but it was still nice seeing everyone. There was a really dingy-looking bar and the cheesiest club outside of the 70s within walking distance so we were able to entertain ourselves at night.

The US Ambassador invited all of us over to his house for Thanksgiving lunch/dinner and it was amazing. Tons of food, a swimming pool, and a pretty nice house. I don’t remember the last time I had eaten that much and it’ll probably be a while before I do so again.

IST was also when we had elections for the different leadership positions: SoJo (editors for the monthly volunteer newspaper), VAC (the Volunteer Action Committee who are the official means of communications between us and the office), and PSN (Peer Support Network). I was elected to PSN and I’m really excited. The 7 of us on PSN are supposed to be the ones volunteers can come and talk to about whatever problems they have as well as some other stuff. PSN also does a lot with the training of the new group when they come in June so that’ll be fun.

After all the chaos of IST I was looking forward to going back home and relaxing for a day or two before finally getting down to work…or so I thought. It was my second night back when I woke up with my ear on fire and couldn’t go back to sleep. I go to see the PC Medical Officer the next day and sure enough, it’s infected. She also noticed what I thought was a little scratch on my hand and it turns out that got infected too (must’ve been all of the little kids I let poke it). So when you’re sick like that the Peace Corps pays for you to stay at a hostel in town so the PCMO can keep an eye on you (if you’re REALLY sick they put you up at a bed & breakfast). I wasn’t expecting to stay so I’ve been wearing the same shirt for the last 4 days. Two other sick volunteers are also staying here so at least I’ve had some company besides the dogs. (Though I think I got this upper respiratory infection from one of them, thanks Rachel). I’m feeling much better now, but I have to wait around until Monday to get check out again.

Last time I mentioned that book project one of the other volunteers was putting together with that Books for Africa group back home and I’m happy to say two of my schools got chosen. I’ll be working with them to help raise their share of the money and to set up a proper library, but anyone who is interested can help us raise the rest of the money to get the books shipped here. The Peace Corps Partnership information is finally up on the PC website and here’s the link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-077. Every little bit helps, of course, so please let me know if you have any questions.

Ok, back to being sick. *Cough,Cough*

Well, now it feels like I`m doing something. First off, I have my bed and it`s amazing. I`ve had next to no money for the last week and a half and I`m pretty sure it`s only a matter of time before it collapses with me on it, but still totally worth it. Even though the carpenter`s workshop is just down the street, getting the thing home was a pain. It was raining, of course. The bed was bigger than the back of the truck so a thin rope was doing most of the work. Then, getting the bed into my room was another mess. I never thought I had a lot of stuff until I had to move EVERYTHING just to get the bed through the door. Thank you bhuti Kenneth, I couldn`t have done it without you.

Last week I started teaching swim lessons at a private school in the northern part of the country, really close to where we did our training. When I heard another volunteer from the group before mine taught last year, I pretty much begged them to let me help out. Yes, the water tastes funny; yes, the pool was considered “clean” just because you could actually see the bottom; and yes, there were frogs swimming around with us, but I still had a blast. It was pretty hot all of last week except for the day we were supposed to teach, of course. That day it decided to rain. Besides being half numb for the rest of the day after being in the water for 15 minutes, it was great. I should be helping out once a week until the end of the school term in December, so it should be a nice little get-away.

I got a mysterious text message a few days ago about keeping this Wednesday morning free because some “VIP from D.C.” is coming to my community. Apparently, there was an email with all sorts of details, but I never got it (this sort of this seems to happen a lot here). I`m supposed to set up a tour of my clinic, which I`ve been to maybe twice before, so this should be interesting.

Today, I FINALLY went to the high school to meet the principal and some of the teachers. Considering it`s been two month and there are still four other schools nearby, this isn`t much of an accomplishment, but still. The principal and everyone was nice enough, but getting any sort of definitive answer was next to impossible. For example, the principal couldn`t tell me what exactly the students were taught about HIV/AIDS, so he told me to talk to the Career Counselor. The Career Counselor couldn`t tell me anything, so she told me to talk to the Biology teacher. The Biology teacher just gave me some books to read and that was that. It`s weird how often you hear people say “the community needs help”, but when help is actually offered they don`t really know what to do with you.

Finally, something pretty important. One of the volunteers from the group that`s been here for a year is working with a non-profit group from the U.S., Books for Africa, to organize a project to bring books to some Swazi schools. How it`s going to work is all interested schools will apply, and then 30,000 books will be distributed among the 30 schools selected. Books for Africa will pay for the books, but it`s up to us to cover the $15,000 for shipping and handling. $5,000 of that will be raised by the schools themselves and the other $10,000 will be raised through a Peace Corps Partnership. This is where you guys come in. A Peace Corps Partnership is the official way people from the U.S. are able to contribute to PC projects abroad. Since I`m not the one organizing this whole thing I don`t know a lot of the details, but we`re all doing what we can to spread the word. If you are interested in helping out, please send me an email and I can get you more information.

Now back to reading two month old copies of Business Week and Maxim.

This has definitely been one of the busiest weeks so far, which is a good thing. It`s nice being able to look back and feel like you`ve done something, even if it`s not much. Plus, I`ve discovered something very useful: walking is a great way to kill time.

I`ve met a carpenter. His name is Chico. Chico thinks I`m crazy. I`m pretty sure no Swazi has ever even thought of building a bed like mine. It`s nothing that complicated really (a lofted bed with a desk underneath, just like a dorm room), but I still don`t think he really understands it even with the drawing I had one of the other volunteers make. That`s ok though, he`s nice enough to let me help, and by “help” I mean just hanging out and watching him work. I actually did do some planing (?), so I`m not completely useless. My conclusion: it`s hard. Chico seems like a pretty capable carpenter, but it`ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

The Queen Mother FINALLY came last Sunday and the event didn`t disappoint. I was planning on walking to the “inkundla” (they place where the community`s council meets) where the event was going to take place, but it turned out my whole family was planning on going too so I got a ride. For some reason we first had to go to this other community the Queen Mother was at before she came to ours. We were there for about 2 minutes before we got swept up in the Queen Mother`s motorcade and got a police escort back to our community. Over the last couple of weeks I had been to a few planning meetings for this event, but I still had no idea how big it would be. Easily over a thousand people; trucks and trucks full of food and blankets to be given out; a few MPs (Members of Parliament), the Prime Minister, a few of the King`s wives, and, of course, the Queen Mother. Lots of speeches, dancing, and singing (including my Babe – check out the YouTube link →). Luckily, my sisi was there to explain what was going on because I was pretty confused when they gave an old man a bicycle. Overall, one of the more exciting things I`ve done in Swaziland.

Monday was our one night away from site for the month. One of the other volunteers had a birthday this week so it seemed as good a time as any. Definitely a relaxing experience, but not without some excitement. The hostel we stayed at this time had a barbecue so we attempted to make shish-kabobs. The problem was that it was so windy the charcoal wouldn`t stay lit, but, eventually, we were able to get the meat cooked by using a whole lot of bug spray and rum as lighter fluid. The highlight of the day was definitely the pool. AMAZING! Although the water was freezing and it was partly drizzling most of the afternoon, not going in was never an option.

I put the pictures I took from the Queen Mother`s visit up on my Picasa page under “Philani Maswati Charity Event” (link on the left →). I`ve started putting captions with some of the pictures, so hopefully they`ll make more sense. (I`m planning on adding captions to some of the old pictures as well.) I also put up a link to my YouTube page (on the left, below the “Picasa” link →). The only thing up there right now is a 40 second clip of my Babe singing for the Queen Mother, but I`ll put more up eventually. Enjoy.

Pretty much just another slow week. I still can`t go to the schools, I still haven`t started making my bed, and my cookies aren`t getting much better.

I`m going to start doing a survey of the households in my community pretty soon. This is just a way of finding out basic information about the families (how many people live on the homestead, sources of income, water, food, etc.) that we will use when coming up with our own programs, but it`s also a good way for the people of the community to get to know us. My Counterpart has to do something similar as part of his job so I can just tag along when he does his thing. We`ve done a few so far, but there`s over 1,000 households in my chiefdom so we`ll see how far we get.

On Thursday there was supposed to be a program to provide the elderly with food in the next community over. The community leaders had been planning this for some time because the Queen Mother (the King`s mother) was supposed to come, but something came up at the last minute and she had to cancel. It`s supposed to be rescheduled for some time next week and I`ll be sure to take my camera when it does happen.

Swine flu...what a pain. First of all, I`M FINE! But apparently someone had it the other week when we were all at the office for the party. So far there are only a couple of confirmed cases, but a bunch of people have flu-like symptoms. Because of all this we`re supposed to be limiting our travel and staying away from crowded places for a week or two. For better or worse, this doesn`t really affect me right now because my group isn`t allowed to move around much anyways, but it`s still annoying. One more time, I`M FINE!

Right now my Babe is in the U.S. He was in Uganda and/or Zambia last week on business for a charity group he`s involved with and this week he`ll be in Atlanta and San Diego for more meetings. (I asked him to stop by my house to grab some stuff I forgot so be nice to Mathokoza if you see him). I still have yet to figure out what, if anything, he does full time (he might be “retired”), but this has something to do with a U.S. church group that is working with his charity to put on some program here in Swaziland. I`ll be sure to find out more when he gets back.

Last week I found out I`ve been chosen to go to an HIV/AIDS conference put on by the CDC with two other volunteers sometime in December. I don`t know too many details right now, but it`ll be somewhere in southern Africa (anywhere but Swaziland, hopefully).

Hopefully I`ll have more to write about next week. Wish me luck.

Just another lazy dog-dangling Sunday afternoon. I went into town to do some grocery shopping and to go to the internet cafe. I feel like I should post something while I`m here, even though there isn`t much to write about. I went to a couple of meetings this week (and by "went" I mean sat there quietly while they talked about who-knows-what in siSwati). Other than that, a lot of reading and aimless wandering.

I think I fixed the little slide-show thing on the right side so you should be able to see some pictures there. If you click on the link that says "Picasa" right beneath it, you`ll go to my Picasa page where you can see all of the pictures I`ve uploaded so far.

I`m working on writing something up about the family I`m staying with and some other people I`ve been working with, but that requires actually sitting down with them long enough to learn something, which isn`t as easy as it sounds. I`ll figure it out eventually.

P.S. Battlestar Galactica is good.

Ok, so for whatever reason the slideshow on the side wasn't working so here's the link for the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/beanchjodges?feat=email. Hopefully, that'll work.

-- Post From My Hut

Hey look! Another post and it`s only been a week!

This is mostly due to the ridiculous amount of free time I have right now. I mentioned the “Integration” period last time and it`s still going strong. Last Wednesday I met with my Counterpart, Njabulo, at the Kagogo Center to talk about things I can do right now to get to know the community. Wednesday also happens to be the same day the Inner Council meets at the same place and Njabulo takes notes for their meetings, so we didn`t have long to talk. I met with him again yesterday when he had some more free time and was able to learn some more about what he and the Kagogo Center do exactly. In Zombodze, the Center is mostly used to teach pre-school. There`s no limit to the number of kids they take so I`m sure you can imagine how crowded a room that is 20` x 20` can get. Right next to the Kagogo Center is a Neighborhood Care Point (NCP). These “schools” were built and are funded by some religious group from America. Here, they provide free 1st and 2nd grade education to 40 kids (the amount they have room for) and also cook free lunches for all of the kids (pre-schoolers from the Kagogo Center included). The staffs from both work very closely and the kids all play together, even though there is a fence in between (not sure why it`s there).

Other than that, the highlight of my week is usually going to town. Matsapha is technically my closest shopping town, but because of transportation, Manzini is easier to get to. Matsapha is much less crowded so I usually don`t mind the extra walk and do my regular grocery shopping here. If I do go to Manzini it`s mostly to meet someone or to find something the smaller town doesn`t have. Of course Mbabane is the nicest of all, but it`s so developed I feel weird when I spend too much time there. I`ll probably try to go once every couple of weeks just to do my laundry, go to the internet cafe and get some good food. Mbabane is also where the Peace Corps office is. There are (free) computers with (decent) internet and a (warm) shower, so it`s a nice little treat. My Make works in Mbabane for the Government and I can usually get a ride with her, so I`m pretty lucky. Tomorrow in Mbabane is a farewell BBQ for one of my bosses, Chad. In order to keep things fresh, Peace Corps has a rule that staff can only work for PC for (I think) 4 years. Chad has gotten a couple of extensions and has been with the Peace Corps for 8 years plus his 2 years of service. Obviously, he`s been doing something right and he will be missed. There are also a couple of birthdays coming up so a bunch of us are planning on staying at a hostel in town. This will be our one night away for the month, so hopefully it`ll be good. It should be a nice little get-away.

Hopefully, you saw I was able to upload a bunch of pictures to my Picasa page the other day. In case the little slide show thing on the right isn`t working, here`s the link: . I`m going to take some pictures of my homestead, family, the Kagogo Center and whatever random places I feel like, so I`ll have those to upload next time I go to town.

Like I said, lots of free time. I was feeling ambitious yesterday so I decided to try out my fancy new oven and baked some cookies. I was missing a couple of ingredients (baking soda isn`t that important, is it?), but I think they still turned out OK. At least my family was impressed, though I think anything I made that was edible would`ve gotten the same reaction. Next up: pizza.

Today should be a relatively busy and, hopefully, productive one. I`m going to the Kagogo Center to meet Njabulo in a few minutes and he`s going to take me to the clinic and a few schools to talk to people about doing some work there. It`ll be nice to get out and do something “work-related”, even though it`s still Integration. Later on, my Babe was invited to speak at some youth church group, so I think I`ll tag along. All in all, just another boring day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.

P.S. Oops, I forgot to post this when I went to Mbabane last Friday. The man that was supposed to introduce me and Njabulo to the schools and clinic wasn`t available, so we postponed until this week. That seems to happen a lot. Chad`s party was fun and it was nice seeing everyone again. I had no idea so many people could fit in such a small office. Staying at the hostel in Mbabane was pretty nice; almost nice enough to forget where we are. I guess that`ll have to do until next month. When I got back home Sunday I discovered something had chewed through the bag and ate my bread. After buying more yesterday afternoon, I barely slept last night because of the rat that decided it was a good time to show himself. Once I got tired of chasing him away and fell asleep, he snuck down and ate my brand new load of bread and apples. I`ll be going to town in a few to find some sort of rat trap or poison and another big tub to keep the rest of my food in. Once I get the little guy, I will hang his lifeless body somewhere all of the other critters can see to teach them all a lesson. I`ll be sure to post those pictures are well.

I had a bunch of pictures to upload last week, but the internet was pretty slow and it was taking forever. Hopefully I`ll have better luck today. You should be able to see them if you go to my Picasa page (there should be a link on the left --->). If they still aren`t there, just bear with me. There`s no hurry in Swaziland. Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of Swaziland`s independence from Great Britain, but, oddly enough, no one seemed to notice. Other than that, not a whole lot going on.

Ya, ya ya, long time no talk. What can I say, we`ve all been busy. Anyways, here we go...

I`ve forgotten what the last thing I wrote was so I`ll start with our On the Job Training (OJT), which had to have been a few weeks ago. Wow, it has been a while since I`ve wrote anything now that I think about it. So every volunteer is assigned a Swazi Counterpart, who is the Kagogo Center Manager for the community we`re staying in. Quick Swazi cultural lesson: “Gogo” is the siSwati word for Grandmother. Just about every homestead has a Gogo`s hut: a small round room with a thatched roof separate from the main house. Traditionally, this is where the Grandmother lives, but not always. Some volunteers actually spend their two years in one of these huts. The interesting thing about the Gogo`s hut is that it`s a sort of “safe place”. A child does something wrong and is going to be punished (hit), but if they can make it to this hut they can call sanctuary and escape punishment, at least temporarily. So fairly recently, the government started funding the construction of these Kagogo Centers in just about every community in the country. Each one is different and they all do a variety of things, from pre-school to cooking meals for needy kids. OJT is our first time actually seeing the community we`ll be living in and family we`ll be staying with for the next two years so it was a pretty big deal. It was also the first time traveling a long distance without supervision for most of us. Luckily our counterparts came in the night before so they helped us navigate all of the buses and get to our permanent sites. My permanent family had people from out of town staying with them for a wedding the first night so I stayed with my Counterpart`s family. His name is Njabulo, by the way. The first night is always the most awkward since you can`t really do anything for yourself. You don`t have food or a stove so someone has to prepare food for you, again. For myself and some others, our permanent rooms weren`t ready yet so someone else got kicked out of their room for a few days. (Thanks Thapi, your bed is great). And then there`s the joy of giving yourself a bucket bath in a complete stranger`s “bath room”. Lucky me, of course, got to go through all of that again the next night when I finally met my real permanent family.

So first thing the next morning, Njabulo took me to meet my family, the Mtetwa`s. Njabulo was there for about 5 minutes before he took off. After a few minutes of “Hello`s” and “Nice to meet you`s”, my Babe says, “Come, we`re going to the wedding.” (Traditional Swazi weddings take about 3 days). Unfortunately for me, there was a non-violent rabies incident with a puppy a few days earlier (R.I.P. Tfowile) and I had to wait for the Peace Corps Medical Officer to come to my site to give me an extra rabies vaccine, so I was unable to go with the family. So instead, I spent the afternoon watching South African soap operas. (Rhythm City is my favorite). It feels weird taking the time to write about something that happened weeks ago, but do ask me to tell you the Peacock Story some day. Suffice it to say it involves a broken window, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and, of course, some peacocks.

OJT was a very long 4 days, then it was back to normal at our training village for another few weeks. We had our final tests in everything about 2 weeks ago and I`m pretty sure I barely passed my language interview. (If Intermediate Low is good enough for the government, it`s good enough for me). Then we packed up all of our things and moved to a conference center in the capitol for a few days. Here, we got another tour of Mbabane and had our swearing-in ceremony. A lot of us wore traditional clothes to the ceremony, so that`s my explanation if you see any pictures of me in some sort of animal skin. Also, Swazis never really smile in pictures so that`s why mine mostly look like mug shots; just trying to fit in. After a LONG night of celebrating, they dropped us off at our permanent sites the next morning and said, “See you in 3 months.”

So this part of our Peace Corps experience is called Integration and it`s kind of meant to be 3 months of isolation. During this time we aren`t allowed to start any big projects and we only get one night away from our site per month. Its purpose is to get to know the people of your community and what they really need so you can plan what you do for the next two years. With that said, you still have a lot of free time so I am in search of new hobbies. I`ve been reading a lot. Yesterday, I bought a stove/oven so I will be learning to cook/bake over the next two years. I`m training for a half marathon in Cape Town in April. I`m going to find a carpenter and have him help me build the most amazing bed/desk you have ever seen. I`m going to buy a guitar, although 6 strings still feels like 2 too many. And of course practice my siSwati, yada yada yada. Feel free to send any suggestions my way.

Of course there are some things I won`t be doing anymore as well. Some may say I`m missing out on valuable cultural experiences that I will only have the opportunity to take part in for this short period of time...I say it`s progress. Pit latrines, bucket baths and hand-washing clothes: it`s for the birds. 50 feet away from my door there is a bathroom. One more time, BATHROOM. I`m talking real toilet and a shower. The shower only has cold water, but I think it`ll be pretty nice on a hot day, plus I`m designing an elaborate system of ropes and bungee cords to hook up my solar shower inside the real shower. Hand-washing clothes; there`s just no point, at least for me. I`m all about self improvement but this is one thing I will be comfortable going to my grave not knowing how to do. My Make actually forbid me from buying more white socks because I`m not capable of cleaning the ones I have thoroughly. So tomorrow, for the first time in Swaziland, I will be finding the laundromat in Manzini and enjoying a luxurious meal at KFC. (For some reason, there`s no shortage of KFC`s here).

Almost forgot, last weekend was the Umhlanga or Reed Dance. Google it or look it up on Wikipedia. I don`t want to give too much away, but it`s a pretty big deal here. All of the tourists come out for this thing. When you do see some pictures, keep in mind the SWAZI cultural context, not American. With that said, you may want to make sure the little kids are in the other room. (Sorry Jess and Zach, I`ll show you when you`re older, or when your Mom isn`t looking).

It`s late and I`m tired. I know I`ve said this before, but this time I really will make an effort to update more regularly. I should have the free time, plus it really is easier that way, but we`ll see. Talk to you next week...hopefully.

P.S. Twitter is stupid, but it is much easier and quicker to update than the blog, so I can do that more often. My tweets (ya, dumb) go to facebook, which is mostly how the volunteers here communicate (cheaper than texts), so they might not all make sense to those back home. You should be able to see my updates on the right side of the page ---->. Twitter is still dumb.

P.P.S. I`m finally able to upload my pictures from all of the above so check out the little slide show and link to my Picasa page on the right side of the page as well ----> (I like making arrows)

Through the magic of the iphone I am posting this from my hut. So since my last post kind of a lot has happened. I'm really going to try to post more regularly from now on just so I don't have to do these big posts. The big things were our first tests, our first trip to Mbabane, and our site placements.

The tests were really just practice tests on everything we've learned so far: language (a biggy), culture, health and some others. Our final tests are at the end of Pre-Service Training in a few weeks and if you don't pass those you don't get sworn in. It wasn't anything too hard, but I could always use some more study time. You also get to sit down with a couple of the directors to talk about where you're going go be placed permanently for the next two years. You rank what kind of work you want to do, how close you want to be to a big city, weather, electricity and anything else, then they try to make the best match with the sites they have chosen. I told them I really wanted to work at a bigger clinic or hospital, I wanted to be somewhere close to a big city where it was relatively cool, and I really wanted electricity (of course). All of those were pretty popular requests so I didn't really get my hopes up. We had to wait a whole week after that before we actually found out where we were going to be.

In the mean time, we took our first trip to the Capitol, Mbabane. We were only there for a few hours and didn't get to see much but it was really nice to get out of our little town for a while. The highlight was probably getting our cell phones, finally. I won't post the number, but if you want to spend the money just ask and I'll probably give it to you (Skype is pretty cheap). We went to a museum and a cultural village where we saw some traditional Swazi dancing. Pretty impressive. We all spent the night at a hostel. Food, pool and beer. I don't remember the last time I stayed up past 10:00 before that. There were some zebras wandering around during breakfast, which seemed oddly appropriate. On the way home we stopped at what might be the best stocked grocery store in Swaziland. Olive oil, soy sauce, cheese. AMAZING! I'll definitely have to be making the trip there pretty often.

So now to the best part: site announcements were yesterday and right now it looks like I get to spend the next two years in what might be the best site in the country (for me at least). Some of the volunters from Group 6 (the ones that have been here a year) made a giant map of Swaziland with a rope with little flags to mark where all of the new sites were. When they called our names they would walk us to our flag. You could instantly see how close you were to everyone else and the big cities. I will be in a town called Zombodze, pretty close to the center of the country. It's supposed to be about 15 minutes from Manzini and less than an hour from Mbabane, the two big towns. This part of the country is in between the hot and cold areas so the weather won't be too bad. There's enough work at this site that they could've put a married couple there, but the housing wasn't large enough, so there will be pleanty for me to do. I have electricity and my building is painted two-tone pink, so I have that to look forward to. I know nothing about my host family, but so far what I know couldn't be any better. Next Saturday we leave for On the Job Training. I'll spend 5 nights at my site and get to see the area for the first time. It's a lot of meeting people I may or may not be working with and seeing what they do, but I'll know more next time I post.

All in all, I'm super excited. It's nice to finally be able to have some idea of where I'll be for the next two years, even though I don't know what I'll be doing exactly. I'm sure Ill have a better idea in a week or so. Anyways, I'm off to dinner with some people in celebration of the amazing event that was my birth (yes, so amazing it takes a week to celebrate properly). Talk to you soon.

-- Post From My Hut

Sanibonani! (Hello everyone!),

First off, a few things have changed since I left. 1) I now go by “Lusekwane Nxumalo.” (There`s a “click” in there but I won`t try to explain it.) “Lusekwane” is a tree they use in an important ceremony, apparently, and everyone acts really impressed when I tell them. It means less to me though knowing that my Make (Mother) thought of it before she met me, but I think I`ll keep it. 2) I pee and bathe in a bucket at night (not the same bucket). It`s just as fun as it sounds. And 3) I have a mustache. It seems to make me look older which elevates my social status. I`ve even been called Babe (Father) a few times.

I`m writing this from my room (yes, I have electricity!) and have no idea what the last thing I wrote was so I guess I`ll just start from when I got to Africa. We stayed in Johannesburg, South Africa that night and took a bus into Swaziland the next day. For the first week we stayed at this place in Ngonini called the Lutheran Farmers Training Center. It`s some sort of school where they teach people to farm, I guess. It was kind of like summer camp: 2 people per room, a dining hall, a bathroom with shower stalls, and a classroom. Class in the serious heat during the day and staying up late (9:30!) in the freezing cold at night. A group of us were getting up early to run some laps around the soccer field; just early enough to see the sunrise. Last week was when we got to meet the families we`ll be staying with for the rest of training (9 weeks). I`m staying with just a Make, no Babe (Father). I think he lives with one of his other 2 wives and it didn`t sound like I would be meeting him. My Bhuti (Brother), her son, is a student in Manzini (one of the two big cities in Swaziland) and I met him last week. He`s home on vacation so we`ve got to hang out a bit. My Make`s brother died, so his 2 girls live with her and are my Sisi`s (Sisters). They`re pretty shy but I`m working on that. My room is actually a pretty good size with a big bed. I had to take my first bucket bath last week, which meant washing one part of my body at a time in a concrete room that was probably just over 50 degrees. I`m not sure what`s worse: that or the roosters, pigs, and goats that run around outside my room all night long. For the next couple of days I`ll be taking a kombi (an overcrowded van with no seat belts you have to flag down from the side of the road that is probably just as dangerous as it sounds) back to Ngonini with the other volunteers who live near me. After that we`ll be meeting mostly in the town we`re in (Mbasheni). We`re going to be taking a field trip to the nearest big town, Pigg`s Peak, tomorrow. I`m writing this in my room right now so I can hopefully send it from the internet cafe tomorrow. I have a bunch of pictures to upload but the internet connection is REALLY slow and there will probably be a bunch of people waiting so those will have to wait. It`s hard to believe it`s only been a few weeks since I left. It feels more like a lot longer. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to keep up with my random wanderings. I`ll write more when I can. Feel free to send me an email, just don`t expect one back tomorrow. Sala kahle! (Goodbye!)

P.S. So I had some problems with my flash drive when I went to the internet cafe last Friday so I wasn`t able to send this then. Not much new since then. From now until the end of Pre-Service Training we`ll be spending most of our time in smaller groups. There are 23 volunteers living in one town and 10 living in the other. I`m staying in the bigger town, Mbasheni. We usually spend half the day in our language groups (5 trainees and 1 instructor) and the other half doing cultural or technical training with everyone else in our town. Everyone is pretty settled in now so we`ve spent the couple of hours we have before it gets dark the last few days walking around seeing everyone`s homestead. When I get home, I usually spend an hour or so talking to my Make and trying to help cook. After dinner I study and listen to the BBC until attempting to take a “bath” and falling asleep. Starting this weekend we`re supposed to start cooking for ourselves so we get to go grocery shopping in Pigg`s Peak tomorrow. I just cooked some hard-boiled eggs right now so I`m feeling pretty good. Hopefully I`ll be able to send this while I`m in town, otherwise I`ll just have to add onto this message some more. Sala kahle!

        

        

Hey everyone! (Anyone?)  As you probably know I left L.A. Sunday morning to head to D.C. for staging with the Peace Corps.  Except for a little problem with the plane in Atlanta (something about not being able to stop the plane after it landed), it was just a long boring day.  My roomate here, Cameron, and I got up early Monday to do a little sight-seeing before we had to get down to business.  Our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon then I`ll have about 18 hours to kill before we finally get to Johannesburg, South Africa.  We`ll stay the night in a hotel there and take a bus into Swaziland to start our Pre-Service Training the next day.  They say not to expect to have access to phones and internet for the first 2 months so this could be it for a little while.  If it is, wish me luck and I`ll give you guys and update whenever I can.  Enjoy some random pics from D.C. for now.