A Few More Pics!

Sorry guys, I am still trying to learn how to use this program. The last post was suppose to have more than one photo! Oh well. Here are some more, and I will get more pictures posted soon... I promise. Hugs!!


This picture is of the community project we did at a primary school during training. Of course, who would be thrown up there to entertain the kids... Zodwa and Nomathemba (Kate). We had a blast and every kid got a red and white yarn braclet to wear proudly.

I am now an official PC Volunteer! I even have the certificate to prove it. :-) I am also wearing a traditional Lahiya and sporting my new Swaziland flag bag that was a gift from the PC.

While away at a game reserve for a night I got to participate in traditional dancing! I ain't too shabby. :-)

We were so excited to finally spot some African animals. Yay to Zebras! Rachel is on the left and Kate is on the right.

I promised I would post a pic of the corn-rows... probably won't be doin' that ever again, but it was fun once.

Pictures Worth 1000 Words

1This is Make Mamba and myself only a few days before I left for Ekuphumleni. She still calls me to say "hi". In this picture she is making a braided rope out of tall grasses. She also made the grass mat she is sitting on, and gave me one as a going away gift.

23 Years Young!

Monday, September 21, 2009
8:18pm

Thank you everyone for making my 23rd birthday one that I will never EVER forget! With amazing cards, spectacular packages, fantastic (although some early :-P) phone calls, nice facebook posts, and a great town trip to boot, I had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious birthday! Thank you ten million tons!
The schedule for my terrific b-day was as follows: I woke up and said heck to running (already a good start); I opened my cards while waiting for a khumbi into town after the first khumbi I got into broke down; I bought curtain fabric and then sat in an exciting meeting with Doctors Without Borders; an Avalanche ice cream dessert was enjoyed with my KFC (only fast food chain in Swaziland) b-day lunch. After that splendid morning, I did a bit of grocery shopping with my friend Lisa who proceeded to accompany me home for an evening of delicious Indian food (made by Chief Lisa), wine and cheese (prepared by yours truly), and package opening! As if that day could get any better, but it did! My birthday (starting at 1:11am Swaziland time) was speckled with phone calls from friends and family!! What an awesome 23rd! I even got to celebrate my b-day (and personally a very special long-distance wedding) with my family Saturday night, where I shared some of the spoils of wonderful generosity over popcorn and chocolates. Fun and appreciation was had by all.
Other than Lisa, no one has (or probably ever will) share in my birthday cake sent by my wonderful Dad, and selfish hoarding is not the only reason! -- Although, honestly, it may be the most prominent. :-) I can also say that it would be culturally inappropriate to share the delicious Tortuga Rum Cake (yes, be jealous, you read correctly) with my Swazi family. Alcohol is a very common and socially accepted practice in this country, but for males ONLY. For a woman to admit she enjoys even the occasional glass of wine, she instantly gains the label of the” harlot” (or drunk Gogo – which seems to be somewhat ridiculously common). To purchase my birthday wine I did not frequent the bottle store in my community, which is only a 30minute walk from my house. No way Jose! I picked it up in Matata, which is in a different region of Swaziland, where I ran a much reduced risk of running into someone I knew or would potentially work with! So to make a short story long :-P, I am selfishly but appropriately devouring my boozed up birthday cake. “To life, to life Lechiam!” (Sorry Fiddler on the Roof fans, I have NO idea how to spell that!) :-)
A wonderfully thoughtful, amazing, and beautiful birthday gift clued me into the fact that I have not shared the Swazi cultural trait of tidy appearances with you. Sweeping and mopping, shining one’s shoes, and ironing are tasks performed every morning in a Swazi household. Although their more sporadic bucket bathing (depending on the accessibility of water in your area) and unfathomable hand hygiene have shocked and appalled our American standards of cleanliness, our lack of desire to perform the previously mentioned daily Swazi tasks are met with disapproving looks and insistent Makes. As an example, this past Sunday I was accompanying my family to their church. We were a running a bit late (I actually had been waiting for about 15min) when my Make made me take off my shoes and my younger bhuti quickly polished them. This was after I had already wiped them down with a wet clothe to remove the dust that would inevitably re-attach itself to my shoes within three steps on our dirt yard to the dirt path leading to the dirt road to the church! Oh well. My polished black shoes looked really great… for five seconds. :-) Nevertheless, I absolutely love the skirts I received for my birthday. What makes them ironic and the inspiration for this blog tangent is the intended style and instructions tag. The tag reads, “To maintain the CRINKLE effect twist damp skirt and allow to dry….”. Hahaha!! Sorry Make, not going to be ironing that one! :-P I love ‘em, probably even more because of the cultural exchange taking place through fashion. Who knew I that would ever make that statement!?! Crazy!
Again, thanks a million trillion ba-gillion tons for making me feel so loved on my birthday! You are the best! Hugs and grateful, appreciative, thank you kisses!

Spoke Too Soon!!

Thursday, September 17, 2009
7:41pm

Oh today was a funny day. Upon hearing from the wonderful PVCs that share my PO Box in Matata that I had received some B-day packages and multiple letters, I had decided to take a pre-b-day town trip. The bumpy, loud, two-hour bus trip seemed to go by quickly and before I knew it I was sitting in the café with a milkshake, internet, and a friend on the way to share it all with me! Although, I quickly found out that the wireless internet blocks random things like blogger. It said that to sign into my blogging account would be viewing “indecent material of an adult nature”. Hmmm… this was news to me. I will try harder to keep my blogs PG. :-P
With very little time (bus gets there ~10am and leaves by 12:30pm) I efficiently hit up my stops – wine, internet (while simultaneously enjoying milkshake and muffin), mail packages, groceries, wood to make shelves, back to the bus rank and hugging my friend who just helped me schlep all of my recently acquired goods onto said bus. Phew. How I got everything done, I am not quite sure. Especially with the fact that stores and their employees work on “Swazi time” (not conducive to efficiency or tight schedules), and once you utter “Sawubona” – standard greeting (which you must always do or you are considered rude) they ask you your name, where you are from, what you are doing, etc. and laugh at your pitiful attempts at siSwati. Nevertheless, I got all of my Matata objectives completed and checked off my list, plus I made it to the bus BEFORE it left this time.
While waiting on the bus, a good friend texted me random but perfect lyrics to a Little Mermaid song, which became the cherry on top of a wonderful morning. While sitting next to my goods (the tower of care packages still taunting me :-P) I instantly wrote him back to tell him how great my shopping day was going. Little did I know that those very words certainly jinxed, cursed, and mocked the day that was still ahead of me… muwahaha!
The turn of events started with another text, ironically enough. This one was from the office: “You may have been exposed to H1N1 if you were at the PC office on Friday. If you have flu symptoms, headache, fever…” Hahaha…ha….ha… ummm :-/…. Getting the Swine Flu was not on my list of things to do in the Peace Corps, thank you very much. :-) No worries everyone. I was at the office Friday, but I am fit as a fiddle.
Soon after receiving this bit of cheerful news the bus broke. Side note: “bus” really is too nice of a word for this mode of “possible” transportation. It is all metal and wood, which on dirt roads makes a ton of racket! The pew-like seats are ten times worse than school-bus seats and the floor seems to be the thinnest thing possible keeping you from bicycle tires and the ground. Needless to say it wasn’t a big shocker when this 1950’s antique called it quites about an hour in to my two hour trip home. Some men jumped off to “assist” in the resurrection of the beast but most of us just sat in the sweltering heat (windows were closed to keep the dust from passing vehicles out) for a little over an hour. I am not joking, more banging was happening under the bus then I thought the old girl could even take. I thought she might fall into pieces with us on her! I talked and played a bit with the school children in front of me, but was super glad for my book that happened to be a last minute addition to my bag this morning. Looking around, I realized that I had no idea where we were exactly and I may be stranded with what I previously considered valuable loot but now looked like burdensome baggage. Miraculously, for there is no other word to describe it, the bus started back up and we were off again. I made it home, just past an hour late, but with all of my goods and in daylight. Thank you, God. :-)
Now I am off to bed so I can celebrate my birthday early with a Doctors Without Borders meeting in Nhlangano. All of the Shiselwani volunteers will be there, so we are going out afterward for a birthday lunch! One friend may even join me for an evening of wine, cheese, and laptop movies in my hut (as well as some Trotuga Rum Cake that I spy with my little eye! :-) ). I love my life!! AND I love YOU GUYS! Thanks everyone!

Hitting the Ground Running – Literally

Thurday, Sept. 10^th, 2009

3:35pm

I can not believe that I have been here for less than two weeks! So much has happened in such a short time. As stated, I have been running around, and not just on my daily morning jogs. Fixing up my hut, visiting shopping towns around me to buy moving-in necessities, and attending cultural community events have monopolized what should be my more relaxed, slow-paced African life. What is the fraise? “You can take the girl out of the American –pace, but you can’t take the American-pace out of the girl”. Something like that, right? :-) Or more precisely, you can name her Zodwa, but she will always be Darryn. Ha ha.

I was hoping to post the entry previous to this one a week ago, when I went, list in hand, to Nhlangano to buy a bed, groceries, use the internet café, mail letters, and a few other tasks I was sure I could accomplish. Silly me. I got out of Nhlangano with a bed, a few hut-improvement objects, and my letters posted…barely. It was a rush from the get go! It takes me about 1 ½ hours by bus to get to this city (and city is an overstatement plus). Another volunteer’s brother had offered to transport three beds in his small pick-up truck, which probably saved us a ton on transportation but spared us nothing in hilarity and story making. Each bed (bed box and mattress) stood vertically, with one mattress capping off the end of the truck bed, tied down with one rope. And yet somehow, it became more difficult to figure out how to fit the people in the cab! Their bhuti was insistent that if we put one too many people in the cab the police would pull us over and give us a ticket. Although this was probably true and the safer route, irony was felt by all when looking at the precariously stacked and tied beds that would somehow not catch the attention or concern of the police! I was chosen to ride along with the beds, because I was probably the best one to direct the brother and mother to both mine and Tegan’s homesteads. On the trip back, one that I am grateful to have survived, the truck stalled no less than 4 times, and I accidently directed a wrong turn when trying to navigate to two-track paths to Tegan’s place. We made two stops other than dropping off beds. One was to get gas, and the other was to pick up bananas at a road side stand. It felt very drive-thru-esk. One woman, among about ten, walked up to our vehicle with a platter of bunches of bananas. I decided to buy some as well, they were seriously the most delicious bananas I have ever eaten, and we were back on our slow comical journey. Upon returning home I found that electricity had been installed to my room, although, status quo for these parts, our area was in a black out. Go figure. In my comfy bed that night, although my sheets were being used as curtains (currently still hanging) and the electricity was not on, I felt like a Swaziland princess.

The past weekend I dove into my hut-improvement tasks! I ended up spackling and painting my walls. The color, when chosen in town, was a lighter bluish-green, but once mixed and applied to my walls became the most baby blue you ever saw. I affectionately call it “Riv. Blue”, because it is strikingly similar to my, highly missed, Buick Riviera’s color. My entire family was shocked that I knew how to paint, and would come in and watch me for a while. Multiple times I was asked why I did not have my 15 year old brother, Lindo, do it for me. A girl who knows how to paint… astounding! At the same time a Church of Christ revival was taking place in the homestead next to ours. I attended a night music service and the Sunday service to show community support and gain a cultural experience. I believe both were accomplished fully. Each lasted for 3 hours, but Thobile and I left a bit early on Sunday once the church’s finances and business started being discussed.

There was a second attempt to get a blog posted in Matata, another town, earlier last week, which was obviously foiled. Although this place is touted for its cleanliness of bathrooms, the only café with exceptional milkshakes AND wi-fi, and a decent Spar (grocery store) it will most likely not be my most visited shopping town. Getting to and from this “Westerner’s Mecca” was a hassle and possibly, euphemistically stated, an adventure. This bus ride was 2 hours of the dustiest, bumpiest, loudest, gravel roads, and that was just the ride there! I had been told, or misheard, the only bus’s departing time, and even that was a rush to get to on time, just to find out the bus had left an hour pervious! So I had to take the more expensive, but according to my family quicker, travel route via tar roads and multiple khumbis (van taxis). Shucks… if I only I knew what was in store…

Around 2pm I got into a khumbi and waited, and waited, and waited for it to fill with passengers so it could depart. In 40 minutes we were off to Lavumisa where I waited, and waited, and waited for yet another khumbi to fill to take me to a crossroads 3k South from my house. Once I reached that pointed I was planning on catching the last bus North at 3:45 to my stop and thus home. Well, at about 4:10pm we took off from Lavumisa, which meant no bus for me. With fan, bag of groceries, mop, and wonderful mail package in tote I walked the 3k to my house, no doubt either alarming and/or amusing my community members. I was offered a lift by a few nice drivers with people in their cab, another popular form of public transportation here, but due to PC policy, and concern for my safety, I am forbidden to use that method. Remember that this was the more expensive, but supposedly faster (almost 4hours later), route! Always finding the silver-lining, I had a wonderful HIV/AIDs discussion with the khumbi driver and the gentleman to my left (that was helping me hold my fan). I don’t need a classroom, just give me a long, overly packed khumbi ride! :-)

Finally, although there are multiple smaller moments full of meaning and seeping with insight, I wish to share my two visits to Umpagatsi. The Umpagatsi is the meeting place, located on the chief’s homestead, where the weekly inner council (town council) meeting and community meetings occur. Both last Wednesday and yesterday I attended said meetings, although relying heavily on volunteers to translate for me. Last week I was officially introduced to the community. I was allowed to stand and say a few words (all very broken siSwati), which were welcomed with surprise, laughter, and applause. I also met individuals who worked with other health groups like World Vision and PSI. This week I was in for a real “treat”. A health group outside our community was there to do HIV/AIDs testing and education, and with them was a traditional cultural delicacy – boiled cow’s head (for the men) and boiled cow’s intestines (for the women). I can report that… I tried my best. After multiple bites of the intestines, always followed quickly with bites of cooked maize meal, I had to throw in the towel (better than throwing up) and as discretely as possible pass off my now cold plate of food onto my Swazi counterpart. Gold star for effort, but not even liking sausage, I just couldn’t quite do it.

Tomorrow will be my third attempt at posting. Either “third time’s a charm” or “three strikes and you’re out”. We will see. I will be in Mbabane for a bon voyage party at the PC office for an awesome APCD that will sadly be leaving us. I am spending the night at a hostel, so hopefully between the two days I will get a chance to jump into an internet café for five minutes! Fingers crossed.

I love you all very VERY much (especially the soon to be married couple – you know how much you mean to me)! Take Care all!

Darryn/Zodwa

Welcome Wagon = Massive Spider!!

Sat. Aug. 29^th, 2009

6:03pm

“Hey Lucy, I’m home!!” (New name of my pet spider :-P ). As my title suggests, I arrived to my new, permanent site yesterday and found a MASSIVE spider (about the size of my face – legs included) on the side of the family’s house!! This was moments after I told my APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director), the person who chose me for my site and was helping deliver me here, how perfect this site was and how excited I was to be here. I quickly turned around and retracted ALL of those statements!!! The APCD asked my new brother if it was his pet and if he had a name for it. My brother replied, “Spider”. One of the many examples of how jokes are one of the hardest things to translate, and don’t even try sarcasm!

Other than Lucy (who luckily I have not seen recently), there were a few more surprising additions to the family when I came home. My bhuti has a new puppy and my older sisi with her two kids are here visiting for an unknown period of time! She has an eight month old boy and a six year old girl. We are a full house! It makes me feel a bit guilty having my room (~5m diameter) all to myself. Although that is not a lot of space, it seems quite cavernous with only me, a few bags, a few buckets, a million books/papers (remember I am working for the government ;-) ), and a grass mat for a bed. This will all change “fairly” soon (Swazi time), when the Martha Stuart part of me surfaces Jekyll/Hyde-style. I know, scary thought, huh? But it’s true! Tuesday, because Monday is a national holiday, many of us volunteers down here in the Shiselweni region are going into Nhlangano (possible new shopping town West of my site) to buy a bed and other “nesting” necessities with our settling-in allowance. This is where it gets scary for everyone who knows me, brace yourself --- I am also planning on buying wall paint, fabric to make curtains, wood and rope for hanging shelves, dowels to construct a make-shift closet and to hang my mosquito net, Velcro to craft removable bug screens with an old mosquito net acquired from the office, and a duvet cover! I’m turning all crafty here in Africa and actually looking forward to the transformation! My hut is going to be so frickin’ awesome!

This “settling-in bug” has overcome all of us, so in a few months we really should do a Parade of Huts. :-) As for basic furniture (i.e. cooking table), I would really like to find someone in my community with carpentry skills. I could attempt to make them myself but lack the tools, and they are usually more expensive in town with transportation costs and such. Plus, this is one way I can assist a member of the community financially. Finding said person is a goal that may take some asking around, which equals more community integration, perfect!

Speaking of integrating, I have made new friends! Granted, they are all under the age of 10 and don’t speak any English, but they LOVE the new sport of Frisbee throwing! After being somewhat productive in my hut (can’t do much ‘til I shop for supplies), I decided to play with a group of kids outside. They had never seen, held, or thrown a Frisbee in their lives, so the game quickly became toss/pick-up Frisbee within a 3m circle. My Make came out and even threw it a few times. I asked my bhuti if he would like to play, and I believe he quickly made up a chore he had to do at the river. Either playing with young kids is universally an un-cool thing for teenage boys to do, or he was embarrassed to play with the socially awkward, female, American volunteer. Oh well, next time. :-)

I know this entry won’t be in chronological order, but I should rewind and tell you all about Mbabane and the day I became an officially sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer! Mbabane is teeny-tiny compared to my idea of American “city”, but I think it was a bit bigger than I had expected. There is a rather large bus/taxi rank in the heart of the business district surrounded by a few malls. No, these are nothing like the Mall of America ;-) No Aerie or Younkers or JC Penny, but these mostly one story shopping centers do have a KFC, some poor quality clothing and retail businesses, multiple foreign-owned electronic goods shops, and large chain grocery stores. (Shelby- you wouldn’t survive :-P) The city spreads out from there, but not much more in the way of commerce. I will get to know Mbabane better in the future because it is the location of the PC Office.

On Thursday (Aug. 27^th) I felt like a girl getting ready for a high school Homecoming Dance! There was multiple people getting ready in one bathroom, make-up, hair supplies, and no one could put on their clothes without assistance! Traditional male and female clothing are quite similar. They both consist of a long piece of fabric wrapped and tied around the bottom half and a thinner, usually more ornate (sometimes with the King’s picture, crown, shield, or other interesting designs) interestingly tied on top. I use the word “interestingly” because although it is only one knot by the left shoulder, I don’t think I could replicate it without Swazi assistance. :-) Both men and women can wear the traditional beaded necklace which consists of two rectangular beaded designs (usually the Swaziland Flag), but only the men get the privilege of wearing animal skin – a flap in front and a flap in back – as well as carrying the snake beating stick. Married women have to cover their head with a scarf and their skirt is long, black, and pleated. I can’t wait to load some pictures of us onto this blog, because the majority of us dressed up traditional for this big event!

Being higher in elevation, Mbabane was quite chilly during our outdoor, tented ceremony. There were dignitaries and tv cameras present, many group 6 volunteers, our entire training and office staff, as well as a cat that kept walking through the chairs. Our Country Director, the president of NERCHA, a representative from the royal family, a regional government leader, a rep from the Ministry of Public Health, a rep from the American Embassy, and two of our volunteers gave speeches. The Queen Mother is a HUGE supporter of Peace Corps and was supposed to be there, but with the National Reed Dance (major national holiday/event) coming up this next week she was occupied. Lunch was fantastic and many photos were taken throughout the entire day. I am no longer a trainee, but a true-blue Peace Corps Volunteer!! (Insert Cheesy Photo-Op Smile) :-) The next day places me in a loaded caravan (think Tetris on steroids with pick-up trucks that look like they are about to fall apart) to our respective sites. Which places me meeting a spider, some new family members, and then skipping ahead to tonight where I just finished some popcorn (my new family likes my popcorn too – made some last night) and am finishing up this blog while sitting on my blanket covered grass mat/temporary bed. With that thought I will call it a night and go to bed. Ngiyolala = I am going to sleep. Hugs and kisses (for those who want them) :-)!