12:44pm
It is very good to be home. I left site on April 25th with the intention of coming back once our Close of Service Conference finished on the 30th. As plans usually change in Africa, I didn’t return until May 10th! I am happy to report, though, that the books have arrived, all 30,000 of them are sorted, and they have been delivered to their expectant and excited schools.
Peace Corps treated us very well for our finally conference. We stayed at an establishment named Forrester’s Arms located about 25km away from the capitol city. I was gorgeous, had the BEST food I have ever had, and was situated in a very rare oak grove. With the trees changing colors due to the winter season approaching I got my first taste of Fall in two years!! All of the volunteers felt very spoiled and didn’t want to leave after our sessions ended. Many of these informative meetings did not pertain to me or my fellow extending volunteers, but we stashed the handouts and information to be used next year.
Right in the middle of our workshop Brooke and I were given the news that the books had finally arrived in Swaziland and would need to be unloaded Friday morning at the very latest! Our conference was wrapping up that morning, but everyone was heading to the office afterward to attend our Country Director’s ring out ceremony and farewell party. While others were enjoying tea and scones during breaks Brooke and I were on our phones trying to get an unloading crew together. Amazing as our friends are, we had 8 people go with us to meet the gigantic train cart filled with 20 pallets or 632 boxes of books. It is still shocking that we got all of the boxes off the very high truck and into the very small warehouse area in less than 2 hours. Our muscles were sore, we were bruised and cardboard scratched, but they had finally landed. We could get them sorted and out in a week… not. Gavin, the manager of the warehouse, informed us that it was the Swazi Labour Day Weekend and thus we were not allowed to start sorting until Tuesday. Any other weekend of the year we could work, but since this was a “workers holiday” we weren’t allowed. It was going to be more expensive for me and Brooke to go home and back then staying the few days in another volunteer’s place, so we were stuck. We got some preliminary strategies outlined for how we were going to tackle the monster and caught up on the media stored in our computers. :-)
Tuesday arrived and so did our volunteer sorting crew. Tuesday and Wednesday were very very long days. We came across boxes and boxes of “War Planes” and “Life in a Desert”. Getting these books dispersed amongst the schools and playing the largest, hardest game of Tetris ever imagined were quite challenging. Our space was so limited that we couldn’t create 30 groupings of boxes until some of the stock was diminished. We couldn’t diminish the stock until we had groupings for the schools. Calling it Tetris is actually an understatement. Somehow we busted through it and having unloaded on a separate day and working hard we got done sorting a day early! Friday was a wonderful break for all of us to go into the office, participate in a Group 6 friend’s ring out ceremony, get town tasks done, and avoid all mention of the written word.
Saturday the first group of schools came to pick up their books. Many schools had decided to re-schedule their pick-up time when it landed on a Saturday, so we were done early afternoon on Saturday. We took advantage of that free time to visit the single movie theatre in Swaziland. None of us were familiar with the movies being shown, but we decided to see “Thor”. I got popcorn. :-P
There were no school pick-ups scheduled for Sunday, because generally this is considered the day to attend church. Our sorting crew took this time to get our own things done. I ran, did laundry, and talked to my Mom on Mother’s Day. Toward the evening we decided to climb part of the small mountain on the outskirts of the community we were staying in and build a fire next to the most gorgeous and serene waterfall in Swaziland. We came prepared with hotdogs and s’more-esk ingredients (there are not any real graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate, or non-flavored marshmallows). The waterfall crashes into a calm pool of water before skirting around the boulders damming it and continuing its travels down the mountain. It is widely believed that there is a seven headed snake that lives in this watering hole (to learn more read “Swimming with the Seven Headed Snake” blog entry). Other than the remains of thoroughly used candles for what we imagine are religious practices, there was no sign of human or snake life. We, thus, decided to go for a midnight (actually around 9pm), candlelit swim. It was freezing, but after 2 minutes of hating the individual that suggested the dive I absolutely loved it!
Monday and Tuesday were blissfully uneventful. The schools came mostly “on time”, and the books were dispersed throughout the nation. Tuesday afternoon I raced to catch my last bus home. Now the hard work begins. :-) Tomorrow I start making my rounds to the Ekuphumleni schools and make for sure that the books are being processed, shelved, and inevitably used by children!
I am so very grateful to all of you who helped fund this amazing project! I also have to give a shout out to all of the volunteers who helped with the sorting, the workshop, and those who got their schools involved with the project. Lastly and most importantly, my partner in this magnanimous endeavor made this not only possible but an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Thank you all so much!!
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