Arrival & Training in Swaziland!

5:30pm Friday June 26th
I’m here and loving it! My group is absolutely awesome, and I doubt I will have a problem interacting/working/traveling/Peace Crops-ing with them for the next couple years. Danielle – there is someone from Livonia, MI in my group!!! What are the chances of that!?! Now let me update you all on the longest commute to work of my life!!! J
Our flight was awfully long, but not that bad. I watched three movies – Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Reader, and most of Seven Pounds. My seat neighbor and roommate for the next week, Ashley, had to fill me in on the end of Seven Pounds, because that was the part that made the entire movie make sense!! Anyway, loved playing with my airplane food (as always), and got a small amount of sleep. We pulled into Johannesburg Airport around 5pm (Africa time= six hours ahead of Michigan time) and had NO luggage stolen or lost! Jo’Burg really did not look a whole lot different than an American big city – all English signs, McDonalds/Shell Gas Station/KFC right next to the hotel, beautiful and large airport, and a charter bus waiting for us outside the door. We slept at City Lodge Hotel, Jo’Burg, South Africa that night after eating Japanese sushi for probably the last time in a long while.
The next morning it was on our bus at 8:30am for the 5+ hour drive to Swaziland! Our Training Manager, Assistant Peace Corps Director, and two Peace Corps Volunteers (PVC) met us at the airport and made this journey with us. Dad – one PVC was the individual you had me contact via e-mail. J Ourselves and our stuff made it once again through customs (more stamps on my government issued passport!!), and we made it to our training compound in the northern most tip of Swaziland – Ngonini. Our training site is actually a Lutheran School of some sort, very small, but it has electricity and hot showers!!! We have had a couple days of cultural/safety training and Q&A sessions with the current PCVs, but nothing too big yet. I played Catch Phrase with many trainees today while paying tribute to the late Michael Jackson by playing his songs on my speakers. None of us really knows who received that information, but it got to us nonetheless. RIP MJ.
Shelby- my room is a mess and I am blaming you!! You did such a good job of packing all my stuff I can’t find anything! J Thus, it is now strewn around our very humble living quarters. Hahaha. I will have to re-pack what I need for training into one bag by Tuesday, so it is not such a bad circumstance. On Tuesday or Wednesday of next week we move to our homestead in our new learning communities. We will live with a family for the two months while training with smaller groups in our area. This will make learning the language and culture much easier, but of course we all enjoy and might miss the safety net of having us all together here. In all honesty, it feels like Swazi Summer Camp instead of job training at the moment. I think the move to a homestead will let it sink in more.
Tomorrow we are heading to the closest “city” which is where I will be posting this blog from. It is a field trip and shopping adventure. We all found a few things that we need to purchase that just was not on those lists (crazy thought huh?!) or things we forgot. We were also given a walk around stipend for this purpose.
A few things I have learned so far-
~ In Swaziland, never hand someone something or accept something with your left hand (only used for hygiene purposes) – our lefties are going to have difficulty with this one.
~ You need to write “PVC” on any package or mail you send me, because PC gets fewer fees and easier custom passage than others do. So I might get it faster!!! -- I will be receiving my mail here at training, so keep sending it to the Mbabane address. AND write AFRICA in big letters… some things are getting sent to Switzerland first.
~ I love the music that I have gotten a few minutes to listen to from family and friends!! Thanks bunches!
~ I will be getting a cell phone in August! It is much cheaper for you to buy a card than for me to use air minutes… not cheap, but cheaper. :-/
~ The malaria prophylaxis that I took this morning will more than likely give me vivid dreams tonight!

I think those are certainly nuggets of wisdom for everyone! J I don’t know the next time we are going into the “city” for internet, but I hope to keep blogging on my computer. Then I can upload all the entries next time I get internet. I love you all tons!