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!