Sunday 4 October 2009
6:22pm
As I write this blog post, I can hear my family cheering and laughing in the house. They are watching the second most popular sport in Swaziland (just shy of soccer): American “if these moves were real we would be dead 50 times a night” Wrestling (WWE). In training, we were warned never to question the validity of this “sport” because we would instantly be ostracized and maybe even exiled from our communities! Well, now yours truly has to integrate into a culture that LOVES wrestling. By the end of my 2 years I will not only know how to fight HIV/AIDS in a developing county, I will also be able to name all the men, wearing less fabric than my bikini over their gloss spritzed muscles, who can “pile drive” and “nut crush” and “clothes line” and … whatever. Yay for me. ** I apologize to any readers who enjoy WWE and are annoyed or upset at my sarcasm … sort of.** :-)
COMPLETELY different topic, but somehow able to be worked into the title, is Christianity. I have been having difficulty wrapping my head around the religiosity of my community and the majority of Swaziland. Please, in no way do I want to sound or be deemed judgmental. I just want to share this struggle. Approaching the topics of religion and politics can be considered taboo in America, depending on your company. In Swaziland, approaching the topic of politics can and will land you in jail if it against the King, but religion is as much a “small talk” topic as the weather is. For example, while walking with my sisi a few men, purely in greeting, asked if we were “saved”. Just shy of 100% of Swazis are Christian. Almost everyone’s (including the youth) favorite music is gospel. Although the community I was raised in had little diversity when it came to religion, and was mostly Christian, this is a somewhat shocking experience. The best way I can explain it is to say that I always feel like it is “over the top”. Personally, it is so present in everything that it seems like an energizing, fun routine or social expectation.
Being Christian myself, I thought this would be a wonderful entry point for me to bring up and justify safe practices regarding HIV/AIDs! Surprisingly and very frustratingly, this is not always the case. Having multiple sex partners, both in and out of marriage, is a contributing factor to the spread of HIV. Definitely not Christian!! But I have heard people who attempt to justify promiscuous actions based on their “Swazi culture” (traditionally polygamous), even though promiscuity does not follow Christianity OR a true polygamy. Pre-marital sex is anti-Christian, yet to get a woman pregnant out of wed-lock is more common than not. It is like a step in the courting process, sort of equivalent to an engagement ring. It lays claim for a possible future “union”. Homosexuality is against the law and punishable under that law, but faithlessness/adultery is a non-spoken social norm. Being inundated with gospel music, 3-5 hour church services, and salvation bus conversations could energize and boost my faith, but instead it leaves me struggling to sort out the oxymoron of “cultural Christianity”.
On a lighter note: I would like to close this entry with a verbal Polaroid. The other day there was a moment that I soooo wished was captured on film, but alas, no camera in sight. Thus, with my limited writing skills, I will attempt to paint you the picture. One of my two older female siblings has a 6 year old girl and a 7mon old baby boy. Both are a handful and constant attention seekers, so I, being a dutiful Aunt (“Make Lomcane” in siSwati = Small Mother) help feed their fire. On this occasion I volunteered to carry and walk the baby. I did it Swazi style – on my back and tied on with a blanket. :-) After we collected my laundry off the line and attempted to help my Make shuck the dried corn (making me feel rather domestic), the dog jumped up on my leg and I petted him behind the ears. SNAPSHOT!! There is my perfect family portrait, or for some reason that is what crossed my mind at the time. Yes, it has occurred to me that this shot has some flaws. It is minus 1 husband, has a child quite obviously stolen, and my bhuti would cry if I tried to claim his dog, but come on - work with me here. :-) It seems to me like a borrowed and pieced together picture of a possible future self. Yikes! Haha.
Well, thanks for reading my rants and tangents. Sorry to those who can’t follow my random train of thought, and even greater apology to those who can! :-P Free virtual hugs for all!
I have been getting a few questions about the types of wild life that I have encountered. Monkeys are by far the most interesting. All of the big animals are protected in the National Gamer Reserves, which I certainly hope to visit after integration (off of hut arrest :P). Scary note: I killed a baby scorpion in my room a few days ago. Yikes. 'Tis the season. :-/ 
Here is a better picture of the traditional attire I wore at my swear-in ceremony at the end of August. Both the bottom and top pieces of fabric are tied on. Happily, we had no wardrobe malfunctions that day.
This is my first Swazi home in Embasheni and the cuties that were always around. My hut now is round with thatched roofing, but I have yet to take a good picture, sorry. I'll get on that soon. 
A fun self-timed photo (thanks to training by Kevan :-P) of some crazy PCVs during training. Surprisingly, the couch did not break.
The bugs are HUGE!!! All insects seems to be at least 2-3 times larger than they should be, but I haven't found one that was too big to kill with a shoe. Once that day arrives... I'm leaving!! Haha.
