Friday, December 3, 2010

Tibati - Swazi Delicacy :-/

If someone tells me I have not fully integrated into the Swazi culture, I'm going to show them these pictures. This past Wednesday I roamed the bush with my older bhuti, Sandile, and his daughter, Neliswa, to capture over 80 of the largest caterpillars I have ever seen! In siSwati they are called "tibati", and this is the time of the year that they are out in full swing. If left alone to their own natural development they turn into little white butterflies. But no, we did not allow this to occur. They were captured so I could learn how to properly make them. I'll let the photos do most of the talking. Start at the last picture and work up. I don't know why they loaded backwards.


Yum... NOT! The following morning at 6am Sandile brought them out and then everyone watched as I ate some. They tasted chewy, salty, and just plain gross. My family also made me get a dish from my hut so I could save some for Laura who was coming over later that day. She tried a couple, but we gave the rest to the BoMake at the preschool.



Sandile put water and lots of salt in with the de-gutted wormy shells. Then they were boiled over the fire until all the water evaporated and the entire caterpillar became dry. Supposedly they tasted better cooled the next day, so I got out of eating them that night. THANK GOD, my stomach probably couldn't have handled them just then.


Yuck.


Lindo was the only one willing to help me in my task of beheading and squeezing out the insides of ALL the catch, and even he came at the end. This was my own personal Fear Factor Swaziland.


This is my new garden, which is growing actually Darryn-edible food! There is a small chili visible and it makes me sooooo happy. Sandile has promised to look after my baby plants while I'm at the youth camp for three weeks. Yay veggies!

33¢ Can Send a Book to a Swazi Child

November 29, 2010
10:24am

Hello Everyone! It has been many years since I showed up on your doorstep with my Girl Scout uniform on selling cookies, or discount cards for choir, or wrapping paper for school field trips, or any number of fundraising goodies to support my own educational opportunities. Now I’m figuratively knocking on your door for the educational opportunities of 60,000+ children all over Swaziland. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with another Peace Corps Volunteer to get a shipment of 30,000 books sent from the US to Swaziland to start or improve 30 rural school or community libraries. To accomplish this goal, I need your help.

We invited Peace Corps volunteers to distribute the application forms to all of their schools that would be interested in receiving 1,000 books for their library, a 1 day training for the teacher/librarian, AND the opportunity to travel to the nearest National Branch Library to observe, learn, and form a resource connection with their nearest professional librarian. Thirty schools and community institutions were chosen this past week out of these applications to participate in this program. Three of those applications are from my personal community: Makhava Primary School, Zamokuhle Primary School, and Hlushwana Primary School. I notified the Head Teachers this morning, and during one phone call I heard the Deputy Head Teacher in the background saying, “We are SO HAPPY!!” Of course, so am I. :-)

This project is not without its contribution from the schools. During the long, end of year / summer / holiday break (Dec 3rd – Jan 23rd) all the schools will be working hard to clean out and improve a secure space for the books, construct shelving, and meet with their newly formed committees to discuss library operations and policies. At the beginning of the new term, each school must contribute E1,500 (~ $200) for the training accommodations, book storage building while we sort the shipment, and the in-country expenses for the books (ie Customs). The Peace Corps Volunteer and appointed school librarian will take a trip during February to the nearest National Library, where they will fill out a form of questions to make sure they receive the experience needed to peak interest, motivation, dedication, and learn new skills for this project. Tentatively the training, which is one of my contributions to the organizing of this project, is scheduled for February 25th.

While all that is going on in Swaziland, we are hoping and praying that our family, friends, neighbors, previous co-workers, and complete strangers donate as little or as much as they can to get those books, which everyone is working hard for the arrival of, onto the library shelves of Swaziland schools. Honestly, 33¢ can get one book (like the favorites: “If You Give a Mouse A Cookie” or “The Runaway Rabbit” or “insert your favorite childhood book”) into the hands of little ones who currently know books and reading materials as boring text books or, sadly but true, toilet paper in the pit latrines! How many childhood favorites could you share? Another way to think about it is that $1 will get all 30,000 books 1 mile closer to Swaziland! How far could you get them?

If you can help in this huge and amazing project, which I feel blessed to be a part of, go to www.peacecorps.gov and click on the link to “Donate to a Volunteer Project”. You can search for this project by country (Swaziland) or by Volunteer (Golden from TX). Every penny goes toward this project and it is also tax refundable! The books get shipped out as soon as the money is raised. All I want for Christmas is THIS! Save postage on an international Christmas card and help get a massive crate of books 1 mile closer!

From the 912 kids in my 3 schools alone – Thank You!


School children in front of Makhava Primary School


The empty classroom that will be renovated and turned into a beautiful library at Makhava Primary School!!!!

Whole New Meaning to “Black Friday”

December 2nd, 2011
10:02am

Happy Belated Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble! Although turkeys would be considered an endangered species in Swaziland, and you can not find one in any of the grocery stores, I feasted on Thanksgiving! Like last year, all of the volunteer’s were in town for the annual All Volunteer Conference. I had been in Mbabane for a few days before that helping with the Group 8’s In-Service Training and seeing off two of the most wonderful volunteers who sadly had to go back to the States. All of the work and emotions that went into the first days of the week transformed into a fantastic, joyous celebration at the Ambassador’s house for a day of gratitude and thanksgiving. Some of the PC staff even found some turkeys in South Africa! I don’t know who won the Lion’s game, or which floats were best in the Macy’s parade, but I had a blast with the Americans in Swaziland.

The following day, “Black Friday”, was going to be my day to travel back to site. Before I left the capital, I had to run a few errands. One of them was to visit the Mozambique Embassy to get a visa for a trip we’re planning for January. The Embassy is about a 15-20minute walk outside of the center of Mbabane, just off one of the largest, most travelled roads in Swaziland. Two trips were made, once to drop off the passports, and the second to bring back a receipt from the bank deposit. During the second trip there we got cat calls from a group of guys working at a scrap metal drop off site. We decided to walk on the other side of the road on the way back into town to avoid our admirers.

Just before reaching that point on our trip back two guys grabbed the purse that Ali was carrying on her shoulder. They ripped the shoulder straps right off and yelled “F#@K YOU B$T#@ES!”. Then they ran across the street into bushes that covered the side of the hill running down from the street. That purse held both mine and Ali’s phones, wallets, passports, and my planner! We instantly started yelling “Inyandzaleyo!”, which is like yelling “HELP!!!”, and flagged down a khumbi and white car that was just came around the corner. The driver and passenger jumped out of the khumbi, men from the side of the road jumped over the guard rail, and about 5 men from the scrap metal place started running down the hill after them while about 5 others stayed where they were to watch the assailants from the higher vantage point and guide those who were in pursuit. Where we were stand up on the sidewalk we couldn’t see anything. The white vehicle that stopped behind the khumbi happened to be an off duty police officer! We were told to stay with him. The guys kept yelling something that at the time I heard as “Meat! Meat!”, but realized later was the same word as “Black! Black!”, because the one of the guys was wearing a black top and black shorts. The police officer than transported us to the Swaziland Water Corporation (or something like that), which was located at the bottom of the hill. There, he ran into the woods and two guys from that business jumped on motor bikes to track down the thieves. Again, we were told not to go anywhere and wait. We had no idea if they were caught or not.

My concept of time during this surreal event is anything but accurate. So, after some time a mob of men came with the thief that was wearing all black… and our purse! The police officer then asked if there was one or two guys. We confirmed that there were two guys, and the other was wearing red shorts. Many of the men reacted to this statement. Supposedly, during the chase the thief wearing red shorts told the others that he was also in pursuit of the one in black. Unbeknownst to us at the time was the fact that many of the chasers knew those being chased, because they were all from the same area. This deceit really angered everyone.

With our purse back, we instantly called our Safety and Security Officer from Peace Corps. What really rattled our nerves and continues to be the worst part of this experience is what happened next. Until that day I had never seen mob justice first hand, and I never wish to again. They started beating the thief. We screamed for them to stop. We were laughed at by the crowd that was witnessing the punishment. After not eliciting any change or support, we had to retreat behind a small building. Out of site, but not far enough to be out of earshot, we had to listen to it until Babe came. We believe at one point a stick was used.

Babe came and we ran for his vehicle begging, like children, for him to stop the crowd. We got in the back seats of his truck, and shut the doors to shut out the sounds. Much later we discussed this happening. In our observations, corporal punishment is very present. I once asked my family about the difference between abuse and punishment. They said that to hit with your hand is abuse, but to hit with an appropriately sized swatch (the older the child the wider the stick) is okay. We also discussed the fact that Swazis do not have faith in their prison system. One man at the scene, when we told them we’d rather have him go to jail than be beaten, said that he will just walk right out of jail and do the same thing tomorrow. Another factor might have been the reoccurrence of robberies around the area. Not on the main road, mind you, not many robberies happen at 12:30pm on a super frequented road, but on the dirt road to the Water Services building some Make’s had also had their purses stolen. This could have been the community punishing the perpetrator or sending a message to the others.

Babe took us to the police station, but was flagged down just after getting on the main road. They found the guy wearing red shorts. I guess they don’t have bars in a police vehicle like we do in America, because they threw him in the trunk. When we arrived we met with multiple police officers, including the off duty officer, and the Security officer from the American Embassy. They took both of our statements, though they stopped our statement at the point the mob came up with the apprehended boy. I tried to asked in a very roundabout way, whether we should continue to include the arrival of our Security Officer and the apprehension of the boy in red shorts. I took the cue from our Security Officer and dropped the subject. Later, he said that those incidents would never show up in official documentation, especially since the off-duty officer was present. He stated that the mob justice would have probably been much worse without him there, which I think was an attempt to quench the rising anger and rebellion I was feeling toward one of our recent saviors. The full story was to be reported in is official Peace Corps report. I dropped it. The police decided that they wanted to try to get the thieves on trial as soon as possible. This could have had something to do with the PC and embassy reps with us, or the fact that I mentioned how far away I lived. Probably the first time in Swaziland’s history, the trail was held on the same day at 4:30pm in conjunction with an already scheduled trial for fraud. Another move occurred, this time to the Magistrate’s Court where we were met by our Country Director.

They brought the guys, which now that we were close to them we realized they were just boys at 19 years old, to the court. We were asked to sit outside the room until we were called in. Since they both plead guilty we were never called in to testify. Their punishment was either to pay a large sum of money right there, which they couldn’t, or go to jail for 10 months. Being only a few feet away from the boys that just tried to rob you and are thus sentenced to 10 months behind bars is the most awkward, uncomfortable feeling ever. I just pray that they learn from this ordeal, and they are not affected in a negative way in the prison.

Our country director drove us from the court straight to her house, insisting that we should eat at her house (we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast) because our previous plan to order a pizza would take hours. After being well fed she took us to the backpackers that we spent the night at. It was an exhausting day and we quickly crashed; I got to return home the next morning.

Now those of you who are now more insistent on me jumping on a plane and coming home because of this situation, I have to bring your attention to a few facts. One is that these were two boys pumped up on adolescent stupidity and adrenaline enacting a classic grab-and-run, NOT armed or dangerous. This could have happened anywhere in the world. We were instantly assisted by a TON of people, which I doubt would have happened in Detroit, Chicago, New York or any other American city. I’m FINE and will continue to be so because of smart and safe choices I make while in Swaziland.


*** I apologize if there are major grammatical or spelling errors in this post because Laura is coming up to my house NOWNOW! We are painting letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc on the preschool in my community today!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Halloween & Black Thumb

Nov. 11th, 2010
6:28pm

I know Halloween was last month’s holiday, but I had quite a bit of fun with the Health Club kids that Friday before, so I want to share. Halloween is not celebrated in Swaziland. Unlike other cultures who celebrate a non-Americanized version of All Souls / All Saints Day, Swazis don’t dedicate a day to celebrating the lives of their dead. Their tradition rests in ancestor worship but is not seen much in modern daily living. It is more present in traditional ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. Nonetheless, there isn’t a day where kids get to dress up and mooch candy off of neighbors. :-P In an attempt to share this culturally important holiday in America (ranking in difficulty to explaining Groundhog’s Day) I brought a mini-Halloween party to my Health Club kids on October 29th. After we reviewed the lesson on TB prevention and treatment, I posted a couple decorations on the board. Then after a difficult and poorly translated version of how and why we celebrate Halloween (in which I’m not 100% sure) they lined up and individually said “Trick or Treat”! To “dress up” we put a Halloween themed sticker on our faces. The line would quickly move to a different “house”, or corner of the room, and then they repeated the procedure for a few sweets. That happened a couple times, to be concluded with a line round of “What would you want to dress up as if you could?” Many kids replied with a profession they thought would be neat to work at, while others decided a spider would be more Halloween appropriate. It was a blast all the way around! So, Happy Belated Halloween everyone! “Trick or Treat” from Swaziland!

The last couple of weeks have been nice but somewhat scattered. The Books for Swaziland Project is in full swing both locally and nationally. Brooke, the PCV who is organizing the national program with me, came over last week to bust out some planning details. We will begin the selection process next Friday, and hopefully the donor webpage (on www.peacecorps.gov under partnership projects) will be available early December. All three of my primary schools applied, which meant I ran around for the last couple weeks instructing professional teachers about the basics of properly filling out a proposal application. That was a bit frustrating, but they are all finished and will be delivered by yours truly to Mbabane tomorrow.

I have also started a small vegetable garden…. Yes, I heard that collective gasp!! At the moment there are only a kick-butt fence and 6 tomato seedlings, but next week the plan is to purchase a few more varieties of seedlings and possibly attempt to construct a compost pile. Aunt Mainy – you might need to be on speed dial/email for this one. :-P This is not the best time to plant veggies in my community, too hot and too many insects, but it has been a goal of mine since coming. I figure I’ll make a million kagillion mistakes this round, blame it on the weather, and then try again when it cools down a bit. :-P As always, I am providing massive amounts of entertainment and gossip for my community members. Today I was asked if people “weed” in America? Any time I pick up a gardening tool and start using it people are shocked that I know what I’m doing (in all honesty, I am too!). Buh bye black thumb… hello blisters!!

By the way, if you try to call me and I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth, I apologize and try again in a while. My phone tried to be an Olympic swimmer for a moment and now I can’t keep it charged for more than 2 hours and less if I’m actually using it. Thus, I’m golden when it is gulping electricity from my homestead, but not if I’m gone. I am finally coming to grips with the fact that I will need to buy a new phone, but this probably won’t happen until next month. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Friday, October 15, 2010

K & E Birthday Adventure Tour

October 10th, 2010 (*)
4:55pm

(*) – October 10th was the day the writing of this tale began. It took multiple days and many bulleted notes to finish this literary work. I would like to thank Kevan, Evan (for obvious reasons), and my planner “Franky” (in which the notes and itinerary of this adventure were jotted); without them this blog entry would never have happened. :-P

Introduction
I’m about to attempt the impossible. How can I possibly put into a blog entry all of the fantastic and amazing details of the Kevan and Evan Adventure Tour?! I will try my best, and photographic backup will be coming, but won’t be available for awhile (**).

Chapter 1

My vacation away from site started a week before the guys hit African soil. I was in Mbabane for our mid-service physical exams. This was not too torturous of a process, but I don’t care to repeat it any time soon. FYI – All tests came back negative! I’m healthy and without parasites, TB, and other not so nice infections. Other amazing PCVs were there with me, so we enjoyed the free lodging in the capitol city and the free evenings!

Since my birthday landed on the Saturday after the mid-service physicals, I was in town already. That day happened to be the monthly Baylor Teen Club meeting, so I spent the day with around 150 kids! They even sang “Happy Birthday” to me. How precious! In the evening I went to stay with some group 6 volunteers who had a movie night in the works. They made a cake and I made a cheese tray… perfect. :-) Throughout the day family and friends from the States gave me a call to pass along their good wishes. You would think that there was no way my birthday could get any better, but in the weeks to come I would find out differently. Thank you so much everyone.

While the guys were flying from the States, which seems like a never ending flight no matter which side of it you’re on, I was working my way up to the border gate that they were going to pass through on Monday September 20th. A new, and wonderful, PCV who lives near the border let me crash at her place Sunday night. Monday morning I was waiting at the border for glimpses of my first visitors from home and new travel companions for the following two weeks!

Chapter 2

Just moments after crossing the Swazi border (Ngwenya/Osheok), after the welcome hugs and customs questions of course, we started right in on the tourist activities. Ngwenya Glass was our first stop. There we were able to watch, from a walkway, men transform malleable, molten glass into all sizes and shapes of figurines, vases, and wine glasses. The glass they use is all recycled and turned in by community members to make a little money and reduce the amount of broken beer bottles on the side of the road. Other shops were perused and Swazi crafts and collectables were admired.

From Ngwenya, at the Northwestern corner of the country, we drove into Mbabane so I could run a couple quick errands and pick up food for that evening. The next Swazi destination was Hlane Game Reserve in the Northeastern corner of the country, near the Mozambique border. With a trusted guide named Senzo and a legit safari vehicle, we went out in search of some African animals. Within minutes we were instructed to get out. By a watering hole there were TONS of rhinos. We got way closer to them than I felt comfortable with! :-/ A crocodile and hippos were also spotted at this stop. Once we were back in the 4x4 Range Rover we came across even more animals: warthogs, impala, kudu, and ostrich to name a few. Then it was time to go into the Lion section of the park! We discussed how perfect the Jurassic Park theme song would be if played just then. :-P

Quite a distance away we saw a baby lion leaning against a fence. Other than that sighting we did not spot the illusive Kings and Queens of the jungle, but we had quite an experience with the largest animals in the kingdom. At one point we were practically surrounded by elephants of all sizes! We sat there for a long time just watching these amazing creatures. There was even a two week old baby! Senzo thought it would not be wise for me to try and cuddle with her, and the guys would not help me get her out of the park so I had to just look at the little cutie. :-P Once we decided to leave our big eared friends, Senzo warned us that our departure might anger a particularly protective Mamma. Sure enough, the moment we crawled closer to pass her she charged THROUGH a tree and chased us for a short sprint! We bolted with a full grown elephant on our tail!! Awesome.

The following few hours were spent on a Darryn/Zodwa guided trip down the Eastern side of the country toward my community and my home. The guys got a Swazi 5 Star lodging experience the next two nights at my fully inclusive hut hotel. :-) We spent the first night celebrating my birthday thanks to my personal currier service. My fantastic friends, Matt and Danielle, sent a surprise b-day gift with the guys as well as Kevan’s great gifts! We then proceeded to play with my fun and silly gifts (especially a strobe bouncy ball) and Kevan’s pimped out camera for the remainder of the evening. Quite the full and fun first day of vacation!

Kevan and Evan woke up on their second day in Swaziland in my hut. We took turns bucket bathing (yup- definitely 5 star!). When I came out, I found the two of them stacking concrete blocks with my older bhuti, Sandile. :-) They were in a working mood and I took advantage of that! We picked up Laura and Brandon, fetched some paint supplies (totally taking advantage of having a car!!!), and all started working on a set of bus stop murals! The messages planned for these stops happened to be promoting condom use, and had 5 cartoon condoms stating their usefulness and comfort! :-P The guys were great sports, and we all laughed at how HIV/AIDS education work really breaks down social and conversational barriers pretty dang quickly. Ha!

From a full day of painting (and quick mail run to Hluti – God Bless rental cars!) we went to visit my second host family, the Broodryks. Although I warned the gents that a short visit was very hard to accomplish here, we tried anyway. …Yeah right… A couple beers later and with many wonderful conversation topics covered we were convinced to stay for a true Afrikaans dinner – pap (cooked mealie meal) and meat. ;-) Leaving Mrs. Broodryk around 8pm gave me about an hour and a half to pack for the rest of our vacation and get to the Lavumisa border before it closed.

A long ~6hr drive, including both intentional and unintentional detours :-), we arrived at the Royal Natal National Park entrance at about 3am. This park is a part of the Drankensberg Mountain range and located on the South African side of the Northern tip of Lesotho. A very short but necessary slumber was had by all in the car as we waited for the park to open.

We woke with the sun, but the park did not. Instead of sitting in the car we took off in search of an adventure. What we found was an empty campground. :-) After seeing all there was to see there, we were granted access to the park. The Visitor’s Center was not open for a couple hours so we headed straight for our hike of the Gorge Trail! The amphitheatre is absolutely breathtaking!! We were in and out of forests, passing baboons, jumping massive boulders in a dried river bed, and exploring crevices only fit for fictional hidden treasure or men named Indiana Jones! The trail, according to our map, was around 7km one way and should have taken around 3 hours to reach the turn-around point. At the end of the river bed and at the base of the amphitheatre we had two options. We decided to ignore the big white painted arrow, which we decided had to have been drawn by the ancient bushmen because this was a “hard core” wilderness hike :-P, and climb up a rickety chain ladder. Then we climbed a very steep rock face with roots, a wire, and drilled rods to assist in the assent. At the top we had an amazing view on top of a jutting rock. What did we do next? … We took an hour nap … in the middle of our hike … on a flat rock … perfect. ;-)

Once our beauty rest had been secured, we climbed down and followed the arrow to a path climbing the other side of the river bed. It too had a fantastic view and a family of curious baboons. A few hikers had caught up to us while we were napping, and one prophetic gentleman stated something along the lines of, “Now I’m heading for the beer”. We weren’t far after him in turning around and following the amazing scenery back over the rocks, through the trees, around the bends, passed the baboons, and back to our car.

Mr Fango’s Chicken, a ridiculously dingy chicken joint, was somehow the place we found to eat along the drive down to Uvongo (located along the Indian Ocean South of Durban). This part of the world loves their chicken. On the same block of this road there were three chicken restaurants, KFC being one of them. We were rightfully exhausted when we arrived at our beautiful ocean side condo-esk lodging (thanks to Evan’s booking). It took us a while to figure out that to get into the complex we needed to push a hand held automatic gate opener. As I said, we were pretty tired. :-) The guys went to bed as I took out my corn-rows. Oh yeah, forgot that part. Before mid-service medical I had allowed a couple friends in my community corn-row my hair. No worries, pictures will come. :-P

Chapter 3

Our morning started off with a grocery shopping trip. One item that we bought throughout this adventure was Rusks. A rusk is like an uber dried, less sweet biscotti. Similar to biscotti, though, these South African treats are to be enjoyed with tea or coffee. Thanks to an unhealthy addiction we had developed, almost every flavor (aniseed, bran, muesli, triple chocolate) were enjoyed with and without beverage. I believe bran and muesli were purchased on this certain trip. :-)

The next order of business was getting these neon white thighs and water deprived skin to the beach! Being on the Indian Ocean, the water was quite warm for it being the end of the winter season. We splashed into the waves like little kids, and allowed the current to churn us like laundry on spin cycle. With the salt water bath complete, we laid in the sun/under a beach umbrella to dry off. Although we could have stayed out there all day, this was the first day of a religious celebration called the Feast of the Tabernacles and we had to get to church.

The opening service was a wonderful experience, and throughout the week I realized how much I have missed fellowship. As I’ve explained in previous blog entries, Swaziland’s brand of Christianity feels more like a misinformed fad than a faith. Although I have many churches in my community, the 5 hour, deep siSwati sermons and pop-star, popular gospel music does not do it for me. If anything, it makes me want to distance myself from the Christian label. Although the United Church of God had different views, interpretations, and traditions than I had experienced before, their sincere love for God, Jesus Christ, and concern for the well-being of our world were apparent and felt right from the start.

Nothing could keep us too long from the beach, so in our dress clothes we strolled the shore, threw a Frisbee, and perused a fisherman’s dock. Grilled lamb was on the menu, and we had a blast trying to make our very own South African brai (BBQ). Cooking over the hot coals turned experimental by dessert. Grilled apple slices of all shapes and sizes were coated in honey and critiqued American Idol style (Kevan does an amazing Simon impression). We pretty much liked them all!

Day number 2 of the week long Feast found the three of us late for church! We had to pack up and leave our beautiful accommodation and sprint to the service. At the end of it, though, I think all three of us wished we hadn’t made any of it. This happened to be the sermon so many religious leaders like to give; the one which states, “We are right, everyone else is wrong, nah nah nah nah boo boo”. Sadly, some leaders believe it is necessary to “unite” their congregation by ridiculously demonizing and attacking another group, whether those individuals are the “Western Infidels”, “Money Grabbing Jews”, “Muslim Terrorists”, or in this pastor’s perspective the “Idol Worshiping Catholics”. I’m sure he didn’t know that sitting in his audience was a Catholic on the brink of enraged and disheartened tears, but that probably wouldn’t have mattered. Instead of using the “us verse them” mentality to direct faith and good works towards conquering evil and the devil’s grasp of the world, he desired to unite “us” (his congregation) toward “them” (the other Christian denominations). I think Jesus weeps hearing sermons such as these.

To clear our heads after this travesty, we ran a couple errands at the local Mall and then went out for dinner, much needed drinks, and venting at “Cock & Tail”, a restaurant along the coast. The only rain we experienced the entire vacation fell during our drive to Underberg, which is located inland on the Eastern border of Lesotho and on the Southern ridge of our much loved Drankensberg Mountains. Less posh than Uvongo, but just as awesome was our accommodation at Khotso Trails Backpackers. This day just happened to be National Brai Day in South Africa! Yes, they get this day off work and school!! Soooo jealous. :-P Having had our brai the night before, we sipped on Amarula (a liqueur made from the African Marula fruit) and talked to fellow backpackers from all of the world.

Chapter 4

We woke up early with instructions to pack our saddle bags with only necessary items. From suitcases and a Toyota Corolla to saddlebags and an ornery horse named “Snip”, our vacation was taking a fun twist! A pre-booked, 2 day horse trek into the road-less mountain ranges of Lesotho was on the itinerary!

Although Snip and I did not see eye to eye on some things, I have never had to trust another creature with my life more than I did him. We, and by “we” I mean our horses, practically scaled up these mountain sides. It was amazing how close they would walk to the edge of the barely visible path! I can’t even explain how beautiful the scenery was during these two days on horseback riding in the mountains… breathtaking. We saw more wild animals, including horses! Over half of the day had passed and we hadn’t seen any evidence of settlements except for a couple herds of cattle or sheep with their shepherd boys.

After following this creek into a tight valley, our amazing guides, Andreas and his horse President, showed us ancient Bushman paintings on the side of sheer cliffs. They don’t know exactly how long they have been there, but we were told that they were drawn on hunting trips to teach the young boys of the tribe which animals to look for and how to properly kill them. This rock face happened to be an ancient school chalk board! :-P Comparing the small village we went through next with Swazi villages was very interesting. Basotho homes are made with rocks and mud instead of Swazi cement block or stick and mud structures. This could be due to the fact that they need better insulation when the snow arrives during the winter months (estimated 1-1.5m). Homesteads were all pretty close together and many had a solar panel posted on a pole outside because there was no electricity up there. Everyone wears the most popular tourist export, the Basotho wool blankets. They are duller in color, but each has a design with different meanings. Cecily, another employee of Khotso trails who accompanied us, said that her blanket with maize on it represented prosperity - if I remember correctly. A few women in the village had a dark clay-red substance on her face. When I asked Andreas later, he said that it was sunscreen, and only the women use it! It is a natural powder substance that the women then mix with a Vaseline mixture. I wonder what SPF that is!?

The second village we came upon was our stop for the night. The horses knew this too and following Kevan’s headstrong horse, Pixy, they all took off running for the hostel! That was a blast! The owners of the hostel sent a boy to purchase our beer order and we all collapsed in the sitting room. Dinner was made from the food we had dispersed amongst our saddlebags. One item that had been made locally was Basotho bread. It was denser and grainier than other breads I have tried, and was absolutely delicious. Of course I’m ridiculous for mentioning this, but once we were thoroughly exhausted and completely out-of-our-minds punchy, the two guys, our new Dutch friend Hariette, and myself took part in an epic toilet paper fight. John and Laney, the South African father – daughter duo that completed our group, no doubt thought us crazy and went to bed. Moral of the story is: all day horseback riding rids you of the little sanity you have to begin with. :-P

Our butts were a bit sore (understatement!!) the next morning, but we got back on the horses for another day full of riding. There were more amazing mountains and valleys to traverse this second day. We saw caves that housed the first people to Lesotho and took pictures of rock houses that were built under protruding rock shelves which acted as natural roofing. After our lunches of sandwiches on top of a plateau, we had to walk our horses down to a certain section. The path was so rocky and treacherous, that it wouldn’t have been fair or safe for the horses to have to navigate it with us on their backs. This slow moving episode was made up for a couple hours later when we came to a grassy flat field. Then it was time to canter! Although sore, it was fantastic to sprint across an opening with the air rushing past. I swear, there is no way to stop yourself from thinking of cowboys and the wild west!

As it originally was planned, we were going to get back from the ride and get a few hours of driving to our next destination behind us. Once we got back to the backpackers, though, all we wanted to do was rest. Thus it was decided to stay with our 6 person trekking crew for dinner, drinks, and a slew of jokes that somehow developed (Irish, blonde, crude, you name it), and then leave early the next morning for George.

Chapter 5

Early came a LOT too early. We left Underberg just shy of 3:30am. In one day we were attempting to drive across the country of South Africa. It was estimated that this was going to take about 14hours. :-/ We took turns driving, sleeping, and keeping the driver awake. When the N2 dipped South we had glimpses of the ocean. At one point we veered off the N2 and ended up in a one traffic light (they call them “robots”) town of Stutterheim. :-) There we got gas (in SA = “petrol”) and a Bar One candy bar. For the rest of the trip we cited this as our highlight. :-P For lunch we stopped at Grahamstown. This is the quintessential university town, which was such an interesting culture to step into for the first time in such a long time. Only a couple of 5 minute stops were made after that, and one happened to be at the Bloukrans Bridge… but more about that later.

I really want to share a conversation that we had on this drive and open it up to hear your thoughts and opinions. There is a New York Times article called “What is it about 20-Somethings”. Please find it, read it, and then tell me what you think. Since this article is talking about my generation, my age group, and names my current occupation, I’m super curious what other perspectives and insight I can glean from you about my current and future life decisions. :-) Thanks, looking forward to it!

Pulling into George just after the sun set made our total day trip about 14-15 hours long. We found our lovely accommodation, The French International Lodge, and then decided to go out for dinner. There were many choices along this main section of George, including an American themed restaurant called “Geronimo Spur”, but we chose a chain called “Dro’s”. A spastic waiter, amazing food, and two bottles of wine concluded our long day of driving.

George was our destination because it was the only other site for the Feast of the Tabernacles in South Africa. Thus, Tuesday morning we went in search of the church for the morning service. There we met a whole group of our own age, who referred to themselves quite fittingly as The American Crew. They and the local South Africans were an amazing group to get to know.
After the service, though, we had our sights set on a certain bridge we had passed the day before. Bloukrans Bridge is the highest bridge bungee jump, at 216km, in the world. Yup, we were just jumping at the opportunity to do it (sorry, bad pun :-P). Because of weight, lightest (and I’d like to think prettiest), goes first. My stomach turns and adrenalin starts pumping just thinking about this! It was a thrill that rivals anything else I’ve ever attempted. Sorry Cedar Point, you’ve got nothing on bungee jumping! The bridge crosses a river, very dry at this point in the season, which leads into the ocean. None of this do you realize is there, let alone take in its beauty, as you walk across a grated walk bridge out to the jumping site. Once it’s your turn and you have been strapped in at the ankles, two men help you jump out to the edge so your toes peep over the precipice. 5-4-3-2-1 JUMP!!! “Stomach meet the outside world, world meet my stomach”. Adrenalin reaches leaves in the human body that just shouldn’t be possible. :-P You get to admire the beautiful location, as the blood rushes to your head, while you hang upside down waiting for a gentleman to come down and get you. Once I was back on the bridge, I felt like I needed to run a marathon up a mountain to burn off all the energy. This, of course, did not probably help settle the nerves of Kevan and Evan, who were still waiting for their turns to take the plunge. DVDs, picture CDs, and (thanks to Kevan) t-shirts were purchased to remember and share this ridiculously amazing experience in the future.

Dinner had been prearranged by the American Crew at an Italian Restaurant. We made it from our jump a little fashionably late. As always with this group of people, conversation, food, and wine were excellent. We accompanied the crew out to the Hyatt Hotel lounge for cocktails after dinner to cap of a perfectly thrilling day!

Wednesday started off with a good run in the residential area behind our hotel. Too much wining, dining, and driving left us in need of some good physical activity. Our morning jog turned into a race to get to the church on time. I am quite proud of the fact that I beat the boys getting ready every morning. He he he. With another great church service concluded, Evan decided to join a good friend from the American Crew to go for a hike, so Kevan and I planned our own Adventure, Hoorah! This included a search for ice cream (sadly unfulfilled) and a beach (wonderfully successful)! Harold’s Bay was a quaint beach nestled into a minimally developed hill side. As always with Kevan, great conversation followed. The activity for the evening, that we had to get back to, was being hosted by the American Crew at the house they rented on the ocean. Almost everyone from the congregation was there! They had even devised a game to get everyone properly mingling. Each person was given a bible character upon arrival. Then, with a sheet of paper listing all 60 characters, one had to roam around the party asking “yes” or “no” questions to identify the individual’s character. It was a very interesting game. Whales and dolphins came to entertain the guests at one point during the evening! Watching them play just off shore was such a treat. Night came, and those of us still there sat around a bonfire chatting about everything and anything.

Thursday was the final day of the Feast, called the “Eighth Day”. There were two church services split by a very fast lunch out. Kevan and I got to sing in a small choir for the special music during the second service. Oh my, how much I miss singing in harmonies! After the second service, Kevan jumped on the piano and we sang a couple favorites in our repertoire. We had many opportunities to sing in the car, at Evan’s expense :-P, which is something you don’t realize you’ll miss about not having a car… but I DO!

There was an attempt to get me to a cheese shop, which for the benefit of my vacation budget was closed. We had some time to kill before the final brai, so we stopped at a mall to enjoy a coffee at a popular restaurant here call Mugg & Bean. Then it was off to find the potluck site. We had discussed going to Cape Town this evening, but decided to stay with the amazing people we had come to know. Thus, after more delicious food had been eaten, we went back to the American Crew house and had a card and spoons game, dance party, bonfire, and an amazing midnight dip in the ocean! What was wondrous about this swimming excursion was the presence of glow-in-the-dark plankton. If you splashed yourself with water, little glowing flecks ran down your torso! We crashed on their couches.

Early Friday morning we were back in the car for the last driving trek of the trip. Cape Town was about 4 hours away. Randomly, Evan decided to stop for lunch at a little ocean side town called Betty’s Bay. We ate at the cute Café Jack which had the most entertaining English waitress/owner. She informed us about their colony of penguins, which we then sought out. Some of the African penguins were cute, others were in the midst of shedding their furry baby coats which just made them look ridiculous. We left our little friends to continue our road trip.

At one point we became perilously low on petrol (somehow the second time this had happened). Word to the wise – there are not trucker stops frequently in South Africa like there are in America. Some smaller stations only stock diesel, so fill up often even if you don’t need it! We made it to Cape Town just fine, and drove straight to the famous Table Mountain. The cable car was the quickest way to the top, so on it we rode. The plan was to hike along the 45min path on the top of the plateau, but somehow we took a little longer route to MacClear’s Beacon. Toward this site the clouds (“tablecloth”) rolled in and we walked through what seemed like the creepy weather only found in grave yards in suspenseful movies. Instead of being scared by the ambiance, we discussed the possibilities of slaying dragons at the end of our quest. FYI – I totally refused to be the damsel in distress! Ha! We quickly retraced our steps to get us back to the cable car before it shut down for the day.

At the bottom of Table Mountain, once the dragon had been slain of course, we found our hostel. All ravished from the days epic adventures, we set out on foot to find dinner. We passed dozens of restaurants before Evan spotted a little Lebanese place on the second floor of a building. We didn’t really know what to expect, but once we had to buzz the intercom to enter the building and climb a shady set of stairs we possibly possessed a slight hesitation. We were the only patrons of this colorful restaurant with a plethora of hookahs lining the walls. The gentleman who owns the place was by far the most colorful and fantastic part of the experience. He sat down with us and explained everything that was on the menu and then proceeded to recommend a few items that were not on the menu. After he told us about the process and history of the different foods, we wanted to order one of EVERYTHING! We did just about that. The food was excellent and the experience of it all was the best. If you ever find yourself in Cape Town, visit The Cedar Tree on Main Street in Sea Point… and bring me home leftovers!!

In the whirl-wind fashion that was this vacation, our final half day in Cape Town was busy. We drove along the Western border of the peninsula toward Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. Both are at the tip of the peninsula and within the borders of the National Park. Cape Point is the location of not one, but two lighthouses (one was built too high and became ineffective when the weather turned cloudy) and has a perfect view of the Indian Ocean and main land. We ran into some of the people from George there and had a quick chat including farewells (or so I thought). Cape of Good Hope is down by the water on the Atlantic side and is the furthest point of land southwesterly in Africa. It was so windy down there that walking among the rocks became a difficult endeavor, but we did it anyway.

Having to catch a flight to Jo’Burg tore us away from the park. This time we drove the eastern side of the peninsula. Both sides are lovely. Cleaning the car out to return to Avis Car Rental was a sad time for me. Buh bye freedom to go anywhere at any time. Buh bye belting show tunes at the top my lungs and not having my Swazi family have to hear it. Buh bye driving… sigh. In the airport we got another treat at Mugg & Bean, it’s of no consequence to you, but I got a bagel. No bagels in Swaziland! Although thoroughly warned, Kevan purchased a vuvusela which he was instructed to bring home. I tried not to pass judgment, but those things are AWFUL. :-P Our flight was on time and got us to Jo’Burg a little after 7pm. Quick good byes happened just after getting our luggage, because my ride to the hostel was there. The boys’ flight took off close to midnight. I took a shuttle back to Swaziland on Sunday and then public transport back to my site on Monday. I think Evan probably made it home just about the same time I did.

Epilogue

Heather, one of the great individuals in the American Crew at George, took me up on the offer to stay with me before leaving the region. She came the following Friday and stayed until Sunday. We roamed around my community, rested, reminisced, and had a terrific visit. A group of boys even proved us wrong by producing honey from digging in the ground. We don’t know what bug this is, but it didn’t sting anyone and produced a sweet honey like substance and yellow and orange, edible, bitter, chalk balls. She left Swaziland in store for many more travels, which will eventually lead her home.

I bought a box of Lemon Poppy seed rusks in remembrance of the K&E Adventure. They were delicious.

The End :-)

(**) I have been informed that a plethora of photos have been loaded, with internet much faster than anything found in this entire country, onto Facebook. If you have access to this site, enjoy. If not, I promise a spattering of these will be posted onto this blog as soon as the Swaziland/Switzerland(***) postal service gets Kevan’s copies to me… don’t hold your breath!

(***) Sometimes our wonderful postal workers in the United States believe that Swaziland sounds too much like an African version of Disneyland, and thus sends my packages to the more well known country of Switzerland. No joke.






Although I don't have Kevan's amazing pictures yet, here are the bungee jump photos that were on my camera or on the pictures I bought to commemorate this bit of insanity. :-P


Yikes


Three Amigos


Just Breathe!


Weeeeeeeee...


...eeeeeeeeeee!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Better Late than Never

I tried to post these photos with the previous entry and then 2 other attempts after that, but alas the internet is just now allowing me to get them to you. They are more on the days of the Male Health Events. At present I am in the office for a week for all of the mid-service physical exams. They are not so fun, but hanging with friends in town afterward is quite enjoyable. I'm also getting more time at a computer (even though there's not great internet) than the my entire service to date! Next week I get to welcome my wonderful friends, Kevan and Evan, to Africa! Thus, the next post should be about our amazing adventures! Yay!


This was the second of the two Health Events. This massive tree actually covers a large crawl where the cows enter and then are herded to the 1 cow wide fenced path into a tic repellent bath. The men are sitting just outside of the crawl's entrance.


Both days LATICC came to test individuals for HIV. On the left is their mobile testing vehicle and on the right is our nearly completed board (later I painted a border on it and taped multiple different posters and health fliers onto it).


PSI did a really neat activity where they simulated how to get to your dreams or goals (a picture of an island) with major obstacles like HIV/AIDS, STIs, teenage pregnancy, etc (pictures of crocodiles and hippos) in the way. They then had a few people try to walk across a 2x2 in board (sexual abstinence)to the island. Some people could and others could not make it. Then they put another 2x2 board representing circumcision and condom use next to the other one. It was then much easier for the participants to get to the metaphorical island. I've seen and used this demonstration a few times, especially with youth. It is a great educational activity.


This was a picture of the first Health Event day at the Makhava Dip Tank site.


Vusi, my main counterpart and good friend, is presenting our newly finished board after a long day's worth of double board construction.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Some photos

These are a few of the promised Male Health Event pictures, as well as some community photos taken when Claire came to visit back in June. Enjoy!



We hired a local builder to assist in the construction of the Health Education boards and also recruited a few young guys to join the party. All were astonished that I could do this kind of work.


Swazi team work. :-) I like this picture.


Claire is standing in the structure at my Umphakatsi called the KaGogo Center. Instead of sitting in the 3-5 hour siSwati meetings about small land disputes and dogs eating peoples' chickens every Wednesday, I sit in a little office in this building and do paper work. I'm still accessible to the community members, but can get the 5 minute summary of the meeting from the KaGogo Center manager and my friend, Vusi.


This is Sitilo. The "river" that runs somewhat near my homestead. My bus stop is thus called "Stilo". I have had the pleasure of washing clothes and fetching water from this stream.


Claire and I walked off the main road to see the community garden. It threatened rain but since it was our dry season we didn't think much about it. About an hours walk away from my home it started to rain. It has been the only true winter rain to date. I told her she brought the rain from Mbabane, but not to tell anyone in my community lest she be held against her will. :-P

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Male Health Events

Monday Aug 9th 4:37pm

This last week was an enormous portion of crazy busy with hectic and chaos on the side! Putting on a major community event in Swaziland is not my favorite thing in the world to do, but it turned out rather rewarding. I ended up getting the grant money into my account just before I needing to go shopping for supplies, PHEW. Friday, being the last weekend of the month (pay day), was a populated mess in Nhlangano. The bank was definitely the worst part, and that wasn’t aided by the fact that I forgot my passport and my signature had rubbed off the back of my ATM card. Getting the money was a fiasco and a half, but was finally achieved. I ordered all my supplies at Build-It and told the appropriate staff that someone would be their Sunday to pick it up. This someone was the Deputy Head Teacher at one of the primary schools I work with. The gentleman who had previously agreed to pick up our supplies had vehicle troubles at the last minute. Babe Khumalo saved the day… after I begged. Only a handful of people in my community have vehicles, thus fewer have trucks (here called “iVan” or “bucky”).

Sunday, as agreed, he delivered the supplies for the two health education bulletin boards that were constructed the following day. The board material was a bit disappointing. I had tried to explain the materials I needed had to be strong since they were going to have to resist the damaging whims of the natural elements, but board delivered was a very soft insulation board. We, being myself, my counterpart Vusi, a community builder, and 3 young men from the community, worked all day Monday constructing the boards and the roofs to cover them. As for the soft board, I insisted we strengthen it by reinforcing the back with scrap 2x4s. The men were pretty surprised when I had design ideas that were better than their own, and even more so when I didn’t hesitate to pound out holes in the earth or pound in nails to the wood. Wake up boys; women can do this too!!!

Although exhausted, sleep came and went that night, but the anxious butterflies and worried recitation of mental lists stayed throughout. Tuesday morning I got on a bus at 6:45am with everything from condom models to Styrofoam cups and juice concentrate, only to drop 6 minutes later and start the 45 minute walk to the Makhava Dip Tank along the Ingwavuma River. Vusi was already there with his tractor and plastic chairs we were borrowing from the community Umphakatsi center. He was nervous that people were not staying after dipping their animals and kept yelling, “Dipa ungahambi” (Dip and don’t go). Not having people to educate was a new addition to my stress list… sh%t. That ended up not being a problem!! Over 50 community members were there and ready to listen a good ½ hour before we expected the dipping to be over! The local pastor was there and ready to get it started, but LATICC, the NGO second up on the roster, was a bit lost on our rural community dirt paths and not present yet. PSI took over a bit early and programming wise, everything appeared to go smoothly… until it was over.

The food was suppose to arrive at 12 and did not get there until 12:40pm still needing to be served into the take-away containers! I’m thinking these were not very experienced caterers, and certainly unprofessional, because every attempt to reach them on their cell was ignored or purposely diverted! Once they arrived, people were already a bit upset at having to wait and I was more than a bit upset at their performance. I gave Vusi the task of speaking to them for fear I would react too strongly and go about it in a culturally inappropriate way. Food was not a problem on Thursday.

I got a ride back to my site with LATICC just in time to quickly tidy up my house and greet a group 8 volunteer, Jessica, at my bus stop. During training for PC Swaziland you get to visit your new permanent homestead and community for a few days after those exciting site announcements (which I got to participate in this year being a part of PSN). The final day of that visit is spent in the community of the closest volunteer from the previous group; it’s called “mentoring day”. Poor Jessica had to put up with me that Tuesday and Wednesday, as I decompressed from one event and prepared for the next one on Thursday. I really did enjoy her stay, and even learned a few more cooking tips. Don’t judge me, my guests are usually more skilled in the culinary arts than I am… I’m an awful hostess. Although, to my credit I offered my coveted American cuisine straight from a care package: KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE. You may not understand the magnitude of this offering, but trust me it’s big. :-) The meal was rain checked though, because group 8 volunteers have not yet learned to miss these nostalgic, awe inspiring, “just add water” conveniences that the American population unknowingly embraces as a part of their culinary culture. Brandon and Laura graciously escorted my mentoree and their own back up to the training site, located literally on the opposite corner of the country so I could attend my second male health event.

There is really nothing note worthy to explain about Thursday. We got about the same attendance as Tuesday, but 10 of the participants were younger children who had assisted their families’ with the animals. In total 85 adults and 10 youth were in attendance at the two events. 28 were tested at site for HIV and 20 men signed up to circumcise this coming week. Topics including, the importance of HIV testing, how to best communicate with your partner, possible obstacles and solutions to reaching your dreams, male circumcision, male and female condom application, and living positively with or without HIV were discussed and hopefully retained by all present. Thanks to a few community volunteers who will keep the condom dispensers stocked with supplies from the clinic, the entire community will have access to free condoms at the education boards. Everyone at the events, sans a few for religious reasons, practiced putting a condom on a model. Side story: When I asked the PSI educator why a couple older men were not participating in the condom practical, I thought he said they were “important”. I then explained that the most important men in a community could make the most difference by being role models, etc, etc. He let me go for a good couple minutes before stopping me and saying, “No, not important. IMPOTENT”. Oops. :-)

All in all, I deem the events successful. I’m ridiculously glad they are over, but really glad we did them. Another benefit to this stressful process, was getting to work side by side with Vusi and teaching him the process and skills needed to write a professional grant proposal and itemized budget, organize and plan an educational event with international NGOs (non-government organizations), problem solve when things don’t go according to plan, and this following week we get to cover the topic of writing closing reports including the much needed monitoring and evaluation information.

My weekend was spent praising God for surviving the previous week, visiting with the Broodryks, and then fighting a bit of a stomach bug. I welcome this non-EVENTful week (knocking on wood). :-)


PS Pictures to come when I have better internet connection!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

No Neighbors :(

Hello Everyone! Just getting a little bit of time in our wonderful Mbabane office and thought it would be a good chance to write a quick blog. I'm actually waiting for a very important phone call. Next week, Thursday the 5th, will be the first day of my two day Male Health events. For this to go smoothly, I need to verify with the NGOs that they are going to participate in predetermined presentations. Contacting these individuals has been quite a bit more than stressful. LATICC (acronym that I don't remember exactly) will be doing a discussion on the importance of HIV testing and how to best communicate with one's partner(s). PSI (Population Services International - who I'm waiting on right now) will hopefully be doing condom demonstrations/practicals and male circumcision discussions with a sign-up for the procedure the following week. A community pastor will give an opening prayer and then answer questions regarding the Christian views on protecting oneself and family from HIV. The 5th and the 10th are going to be crazy, but hopefully all goes well... keep it in your prayers!! :-)

Yesterday I was up at the new volunteers' training venue for site announcements. Sadly, the group of us in the southeastern corner of the country will not be getting any new neighbors. :-( There are quite a few people in and around my shopping town, Nhlangano, so I will get to see them. The day before my first event next week I will be mentoring a new volunteer most likely from this cluster. They will get to help me stress out and put final planning touches on for the following day. Lucky bums! :-P

Well, I'm off to continue planning and gathering materials. Already have a bag of penis models for the condom demonstrations! There are some times in your life you wish your bags would be searched by police. HA!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

More painting!

This last week I got to work a lot more on the bus stop murals and indirectly work on my tan. ;-) My amazing friends, Laura, Brandon, Justine, and my Colombian friend Andreas (visiting for a short few days) helped immensely!




This means "KEEP YOUR COUNTRY BEAUTIFUL" and the small words mean "Don't throw trash". Littering is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves here!


I made a blunder when shaking the red paint for this mural and the paint ended up in a massive puddle on the seat and the ground. With the creative genius of our amazing painting crew we decided to turn it into a massive heart. :-)




Andreas and I at the end of the day before washing the crazy amount of paint that got on us! In the words of Andreas, "Go mental!". Both of the murals he helped with were splatter painted. Fun fun, and more fun!

Swazi Pick-Up Lines

July 6, 2010
6:55pm

Daily, hourly when outside of my community, I get hit on by men, as does the rest of the female population. Someone at home acted jealous by this news, but I can assure you “minor sexual harassment” or more accurately put “plain annoying” are better ways to describe the encounters. According to some trusted Swazi friends, there is a traditional saying that goes something like, “Don’t ever let a woman pass without being appreciated”. Throughout the years that idea has boiled down to men, young and old, feeling compelled to call out to total strangers with an array of pick-up lines. There is little hope that anything will develop out of these propositions, but they try nonetheless. The ones most commonly used, in order of frequency, are:


1st Place: “I want to marry you” / “Do you have a husband?” (FYI – Having a husband rarely stops the conversation that inevitably follows.

2nd Place: “I love you”

3rd Place: “Give me your number”

Being here for a year, I have tried out MANY different responses to discourage this very blunt affection. My favorites in the past have been, “I can’t cook, so you will have to cook for me”, “It will cost too much to send cows to my father in America”, “I’m worth too many cows”, “Angifuni (I don’t want)”, or “I don’t love someone who doesn’t ask my name first”. These answers would usually get laughs and/or “HOW” (an exclamation not a question – learned that the hard way) or “EESH”.
The cooking answer would be a blow to the most common sex roles in Swaziland, and the cow response utilizes the traditional process called Labola. To “buy” a wife, a man must give cows (Labola) to the woman’s family. Depending on negotiations and the woman’s surname the amount of cows (or in value cash) could range from 10-25. Since I am a Dlamini, my Labola would be at least 20 cows. Our friend Brandon once was advised not to give up “his white women” for less than 25 cows. (PS I’m priceless… not enough cows for me in the entire country of Swaziland!!). And yes, this process of “buying a bride” bothers me to no end. And digressing further into this topical tangent, this traditional process is another factor to why there are even more unmarried mothers. Men can “claim” a woman by having a child by her, but then they are almost never made to pay Labola and marry the woman in either the traditional or Western societal sense. My sisi has an ADORABLE baby boy by a man who has other children with other women, and he is not married to any of them.

Back on topic, my responses were usually not the end of the conversation. I am amazed by the counter positions so fiercely held by the men. Sometimes the unwanted banter would continue to a frustrating point where the childish “Why? .... But why? .... Why?” would surface. Grr. This is not the way you want to spend a 3-5 hour bus ride. I am happy to say that I have finally created the most perfect comeback for an HIV/AIDS educator in Swaziland to use! It goes like this:
“Well, I can’t marry or love a man that does not protect himself and his family. To do this he must do four things. He must get circumcised, get tested for HIV, be faithful to only me, and use a condom every time he has sex”.

These four are, of course, the most statistically significant male health behavior change prevention methods against the transmission of HIV. Everyone has been taken aback by this response. Some are too uncomfortable to bother me more with stupid, fruitless proposals, but some guys actually push forward. This gives me the perfect opportunity to educate. The conversation takes a different avenue, in which I’m in control, and beneficial information can be relayed. Yay! That is now my one and only response to obnoxious, unoriginal, Swazi pick-up lines. Being so conditioned to them, though, I might swoon at “Hi. What’s your name?” in the future. Ha ha!

Ho Ho Ho! Merry 1 Year Anniversary!

July 6, 2010
8:22pm

The amazing Swaziland Group 7, that I am a part of, decided to celebrate our 1 year mark in country by having a potluck party! At a backpackers in Mbabane, we all met on June 25th, exactly 1 year since we stepped foot into this African country, to appropriately observe the special day (Dubbed – X-mas in June) with food, drink, and white elephant Christmas gifts. It was an absolute blast! I ended the night in possession of a homemade cardinal, flowers made out of recycled tin, a few Moroccan spices, and KAgillion cookies in my stomach! Since its winter here now, the weather was perfectly cool, and the fire was perfectly amazing.

This past week I was given the opportunity, as a Peer Support Network member, to meet the new Group 8 volunteers who arrived Monday June 28th. Many people already knew me from the welcome video clips on YouTube (still haven’t seen them myself), which they said were really helpful! I’m famous! Ha! Spending a few days with them made me realize how much I really have gained in a year. Getting bombarded with questions, hearing first attempts at siSwati, and witnessing the emotional bonding from this amazing group, really put my last year in perspective. Before Sus and I arrived at the training site (a trip that took over 6 ½ hours), we discussed how there was no way we felt like the seasoned “expert” volunteers. Come to find out, we kind of are.

Nothing would make me want to re-live the stressful, jam-packed, Swazi camp experience of pre-service training, but I certainly look forward to visiting with the new volunteers again in a couple of weeks. PSN members come to help with all of the medical sessions. Last week we got to experience the lectures and activities on diarrhea, sexuality, immunizations, medical kits, water filters, group diversity, and first night with a host family de-brief. Some were obviously more exciting than others. You know you are a PCV when you can discuss diarrhea with a room full of strangers. :-P WELCOME TO GROUP 8!!!

Updates on my work: My friend Andreas, the artist/doctor Claire and I met in Cape Town, is coming to Ekuphumleni to help me paint the remaining few bus stop health murals. He is good at graffiti art, so I’m excited at what he will come up with! For the new group, Sus and I updated and improved the Swaziland PCV cook book. Trust me, I was merely technical support. The title for our publication is, “Where there is no Chef: A Foodie’s Guide to Village Cooking” (spoofing – Where There is No Doctor). It will on sale at all Borders, CVAs, Barnes and Nobles (just kidding), or you can get an electronic copy from yours truly. :-) I just turned in a grant proposal to hold a male’s health and HIV prevention event at my community’s cow and goat dipping tanks in August. More on that if the grant is approved within the next few weeks. Still trying to work with the schools’ health clubs, but will have to take a bit of a break for the next couple months due to my frequent travels to the PC training site and the upcoming Baylor Teen Camp. There is also a possibility that our post will participate in a major book/library project for rural schools toward the end of the year. If this is the case, my primary schools will certainly apply.

FYI – Some of the projects our volunteers in Swaziland make happen are not a part of the HIV/AIDS education initiative (like the upcoming book project). Thus, these rural development programs can not be funded by PC PEPFAR grants. To make these much needed projects a reality, volunteers write Peace Corps Partnership Project applications and their ideas are put online to raise funds from the US. If you are ever interested in helping out these projects you can go to the Peace Corps website, www.peacecorps.gov, and find Partnership Projects then search for Swaziland. Currently, I am not involved in a partnership project, but my good friends Brandon, Laura, Tristan, and Rachel are. Consider supporting their efforts, or peruse the website for a project you are interested in giving $10 to. Thanks!

One year down, about one year to go. It’s going so fast!! Swazi/Africa time is usually ridiculously slow, so how are the months speeding by!?! I look forward to the next leg in this adventure as group 8 starts theirs.

Warm Fuzzy & Cold Prickly

Copied from the June Edition of the SoJo (Our post’s monthly news journal)

A little while ago I made a comment about warm fuzzies, and my fellow PCV (not to be named) had no idea what I was talking about. I quickly realized that this story from my childhood may not have been told in every second grade classroom, as I had imagined. Thus, I have copied a version of it here (citation: some googled website) for all of those deprived PCVs. This story may be good to introduce to younger children (or anyone really), especially in regards to stigma.
As well, I strongly seek your help in spreading warm fuzzies amongst our post by performing the following process:

Step 1: Read this story and gain a full understanding of the highly technical term “warm fuzzy”

Once upon a time there was a village. All of the people in the village got along very well. There was kindness, love, compassion, and justice. Every person in the village owned a special bag. It was given to them by their parents at the age of 3. Inside this bag were hundreds of warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies were soft, cuddly, cottony little puffs. When you gave someone a warm fuzzy, they felt warm and fuzzy inside. People in the village gave each other warm fuzzies anytime they wanted to let someone know they were loved. When someone received a warm fuzzy, they put it in their bag.

One day, an evil sorceress came to town. She saw that everyone was giving out these warm fuzzies from their bags and she didn’t like it. She went up to one villager and said, “Why do you keep giving away your warm fuzzies? Aren’t you afraid you’re going to run out? Here, take this bag of cold pricklies and give these to the people in your village instead, and keep all your warm fuzzies for yourself.” The villager took the bag because he believed the sorceress’ tale. The next time he ran into a friend, he handed him one of the cold pricklies from his new bag. A cold prickly made someone feel cold and prickly inside, like they were swallowing a pin cushion. Soon all the villagers went to the sorceress and asked for their own bag of cold pricklies since they didn’t want to be the only people handing out warm fuzzies if everyone else was going to hand out cold pricklies. Once you had a cold prickly, you wanted to give it away to someone else as fast as possible.

The sorceress was pleased. Her plan was working perfectly. Now the village was in a state of fear and panic. Everyone started avoiding everyone else so they wouldn’t be given a cold prickly. People hoarded their small supply of warm fuzzies and didn’t give them out to anyone anymore. But no one was happy anymore either.
One day a prince arrived in town and almost immediately someone handed him a cold prickly from their bag. The prince, recognizing the cold prickly, refused to take it. The villager was surprised and tried again. The prince handed the person a warm fuzzy from his bag. The villager was surprised, and a little ashamed that he had tried to give this warm prince a cold prickly and instead received a warm fuzzy.
The prince addressed the crowd and said, “Why do you give each other cold pricklies?” One villager said, “Why should we give away all of our warm fuzzies? Shouldn’t we keep them for ourselves?” Other villagers agreed. But the prince said, “Every time you give away a warm fuzzy a new one is created in your own bag. Don’t you see? The more you give away, the more you will have.”

To demonstrate, the prince had everyone put down their bag of cold pricklies and retrieve their bag of warm fuzzies from their homes. He asked everyone to take out a warm fuzzy from their bag and hand it to a neighbor. This they did, but warily. Then the prince told them to notice that they all still had the same amount of warm fuzzies in their bags as before. People started giving away more warm fuzzies and noticed their bag was never empty. There were indeed enough warm fuzzies for everyone.

The sorceress was very upset and tried to interrupt the prince and get everyone to give out cold pricklies again. But the villagers didn’t want to listen anymore. They threw all their bags of cold pricklies into a wagon, set the sorceress inside it, and sent her out of town.
The villagers realized they’d learned a valuable lesson.
When you give someone a warm fuzzy, they in turn will give it to someone else. Eventually, it will come back around to you.
What do you carry in your bag?

Step 2: Choose one or more persons (PCVs, office staff, community members)

Step 3: Give that individual a sincere warm fuzzy (via SMS, email, call, office box letter, etc)

Step 4: Smile with the knowledge that you have just made someone’s day better, which will make you feel like you just gained your very own warm fuzzy!
All joking and tomfoolery aside, I truly hope you will take this opportunity, right this minute and throughout your service, to pass along acts of kindness. Thank you.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Photo Album #1 - Swazi Wedding

Since I have been absolutely awful about keeping this blog updated, I am attempting to catch you up through a small picture tour. Enjoy!



I had the opportunity to attend a traditional Swazi wedding. This includes two days of dancing, especially for the bride's family. The bride was first brought into the groom's (my Swazi Uncle) homestead. She was covered with a blanket, fur, feathers, and was bedecked in traditional wear. Myself and another volunteer, Scott, attended only the Saturday ceremony, but we had a blast! Here the bride is dancing with the young maidens.


Part way through the dancing all of the married women, including the bride, became topless! Here the bride and groom are dancing. The dancing was more like a rhythmic stomping toward the audience/groom's family and friends and then back to the bride's family.


These are the unwed maidens dancing for the bride and groom. They did the most difficult "dance" numbers.


I was asked to dance over toward the end of the ceremony!! My little niece, Nothando (in pink), jumped up to dance with me! After a few steps an older gentleman gave me what looks like a walking stick, which many people dance with.


I've got moves! :-P