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

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!