More About My Community & School

School started finally, about a week late.  The schools have not received all the money they are due from the government, and so there are still more protests planned.  If the money is not received soon, the schools may close again, but at least for now I have a place to go and start to work.  The school day starts at 7:50am with a morning assembly, where the kids line up in classes and sing the national anthem (I think), recite the Lord’s Prayer and then hear announcements from a teacher.  Then I go to the library, where there is a desk that is mine, and is where my first major project is (two picture of it below).  They have a lot of books in the library, but they are scattered around in boxes, on the floor, etc.  There is not enough shelving, so my job will entail organizing the books they have, probably getting more, and getting some shelves to make it into a real library.  They have been using the library as a classroom, but just had a new building finished, so they have enough classrooms without using the library.  There will still be a few classes in there because they are storing a bunch of bags of cement in one of the classrooms, which I hope they put to use soon.  I had spread out books all over the room to start organizing them when a class came in on the first day of school, and so I wasted a good morning of work since I had to just pile all the books to get them out of the way.  At least now I know that it’s still being used as a classroom and can work around the few classes that need the space.  Now that school is up and running, I hope to shadow some teachers and observe their classes.  I’m still in the integration phase, so my job is more to get to know the community and school than to really get to work on projects.  Working in the library at least gives me something to do when I’m not observing or doing something else.  I hope to start some sort of reading club in the new school year in January, when the library is more organized and I know what books are there.  The first step is to get the library in order; the second is to make sure it gets used, because it’s pointless to have a library if none of the students use it.  

Swazi schools are very different from American schools in a similar way to how Swazi homes are very different from American homes.  In America (at least all the areas I’ve lived), homes and schools have an outer wall, and everything is within those walls.  The yard or playground/sports fields are the only thing outside.  In Swaziland, many rooms are in separate buildings.  In the home, there is typically one building that is the kitchen, one building that is the main house and has common rooms, and some bedrooms, and then other buildings that are solely bedrooms.  People spend most of the time during the day outside, it’s like the yard is more of a living room, and even the kitchen has an outdoor area where more time is spent than in the inside kitchen.  In schools, the classrooms open to the outside and a building will have several classrooms, but they are not connected to the other buildings.  The offices and staffroom are in a separate building (pictured below).  And in both settings, the bathrooms or latrines are off to the side and somewhat removed, but obviously outside.  So there are always people outside at the school, in the central courtyards.  There are kids at school before any teachers, although many come in late as well.  Teachers arrive right at the time of morning assembly.  Classes start after the assembly, and while there are specific class times, there may or may not be a bell, and classes cannot leave until dismissed by the teacher, so classes tend to run over quite often.  At the end of the day, most teachers leave immediately, while students hang around to clean up the school.  It's an interesting experience, and I'm still getting accumstomed to it. 

The Last Few Weeks (written about Sept 20)

So it feels like I just updated the blog, which says more about how much I’ve been updating it than how long it’s really been, since it has been two weeks.  Not a whole lot has happened with me since then, although a lot has gone on in the country.  The Swazi school schedule is broken into three terms, the first term if from sometime in late January/early February through late March/early April, the second term is from late April/early May through early August, and the third term is mid September through late November/early December, so their summer break is over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays, which is nice.  I arrived at my site on the last day of the second term, and went into school right away to meet the faculty and students.  I got a quick tour of the school, office, garden, and the library where I’ll have my office.  Working on the library will be my first project to start on.  The third term was supposed to start September 13, but there has been a delay because of some financial issues.  There is currently an economic crisis going on in Swaziland, one the makes the issues going on in the US seem minor.  The government is running out of money and working hard to get loans from neighbors or the IMF, but so far nothing has come through.  A great deal of the workforce is in the civil service, so this has been a major issue.  The schools are supposed to open when they receive the money from the government, but no one really knows when that will be.  So I’m in a little bit of a holding pattern until the schools re-open. 

One thing that has kept me busy is joining a local soccer team.  There is a local league in Khuphuka, with 15 teams that play every weekend.  I went to a couple games before I started playing at all, and was impressed with the talent.  A guy I met asked me to come and play with them some afternoon, and I played really well that first day, even scoring a goal.  They asked me to play on their team, which happens to be in first place.  To be clear, it has nothing to do with my talent, I am not nearly as good as most of these guys, but they think it would be cool to have an American on their team.  Needless to say, I’m the only white person in the league.  They are on a break in the season (they play each team once, then break, and play them all again), which is good because I’ve been able to get a good number of practices in before playing in a game.  They play Tues-Thurs, and Fridays if there is a game that weekend.  I think the games restart this weekend.  I’ll only come on in some games in the second half when my team is way up, most likely, but I’m having fun playing with the guys.  It’s a good way to meet more people, get some exercise, and I’m actually getting a bit better.  I’m glad I played so much ultimate Frisbee over the last year; it’s got me in good shape for all this running.  Often there is not enough for a full game, so they play with two rocks close together for a goal about half way down the pitch (field) and a goalie at the other end.  It’s much more fun to play full field, of course, and I tend to do better as well.  I do have to brag a little bit, because last week I scored two goals in a game, one on a header.  I’m not as good as many of these players, but I tend to be good at getting into the right place at the right time.  That’s four goals I’ve scored in about 12 times playing, which I ‘m extremely happy with.  We’ll see what happens in a real game!

More pictures

These are pictures of my community, the first one is just a road above the dam, then my homestead, my hut, the view out my front door, the dam and then just a typical path I take to get around.

More Pictures from the field trip a while back

Some pictures to go with previous posts

New posts

I had lots of pictures to post, but for some reason I am unable to upload them, so unfortunately these posts are just me rambling on about everything.  I'll figure out the problem and post all the pictures next time, which should be in two weeks. 

About My Site

Now that I am at my permanent site, I can share some details.  I am in the village of Khuphuka, which is located in the Manzini region just south of the Mnjoli Dam, and I will be working at Khuphuka High School.  It’s in the mid/low veld, so it will be very hot, although there are hotter areas.  Khuphuka is close to Hlane Nature Preserve, which is the only one in the country that has lions, so that’s exciting.  Hlane also has leopard, cheetah, elephant, hippo, and much more.  I look forward to seeing more of the country, and have already enjoyed being able to settle into my permanent site a little more.  I’m in the process of having some furniture built by a local carpenter, a set of shelves and a cupboard for food/pots/dishes, and where I will do my cooking.  While I’ve settled in a bit, putting up maps, posters, flags, pictures, etc, I’m still living out of a suitcase, so it will be nice to get some shelves to put clothes on.  The last item will be to get a table, and then I’ll be all set.  That’s a little more expensive to have built, so I’ll probably get a smaller fold-up one in town. 

My hut is a rondavel right in the center of the homestead.  It’s a pretty lively place, with lots of people around.  My family is a babe and make (father and mother), with their nine children, including several adults who work elsewhere most of the time.  The youngest of their children is about 3, but then one of the older sisis (sisters) has a baby, and one of the older bhutis (brothers) has a wife and baby on the homestead as well.  There are a couple high school age kids too.  The parents do not speak much English, so I’ll have to work harder on my siSwati.  The younger generation speaks better English, but they all communicate in siSwati, of course.  One of the bhuti’s, who’s in From 2 (grade 9), has been helping me out a lot by showing me around and translating a little bit.  He’s my main point of contact for the family, as the rest of them are hesitant to speak English or just seem afraid of me.  It’ll take time to feel at home with them, but I’ve got two years and I’m sure it’ll happen.  I was surprised when I got to my site and there was electricity, as I was told I would have none.  That’s a bonus, although I didn’t mind living without it before.  I’d trade electricity for a decent bathroom/sink in a heartbeat.  I’m not sure I’ll ever really get used to living without running water.  On the homestead are dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl (I think), goats and sheep.  The family also has a herd of cattle, but they have been grazing somewhere else since I’ve been here.  I think there’s a gecko in my hut as well, which is great since they eat up the bugs.

Mbabane/Swearing In

We would be spending three nights in Mbabane, to see the city, tour the Peace Corps office, and get officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers.  They put us up at a conference center that was very nice, and had great food.  When we arrived, we had to unload everything from the truck and get it organized.  We were being split up into transport groups of 3-6 people for heading to our sites, and so all of our stuff was put with our groups.  Then we had a short session with Nicole (APCD of administration), concerning logistics for the next few days, banking info, etc.  We got in lines to get our new ATM cards, receive our passports back with official work permits, get flash drives chock full of information, Peace Corps IDs, and other information.  After that we had a little bit of free time to figure out what we were missing from our piles, and just about everyone was missing something.  I was missing a few stove legs, although I ended up finding all of them before going to site.  A group of us walked into the town center to check it out, as we’d never been to downtown Mbabane.  It’s the capital city, and second largest city in the country.  I’ve heard several figures for each of the following, so these may be wildly inaccurate, but overall Swaziland is only about a million people, Mbabane is somewhere in the 60-70 thousand range, and Manzini, the largest city, is 80-90 thousand, for reference. 

Mbabane has a nice downtown area that is surrounded by mountains, with curving streets and a creek running through the center.  There are two malls right across the street from each other, one is large with a two-story indoor section, and a large outdoor section as well.  There are many stores with just about everything you could possibly want, including a little coffee shop/health food store, internet café, numerous clothing stores, and several restaurants.  The other mall is smaller, but it has a Pick ‘n Pay, the big, nice grocery store in Swaziland, as well as many smaller stores.  They are both right next to the bus rank, the heart of most Swazi towns, as this is where you catch a Koombi to your village or a bus to Johannesburg, for example.  There is also a nice market where some trainees bought traditional Swazi clothing to wear for swearing in.  The next day we got tours of the city and the PC office, led by someone from G8 (group 8, the volunteers who have been here a year).  We went to the office first, and it was pretty impressive, a large compound in a residential district.  It felt like being at an embassy.  We saw the old lounge, stocked with hundreds of books, movies, our mailboxes, and a couple computers, and got to see everyone’s offices/cubicles.  We visited the medical unit, and also were given tours of the new wing which is almost done, including a nice, big volunteer lounge that has two rooms, plus bathrooms with showers (a new addition).  It will be very nice once it’s completed.  Then it was back to the city center to meet up with the other groups for lunch.  My group went to a nice place along the creek, where I had a burger, fries and a cold beer, which was very nice.  Then we had the afternoon free to go through our stuff, shop, etc.  After dinner, a bunch of G8 took us out to one of the two bars in town they frequent.  This one, the Green Room, was laid back, with pool tables and plenty of room to hang out.  It was a fun evening. 

The next day was our Swearing In ceremony.  After breakfast, they started bussing people out to the Mountain Inn, a very nice hotel on one of the surrounding hills.  It had beautiful views, and there was a big tent set up for us right next to the pool.  Since this is the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps, there was extra money to be spent on the ceremony.  The Prime Minister and the American Ambassador were both there, so it was a pretty impressive event.  The next day there were pictures in the newspapers and we were on the evening news, although I don’t think any of us got to see it.  There were speeches, a presentation to the RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, once you are sworn in as a volunteer, after you leave you will always be a RPCV) in the audience, and then we were officially sworn in by the ambassador.  Afterword was an amazing meal inside the Inn, with all the food you could want and lots of variety.  We were then bussed back to the conference center and had the rest of the day free.  That night everyone went out to Portugalia, the other bar in town, where PCVs go to dance.  It was another fun night, although I left fairly early.  The next morning we got up early to eat and then head off to our permanent sites.  It was another hectic time, getting each transport group’s pile onto the same truck, and then quickly departing.  There was little time for goodbyes.  It was odd, we’d all been spending so much time together over the last month of training, and now we were heading off to our various sites and would be lucky to see each other once a month.  Training was now over, and integration was about to begin.  We had a session titled Preparing for the Stillness to get us ready for the isolation we were about to experience.

Month Two, the End of Training

The last month of training was a bit hectic.  After a week off from language because of the field trip, it quickly became crunch time to learn enough SiSwati to pass the LPI (Language Proficiency Interview).  We are expected to reach Intermediate Mid, but Intermediate Low is considered passing, meaning only that we are not required to retake the LPI at IST (In-Service Training, which occurs in November).  During the last month we also found out about our permanent sites.  We were all supposed to visit the sites for OJT (On-the-Job-Training), which was coordinated with a counterpart workshop.  The counterpart for those of us in education is more of a supervisor, as it was typically the head teacher/principal who came to the workshop.  The workshop and OJT were pushed back a week because of a possible teacher’s strike.  The strike was then pushed back, and while the counterpart workshop went ahead, OJT was cancelled because the strike ended up taking place right when we were supposed to be visiting.  They tend to be overly cautious about our movements when there are possible disturbances in the country, which is just fine with me.  It would have been nice to see the sites so that we could do a little bit of planning, but being a PCV is all about being flexible, as we’ve all learned again and again. 

The last week of training, we had our second round-robin testing day.  Round-robin is a day where we have numerous tests and meetings, with the CD (Country Director), APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director, there are 3 APCD, one for the health project, the education project, and for administration), medical officer, safety and security, cross-culture, etc.  We had previously done mock LPIs, to gauge our level of language learning halfway through training, and I had received Novice High, one step below Intermediate Low.  This time I got Intermediate Low, so I passed, although I would have liked to do better.  The highest score was Intermediate High, which several people received.  We also met with the security officer from the U.S. embassy during that week.  The last day on our homestead, we packed up and then all went to the college for a host family appreciation celebration.  There were speeches by the CD, a host family member, one of our teachers, the college president (where we were training), and two of the trainees.  The teachers and the trainees also prepared some sort of entertainment, they sang a song and we danced to a couple songs, one popular in America and one popular in Swaziland.  Then we all had lunch, and the families were given a couple bags of groceries to take home as a thank you.  We went back with the families to wait for the arrival of the trucks that would pick up our stuff, although the truck was already waiting for me when I got back.  So I quickly threw everything on and said my goodbyes to the family.  I gave them a couple drawings of Michigan my dad did before I left, a deck of cards, and a small photo album of pictures I had taken of the family, and a couple they had taken with me.

We spent the last night at the college so that we could leave early in the morning to get to Mbabane.  It was a crazy evening, as all of our stuff was arriving on the small trucks from our three villages and being transferred to one large truck.  In that mess were tables, chairs and beds that went back to the PC, bags that we would need that night and in Mbabane, and then all the stuff to go to our permanent sites.  The arrival of the trucks was quite spread out, so the early stuff had been taken inside before the big truck arrived, and then had to be brought back out.  As it was getting dark, it started to rain a little bit, and there were even snowflakes.  Some of the trucks arrived after dark, and it was a nightmare for people to figure out which bags went where, with some people digging around on the big truck for bags they needed that night.  The truck finally got filled, covered and locked up for the night, and then we could have dinner.  That evening, we had a medical wrap-up session, which was a jeopardy style quiz game on such fun topics as Diarrhea, HIV, STIs (Sexually-Transmitted Infections), and first aid.  It was a raucous game with lots of yelling, but my team came out on top so we got to be first in line for ice cream sundaes.  Then we went back to our rooms and enjoyed being all together in the same place once again.

Field Trip

Last week we took a field trip around the country.  Right now I am in the far south, and can see South Africa most days.  On our trip we went to the far north, and since Swaziland is almost surrounded by South Africa, I could see it up there as well.  We first went to Mulwane Nature Preserve, where we stayed in a hostel (called backpackers here), and got to walk around looking for wildlife.  I saw zebra, warthog, impala, water buffalo, ostrich and some cool birds.  There were hippo as well, but I missed those unfortunately.  It is a beautiful place, and it’s fun to be free just to walk around and look for animals.  We stopped at a new mall in Manzini (the biggest city here), and also at a strip mall in Mbabane (the capital and second largest city), where we could eat, shop, and pick up our cell phones.  Then we headed up to Ngonini, where we stayed for 3 nights, taking a two-day course on permaculture.  It was very interesting, although unfortunately the one day we were in the garden it was cold and rainy.  We all got together and watched a movie at the end of the day, a great way to end a cold and wet day.  That region is beautiful, with large forests, mountains, lakes and streams.  It was nice to finally see more of Swaziland.

A Day in My Life

Training starts at 8am, so I usually get up around 6am.  I start the tea kettle going, to boil water for breakfast, doing the dishes and bathing.  Then I head to the pit latrine, once the sun is up a little bit, which is pretty close to 6am.  I eat breakfast, which usually entails weet-bix, oatmeal or eggs/toast, and coffee.  Then I bucket bathe and get dressed for school.  I’m not really a fan of bucket bathing yet, but once I get to my permanent placement, I will be able to set up my solar shower, which will be a big improvement.  Then I walk either up to the store about five minutes away to catch a koombi to the college or walk another five minutes to the homestead where my teacher is staying for language class.  There are about 5 to a class, and two classes meet at our homestead.  If in the village, we usually walk over to meet the other half of Makhonza for a cross culture session after a couple hours of language.  It’s a nice 15 minute walk through a valley and some fields.  We usually get done around 3:30/4:00, and walk home.  Quite often those of us who live close by will get together for an hour or so to talk or play hearts.  We all try to get home before it gets dark at 5/5:30.  Days are getting longer, which is very nice without electricity.  I usually get home and cook dinner, right now I am keeping it very simple, rice and beans, soup, PB&J, etc.  I don’t want to have any food left when I move to my permanent site.  After dinner, I get in bed and read for a while, although I usually go to sleep between 8 and 9.  I actually really like the schedule; I’m getting plenty of sleep, and don’t miss staying up late at all. 

A couple pictures

These are a couple pictures of my group in a cooking competition we had, then a couple of my host family and then one of a group of us walking.

A Quick Rundown on My First Month

I’ve been in Africa for a while now, and I apologize that it’s taken me this long to post.  The two major reasons are that I’m in training 6 days a week, and the only free time we generally have is on the weekends when most internet cafes close down.  I also don’t have electricity, so it’s tough to type up posts at home and just download them in town.  But now that I’m getting into the hang of things, I’m making a point of getting some posts up. 

I spent a couple nights in Philadelphia at staging, where I met the other 38 volunteers in Group 9.  The Peace Corps started in Swaziland in 1969, but the program was ended because the country was doing so well.  The HIV/AIDS crisis that hit Swaziland has brought us back in 2003, and the first 8 groups were all health volunteers.  Group 9 is the first group to be divided between health and education.  Anyway, Philly was fun; I really enjoyed meeting all the people I will be spending the next two years with.  After a full day of training, including a yellow fever vaccination, we boarded a bus at 3am, heading for JFK airport.  We arrived about 6 hours early, and had to sit around on the floor waiting for the South African desk to open.  The flight was 15 hours, straight from NY to Johannesburg, arriving about 8 the next morning.  There we met some PC staff and a couple current volunteers, exchanged a little money, and got on a bus for Swaziland.  After a couple stops for food, the border, etc., we arrived at Ngwane Teachers College, where we would be staying for the next week or so.  It’s winter here, and Nhlangano is one of the coldest areas of the country, so there have been a number of cold nights, down into the 30s, although most days get warm, into the 60s. 

After about a week at the college, we all moved into homesteads to live with a Swazi family.  The group is split between 3 villages, two for health, and all education volunteers are living in Makhonza, a large, spread out village.  We are in training every weekday, and half of Saturday, with an average of 4 days at the college and 3 in the village.  We have trainings on language, culture, medical issues, safety and security, and then technical training on either health or education.  For the first two weeks with the family, I ate meals with them, getting to know them, eating Swazi food, and working on my language.  After that, we were given two burner gas stoves, and now we cook for ourselves. 

The next few weeks we will have more training, heavier on technical training and less on culture.  The plan is for us to meet our supervisors and get to visit our sites as well, but that could change.  On August 6, we leave our current sites, and after one night back at Ngwane, we will head to Mbabane for a few days, for our official swearing in ceremony.  From Mbabane we head directly to our various sites.

Address in Swaziland

I'll be getting on a plane in a few hours, so this is the last chance I'll have to update the blog for a while or even be able to access the internet at all, most likely.  I won't have a permanent address in Swaziland until after the 9 weeks of training are over, but any mail can be sent to me through the Peace Corps office.  The address is:

Noah Joseph, PCV
PO Box 2797
Mbabane H100, Swaziland
Africa

T-minus 5 days

On Monday, June 6, I will fly from Traverse City to Philadelphia for a quick one-day orientation.  I'll meet the other Peace Corps volunteers who are going to Swaziland, and we will all fly out together the morning of June 8, taking a 15-hour flight from JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa.  After that will be a bus ride into Swaziland, and the start of our Pre-Service Training (PST).  I'll be living in a dorm at a teacher's college in or near the capital of Mbabane for five days before being placed with a host family for the remainder of PST.  I'll find out where I will spend the rest of my 27 months close to the end of the 9 weeks of PST.

How I got here.

After working for about four years as a small town lawyer in Northern Michigan, I went back to school to gain my elementary teaching certificate.  I hoped to stay in the area even though it was a bad time for education.  I completed my student teaching and got my certification, but was unable to find a teaching position, and so I started to look at other options.  Having never really thought about the Peace Corps, I don't even remember where the idea came from, but once it got into my head I knew that's what I wanted to do.  I started the process of applying to the Peace Corps in August of 2010, knowing that it was a lengthy process.  While it is indeed long, I was impressed at how quickly each step moved.  My preference of location was Sub-Saharan Africa or Oceania, because I wanted to get as far from anything I had every experienced as possible.  Within a week of applying, I was called by a recruiter and set up an interview in Chicago.  I had the privilege of meeting with Nomenee Robinson, who served in the Peace Corps in India from 1961-63, the first group to serve after the Corps was started by John F. Kennedy.  I received my nomination on November 2, to leave in late July for a program in Asia.  I went through the process of doctor and dentist visits, to make sure I was healthy enough to go abroad.  Nomination is only the first step, and nothing is official until there is an invitation to serve.

During this time, I was working as a nanny for my friend's baby and with an after-school program where I run extracurricular activities and programs for middle school kids.  As the year progressed, I read up on Asia, and was excited to find out where exactly I would be going.  In April, I received a call concerning my invitation to serve.  If I was amenable, they had spots open in Sub-Saharan Africa, leaving in early June.  Since Africa had been my first preference, that was just fine by me.  I was given two possibilities, one for a high school classroom English teacher in a country that recently had seen some conflict (they would not name the countries), and the second would be working with younger children, running extracurricular activities and programs (sound familiar?) in a more stable country with a long Peace Corps relationship.  I jumped at the second option, which turned out to be Swaziland.

Since my invitation, I've been reading up on Swaziland and Sub-Saharan Africa, and ordering all the little goodies I'll need for the next 27 months of my life.  I have no idea how often I'll be able to make posts, but I hope to give updates about where I'm living, and what my work is like.  I also hope to post lots of pictures, of course.