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.