Life on the Plateau

I'm currently enjoying a hybrid swazi and american meal. It's a hybrid because instead of lipalishi (or 'Pap' ... porridge of the corn variety) or rice on the side, i've thrown in some spaghetti mixed with the chicken stew I just cooked for my counterpart, Sebe. What's amusing to me is how used to customs I am (dare I say finally?) becoming. The language here is pretty direct, and often requests come as orders or demands. So at 3pm this afternoon when Sebe declared 'tonight you will cook for me' it was easy to just smile, and say 'sure thing, I'd love to'. Sebe, along with the other bothishela (teachers) have been an amazing support system for me over the last few weeks. And I feel much more at home here than when I was timidly peeking around my door, trying to figure out how I'd make any friends. I broke the ice pretty easily through sharing some chocolate muffins and no bakes with my neighbors. I've been both exhaustingly busy and bored out of my mind. Vive la Integration (I probably used that phrase wrong) but so is life.

I've been helping Ruth with computer lessons, teaching her the fine art of googling, and the magic and wonder of copy and paste. I also enjoyed a 2 hour hike with the computer, agriculture, and PE teachers. I am also pretty impressed with how I've been handling the heat. Although I'm on a plateau that experiences a 5 or 10 degree difference than hotter parts of the country (and offers an INCREDIBLE view when I take a kumbi out of town) it is still sweltering. Today, I was about to head into town when I was intercepted by the head teacher. Being the noob that I am, I was not carrying an umbrella to protect myself from the sun. It was rather sweet, she asked kindly, 'as a mother' for me to wait to go to town until it gets cooler.  What made this action all the more justified was the fact that someone had died of heat stroke in town earlier in the day.

I'm also slowly beginning to find my place here. This was super challenging in the beginning, there's so much already at the school, so on the one hand I wasn't sure what I could bring to the table, on the other hand, it didn't take long for me to feel like two years is way too short. In one of the meetings held before school started the bothishela mentioned their interest for providing *we interrupt this message with a breaking news update-- I now am more frequently eating with my hands...* facilities for mental health. I began thinking about how helpful the 'wellness wednesdays' were that my sorority sisters wrote while I was in undergrad. One thing led to another and now I'm doing 'wellness workshops' every morning before class starts. The goal/hope is that the bothishela will begin introducing these topics to their students, and that after they get an idea about it, they'll co-facilitate with me. But for now it's been a pretty awesome experience. I've started on 'time management' and this morning was a huge success. It was all about organization,   and as a take away, I said, 'remember, the world's universal currency is time. Like money, we can borrow, lend, spend and save it. How is yours best used?' ... And a hush fell over the crowd. It's funny to be talking about things that now feel so second nature, that many of the bothishela    have never considered before.

I am also beginning the task of tackling the library, and have enjoyed working with Nomcebo for that... We're going to start up some literacy programs, and integrate the library more into the school' curriculum. Terrifyingly... I was handed the key to the library and informed that I was in charge. I guess previously volunteers have always been in the library. It's nice to be promoted to head librarian, buuut I am working on changing that. I have been opening up the library as an experiment to see how it is being used. The first day was chaos. Peace corps Pam... Er Bongiwe didn't mind the running, pushing, shoving and need for 'disaster tape' to be strung everywhere once I finally shooed everyone out of the library (thanks entirely to an older student that many are actually afraid of...) Today it was a very different scene. And what I really admire, is how much the kids want to hang out in the library, while not all are reading, today many spent an hour working on puzzles and memory games, and even reading news from the ancient stacks of The Swazi Times or National Observer.

The kids also enjoy leading me around and pointing out pictures, and I celebrated with them after they completed the puzzles. I am going to need to figure out times when I'll have the library supervised (hopefully by other people than just me) because I noted quickly that they really like it, and rather than fighting in the school yard, and tooling around would rather spend time looking through books. I saw that the past volunteer also offered study hall hours, so that's something I might start as well.

I'm also excited because tomorrow a group of students is performing a... Dance? At the hotel in town, promoting HIV/AIDS and family planning programs and education. It was incredibly to watch them practice so far. One of the young gentlemen is a phenomenal drummer, I'm going to try to film it tomorrow. It was really neat.

While the past week honestly made me a walking billboard for the importance of deep breathing (to put it simply... School started three weeks ago... Classes, on the other hand...) This week, so far is starting to feel like a breath of fresh air.

On Friday, I had a dinner of sorts, and enjoyed the company of several of my fellow pcvs... I made pizza, and even went all out and made pancakes for breakfast. I'm pumped because i'm going to be descending the plateau on Saturday, heading towards Matata, near Big Bend (cue the kumbi drivers 'Biggie Bendie') to visit my closest friend here, Robbin. It'll be nice to be back in village life for a weekend.

Because of my location to town, I tend to trudge on over nearly once a day.  My frequent visits have led me to make some friends with the bomake (mothers/women) at the market. Additionally, two waiters at a restaurant I've eaten at a couple of time, with ridiculous good food, have asked me to help them with learning English. I joked that I'd come in, order a milkshake and provide lessons, and before I knew it they offered to give me free milkshakes. So I'm hoping to find time now to tutor them once or twice a week. It's hard now though, as I'm trying to get a handle on my schedule, and where, when, how I should be spending my time.

But it's hard not to make time for milkshakes, hehe.

I think this entry does a far better job of summing up my life here, no matter how true my last one also was. Disgustingly, I probably ate like 50 'no bakes' last week. It was probably a sign from the weightloss and healthy eating spirits that I wasn't able to go into town to buy more butter today... Haha. Until next time, salani kahle.

A Lazy Blogger's Post

For everyone who thinks my life is somehow more exciting than yours...

Here's some things that I can't suppress from sharing because I feel I deserve some sort of bragging rights:

1. I treated myself to some non-stick cooking pans, and sweet crumbly muffins, they work like a dream. If ever you need something to brighten your day, I guarantee a non-stick pan will do the trick.

2. The sink outside my house for laundry has a built in washboard. Now I am actually looking forward to doing my laundry... In fact, on Sunday I had to tell myself to stop! I kept going back and looking for new things to wash. I know for the fact that I am the envy of many other PCVs because of this. But how can you resist when your clothes look and feel so clean--and for the first time in months!

3. I made the most bomb tomato sauce the other night with dinner. Huzzah. Then I even went and made salsa to have alongside the homemade tortillas I had for lunch. Yup... that's right.
In all seriousness, these things genuinely made my day. Along with having really awesome conversations where I dabble into my siswati.

Live, from under the mosquito net

*This post brought to you my amazing friend, Sarah.  Without her, I would still be pushing "refresh" angrily, eyes glazing over in agony as the message "connection unavailable" messed with my level of patience. All I can say is, thank... Siyabonga kakhulu!!!* 

Anybody still out there?

It's kind of unfathomable that it's already September. PST was a complete whirlwind. While the days felt sometimes unendless (waking up between 5:30/6am---before the sun, I might add), and returning to our host families sometimes as late as 5:30pm (oh the mad scramble to get water, and cook before the sunset... 30 minutes... ready, set... GO!). This was also lengthened by the probability of having to wait for the bus for 1-2 hours.  The bus was a good "get your feet wet" moment for transportation in general... as you often things leave when they leave... whether or not you're on the bus... but the rides were amusing, filled with house music, and encoures of Celine Dion (My fellow G11s... you're the strength when I was weak... the words when I can't speak...) Weeks were over before I even realized it was no longer Monday.

By the last two weeks, I was both extremely excited, and sad to be leaving for my permanent site.  Excited because I had a really incredible visit over On the Job Training or OJT for all you acronym fanatics.  Peace Corps even arranged for me and Megan to have additional sign-language lessons (for the folks at home, I am going to be working with deaf youth--and that's all the details I'll disclose, because you can't be officially badass if everyone in the world knows your exact location). 

I was really stressed about our final LPI (Language Proficiency Interview)--we had to get at least intermediate low to pass--, and then learning sign on top of it... my bucupo (brain) was on the verge of exploding.  But here we are.  All 33 of us had an awesome time at Swearing In.  there were speeches from the American Ambassador, and two regional administrators, as well as the acting Prime Minister.  And hey, my face even made it into the paper.  We all joked though, that we obviously hadn't learned that much in training because none of us brought tupperware with us to bring back some of the delicious food we, perhaps a little overzealously, scarfed down as if we hadn't eaten in weeks (embarrassingly SO not true).  A few volunteers got crafty with water bottle and quickly turned those into to-go containers... eish... I have so much left to learn. 

The last weekend with my host family was amazing.  The kids wanted to make videos, my bhuti (brother) is hilarious... and then the group of them wanted to greet my mom, so they made two videos, one in English and one in Siswati.  it was super cute (I'll get it to you sometime between now and 2015, mom!) Then another family member decided he wanted his picture taken too... so he goes into gogo's house, and carries out a 20 foot ladder... and then rests it up against a papaya tree... him and my bhuti climb up, and pose. (I've included some pictures... hehe) This was definitely one of my favorite afternoons since I've been here.  

I really liked living in the "training village". On Sundays I had a lot of fun going for walks or attending community meetings at the Umphakatsi.  It was also fun to walk to the store and chat with the people hanging out there... and of course treat myself to some niknaks. 

Now I'm living on a school compound, which is really nice--My house is a teacher's apartment--but I no longer have a host family* My Make (mother) was excited, because that meant I get to keep the Swazi name she gave me--which I've also grown quite attached to... Bongiwe-- roughly meaning "praise".  It was strange leaving right when I felt like I was settling in. I"m really going to miss my host family, and I can't wait to visit them in a few months. My Make was so good to me, always checking in, and always ready to laugh if I got a little too serious. She joked that my hut will be mine, and that I can just move my family from the states here, and build more rooms on it... (what do you think, fam?)

*Although I am not living with a family... the other teachers have been so welcoming, and I feel as though I might actually 20ish families, which is nice, I really don't feel isolated. 

Here, because phone calls are so expensive, people buzz each other (let the phone ring once or twice, and then hang up), just to let you know they are thinking of you. I promised Make I wouldn't be lazy and I would buzz her often. As a going away present I gave her a handmade market basket--and I was so excited that she really loved it--her reaction was priceless. She is really good at making emafehti and buns, so it's the perfect thing to carry them around in. In return she gave me a beautiful wooden bowl. It is currently housing bobanane and oranges.

I really like the town that I live near. It's neat to only be a few minutes walk from the bus rank, and there's a really big Bomake market right next to it... so yay fresh produce!  In town, there's pretty much everything I need. It always cracks me up when I speak Siswati, because the reactions people give are also worth the effort, it's funny how surprised they are that I can speak even just a few words. 

The best way to sum up my feelings right now is to say that the past few days have been days where two years feels too short, and I think that's a good thing.  I've moved past the initial anxieties of being surrounded by so much difference and now I know better how to communicate and even joke, as I navigate through what previously might have been frustrating moments.  I'm really looking forward to the next few months of Integration, and the next two years of service. 

Here's to being an official Peace Corps Volunteer!