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.