Sanibonani Everyone!
I am finishing up my third month here in Swaziland, and my
first month as an official Peace Corps volunteer. I like to think of this
process as more of a day-by-day one, though. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been
away from home for much longer than a few months, but then at other times it is
hard to believe that there are only 23 months left in this whole experience! I
have a feeling the time will go by fast, especially after integration is over
and my weeks at site are broken up by weekend trips into the city with friends
and other travels around Africa.
Summer is just around the corner down here in the Southern
hemisphere, and Swaziland is heating up. Last week I spent my afternoons
sprawled out in my hut drinking ice water and spraying poison on all the bugs
that have decided to come out because of the weather. Temperatures reached 100
degrees Fahrenheit, and I ran out of my monthly living allowance before I was
able to purchase a fan! That is an item at the top of my list for October. Fortunately, though, Swazis have developed
some excellent methods for dealing with the heat. My family makes ice pops,
which are little sandwich bags filled with juice that they freeze and then sell
at the end of our driveway to the kids walking home from school in the
afternoons. I may or may not have bought three in one day…
Also, as I’ve mentioned before, my hut has a thatch roof
which has been a lifesaver! When I come home from visiting the school in the
afternoons it is a solid 10 degrees cooler inside that outside. The same can’t
be said for my family’s main house, which has a tin roof. They all slept
outside on the porch this week because the heat stays trapped inside their
house, making it unbearable!
Additional news from the homestead includes that two green
mamba snakes we spotted near my hut this week. Those are deadly. Luckily,
someone saw them, so they were killed with rocks and then their bodies were
burned in the fire…But now I am on the look out! I did have a much friendlier
little lizard pay me a visit-by scaring the crap out of me when I saw him from
the corner of my eye running up my wall-but I haven’t seen him since. Inspired
by these events, I had some of the boys around the homestead help me hang my mosquito
net over my bed this week. I have yet to see any mosquitoes in my area, but
that thing will protect me from all uninvited guests (just ask my friend who
woke up in the middle of the night to a bat hanging on hers during training!).
.JPG)
This is Londiwe spreading cow manure (mixed with water)
around the yard of our homestead “to keep it clean”. I laughed out loud at her
explanation, but in all seriousness, it really does keep the dust down and make
everything looks smooth and nice…Once it dries and stops smelling like cow
manure.
I am mostly settled in to my hut now, but I still have some
finishing touches to complete before giving you all a virtual tour. I have been
able to develop a little more of a routine though. I wake up around 7 and spend
the early morning making coffee and breakfast, checking the world news on my
phone, and watching some TV shows from my hard drive. I sweep my hut every
morning, and catch up on dishes or anything else that needs to be done. When I
go outside I usually spend some time playing with baby Wakhile and talking with
my host family. The pace of life is slow in Swaziland, so throw in some reading
and working on sewing curtains for my hut and that takes us to lunch time.
After lunch I have been going to the high school to give
surveys to the students during their study period. I’m giving them a simple
10-question survey that tells me a little bit about their interests and
attitudes towards school, but I am mostly using the opportunity to let them get
familiar with me and ask me all the questions they want the answers to. And let
me tell you, these kids have questions! Some of my favorites are:
How many cows would I have to pay to marry you?
Is your hair real?
Are you friends with Beyonce?
I try to meet with a few of the teachers every day, too, and
discuss potential project ideas. On my way home, there are usually people I
know waiting for their turn to get water at the tap so I stop and talk for a
while before getting back to the homestead and buying an ice pop to enjoy in
the shade. I hang out with the kids that are around and make dinner. My 12 year
old bhuti, Sibonelo, will usually knock on my hut door at around 6 asking for
help with his homework. I was feeling entirely capable of helping him with his
sixth grade math and English, but the night he brought me his home economics
homework, we both struggled. I usually go to bed early, around 9, simply
because there isn’t much else to do.
Pictured above is one of the kids shaking down a papaya for
me!
This past Friday, my volunteer friend Hannah and I made the
trek to the east side of the country to visit another volunteer who is staying
in a sugarbelt community. The sugarbelt is a region in Swaziland that is
essentially owned by the Royal Swaziland Sugar Company (RSSC)…which is owned by
the king. There are these large “estates”, or towns, that are company property;
they consist of massive sugar cane fields, sugar processing plants, company
housing for all employees, and company-owned facilities like schools and
clinics. There is a lot of money in these areas, but it doesn’t’ belong to the
workers. They just come for the work week, stay in the company housing, send
their kids to company school, and then leave back to their rural homesteads on
the weekends. Anyway, because the higher-up RSSC managers and executives have
money, there are some really fancy country clubs in the area. We spent our
visit sitting in the sun, sipping wine next to pool at one of those clubs. It
was really nice to get away for a while! We vowed to make a visit to the pool
and monthly tradition.
Next weekend several friends and I are planning on visiting
House on Fire, which is a live music venue/art gallery/restaurant and bar in
central Swaziland. We’re going to stay at a backpackers and make a little trip
out of it. It will be nice to catch up with them after being spread out all
around the country for the past month. I’m really excited!
Other than that, there isn’t much to report. On the slow
days I am certainly feeling the homesickness that I don’t expect to get any
easier. Not being able to watch Seahawks games or to sing “Happy Birthday” to
Olive isn’t easy. Hearing about friends getting engaged, moving, starting new
jobs and relationships, etc makes me wish I was around to be a part of it all.
I am, however, incredibly fortunate to be as connected as I am to home. Serving
in Peace Corps 20…or even 5 years ago would have been a really different
experience as far as communicating with friends and family is concerned. On a
sidenote: letters and care packages are the best gifts a girl could ask for! My
mailing address is in an earlier post, and will remain the same for my entire
time here, but for anyone who does not yet have it:
Talor Hopkins, PCV
U.S. Peace CorpsP.O. Box 2797
Mbabane H100
Swaziland AFRICA
I’ll leave you with a selfie from a few weeks back. I think
Wakhile’s face says it all!
No comments:
Post a Comment