The Busy Season

Sanibonani!

I’m posting this blog from the Peace Corps offices in Mbabane, in between running around like a crazy person doing last minute tasks for a training we are hosting this weekend. The other co-directors of the Girls Leading Our World program and I have organized a special training for our Swazi counterparts/camp counsellors focusing on psychosocial support and dealing with abuse. This was actually a topic requested by the Swazi women who run the GLOW clubs in their communities, so we’re really excited to have been able to put this weekend’s events together. Several guest speakers from different organizations around Swaziland will be coming to offer their advice, support, and knowledge surrounding abuse and what these women can do to help the girls in their clubs when these issues arise in the lives of the girls they work with.

So that’s what I’m up to for the next few days. But to cover what’s been going on lately, September was The Month of the Library Project! Everything finally fell together with the school’s schedule and mine, and one we started working, things actually went a lot faster than I expected. Furniture was delivered, and once we had the tables and chairs in the library we were able to start unpacking and sorting through the Books For Africa donations. Students came in every day to help me with sorting, labeling, and cataloging the books, or just to check out what was going on. Several were asking if they could borrow books before the cataloging was finished! I was so happy to see them actually excited about reading. Over the next several weeks I was at the library almost every day, all day, cataloging the 2,359 books that now make up the Mayiwane High School Library! There are still a few final things that need to be purchased before I can close out the grant, but I am proud to say the library is now open and fully functional, with a ton of credit being given to the students who sat with me for hours putting color-coded stickers and numbers on each book and organizing them on the shelves. We have a lot of great titles (Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Babysitters Club, Goosebumps, and several classics) that I hope the students will enjoy, and I think they are appropriate to the English reading levels of most kids at the school.

I plan to start a reading club of some sort at the beginning of the next school year, in January. It would be difficult to start now because the students are already in the middle of taking their final exams, and then school is out for the holidays after the first week of December. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how that goes!

On the first Friday of October, the high school had its annual Speech and Prize Day. I remember blogging about it last year, but I had forgotten to bring my camera! This day is sort of like a graduation ceremony for the Form 5 students. Who began their final exams the following Monday and are done with school the first week of November. Students from every grade who have excelled in every subject are also recognized and given prizes. It’s the absolute sweetest thing to hear a students’ name called, and see then shyly approach the podium to collect their prize, while in the meantime their proud mother is pushing through the crowd of parents and dancing through the stage area up to their child to greet and congratulate them. The traditional cultural dance teams perform at the event, along with choirs and other talented students, and several influential community members and honored guests attend. The head teacher and the head boy of the school both thanked me in their speeches for my work on the library, and the head teacher was very pleased to show off the renovations to the VIP guests. Speech Day is a really fun event for the community, and everyone (we’re talking 3000+ people) gets fed afterwards by the brave souls who have been working in the kitchen for 12 hours prior to lunch time!

Sidenote: While all of this had been happening, it has been SOFREAKINGHOT here in Swaziland. Overnight, winter simply decided her time was over, and handed things over to summer without much of a transition at all. We’re talking 110 degrees with no shade, air conditioning, and until two weeks ago, not even a fan. This summer has already been much hotter and more miserable than last, when the temperatures didn’t get this high until Christmas day.

In the coming weeks, I’m looking forward to the Peace Corps Halloween Party, our Senior Counsellor Training in preparations for GLOW Camp, and formally finishing up the library project. I’ll be posting the link to donate to our amazing wonderful, extremely valuable, super inspiring, way too fun GLOW Camp fund very soon! We have put a lot of effort into budgeting and rearranging our funding sources so that we only need to raise about half as much money as last year, and still plan on making camp bigger and better, so please consider contributing if you’re able to!

Sanalni kahle bamgani bami!

xoxo

Better late than never?

Okay, so I wrote this blog about a month ago and never had internet access to post it! So here you go. A very, very up-to-date one is coming as well! Sorry its been so long!

Wow! I’m the worst blogger ever. The past few months have been a combination of times when I have had zero access to internet and very little to report home, and others when I’ve been too busy bussing, training, flying, and visiting my favorite place in the whole world to blog!

Now that I’m back in the kingdom and things have settled down, I can share a bit of an update. At the end of May I attended Bushfire Festival here in Swaziland and had the time of my life. Nearly all the PCVs from this country, along with hundreds from South Africa. Mozambique, and Lesotho claimed a big area of the campground and partied together all weekend. Bushfire is an annual music and arts festival hosted at House on fire, and it has been rated one of the top 7 in Africa. My friends and I spent the weekend dancing, shopping, eating, chilling in the sun, and having a great time. A highlight for me was finally getting to see Cassper Nyovest. He’s the most popular hip hop artist in South Africa right now, and his music is inescapable here. I’ve learned to love it, and it was great to experience it live!

 

 

Bushfire was also a bit of a going away party for the group of volunteers that arrived in Swaziland in 2013. They began leaving the week after and have slowly been trickling out of the country ever since. In about a week, my group (G12) will truly be the veterans of Peace Corps Swaziland!

My library has books! They are in boxes, waiting to be inventoried and shelved, but they’re here! And that’s so exciting. The library set-up process has been moving slowly, as many things do in Swaziland. We were able to get the building painted on the inside and outside, and completely cleaned out. It’s looking great, and I can’t wait to get books on the shelves. The next step is for me to purchase the tables and chairs with the grant money, so we have a place to work while sorting the books. Unfortunately, August 7^th was the last day of the school term, so that process won’t start until early September.

In other work-related news, the GLOW grant is thisclose to being finished! Our original naïve wish that we would not have to fundraise this year is not going to come true, but we were able to significantly reduce the amount of money we need to raise by splitting the cost up among two different types of grants. We are now beginning to talk to speakers, vendors, and venues about putting on our two camps in April. More info to come on GLOW soon, as we will definitely need your support!

The month of June brought me two special gifts: baby hippos and food poisoning. A couple of volunteer friends and I went with our Swazi friends on a little self-guided tour of Hlane Royal National Park. For about $4 you are allowed to drive yourself through the parts of the park that do not have lions. We got to see hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and lots of impala and warthogs! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

The following weekend, I had the worse sickness I’ve ever experienced in my life. I will spare you all the details, but just imagine severe food poisoning hitting you in the middle of the night in a situation where you have no sink, toilet, or running water of any kind. I will probably never be the same!

At the end on June a new group of almost 50 volunteers arrived to begin their service. Their arrival marked me being here for an entire year. In some ways it feels like so much has happened that I have to have been here longer than that, but in others it is surreal to think this experience is half over. It seems like I’m just getting started with my work…which I am. And that life is just beginning to feel normal. I am extremely grateful that Peace Corps uses a two-year model for service, because it really does take the greater part of the first year to learn enough about local language, culture, and practical skills to even make you qualified to begin working with people for positive change. And then, once you feel comfortable in the context you’re working in, you still have to form the relationships that will lead you to identifying the needs of your community, and the people who are motivated to work with you on projects that address those needs. I know my second year is going to disappear too quickly, especially with visits from friends and family and trips I am planning to take. I plan on enjoying it while it lasts!

I GOT TO VISIT HOME IN JULY AND IT WAS AWESOME. I had the best two weeks back in Washington, and it was really, really hard to say goodbye again. It was great to spend time with family and friends, drink Starbucks, and eat sushi. I got to attend a party celebrating one of my very best friend’s recent marriage, and surprise another bride at her wedding! Being reminded of all the comforts and conveniences of home (dishwasher!!!!) was nice, and it will definitely help get me through the second year, knowing what I have to come back to.

 

Now I’m back on my homestead and finally readjusted to the time difference. I brought back some tortillas from home, and it is avocado season here, so I’ve been enjoying eating tacos…probably too many. Since school is out until September, I’m just planning to spend time helping my family with their produce from the garden, playing with the adorable babies on the homestead, visiting my bhuti’s wife at her salon in town, and roaming around Swaziland visiting other volunteers. My friend Sydney and her boyfriend, Shahar are going to be visiting at the end of the month for about 10 days, and I’m really excited about that! I get to show them around Swaziland and they can experience hut life for a few days. Their trip is also timed perfectly, as they’ll get to experience Umhlanga, famously known as the Reed Dance.

I know I say this always, but I really will try to be better about posting! Things are picking up, and I should have more to write about in the coming months. Sala kahle!

GLOW Update!

Sanibonani!

Its been a while since my last post, because I'm finally to the point in my service where I can say things are busy! Recent developments include that my grant was approved for improvements and furniture for the library at my high school, and the books are arriving this week! I'll be spending the next few months purchasing furniture, helping to paint, inventorying, labeling, and preparing the space for a re-opening.

The past several weeks have been spent at Peace Corps meetings, volunteer social events, and at two separate Girls Leading Our World camps! GLOW Camp one hosted over 70 girls ages 13-19 for five days of fun, games, sexual reproductive health education, leadership and career training, dancing, camp fires, a talent show, community service, and amazing memories. My role was mainly to take in as much as I could about the camp experience, in an effort to understand how to make it work next year, as well as to take notes for potential improvements. I got to have some fun assisting with sessions like condom demonstrations, too!

Camp two was smaller, as it was the first time GLOW Swaziland has offered a younger girls' camp. We had over 25 girls ages 9-12 come for four days immediately following camp one, and they engaged in sessions directed at a younger audience, but dealing with many of the same topics. Working with this smaller group of girls was so much fun! We are considering how to structure our camps next year in an effort to continuing growing the GLOW program but also maintain the atmosphere the smaller camp offered.

Girls playing the Spider Web game, trying to get their whole team to the other side

Celebration after winning!

I don't have a lot more to share, but I am looking forward to going back to my site today and staying there for the next couple of weeks. I'm exhausted from all the traveling and running around I've been doing lately, and I'm missing my host family. I plan to keep busy in my community, working on this library overhaul until Bush Fire music festival at the end of May!

Ally, Dani, and me; the GLOW Team for next year!

My Heart is in Rwanda

Less than three weeks after returning to Swaziland from my amazing vacation in Rwanda, I’m already counting down the minutes until I’ll be back. Getting to return to the land of a thousand hills only reconfirmed what I already knew in my heart; that Rwanda is my favorite place in the world. In fact, it was my short few months studying abroad in Kenya and Rwanda that inspired me to apply for Peace Corps back in 2012. I returned home from that trip in March and was interviewing with Peace Corps by the end of April, and now here I am!

Our trip was sooo so much fun. I travelled with three other volunteers who are some of my closest friends here, and then when we arrived we met up with Steven and Rogers, my friends from my first trip to Rwanda. But I’m already getting ahead of myself. Our journey began on a Tuesday night with three of us sleeping on Jess’s double-size bed and Hannah sleeping on the floor, because Jess lives near Manzini which is where we had to catch public transport earlyyy Wednesday morning to make it to Johannesburg, South Africa, for our flight on Thursday. We took a minibus across the border, and everything was going smoothly for the first 4 and a half hours of the journey. It looked like we would make it into Joburg by around 1pm, and have some time to do some shopping (we are mall-deprived) and eating (also McDonald’s-deprived) before getting picked up and taken to our hostel. However, about 30 minutes outside the city, our bus just stopped working. We sat on the side of the freeway in the heat of midday for about two hours waiting for another bus to come retrieve all of us.

 

Photoshoot during the breakdown

 

When we finally arrived in Joburg, our friendly bus driver, who knew very well what mall we had asked to be dropped at, and had reconfirmed this several times, dropped us at the wrong mall. Our cell phones weren’t working since we had left Swaziland, we were hungry, tired, and lost in a city we had heard nothing but bad things about. Luckily someone helped us to find a private taxi that took us to the correct mall. There, we enjoyed McDonald’s for the first time in nine months! And let me tell you, it was incredible. We got picked up and take to our hostel near the airport, and got some rest before our travels the next day.

Our flight to Rwanda left at 8am Thursday, and we arrived there around noon. Stepping off the plan onto the tarmac, I got goose bumps. I have had this conversation with several people who have been to Rwanda, and most say the same thing-there is just something about the place. You fall in love with it. We grabbed REAL iced coffee, which is virtually impossible to come by in Swaziland, and waiting for Steven and Rogers to come pick us up. Seeing these boys again was honestly a dream come true. When I left Africa after my study abroad trip, I was upset for weeks. I made all these friendships and formed such strong bonds with people, and then had to leave not knowing if I would ever see them again. Being back on Rwanda soil giving hugs to two of my best friends, who have managed to stay in touch with me over the past two years despite all three of us graduating from university, moving around, having busy lives and occasionally poor access to communication, was such an amazing feeling. I know that very few people they met while working with the cultural exchange program will ever make it back to see them again, and I was so, so happy to be able to keep my promise.

Day one was spent wandering around Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. We ate at a burrito bar very similar to Chipotle, which was absolute heaven. Nothing resembling Mexican food is available to us in Swaziland… which may be why we returned to eat at this same burrito bar every single day we were in Kigali. We saw a little bit of the city that night, and went to bed early to prepare for day two!

 

Just landed! So happy!

 

Rogers, Me, and Steven

We were up and on the road by 5am on Friday, in a giant safari vehicle heading for Akagera National Park. The park is about 3 hours east of Kigali, and the animals are most active in the morning. We saw so many things! For Jess, Dani, and I, it was our first safari. We were out driving around the park for about 5 hours, seeing baboons, water buffalo, warthogs, antelope, monkeys, zebras, springboks, one very distant elephant, tonssss of hippos, and the highlight for me-giraffes. We stopped for lunch by a small lake full of hippos, and I took the opportunity to get some good photos. As I approached what I thought were two hippos underwater, more and more of their friends kept popping up to stare at me! For me, the best part was getting out of the car to see the giraffes. I had never seen my favorite animal in the wild before, so I was really excited. When we made it back to Kigali we had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant (yum!) and then got ready to go out to the Kigali nightclubs! We met up with some Rwanda Peace Corps Volunteers for drinks and then went to a few different clubs around the city. It was nice to have several fun options, since there is only one place for nightlife in Swaziland and it is always hit-or-miss.

 

On Saturday we travelled by public bus to Gisenyi, a resort town on Lake Kivu, on the west side of the country. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. One of my favorite things about Rwanda is how incredibly green it is. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, so land is precious, and Rwandan farmers do not waste it. There are very few flat areas, so those are mainly reserved for housing, but on the steepest of hills, crops are planted in neat rows. It really is amazing to see. It was a long trip, and we didn’t get the earliest start, so we went straight to the public market to but ingredients for dinner when we got there. Rogers and Steven planned to cook a Rwandan meal for us (another unheard of practice in Swaziland-men cooking for women)! We bought everything we needed at the market and went up to the house we rented to prepare the meal. There was a crazy lightning storm that night, and the power kept going out. The boys were cooking by candlelight for us for THREE HOURS! We had a feast! Friend plantains, potato chips, cooked vegetables, peanut sauce, cabbage- it was all amazing. Then it was time to party again! We all went to a fun bar down by the lake in Gisenyi.

 

Long bus ride selfie!

 

The view of Lake Kivu from our house

 

 

Peeling plantains

On Sunday we travelled back to Kigali, and we were exhausted. After hitting the burrito bar for lunch we all went to the hostel to rest. That evening for dinner, we decided to treat the boys to a meal at Hotel de Mille Collines, better known as Hotel Rwanda. Since Rwanda’s recovery from the genocide in the early 90’s, the hotel has reopened and is a very nice place. As with everywhere in Rwanda, it is really difficult to imagine the events that took place in the very space you are standing, not very long ago, while sitting by the pool sipping on a cocktail at the hotel.

 

 

On Monday, we visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum, which tells the story of Rwanda from before colonization through the present day. Even though I had visited the museum on my previous trip, it was still overwhelmingly emotional and difficult to witness. I am really lucky to have friends who are Rwandan, and who understand that as Americans, we are really poorly educated on what happens elsewhere in the world. It is an incredibly personal, difficult topic for the boys to discuss, but they answered our questions and shared what they were able to. After a rough morning, we went to do some shopping at the craft market. I bought entirely too many beautiful things. Then it was time to go.

I am completely in love with Rwanda and I know I am not finished with it yet. While things are still really uncertain, I am hoping to be able to spend a significant amount of time there (potentially working/living) when I am finished with Peace Corps. Even with this plan in the back of my mind, saying goodbye wasn’t easy and I’ve been having a hard time adjusting back to life in Swaziland since.

The good news is, though, that things have been really busy and the time is going by pretty quickly. I’m still working on a grant to get money for furniture for my school’s library, and the books will come in May. As a co-director for Swaziland’s GLOW program, I am busy meeting with other volunteers are preparing for two weeks of GLOW camp at the end of April! It’s going to be completely exhausting but SO much fun to see camp come together this year, and then begin planning for next year!

Until next time,

Ndagukunda cyane!

(“I love you” in Kinyarwanda)

 

 

 

 

Umkhosi Webuganu!

I’m happy to finally be able to say that the pace of life is picking up here a bit! School is in full swing, and between working on writing the grant for library furniture and supplies, assisting with some of the clubs, and spectating at the various sport and performance events, I have a lot less (but still enough) free time.

I spent Valentine’s Day in town with a few volunteer friends of mine. We went to an event at House on Fire and then spent the following night making tacos and eating chocolate and watching movies. Since then I’ve been going to school almost every day to discuss different aspects of the library project and just hang out with the teachers. The library room was being used as an overflow staff room, but the staff have since been moved to their new home, so the project is officially underway! I’ll be submitting a grant for tables, chairs, some paint, a TV and DVD player, and some supplies in the next couple weeks, and am hoping to be able to do most of the purchasing during the school’s April break. Then we’ll be ready for the books to arrive in May!

 

 

At House on Fire on Valentine's Day weekend

A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to attend one of Swaziland’s 5 big annual ceremonies, umkhosi webuganu (or the marula festival). This ceremony is one of two marula festivals that takes place in Swaziland every year, and it is held at the King Mswati III’s palace in Buhleni, which happens to be less than ten minutes from my house. The Buganu festival is traditionally a time Swazis get together and cook, drink home-brewed beer made from the marula fruit, and party. The event had a very 4^th-of-July-in-the-park vibe to it. Everyone was barbequing and tailgating and enjoying themselves all day.  Several PCVs attended, as it was one of our first chances to see the king in person since we’ve been in country. I dressed up in traditional emahiya, which ended up working out to my advantage when my friend Hannah and I were persuaded to sneak past the police officers and into the actual procession of dancers as part of the ceremony! We joined thousands of bomake (married women/mothers) in dancing for the king for over two hours, after which the king’s mother and His Majesty himself both gave speeches. During the procession early on in the ceremony, each group of dancers got to parade before the king. When our group was up, we could tell he was looking directly at us (we did stand out a bit, despite having on the proper attire) so we decided to be bold and wave at the king. He waved back! Definitely a highlight of my time in Swaziland so far.

 

My host Gogo and me at Buganu

 

Swaziland Electric Company's stash of marula beer in their tent

 

 

The group of bomake dancing behind the group we joined

 

 

 

 

Such a fun day!

 

 

During the week after the festival, I had my regular lesson with my siSwati tutor, who is also a teacher at the high school. I asked her about the significance of the Buganu ceremony, since the only thing I ever hear Swazis talking about is how it is the time to drink marula beer. The other Swazi ceremonies like Uhlanga (the Reed Dance) and Ingcwala are rich in tradition and symbolism, but I had never heard the story behind Buganu. And the reason I hadn’t heard about the deeper meaning behind this particular annual gathering of thousands of Swazis is because there isn’t one. Buganu really is just about showing up to see the king and drink marula beer; and if that purpose is good enough for Swazis it’s good enough for me. She did mention that there is some controversy surrounding both marula festivals because of their lack of significance. Some Swazis believe (and I would have to agree) that it is an irresponsible use of government money to put on these large productions in the name of home brew. The king, however, likes to exercise his power to call his people to gather somewhat regularly, so there’s no sign of Buganu going away anytime soon.

Just a few days ago I had the opportunity to get a firsthand look at a really cool aid organization called the Luke Commission, which is doing truly incredible work here in Swaziland. It is a strongly religiously-affiliated organization that was started by Americans (the only Americans not associated with Peace Corps or the US government that I’ve seen since I’ve been here, actually). They employ a Swazi staff of doctors, nurses, and counselors, and essentially they bring a clinic right out into the middle of a rural community, set up shop, and offer free services for an entire day, pack up and move on to the next village. They serve three communities each week, and in a country the size of Swaziland, that means they’re reaching a significant percentage of the population. Luke Commission set up shop at the primary school in my community (the school closed for the day but most students and their families came for the services) and used the classrooms as their health center. Basic health screenings like blood pressure checks, diabetes testing, and physician consultations were offered along with HIV testing and counseling. They rolled out operating tables, partitions, and floodlights and performed male circumcisions (proven to reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission by up to 60%) and other simple surgical procedures all day and well into the night. They even partner with Toms and handed out shoes to every kid who showed up. (Sidenote: Toms and comfortable and super cute. Buy them if you like them. But don’t think you’re doing any favors for any “poor children in Africa”. Yes, they really do hand out shoes and yes, the kids are really stoked about them…but all these kids already have shoes. They choose not to wear shoes most of the time. And they will lose/damage/forget about their Toms in a matter of weeks, and that’s okay. I love Toms, but not as an aid organization.) So anyway, it was really exciting to see this kind of work being done in my community. Especially with the issue of male circumcision as a measure to help prevent the spread of HIV in the country most affected by the virus in the world today, bringing the procedure out into the rural areas and offering it right here, right now, for free is the only way to really get people to participate. I was super impressed with their whole project, and even though I typically don’t support religious/missionary organizations, in a country as strongly “Christian” and Swaziland, I think it’s working to Luke Commission’s advantage in their outreach.

Oh yeah, I’M GOING TO RWANDA IN FOUR DAYS! It is seriously a dream come true, and I can’t believe its actually happening. Ever since I returned home from studying abroad in Kenya and Rwanda exactly two years ago (it feels like much longer than that!) it had been my goal to get back there. Sadly, Peace Corps isn’t allowing volunteers to travel into Kenya currently because of recent violence. But I’ll be spending a week in Rwanda with three of my best volunteer friends, and we’ll be meeting up with my Rwandan friends and roaming around the country! I can’t wait!

That being said, I won’t have regular access to communications from March 3-10, but I’ll be in touch when I return to Swaziland!

I’m leaving you with some pictures I took when some kids came over for their after-school mangoes a few weeks ago.

 

The last mango of the season!

 

Just 'Bout The Action, Boss

[The title has no relevance other than it being a nod to the Seattle Seahawk’s Marshawn Lynch]

I have so much to update you on!

My last blog left off before Christmas. I chose to spend the day in my community and celebrate with my host family. Christmas day was the first unbearably hot day I’ve experienced here…it was rough. We sat in the shade and ate a lot of good food, all the men drank all day, and in the afternoon we all piled in the back of the truck to go to a nearby town and socialize. There were hundreds of people roaming around, drinking dancing and enjoying themselves. It was almost too hot to sleep that night. I had to surround myself with cold water bottles in bed. It was definitely difficult to be away from home for the first time, and I missed all of the American Christmas tradition so much, but I’m really glad I got to experience what the holiday is to Swazis!

Christmas dinner, eaten on a grass matt in the shade…with our hands, of course! And some box wine.

Just a few days later, I went to town to meet up with 14 other volunteers and head off to Tofo, Mozambique for New Years! My phone was unfortunately stolen from my bag while I was still in Swaziland, so until a couple of weeks ago my communications have been limited. Because of this, I also didn’t have a camera for Tofo. I’d been planning on just using my phone. Luckily everyone else took lots of great photos!

We left Swaziland at midnight, and arrived in Tofo around 10am. It rained the first day, but we got settled into our bungalows at the hostel (built in traditional Mozambique style, out of palm fronds) and had a low-key night, since we had a snorkeling appointment the next morning. Unfortunately, when we showed up at the snorkel place they said the conditions weren’t very good, and that we couldn’t go out. The only open spot remaining was for 7am the following day. We decided to take it, knowing full well it would be a rough morning after a night of partying.  That day was spent swimming in the warm Indian Ocean, tanning on the beach, and enjoying some of the most amazing seafood I’ve ever had. Calamari, seafood pasta, prawns, crab, it was all incredible. We met Peace Corps volunteers from Mozambique and Botswana who were staying in Tofo for the week as well. Very cool to find fellow Americans on this side of the world! We partied and danced the night away. Our hostel had a live DJ and party every night that week, so there was always something to do until about 4am.

Then, bright an early at 7am, we all (miraculously) reported to Tofo Scuba for our snorkeling trip. After a brief introduction and finding all the right gear, we headed to the water to help push the boat in. The next two hours were chaotic to say the least. Apparently the best way to get the boat out over the breaking waves is to go insanely fast and catch air. Several of the girls were squealing and screaming, thinking we were going to be dumped into the middle of the ocean. It was one of the most terrifying and awesome experiences of my life. We had a guide on our boat whose job it was to search for whale sharks, which are super rare but are commonly found off the shore of southern Mozambique. When he spotted one, he would yell “Go!” and we all just flipped off the boat into the water and looked for it. We saw two! We also saw a pod of dolphins. All of that was great and fun, but the dark side of the trip was the sea sickness. Seven of the 13 of us that went snorkeling ended up puking into the ocean. There were two guys from Amsterdam on the boat with us who were having a great time making fun of all of the Americans hanging themselves over the edge of the boat, myself included. It was hilarious and awful. It was quite the experience. We were incredibly happy to get back to shore and recover!

We had no idea what we were in for yet…

Whale Shark sighting!

The famous Long Island Ice Teas at Dino’s

Part of the party crew!

I visited the craft market and hung out in the shade for the rest of the day. That night, after dinner, we headed to a tiny (100 sq feet) beach bar that the owner had invited us to earlier, called Rasta’s. We were introduced to Tipo Tinto rum, which is just magical. Again, we dance the night away and greeted the New Year’s Eve sunrise on the beach. The New Year’s party at our hostel was a lot of fun, A bunch of people came out to dance in the sand and count down to 2015. The next day was our last full day in Tofo, so we went for another dip in the ocean, roamed the streets and the craft market again, ate really good food, and visited Rasta’s one last time. I truly had the time of my life on this trip, and am strongly considering going back next year. It was such a paradise! I could not have wished for a better way to ring in 2015, my full year of Peace Corps service!

Hike up the sand dunes

Back to Dino’s for more Long Islands!

New Year’s Eve

Until next time, Tofo!

After a week of recovering at home, it was time for another GLOW training! All of the Swazi counterparts who will be counselors at April’s GLOW Camp attended a week-long training, partially run by the senior counselors I mentioned in my last post, in order to prepare them for camp. It was a long week of 13 hour days, but I couldn’t be more excited about GLOW Camp this year! And about getting to be even more involved in the process for next year. I’m only able to report on this because GLOW was fully funded! I know that several people who read my blog donated to GLOW and I want to thank you SO much! They doubled the budget this year in order to put on two camps, so the younger and older girls can be exposed to content that is more age-appropriate. Getting the funds was a struggle, and the way Peace Corps grants work, it was an all-or-nothing money situation, so for a while it was looking like there may be no camp this year, which would have been devastating. We are all so thankful that our friends and family in the US were able to make it happen, and I’ll continue to keep you updated as we get closer to camp in April!

School has been out since December 5^th, and only just started back up on January 28^th, so I’ve had a lot of down time recently. I’ve been lucky enough to make some friends who live in Mbabane and have the sports packages on cable, so I’m proud to report that I got to watch the last two Seahawk playoff games live! I had to set an alarm to get up at 3:30am for the first game, and I watched both in living rooms by myself while everyone else slept. I was obsessively texting people at home, and trying not to wake anyone up by making too much noise and as I screamed and cried and rode the insane emotional roller coaster that was the NFC Championship game. I couldn’t be more proud and excited that we’re going to our second Super Bowl in a row! One of the backpackers in Swaziland is throwing a Super Bowl party for volunteers (which will probably have passed by the time I get this posted). I’m bringing my full size 12^th Man flag and all my other Seahawks gear to the party. They’ll be well represented over here as we spend the day in the pool, the evening braai-ing, and tune in to the game at 1:30am. Go Hawks!

The school term just began this week, and things are off to the slow start I expected. I’m really excited to report that over the break I found out my school will be receiving 1,000 books to upgrade our library from Books for Africa. My counterpart and I applied a few months ago. This will be my main project for this term. Currently the library at my high school is used as a staff room, so we need to relocate teachers and clean out the space, write a grant to get some tables and chairs, and prepare the space for the books to arrive in April or May! I’ll spend several months helping guide the process for inventorying and organizing the books, developing library policies and procedures, and working with the teachers to come up with ways to encourage students to use the new resources available to them. I’ll also be working with my school’s health club and the Junior Achievement club, which is a group that teaches business and entrepreneurial skills.

It’s been more than seven months now since I left home for Peace Corps Swaziland, and I feel like only recently am I able to say that I’m not entirely overwhelmed and terrified by the length of the commitment I made to be here. Two years is a really long time, but I’m already over a quarter finished and the time has flown by. I’ve missed out on things at home and there are more to come, I’m sure (not being in Seattle for the Super Bowl is absolutely breaking my heart. No one understands except for a couple fellow volunteers who are also 12s). But every day I wake up to the sound of roosters crowing and the kids sweeping the yard with brooms made from twigs. I watch the lizards on my wall climb back into the thatch of my roof. I make Starbucks coffee that my amazing family and friends have been supplying me with, or a smoothie out of whatever fruit I can scavenge from the yard. I get to go to a school in a rural village in southern Africa and work with the teachers to try and improve the education these students are receiving. I come home and play with the newly-turned-1-year-old baby on my homestead, and watch as he had moved from learning to crawl, to stand, to walk, and now he’s starting to almost run. I am served a variety of interesting foods, such as goat meat and cow liver, which I muster up the courage to try and usually like. I have a house and family and life in Swaziland. It’s pretty damn cool.

“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”

 –The Great Gatsby