Sanibonani!
[Okay, so I wrote the following post a longgg time ago and just haven't had the time/internet access to post it. Another blog detailing Christmas, New Years, Mozambique etc is in the works! My phone was stolen a couple weeks ago and then I left the country so things have been hectic! New Year's resolution: be a better blogger! xoxo]
Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. I’ve been
doing a lot of roaming around Swaziland the past few weeks and haven’t had much
time to sit down and write about it. We had yet another Peace Corps training in
the days leading up to Thanksgiving, but this one was unique in that each of
the volunteers got to bring a Swazi counterpart form their communities. We
spent three days going through the project planning process with our
counterparts, so we will be on the same page moving out of the “integration”
phase and into the new year, when I actually get to start working!
Thanksgiving Day was spent at our country director’s house
in Mbabane. There were around 100 guests, including almost all of Swaziland’s
PCVs and several people who work at the US embassy here. There was SO MUCH good
food. We were definitely spoiled. This was my first major holiday away from
home, and it does get hard missing family and the traditions I’m used to, but
having the Peace Corps family here really does help.
I stayed in town for a few days after Thanksgiving and I
actually got to see the new Hunger Games movie in the (one and only) theater
here! My ticket cost 38 emalangeni, which is about $3.50, so you can all be
jealous of that.
After spending a few days back at site hanging out with my
host family and doing laundry, it was time for Winnie’s birthday! A couple
months ago, she told me she had never had a birthday party, so I decided that
needed to change. We gathered all the neighborhood kids and sang, danced, and
shared one pan of brownies among the 30 of us to celebrate Winnie turning 16.
The next day, I was off to Simunye for my own birthday
weekend! I decided to have a low-key celebration with a few friends at someone
else’s site. One of my good friends here stays in a community that has a
country club with a really nice pool. We spent the weekend drinking wine (and
tequila) and eating pizza and tacos and swimming and relaxing. It was a nice
way to turn 23!
Taco Night with homemade tortillas!
I went directly from that weekend to anotherrrrr training,
but this one was specific to my position as a co-director for GLOW. It was run
by the GLOW leadership from G11 (group of volunteers who arrived a year before
my group) and we were mainly there to observe. I got to meet a lot of really
inspiring, motivated Swazi women who will be senior counselors at this year’s
GLOW camps. After having struggled for several weeks to find highly motivated
Swazi counterparts in my own community who are willing to make time to work
with Peace Corps essentially for free, it was really refreshing to meet these
women and see that people like them do exist out here!
Since TOT I’ve been back at site doing a whole lot of
nothing. I am officially free from the “Integration” phase in my community, so
I have to option to leave site more often and to actually start projects, but
the school year ended the first week of December. This means that all the
teachers and many of the students are gone until mid January, and there’s not
much hope for getting anything going until then. Additionally, we are entering
the period of incwala here in Swaziland, and I believe the king has already
gone into seclusion. Incwala is a traditional ceremony that takes place in December/January
that is focused around the men of Swaziland (as opposed to Umhlanga, the Reed
Dance, which is focused on young women). As part of incwala, the king goes into
seclusion to strengthen his power over the kingdom. He cannot be bothered to
attend to any of his normal duties. This seems to trickle down to local
leadership also being relatively unresponsive, meaning that pretty much no
official business is getting done. There
will be an inclwala ceremony in early January. I hope to attend and learn more
about what goes on!
I’ve been really bad at taking pictures lately, and there
really hasn’t been much going on to photograph. We’re still in the rainy season
and currently my homestead is a mud hole. When it dries out, I’ll try to make a
photo tour for the blog! My next post should have much more exciting things to
report. This weekend I’m going on a hike to a waterfall, and to a reggae music
festival. I’m staying on my homestead with my host family for Christmas, and
baking them lots of pies and breads. Then, it’s off to Tofo, Mozambique for
what I can only imagine is going to be the most incredible New Year’s trip
ever!
Thank you all so much for your continued phone calls,
letters, packages, facebook messages, etc. As I’m approaching the
six-months-away-from-home mark, it becomes more apparent every day that I
couldn’t do this without my incredible support system!
Sala kahle bonkhosi!
Xoxo
KFC is kind of a big deal here in Swaziland…but this picture
is just to show off my new hair color!
