On Swazi Time

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!