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