Well, any hope of being a better blogger has been lost. It’s
been five months since my last post, so quite a bit has happened! I November I
was busy at school, working with my librarian counterpart to get things up and
running. We celebrated my friend Hannah’s birthday at House on Fire, and all
the volunteers got together for Thanksgiving at our Country Director’s house.
This was kind of our farewell to him, as he left in December to be the CD at
another post.
November-January is winter in the southern hemisphere, and
is usually the rainy season in Southern Africa. However, this year El Nino has
drastically affected the weather patterns and has left us in a state of severe
drought. Cattle have been dying, there are very few crops still alive to speak
of, and the rivers that still exist are more like mud puddles. Water has been
formally rationed on and off in the cities, and is naturally rationed by is
unavailability in the rural areas. More recently, in the past couple of weeks,
there has been some rain, but it is impossible to make up for the severe
deficit at this point in the season. The lack of water is an immediate problem
still facing us, and the lack of food/affordability will be the next major
issue, due to low crop yield.
Back in December when talks of the drought were just
beginning, I had already planned to have an inflatable waterslide at my
birthday party…which obviously became an issue. In true Peace Corps fashion, we
came up with an alternative, and we set up the slide next to the pool at the backpackers.
Everyone jumped in the pool, then jumped on the slide, and things worked out
just fine. We also had a bouncy castle and an impromptu tattoo artist on site,
inking people during the entire party. I turned 24 covered in glitter, exactly
the way it should be.
Shortly after my birthday, my mom and grandma came to visit
me!!! I had SO much fun showing them around Swaziland, and seeing it all
through the eyes of first-time visitors. We did all the touristy things in
town, visiting the cultural village and Manzini market, Mantenga falls and
Ngwenya glass-shopping, of course! Then we travelled north to visit my host
family and I got to shoe them my community. It was surreal to have my American
family meet my Swazi one, and it was a really cool moment. Mom and grandpa even
tried to stomach my family’s offering of (what I can only guess was) goat meat
from the braii, although unsuccessfully. We stayed at the gorgeous Phophonyane
Falls Lodge while we were up here, in a giant beehive hut with a spectacular
view down a valley full of greenery.
After that, we visiting Hlane Royal National Park for a
safari. Our first outing was the rhino game drive. We saw many animals, but
when we spotted a group of rhinos, our guide pulled over and shut off the
vehicle. He told us to get out, and then asked us if we knew what to do when a
rhino charges. We stared blankly and he proceeded to inform us that you should
hide behind a tree (after which he looked around, and said “But there aren’t
any trees in this area…) or lay on the ground like a log, and the rhinos won’t
trample you. After that reassuring pep talk, we followed him into the bush to
get closer to the white rhinos. He paused when we were around 10 yards away,
and we bean snapping photos, thinking this was so cool, to be this close to the
rhinos out in the wild! Then he began to move closer, motioning for us to
follow. When we were about 10 feet away, he had us crouch down. For the next
ten minutes we sat crouched in the bush, watching a herd of rhinos eat plants
and roam around, sometimes within arm’s reach. At one point a rhino was getting
too close, and the guide picked up a stick and drew a line in the dirt in front
of it. The rhino paused and then turned around and walked away. Our hearts were
racing. Later that evening, we took another game drive. This one had the goal
of seeing lions, which we did spot veryyy distantly. But the highlight was
getting up close to an elephant.
Our accommodations that night were out in the middle of the
reserve, in monkey territory. We had to leave early in the morning for our
journey to Johannesburg to catch a plane to Cape Town, and on our drive out of
the game reserve we saw just as many animals as we did on our tours! Giraffes,
zebras, impala, baboons, and warthogs were all waiting along the road to bid us
farewell from Swaziland.
I love Cape Town! We had an amazing week in the sun,
exploring this beautiful city. We visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela
and several other political prisoners were held during Apartheid in South
Africa. We were all pleasantly surprised that we survived the terrifying ferry
ride there and back. We spent a lot of time at the V&A Waterfront, taking
in the views. A visit to Boulder Beach to watch the penguins was a highlight,
as was the day that Mom and I took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain and
enjoyed spectacular views of the cape. We also took a tour of the area in a
vintage motorcycle sidecar! I highly recommend spending Christmas in the sun,
by the beach or the pool, with plenty of wine and good food. We enjoyed it
immensely!
Mom and grandma returned home to the cold and I returned to
Swaziland just in time for New Years. I went to House on Fire with some friends
and rang in 2016 pretty low-key, compared to last year’s beach party
extravaganza. January was a slow month, with school not starting back up until
the end. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of work to prepare for GLOW camps,
which will be happening the last week of April and the first week of May. There
have, of course, already been some minor logistical emergencies and headaches
we’ve been working though, which has kept me busy along with tending to the
library. Our librarian also coaches the dance team, so I try to be at school
during sports hour to keep the library open for students who don’t participate
in sports. In other library news, the students who do metal work in the shop
built a wall-mounted cage to house the DVD player, which I was very impressed
by. We are basically finished with the project, barring a few final touches. In
my remaining months at site I plan to establish a reading club, and I finally
have a counterpart willing to start a GLOW club here, too. I’m not allowed to
start any new projects after May, which is approaching rapidly, so I’m trying
to get these things off the ground quickly.
I took a long weekend at the end of February to go to
Johannesburg for Ultra music festival. I got to see some of my favorite DJs
from all around the world, and I had a lot of fun. Bonus: I ordered delivery
from Pizza Hut and watched Netflix while I was there…little things that are
impossible in Swaziland.
The past few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time at my site with
my family. The babies are now toddlers, running around speaking more SiSwati
than I know how to comprehend. I still remember when I first visited site, and
met Wakhile when he was seven months old. He’s so big now! It really puts into
perspective how long I’ve been here. Last weekend I went to Durban, SA for…..
wait for it…... a Nicki Minaj concert! This was a truly a dream come true! Hannah and I arewent down there a day early to enjoy the beach, found some good Mexican food
(every PCV’s #1 craving), and explored a new city!
I truly, honestly,
will really really try to update my blog more frequently, especially since if I
wait another five months, my service will be ending! But just in case I don’t
get around to it and you’re curious about what I’m up to, April will be a lot
of preparations for GLOW camps, with the ages 14-19 camp being the final week
of the month, immediately flowed by the 9-13 year old camp the first week of
May. As soon as that camp is over, I’m heading home to repack my things for ten
days in Bali! Drinks with umbrellas, white sand, yoga mats, and food covered in
peanut sauce await me! After that its home for just a day or two again, before
attending out Close of Service Conference, where Peace Corps staff prepares us
for life after service. It is the last time my whole group will formally be
called together, so it’s also a bit of a farewell party. This week of
conferencing is immediately followed by Bushfire music festival, which was the
highlight of my last year in Swaziland! So exciting things are ahead!
