10 Months to go.....

Yes, I'm counting! Bet you all though I wasn't since if I was counting then I should have realized it had been 4 months since I last updated! But I was having some issues with my account and slow internet combined with having to pay for it means I don't try to work out problems whole-heartedly. But I think things have righted themselves and I wanted to let anyone who still is interested and is determined enough to check on our progress via our blog to know we are still alive and kicking (some days more than others).

Currently we are trying to work on a couple of different projects in our community. We are redoing a garden project that we started with an HIV/AIDS Support Group. We initially started this project back in May (I think) and had some initial success but then because of the cost of trucking in water (we have no source of water in our community other than one bore hole which cannot be used for watering a garden) and disputes within the group we ran out of water and stopped working on the garden. Then we had the chance to attend a "workshop" (basically a conference where the attendees are taught new skills and/or provided with information on a particular subject) for "trench gardening". There they taught us ways to garden in a drought environment and ways to make the most of what water we do have. So armed with this knowledge we are attempting to inspire the group to try again.

We are basically finished with our World Map. We helped the High School Health Club to paint a mural of a world map on the side of their school which faces the road. We will finish it this month by having the club select some HIV awareness phrases to paint in the border. It looks pretty cool and if I am ever able I will try to upload a picture.

We also are working with our out of school youth association to start a bee keeping project. We have already secured funding for a week long workshop for them on business skills so that hopefully once up and going the project can be sustainable. Next is trying to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to get them trained on how to care for bees and harvest honey. We are hopeful.

These are some of the main projects we are working on in our community. Along with that I am attempting to work with a couple other volunteers to plan a Walk the Nation HIV/AIDS walk. We are hoping for a mid-March event and I will let you know how the planning is coming as we get more into things. Definitely going to be a huge undertaking and I'm a little scared!

The weather is starting to get hot again but we have armed ourselves with TWO count them TWO fans this year!! We are so lucky to have electricity to be able to take advantage of fans which make our lives much more comfortable. Well, better be going to catch my bus back miss you all and hope you are enjoying some beautiful fall weather! :)
-Amy

Long time no write

Hello all! Just wanted to write a few lines in case anyone is wondering if we are still alive or why we haven't written. Then answer is of course that we are (still alive). Seems like we have been busy as of late. We were planning a big visit by our mums which has now just ended. We had a great time and I think they got to see a pretty good balance of the tourist's version of Swaziland and a more real version as we visited our community for 3 days. Three days without a bathroom! It was a pretty big deal! But we also got to do some game parks and this was a first for Joe and I as well so that was exciting for us! Elephants, rhinos, zebras.....oh my! We saw a lot of animals. We will try to give everyone the link once our pics are posted online. Pretty sure we got some poster worthy shots :)

Now we are back to work! Tomorrow we will be partaking in a pre-4th of July party for all of the Volunteers, including the new group (Group 5) of Peace Corps Trainees that have just arrived in Swaziland on the 16th of June. But after that it is back to site and back to work with us! Hopefully soon we will have more of an update but for now all is okay and sala kahle!

Mud-Slinging (literally) and Gogo really is 110!

Well, April has come and is almost already gone! Along with it Joe’s 30th birthday, the King’s 39th birthday, and our trip to Cape Town. So far it has been a busy and eventful month. On the 3rd we left Swaziland to travel to Johannesburg to catch our flight to Cape Town. The simple idea of an international airport and flying on a plane was enough to make me excited. Something that had become commonplace in our old lives is now a big deal. The excitement of an airport; all of those people going so many different places to see family, for a relaxing holiday, or for some work. Even the air has a spark of anticipation. Once in Cape Town we had an amazing time. It was the perfect destination for us volunteers who were craving relaxation but also a taste of Western culture (and taste we did!). We got to eat at McDonald’s 4 times, (Yes this is a good thing) and it was soo good! I’m not sure if their McDonalds is just that good or if it was just because it had been so long since we had eaten there. We also got to eat at some other great restaurants including a really great steakhouse and visit some fun clubs and bars. On the 7th, along with 2 other volunteers, we ran the Two Oceans ½ Marathon. It was a large race with about 10,000 participants and was a pretty challenging course. It included several hills, one of which was a 2km long incline. Needless to say our McDonalds diet and exploration of the party scene prepared us well for race day. But we finished in 2 hours 23 minutes. I was happy with that considering our preparation or lack thereof. But all in all we had fun running and Joe is talking about doing it again next year. He’s a little crazy I’ve decided. I might just enjoy my egg mcmuffin from the side of the finish line and cheer him on. We got back to Swaziland on the 11th and now we are back to work. We finally got it arranged to help the Primary School students write a last pen pal reply to their new friends in America. We have been working with our nephew Cole's class and with Joe's mom Donna's class at the Anne Carlson School to exchange letters between the students. We were worried that their last letters would get no response as the teacher here had left, along with other challenges. So we are excited that we got the chance to get the children together for one last letter.

This past week we have been busy also working with the Health Club from Lasi High School. The school term has just ended and they will be on break until mid-May now. They are using their free time to visit sick and elderly people in the community. They help by cleaning their houses, doing their washing, bringing soap, etc...

At one of the homesteads we visited we were told that the elderly grandmother (Gogo) was 110 years old. As we hear a lot of things that always turn out to not be quite true, we thought "yeah right, she's probably old but anyone over 70 here looks 110 years old." We started by visiting the bore hole to collect water for her. We filled several 25 liter containers which were then either carried on heads or in wheelbarrows to her homestead about 1 mile away. There we found her sitting outside her stick and mud house hand grinding maize. She was very hard of hearing so when the students talked to her they had to almost shout in her ear. She has trouble walking but gets around with the use of two walking sticks.

The plan was to patch the holes in her house. So the students got right to work. First they moved all of her belongings to the very center of her 1 room shelter. Then they used a spade and shovel to collect dirt from behind her house. This was brought into her house by wheelbarrow. They then mixed the loose soil with water using their feet to get just the right consistency. Then they took handfuls and simply flung it on the walls in all the spots that needed repair. It requires an almost practiced flick of the wrist to sling it just so in order to make it stick. The larger holes were first filled with freshly cut branches from a nearby tree before mud was then applied. It was pretty amazing to see what one can do with only sticks and mud.

After watching and helping the students for a while, Gogo wanted to meet the umlungu (white people). She thought we were doctors and started telling us that the (real) doctors at the hospital told her she had diabetes but she disagreed. She wanted us to look at her records. The records were brought out and after looking through them, Joe found her birth date.....1897!! Wow, Gogo really is 110!! She looks pretty good for being 110 years old and having lived a very challenging and hard life. As we were leaving there was a commotion. Gogo was up on her walking sticks looking for something. One of the students asked her in siSwati whats wrong gogo (unani gogo?) She said something back which caused the student to laugh and then replied. All of the students and gogo began laughing loudly. Gogo was looking for her snuff, which she had tucked securely in her head wrap earlier in the day.

The Return of the Snakes

After having gotten rid of one Mozambican Spitting Cobra (every bit as nasty as it sounds) we have learned where there is one, there are many! Joe has seen two other snakes which disappeared into the grass right outside our door. Our young bhuti (brother) has also reported seeing snakes more than once in the same location. Hopefully it is just a coincidence and they aren't living near the house. I'm perhaps a little in denial here. Joe assures me that winter is almost here and soon they, the snakes, will be fast asleep in lairs far from here. I hope he's right!

Visiting Royalty

I did get a chance to have an audience with the Queen Mother (mother of the King who rules jointly with her son) while she was in Siteki for the King's Birthday Celebration, but that story will have to wait for another day!

Teddy Bears and Baby Cobras

This has been a pretty busy month. School has restarted and we are starting to get to know some of the high school students through the weekly Health Club meetings. They seem to be a pretty nice bunch of kids (although some of them aren’t really “kids” persay at 20-23 years old). I think one of the first things we are going to work with them on is a world map. This is a project which is funded by “Friends of Swaziland” through Peace Corps. (http://www.friendsofswaziland.org/) We will use a grid and paints provided through their donations to paint a mural of the world map on one of the outside walls of the school building. This we hope will be doublely good as 1) a project to work together on to get to know each other and be productive and 2) to increase all those who happen to glance at it geographic perspective. The lack of knowledge in regards to geography is astounding. Even compared to mine which is rather atrocious in itself. Which I guess would lead us to 3) help my own geographical knowledge (this is Amy and not Joe as his geography is really rather good).

Anyways, we have been busy with that along with the planning of an event we held for the orphans and vulnerable children in our community. We were able to work with several donors including a wonderful woman from the U.S. Embassy who participates with the Mother Bear Project (http://www.motherbearproject.org/). All of the children received a teddy bear and some other small items and then we followed with a lesson for the children about general health and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Other than that we have been keeping up with the local HIV/AIDS support group which is a wonderful group of people in the community. They are trying to work on a couple of projects including a chicken project and a grinding mill. A grinding mill is important in Swaziland because the main staple food is ground maize boiled with water. They have an amazing amount of different ways to prepare such a simple dish. Anyways, so the grinding mill is very important and the closest one is about 6 km from our community. This doesn’t seem that far but when you don’t have your own vehicle and you have to lug heavy bags of maize wither on the bus (which costs extra $ in addition to the fee to grind the maize) or by foot, then it is a long way. So this would be good for the entire community.

The end of this month brought much to do as we were fortunate to receive a visit from the recently appointed Director of Peace Corps. Director Tschetter along with his wife and several other VIPs came to visit our homestead. It was great to meet everyone and we found out that Director Tschetter and his wife are both originally from South Dakota ! Crazy! In preparation for their visit the entire homestead was going crazy with cleaning, yard maintenance, ect. I now know the finer points of sweeping dirt and polishing cement. It truly does make them both look nicer!

While out in the front of our porch Joe noticed the chickens making a ruckus about something near the cement base of our house. Right in front of our bedroom windows was a baby Mozambican Spitting Cobra! It was only about 1.5 feet long but I was still a little freaked out. It continued to go along the base of the house towards the porch, periodically rising up and displaying its hood when Joe poked at it with a stick. Eventually it got to its intended destination, climbed up the brick wall of our porch and into a little nook in th decorative brick 4 feet off the ground. It looked like it knew the way so we assume it has been living there. One of our bobhuti (brothers) then killed it with a broom. Can’t say I was sad to see it go but Joe wanted to let him stay.

So, it has been a busy month and now we are looking forward to March. Supposedly winter is coming at the end of March…….we will see.

On Buses and Whale Sharks

Happy New Year to everyone! We are back from our holiday in Mozambique and determined to make the most of 2007. Hard to believe that we have already been in Swaziland for 7 months now!

Our holiday season went very well even though I did find myself missing family and friends rather acutely. But we were pleasantly distracted by our travels in the beautiful country of Mozambique. It is interesting how a short couple hour drive from Swaziland places you in a country that is palpably separate from its neighbor! Even other than the obvious difference in language (my rudimentary Spanish did nothing to aid in communicating with Portuguese speaking peoples) the culture is also very different. Perhaps it also had to do with the time of year, but Mozambicans seem to be a bit more free-spirited than Swazis. Especially in the city (Maputo) there is a very Latin feel while still putting its own African twist on things. I think we will definitely visit again!

The highlight of our vacation however, was Tofo Beach. About a 7 hour drive north of Maputo (or a hellish 12 hours if you are unlucky enough to get on the bus with radiator problems). Although we miserably arrived after a horrible bus ride on plastic covered seats in a packed bus making many stops (both because it was New Year’s Eve and because the radiator required several fill-ups ending in a 2 hour stop at a garage in some random town) in a torrential downpour, to find out that the backpackers we were booked at has "charming" traditionally built grass/straw structures which don’t hold up very well to torrential rain. Think very wet and sandy sleeping quarters… But the sun came out for good on the 2nd and revealed how perfect it can be to lay in a hammock on the beach listening to the waves. It was beautiful once we had fully dried out.

We even had the chance to go swimming with a whale shark. It was really quite and adventure as the ocean was very choppy that day and the tour guide did little other than hand out flippers and snorkels and then take us out into the middle of the Indian Ocean (okay..we could still see land but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have swam to it) and tell us when to jump in! It was pretty terrifying but also exhilarating. As I was trying to remember all that I knew about snorkeling from the one time I had gone before (8 years ago!) and trying not to think about how deep the water was or what else could be lurking below, swimming along side a 12 foot whale shark was really amazing! I think I appreciate the experience more now that I’m back on dry land.

Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to come back from the beach, however, now that we are back we are looking forward to really digging in and seeing what we can accomplish in our community. We are excited for the new school year to start in a couple of weeks as we will be starting to work with the high school students. Also, everyone just seems to kind of take a break while school is out so there isn’t a whole lot of anything going on here right now. So for now, we are doing well and will hopefully have more news for you all soon!

Blame it on the rain

Hello all! We are quickly moving through the month of December and along with that precipitously nearing the end of the year. As you are enjoying the cool wintery weather we are learning what "Africa hot" really feels like. Temperatures have been driving the mercury up (at least if we had a thermometer it would). Corrugated aluminum is a great conductor of heat as we are learning as the sun beats down and our roof heats up. It is very strange to attempt to make holiday preparations which include sunscreen and swimsuits instead of scarves and mittens.

For the festive season we will be staying in Swaziland for Christmas but will be heading East to Mozambique to bring in the new year. We will be traveling with several other Volunteers and will be in Maputo for a couple of days and then further North to Tofo Beach. I've heard it is beautiful and the pictures I've seen look amazing; coral reefs, snorkeling, scuba diving, and more! So we are very excited. However, even though we will be spending the holidays in "Paradise", it still will not be the same without the things that makes Christmas great; family and friends! We are wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Below please find some links to a couple of projects that benefit orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's) here in Swaziland. The last link is to the Friends of Swaziland Website. From this site you can access the online version of the Swaziland Peace Corps Volunteer newsletter "The Sojo". In November's issue there is a poem from Amy entitled "Licudze", which is siSwati for Rooster. It's pretty funny and worth a read. She has become quite good at killing and recently added goat to her list of personally slaughtered animals.

Well I've been told by a fellow PCV that they need to use the computer so I need to jump off. We hope this finds everyone well and please be sure to check out the links below!

Surviving in Africa,

Joe & Amy

www.motherbearproject.org

http://www.youngheroes.org.sz/

www.friendsofswaziland.org

News for November

It has been a while since we have updated and we apologize. We are just finishing up our "integration period" which calls us to focus on becoming members of our community. Mainly working to understand our new neighbors and their needs while forging friendships. We are finally starting to feel like we are part of the community. When we meet people out and about most of them know who we are and although we still get stares and shouts of "umlungu" (white person in siSwati) they are not so overwhelming as they were at first.

I found myself this past week reflecting on the changes that technology has brought to what the experience of PC is. Unlike our predecessors of the 60's and 70's, most PCV's today have access to internet, electricity, cell phones, and even televisions at their sites! Not all but many (probably about 1/2) of us here in Swaziland have electricity, some even running water (including flush toilets... unfortunately not us). But all of the volunteers have cell phones here (actually required by PC for safety and communication reasons) and find it very easy to keep in touch through it to other PCV's and even family and friends back in the states. How very different it is from the previous PC experience. Granted, the internet is slow and service somewhat unreliable, and the electricity normally goes out for about an hour or so every day but it is not exactly what most envision when discussing life as a PCV! How does this change our overall experience and effectiveness as Volunteers? In a way I think it can be argued that it makes us more effective because of the increase of our resources. It also keeps us a little bit more sane because of that additional emotional support at your texting or dialing fingertips. But it also can create a problem of having part of you not fully here and focused on your work here as a recent article in the Peace Corps Times explores. http://www.peacecorps.gov/pdf/media/PCTimes2006_09.pdf
Sometimes all of that technology can be distracting, but I guess it comes down to the same argument many have discussed in the more developed nations; are we more or less productive and effective because of e-mail, blackberries, ect.? We can all be ultimate multi-taskers, but should we be? Well, I can see both sides of the argument, but most of the time I am very happy to know that in my pocket I am only a text or phone call away from a friend.