Habo!

 Hello long lost interwebs! Currently Ryan, Dallin and I are staying in Durban with some family friends who graciously took us in for the week.  We are staying in their lovely cottage home, and we couldn’t be happy to have a shower every day, delicious food, and a toilet that flushes.  Durban is an amazing city with a thriving metropolis and beaches.  It also has the longest drop-swing in the southern hemisphere, which of course we will hit up before we leave. Transport was a breeze, although the door of our khumbi did fall off of its hinges more than once.  We are happy to have internet (although it is as unreliable here as it is in Swaziland) and promise not to waste our vacation inside looking at Youtube videos we’ve missed out on in the last seven months, although it sure is tempting.

There are moments in the Peace Corps that your heart wishes to tug you home.  i.e. Nephews being born, weddings, family celebrations and hardships alike, Holiday’s, Fall weather, etc.  Then, of course, it is hard to adjust to the very slow pace that the developing world works on. In Swaziland, December and January are marked for several holidays: Incwala, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s, summer vacation for the students, Marula season. Work, which even on its best weeks is slow, shuts down entirely.  We were warned that it can be a hard time of the year for volunteers, and I was bracing myself for the likelihood that it would be a hard time for us as well. To my surprise, however, Christmas has been the most meaningful time we have spent in Swaziland.  We were able to spend quality time with our host family, explore Swaziland, and then of course get out and vacation, which is a nice and necessary breather, but ultimately makes you realize why you joined Peace Corps in the first place and makes you more committed to your community. I miss my family and friends, and wish that I could be apart of their Christmas celebrations, but until 2013, this (see picture below) is making up for it.