“My country…It is coming for you”

 Not exactly words you want to hear coming from a Somalian at this period in time, but once Ryan fleshed out his English we found out that he actually meant, “When you come to my country, I will help you like you are helping me.” That statement makes peeing in a dirt hole for two years totally worth it.

We have been doing quite a lot lately.  I think the most entertaining way of going through it is with pictures!

First, cute babies!

This is our Sisi Andile and her baby Misosomusa. She is adorable, hardly cries, but does always decide to poop at the exact moment I am holding her.

This is our Sisi Gcebile and her new baby Tsitsetso. The two baby girls were born 3 days apart! Gcebile has moved to Mastapha to be with the baby’s father, but I am able to visit her and the baby a couple of times a month.

We also have had this little guy running around – Siphiwo! Cutest dude ever. Utsandzabhadla! (He loves to draw!)

 To finish the cute baby series, this is a little boy from the camp.  He stuck around while we were teaching our TEFL tutoring class.

Series 2: TELF Class at the Camp

We are now 11 weeks into our TEFL class.  They are really showing improvement, and their desire to learn continues to amaze and impress me.

Series 3: Mid Service Training

Ryan and I attended our Mid-service training with two local counterparts, Amnesty and Bashin.  We had a great time and have our next year pretty much booked with ideas. These guys are the best!

Final Series:

And of course, we have a lot of time to have a lot of fun.  I traveled to a nearby volunteer’s house who has the pleasure of living 30 minutes away from this:

Next time on Abrakadafrica:

Working with women on Income Generation Projects at the Camp!

Working with the NGO Junior Achievement at our local high school! We will be making emasanitary pads kakhulu! About 500 of them to be exact.  It’s a good thing I now have a sewing machine!

Until next time,

Stay Classy America!

Counterpart and Grief and Loss Workshop

Here we are on the last day of a week long workshop covering project management with our counterparts and grief and loss. It has been an exhausting week both physically and emotionally for us. I'll give a day-by-day, play-by-play of how the week went down.

Before we get into the nit-grit there are a few things that have happened before. Addy has been hard at work at putting on workshops at the Refugee Camp making reusable Sanitary Pads for women at the camp. She received a ton of material from our church for making these pads. It went from, "what are we going to do with all of this" to "we need more fabric!". This project is a step towards women empowerment. In rural Swaziland girls can miss weeks of school a year due to being on their periods and not being able to afford pads. This is a reusable and sustainable solution to this problem. The success of this project has inspired Addy to take this to other areas such as Malindza Central Primary and Mpaka High School.


Monday - Met our counterparts in Mpaka and traveled to the capital city of Mbabane. Our "counterparts", for those of you who don't speak Peace Corps jargon, are community members who we work closely with as volunteers. Addy and Bethany brought Amnesty from the Refugee Camp who is working with us as a facilitator for our English and HIV classes as well as helping head up the Camp Cleaning Campaign. He has been on board since day one putting in tons of work gathering signatures, encouraging others to attend meetings and providing leadership to his peers in the camp. I (Ryan) brought Bashin, the KaGogo Center manager who works with the Development Committee overseeing HIV prevention messages and N.C.Ps (Neighborhood Care Points). We have been working together for some time on setting up an HIV Awareness Soccer Tournament in our community. On how you can help please see below.


We arrived at Tkhoza Lodge in Mbabane. Ate a ridiculous amount of food and attended some workshops introducing project management. We then broke for dinner and stayed up playing cards with Amnesty and other volunteers.


Tuesday - The nitty gritty of project management. In 8 + hours we covered planning, budgeting, assessing, following up and closing projects. Having the time to sit down and really go over the finer details of our plans both in the camp and with the soccer tournament were invaluable. It made the entire process seem doable. It was also exhausting.


Wednesday - Saturday - Our counterparts received certificates for their attendance and we bid them farewell and stayed in Tkhoza. We started our Grief and Loss workshop. The workshop focused on the grief cycle, managing stress and trying to understand how we and Swazis deal with death and loss. The workshop afforded ample opportunity to creatively express ourselves and work out some of the baggage that we came to Swaziland with. I made a diorama. Addy made a sculpture of her new nephew Noam she is missing in the states. The time also afforded us some major bonding time with our Group. There is something about people opening up and being vulnerable enough to share some of their losses and personal stuff that brings a group of used-to-be-strangers together. Group 9 is pretty amazing.


HOW YOU CAN HELP: 


This is from an e -mail I sent out a few weeks back.


Things are really happening right now in our dusty little corner of the earth. We (and when I say we I am referring to my local Swazi counterpart Bashin) are planning an event to raise awareness about HIV in the Mpaka/Malindza community. Since we are in the land of the 2010 World Cup we figured nothing brings people together like soccer! Here is the scoop. The soccer tournament will be held on a weekend in the next few months. The tournament will feature the best-of-the-best-of-the-best Under 17 teams in Mpaka/Malindza (there are like a billion of them) and will be played at the Sulitane "Stadium" in our community. We are currently applying for a grant to help us provide T-Shirts to participants and Indestructible Soccer Balls (Google it) to the winners. During half-time Bashin and I will present a soccer related HIV prevention message centered and will unveil Mpaka/Malindza's new HIV awareness slogan for 2012.


Part of the tournament is a skills training that we will put on with the informal youth teams in the area. The skills training will be on the same day as the tournament and will feature a HIV prevention message partnered with soccer skills training by the All-Star U-17 team and Bashin. Here is where you can help. We are looking to provide all the participants of the youth skills training with soccer jerseys. We are looking for hand me downs from soccer clubs/high schools/college/anything that we could hand out to the kids as a reward for participating in the skills training and HIV awareness lesson.


Soccer is a huge part of these kids' lives here. Most play without shoes or a proper field but the camaraderie and life skills that the game teaches are invaluable. This project aims to partner what these kids love to do with a relatable HIV message and by doing so make their lives a little easier by sporting some cool soccer jerseys from the States.


We aren't looking for super nice jerseys. If you played on a youth club team or high school team please consider asking them what they are doing with their old jerseys. Chances are they are piled up in a soccer mom's garage or attic somewhere. They can be put to good use! If you come across any or have any contact info for organizations that may be able to help, please let me know.


I know you have probably gotten e mails from African princes asking for your help in moving millions of gold out of the country in return for a slice of the profit. This is not one of those e mails. Your assistance can do some real, tangible good in the lives of kids in Mpaka, Swaziland. Lightweight boxes are fairly inexpensive to ship.


Please send the jerseys to:


Ryan Hall, PCV
PO BOX 2797
Mbabane H100
Swaziland
Africa


Make sure you include that Africa part or your package could be going to Switzerland. Also, it doesn't hurt to include some Christian Religious paraphernalia all over the package as it may deter thieving postal workers.


Thanks!


Ryan and Adelyn

Fall is here!

Today was a beautiful day.  Cool, cloudy, and without much on the agenda, I spent the day in our hammock relaxing. Bethany came over in the afternoon and after watching Boardwalk Empire (FYI season 2 episode 5 is cra-zay) we planned our English lesson and then headed over to the camp.  After our lesson Amnesty came up to us and said he wanted to ask us a question.  He sat us down, gave us a serious look, and asked us what we would report back to our friends and family about Africa once we return to the States.  We both looked at him a little stumped, and began to think about what it is exactly that we have/are learning from this whole experience.  I didn’t really know what to say, but after thinking about it over the night I do have some things I want to report back to my friends and family, and whoever else might be reading this blog, particularly the new group coming in a few short months. 

Anyway, some of these answers are pretty cliché, but – whatev.  It is what it is.

I believed it when I was young and I believe it even more now – you really can do anything you set your mind to, despite all the odds going against you.

Africa is a whole different world and a whole different ball game, with a mind of her own.

Avocadoes are amazing, but papaya taste like farts.

Gender inequality is severely stunting Africa and its people.

Death is just as painful here as it is at home.

HIV and AIDs is real, despite what Deusburg says.

When the time comes, I won’t want to say goodbye.

I hate latrines.  A pee bucket is a real thing that I use daily, and if you ever live here, you will use it too.

Peace Corps is two years long because that’s how long it takes to get anything done.  Africa time is slow as molasses. 

Democracy rules.

Hope and forgiveness are essential to the people of Africa.  America could learn a lot about these principals from Swazis. 

I have many families here – My host family when I was a trainee, my permanent host family, my camp family, my school family, my volunteer family.. I feel very safe and very loved.

It is not easy living in Swaziland, and I have thought about going home more than once; however, when it is good, it is life changing, and when it is bad, it is life changing. 

I hate bugs. 

My mindset is always changing and when I think I understand something I get side-swiped, but all-in-all, it’s a kick-ass experience I am glad to be sharing with Ryan. I don’t really know how big of an impact I am making here, if anything at all, but I do know SD is making an impact on me, and that’s kind of the whole point, right?

Pictures!

 

500 Days of Summer..Literally

Today marks the 7^th month of summer.  To say the least, I am over it.  I have heard different stories about when winter is coming.  Some said March, others say April, and some (cruel) people even tell me June.  I don’t need snow, but I do love sweaters.  I think what I miss most about home is seasons – you might hate winter, but Spring is just 3 months around the corner! Not so here in Swaziland, and especially in the low-veld where I have nick-named our site “The Fires of Mordor”. At least today we are getting a cool breeze thanks to Cyclone Irena, who failed to make a big appearance.

Today also marks the 9^th month that Ryan and I have been living in Swaziland. I cannot believe how time has flown.  I remember during training - when time fell still - that two years was unmanageable.  Now I can’t believe we have been here almost a year! Group 10 is being invited and will be here in late June, and Group 8 volunteers are preparing for their return back to the States. Being so far away from home in a place so completely different from what you know can obviously be difficult, but Ryan and I have had experiences here with people that we will hold onto for the rest of our lives. 

Ryan and I have finally gotten ourselves into a pretty good working schedule – only took 9 months! I have been handed a pretty great opportunity from a missionary couple from our church that allows me to teach women how to make re-usable sanitary pads, with all the material and supplies donated to the women for free.  I am holding the first workshop at the Camp this Saturday, and hope to reach the local high school as well as the girls at GLOW camp come April. Ryan, Bethany and I have also been approved funding to buy supplies for our English Class that we teach at the camp, which will be extremely helpful. Thank you for paying taxes! The excitement from the camp about this English class is contagious – these adults are so eager and happy to learn.  Don’t take fore granted your education! Even public schooling isn’t so bad. J

In other news, Sipoko is getting a little too big for her britches! This is what she brought home to kill yesterday. 

After some cursing at her after she tried to lay the lizard on me as some kind of present, I promptly collected myself and saved the lizard by sweeping it outside. Let’s hope she is smart enough to leave the Black Mambas alone!    

I have stumbled on a really great blogpost by a volunteer serving in Ethiopia.  He does a really great job describing Peace Corps service and the realities that befall you as a volunteer.  

http://waidsworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/the-real-peace-corps/

Here are a few other blogs I really enjoy reading of other volunteers serving in Swaziland. If the new invitees are anything like I was, I am sure they are reading everything they can get a hold of about Swaziland, which isn’t that much! Enjoy!  

http://lewisandruby.blogspot.com/

http://bethanyleechpc.blogspot.com/

http://emmaspcadventures.blogspot.com/

http://kaysinafrica.blogspot.com/

http://mattsjones.tumblr.com/

Yes, Teacher.

I am writing this from a backpackers in Mbabane in between watching a rebroadcast of the The Grammys. I am in town for the weekend to edit and compile the Swazi Sojournal, the monthly newsletter for The Peace Corps. Sometimes it really pays off to have this gig although it takes me away from site and from Addy for a few days. I also realized that not much has changed in eight months. People spending an inordinate amount of time and attention to marginally talented people. Although, Adele’s Grammy sweep of multiple awards has only been legitimized by how much Swazis adore her. I catch our bosisi singing along to her every time Addy plays her on our stereo (our laptop).

Things have been going quite well for us at site. Both Addy and I have been incredibly busy; a nice change of pace coming off an extended holiday season. School is almost a month in and things couldn’t go better. I have devised an ingenious (I think) way to control classroom behavior without resorting to corporal punishment; not that I haven’t thought about it from time to time. I thought that instead of spending all my time correcting bad behavior I would try to concentrate on rewarding good behavior. I created a chart with each class represented. I explained that at the start of every class they received five points. In order to keep these points they would simply have to be quiet and good for the entire class. Every time that I have to stop the class to correct behavior such as talking or disrespect towards another classmate I remove a point. The goal for each class is to reach 66 points. When they reach 66 points we will have a party or activity of their choosing. The students want everything from a day where they wear funny clothes, a singing/rapping day and a day where they can tell jokes and play sports. We will see how that goes.

Having a goal that the class is trying to reach collectively has amazingly been effective in encouraging good individual behavior. The classmates are diligent in policing each other and ensuring they reach their goal. At the end of every class I anonymously pick one student who embodies good behavior, write their name down and stick it in a jar. Every month’s end I have a drawing from those names in the jar. The winning student receives a prize and a letter sent home to their parents highlighting their child’s good behavior at school.

Addy and I are continuing our teaching at the Refugee Camp. We teach an HIV class on Mondays and an English class on Tuesday. Our English class has been an incredible learning experience as teachers. Addy has been amazing in preparing the lessons, doing countless hours of reading and organizing TEFL material and coming up with effective, succinct lessons. Teaching at the camp has been the highlight of our Peace Corps service thus far. Our students are hungry for anything that will help improve their situation. They are incredibly attentive and respectful. We have found a number of helpful counterparts who we work side by side with and rely on to carry out these classes. I have started teaching a Teacher Training class on Saturdays for the fluent English speakers in the camp. The idea is that they will carry on the class after we are gone along with developing leadership, teaching and organizational skills that will assist them in their future life plans. Working closely with our counterparts at the camp has been very, very encouraging.

We have also started teaching an English class at the local branch of the LDS church that we attend. Our class is small, but dedicated to learning English. We have received a very warm and receptive response from the members.

In other news I have started writing rap songs for local musician Djndez who wants to cross over into the untapped Swazi hip-hop market. It is pretty fun. He speaks limited English so I chock it up to specialized English tutoring. But really I am fulfilling my dream of becoming an African Rick Rubin (minus the awesome beard). I played him some Re-Up Gang and Lupe Fiasco. Blew his mind.

Until we see all your faces again. Keep us in your thoughts and drop us a line sometime.

Refugee Camp, Garden, Ryan's New Writing Gig

A lot has happened since we last posted so we will try to bring you up to speed. After a month of all the joys and occasional frustrations of having a precocious six year old on the homestead, Logan and Kanyeiso bayahamba eCanada. There is a hole left here at the homestead, a vacuum of sound that used to be filled with calls of, “Bongiwe! Can I play with the cat?”, “Bongiwe! What are you cooking? Can I have some?” “Ryan, who is your favorite rapper? Is it Lil’ Wayne? Drake? Rick Ross?”. We will miss Logan and Babe’s second oldest daughter.

Without Logan on the homestead and the arrival of Cyclone Dando it was a pretty quiet week. It rained sheets for three days straight. Rivers flooded, bridges collapsed and the Tsabedze homestead took a hit. The eastern wall of a mud hut on the homestead collapsed, our sunflowers were blown askew and our poor carrots drowned. Other than that the garden is going swimmingly (no pun intended) and we are eating from it just about every day. Squash and green beans have dominated so far but we are looking forward to tomatoes, lettuce and maize that we just planted. Yesterday we found a lone cucumber. It was delicious. 

School started for Ryan on Tuesday. He is excited for the prospects of starting afresh with a new schedule. 1:00-2:30 of every Wednesday of this semester is dedicated to “sports day” in which all the students are placed in different teams – called houses, just like in Harry Potter – to compete against each other in sporting competition. Ryan is the head of the Lion House.

Along with leading his team to victory he is starting an English Club in March, a Health Club and is introducing two 12 week courses on HIV for Grades 5,6,7 and Life Skills for Grades 1-4.

Addy rode out Cyclone Dando at Emafeni Lodge in Ezulweni attending a week long counterpart training workshop for Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) with her counterpart Zande who teaches pre-school at Mpaka Railway School. The training was an overwhelming success that benefited from the weeks of planning put into it. While there the volunteers and their counterparts were trained in skills such as active listening, effective communication, self-esteem building workshops, health related topics and dance parties in preparation for Camp GLOW later this year. 

Last week was our first English Class at the Refugee Camp. We cannot be more excited to be starting this endeavor. Close to 60 people showed up representing countries all over from Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The objective of our first class was to ascertain the English level of our students and place them in groups according to their comprehension. Ryan is teaching the advanced group, Bethany the mid group and Addy the basic English level group. We found that an overwhelming majority of the group barely grasped conversational English and many were illiterate in their own language. This caused us to reevaluate our original plan and decide that everyone could benefit from working from the ground up with the alphabet, phonetic sounds and simple sentence structure. We are grateful we took the time to assess their English level. We realize that we definitely have our work cut out for us, but we will see some big returns in the long run.

Working at the Refugee Camp we have met several people who have helped us out immensely. There are three Somalians who we have worked with to get this project off the ground. They have been key organizing and collecting signatures from the residents of the Camp who are interested in learning English and attending an HIV Class (next week). They are well educated and extremely helpful. It feels great to work with counterparts who are so dedicated.

In other news, Ryan is now a contributing writer for the Swazi Observer newspaper. He is writing music reviews of local Swazi artists. Don’t ask how this all happened it is a long, long story. His first review was published Saturday with an accompanying picture of him leading to lots of people stopping us and saying, 

"How! Bongomusa! I saw you in the papers!"

"Are you sure it wasn't another white person who just looked like me?"

"No, because you had the glasses on."

Famous.

"Please, Let us dilute!"

Marriage proposals are a daily occurrence here in Swaziland for all female volunteers. The above caption is maybe the best proposal I have gotten thus far in Swaziland.

I feel like 2012 is already speeding by. Some days do go by faster than others – true- but thinking that we have already finished 1/4th of our service, and the office has long forgotten about Swaziland Group 9 and is now focusing their efforts on preparing for Swaziland Group 10 to arrive makes me realize just how quickly our time here will end. I try to take snapshots in my mind of just how beautiful Swaziland is, the time I spend with friends and family, and the moments when I feel like I am serving a definite purpose here in Africa.  I am 100% positive that these good moments will overshadow the inevitable frustrations of living in a developing country and the days where I am uncertain of exactly what I am doing here.

Ryan and I had a fantastic Holiday break.  We were able to see Ryan’s brother and show him around this little country, and even went to the beach in Durban. In these past summer months I have been able to get the most killer tan I have ever had in my life, which no one here seems to appreciate. “Bongiwe, you look terrible! You will get cancer!” (Probably, but more likely from the  accidental ingestion of the “Doom” spray that I use to kill all the flies in my house than from the sun.)  Ryan and I have been having great success with our garden, and have more yellow squash, butternut squash and beans than we can eat.  Lettuce, beetroot, carrots and spinach are on its way! We also have mint -which turns out is delicious in lemonade - and a lot of basil - which is delicious in anything. 

Things that my parents shouldn’t read about:

In the past two months Ryan and I have had plenty of run-ins with deadly snakes.  On our homestead we have had 5 of the most dangerous snakes in the world on our homestead. We have had a python (in its tender ages), spitting cobra, green mamba, black mamba and puff adder.  Luckily, I have seen most of these snakes after my host father had already beaten them to death with his whip. However, just a few days ago we were visiting a nearby volunteer when a black mamba tried to slip in under her door, but luckily once it noticed the house was occupied it quickly slithered in the opposite direction.  Disclaimer: No volunteer in all of Swaziland has ever had a serious encounter with a snake, and I promise I will do my all to not be the first.

What Ryan and I miss most:

Concerts
Movie Theaters
Dinner dates (Especially with the Potter’s when Erin is cooking)
High speed internet
Netflix (Especially The Cosby Show)
Long telephone conversations
and of course..

Spending quality time with friends and family, who now live all over the U S of A

DoNgLeE –

Ryan and I have purchased a dongle, which once connected, will allow us to skype from our hut! We will have access starting the 17th, so if anyone would like to chat, please facebook us a good date and time for you, and we will make it.  Even if it is 3am our time, we will wake up, because we love you that much.  My username is addystroup, which Ryan will use as well.  Let’s talk computerface to computerface!   

Some cool work developments:

Training for camp GLOW takes place next week with my awesome counterpart, Zande Dlamini! I will be in Mbabane next week planning out the details of the camp, which will be held in April. 

Peace Corps Swaziland’s Books for Africa project has been fully funded and our local high school will be receiving 1,000 books in April.  In the meantime, we will be preparing the room and attending ematrainings. 

Ryan, Bethany and I will be teaching emaHIV/AIDS classes at local schools, and an English Class for Malindza Refugee Camp.  We are also in the beginning stages of planning for the cleaning campaign at the camp, which will also probably take place in April.  Once April happens I’m going on vacation!