Progress

We have promised, tacitly, to post more pictures. Well, you asked for it. A slew of pictures coming your way. But first, some news. Progress. Integration is going swimmingly. Ryan continues to work at Mpaka Railway School. The students are in the middle of testing for the next few weeks. Ryan has been facilitating tests, helping with compositions and teaching life skills lessons in Grades 5, 6, 7. The beginning of the term in January is when he will start rolling out PC related projects. Internet capable computer lab here we come!

With it being testing time for Mpaka High School we have been put to good use editing Form 3,5 Design and Technology Students final project proposals. What started with helping our bhuti with his homework blossomed into a meeting with the D & T teacher, the Headmaster and a new partnership with the High School. Addy is planning on starting a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Chapter there next term. Addy continues to work at the Manyaveni clinic as an official unofficial staff member, mostly hanging out in the lobby and dispensing all the HIV/Health related advice she can. Her work at the KaGogo Center and Malindza High School Health Club is well documented in pictures below.

The big news is that we finally got cleared to work at the Refugee Camp! We faced several hurdles early on due to the sensitivity and security of the camp and the baffling bureaucracy behind getting approval to volunteer there. Turns out all we needed to do was call our awesome Safety and Security Coordinator Babe Mavanivuti to cut through the red tape and get stuff done. One meeting with him, our Country Director Steve Drihaus and the camp directors and we were in and touring the facility fast-fast. If we got a cool reception by the leadership of the camp, the Refugees (ranging from all over: Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Mozambique, DNC, etc…) that we have talked to seem pretty thrilled. We are planning on teaching an English class and a Health/Sanitation/Life Skills/HIV class next term (year).

That’s pretty much it this side. In other news: Ryan is listening to every album on his i-pod. He just finished the A’s: Dalek’s “Abandoned Language” to Kyle Bobby Dunn’s “A Young Person’s Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn”. He is also writing a monthly music column for the Peace Corps Swaziland newspaper (SOJO) called FILE UNDER: So far he has written up the albums: Rodriquez – “Cold Fact”, Boris – “Pink”, William Basinski – “The Disintegration Loops”, The Cancer Conspiracy – “The Audio Medium.

On to the pictures – we promise.

Sharp-Sharp, bhuti!

  

Community Crime Prevention Campaign! 6 hours of awesomeness. 

Some of Ryan's students from Mpaka Railway. They will be Toyi-Toyi'ing in no time! Shem!

Six hours of dancing and lectures in SiSwati where the only English words I heard were "America" and "Dinosaur".

I made a bookshelf out of 100 % salvaged scrap wood.

Pretty typical Mpaka landscape. Hot, flat and oddly pretty.

Addy's Health Club hard at work on Community Mapping!

Addy's Helath Club at Malindza High School.



Giraffes!

September 30, 2011

The month of September has had a lot of ups and downs.  It seems with development work that every good day is followed by a frustrating day, and then that frustrating day is followed by an amazing cross-cultural exchange of hope and ideas that reminds me of why I wanted to join the Peace Corps in the first place. 

This Monday Bethany and I stumbled on an amazing cross-cultural opportunity.  We have been spending some time each week at our communities Kagogo Center, trying to make it the HIV/AIDS resource center that it was built to be. (Currently it is being used to hold community meetings, none of which have anything to do with HIV, but it is being used, which is more than what others can say about their centers.) We have had some great discussions there with a few people, and thus far our efforts have paid off.

Monday was an extremely slow day, and no one came in to talk to us.  Although no one came in to our office, there was a group of BoMake (women) outside, and we thought maybe we could spice up our day by seeing what they are all doing outside the Chief’s homestead on a Monday morning.  I am so glad that we did! It turns out that the women had been asked to go to a nearby community and cut down reeds to decorate the Chief’s Royal Crawl, something that only happens once a year.  Because Swazi’s are extremely gracious they invited us along, and we thought this would be a great time to get our name in with the ladies of the community.

We spent a good hour waiting around for transport, and finally we took off, Bethany and I sitting in the front with the driver, and about 15 women crammed in the bed of the truck. We knew today was going to be magical because as we passed through our neighboring game park we actually saw a family of giraffes chomping away at a tree on the side of the road.  It was definitely a “Wow, I’m in Africa” moment.  When we arrived to our destination some people could not believe their eyes – What are these bomulungu doing cutting down reeds?! It was so much fun, and we even picked up on some more SiSwati.  After learning the art of cutting reeds, to celebrate we went to the most beautiful homestead full of mango trees and were fed goats meat! The best part is that the whole town got word that we went along with the women to help and now everyone in town makes reference to how now I am a real Swazi woman because I know how to cut reeds.  It was awesome. Then on Tuesday we also had a successful visit to a nearby clinic where we hope to do some work in the future. 

Wednesday was another eventful day at Malindza High School with the newly formed Health Club. We have anywhere from 15-20 members, and the students seem to be receptive and even have some great ideas of their own about community outreach.  We ended the day perfectly, with a little game of kick ball. 

But, every good day must come to an end..

The past couple of days have been a looming storm cloud over my very productive start of the week.  I am at a stalemate with the nearby refugee camp, as Peace Corps currently deems me working there a health risk and is looking into it further. Thursday morning I woke up to a stream of urgent text messages and emails, saying that a very good friend I have made here must go home. I knew coming with a group of 39 volunteers that I would probably lose good friends a long the way for one reason or another, but this news certainly came as a shock to all of us.  Furthermore, just today we found out that another volunteer who was on leave for a family emergency is not returning to Swaziland.  We see the pool of volunteers shrinking, and our insecurity about being so far away from home is heightened.

Although the news of these two people leaving left me feeling to say the least bummed, I can honestly say that I am so glad that Ryan and I made the decision to come here to Swaziland.  The people are so kind, and I am even getting use to the slower pace of life, and starting to be able to enjoy the disarray of development work.  I am even getting use to killing the huge spiders in my latrine every morning! Life here certainly is different, and the adjustment wasn’t as easy as I expected, but I am happy to be here and to have the opportunity to work with such amazing people, and especially to work side by side with Ryan. PS – He is way better at all of this than I am.

On another note, we also have the best friends and family ever.  I got a call from my best friend from college, Wendy Adams, which always makes my day.  We also received the most awesome packages from Ryan’s family and Katie Jackson, a good friend of ours from SLC, AND we received a hilarious and heart felt letter from the Potter’s.  It felt good to be showered with love and support, and it came at a time when we both really needed it. I did not need distance to show me how awesome all of our friends and family are, but seriously, you guys are awesome.

Our first lightning storm of the summer is beginning! Everyone enjoy a cup of hot chocolate for me while I tramp around in this miserable summer heat! But whatever, because I get to see giraffes!

PS – The newest member of the Stroup family is expected to arrive any day now!!

The Never Ending Task of Integration

I have started full-time at Mpaka Railway school. Right now my role is a bit undefined, but everyday I am starting to get a clearer idea of what I am doing in this school and where I can be of most assistance. I have started doing HIV Knowledge and Attitudes surveys in grades 5, 6, and 7. The strange thing about a place like Swaziland is that the knowledge saturation about HIV is around 100%. These kids can recite what HIV stands for, the four ways of contraction, they even know some jargon like “multiple concurrent partners”, but practical application is more than fuzzy. Less than half know where to get condoms and even less say they are comfortable talking about HIV with members of their immediate family or teachers. One thing I am planning on doing is converting a rarely used Counseling Room as an office/resource center of sorts where I will have pamphlets, posters, information and more than anything a safe place where kids can talk about anything they may be scared to talk about to their parents or teachers.

While their HIV knowledge may be 100% their basic knowledge of basic reproductive health is like…what? After the survey I opened it up to questions about HIV or America. The America questions are hilarious. I am used to all of the normal ones. “Do you know Beyonce? (said just like it is spelled, no inflection on the e) , “Do you know John Cena?”. But some of these kids threw me for a loop, my favorites are, “Are there really vampires in America?” and “Is it true Jay-Z is in the illuminati”. The globalization-gone-amuck cultural drift behind those questions is amazing. Some of the questions were a little more telling, however, when it came to basic reproductive health. I found that very basic information was lacking about things like ejaculation, sperm, eggs…that whole “where do babies come from talk” I had with my Dad is apparently not happening here. I hope I can fill in some gaps, or start with a clean slate.

We are really feeling comfortable in our community. A week ago I was struggling a bit - integration is rough. Normal things that come with the turf of being a white person in an African country started bugging me way more than they should. Things like incessant requests for money, (I just need 12,000 to go to law school” is my favorite) and being the center of attention everywhere you go really started irritating me. A weekend away from site with other volunteers really got me back into the swing of things and suddenly, everything is coming up roses. I just needed some readjustment to see the beauty of everything around me. I am definitely in a high in my cycle of adjustment right now.

Addy is doing great. She is working one day a week at Malindza High School working with a health club. She also works Mondays and Saturdays at the KaGogo center, which is an HIV resource center. The rest of her time is a bit more free-form which she will master in a short time. Right now it is a bit slow going on her end. The Refugee Camp is a nightmare-mess of red-tape to work with. Once she jumps through the hoops she will be golden, but right now we are waiting on some people to help us with an in. No rush. She is also planning on opening up a chapter of GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), which is a female empowerment club for adolescents in our community. She has her irons in the fire all over the place.

That is all for now.  We will be busy in the month of October trying to figure out a Halloween costume on a budget of 0.00. We will keep you posted with pictures!

- Ryan

Integration

I have taken a little bit of a break from writing on our blog – but
luckily for me I have Ryan to pick up my slack! A lot has happened in
the last few weeks, and I am happy to say that I have adjusted well.
I really like our new family and placement in Mpaka.  There is a lot
going on in this little “town”, and it seems like my fear of being
bored out of my mind with nothing to do was useless, as worrying
always is.  There is plenty to do here!  Just this week I have spent
time at the Kagogo Center meeting with my counterpart, I have met with
the Malindza headmaster where, if all pans out well, I will be
teaching life skills and computer skills, and I have a meeting this
morning with the local pastors of Mpaka, hopefully trying to get an in
on some youth group activities. People seem very perceptive to us
being here, and although they are a little unclear of our roles,
(which is okay – so was I) people are ready and willing to accept us
as part of their community.

We are also spending a lot of our time doing Homestead Visits, which
is basically a meet and greet of neighbors, and that is going very
well.  Although we don’t always have a SiSwati translator to go with
us, we just kind of wing it, and it is working!

The only downside to living in Mpaka is actually an upside as well.
We live about a 15 minute walk to the main road for transport (awesome
– a lot of other volunteers have to walk 2 hours to the main road),
however, living this close to the main road with shops means that
there is A LOT of trash thrown everywhere. What is an absolutely
breathtaking landscape is ruined with black plastic bags, cocoa-cola
bottles and candy wrappers sprinkled everywhere. When I was living in
SLC I took our neighbor boy, Maxime, to Scouts every Wednesday.
Maxime just moved to SLC from Guinea with his family.  After Scouts he
would always ask me to buy him a hamburger, so I would take him to
different local joints and then we would drive home.  I remember one
time he just rolled down the window and threw the paper bag and his
fountain drink out the window! I was concerned A – because I did not
want to get slapped with a 300.00 littering fine, and B – because he
thought it was appropriate to do so.  Now living in Swaziland I
understand a little more of Maxime’s mindset.  There are no good
receptacles for trash here in Mpaka, and as Swaziland becomes more
modernized with Western products, you have a lovely display of this
modernization on all of the roads.

Although our main road is littered with trash, the back roads are
absolutely breathtaking, and although I have never been one to bird
watch, I think it is a hobby I might have to pick up here.  The birds
here are AWESOME.  Watch Planet Earth and you will get a glimpse of
what I get to experience every day.  Also this week we are going to
attend the traditional “Reed Dance”.  Expect pictures - My homestead
sister is going to be dressing me up in original Swazi attire!

I have to give a shout out to my Mother who sent us the best package
ever this week.  I am so grateful to her and everyone who takes time
out of their day to write us and send us packages.  It is really
comforting and makes me feel like I can survive here in Africa for two
years – especially if I have Reese’s for desert at night :)

Mpaka! (2), Swearing in, Leaving Makhonza

A post is long, long overdue as so much has happened in the past couple of weeks. To bring everyone up to speed we are writing from Mpaka, our home for the next two years. Here is how we got here.

–        ­Leaving Makhonza and our host Make was difficult. Those first couple of weeks we exerted a more emotional energy than we ever knew we had trying to cope with the inevitable shocks of plunging head first into a new culture, struggling with SiSwati and making connections with Host Country Nationals that became our bedrock for the small strides in integration we achieved. As we left Sidududu followed us out past the gate until turning back forlorn. We miss that little pup most of all.

–        The logistical nightmare of moving all of our things from Makhonza to Ngwane to mBabane to Mpaka was something I hope I never have to go through again. If anyone has seen the table legs to our stove please holler.

–        After staying a few days in a mBabane with running water, flushing toilet and a hot shower IN OUR ROOM!! We were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers by Ambassador Steve Irwing at the Mountain Inn overlooking the entire valley and city of mBabane. If you are asking, “swear to what?” you are a couple steps ahead of me. I guess I missed the memo that I would be swearing allegiance to anything, but as Peace Corps is an official Government Program we swore (or affirmed, I affirmed) that we protect the Constitution from all enemies domestic and foreign. This is the same oath that the president takes when he takes office. Luckily Ambassador Irwing didn’t flub the oath like a certain Chief Justice during the 2008 Inauguration.

–        That brings us to here and now. I am writing this on top of a beautiful, spacious table that Addy and I built with our bare hands. More on that later.

–        We couldn’t be more thrilled with our site placement. Mpaka is amazing. Located in the low (see: hot) veldt, Mpaka is equidistance from Siteki (a hop-skip-jump from Mozambique) and the bustling, maddening industrial capitol of Swaziland, Manzini. We live about 1k from the tar road which makes transport a breeze. The town of Mpaka has way more than meets the eye. In the little cluster of sitolos we have a fully stocked grocery store, pharmacy, Internet café, butchery, hardware store, beauty salon and a whole grip of bomake stands selling produce and emasnacks.

–        In Mpaka there are seemingly endless things for Addy and I to work on. My assignment is working in the Mpaka Railway Primary School. As school isn’t in session right now there isn’t a whole lot I can do. The school itself is amazing. It is located in a tiny village about 2k from our homestead. The village was built by a Mozambique Railway company a while back for its employees. After the Mozambiquians pulled out and turned the railway over to Swazi’s the school became public. The village where the workers live is unreal. It has paved streets with names, front yards, street lamps. It is the closest to a Western/American suburb you will find in Swaziland. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, not far from our house is a refugee camp and clinic where Addy has the option of working. Our babe took us on a tour the day we arrived. If the Mpaka Railway village is the equivalent of a gated community in America, then the refugee camp is the projects. There is so much work to be done. There is also a High School, Vocational School, another primary school all within walking distance. Addy’s main assignment is at the KaGogo center about 6k from our house. Her counterpart gave us a tour on Saturday when we attended the Umpakatsi Meeting. A KaGogo Center is a resource center for HIV/AIDS patients. It also functions as a meeting hall. She will be spending most of her time there. She even has an office! It is being used as storage right now, but will be up and running in no time.

–        We couldn’t have asked for a better host family. The family consists a Makhulu who is the head of the house and a pastor, his wife the Gogo, a sisi in her 20’s Gcebile, a bhuti in his 20’s named Patrick and a bhuti in high school named ThembaKosi. There are other relatives who come and go on a semi regular basis. Our SiSwati is improving immensely as both Makhulu and Gogo speak only limited English. We feel so blessed to be in such a great position.

–        This brings us to our house. We live in a spacious, two bedroom hut on the homestead. When we came it was completely unfurnished which gave us the chance to totally start from the ground up. We bought a nice bed in Manzini, constructed a bath area and a sink of sorts. Our biggest accomplishment thus far in Swaziland has been constructing a table and two benches with our bare hands. In Makhonza we built Sidududu a doghouse (out of 100% salvaged materials, thank you very much). But with that rudimentary carpentry behind us we were ready to tackle something bigger. Building a doghouse is like making your mom an ashtray in ceramics 101, well, we just graduated to intermediate carpentry folks! It actually functions and the project didn’t end in divorce. Great success!

That is all the news for now. We will keep everyone posted as we start our projects and all of the successes and observations we will have during the next two years. Until then,

We out.

Ryan and Adelyn Hall, PCVs.

Widow's Ceremony

The time to swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers, move to our permanent site and actually start on the work that we will spend the next two years of our lives on is inching steadily closer. Today is the end of our last full week as Trainees, next week we will spend in a High School teaching a life skills class and our final LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) test. Although we are ecstatic to move on we are more than a little bummed to leave our Make and our homestead (plus our TV and our sweet digs). Training was integral because mostly because we made our first (and hopefully only major) cultural faux-pas and got over most of our culture shock while in a temporary setting. Next stop is a clean slate with a little more experience and SiSwati under our belt.

With all of the challenges that came with integration came some of the most endearing life lessons and discoveries that come with diving head first into a new culture. Last week was one such occasion. As we have mentioned before, Make is a widow whose husband died last year. As part of traditional Swazi custom Make has been wearing a black shawl and black clothing for the past year. Friday (coincidently the observed holiday of Lilanga Lisilo, King’s Day), was the one year anniversary of her husband’s death. This occasion was a huge deal for Make, one that she had been planning for and talking about ever since we met her. I will try and go through it step-by-step, knowing there is a lot that I am unaware of or that was lost in translation.

Sunday: The Khumalo clan arrives from Johannesburg, S.A. Make has six children who are all, quite possibly, the most stand-up people we have ever met. Each looks like and shares similar quirks and expressions similar to Make. We had so much fun spending time with them and working side by side with them in preparation for the ceremony.

Monday-Wednesday: The Homestead was a hive of activity. As soon as we got home from class we were put to work chopping down trees to make tent poles for the extended awning that acted as a tent for visitors, killing chickens for dinner and baking hundreds of scones for all the tea that out of town visitors were about to consume.

Thursday: While we were at school Ctello and various Khumalos/neighbors slaughtered a cow. By the time we got back the cow was splayed out in the krall (pen) with its intestines and organs on full display. As disgusting as it sounds it was actually a pretty cool anatomy lesson. Most of the massive cavity of a cow is made up of its four stomachs. Who knew? One thing about Swazi’s is that they let nothing go to waste. I helped bring in kidneys, intestines and various other unnamed organs that were eaten throughout the ceremony. Keeping with my animal slaughtering streak, I helped kill and skin a goat. That is a little more intense than killing a chicken.

That night Make went with a group of bomake and bogogo to the krall to sing and pay respects to the ancestors (who according to Swazi culture live and hang out there). At some point, and this is where I get fuzzy on the details because we didn’t see any of it, Make bathed in a mixture of water, cow and goat blood, burned the shawl she was wearing and put on civilian (non-black) clothes.

Friday: The Khumalo Homestead was hopping! People from all over Swaziland/S.Africa showed up to pay their respects to Make and Babe Khumalo. Make had been making “King’s Brew” all week and Friday it was passed around and consumed in massive quantities. Everything we heard about Swaziland being a largely non-drinking country were thrown out the window with every drunk bobhuti, bogogo, bobabe, bomakulu and bo-everyone throwing down in heroic capacities. Being a non-drinker, something stuck out to me. There was a clear bifurcation between those who drank and those who didn’t. Those who did drank to absolute obliteration and those who didn’t, didn’t even touch a drop. Suddenly, Peace Corp’s alcohol stance made a lot of sense.

To contrast the revelry outside, the night vigil inside was a solemn contrast. Around 11PM things got rolling inside. The house was packed with bomake, two preachers and a group of youth from a local congregation that served as a sort of hired spiritual muscle that sang and rounded out the worshippers inside. I thought Swazi church was long, with three hours of preaching and singing in a language I don’t understand, the Night Vigil was a marathon. The service went from 11PM to 7AM when they left to uncover Babe’s grave and pay final respects. We went to bed around 2:00 AM.

As the revelry went on outside, the festivities continued outside and party-goers did not stop until Saturday night. Unfortunately, we missed the feast that happened during the day, but the amount of beef we have consumed in the past two weeks is a testament to how much food was prepared.

We count ourselves very lucky to witness such an important part of our Make’s life and be there for a traditional Swazi ceremony. Although, the party aspect made us scratch our heads at times, everyone was incredibly friendly and I had mock LPI’s with countless drunk bobabe and bobhuti who loved the fact that I was trying to speak their language.

In our next post we may be writing as full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteers writing from our permanent site in Mpaka!

Mpaka!

Mpaka!

Although Mpaka might not mean anything out of context, Mpaka means the next two years for Ryan and I, and we are very pleased! On Friday we received our site placement for the next two years, and we are being placed in the town of Mpaka.  (Yes, it is an actual town on the map of Swaziland!) We are also spoiled enough to have yet another volunteer in our town, which is extremely rare.  We do not have all the information yet, but what we do know is that we will be moving into a multi-room hut with electricity, which is placed right on the main road (which means good things for transportation), and we also have a better understanding of what our jobs are going to be. 

Ryan is being placed at Mpaka Primary School teaching Life Skills and English, he will also be working on improving the library and the computer lab. We have heard only good things about the school where he is being placed; including that it is a fully functioning, semi-private school, and it’s always nice to work at a school that is actually functional.  Where Ryan, as an education volunteer, is being placed at a school, myself being a health volunteer, my job site is the community! Although I am excited to see exactly what that means, I have plenty of options to work with.  The first option is to work with the schools, as there is a Primary School, Junior School and High School where I can work with Ryan and Phylicia, the other volunteer placed in Mpaka.  There is also a clinic and what Swaziland calls a National Care Point, which is a center provided by the community where orphaned and vulnerable children go to get food and basic care.  Finally, and what I am most excited about, there is a refugee camp and a vocational school, and I hope to work closely with both.

Although Ryan and I have not been to Mpaka, and I do not know really what to expect, I am happy that we are in a town, close to a shopping town (Siteki), and only a half an hour away from Manzini, the biggest city in Swaziland.  If you look at the map we are just right of the center of the country, which is perfect location.  Close to all the big cities, and close to Mozambique!  We are also extremely close to a game park, which is rumored to hold lions! Mpaka is in the region of Lubombo, which means its going to be hotter than hell, but considering that we have discovered in the last 2 months that it can actually be really cold in Africa (who knew?) we are welcoming the hot weather. 

Besides receiving our site placement, we have spent this last week in the Hhoho region of Swaziland training about perma-culture. We hope to have an extensive garden of our own at our homestead, but that really depends on how our family feels about giving us a plot of their land.  (Although that sounds like a big favor to American ears, Swazi’s are surprisingly very liberal with their land.) We are starting out small with some basil and lavender pots, and hope to add on rosemary, thyme, tomatoes and garlic in the near future.  (Feel free to send us some seeds!) Once we move to our permanent site we will then negotiate with our host family about the size of our garden.

In other news, Ryan and I took our language proficiency test last week, and we are officially at the novice high level! Although it might not sound that impressive, that is actually right where we were suppose to score, so we are happy to be reaching that goal.  I have to remind myself that we have only been here 5 weeks, and that before we received our invite to serve in Swaziland I did not know that the language SiSwati even existed.  Cool thing about SiSwati is that it is actually extremely similar to SiZulu, which is a prominent language spoken in South Africa, so really it’s like two in one! We have another proficiency test during week 8, where we have to hit Intermediate Low. I am confident that with some hard work we will reach it.   We will also arrange to have a tutor continue to help us with Siswati even after training, because we are far from even being conversational, which is definitely a goal we both have. 

(PS – EMMA’s DAD – I heard that you have been reading our blog, and I am happy to report that Emma received the highest language score in our group! She is amazing! Also, she is doing well, and I am encouraging her to post more!)

Lastly, I am happy to report that our host family dog Sibi finally brought her new pup around for us all to love, and Make Joyce let us name him! We have named his Sidududu, which means motorcyle in SiSwati.  Mainly, it’s just a really fun word to say. She is free to rename him once we leave!

We also received our phones, so Mom, Dad, Chris and Loni, please call me soon!

Hope all is well in the land of the free.

Bongiwe