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!

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.  

Kisimusi Lomuhle!

 It hit me today, riding in the back of a pickup truck watching my bhuti get smaller and smaller behind us as we sped along the tar road, that this Swazi family who took us into their home sight unseen were starting to feel like real family. Not a surrogate family; nothing will ever replace our wonderful families in the states, but an extension of that living chain we create when we let people into our lives and vice-versa.

Rainer Maria Rilke said that he lived his life in “ever-widening circles”. I would like to think that our Peace Corps service thus far has been an act of living in widening circles extending from our homestead and then out into our communities. Relationships aren’t one of the fringe benefits of the Peace Corps; it is the whole point.

It being Christmas and all, and with my brother here visiting from the states creating a very tangible reminder of home, it seems that this idea of casting widening arcs into lives and communities where we live is the whole point of Christmas. This season we are reminded that we are all part of the same family regardless of race, nationality, creed or sexuality.

This isn’t a Christmas letter (or is it?), this is a blog post read by total strangers so lets get down to the nitty-gritty Christmas committee. The big news of the past week was my brother flying in from the States and visiting us for some much needed R&R. Having Dallin here has been so much fun. I feel like Addy and I have accomplished so much here by simply being able to navigate public transport, making friends at the bomake market, remembering the names of all the kids who say “hello, how are yooooou!” incessantly as we walk down the road, and knowing what restaurant has the best take-away. It was really cool to share that with someone else.

Here is how the week went down. First, we picked him up from Johannesburg. Expecting the worst picking him up from eJozi was surprisingly easy. In fact, for as crazy and busy and sorta scary Joberg is, we really ended up liking it. We stayed the night at a super-nice backpackers (as super-nice as backpackers get) and then headed home to spend Christmas in the Swaz. Breezed through border-posts, seeing rank and file policemen with AK-47s was a bit of a shock for Dallin and camped for the night at Sondzelas Backpackers located on the edge of Milwane game preserve. Sondzelas is a frequent PC haunt in Swaziland noted for its proximity to one of three Royal Game Preserves in Swaziland. The next morning we took a walk through the preserve, which graciously lets you walk through without guide accompaniment, and were surrounded by zebras, Kudu, impala, blissbok and crazy orange colored birds. Not bad for a first day in country.

We then left for Manzini. Manzini is our town. We are there every weekend, we are accustomed to the frantic pace of life (for Swaziland) that accompanies every trip. It was fun to show him the craziest Indali shops, best Swazi food restaurant (Sutsas behind Mr. Cheap Fabric, fyi) and KFC ice cream cones.

The rest of the week we spent hanging with the Tsabedzes, taking walks, showing him where we work, shop and all the various short cuts through the bush, eating the best Prego rolls in Swaziland (unnamed Mozambique place just east of the bus rank in Siteki), lounging by the pool in Simunye, and an unforgettable stay at Hlane Royal Game preserve. Umndeni wami (my family) in America kicked some money our way and we were able to go on a real safari. Range Rover. Khaki-shirted tour guide. The works. We saw giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hippos….and lions! Three lionesses and an old mkhulu lion sleeping. They look and act exactly like really, massively-huge cats. Incredible. The rest of the safari we did in typical PC budget style: Public transport to-and-from, PB & J sandwiches, and sleeping in my dad’s old tent. Peace Corps, bru.

This brings us to Christmas. I know I quoted Rainer Maria Rilke, but our Christmas day can easily be summed up by the rapper Drake, “this is one for the books/ this is really as fun as it looks”. Our day started with church in kaManzini, a huuuuge, delicious Swazi meal with three different kind of meats, a walk to the refugee camp, soccer with boTsabedze and a bike ride to the Sikhupe airport in which our Swazi nationally-ranked bicyclist absolutely destroyed me. In my defense I was riding a single-speed mountain bike. That was followed by songs, prayer and gift-giving.

The next leg of our vacation starts tomorrow as we head to Durban to visit some family friends, get pampered and hang out on the beach. See you there!

Hhoho Trip, Documentary & Bongomusa's Birthday

As the school year has let out things have slowed down a bit for us. We have taken advantage of this downtime and done a bit of traveling within Swaziland. Last week we went with Zande, a teacher at Ryan's school, to visit her homestead in the Hhoho region of Swaziland. Hhoho encompasses Swaziland's perenially green high-veld with its steep mountains, cooler temperatures and lush green vegetation. To imagine Hhoho try to think of the landscape of Colorado's foothills matched with the greeness and vegetation of Pennsylvannia. Or, imagine Heaven threw up outside your doorstep. Either way it was gorgeous.

While one imagines a vacation to be in the lap of luxury, our trip to Zande's homestead outside of Pigg's Peak was totally sans electricity. What we lacked in first-class ammenities we gained in staying with some of the kindest and most hospitable people in Swaziland. The homestead also had something our homestead in Mpaka lacks. Bantfwana (kids)! We had the funnest time playing bag-ball soccer, teaching them card games, telling stories, washing hands and constructing a tippy-tap sink with the kids for the homestead.

A tippy-tap sink is a fun way to increase hygeine and instill the concept of washing hands after using the latrine for kute emalengani (zero dollars). All you need is two forked sticks, another stick to use as a cross bar, a emasi bottle, string, woodblock and soap, and in 30 minutes...Bam! You got yourself a sink.

While there we visited some amazing craft centres including the Coral Stephens knitting factory that employs rural bomake to weave naturally sourced materials to create high-end products that are sold worldwide. It was really cool to see a Fair Trade loom in action.

Returning to Mpaka we were met with a long list of obligations. First, Ryan taught an imprompteu HIV class to the executives at the Swaziland Railway Company. It apparently went well, he has an invitation to return and teach a class to its employees. Second, we were asked to be part of a documentary that our American friends, the Smiths, are producing about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Swaziland. John Smith is a Fulbright Scholar from Southern Utah University who is teaching Broadcast Journalism at  the University of Swaziland. Our portion in the documentary will be small and will more than likely feature the work we are doing in HIV prevention and will chronicle our daily life on the homestead/in Mpaka.

In preperation for filming Addy's health club spent weeks preparing  a program for the Smiths. The program included an original song about condom use, a presentation of the Swaziland National Anthem, a drama about Multiple Concurrent Partners, and a presentation of posters they made and will hang around the community. We couldn't have been more proud of these Swazi adolescents who gave up time from their holiday break to work hard and perform for total strangers. It gave us a lot of hope about this upcoming generation of Swazis who take ownership of HIV and prevent its spread in Swaziland. Sharp, bru!

We  will let you know where/when you can see it.

Last, but not least was Ryan's birthday on Saturday Dec. 10th. We spent the day volunteering at the Teen Club Christmas Party and eating ridiculous amounts of pizza. Teen Club is a club put on by the Baylor Clinic and third year Peace Corps Volunteers for HIV + youth to have fun while learning important skills for living a HIV + life. It is incredibly sobering to hang out with kids, ranging in ages from young to 18, who are living with HIV. Teen Club is great because it gives them a chance to forget their status for a day and just concentrate on being a kid. These kids are so full of life yet face incredible challenges. It definately puts the work we do in perspective.

After volunteering we headed into town to meet friends at Debonairs Pizza. Ever since arriving in Swaziland we have seen billboards for Debonairs' triple-decker pizza. Ryan, being a sucker for anything novelty food related, had his mind set on eating the triple-decker for his birthday. The Triple Decker is exactly what it sounds like. Three layers of pizza. Or, more accurately, three pizza piled on top of each other. Our eyes were bigger than out stomachs. Turns out two pieces of triple decker is the equivalent of six pieces of regular pizza.  Don't order two of them between four people. You will want to die.

This week Ryan had Sojournal training for most of the week in Mbabane. We are counting down the days until Ryan's brother Dallin arrives for 10 days of exploring Swaziland and chilling on the beach in Durban, SA. Merry Christmas!

P.S. We aplogize for the lack of pictures. We really have some fantasic ones. If you are friends with Addy on facebook check out here photo album "Summer in the Swaz". It more or less follows this blog post in chronological order

The Halls

IST, PSN, THNKSGVNG (and other abbreviations sans vowels)

Trees, long since shedding their leaves in a fireworks display of death and dying, are standing barren, resigned and waiting for winter. Retail wage-earners are begrudgingly clomping down to basement storage room A to lug a six foot plastic Santa replica up to the window display area before the Annual Black Friday Zombie Feast. Marketing types are at loggerheads with the design types who are arguing with R&D types over which shade of burnt sienna will really make that pumpkin spice flavoring in their new limited edition Eggnog Pumpkin Spice Milkshake “pop" and say bam! Suckas! It’s artificial pumpkin spice time!

I really miss fall/winter. As you are tastefully bundling (or layering) in muted colors in response to the dropping temperatures and blank, expansive grey skies, I am laying on the concrete floor of my hut wishing I had a kiddie pool full of ice water I could float in. Yes, it is getting hot here in Mpaka. I guess I never really accounted for the existential dislocation that comes with inverting hemispheres. I guess I never really believed people when they said it would get hot here. But it is. Kakhulu.

Luckily, Addy and I earned a reprieve with a week-long Integrated Service Training in the beautiful Highveld capitol city of Mbane. It has been foggy and cool every day. A very nice break. The training itself has been very helpful. We have had time to debrief on our first three months of service, learn about how Peace Corps funding works for projects, network and meet NGOs operating in Swaziland and learn alternatives to corporal punishment (still very prevalent in Swaziland). Plus, all of our meals are provided. We have been eating like Members of Parliament.

During IST we had elections for PSN (Peer Support Network) which acts as a kind of support group for the incoming group (G10) and leadership for current Group 9 Volunteers. Addy was nominated and was elected into PSN. She was also elected to be the co-vice president of GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) group that runs and oversee GLOW related activities with other volunteers in SD. Ryan was nominated and elected to write/edit the SOJO (SoJournal), Peace Corps Swaziland's monthly newsletter/publication.

We spent Thanksgiving engorging our already enlarged stomachs on home made, traditional Thanksgiving food at the U.S Ambassador's House with all PCV's in country, embassy staff and others in the American community in SD. Classy.

Prior to our trip up to Mbane, things at site have really been going well for us. Addy’s Health Club soldiers on despite testing that is occurring at Malindza High School. She is also working with the Refugee Camp to start our first PC project, a trash clean up/hygiene workshop at the Camp. More on that to come.

Mpaka Railway School has been testing all week, as a result I have found myself with more time on my hands than usual. With that I have been reading a lot, a lot.  I would strongly recommend The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein for anyone who has ever wondered why Africa was hit so hard by HIV/AIDS. You will get an idea of the prevention philosophy and struggles we face in working in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention. Second, I would highly recommend Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities which covers everything from public health, epidemiology and anthropology in an attempt to understand the struggle the poor face when it comes to adequate health care and health epidemics.

Grade 7 had their last day/graduation ceremony from Mpaka Railway on Friday. The day was filled with speeches, dancing, dramas and TONS of food. I am proud of my Grade 7 class and wish them the best of luck in Secondary School.

During one of the speeches I had one of the proudest moments of my life. A few weeks ago I designed a lesson called “adjective basketball” to help them prepare for their exams. In the lesson the students were handed adjectives of “good, bad or big” and then threw them in the corresponding “basket”. I welled up with pride as this Grade 7 class representative used the word “abysmal”, which she learned from the game, in her speech. That word isn’t even in my vocabulary. It was awesome.

I have seen other such lessons “stick” with students and it is the best feeling in the world. Hearing them refer to a concept like “gender violence” in a lesson three weeks after I introduced the topic is amazing. These kids really are the future of Swaziland. It is within their power to reverse the damage done by a disease that has robbed them of an entire generation. Good luck, bantfwana.

Ryan