My sweat is sweating

Sanibonani, bangani! (SiSwati lesson of the day: bangani = friends.)

It's nice and toasty in the SWZ these days, though it could be worse. We're not that close to the Equator, being at about the 30th parallel. If you go to the Northern Hemisphere, that matches up roughly with San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans and Jacksonville. Sounds about right. It's gross in the summer, but winter happens. During staging in Philly, we were at the Holiday Inn with the group going to The Gambia. Those kids are on the 15th parallel and are probably sweltering most of the time. My first Peace Corps assignment, which I had to decline because the timing didn't work, was in Uganda. I'd be reeeeeeeally hot right about now if I were there.

I want to post photos soon, and I promise I will. I've been lazy in that regard. Heat'll do that to you. It's also been getting busier as the holidays end and schools start up.

I've got a few things brewing with U.S. government agencies here, and I'm hoping they'll give me the opportunity to do large-scale public-health work. One is a survey project countrywide. If I could get in on the ground floor for some data collection, I'd be a happy camper. Corpser?

Jack has successfully completed Week Two of teaching. I'm sure he's changing lives and molding young minds. One class is reading Twain, which I of course appreciate. I like to be smug about my favorite Missouri natives. Jack adores it, obviously. One challenge for him is that the school library has very few books of which it has enough copies for a whole class. His classes are 10 or fewer students, so they don't need that many, but they still don't have enough. That could force him to change up his lesson plans as the year progresses.

He's probably busier than I am. As I've said, the Peace Corps life is really flexible. Some days I do lots of stuff; some days I do very little. I plan to start spending some time with the World Food Program at the clinic in addition to the time I spend working on the HIV testing and counseling side. We'll see where that leads. In the meantime, I'm reading a ton. I need to get in gear as far as writing goes. Jack brought me the beginnings of my second "Haunted Library" manuscript, so perhaps you'll see a second children's novel from me at the end of my time here. No excuses, right?

The mother dog on my homestead is suffering from some sort of neurological disorder. I heard a commotion outside the other day, and it was her, running in circles until she lost her footing and then trying to run in circles more. Her nose has been dripping, and she was drooling. I haven't seen her much since then, so I suspect she wandered off to die. Swazis in general don't think of dogs as pets the way Americans do. My family felt kind of sorry for her, but death happens. When you see a lot of human death, I'm sure dog death drops way down on your list of concerns. Still, it's sad. She was a sweet dog. Her puppies are skin and bones, so we'll see what happens with them.





Pictures soon. I promise!

Keep fighting the good fight, amigos. Salani kahle!

January!

Sanibonani!

Sorry about the time between posts, amigos. It's been busy and not busy, if you know what I mean. I haven't had anything earth-shattering to discuss. Jack got a teaching job! That is actually pretty earth-shattering. He'll have to move out of the capital, so we'll see how that affects our ability to spend time together. The teaching job itself will have an impact, of course. He's teaching English to grade 5, 6 and 7 kids at a primary school. These roughly correspond with the same grades in the U.S. He started Tuesday - the whole hiring process took less than a week - and is managing to stay a step ahead of the game. I think it'll be an interesting adventure, for sure.

I've spent a bit of time away from my community and am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. There was an article in the national paper about problems with drinking and drugs at my high school, and I hope to meet with the guidance counselor to see how I can help. I am, after all, a hell of a role model.

I'll be talking this week with the Swaziland office of the CDC to see if I can help them with their mission in country. I would loooooooove to get some hands-on experience with them. It'll be a matter of how they can incorporate me into their existing work. We'll see how we go. Wish me luck!

We've had a few group members go home, at least temporarily, for health reasons. A lot of people have had trouble, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had zero health issues (almost zero, anyway). I think I am the exception.

I've been working on the newsletter for PC, which I was elected to at In-Service Training (did I mention that?) It's a lot of fun. I made drop caps! And pull quotes! I'm enjoying making things pretty.

OK, back to work. I just wanted to let y'all know that life was still grand in the Kingdom.

Salani kahle!