Greetings from Swaziland!

Sanibonani! That means hello (plural) in siSwati, the language I’m learning at training. (You would respond with yebo, pronounced yaay-bo, which means yes.)

We arrived in Swaziland after a 15-hour flight from JFK to Johannesburg and a six-hour bus ride to our training site. We’d been up for who knows how long because we left the hotel in Philly at 2:30 a.m. and arrived at JFK before 5 a.m. Our flight left at 11:15 a.m.

We’re starting our training at a college of management near Manzini. It’s really nice, which probably makes for an easier transition. There are hot showers and warm beds, and we have heaters on the wall and electricity. There’s also Internet, evidenced by this post. I feel like we’re living in relative luxury. This is the first time the PC has used this training site; they typically alternate between a site in the north and one in the south. The new country director wanted to consolidate so trainees wouldn’t have to travel so far to their sites from training, which I’ve heard could cut costs. Budgets, etc.

We’ve had training sessions on language, health, and safety and security issues. Tomorrow, we’ll move to the village sites near here where we’ll do our eight-week intensive training. There are health volunteers and youth development volunteers in our group of 41. Health volunteers will be in one village, and YD volunteers will be in the other. Our language instructors will stay with us the entire time. About five weeks in, they’ll decide our permanent placements. I’m trying to avoid having any hopes about electricity, proximity to the city or anything else. It’s not always easy.

We’ve also learned how to filter water (we have to boil, filter and bleach our drinking water wherever we are), and we’ve received our medical kits. No one is looking forward to the inevitable diarrhea, but I think we’ve all accepted that it’s coming.

The country! I forgot to tell you about it. It’s beautiful. Our training site is surrounded by mountains, which are pretty dry because it’s winter. It gets into the 40s at night here, but the days end up in the 70s and sunny. Another volunteer told us there are lots of fires this time of year because it’s so dry. He didn’t seem overly concerned about that, however, so I assume it’s less of a big deal here than in the U.S.

The longer I'm here, the less nervous I become. I hope that's true also for you all in the U.S. It's a lovely country, and the volunteers who are already here seem very happy.

Today will be more language training and the beginning of HIV training.

Salani kahle! (That means “go well” (plural), and that “hl” sound is a doozy.)