Hello again!

A post I wrote last evening:

July 17, 2012

Tonight was the first night I pulled out my long underwear. The current PCVs had warned us that it gets cold here, but we hadn’t experienced much of that. Our first two weeks consisted of cool nights and very warm days. Things have taken a turn for the frosty. Honestly, I’m glad to put these clothes to use. I’m all geared up to go snowboarding, minus the snowpants (and a few other key things). The winter here reminds me a lot of Steamboat summers. It’s pretty.

There are a lot of grass fires in the mountains of this area still, which is alarming until you realize that no one seems to concerned. They don’t go far before burning out.

We have our first language test next week, and it’s only a matter of time before we learn our placements. We’re all nervous and excited to find out where we’ll spend the next two years. We’re lucky in Swaziland in that no one will be THAT far away from another volunteer. The perks of a small country are many.

PC gave us a spa day on Tuesday, showing us ways to relax and to make our huts feel like home. We did yoga, meditation, arts/crafts and pampering. There were milk foot baths with essential oils. It was pretty impressive.

The first week or so went pretty slowly for me, as I got accustomed to the training schedule and the changes. Now that I’m settled in, things seem to be moving much faster. It’s a bit surprising, really.

Ohhhhh, and team JHSPH has really come through from the starting gate. Not only have I received my first package and first letter (thanks, Meg and Susannah!), but I also have a guardian angel of caffeine. I’d intended to buy a French press and had been getting by on instant coffee till that was possible. Lo and behold, a Hopkins MPH grad passing through the SWZ turned out to be my savior. She’s a friend of one of our trainers, who works for PEPFAR, and bequeathed her French press to me upon leaving after a five-week stay. Coffee included. This made my day, big time. I can’t even tell you. She also worked on the same data set that I used for my biostatistics project. Small world, this public health business.

I’ll try to upload photos one of these days, but our Internet is somewhat sketchy. It’s also challenging because all 41 of us tend to be trying to use it at once. That’s the nature of the game, but it makes the whole system pretty slow.

Salani kahle!