One of the many things they tell you in PC is that service is more about the relationships you build than the bricks-and-mortar projects you do. At first I laughed at the Intentional Relationship Building concept (remember?). I've since found that nothing could be better than the relationships that have grown between members of my community and me.
The women in the support group I work with are by far my favorites. My best counterpart there never fails to make me laugh. She has a tiny dog named Spider and a larger puppy named Scorpion (Bulembu and Fecela, respectively, in siSwati). When Spider arrived at her place, he was near death. She nursed him with crushed cotrimoxazole -- an antibiotic given to all people with HIV -- mixed with water and milk. The puppy seems pretty strong now.
"This one is sick, you must not beat him," she explained. "He must take his ARVs."
I taught the support group accounting using a book I found at the PC office in the capital. I invented a five-session course and gave them a test. It went pretty well. The women often operated on Swazi time, arriving at least half an hour late. I'm at the point where that doesn't bother me unless I have somewhere else to be. This is one thing I've learned: I try to avoid planning more than one activity per day. You just don't know how long things will take.
After class, if I had time, I'd often stay and shoot the breeze with the ladies. They'd ask me about America, and we'd talk about the differences between our countries.
"Here, the man is treated like a king," they told me. They also said I would get into trouble with the local tribal leaders if they found out that sometimes Jack cooks. Traditional Swazi culture is strict in terms of gender norms. A woman is punished if she doesn't do the work that is expected of her.
One amazing conversation we had involved two of the support group women explaining how they think Americans talk.
"Americans don't say 'hello,' they say 'helloooooooo,'" ND told me, saying it in a high-pitched singsong. I couldn't stop laughing. I told her I want to take video of her so I can show you guys. It's difficult to put into words how glorious it was.
The women also told me they couldn't understand me on the phone when I first arrived, but now I speak Swazi English. PC volunteers always joke about our "Swazi voice." We all have to slow down our speech and enunciate, otherwise our Swazi friends have a tough time understanding what we're saying. Some volunteers end up with a weird British accent happening. We mock those volunteers.
The bottom line is that I'd like to issue a formal apology to the concept of intentional relationship building. I never should have made light of you, sir or madam. You're going to make or break this whole experience.
---
The Next Big Thing will be the arrival of Mama and Papa T on Aug. 20. We're going to hit up Kruger National Park again, as well as St. Lucia for some whale watching and beach time. I'm pretty psyched. If you see them, give them a high-five and tell them they'll have an ah-mazing time.
Now I'm in town going through my mid-service medical checkup. This is also known as poop in a cup time. Here's hoping everything comes out OK (see what I did there?).
Keep fighting the good fight, team!
Salani kahle!
Love you, Blythe!
ReplyDelete