I am the worst

Sanibonani, bangani bami!
That means hello, my friends!

I'm embarrassed by my lack of blogging lately. You'd think I wasn't doing anything when, in reality, I am doing many of the things. Not all the things, but many.

Deep breath, aaaaaaaaaaaand, here we go:

My primary focus continues to be the women’s support group with which I work in community. I’m now in the process of working with them to try to coordinate permaculture (sustainable gardening) training. We’re being stymied by the government shutdown because we’ll probably need a grant from Peace Corps. The Washington grant office is furloughed, as I understand it, so we can prepare the documents but won’t get an answer until sometime after the shutdown ends.

In the meantime, I’ve worked with them to teach them how to make paper charcoal. It requires paper and water, which aren’t necessarily easy inputs to come by in my dry neck of the woods. They could eventually sell the charcoal if they’re able to get paper donated by local schools. I’m confident that it could bring in at least a little bit of income. We've also built a natural barrier fence for the garden using acacia thorn branches. I've got the scrapes to show it. These women are tough as nails, if you'll forgive the cliche. I know you will. You're on my team.

I continue to get great pleasure from hanging out with these women and talking about life. We had a long discussion about "blue movies" (pornos) the other day. They were under the impression that women went in with their husbands or boyfriends to act in the movies. I explained that, no, these are actors who might never have met each other before. The upshot: Now they've all heard of California, and I've assured them that I won't be getting into the blue movie industry upon my return.

I'm also in discussions with the primary school about improving their library. It's a storage closet right now, full of used workbooks and wasps nests. The challenge is that the school must raise E1,500 (about $150) to transport the books, and they must find a way to get the books to the school from town. The head teacher is going to discuss the possibility with the school committee. I'd love to see these children have access to books (the program is called Books For Africa if you want to get involved) besides what they're getting in class. There are some UNICEF-produced books around, and they've been immensely popular.

Some other volunteers have decided to organize a national spelling bee. I hope to get a spelling club started at the primary school to feed into that. Y'all might know that I do love me some spelling.

I might try to get an event together for World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) at my local clinic, but it's going to depend on how much buy-in there is from community counterparts. There isn't much time to put it all together.

I also ran a half-marathon on Sept. 28! I'd been training for it since about June, though I was nervous because of some hip flexor pain. Still, I finished unscathed and haven't had aches and pains related to it. We lucked out with a cloudy, cool day with no rain. The weather could not have been better. My goal was to finish the race in less than 3 hours and to run the entire time. I did it! I think my time was 2:37:05. Mission accomplished, and I might never do that again. Jack did the 5K and finished strong as well.

In other news, I've been allowing myself to get stressed out about my future in the job market. This could be related to the grace period on my student loans coming to an end. Eithe

NOW on to some photos!

A man in a nearby community uses donkeys to haul firewood home.

I made this condom distribution box for my local shop. It's from a wine box. Perfect size! 

Jack and me after our running victory.

I did it! And also I have a medal! Greatest day ever! Not really, but I was surprised that I didn't hate everything by the time I was finished. And I repped the Rams and the StL, which is never a bad thing.

 Me with Mama and Papa T at the Mountain Inn near Mbabane. I love getting to stay at this hotel.

Mantenga Falls! This was something else we saw with my parents. It's near the lovely cultural village.

Elections were in September. This is a wall at the entrance to my clinic. This was mostly how people campaigned. See, America? You can do it on the cheap!

This lovely purple tree is in Malkerns in central Swaziland. We saw it when we stayed at Malandela's, an excellent B&B, for Jack's birthday last month. I think it's a jacaranda?

These are most of the other PCVs who ran the half-marathon (pre-race). The three around me finished in less than 2 hours because they are robots.

This lovely view is the sunset from the porch to Jack's place. Beautiful? Beautiful. This country is gorgeous.