Lessons from Pretoria

Sanibonani, all.

I was hoping to be back in the SWZ by now, but that is not the case. Instead I've been camped out in Pretoria for nearly two weeks. I leave today, however, which is exciting. I'm sitting at the computer in the Peace Corps South Africa office and watching the gate for my ride.

As I think I mentioned, I've been here with a volunteer from Rwanda and one from Ghana. Their stories reminded me how different everyone's Peace Corps experience is. The Rwanda post has been open only four years. The post was closed around the time (before?) the genocide in 1994. The effects of the genocide are obvious. The volunteer told me that most of the Peace Corps staff from the time was killed during the fighting. Horrible.

Another Rwanda volunteer arrived today, by the way. She told me that she and members of her community have stumbled across mass graves while building road projects.

I asked her if she thought Peace Corps should even be in Rwanda. She thought a moment. "I don't know," she said. She told me that people still show up at the clinic hacked to pieces by machetes.

That experience is completely different from mine. Swaziland prides itself on being a peaceful nation. People do get murdered and assaulted, but it isn't commonplace. The civil wars that many African countries have experienced haven't happened in the Kingdom. Swaziland is far from perfect (show me a perfect nation, right?), but its missing generation is a result of AIDS rather than violence. Is AIDS any easier to deal with? I don't know, but antiretroviral medications sure as hell help.

Ghana also is mostly peaceful, it sounds like. The volunteer from there said the biggest challenge is the constant oppressive heat. I can typically wear my clothes a couple of times before washing them. She can't do that because of how much one sweats during the day. She said volunteers end up with a lot of skin rashes and ailments, and it sounds like bacteria are much busier there. Swaziland is more temperate, what with its not being equatorial, so we don't run into as many of those issues. But she adores the people and has had a wonderful time.

Ghana was the first Peace Corps country, and PC has operated continuously there for 52 years now. The country is not without incident, however.

Last summer (I was in Pre-Service Training), a volunteer stabbed and killed a man during a late-night altercation. It's my understanding that it was self-defense and the volunteer wasn't charged.

Just last week, a volunteer died of illness in Ghana. The same week, actually, a volunteer was hit by a vehicle and killed in Uganda. It was a tough week, and I think all PCVs are thinking about those volunteers and their families. There are many risks inherent in being a volunteer. Many of these are risks that permanent residents of these countries face every single day: HIV, malaria, vehicle crashes, etc. (Some risks, of course, are related to being of a different race/nationality and the perception that you as an American are rich.)

Neither Ghana situation is indicative of systemic problems with PC Ghana, of course, but those tragedies are reminders that bad things can happen in any country -- even one that is seemingly stable.

These volunteers and I talked a lot about our families' reaction to our Peace Corps service. I think every would-be volunteer experiences a bit of pushback from worried loved ones. One volunteer said a family member offered her rent-free housing if she would only stay in the U.S.

I love my family and appreciate their support, though it probably wasn't 100 percent. They weren't totally comfortable, which is understandable. But I think part of Peace Corps is reminding yourself and those around you that it's OK to take risks. Other places often aren't as scary as they look on the news. And I can't predict the benefits of PC service, but I know they'll extend beyond my career to many (all?) other facets of my life. So I thank my family for somewhat grudgingly letting me go my own way. And your letters and packages are awesome!

I hope none of what I've written here offends or invades the privacy of those I've talked to. I've avoided giving names for a reason, of course, as these conversations weren't necessarily meant to be public. But I think the themes are important.

So this is what's been on my mind as I idle away time in Pretoria. Keep fighting the good fight, all.

Back to the Kingdom!

Surgery success

Sanibonani, bantfu! (Hello, people!)

I had my surgery yesterday, and they removed the situation causing problems in the ol' baby house. It was a fibroid mass, whatever that means, and they'll biopsy it to make sure it doesn't cause any further issues. Everything went fine. I'm still in Pretoria, and I'll probably be here till Monday. The doctor will check me on Friday to make sure all's well.

I've never been admitted to the hospital for anything, so this was a new experience. It coincides with the new things I do each year for my birthday. Every year, I do a new thing on each day leading up to my birthday. The number of days coincides with my upcoming age. This year, I start today and will have 30 days of new things. See?

I suppose eating hospital breakfast or being discharged from the hospital could be new. The discharge part probably happened about 30 years ago also, though, so that doesn't count.

A few things that surprised me about the hospital stay:

- My name was spelled Myrthle Terryl on the check-in sheet at admissions. Luckily, it was right on my file and everywhere else.

- They make you take a bath using a whole little bottle of soap. I guess that makes sense. I'd showered in the morning, but I'm sure they don't want to do surgery on smelly, dirty people.

- The food was OK. I got to make lots of choices!

- No one ever showed me how to rearrange the position of the bed or call the nurse. That was weird. But there were usually nurses around anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal.

- A lot of people were speaking Afrikaans around me. A few of the nurses translated or at least told me what they were talking about, but most did not.

----

Speaking of Afrikaans, Pretoria has the largest population of Afrikaners in the country. This means there are a lot more white folks than I'm used to seeing in Swaziland or even in South Africa. The woman who runs our guest house is Afrikaans, and it's interesting to talk to her about her perspective on the country. It's an interesting place, and race relations are extremely complex.

That's about as far as I'll go there. I need to read more about the history of the country as it moved toward Apartheid. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the fall of Apartheid. Interesting. A lot of terrible and brutal things happened on all sides of that conflict.

That's all for now. Here's hoping I get back to the SWZ soon. I'm already missing Girls Leading Our World camp this week, which is a mega bummer. Such is life.

Salani kahle!

Livin' large and also surgery

Warning: Entry contains discussion of lady stuff.

Sanibonani!

One thing no one tells you about Peace Corps is that your menstrual cycle will probably be really messed up for a while. This was the case for me from the start. They put me on stronger birth control pills to try to mitigate the issues. It didn't seem to work. For months, my situation has been so unfortunate that there are two days a month when I basically can't leave my homestead. The medical problem itself is exacerbated by the fact that access to a bathroom is never certain out in the community.

If you are a female future PCV, be prepared for this possibility. Some women had no period for months. For some, it's really heavy and unfortunate. For others, there's breakthrough bleeding. And you can't get tampons with applicators here, so prepare yourselves. My lovely sisters have mailed me many a box o' Tampax (thanks, ladies!). Anyway, I just want you to be aware. Our med officer says it's the single most common PCV complaint. So there's that.

As my problems continued, the fam urged me to seek medical attention. I went to the medical officer in the SWZ, and an abdominal ultrasound showed unusually thick uterine lining. Because the technical capabilities in SWZ don't go much beyond that, PC decided to medevac me to Pretoria, South Africa. I arrived Tuesday.

The doc here immediately found the issue: There's a mass in the ol' uterus. It's probably harmless, and they're going to remove it on Monday and run tests to make sure it's nothing serious. I'm excited to return to a more normal situation. Here's hoping it allows me to do my job more effectively. Additionally, they'll put in an IUD that should help prevent additional masses from forming. PC typically doesn't support IUDs, but they'll allow it this time because it has a medical purpose aside from contraception. I'm pretty happy about that.

The condition is just coincidental, they said, and doesn't have anything to do with being in Africa.

In the meantime, they're putting me up at a swank B&B and giving me a per diem for food, etc. There are movie theaters and malls. Jack came (it's school break), and we went to the zoo yesterday. I might get to get my hair cut! It'll be the first time since June. Exciting stuff.

Well, amigos, that's it for the moment. Sorry if I gave you more information than you wanted, but I want future PCVs to be ready for such issues (and I don't want y'all to worry about me).

Salani kahle!

Odds and ends

Sanibonani!

Life is rolling steadily along in the Kingdom. I did have something of a success lately, and it came about through happenstance.

I asked for a meeting with the International Planned Parenthood affiliate in the SWZ, just to see whether I can work with them on public health initiatives they're doing. As it turns out, they have peer educators who work at the high school in my community. They also had some money in an account for a female condom event. They asked if we could take the money and organize an event.

Short answer: absolutely.

The peer educators did all the work to raise awareness about the day, which was April 13. They went to umphekatsi, or the community meeting place, and asked the elders for permission to host the event. The inner council told them to go for it, and we were off and running.

This came together over about three weeks, and we were frantically buying food the day before to feed 300+ people. It was highly stressful at the end.

But we had bomake (women/mothers) volunteer to cook for us. So they were up early early, cooking fried chicken, samp (a bit like hominy), rice, vegetable salads, beef and more. We were frantic the day of the event, buying more meat down the road when it looked like we'd be low. It was pretty crazy. The people from the IPPF affiliate were frazzled, I was frazzled, the peer educators were frazzled. Working with Swazis is different from working with Americans. The two cultures just communicate differently. I learned A LOT about what it takes to put on a community event here.

Our 10 a.m. event started at about noon, which is not at all unusual here, and we had dancing, a great DJ, drumming, female/male condom demonstrations, prizes and lots of food. We also had more than 450 people, which was completely crazy. The IPPF affiliate handled the demonstration and all the AV stuff. They also brought in the DJ. Really, all I did was try to coordinate between the peer educators and the staff of the NGO.

On the whole, you could call it a success. There was madness, and we didn't spend as much money as we were supposed to (does that ever happen?), but our community turned out and learned what we hoped they'd learn. It was definitely a learning experience. The best part is that I didn't have to fill out any kind of grant application. "Hey, will you use this money to put on a free event in your community?" Any time. I'll take it.

So in case you were wondering what I'm doing, that's it. Now on to other things! Stay tuned for details on the income-generating chicken project I'm working on with a women's support group.

Keep fighting the good fight, America!

HUMANOLOTJA

Jack and I joined 10 volunteers over Easter weekend for a hike in Malolotja, a park not far from Pigg's Peak in northern Swaziland. It was extremely beautiful -- and extremely challenging. We are now backpacking hosses. It's official.

Some volunteers have done this in past years with a group of guys. They called in Manolotja. This year, both sexes were invited. We all came with our game faces on and stayed two nights in the wilderness.

Look how excited we are! This was before we actually started the hike and knew what we were getting into. Jack was carrying all of our food for three days, which was pretty impressive. I had the tent and some other cooking items. Both our bags were heavy, but his was definitely heavier.

 Here's the view from our recent hike in Malolotja in northwestern Swaziland. The hike was gorgeous, and it took us about five hours from the lodge to our campsite along the river. The hike was billed as two to four hours, but good lord -- carrying a pack with all your living supplies for a few days changes the story.

 Hikers on the trail! This was the beginning part, which wasn't so bad.

 Me at the waterfall near our campsite! We later had two scary incidents here. One of our Peace Corps hikers slipped while jumping off and came a little closer to the rock wall than was ideal. Then a high-schooler who showed up slipped and went over while crossing. Pretty terrifying to think we might have to haul someone out on a stretcher (or hike two hours to cell phone reception).

By this point in the day, I'd ripped giant holes in the crotch of these shorts. That's unfortunate, given that they're my official hiking shorts. I've since repaired them. It's not pretty.

 Here's the river we camped alongside. It was gorgeous, and the water was cool. Brian, one of our head hiking honchos, hauled in a water filter for the group. We also had iodine tablets to make our drinking water.

 Here's the rock face going down to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. It was pretty intense.

 Beautiful views! We could see into South Africa from the trail, though we had no idea exactly where the country started.

I don't have any photos from the hike back out. We were basically over it by that point. One of our hikers had some problems with her asthma and ended up getting a lift to the lodge (along with the rest of our packs). Three cheers for those kind souls who helped us out. We'd already been hiking steep trails for four hours by that point, so we figured we'd paid our dues.

Lessons learned:

- Oral rehydration salts are super helpful when you're struck by extreme dehydration (and perhaps haven't eaten enough) on the trail. I had some waves of nausea at the end of our hike in. ORS resolved the problem immediately.

- Bringing speakers and music is a great way to keep yourself moving on the tough hike out. Because Mia had the speakers, I wanted to hike behind her. This probably improved my pace big time.

- If you want to take wine, just bring the bag and ditch the box. No need for the extra weight and bulk.

- Tortillas > bread.

- BACON.



Signs of South Africa highways

Here are the reeeeeaaally good photos from Jack and my trip to St. Lucia. There are some bewildering road signs in South Africa.

 South Africa supports equal marriage rights! Just kidding. They probably don't.

 PLEASE DRIVE HERE THIS IS THE ROAD.

 No bomake selling vegetables allowed. This is by far my favorite road sign in South Africa.

 PLUS TRACTOR.

 Projectiles shooting from side of vehicle! Beware!

 No money, no problem.

Jack and I almost got out for a fake swordfight by this one, but there would've been no one to take a photo.

Condom demos for everyone!

Well, everyone, I think I’ve found my calling. It is involves a government-issue penis model.

I gave my first life skills class/condom demonstration yesterday, and I had a fantastic time doing so. It was my tutor’s class at the high school. She was in an all-day workshop, which meant I faced 45 form 4 students (think juniors in high school, though ages tend to vary widely) on my own.

We started with some discussion of HIV in Swaziland. The 2007 Demographic and Health Survey put the prevalence at 26 percent among Swazis ages 15 to 49. It is 19 percent among Swazis 2 and older. The numbers are higher among females; 22 percent are infected. Fifteen percent of males are infected. Perhaps the most disturbing statistics relate to age groups. In 2007, 49 percent of women ages 25 to 29 were infected. Of men ages 30 to 39, 45 percent were infected. 

In 2010, 40 percent of pregnant women were HIV-positive.

So that’s what we’re looking at.

The students and I talked of those numbers and then spoke about how HIV is spread. Here we were able to dispel some myths. One student thought HIV was spread through deep kissing, which isn’t the case.

Then came the fun part.

The U.S. government has been kind enough to issue us condom demonstration models. (We only have the male model; the female is too expensive to give to every volunteer.) The penis model is black and circumcised, to answer your burning questions.

The model comes in an innocuous zippered pouch.

“What do you guys think is in here?” I asked, stealing a line from Walker’s demonstration spiel.

“Sweets!”

“Money!”

“No,” I said, unzipping the bag. I brandished the model with a flourish. The reaction was immediate. The kids thought it was completely hilarious. And it is.

So I went through the demo and then had some of the kids try it themselves. It was a lot of fun. I also tried to explain how the condom process is different with an uncircumcised penis. Only 23 percent of Swazi males are circumcised, despite a huge campaign to encourage adult and infant circumcision.

Oh, and don’t worry — I did tell them that abstinence was the only way to completely avoid contracting HIV from a partner.

We went on to Q-and-A from there. I got some interesting ones.

“Can you get HIV from using the same toothbrush?”

“If you wash the penis after sex, can you avoid HIV?”

“How long does HIV live in blood after it’s outside the body?” (I didn’t know.)

“Are there very small condoms? Because there are young boys having sex.”

“Is there a cure for AIDS in America?”

“Where does HIV come from?”

We talked about other sexually transmitted infections as well.

I suppose my biggest regret of the class is that the girls didn’t participate at all. I invited them to, but I didn’t want to pressure anyone who might feel uncomfortable. This, I think, is why the girls empowerment clubs are important in the SWZ. The girls often step aside when the boys are around. My tutor confirmed this later, suggesting that the girls wouldn’t think it appropriate to talk about condoms, HIV or sexual issues. It was interesting.

On the whole, though, it was an excellent experience. I’ll do a post-test next week to see whether they retained the information. At any rate, I’m looking forward to many more condom demonstrations in my future!