St. Lucia

Hey, team America. Jack and I just returned from a weekend in St. Lucia, and it was AWESOME. The tiny beach town is about four hours from Swaziland. I think it was the prettiest beach I've ever seen. And we could swim normally, not in weird sections like in Durban. No sharks ate us. Good deal. In winter, they have whale tours. We might have to hit it up again for one of those.

We initially stayed in a place called Bibs Backpackers, which was absolutely terrible. Never, ever stay there. Please. It's not worth it. They turn the water off at night, so you can't even flush the toilet. I mean, come on. What is that? So then we went to a place called Parker's Cottages instead, and it was lovely. The family who ran it was nice and extremely helpful. Nothing but good things to say about that spot. I'll try to post photos from both so you can see the contrast.

We visited a beach (Cape Vidal) that was inside a nature preserve/game park. It was absolutely gorgeous. Jack saw his first wild pigs. Then we went on a hippo and croc boat tour and saw tons of hippos (tinvubu in SiSwati). From there, we hit up a night game drive and saw zebras, a bunch of different kinds of bucks and a LEOPARD. First leopard sighting. Score!

Here are some photos!

 Night leopard! Our guide, Skip, said he called this one Alley Cat. She was walking along the road and then posed like this for us for a minute or so. Awesome.

 Beach monkey! There were lots of these guys near the Jabula Beach we stopped at once we hit town.

 HIPPO FACE!

 Craft shop! A lot of what you see here is the same as what you can find in Swaziland. We're still on the hunt for truly authentic Swazi crafts. Still, it's colorful and lovely.

 More hippos! We even saw a baby one, but its head barely popped up next to the mother's. You could tell it was adorable.

 Us on the hippo and croc boat! We saw the tail of a crocodile but no full ones.

 Zebras! These were near the road on our drive to Cape Vidal beach. I think the game park was Simangeliso? Not sure.

Beach! This is the first one we went to, and it was nearly empty. It was so gorgeous. I think Mama T would love her some St. Lucia. Perhaps we'll make it out there again.

EmaProjects

Sanibonani!

We just had some PC training for project design and management ("ema" is a siSwati prefix denoting a plural, so Swazis sometimes throw it in front of English words -- emaProjects). My counterpart and I attended together to try to make a plan for what I'll be doing for the next year and half. We had some success, but it sounds like the project we focused on might not be what we had in mind. So ... back to the drawing board.

PC is interesting in ever so many ways. They tell you when you're applying that you must be flexible. They also tell you that you must be self-motivated and able to do self-directed work. They aren't kidding. There are tons of people in my community who want to improve people's health. The challenge is figuring out the top concerns and how to address them. But the real key is to make sure that the community is 100 percent invested in the project. I can't come in and say, "I want to help women in this community get better access to family planning by doing X, Y and Z that I learned in public health school in America." OK, I could, but I wouldn't get very far. My job is to help members of the community find ways to meet their own goals.

This, it turns out, is easier said than done.

But don't despair! My counterpart is lovely and motivated, and she and I already have had a good brainstorming session with plans to create a club for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). And my amazing tutor, who teaches at the high school, also has a ton of ideas for us to start working on with her students. Additionally, I have a couple of clubs planned with the career guidance office at the high school.

I'm also joining a PEPFAR conference this week in hopes of meeting people from some organizations that do family planning work. We'll see if I can't get a little bit of master's-related experience.

So rest assured, I'll figure out how to keep busy and stay out of trouble. I've also heard that you don't really get working until you've been serving a year. So by my calculation, I've got, like, four more months to figure it out before the hard stuff starts. Right?

Oh, and I think I told you I've been working as part of a three-person team on our newsletter. If you're ever reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaally bored and want to check it out, you should be able to find it here.

Oh, and speaking of my master's, I'll be "graduating" from JHSPH on May 23. Pour one out for me on that day, bangani! (Bangani = friends.)

Keep fighting the good fight!

Salani kahle.

Moooooore photos

 This is a shot from a hike Jack and I took in Pigg's Peak, which is in the northern part of Swaziland. It wasn't a great hike, but there were a few nice views.

 Stove-making lesson at the Peace Corps office. You build the stove around the cooking pot, leaving space below for wood and room for ventilation. It also has an opening on the side to put in fuel.

 This is the beach at Durban. Not bad. Typical beach stuff!

BULL FIGHT. The white one eventually won this turf battle in the krall. My host brother is observing from the corner. This got intense, actually, and we were afraid they were going to run through the fence. Exciting times on the homestead.

Photos! (Take two)

 Sanibonani, y'all. I spent E25 and 30 minutes trying to upload these photos last week, and the post somehow didn't save. Not cool, Internet cafe. Not cool.

So here we go again.

This photo is of cows leaving the dip tank, where they go each week to get dipped with chemicals for fleas and ticks. The cows have to swim through it, which they do NOT love. 

 This kiddo was loving my sunglasses. Walker and I were at their homestead to make cookstoves that use less wood than open fires.

 The same homestead. This kid is swinging on a mosquito net swing. Malaria isn't a big problem here, so people use mosquito nets for all kinds of things.

 Durban penguin! This guy was eating the plastic lining on the tank. Probably not great.

 Cows in the dip tank!

 My host babe with his cows in the krall.

 SHARK FACE!

Awesome worm things at the Durban aquarium. I loved these little guys.

My sweat is sweating

Sanibonani, bangani! (SiSwati lesson of the day: bangani = friends.)

It's nice and toasty in the SWZ these days, though it could be worse. We're not that close to the Equator, being at about the 30th parallel. If you go to the Northern Hemisphere, that matches up roughly with San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans and Jacksonville. Sounds about right. It's gross in the summer, but winter happens. During staging in Philly, we were at the Holiday Inn with the group going to The Gambia. Those kids are on the 15th parallel and are probably sweltering most of the time. My first Peace Corps assignment, which I had to decline because the timing didn't work, was in Uganda. I'd be reeeeeeeally hot right about now if I were there.

I want to post photos soon, and I promise I will. I've been lazy in that regard. Heat'll do that to you. It's also been getting busier as the holidays end and schools start up.

I've got a few things brewing with U.S. government agencies here, and I'm hoping they'll give me the opportunity to do large-scale public-health work. One is a survey project countrywide. If I could get in on the ground floor for some data collection, I'd be a happy camper. Corpser?

Jack has successfully completed Week Two of teaching. I'm sure he's changing lives and molding young minds. One class is reading Twain, which I of course appreciate. I like to be smug about my favorite Missouri natives. Jack adores it, obviously. One challenge for him is that the school library has very few books of which it has enough copies for a whole class. His classes are 10 or fewer students, so they don't need that many, but they still don't have enough. That could force him to change up his lesson plans as the year progresses.

He's probably busier than I am. As I've said, the Peace Corps life is really flexible. Some days I do lots of stuff; some days I do very little. I plan to start spending some time with the World Food Program at the clinic in addition to the time I spend working on the HIV testing and counseling side. We'll see where that leads. In the meantime, I'm reading a ton. I need to get in gear as far as writing goes. Jack brought me the beginnings of my second "Haunted Library" manuscript, so perhaps you'll see a second children's novel from me at the end of my time here. No excuses, right?

The mother dog on my homestead is suffering from some sort of neurological disorder. I heard a commotion outside the other day, and it was her, running in circles until she lost her footing and then trying to run in circles more. Her nose has been dripping, and she was drooling. I haven't seen her much since then, so I suspect she wandered off to die. Swazis in general don't think of dogs as pets the way Americans do. My family felt kind of sorry for her, but death happens. When you see a lot of human death, I'm sure dog death drops way down on your list of concerns. Still, it's sad. She was a sweet dog. Her puppies are skin and bones, so we'll see what happens with them.





Pictures soon. I promise!

Keep fighting the good fight, amigos. Salani kahle!

January!

Sanibonani!

Sorry about the time between posts, amigos. It's been busy and not busy, if you know what I mean. I haven't had anything earth-shattering to discuss. Jack got a teaching job! That is actually pretty earth-shattering. He'll have to move out of the capital, so we'll see how that affects our ability to spend time together. The teaching job itself will have an impact, of course. He's teaching English to grade 5, 6 and 7 kids at a primary school. These roughly correspond with the same grades in the U.S. He started Tuesday - the whole hiring process took less than a week - and is managing to stay a step ahead of the game. I think it'll be an interesting adventure, for sure.

I've spent a bit of time away from my community and am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. There was an article in the national paper about problems with drinking and drugs at my high school, and I hope to meet with the guidance counselor to see how I can help. I am, after all, a hell of a role model.

I'll be talking this week with the Swaziland office of the CDC to see if I can help them with their mission in country. I would loooooooove to get some hands-on experience with them. It'll be a matter of how they can incorporate me into their existing work. We'll see how we go. Wish me luck!

We've had a few group members go home, at least temporarily, for health reasons. A lot of people have had trouble, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had zero health issues (almost zero, anyway). I think I am the exception.

I've been working on the newsletter for PC, which I was elected to at In-Service Training (did I mention that?) It's a lot of fun. I made drop caps! And pull quotes! I'm enjoying making things pretty.

OK, back to work. I just wanted to let y'all know that life was still grand in the Kingdom.

Salani kahle!

Holidays!

Sanibonani, Team America!

I never know how to answer the phone here. People keep cell phone conversations extremely brief because we're charged by the minute. I don't want to say "sawubona" because it means "I see you," and that certainly isn't accurate. I'll let you know if/when I solve the mystery. Usually I just say hello. That seems to work fine.

Jack and I enjoyed the Christmas holiday on the homestead. We had a long adventure with a gravel road when we decided to hit up the Simunye Country Club. The town is parallel to mine in the country, but the paved road would have led us either up and around or down and around. My host dad gave us directions on the gravel road. It ended up being almost disastrous (we had to turn around because of high water over a bridge; it took 2.5 hours to get there), but we made it. That meant a Christmas spent swimming and eating grilled meat. A barbecue is called a braai here. It was lovely. On the way there, we saw a baboon cross the road with some sugar cane in its mouth. On the way back, we saw a giraffe chilling and eating leaves along the road. Productive day!

My homestead is bustling with family. Now (just after 6 a.m.), two of my host brothers are starting the process of building a new hut for one of them. I'm excited to see it go up, and I hope I get to help. Also this weekend, one of my sisters has part of her wedding. It's a long process, getting married in the SWZ, and this part will involve dancing and her moving to her new homestead. The women go to live on the man's family's property when they marry. That's part of the reason for paying lobola, or bride price: The bride's family loses her to the husband's. Busy weekend.

Jack should have his car soon. He has a loaner now, and it makes our lives pretty different. I'm sure I'll still spend plenty of time on public transport, but it's so much easier when you can decide to drive to breakfast.

OOOH, breakfast. That reminds me: I recently had my best breakfast (possibly my best meal) since being here. It was at Swazi Candle, and it was called the Hangover. Eggs, chorizo, bacon, tomatoes, peppers, beans and cheese all in a bowl and served with salad and an amazing soft, warm pita. It was phenomenal once I added some spice to it. AMAZING. Y'all will have to check it out when you visit.

That's it for now. Nothing earth-shattering to report. Things get pretty slow around the holidays when the schools are closed. I hope to have some more photos very soon.

Happy New Year!

Salani kahle.