Much to be thankful for

My Thanksgiving blog post was a bit delayed due to minor health scare, but this has only given me more to be thankful for.  Despite my constant complaining about goats that defecate on the stoop of my hut or the neighborhood girls that don’t understand the concept of personal space and privacy and spend hours sitting on my porch and staring at me through the burglar bars (as one is doing at this very moment) or the constant requests for money and emaswidis, the past five months in Swaziland have helped to expose the abundance of blessings I have in my life.  To balance out the significant amount of time I spend complaining, I felt the need to document the many reasons I have to be thankful.

**  One of the biggest struggles I have faced thus far is dealing with the incessant requests for money and food and figuring out how to manage the guilt that results from not being able to fulfill each of these requests.  I posted an article on Facebook several weeks back that did an incredible job articulating this constant internal debate I experience as I attempt to manage my own personal emotional health while still serving the needs of the community.  Do I sacrifice part of my living allowance to occasionally feed my neighbor who is struggling to find food to take with her ARVs or do I use this money to go to town and spend time with friends, which is a necessary aspect of my own mental health?  While this dilemma certainly takes its toll on me, I am thankful to be in the position that I am for no reason at all besides the fact that I was fortunate enough to be born into a family where we have never had to question where our next meal would come from.  I am constantly faced with the injustice of the fact that simply based on the fact that I come from America, I hold more leverage in Swaziland than the majority of Swazis do in their own country.  It makes no sense and the inequality infuriates and confuses me to no end.  Unfortunately, my anger and confusion can do little to change the reality and the only productive response is to be thankful for the blessings that I have been born into.  I hope that I can utilize my status as an American to serve my community in whatever small ways that I can.  I know I will not be single-handedly leading Swaziland out of poverty or finding a cure to HIV/AIDS, but if I can impact the lives of just a few people, I think my work here will be worthwhile.  I’m not sure if I’ve accurately portrayed what I’m trying to say, but in short: I’m thankful that the bucket baths are temporary, that greatest concern is eating too much food, and that I am able to live without struggling to meet my basic needs on a daily basis.  I have done absolutely nothing to deserve these things, but I am thankful nonetheless.

**  Many of my Peace Corps friends have expressed frustration and disappointment at their friends from home who promised to keep in touch, but have since failed to do so.  I feel incredibly blessed to be having the opposite experience.  I cannot begin to express how much I appreciate the postcards, letters, packages, Facebook messages, WhatsApp texts from friends and family.   Praise God for technology and smart phones that have allowed me to stay in contact with my friends and family.  I am so thankful for your support and encouragement and for each of your friendships.  I am especially thankful for a Mom and Dad that exposed me to the world from such a young age and who have supported my adventurous spirit wherever it has taken me…even to a hut in the African bush…thank you Mommy and Daddy. 

**  Being away from friends and family at home has been extremely difficult, but the Peace Corps family here in Swaziland has made this transition significantly easier.  I am thankful for the incredible friendships I have formed in the five short months we have been here.  I truly feel supported from the staff and other volunteers and I’m incredibly thankful to have been placed in such a small country, where I can easily travel to visit another volunteer in a single day.  As per tradition, the US ambassador invited all Peace Corps Volunteers to her house for Thanksgiving.  I should have taken video footage of the 60+ volunteers, who have spent far too long subsisting on rice and beans, DEVOUR the unlimited buffet-style Thanksgiving feast.  Every volunteer also came fully prepared with their PC-style Tupperware containers (read: old yogurt containers) to take home leftovers.  We stuffed ourselves silly and not surprisingly a significant number of us ended up in the med hut the following week… While I was dreading spending Thanksgiving away from family, I am so thankful to have a family away from home and I have found this in the other volunteers and staff.

 ** Speaking of the med hut, I am more thankful than ever to be HEALTHY!  That past week I had a bit of a health scare.  I spent a few too many days reading the health handbook and used a bit too much airtime browsing webMD.com in an attempt to self diagnose…I was convinced I had malaria…then it was appendicitis…surely I would be sent to South Africa for an appendectomy and then be sent back to the US for good.  Thankfully it was probably some kind of stomach infection and I have been on the mend since I started antibiotics.  I spent the majority of the week in the Med Hut in the PC Office and am so thankful to have had access to such great care.  It is entirely unfair that based on the mere fact that I am an American and working for the US government, I received significantly better medical care than 95% of Swazis.  Nevertheless, I am more thankful than ever to be healthy and to be back at site, despite the fact that I returned home to 5+ hours of laundry and a fresh load of goat poop on my stoop. 

**  Finally, I’m thankful for the FUN stuff coming up.  Swaziland pretty much shuts down for the entire month of December and most of January, so it is essentially impossible to accomplish any work during this time.  We have recently completed our integration period and are now allowed to spend more than one night per month away from site, so my friends and I have planned several fun gatherings for the next month to take our minds off being away from family during the holidays.  Next week we will return to our training facility for a weeklong In-Service Training, where we will receive additional training on the actual project implementation aspect of our work.  I will likely spend Christmas with a group of other volunteers hiking and camping somewhere in Swaziland.  We’re currently debating whether to spend a significant amount of our living allowance on a fancy five course meal at one of the game parks or save some money and roast hotdogs over a campfire…dilemmas… At the end of December, a group of about 20 of us are going to Durban, South Africa to spend 5 days over New Years. I have been dreaming about this trip for the past month and cannot wait to show off my knees and thighs, which have not seen the light of day since I left America, to dress like an actual female, to bask in the sun without Swazis insisting that I carry an umbrella so that I don’t turn darker (explaining the appeal of tanning to Swazis had been a tough sell…), to eat sushi, and to see the ocean!  I’m not quite sure what will happen come late January when I actually have to start doing work, but for now I am thankful for all of the fun activities to look forward to this month. 

I still can’t believe that I’m actually a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to be here.  Please forgive the sappiness of this post, but lately I have been overcome with thankfulness for all of the blessings in my life.  

Integration Happenings

Bear with me, this is a long one...

Contrary to what my previous blog post may reflect, not all of my time at site has been devoted to funding and enabling the use of illegal substances and chasing goats out of the latrine (although the later is a fairly common occurrence when it rains).  During our final day of pre-service training, we had a session entitled Embracing the Stillness.  All of the prior volunteers had warned us that our first year in our communities would be occupied with a whole lot of nothing, leaving us with an abundance of time to watch seven seasons of Gossip Girl, read every book on the Best Seller list, knit scarves for the entire community, sew curtains, build furniture, etc. etc.  I’m not gonna lie, after 17 years of schooling, this sounded pretty fantastic and I was looking forward to it, perhaps a bit too much.  Maybe I set my expectations for productivity unreasonably low, but I have found this “stillness” is hard to come by. 

I’ve been putting off writing a post about what my work here entails partly because I’m still trying to figure it out myself and also because lately I’ve been doing a whole lot of everything.  As I mentioned in previous blog posts, my first three months at site are dedicated what Peace Corps calls “Integration.”  During this time we are not to start any projects and our main focus is to get to know the members of the community as well as their needs, thus bringing a whole new definition to the word work.  The difficulty in this is not only in rewiring our minds to view productivity in a different light, but also adjusting to lack of boundary between work and our personal lives.  Peace Corps is not a 9-5 job, but rather we are serving as well as representing the US 24/7, which will take some time to adjust to.  So, what does “Integration” look like for me?  Each week I seem to meet make more connections with community members and have suddenly become extremely busy.  Here’s a basic break down of what goes down every week:

Monday and Tuesday:

·      5 am: Early morning run as the sun rises over the low veld – not a bad way to start the week. 

·      6 am: Personal training for one of the women in my community who wants to “run” with me (read: 5 minute job followed by 10 lunges and 10 squats and we call it a day). 

·      9-11 am: SiSwati tutoring with a pastor in my community.  I am blessed with an awesome teacher and am hopeful that soon I will be able to express more than my basic needs (Ngilambile (I’m hungry), Ngidziniwe (I’m tired), Ngitawugijima (I’m going for a run), Ngite imali (I don’t have money), etc. etc.).

·      11 am – 3 pm: Accompany my counterpart at the KaGogo Center.  Peace Corps assigns each volunteer to a Swazi counterpart from their host community, who will be their guide throughout their initial time at site, introducing them to important community members and explaining the nuances of life in the community.   Most of the health volunteers have been assigned to work with KaGogo Center Managers.  Each umphakatsi (royal kraal, also the chief’s residence and the location of important community meetings) throughout Swaziland has a KaGogo center.  These were built around 2007 and are intended to be the launching point for interventions and education surrounding HIV/AIDS, in an effort to fight the epidemic that threatens to wipe out the entire Kingdom of Swaziland.  Swaziland currently has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world, with 31% of adults ages 18-49 and 41.1% of pregnant women ages 15-49 suffering from the disease.  Thus, the KaGogo Center represents a national effort to mobilize each chiefdom to fight the epidemic.  Each KaGogo Center has a manager who is responsible for overseeing all HIV/AIDS-related projects as well as keeping track of demographic and health information regarding the population of the community.  Unfortunately, like most institutions in Swaziland, the NGO that manages these centers has run out of funding, leaving KaGogo Center managers unpaid and untrained.  Despite these setbacks, I am fortunate to have a counterpart who is extremely motivated to help the community.  While there isn’t exactly a lot going on at the KaGogo Center, my counterpart and I somehow manage to entertain ourselves by talking about everything under the moon.  We have had some very productive conversations regarding the development of the community and areas for potential projects, but we have also gone to great lengths discussing our favorite foods, past times, travel destinations, etc.  These long afternoon spent chatting in the KaGogo Center have forced me to redefine my perception of work.  While we have nothing physical to show for the hours we’ve spent sitting in the small cement room of the KaGogo center, ultimately (and ideally) this relationship will propel us forward into a successful project in the future. 

·      3 pm – 8 pm: Afternoons consist of pretty much anything that presents itself that day.  Some examples include: lying spread-eagle on my cement floor trying to cool myself form the 90+ degree weather and throwing shoes at the goats who try to get in my room because its too hot to get up and close the door, washing or cleaning (I spend way too much time doing this), reading, hanging out with my neighbor who has become my closest friend in my community, visiting sick people around our neighborhood with my neighbor, sitting on the porch with Make and talking about how hot it is, contemplating working in the garden and then a) deciding I’m too lazy or b) have my bhuti tell me its too hot and I should be more lazy.  Lately, I have been trying to visit the homesteads around my neighborhood with my neighborhood to introduce myself and conduct a brief survey to get to know the family and assess their needs.  This information will then be used to complete my Site Assessment Report, which is due at the end of our Integration period and will help me to identify the most pressing needs in my community.

·      8 pm – Watch Generations with the family.  I’ve unleashed a monster by getting into the habit of watching this with my family – now Babe will call me in my hut while sitting in the main house if I am not there exactly at 8. 

·      9 pm – Try to read in bed with my headlamp so I don’t have to get up to turn the light out, but get too grossed out by all the bugs that flock to the light and give up.

Wednesday:

·      5 – 8 am: Usual morning routine – open my door to a fresh load of goat poop right on my stoop (my fellow volunteers and I are in the process of writing a poem entitled Poop on my Stoop, get excited), run as the sun rises, bucket bath, sit down with my coffee and oatmeal and have my Jesus time.

·      8 am – 3 pm: Travel to the nearest clinic with my counterpart’s mother, who is also a Rural Health Motivator.  At the clinic, we count pills and package them into envelopes to be distributed in the pharmacy.  Although counting out 120 pills is monotonous, I find myself looking forward to these Wednesday mornings in the pharmacy, just to be able to feel like I have accomplished something tangible.  I am still in the process of adjusting my definition of work and these mornings fulfill my need to “do something”.  I’ve also found the monotony of this pill-counting process to be somewhat cathartic and as I’m counting I have had so many random memories come flooding back into consciousness.  Maybe I’m crazy, but Wednesday mornings in the pharmacy have become like therapy sessions for me (I swear I’m not popping pills as I’m counting…).  After a few hours in the pharmacy, I join the Site Coordinator for Mothers 2 Mothers, an NGO that works with HIV positive pregnant mothers to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.  This organization places HIV positive mothers as “Mentor Mothers” to counsel pregnant mothers in ways that they can prevent transmitting the virus to their children.  I have been so impressed by the setup of this organization and from what I can tell, the program has been largely successful in producing a new generation of HIV negative babies.  I have been working with the coordinator and Mentor Mother for the nearby clinics to help her with her reports, which are to be completed in English.  Through helping her with these reports and attending two of the monthly support group meetings, I have learned a great deal about the structure of the organization and I am excited to continue to work with them in the future. I’m not sure exactly where I fit in, but I am learning a lot and the Mentor Mother has become a close friend of mine and we have had a lot of fun getting to know each other over lunch at the nearby BBQ joint after work.

·      3 pm – Pick up groceries from the boMake selling fruits and veggies in town.  The spinach lady knows me know and always calls me by my praise name, Nkhosi (used for anyone with the last name Dlamini, aka half of Swaziland).  Then I proceed to make the 5 mile trek back home.  Swazis think that this is entirely absurd, considering there are frequent khumbis and buses that travel the main road to my house, but I enjoy the walk. This 90-minute walk usually includes at least 7 requests for money, sweets, water, or anything visible in my backpack.    At about the 5^th request I get pretty fed up and power walk the rest of the way home, trying to avoid eye contact with little kids who assume that the color of my skin automatically qualifies me as a human ATM/vending machine. 

·      5 pm – Return home exhausted, lay on the floor a lot, cook, watch Generations, pass out.

THURSDAY – SATURDAY:  Despite a hectic first half of the week, the second half of the week has a much looser structure.  Generally, I try to keep Thursdays available for various meetings that seem to fall on Thursdays.  Inner Council meetings are held every Thursday and I have attended several of these to introduce myself to the Chief and the Inner Council.  I am also working with two support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS in my community.  One of these is composed of members of my immediate community and the other is associated with the clinic and the Mothers 2 Mothers programs.  Both of these meetings occur on Thursdays at 11 am (read: people start rolling in around 12:30…).  I have yet to contribute anything more than heart-shaped sugar cookies to these meetings (huge hit, by the way, and world traveled fast around my community that I am a “bakist”), but I plan to work closely with the support group in my community, potentially in the form of a home garden project, which they seem to be excited about.  I am in awe of how powerful the women (and one man) of this support group are and I look forward to these monthly meetings and getting to spend time with this incredible group.   While I don’t have anything official planned for the rest of the weekend, there seems to always be some community event that comes up (funerals, Family Fun Day at church).  Otherwise, I spend the majority of my free time cleaning my hut, washing my clothes, contemplating a mass genocide of the goats that poop on my stoop (did I mention that I hate goats?), staring at my seedlings in hopes that this will make them grow faster, etc. I am currently discussing with the Deputy Principal of the local Primary School where they can use me, so this free time will likely be devoted to working with the school at some point in the near future. 

Sunday: Unlike many volunteers who have come to dread Sundays and the church services in siSwati that seem to last forever, church has become the highlight of my weekend (unless the service goes over 3 hours, at which point I become hungry and extremely irritable).  My family goes to a “Full Gospel Church,” complete with an electric keyboard, which the pastor loves to bang on while the choir sings.  The best past of church is the boGogo (grandmothers) who literally cannot sit still for more than 5 seconds once the music starts.  These wrinkly old women immediately flock to the aisle (men and women sit on different sides of church), where they parade down the aisle dancing and showing off their sparkling white grandma sneakers.  It may not be Midtown Community Church, but these boGogo know how to dance!

At this point, my time has been occupied with a little bit of everything.  I am learning a lot about my community in the process, which is exactly what I am supposed to be doing at this point in my service.  I’m still not exactly sure where I fit in in this community and my prayer is that this would become increasingly clear in the coming months.  This lack of having a solid grasp on what exactly I’ll be doing has been a struggle to cope with, but I am learning to take each day as it comes and to focus on learning as much as possible and strengthening my relationships with the members of my community.  There have certainly been struggles, but there have also been an abundance of special moments.  I’m beginning to understand what returned volunteers mean when they say that this is the “toughest job you’ll ever love.”  I am blessed with an incredible host family, a group of powerful women who have taken me under their wing, and supportive friends and family both at home and in Swaziland to help me through these ups and downs.  4 months down, 23 months to go. So far, so good J

Laughing is the best medicine

September 20, 2012

It is hard to believe that I have been in Swaziland for almost three months.  I’m wondering if I’ll ever stop having moments where I think to myself, “Holy crap, I’m really in Africa right now!”  These seem to come with great frequency.  Maybe it’s because from 6:30 am this morning until 3:30 this afternoon I have been washing my clothes in a bucket (my knuckles are now severely blistered), or maybe it’s because when it rains I have to fight off the goats that try to seek shelter in the latrine if I want any privacy at all.  Sometimes when I take a step back and really think about what I’m experiencing, I just have to laugh at how radically different my life is now.  Here are several anecdotes to give you a sense of what I mean:

• ·      A couple days ago, I was accompanying my counterpart to work at the KaGogo center.  The KaGogo center, located in the royal kraal (umphakatsi), was set up in 2007 with hopes that it would become a hub for launching programs and campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS in rural areas.  Anyways, there is an old man whom I recently discovered stays in a vacant room at the KaGogo center.  He seems to be an adopted grandfather for the community members who hang out at the royal kraal.  This particular morning, he asked me for 4 emalangeni (about 50 cents) to buy bread.  I was feeling generous that morning and agreed to help the old man out.  About an hour later, he comes back with a small plastic container filled with a dirt-like powder.  He takes his fingers to his nose, makes a sniffing motion, and then rubs his head in ecstasy.  Yes, I had just given grandpa money to buy drugs…so for all you people out there who think I am “saving the world,” I hate to burst your bubble, but this is really what I’m doing in Swaziland.
• ·       This same day, my counterpart and I were returning from work.  As we were walking home, my counterpart saw a huge snake crossing the path in front of us.  She jumped up and started running, yelling “Nosipho (that’s my name), I feel crazy! It make urinate!!”  I was a bit confused trying to figure out why the snake needed to urinate, but she was, in fact, referring to herself.  I look over to find my counterpart pulling down her tights and taking a piss in the middle of the bush.  The snake literally scared the pee out of her!  After laughing for a good twenty minutes, she concludes, “Nosipho, today is a funny day!”
• ·      Earlier this week, I went out to lunch with one of the staff members at the clinic where I volunteer every Wednesday.  We got to talking about the moringa tree, a tree that is gaining popularity throughout Africa due to its leaves which provide mega-nutritional benefits.  I am considering starting a project to grow these trees with the members of my community, so I asked her if I could buy one of the seedlings that she had been harvesting.  I accompanied her to her house, where she introduced me to her twelve-year-old son, who had recently been circumcised (there is a male circumcision campaign going on in Swaziland in an effort to reduce the risk of HIV transmission).  The kid was recovering on the couch with his lower half wrapped in a towel.  All of a sudden, his mother pulled down the towel and insisted that I take a peek at her son’s freshly circumcised penis.  Just another day at work…
• ·      Last week, after several weeks of the neighborhood girls laughing at me as I attempted to wash my clothes in a bucket, I approached Make for assistance.  Make patiently imparted all of her quality washing wisdom to me.  As she watched me struggle to scrub my clothes clean (which is pretty difficult, especially considering how messy I am…), she would gently reach over and take my clothes and scrub for me, demonstrating the proper technique.  Slowly I began to get the hang of it…after two years I will be a professional Make.  However, laundry knowledge was not the only wisdom I gained from Make this morning.  Somehow we began to the topic of guinea fowl made its way into the conversation.  Make informed me that “Those birds are too clever.”  Just in case I ever wanted to go chasing after one of these oh-so-clever birds, Make informed me that the best way to catch them is to sneak some booze into their water dish and liquor them up.  Apparently, they are much easier to catch when in a drunken stupor.  Again, quality knowledge I am gaining here in Swaziland. 

Life is radically different here and while there are times when I long for a shower and the ability to throw my clothes into a washing machine, the slower pace of life seems to allow for more humor.  Obviously there is great hardship here in Swaziland, especially in the face of the AIDS epidemic, but the Swazi people also like to have a good time, or as they call it in English, “funny time.”  I’m so thankful just to be able to share a good laugh with the new friends and family.  

Since I've failed to update regularly, here are some pictures of the girls on my homestead to hold you over until the next post:

Homestead girls imitating the male version of the Swazi traditional dance - hilarious!

Don't be surprised if I take them home with me :)

Hello, Reality

  

I apologize for the lack of blog updates recently, the past month has been such a blur and internet, as usual, has been questionable.  It’s hard to imagine that two months ago today, I was making my final goodbye phone calls in the JFK airport before boarding the plane to Johannesburg with 41 other volunteers, who were complete strangers at the time.  Fast forward two months and here I am today, sitting in my hut at my permanent site, wondering to myself what the heck integration into a new community even looks like.  This past Thursday, the entire group of 41 volunteers who arrived in Swaziland were sworn in as official volunteers.  The fact that all of us made it through training is apparently quite an accomplishment as many groups lose volunteers during these first few months as they realize that Peace Corps is not for them.  

While I am still completely confident that I am exactly where I need to be, I must admit that it has not been an easy journey thus far.  The last few weeks of training were a struggle trying to balance spending time with my host family, studying siSwati, not to mention trying to process everything that I was experiencing.  Additionally, I was overcome with an eagerness to leave the classroom and finally begin what I had come here to do.  As training came to an end, I experienced additional anxiety as I anticipated the changes that were to come as we moved to our permanent sites.  About halfway through training, we were given an opportunity to visit our permanent sites, for what Peace Corps calls “On the Job Training.”  During my visit, I was struck by the poverty of the community where I will be spending the remainder of my service.  Located in the low veld of Swaziland’s Lubombo region, my community is barren.  This place brings a new meaning to the word dry and the only visible signs of life are the thorny acacia trees that litter the landscape.  Water is in short supply and during my three-day visit, I was approached by multiple community members who tugged on my heartstrings, telling me, “I’m sick, I’m hungry, and I’m thirsty.  There is no water.  Can you help me?”  Many of the homes are constructed from stick and mud and parentless children wander the dirt roads in search of companionship.  While I was comforted by the fact that my new host family was so welcoming and kind, I struggled to manage the emotions that overcame me as I reflected on this initial impression of my future environment.  My experience in this new community was such a contrast to the safe world of our training village, where I was somewhat able to hide my whiteness among the other 40 volunteers who also stayed in the area, where I enjoyed runs in the valley, surrounded by lush, green mountains, and where I came home to a family who knew and understood American culture, thus making me feel slightly less like an outsider.  However, I came to Swaziland to experience what life is like for Swazis and while it will be overwhelming at times, I am thrilled to finally be living in a rural Swazi community. 

Although my initial impression of my future home haunted me for several weeks after returning to training, my first week here has been wonderful.  Last Friday, after celebrating our swearing in as official volunteers, we loaded all of our belongings onto a series of truck beds, piled ourselves into Peace Corps vehicles, and drove away from everything we have known since arriving in Swaziland; our friends, our village, our host families, and the Peace Corps staff.  It kind of felt like the scene in Parent Trap, where Hallie and Annie are hugging goodbye at the end of summer camp, plotting their plans to meet again while freaking out about the ridiculous plan they had schemed.  We all hugged goodbye, saying “What the heck are we doing?”  We travelled in groups of about 6, dropping off each volunteer on their respective homestead and then driving away, leaving us to fend for ourselves with a hut, our belongings, and our thoughts.  For the next three months, we enter a period called “Integration,” during which we are simply expected to develop relationships with the members of our community, get to know our host families, achieve some level of understanding of how the community works, and assess the needs to the community.  During integration, we are only allowed to leave site for one night per month and we are not allowed to begin any project-related work.  This policy is based on the fact that our work will be much more effective once we have gained the trust of the community.  What does this even look like, you might ask?  Great question, as I’m trying to figure this out myself.  I have a greeting card posted to my wall that reads, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”  Well, if this is true, then Peace Corps life has certainly begun for me.  As a somewhat reserved and introverted person who shys from being the center of attention, adjusting to being a new face in a community with little exposure to foreigners has taken some getting used to.  On the flip side, it does have its advantages, and people have quickly learned who I am.  As I run along the main road near my house, I hear shouts from the distance screaming my name, “Nosipho!”  The community has quickly learned that I am the crazy umlungu (white person) who likes to run and walk far distances for no reason at all.  They ask me, “Where did you learn to walk? Who taught you?  Did you learn in Swaziland?” Umm…no…

The following activities have occupied my initial few days at site: taking long walks through the African bush, trying to figure out the way around my community, hanging out with the store owners near my house, following my counterpart around (more on this in future blog posts), decorating my hut (hello princess canopy/mosquito net), watching Generations with my host family, baking cookies and muffins in my new mini oven with my sisis, sitting on the stoop outside my hut watching the goats fart and spit (very entertaining, I must say), warding off marriage proposals from teenage boys, attempting to speak siSwati, making lists of all the names of the people I’ve met in an attempt to remember their names, reading, running, doing yoga, sitting in a basin full of cold water to keep cool, etc, etc.  While the lack of structure is at times difficult to cope with, I recognize that my integration in my community will be a process and that simply a smile and exchanging greetings in siSwati goes a long way.  I am relieved to finally have some time to relax and process everything that I am experiencing thus far.  From now on, I promise to update more frequently.  I miss all of you at home terribly and want to thank you all for your letters, prayers, support, and encouragement, it really means the world to me!