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 5th
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
