Christmas, New Years, and a Rat Bite

Hey there, long time no talk. Things have been pretty up and down for the past month: at times there will be a million things going on and at others pretty much nothing. In general, this part of the year is as slow as it gets in Swaziland. The school year ends in early December and the new year doesn’t start until the end of January so the schools are shut down for the most part. The Incwala ceremony also takes place throughout these couple of months and a lot of community members are involved with that. This is similar to the Reed Dance that took place in September, but for the boys. I wasn’t able to go this year, but hopefully next year. With schools starting next Tuesday and the Incwala finished, things should be picking up soon, but there were a few exciting things that happened over the last month.

So, I got bit by a rat in early December. It was just sitting there in the middle of my room one afternoon. I tried grabbing it with a plastic bag and as soon as I got it, it turned around and bit me. Then I got mad. I tore my room apart when it ran into the corner, throwing bags and boxes everywhere. Finally, I was able to grab it by the tail and cover it with the bag. After throwing it in the trash pit on the other side of the homestead, I noticed my hand was covered in blood. For 3 days I had to stay at the same hostel in the capitol as last time and get 2 more rabies shots, which brings the total up to 6. Not sure what I could’ve done differently.

Christmas plans changed at the last minute, but it actually ended up being pretty fun. Half of the volunteers went to Durban, South Africa and everyone else was invited to our boss’s house for Christmas Brunch. I never expected to spend a Christmas getting sun-burned playing volleyball and swimming, but that’s Swaziland.

A couple of days after Christmas me and another volunteer, Kate, took a little rafting trip. Some of the rapids were pretty intense, at least compared to what I was expecting, and I got tossed out several times, but it was a lot of fun. The guides were so amazed by my ability to swim upstream to get back into the raft after getting thrown out they named the rapid after me. Ya, I’m amazing.

For New Years we all went to the big club/concert venue in the country called House on Fire. We spent the afternoon at a hostel on a game reserve hanging out in the pool before going out. It was a Michael Jackson themed evening so there were people with some interesting costumes. Overall, it was a good time.

Just an update, we’re still working on trying to raise money for the Books for Africa project. Almost all of the schools have come up with their money, but the Peace Corps Partnership still needs some work. I know it’s tough with the holidays and everything, but just consider it a late Christmas present to me. Here’s the link again: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-077& . Thanks.

All righty. Right now I have 2 PC volunteers who just finished their 2 years in Namibia and are traveling through Swaziland staying over tonight so I should probably go help with dinner. Hopefully it won’t be another month before I have some more to write about.