South Africa and Medical Stuff

My new excuse for not having updated the blog in a while is my being out of town. What can I say? It was the busy time of the year.

August 23rd was the new group’s Swearing-In Ceremony in Pigg’s Peak. It wasn’t quite as fancy as ours, but they did have a few unexpected surprises. This year the Prime Minister actually made it so that was kind of cool. The U.S. Ambassador was there along with a bunch of the volunteers from my group. All of PSN got to spend the rest of the week with the new volunteers so we had a bonfire and attempted to make Smores one night and then showed them around the capitol the next couple of days. All in all, it was great seeing a bunch of new people excited to be here and to start getting to know their communities.

The 26th was the day the new volunteers were taken to their sites so after that we were free. As a treat to myself that morning I left for South Africa to meet a friend from California and spend a few days seeing the big country next door. It was a relaxing week, if not super-productive. As a treat to you all, instead of telling you all about it myself, this week I have a special guest blogger who can offer a little bit of a different perspective on what she’s seen of Swaziland and South Africa so far. So, here’s Kelly.



It’s been 25 days since I’ve arrived on this continent, and after dozens of hot and smooshed combi rides, staying the night in six different locations, carrying my belongings from city to city and meeting new people, I definitely have to say that my most favorite part so far has been the days spent in Zombodze. Whoa, what an opening run-on sentence! So far so good.

I flew into Johannesburg last month where Kris and I spent 5 long days. Johannesburg is really like any other large metropolitan city in the world- traffic, pollution, tall buildings, fast freeways, lots of people and busyness. I have to admit that it was nice going to the movies and eating popcorn, and I know Kris really enjoyed that; but, after seeing two Nicholas Cage films and Inception, eating out at restaurants, and the constant reminders of just how big Johannesburg is, I was ready to get out of the city. We traveled an hour away to Pretoria that is a much smaller city than Johannesburg, and really enjoyed walking around. After Pretoria we were planning to go to Nelspruit; however, somehow we ended up taking the wrong bus and going right back to Johannesburg… great! So instead we took a four-hour combi ride to Nelspruit and stayed at a really nice and friendly hostel there. The idea was to meet up with Kris’ sisi (sister) who is living there and attending the university, but it turned out that she was at home in Zombodze (Kris’ community) instead! So the next morning we decided to wake up early and head into Swaziland to get to Zombodze, which is where we are now.

For the most part we’ve been here in his community, but for about six days we traveled to Mbabane (Swaziland’s capitol) which is where the Peace Corps office is so that Kris and some of the other volunteers could have a “health week” and get checked out for any parasites, dental damage, diseases and things like that. Kris passed. Supposedly we only needed to be there for a few days, but the PC office called Kris and the other volunteers and asked them to travel to Mbabane earlier in the week. They did this since the country was currently going through a slight civil unrest and there were protests occurring in the big cities. Although it felt like we (or they) were in lock down for the week, it was super great being able to meet Kris’ PC friends who I’ve heard so much about. They were all really nice and it was great being able to converse with them one-on-one over where they’re from, what they’re projects are in Swaziland, and what they want to do when they return home. It really makes me think about what my next steps are in life.

Ok so: Zombodze. This is the name of Kris’ community which is only a short twenty-minute combi ride to Manzini (the second largest city in Swaziland after Mbabane). Since being here I’ve gotten to meet a good amount of his homestead family- the Mtetwa’s. I understand that Zombodze isn’t a very big community and so everyone seems to know each other, but I’m still under the assumption that his family is kind of a “big deal”. Even when Kris went to get his teeth cleaned a few weeks ago in Mbabane (2 hours away) the dentist said he was apart of the same family. It turned out that he was even at Kris’ homestead earlier in the summer playing the sax at a party! His babe (father), mother (can’t remember the siSwati name for mother), sisi’s, brother Kenneth and aunt are all nice and welcoming. None of them refer to Kris by his “American” name, but only by his Swazi name: Jobe. I have yet to meet his Gogo (grandmother), but I hear she only speaks siSwati, so that might be a bit of a difficult conversation for me to have.

Kris’ room here is like a little studio. He has a loft bed which gives him a lot more room for other things, like his desk that is built into his bed that is filled with PC papers and binders, LSAT prep books and stacks of books he is ambitious to read like Farewell to Arms, The Right to Privacy, Father of Frankenstein and The Fountainhead. He has a small little couch in his room that faces a little table with a stove/oven on it where he prepares his food, room to store his bike, and even a good amount of space in the middle of the room to lay two thin mattresses down for visitors when they stay the night. It’s a pretty nice set up he has here. Since being here we’ve done a ton of cooking- curry, fried chicken, stir fry, tacos, fried rice, sandwiches, Tuna & Ramen (I call this the Kris Special), and tonight we’re doing spaghetti and meat sauce. Is any one reading this?... Kris is doing the cooking!!! I thought I would never see the day! He’s actually pretty handy around here. Just a few days ago he was working on building screens to put on his windows out of mosquito net cloth to keep the bugs out of his room when he leaves the windows open in the heat.

Just by looking on a map, geographically, it’s easy to see how small of country Swaziland is. But man, looking at it on a map is nothing compared to seeing how small it is while you’re here. Kris has only been here for a year and yet it seems like we’re always running into people when we’re out and about. The first day in Manzini after traveling in South Africa we ran into Steph and Andrew, who are two of the new volunteers who just arrived in June, and while hiking yesterday we ran into one of Kris’ PC bosses with her husband and daughter. While picking up our laundry two days ago we ran into this really nice guy named George who is from Nigeria, who apparently Kris knew because George use to work at a computer store Kris would go to, and walked with us a few blocks almost all the way to the laundry place, just to chat. (I don’t remember the last time my watch repair guy stopped me on the street just to chat back at home…. Ummm yaa… never.) Maybe it’s just the culture here to be friendlier than I’m use to strangers being. While passing people on the street it is appropriate to wave or say hi whether you know them or not. I leave that to Kris who greets them in SiSwati while I just smile and wave. And whenever conversing with new people, the person you’re sitting next to on the combi, the lady at the laundry store, the person ringing our groceries, it seems to be customary to greet them, say hello, ask them how they are.

How I'm treated- everyone is really nice and seems to want to get to know me. I'm always asked how long I’ll be here and where I'm staying. I'm not sure if it’s just the culture, but after meeting new people they’re motivated to invite me to their home, or to their church… like the cleaning lady at the hostel Bombasos in Mbabane, or the random lady on the street who stopped to talk to me for an hour who lives near Pigg’s Peak.

Combies. I must have referred to them at least a half-dozen times already, but I have yet to describe what they are. Combies are combination vehicles the size of a big van and usually sit around sixteen people along with as much stuff (fruits, bags, children, buckets) that can be jammed in as possible until every square inch of the combi has been utilized. They can get pretty hot and uncomfortable as you can imagine, especially for the long rides, but the trips are priced really cheap so it’s worth it. The worst part about the combies (pronounced cumbies by the Swazi) is that the rank (depot) never fails to smell like urine.

I suppose this is something that I often take for granted as an urbanite living in my smog-filled home I call Los Angeles, but the night sky and stars here are amazing. At home, it’s only during times like meteor showers that I lay out on the ground and appreciate the sky, but being here I have the advantage of being able to see it whenever the sun has gone down for the day and the moon and stars light up the sky. When it’s dark at night and Kris and I are going from the outdoor sink to clean dishes to his room, I usually take a moment to appreciate the innumerous amount of lights in the sky and think of how big the earth is in comparison to our little bodies- and that while I’m taking that quick moment to stare into the sky, my parents, sisters, brother and friends are at home waking up and just getting their day started… half a world away.

So for the last week all I’ve really been doing is reading, thinking, lots of sudoku puzzles, going to town and cooking. All of that has been really relaxing and comforting, but we have also done a few other things as well. Last Saturday I went with Kris to a support group in town for kids in the greater Manzini area who have been infected with HIV/AIDS. Apparently they do these support groups twice a month (one in Manzini and the other in Mbabane) for kids (mostly teens) to get together with their peers and other people in the community who wish to help- some mothers, PC volunteers and other volunteers as well, and each meeting is usually targeted around a particular theme. The meeting we attended focused on their medications and why it is important to take them. The day was filled with conversations, games, skits, singing and dancing and ended by feeding the kids. As a volunteer here Kris is constantly surrounded by the realization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, whereas I’m not; but after attending the support group and hanging out with the kids, it definitely has gotten me thinking. After the meeting I asked Kris a bunch of questions regarding the kids such as “do their friends in their communities and schools know that they’re infected?” “Are they treated differently at school?” “Were all the kids who attended the support group born infected or have they recently contracted it?” He’s currently reading a book called The Invisible Cure that focuses on the epidemic in Africa and has offered to lend me the book next which will answer a lot of questions.

The day after that was Sunday and we attended church with his family at an Evangelical church. Every bench and seat in the one room building was filled with people singing and dancing, which was fun; however almost the entire service was done in SiSwati, so it’s safe to say that I didn’t understand a thing. What was helpful though was Kris’ aunt who I was sitting next to kept whispering to me what was going on, or what was being said that really helped me stay attentive. Even though I was thoroughly lost during the service, we were glad we went, and it seemed like his family and other people at the church were too. A few people came up to me to introduce themselves, asked me how I liked it and inquired whether we would be attending next week. We thought maybe, but seeing as it’s Sunday night right now as I write this, I can tell you that we didn’t.

Yesterday Kris and I went to a game park where we set up our tent, and went on a five-hour hike up to a peak called “Execution Rock.” I’m not going to lie, that hike got me pretty winded and out of breath! But once we got to the top and we were able to see what seemed like all of Swaziland, it was well worth it. We brought peanut butter sandwiches with us, but by the time we got to the top they were so squished and we were almost out of water, that I opted out of eating them. Kris however had no problem. It was a really fun hike with a lot of different scenery to walk through, and we even got to see some wildlife like hippos, a crocodile, warthogs, zebras and some type of deer looking animal. By the time we got back to our tent from the hike, we were pretty dirty and our legs were exhausted that all we did for the rest of the day was make dinner and play cards.

So that’s my interpretation of Swaziland and Kris’ life as a visitor. Hopefully I was able to successfully describe a few things that Kris has failed to mention in his blogs and that you’ve gotten a better idea of his life here.

Kelly



Well, there you go. That’s Swaziland through the eyes of someone coming straight from the U.S. Not quite the same as being here, but hopefully that’ll help. I have some new work stuff to write about and a bunch of photos to put up, but I think I’ll save that for next week. See ya then!