Halloween

So most of our group and the previous group got together at a “backpackers” hostel near Manzini and near the training facility, for Halloween (actually, the weekend before Halloween). It was really fun.

Our day started out early, because we wake up early, and headed out and, just as we stepped off our homestead, weighted down with full backpacks with clothes for really hot and quite cool weather, computer, and language books, a small pickup stopped to pick us up on the 2 K walk up to the main road – really nice. Only 2 kids already in the back and no dogs, and the truck bed was pretty clean – a very good start! And as we got to the bus rank at the junction, a partially empty bus was about to pull out, so we got to get on with our backpacks, which meant the backpacks didn't have to go in the boot where we couldn't see them – with the computer that prospect had made me a little uneasy. And a little bakery where all the PCVs assemble near the Manzini bus rank was open, and we had a delicious breakfast there and visited as our group started to arrive, did some shopping and took a short khumbi ride to the hostel.

The hostel is a sprawling old house set back from the main road among some trees on a hillside. Most of the PCVs stayed in bunks in a co-ed dorm for US$12 each, but we splurged for US$15 each and got a separate little house all to ourselves – with a lovely hot shower and a sink, with hot running water and a mirror. You could also camp on a grassy lawn for US$8, and some put up tents, but it rained from 3 until around 9 PM, and they all moved inside and crashed on mattresses in the lounge.

Here we are, as we left, on a gray chilly Sunday morning.

It was really nice to reconnect with these kids and hear how they are doing. Its hard out there, and some of the most capable are having a hard time, just because they are in difficult situations: remote and can't get around well, or far too much to do and not enough help at an orphanage, or trying to teach 5^th grade math to deaf students using sign language – in siSwati! Yeah, the thought of even trying that dumbfounds me. There are some really smart kids here. Really, really smart.

The PCVs got dressed up in very clever costumes.

Mark is on the far left, back row. Middle row, standing: a mosquito net, then a Swazi school girl in school uniform, an 80's workout instructor, cat woman, a greek goddess, spider woman, a 60s hippy. Front row, kneeling: Not sure who the 1^st person on the left was trying to be; then Pocahontas in a clever costume made from a slip and parts of old mosquito netting; Pipi Longstocking, and a “Care Package” - my favorite.

Mark went in a double costume: a scary old guy wearing the attractive hair extensions frequently worn by Swazi women, which were then removed upon request to reveal an even more scary Swazi haircut, now 3 weeks old and still showing parts that had never previously seen the sun. KUF wore a pink spotted dress and was the elusive pink spotted leopard..

Rumors Sipho danced on the bar, wearing a wig, joined by a scruffy guy with a moth-eaten beard wearing a red dress, are false and have been referred to our solicitor for an appropriate response. Well, OK, there was a small wall near the bar, I admit that. And there may have been some tastefully arranged hair extensions. And Abdul is a PCV (Yup, Abdul Ahmed – Muslim, from Oklahoma – ah, the diversity of our country!) from the previous group who has helped us with some lesson planning and whom we like a lot, and he looked really good in his girlfriend's dress. But dancing on the bar, like some kind of inebriated college kid? Nah.

Now we're back at the training facility, settling in for intensive language instruction and a “resource fair” later in the week with vets from the group that has been here a year showing us what materials can be helpful to us for lesson plans and youth group activities that have been loaded onto a flash drive and onto the Kindle the PC issued to us. And pursuing mutual exchange of resources – I've been getting some fine tunes from some of these kids – exploring new areas. Plus of course, exchanging movies. Don't tell ASCAP. The technology issues are daunting, but we're getting better – some of the other PCVs are very patient and helpful, and I'm getting exposed to lots of music that's new to me, including South African – Ladysmith and Xhosa, and the Vitamin Quartet and Civil Wars. It's taken me 3 or 4 efforts to learn the multiple steps involved (you can't copy directly from a flash drive into iTunes; you have to copy into My Music, then open a new folder in iTunes), but I'm now successfully downloading to the computer – its really complicated. Aren't you proud of me? Of all the challenges of this PC endeavor, the technology is right up there near the top. Where's the Sherman and Howard Help Desk when I need them?

Well, so far there is no WiFi at our training facility, so I'll just keep adding, because I can't send this out. After sitting in classes all day Monday and way over-eating because . . . well, the food was there, we didn't have to fix it . . . , anyway, some of our group were doing the “Animal Flow” exercise cycle Monday evening (pictured, MAYBE) and then some of us got up at 5 a.m. Tuesday to do the “Insanity” workout Katherine's walking group friends had sent us (also pictured; we understand there are some who have come to anticipate – is that the word? Dread? - the repeated topless pix of Mark. Kind of like a centerfold, or when the Sports Illustrated February bathing suit issue came out and immediately disappeared from the magazine stack at the gym.). We all go to sleep so early at our homesteads, and we're doing that here too (except for Saturday night, when we partied), and so we wake up early, so that wasn't as tough as it may seem in US terms, at least for some of you. Its a good workout – I'm still sore! Thanks, friends.

 

Lots of training during the week on language, teaching skills, and what we need for a successful project. Saturday morning we were unscheduled, so we went back to the homestead where we had lived in July and August during Pre-Service Training. Well into the spring now, it is all green and very beautiful there, and the avocados, mangoes and peaches are developing on the trees, but won't be ripe until later in the summer – January or February.