2 days of training

One more quick post while we seem to have a little internet:

The Peace Corps is deadly serious about: 1) its mission; and 2) the safety of volunteers. As a consequence the last 3 days, and the next 2 months, are packed with classes, instruction, and requirements. A little fatiguing, but the organization and commitment to get it right, and to help us get it right, is encouraging. The language is really tough. Stuff we thought we knew surfaces slowly, if at all, through the haze of jet lag and sleep deprivation. We've reviewed water filtration, very well-stocked med kits, HIV prevention, and how to take a bucket bath – in separate groups of men and women.

 

Tuesday we move to home sites for our 2 month training period, living with our language instructor (“thishela”) . In 2 weeks we start cooking for ourselves.

Our group is cheerful, smart, and full of diverse talents. Richard's violin didn't make it through the Jo'berg airport, but was retrieved the next day. They made a campfire and hot chocolate for us (by our body clocks it was mid-day) and we celebrated. Richard played for us – he first played Carnegie at 11 – but this sounded about as good. That's the picture.

The stars, even here in “the industrial zone” shine bright, but of course there are no constellations we recognize. My star map may have been in the folder looted from my checked luggage at Jo'Berg; hope its in the package we shipped 2 weeks ago. We've identified 5 birds – all new, of course. And that's just walking to meals and class, because there will be little time for birding this winter.

1st day in SZ

Here is our group of 33 (4 over 60, all the rest 20s, 4 males) on our first afternoon in Swaziland, and the training facility where we are getting initial training, and being eased into life here (hot showers, plentiful meals provided to us.)

Monday we move to homesteads where we will stay for the next 8 weeks of language and cultural training. There is unlikely to be internet access during that time. This connection is slow and fragile, and shared by all of us, so we use it sparingly.

Final preparations and good-byes

            Mark and Katherine Fulford herewith inaugurate their blog of their Peace Corps service in the Kingdom of Swaziland, from June 25, 2013 (staging in Philadelphia) to our return in September 2015.  

            "Sanibonani" is an informal siSwati greeting literally meaning "we've seen you, have you seen us?"  We think kind of like "Wassup?"   The encouragement and support from our family and friends has fortified us for this adventure - now it seems we really do have to go!

            A rough overview of what we expect might provide a context for future entries, based upon our reading of official and (often even more informative) unofficial Peace Corps related material (e.g., blogs of other SZ PC volunteers - "PCVs"). It appears that the 7 hours of  "staging" in Philadelphia is to provide us general (not so much country-specific) instructions and also some team-building.  There are 35 PCV trainees, of whom it appears well over 20 are women and only 4 of us are over 40; we are the only married couple.  We then catch a bus at 3 a.m. for an 11 a.m. flight out of JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then a short hop to Manzini, Swaziland's most industrial city.

            After a few days of "soft corps" in a dormitory (with showers! flush toilets!) we will move in with a Swazi family, and begin 2 months of "Pre-Service Training:" 8 hours a day of intensive language training and instruction in Swazi culture and how to do what we are supposed to do here.  One reason for our providing this long first post is to let you know we could be off the radar for the rest of the winter (till spring comes to SZ in September).  That won’t necessarily mean bad things are happening to us, but only that we’re overwhelmed learning what we need to know; the lack of any high speed internet anywhere in the country won’t help.  If we pass the "assessment" at the end of PST we will then be assigned a "homestead" where we will serve for the next 2 years.

            Unlike most countries in which the Peace Corps operates, the PC in Swaziland is dedicated to only one task: mitigating HIV/AIDS.  Swaziland has the highest HIV/positive rate in the world, between 26 and 40% of adults.  Katherine will be a “Community Health Educator";  Mark is to find his niche in "Youth Development". (There seems to be little need there so far for commercial bankruptcy expertise.)

            In September we’ll move to our "homestead," beginning what the PC calls the “integration” period.   For the following 3 months we may leave the site only for single overnight stays.  The idea is to immerse oneself in the community, to explore how to get involved and make a difference.  We anticipate accomplishing this integration to be our biggest challenge.  Even after this "integration" period, travel is restricted, because only 2 vacation days accrue per month, and we need PC country headquarters' permission to leave the country.  (SZ is the size of New Jersey; South Africa’s Kruger National Park, just to the north, is larger than all of Swaziland.)

            Among the challenges that we can foresee, in chronological order:

·         Relating to the roughly 33 other PCVs in our group.

·         Learning siSwati.

·         Mastering the technology of the new phones, Kindles, laptop, converters, "dongle"(!), this blog site.

·         Learning in our “homestead” site how we can be useful.

            One of the best things we will have going for us is . .  . each other.   Our preparations have already developed some skills that were latent for the past 39 years.

Meanwhile we are madly buying and packing - seeing what we can take in our 80 pound each limit; putting our affairs - house, financial and legal – in order for others to manage for 2 years; and saying our final good-byes.