PST

PST (Pre Service Training)

Currently I have very limited internet access and so my wonderful
friend Laura Zak is posting this for me. Thus there will be some delay
from when I type posts and when they get posted. Thank you Buns!

Also I've gotten some snail mail! Thank you so much Chrissy and the
mailroom, Keeley, Grant, and Mom. I love you all very much. Also many
thanks to anyone else who has sent letters that haven't yet arrived. I
can't explain what joy a letter from home brings. If you send me a
letter, I promise to write back!

PST (Pre Service Training)

Hello friends!! I'm so happy to be here with you!

Currently I have very limited internet access and so my wonderful
friend/roomie Laura Zak is posting this for me. Thus there will be
some delay from when I type posts and when they get posted. Thank you
Buns!

Also I've gotten some snail mail! Thank you so much Chrissy and the
mailroom, Keeley, Grant, and Mom. I love you all very much. Also many
thanks to anyone else who has sent letters that haven't yet arrived. I
can't explain what joy a letter from home brings. If you send me a
letter, I promise to write back!

16 October 2010

Yesterday, October 15th, marked the three month point of my training
group, SA 22 (South Africa's 22nd group of volunteers) in this
beautiful country. It's been a month since we swore in and completed
training. Even though this is the first time I feel like I can write
about some experiences without feeling completely overwhelmed, I'm
still unsure how I would like to write about it. Training was quite
hectic and there was little time for reflection. Being at site has
given me time to think about how I could possibly explain what Peace
Corps has been like for me to people back home. It's impossible to
convey all of my feelings and experiences but I'll do my best to
share! (This is going to be a loooong post. I promise not to ramble so
much in the future!) Let's go back to the start!

Staging

My mom, dad, sister, and I left Cooper, Texas at 4am so we could have
one last meal at IHOP together and get to the airport on time. We said
our emotional goodbyes and they watched me walk all the way through
security. On the flight I met an amazing woman who loves purple
(because purple reminds her of God) and now she is following this
blog! At the airport in Philadelphia I spotted another volunteer, Ryan
Monaghan, who had large bags and the blue PC invitation packet. Such a
relief. Together we took a van to our hotel.

I met my roommate Megan Hughes and we became friends instantly! Also I
discovered she plays oboe, just like my roommate and friend Laura Zak!
Oh oboe. We went to be touristy so we got a Philly cheesesteak, which
was delicious.

The two days in Philly were spent getting shots, getting paper work,
and getting to know Peace Corps and each other. Our group of 53 was
unusual as we have more males than females. At 2am on the last
day/night we boarded buses heading for JFK in New York. I've never
been to New York and my 5am delirious thoughts were, 'Wow, that's a
lot of concrete.' In a crazy rush we all boarded the plane around 11am
and embarked on our 15 hour flight.

Arrival and Week 1

Landing, what a rush. It was so cold! Season are reversed here and
man, they weren't kidding about it being cold. Due to those wonderful
things called time zones, it was also morning again, about 8am. We
were all exhausted. The air was crisp and the sky so blue as we landed
in Johannesburg. The PC Country Director and some staff met us at the
gate with giant signs welcoming us. We took a bus to our training
site.

We arrived at the college where we would spend the next week and were
greeted by the singing and dancing training staff. Exhausted we ate
and had a day full of orientation, language lessons, and
introductions. We stayed in dorms, 4 to a room, and married couples in
their own. We have 3 married couples in our group.

During this week we were interviewed, attended sessions on south
african history, education, peace corps policies, safety, and learned
greetings in 5 different languages. We learned how to say 'I don't
speak Afrikaans.' in Afrikaans. In our free time we played a lot of
frisbee, a trainee held yoga classes, we read, played soccer complete
with vuvuzelas, watched documentaries on apartheid, and generally had
a great time learning and bonding.

Towards the end of the week our language groups were announced. The 52
of us were split into groups of 4-6 paired with an LCF (Language and
Cultural Facilitator- a South African) who would teach us our target
language for the next 7 weeks.

Homestay

On our last day at the college families from the surrounding villages
came to collect us, their American children! These families knew back
in March we were coming to stay with them. (They knew about us before
we knew were we going to South Africa.) The excitement was incredible.
We all sat in a room together, Americans on one side, South Africans
on the other. Our training director, Victor, called out our names and
we jumped up and ran across the room to hug our moms/dads/brothers/and
sisters. Singing, clapping, and laughter filled the room. I was
nervous to stay with a family who I could potentially not communicate
with and honestly, I had no idea what was going on, what to expect, so
many crazy emotions and thoughts. When my sister Maureen warmly
embraced me, speaking some english, I felt a huge sense of relief. She
told me we would be watching The Bold and the Beautiful, Rhythm City,
the news, and Generations every night. I was so confused. We collected
our groceries and her husband drove us to our house.

The 52 of us spilt into 3 clusters staying in 3 neighboring villages.
2 within walking distance of the college, one only accessible by
transport. I stayed in Ga Phaala, which is pronounced something like
'gah-pah-sha." It took me at least a week to say it right.

When we got to our house there were what felt like at least 508 people
there. I greeted everyone in Zulu, nervously, and we all smiled so
much it hurt. The neighbors were over, kids running around, chickens,
goats, cows in the street, hanging laundry, cool air. I had no idea
who was in my family and I couldn't remember anyone's names. My little
sister Thapelo danced just like Shakira to Waka Waka. My ma (who
speaks no english) made us tea. I set my stuff down in my room and
spent the afternoon feeling overwhelmed and amazed at how beautiful my
family and Ga Phaala was, and I spent a lot of time thinking, 'how is
this happening? what am i doing here? this is ridiculous, i can't
believe i'm here.'

After composing myself enough to think straight I got some paper and
pen and asked Maureen to help me write down everyone's names and what
order all the kiddos were born. Not that writing the names helped me
to remember as at this point I couldn't pronounce most of what I
heard. Mostly though, it was wonderful.

I stayed in my own room with a bed, desk, wardrobe for all my clothes,
and two buckets! There was no bathroom in the house, your bedroom was
the bathroom. Baths were taken in large buckets on the floor, filled
with hot water from the stove. Washing my long hair was quite the task
(which was a major reason I decided to shave my head in the next few
weeks.) I had taken bucket baths before and it was one of the things I
was most excited for during these two years. I really love a good
bucket bath. The toilet was a pit latrine outside. At night when it
wasn't the best idea to be outside, we all used buckets in our room
that we would empty early in the next morning. Water came from a
faucet outside the house and was stored in large buckets in the
kitchen. No kitchen sink taught me the importance of buckets in South
Africa. Buckets, buckets, buckets! They are so important, and have
many uses!

The next day we went with our LCF and language group to walk around
the village and locate important things like the school, shops, each
others houses, the pick up point for transport, etc.

Training

Our training began at 8am, meaning the mornings began around 6am
lending enough time for bathing, eating, and preparing for the day.
While no day was really typical we often began with language lessons
at my LCF S'ne's house. We were taught Zulu for about 2-3 hours and
then we all walked to the school to meet with the other groups staying
in Ga Phaala for sessions on various things like education, history,
Peace Corps, safety, etc. Our day finished anywhere from 3-5pm and
then we would walk home and spend the evenings with our families. My
sister Martha cooked dinner every night. Dinner was often pap (corn
porridge) a vegetable, gravy, and meat. We ate dinner while watching
the various soap operas and then we would drink tea. I watched more
television in these 2 months that I had in the past 4 years. When I
had the energy I would try and study some Zulu before going to bed.
Everyday I was exhausted and would go to sleep as early as 7pm.

On weekends we spent time with our families, took field trips,
sometimes had sessions in one large group at the college, and had
braai's (South Africa's term for BBQ's/parties.) We visited the Peace
Corps office in Pretoria, got to go to a few malls, toured the
Voortrekker and Apartheid museums, went to a game reserve, and visited
cultural centers.

Some of my favorite memories from training are with my host family,
who I grew very close to. I stayed with my Ma, older sister Martha
(25) and younger sister Thapelo (16.) The extended family visited on
weekends. Ma has 7 kids who also have kids. Ma greeted me everyday
with "Sanibonani Nomhlekabo Manthibela!" A neighbor gave me the
Ndebele (the prominent language of Ga Phaala, which is very similar to
Zulu) name Nomhlekabo, meaning beautiful. I found it pretty
embarassing!

Ma speaks no english and my Zulu was pretty bad, yet we found plenty
of ways to communicate, lots of gestures, and lots of her yelling for
Martha and Thapelo to translate. It was always fun when we were the
only two home. She took such good care of me. In the evenings she
always made sure I had dinner, had a blanket while we watched TV, and
made me take extra apples for lunch. One day I was feeling really sick
and I spent the whole day asleep in my room. I found out the next day
she hadn't slept at all because she was so worried about me. I
couldn't believe it. She treated me like her own child, and introduced
me as such. Church was what she lived for. She's a member of the Zion
Christian Church. On some Sundays I would go to with her and Thapelo.
Church was about a 20 minute walk to a beautiful patch of earth where
we gathered under a tree singing hymns, clapping, and dancing for over
an hour. After the singing the men would sit in plastic chairs in the
shade and the women sat on mats and cardboard boxes on the dirt in the
sun. For the next hour there was preaching, praying, and more singing.
Because I was there a kind man translated everything into English. Ma
and I grew very close even though we couldn't really speak directly.
One evening I made tea for all of us and I brought the tray out to Ma
who was sitting outside. Martha was inside cooking dinner. Ma isn't
supposed to have sugar, and Martha and Thapelo know that. I was
pouring in the milk for her and she gestured to me and said in Ndebele
to put two spoonfuls of sugar in. We laughed and made sure Martha
wasn't watching, and I gave her two spoonfuls of sugar.

Martha spoke pretty great English and we talked a lot about cultural
differences and about the tv shows we watched. Once we watched fear
factor together. (Yes, watching Joe Rogan encouraging people to eat
giant spiders, while sitting on a couch in South Africa is definitely
something I never thought would happen in my life.) (A common thing my
fellow trainees and I would say is, 'how is this happening!') Martha
taught me to cook pap and how to boil the heck out of every vegetable.
I taught her how to make pizza! We did a pretty good job, and made it
a second time before I left. One day Martha and I were talking about
currency and I showed her a dollar bill. $1 is equal to about 7Rand.
She was so amazed at how large and green the bill was, I let her keep
it. She's so proud of that dollar. I started running in the mornings
around 5:30am and Martha wanted to come with me. I told my sister
Thapelo she was going to run with me and Thapelo looked shocked. She
told me Martha is very lazy. We laughed. Martha only ran with me once.

Thapelo is really brilliant and always smiling. She is in grade 10 and
attends a science and math high school. She wants to be an electrical
engineer and I'm certain she will be one day. I think her smile and
laugh could change the world. One of her chores around the house was
to do the dishes every night. I often helped her and we would have
great conversations about school, life, aspirations, boys, music, and
dancing. We listened to music from her cell phone, lots of Shakira,
Rihanna, Beyonnce, Mariah Carry, an Imogean Heap remix, and my
favorite, house music. House music was always blaring in Ga Phaala.
Thapelo would invite me to walk around with her friends and we would
all talk or go pick up a few things from the little tuck shops around
town. (tuck shops are small stores, sometimes out of people's houses,
where they sell things like bread, milk, eggs, chips, candies, cold
drinks, etc.) Thapelo taught me to do laundry by hand and how to
properly hang clothes on a line. You have to arrange your clothes by
color.

About 3 weeks into our training a Public Servant strike (meaning
teachers) swept the country and the schools were closed. An intricate
component of our training was practical classroom observation and
teaching, so the strike really threw off the program. We could no
longer meet at the schools in our villages and so daily we were
transported to the college to continue an altered program.

Flexibility and patience became extremely important as we never really
knew what would happen the next day. The strike could have ended at
any time, and not being in schools caused the sessions to be out of
order. We all dealt with the constant uncertainty differently. By
constant uncertainty I mean things like not knowing our swear in date,
when we would go to site, how much longer we would live with our
families, etc. This really taught me to relax and take one day at a
time. Going with the flow had a whole new meaning.


We spent a lot of time in our language groups. My group was comprised
of Stacey and Tony, a brilliant married couple who has previously
served in Peace Corps Madagascar, Mike, a really funny, witty,
intelligent guy from New Jersey intrested in international
development, Randall a Master's International student originally from
Florida who is doing Peace Corps as a component of his Master's degree
at Texas Tech (Surprising I know, although we didn't know each other
at Tech. It's really nice to be able to talk about Lubbock with
someone here.), and Danny, a crazy intelligent guy, also from New
Jersey, interested in water sanitation. Sinehlanhla Dlamini (S'ne) was
our LCF. She is 22 and from Durban. She was a great Zulu teacher and
we always had a lot of fun in class. We sang head shoulders knees and
toes in Zulu. I have a video of this that one day will make it to this
blog. The 6 of us became a happy little family. Our language lessons
were at her homestay by the back house, which Randall liked to call
the pool shed. There are no pools in Ga Phaala.

At week 6 we had site announcement, which was a very exciting day! It
felt really great to have a better idea of where we would be for the
next two years. A giant map was on the wall with all of our pictures
on it. We are all placed in clusters around the country. A cluster is
a group of 3-7 nearby volunteers who share a shopping town. A shopping
town is a major town where you can buy groceries, access a post
office, hospital, police station, etc.

A fellow trainee and friend, Elisha Naylor, and I decided we were
going to shave our heads. Her hair was about as long as mine. I have
lots of great pictures and videos that are on there way. We went to
her house and our friend, Dave Summers, brought the shaver and the
scissors. About 10 other trainees came over for the occasion, along
with Elisha's huge South African family and their friends. We
braided our hair and Dave cut the braid's off. I am planning to send
our hair to my friend Keeley as soon as I can figure out how to
appropriately mail it, so that she can donate it for us. Keeley is so
kind! After the braid's were gone he shaved our heads so our hair was
about half an inch in length. I was a little nervous but more excited
and when it was over, it felt so amazing. Elisha and I thought it
would be fun to be silly with our hair so Elisha kept a mullet and I
had a mohawk for a day. Elisha's family was so impressed with her new
do that they hired a photographer and took a family picture, complete
with her mullet. Hilarious! I was really nervous to go home with a
mohawk to my family, but they loved it. They kept saying how beautiful
I looked, how much they liked it, and they thought it made me look
smarter? Haha, so funny. Everyone was so complimenting.

During week 7 we had our Language Placement Exams, a conversation in
our target language. If you passed great! If you did not pass you
would be required to hire a tutor once at site and take the exam again
at the next training, which really is no big deal. We are all
encouraged to get a tutor regardless of our score. Thankfully I
passed, although my Zulu needs an infinite amount of work. (I'm slowly
getting better!)

After LPI we all kind of just hung around for a few days, waiting on
news about the strike which would determine our swear in date and
departure for site. We went on some field trips and did some shopping
for our new homes. South Africa is a 1st/3rd world country, with
really wealthy people and a lot of very very poor people. It is really
startling to be in a village using a pit latrine in the morning and by
afternoon be in Pretoria using a flush toilet and a sink in a city
that looks and feels like any major city in America. The divide is
really in your face.

One day we were at a reserve, where we had the opportunity to go on a
game drive! It was my first time and we saw giraffes, impalas, zebra,
hogs, and lots of other birds and animals. Really incredible. As we
were loading up the buses to go home our training director announced
to us our swear in date, September 16, and that the volunteers going
to Kwa Zulu Natal, (the province I live in) had 48 hours to pack their
stuff as we were leaving immediately following swear in. Woa!

Talk about short notice. We were all so excited/nervous/anxious/too
many feelings and emotions to describe. Training sometimes felt like
it would never end and so now knowing we were about to be separated
and on our own was both invigorating and terrifying.

That night was our last with our host families, which was just as much
a shock to them as it was to us. My family was really sad because that
weekend the extended family was coming in to say bye to me. They had a
big going away party planned. I felt really bad about that, but we
couldn't do anything. I gave them a picture of all of together which
now sits above the TV, they loved it. I got so many gifts from them
and the neighbors. So much love! My brother is getting married in
December and I promised to come back for the wedding. I'm really
excited to see them all again.

Swearing In and Supervisor's Workshop

On September 16 we had our swearing in ceremony. The entire country
staff attended. We sang the South Africa National Anthem (which is in
5 languages) and the United States National Anthem. (We practiced all
week.) Speeches were given and we took our oath to serve for the next
24 months, thus officially becoming Peace Corps Volunteers. We took
hundreds of pictures and then the KZN folks loaded up the khombis
(vans) to head to a hotel for 3 days where we would meet our
principals and attend workshop sessions. Twas quite the rush.

On the khombi ride we got lost and so 11 hours later, after road
construction, more uncertainty (we were told we were going to Durban
yet we were driving a different direction), the driver's favorite 16
minute techno song on repeat for at least 3 hours, rain, and
conversation we arrived at the hotel near Mtubatuba. The hotel was
gorgeous; lush landscaping, incredible food, glass rainfall showers,
giant fluffy beds, coffee that wasn't instant. Where the heck were
we?! It was ridiculous.

For 2 and a half days we went over the next 3 months of our service
and got to know our principals better. The purpose of the workshop was
for Lydia, our boss/APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director) to make sure
we were all clear on expectations and roles. It was wonderful. We are
almost all working with two principals, one of a primary
(elementary/middle school) and of a high school.

On the last day we said our goodbyes and each loaded up our stuff and
took off with our principals to site. Unless we make the effort to
visit one another or happen to see each other in our shopping town we
won't be together again until December for our next training.
(Throughout Peace Corps service we will have a series of 3 in service
trainings.)

Site

My site is the rural village of Gazini. Gazini is located in the
northern most area of KZN about 5k from Mozambique, 30k from the
Indian Ocean, and 16k from my shopping town Manguzi (sometimes
referred to as Kwa-Ngwanese.) There are 7 of us in this cluster.

Mrs. Mavundla, the primary school principal, drove Mr. Mgomezulu and
myself. We talked about our families, religion, the schools, but
pretty quickly I feel asleep, still exhausted from the non stop hectic
days.

After about 3 hours we got to Manguzi. Manguzi is a beautiful town
surrounded by the warm air of the Indian Ocean and alive with
thousands of beautiful Zulu's and lots of tropical vegetation. In
Manguzi there is a major grocery chain of South Africa, Spar, a Pep
(another general store chain, kind of like a Dollar General) tons of
little clothing and general shops, and that's right, a KFC. KFC is
everywhere in South Africa. They showed me the taxi rank, which will
take you anywhere, and we drove by the police station, post office,
library, and education resource center. At this point I was so
overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, nervous, and excited that I barely
knew what was going on. I was in amazement of my new home.

We turned off the tar road onto a dirt one. (Tar road meaning paved
road.) The dirt turned to white sand. They told me it was very sandy
in Gazini. The road is lined with giant trees and small concrete
houses, straw huts, and rondavalls (traditional round huts.) The road
is bumpy and curvy, it grew more bumpy, more curvy, and narrower into
one lane. The scenery is beautiful. Lush vegetation, subsistence
farming, gentle rolling hills, flat fields, and forests of gum trees.
About 45 minutes after turning onto the dirt road they said, "Here we
are!This is Gazini!" I was so confused how they could tell where it
started and ended. Houses were kilometers apart and the fields and
trees endless. I was thinking, how am I ever going to give someone
directions to this place, as the sandy roads turned and split in many
directions. Mostly though, I was really happy and in awe of the beauty
of this rural village. (I can give you directions now.)

It was around 5pm when we arrived. We drove past the schools, so I
would have something to dream about that night as Mr. Mngomezulu said,
and then turned around to go to my house. Mrs. Mavundla honked like
crazy and I could see about 10 people jumping up and down and making
loud turkey noises! It was amazing. I was so nervous.

We got out of the car and they all hugged me and helped me carry my
stuff into my house. The meeting was such a blur. My father, Baba,
speaks wonderful English. He has two wives, mama #1 speaks no English,
and mama #2 speaks some. Thandeka my 25 year old sister, also speaks
some English. Honestly, I'm still unclear who else is in the family,
there are so many kids around all the time. It's fine though, I just
think of them all as my family.

It had been over a year since I applied to Peace Corps and I was
finally in my home and officially a volunteer. That night, I slept so
well.