30 Things I’m Thankful For

Every year around this time, people make of list everyday of what they are thankful for. This year I decided to make a list of 30 things I am thankful for since being in Swaziland. These are in no particular order.

1. My laptop. Without this thing I would be bored out of my mind. Every week I spend countless hours listening to music, watching TV and movies, writing my blogs, typing reports and projects, uploading and editing pictures, and the obvious facebook stalking.
2. My iPod. This thing serves as a force field when I walk the streets of my community. All I do is put my headphones in and it's like I disappeared. Sometimes walking along the road gets exhausting when every day you have to say "Sawubona" to 100 people. It also comes in handy when the preachers on the khumbi yell the whole trip.
3. Refrigerator. This is the best investment I've bought since being here. This place is so hot, and being able to have a cold water bottle or even a refreshing spoon full of yogurt sure makes everything much better. Then there are those times when just sticking my face in there for 5 minutes is all I need to survive another day.
4. Country Club. My oasis. Whenever I want to sit in the nice air conditioned relaxing uninterrupted space with friendly staff, I come here. Taking a dip in the pool, jumping on the trampoline, exercising in the gym, or acting like a kid on the giant jungle gym are some of my favorite times. I also love this place because they host the Fun Fair, which was hands down the best weekend I've ever had.
5. Hlane Game Reserve. I love the fact that I can drive down road at any given minute and see baboons the size of a school child, monkeys running freely stealing the sugar cane, beautiful impalas grazing, and the occasional giraffe and elephant. Despite my 1^st world surroundings, this reminds me that I am in Africa.
6. Thoko Gama (Danni S). My neighbor and closest allies. We were neighbors during PST and now we live only 10 minutes away. To add to my wonderful set-up, I am fortunate enough to have another PCV live so close to where we see each other 1-2 times a week. Having an American friend close by is great and helps my sanity, but the fact that we help each other with our different projects is another blessing. We're able to have a greater effect on our communities when we work together.
7. My Swazi friends. I've made several close friends since being here. At times I do feel like no one understands me, and at times I know they don't even understand me, but the fact that they stick around during my mood swings means a lot.
8. My children. I have mentioned my 4 girls and 1 son to you all before, but I just say it again—these kids mean the world to me.
9. My PST host family. They were the foundation of my introduction to Swaziland. Through them I've learned that I don't know how to wash my clothes, cook, clean, and I am too sensitive. I still don't know how to wash my clothes, I am getting better at cooking, I don't really care about cleanliness anymore, and most importantly, I've developed a "so what?" attitude which is key to survival here.
10. Malaria Pills. Without them I would be dead. I have on average 15 new mosquito bites a week—if anything this is a great conversation started amongst the Swazi's.
11. ORS. This stuff brought me back to life. I was dehydrated and puking my guts out. Drinking my ORS revived me and within a week I was healthy again.
12. My weak immune system. For several weeks it took a hit, and as a result I've lost 25 lbs since being here!
13. Mango and Avocado Season. Between June and July avocados grow everywhere, and the same for mangos during Nov and Dec. My taste buds are in love with these treats!
14. What Should PCVS Call Me. This blog is 100% hilarious and 100% true. Take a few moments to check it out.
15. Skype. Thanks to technology, I have yet to be homesick. Love that at any one point I can see my mom, dad, boyfriend, or friends.
16. Care Packages and Mail. I love getting stuff in the mail, and thanks to everyone who has sent me something! I don't care what it is in the boxes, but when I see something sent from America and gives me a little piece of home, as well as give me a sense of assurance that I am not forgotten over here. A BIG THANKS AGAIN to everyone who has sent me something. It really does mean a lot!!!!
17. Art Supplies. Despite the fact that children gravitate towards me, I never really know what to do with them. Now that I have crayons, markers, and paper, I can entertain the kids and keep them occupied for a few hours a day.
18. Birkenstocks. Back in the States, I hated these shoes. I always gave my mom a hard time when she wore them, but now I find myself wearing these as my go to shoe. These things seriously are practical, comfortable, and for the setting—they're cute. I don't think I'll wear these when I get back, but in the meantime, I love em'!
19. Deodorant. Enough said.
20. KFC Ice Cream. So McDonalds is nowhere to be found in Swaziland, but KFC is everywhere! And the best part is that they have this soft serve ice cream for 3 Rand—that's only $0.37!!!
21. Chicken Dust. My favorite food in Swaziland is by far this little treat known as Chicken Dust. It got its name by its location. All throughout Swazi, there are braii stands on the side of the road grilling chicken. When the wind picks up or cars fly by, the dust from the road covers the chicken. This stuff is so freaking good I wish everyone could try it!
22. My Mom. My mom is my lifeline. She is the one that gets me. I am so thankful that without a doubt I can call her with anything good or bad. She even knows just what to get me—those care packages, it's like she went inside my room and picked everything out. She also realizes my love for coffee and keeps me supplied with all those goodies.
23. Jason. My partner in crime. This man has been by my side for the last four years of my life and without him I honestly would not even be here to write about Swaziland. I owe him a debt of gratitude. I hope he realizes just how much he means to me. It takes a real man to let his girl go off and follow her dreams, and an even bigger man to wait. Te amo mucho….
24. Christian Culture. Swaziland is obnoxiously conservative for my liberal life, but I appreciate the fact that they still acknowledge God through every facet of life.
25. My French Press. See # 22.
26. "Where There Is No Chef" Cookbook. This PCV gem is what has helped me with my cooking skills. I definitely had no idea what I was doing before in the kitchen, but with this book, I've been able to explore my culinary side.
27. Sex in the City. Seriously my favorite show ever. Whenever I watch an episode, it makes me feel like I'm back at home. It also gives me a sense of satisfaction whenever I get the urge to go shopping or I miss wearing my heels on a daily basis.
28. Tea Time. Swaziland was colonized by England. The Brits are long gone, but one thing that stuck was "tea time". Every day between 10 and half past, Swazi's break for tea, coffee, and biscuits. My new favorite tradition.
29. NGO's I Work With. Working with an NGO makes my job a lot easier and productive. The NGO I have had an opportunity to partner up with is SWAGAA (Swaziland Action Group Against Violence).
30. PCV Vehicles. Never will I ever enjoy a khumbi ride in this country. See # 2 again. I'm sorry, there is just no way that cramming a ton of sweaty bodies and screaming babies on an old van bouncing up and down on a rough road can ever seem like a good time. Therefore, I am thankful for when the white knight rolls into town!

And those are my 30 things. Happy Thanksgiving America!

Consider This

Like many Americans this year, I wasn't thrilled will either candidate nominated in this past election. Additionally I was less thrilled with the results. Nevertheless, I still voted. To those of you who didn't vote for whatever reason, that's ok. It was YOUR choice. Just like it was MY choice to vote for whoever I wanted. Even if my party didn't win, as an American I will respect my President and continue to show love for my country.
America is the country that the rest of the world looks up to. Even in my little Swaziland, I had almost all of my colleagues at school engaged in this election. People look to us for leadership, for direction, for inspiration, and for a new start. Sometimes when we're stuck in our situation we forget how good we really have it. Thankfully at this point in American history I am glad that I have the chance to step back and take a look at all the positive things about our country, although it does get discouraging when reading some facebook statuses.
Prior to November 6^th, I had a lot of people ask me who I was voting for and they asked my opinion about Obama. You should see the shock on their face when I told them that he wasn't really my cup of tea, but once I gave factual substance to support my view they certainly understood. Then when Obama won, those same people were sympathetic and respected my choice. I wish people back home could be more like that….. The thing I loved most though was everyone's sense of support and admiration for our government. The morning after the election, my Head Teacher sent me an email saying he was sorry my candidate had lost, but congratulated us on a successful election. I had another expat say how much he admired our people in the fact that despite there being more than one party, we as Americans rally behind the person who won. I have more instances where people were just so impressed about how our electoral system works and how much they like democracy.
    For those who don't know, Swaziland is one of the last absolute monarchies in existence today. They have a king, Mswatii III who still holds all the power. To set the record straight, I am not disrespecting any one government or government authority, but I wish to purely compare and discuss the nature of my American government that I see so many of my fellow citizens taking for granted. Here, the king is not voted for, he is chosen amongst the royal family and he is king for life. The people here are subjected to him and must follow what he says. Yes, there is a parliament that is voted in, but ultimately the king still has the final say. One Swazi made the comment to me that really put things into perspective. He said, "If you guys have a bad president he will be out within 4-8 years, and if he wants a second term he will actually try to do a good job to get reelected. We on the other hand don't have that system. A king could be good or bad, it doesn't really matter because he will be king for life." If you really think about what that statement means, especially how it affects the Swazi people, you won't want to take our democracy for granted.
Civilization was founded on monarchies; the Old Testament is littered with them. 1 Samuel 8:6-11 even tells the story of the Israelites asking God for a king to rule over them. So I am not saying monarchies are bad. The root of what I am saying though is found in the scripture passage I just mentioned. The Israelites thought they could do better than God. They saw what other nations where doing and they wanted that. The warning with that comes in 2 Timothy 4:3-5, there will be a time when people will ignore what they know is right for what they want to hear and makes them feel good. What I am seeing today in America is that likeability is more favored. We want to do what will please people and not necessarily what is morally right. Sadly, some of those who see this problem continue to only see the negative and again, get stuck with just complaining. Like I said in the beginning of this post, I am glad that I get a chance to step outside America and see all that is good. Yes America is not in the best place it could be, but we are still very very fortunate that we have the power to change the course of the nation and we can do so freely without fear.

I will end with this passage founded in 1Samuel 12:14-16 [this is Samuels farewell speech].
        "If you fear the Lord and serve and obey Him and do not rebel against His commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors. Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!"

Chinese Food

While people back in the states are bundling up in their chunky sweaters, cute jackets and knee high boots, I'm sitting over here sweating my butt off and it's only just Spring! PCVs and Swazi's all warned me that my city is the hottest in the country, but oh my gosh(!) this place is really really hot. It gets to be about 40 degrees Celsius with very little breeze. And the fact that my house is like a giant oven doesn't help. So it's no wonder why I got dehydrated. But before you all start to point your finger at me saying that I need to drink lots of water, let me stop you and announce that I drink water nonstop all day long; it was just one of those unfortunate bound to happen things.
Since Wednesday of last week I had felt under the weather. It might be because of the Chinese food I ate, or the unrefrigerated leftover Chinese food I ate, or it might be the fact that Obama was re-elected; regardless of what it was, something in my stomach wasn't agreeing with anything. To spare all my non-PCV readers the details of my bodily functions (which are now a normal topic amongst my circle), I will just say that I had gone3 days without eating anything and was still hanging out in the bathroom like it was giving out free money.
Saturday came and was the day of my first hip hop event—it about killed me. I almost passed out a few times in public and couldn't seem to keep it together. After about the 5^th person telling me I looked bad, I knew I needed to go see the PCMO. Sunday morning the nice white air conditioned PC truck rescued me and whisked me off to Mbabane and that is where I spent my next 4 days in the Med Unit. Tuesday I was finally eating again and not having anymore…"episodes", and since I had watch 2 seasons of Modern Family, I figured I was good enough to go.
And that is where I am now, safe and sound in my cozy little place I like to call home. So the lesson learned in this situation is stay away from Chinese food and vote Republican… or maybe not?

Happy Halloween!

So I've now had my second holiday in Swaziland… Halloween! Just like I celebrated 4^th of July (read it here), I went all out for this holiday as well. The benefits of having my American friend and closest PCV being only 15 minutes away, means that whenever I want to act like an American, I can just take a quick khumbi over to see her. Prior to Oct. 31, I ate all the candy corn my mom sent me, I've been drinking my pumpkin spice Starbucks coffee, and I watched the Halloween classic "Hocus Pocus". And despite being Spring here, the weather this past week has felt like Fall weather back in the states. I couldn't be more happy!
After prepping for the holiday I was ready for Halloween; sadly however, no one here celebrates it. So I wore my orange and black to school with only myself knowing the significance of the colors. I animatedly exclaimed "Happy Halloween!" to my students with them responding in "sooooo?" My little girls came to the house without any costumes and I had to prompt them to at least return with a knock on the door saying "Trick or Treat". After years of being excited for this day due to my niece and nephews, I was ready to go see Thoko (my PCV friend) and get my Halloween on. 

Turns out Halloween was not lost after all! Thoko's kids knew exactly what to do. She had over 20 kids come over and knocked on the door for candy. We then went for a walk at night to the sitolo to get ingredients for the cookies being made later when I ran into "Kanye West". I wasn't planning on doing any costumes, but I ended up being his Kim Kardashian. Back at the house, Thoko and I came up with the idea of melting the left over Halloween candy to make caramel apples. The idea was right, but the end result was poorly executed. The toffee was colored black and when mixed with my brown caramels made it look gross, but since it Halloween, it worked. Too bad it tasted horrible. 

Thanks to my mom, Betty Crocker, and Thoko's oven, I was able to make the pumpkin spice cookies, which eventually ended up as a cake because we forgot to take the pan out when we preheated the oven. When we stuck the fork in the cake to see if it was done, it took a big chunk out of the middle. IDEA! We decided to make a face in the pan of cake/cookie and within moments, my Halloween was complete—I had carved a pumpkin face, kind of. To top this evening off, we watched Harry Potter 1. Now the rest of my week will be spent watching the rest of the HP movies… thanks Thoko.


Next up: Thanksgiving din din at Thoko's. 

Happy November!

I’m Staying

October 28^th made it 4 months that I have been in Swaziland. I've had two months with my training family in the rural areas and two months in my new community. I've tasted enough of Swaziland to decide that I like it and I want more. I've seen the good, and I've seen the bad—and what I thought was bad really weren't at all.
These past two months I've been trying to integrate myself into the community the best way I can. My favorite times have to be with my little girls and my son (Jelly Belly, Angle aka Dimples, Pretty Girl, and Solomon). Every day after school I have a team of kids at my door. They come in and play from about 4-6 PM; we color and make crafts, they dance, I dance, then they laugh. I attempt to do my laundry, than they take over and finish it. Yesterday while washing my clothes, one of my kids said the nicest thing…. "Asanda, you know nothing!" I couldn't help but agree. It amazes me how smart these kids are. They definitely are in survival mode and I would want them on my side if I was ever stranded alone in a foreign place. Oh wait—I already am!

Another one of my highlights of the day is when some of my high schoolers come over. Some work on my garden, other come and teach me new card games, another comes and actually has some tutoring done. I love her enthusiasm to know English and her desire to get better. Even with all her homework she has from the school, she still wants to come over and do extra work. I let her read this book called "The Heaven Shop". It's a book about a girl in Malawi whose parents both died from AIDS. We discuss the book, which then leads to other discussions about life in general. It's moments like these that I cherish. Sometimes at the school I walk around wondering if people even understand why I am here. I know in time that will change, but for the moment being I love the few small yet meaningful relationships that I've made. It makes this whole journey a lot less lonely.