Summer Break

    While everyone on the East Cost was getting pounded with snow, I have spent the last 2 months sweating my butt off. I tried not to complain about the heat in Swaziland, but good gosh is it hot! We've been experiencing temperatures between 38-40⁰C (over 100). Nevertheless, schools have been on summer break for the past month and a half—classes resume on the 22^nd to start the new year. Since I live in a company town, everyone pretty much leaves town when the mill shuts down and schools close except for a handful of kids. The rest of the village retreats back to their homesteads for the break; it also means that the rest of the PCVs will be seeing new people at their site for the next few weeks. Like I have mentioned before in previous blog posts, the people who live in my town are the same kids that live in the rural areas where 99% of the PCVs work.

    Even though I could have spent the last month and a half doing nothing, I preferred to stay busy. The last 5 weeks I have been running a summer reading camp at the National Library which was open to all the kids in my community. The idea to start this camp sprang upon me when I watched my kid Solomon, who is 11yrs old in grade 2, read a book. We were sitting in the library back and November, and I was baffled by how low his reading level was. The Primary school which he attends and I work at is an English medium school- thereby the children have to understand and speak English to attend. The problem is, the kids don't really get a chance to expound on their English; instructions, tests and all other formal information is given in English, but everything else is in SiSwati. If no one is working with them, they don't learn. They just pass by barely understanding and grow up speaking broken English. Realizing that Solomon is not the only child struggling with reading, I decided to jump start my literacy programs and I conjured up this idea of a reading club to engage the children in my community who would not be going home over the holidays.

    I based my idea from a summer reading program I was once in as a child. Each week the kids draw a category to read from (i.e. sports, nature, travel, fiction etc…). Once they have completed the book, they must be able to tell me what the book was about. For each completed book, they will get a star. Kids can read as many books as they would like. I had one girl read 15 books each week!! At the end of the program I added up all the stars, and the person who read the most books got a prize! Next week at a school assembly I will be awarding all the participants with a certificate in front of all their peers! The kids didn't just get to read books alone, on Mondays I had story time when all the kids gathered around and listen to me read a book. Through this program, the kids were able to practice their reading skills, their oral skills from relaying the book to me, and their listening skills by hearing me read to them. Collectively the kids read 211 books within 5 weeks!!!! I am so impressed by their participation! Two things that I loved best were that through this program they were being awarded, encouraged, and given individual attention. Due to classroom structure in the school system here, kids don't get that style of positive reinforcement and acknowledgment very often. I had a huge chart with their names written big. I loved how each week they were proud of the little stars they got. The second thing I loved was watching the kids help each other. Without knowing, I was watching the two grade 3 boys help this little grade 1 boy read a book. They were feeding him the words and helping him get through the entire book. When it came time for the little boy to relay the book to me, the two boys stood behind him and were cheering him on. When he finished they both clapped for him and the little boy had the biggest smile on his face! At that moment my heart melted!

    The camp was completely voluntary and I had 25 kids sign up and participate! Each week the library was full of kids. I felt a little bad for the staff because there were books everywhere and out of place, but I was happy to see that the library actually looked like it was being used. I even had kids come to my house at 7AM to tell me when they couldn't make it that day. One little guy in the program, now in grade 7, came up to me and told me he had an idea of an HIV prevention event he wants to do this school year. This gets me excited to see the young people start coming to me with ideas and energy…. This is the whole reason I am here! Also had another young guy come to me asking for help with computer class next school year. So there is hope, (not that I ever doubted) for kids actually seeing me as a resource to help them, not just someone to hand out candy.

    Now it is the eve before the first day of school and I feel like I am a kid all over again! I am organizing all my school supplies, labeling my folders, and resource books. I am anticipating meeting everyone again and most of all I have to find the perfect 'first day of school outfit' (some things never change). This school year I will no longer be observing, but actually in the classroom teaching my life skills and getting the Girls Empowerment Club up and running, among the other ka-zillion things on my list to do. I have a lot of work cut out in front of me, but I feel ready.

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Before I end this post, I want to list the top 10 favorite things that happened over break, some that I didn't have time to elaborate on…
1. A successful Kids Summer Reading Program
2. Having a pool party for my 25th birthday
3.Spending a week with my best friend Olivia
4. Skinny-dipping in the Indian Ocean
5. Mozambique
6. Uninterrupted alone time
7. Being able to read 4 books
8. Attending a traditional wedding
9. Skyping with the family on Christmas day
10. Unexpectedly meeting some of the most amazing people when I needed it the most

Christmas and New Years

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For the past couple weeks, I've been entertaining volunteers in my village acting as the pit stop for their holiday travel. Despite being busy and sometimes exhausted, I've been delighted to host my friends and let them use my place as a 'staycation'. Monday was Christmas Eve and also the last day of my reading club for the week. In honor of the holiday spirit, I read to my 25 children the Christmas story around the tree outside the library. Back in the states, my pastor had always done the same thing—that is, gather all the children of the church on Christmas Eve and read to them that same story. As a treat, I gave the kids candy canes. They had no idea what they were, so I had to explain to them that they were a holiday candy. Christmas I was joined by one volunteer as well as my host family from PST; the 5 of them stayed at my place for two days. We enjoyed my Christmas decorations, put together my Christmas puzzle, listened to Christmas music, and shared our holiday stories. Christmas Eve, Sybil the volunteer and I cooked for the family by making them spaghetti and homemade meat sauce. We sat cozied up together on my floor telling them about American Christmas—I'm not sure if that made me any more or less homesick.

Christmas morning came and so did Santa Clause. I had gotten the two children some gifts and left them under my 17" tree. The presents may have been nothing much but I loved seeing Similo rip open his stocking. As the children ate the oatmeal I made for them, my sisi so nicely cleaned my house. Later that morning, my son Solomon dropped and met my family. It was cooling seeing my two "families" meet and play with each other. Eventually we made it to the club for Christmas dinner. The afternoon was filled with Skype dates from family back home. The highlight of the day was seeing Similo enjoy his first time in a swimming pool. Around 4 PM we had a Christmas buffet. It was delicious—far better than any meal I could have ever cooked that's for sure. By 7 PM it started raining and the holiday was over. As much as I had tried to make it feel like Christmas, must admit, it was hard not being in the states for this day. However, I am glad that I got to celebrate it with people I love.

New Years was such a blast! I went with 10 other volunteers to Mozambique. As I have mentioned before in previous posts, the boarder is only 15 minutes away and Maputo (the capital city) is about 1.5 hours away. Once you cross the border, it is like night and day. In case you didn't know, Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese, and evidence is shown immediately through their architecture. Maputo is a coastal tropical city; it's hard to believe that a world like this exists so close to Swaziland—the city alone is double the size of Swaziland alone! We stayed at Fatima's Backpackers right in the middle of town. The two nights we stayed there, we toured the city looking at all the monuments, museums, and exploring the local markets. We came across the large gorgeous shopping mall; I was the first to run right in. The group I was with and as well as the remaining volunteers who went out later that day, all said they immediately thought of me and said I had found my home. They know me oh so well.

On the 28^th we made an 8 hour journey up the coast to Tofo Beach. Apparently it is acclaimed as the best place in the world for scuba diving. The waters have these whale sharks which is arguably the largest fish in the sea. The whale sharks, despite their scary appearance and name are harmless to humans; divers can swim right next to the beasts. Due to the number of people visiting the secluded beach and the lack of planning, we were unable to schedule a boat to take us out for a snorkeling session. I guess this just means I have to make my way back there. We even met a RPCV who served in Mozambique in 2002. He said that when he came here 10 years ago, this place was deserted; now it is becoming quite the spot.

I absolutely loved Tofo. All I could say for the first few hours was Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh! The small beach village is still fairly new to tourists, aside from the scuba divers. That's what makes it so unique—though it was the high season; the beach was still clear and not polluted with people. The ocean was crystal clear; even when I stood chest deep in water, I could see my feet plain as day. Unlike the beaches that I am use to in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, this beach was 100 times more beautiful. The sand was white and hot as can be. When you had to run from the cabana to the ocean, your feet would make the squeaking sound through the sand. I have never been one to enjoy the ocean, I was more a fan of it from a distance; this ocean was phenomenal. I spent the next three days diving through the waves. While in Tofo, we stayed at Fatima's Backpackers again; this time we camped on the beach. The weather so great, you needed no blanket or pillow, the sand was plenty comfortable. Whilst lying on the beach we had local vendors walking by selling the local crafts and fruit. I can't say enough good things about this place.

For New Year's Eve, we danced the night away. Fatima's was actually having an music festival call Ocean Fest, so being that we were staying there, we had free entrance to the event. The Rasta band was cool, but once it came closer to midnight I ditched the band and headed to the beach. When the clock stroke 12, I took off into the ocean. Since I unfortunately had no one to kiss at midnight this year, I approached the New Year head on by diving through waves…. I may or may not have had clothes on. =) Minutes later, other people had the same idea and dove in with me.

This by far has been the best New Years of my life, and I am pretty sure I set the bar pretty high for the years to come.