One Flew Over the Cuc'koo’s Nest

I now live on a farm. I have my cat Remi, and now I have a chicken, or at least I did—but we’ll get to that in a little bit. So one night I came home to find a chicken in my gated court yard with no idea of how it got there. It had water, food, and a box. Took about 2 days before I realized where it came from; my kids’ mother had given it to me as a gift (which is a normal thing in SD).  There is one thing I must point out…. I know NOTHING about keeping a chicken. Anyways, like any other living thing in my house, I had to name it. The chicken was obviously named “Dinner”.  Dinner gave my breakfast 12 times; it would lay eggs in shower drain and behind the trash can. The best thing about Dinner was that it provided great entertainment. Remi and Dinner would “play” in the yard, by this I mean that the cat would try and sniff the chicken, and then the chicken would poke the cat in the butt. I also learned that I could not keep my front door open. Dinner would run into the house and make a beeline to Remi’s cat food. 

The best experience I have is when I woke up to the sound of footsteps. In my state of slumber, I thought, “Who is walking upstairs?” I quickly woke up to realize someone was on the roof. That someone was Dinner! I tried to chase it down and throw rocks at it, but it just jumped over my wall and hid out in the banana trees. After trying to catch it on my own, I had a random stranger chase it down. To punish the little chick, I tied it up to keep it from flying away. Now I want you to try and imagine this… cats love string.. Remi was outside playing with the long string that I had tied to the chicken and was tripping the thing!!! Funniest. Thing. Ever. Three days went by of this when I came home to find Dinner missing. It was half way down the street; the chicken had chewed the string off its ankle. I had my two little neighbor boys chase the chicken down. They boys were jumping through gardens, running through the bush, and cutting over yards. I wish I had a video so you could see the humor in it.  When the chicken was returned, I tied the string on his ankle even tighter.

Now by reading this, you see that I am speaking about Dinner in past tense—that’s because I killed him. Apparently chickens have to eat.  I didn’t know that. I thought when it was pecking the grass that it was eating. So I went to school at 7:00am Friday morning with a live chicken; came home at 3:30pm with a dead chicken. It had passed out on the ground and had ants crawling all over it. It was still tied on the string, so I yanked it a little—no movement.  Aside from it being malnourished, I truly do believe the sun killed it. Let me tell you something, this Swazi sun is no joke. It is so hot it will kill you! 

That’s my experience with poultry, I prefer to see it fried and on my plate.

Epic Weekend

The previous weekend was one big party. My friends from South Africa came up and we spent the past few days having a good time. It all started on a Thursday when I went to the Swear-in Ceremony for the new G-11 kids. To read about mine last year, click here. The Deputy Prime Minister and the US ambassador were in attendance. It was great to get to chat with the ambassador again, Mrs. James is one of the coolest diplomats I’ve ever met, and she is a huge supporter of PCVs. After the swear-in ceremony, as per tradition, we took the new volunteers out dancing for the night.

Back at site by Friday I rested up for what would become an epic weekend. By Saturday I went to the Matsapha Prison. Apparently prisons in Swaziland are basically one big social center. As my friends and I were hanging out in the yard of the prison, you’d see a convict walking in the distance.  I told them, never in America would this happen, we would have high security, fenced in walls… and definitely cars would not be allowed to park outside and hang out. This is just another thing to add to my list, only in Swaziland. After that, we went back to the Pub and Grill in Ezulweni, the same place we took the volunteers on Thursday. Only this time, the party just went on longer. By 3am, I was still dancing. Turns out that famous SA DJ Oskida was there too; we found out he would be performing at another club the following night, so we decided to check it out.

 By day number 3, I started to get sick and my voice was slowly fading- that didn’t stop me. On our way out to the hotel, we ran into Bohloja- he is a famous DJ in Swaziland and has his face posted on billboards throughout the country. Later on that day, we ran into another celebrity- he is a famous South African soap opera star. At the royal residence were we attended Umhlanga, we watch over 100,000 maidens throughout SD deliver reeds to the queen mother. Whilst walking the grounds, I was approached by African News Network for an interview. It was just something quick about what I like about Umhlanga and whatnot. Apparently it aired on Swazi TV Tuesday, because I had several friends call me telling me that they saw me on TV. Pretty cool eh? We stayed at the royal residence for a couple hours, and ended up being the last ones there- literally. My friends and I were in the stands singing popular song, Khona and dancing with the girls. My “daughter” who was participating in the event saw me and came up to greet me. After managing our way out of the stadium (because it was locked), we went back to the hotel and changed to get ready for DJ Oskida. At the club, I had yet another news crew interviewed me to promote the event. Man, I should start charging for all these interviews and photos! Anyways, after only 2 hours there, I was feeling very sick, so I left early to rest up for the main event the next day.

Finally on Monday, it was time for the reed dance (the main event of Umhlanga). All the girls come into the stadium and dance for the king. Traditionally, this is where the king would pick a wife… but it has been over 8 years since he has chosen one. My connections worked in my favor once again. A friend of mine who hangs out in Simunye is related to the king (not as big of a deal as you would think, but still pretty cool). I ran into him at the event as he was talking to other officials. I was able to chat with the first prince of SD. I told him I had seen him before last year at my swear-in ceremony. When I told him I was the girl who did the high kick, he started laughing and said he remembered that time and loved seeing that dance. Hmmm. Maybe I have a future career in store for me?

So that was the jist of the weekend; my friends have gone back to SA and I have retired to my bed. Until next time…

El Shaddi Children's Home

Last week I had an incredible time with 4 other PCVs working at El Shaddi Children’s Home. Located in the high veld in the northern region of Hhohho, I was surrounded with beautiful scenery and chilly weather- just what I needed! The five of us were there to teach a few sessions at a week-long camp for the kids there.  I was teaching two days of dance to kids aged 6-15. The last day, they showed of their new skills to the rest of the kids. Also at the camp this week was a group of missionaries from the states. They were part of this thing called the one year race. The go to a different country every month and do mission work. Interestingly enough, I had considered doing this before I had signed up for Peace Corps. The kids at the camp are just a fraction of the OVCs in Swaziland (orphans and vulnerable children). I was so happy to be able to help out at get to see other parts of the country. 

In our spare time we made a Harlem Shake youtube video. See the Link below and share it with all your friends!

 

Peace Corps Swaziland Harlem Shake

Looking Back on the Previous Term

Schools have finally closed for the second time this year and students are on a 3 week break, only to return mid-September for their final term. What I’ve realized so far is that just when you get the ball moving, you can’t for a moment get comfortable. Term 1 started out frustrating in a sense that it took a good month before the school actually started functioning. It seemed like every day the teachers had a meeting during school time, or that books hadn’t arrived, or my favorite- the class schedule changed every other day and no one knew when they had to teach. After a few weeks though, the school was functional; my clubs were taking off and my students were actually learning in my life skill classes. Before I knew it, the term was over and soon we would be starting the second term. I was very optimistic and couldn’t wait to see what new levels we would reach.

I couldn’t tell you how excited I was for our English Club to do new things. We just received 1,500 new books plus new furniture for our library, I had ideas to host debates with other schools, I wanted to publish 2 school newspapers in the term, and I was ready to kick start the drama team, and have a culture day at the school. Seriously, why wouldn’t this work? I had a crew who I thought seemed energetic and motivated, but what I’ve found out, was that when things really get hard, it tends to tests peoples commitment. I mean think about it… have you ever tried a new diet or exercise plan. The first week is great and you’re so excited. Then your body starts to ache because you are pushing it to new limits; the same thing happened here.

So what did I do? I had the vision, I had the plan, but getting other people on board was not easy. In fact- it was terrible. I provided multiple opportunities for people to pitch in, but after about the 4^th meeting that I held and no one showed up, I decided to hold off on the English club. Sometimes you just have to count your losses. Throughout the remainder of the term, I had students coming up to me asking when the newspaper was coming out and when this culture day was going to be. I had to explain to them that I was not going to be responsible for it, and that if they really want to see these things, they need to be a part of it too.  I really hope this was a wakeup call for some, and that in the final term students will want to pitch in.  I’ve have always said this since I got here- my PC service is what many other PCVs will experience in 10 years. I am living in a site that is already developed and has all the resources; my challenge is when I try and train the people on how to use them. They have a library, computers, and proper building structures- use them! If it’s going to be sustainable, they will have to work for it; less they will continue to have unused books, dusty computers, and empty buildings.

I know this final term of the year will be much more complicated trying to do any clubs due to the fact that basically any free time they have will be used for studying. Final exams are no joke here, that’s why I am also going to be taking on more tutoring sessions. So until I start term 3, I’ll continue to escape the heat at the club and sip my diet coke before school starts back up.

Successful Couple of Weeks

The past couple of weeks I have been going through an emotional rollercoaster. I had just hit my one year mark at the end of June, was dealing with the aftermath from the break-in at my house, and I’d also been frustrated as heck about the swazi school system for this second term. It happens to the best of us; sometimes we just get so drained that we just need a break. For my health and the safety of others, I had to take a few steps back and just rest. I had to put a pin in several of my projects and hope that soon I can take out the pin and continue them. As much as I wanted to do things “my way”, I had to let go and just let things happen. This is one of the hardest lessons for a PCV to learn.

After not really doing anything productive [or at least what I consider productive], I started to just looking where I can help in, rather than start any new projects. I took the role as volunteer and mentor, instead of leader. One of the projects I have spent a lot of time with has been the Junior Achievement club at my school/ Junior Achievement is an NGO from the USA that teaches high school kids how to be entrepreneurs. In the Form 4 class (11^th grade), students actually start their own mini company creating a product, marketing it, producing it, and selling it, then liquidating the funds. The contest is a pretty big deal, and I am happy to say that in 2010 and 2011 my school won all of Africa! This is even more of a big deal.  Anyways, 2013 we are doing the program again and gearing up for the contest, the past few weeks have been busy working on our project. Most recently, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC), the company town I live in, donated 84,000R ($8,400) to the program. There was a big media spread and our picture made the paper!  In other news the 2 weeks before that, my counterpart and I led an all day workshop with the JA program for the Form 1 and 2 classes. It was called Economics for Success. Roughly 100 students attended and learned how to balance a budget, choose a career and how to shop responsibly. This is basically an intro into the course and by time the kids reach Form 4, they will be ready to do the big competition. 

This past weekend I helped out at a family fun day in my community hosted by a local preschool.  I must admit, I was very surprised by the turn out and the quality of the fun day. There were tons of food, games, prizes, and lots of activities for kids. It was nice to see whole families come and spend the day having fun. I invited the dance crew from my high school that I manage to come and perform. The previous night, they had spent 5 hours on a Friday night at my house practicing for a dance competition later that next day. So that morning they performed at the fun day and did great! So great, that they even found a sponsor! It was really wonderful because some of my little dancers that I actually teach were there and were able to see kids older than them do incredible things. The boys benefited from that performance, because five hours later they went up the road to a dance competition and won 1^st place out of 7 teams, with prize money of R1,000!!! It made me so happy to see the boys’ hard work paid off.  This also really encouraged them, because it validated that they are in fact amazing. I saw talent in these boys, and other people are now starting to take notice. 

Speaking of dancing, I am also relieved to announce that my dancers that I have been teaching are going to be performing soon soon! Next week I will be having a dance recital where my kids will perform 8 dances. Than the week following, my other group of dancers that I teach at school will be performing for the closing assembly. I’ve been teaching these dance classes for well over 2 months, and let me tell you… I am so ready for them to get on stage and show off. Honestly, every practice they beg me to perform and they keep asking if we are going to competitions and if they can be famous and on TV. When I was their age, was I ever like this? Mom, don’t answer that question.  So in the next couple of weeks, I will be sure to post pictures and let all of you followers see how they did!

Finally I would like to wish my mom a happy birthday!!! July 28 she celebrated her birthday. I ordered her a book from amazon.com and had it sent to her. The book was “In the Kingdom of Roses and Thorns”. I read a while ago and wrote a review for it- you can read it here. Hopefully she will like it and tell all of you to read it as well!