We arrived in Swaziland after a grueling 36 hour-long
journey on the evening of June 28th. I can guarantee that all 41 of us were in bed, fast asleep
by 8pm. Training began at 7am the
next morning and would become a near constant in my life for the next 8
weeks. Looking back now, it’s hard
to believe that was almost two months ago. It honestly seems like a whirlwind.
We had training from 8am until 3 or 4 in the afternoon six,
sometimes seven, days a week. I
considered it a Peace Corps boot camp of sorts. Any and every topic was covered, some obsessively so. There were Technical sessions. Health sessions. Cross culture sessions. Safety sessions. Language sessions. Really, the Peace Corps tries it’s
hardest to make sure we are at least somewhat prepared to become active and
productive members of our Swazi host community once they finally cut the cord
and set us loose at the end of these two months.
Swaziland, in general, is considered one of the hardest
Peace Corps posts. For anyone who
doesn’t know, it has the highest prevalence of HIV in the world….Yes, in the
world. Just to throw some
statistics out there….the current prevalence of HIV is estimated to be at 31%. Within pregnant women, the latest
survey shows it to be almost half (Pregnant women by definition are women who
have had unprotected sex, so they are more at risk). Up until two years ago, each person who was invited to serve
in Swaziland would receive a personal phone call to discuss the mental
hardships of the post before accepting the assignment. Because of this, we went through
extensive HIV/AIDS training and mental health training, as well. Even as a Youth Development volunteer,
HIV/AIDS will figure into almost everything that I do here. Each one of us is going to encounter
death and dying at some point during our 26 months here, and I am already
anticipating how that is going to affect me.
It wasn’t all serious…there were fun days thrown in every
week or so. Some of my
favorites: We had half of the 4th
of July off so that we could all visit the Country Director’s home for the
traditional PC cookout. By this point, we had only been in the country for
about a week, so I wasn’t yet having serious withdrawals from American culinary
goodness. The taste of home was still
nice though, and I’m sure that I will appreciate the burgers and baked beans
even more come next July 4th.
We had a cooking contest one Sunday morning where we were split up into
groups of four. We each had to
cook a meal using our PC cookbook and a propane cooking stove. Our group made a Mexican feast of
red rice, home-made tortillas, fajita veggies, beans, and chips with quac and
pico de gallo. There was also a
two-day long training retreat at a permaculture center in Northern Swaziland
where we all learned the ins and outs of starting our own gardens here. We learned to compost, propagate
plants, companion planting, irrigation and water conservation… I took notes
religiously hoping that I can try to develop a little bit of a green thumb
during my two years here. The last night of the retreat, we had our first
traditional braai…. I plan on having many more for fellow PCV’s in the
future. So much fun! (Yes, I realize that most of my
highlights involved food.)
Most days though, training was honestly a lot to take in,
and there was little time to rest and process any of it. When we finally got home at 4 or 5 in
the evenings, there was more work to be done. We all stayed with host families throughout training, which
meant evenings were spent bonding and learning more culturally. I often sat around the fire for several
hours with my brothers discussing Swazi politics and answering questions about
the U.S. Then, once I finally had
time alone in my hut, I had to boil and treat water, cook dinner, wash dishes,
take a bucket bath, and spend what time I still had left studying Siswati or
journaling…when honestly all I wanted to do was lay in bed and watch movies all
night. But I made it through the 8
weeks, passed my final exams and language assessment… and will be officially
sworn in as a PC volunteer later this morning!
And thus begins the three month long period called
integration, where I have nothing but time, time and time. For these next three months, we are not
supposed to leave our site (except for one evening a month), and we are also
not allowed to begin work on any projects yet. Instead, the point of integration is to… integrate. I will spend these next three months
getting to know my community, building relationships, making myself visible and
available, and hopefully learning enough to start to develop a plan for my last
21 months of service here.
