TRAINING

We arrived in Swaziland after a grueling 36 hour-long journey on the evening of June 28^th.  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 4^th 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 4^th.  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.