Xmas Vacation With Vaness in Kosi Bay and Durban

I've been dating Vanessa, a group 7 volunteer, for going on 5 months. We took a vacation from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve, 4 nights in Kosi Bay (right below Mozambique) and 3 in Durban.

Kosi Bay was beautiful. We hiked around a lake, saw giant sea turtles lay eggs on the beach at night, and went snorkeling!

Durban has great food. We had some really good Italian food, some sushi and even Mediterranean fusion. We walked on the beach, but it was crowded. "Little Fockers" happened to be the first movie I saw in over half a year. Then we saw a play, a raunchy version of Peter Pan.

Here's the Pics...

P.S. Kev, I have blog posts. I want to see some comments. What's new? How's your assistant teaching job going? Miss you bro!

Ncesi (Sorry), I haven't Posted in 3 Months!

I know, I know, I’m terrible at keeping up with this blog. So here’s a post of highlights over the last 3 months.

Up until Thanksgiving when we had our week long In-Service Training, I had been working on my community assessment. In my report, I talked about the history of my community dating back to when the Zulus were fighting the Nxumalo Clan coming from Zululand, and how a banana plantation owners’ great great great grandparents came here from Europe during that time to hunt elephant. My report focused on education, surveying high school students and grade 6 primary. I also interviewed a nurse, NGO worker, Rural Health Motivator and the headman of a subcommunity. I just received feedback on my report and it was all positive and has motivated me to want to find out more in certain areas, especially in regard to community member’s beliefs about medicine and student’s attitudes towards HIV positive people that may indicate stigma.

During the last week of November, group 8 volunteers met up in Mbabane for a week of training. We had workshops on teaching business practices to community members, a book review session on an easy to read book I would strongly for anyone who wants to know more about HIV or just for an enjoyable read called The Heaven Shop, an NGO fair, and we talked about how to apply for grants for projects. Group 7 volunteers met up with us for the last few days of training. It was great to be back with everyone after not seeing many of them in months!

I can now officially start projects! Too bad there’s not much going on in the community during the heat of December, especially since school is out until the end of January. My next post I'll talk about Christmas Vacation in South Africa!

In the meantime, here's some pics from the homestead...

Siswati and my training host family

Sonibonani (Hello y'all),

Ninjani? Ngiyaphela nami. Sala kahle!
(How y'all doing? I'm fine myself. Stay well!)

Favorite siSwati word: sidududu (motorcycle)

I'm writing this way after the fact, so I'm just going to briefly recap the first 3 months of preservice training...

PST was busy and structured. A normal day:

6:30AM - wake up, bucket bath, breakfast, walk to Lomkhosi's
8:00-10:00AM - siSwati lessons
11:00-1:00PM - Cross-culture or technical lessons
1:00-2:00PM - Lunch
2:00-3:00PM - siSwati lessons
3:00-4:00PM - technical/medical/security
4:30- khumbi home, get off at soccer field and walk dirt roads to get home, cook dinner, hang out with host fam

My host family for PST was great. Babe and Make Mamba, sisi Lomavi and her son Sinbongmanzi she ice while I was there, and bobhuti Ndogozo na Siboniso.

Make gave me the Swazi name Sandziso, which means additional since I was the additional bhuti (brother).

Swaziland Group 8 and PST

Departure time came. The weekend before I saw my favorite band SOJA perform at The State Theater, then I said goodbye and see you in a couple years to my friends and family. Miss you all.

In Atlanta, I said hello to a dashing flock of individuals henceforth known as Group 8. Our nerves were ripe with anticipation for our journey as we spent our last night in America with newfound friends, a limosine and the southern comfort of Georgia's bar music scene. Georgia was on our minds.

Until Johannasburg. After a 17 hour flight, we arrived just in time to see the US lose against Ghana. Being in Africa, we were almost hesitant who to route for, but most of us held onto our roots and cursed the television. While others took a more diplomatic approach and said if we had to lose, glad it was a team from Africa.

Argentina was playing Uruguay just down the street in Jo'burg that night but we had to stay up in the airport hotel. Fortunately, it was a fancy hotel, which just added a mountain of contrast to what we were all in for.

The next day, we boarded a small plane for Swaziland. As we landed, we were greeted by soldiers with rifles. At this point, I was just pleased that my tenor saxophone arrived safe from Atlanta after hearing that Jo'burg airport is notorious for stealing luggage.

We arrived for preservice training (PST) at Ngonini, where I shared a room with Andrew, a cool guy from Colorado who has since been dating one of our group's attractive single ladies Steph. Props to them both and our group's other PST-brewed relationship, Meric. Our group has 3 older married couples, one younger married couple and the rest of the 32 of us are single with a couple having boyfriends or girlfriends back home, props. Everyone brings their own unique personalities yet there is a certain commonality that binds us.

Getting to The Kingdom

The Peace Corps' application process is a long one...

It all began near the end of my fifth year at Virginia Tech. Busy utilizing the career center to polish my resume, I decided to stumble in on an information session for the Peace Corps. While I had been curious about Peace Corps throughout college, it wasn't until hearing two RPCVs, returned Peace Corps volunteers, talk about their experiences that I was certain of my interest.

After completing the initial application online and sending in my resume, I was asked for an interview near DC. It went smoothly. I was then nominated to focus on special education in Central Asia beginning August 2010, more than a year from that time! To continue the application process, I turned in three letters of recommendation from one of my professors, my previous employer at Grassroots Campaigns and my employer at Virginia Tech's Center for Survey Research. Since nomination does not guarantee an invitation to serve, I volunteered over the summer at the community garden and my college radio station for the experience to make me a more competitive applicant.

After the Summer, I cleared my legal and medical portion of the application while working as a customer service representative at the College Board and living near the office in Reston Town Center, Virginia. I volunteered with Easter Seals Respite Program as a buddy for children with disabilities and as a trainer for the Special Olympics in Alexandria (Shot put, woohoo!). I lived in a big house with a soon-to-be friend nicknamed E from Ethiopia, two cool Indian bachelors Mayhonk and Ankur, a Chinese stewardess and an elder, Chinese landlord. While cooking breakfast, I'd joke that the International House of Pancakes is open!

After 10 months of living and having some good times with that crew while working with a great bunch at The College Board, Peace Corps called and asked whether I'd like an invitation to leave sooner than expected, in a month to be exact, for Africa. Since sub-Saharan Africa was my top preference in my interview that took place a year prior, I jumped on the plane!