Welcome to Swaziland

Just checking in so that everyone knows I arrived safely. Loving Swaziland so far. The country is beautiful. Nights are hoodie weather and days are tshirt weather (it's winter here). The people (volunteers, staff, and Swazi people) have all been great so far.

The training center is definitely luxurious by Swazi standards. Lauren and I are sharing a room. There's nice, soft beds. We have hot showers AND heating for nights. We move into villages on Monday, but I'm looking forward to the transition.

Here's a short rundown of how we got here:
Tuesday (June 26) began with mom giving me a ride to Center City (Philadelphia) at 9am. I spent the morning chilling with volunteers and meeting people as they've arrived from the airport. At 2pm, we started staging, and went straight to 7pm. There was a lot of info, and a lot of get-to-know-you stuff for the volunteers. At 7:30, they assigned 6 group leaders and I was one of them.

I went with a few others down to South Street for my last pizza fries at Steaks On South. The others got cheese steak. I was in bed at 10:30pm and back outta bed at 2am. By two, we had to be packed and ready to go. 2:30am, we were on the bus, and off to JFK airport and arrived around 4:30am. All along the way, us group leaders were counting the others to make sure everyone was there because no staff took the flight with us. Check-in didn't start until 7am, so we were just chatting, playing games, and sleeping in front of the South African Airlines check-in counter.

The flight was at 11:15am and took 15 1/2 hours. We arrived Thursday (June 28) morning and were met by local staff and a couple current volunteers. The only stops on the bus ride were lunch at Steers (the South African McDonalds) and the South African-Swazi border. We arrived at 6pm with enough time to check-in, eat dinner, and pass out.

The past two days have just been non-stop health info, country info, and language instruction. We're all exhausted, but enthusiastic! More to come later.