Brand new school year. Lots of old and new plans for school. English club, working with rappers, girls soccer club, and more!
Check out all of my photos of the day: http://785days.tumblr.com
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Friday, December 7, 2012
In-Service Training
A week of in-service training means hot showers, catered food, and close proximity to Mahhala, whose Pick'N'Pay is the best in the country (in my opinion!).o
Check out all the updates from my photo blog: http://785days.tumblr.com
Check out all the updates from my photo blog: http://785days.tumblr.com
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Placement Ceremony video
This is the video of our placement ceremony on the 27th of July where we found out which region of Swaziland we are all going to. I found out I'll be in Lubombo.
785 Days of Africa photo project
Put my photo project on Tumblr! You can watch me there!
http://785days.tumblr.com/
http://785days.tumblr.com/
Monday, July 16, 2012
Pap is Pap
It's always comforting when your current surroundings remind you of something pleasant and/or familiar from the past. Take for example pap. In the Kingdom of Swaziland, it is the staple of their meals. What they call "pap" here is maize, that is prepared in various ways. It can be made into a sour porridge called ingcwangcwa, a soft porridge that just tastes like gruel, or a hard porridge which tastes like a corn dough. Pap (밥) is also the staple of meals in Korean society. What they call "pap" there is rice, and it is eaten at all 3 meals.
Just little familiarities like that make me smile. There aren't many other similarities in the way of life between here and other places I've lived.
Not having running water is a big one. I'm slowly adjusting to bucket baths, but am still considering chopping my hair off so I wouldn't have to deal with so much of it. Having to boil and filter any water I come into contact with before drinking it has also taken some getting used to, but not as bad as I imagined at first. Red dust is all over the place, and I scrub my feet every night, leaving the water red after. Surprisingly, I've gotten used to it all quite quickly.
Having to wear a skirt every day is also something I've never been forced to do before. It also is another thing that bothers me a lot less than i thought it would. Ive never worn skirts much in the past, but I'm usually ok with it. I thought we'd all look like a gypsy caravan in our thrown together getups, but some girls make it look so cute in the "Swazi female volunteer style". Cute enough to make me want to start a volunteer fashion blog to keep track of all the nice outfits.
My sleep cycle is way off, too. Asleep usually by 8pm, up my 4:30am.
Despite all that, I'm definitely getting into the groove of life here. Tons of cute kids around my homestead to play with, geckos crawling around my walls (self sufficient pets, I say), learning siSwati, a beautiful vista to take in, and 40 awesome people to take it in with. I've been told by the previous groups that it's a miracle none of us have dropped out yet at 17 days. In previous years, at least one person has ET'd (early termination) by this point. I think that's awesome, and I hope w e all make it through training (the first 9 weeks) and integration (the following 3 months). Some days I feel like Maria singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music".
Lastly, a few extra details on my homestead. I live in a very large family right beside a river. There are great grandparents to great grand kids. 2 of the first generation Gama, 1 of their 5 kids lives there, 10ish of their grand kids, and 2 great grand kids. I've so far identified 3 other homesteads that have Gamas living in them around us.
I have my own little two-room on the homestead. The house is a spare house for old furniture they don't use anymore, so it's pretty full. I have a living room and bedroom. There's electricity but no running water.
Taylor is my closet neighbor, and when I'm not chilling with my family, I'm hanging out with her's.
Just little familiarities like that make me smile. There aren't many other similarities in the way of life between here and other places I've lived.
Not having running water is a big one. I'm slowly adjusting to bucket baths, but am still considering chopping my hair off so I wouldn't have to deal with so much of it. Having to boil and filter any water I come into contact with before drinking it has also taken some getting used to, but not as bad as I imagined at first. Red dust is all over the place, and I scrub my feet every night, leaving the water red after. Surprisingly, I've gotten used to it all quite quickly.
Having to wear a skirt every day is also something I've never been forced to do before. It also is another thing that bothers me a lot less than i thought it would. Ive never worn skirts much in the past, but I'm usually ok with it. I thought we'd all look like a gypsy caravan in our thrown together getups, but some girls make it look so cute in the "Swazi female volunteer style". Cute enough to make me want to start a volunteer fashion blog to keep track of all the nice outfits.
My sleep cycle is way off, too. Asleep usually by 8pm, up my 4:30am.
Despite all that, I'm definitely getting into the groove of life here. Tons of cute kids around my homestead to play with, geckos crawling around my walls (self sufficient pets, I say), learning siSwati, a beautiful vista to take in, and 40 awesome people to take it in with. I've been told by the previous groups that it's a miracle none of us have dropped out yet at 17 days. In previous years, at least one person has ET'd (early termination) by this point. I think that's awesome, and I hope w e all make it through training (the first 9 weeks) and integration (the following 3 months). Some days I feel like Maria singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music".
Lastly, a few extra details on my homestead. I live in a very large family right beside a river. There are great grandparents to great grand kids. 2 of the first generation Gama, 1 of their 5 kids lives there, 10ish of their grand kids, and 2 great grand kids. I've so far identified 3 other homesteads that have Gamas living in them around us.
I have my own little two-room on the homestead. The house is a spare house for old furniture they don't use anymore, so it's pretty full. I have a living room and bedroom. There's electricity but no running water.
Taylor is my closet neighbor, and when I'm not chilling with my family, I'm hanging out with her's.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Current feelings =)
"My boss fired me today. But it's okay, he's an alpha-gazelle, and I'm a lion. He just couldn't handle me." - quote from random guy at a house party in Seattle.This quote is totally how I feel right now. A lioness about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. All the alpha-gazelles around me lately who've been asking me if I'm scared about Africa (um... why would I move there if I was scared?) or the ones who've been making rude comments........ step out of my way, please. I'm coming through.
P.S. Check out my tumblr (http://zaichiki.tumblr.com) for some photo updates!
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