That's What She Said

Its pitch black outside and the African stars are really bright. It gets dark early here. If I walk out to the pit latrine to go to the bathroom right now, the glow from the moon and stars light up the path so much that I don’t have to take a flashlight! It’s kind of cool. My butt also probably glows in the dark, but I'm only telling you that to give you a visual.

I had my site visit and it was great. My family there is fun. I hope it wasn’t just some joke that they tried to make me think they were cool and liked me and when I return at the end of August it will be much different. Another polygamous family which explains is gigantic size. My grandpa is the indvuna (taking the place of the Chief), one of his wives is a rural health motivator, and another wife (a lady he takes care of because it was his brother’s wife and he died) has HIV. I live with all of them, so I am going to learn a lot. There are some projects I could do in the community. Water is a need here, but I don’t know how to even begin helping with that problem and world vision is trying to develop something. I’m thinking of helping with a youth project that’s been requested. So many youth are having problems filling their time there and so they engage in negative activities. After high school, they wait until they are excepted into college or find a job or get married. Colleges are few and hard to get into, so while they wait, pregnancy is high during this time, STIs, and HIV. The area I live in is the highest populated area for HIV and orphans in Swaziland. I can see their struggle though. Especially for the youth. It would be boring living on a homestead where your friends are few and far between with a few public buildings within the area. There is a bible college near my homestead. It is fenced in, but they gave us permission to use the court for activities if we take care of it and provide our own equipment. The youth director (he’s already working on it) and I are trying to get a grant from the Swaziland Tennis Association to donate a net and rackets/balls. The court is not well kept. The soccer pitch is also sketchy and the volleyball court is in need of repairs….and a net….and a court. Basically everything. Haha Actually, they were used a little before and then kids started bringing drugs to the activities and vandalizing the gates to the bible college. Then started using the place as a “hook up” place for teenage boys and girls, so the Bible College had to stop letting them use the place. They have agreed to give it another chance. The youth is so important to focus on here because the adults are almost too hard to reach with HIV/AIDS prevention. They are traditional and have their ideas about the virus already. Some use traditional healers instead of taking ARVs. Some think its witch craft put on them from a jealous wife....so many theories. It’s interesting to watch the culture and traditions of Swaziland still play an important role in their lives everyday like herbal healing and cutting for diseases like AIDS.

My new family is fun though and I think God knew what I needed during my visit because some of my family was able to open up to me a little bit. It wasn’t always awkward. “Always” being the key word. They played around with each other and made fun of each other. They made fun of me…I made fun of them. We all laughed. It felt like home. They would call me the umlungu meaning “whitie” instead of my name. They thought it was funny. My new permanent name is Sihle Kunene. It’s a family of about 50 people, but I have my own room. Its huge and they love to come in and stare at me. Haha. Sometimes I dance on my way to the toilet or walk funny because I know they are watching. Often times I hear little kids giggling and then I know they were watching. It makes it kind of fun to do really abnormal things because people think I’m nuts and I think I’m hilarious. A good friend always told me something his dad taught him, “You can let them know you’re crazy, just don’t show them your nuts.” Haha Touché.

I carried my auntie up a mountain the other day. She had a cold (fyi: always hide your carmex in case your auntie finds it and starts shoving the chap stick up her nose…needless to say, I told her she could keep it). Her breathing was heavy and we had gone down the mountain to get some bread at a store for gogo. On our way back she had to keep stopping. I told her to jump on my back and I would carry her. A) Because she needed help. B) It would be hilarious to tell people. C) I wanted to see if she would do it. She about 30 years old and bigger than me. She jumped on my back with delight. My sisi couldn’t get a grip she thought it was so funny. My auntie began kicking my sides like a horse…abusing my services if you ask me. I about passed out once I got to the top, but my butt was burning like I had done a buns of steel tape numerous times in a row. I felt like Rocky. Like I could do anything…as soon as I caught my breath.

I miss everyone. My new family has two orphan boys who are 18 and 19 yr. old brothers. I asked them if they would take me on an adventure, so instead of going to church we went looking in caves and for lizards. Their mom died in ’03 and so after the hike they showed me where their mom’s grave was. I can tell it’s still a little tough for them. They don’t know their dad. They live with the Sibandze family, my new family. They are the only two with the last name “Kunene” on our side of the mountain and surrounding villages. They told me they didn’t have a sister and I told them I didn’t have any brothers, so we adopted each other and now my name is Sihle Kunene (unless the elders ask my name, then I say Sihle Sibandze). I am an orphan with them They are really cool kids. They asked me the other day if I had to leave once the 2 yrs was over. I could maybe see a little kid asking that, but it surprised me that two 18/19 yr old boys cared if I stayed or not. That's when I made a new goal. I want to focus just as much of my attention on my family and the orphans living with me rather than on just the community. I want them to at least feel like there is someone they can talk to or help take care of them...and want to. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I just need to take it one day at a time. Just thinking that God goes through that heartache everyday for those kids on my homestead and than multiplying it times all the other kids in Swaziland and all the other orphans in the whole world is incomprehensible. I hope I can be the person God needs in this place right now and with this family and this village.

Sorry so long! I will write one/two more times before my training is over and then I won't have access to internet. I will be moving with my family. I miss you guys!
I

Patrick Swaziland 2

Hello everyone! Oh goodness. Thanks for being patient! I know it has been a while, so I’m sure its fun to see that I finally wrote again! Sorry! I got a letter from Lacey a couple days ago and today I got my debit card and three letters from my mom! THANK YOU SO MUCH to both of you! I loved reading about what’s going on. I let other people read my letters too sometimes if they didn’t get anything, so they thank you too. :) I realized today that I have been writing letters to Lacey, Mom/Dad, my sisters, Kate and Tina, and Sieff but never wrote United States on the envelope! “Oops..I forgot.” I hope you guys get them or have gotten them! That would stink if you didn’t. They hopefully are coming soon! :)
I’m slowly becoming a vegetarian. Swazis love meat. They carry raw meat around and flop it all over the place. I’ve resulted to rice, grilled cheese, popcorn, apples, tomatoes and oranges. The Swazi food pyramid.
A LOT has happened since I wrote last. I can’t believe its August! I took my mock SiSwati language test yesterday. We had to meet with three hired SiSwati speakers and hold a 20 min conversation with them while they tape recorded it. My lady was great and really patient. I was concentrating so hard on what she was saying that I almost began holding my breath to ensure no distractions. haha It was tough. She said I did a good job, but she was just nice. I know that I stunk…it’s not a secret. And you know what? That’s okay with me. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The toughest part this week is that my iPod synced to my laptop (it doesn’t have iTunes), so it deleted ALL my music! It was bad. I can’t go very long with out my tunes, so I will figure something out. I’ll get the shakes from withdrawal.  I’ve been reading a lot now which is good and studying my notes. Plus, it gets me out of my room and gives me time to hang with the family. I taught the little girls how to swing dance, showed my make (mom) how to do a cartwheel HAHA, and did it all with an infant tied to my back. :) Seriously. They tie their babies to their backs here, so I asked if I could borrow a kid to tie to my back too. Social services would have a hay day here. But I thought, “anything to be accepted”. Even if that means negligence. haha The baby eventually fell asleep on my back and I put her down for a nap after a couple of hours. I forgot she was still on my back. “Mother of the Year” award winner? I’d like to think yes.
We got our cell phones today! Please, you can call my mom or sister one to get my number. Use a phone card!! I would LOVE to hear from you. I also know my new site! I swear in as a volunteer in 2 weeks. I will be in a place called the “Mbabane Community” which is northeast of Hlatikulu. I don’t know much about it yet. It’s in the south central region of Swaziland. There is a clinic and two schools I can walk to all within an hour probably. I am going to go with my counterpart on Saturday until Wednesday to see the Chief in my community, government officials I will be working with, and NGOs. It’ll give us time to assess potential areas we have interest in working with and meet our host family. It’ll be nuts.
I think a mouse tried to get into my room last night! The four other volunteers near me in my language group have mice, so either I am paranoid or those mice can smell Americans.
I will leave all of you with this last mental image. So we met our counterparts yesterday. It took me 7 hours and two staff members to give me a gender. It was sad and I felt bad because I didn’t know. Short, stocky, short hair, really young looking, but is 25. All of us had one on one time with our counterparts in the morning to ask questions about our permenant site and the issues in our communities we will be moving to. Somehow I got roped into pointing out on a map I had drawn on my notebook (to show where Iowa is) where celebrities in the US are living. At first I thought it was just one musical artist of interest that my counterpart wanted to know about, so I thought I would just guess where JaRule lived. But the questions continued. Where does Kanye live? Where does JLo live? I pointed out NYC because of her song Jenny from the block. Than where does Chris Brown live? Will Smith…I circled Florida from his song “Welcome to Miami.” I don’t know…I suddenly knew this would continue if I didn’t stop it. I remembered looking up at one moment and seeing my friend Connor talking intensely to his counterpart about HIV/AIDS probably. People were getting useful info about their communities and what projects were going on while I gave directions to P Diddy’s house…
I am leaving with Swazi, his name, today until Wednesday to my new site to visit the clinics and my family. Please call me…I will alone the first couple days in my unfurnished room! I love you guys and can’t wait to hear about what’s happening at home! Thank you for the package mom! I gave the suckers to my host family and they loved it. :) You’re too good to me.