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.