Touchdown in Swaziland!

Wowza! So I made it! I made it to Swaziland! The flights were rather uneventful, but MAN was the trip long! I started in Philadelphia and met up with Aunt Ann, Auntie Jen, and Uncle Dill for a day before our Peace Corps “staging” event. It was so wonderful to see them and was absolutely the perfect send off. (Thanks again guys!) So far everything has gone pretty well. My group of volunteers down here is really cool. There are 41 of us, mostly in our mid 20’s but there are also a few retired people.

We are at a training center in Matsphasa right now where we get to spend four nights (yessss!). It is basically a hotel - 2 beds and 2 volunteers to a room, hot showers, space heaters, electricity, etc... I know I shouldn’t get used to it, but man am I enjoying it! I believe we will move to our training communities on Sunday... Or is it Monday? Then it’s bucket baths and hauling water from there on out. We didn’t really have any settling in time. We got to the center about 5:45pm Thursday and had dinner at 6. We got to our rooms a little after 7 and had a little time to unpack and shower before passing out cold. But then we met at 7am sharp to begin training on Friday morning and it is all business from there on out. 7am-7pm six days a week we will be in training and I guess there is stuff we’ll have to do on Sundays too, but I don’t know what yet. 

As you can see, there is (sometimes) internet at the training center, but since we are leaving here in a couple days, I am not sure when I will be able to get on and update you again, but I will sure try!

Thanks for keeping up with me!!!

Pictures to come...

I've Got Mail (well, a mailing address anyway)

Hey everyone! I have received my mailing address for my first three months in Swaziland. If you are a letter writer or post card writer or you like to color pictures in crayon or... you just like sending blank paper in the mail, send those sentiments south! It takes about 2-3 weeks for mail to travel between Swaziland and America, so now is the time to start sending letters... if you feel like it. My address is:

Katie Walters, PCV
PO Box 2797
Mbabane H100, Swaziland
AFRICA

Please note the stressed importance of AFRICA on the bottom of the address. Swaziland shares a very similar postal code to Switzerland and it only takes one keystroke from a busy postal worker for a letter or a package to end up in Luzern rather than Mbabane... and as much fun as I had in Luzern last fall, I don't think my friend Lukas will have much use for a bunch of letters written in English. This is the address to use if sending something through the postal service. If for some reason you wish to send something through a courier service (like DHL) it will be significantly more expensive and you will have to use a different address, but if you have your reasons for wishing to send through such a service, please leave a comment on here and I will post that for everyone also. Actually, even if you don't want the DHL address, I encourage everyone to leave a comment! I just think it's fun if we can have little conversations with lots of friends, and also it's cool just to see who is reading! You don't have to have a blogspot account or anything, you can just post under the 'anonymous' name and sign your name at the end.
Only two weeks left from today before I say goodbye to Iowa... bitter sweet time here.
Thanks for checking in!

Hello! Ok, so here's the scoop. I will be leaving Des Moines on Monday June 25th (pushed back from what used to be the 3rd) for Philadelphia. I am going to see some family there before my orientation on the 26th and on the 27th I will head to Africa. With the other Peace Corps invitees, I will fly from New York to Johannesburg, South Africa and then take a bus to Swaziland. I will have training for three months in a village outside of Matsapha, Swaziland before I receive my placement. Then... wherever I end up... I will remain for two years! I am armed with the Yellow Fever vaccination and will receive about a dozen more in Philly. Thanks for keeping up with me! I will really try to post on here soon, but my internet access in Swaziland will most likely be limited to once every 1-2 months (depending on how far I am from the nearest town with an internet cafe and my available modes of transportation).  So unil then, Sala kahle!!