here are my bhuti's making baskets - the family business

and a traditional dancer from last week

Sawubona everyone! Boy has training been busy! Things have been going very well down here in the SubSaharan. Last week we had a VERY fun trip. We spent two nights away in a hostel (SHOWERS!!!! OH MY GOSH IT WAS AWESOME!) learning about Swazi permaculture, water problems, and how to make a very productive garden with little water and hopeless soil. It was SO interesting and now I am just dying that I have to wait another 4 weeks before I can start planning out a garden. On the trip we also stopped at the Emsamo National Archives and Mantenga Cultural Village. It was interesting and fun to see where King Supuzo II took his final breath and watch some REALLY fantastic traditional Swazi dances. Also we had lunch in a game reserve - pretty cool! It was a tiny reserve, so there was not a very large variety of animals, but impala were everywhere. We saw zebras (very briefly from afar), warthogs, African buffalo, crocodiles, things that resembled impala but were huge and hairy, heron, monkeys, some really pretty birds, and a catfish that was most likely larger than me (he kept nibbling at the surface with lips maybe 18 inches wide! - good luck reeling that one in, Andrew Peelen!). 

Last week I also learned where I will be stationed after training! I will be partnered with a Methodist primary school in a very rural village in the Manzini region. The US government does not allow us to publish our exact locations for security purposes, so if you would like to know where I am, you can ask my Mom. She might not be able to pronounce it, but she has the spelling (actually I got three different spellings for it, so there is actually only a 33% chance that she has the correct spelling). Things I can tell you are that I will be living in a hut with a water tap in the yard (three cheers for not having to hike to a river!!!) AND (get this) electricity! Can I just say, whoa. Bring on the rainy season, Swaziland (but wait 5 or 6 weeks so I can rain proof my roof first) because  my computer will not run out of battery power, and I can listen to my jams (and of course the radio, which I would have been able to do without electricity - thank you Andy) and type stories, and even watch a movie or two. I feel prepared to spend days on end not being able walking out my door now (that’s at least what I’ve heard about the Swazi rainy season... I’ll keep you updated on the reality of it).

So this Sunday I got to go to my first church service! I went to Manzini with my family to a Methodist church. Can someone from St Andrew’s possibly tell me, isn’t Methodist a branch of the Anglican church? I thought it was, so when I was asked to get up and introduce myself to the church, I gave a hello from our diocese and congratulated them on their new female bishop... but then the priest got up and corrected me, telling me that I was not in an Anglican church, that I was in a Methodist church. Oh well. I didn’t understand anything in the service (I caught odd words here and there, but I am more fluent in Japanese than I am in SiSwati... and all I can do in Japanese is ask directions), but I really enjoyed the service and the music. I would like to experience one of the Zionist churches here. Apparently it is a mix between Christianity and traditional Swazi beliefs with an emphasis on polygamy. Sounds very interesting according to some of the Peace Corps trainees who went to a service. I think something like 70% of the country is some denomination of Zionist (including Jerrico which sounds VERY interesting)... I actually just completely made up that statistic. But I do know that it is the most prominent religion in Swaziland.

This week I will get to go to my permanent site for three days for OJT (On the Job Training). I am excited to meet my counterpart that I will be working with for the next two  years, and see my school, and meet my gogo (SiSwati for grandmother -) who is the head of the household on the homestead on which I will be living. Thanks for reading up on me! Things are going wonderfully down south here. I can’t wait to update you on my site!

Wahoo! Internet again! I need to start writing these so I have them ready in word processing when I get to the internet. Sorry these are so short with no pictures, but here goes!
I am really getting used to my new living conditions, and am having a blast with my new friends and host family. I have a room in a house with tin roof where I boil and filter and bleach my water before consumption and bathe with a liter of water in a bowl about the size of the salad bowl Mom uses on Sunday nights. I live with a Babe (pronounced bah-bay, SiSwati for father), a Make (pronounced Mah-gay, SiSwati for mother), a 20-year-old sisi (sister), and 4 bobhuti (SiSwati for brother is pronounced booty, but plural is bo-booty). I am busy all day with classes, but enjoy playing hide and seek and having tickle fights with my little brothers in the evenings. A small list here you might find interesting.
Things I did not realize I took for granted:
1) Counters
2) Pavement
3) Washing machines
4) EVERYTHING I knew I took for granted and now severely miss.
The dust here is ridiculous. By the time my clothes are clean and hung on the line, they already start turning brown because of the dirt/dust everywhere!  Also, if anyone is thinking of care packages, (Mom) I really need some of those wax ear plugs that seal off your ears. I have the kind that go in your ear but the nights are SO LOUD here (BIG dog fights all night outside of my window, roosters crowing, cows mooing... I WAY underestimated how loud nights would be) and I need to wear ear plugs all night, but the ones I have are really starting to hurt the inside of my ears. Also some trail mix would be killer... and maybe some paints or something... and spices... Ok, maybe it's too soon to be making requests, but just keep this post in mind when September (birthday) gets near.
Thanks for keeping up with me!! I miss everyone at home, but I am having a blast here!