A Day In The Life

Well, I reckon I need to be giving you more of the nitty gritty than just the big stories. So, let’s come back to the constant health roller-coaster I ride. I have been in generally good health since my stint in the hospital back in August save for a few bugs here and there. But lately I have been getting a debilitatingly stiff neck and back pains that give me the most dizzying and painful stress headaches. I am, however, completely spoiled and take full advantage of Peace Corps medical care, so I have been going to physio-therapy for the past week, and am feeling much better. These things never happen alone though. Along with pain, I have contracted one of the 100 ailments constantly making its way around the orphanage. At this time I only have four large welts, but I do not know if they or more are coming or going. My shin is the worst with three of these welts. I have seen the doctor and no one seems too concerned, so I am on antibiotics and am monitoring my puss filled welts diligently. They change dramatically in shape, size, and color quite regularly, so I am assuming that means they are healing. Or growing immensely worse. I actually might have five contusions, but the one on my thigh is more of a wide rash-like thing and it itches, so I think that must be something completely different all together.

More daily life:

The orphanage is run by a South African woman missionary, Charmain, and her daughter, Chanel. On Friday, both of them had to make trips to South Africa, leaving my roommate, Rachel and I to run the place. Things in South Africa didn’t run as smoothly as hoped, and the boarder gate closed before anyone could make it back to Swaziland. So I stayed the night on Friday in the family home to take care of the kids who live there (one adopted girl 9, the grand-daughter of Charmain 3, and two orphans who live there 6 and 10).

Actually, why don’t I rewind. I will walk you through my Friday to give you a better taste of what life can look like for me... however, do not be fooled, I have yet to see one day resemble another.

So, Friday I woke around 5:30, my average time with the sun now lighting the sky somewhere early in the 4:00 hour. I heated water in the kettle on the stove to have a bath in my little dog-bowl-sized bucket (yes, I live in a place with plumbing and electricity these days, but in the summer, both amenities work only about half the time). I made myself a strong coffee (I found a stove-top espresso maker in the “free box” in the Peace Corps office, and if you fill it all the way with water, it percolates the perfect cup of deep black coffee!), ate a bowl of muesli, and was ready at 6:30 to hitch a ride down the mountain with Charmain and Chanel. From the bottom of the mountain I procured myself a spot on the side of the tar road to wait for a ride. It was cold and drizzly, so I walked to the little local “restaurant” (not quite the size of my modest bedroom, and that includes the entire kitchen, display case, cash register counter, and seating) and was quite pleased to find an egg sandwich wrapped in plastic. I bought it for my lunch and went back across the road where I waited less than 20 minutes for a khubi to come by and pick me up. I popped in my ear buds and pulled out my cell phone and played a few games of solitaire while I rode up and down the mountains, stopping only briefly to honk at cows in the road or pick up more riders. I lost track of where I was (so engrossed as I was in my electronic card game) that I nearly missed my stop. “Stesh” I whispered to the driver (for “stesh” is only ever whispered, never shouted). The  riders of the khumbi rolled their eyes as I fumbled to find my coin purse and pay the ten emalangeni it cost to get from Mnyokane to Piggs Peak. Usually I have the cash ready to just hand over as I jump out, but that pesky game got the best of me. So I began my nice, cool walk up the hill to the private elementary school where I teach swimming etc. I arrived well before the office was open, so sat happily outside listening to Eric Clapton and B.B. King as I dominated yet another game of solitaire.

Friday was “Innovation Day” at the school, so I was quite excited that I had been asked to come help the kids with their projects. However, when the head teacher arrived, I found that two of the preschool teachers were absent, so I was the substitute. Luckily, I have been in the preschool once a week since September, so I knew the kids and the basic routine, but there were no lesson plans or instructions or schedule or anything, and I was flying completely solo. But I think it was a good day over all. I came up with a lot of activities - playing songs on the tambourine, teaching the importance of exercise with an improvised “Super Hero Work Out”, practicing drawing the letter Q, learning what a “design” is and coloring designs, dancing, counting, alphabet quizzing, etc. The kids were better behaved than I have ever seen, and I think they really did have a fun day. So, after school ended (preschool ends a couple hours before the rest of the school) I went back to the primary school and checked out the kids’ projects. It was pretty fun. A girl had me smell the perfume she made with different leaves and flowers (not bad!), some boys were bashing rusty paint cans flat to make their robot, one boy made an electromagnet out of a nail and copper wire and, “oh yeah, Mrs Fuare, do you have a battery? I need a battery to make it work.” Fun day.

Then, at around 2:00 I took off for home. I walked back down the hill and decided rather than walking the 30 minutes to the bus rank, I would just walk in the direction of home and find a ride along the way. You see, I am completely sick of bus ranks, and I think I will do my best to avoid them as much as possible for the next handful of months. They just get me in such a mood (a pissed off mood, let’s be honest - “Hey! Umlungu! Hey! -whistle- UMLUNGU!”   “Hey baby, I love you! Baby. BABY! Hey!” and on and on and on until you just can’t take it) that it is taking me longer and longer to shake out of it, and I’d just as soon avoid the place. So I walked for a while trying to flag passing khumbis as I went (which of course were all full because they were just from the buss rank). But it wasn’t long before someone pulled over (I didn’t flag a ride or anything, just lucky! ... and white). A nice fella headed to Mbabane made the detour all the way over Maguga Dam to drop me at the foot of my mountain. Very kind. I stopped at the “Grocery and Investments” store (actually a nice place for here. It has a pool table, a soda cooler, and four shelves on the wall behind the counter where you can buy things like a loaf of bread, soya mince, soap, matches, tinned pilchards, or even a small bottle of cooking oil) for a banana and I grabbed a cold mystery soda (which was- surprise- gross). I waited at the bottom of the mountain for about half-an-hour chatting with my “waiting-at-the-bottom-of-the-mountain-hoping-to-catch-a-lift” friend who lives around there and has been coming down to chat when he sees me. Nice kid. Then when Happy, the woman who stays in the boys’s dorm here, came along, we decided we’d have better luck just hiking. Thank God for Happy! She showed be a beautiful shortcut that literally made the hike about 1/3 the distance (going between mountain tops instead of around them on the road), so we hiked together an hour or so before we made it back home. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to take a shower and crawl in bed, but it was only 4:00 and we still had no running water. So, I went and checked on the kids in the house (at this point I knew I would be staying there instead of at my house) and made my rounds putting out small fires between kids, helping with this and that, covering all the booboos from the day with Band-aids, etc. I went with the kids to chapel for a bit as a group had come up from Manzini for the weekend to put on some programs for the kids, and then went back to Charmain’s house. We watched a movie, I taught them a cool stomp dance, and we read some fun bedtime stories. The evening was interrupted only for a while when I found out that one of our kids had taken off during the evening. The man who had driven the people from Manzini told one of the boys he wanted to go to a shop. There is a little shop maybe 15-20 minutes’ walk down the road, but the kids are not even allowed to walk in the direction of it when we all go for walks as there is a lot of drinking and drug activity over there, and it is just not worth the risk with a bunch of orphans. So, the boy told the man he was not allowed to go, but when the man told him he had to, the boy went without another word to the man or anyone at the orphanage. I just about lost it. I was screaming and yelling and hopping about! No child is ever allowed alone with an adult. No child is ever allowed to leave the premises unless in an orphanage vehicle, or with two or more orphanage staff in a group of five or more children. And this boy left at sunset, with someone he had never seen, to a place he knows he is not allowed. I am usually a pretty level-headed person, but this is just not a safe place for kids. Period. When most children in this country have been sexually abused, when child-trafficking is on the rise, in a place where children’s bodies are cut up and sold as muti, I do not take things lightly. I was nearly in tears as I told this boy he better be thanking God he was sleeping in his bed that night - taking off with a complete stranger, who knew his intentions?! And of course I went and found this man who had driven the team from Manzini. Thankfully I had Rachel to whom I could yell about the whole thing and collect myself before I went and lit into that guy. But we got is sorted and he stayed in his bedroom until the team left the next afternoon. Just as I told him to do.

So, yeah, I went back to the house, played with the kids, read some bed-time stories, and crashed hard from midnight all the way until 5:15 when David came and woke me up to make him some ProNutro for breakfast. 

Wow. That was a long one. But hopefully you got a little bit of a picture of my day to day. Perhaps I’ll give you another one sometime. There are no two the same, but they are always just as eventful!

Where to start, I have absolutely no clue. Life has been moving so quickly, and the days are absolutely jam-packed. October we had that group of 40 missionaries at the orphanage (I think I mentioned that before), and November has been just flying by. GLOW Club attendance is regularly about 12-15 girls, and they just love it. Which makes me feel quite awesome. I have been teaching swimming every  Thursday in Piggs Peak, and I am really enjoying the kids there and having a change of scenery every week. Also I am helping in the preschool there every Tuesday - love those little ones! Speaking of, I am sending a little boy to the preschool now. Jaden. I don't know what it is about him, but over the last seven months, I have just fallen head-over-heels for this boy. It took him a few months to warm up (or to talk at all), but now the two of us are inseparable buddies! I enrolled him in the last six weeks of school (it is a private school, and a very good one at that) because classes were finished at his school - they just spend the last six weeks looking over their old work (which for a seven year old boy in a room of peers without a teacher probably looks more like running around and playing) and taking a few exams. So, I took him out of there (he was in first grade, but with the 'quality' of education, he was a bit behind the preschool class at the private school) and stuck him in the private school. He is loving it! He is already starting to sound out words (he didn't know a lot of the letters in the alphabet before) and has come SO FAR out of his shell! It makes me so happy to see him doing so well! I know it is terrible for me to only send one kid to school, but A) I can't afford to send any more, and B) Only three other people know it is me sending him because I have requested we tell people he is being sent by "a sponsor from America" to avoid favoritism stuff. There are already two other kids from the orphanage going to the school, and three more will be going next year, so he is not singled out. And like they say, you can't help who you love.

Other things: Last weekend I had Piers and Janna come up and paint a huge mural across the front of Jaden's new school (the head teacher asked if I knew anyone who could do such, and I absolutely had to volunteer!). It is a little garden scene and is TOO cute!

The weekend before that, I took a little vacation by myself to spend two nights in Mlilwane game park. It was the perfect escape!! (I hadn't left the orphanage in well over a month and was getting serious cabin fever.) On my first afternoon I took a hike and ended up napping on a large fallen tree. When I woke, a zebra was standing just in front of me with a quizzical look as he decided what level of threat I posed. The next day I woke early and hiked Execution Rock (yes, it is what it sounds like). It was a beautiful view of all around the central country. I ended up hiking all over the park for about 7 hours and swimming in the afternoon. It was the perfect rejuvenator.

Me with Jaden, Sibandze, and Nicolas, my most crazy buddies!

Hangin' with Jaden

The girls playing under their exciting new parachute (or "tent" as they call it)

Little Nothando, as beautiful as can be!

Piers painting diligently 

Mural in progress

This was last night's lightning storm. I literally took this just out my kitchen window. No special effects. No filters. Just Nature's awesome power and a killer camera (thanks Emmy!!).

Growing The Girls Who Will Lead Our World

 I have taken a little bit of a turn since leaving my previous community. Instead of sitting and observing injustices, trying to understand them before finding a culturally appropriate way of addressing them, I am just speaking up right when I see things. A few weeks ago I had a talk with the head teacher regarding the way he was treating the orphans at school. This was not our first conversation along these lines, and Charmain has had these talks with him, and so have other volunteers who have been through here. Anyway, he lost it, started shaking and screaming, and long story short, when I was not intimidated and kept my calm demeanor, insisting that the orphans be treated the same as the other children, I got kicked out of the school, and all of my programs and classes were canceled. I'll be honest, I still taught the lessons I had planned for the next week, but after that I made myself scarce.

However, I was not about to allow this to hinder GLOW Club. That is one thing, if nothing else, that I refuse to give up. GLOW is an acronym standing for Girls Leading Our World.  It is a girls’ empowerment club that Peace Corps is pushing worldwide to try and give girls in developing nations a voice through confidence building, education, and growing healthy support groups for girls. When the head teacher deemed it canceled, I moved it out of the school to one of the empty soon-to-be-trade-school buildings just outside the school gates. GLOW was successfully running out of the empty building for three weeks when the head teacher caught wind of it. He then made an announcement to the entire school that I am a bad person, that I do not belong in Swaziland, that I need to go back to America and teach the kids in my own country. He issued a threat to the girls at the school saying that if they go to GLOW Club, they will never be allowed in the school ever again. He told them I have no right telling them what to do. The children must answer to him. He is the boss of them, and they will do as he says. If I want the girls to be in my club, then I need to go to every single girl’s home and ask their parents’ permission. Naturally, this was not going to slow me down. On Wednesday, I posted my “GLOW Club Today!” poster on the building as usual and stood outside with a smile, greeting everyone that came by. Luckily, I had a group of missionary girls with me (here to volunteer for the month) who gave me confidence in my actions (I didn’t really tell them the whole background, so they weren’t quite up to speed on what was going on. I just felt better with numbers). The head teacher came out and stood by the school gate. He sent all of the male teachers to fan out in front of the school - creating a barrier between me and the students. They pretended to browse the “tuck shop” (there are three women who sit in the dirt and sell candy, chips, and fat -cakes), keeping an eye on me. I wanted to collect names and information so  I could visit girls' homesteads. The girls I approached turned away and cautiously whispered their names to me behind their backs before running away. I only got names and parents’ of a few girls who had been coming to GLOW, but a small group of girls stood around the door of the building chatting. One girl in grade 5, Gift, was standing in the doorway. She smiled at me when I went over to talk. Then, she took a step back, into the building. “Head Teacher’s gonna kick me out of school,” she said raising her arms with a  grin, “but I don’t care. I wanna be in GLOW Club!” 

I was beaming I was so proud. “He can’t kick you out of school.” 

“He will. He said he will.” 

“And what do you think Charmain will say when she hears that? You think she’s going to let that happen?” (Charmain is the head of the orphanage where I live and work. She built the school.) 

Gift backed into the middle of the room and began to twirl. “I’m in GLOW Club!”

I came in after her and we started laughing and dancing. When I turned around, I saw Nothando had come it too and was joining our circle.

“Head Teacher will kick me out too!” She giggled and began playing. The missionary girls came in and started playing and dancing as well. Soon Lindokuhle was in the room, nervously playing along and Takhona was in the doorway.

“Come on in Takhona!” I hopped along to our singing.

“I am scared of Head Teacher.”

“Scared of what?” I said.

“Yeah,” Gift chimed in, “he can’t do anything! It’s Charmain’s school! He can’t kick us out!” 

Takhona cautiously entered as we circled up to read the Glow Club Pledge at the top of our lungs... just to make sure everyone heard. We spent an hour playing hand games and rhyming games and whatever else we could think of. The Head Teacher finally left the gate and went back to school, and by the time we were through, there was no one around.

I was so proud of those girls. SO proud of them. What they did was exactly what GLOW is all about. Those four Swazi primary school girls stood up for what they believed in. They stood up to the man that has been bullying them around, and let him know that they are Girls who will Lead Our World!

*side note: Attendance has grown since then. These girls will not be stopped!


Speaking of GLOW!
If this story caught your attention, please click this link! We are getting ready for our GLOW camp next April, and as the GLOW liaison, I need your support!!!  Swazi GLOW Camp 2014

Kruger Park

     I took a few days last week to vacation with my friend Janna in South Africa. We rented a car in Nelspruit and drove to and all through Kruger Park. A) Driving was SO much fun! I didn't realize I actually missed that! and B) Kruger Park is bigger than all of Swaziland, so we had quite a trip!

    We couldn't find the park entrance gate (don't judge. I just told you neither of us have driven in 15 months, and we are not used to cities and paved roads, and we were in a new area, and... shut up) so we spent our first night in a B&B just across the river from Kruger. Oh my gosh. It was SO nice. It was SUCH a first class experience, and the breakfast was de-lish! The proprietor, Johan was so interesting, and guess what. He went to school on an exchange program in Iowa when he was young!!! Now how small world is that?! I asked, and I was the first Iowan to ever visit the B&B. I should have asked for a certificate or a ribbon or something for that... huh. shoot.

    Anyway, we had a fabulous time at the park. We camped out and listened to the wildlife all night and ate tasty meals at the park restaurants. Our first morning there we went on a sunrise hike. For 3.5 hours we hiked through the bush with two armed guides. They didn't use their guns, but at one point they may have contemplated it! We hiked up toward some white rhino who were sleeping on a hill. We got close to take pictures, but (white rhino are pretty blind) the papa was curious what was going on when he heard us and came to check things out. We were cool at first if the guide threw rocks at him to scare him back, but then he got more curious/angry and we had to get out of there. One guide stayed back throwing rocks and sticks and making noises and movements to try and keep him away, but it got to a point where they flat out screamed "RUN!" and we took off down a slope and across a creek bed... good adrenaline rush! 

    We saw some pretty cool things over the days and we also went on a sunset safari which was pretty cool. We saw all of the "Big 5" many times over except for a leopard. We didn't see a that, but we saw a CHEETAH so, I really didn't mind missing the leopard.

Now. Pictures.

Johan, the B&B owner working hard behind the bar

EIGHT giraffes were eating off of one tree!

How many times have you heeded this warning during a gourmet breakfast?

Peaking Through the Trees

Totally Zazu from Lion King, yes?

Impalla grazing

The Key To Mother Nature

Why is this the only decent picture I got out of 10 minutes in the middle of a herd of buffalo?!

Kruger Sunset 

Momma and baby!

One of our guides for the walking safari scanning the area where we parked

I know this bird is slightly ugly, but they are very endangered, and I thought it was a really cool picture of him throwing his food up in the air to catch it.

The momma was just about to pull down the better part of this tree to feed her baby when I took this

Maybe I posted too many giraffe pictures. But they are just so beautiful!

This elephant was so clever! He dug little holes in which he stuck his trunk to get water from the underground stream to wash himself (it was a half&half sand water mix)!

ARGH! We saw a lion hide itself behind a rock, so we figured we'd sit a while and wait it out to get better pictures of it when it reemerged. Naturally, since the car was in park, we were obligated to make ourselves some tasty granola/honey/whatever-food-was-in-the-car snacks. When I looked up from my sticky bowl of mishmash, this mother lion was walking right in front of our car! I was hardly able to get out my camera and snap this before she disappeared again. Moral of the story: Don't eat sticky granola around hidden lions.

Momma lion guarding her mini-cave full of baby cubs

CHEETAH!!!!!! This mother cheetah had just finished sharing an impala with her cubs. We couldn't see the little ones as we were at quite a distance, but I was just SO stoked to see one! Most people who live down here and frequent Kruger only see one or two cheetahs in their lifetimes, but I was determined to find one for Alex Neswold (my BFF from childhood whom I promised a cheetah picture), and I did!! 

I just really liked the perspective of this guy through the windshield. Such cool animals!

This picture (and ALL pictures posted on here) is not edited in any way (that is a lie - I cropped it along with a few others, but besides cropping, nothing is edited at all). This bird actually has 16 colors!
(You can't see a lot of them - under wings)

On our sunset safari our vehicle became surrounded in nearly a dozen hyenas! 

Holy cow, Janna and I were on a walk (in a fenced in area where you can get out of your car and walk/camp/whatever safely) and came by at least 50 of these guys!! I'll be honest, I find them just a bit creepy.

These little guys were so cute! I liked them from a short distance, but Janna full-on befriended them!

So you should use the passing lane

Oh, yes, PS: My birthday (this Wednesday) was pretty great, and I am celebrating properly this weekend with all of my Peace Corps buddies in town! Thank you to everyone who sent such nice birthday wishes!

Pictures Again!



Sizwe having fun in the Photography portion of the orphanage Day Camp



Meselane posing with his marble art

Jaden cutting bags to melt down

Nickolas checking his plastic bag before he melts it into a wallet



The grade 1 boys performing the dance they learned for the other kids at camp

 

Ayanda sharing ways he can Reduce Reuse and Recycle



We had to stop on our hike to put flowers in our eyelashes





Teaching the boys how to bake. We made cookies for their "Boy's Movie Night"

The little ones posing with the first house we made... the roof ended up being just a pile of sticks, but it looked pretty good besides that.



The grade 7's showing off the yoga moves they learned as a part of the "Stress and Stress Management" part of camp



Phiwa (proud as can be), Ayanda, and Mlungisi showing off the doghouse we made together



Grades 3&4 learning some hip-hop dance moves

Nokhanya, Hlengiwe, and Ruth posing with the things they made with plastic bags

The kids in their "crazies outfits" getting ready to make out Swazi Harlem Shake music video

Thembelihle hard at work creating his tamborine

Making art

Philane following instructions beautifully in the drawing portion of camp




Jumping for joy with Lindokuhle!

 

Mlungisi displaying everyone's beautiful paintings




The beautiful tiling job Phiwa and Ayanda did inside of Moto Moto's new dog house

 Sorry for the repeats and empty boxes. I don't know if it is the website or this computer or the internet connection or what, but I spend so many hours on this stinkin' thing and it completely messes up every time. Ugh.