Join me as I enter the Peace Corps and move to Swaziland for 27 months to teach AIDS/HIV education and forward women's empowerment!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Hardened?
So, Peace Corps has definitely made an impact on me. In the last four days I have experienced the following: Saturday I was walking to the village center with a grade 7 girl and when I left to go to the umphakatsi (great meeting. 7.5 hours of SiSwati and no food under a grass roof, but apparently it was a success for my projects!) she went home and was attacked by a man in the woods. He came at her with a knife and sliced her arm (she had to go to the hospital, but is ok now), but she got away when people heard the screams and chased the guy off. When I heard about this I called the police chief... and didn't hear back until late in the evening from an officer. The officer explained that the chief didn't get back to me because he had just died. But apparently the man in the woods is a murderer from South Africa who is on the lamb. He snuck across the border and has been stealing things and causing havoc along his way. Now he is hiding out in the woods in my community (my school is in the middle of the woods, by the way). Then, when I got up the next morning, I tried to use my phone, but it was completely frozen/burnt out/dead forever. I wrote some letters to some teachers to explain that Peace Corps had essentially put me under house-arrest until they find out more about this creepy dude and sent them to school with my sisi (a 12 year old who walked through the woods to school...). I decided to leave today and get some "fresh air" so I came up to the city. I thought I'd go all out and get a new cell phone, and when I got to the ATM it turned out that I did not get paid this month. My account was empty (praise be to Wells Fargo credit cards). So I went to the office. There they told me I had to have another round of shots (not like, a round of shots like a Fuzzy Navel and Jaeger Bombs, but like Hepatitis A and Flu shots). And through all of this, I have been having some real "GI problems" if you know what I mean. Despite these events, I really feel quite happy. Not once in all of this did I get upset or freaked out or anything. I think my most dramatic reaction to anything was something like, "huh. wow..." Which makes me think I might be just a bit hardened. huh. wow.
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3 comments:
Good God, KT. You'll be able to face anything life throws at you after this. You are a strong woman.
(And I miss you.)
oh Bot! I'm so sorry. I love you so much. Please stay safe!! This definitely puts my 'bad days' into perspective. Cheers to you, schwester!
Katie - wow! I really hope you are safe from the crazy, scary guy. I can't imagine what you are experiencing, but I can believe that you are handling it all with a grain of salt and a ho hum. You keep that positive spirit up! We are all here thinking of ya all the time! Love Allison
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