I had only heard negative things about Maputo before traveling there. I experienced nothing negative and was so happy to be in a bustling place for a few days with endless blocks to walk.
Maputo is a fishing town that has grown up. You can watch the catch being brought in while drinking a coconut or you can watch the skyscrapers under construction rise up from the rubble.
As I have been double-digging beds in my garden here in Swaziland, I have encountered lots of trash.
Cabbage, trash, and freshly planted beans.
Trash in the garden, you say?
Why, yes, because in rural Swaziland there is no trash pickup service, so people either burn and/or bury their trash.
I found lots of ceramics, glass, tin, nails, and shoes.
My family first burns the trash in pits dug throughout the yard. Once the pit is full of non-burnable trash, it will be covered. Maybe a garden will be started over it a few years later.
I could not believe how many butternuts I harvested after their rocky start.
The harvest. I had already given away 10 or so straight from the vine.
This one was baby-sized!
Deciding what to bring with me to Swaziland was difficult. There were too many things I wanted to pack because I had no idea of what I would be able to purchase in Swaziland.
The purpose of this list is to let you know what I use every day and whether or not it is available locally. Swaziland’s G15, I know you are out there. Please stop by and say hello or ask a million questions. And reference the list I made of my favorite items during
PST, because it is different from this list.
Additionally, I regularly use these items that are all available locally at reasonable cost.
So many entertaining things happen in my life in Swaziland. These are the moments I will want to remember because they make me laugh, and they show insight into my daily routine. These moments are often hard to photograph and usually last only a minute or two. I will start sharing them with you in this occasional series.
I found peaches at the grocery store last week, which surprised me because I could not find them at the market. Apparently, the peach season is still continuing somewhere in South Africa.
I had thought I had had my last peach of the year a few weeks ago when I made peach cobbler for my make’s birthday, so I was excited for a few more.
I made a cobbler again, and I took the last two peaches I had to make, because she loves them. Make was as excited about the peaches as the money I gave her at the same time for my electricity.
Two of my bosisi were nearby and both swarmed her, desperately wanting the peaches. Make started eating one right away and stashed the other in her pocket.
The girls weren’t giving up, still begging for a bite, and make wasn’t giving in. She deftly sent them inside for something so she could start eating the second peach in quiet. It was the funniest thing I had seen all day, and it was excellent to have a few belly laughs.
So many entertaining things happen in my life in Swaziland. These are the moments I will want to remember because they make me laugh, and they show insight into my daily routine. These moments are often hard to photograph and usually last only a minute or two. I will start sharing them with you in this occasional series.
Since arriving in my community at the end of August 2016, I have had to explain an uncountable number of times and sometimes to a few hundred people at once without notice who I am, why I am here, and no, I’m not visiting; I live here!
Whether it is in English or siSwati I am often met with disbelief, but no longer am I worried about meeting people and introducing myself.
Yet tomorrow I am finally having the community meeting I have been waiting months for, and I am a nervous wreck, anticipating all the questions I won’t be able to understand and worrying about speaking bad siSwati.
So wish me good luck and that I convince one person to say she is interested in helping me and wants to learn more.
Peace Corps Volunteers need to learn how to have no expectations. You never know what will happen, who you might meet, or what ideas you might have.
Having no expectations means that when you show up at the post office to mail some World Wise Schools letters to one of your high school teachers, and you find the post office closed because there’s a snake inside, you roll with it.
Swazis really fear snakes, but I couldn’t imagine this was anything special. It turns out I was wrong.
There was a pretty big viper inside being followed by a trained snake catcher.
What a morning.
Swazi first names are drenched in meaning, telling a story about their family, birth, or hopes for the child. I have come to love this because American names sometimes come from relatives but usually come down to being liked by both parents or are creatively constructed so there are no other children with the same name.
I have missed reading the obits in the Salt Lake Tribune and working at the pharmacy where I learned many fantastic new names.
Here in Swaziland when I meet people I often ask them what their names mean, and I am regularly asked if I know what my name Hloniphile means. It means respected, which I learned on my first day with my new family.
I love my name, and my community members comment on how well my name and I fit each other, which I find to be the utmost of praises.
And like the name I grew up with that many people could not spell, my Swazi name is uncommon and is often confused with Hlobsile because both start with the same hl sound. Hlobsile means decorated, which is a nice name but not mine.
So how does someone who needs to uphold her name correct her elders who call her by the wrong name?
It turns out that other elders who have correctly remembered my name will chastise each other when the wrong name is used, and my babe did not have to be the one to correct them either.
I went to a big event last weekend where I was fortunately correctly introduced and this weekend I will be returning to that location for another even, so TWT – time will tell how many people remember the right name for me.
***
I know the meanings of many of my family members’ and friends’ names, so in the event you are curious to know more Swazi names and their meanings, here’s a list.
Mhlonishwa (m): Respected
Mancoba (m): Champion, soldier
Fezile (f): Become reality
Siphesihle (f): To give something beautiful
Wenzo (m): To do something
Gugu (f): Something you have
Neliswa (f): To be satisfied
Nqobile (f): To win
Bahle (m): Handsome
Stembiso (m): To promise
Thuli (f): To be quiet
Thando (m): Love
Ngeti (f): To multiply
(B)ayanda (m): To multiply
Phayo (m): To give
Tiyandza (f): To multiply
Nonhlanhla (f): To be lucky
Mandla (m): Power
I realized that I have done a poor job writing about the work I have been doing as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Swaziland. So now, let’s return to Pre-Service Training (PST), which is where PCVs learn language, culture, and about their future job.
Swaziland’s Group 14 (G14) arrived in Swaziland after a long flight from JFK to Johannesburg followed by a bus ride to Swaziland, ending finally at the training center that would regularly be our home and classroom space.
We were greeted by our language teachers traditionally dressed and singing plus staff and members of G13. One G13 wowed us by knowing all our names. We were in shock and exhaustion and hunger as we stumbled off the bus and collected our baggage. Everyone who had said they would show up in Philadelphia made it to Swaziland, though two Trainees went home during PST.
Our PST was broken into seven sections over 10 weeks, including welcome; homestay survival, language, safety and security, and health; cross culture and technical training; site visits and PCV shadowing; technical training; wrap up; and move out.
The first week included introductions to staff and expectations plus introductory language skills. We received shots, learned how to prepare water safely with our filter, and how to use our stoves. And then one member of our training host family came for lunch with us and we headed home with them. This was an extremely awkward meal, where I could speak no siSwati and my babe could speak no English. I could not understand the name he gave me and my new last name had a click that I had not yet mastered. I was shy and so was he. Fortunately, as time moved on, I came to love them dearly and enjoyed my stay there albeit the many difficulties I had.
Over the following weeks we would have sessions on HIV, permagardening, Swaziland’s Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, safety issues such as dealing with unwanted attention and travel, tools we would use during Integration (the first three months at our permanent sites) and the rest of our service, traditional events and rites of passage, the history of Swaziland, and Volunteer health topics like diarrhea and mental health.
We also had bigger events, such as receiving our cell phone numbers and celebrating the Fourth of July at the country director’s home (week three and already being planned by G14’s top cooks including yours truly); a weekend away from training that we spent visiting a wildlife reserve, historical sites, and a garden (end of week four); a site announcement ceremony (ours was Dr. Seuss themed at the end of week five); and visiting our sites and a nearby PCV during week six.
Of course, there were also daily language lessons and near weekly shopping trips to buy supplies and food for our training homes. You can decide with your family if you will eat dinner with them or cook your own food. Sometimes host families provide breakfast, but you should be prepared to cook your own breakfast and bring a lunch to classes. I wanted to cook my own dinner, but my host make did not believe I ate unless I ate her food, so I had to give up that battle. Cooking American food with my family was the only acceptable alternative, and those moments ended up as some of my happiest. (Stove top pizzas are the way to go!) We also had frequent jean Saturdays that could be instituted by the new training manager.
We were also tested on our language skills at the end of week four and the end of week nine. Both of those testing sessions also included about six other tests and interviews to determine our skill acquisitions and if we were following the Core Expectations of Peace Corps Volunteers.
Week nine ends with Host Family Appreciation Day, where each Trainee is able to bring three family members to lunch, which was followed by moving out and returning to the dorms at the training center. During week 10 we swore in and became official Peace Corps Volunteers. G13 was quick to point out that we were jilted at our ceremony because of an international event happening in Swaziland. We hope all will be rectified for G15 and that we will get to recelebrate in style at the next ceremony. Week 10 ended with moving in to our permanent sites and beginning our lives with our new families.
We had a small reunion the following day because it was a national holiday (the main day of umhlanga, the reed dance), and after that, we were on our own.
Looking back, I harbor no sore feelings about PST. The days were long. Some were boring. There was nearly no time to yourself. And when I got home after a long, bumpy bus ride, I had to decide if I was going to hide in my room or play with my sisi’s baby. They baby always won. There’s time to learn siSwati later, after swearing in, and playing with children was a much better way to destress than being alone.
I saw these beauties on Sunday and was very happy to walk past them again this morning.
Just before these flowers I walked past a few open fields, and with the mountains behind them, I couldn’t help but to sing that the hills are alive with the sound of music.
I was walking to the chief’s homestead where the community council meets so that I could present the results from my community survey that I completed in October. Please note that it took five months for this presentation to happen to understand how slowly everything runs here.
travelin' the globe 