Gratitude: Finding peace

Posted on April 28, 2018 by elliewick

This week was a stress-filled mess. I had wanted to change things up and spend two days and a night at Hlane to see wildlife and take a relaxing break with nature. But like the wise, old, kung fu master in Kung Fu Panda says, there are no accidents.

It’s good that I had little scheduled for this week so that I could be as flexible as I could when all the punches – both good and bad – were thrown my way.

On Sunday, a fellow PCV spent the night at my homestead so she could be a short ride away from the girls’ camp that was this past week and next week. On Monday morning, I went with her to the school so that I could fill some time and help get everything organized before camp started. This was not to be because as I was retrieving my friend’s bag from the front of the khumbi, the front passenger door of the khumbi closed on my left fingers. Nothing broke, bled, fractured, or dislocated, but I spent the week with my hand bandaged, and this is the first time I have tried using my hand this week. It hurts.

So I postponed going to Hlane until Friday and spent Monday and Tuesday trying to not use my hand while entertaining my littlest bhuti who is visiting with his brother for the week. While he’s darling and makes me laugh, he touches everything, tries to put everything in his mouth, constantly asks me for cake, and loves turning things on and off, all of which cause me stress.

The Peace Corps doctor decided I should go in to the office on Wednesday so she could inspect my hand. While there I mentioned I had a headache for an extended period of time, and that medication wasn’t helping it. I would have to return another day for a vision screening to see if that was the cause of the headaches.

The stress and flexibility continued Thursday as I was supposed to have a visitor from the office. She arrived a few hours late because she was in a car accident in the morning [she was uninjured], which led me to canceling my eye exam and rescheduling for Friday and postponing Hlane again.

This allowed me to say yes when a new friend asked to meet me as he unexpectedly had the day off. This turned out to be the redeeming moment of the week I needed and happily exchanged Hlane for a slow morning of drinking coffee and chatting about things other than Peace Corps. I left feeling at peace and continued with my tasks for the day.

And today, although I could have tried squeezing Hlane in today and tomorrow, it turns out it was another good day to stay home and remember the peace I found the day before. I’ll be able to bake birthday cakes for two siblings who are unexpectedly at home today, and one of them brought two of his children with him. While I have been writing this, I have tuned out the four little boys that have been noisily playing behind me and I will soon bake the cakes with two of my bosisi.

*I am a especially grateful this week for one sisi who washed my dishes and another sisi who washed my clothes while my left hand was out of order.

Baking for the week

  • Chocolate chip cookies
  • Carrot cake for my sisi’s birthday
  • Chocolate cake for my bhuti’s birthday

Media for the week

  • I read more Rumi and Alexander Hamilton. There hasn’t been much time for reading.
  • I watched some random YouTube videos I had saved on my hard drive so they could be deleted to free up space.
  • The kids and I have watched The Lion King, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Kung Fu Panda, and Kung Fu Panda 2.
  • I’ve been listening to my mix of Swazi music, The Head and the Heart, and Alabama Shakes.
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A moment in my life: The wrong khumbi. Twice.

Posted on April 26, 2018 by elliewick

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 am sheepishly admitting and sharing this moment in my life, that has actually happened twice, both within a month or so. And at month 22 and never before.

I got on two different khumbis whose destinations I had assumed, and I assumed wrong. The end destinations are printed on the khumbi, but that doesn’t always tell you all you need to know.

The likelihood of catching a khumbi direct to Mbabane from my community is slim but possible. If I am going beyond Malkerns, that’s usually the direction I am going. But sadly not on this day. I was actually going to Matsapha to meet a friend for pizza at Rudi’s.

Coming on a khumbi from my house, you eventually end up at a T-junction in Mahlanya. And the khumbi turned left, instead of going straight into the parking lot used as a khumbi and bus stesh. This was odd. The khumbi only had a few people, and I always pay attention even if I am reading a book. I wasn’t even doing that on this journey. The conductor nor the driver asked my destination and I never heard them say they were going to Mbabane. There was the possibility of them using the side entrance to the stesh, but the khumbi continued past that. I had to embarrassingly ask the khumbi to stop because I was going in the opposite direction, walk back to the stesh, and get a new khumbi actually going to my destination.

The second time was when I was coming home from Ezulwini. It was late in the morning, and I knew I would have a long wait ahead of me if I wanted to get an appropriate khumbi so I only had to change once to get home. I did not want to wait so long on the side of the road, so I jumped on the first khumbi that came, planning to change at Mahlanya for a khumbi that would go to Malkerns, where I would change again to get one home. Once again I got on a khumbi that did the unlikely but possible thing. I think I was reading but also not paying very good attention. I was vaguely aware of our location. I started fumbling through my bags to get money to pay for my upcoming junction. But then, when I looked up, we were taking the Lozitha route to Manzini instead of the Mahlanya route. We would not be going past my stesh and I admitted defeat and went to Manzini. I made a few delightful purchases: plantains, avocado, and fabric. Then I got on the correct khumbi that would take me the whole way home. This misadventure had cost me all of my spare time before going to school, so I quickly grabbed some food, changed my clothes, and departed yet again.

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Wednesday photo: Bubbles

Posted on April 25, 2018 by elliewick

I made homemade bubbles for my younger bhuti last week. Finding something to blow the bubbles with was actually more difficult. 

 

Although the bubbles were fun, I’m not sure they were fun enough to make again.  

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How I spent March’s living allowance

Posted on April 23, 2018 by elliewick

I ran out of money in March, too. It’s a trend in the PCV life, especially when I am 100 percent a cheese boy (well, girl, in this case). I didn’t even buy cheese with March’s money, but I did buy butter, a lot of yogurt, and chocolate.

At the tail end of February I made the decision to go on another trip to Kruger. As always, it was well worth it. I decided though, that I would spend two-thirds of my living allowance on the trip instead of using American money, just to see if I could be cheap enough to get by the rest of month on my remaining stipend. But then I also used my stipend to renew my national parks pass. And visited a few people at their sites.

Somehow I made it to what could have been pay day (it’s not a set day for us), and I had enough money to get home but do nothing else. I was so close to not using any USD!

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Gratitude: Payday and phone calls

Posted on April 21, 2018 by elliewick

 

 

I am most grateful for being paid this past week, which enabled me to leave my house and buy groceries. I also had a wonderful FaceTime conversation with a friend from home that conveniently finished that month’s data on its day of expiration.

I have started thinking about how I will use the vacation days I will earn as an extender. The four of us who vacationed in Mauritius last year are all extending, so we are considering another island trip. I’ve checked flights to Mauritius, Madagascar, Iceland, Cape Verde, Comoros, Malta, Socotra, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Fiji, and Bali. Nothing is as cheap as we would like, so no decision has yet been made.

Unfortunately my shower streak broke today, as I succumbed to an at-home hair washing.

This week had a few stressful moments and disappointments, so I’m planning to go to Hlane next to add some excitement into my life and replace the loud music with the roar of the lions.

The other interesting tidbit of the week is that the king turned 50, and Swaziland will also turn 50 this year. The king also decided to change this country’s name to eSwatini, which is the siSwati version of Swaziland. Cote d’Ivoire and Czechia have done this in recent years, but there was still a big uproar.

Baking for the week

  • I made half a batch of chocolate chip cookies because that was all the flour I had.

Media consumption for the week

  • I finished Nine African Tales.
  • I read 101 Kruger Tales: Extraordinary Stories from Ordinary Visitors to the Kruger National Park complied by Jeff Gordon. Some of the stories were truly incredible, from once-in-a-lifetime sightings to many animals seeking a human meal to lions opening car doors and someone pulling the tail of a baboon. Some stories are actually quite scary, so I would only recommend this after visiting.
  • I’m still reading Alexander Hamilton.
  • I started Kuki Gallman’s collection of short stories called African Nights.
  • My bhuti and I watched Back to the Future, and I watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Mrs. Doubtfire and finished The Handmaid’s Tale.
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How I spent February’s living allowance

Posted on April 20, 2018 by elliewick

In short, I spent more than the month’s allowance by about E700.

Half of that came from extra trips to town and the Peace Corps office to prepare paperwork for my extension. The other half was spent on food, which I needed after having spent most of January’s allowance on vacation before most of January passed.

And thanks to my acquired Mormon habits from life in SLC, I’m pretty good at storing food for times when I am out of money.

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“You’re a Swazi now” and my role as an ambassador, otherwise known as life as a PCV

Posted on April 19, 2018 by elliewick

I am regularly surprised when I surprise siSwati and isiZulu speakers with what I think are my poor language skills.

Speaking a few words of the local language has always been important to me. I have spent many hours learning a few phrases in French, Twi, kiSwahili, and Turkish before traveling to locations where these languages are spoken. I studied German for eight years, including a summer and a school year studying abroad in Austria. I have been traveling since 2006 and have learned how important it is to be able to greet or thank the locals you encounter on travels.

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For old time’s sake, a photo of me in Salzburg nearly nine years ago. 

It has only been in Africa, though, where the locals have been surprised by my minimal language skills.

On my first trip to Ghana, where I did research in small communities surrounding Kumasi, I thoroughly enjoyed walking through markets greeting the salespeople as I perused their wares. Their surprise at my few words of Twi made these journeys entertaining, but I never thought about why the locals were surprised.

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I spoke Twi with these two women (above and below) in order to take their pictures. These will always be some of my favorite photos. 

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Here in Swaziland, the surprise is common enough that I have begun thinking about it.

To me, this surprise shows how little respect the Swazi language, culture, and traditions have received from all of the previous foreigners to live in, work in, and visit Swaziland.

Swazis shouldn’t have to be surprised that I can greet in siSwati, can dress and behave appropriately and as my status as council member’s daughter requires, and correctly tie the knot of my lihiya when I am traditionally dressed.

Swazis shouldn’t have to think they need to greet me in English and they shouldn’t have to laugh in surprise when they hear me ask to squeeze past someone on a khumbi in siSwati.

The bar shouldn’t be set so low that they call me a Swazi when I correctly do any of these things.

While I appreciate being called a Swazi, especially because it shows how much my presence is accepted and respected, I wish it wasn’t this way.

I wish that this country and its people and heritage were respected enough that the people who come to work, live, and vacation here learned appropriate greetings and behavior before coming.

I am also in a position to teach the people who come to work, live, and vacation here what respect of tradition and culture means as my role as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I relish this role.

While Peace Corps Volunteers are expected to do work in the form of teaching and training locals, that is only one-third of our responsibilities. The other two are to share the local culture with Americans and to share America with locals, both of which are so easily achieved, leave a lasting impression, and can offer so many benefits and respect.

I see this as all PCVs, including all the 230,000 RPCVS and future recruits, have the opportunity to be brand ambassadors. Our brand is both America and our country of service. Instead of wearing some brand’s clothing at a reduced price and speaking its benefits to those around us, we will forever be able to speak fondly of our service and our second homes and families around the world, and we might even wear their clothing, too.

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Me traditionally dressed dancing for the king, who is approaching from my left. 

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Wednesday photo: Clothing design

Posted on April 18, 2018 by elliewick

I have so much fabric and have had so little clothing made. I even bought more fabric last week. Whoops.

Part of the problem has been finding a tailor who will do what I ask, make clothes that fit, and not charge me an arm and a leg. I didn’t think finding someone who could do all three would be so hard!

I dropped off two pieces of fabric at a tailor in Mbabane, asking for two simple skirts. If these go well, then I will happily drop off more fabric. Her business card says she specializes in a variety of fancy dress styles, so I have high hopes!

In the meantime, I’ve searched the Internet for many designs. I’ve liked so many, that I have at least 50 on my phone. Here’s my most recent inspiration binge.

And me, wearing some of my outfits, just for fun.

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This one is a bit of a tease because I bought it made, but it’s from a store called Bow Afrika that specializes in dresses from traditional fabric.

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This one is fabric from Zambia. I have a lot left because I only had the top made. I’m thinking about having shorts made, which could actually be worn in my future townie life.

My plan is to be fashionably dressed in only locally-made outfits for our upcoming Close of Service conference. It will be hosted at a reserve with beautiful views, so I am looking forward to a bit of a photo shoot!

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Gratitude: Work assignments, showers, packages, and quiet mornings

Posted on April 14, 2018 by elliewick

This week was better, as I managed to stay much busier. I went to Mbabane twice, once for an HIV Committee meeting and once for a meeting with PSI. Fellow HIV Committee member and G14 extender Blake spent Sunday night at my homestead because we had planned to go for a hike but then stayed inside because of a threat of lightning. Instead I killed a chicken for a chicken pot pie, and then we discussed future travel plans and played a game of Settlers of Catan.

Both of my meetings were productive, with tasks assigned for future work. Yay for work! And my GLOW Club and English Club had productive meetings this week (our last of the term), which included an early morning trip to school for assembly to watch three of my students recite poems at assembly. They were a hit!

Book Club met today, and this is the first time I didn’t read the book (only because I didn’t like it). It should be a fruitful discussion even so. After the meeting I am looking to catch up with a few of the members about their recent travels and to have a shower. I haven’t washed my hair at home (in a bucket) for almost a month, so it’s now a challenge to see how long I can keep my shower streak going.

This week I also picked up a package that spent nearly two months in Manzini for no apparent reason. I immediately broke into the snacks. Thanks, mom!

And lastly, the music on my homestead was relatively quiet in the early a.m. every day this past week. I was trying to go to sleep just as my eldest bhuti got home last night, and I was extremely grateful he wasn’t playing anything loud. After a horrible night of sleep even without the loud music, I continued to be grateful that the music didn’t start until after I was awake this morning. After a few religious tunes, he played Mariah Carey for about an hour.

Baking for the week

  • I made a yellow cake for Blake’s visit.

Media consumption for the week

  • I’m still working on Nine African Stories and the Alexander Hamilton biography.
  • I read the BGSU magazine and the children’s books my mom sent in a package.
  • My bhuti and I watched The Martian.
  • I watched an episode of Outlander.
  • I’m listening to my music on shuffle, although it is hard to hear over my eldest bhuti’s loud tunes. He’s currently on a country kick, with “Country Roads” playing.
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Wednesday photo: Avocado

Posted on April 11, 2018 by elliewick

Oh, to live in a place where you can afford to eat all of a giant avocado in one sitting. 

 

I was so excited to eat this avocado that I forgot to take a photo before I ate it!

 
Giant is a bit of an exaggeration, only because this avocado is average sized. 

I was overcharged for this one because I was in town and avocado season isn’t in full swing yet. I greatly look forward to its arrival. 

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