The End of Training

So we just finished up our last week of training! Next week, we officially swear in as volunteers. We will have a special ceremony presented by the U.S. embassy that the Queen is expected to attend. We started the week off by going to visit the Swaziland National Museum and then a cultural village. At the end of this visit, we watched a traditional dance. I was sitting on the front row. The dancers pulled me up to dance in front of everyone not once, but twice!!! If only you could see!! Luckily, one of my fellow trainees did get it on video, so maybe I can post it some day…. We’ll see about that. And yeah, for those of you that have seen my moves in Seattle, they are even better in Swaziland!! Yeah, yeah.

Yesterday, we had our language tests! We each had a personal interview with someone who could ask questions in Siswati about everything we have learned so far. It was difficult, yet exciting at the same time. It was exciting to sit and have a conversation and realize that I have learned a lot these last few months. I’m not sure about the results yet, but it feels so good to have that behind. Today our families threw us a surprise party. It was so sweet! They gave each of us traditional Swazi attire and cooked a feast. These are our final days in our current villages. After our ceremony next week, we will be starting over new. I hope to hear from you soon!

These Last Few Months

Greetings! I hope this blog finds you doing well. I am doing pretty well here in Swaziland. Unfortunately, a problem developed with the blog spot I previously created. Anyway, I’ll try it again here.
I am still in the training phase of service. This means that each day we (the 35 peace corps volunteers that make up group 6) are in class for language, cross culture, learning medical procedures, and developing our technical skills. At times, it is very draining! We also each stay with a host family. My host family is made up of a mom and a dad and two young girls. They have taken such great care of me here. The first few weeks here, my homestead had no electricity. Then one day, we had a celebration and flipped on lights. Then a week later, the family got a t.v. A week after that, there was a satellite dish. I’m not sure if they had been planning to put in the electricity or what, but it was interesting to see the transition… and very nice to have the electricity! We now watch a soap opera (a soapie) from South Africa every night! Even though I did not watch soap operas in America, I look forward to it everyday here. It’s a different kind of soap opera.
Two weeks ago, we each found out where we will be spending the next two years. We then each traveled with a community leader to visit for five days. Despite a rocky start, my visit turned out to be great. The purpose of the trip was for each of us to have an introduction to the leaders in the area. I will be living on a homestead with a family that has nine kids! The parents on my homestead are both teachers who speak amazing English. The parents have four kids of their own, and then they took in five more when their parents died.
After training is done, I will move into this northern community and start meeting with leaders to decide what I can best do to combat HIV/AIDS here. My official title is an HIV/AIDS health educator. I really hope to strengthen support systems in my community. We visited a public school in my current community that had 561 students. Of those students, 400 of them were classified as an OVC (orphan or vulnerable child)!!! Seeing this blew me away! The school had an operating health club to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention, but the teachers were hoping to implement a counseling program as well. I hope to work with counseling programs such as this.
Thanks for reading my site! I would LOVE to hear from you, even if its just to say that you walked to the park or something.