Hi Everybody! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I just returned from a 3 week excursion for Peace Corps training and my first vacation! It was quite an adventure so I'll try to fill you all in on the past few weeks. To start, before I left site, I celebrated my birthday in South Africa. It came at a perfect time, closing out my 3-month integration period. I was speechless by the love from my friends, coworkers and family as they tried to make me feel welcome and at home. My day started with carrying a live chicken to work, which my friends then killed and cooked for my special birthday lunch. My co-workers blasted African house music all day and I made cookies and brownies for us. In the evening, I dished out all the cookies, homemade pizza and brownies that my little stoven could produce with my family and neighbors. The night ended in a dance party in my room with 'all my friends'--- aka about 10 kids all under the age of 12. EPIC. A year ago, I never would have pictured this to be my 25th birthday to be, but at this moment, it was perfect. Shortly after my birthday I headed south to Bronkhorstspruit for a All-Volunteer conference and to celebrate Peace Corps's 20th year being in South Africa. It was great to finally meet serving volunteers from all cohorts in SA. With everyone in various parts of their service, it was motivating and interesting to hear all of their stories and imagine what lies ahead for me. One of the best parts of heading south was that it finally actually felt like winter! (Yes that is frost on the ground) Straight from this conference, my cohort and I headed further south to the infamous province of KwaZulu-Natal for our 2 week In-Service Training (IST). IST comes after our integration period and marks the time when we are ready to being implementing projects. These weeks were filled with session on project management, grant writing and policies. It was a blast to reconnect with my cohort and taking a real shower was nice too. My friends and I managed to find some breweries to hangout, relax and exchange stories at Part of IST also includes training with our supervisors and counterparts. Our supervisor's are individuals selected by Peace Corps to guide us through our service. My supervisor's name is Joyce and she founded our Home Based Care. Counterparts are individuals that we choose to work side by side with on projects and are vital to our success as they know our communities inside and out, and will promote the sustainability of our projects once we leave. I had the PERFECT counterpart to bring to IST. His name is Fumani and he is a volunteer at our Youth Center. We had a blast going through all the training together, but unfortunately he just accepted a new job in Johannesburg. It was quite a bummer, but I'm motivated once more to find another counterpart that will be assets to my service. Fumani and I after completing our Grass Roots Soccer Training and some friends and I enjoying the luxury of a hotel And finally, my first vacation! My friends and I headed out to get a glimpse of the India Ocean in Durban. We hung out around the beach, celebrated our first Women's Day, and then went on to check out Johannesburg (or Jozi) and see Trevor Noah Live. And now I'm back in my home sweet home. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty confusing to come back; although I knew that South Africa was unique with aspects of both a first world and third world country, seeing the disparity first hand was shocking and leaves me kindof speechless.
5 Comments
Mom
8/21/2017 01:17:48 pm
Reading this at Trollgläntan - think of you every hour of every day❤️ Love the photos and so happy you got a little time off! Good luck teaching your class tomorrow!
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Katie Meland
8/21/2017 07:13:47 pm
I am really enjoying your posts. Keep them coming Josie!
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Josie
8/25/2017 11:06:42 am
Thank you Katie! Hope all is well with you :)
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Kris Torborg
8/22/2017 07:20:24 am
We are enjoying all your wonderful pictures and hearing what you are up to now since the last post! You are looking so happy and full of joy. Your family there is lucky to have you in their home! Cookies look good too!
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Josie
8/25/2017 11:07:36 am
Thank you Kris!! Yes I am very happy here, but I'm starting to miss my parents! Hope all is well with you :)
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