Well everyone, it’s official, I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer! Last week, 33 of us gave the Oath of Service and Peace Corps Pledge to officially be sworn in as the 35th cohort to serve in South Africa. The day was filled with inspirational speeches, songs, and dances. I got shivers as our group proudly sang the South African and United States National Anthems, and teared up a bit as we belted out our cohorts favorite song; Shosholoza, one last time. A week before sware in, we had our Family Appreciation Day. It was a huge party, complete with a traditional cow slaughtering, to show gratitude to our host families. Culturally, only men are allowed to prepare the cow meat, but I think they saw the 'Wisconsin Hunter' in me and I was allowed to help. I’ll leave out the gory details of the meat processing, but I’ll just say that every single part of the cow was used. With all the excitement of these days, there was still a pit in my stomach knowing that it was the end of all that I had known in SA so far. The following days were filled with tough goodbyes to my host family, teachers and entire cohort as we all headed out to our final sites. I was shocked at how close I got to other PCV’s during these first months. When picturing my Peace Corps Service, it didn’t occur to me how much I would rely on other volunteers and how inspired I would be by them. We are now scattered throughout villages in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Now, I'm writing from my new village. Here is a photo of my room and belongings for the next 2 years. Even being just 3 months into service, I already feel like I overpacked. Over the next few weeks I will be attempting to transform this room into a fully functioning kitchen, bedroom, shower, and toilet (yes, I go to the bathroom in a bucket in my room once it get’s dark). Stay tuned!
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Inhlikani (good afternoon) everybody! Things are still going great in SA and it’s hard to believe that I have nearly completed my pre-service training. Our swearing in ceremony is just 3 weeks away and then I will officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer. I spent this past week visiting my official site, where I will move after training. My village is located in the northern part of Mpumalanga Province, just west of Kruger National Park. During my visit, I was introduced to different members of my community, my host family, and become aquatinted with the organizations I’ll be working with. I am the first Peace Corps volunteer at this site, and my partner NGO’s are a Home Based Care and Youth Center. My village is rich in guava, mango, and orange trees and on a clear day, you can see the Drakensberg Mountains towering in the distance. A room in this building is the Home Based Care office while the rest is used for a primary school. They currently have no electricity and these barrels collect rain water for us to use. The best part of the visit was to finally use my Xitsonga. I was typically greeted in English or Afrikaans, but when I would reply back in Xitsonga, the mixed look of confusion and excitement on peoples face was priceless. Nelson Mandela’s quote "If you talk to a man in a language he understand, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” proved to be extremely true. This week was also a dose of reality of what life will be like for the next two years, away from the comfort of my fellow trainees and Peace Corps staff. With all the excitement of a new area, I was also exposed to the unwanted attention, marriage proposals, and harassment that accompanies being a obvious foreigner in a rural village. I am eager to continue building relationships around the community to make this new place my home. My fellow 7 Xitsonga - learning trainees and 2 teachers; Rivo and Miyalani. All us will be serving amongst the Tsonga tribe, dispersed in different villages across the region. I have also now experience the transportation system that I will rely on during my service- the infamous taxi’s. It is a unique system that was originally created during Apartheid by black South Africans, when the government made it illegal for them to use the white South African’s transportation system. It became a informal network of bus routes, and although legal today, there is still no time table, no reliability that the transportation will come, and few official pick up location (typically you just stand on the side of the road with your arm out). It is a system with no system, but I am trying to learn it. Needless to say every ride is a adventure in itself; dodging pot holes, cows, and speed bumps, it kindof feels like a roller coaster. Other then that, things are better then ever in Dihekeng. Having to spend a week away from my family made it hard to imagine the day that I have to leave them. My family and I recently attended a party in my village which was a blast and culturally educational. The women and men were separated the entire party, only meeting in the middle, on the dance floor. The dancing was a mix of traditional Zulu to Africa house music (check out the song Imali by: Black Motion if you want one of the most popular song in SA right now). A cow was slaughtered to celebrate and I was generously given cow intestine as a delicacy, with pap of course. The children who attended love dancing with us, teaching us games and touching our hair, always saying how soft it is. That’s all for now! I've got some major changes in the near future, but that just seems to be the theme so far; as soon as I’m comfortable somewhere, it is time to change things up. But, I am still excited for what lies ahead.
-Josie Avuxeni from South Africa! I can’t believe I’ve been here a month already and I apologize it’s taken me so long to post. My days are packed from sunrise to sundown, but I’ve loved every minute so far. Taking in our first African sunrise with some fellow trainees Our first days in country were spent at a beautiful game reserve in Mpumalanga Province. We lived in huts and the first morning I had to chase a monkey out of mine. As we took in our first sights of South Africa, we quickly began our cultural expedition. South Africa has 11 official languages and we were taught how to how to greet in 4 of them. I have now been grouped with seven other volunteers to learn the Xitsonga language. This means that my final site will be in the northern region of Mpumalanga, amongst the Tsonga tribe. I am currently writing from my village; Dihekeng in Mpumalanga Province. For the first 3 months of service, my entire cohort and I are living with host families scattered throughout 4 villages. My small, rural village is surrounded by grassland and farm fields. My loving family consists of my host mother, father, “Go-Go” (Grandma), 1 sister- Thobile, 2 brothers- Christof and Jabulane, and my sister’s two year old son- Sinethemba. My family speaks Isindenbele, which unfortunately is quite different from Xitsonga. Communication is challenging at times, but my siblings speak very good English, and luckily smiles & hand gestures are the same in every language. My family has given me a Isindenbele name; Thandeka, meaning lovable. The view down my street, my house is on the right We live in a beautiful, tin-roof home that lies off the dirt road in Dihekeng. We have 3 main rooms; kitchen, living room and dining room. Our kitchen has a table, refrigerator and non-functioning stove. With don’t have running water, so we fetch water from a tap outside and we cook outside over an open fire. Our dining room has cabinets filled with old photos, tea sets and books. My mom is a seamstress, and she is always busy in here sewing clothing from others in our village. Our living room has a small TV and couches. My father works as a mechanic and priest, but in the evening, he always enjoys watching soccer or soap operas here. A ‘typical’ day of mine begins around 5 or 5:30, either being woken up by my alarm, or the roosters. I’ll go for a run, which includes watching the breathtaking sunrise, greeting kids on their way to school with my broken Isindenbele and jumping over cow poop that scatters the ground. I then bucket bath, eat breakfast (Weet-Bix cereal & instant coffee) and by 7:30, I am off to language class. We have an open air classroom and are learning ‘emergency’ Xitsonga, which focuses on speaking. It’s overwhelming at times to try to process so much in a short period of time, but I am thankful to have incredible teachers to work with. Our teachers are native speakers, who are also our cultural liaisons. They answer all our questions and guide us to successful integration in South Africa. In the afternoon, we gather with the entire cohort for technical classes. We have session ranging from South Africa’s history and politics to HIV education. We’ve also began working with local school to teach their Life Orientation class. This includes talks on health, HIV awareness and planning their future. Talking with some 12th graders at a local school My evenings are spent with my host family. I help prepare dinner which always includes 'pap'; a dish made from cornmeal and water. We typically eat using only our hands and our conversations often include cultural discussions. My mom has never traveled further then 3 hours from our home, and therefore she is curious about the United States. She has many misconceptions, often coming from movies, so it is always nice to talk about my family and experiences growing up there.
Before bed, I take a second bucket bath. My baths are probably the only point in the day that I'm not sweating (it's the middle of summer right now here), so I enjoy them a lot. I am also proud to announce that I can now 'shower' using less then 1 gallon of water. Before I crawl into bed, I always do quick scan for miscellaneous insects. Then, I'm prepared to do it all over again the next day. It still feels surreal to be here and have began this journey. It's humbling to realize that it is my 'new job' to have the opportunity to come into this families home, receive an education and cultural experience of a lifetime. I am grateful for every interaction and challenge I am faced with and wouldn't change it for the world. -Josie/ Thandecka |
AuthorJosie Petersson Archives
October 2018
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