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
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Hereeeeee we go! The journey to South Africa has finally began. Starting with a 1:15am checkout from our hotel this morning, a bus ride to JFK in New York, we are now eagerly awaiting our 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Here's a photo of the group at 4:30am while waiting for check-in to open. For the past few days, I have been in Philadelphia for Peace Corps Staging and to finally meet my 33 fellow Peace Corps Trainees. We've had 2 full days of cultural introductions, ice breakers and various Peace Corps sessions. I'm very excited about our cohort, even though we just met 2 days ago, we already feel like a little family.
Our unique crew includes individuals from every corner of the United States (but only 1 from Wisconsin!), guys and girls, and with a age range of 23-63. We are all Community HIV Outreach volunteers, and will be spending nearly every day together over the next 3 months as we train to officially become Peace Corps Volunteers. We will land tomorrow in Johannesburg at 8:30am local time, and will then be transported to a conference center where we will stay until we are assigned host families. I'm not sure when I will be able to post again, but know that I will be safe with the PC Staff and other trainee's until then! Finally I want to apologize to all those that received multiple e-mail’s regarding my previous post. There was quite a mess up on my part and I hope it will not happen again. Goodbye for now USA! -Josie Hi Everybody!
I wanted to make a quick final post while I’m still in the USA. I don’t know where to begin, but over the past weeks and months I have been overwhelmed with support, love and encouragement from so many of you. From the bottom of my heart, I can’t thank you all enough, and express how much it means to me. Although an opportunity like the Peace Corps is very exciting, it comes with the burden of hard goodbyes and leaving those that I care most about. Every letter, hug, visit, card, photo, e-mail, and all other gestures means more to me then I can ever express. Each has left a lasting impact on me that I will carry with me the entire time I’m away. I feel like the luckiest person on the planet to have so many loving and supportive people in my life, and it is because of this that I am able to do these types of things. So yes tomorrow is the day! I begin orientation in Philadelphia and meet the other 39 volunteer's in my group. We will travel together to Africa on Wednesday. Go Packers! Josie Hi Everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog! I have about 1 month until I leave for the Peace Corps to serve in South Africa as a Community HIV Outreach Volunteer. I am pretty freaking excited for this new adventure and I will do my best to keep this blog updated during my 27 months abroad. So, I guess I’ll start by talking about why I applied for the Peace Corps. For a while, I’ve known I wanted a career that allows me to be of direct help to others. I chose my major; Dietetics, because I believe that food and proper nutrition is a basic building block to a successful life. I hope to help others by establishing sustainable means of nourishing themselves and in turn, their lives. I attended my first Peace Corps meeting during my sophomore year of college (2011) and I just remember thinking that a 2+ year commitment was NOT for me. *Fun Fact: I grew up avoiding sleepovers because I hated the idea of being away from home for 1 night! Needless to say it took me a few years to consider joining the Peace Corps again. During my dietetic internship, I was lucky to spend time with a close childhood friend of my moms who is a returned volunteer. Hearing about her service and experience helped me decide that this was perfect for the next step in my life. I sent in my application back in May, had my interview a month later, and was accepted in August. It was quite a rush of mixed emotions receiving that e-mail! Sheer excitement that I’m taking steps towards the life I’ve dreamed, but again, couldn’t help but think that I just volunteered to move away from my family for 27 months. But as my departure date draws closer, I couldn’t be more sure about my decision. It is a crazy, scary yet exciting time in world, where cultures are combining, roles are reversing and history is being made. One of my favorite quotes from President John F. Kennedy is; “One person can change the world, and everyone else should try.” By no means do I think I’m going to change the world over the next 27 months, but hope that with this experience, I may make a small ripple in the world that could lead to bigger things one day.
That’s all for now. I’ll be leaving Wisconsin on January 22nd, and then heading to South Africa on the 25th. I hope to see as many of you as possible before then. Happy Holidays Everybody! -Josie :) |
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