Sunday, July 11, 2010

Flashdrives and Bucket Baths...

Hi All!!

I am sorry for the lack of updates I have been giving, I had no idea what to expect for the Internet situation when we came into town last week. And it turns out it was pretty bad. I spent 12 of my 15 minutes trying to load Facebook, then the last 3 frantically trying to update my blog. I finally figured it out for this week though… FLASH DRIVES! : ) I am writing this on my laptop and will upload it using my handy-dandy RTI flash drive! Problem: Solved!

I hope everything is going well with everyone! I miss you all, but I am having SUCH a great time! We are finishing week two of the nine week training session. We moved in with our host families last week. My family is great! I have a Make (mother), a Babe (father) who works in South Africa and I have yet to meet, two bosisi (sisters), and 5 bobhuti (brothers), plus a nephew, and some other cousins (I think) that float in and out during the week. Like I mentioned I have a hut! A big, round, yellow hut with a grass thatched roof. It has a huge bed and headboard, as well as a vanity and a table. I also have electricity!! We have a running joke in our group that between the limo that picked us up at the airport in ATL, the swanky hotel in the Joburg airport and now my luxurious hut, it’s more like Posh Corps than Peace Corps. We are only kidding though. We have no running water, so bucket baths and pit latrines it is! We have a long process we have to go through to get drinkable water (boil, filter, bleach!), and they provide us with a gas stove that we have to cook on. I never realized how much I relied on a microwave until I don’t have one!! Everything from frozen dinners to steaming vegetables I used to do in a microwave! My Make and Sisi are teaching me how to cook, but they think it is hilarious I don’t know how. Fortunately, no one else in the group knows how to either, so I am sure the boMake get together and talk about each of their Americans and how they don’t know how to cook…

Our whole group is living in a community called Mbasheni, between Pigg’s Peak, the town we go to for groceries and Internet, and Ngonini, where our Training Center is located. We generally take public transport, called a khumbi, to and from the center. My friend Steph and I are lucky enough to be neighbors. And thank goodness for that! All of us are spread out over about an hours walking distance, two hours from the training site. And yes, we walked it the other day. Yesterday, we finally made a very crude and hilarious map of where we all are staying and today we used it to meet up at Mike’s homestead for Sea Sea’s birthday party and learned he lives very close to Steph and me. We had “Fat Cakes” for Sea Sea’s birthday that Mike’s Make made. I don’t know what they are or how to make them, but they are delicious! I think they are just fried dough, almost like a funnel cake, but in a ball. They’re actually called Emmaphaties or something, but we call them “I’m a Fatty Cakes” because they may be the death of all of us here. My Make is teaching me how to make them tonight; right after she kills the pig that she is selling to our teacher Babe Malaza for our cooking class tomorrow. : / Good thing I didn’t name that pig… I wish they would kill the roosters instead of the pigs though. Every morning around 3am some rooster somewhere decides it is time to crow, which makes every rooster around crow. And there are a TON of roosters around. It is the most obnoxiously annoying thing ever and it wakes me up every night. A close second though is the chickens that run into our language class clucking, looking for a place to lay eggs. It is definitely a different atmosphere here in Africa!

On the topic of food, if anyone was concerned about me not eating enough here in Africa, you have NOTHING to worry about. I have honestly never eaten so much in my life! Today was the first day I actually finished what I was given, and I try my hardest to finish everyday, because it is considered rude not to. I thought at first that they just gave me a ton of food, because I was a guest or an American or whatever. But it turns out; Swazis eat a TON of food. I have tried to tell them not to give me so much, but they never listen, so I’ve stopped trying. They also eat with their hands. And by hands, I mean hand - just the right hand; doing anything with the left hand is rude. They have a dish called pap, which is like stiff mashed potatoes, that they eat with cabbage or chicken or squash or beans or anything and it’s all eaten with your right hand. It is SO hard. But I have become a pro.

I have also never gone to bed as early as I do here. I head to my hut at 7:30ish (after watching Rhythm City and Generations, South Africa soap operas, with my family) and am usually in bed by 9. The sun sets at 5:30 and we are not allowed to be out after dark, not just a Peace Corps rule, but a Swazi rule. No one goes out after dark. So when the sun sets early here in the winter, the day ends very early and 9pm feels like midnight. Plus there is a list of things you have to do in the morning before you are allowed to go to class so you have to get up early. My Make was going over it with me today at dinner: Wake up, Do dishes, Sweep kitchen, Cook breakfast, Sweep rest of house/hut, Bathe (Swazis bathe twice a day), Eat breakfast, Go to School. And we all know I don’t like getting up in the morning so since Make is making me get up early tomorrow to learn how to cook breakfast, it’s safe to assume it is 8pm and I am already in bed.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great 4th of July and celebrated my favorite holiday for me! I miss you all and love you!

Megan

9 comments:

  1. omz what a fun and cool life! minus killing animals, sadface! i'm so glad you have people that are near you that you can hang out with. hahahaha i love the i'm a fatty cakes!
    also, way to use your noggin with the flash drives!!! woot for RTI! that way too, you can write stuff as you think of it and not worry about forgetting anything in the four seconds of internet you have!

    omz i would not survive in the swaz if they made me bathe twice a day. but the early bedtime i would get used to quickly.

    keep the updates coming!
    much love!

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  2. Wow, It sounds like you are really settling in nicely. Oh, sure we knew you would. This was sure a great Sunday gift from you. Thanks for all the up dates. Love you, even if you eat fatty cakes. Gram

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  3. Megan! Hiii! I just emailed the MPR article to Reggie and he read it and thought it was really neat. I'm also going to send it to my dad because he is really interested in what "my friend from Hopkins" is up to in Africa :)) I'm so excited you have a blog!! Now I can read what you're up to whenevs. It's really great how your family is so welcoming and willing to share all of their customs with you. The cooking class sounds really cool! It's also great to hear that you have friends nearby where you live! I'm sure it has just been amazing being over there! I miss you very much and I'm soo happy all is going well!! XO!

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  4. Megan! I'm so glad to hear everything is going well! Sounds like you are adjusting very well! It's interesting to hear all of the things that we talked about before you left and to learn which ones are actually like what we talked about! It's great that you have electricity! yay! And sadface about the killing the pigs thing :( just don't go naming anything that you might have to slaughter! I miss you sooo much here in minne, but I'm very glad that you are doing so well! Lots of love! <3 Jess

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  5. Megan-
    I loved reading your post and agree with your Grandma - this was a nice gift. I am so happy for you - what an exciting, whole new world. And, I can't wait to hear more throughout your experience. Thanks for sharing - I'm going to get the kids now to share it with them! God bless! Lynn Key

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  6. Hi Megan, This is so fun to read about your experience.It seems surreal, you in Africa and me sitting on the couch watching "All Star Home Run Derby" I went to see Gina in Sisseton over July 4th weekend. We went to a pow wow. and did some other fun stuff. Stay well and keep up the stories. Thinking of you often. Love Deb

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  7. I think of you often. Miss you tons. went to dinner with James and Christy for their anniversary. losts of fun. Glad to hear youare embracing the culture. it will really make you appreciat.e what you have. I know I really appreciate the US mail AS, that is the Aunt Susan equivilent to UJ who also thinks of you.

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  8. Yebo Sethabile Khoza! So glad to hear there is no roaming around after dark...that's my favorite part of your last post!
    Love you much! Mom

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  9. Dear Megster,
    I am digging the dialog and the whole vicariously living thing. Just got back from the Rockies and a little pickin’ and grinin’ with some old buddies. What a blast. They want to start some kind of arty, book reading, music performing restaurant business in New Mexico. Too sixties! I got a couple of college students to help get through school before I could do something like that. Everybody else is cool here. I will look forward to your posts. Get lots of rest, eat well, and get into it. Any culture shock setting in yet?
    Love you,
    UJ

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