Happy Holidays, Y'all!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas slash I hope you had a good Hanukkah and have a Happy New Year! I don’t think I’ll get another post up before Christmas and then we’re leaving for Mozambique a few days later so Seasons Greetings to you all now. :)

I’m writing this as I’m listening to Christmas music in shorts and a tank top. It’s weird. Sorry to those of you who got caught in Snowpocalypse 2010 in Minneapolis. Not that I’d rather be there in the snow, it just does not feel like December much less Christmastime when its so darn hot out. Also, I leave and you all break the Metrodome? I mean I didn’t like that place really either but was that really necessary? Ha. I still think it was a ploy by the Vikings to get a new stadium. ; )

Not a lot is going on here at the moment. Since IST I’ve basically been hanging out and doing diddley squat. Just reading, washing, reading, and running. Most government offices, and just about everyone else, close up shop for pretty much the whole month of December so there is nothing going on. Plus the Incwala ceremony is going on now so really nothing happens during that. I had one meeting with my counterpart and we put up some tentative plans to start a Health Project after I get back from Mozambique. Hopefully things will start going again around then. The Health Project I want to do is a pretty big project, especially for my first one, but some other volunteers did it in the community about a half hour north of mine and it was a huge success and hopefully I can get some of their curriculum and surveys so I won’t be reinventing the wheel on this project. The basic idea of it is to educate one person from each homestead on basic health topics, specifically HIV/AIDS and TB, with the idea that the information will diffuse to everyone else in the homestead, thereby educating the whole community. I’m really excited about it, and pretty nervous even though we haven’t even started yet, and my counterpart seems excited about it, so hopefully the community will be too! I’ve also got some ideas about building playgrounds and maybe gardens at the NCPs (neighborhood care points that educate and feed the OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) in the communities) around May. There’s an NGO that is looking into building playgrounds at the community next to mine so I’m hoping I can sway them into doing it here. We’ll see. I’ve got some ideas of things to do in this next year and a half, but I think the toughest part will be just getting started.

Well I think that’s about all I have for now. Like I said, not a lot is going on these days so there’s not a lot fun to report. Except that I’m going to the beach in a week and a half… Enjoy the snow! ; ) Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year! Can you believe its 2011 already?! It seems like just yesterday I was ringing in 2010 with the wolf pack in my apartment at the U, having no idea that in six months I would be moving to Swaziland. My how things change.

Love you all and Happy Holidays!

Megan