New Normal

I asked Patty to send me some ideas for blog topics earlier this week.  I know a lotofpeopleenjoy reading my blogs, and I don’t want to disappoint you by not updating often enough.  When I brainstorm for blog ideas nothing jumps out as something that’s worth sharing, and actually when I arrived here brainstorming wasn’t really necessary since everything seemed so new and interesting.  The fact that I have to brainstorm for ideas now made me think of how the Swazi life is my new normal.  I am no longer taken aback by how many babies I see riding on their mother’s back held only by a bath towel or how breastfeeding in public is completely normal and it actually abnormal to see a bottle or pacifier.  I have come to expect the flies in the latrine, the smell of pigs, and how cows roam anywhere they want but know where their home is.  I refer to any white person I see as my friend, but that’s probably not too far from the truth, and this week we fit 28 PCVs plus the driver in a 15 passenger van like it was no big deal.  I also have stopped feeling lame when I am asleep by 8:30 or guilty when I wish for rain so I don’t have to go to my meeting and can just sit in my hut all day.

Patty asked me to write more about transportation, access to the healthcare system, and access to food and technology.  So here goes…

Almost nobody has a car, and if they do have a car it’s probably broken down and they are waiting til the end of the month to get the part to fix it.  They have to wait til the end of the month since if a person actually has a job or receives pension from the government they only get paid on the last Friday of the month (called ‘month-end’ here).  Anyways, back to transport.  So since no one has a car, we allrely on public transport in the form of either 15 passenger van taxis (khumbis) or buses.  I have relatively good transport where I live.  My bus stopis close by and there are buses about every hour that go to Manzini, the biggest city and khumbis that go to a smaller town.  Buses are cheaper and have more room for when I have big bags or boxes or groceries, but khumbis are faster with less stops and never have to worry about standing for 1.5hrs.  Hitchhiking is also common but against PC rules.

My community has its own health clinic, so I haven’t found transport costs to be too much of a barrier to people getting healthcare.  From what I understand, there is a 4E($.50) sort of co-pay to be seen by one of the nurses at the clinic.  On Mondays, there is focus on mother andchild health, growthcharting and immunizations.  On Tuesdays a doctor comes to give out ARVs (anti-retro virals, HIV treatment) which are FREE! to people that need them and pretty accessible throughout the country.

On to food, most homesteads here grow their own maize which they harvest, dry, and then grind into maize meal and raise their own livestock.  People eat porridge for every meal and don’t have to buy too much of their food.  There are many ways to prepare the porridge. They can make it thick or thin; sweet, sour, or salty; and mixed with other food like porridge and pumpkin.  I eat the porridge but hate eating the same food all the time, so I buy my food either from my local shop or the big grocery stores when I go into the city.  I have been eating lots of pasta, rice, eggs, potatoes, peanut butter, and fruit.  I know for a lot of people cooking is fun and creative, but for me it is a chore.  My stove heats up my already hot room making it really uncomfortable to sleep.

I hope this post gives you a little more insight on my life here.  I am doing really well and it is hard to believe, but I am already a quarter of the way done!  We justfinisheda weeklong training session with all the PCVs in the country.  It was inspiring to be with all of them and learn all of their ideas for what they are doing or have done throughout their time here.

Our training week also included a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner with the turkey and all the trimmings and I am looking forward to Christmas on the beach in Mozambique with a group of my fellow Volunteers, so I have lots to look forward to!

If you have a topic you have wanted me to write about a topic, please leave a comment, email or facebook me.  As I said at the beginning, life is normalizing so the ideas don’t naturally occur to me anymore.

Me and Bholoja, a Swazi superstar! He was performing a concert to bring awareness to World AIDS Day (Dec 1st)