Today, at approximately 10:00am (SA time, of course!), the members of Peace Corps South Africa Group 24 were sworn in as OFFICIAL Peace Corps Volunteers!! Woohoo!! No more people speaking to us, referring to us as "PCVs...I mean, PCTs." It was a wonderful ceremony, which started on time no doubt due to the fact that the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Mr. Gips, was our keynote speaker. He and his wife (who spends her time working with the South African education system) were present from the get-go and we had the opportunity throughout the morning to speak with them both. Mr. Gips is from Illinois but moved to Boulder, Colorado. I found this funny, because my dad is from Boulder, CO but moved to Illinois (although now he's back in Colorado--Hi, Dad!!). I even had the opportunity to check out the Ambassador's BMW, which was tricked out with 6-inch thick bomb- and bullet-proof doors. The doors were so thick and so heavy, and when the driver shut the door, he merely rested it closed and pushed a button on his remote keylock and the doors sealed shut like a submarine! It was awesome! And I'm not typically one to get excited about cars.
If you're bored, here's our Ambassador's webpage: http://southafrica.usembassy.gov/amb_gips.html
The other speaker that came is the founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, John Hope Bryant. Operation HOPE is a worldwide organization whose mission is "To expand economic opportunity in underserved communities through economic education and empowerment" (their words, not mine!). It sounds like a wonderful organization, and Mr. Bryant was such a phenomenal speaker. I felt so privileged just to be able to hear him speak!
So that's what happened today. It's been a tumultuous past couple days preparing to leave, saying goodbye to our Makapan families, but I'm very excited to see what the future holds for me in my new village. I didn't post about my visit to my new village that I had two weeks ago, and for that, I apologize. I promise, you really didn't miss much except for a 24-hour period where I sustained multiple small injuries: someone ran over my foot with a trolley (SA speak for shopping cart), I banged my head so hard on a van door frame that my neck cracked and I had a lump on my head for a week, I got bit by a spider (more on that in a second), and I got burned by a bubbling pot of goo (aka pap). And I attended two weddings: a traditional Ndebele wedding and a traditional Batswana wedding. I have pictures. I'll post them. One day. :)
So the spider bite: I had this spider in my room that was a hair bigger than a half dollar. I would try to kill it, I would miss, it would leap into the air and then run away faster than a Kenyan sprinter. This went on several times until it escaped under my bed and I was forced to call a truce. I spoke that truce in English, and perhaps the spider didn't understand English (because this is Africa, after all!), and maybe that's why he bit me. At any rate, the next morning when I woke up my ankle itched worse than any mosquito bite I've ever had and my ankle was swollen and red. After a couple days, it subsided and I thought nothing of it. I asked our resident snake and spider expert, Gert (he's our safety man here in SA), and after describing to him my mystery spider, he says to me, "Oh, that's a violin spider." Great. I was bitten by a brown recluse! He had said that had it been a full-size spider, I would've been in a lot more trouble than just an itch because of their toxicity. Which led me to ask apprehensively, "well...how big do they get?" "Oh, about the size of your hand." Eep!! I'll be sleeping with one eye open from now on, AFTER I bug bomb the room a couple times!
Other than that, South Africa has been great. I'm loving it here and will try to update more often. Unfortunately my internet time is out and I must run! Hope you all are doing well, I miss you!
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