Here are some pictures, finally uploaded...ENJOY! :)

This was the view from our hotel we stayed at during our supervisor workshops!

   

My hotel neighbor had a meerkat!  How Africa is that??

This was part of the decoration at the traditional Ndebele wedding I attended

And this was me with the wedding party!  The bride is to my right (the one with the red hat).

Traditional African Beer

The children love to tickle me so I fall to the ground and they can rub my hair.

Funny story:  So one of the kids, upon giving me a hug, leaned in and sniffed my armpit after a hot, long day of walking in the African midday sun. She then tells me about how wonderful my armpit smelled, so I showed them my deodorant stick (because stick is nonexistent here). They proceeded to apply it onto one another in utter excitement.  Even the boy wanted to wear some lady-scented Secret.

The kids look like they're cheering, right?  But they're actually raising up their arms to show off their lovely new smell!  They were elated!  I'm changing Africa, one armpit at a time!

Me with my language group, two of my family members, and the family members of others.

Who says old mattresses need to go in the trash?  Better to burn off their outer casings and use the metal springs as part of your fence!  Recycling (or at least resourcefulness) is alive and well here in South Africa.

Playing with a snake.  Non-venomous, of course.

You didn't think that I was just going to stick with that itty-bitty snake pictured above, did you?   :)

Me in traditional BaTswana dress

My language group on Swearing-In Day

Me with the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Mr. Donald Gips, in front of his bullet- and bomb-proof BMW.

Me with the Peace Corps South Africa Country Director, Ms. McGrath Thomas.

Me with the founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, Mr. John Hope Bryant.  They promote financial literacy to underserved communities.  To learn more about Operation HOPE, visit http://www.operationhope.org

Me with the Ambassador's wife, Liz Gips, and Mr. Bryant.  Mrs. Gips has been spending her time in South Africa working within the education system, so she could relate to us!

Today I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!

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!

Almost done with PST!

I know...I know...I haven't updated this blog since I left the States.  That's partially because I don't have internet nearby (I have to take an almost-hour long taxi ride to the mall if I want to go online on a computer) and partially because even though I do have data on my phone to go online, going on websites eats up my data like Pac-Man and so...here we are.

I have only about two weeks left in the village where I'm doing my PST (Pre-Service Training), and I'm loving every minute of it!  I have an amazing host family: the koko (grandmother) that I live with named Rosy, her daughter Tiny, and Tiny's kids (my host-siblings) Olebogeng, Letlotlo, and Duduetsang.  I went to the zoo yesterday with Dudu, her boyfriend, and my host brother Letlotlo yesterday, and it was so much fun!! I haven't laughed that much in a long time!

Tomorrow, I head out to my new village for a supervisor workshop and to meet my new host family and host community.  I'm excited, but it's not that big of a leap--I'll only be about 2 hours or so from where I'm at now (to the delight of my current host family).  Nevertheless, I'm both excited and nervous about integrating with a new community all over again.  It's a lot of work, and I'm definitely going to miss the community that I'm in now.

I've eaten a few interesting things since I've been here--mopane worms (moth caterpillars) and chicken feet to name a few--but otherwise the food hasn't been that different from the States.  Lots of chicken, but also some ground beef (called mince meat here), mutton, and goat as well.  And we eat a TON of vegetables--I probably eat more vegetables in a week here than I did in a month in the US!  We eat a lot of squash, potatoes, green beans, carrots, cabbage, spinach (actually Swiss Chard), onions, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, etc.  We eat 3-5 veggies per meal.  Yes, PER MEAL.  But it's great.  I do miss fruit, though.  My selection is pretty limited: bananas, apples, oranges, and pears.  It's all good, though.

If you're friends with me on Facebook, I've uploaded a couple dozen photos.  I'll try to get some on here within the next couple months.

This is short, I know, for an entry that is to describe the past month and a half I've spent here, but I'm out of internet time at the cafe!  I'll update again as soon as I can!

Thanks for all the support from back home, and I love and miss you all!

Here We Go!!

What a whirlwind the past 48 hours has been.  I've gone from living in a house in Gurnee, to living in hotels in DC, and now, I'm on my way to South Africa where I'll be living for the next 2 years!  It's weird to think that I won't be living in America anymore and won't be enjoying the luxuries of America for a long, long time.  I'm excited to see what the next couple of months will bring as I train to be a School and Community Resource Specialist with the Peace Corps.  As most of you know, I won't be in touch for the next two months or so as we won't have internet and phone access...I can be reached by mail and my address is to the right of this post...otherwise, you can wait to hear from me (hopefully) sometime around September.  Plenty of pictures to come when I can afford the data to upload and post them all.  I hope you all (all three of you that are reading this) take care and do well in the coming months and I look forward to posting again as soon as possible!!  :)

18 More Days!

It's hard to believe that there are only 18 more days left until I leave.  With the amount of things I have left to do, it certainly feels like a lot shorter time than that.  I have not even begun to pack, although I have thrown everything I plan on bringing into massive piles. 

I have found out, for those of you that do not know, that I am going to be staging in D.C.  Staging is where all Peace Corps volunteers go and learn about what they're about to experience and how to stay safe while doing it.  We'll also be turning in our final paperwork, including life insurance, student loan deferment forms, immunization history, etc.  It'll be a chance for me to meet and get to know the people with whom I will be interacting, if only occasionally, for the next two and a quarter years.  Since the federal budget for the Peace Corps has been slashed, our time at staging has likewise been slashed.  Instead of being in Washington, D.C. from July 5-7, we are now only there July 6-7, and really only the July 6 is spent on staging, because we leave for Atlanta at 8:45 in the morning and from there we hop a plane to Johannesburg.  From there, it's about an hour to Pretoria, where we are then dispersed to wherever we will be doing our Pre-Service Training (PST). 

I have elected to spend an extra day in D.C.  I will be leaving from Milwaukee Airport at 8:10am and arriving at Reagan Airport at 11:00am.  I had a ton of Marriott Rewards points so I figured what the heck, I'll live it up.  One last night in a luxurious and posh hotel room before willingly placing myself in third-world living conditions.  I'm very excited to go to D.C. and see the National Mall, the Capitol Building and Supreme Court, the White House, the Smithsonian Institutions, and wherever else I can walk in the 10 hours I plan on walking around. 

Also, thanks to the budget crunch, we're to get our own Yellow Fever shots.  Not such a big deal, except for the shot costs close to $200 (and more, at some clinics and doctor's offices) and we've been given only a week to get this done and submitted to the Peace Corps.  Should we fail to meet the deadline, no plane ticket for us!  I'm not really bothered by the last-minute rush...I am a little peeved that the shot costs so much, though.  Oh well, I guess it beats getting the real thing!

I look forward to being able to update this post with more than just anxious ramblings.

23 More Days!

So I am officially in packing and, simultaneously, unpacking mode now.  Obviously, I am packing and preparing for my upcoming departure.  I have spent hundreds of dollars in the past couple weeks acquiring a wardrobe that most of the population currently has but I do not due to the fact that I've worn a uniform for the past 4 years and have had no use for clothing outside of old t-shirts and blue jeans.  The idea that I'd have to start wearing dresses and skirts has had me in semi-panic mode.  I am NOT made for dresses.  On a more positive note, however, one of my most recent shopping excursions has taken me to JC Penney, where they were having a weekend sale.  I ended up getting a pretty nice black knee-length dress, originally priced at $100, for $7.64.  Not bad!

Like I said, I am simultaneously unpacking.  I have a boatload of crap that I have accumulated over the past 10 or so years, and I was hellbent on keeping it.  Mostly university papers and reading assignments, but also random crap, like a Bart Simpson cereal box and a vast floppy disk collection housing who-knows-what.  I have thrown away about 12 garbage bags of junk, donated 3 bags of clothes, and given away a half-dozen items on Freecycle.  And I'm only a third of the way done going through all my stuff. 

On top of all that, I also have to pack up my bedroom.  That means both purging the crap that I don't really need and organizing all the stuff that I insist on keeping into a few small boxes and bins.  Here's to hoping that doesn't take too long.

Overall, I'm very excited about the upcoming three weeks.  I have big plans and lots to do, but I have no doubt that it will get done.  I am still missing things that I need, but I have faith that it will all be purchased in time.  I don't like waiting, but since I quit my job last week, that is all I have left to do.  And still no word as to what time our flights will be or even what city we're leaving out of.  Sigh.  I guess this is how the Peace Corps teaches you patience.

Aspiration Statement

So today I wrote and sent my Aspiration Statement, which is basically you telling the Peace Corps about your expectations about your assigned project, your strategies for adapting to a new culture, and how you expect your service to further your personal and professional growth.  It's basically just one more thing to stress over, even though no matter how excellent a paper you write or how terrible it may be, you're in regardless.  It is broken down into five different sections:

A. The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service

B. Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs

C. Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background

D. The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project

E. How you think Peace Corps Service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

I'm not sure if I did it exactly how they wanted it, but I did attempt to answer each section to the best of my ability.  Below are my written responses to each statement:

A.      My service as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa will be a difficult, stressful, incredible experience.  It will push me to my limits and will change the way I look at both my own life and the lives around me.  It will be tough, and it won’t always be fun, but I will still make it a daily mission to find at least one good thing about my situation and surroundings each day.  I will use my positive outlook to enhance my Peace Corps experience by always looking for the good even in a bad situation.  My patience and flexibility will be tested, but I plan on meeting any challenges head-on and with the mindset that I will get through it.  I know there will be things that I do not yet know, such as the language or local culture and mannerisms, but I will go into each situation with an open mind and a thirst to learn.  I expect that leaving a modern culture with high-speed internet, information at my fingertips and entertainment at the push of a button will be a life-altering experience, but I will embrace my new-found technological isolation as a chance to slow down appreciate the world around me.  I know time will go slow—painfully slow at times—but I will embrace this too as a welcome change of pace and learn to let things be.   And I know that by the end of my Peace Corps experience, no matter how many highs or lows I hit, I know that I will be a better person and a better professional because of this experience. 

B.      Because of experiences allowed to me through both education and previous volunteer work, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of people.  I have worked in areas where English wasn’t spoken, and had to overcome obstacles such as language and culture to accomplish what needed to be done.  I have worked in inner city neighborhoods, where poverty and gangs run rampant.  I have worked with children, adults, and the elderly.  I plan on using what I’ve learned from all of these experiences to help me work with my host country partners.  This includes patience when language creates a barrier and when cultural norms clash.  It also includes being open to different ideas and ways of doing things, and being able to work together to accomplish a common goal.  It means I must be approachable and personable, no matter how tired or stressed I may be.  I will ask questions at any opportunity to understand the situation and the mindsets of my host country partners.  I will keep an open mind and an open heart, and I will always understand that while I am a teacher, I am also simultaneously a student.

C.      I have been exposed to a wide variety of cultures and ways of living, and I’ve learned that the best way to experience a different culture is to be fully immersed in it.  Before I leave, I plan on learning everything I can about South Africa: it’s history as a nation, it’s languages, it’s cultures and traditions.  Once I arrive, I plan on observing people as much as possible.  You learn a lot from observing people, including what is culturally acceptable, how people interact with one another, and how people function as a whole in society.  When you spend your whole life in one cultural atmosphere, you are unaware of how many things that you consider normal or typical are only considered so in your culture.  I plan on noting the differences between the culture that I’ve grown up in and the culture I will be experiencing for two years.  I will adapt my own behavior to match that of the culture that I am in so that I can be an active member of society.  In addition to observation, asking questions are always helpful to understanding any culture, and I plan on asking as many questions as people will allow.

D.      There are many skills that I hope to gain during pre-service training, and there is much that I need to learn in order to work best with my future community.  While I don’t know which of the 11 official languages of South Africa I will need to speak, I hope to learn the language as best I can during this time and have a working proficiency in the language so that I may be functional in the community as soon as training has concluded.  Teamwork will play a huge role in getting things done in South Africa, and I hope to enhance my teamwork skills during pre-service training.  I need to learn about the role education plays in the community I will be working in to understand any and all challenges I must face.  Understanding the difficulties that I will face once I arrive on site before actually arriving will help me to better adapt to the situation and have in place some formative goals and methods to accomplish these goals.  I hope to begin to enhance my patience and perseverance at this point so that when progress seems to grow stagnant, I may still be hopeful and energized in order to see my projects through to the end. 

E.       I believe that my Peace Corps service will enhance my understanding and knowledge of the way other societies and cultures function in different parts of the globe.  I also expect that my experience will enhance certain personal skills, including patience, perseverance, and flexibility; these attributes are not only important to me as a person but as a working professional.  I believe that my Peace Corps service will also give me a broader view of the world and how the world functions outside of the fast-paced American culture.  It will help me to understand how globalization has affected South Africa and the communities contained therein.  My Peace Corps service will give me a greater sense of self and who I am as an individual.  It will teach me that in solitude there is not only loneliness but peace, and I will learn how to take time for myself even when constantly surrounded by people.   As a teacher, I will learn adaptive methods to reach a population of people completely different from myself and with a different view on the importance of education that the one I hold.  I will learn to stress less when put into seemingly impossible situations, and I will learn that not everything I hope to accomplish will actually be realized.  I will learn to embrace my failures and to celebrate in my accomplishments.   I will learn to adapt my teaching methods to best reach all students, whether my students be children, adults, or colleagues.  I hope to be a better person because of my Peace Corps experience, and I look forward to seeing how my Peace Corps service contributes to my personal growth and development.