Marisa in Swaziland

I am taking my last week before "lockdown" up in Mbabane and around Swaziland. For the weekend, my friend Andi and I went to Mkhaya Game Reserve. It is a private reserve and therefore expensive ($120 a night). Built on an old cattle farm that has been allowed to return to the "wild", Mkhaya focuses on the endangered wildlife of Southern Africa. We saw quite a few white rhinos. The guide even allowed us to climb out out the vehicle and approach them on foot... I didn't. Call me a scary cat if you want, but the rhino was large, wild, and had a foot-long horn and a 3 month old infant. Not gonna make mommy nervous. Although we saw black rhino dung, those solitary creatures alluded us. Mkyaha is good for it's close encounters with rhinos and elepants, but the service is amazing too. When we were on our evening game drive, the staff went around lighting the parafin lamps in each of our open air cabins, and then, after dinner, we returned to hot water bottles in the beds! Oh my goodness! It was nice to be spoiled rotten.

I apologize for my long absence from my live journal. Though the only ones to complain are my parents, I know a few of you probably still check to see if I've added anything.
Life goes. It is coming to a major crossroads right now. I am in the throws of a decision of whether to stay for a third year (and if that is even a possibility) or to finish off the grad school applications I started a few months ago. I am becoming inert in my indecidision. But time passes and something will happen and I will let you know what it is. I am only 2 weeks away from our "close of service" conference, where they give you all the forms you must fill out and give you career and emotional advice for the upcoming transition. After that, it is a short 2 1/2 months until I come home, unless I extend, in which case I am not sure when I'll be able to come back (I'd get a month, but should that be Thanksgiving or Christmas?!).
Work is good. We are on school break yet again. No school means no real "work" since I have no classes to teach. We are working on starting a support group in the community since the level of interest has been growing. When the clinic was unable to do testing this week due to a conflicting community meeting, people actually chased down the ambulance with the HIV counselors and asked them why they were leaving! It is very reassuring--I feel like I've helped increase awareness, though I do not take all the blame. In the break, I will be spending a few days in town coming to my decision and visiting a game park. The reed dance is around the weekend, and hopefully I'll be going this year. Going, not dancing! The reed dance is the yearly ceremony where the young maidens in the country dance in very skimpy, but traditional, attire for the Queen Mother and King. As I have no child, I COULD dance, but I don't feel like exposing myself at an internationally attended event.
I am planning on adding more to this after the COS conference, so look for updates in about two weeks. I'll probably send out a mass email too. If anyone wants a final letter from Swaziland, WRITE to me BEFORE OCT 1st! After that, I may not receive it, and will not know that I should reply. Hint hint. I may be almost home, but I still get excited by a mailbox that is not empty. Send decisive vibes too.. I could use those right now.

Well, I'm back in Swaziland after a month away, and I am really happy to be here. I am ready to get back in the saddle and ride this Peace Corps experience to the end. But first I'll fill you in on the last week...

It involved a bunch of nothing really! After Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon in South Africa, we headed over to Mozambique and spent 6 days on the beach! We would wake up, eat some eggs on rolls, head down to the ocean, swim, read, swim, tan, swim, retreat to shade... there is more eating in there but you get the drift. The really exciting part of the week was our "snorkeling safari"--we went out on a pontoon boat, suited up in wetsuits (to protect us from sun and jellyfish), and searched for giant shadows under the water. Those shadows were whale sharks!! Yes, I went snorkeling with whale sharks! It was VERY VERY cool. What I thought was even better, though, was the manta ray! It took my breath away, and quite literally too, as I tried to follow it and eventually got winded from my underwater sprint. They are beautiful. I only wish I could've done the scuba certification so I could've dove with them on the reef (curses to a thick head cold!). But a week on the beach was perfect and fours days of scuba classes would not have been nearly as relaxing.

If any one reads this by googling "Tofo", you ought to check out Turtle Cove as the place to stay in Tofo. It was great. The three of us had a little brick house to ourselves for ~56rand a night. It's a bit of a walk (15 min) into Tofo and the swimming beach, but we found it a pleasant walk. They have backpacker dorms too, but for that price (cheaper than most dorm beds elsewhere) why not have an entire hut with bathroom? And it is good if you want to avoid the rowdy backpacker crowd--fun, funky, good food, good company (Matt and Tiff are the temporary managers, so look out for their Manga Logde in the coming years) it is a place to chill.

Tomorrow I head back to site to see what happened when I was gone. Hopefully the mobile testing day went through and no one has complained of my long absence. It was a school break anyways. I'll show Melissa and Adam around, catch up on local gossip, maybe visit the caves this weekend.. Life is very good.

I've been away from Swaziland for about three weeks now and find myself finally with time to kill at an internet cafe. Melissa, Adam, and I are waiting for the bus that will take us to Maputo, Mozambique this afternoon, and from there onward to Tofo on Tuesday.

So where have I been so far?

The first week and a half was spent in Madagascar. We traveled from Tulear, on the Southeast coast of the island, to Antananarivo (Tana) over the course of the week. We visited three National Parks, Isalo, Ranomafana, and Perinet, spending a day at each hiking and cooing over the lemurs. Isalo was arid, austere, still, and eroded. It was gorgeous, and unlike anyplace I've ever been before (though it might be similar to the Southwest, I've never visited). There we saw two groups of ring-tailed lemurs. The first were less accustomed to people, so we just watched them bounding over boulders from a distance. The second group lept from tree to tree right over our heads, and came within feet of us... for a banana someone fed them. Not good from a conservation standpoint, however it was the closest we got to them. Apart from the lemurs, we saw a few lizards, insects, and fun pachypodia (or elephant's foot plants). I took a dip in a natural swimming pool (hey, if I've already got schisto, more won't hurt). It was wonderful. We stayed at a series of bungalows just outside the park, I tried crocodile for dinner, and made sure to watch the sun rise over the plains.

Before I mention the next park, I will caution you that it involves blood.

Ranomafana is a rain forest park. We first visited it on a night hike. The trails were very well constructed with stone steps up the hills. Not what I'd expected. We hiked to a small clearing with a picnic table and voila! there was a stripped civet just standing there like a statue! What?! I thought maybe it was drugged. I mean, nocturnal animals usually don't get friendly with people, right? We immediately saw a mouse lemur on a tree and then I realized why these animals came to the clearing: the guides feed them by rubbing banana on the tree trunks! ACH! My environmental ethics meter went beserk. It was neat to see them... but... Well, I can't do anything about it now. (Blood approaching) While looking for another mouse lemur, I got a prick behind my knee. I wondered if I'd run into a nettle bush or gotten a mosquito bite. So I sat down and pulled up my pants... and found... a LEECH!! It was casually sucking away, about 1.5cm long, black and shiny. The guide flicked it off, rather painlessly, but the wound continued to bleed the rest of the hike. This is due to the anticoagulant in their spit, in case you did not know, that prevents the blood from clotting while they are drinking. They also have an anesthetic which is why there was no pain. I thought all leeches were aquatic, but I was wrong. I found another on on my ankle, but it wasn't until the morning that I got to see them in motion...

The next morning we suited up for a day hike in the park. You should have seen our getups! It was rainy and we were all afraid of leeches now, so we all had our pants tucked into our socks and random rain gear so that we wouldn't get wet. We looked like a waterproof 80's aerobics video. Well, all of that didn't stop the leeches. Five minutes into the hike, I chanced to look down and found my shoes and socks covered with thin 1-2cm black whisps crawling like inch-worms upwards! These guys have a sucker on their rear so they can stay attached and shimmy along (quite quickly) toward a warm spot. Panic set in. I mean, it is really gross to see them crawling around and know what they'll do to you if they attach. After about 2 hours, however, they became rather normal. I'd flick them away if they got higher than my knees on the outside of my pants, but I could feel them in my socks and just had to accept defeat. Two hours later than that I realized I'd even forgotten about them! When we returned to the trail head, I rolled down my socks and a suck/blood/crypt (we tried to think of what a group of leeches would be called) of leeches plopped from the divets under my ankle bones. I was relieved to find that none found their way up the inside of my pants! That evening, after showering!, we compared our counts of leech hickeys and I won with a whopping 21 love bites. Word to the wise, if you happen to go to Madagascar and hike around Ranomafana on a rainy day wear cotton or tightly woven socks (maybe try fleece?) because my smart wool socks provided little barrier to these ribbon thin suckers. They just worked their way through the waft. My final decision was that I liked leeches quite a bit more than ticks or mosquitos--they cause no pain and carry no diseases. The bites did not even itch until a week later (which might also be due to my antihistamine perscription running out). I'm actually kind of glad that I had the experience--now I can gross out my grandchildren.

Ranomafana had a number of lemurs and other animals to see as well. In addition to the brown mouse lemur and stripped civet, we saw a leaf-tailed gecko, a red-fronted brown lemur, a forest kingfisher (a bird), two grey bamboo lemurs, three Milne-Edwards sifaka, and three sleeping woolly lemurs. I'd definately go back... with different socks.

Perinet is also a rain forest, actually it is two forests or two parks: Andsirabe and Mantadia. We spent a little time in each. The star of this park was the indri, the largest of the lumurs. It is famous for it's whale-like singing which it does in the mornings. I think they were my favorite, for their song, their spriteness, and their affection for sleeping in (they don't start moving around until a few hours after sunrise). The other beautiful lemur we saw here was the diadem sifaka, another large lemur. They have grey backs, chestnut red arms and legs and curious faces.

I realize that all I have talked about from Madagascar is the animals and a bit of the scenery. We almost all of our time either in the car or hiking, but our time in the car was far from a waste. Our travel planner, main guide, driver, informed person and all around nice guy was Jeff, a native of Tana. He answered all of our questions and told us everything we wanted to know about the very different regions we traveled through. If you ever visit, use Jeff. He's amazing. Maybe in my next update I will talk more about the people.

We've just done Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon here in South Africa, but I must dash away now to catch the bus to Mozambique so you'll have to wait for more updates. Send questions!

I had a GREAT week! Four of us PCVs from Swaziland were sent over to Lesotho to help them start up their Peer Support Network. I'm not on PSN here, but I am on the Diversity Committee, and they were considering having Diversity as a subset of their PSN, so I went to do some workshops with them too. I wasn't about to turn down a free trip to Lesotho! (Actually, I turned it down at first because I've been away from site a lot recently and felt guilty, but when I was offered it a second time, I quickly agreed!) We met with all their PCVs on Saturday, had Sunday off, then had two days of workshops for them on Mon and Tues. What follows all took place on our day off, but that doesn't mean we didn't have a lot of fun with all the PCVs there! I'd like to send a shout out to all the people I met, PCVs and staff of Lesotho, who were all welcoming and often outrageous (in a wonderful way)!

On Sunday, Arlene, the PCMO (doctor) for Peace Corps Lesotho, took us up to a weaving studio about an hour out of Maseru (the capital where the trainings were held) in the morning. It was very similar to the one we went to in Cape Town, but I think it was a lot cheaper... cheap enough for me to pick up another small tapestry, which I am debating saving as a gift for my family or keeping it for myself. Arlene then dropped us off in Maseru and we climbed into a khombi that her husband had arranged to take us to Malealea for a pony trek! It was about an 1.5 hours away, South this time, and I had to fight off sleep the whole way. Lesotho looks different from Swaziland. Their mountains look more like the ones in Hawaii--more pointy with wrinkles and ravines. The homesteads are much more clustered than in Swaziland--you could actually call them villages! The people were different too, at least those who were wearing blankets. Yes, blankets. Men and women, though I saw more on men, wrap them around their shoulders and go out like that. It was interesting. I'd imagine those blankets get pretty stinky after awhile, especially since I hear some are wool. Most of the boys and men I saw tending sheep were wearing them and the basotho hats (pointy woven grass hats that are somewhat reminiscent of Chinese hats). They have sheep, not goats, and more sheep than cows. When the sheep ran by they tinkled because each wore a bell. It was almost a magical sound.

The last 7km of the road to Malealea was dirt and went up and over a pass
that opened up into a valley. It was green and picturesque. We descended to
the lodge, made sure our transport would wait for us, and jumped on some horses. About 10 minutes in, we heard the first rumblings of thunder. Shit. I thought maybe this wasn't a good idea, but we kept going. Twenty minutes later the thunder was overhead, and in another 10 minutes, the sky opened up and dumped rain and hail on us! Lightning was on every side, so we knew we were in the middle of it all. There were no trees, we were completely
exposed. It was very very scary. It got worse when the horses refused to go
forward (they didn't want to face into the rain), and the guide started to run
at Gavin's horse. Oh, and we were right next to a 500ft drop off. Gavin's
horse was forced to run TOWARD the cliff! He didn't make it that far, thank
goodness!, but we were all frightened to death! We eventually got the horses turned and headed back to the stable. And we lived. The last 20 min were gorgeous as the rain stopped and left behind a sodden calm. I can't speak for everyone, but those 20 minutes were euphoric--I think it was the after effect of the panic and fear. It was a moment of intense calm and connectedness.

When we got back to the lodge at Malealea, the owner took pity on us. We
were all soaked through from the rain and hail. He told us to scrounge around
in all the clothing that has been left behind by people staying at the lodge on the condition that we give the clothing to OVCs in our villages when we got
back to Swaziland. Gavin, Jacque, and Julie all left wearing quite stylish
modgepodge outfits. I had brought my rainjacket and decided to suffer the
khombi ride back to Maseru in my dripping jeans, so I didn't add any new items
to my wardrobe. After a quick clothing change, we went out for pizza then
crashed. It was a long day.

"I am very excited to meet people in El Salvador. I told Peggy, in our interview today, that my only real worry was that I might accidentally cross some gender barrier and cause la gente to be uneasy with me. Her response was to read a letter that said "We have finished the community center very quickly, thanks to your influence that caused the parents to send their daughters as well as their sons to help. The girls were eager to do the construction work, and eager to prove their intelligence and strength." And a letter from a girl that simply said, "thank you for teaching my people that we girls can help too." Apparently gringas are separate from the cultural rules, but have the power to influence by example. I hope I can be that kind of influence for someone, even someone who will have so much more to teach me." --Sarah/Orca

This is a story from a friend's website about the role outsiders play in changing gender roles, among other issues. I have been thinking about it a lot recently, and when I checked her website, I thought it was time to share some thoughts. I have found that my role here in Swaziland, as an HIV educator, might be a bit more difficult for a Swazi to do--not because of their ability but because of culture. Talking about sex is almost common place for me. I am allowed to in my culture. And they allow me to talk about it because I am an outsider. I can talk about anal sex, masturbation, negotiation of condom use, what is rape, oral sex... the list goes on. My messages are tolerated because I am not Swazi, but I can also start to convince them because I have become familiar. And the women encourage me! They tell me to play soccer, to wear shorts when I run, to wear pants, allow me to wear pants and sit on chairs in the chief's presence (women are supposed to have their hair covered, wear skirts, and sit on the ground at community meetings). They want me to break the rules. The teachers like it when I berate the boys for their attitudes toward marital rape--though they will also defend it as Swazi culture. This may be because they cannot do much to change it themselves yet. Maybe the change is coming though. Some women I have met in town do not tolerate the idea of women as second class citizens. And many men as well! Is this a good thing, outsiders bringing change? I don't want to step on the toes of culture, but equality between the sexes seems pretty vital to me. It could make a huge difference in the fight against HIV here, where gender inequality leads to inability to negotiate condom use. Sarah's story made me happier to be here, to know this umlungu might be sending out even more ripples of change of a good sort.

... also known as Bilharzia... they are blood flukes, and they have invaded my body apparently. The life cycle of this lovely parasite is snail host, river water, human host, urine into river water, and back into snails. I think I may have acquired mine the one time I did my wash down in the river. However, that was during training, over a year ago. It is possible that crossing streams on stones in my chacos did not protect me from little droplets of schisto-pregnant water from splashing on my feet. Subsequently the little worms would have penetrated through my skin, "worming" their way into my blood stream, and taking residence near my urinary tract. Yummy. Good news? No pain. Early and easy treatment. No permanent liver damage. They've come and now they are going. Unfortunately, I can't stop crossing streams. I'll just be even more careful to not slip into the water. My mother can now say "I told you so"--she had said "anywhere but Africa" when I told her about applying to the Peace Corps. She was more afraid of strange diseases than I. Swaziland, however, is much much safer than many other African countries for tropical diseases. Much less Malaria than Mozambique, no dengue, tsetse flies, or other strange wasting or sleeping illnesses. Luckily, my schisto was mild. Another volunteer had it worse last year--they found it in his spine! He's fine now, but wasn't then. He had to go back to the States. You, my friends, will not get me back home so easily. I'm up in Mbabane for the weekend, but I don't even have to go to Pretoria, let alone the U.S. I made chicken noodle soup (from scratch!) for myself, cinnamon toast and hot cocoa, so all your comfort foods are with me. It's raining, and I'm going to watch movies for the rest of the afternoon! So don't pity me.

Yes, the other day there was a German film crew shooting at Babe's OVC school! They were from a German development group who had assisted Babe in building a classroom at the school and were making a documentary of the OVC situation in Swaziland. Presumably, this will be used to reel in new donors or to instill pride in those who have already helped this group contribute to Swazi peoples. It was quite surreal to have the school overrun by seven bomlungu (white people) with cameras and microphones. There have been others before who played with the children and gave them gifts of small toys, candy, or balloons, but this was the first full scale filming. They worked on preformances of traditional dancing for two weeks ahead of time, and put on a show that almost brought tears to my eyes. They don't do this sort of thing every day, and the pride and excitement that they showed made my jaw drop. I almost did not recognize them! Shy girls turned into vocal and confident young women. The men got inspiration from some young men in my community and had the right mix of precision and playfullness. I've got some recordings on my digital camera that they crowd around to see themselves dancing over and over again, which means the rest of you will be able to see them too someday. That was the best part of the day.

The other parts confused me... they were contrived and obviously showy. I was caught between pride for the students and sullenness that someone was coming in from outside with a preplanned story of an orphan that our students had to act out. I would have been much more comfortable if they'd done interviews and then cut them as they pleased. It would still be edited to their personal viewpoint, but at least it would be based on truths that the students shared. It was the other side of development that I haven't seen much of as a volunteer. I don't have to ply for outside support of my work. (Even if I have been known to beg for York Peppermint Patties.) There are good and less good sides of this. At least we have got another school building and the students had an opportunity to show off. Does that make it worth a little extra preforming from them? And my last take home message--having seen this sort of thing in action, I warn people outside Swaziland to take a look at any documentary or film or book or story from this region to question whether they think the author or director is showing you the whole picture. Starving orphans get a lot of attention, but look closely, and you won't find an empty belly in any scene.

Two days ago I finally began using the String Game board with the students at the OVC school. This was the resource that I was trained in with other volunteers at a UNICEF sponsored workshop last November. It has taken awhile to get started--we did not get our boards until Jan, and I've been rather busy this past month with other projects. But the kids and the teachers loved it! I have never seen them debate issues so much!

The story is about how HIV comes into a place called "Nobody's Village" through a man who works in the city (Joburg is commonly used). HIV then spreads to his wife, her unborn child, his high school sweetheart and a teenage girl who he rapes. And from there, it will continue to spread in the next few installments. The story takes ~3 hours to tell in entirety, so I only told the first bit. The students are eagerly awaiting the next one!

I was hoping that this would work out this well, but I was not certain that it would really get through to them. I was happy, then, when they reported some of the things that they had learned. There was not much new information about HIV, since I'd taught them most of it last year, but they said that they knew more about STIs and one boy even answered that he'd learned that "when a girl is raped, she can have pain". It was shocking that that was an insight for him, but I'm glad he has learned it! I'm looking forward to continuing this in the weeks to come and then starting with the community! Hopefully other social factors surrounding HIV will be brought to light for them.

Last weekend I had the most AMAZING experience! I went to see a South African group called Freshly Ground play in Swaziland, and it was euphoric. Maybe it was from my lack of live music (Mount Holyoke spoils its students with a capella jams and cheap concerts) in a long time, or maybe it was standing in the FRONT ROW, but all I could do was giggle when I wasn't singing along. Apparently they now have a website, so if you are interested you can check them out. They have lots of energy, makes you want to dance or sing (which is sometimes difficult because it is in a few different languages) and if you like to be happy, you'll love them. The lead singer is super short with a super huge voice, the bassist looks like my choir teacher from junior high, and they have a flutist whose style reminds me a bit of the music of Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). They have a electric violinist, a saxaphone/flute/harmonica-ist, and a keyboardist in addition to the "normal" instruments. They played until 1am, and their last song was a highly amusing version of Britney Spear's "Hit me baby one more time"... it kinda sounded like the polka or some sort of Godfather-esqe music. Fabulous!