Six lions and two elephants escaped from a reserve in South Africa.
They are currently at large in rural Shewula. There have been no
sightings, but a cow corpse was found in “the bush” off the main road.
It has all the people of Shewula talking. Apparently, the best
defense against lion attack if you happen upon one is to either climb
a tree or make yourself look really big by holding your arms out. And
you must NEVER run. Reid and I just hope the escaped wildlife will
make its way into our reserve, so that our community can advertise
lions. That really brings in the business.
On a different note, Spring is here, and it feels like summer. Since
Swaziland is a monarchy, each community has a Chief that oversees the
community and reports to the King. Another duty of the Chief is to
decide and announce when plowing can begin. Shewula is a rural
community that is agriculturally based, and they depend on their maize
crop (corn) for their food supply the remainder of the year. Needless
to say, this plowing announcement is a big deal. I think it is about
to happen, because tractors keep driving around.
We are doing well, no more sickness, apparently it was just a stomach
flu or something going around. We have IST soon, and for Thanksgiving
we are all invited to the Country Director’s house to have
Thanksgiving dinner, so that should be nice. We miss everyone back
home, and we love hearing from everyone!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Ngiyagula (I am sick)
Today we are in Mbabane…we have been a bit sick, so we had to go into the Peace Corps Clinic. Not the swine flu or anything, but a stomach thing. Well, I was feeling better, but Reid wasn’t, so that is why we came. We are both doing good now, but Reid has to stay until his lab tests come back so they know by science he is ok.
Things have been busy recently. We have been working pretty much every day gathering information for our report due in November, and then this past week, we realized we still have to type our report…which is going to take some time, and we are still needing more information. During training, three months sounded like such a long time, but now I feel like we won’t be able to get anything done.
So, a few weeks ago, Reid spotted one of our Swazi child friends wearing a Joaquin Lady Rams jersey. For my side of the family, that is where Reid went to school, K-12. His graduating class was a total of 31. Small school. Anyway, this jersey just happened to be in Africa. It just happened to be in Swaziland, in the community we are staying, and showcased on a boy we have met and visit. It was pretty crazy. Reid’s mom has been sleuthing around trying to find out the exact path the jersey took. Apparently the original owner of the jersey is a girl in Rhet’s (Reid’s little brother) grade. Pretty phenomenal.
Mozambique is really close to our site, and we have clearance to take day trips to Maputo for shopping, which is uncommon, so we were pretty excited about it. Recently we have been so busy that we hadn’t considered going yet. We would like to go and see Maputo (and the Indian ocean) but right now the country is on Peace Corps restricted travel because there is an election about to come up. So we may be able to see it before Christmas, but we will see.
People are requesting pictures and video of our house (it is not a hut, it is HUGE), and as far as the pictures, the plan is to fill up our memory card, then send it to Reid’s mom to post, so the pictures might be a while. The internet can be pretty slow here, so that is just an easier solution. But, we are trying to take pictures…I really have to force myself, but I know I will appreciate it later. As far as our house, we are still waiting on our furniture, but when it is all put together, we will take the video.
I have sent letters out, but it seems that sometimes they arrive quickly, and others still haven’t gotten theirs, so if you haven’t, we love you, and miss everyone…We love getting mail and email, so it would be great to hear from everyone!
Early Happy Halloween!
Things have been busy recently. We have been working pretty much every day gathering information for our report due in November, and then this past week, we realized we still have to type our report…which is going to take some time, and we are still needing more information. During training, three months sounded like such a long time, but now I feel like we won’t be able to get anything done.
So, a few weeks ago, Reid spotted one of our Swazi child friends wearing a Joaquin Lady Rams jersey. For my side of the family, that is where Reid went to school, K-12. His graduating class was a total of 31. Small school. Anyway, this jersey just happened to be in Africa. It just happened to be in Swaziland, in the community we are staying, and showcased on a boy we have met and visit. It was pretty crazy. Reid’s mom has been sleuthing around trying to find out the exact path the jersey took. Apparently the original owner of the jersey is a girl in Rhet’s (Reid’s little brother) grade. Pretty phenomenal.
Mozambique is really close to our site, and we have clearance to take day trips to Maputo for shopping, which is uncommon, so we were pretty excited about it. Recently we have been so busy that we hadn’t considered going yet. We would like to go and see Maputo (and the Indian ocean) but right now the country is on Peace Corps restricted travel because there is an election about to come up. So we may be able to see it before Christmas, but we will see.
People are requesting pictures and video of our house (it is not a hut, it is HUGE), and as far as the pictures, the plan is to fill up our memory card, then send it to Reid’s mom to post, so the pictures might be a while. The internet can be pretty slow here, so that is just an easier solution. But, we are trying to take pictures…I really have to force myself, but I know I will appreciate it later. As far as our house, we are still waiting on our furniture, but when it is all put together, we will take the video.
I have sent letters out, but it seems that sometimes they arrive quickly, and others still haven’t gotten theirs, so if you haven’t, we love you, and miss everyone…We love getting mail and email, so it would be great to hear from everyone!
Early Happy Halloween!
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