It's been awhile...

Wow, I realize now how long it has been since our last update. Well, much has happened--I will try to recount all of it.

We worked with some youth in our community to do a beauty contest...they did pretty much all of it, and without any outside funding, which is very unusual here. It was a lot of fun. They wanted to bring the youth together and talk about issues, including HIV, and they came up with the beauty contest as a way to do this. It was really cool.

Reid worked with a local Drama group for youth (Sibuko Salabasha) to prepare them for a competition that another volunteer was organizing. He taught health lessons over a twelve week period, and then they went to the competition. There were ten other drama groups throughout swaziland, and our group won first place! They were really incredible...and we don't know anything about Drama, so it was all them!

We went on our Cape Town Trip in April, and it was fabulous! We both finished our runs and got medals. Reid did the Two Oceans ultra marathon (35 miles) and I did the
Old Mutual half marathon (13 miles). We really enjoyed Cape Town. It is such a diverse city! We have gotten used to Swaziland, which is all one tribe of African people basically (except for us ^_^ ) and so going to Cape Town and seeing all the different races was really interesting. I wonder what effect it will have when we get back to the states?!

Now we are working on a workshop for the people in our community whose job it is to go to homes and do home-based care. Here, there are many people who put off going to the hospital or clinic when they are sick because of costs, or just don't know if their sickness is bad enough. (This happens in America too) but then when they wait, they get to a point where they can't use the public transport, and hiring a car to come and get them is way to expensive, so they are at home. Also, hospitals and clinics are very over-crowded, so home-based care is heavily supported here. Therefore, we are working with a clinic to train the people in the community that have been elected to care for the sick and teach hygiene. We will be teaching them basic sickness identification, prevention, and when to seek treatment. We will also be teaching about HIV and TB, and PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission).

On the Peace Corps Office side, we are working to get ready for the new group to come in (and saying goodbye to the last group). It is neat, because I think there are 7 people extending from the last group, so it will be cool to have them around. And I know everyone is excited about meeting the new group when they arrive!

We are also working with the High school doing the library thing. It could be awhile before that really gets off the ground, however. In the meantime, we found another group in our community doing drama (really, they found us) and we will be working on teaching them health lessons as well. It is really interesting how Swazis take to drama here. I would have never considered it before I left, but in a country where employment is so low, you have lots of youth that have lots of time on their hands. Also, in rural areas where most people don't have televisions (or electricity for that matter), drama provides a way for youth to come together, play, and discuss sensitive issues they might not feel comfortable just talking about. I am trying to embed some pictures we finally were able to upload...hope it works out. We are still trying to upload the video of our house...it takes a while because it is so big. We miss everyone, and it is weird to think we have already been here ten months!

Love, Brooke