Arrived and Safe

Swaziland is beautiful.

Training looks like it is going to be really intense, but right now the Peace Corps has been letting us rest.  We have been traveling on only 2-3 hours of sleep per night for a few days, but last night I got to sleep for 10 hours.

We are currently staying in a dorm-style setting at a training center, but that is going to change on July 2^nd, when we go to one of two villages to train. Health volunteers go to one, and youth development volunteers go to the other.

There isn’t much to say yet, as I haven’t been here long. My group of volunteers contains the most amazing people. The food is fantastic. The country is welcoming, gorgeous, and totally not that cold for it being winter. The people who defined cold have probably not seen winter in Indiana.

I’ll post more when there is more to say. For now, everything is fantastic.

Next Stop: Swaziland!

Well, this is it, I guess. All goodbyes have been said, everything has been packed and loaded, my room is cleaned out and my things are neatly stored, and I will soon spend my last night at home.

Tomorrow, I leave for Philadelphia, with takeoff at 6:59am. Wednesday morning we leave for South Africa (Johannesburg) to catch a connection to Matsapha, Swaziland. Then training begins.

You won't hear from me for awhile. This is normal, and is no indication of how I am doing. Immersion is very important to cultural understanding, and being on the internet writing home is not a part of immersion. My contact with home will be extremely limited during training, and I will probably not post on here or Facebook for a few weeks.

Training ends with a swearing in ceremony in August, and I should resume blogging and emailing and Facebooking at that point, living conditions permitting.

I'll talk to you all later from Swaziland!

Starting to Say Goodbye

On Saturday, May 11, 2013, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biological science from Butler University. On graduation day, I said goodbye to the university that had come to not only feel like home, but was home. I said goodbye to the halls of Hinkle Fieldhouse, where I had played countless games as a member of the basketball band. I said goodbye to the Butler Bowl, where I had marched for the final time as a member of the marching band. I said goodbye to Fairbanks, where I had spent hours over the years practicing for that next speech or debate tournament. I said goodbye to Jordan Hall, where I had taken classes from philosophy to education. I said goodbye to Lilly Hall, where band rehearsals, Kappa Kappa Psi rituals, and hangouts with friends had happened. I said goodbye to Gallahue Hall, the place where I first fell in love with science (most especially biology) and eventually completed the education to become a biologist. I said goodbye to the Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building, where I started to learn what being a public health professional could entail. I said goodbye to the carillon, the pond, the Holcomb Gardens, the mall, Star Fountain, and everything else that makes Butler’s campus what it is.

Saying goodbye to the place that is Butler University was hard, but saying goodbye to the people I have met is even harder than that. There are the professors who, regardless of department, helped me to realize not only who I am, but who I want to be and how to get there. Most especially, my mentor, Dr. Ryder, who has given me all the tools I need to succeed in whatever I do, wherever it is. There are the brothers of the Alpha Beta chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, who pushed me to be a better person and musician than I was before. AEA, brothers. There are my friends in the sciences that helped me to survive many a boring lecture or lab (Zach Jones and Adam Davis, I’m thinking of physics!). Beyond those amazing people, there are my best friends that I found through fate and kept through love. Ryan Pscheid, Jacob Wade, and Kelli McCubbins were the best friends I could have asked for, and I can’t even imagine where I would be without them.

With my college experience at Butler already visible in the rear view mirror, the time is approaching when I must say goodbye to Bloomington and all the memories it holds. Friends from high school that stuck with me through college (Rita Cripe, TJ Root, Eric Billingham, Kyle Bristol, and many others) will hopefully continue to stick with me in the future. My other half and best friend of almost 19 years, Brian Inlow, has helped me to become who I am today, and I know that us being apart is part of growing as individuals and building a lifelong friendship. Although leaving friends is hard, leaving my family is yet harder. My parents have provided guidance and support to me my whole life, and this is the farthest I will ever have been from them and the longest that we will be apart at this point in our lives. Cameron and Connor and I have always been a little trio of trouble, and I will miss our nights playing games, talking, and eating all the food in the house.

That final goodbye will come in just three weeks. 21 days from today on June 25^th I will board a plane that departs at 6:59am for staging in Philadelphia. At 3:00am the next day, a bus of all the Peace Corps Swaziland Invitees will depart our hotel in Philly for New York, where our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa will depart at 11:15am. After one very long flight, we will land and depart by another plane for Manzini, Swaziland and arrive around lunchtime on June 27^th.

It’s crazy to think how quickly this journey is approaching. I hope that in the next 21 days I build some basic SiSwati language skills, knowledge of HIV, ideas about HIV/AIDS health education, general understanding of the Swazi culture, and great memories from here at home. I know that I am leaving to start saving the world (one country at a time!), and that excites me, but I’m also a little scared. We’ll take these last few weeks one day at a time and savor every moment.

I know this post is long. I'm sorry. I may or may not ever learn the art of brevity.