My New Home

I know that it has been a long time since my last post, but things got very busy these past few weeks (and internet became very scarce). On 27 August, I had my last session as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). On 29 August, all of Group 11 (G11) was sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). On 30 August, all the newest PCVs were moved into our permanent sites, where we will live for the next 2 years.

For security reasons, I cannot post the name of my permanent site on the blog. I live near a larger town called Siteki, and I am right on the border of Mozambique. I live on the plateau in the Lubombo region, so the weather here is pretty interesting. My wall thermometer tells me that it gets below 50^oF at night, and not above 75^oF during the day. As we roll into summer, I know that will change, and it will get hotter.

If you were to picture Africa in your head, that’s probably what my site looks like. We have the tall brown grass, scattered few acacia trees, and the biggest sky imaginable. The mountains of Mozambique lie in the east, and the valley of Lubombo lies in the west. The views are incredible.

The wildlife is also quite cool. Though I have primarily been fascinated by the plants, the animals are nice too. Except the snakes. I saw a black mamba today. My Swazi counterpart, Nombuso, kept me from getting too close without seeing it, and then she laughed at me as I got freaked out until it slithered away. Make no mistake, folks, that was one big, deadly, scary snake.

My village has about 3,000 people and 410 homesteads at last count. I would classify it as peri-urban, not as rural. My community seems very motivated and excited to have me. I am the third PCV to be here, so they know a fair amount about what we do and how we work.

We have a high number of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), as well as many child-headed households. We have a preschool, a primary school, and a secondary school. We have 4 neighborhoods, and each neighborhood has a Neighborhood Care Point (NCP), which is a school and food center for OVCs. We have a clinic, 2 small shops, 2 small markets, and somewhat-regular buses. It’s a nice place to live and work so far.

The question from home that I have come to dread is: “So what exactly is it that you do?” Family and friends, I do not have an answer to that yet. For the next three months, I am in a period of time called integration. I will conduct a community assessment, which includes a homestead survey (census at each homestead), school surveys, teacher surveys, job shadowing, community mapping, listing of daily schedules, creation of seasonal calendars, key informant interviews with community leaders, and much more. Once I have an understanding of the issues facing my community, as well as an understanding of how my community prioritizes those issues, I will develop a project proposal and begin work. Only then will I have the answer to that question.

So far, I have not had any overwhelming moments of loneliness while at site. Pre-service training (PST) was harder for me emotionally than this has been. My hut needs a bit of work, so that will be a project for the next few weeks. After some new curtains, paint, furniture, and decorations, this will be a perfect home for me. I am so happy with my placement, and I see myself finding a way to live and work peacefully and happily here for the next two years. I will have bad days and bad times, but I will also have good ones, and that is what I’ll focus on.

I’ll do my best to keep you all more updated, but while I’m settling and moving and doing all that sort of thing, I’ll probably not be able to get to town to access the internet much. Not hearing from me is not a bad thing – it means that I’m busy at my site and I’m having a good time!