Year 1 Complete

Well, we made it.  I have officially been in South Africa for over one whole year.  It has been a year full of finding friends, a collective 28 days of diarrhea, an exhausting seven months of teaching English as a “first additional language,” a year of travel, a year of just utter chaos, and most importantly a year of adventurous happiness. 

I’ll be the first person to tell you that when I joined Peace Corps and was told I had a month until departure, I was beyond terrified and I questioned my decision to do it almost every day of that month.  I thought I would make it a year and want to come home.  In fact, I was just about convinced that that is what would happen. I didn’t believe in my ability to be away from home for two years and I didn’t think I would be happy being solo for so many hours during the week.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to talk and I love to be around people…pretty much constantly. 

PST (pre-service training) fed into this version of me since I talked to other trainees until 5 every day, spent time with my host family until 7 or 8 and then spent the rest of the evening glued to whatsapp. Moving to my site proved to be somewhat what I expected and everything more.  Did I struggle with my lack of social interaction? YES. Did I cry a couple of times here and there? YES.  Did I send an obnoxious amount of voice messages to my American and Peace Corps friends? YES. (And maybe I still do…) But finding the peace and happiness in being alone has overall been a good experience to show me that my friends will always be there but sometimes being happy with yourself means really being happy with….well, just yourself.

Another Peace Corps Volunteer recently did a blog post about her ups and downs during the first year and I thought that was a great idea! (Thanks Michelle!) So I’m going to steal it, with a twist.

As a true Hoosier….I give you the top 10 moments of my first year of Peace Corps Service. (Thanks David Letterman).

10.  Pam and Carl (my lovely parental units) visiting South Africa, receiving Venda names, hiking all over my mountain and then escorting me to Cape Town for a bougie vacation from it all

9.  Living with my host family in Moteti who gave me pap (a traditional African dish) every night and aided in my gaining of 10 pounds in just 2.5 short months by buying a 2-liter of Coke every night since they knew it was my favorite

8.  Waking up in the middle night (around 3 AM) with the worst stomach pains and only a few moments before disaster - with no time to unlock my door and burglar bars. I chose to desecrate my trash can instead of my pee bucket and well…I missed. #DiarrheaProbs #TMI (I know)

7.  Opening my library to 95 learners and having 20 learners in the library with a que of 40 outside the door on the first day

My "library" after I swept and moved some tables in

6.  IST (In-service training) where I had one of my many bouts of diarrhea and indulged in all of the cheese anyways

5.  Learning to wrap a baby on my back courtesy of my host mom (Lufuno) and my host brother who was 1 at the time

My library now

4.  Holding a menstrual health day for my girls and dispelling myths and stigmas about their periods

My girls with their signs of why menstruation matters

3.  Living without power for a month and half, cooking on the fire, and sleeping with 6 blankets since it was the middle of winter

2. Starting a CLUB GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)that makes my girls “happy to be a girl” (We cover topics like self-esteem, gender equity, healthy relationships, safe sex, goals and aspirations, and community change)

And the number one part to my first year of Peace Corps Service is….

1.  Meeting some of the best humans (Volunteers and South Africans) who support me in what I want to do, support me harder on my rough days, and keep me laughing and smiling for days

I’m sure there are a thousand other little moments that didn’t make my list like children yelling “ho naka” (you’re beautiful) as I sweat my life away on a run or the little moments of my kids understanding or finally participating or just lighting up my life in general.  Those moments are hard to tell stories about because there are just so many.  My kids are my reason for waking up and going to school every day and they are the absolute greatest.

I live in such a beautiful place.

With only a year left here, I keep thinking that I’m basically done but really my work is just beginning.  Within the next year, I plan to:

•       Hold a 4-day CAMP GLOW with a Let Girls Learn curriculum where girls will be further education on reproductive systems, teamwork, leadership, self-esteem, goals and aspirations, and how to lead a healthy life. 
•      Paint a World Map on the side of the school to increase global awareness and promote geography and social science learning
•       Hold a World Geography Day in which learners from all over the school interact with our new map with fun interactive activities
•       Zazi girls club for the secondary school girls – same general Let Girls Learn goals of GLOW
•       Roots Tribe Yoga – a yoga program aimed at getting the kids more comfortable, active and engaged in more productive ways of channeling their feelings
•       Teacher workshops – to share knowledge gained from workshops with the teachers at the school

So, there it is,  my past year in a nutshell.  Don’t worry, I’m still alive and well and I promise to TRY to update my blog a little more often from now on! One year in and going strong! See you in a year America!

And a shameless plug:

If you have any books that you no longer need, our library would love to take them from you! Just send it on over to my address here in Dzimauli. J Let me know if you are interested in sending books or school