So I have officially been in South Africa for over six months! And to celebrate, SA29 went to a hotel outside Tzaneen for some In Service Training, which included planning a project with our supervisor, learning how to write grants, language training, resources, and scads of other things.
The trainings started at 8am and sometimes wouldn't finish until 6pm. Although it was great to learn about new resources, my favorite part was being able to see my SA29 cohort as a whole again.
Pictured: Catching up after three long months of lock down (aka, we weren't allowed to leave our shopping town).
While at IST, I realized that I had won the supervisor jackpot. My supervisor and I are extremely close, and spent the better half of IST planning our project (we're going to turn an abandoned house into our library/computer room/resource center), and the other half laughing our heads off. I realized at IST how lucky it is to have a supervisor that I can talk openly to, and one who can give his own opinions as well.
Pictured: Myself and my supervisor talking about the project we have implemented and hope to implement in the community.
Pictured: One of the Peace Corps Staff, my supervisor, and myself at the end of my supervisor's training at IST.
After three months of eating rice and beans, eating buffet style for every meal definitely caused me to gain 10 pounds. When I got back to school, all of my students, including the teachers told me I had gained weight, especially in my cheeks. In America, I would be annoyed, but here it's a compliment, they're saying that you look healthy. So I sucked it up and said thanks.
Pictured: An average lunch during IST. How I hated to come home to eat rice and beans again.
Another incredible part of IST was how beautiful Tzaneen is. The landscape was incredible, and the weather was at least 5 degrees warmer than what I have been used to. I spent a lot of my spare time running through the trails, hiking to waterfalls, and killing my legs on all the steep hills.
Pictured: The view from my room.
Pictured: Me next to a waterfall that was a 1.5k hike from the hotel.
Pictured: Me and Koko posing next to the waterfall.
Pictured: Me, Cat, and Katie taking a quick #selfie midway through a run.
Another amazing aspect of the hotel were the samango monkeys that hung out around the hotel. Samango monkeys are extremely rare, they are confined to the evergreen Afromontane forests of Southern Africa, which covers less than 1% of the land, so they are unable to branch out to other areas. If their habitat is destroyed, it is very unlikely that they will survive. On the bright side, the monkeys at the hotel were far from scared of humans (I was more scared of them), and at one point during language class, a samango monkey jumped on my table and grabbed another PCV's apple (while I went screaming in the other direction).
Pictured: Myself, and Courtney hanging out with a samango monkey.
Pictured: Steven watching a family of samango monkeys.
Although I am one of the only Peace Corps Volunteers in my cohort to have a TV, my TV is very finicky, and is usually just a screen of white and black fuzzies, I was very excited to watch the always popular soapie, Generations, every night on a flat screen TVwithout having to mess with the wires during every commercial break.
Pictured: Watching Generations.
Pictured: Shhhh, guys! Generations is on! You can talk again when the commercials come on!
Although it is winter, it can still get warm enough to lay outside and sunbath (sort of like Wilmington, NC in the winter). One our one "half day" of our ten days of In Service Training (yes we were in training on Saturday and Sunday), we all laid out by the pool, and enjoyed the sunny day.
Pictured: Just because it's warm outside, doesn't mean the pool is. Cameron questioning his decision of jumping in the pool.
Pictured: Me, Koko, and Pasha laying out in the sun.
Pictured: Enjoying some good music, good drinks, and good reads.
Near the end of the week, we were introduced to some amazing programs and resources.
- Brothers 4 Life - A program targeted towards men and boys as a club or a camp to bring awareness to medical male circumcision, correct and consistent condom use, and gender based violence.
- Zazi - A program targeted towards women and girls (mainly ages 14-24) as a club or a camp to bring awareness to intergenerational sex, dual protection (birth control and condoms), and gender-based violence.
- Grassroots Soccer - A program that uses soccer as a way to teach 12-18 year olds about HIV.
- Operations Hope - A program that teaches adults about finances.
- Souns - A program to teach young children to adults about letters to help them learn either their mother tongue or another language.
I cannot wait to implement these at my school, and in my community!
Now... back to reality with my always challenging, endearing, wonderful, and fun students.
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