Visual Evidence

The homestead. Notice the tree that blooms despite no rain.

Chaco tan lines are the best.

Moving in continues...

My awesome "bathroom."

The permanent hut.

The surrounding area.

Fellow PCVs.

Swearing-in.

My first attempt at hanging a mosquito net.

My training hut.

Training homestead.

View of the South African mountains from my training homestead.

As promised, some pictures to satisfy your curiosity of what I see every day.

Again, some logistics (get used to this sure-to-be recurring blog feature. I’m an organizational freak):

I’ve added a literary feature to my blog. It is entitled “Swazi Read Along”. It’s basically my own personal African book club that all are invited to join. I will try to update as often as possible and if anyone out there in that strange cyber world actually is reading in tandem with me, feel free to send me a note (snail mail or electronically), I’d love to have some rousing intellectual banter. When one lives in a hut, options for stimulating discourse are limited to one’s own subconscious.

Here’s what I’ve read so far, and if it seems like a paltry number, I concede to the fact a) Ayn Rand was read during training when making it through 10 pages felt like an accomplishment before falling into a dead slumber at 8:30 b) new hut + electricity = enjoying the wonders of my netbook a little too much.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

What is the What by Dave Eggers (highly, highly recommend – Incredibly compelling story about one of the Lost Boys of Sudan)

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

I’m currently reading: Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plague by Paul Farmer (Thanks to Jack for this book – very relevant to my work here)

On deck:

The Ugly American by William J. Lederer & Eugene Burdick

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Another note on my reading habit. I love magazines and have found that addiction to not be satisfied by my Peace Corps budget. So if you are looking for something to send me, interesting articles are greatly appreciated. The Economist, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, New York Times Magazine – all fantastic places to look. Also, anything that strikes your fancy from the New York Times; I’m sorely missing my daily fix. Anything and everything Middle East is always a good bet.

Other non-literary care package ideas include:

-Trail mix

-Granola

-Cliff/Luna/granola bars – I’m a big fan of anything combining chocolate and peanut butter. Also dried cranberries.

-anything and everything Burt’s Bees

-Lindt chocolate – the milk chocolate bars with raspberry filling are my favorite (and yes I concede to the fact that these will most likely perish in the African heat. I don't care. I'll drink them out of their packaging.)

-Pictures of you. I hastily put together an album before I left but I’m definitely lacking in visual memories to put on my wall. I want to see all your smiling faces when I wake up to my roosters every morning.

-Practical surprises that fit into a flat rate box

Also, to my fellow recent college grads out there, I have a request to make of you. Since I know every single one of you check your email ad nauseum, I’d ask that any of you whose school emails are either defunct, soon to be defunct, or for all intensive purposes, defunct by default of your own doing, PLEASE send me the email addresses that you are using permanently. Feel free to include a nice note. No pressure.

Love from khombi land