The end of the world as I know it

I’d been sitting for nearly 3 hours in the ice box of an office tucked away at the back of the community meeting hall, patiently flipping through the pages of my Lonely Planet guide to East Africa and fantasizing about white sand beaches and temperature-controlled buildings, when the indvuna (chief’s headman) finally called me in to speak. The last time I formally spoke to the chief’s inner council of elders I nervously introduced myself in forced SiSwati. Now, two years later, I stand with confidence in front of strangers turned friends, bow subserviently and avert eye contact with men as though it’s second nature, and say goodbye to my community in relatively fluent SiSwati.

An hour later Peace Corps showed up at my house, loaded all my bags and boxes into a Land Cruiser, and drove me away from my community. By Friday afternoon I’d taken care of all my final paperwork and medical check-ups and whatnot, and I had my official “ringing out” ceremony with Peace Corps staff. (Immediately after which I chipped my tooth and had to make an emergency trip to the dentist before my dental insurance ran out at 5pm. It takes real talent to be so accident prone, but I maintain it’s better than having injured myself on my first day WITHOUT dental insurance.)

So, exactly two years (to the day!) after swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am officially unemployed. I’m proud to have made it two full years and, though I’ve certainly had my ups and downs in Swaziland, I can’t think of anything I’d rather have done than Peace Corps, anywhere I’d rather have been than Swaziland, or anyone I’d rather have spent the last two years with than my host family, my fellow PCVs, and all my Swazi and expat friends.

Friday night I celebrated my Close of Service with a bunch of friends at the Bholoja concert at House on Fire. Bholoja is a Swazi musician whose music I LOVE but who I hadn’t managed to see live until that night, so it was a perfect way to end my time in the Swaz. (He’s apparently been nominated as Best New Artist for the African Music Awards or something, which is pretty impressive. Check out his music!) I closed down the dance floor just after 4am Saturday morning, bid farewell to friends I won’t see again until my return to the Swaz in December, and returned to my homestead to spend a few final days with my host family.

Unfortunately, though, it’s Umhlanga (Reed Dance) time, which means that everyone is either gone or busy. Mkhulu and Gogo have gone to a funeral in South Africa, and all of the older boys from the homestead have either gone with them or are staying with their fathers for the week. Both of the older girls, Zandile and Londi, are up in Lobamba dancing for the King, and I haven’t seen the younger girls since early last week. So it’s just me, my one Sisi, baby Mpendulo, and Eliza for the next few days. I guess I’m okay with that though. I’m horrible at saying goodbye so maybe it’s easier to just have people be gone. I’ll see them in December, anyway, right?

So I think this is the last bit of love I’ll be sending from the Swaz…

Thursday morning I’m off to the Jo’burg airport to fly to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Then Friday morning I’ll take the ferry to the island of Zanzibar, where I’ll be taking my first of two Swahili courses until the 17^th of September. Then I’ll either hang around Zanzibar/Dar Es Salaam until the 25^th of September, or I’ll take the bus up to Nairobi for a week or so to visit old friends and the kids at Mama Ngina’s Children’s Home. My intensive Swahili course in Iringa runs September 27 to December 17, and then I return to Swaziland from December 20 to sometime the first or second week of January. I’ll keep posting Blogs entries and photos and whatnot from my East African adventures but, for now, that’s all.

Love from the Swaz!!

-Phindile/Justine

Michelle and Peter McCubbin from Pasture Valley Children’s Home hosted a going away party for me and Jenn Ritchey (the one in the blue hoodie), who’s been working at Pasture Valley for the past 3 months and who will be going to Zanzibar with me. The kids sang a bunch of songs as a farewell to us (but it was dark so most of the pictures didn’t come out), then we ate lots of unhealthy food and drank wine and watched bad movies. My idea of a perfect evening. This picture is Jenn Gaspers, Jenn Ritchey, and me.

Of course I took pictures of the food! Brandy Balls from Pick N Pay. Imagine the densest, richest chocolate cupcake ever, topped with sprinkles and a dollop of whipped cream. Amazing.

For the past month or so there’s been a bunch of drama about KFC selling Halaal chicken. KFC and many other restaurants/foods have been Halaal (basically like Kosher for Muslims) for YEARS, but Swaziland apparently just took notice of this and decided it was cause to make ignorant and hateful comments about Islam. The Swazi Times has been running articles about how Halaal foods are un-Christian, and Swazis being interviewed have said that Muslims are trying to convert everyone to Islam by tricking them into eating Halaal foods. There was public outcry, lots of factually incorrect editorials, and then a decision to make KFC restaurants sell both Halaal and non-Halaal meats, which is just ridiculous. A couple weeks ago, as a result of this drama, a local church taught a lesson about Muslims and Halaal foods during its Sunday morning sermon. When I asked someone after the service what they’d learned at church that day, they said, “I learned that I hate Muslims and that Christians should not eat at KFC.” I love that the Swazi version of Christianity promotes ignorance and hate.

This article, published sometime last week, says:

“Christians complained of the following:

· Rituals from another religion imposed on Christians

· Franchise (KFC) has violated their constitutional freedom of choice

· Franchise has shown disregard and disrespect of the Christian faith

· Franchise has violated their constitutional freedom of choice

· The religion behind halaal is being made standard for all”

Last Saturday I went hiking at Mahamba Gorge near Nhlangano with the Jenns, a British volunteer named Becca, and my friend Shaun. According to Lonely Planet, it’s the only thing other than the casino to do in the Shiselweni region, so I figured I should do it before I left. I still wonder whether the supposed trail actually existed, but it was a pretty fun hike and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I admired this tree’s determination to grow out of the rocks so much that I took a picture of it.

Me sitting on a rock at Mahamba Gorge. After the hike, we took a peek at the rooms at the relatively new Mahamba Lodge. The whole place is solar-powered and built in a luxury version of the traditional Swazi way, which is cool. They also happened to be full of ladybugs, which I see as a bonus.

One of the girls from Pasture Valley Children’s Home painting colors at Nhlangano Central Primary School. They did a great job, but I still have to go back and do some edging before I leave on Thursday (because I’m a perfectionist).

Friday night’s Bholoja concert at House on Fire with Jenn Gaspers and Becca. I’m wearing a black and pink strapless dress that I made on Monday night (before donating my sewing machine to Pasture Valley on Wednesday) when I couldn’t sleep because of the malaria prophylaxis I’m taking. I believe in making productive use of insomnia…

Me, Alice (a British volunteer at a school in Mbabane), and Laura (a Finnish intern at the Mbabane City Council) celebrating Alice’s 21^st birthday at Quartermain’s Restaurant in Ezulwini Valley. I had sushi on both Wednesday and Thursday nights because, well, it’s good and I had cause to celebrate and friends who wanted to accompany me.

I don’t know why, but I always found this particular brand of fruit rather entertaining. “Don’t worry! Eat Fruit.” It’s a good philosophy, I think.

Eliza’s doghouse, almost finished. Please note the new and improved interior which I’ve painted light blue with green polka-dots. I also wrote “I love you, Lize!” over the door on the inside, so if she ever learns to read she’ll know that I love her. At the meeting with the inner council last week, the chief instructed the whole community to be nice to Eliza after I leave, to let her onto their homesteads and into their kitchens to stay warm during winter, and to give her porridge or bones or anything else they have to give her as a way of remembering me. How very un-Swazi…

Me and baby Mpendulo Siyabonga “Noah” Khumalo. He’s finally starting to recognize himself in pictures, I think, because when I show him pictures of us together he laughs. When I come back to visit in December, he’ll be an expert walker! (He tries now but hasn’t yet mastered the art…) It’s crazy how fast they grow up.

Baby Mpendulo Siyabonga hanging out on my front steps. Things to take note of in this picture: (1) Baby has TEETH! (2) Baby is also not wearing pants. Apparently he’s of the age that they just let him urinate and defecate anywhere he wants, which is why I shut him outside. Last time he came in, he pooped on my floor. That’s just plain unsanitary. (3) The waist-high brownness on the house behind him on the right is dirt, not paint. That’s just how high the dirt blows. (4) There is a baby goat entering the thatch-roofed rondavel in the background.

Mission Accomplished!

Finally, 5 months after funding my big community garden and water project, it’s FINISHED! Mostly.

So far, we’ve found and repaired an existing borehole, installed an electric pump, made and set up a 30,000L capacity water tank, and created a network of 850 meters of underground water pipes leading to 3 taps. We also secured a donation of treated poles and wire mesh fencing from the local Rural Development Fund, which is all we’re waiting on for the completion of the project. (The Sisters at Our Lady of Sorrows Mission will oversee the completion and maintenance of the project in the coming weeks.)

Fifty-one members of the support group participated in the completion of the project (mostly in clearing trees and digging trench), and approximately 376 people will directly benefit from the project (this excludes the families of the people who will directly benefit).

All things considered, it’s a success and I’m leaving Swaziland happy.

I’ll say one final THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make the project possible. Without your donations, several dozen families in my community would still be without water, the high school’s agriculture department wouldn’t be able to do practicals for their classes, and my community’s support group wouldn’t be able to start their community garden. It may not seem like much to you all in America, but it means a lot to the people in my community. (And to me!)

So, in the name of 100% transparency, I’ve adapted (shortened) the answers to my final report and copy-pasted them below, along with the final budget breakdown for the project so you can see exactly what I spent my money on and what the community contributed.

1. What happened during the project? Did the community accomplish its goals?

The goal of this project was to provide members of the local HIV-positive support group and their families with the land and water resources required to maintain a large community garden, and to improve access to clean water for dozens of families in the surrounding communities of Shisizwe and Eposini. As originally proposed, the project was to finance the construction of a fence surrounding the garden, the drilling of a borehole, and the installation of a hand pump and underground pipes to carry water from the borehole to a 5000-liter capacity tank in the garden. Since this original proposal, however, it has evolved to become part of a much larger project supported by Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Mission. While the merging of this project with the work of the mission has significantly altered the proposed budget and slowed the process of the project’s implementation, it has also greatly increased the number of project beneficiaries beyond what was initially envisioned.

Following several months of unanticipated delays, project implementation began in July of 2010. In a meeting with the local traditional leadership, the sisters from Our Lady of Sorrows and I learned of an existing borehole in the vicinity of the proposed new borehole, and were granted permission to use this existing borehole for the proposed project. Subsequently, several tests determined that the quantity and quality of water in the existing borehole was satisfactory, and the focus of the project shifted from the drilling of a new water source to the refurbishment of the existing one.

The following week, support group members and a local contractor began the labor required for the completion of the project. While the contractor cleaned the borehole of twenty years of tree roots and replaced the existing rusted steel casing with a stronger PVC casing, support group members worked for several days to clear an 850-meter path through the forest between the borehole site and the support group’s garden. A team of six men was then hired to dig 850 meters of trench, half a meter deep, along the cleared path to lay pipes connecting a 3 10,000-liter capacity water tanks with three taps. The tank stands, tanks, and taps were installed during the third week of project implementation and, finally, connected to an electric pump.

The previously defunct borehole now provides water to three different populations within the Shisizwe and Eposini communities. The first tap, installed in the support group’s garden, provides support group members with the water required to plant vegetables. Second, as many as 40 families in the surrounding community now have access to a tap providing clean water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing. The third tap, installed in a plot of land reserved for the agriculture department at Our Lady of Sorrows High School, will provide water to several classes of high school students studying agriculture, allowing them to practice in a garden the skills they learn in the classroom as early as next term. In this way, the project has been very successful.

However, though the goal of improving the community’s access to water has been accomplished, as of mid-August the project as a whole remains incomplete. An application requesting a donation of 250 creosote-treated poles and 800 meters of chain-link fence from the Rural Development Fund, submitted in April 2010, has been processed and approved, though the support group has not yet received the promised items. Thus, the construction of the fence surrounding the proposed garden has been delayed until these items arrive. In the meantime, the support group has constructed a temporary barbed wire fence around the garden so that they can begin plowing and planting. The poles and fence are anticipated to arrive at Our Lady of Sorrows Mission by the end of August, at which point the support group’s executive committee and the sisters from Our Lady of Sorrows will oversee the construction of the fence and, with it, the completion of the project’s original goals.

2. How did the project build capacity? What new skills did your community gain from this project?

From its conception, this project has been a learning experience for everyone involved. In their role designing and managing the implementation of the project, the six members of the support group’s executive committee gained valuable skills they plan to utilize in implementing future projects. They gained practice in dividing and delegating tasks, in monitoring the progress of project implementation relative to the planned timeline, and in keeping accurate financial records for the successful and honest completion of a project of this scale. They also learned, by necessity, the importance of setting and adjusting project goals as a means of evaluating the progress of a project.

Furthermore, the project helped familiarize everyone involved with the resources available in the community to support similar projects in the future. The support group’s chairman, secretary, and treasurer were actively involved in drafting, revising, and submitting several proposals to the local Rural Development Fund, as well as the weekly correspondence updating the local traditional leadership on the progress of the project. By helping with these aspects of the project, they have now gained the skills and the confidence needed to apply to the Rural Development Fund for a loan to start a large-scale chicken coop income-generating project they hope to begin in the coming months.

In the longer-term, the completion of the project will contribute to the support group members’ understanding of nutrition and gardening techniques, and to their ability to provide balanced meals for themselves and their families.

3. How will community members sustain the benefits of the project or recover recurring costs?

As long as the borehole is in working condition and the garden is being farmed, the benefits of this project will be sustained. To this end, the sisters at Our Lady of Sorrows Mission will be vital to ensuring that the project continues to benefit the support group, the school’s agriculture students, and community as a whole.

While there will be recurring costs associated with the project, including the maintenance of the borehole and the cost of electricity to run the pump, the mission, the clinic’s head nurse, and the executive committee of the support group understand that it is their responsibility to ensure that these costs are covered. A small portion of the support group members’ monthly fees will be set aside to cover the cost of electricity, and each homestead using the tap as its main source of water will pay a nominal fee each month. Additional costs, including the cleaning of the borehole every few years and other incidental costs, will be covered by Our Lady of Sorrows Mission and the Southern African Bishops’ Conference.

And here’s the budget breakdown. The “Partnership Contribution” chart is what the money I raised actually paid for, and “Community Contribution” is Our Lady of Sorrows Mission, community members, and the local Rural Development Fund.

Partnership Contribution

Item	Unit	Quantity	Unit Cost (SZL)	Total Cost (SZL)	Total Cost (USD)
Borehole pump test		1	3,400.00	3,400.00	451.23
PVC casing		1	12,280.00	12,280.00	1,629.73
Surface pipe and fittings		1	12,670.00	12,670.00	1,681.49
Pump and installation		1	20,000.00	20,000.00	2,654.28
Pump installation (labor)		1	3,000.00	3,000.00	398.14
Transport of materials		1	1,500.00	1,500.00	199.07
Trenching and backfilling (labor)		1	6,600.00	6,600.00	875.91
Cement	Bag	12	87.00	1,044.00	138.55
Tank installation (labor)		1	1,500.00	1,500.00	199.07
Transport of tanks and tank stands		1	2,400.00	2,400.00	318.51
Securing wire	Roll	.53	84.40	84.40	11.20
Total Partnership Contribution				64,478.40	8,591.69

Community Contribution

Item	Unit	Quantity Needed	Unit Cost (SZL)	Total Cost (SZL)	Total Cost (USD)
Land	M2	4761	10	47,610	6318.51
10,000L PVC tank		3	8,650.00	25,950.00	3,443.93
10,000L steel tank stand		3	9,880.00	29,640.00	3,933.64
Securing wire	Roll	.47	75.60	75.60	10.03
Cleaning of borehole		1	60,000.00	60,000.00	7,962.84
Cutting of large trees (labor)	Days	5	250.00	1250.00	165.89
Labor (clearing forest, fence)	Hours	450	25.00	11,250.00	1,493.00
Total Community Contribution				175,776.00	23,327.84

Total Project Costs

	% Contribution	Total Cost (SZL)	Total Cost (USD)
Partnership Contribution	27%	64,478.40	8591.69
Community Contribution	73%	175,776.00	23,327.84
Total Project Cost	100%	240,254.40	31,919.53

So that's all for now. I'll post photos of the completed project as soon as I track down my Memory Stick reader, which I think got thrown into the suitcase I'm storing in Mbabane until Wednesday. But I promise they're coming!!!

-Justine/Phindile