Two Weeks

Dumelang! I have less than two weeks before I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer!

On April 2 I will be sworn-in and on my way back to Mafikeng, where I will live for the next two years. I am incredibly excited! (I should also have better Internet access once I'm in Mafikeng!)

This past week we had a Supervisor's Workshop to meet our new supervisors and then do a site-visit. The organization I'm going to be working with, South African Men's Action Group (SAMAG), is fairly well-connected in the community, so I was able to meet with various partners and board members. The office has 7 (now 8 with me) and it was so great to meet everyone. I am excited to get back there and get to work!

My Setswana language is coming along ... but where I am, the language of business is primarily English. I am still going to try to learn Setswana so that I can speak to people and surprise a few when I'm the American who can converse in Setswana!

In Mafikeng, I'm staying with a big family - mom, dad and 5 kids! The youngest kids in the house, Ororiseng, 9 and Realeboga, 5, are so much fun! I never had younger siblings, so it's been lots of fun to get to know them. They also speak English incredibly well; I'm so impressed!

Since I have had trouble uploading photos, here are a few pictures. There's my homestay, local school kids, tribal dancers and then a few from a Braai that Peace Corps had for us, it's like a bar-b-que.

Oh, and sorry about my green scarf being in two pictures! I actually do have other clothes, I just really love that scarf! And apparently the only time I take pictures is when I'm wearing it!

Much love,

Casey : )

p.s. I got a cell phone! The number, when dialing from the US is: 011-27-71-278-4962. The actual number is 071-278-4962, but you have to add the country code and such.

I wouldn't normally put my cell phone out there like this, but what are the odds someone will spend the money to prank-call me in South Africa?! (Or, in Setswana, 'diatura!', too expensive!)

My current Seabe homestay

Grade 1 schoolchildren at a Seabe primary school in the Mpumalanga Province

Tribal dancers
(If you look closely, you can see the pink feather dusters in their hands!)

Almost-Volunteers Nisah and Casey at the Braai

Almost-Volunteers Anne and Casey at the Braai

I'm Moving to Mafikeng!

Yay! So I found out my site placement! I'm going to live in Mafikeng in the NorthWest Province, about 2 hours away from Johannesburg (Joburg) and maybe 3 hours from Pretoria, the capital. The organization I will be working for is the South African Men's Action Group.


My tentative job description is this (as I'm sure more will follow!):

• Financial and office management training.
• Mobilizing the community in fighting men's human rights.
• Assisting in developing gender-based violence programmes focusing on male youth and adult men.
• Outreach programs on the role of men in the fight against HIV/AIDS, religion and culture.

I'm incredibly excited! It sounds exciting, interesting and challenging! Tomorrow we go to a Supervisor's Workshop in Rustenburg, NorthWest and I'll find out more then.

I'll also meet my Mafikeng host family this week. I've been told by my Peace Corps supervisor that I have a one-room building on the family's compound with .... (drumroll) ... a flush toilet! : ) I will also have electricity. For safety's sake, volunteers in South Africa are placed, in general, with host families, but in a separate house.

People have told me that Mafikeng is a decent-sized town with like three malls. Crazy, huh? That will be nice to have access to things in the town where I'll be living and working. In case you're interested, here is a link to the city of Mafikeng w/ more information. It's also close to Sun City, which is like the Vegas of South Africa. I'm pretty excited about the travel potentials!

Oh, and for fun, here's a list of ....

Things That Continue to Surprise Me When They Shouldn't:

• That no matter how many times I add curry to the rice and chicken I make, it doesn't make it restaurant-quality Indian food : (
• That the sheer will of me not wanting to get bitten by mosquitos will not actually make them stop.
• That when my host mother tries to call me by my real name, she calls me Kayzen... Close, but not so much.

Haha, so that's all for now : )

Peace,

Casey

South Africans Think I'm Funny! (Well, at least a few people : )

Haha, so this post is actually about where I may be going, but I thought that was a funny title : )

I was actually concerned that people in South Africa wouldn't think I was funny b/c I had heard that the cultures were more literal and I can be sarcastic. But I've found that facial expressions and physical humor seems to work just about anywhere.

So! Big exciting almost-news!

On Friday, we get our site annoncements! We had a big meeting yesterday and my language group, Setswana, will be in the NorthWest Province or Mpumalanga. I've included a map below, but the image isn't the best, so here's the link too.

Map of South Africa's Provinces

Generally, if we're in the NorthWest, it will be near the Botswana border, which equals desert! Yikes! With my fair Irish skin, it makes me a little nervous. BUT - they said the night gets chilly, so that's good.

Peace Corps provided us with these camel-colored fur blankets that, at first, I was like, 'wtf, we're in Africa' but now it makes sense. I joked that I may fashion it into a fabulous coat, ala Kwame Kilpatrick : ) haha.

More updates later on where I will be! My day to check Internet is Monday, so probably then.

Much love,

Casey : )

What I've Been Up To...

In case you're curious, here's the Cliff's Notes version of what I've been up to these last month:

• Met the royal family of the Ndebele tribe (in-deh-bell-ay).
• Moved in with my host mother, a 72-year-old retired teacher, who commonly refers to herself as an "old lady" - it's pretty funny.
• Started learning Setswana, one of South Africa's 11 official languages.
• Organized a Cooking Day to share recipes! Tons of fun and delicious too : )
• Attended my first African funeral or home-going as it's called here.
• Watched a dozen (and counting!) colorful African sunsets - seriously, they're all so beautiful!
• Saw a ton of stars in the night sky that seem so close b/c there is like no light pollution! It's gorgeous!
• Did my laundry by hand! (At first it was novel ... on week 4, it's getting tiresome. Do you know how difficult it is to hand-wash a bath towel?! Crazy.)
• Met the Seabe tribal chief.
• Ate a pomegranate! Seriously, I never did that before!

More later!

Peace and Ubuntu,

Casey

p.s. Everyone loves when I wear my Obama shirt - the whole world (or at least my new little slice of South Africa : ) is excited he's the new US president.

p.p.s. Related to the last post ... Eleanor is a boy : ( New name: Elea-norton ... ?