Some Revelations

Hello, everyone! This is going to be a short post. I’ve been pretty busy with stuff lately (mainly my quarterly Peace Corps reporting form, building the foundation for a grant proposal I’m writing and studying for the GRE), so I haven’t had much time to do the necessary reflection to compose a decent blog post on a particular subject. ….plus, in typical ‘josh’ fashion, I sliced open my finger today while trying to cut the stalk off some sugar cane, so typing is kind of a bitch. 

It’s been over nine months since my Peace Corps group arrived in Swaziland. Nine months – especially nine months in a developing foreign country - is certainly enough time to discover some new things about oneself. So, I’ve decided to compile a short list of a couple revelations (mostly comical; nothing ‘deep) that I’ve uncovered about myself since arriving in the Kingdom. (Presented in no particular order) 

1: I won’t get PETA’s endorsement if I ever run for public office. Since I’ve arrived in Swaziland, I’ve killed my share of insects, scorpions and other unidentifiables. I’ve also slaughtered three chickens. During Pre-Service Training, we had to prepare a traditional Swazi meal. A portion of my group’s meal involved chicken. So, we procured a live chicken and it was left to me to kill it. I was supposed to saw the head off. I didn’t have any qualms with this until I was handed a rather dull kitchen knife to complete the deed. Still, I accomplished this with little hesitation. My only concern was trying to make sure the chicken died as quickly as possible and that I didn’t get blood on my shirt. One other group killed a chicken for their meal and, as I recall, they had a particularly hard time with it. Tears were even shed. At first, I was slightly concerned with my non-existent emotional reaction compared to the other group, but I just figured that I’ve already hunted animals for food and sport before, so this experience wasn’t new to me in the slightest. (Hence the lack of an emotional response) Since then, I’ve slaughtered two additional chickens, both for food.  

2: You can take me out of politics, but you can’t take politics out of me. I may be removed from the workings of Lansing & Washington D.C., but that hasn’t dampened my political appetite one bit. Shameless confession: One night, I intentionally woke up in the middle of the night to observe the 2014 Illinois Primary election results in real-time. I did the same thing with the Texas Primary. Yeah, it’s an addiction.

3: I finally sleep like a normal person. I never had a sleep routine back in the United States. I slept when I was tired and when I was able. Sometimes this was during the middle of the day. Sometimes I’d sleep for only 2 hours. Sometimes I’d sleep for 12 hours. Now, I rarely stay up past 11:00 PM and I rarely sleep in past 7:00 AM. I almost always get a full 8 hours of sleep no matter what. 

4: I’m no top chef. Yeah, I gave cooking my best shot. Often times, the only beneficiaries of my attempts to cook have been the dogs on my homestead. I’ve reverted back to my tried and true motto: “Whatever’s easiest”. 

5: I’ll always be one of those “involved” people. I was interested to see if my habit of being involved in organizations and ‘outside work’ would continue after graduation from college. Indeed, it did. In November, I was elected by my peers to the role of the Vice-President of PSIN (Peer Support and Identity Network). In that role, I’ll assist with the training of the new group of volunteers arriving in June and I also provide emotional and psychosocial support for my fellow G11 volunteers.  

  

6: I’m fiscally conservative. Not politically speaking, of course. There are some volunteers who really struggle living off of the allowance that Peace Corps allocates us. I haven’t had that problem at all. Honestly, I’d say I only spend about 60% - 70% of my allowance each month. Other volunteers ask me what my ‘secret’ is. Honestly, I really don’t think there is one. I don’t indulge my food cravings that often. My shopping town is a lot closer to my community, so I don’t spend as much on transport, and I don’t leave my site as often as most other volunteers. It just works out…

7: I absolutely loathe public transportation. No joke. Some of my worst experiences (albeit my best stories) have occurred on a khumbi or bus. The disgusting smells, absolute disregard for any personal space, over-crowdedness and over-abundance of rude and/or drunk people combine to form a pretty horrible situation, sometimes. Usually it’s not that bad, but the experiences are enough to make me dread the next time I have to get on a khumbi or bus.  

On an unrelated note, I will be leaving for Europe (I am visiting France, Spain and Italy with my mom and cousin) on Wednesday, so I probably won’t post another update until late April.

Stay well!