February 17, 2010
So I am officially 2.5 weeks into my stay in SA and my training. The days are very long, but the weeks have been surprisingly short. Though I’ve only been with my host family for 10 days, I feel like it has been months. The same can be said for training. I appreciate the process and I understand the necessity of it…but I am TIRED!
A glimpse in the life of Emily Birchfield, PCT:
6:00 a.m: (who would have ever guessed): wake up, run (walk) or do yoga
7 a.m.: bucket shower, get dressed, make lunch for the day, eat a breakfast which either consists of hardboiled eggs or cornflakes. The one exception came last Sunday morning when I woke up and my 19 year old brother informed me that he had made me breakfast. My immediate nervousness was warranted considering I walked to the kitchen table to find waiting for me a hearty sandwich filled with eggs, peanut butter, and bologna. Thankfully I’ve become an expert at reverting back to my 5 year old tendencies of pushing around food, hiding it in napkins and sneaking the gross stuff to the dog while someone is up getting a drink, meanwhile claiming “wow this is delicious!”.
8-10 a.m.: language class. I’m learning Ndebele which is a sister language of Zulu. I’m catching on, but it is seriously tough. There are three clicks (x,q,c) and the majority of the sounds are nothing like English or the little I know of French. My African name is Siongile, which from what I can gather means Thankful, but I could be totally wrong.
10-5 p.m.: training with the entire group. These sessions cover everything ranging from HIV/Aids technical information to stress coping mechanisms to safety and security. Although being with 40 intelligent and strong willed people all day can be extremely overwhelming, I’ve made a few good friends and will be sad to leave the group dynamic for the solo life at the end of March.
5-9 p.m.: come home, play with the various children who are waiting for me on the front step as I walk to my house, study Ndebele (kind of), help cook dinner (kind of), watch South African Soap Operas.
9-10 p.m.: read, write, sleeeeeeeep.
I got very lucky with my host family…they are very nice and welcoming, but also very hands off. I try to constantly remind myself not to act like the foreign exchange student my family housed when I was younger (she refused to try anything…I think it took me 10 minutes to convince her that she would like a grilled cheese). It is exhausting being a guest in somebody’s home who you don’t know and can’t easily communicate with, but my family facilitates the process through their welcoming spirits and desire to help me learn. I am looking forward to learning where I will be permanently placed at the end of March, but until then my days will continue to look pretty much exactly as I wrote above.
March 19, 2010
So I wrote that blog update a month ago, but as I was unable to fully access the internet until today (hooray!) I left it sitting on my computer. It was really interesting for me to read that one month later, and to see how much and also how little has changed since I’ve arrived. Firstly, I CANNOT believe that it’s already the end of March and that I have been gone almost 2 months. I remember arriving in SA and looking at the daunting training schedule they had given us, and thinking the end would never come. But, as it usually does, it came and now I’m sitting in my room fully connected and fully prepared to move to my permanent site on Wednesday of next week. I’m actually not moving too far from where I am now, and will be staying in a small village in central-ish Mpumalanga, fairly close to Pretoria and Johannesburg. I will be working at a Home Based Care organization that gives direct assistance to people living with HIV/Aids and TB, and also has a drop-in center for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), most of whom have been affected by the disease. I think I have a lot of work ahead of me, but as much as I’ve complained about training, I feel really equipped for the challenges and excited to begin tangible work that we have been discussing for the past 2 months (add on to that another 4 years of studying international development in college). I will be sad to leave my host family—they have been a huge source of joy and fun for me and have seriously facilitated the adjustment into the new culture, climate, and food (pap = gross).
Though all of this moving, visiting, observing, meeting, talking, listening, etc. is extremely difficult and emotionally taxing, I constantly have an overwhelming sense of peace and excitement about where I am and what I have the potential and have been given the ability to do. I think that is saying a lot for the girl who drove home once every 3-4 weeks during college!
I really really appreciate all of your letters and more often than not they get me through a tough or very loooooong day. My new address is:
Emily Birchfield
PO Box 3123
Empumalanga, South Africa
0458
If you feel like getting crazy, you could use my African name instead (maybe then packages won’t get stolen? Here’s to hoping) My name is: Sbongile Mahlangu
Missing you all daily and hoping that Spring brings you warm weather so that it can finally start to get cooler here!!!
Peace easy.
