Emafethi (Emma Fatty)

Hi, All!! I just copy and pasted a ton of your emails into a word doc onto my flash drive so that I can read them all at home and type and email to respond to all of your awesome questions!!!

So, here is my blog update to hopefully tide you all over until I can send emails back.

I know that you will find it hard to believe that I have discovered the Swazi equivalent of donuts. It too me about a week ans my Make taught me how to make them yesterday. They are appropriately named: Emafethi, pronounced Emma fatty (pretty much anyway). They are delicious. Here is a quick recipe:

# cups of flour = # tbs of oil = x2 #cups of sugar
 ->ex. 3 cu flour, 3 tbs oil, 6 cu sugar.

~tsp instant yeast and salt each.
 add all ingredients.
add water until dough is about the texture of pizza dough.

Let rise ~15 min.

Drop by balls (tablespoon) into boiling oil.

DELICIOUS!!!

Love you!!!

Send more emails!

In Swaziland and at the homestead

I have arrived!!! I tried to post the other day when I was in town but I had some computer issues. 

I am with my homestay family in a village near the town Nghlangano. I have a Make (mom), 5 boBhuti (brothers), and a Gogo (grandmother). My hut does not have electricity or water. I am living my life by candles and a very handy headlamp. I am finding that adjusting to this way of life is not actually that hard. It just takes a little bit of perspective, and getting used to.

I will write more later when I get another chance to come to town to use the internet. Please email me or post any questions and I will get back to you with answers.

How its gonna be...

I must admit that right now,  24hrs before I will leave for Philly, I am in copy and paste mode. Get every last minute thing done as fast as possible. However, for your sake I will try to make this post personal and interesting, instead of posting exactly what the PC has sent me.

Tomorrow, June 6th, around 12pm I will start loading the car with 2 years worth of luggage.
(Please, please, please feel free to call me to say 'bye' one last time. I will do my best to call as many people as possible, but that is a lot of people.)

Hopefully, all of my luggage will pass inspection. We are only allowed a total of 80lbs and 107 linear inches for our checked baggage. I have been trying to weigh as I go, but I'm not sure how accurate my measurements have been.

My flight leaves for Philadelphia at 3:15pm. I know that some of you are thinking, 'Philadelphia.... I thought you were going to Africa?!' What will take place in Philadelphia is something that the PC calls 'Staging'. This event lasts aprox. 33hrs, and is an opportunity for all of the new Swaziland volunteers to meet each other, talk about motivations, goals, etc., and of course to get a ba-jillion vaccines. Tomorrow we will all just check in, register, and turn in some forms. Tuesday is the big day for the 'clinic appt.' and ice breakers. We will have that evening free and go out for our last stateside meal for 2 years.

Wednesday the traveling begins.... at 2:30AM. No, that is not a typo. At 2:30am we check out of our Philly hotel and hop on a bus to JFK airport. Our flight for Johannesburg leaves at 11:30am. That is a 15hr 25min flight my friends! We will arrive in Johannesburg at about 9am on Thursday, June 9th!!!!!!
From there we will catch a bus to Swaziland, tack on another 5 hours. Expected arrival in Swaziland is 4pm!!!!!

HOLY COW!!!

We will start training right away, even though we will not be moving in with our host families until the 14th of June. That means that I will have a family for my birthday!!!!

During training my time will not be my own, and every second will be scheduled for me. This means that I will most likely not be able to contact any one for the first 10 wks or so of training. No news is good news.
As soon as I get a phone, or have a chance to check email, blog, or facebook you will all know.

Please POST QUESTIONS. I will check the blog late on Tuesday (providing there is internet at the hotel) and respond to as many as I can. Any questions after that will not be answered for quite a while.

I will miss you all SO much. <3

The Mail Situation

OK. It's really happening. I have completed my first practice pack and everything is looking pretty good. 

My official date of departure for staging in Philadelphia, PA is June 6th at 3:15 pm.  I will check in to staging that evening. The next day is full of vaccinations and orientation/motivation type meetings. At 2:30am on the 7th we will hop on a bus and head to JFK in NY to catch our flight to Johannesburg at 11:15am. 

After I get to Swaziland chances are good that I won't be able to send emails, update my blog, or phone for about 10 weeks. If the opportunity does arise I promise that I will post at least something short for you all.

Now, what you have been waiting for mailing info for my first 10 weeks. This bit of info also includes some good packaging tips, which you should heed. It's not uncommon for mail to be searched these tips will help reduce that possibility.

The Mail Situation:

Here’s the deal. Bring a few envelopes for those first letters you write before hitting up the post office. While you are in training (the first 9 weeks you are in Swaziland) you will be very busy. If you receive mail at this point, it will be sent to the Peace Corps Office in Mbabane (the capital city of Swaziland) and about 1-2 times a week the staff who oversee and run your training will bring the mail to you at your training site. So you will be able to receive mail and packages during training and it will be delivered to you. It would be very easy to send yourself packages before you leave America to the Peace Corps Office in Mbabane.

You will most likely be brought your package the first 1-3 weeks in training. So if you decide to mail yourself supplies, or you receive a care package, you will be able to get it during training. You will always be able to send mail to yourself to the Peace Corps office after you are an official volunteer; it just becomes a matter of getting to the capital to pick it up then hauling it back to your site. If you are very close to Mbabane, then it’s no problem to use the Peace Corps office as your primary address for getting packages. Some volunteers who do not live near Mbabane set up a post office box in a closer town.

After you complete training, you will be able to decide if you want an additional post office box. It’s a very easy thing to set up and volunteers who share a common shopping town often all decide to share a P.O box.

Here are some great tips for sending packages to Swaziland:

It takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for packages to make the trip from America to Swaziland, and in my experience three weeks is average. Flat rate boxes are probably the cheapest option from the US post office. Don't send things on expedited shipping, as they do not come faster than regular 'air mail'. If you send something through the postal service, use this address to have it delivered to the Peace Corps office:

Emma Wallis, PCT

PO Box 2797

Mbabane H100, Swaziland

AFRICA

Note the stressed importance of Africa on the bottom of the address, Swaziland shares a very similar postal code to Switzerland (SD) and it only takes one keystroke form a busy postal worker for your package to end up in Zurich instead of Mbabane. Adding Africa severely diminishes that possibility. Many people believe putting Christian symbols or phrases (i.e. “Jesus Saves”) on packages reduces the likelihood that things will be stolen in the process. In general, though, packages make it here intact.

However, if you do send something through a courier service (such as DHL) then you must use the physical address where the courier will drop the package:

Emma Wallis, PCT

Farm 188

Gate 256 Muzi Road,

Dalriach West, Mbabane

Swaziland

AFRICA

__________________________________________________________________________

Ok, Here we go...

I feel like my head is spinning.

I have finally given in to planning things. I have waited and waited as long as possible because I am worried that I am going to plan the rest of my time before Swaziland right away. This always happens, I put a few things on the calendar and the rest of my time is reduced to a few weeks or weekends. I guess I've realized now that time flies whether you plan it or not, so I might as well be productive and do fun things  (as long as I can remember to do other stuff, like smart packing). I know that my departure date is months away, but I am already worried about things like packing, and learning SiSwati.

I am also realizing, after spending the day with my pandora, that I am seriously going to miss my pandora music selection.

Oh, man... I'm going to SWAZILAND!!  I need to do more work on my packing list.

Finally sent my Aspiration Statement and Resume

There is so much to celebrate today!! I finally sent in my aspiration statement and updated resume. I don't know why it was so intimidating, or why it took so long, but it is finally done!  Luckily, I sent in my passport docs last week.

I feel like I am finally free now. I quit my job and essentially left Columbus about 3.5 weeks ago. However, I have had to travel back and forth every week since, and I have had all of this PC stuff to do. And now.... I'm free and it's Mardi Gras!!!

For some reason I felt like I had to essentially put everything on hold (especially everything Swazi) until I got my aspiration statement and resume done.

WooHoo! Now I have time to update my blog with more Swazi info and packing lists.

Surprise!! Swaziland!!!

Wow! I guess I have some more research to do. I will be a part of the first Non-Formal Education Project to go to Swaziland.
Any one else?