Life as a Peace Corps Trainee

Jess writes:

HAPPY EASTER! We’ve had a great (long!) weekend of movie watching and catching up on photos and blogs, so here’s another tidbit for your enjoyment:

We get lots of questions from friends and family about what we’ve been up to for the last 2 months, that is, from those that haven’t got all the updates over the last 2 months. Arrival to Peace Corps is a bit chaotic… we arrive in South Africa in the middle of the night and then we are herded off, as one big confused group, to some undisclosed location for “training” for 8 weeks… what exactly were we doing all that time…? Well, we’ve crammed a lot into the last 8 weeks and to help illuminate our “training” schedule, I’ve included a typical day in the life of a PCT. Here we go:

6:30AM- Wake (the roosters will usually help you with this quite early), rinse off in a bucket and empty your bath/rinse water into the yard (it’s kinda gross, but the chickens love to wade in the bath water – ha!).

7:00AM- Eat some breakfast (usually toast or cereal), pack a lunch (usually consisting of hard boiled eggs, bread, peanut butter, apples, and if you’ve prepared the night before… some noodles with veggies), iron clothes and dress for the day, tidy up the room, pack up training supplies for the day (including training guides & language materials).

7:45PM- Walk to language group meeting house (our walk was bout 15mins., mostly in the shade, but one dreaded hill in complete sunlight… ugh.)

8:00AM- Language (and sometimes culture) classes with your LCF (Language & Culture Facilitator) and 2-4 other PCT’s training in your same language (our language was Zulu and then SiSwati).

10:00AM- Meet up with other language groups at your town’s pickup points (ours was at the one stop sign in town where the tar road and the dirt roads converged), wait for Peace Corps coombies (aka, vans) to arrive… keep waiting… keep waiting…, witness “Rush Hour in Machipe” (massive herds of cows and goats down the tar road), keep waiting (they are usually late, if you haven’t figured that out yet)… board combies to go to SS Skhosana (a private nature reserve, which was wonderful!).

10:30AM- Arrive at SS Skhosana, shoo away the monkeys from the trashbins and windows, make coffee/tea, catch up with other trainees.

11:00AM- Morning sessions begin, usually facilitated by PC staff, current PCVs, and sometimes country nationals. Sessions include the following: 1) Technical (HIV/AIDS training, NGO development & capacity building training, and a focus on the role of the PCV in sustainable development); 2) CORE (South African culture and cultural sensitivity, South African systems of leadership & power, techniques for PCV integration and immersion, and other related “dos” and “don’ts” for the PCV); 3) Medical (PCV Health, PCV medications, and South African medical concerns for PCVs and country nationals); and finally, 4) Safety & Security (PCV safety & security, safety & security guidelines for global Peace Corps, and South African safety & security concerns for PCVs).

12:30PM- One hour lunch (much needed break at this point!) Lunch also usually involves monkey avoidance (they like to eat your leftovers and steal your Tupperware containers!)

1:30PM- Afternoon sessions begin (see above).

3:30PM- PAL (Practical Application of Language) time – meet up with your language group again (and sometimes join with other groups in the same target language) and practice language studied that day and other conversational skills related to the taking of your LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) at the end of training. I should note, this time is often spent teaching each other inappropriate phrases with grammar and vocabulary learned earlier in the day… yes, we are children… ha!!

4:30PM- Afternoon announcements by Victor (Program & Training Manager), Mojobe (Language & Culture Coordinator), Baragile (Homestay & Transport Coordinator), and/or Jeff (current PCV & technical support helper… person… not sure of the title).

5:00PM- Coombies back to Machipe & Bundu begin loading – this again, involved a lot of waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

6:00PM- Back to homestay, chat with families, wash lunch dishes, unpack training bag & new materials, and a bit of time to de-stress in your room.

6:30PM- Help in the kitchen, eat dinner with host family (usually consisting of chicken, pap, a mushy mixture of greenbeans and mashed potatoes, salted spinach, and a cabbage and carrot combo, sometimes also a sauce for the chicken and pap).

7:00PM- (If you eat in the TV room… and if you have a TV): British news on SABC2 (There’s only 3 primary channels in South Africa – SABC1, SABC2, and SABC3. They each have their own cultural taglines, such as “Mzanzi fo sho”, which loosely translates to “South African for real” – ha!)

7:30PM- Zulu news and local weather on SABC2 (we always hope for numbers below 34C and of course, rain!!).

8:00PM- “Generations” on SABC1. Okay, “Generations” is the longest running soap opera – or “story” – in South Africa and it is truly addicting!! They also have American classics like “The Bold & The Beautiful” (we can’t stand this one!) and Afrikaaner soaps, such as “7 de Laan” (Adam loves this one!). There’s also a slew of copy-cats of “Generations” that somehow seem to always fall short, such as “Scandal”, “Hopeville”, and “Zone 41”. The greatest thing about “Generations” is how much you can learn about South African culture or confirm about what you are learning in training. For example, the primary conflicts in the story during our training period involved a couple dealing with HIV/AIDS, an abusive boyfriend, a son who is gay, a fight between a biological & non-biological father, extreme alcoholism, and organized crime – whew!!!

9:00PMish- Homework, language practice, preparation for tomorrow’s training, and bucket bathes… Alright, bucket bathes work like this: you usually have two basins, a large one (3’ wide by 10” tall) in which you stand to collect the water and a smaller one (1.5’ wide by 6” tall) in which you keep your clean water for dunking (i.e., your hair) and soaping (i.e., your washcloth.) If you’re lucky, like Adam and me, we also had a bucket (about 5 gallons) where we would keep all our clean water for our final rinse. The whole process can take up to half an hour, especially if you have hair like mine to wash. All in all, you never get quite as clean as in a shower and it always takes way too long, but, as many PCVs have said, it’s sometimes more satisfying because you feel like you’re “really working for the clean” – ha!

10:00PM- Getting readying for sleep – this can mean adjusting your mosquito netting, moving your bath basins, getting clean water for brushing your teeth, and spraying Tabbard (a 100% Deet spray) throughout the room and avoiding breathing for a while – ick!

10:30PM- In bed, trying to fall asleep in the heat and humidity.

11:30PM- Usually asleep… hopefully! Here we go again!!!

So, as you can now understand, we’re pretty excited that Training is finally done. These three months of “Integration & Observation” won’t be any piece of cake… but anything’s better than that schedule!!

Hope all is well with everyone! Salani Kahle!