Posting at Last!

SA29 has been in country for 5 weeks now. Currently we are in the capitol of South Africa’s Limpopo Province, Polokwane, to meet our supervisors and head to our permanent site for the next two weeks as an introduction.  This post and the others posted today were all written about 3 weeks ago, this is just my first chance to post them.

            I would bet most of you are thinking, “That’s great Chris, but what HAVE you been doing over the past weeks?”

Well, here is a quick breakdown:

Upon our arrival at South Africa’s O.R. Tambo airport, after the 15 hour flight from JFK, we were greeted by our Country Director and Training Coordinators. We traveled to the Lowveld College of Agriculture, where we would complete the one week orientation all PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees) in South Africa receive. The orientation included learning greetings in common languages (Sepedi, Isindebele, Tshvenda, Xitsongsa, and Afrikaans), an introduction to Medical and Safety and Security (and the Peace Corps staff that run these divisions), and brief introductions to the material we will learn over the next 2 months to better serve our communities.

            A week later, we anxiously traveled to a small village in Limpopo province, near the Mpumalanga border to meet our host families: volunteers from the community who had graciously offered to host a PCT while they underwent the intensive 9-10 week ordeal known as Pre-Service Training. The previous day, our target languages were announced and we learned who would be our Language and Cultural Facilitator throughout PST. I was assigned to learn Sepedi with Lebogang.

            The following weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of intense language, medical, safety/security, volunteer awareness, and job training. Our first week was 6 entire days devoted to learning Sepedi from 8 to 5pm. It was incredibly tiring but extremely effective.

            Other than having a packed pre-set schedule from 8-5 everyday, I find time to run and workout with other PCTs living close by, and spend time with my awesome host family. I have host parents, host siblings, and 4 host nephews and 1 niece. My parents are retirees who spend their time caring for their grandchildren and most of my host siblings work full-time in Johannesburg or Pretoria, traveling home to visit  the family at month’s end.  Most evenings I am in bed by 9 or 9:30, after studying some Sepedi and preparing for the next day. I am up between 5:30 and 6:15, depending on whether I want to get some laundry done (by hand, of course).

            Other than the occasional trip to town to buy necessities, or trips like this one to Pretoria, what I’ve described is pretty standard. Over the next 7 weeks, we will continue with training until our Language Proficiency Interviews and final technical evaluations. Then, if all goes according to plan, South Africa Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Program Cohort 29 will swear-in as Peace Corps Volunteers on April 4^th.