Emily Wolfteich

Outside of the Pick ‘n Pay grocery store in the Mbabane mall, there is a whole row of Christmas trees, drenched in fake snow and trinkets, right next to a bunch of reindeer, who are themselves right next to a Santa Clause, in Bermuda shorts, playing a guitar. The oddity of it all, especially as we’re all swimming in our own sweat, makes it hard to believe it’s already December.

It’s December, and hot, and we are running out of water. Swaziland is going through the worst drought we’ve had since 1992; thousands of chickens and cows are dying because of the heat and the lack of vegetation; Mbabane, the capital city, is starting a water ration tomorrow that shuts off all running water between 6 pm and 6 am. It’s a scary thing, particularly given the consequences — with no crops growing, food prices are rising, and next year we’re concerned about all the implications that that involves, including kids dropping out of school because their parents can’t pay school fees, people not going to the doctor, and drinking contaminated water. It makes our situation as volunteers also that much more uncertain; though Peace Corps won’t let us go without water, it’s hard to envision how we can be effective in our jobs if we’re the only ones with water in the community, setting us even further apart from the people that we’re trying to serve. We look at the sky every day and wish for rain.

But in the meantime, we’re also keeping very busy. Two weeks ago we had an In-Service Training, which culminated in a very hot Thanksgiving feast at our Country Director’s house, where we all ate way too much and sat around feeling very plump. A plate of turkey and mashed potatoes and beans is very different in 96 degree weather than it would be at home. That following weekend, GLOW sponsored a march in Manzini against gender-based violence, a march led by our Swazi senior counselors and attended by girls from clubs all over Swaziland. How effective it was, I don’t know, but the girls had a chance to get up and perform for the other girls — two girls from my club performed poems about the power of girls that they wrote themselves, which of course made me beam in the back like I had something to do with it.

The following few days we had our Program Design & Management workshop with our Swazi counterparts. Though it was pretty much a recap of everything we’d already covered, it was very cool to work with our counterparts to set up an action plan for our project in the communities; the counterparts also got a chance to understand more about the Peace Corps design (less money, more action). My counterpart (also my Boys Reaching Out counselor) is a dynamo named Mbongwa, who’s dropping a few tracks in a few weeks, so queue that up in your iTunes! Best part of the week, though, was the unexpected company of the Namibian Army’s Men’s & Women’s Volleyball teams, with whom we shared a few dinners & a lot of snickering on the porch of our dorms.

After that (I literally haven’t been home in two weeks) I had the Senior Counselor’s Training for GLOW, where we met with those counselors who had been with us longest and were the most motivated. We helped to do a review of the GLOW camp that happened last year, and plan the Training of Trainers, the big counselor training that will happen in January. We had a one-day break for a friend’s birthday on Sunday, complete with slip ‘n slide (pool water & soap, being careful about the drought) and bouncy castle. And today begins a week-long camp for Boys Reaching Out, something that I’m really excited about but also will have to push the energy for.

The days go slowly, but the weeks go so fast here. In just three weeks I’ll be leaving for my first vacation in Durban, South Africa — an actual city with an actual beach — and will spend my first Christmas away from my family. It helps that, despite the music and the fake snow and the lights, it doesn’t feel at all like Christmas.

In Peace Corps, everything happens in intervals. So many weeks until the next training, so many weeks until the next vacation, so many weeks until someone’s birthday or a community event or a grant deadline. In January, we have training of trainers, and I will begin to write the new Peace Corps grant; in February, a jaunt to Cape Town to see Tiesto and Skrillex and Robin Schultz; in April, GLOW camp, in May is the biggest music festival in South Africa called Bushfire, which will happen right up the road from me; and in June, a dream trip for my birthday in Paris and celebrations back home, a celebration that will also include my one-year mark. So slow, yet so quickly.

This post has been more newsy than introspective, which is probably good from time to time; I wish I could write something more elegant, but my brain is too full of acronyms and to-do lists. So for now, I wish all of you a belated Happy Thanksgiving, an early Merry Christmas, and implore you to treasure that cold, because that fake snow? Mostly just glitter.