Strange.

It’s strange how you kind of start getting used to not so normal things. I’ll give you a few examples:

• At the school there are buckets filled with water to wash hands. I realized the other day that they were putting Listerine in the water as some sort of sanitizer. Hey, that’s not that strange? Why not? It’s supposed to get your mouth clean. 
• I’ve gotten used to now coming home to sand covering my floor (and most of my stuff) due to the excessive winds sweeping it under my door. I now just shrug my shoulders and crawl into bed. I’m too tired to clean it up again.
• When the power goes out (which it does now regularly due to the rolling blackouts), eating apples for supper and going to bed at like 6:30PM seems normal.  Actually, I don't go to bed that much later when the power is on if I have to be honest?  Not much night life here...  
• Carrying toilet paper with me at all times is terribly normal. In fact, I will pass this advice on to all incoming Peace Corps Volunteers. Strangely, I now sometimes take it from public toilets in the “city” when I am traveling. What if I need it?

Anyway, I actually encountered a not so normal situation yesterday. I came home from work to a goat at my house. Now, there are a million goats here. But this one was tied up in the yard. I asked my host father why? He casually said, “Because tomorrow we are going to slaughter it and offer as a sacrifice to the ancestors.” What?!

Yep. Today they killed the goat. All of the relatives came and there was a big celebration (honoring the ancestors) for one of my host father’s sisters because she got a job. Luckily, I did not witness the goat killing. But they did feel that it was necessary to show me the poor goat’s head in a bowl later in the day…not a pretty site. I almost lost my cookies.

Sadly for all of you I did not have my camera to take pictures of today’s celebration. Maybe if I’m lucky there will be another goat killing so I can take pictures. And next time it will probably seem normal? 

A New Comrade.

It’s been an insane week. One that I probably won’t forget.


Last Sunday, May 29, 2011, I completed the Comrades Marathon (www.comrades.com). This is a huge race here in South Africa that brings almost 20,000 runners from almost 60 countries together to complete an insane course – 56 miles from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Yes, that’s two back-to-back marathons in one day. I don’t really know why I thought I needed to train and participate in this year’s race – it seemed a bit like I was telling myself if I could get through this run, I could get through anything? Well, I am happy to report that I made it! And not only did I make it but I actually finished with a reasonably decent time – 9 ½ hours. This is about 3 hours slower than the fastest female (those ladies are crazy fast!) and three hours faster than the slowest finishers (and several thousand don’t even finish the race)? And, I ran the entire race (of course not my fastest pace but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other). Kind of like my Peace Corps service? :)

Unfortunately, about 30 minutes after I finished the race I learned that all of my things had been stolen at the start of the race. My backpack and all of its contents – my passport, money, credit cards, clothes, camera...and the list goes on.  So, after learning this sad, sad news, in my barely coherent state (my body was at its limit), my fellow Peace Corps friends helped me (literally) walk to the car where they let me borrow clothes (remember all I had was the running clothes I had just finished running many miles in), bought me a meal and a bus ticket to Pretoria for the next day where I proceeded to try to get all of my life back in order.  As I said, it's been an insane week.

Now, week later I keep telling myself it could have been worse – I am fine. It’s just stuff. But my faith has taken a bit of a beating. But it will slowly come back. And what helps is my wonderful friends and family. Thank you everyone for helping me out and reminding me what is important.  I love you all.

Oh and to see a picture of your newest Comrade (me)! you can check out my facebook page where my friend posted some pictures. 

Five Much.



Interns completing the self-assessment


I am in a frenzy. I have so many projects I can’t keep them straight. I think it’s a coping mechanism for me at this moment (I won’t go into details). Anyway, along with planning and fundraising for the camp (Camp GLOW!!) that I am extremely excited about (keep those donations coming...please!?! - see previous post if you would like to assist with this awesome camp), helping one of our centers build a new building, working with the school on various projects, day to day work at the centers like renewing NPO certificates, writing policies and procedures, annual reports and job descriptions...today I started an internship program at our centers called, “Achieve Your Goals (AYG) Internship Program.” After applying for and receiving a small grant last year which will provide the funding for this project, I have been writing manuals, buying supplies, accepting applications from possible candidates, and doing interviews.  Well, today we proudly had our first meeting with 12 young interns from the community. The kids who are participating in the internship are in grades 10, 11 or 12 and they will be helping at our drop-in centers while learning basic job skills. All in a day of the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.

Then I relaxed in my bucket bath. 

2011 Phedisang AYG Interns (and my co-facilitator)

One More Time!

Dear Friends and Family:


I am writing to ask for your support (again!) for an upcoming project. The project that I am seeking your support for corresponds with my girls club and is aimed at bringing a group of girls from my rural community together with a group of girls from a similar community in another volunteer’s village where we will then host a leadership camp (Camp GLOW – Girls Leading Our World) for the week. This camp is a unique opportunity for young girls to learn leadership development skills, while also focusing on issues of women’s empowerment, health, and environmental awareness. We (I am working in partnership with another Peace Corps Volunteer) truly believe it will be a life-changing week for these girls. 
My request from you is in the form of any financial assistance/donations to help with the overall operational cost of the camp – including lodging, transportation, food provisions, and materials/supplies. Through many of your generous donations (thank you, thank you!) I have raised a portion of the funds but am still in need of some additional funding. The camp is being planned for the July school holiday so we are in need of funding as soon as possible. No opportunities like this currently exist for the girls in our rural communities, and our goal is to create a camp that provides them with access to much needed information surrounding their physical and emotional health as well as providing them with a chance to gain much needed confidence...as well as just having a lot of fun!

I can be reached via email (wendydelta@yahoo.com) if you have any questions and I appreciate your consideration.
The easiest way to donate is to send a check (or cash if you are so inclined!) to my parents address and they will deposit in my account:

Betty Kingston
18535 E. Lawndale Place
Queen Creek, Arizona 85142

Best in health,

Wendy Kingston

Peace Corps Volunteer, 2010-2012

Community HIV/Aids Outreach Program

Limpopo, South Africa

Happy Easter.

I feel lucky. I have just returned from a wonderful Easter holiday visiting the beautiful country of Zambia. Home of Victoria Falls. I have to admit that as we were headed to the airport last week we all were a bit confused as to whether or not Victoria Falls was or was not one of the 7 Wonders of the World?  Unfortunately, I still don’t know for sure. There are now apparently several lists of said Wonders of the World…according to some lists Victoria Falls is indeed one of the Wonders. But it’s not on all lists. I had no idea there was such a controversy over this list?


Anyway, we had a great vacation. I traveled with a group of four other volunteers – Emily (who is another community health volunteer from my group) and then two education volunteers, Shilpa and Megan. The first exciting part of the vacation was getting to fly (we didn't use a public taxi on this vacation)!  It’s been a while since I have been in an airport and I was excited to be in such civilization…we had hoped to get to the airport early and enjoy the shops but ended up being a bit hurried (exchanging money and going through long lines) but were treated to drinks and food on the plane. We stayed at a great backpacker in Livingstone (in Zambia). The country definitely had a different feel to it than South Africa and it was fun to meet other Peace Corps volunteers staying at the backpacker – some from Zambia and also from Nambia. We swapped stories and enjoyed hearing about some differences (and also many similarities) of our experiences.

Seeing Victoria Falls was amazing – one unfortunate part is that we were there during the “high season” which means that there is just so much water it’s difficult to see much of the actual waterfall. You just see white puffs of mist/water. It’s still pretty spectacular but doing things like white water rafting or some of the other water stuff is just out of the question. You can walk through the water “mist” and get totally soaked which was fun and then we walked to the bottom of a trail to see the view from the bottom (and watch people bungee jump from the bridge - which I did not do.  Sorry).

We enjoyed a sunset cruise down the Zambezi River, crashing a couple of the very nice hotels during the day to enjoy their pools, views of the falls, and food, as well as a game drive in Botswana where we visited Chobe National Park…and also ran into Chuck and Michelle (the couple that I have vacationed with during my last two vacations)! Surprisingly we stumbled upon them while we were having breakfast before our game drive in Botswana (totally unplanned) and then got to enjoy spending a couple of days with them before we left (I am just meant to vacation with them it seems)?!

I really do feel lucky that I have been able to travel in such an amazing place. I don’t know how one could see all there is to see in a lifetime here in Africa. But I will certainly do what I can and enjoy every minute.

Enjoy my pictures (I still have to get some from Emily but this is a start)! 

Today.

I must share my day with all of you out there (well, I know my mom is reading this anyway...hi mom)!  This morning I woke up at my normal time – too early (you don’t want to know). It’s been cold (yes, cold!!) and rainy here so getting motivated to run in the morning can be challenging. But I am on my final month of training for this insane run. Anyway, in the name of Peace Corps safety we all have to get burglar bars installed when we move into our rooms. Burglar bars are these awful, ugly prisoner looking gates and bars on our windows and doors. So you have to first unlock your door and then unlock the gate (prison like bars) to go outside. This morning I was ready to go outside for my run (first to use the pit toilet to be completely honest) and was trying to unlock my outside gate when a funny thing happened. The lock wouldn’t open. It was stuck. I was locked inside my house. For the first 10 minutes it was amusing. After 20 minutes I was getting panicked. What do you do when you are locked in your house? Call the police? Or just start yelling? I figured at some point my host family would get up and see me. But that would be a couple of hours…and I really had to go the bathroom? So I started getting more aggressive with the stupid lock and, luckily, after another 30 minutes or so and by a complete miracle the gate just clicked open. I can’t tell you why. But I’ve never been so happy to get out of my house. I really had to go the bathroom by that point.  But now I am scared to lock it again.  What if I can't get it open tomorrow?  This is a real problem. 


Unfortunately, on my run I ran into Patrick. This is a guy who keeps turning up for some reason. First it was on a taxi where he declared his love for me by telling me I “rocked his world” (understand he had never seen me before – sometimes you just get people telling you they love you). Then I see him again walking to one of my centers. He again says that he loves me and that I need to just “try to love him.” I said that I didn’t really want to try to love him. So this morning he asked me why I haven’t been visiting him? Really?

But, then, my day took a fantastic turn for the better. Today I started to get the school connected to the internet (I now help a couple days a week at the primary school in my village – I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this?). I helped them figure out how to use their modem on their one computer and we set up their email account. They practiced sending an email - they were so happy! The idea that they could send information without having to drive it to an office was like magic…it was just such a fun teaching moment.

And then I had the opportunity to sit with the principal and talk about the challenges that the teachers/school face (let me tell you there are some enormous challenges). It was a really great conversation. I have been quite impressed with his candor and honesty. He said that for him it’s more important that the learners at the school understand the information they are being taught – not just that the school has a high pass rate (which may be a larger challenge I’m starting to learn). He was saying that there is so much pressure on the teachers to just pass learners but yet there are so little resources for the teachers when they need help if learners aren't performing (and not to mention physical resourcs).  We then moved into talking about the challenges of South Africa in general and I asked him if he saw a fix to the challenges/problems. He feels strongly that education, particularly for those in leadership roles, is what will move this country forward. Thus, his emphasis on teaching and education.

I end my day proud to be in South Africa. Challenges and all.

St. George.

Last week our group (otherwise known as SA21 – the 21st Peace Corps group to serve here in South Africa) gathered for a mid-service conference in Pretoria. It was an opportunity to reconnect, reflect and then look forward.  We only have a year before we have to decide what we all will do next? It was really good to see some of the volunteers that I hadn’t seen in a long time and be together again – the group you arrive with really becomes your extended family (all of the good and the bad)! Being here puts you in this heightened state of awareness and really helps you see what you want (or don’t want). Sometimes it can be amazing and other times it can be a bit overwhelming. I don’t know that I have it all figured out but I’m glad I was able to be in some good company last week. Plus, I got to take unlimited showers and eat a lot of food.
And, even better, I got to come back home to my amazing community and host family that I love.