Heita!!!

Today I bought a modem for my computer so I can connect to the internet. When I first applied to the Peace Corps I never thought that I would be able to say that sentence, and I now have more modern technology in South Africa than I did at home. The whole internet and phone thing is still in a pain in the butt because its all pay as you go and really expensive for a Peace Corps volunteer, but I will try to update as much as possible and keep you all back home in the know about my life here in beautiful South Africa.

For starters, six days from today I will officially become a Peace Corps volunteer. We have a big ceremony and on the same day my amazing younger sister turns 16 years old, I get to take the same oath of service that presidents and elected officials have taken for years before me. I guess that I always knew this would happen for me, but it seems like quite the accomplishment now. Peace Corps training is unlike anything I have ever done in my life, and probably anything I will ever do. Its one part intensive language learning, two parts cultural and technical lessons, and a dash of Peace Corps policy and procedure. Mix in group dynamics, homesickness, culture shock, and a pinch of illnesses, and what you have is the perfect concoction for getting ready for what will be the toughest two years of my life, without a doubt.

I should touch on the language aspect of training because I have gotten a lot of questions about how learning the language is going. Like i said in my last post, I am learning Xitsonga, or Shagaan, they are interchangeable, and might actually not be the same, but I am still a little unclear on that. It is going okay but learning a new language has never been easy for me, I took French for 6 years in middle school and high school, but still I don’t think I could accurately construct a logical sentence. So I can’t say that I am instantly picking up on the language, especially because I am not exposed to the language frequently, yet. Still, I guess I am doing better than I thought. The Peace Corps gives language assessments to test where we are at in development, and the final LPI (Language Proficiency I…) is an important step in becoming a volunteer. The official Peace Corps policy is that you have to pass, in South Africa, with a rating of Intermediate Low or above. The rating is based on three levels, with three stages in between, with a fourth level constituting full fluency. The levels are Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced, with Expert as the highest. The first three levels are broken up into low, mid, and high stages. Like I said, in SA you need an Inter-Low to pass and not have to take the LPI again. During my training I was given a mid-term LPI to test where I was at, and I fortunately scored an intermediate-low, although I was very shocked to find this out, and was skeptical at how my limited knowledge and telling the tester three separate times about how I like to play soccer in Xitsonga constituted this grade, but I was still very happy with the results. What this basically means is I was at the level to pass the language test three weeks ago, now I just need to hope I haven’t digressed in my learning and can maybe even improve to an intermediate-mid or high. I still have a lot to learn, and I pretty much know enough Xitsonga to sound like a 2 year old, my hope is to get up to the vocabulary of a pre-schooler by the time I am at site for three months. Haha…

As training ends I move on to “real life” in South Africa. I will be working in a local community in North Eastern Mpumalanga near Kruger National Park working in a Community Home Based Care and Training Center, I’ll call it Zig. Zig serves the local community by providing home care to orphans, vulnerable people, and child headed households, as well as providing support and assistance for those living with HIV/AIDs and TB. My organization provides food parcels to over 200 orphans in three local communities and school uniforms to those unable to access necessary funds. Zig also has a large hydroponic garden that serves as an income generating activity, and they are looking to expand to develop gender related topic training and workshops. I hope to serve on the latter two projects, and help build capacity within the organization to establish notoriety and sustainability. I am thrilled to be working with the organization because it is headed by driven and passionate young men who are looking to impact their local community. I still don’t have all the details about my complete role as a volunteer within the organization, but my supervisor is going to be an incredible asset for my life, and hopefully we can enable Zig to gain support and increase their programs to strengthen their community and impact their local region in raising awareness.

I am not quite sure what else to say, but I will have regular connection to email, so if you were too lazy to write me a letter, or even if you did and I didnt respond...because I didnt and I am sorry for that, writing letters is hard and I was pretty busy for the last two months, but please send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as I can. My email address is Matt The Bennett at Gmail Dot Com. I am up way past my bed time, it's 9:30 here, but I hope that everything in your life is going well. Ohhh, and if you want to send me a package that would be absolutely awesome. I am constantly craving anything American here, so if you can put it in an envelope and it will be able to withstand the heat and abuse of Africa mail send it to me. I think skittles would be awesome...maybe some beef jerky. Idk, whatever you think would be good. I will also try to post some pictures when I get the time and energy. I need to end this though, its getting far too long. Peace Out.