Well ladies and gents, it's the moment we have been waiting for (maybe you too), we have made our move to our official place of residence for the next 2 years, Ka-Langa. A few things have happened between this moment and last Sunday, so here are the highlights. Everyone moved back to SIMPA so we were not lonely anymore, we both passed our language proficiency test, Grace squeaking by while Sean passed with flying colors, and we received our bank cards, so we are a little less poor than before. The day before the big move (last Thursday) we had our swearing in ceremony. Now, if Sean was writing this post you would have loads of detail about the entire process, who all spoke, what was said, what we wore, and why we worn it. Unfortunately for you this is Grace speaking who rarely gets caught up in the details and only on occasion has a good joke. So bummer for you. But the event was very nice, lots of pictures were taken, we ate too much and we are now officially Peace Corps Volunteers!! The day was followed by a party at a local pub. Many partied like it was their last chance, and I guess it kind of was for a while. The morning after (Friday) we were taken in groups by Peace Corps staff to our new homes, some more enthusiastically than others, probably due to the previous night.
We arrived at the Dlamini’s around 10:00 am and piled our stuff into the house. Sean and I decided we wanted to purchase as much as we could the first day. Luckily Babe had no problem with our American mentality and told his daughter to drive us to Siteki. Within 2 hours we had purchased our bed, small fridge, portable oven, and sleeping pads (to build our couch). We bought lunch and waited for our Sisi to come pick us back up. At 1:00 pm we were back home, and from then until 4:00 we literally just shifted stuff around in circles in our home. We still have plenty to do but it is coming together. Make arrived around 5:00. She is a lovely women who works very hard for her family. Her English is perfect and one of her first questions was if our parents were coming to visit her. We said yes, pressure is on folks!
Today we woke to cold weather. And then it rained! Cold and rain were not what we expected in our area of this very small country. Our friends living near us told us to enjoy it while it lasts. Babe wanted to take us to the umphakatsi today. We were told we would be introduced at 11:00. Around 12:45 Babe introduced us and that was that. Sean understood what Babe said in siSwati and we agreed he introduced us very well. Our goal (and what other volunteers have promoted doing) is to do one thing a day. Much of our time structure will be a complete failure here, thus one thing a day is a win. Today was a win, starting off strong in Ka-Langa! We arrived back home and I put on long johns and gloves – for real this 60 degree weather is nothing to joke around with! After more shuffling of our stuff we took a walk in the rain to the store to purchase more stuff to shuffle. It was obviously successful because over the last 2 hours we have baked cookies, banana bread, and pancakes.
Tomorrow the only thing on our agenda is to go see our Sisi sing in church. We are counting it as our one thing, no judging. Hope all is well with you, we love you. Pictures attached are from the swearing in ceremony, pub party, and part of our home.
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