Alive and Well

Hi everyone! It's been a while, I know. We've been busy. Election nite was spent with fellow PCVs in the capital city, Mbabane, watching the returns come in on CNN (we rented out a hostel with sat. TV) and it was a pretty amazing experience. But since then we've been busy visiting homesteads in our community and collecting information for a big report/study we wrote on Zombodze. That's finished (for now), though the visits will continue-- just not at such a furious pace.


The final component of our PCV training was a week-long event in Manzini: 5 days of training on proposals and project funding options, NGO networking, and just sharing info/ideas with the rest of our PCV family. It was exhausting but oh so fun, as we all got to stay together in a dormitory (at a convent). But now we're headed back to site, and we're excited about the opportunities that this training session revealed.

The rains have arrived and our garden has really taken off. we transplanted beets, tomatoes, and cabbage a few weeks ago, and everything's growing like crazy. It's a lot of fun to be in the garden, and now that the big report is completed we'll be able to hang out there a bit more. the landscape has shed its drab dry-season colorings for beautiful green fields and gardens. And the afternoon thunderstorms make for great sunsets. Lots of new baby goats and cows on the homestead, and fruit trees are beginning to show their potential, especially the peaches and mangoes.

For Thanksgiving we'll be joining some close friends/fellow PCVs at their homestead up in the hills. Their homestead raises turkeys. We have much to be thankful for this year.

More later-- just wanted to let you all know that we're still healthy and happy.