1st Week of Training

We spent the first week of training at the college, and everyday consisted of being cold, REALLY COLD! If you were unaware South Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere, this means that during your wonderful summer months of May, June, July and August its WINTER here in South Africa!! I AM FREEZING!!!



Breakfast is served buffet style consisting of the following: Hot Milk, Coffee, CornFlakes (Unfrosted) and Jungle Oats.
After breakfast the 53 of us would meet in a large room and learn in a group setting about the following: History of South Africa’s educational system, Apartid, Cultural training, Safety and the role of a Peace Corps volunteer just to name a few things. The days were long and DRY, Peace Corps felt that these sessions were necessary.

Here is the room that we spent most of the day in this entire week.




Aside from that, each day we learned a greeting in each of the 5 languages that we maybe learning. Currently, I am still unaware of where I will be placed or what language I will be speaking. Peace Corps does a great job of keeping us guessing… I am not a fan of this. I like to know exactly where I am going and when, but in life things aren’t always as clear as you would like them to be. That being said I will learn to be flexible and adapt to my new environment.

We did get 2 tea breaks a day.. Heres me enjoying a fresh pot!! Yes I know that I need a HAIR-CUT!!! I'M WORKING ON IT!!




Lunch is usually served at 1pm, this consisted of: Rice, PAP, salad, beef and beets.
Dinner is usually leftovers from lunch, nothing special, but I did appreciate it.

MESS-HALL





I would take a shower after dinner and be in bed by 9pm, I blame it on the jet lag. The showers I WOULD TAKE LASTED ABOUT 45MIN. HAHAHA. Because, I had no idea what kind of situation I would be living in for the next 7-weeks of PST (Pre-Site-Training).
The day before Home-Stay we were given our target language (the language we were required to speak at our permanent site) I was lucky and was given ZULU. Now by this time we are still unaware of where our permanent sites maybe. There are 3 Provinces I could be placed in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Kwa-ZuLu Natal. Now that I know that Zulu is my target Language I have a pretty good Idea where I will be. If you don’t know your South Africa Geography Durban is located in Kwa-ZuLu Natal.
We were split of into out Language groups, here is some pictures of the group.

From left to right: Danny(On of my roommates), Stacy, Randall, S'ne (Our LCF), Tony (Stacy's Husband), Terry (Texas Tech Graduate) and Mike




Putting in Heavy ZULU Language work!!!







Tomorrow is the big day. The day I meet my host mother and sister.