We're Home!

For those of you that are still following our blog, I thought I would write to let you know that we made it back into the country on December 17th at about 10am. We have now had 2 days being in Lexington and it will definitely take some getting used to! We went to the mall yesterday, not knowing what we were in for; Super Saturday was overrun with people looking for last minute items for Christmas and I was unprepared for the hustle and bustle of this, now, foreign culture of mine. I purposely, all be it naively, thrust myself into the world of consumerism far to soon!
It is now 5:20am and I've already been awake for 1 1/2 hours; I can't seem to rid myself of the jet lag. Unfortunately for those that want to see me in the evenings, I am a miserable, worn-out mess by the time we get together. I get tired at 7pm and get up at 4am, this makes for a fabulous night person!
Coming back has had its share of pleasures and heartaches; it has been great to see my friends and family, but something is different this time. I've heard people, after a trip of significance, say that after their trip they felt profoundly different and wished that others could understand, but now I know it first hand. I feel vastly different from the man I was prior to my leaving, but I come back to a home, aside from the blanket of snow, that feels largely unchanged. This incongruity has been a challenge and a burden for the last two days. I know I'm newly back to the culture in which I left, but I can't help feeling an emotional pull for the other side of the world.
With that said, this transition back into American life has been harder than I expected, but I think my anxiety is abating slightly each day. I can't expect to jump between, literally, two contrasting fields of vision without certain repercussions. I have been encouraged, however; the sweets here are much more to my liking!

Coming Home Soon!

I’ve been singing Christmas music for 1 week now, but still haven’t been able to conjure up the typical nostalgic vibes. Not only is it pretty dang hot here (my tan is getting pretty nice J), but I also find out that you all back home are having a good ol’ fashioned snow storm and I’m not there to enjoy it! How long has it been that we had significant snow amounts in December and it happens to be in the same year that we decide to not be around! Anyway, we began packing for home this past weekend and it was a bittersweet feeling. For one, I’m so looking forward to coming home to the Christmas feel and the joys that home brings, but the concept of home seems to have changed. This place has given me such a feeling of purpose and an opportunity to be fully in touch with myself, that it is proving difficult to leave. One thing is for certain, my aspirations have been augmented and my determination for seeking my goals has been enhanced. I think that I am coming back a changed man; perhaps not so changed that I am different at first sight, but distinctive upon probing. I now find that it will take me a lifetime to live up to the desires I have for myself, and an equal span of time to contemplate what’s warranted the change.

-Ben

Update on Psychology Work with Snap

I thought I would write a little blog to just to keep you up to date with my volunteer work for SNAP (Swaziland National Aids Program). On Wednesday, December 8, 2010, I went to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, to meet with the King’s Cabinet members to discuss some data that was collected to better understand the prevalence of stress and anxiety within the health care community. The government had hired a company to collect and analyze data for their study of over 2500 health care workers/participants from all over Swaziland. I was contacted by the office of the Swazi Minister of Health to come to a meeting, as an outside consultant, designed to overview the data and develop protocols to enhance the government’s psychological care. My assessment of their 85-page manual was that it was pretty lacking and I offered to take a more in depth look into how to make the data tell us something useful. Reluctantly, during the meeting I had to inform the other members of the cabinet (the ones who originally collected and analyzed the data) of some noticeable holes in the data. The team took my suggestions on ways they could clean up the data, but in the end, I noticed that the data, previously analyzed (by an outside source), needed to be revised. Seeing a need from the team and the possibilities of brushing up on my stats, I agreed to reanalyze the data. I plan on working on some validity and reliability studies once I get back stateside and then sending them my findings. I’m looking forward to continuing my relationship with the Swazi government and hope to, perhaps, get a publication out of the data.

-Ben

Why can’t we ever have an uneventful road trip?

We woke up yesterday and wanted to watch Harry Potter 7. We decided to drive to the nearest movie theater to watch said movie. The nearest theater is 3 hours away in South Africa. We suffered through slow Siteki internet, as usual, to find directions. We left Mabuda. We came back to Mabuda. We got all the stuff we forgot and left Mabuda again. We got lost but said that we planned the detour. We drove an hour out of our way. We found the road that we were supposed to be on. It was a dirt road. The Gracia doesn’t like dirt roads. We took another “detour”. We made it to the border post. We got a bad border post official. We couldn’t get into South Africa. We got a good border post official. We can stay in South Africa as long as we want now. We followed a cow through the border gate. We got stuck behind a wedding processional. They were swerving through both lanes of the highway. We passed them. They weren’t happy. We followed another cow on the highway. We turned toward Nelspruit onto a dirt road. Did I mention the Gracia doesn’t like dirt roads? We turned back to the paved road. We took another “detour”. We went another half hour out of our way. We got to the movie theater. We were 3 hours early. We left the movie theater. We called a backpacker’s hostel to find a place to sleep. They didn’t answer. We called again. They still didn’t answer. We called again. Ditto. We called another backpacker’s hostel. They also didn’t answer. We called again. Take a guess at the result. We drove to the first backpacker. My computer battery died. It had the directions on it. We took a wrong turn. We justified it by looking at the nearby restaurants. We found the correct road. The backpacker’s hostel did indeed exist. We got the last rooms they had. It was more expensive than we wanted to pay. We found another hostel. The Pakistani that I talked to scared me. We decided to go with the first hostel. We went to watch HARRY POTTER 7! The air conditioning in the theater was out. We watched it anyway. Before the movie started we quickly recapped 6000 pages of Harry Potter for Eric. Eric was still confused the majority of the movie. We left the theater very happy. We gorged ourselves on pizza. We went back to the expensive backpackers. We tried to stay up late. We only made it to 10pm. Ben wasn’t so lucky. He had an in-depth conversation with a Zimbabwean with aspirations to be an international businessman/televangelist. For two hours. He went to bed. Grace told him off in her sleep. We got up in the morning. Apparently there was a huge thunderstorm the night before. I slept through it. As usual. I wore a hat because I didn’t want to shower. I went to breakfast. I didn’t make it to the kitchen. The Zimbabwean international businessman/televangelist thought I was Ben. I didn’t realize this until it was too late. Blasted hat. An hour later I ate toast. We left before I had time to brush my teeth. We backed out of the parking lot. We realized we had a flat tire. With one of our “new” tires. I brushed my teeth with my newfound time. We put the doughnut tire on. It gets a lot of use recently. We went to get Fix-A-Flat. It doesn’t work for tires that are off the rim. Our tire was off the rim. We bought it anyway. We went to a tire store to get the tire fixed. It was closed. We went to another tire store. It was also closed. It was Sunday. Everything is closed on Sunday. All the traffic lights were out. The storm apparently knocked out all of the electricity. We went to a gas station to pump up the tire. We worked for a half hour to get the tire back on rim. It didn’t work. We went to another gas station to try the same tactics for getting the tire on the rim. Why we thought that would work is beyond me. We found another tire repair store. It is open 24/7. It was closed. Remember the electricity issue? We went back to the second gas station to try to get the tire on the rim. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It worked this time. We were happy. We pumped up the tire. It still didn’t hold air. We had a mini meltdown. We went to McDonald’s. We were happy again. We went to the grocery store. It was closed. Still no electricity. We tried the Fix-A-Flat. It didn’t work. We put the doughnut tire back on. Did I mention how much use it gets? We decided to drive back to Swaziland. On the doughnut tire. Ironically, the doughnut tire is the most reliable tire we have. We tried a new “shortcut” back to Swaziland. It wasn’t a shortcut. We turned around and tried another shortcut. It was a shortcut. We got to the border gate. We had a good border gate official. We were through the gate in 5 minutes. No cows blocking our entrance in to the country this time. We got pulled over at a traffic stop. Eric said he was a doctor and they let us go right through. We got back to Siteki. All tires were still intact. Except our “new” one. We passed the place that sold us the tire. We weren’t happy with them. We went back. We asked for a new tire. They actually gave us one. We were happy with them. We saw a small child riding in the back of a truck. There were 8 goats in the truck with him. Welcome home.

-Brad

Sorry we have been so late in updating the blog, but we have put up many new pictures and 3 new blogs. Enjoy!

Update on Ben's Work with SNAP!

SNAP(Swaziland National AIDS Program) Psychological Care and Support Unit is the governmental group that I have been working with for the last few months and I wanted to give you an update on what I have been up to! I work with a team of psychologists and psychiatrists from around the country to understand and develop stress management techniques for health care workers assisting the HIV/AIDS population in Swaziland. We have collected a large amount of data from over 2,000+ participants in all 4 quadrants of the country and I am part of a smaller group that is working to analyze, critique, and draw conclusions from the data. On Dec. 8th I will be traveling to Mbabane (the capital city of Swaziland) to meet with other government officials along with King Mswati III's council member, the Minister of Healthcare and Social Welfare, to display our findings.
I've really enjoyed my work with them, though it has been short-lived, but really hope that this meeting goes well. I've also addressed the council on trying to set up a way to continue my work with SNAP as an outside contributor to which I have received positive vibes!
-Ben

Update on the Garden

For those that are keeping track of the progress of the garden, we are in our last 2 weeks of work for Brad and myself so we are at a fever pitch to get many things done prior to handing off the job. Brad and I just completed the focal point project for the garden which is a large waterfall that flows into a series of 3 different pools on its way to the avocado garden. Brad has 2 men working with him planting ferns, lilies, vines, trees, poinsettias, etc. I have 3 other men working with me on all the hard scape work. We have just put in another two sets of steps, leveled the area that is the future site of the cabana/barbecue area, and preparing for the massive set of steps leading up to the main terrace. We are also in the process of routing a 1/2 kilometer pipe from a distant dam to the upper waterfall (first of 3 main waterfalls in the feature) as well as putting a 4 kilometer fence around the perimeter of the garden.
With the water collection system in place, we are now able to provide the farm and community approximately 10,000 liters of water per day in the dry season and 10,000 liters every 6-10 hours in the rainy season.
We are starting to recognize the debilitating effects of the weather now. We lost a our work day today due to a massive amount of early morning rain and it looks like the rain will continue tomorrow as well. We are working 9 hour days and 6 days a week now trying to complete these major projects before we leave.

One thing is for certain, we have had a great time putting our blood and sweat into this project and will probably want to come back to Siteki in a few years to see its progress!