Pre-Service Training

• February 1 We arrive at Johannesburg and head to the town of Mokopane. We stay in Mokopane for 9 days. During those 9 days we are living in barracks, getting interviewed, and assigned to a "language group" which is very important, and could be pretty arbitrary, since what language you're assigned to determines where you'll be working and who with. Right now the two language groups that I've been informed of are Sepedi and Afrikaans (though there are a couple of other languages that might be taught.) Sepedi is a Bantu language of Northern South Africa. Afrikaans is a Germanic language (bought over by the Boers who settled in South Africa in the 19th Century, and is the most wide spread "home language" in South Africa. It is now spoken by both whites and non-whites) and should be much easier to pick up, but I'm not sure which way I want it to go or which way it will go.
  

• Feburary 10 We go to the next part of training which is the "homestay" where we're trained while living with a family. The entire group will be living in the rural Bakenberg area which i guess is kind of far from urban areas. During the homestay we are supposed to become as immersed in the host families' routines as we can and participate in the communites' activities.
  

• April 3 is the end of my pre-service training, after which I'm assigned to my project. At some point afterwards I will probably be able to access the internet and purchase a cell phone. And of course I can start doing what I came over to do!

My Travel Schedule

Slowly but surely a schedule of these last couple of weeks before my PST begins to emerge.

Jan 11, Friday Last day (i hope and pray) of working food service. I haven't had the best luck at paying jobs frankly, though serving coffee was a decent experience, customers and coworkers have been very friendly, and I have no big complaints aside from the size of the paycheck and my working food service with a college degree at the age of 24. Hopefully I can find a real job as soon as I get out of the Peace Corps, we'll see what happens.

Jan 14-19 My grandparents come in from Michigan to see my parents' new house and wish me a good trip. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Jan 27 I leave for Huntsville Airport in the early morning. After a brief stop in Charlotte, NC I go to Philly and arrive at 11:30 AM. After that registration and staging for the trip begins.

Jan 28 Staging courses all day except for lunch and evening.

Jan 29 Medical checkup and vaccinations then off to the airport. We go to Frankfurt, Germany first (long layover there, hope the group gets the chance to do something.) After that we head to South Africa and then to the training site.

Other odds and ends:

- everyone with a certain amount of justification asks what exactly I'm doing for the Peace Corps, the Peace Corps website describes the project here...

NGO Development and HIV/AIDS

The South African government has called on
all organizations to join the new"Partnership Against AIDS." This project
reinforces the capacity of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focusing on
HIV/AIDS and increases their effectiveness in serving local communities.

So yeah it's a bit vague. I suppose I'll find out more during training.