I finally have more details about where I am going and when I am leaving. I will be saying goodbye to my family July 9th before I get on a flight to Atlanta, GA to report for staging with the rest of the departure team heading to South Africa. We will be in Georgia until July 11th. From there we will all get on a 15hr 50min flight directly to Johannesburg, South Africa. From there we will get on a bus and drive a little over three hours to Ndebele College of Education in Siyabuswa in Mpumalanga Province. We will be here for our first eight weeks of training. The first week we will stay in college style dorms before moving in with a host family for the remainder of training.
My address during training is:
Kelsey Lynch
Peace Corps
PO Box 9536
Pretoria 0001
South Africa
Who knows how long it will take for me to actually get mail, but if anyone wants to send me letters they recommend that you number them so I know if any got lost in between.
During the first week of training (which includes taking classes Saturday and Sunday) we will learn greetings in isiZulu, which I am proud to say I have mastered already, and Afrikaans, which I haven't even looked at. We will also be instructed on how to do a bucket bath. I thought I had mastered all of the bathing techniques I would ever need to know when I was little, but I guess I was wrong.
After a week we will move in with host families, who I really hope will teach me how to shop and cook the food. I am going to attempt making Malay Curry this weekend, which I am told is a common dish made in South Africa. My parents are going to have to endure my culinary experiments with South African cooking over the next few weeks so cross your fingers I don't screw them up too much!
