Its The Small Things

June 22^nd, 2012

I finally got to leave my community today!!!  It’s been 23 days and I am fairly certain my patience couldn’t have handled another day.  I love my community, but as all PCVs know, when in your community you’re on the job 100% of the time and it’s exhausting and really tests your patience.

Unfortunately it is Friday of month end, meaning its payday for every single person in Swaziland.  Everyone is trying to get to town to withdraw money from the banks.  After waiting 1.5 hours for transport that wasn’t standing room only, rejecting two marriage proposals, and bracing extreme winds that leave you choking on dust, I had had it.  I just wanted to sit in peace with my ipod and ignore Swaziland for a while.  I finally got on a bus and the ride was great until we stopped at a school and picked up the entire student body of the primary and high school.  I had a seat open in my row so I moved in and thee smallest primary school girl ended up sitting next to me.  I saw that she was trying to greet me so I pulled out a headphone and greeted her back.  She then grabbed my headphone and put it in her ear.  This normally would have caused me to blow a gasket but for some reason I just went with it and let her listen.  Thankfully I was listening to Justin Beiber (shame I know) so at least it was something appropriate.  The next song to come on was Shakira’s Waka Waka.  For those none World Cup Soccer fans, this was one of the theme songs for the World Cup held in South Africa in 2010.  Its really popular here and this little girl started dancing in her seat.  She was the envy of every other student around us because she got to listen to the white person’s music player.  I couldn’t do anything but smile and join her.  Any resentment I had at that moment for Swaziland was gone.  Oh the power of music, my attitude and outlook on the weekend was much sunnier from then on.