orientation

hi everyone! i figured that i would take this last opportunity of sure internet connection to give you a little taste of my orientation week. i'm departing for swaziland tomorrow - we leave akron tomorrow evening at 5:30 and i think our flight leave philadelphia around 9. with a 12 hour layover in london (which i hope to take full advantage of!) and the time change, we will not arrive in manzini until monday afternoon!

this week was a joint orientation with the IVEPers (international visitors exchange program). so besides the 52 SALTers that were here, there were 51 IVEPers as well. these are young adults coming from many of the countries that we (as salters) will be going to, who have come to work for a year in the united states or canada. my roommate was bridget from south africa, who happened to live quite close to swaziland. so thanks to bridget's language crash course, i was able to greet her every morning in siswati. i also connected with mcnedisi, who is from swaziland and actually worked for the past four years at the organization where i will be working, faith bible school. as well, on thursday evening, grace and katie, the swaziland salters from last year, came to visit our orientation. so i saw lots of pictures of the gorgeous countryside, my colleagues at faith bible school, and even my host mother (who i am to call make, pronounced mah-gay, which means mama in siswati). grace and katie were overflowing with energy and enthusiasm as they spoke of their experience, and so at the same time as i wonder how i will measure up to them, i am also convinced that i will have an amazing time.

the week has been full of sessions introducing us to mcc as an organization, peace and justice issues, setting assignment goals, a meyers-briggs workshop, cross-cultural adjustment and communications, racism awareness, spiritual nurture and self-care on assignment, as well as many more mundane meetings to go over policy guidelines and financial details.

i also met trevor and jesse, my fellow swazi salters. it sounds as though we will all be living in or around manzini, the largest city in swaziland. so i am not sure how much contact we will have in country, but it's been good to begin getting to know them and discover that we have many of the same questions and things we're looking forward to. i've also connected with the other africa people, those traveling to zambia and uganda. many of them are also doing aids work, and so we actually watched a film together, called yesterday, about a south african woman and how aids impacted her and her family. i've also gotten books and other resources from these people to educate myself more about aids. it's been good to have discussions about the issue with others. meg, a nursing major who has already worked for two months in an aids clinic in zambia, especially helped me to begin thinking about facing the deaths that are inevitable as a result of aids, and the intense emotional experience that this will be. i'm so glad that others will be going through this with me, so we will be able to support each other and process together.

the highlights of the week for me were getting to know all the wonderful and interesting people here, although this was at times a bit overwhelming for an infj (myers-briggs type) as myself. but it's just preparation for all the new people that i will meet in the next weeks! i also really enjoyed the worship services we had and the devotions every morning. there was a music committee made up of both salters and ivepers. bridget was a leader in this group and as a result we had some amazing south african music! i am so looking forward to experiencing more of this.

i came to orientation expecting to find out more concrete details about my assignment and location, but this was not the case at all. but when i did have opportunities to ask specific questions about host family, work etc. of mcnedisi and grace, i found that i almost didn't want to! you can ask questions endlessly, but nothing will ever really fully prepare you. you just have to get there and experience it for yourself. and you're always getting someone else's perspective. i want to get there and be able to enter fully into the life that awaits me there, without preconceived notions based on partial information and others' perceptions. and fretting about details will not get you anywhere.

so i am at peace, and ready to go. i feel as though i know nothing, and also everything that i need to know. this coming year will be about holding oppositions like this together: knowledge and uncertainty, myself and the community, my biological family and my host family, my familiar ways and new different ways, joy and pain. as we were reminded this week in a spiritual nurture session, only god's heart is large enough to contain all that we will experience.

the future beyond saturday when i leave akron is misty and undefined, but i am eager to step into this uncertainty and discover what treasures await me there. so i ask you all for prayers for safe travels and good mental and physical health, especially as i feel an oncoming cold. however, bridget has assured me that it is summertime now in swaziland, so i look forward to warmth when i get there!

much love,

mimi