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Instagram photo by Peace Corps Swaziland🇸🇿
“I’m proud to be a girl because…”
What advice would you give to a Peace Corps volunteer?
Ncobile: “My advice to all the Peace Corps volunteers is that they should love, understand, and welcome their counterparts, so that everything will be easy for them in the community.”
Blythe: “Open your heart to new friends. There will be some cultural challenges to navigate, but it is more than worth it. Don’t just huddle up with other expats.”
(“How Packing Up My Life & Moving Around The World Helped Me Find My Sister,” via @refinery29)
“My host sister, Mbali, which means ‘flower’ in SiSwati, always brightened my day. She was such a warm spirit, and she would often spend time with me after school. I would help her with homework and she would talk to me about what she wanted to be in the future. Her unending pursuit of knowledge made me realize why we are here as Volunteers.” -Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Ryan Fouss http://bit.ly/1OHkB7G
“During a lesson on learning about emotions and how to express emotions through art in Swaziland, Bandile led the other young boys in taking self-expression to a whole new level by painting his face rather than his paper.”
“This photo was taken in central Swaziland. Two boys are walking home from school, one is HIV positive and the other HIV negative. Swaziland has a HIV prevalence between 26-33% percent depending on what study you are looking at. Everyone everywhere is living with or around it and yet it is still not openly discussed. These boys defy that norm though and that is partially due to the fact that they can’t remember a time when things were different. The positive boy helps his brother with his schoolwork while the negative boy helps his brother to take his ARVs. Through the simple act of brotherhood, these two boys are helping a community fight stigma and helping to solidify the idea that HIV is a part of daily life.”