I must say a sincere thank you to everyone who has sent us magical items from home. Every item is a treasure, and no single piece of candy is under-appreciated. Thank you!

We have received a trinity of magical gift delight. Three boxes in one trip to get our mail. Multiple bags of cookies. As well as 15 kg of sweet, sweet candy from the States. I hope I won’t ever be guilty of taking consumerism for granted again. For all the angst I have towards our mindless consumer-driven first decade of the century, I am truly in awe of the supply-chain that has been created to serve our needs. Candy is such a part of the foundation of America, that we have rituals surrounding it. I’m not just referring to the obligatory pre-movie Walgreen’s stop, as candy is much more a part of our society than just that.

The celebration of Jesus’s rebirth gives Christians a reason to reflect on their religion. Since I was a child there was one tradition on Easter that surpassed the influence of Christianity on my life. This tradition can easily be defined through an iconic fat white rabbit and a marshmallow baby chicken. . Yes the Cadbury Bunny and its Peep acolytes are more symbolic of Easter than any symbol of Christian worship.

For lo, thy Bunny of Cadbury visits the known world with ambrosia for all!

The traditions I associate with Easter revolve around Chickens and Rabbits! And with the exception of hard-boiled eggs, all the chickens and rabbits are made entirely of candy. Delicious dark chocolate, malted milk balls, candy coatings. Holiday culture in America is synonymous with candy, regardless of the original holidays origins. Which is why we have Halloween; an entire holiday which was once steeped in Celtic mythology, has now become dedicated to tasty treats.

And beyond all the candy that has been lavished upon us, we are the recipient of an even greater truly American tradition. Homemade cookies sent halfway across the globe. Four zip lock bags nearly overflowing with love and warm wishes found their way to Mbabane recently. Whether it is the Marine Corps or Peace Corps, nothing sounds more American than sending cookies in the mail. I have been deeply touched by what may be one of the simplest yet most endearing American traditions. Thank you so much for providing delicious treats for my inner Cookie Monster.

These traditions haven’t influenced the culture here in significant ways. We can buy candy at the shops, and we can sometimes buy familiar candy in the capital.  A few weeks ago there were half a dozen bags of mini Twix bars. Last week we found peanut M&M’s at the expensive ex-Pat store Pick N Pay. Look up that store if you find yourself with time to spend surfing. It is a large chain grocery store headquartered in South Africa. Each store lives up to the expectations someone from the US would have of a grocery store. It is a beautiful, yet pricey addition to life in Swaziland.

As a volunteer we could spend our entire food-stipend there and likely walk away with no more than a cartful or two of groceries. This puts the store out of our reach for trivial shopping expenditures, but worse is it puts most of the population out of reach as well. Our volunteer food stipend is economically equivalent to the average income here. I say equivalent, as most people do survive on less than $2 per day, but most also have large plots on which to grow their food throughout the year. So by virtue of no land we make our $2 per day stipend plus enough left over to buy soap.

The lifestyle of spending little due to a lack of disposable income is nothing new to me. I was raised to make something last until you had exhausted every possible way of maintaining an item. If there was one chain of atoms that came from the original product, it didn’t matter how much glue you smeared on, or how many sticks you laced together, it was still a usable descendant of the original. These skills transfer directly to, and greatly enhance our life in the Peace Corps. Recycling as we know it in American is not an option here, but reuse is part of the culture. Everything we use can be dual-purposed into someting else. I will be honest, not everything gets reused. I recycled for years (to build up karma I think) but we’re burning enough stuff here that we are definitely reversing any positive impact we had on the planet. I don’t think those “carbon footprint” calculators available online actually account for how much trash is burned in the developing world.

Aside from the occasional fire, everything is dual or triple-purposed. Strangely most items are just left floating in the yard, sneakily camouflaged as trash. This is just an illusion as the majority of garden fence we have is made from this fake-trash that lays around everywhere. Our homestead Babe was a farmer and welder. He was always making things, and if you could weld it, it was likely welded (I think he may have welded some trees together). His professions and our homestead Make’s craftiness have led to a large assortment of useful things we can scavenge from the yard. Even with all the wire and strange gear, it was obvious months ago that there was an extreme lack of America’s #1 fixit: duct tape. After looking in country we started to wonder if it was true, there was no duct tape. Fortunately for us a wonderful package from Krista’s mom came with a bounty of supplies. It contained in this order: a 3-inch piece of string, a shred of paper, and the last few inches of a roll of duct tape.

Delicately placed under the “mock” gift package was indeed the real thing. An entire roll of duct tape. We received the Duck Brand duct tape several months ago, possibly near November. The roll is nearing its halfway point, and we have no intention of discontinuing its usage in our lifetime. The litany of household articles healed by tape are vast, including pedals on a bike, a speedometer cable, shower curtain, expensive electronics, water bottles and patching a 5000 liter water tank from the inside. Additional uses that aren’t fixing something include assembling a solar cooker with duct tape, and using strips of it in the never-ending War on Ants

America is currently fighting the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and the War on Poverty. In rural Swaziland we are engaged in a seemingly daily life-and-death struggle with invasive ants. These ants have proven a most resilient foe, and have thwarted our outer perimeter on multiple occasions. Our battles were passively predictable for many months, they would chew through our concrete walls, we would give them Blue Death and patch the new tunnels. Our defenses were taken by surprise last month when they came through the interior door jam separating our two rooms. It was in the battle of the door frame that duct tape has proven its functionality on the battle field. It is still holding the frontline as it sticks to the metal door frame that has been chewed through. It has even been employed to thwart the latest advance by the ants. In a move reminiscent of medieval castle warfare, the ants have tunneled beneath us and came up in the middle of the floor in several spots. I only hope that the rest of the concrete floor holds, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a wall-to-wall duct tape carpet by the time we depart. There is no hope, they will overrun us at some point. I can only hope that we can escape before “the big one.”

There have definitely been additional uses for the tape, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I will praise it.

All things considered, Krista and I are pretty lucky. We have a lot of friends and family back at home who are supporting us in tremendous ways. I may not get to write emails or post as often as I want, but please know that reading emails and Facebook messages can help make our week a great one. Cookies are great too. Thanks everyone for your continuing support!