I feel like I’ve been saying this with each passing country, but I truly mean it when I say Swaziland has been my favorite. As soon as we got here my spirit felt settled and at home. While Southeast Asia offered incredible experiences and ministry, I’ve been waiting for Africa. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this blog but internet is tough to find in Swaziland. Here are my top 11 thoughts and moments from this incredible month:
- The month began with Parent Vision Trip. 13 members of the squad had parents come and it was an amazing week. It filled my love tank to be able to spend time with my parents together and just to be hugged by people who have known me my whole life. The greatness of moments like that cannot be overstated. I loved having the opportunity to serve with my parents, have conversations, and be able to say that I shared a very tangible part of this journey with them.
- Part of the ministry that we did during PVT was to go visit a rural and city carepoint. These are places where kids can attend class as well as get fed at least one meal during a day. There was quite the contrast between the rural and city carepoints. My favorite was the rural carepoint because it’s where I met Tobani. He is four and upon arriving at the carepoint I spotted him sulking under a tree. I felt the Lord say, “This one.” With that, I committed to sitting next to the little man even if it meant no progress was made the entire time. Well, a benefit of being stationary was that other children would come seeking my attention. Tobani eventually (after an hour) started giggling and then opened his mouth. Wow. Who knew that much chattered could come from such a little person! He would run around to other kids but come back to me and became somewhat possessive. It was endearing. We were also given the opportunity to ride with some of the kids to their homestays to drop off food. No such thing as coincidence in my world because the house that we went to visit was actually Tobani’s. It made my day and simultaneously broke my heart to see the state of his house. Let’s just say it was a tough good-bye.
- Anyone who knows me would call me a night owl. Well, Swaziland has turned my sleeping habits upside down. I have been one of the first on my team to wake up each morning and several times it has been to the 5:45 AM sunrise. The first time it happened I had been dead asleep, but when I woke up I had this sense that it was time for sunrise. It was as if God was saying, “Hey, psssssst, come see what I made.” I loved it and that same day I also had the opportunity to see the sunset. There really is nothing quite like the African sky.
- Additionally, the stars are absolutely spectacular. They rival Bolivia and I never thought I would say that. You can see the Milky Way almost every night.
- To continue with the creation theme, there was a night where we could see heat lightning for hours. It was gorgeous because the clouds got lit up in a way that you would never be able to see at night. Thunderstorms here are awesome, but then, I’m pretty bias because I love storms.
- Our ministry contact this month was a man named Xolani. You say the first part of his name with a click sound…I still cannot do it correctly. He is 32 and has a vision of sports ministry for this country. Sports are his life and he loves the language that comes when people share experiences they’ve had through sports. Many children grow up without fathers here and he desires to couple sports with life coaching to help fill that void. God is using him for big things, no question about it. Also, he is engaged and has to raise money for cows as a dowry for his fiancé before they can be officially wedded. Rather than an engagement ring, cows. Interesting trade-off.
- My main ministry for the month was to be a part of the sports ministry working with Xolani. The squad was split in half with three teams living on a mountain working with a ministry called El Shaddai. The other half, the group that my team was included in, was in a town called Manzini. We all worked under the same contact, Xolani, so there was overlap between teams for ministry. Some worked as administrators in the AIM office, some helped with agriculture, some worked at carepoints, and then there was the sports ministry. I was the only one from my team assigned to this, along with Chris, Chrislyn, Molly B, and Jordan V, who are all on the same team. Our job was to create a three-session CPR and First Aid seminar as well as a three-day volleyball clinic to train upcoming life coaches in the basic skills. I cannot describe how much I loved being a part of this because we got to be active by playing volleyball and build relationships with the coaches who had ages that ranged from 20-26 years.
- One of the most rewarding aspects of the sports ministry was the night that our coaches got to scrimmage another team. We let them start out on the court by themselves and helped coached. They had improved so much!!! All of us felt like proud parents because they blocked, set up a pass, set, hit, and knew the rotations. Ahhhh, it was a night full of warm fuzzies. They even let me play for a while. All I can say is looking at pictures of me on the court with all of them the phrase that goes through my mind is “one of these things is not like the others.” Blond and fair skinned makes you stick out considerably in Swaziland. No surprise there.
- Public transportation in Africa is a treat. From where we lived the first part of the month, we would walk out to the main road and wait for a van to come pick us up like a taxi. It takes about 20 minutes to get into town and a little less if you’re just going to the AIM base. The bus rink is absolutely crazy with seemingly no rhyme or reason to which direction the busses are going yet somehow they all manage to end up in the correct place. On the way into town, the vans will drive off road into the hills to pick up travelers who live far away. From the hut, the vans come every 2 hours in a rickety bus with the Adidas logo on the back. We had to resort to hitchhiking in the backs of a few trucks in order to get into town. If you can get past the inefficiency of it all, it’s quite an entertaining way to travel.
- Another part of the month involved filling our time when there was not much to do for sports ministry. One day involved plowing a portion of the yard where my team originally lived with another team on the squad. Another day involved trimming the vines off the fence around the AIM base. Some individuals visited the hospital and hospice. While at hospice, I was introduced to David, who is originally from Scotland. He is in his 60s and has lived in Africa for a large portion of his life. He had the most incredible stories from his days in the navy, his experiences as an engineer in the diamond mines, and life in Africa. He often said that Africa is designed to kill you with all of the poisonous snakes, creatures, and diseases. Some of my favorite hours of the month were spent listening to him talk about his life. I strongly encouraged him to write a book.
- I loved the people of Swaziland in how they accepted us. I admit that some of the marriage proposals at the bus rink got a little old. All of the women started putting rings on so that we could claim we were married…we concluded that Jesus could understand a little white lie to reduce some of the pestering. We really got a true sense of what living in Africa is like because our outhouses at the hut had no doors. Our water was stored in giant tubs and was used for everything from dishwashing, to bucket showers, to doing laundry by hand. There are a number of strange bugs and there is certainly no shortage of cows and goats. Cows are actually a symbol of wealth in Africa. I’ve determined that Africa is covered in bugs like mammals are covered in hair.
All in all, this was truly an excellent month. It felt full of so many opportunities (we even got to see Insurgent in 3D and had a pool party/cook-out at the AIM base) and incredible people. Thanks be to God for calling me to Swaziland because it wouldn’t surprise me if I made it back here.
