Month 2 Overview
Coming into my second month, I did not know what to expect. I honestly had not even heard of the country Swaziland before signing up for the world race. Nevertheless, I arrived with an eager anticipation of what the month would bring and the culture we would be able to experience. The month was a beautiful time of growth and stretching and will always be etched in my mind as a precious memory filled with laughing orphans and breathtaking sunrises. Here are the highlights, challenges, and specifics of this month!
Highlights:
*I was paired with an orphan this month to mentor, love on, and tutor every day. My “buddy” is Bongiwe and every day was a blessing to be able to spend with her. She is smart and funny and loves to learn. One afternoon, Bongiwe and I sat in the kitchen of her cement dorm and spelled out words in my bananagram letters (like scrabble letters but in a banana bag.) I would spell out the beginning of a sentence like “I am beautiful because..” or “Jesus loves me because” or “Someday I will…” and Bonnie would spell out the rest of the sentence and then we would talk about what she wrote. This was a precious time for me to pour into her and to fall in love with the beautiful little person she is.
*After last month working at the baby orphanage, I wanted a break from baby duty and signed up for all of the other ministries except that one for this month. I bonded so much with the babies in South Africa, I was trying hard to avoid my heart being broken again when we left. I cleaned pig pens, dug ditches, and cleaned mold off of carpets to avoid the babies. God had other plans and I ended up being in the Baby House most mornings. I ended up learning more in this ministry than any of the other ones. I found myself one morning, holding a really sweaty baby who was fighting a fever and covered in pee while remembering something a sunday school teacher told me when I was young. I remembered sitting in church listening to the words “even if you were the only person in the world, Jesus would still die for you.” I looked at that baby and realized the same was true for her. That even though this baby is living in a tiny orphanage in the middle of a country people have never heard of, Jesus loves her and knew her name on the cross as He died. I held that baby as Christ allowed me to see her through His eyes and the smells and fears of catching her sickness faded away.
*My community has been amazing this month. Our entire squad has lived together in the compound and it has definitely been a highlight of my Swaziland month. Highlights of community living this month have been our group worship nights on the rock overlooking the valley, game and movie nights, several birthday parties but mostly our valentines day together. We woke up on the 14th this month expecting it to be like any other day here on the mountain, but on the door of the lady quarters, were balloons and instructions to head to the lower village of the compound. We all excitedly walked into our common area where the boys of our squad had decorated with valentines day banners, balloons and streamers. On the table were beautiful notes for each one of us and candy and chocolate, which is like gold in these parts! It was such a special morning and made me remember waking up to valentines day like that at home from my mom and dad.
Challenges:
*El Shaddai is located in an area that there is a huge battle between evil and the Light. Because of this, spiritual warfare was a challenge this month for myself and most of the squad. We were warned of this by the ministry host who told us that most teams that came in could feel the weight of evil while they stayed here. Most of the members on the team experienced this through an overall feeling of darkness as well as nightmares and fear during the night. We prayed over these thoughts and over our sleep each night and felt the presence of the Lord despite the darkness. Although challenging, this was one of my greatest blessings this month because it forced me to really seek out the Lord’s presence even when He felt far.
*Nature in the form of insects and poisonous snakes was a challenge this month. We were told during our orientation that a really poisonous snake called the black mamba was common in this area. Luckily we were careful and we did not have any snake run ins. We also lived among spiders about the size of my palm that lived in our concrete home and in the kitchen we cooked in. A peace corps volunteer that worked with us this month got stung by a scorpion on our last night on the mountain and had to be rushed to the hospital. I have come to a conclusion that creatures without fur are not for me.
*When we first arrived in Swaziland, we were told that only four of the orphans were HIV positive but not told which ones were. We were assigned buddies and I instantly bonded with mine. We shared so many amazing moments and on the last day I knew it would be hard to say goodbye. It was about three hours before our buddies got home from school on our last day and I was having a conversation with a couple girls when I found out that Bongiwe was one of the four who were HIV positive. Tears flooded my face and the realization set in that the one girl I loved the most on the mountain had a disease that may cripple her dreams that we spent the month talking about. I was challenged this month with the realization that nothing is ever fair, but God is sovereign even when I cant see it.
Swaziland Specifics:
This month because we lived on the top of the mountain about an hour from the bottom, we did not see much of Swazi culture except for the occasional trip to the capitol to get groceries or wifi. One day while at town in a KFC, my friends and I were able to meet the nephew of the king of Swaziland, and he was dressed in a traditional Swazi royal outfit. This was exciting.
As far as food is concerned this month, we did not stray far from our typical American cuisine. We cooked for ourselves in the kitchen on the compound, fully stocked with all the utensils and kitchen gear we needed. We shopped for our own groceries and made dishes like spaghetti, stir fry and make our own pizza night. On the last night, we made a big American feast for all the kids consisting of hotdogs and macaroni and cheese. Even though we did not experience much Swazi food culture, it was a nice break from African food and a luxury we might not experience again on the race.
The weather in Swaziland was about mid 80’s and rained almost every day. The rain and thunderstorms were so intense here especially when we were inside our living quarters with tin roofs. This made for nice nap afternoons when we could not get out to our ministry sites due to the rain.
We are on our way to INDIA for month 3 and I could not be more excited! We do not know our ministry location or job for next month yet, so stay tuned!
Love you all!
Abby-saying goodbye to Africa <3
