11 Things I’m Taking Home from Swaziland
1. AIM Base in Swazi
Have you heard of Swaziland? I sure hadn’t until I signed up for the race. It’s a BEAUTIFUL country… and extremely hilly. When we were driving into the country, the landscape reminded me something out of Switzerland or New Zealand with all of its rocks, hills and windy roads! And what’s more beautiful? How welcoming their people are! Everywhere you walk, you hear Sanibonani and then you get to shout yebo back!
Unfortunately, this small country has some pretty sad statistics. Swaziland has the 3rd lowest life expectancy in the world at 51 years of age and 63% of the population lives under the poverty line. More than 24% of the population has HIV/AIDS, which has left about 18% orphaned. Adventures in Missions (yes, the same organization that The World Race is from) has a base here in Manzini, Swaziland. They have many different ministries including Care Points (local-community feeding centers), Pre-schools, sports outreaches, music ministry, and more.
2. Treasurer Duties
I have a new position on the team! YAY math and treasurer duties. It’s been kind of a hectic first month as treasurer because we cooked our own food this month, local transportation was needed almost every day to go to ministry and we were with 3 other teams in the same house. This basically all translated to a lot of receipts for housing, transportation, groceries and communication! Even though some of it has been really stressful, I’m happy to serve the team!
3. Teaching
Donovan and I had the privilege of working with the Ngwane Park Carepoint for two weeks. I was with Teacher Ncamsile in the 5-year old classroom and Donny was with the 4-year old classroom with Teacher Mbali. It was pretty awkward for my first day in the classroom because they kept staring at me/not wanting to do their class work… but it got easier as the days went by and were really incorporated into the classroom. We focused on doing artwork and helping with the curriculum/preparation, anything to help the workload off of the teachers. I’ve grown to love these children and somehow, praise God, was able to say most of their Set-swati names by the end (they’re so long!). At the end of the two weeks, we got to celebrate Easter with cookies and gifts for the teachers! 
4. Asian cornrows
Rachel always tells people the two best things she brought on the race was a hard head and her guitar. I didn’t bring the guitar but I do have a hard head that’s super good for hours and hours of entertainment for kids. The students LOVED putting “corn-rows” into my hair during their break time.
Clearly I enjoyed it…..
5. Easter and a huge vulnerability hangover
I’m not sure but Satan has a way of attacking God’s people on Christian holidays…. This Easter, Satan got me good. I forgot to take my anti-depressant the day before and I felt it the minute I woke up. I ended up writing a letter to God about how I hate my anti-depressants and my depression and posted it in a blog…
I woke up the next day and had over 15 Facebook messages, 20 texts and my blog had over 2400 views. I immediately closed my laptop. Satan started attacking me with “wow, now everyone knows you struggle with depression” and “everyone probably thinks you’re a freak now.” I regretted that I was vulnerable and open. After a quiet time in the word and prayer, God gave me this verse: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). I finally had the courage to open all the messages and texts and guess what Satan… you’re wrong. God was able to use my story to reach so many others like friends back home, members from my church, other races on the field, and COMPLETE strangers. He used MY mess for HIS message to others and I absolutely love it!
Here’s my letter to God: I Hate My Antidepressants
6. No-Parent Vision Trip
This month, our squad had PVT which stands for Parent-Vision Trip. About half of our squad had parents come to the field and do ministry with them for a week. Because the parents only have 5 days with their racer, they separated our squad between PVT and Non-PVT groups and had PVT at a separate location. Good ole’ Tony and Judy were unable to attend PVT so I got to stay back with about 6 others racers.
It was great not being in a household with 21 people for a week! I got to spend some quality time with other racers that weren’t on my team, made a lot of batches of Kettle Corn, got to know our Swazi neighbor Lindo and got to partake in various ministries. Most of the days, I got to work with the Baab family. They are long-term missionaries here from Salt Lake City. Brandon does the IT work for this AIM base and Melinda does administrative work! And Zack…. well, he’s just here looking cute. They’ve hosted movie nights at their house and have welcomed us into their family!
7. Timbali Crafts
For one of our ministry days on PVT week, we got to help with Julie Anderson and her craft ministry called Timbali Crafts. The women who create Timbali Crafts are all volunteer cooks at community based feeding centers throughout Swaziland. Remember when I told you that this nation has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates and the third lowest life expectancy in the world… Well these Timbali women feed more than 2500 children PER DAY!
Julie started this ministry in 2006 with greeting card crafts but then eventually evolved to making handbags and other beautiful products. Some of the products I fell in love with include aprons, hand and kitchen towels, headbands, ornaments, bags for yoga, Kindles, Laptops, cosmetics and much much more. 2/3rds of the Swaziland population live on less than a dollar a day but Timbali women can earn up to a full day’s wages for many jobs in Swaziland… with just ONE bag!! Also, they are not just employers. Timbali Crafts help these women to purchase their own sewing machines through no interest loans and minimal monthly payments… as well as an opportunity to help pay for school fees and medical care and host Bible studies/annual retreats together. Their motto is seeing that Swaziland women see the Lord’s provision.
Please go buy something or think about hosting a sale at your Bible Study/Church!! Their products are incredible.. believe me, I’m taking a lot home with me (or basically filling the little space I have left in my backpack for souvenirs). https://timbalicrafts.org/
8. AFRICAN SOCCER
I had the opportunity to attend two soccer games! The first soccer game was a semi-final for the Swazibank Cup. The second game was completely spontaneous. We heard about the game about 30 minutes before we started… we travelled over to the stadium through the local transportation system and didn’t end up getting there till about 10 minutes into the second half. Turns out, the game was part of the African finals and Swaziland was playing the Congo Republic. We were kind of bummed because the score was 2 vs 2 and only had about 30 minutes left in the game (there are no score boards or jumbo-trons with the time so this was totally a guess). Well oh boy, it was the most exhilarating 30 minutes we possibly could have sat in for…. two goals were scored in the last 5 minutes of the game. These games reminded me of how much I miss American sports and definitely got me pumped for some South American soccer!
9. A Royal Experience
For some of the racers who didn’t have an opportunity to go to PVT, we were told that Monday was a Holiday… turns out it was the King’s birthday! It’s definitely not every day you get the opportunity to attend the Swaziland King’s 49th Birthday party!! Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him.. but I did get to meet so many people from the different tribes of Swaziland!
10. Lime Skittles
Not only do they have skittles here in Swazi…but the green ones are STILL LIME. If for some reason there’s a Skittles executive from America here reading my blog… PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK TO LIME. WE DONT LIKE THE GREEN APPLE.
11. THE SKILL OF MAKING TORTILLAS
Also, because 4/6th of Team Samson’s Mullet is from Texas… we definitely had to incorporate our traditions in our teammate Tyler’s 26th birthday! Katelyn so sweetly made homemade breakfast tacos for our team, including avocados, egg, bacon, cheese, homemade salsa and tortillas. This also meant she got to teach me how to make tacos from scratch! ONLY FOUR MORE MONTHS UNTIL I GET TEX-MEX AGAIN!
NOW OFF TO SOUTH AMERICA
