Before coming to Swaziland I had heard that the people who practice black magic tell men with AIDS or HIV to have sex with a virgin and their disease will go away. Surely this is just a nasty rumor. If it is then why is the hospital filled with 10-13 year old girls who have HIV? The doctors all say it was transmitted from their birth, but if that were true then it would show up when they take the test at 18 months old. That is another truth here; all babies are tested for HIV at 18 months. Why all babies? Well it turns out that it is perfectly acceptable in this culture for a man to see a woman, no matter her age, walking on the path and to stop her for a few moments while he takes advantage of her.
Our contact, Corrine, shared with us the story of a 16-year-old girl in the community who was picked up by a taxi driver and brought back in the morning. A few months later Corrine noticed her body had changed so she asked if the girl was pregnant. Her family suspected the same, but no one seemed too concerned about it being the case or how it happened. So she took the girl to the hospital herself. Turned out she was pregnant by this driver, and when Corrine suggested that they file rape charges the doctors told her they couldn’t corroborate this story. The doctors felt that because the girl giggled every time they asked her about sex she was showing that she liked sex and therefore was not raped. This is a 16-year-old girl who is living with adults who are not her family because her actually family abandoned her. These same people who are taking care of her allowed her to go off with a strange man over night. They didn’t know him. How are the men in this country so self absorbed that they are wiping out their female population?
They care so little for their women here. Men eat together and women eat together, in separate rooms if possible. The men eat first and if there are leftovers the women then children eat. Most of the malnutrition happening here is not lack of money for food, it’s that there is not enough leftover for the children to eat third.
It’s very noticeable that these children are not loved at home. They are perfectly satisfied to sit on my lap the whole time, usually 3 or 4 at a time. When they find themselves all alone on my lap they take my arms and wrap them around their waist then rest their head on my chest. It’s pure bliss, for the both of us.
I pray that the people of this country choose to love themselves enough to love the ones around them. If not, they may find themselves nearing extinction. Join me in praying for the people of Swaziland. Pray that they will come to know Jesus and learn how to love others as he loved us.
