Ok, I realize I’m way behind on blogging. Like some of the other Racers my month has
been less than dramatic. I’ve visited
Care Points and spent a few moments here and there holding and chasing and
being a jungle gym for beautiful orphan kids…but just a little bit.
Mostly I’ve lived in the AIM Team House in Manzini,
Swaziland. Other racers have documented in their blogs
about how beautiful it is here but how the beauty may only be skin deep. One of the local papers released the results
of a national survey this week that says the HIV/AIDS Rate is at 26%. Based on what I’ve heard since I’ve been
here, I would say those figures are drastically conservative! The actual rate may be 40% or higher. Our Racers that are living this month at the
Care Points are all building relationships with children and teenagers that are
HIV+.
I drove a team into South
Africa last week. That was a trip in more ways than one. It was my first time to drive since the day I
crossed the border into Mexico. It was my first time intentionally driving on
the wrong side of the road. Funny
thing: These cars with the steering
column on the right side…the windshield wiper and turn signals levers are also
reversed! Let’s just say I kept the
windshield clean that day!!
Mostly what I am doing is Internet Research. One of the full-time missionaries here
started a project about 18 months ago whereby GOGO’s (Surrogate Grandmothers)
make Purses by hand to generate income they use to live on and to provide for
orphans. The Purses are sold to visitors
(short term missionaries mostly). The
cool thing is that each purse has a tag that is signed by the woman that made
the purse and includes a brief bio about the woman. These women are heroines. They are selflessly caring for children that
aren’t their own. This is a land with
thousands of orphans. Many of them lost
their parents to AIDS. Many of them have
the syndrome themselves- for them, the Gogo’s are like Hospice Workers.
So at this point I probably know as much about the African
Opportunity and Growth Act as most Congressman.
I can tell you a good bit about the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States and about the Generalized System of Preferences. I know a non-profit business can sell AND
make a profit selling these purses. I
just need to figure out a more effective way to get larger quantities of them
into the US. Right now, visitors and such buy 10-20 of
them and take them back as gifts.
Sometimes a church might take a bunch back to sell as a fundraiser. But I need to figure out a way to actually
export them from here to the US
and have a US Distributor to sell and market them.
I’ve spent the last two days in the Swazi Capital of
Mbabane. I spent yesterday wandering in
and out of government offices trying to find the movers and shakers of the
Customs and Trade departments. I had some
success. And I’ve spent a couple nights at
the Mountain Inn where I have wireless internet access, a real bathtub with hot
water, TV, and access to a great buffet and/or room service.
I’ll try to get some pics of the handbags soon. They are really awesome. You’ll all want one for yourself and many
more for gifts. Each handbag tells a
story!
I’ll be in Swaziland
until the end of the first week in July and then I’m going down to South
Africa to check on Ryan’s team and the
Children’s Camp teams. Some guys I know
from StudentLife will be in SA working at the same Camp, so I’m looking forward
to seeing folks from home. I’ll get
about another week in Swazi to work on the Handbag Project before our Africa
Debrief the last week of July and then it’s off to Thailand.
