Swaziland is one of the few actual “kingdoms” left in the world, so meaning they actually have a “real” king. King Mswati III is his name. Some random facts about the king: he has 14 wives and gets a new one each year for his birthday. Whenever he comes to town, all the people in the area should and often do go see him. On those days, all local transportation is free. It is sad though, because sometimes since all the transportation is used for the king that the children don’t receive food deliveries. His picture has to be the highest picture in a home. Swazi people all respect the king, even if they don’t agree with his decisions, they talk highly of him. So, we have been hearing of the king ever since we’ve been here. We were working at one of our carepoint sites and the women asked if we were going to see the king on Friday because he was coming to a local city. She explained that most of the kids and they, themselves would be heading off to see the king. So, we figured, why not? Who gets a chance to see a “real” king?
We got picked up and piled into the back of two pickups and made our way to Maloma Gold Mine. Yes, they still mine gold around the world. We all expected to get there, stand in a crowd for two hours, and try to grab a glimpse of the king as he proceeded in a parade through the crowd. We were in for a treat! We arrived to 4 large circus tents set up with many chairs under them. When we arrived, we were the only white people there, so I’m sure you can imagine the stares. We walked and chose our seats. We were then informed that the king is often late and one time, the crowd waited over 4 hours for him to arrive. In the meantime, there were local schools singing, dancing, and performing skits in the center arena. The king and some of his wives finally arrived. It was very anti-climatic. Then, many different people proceeded to speak, the songs, dances, and skits were repeated for the king, and the king finally spoke. Then we left, SIX HOURS LATER! It felt as if we all resorted back to elementary age when it felt like church couldn’t possibly go on any longer. We got a little antsy, luckily we learned to pack some food so we were tied over. So, it was a little different than we expected, but know I got to say, “I saw the King of Swaziland.”
King Mswati III
