Swaziland Summary Part 1 (this one has pictures!) - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

I don’t really know how to begin to summarize my month in
Swaziland. So much has happened, and we had no Internet to post anything. Well,
we did have internet, but it was too slow to post anything, I really just went
for the giant pot of coffee they served for a $1.50. I mean that coffee was
good for three cups of heavenly filtered brewed coffee that would keep me up
all night. If I didn’t get the coffee I would get the Maguga Burger. 1. Because
of it’s name 2. Because it was THE best burger of the race.

Look at me, talking
about a burger instead of babies.

>>re-grouping
my thoughts<<

uhhhh. Ok. The
ministry we were working with was a DREAM ministry. I’ve been praying for an
orphanage to work with all year and BAM- we get El Shaddi.

Let me tell you the history of this place!!

I don’t know
all the facts and blah blah blah, but
this what Charmain (the woman who started the whole place) told us. She and her
family were called to Swaziland. They actually started out in Mozambique but
then there was a flood and some other stuff. So, they find themselves in the
middle of the Swaziland Mountains, caring for seven orphans in a small trailer.
They didn’t have any income and Charmain has story after story of how she
thought that they weren’t going to make it then wa-la! They would get a random
supply of food, or free gasoline from a passer-byer who was told to come to
that exact spot and bring gasoline.

I mean, come on. You can’t deny stories like that. I got goose
bumps now just thinking about it.

Yeah, so anyways, Chairmain told us that she didn’t know how
people were even going to know that they are here. but God told her “I’ll send
people”.

>>Reminds me of that baseball move
“build it and they will come” lol <<

She was like
“we are in the middle of no where! At the top of a mountain!” She never
advertizes, never promotes herself, but the Lord and government keeps sending
her children. Now there are 86 orphans at El Shaddi.

Beautiful, beautiful children with horrific stories of how
they got there but are all smiles and willing to give as many hugs as we could
take.

Ok history… check.

I guess I’ll tell you guys what we did all month. We did
tons of manual labor projects. We actually teamed up with another volunteer
from Canadia. (ok I was going to correct it but it always makes me laugh when I
say that).

Working with James was AWESOME! He would come down to where
we were staying every morning with lists of things that the orphanage needed
fixed or repaired or built. I’ll list a few of the projects:

1. 1.the poop hole- a 10 ft deep by 6 ft wide hole
for a sewage take. Dug by hand babbbyyyy
2. dug water trenches
3. organized a workshop
4. repaired a garden fence (I worked on that one.
NOT easy seeing that they used roofing nails for the hinges. We had to
eventually bust out one of those electric tools that cuts through metal. Shout out to Justin Hanes for stepping
in and helping me and Kim!)
5. Waterproofed roof nails
6. Scrapped paint off mission house living room
walls
7. Repainted mission house living room

There is more, but this blog is getting really long and I
haven’t even gotten to the good stories yet!

Lots of manual labor projects in the mornings, then we
played with kids in the afternoon. I was all about the baby house, then from
three to four we would help the kids with their homework, of course the kids
weren’t really about tutoring, they just wanted to hang out. Then we had chapel
at five.

Then there was the sunsets. If I didn’t go to chapel I would
sit out on this giant rock that looked over the valley and I would watch the
sun sink down behind the mountains while the children’s singing would fill the
air.

It was like a movie.

Ok picture break!!! I’ll write another blog about the crazy
stories.

Enjoy!!