1. Gifting of Swazi names – when a Swazi meets you and you don’t have a Swazi name, they give you one. But the best part is that the names are given based off meaning, not how it sounds.
2. The people – they are so friendly! They always ask how you’re doing and love to smile and laugh. It’s great 🙂
3. The landscape – it’s a mixture of rolling hills and mountains…but it’s all green, haha.
4. The sunrises – usually the sun rises in vibrant colors of pink, orange, and yellows. But it’s a new kind of sunrise. Above the sunrise and its colors, there is this covering of rain clouds. So when it begins to rise, all the colors shine on the rain clouds and make for a beautiful sky!
5. My Swazi Family – they have been like my parents this month. Taking care of me, doing nightly walks around the perimeter of our house to make sure we are safe, feeding us traditional Swazi foods every so often, bringing us to and from church, sharing family photos and stories, sharing scripture and praying with each other….there is so much about this family that I will miss. But they have been a huge blessing to me while I’ve been here! I truly love them.
6. Tenting – this month I have been able to sleep in my tent! It’s been awhile since I’ve had that opportunity. But with my tent outside, I get to hear all the wildlife settle in for the night. I also get to see some great starry skies when the clouds aren’t out. But the best part is that it’s cool…as in not hot. During the days, it is SO hot here – and the last thing I wanna do is sleep inside where all the heat has collected during the day. The open windows can only do so much, haha. So my tent is just outside the house, which allows for easy access to whatever I may need. I have great ventilation, a quiet space of my own (which is hard to find on the race), a great view of the sky, crickets to fall asleep to, and sometimes I even get to wear a sweatshirt to bed if it’s cold enough (twice to be exact).
7. The food – the first Swazi dish I tried was pumpkin leaves mashed up with nuts. It kinda looks like spinach that’s been mashed into a paste honestly. But I tried it and ended up loving it! It even tastes similar to spinach only a little sweeter. The next day my Swazi mom gave me a bowl of pumpkin porridge…it was orangish-yellow and looked like baby food. Not very appealing. But I tried it anyways and I liked that too! Haha. It tasted very much like squash but again, sweeter. One of the dishes I recently tried is Pap (pronounced ‘pop’). It’s a maize meal that gets cooked like rice and served in place of it too. It’s like a mixture of mashed potatoes and rice. The dish tastes mostly like corn (maize is corn). It’s a dense food that fills you up quickly!
8. The wandering livestock – cows, chickens, and goats usually roam where they please. Highways, side roads, in town, in our yard, at the care points, at church, basically everywhere. They’re a normal site to see. But I love it! They are pretty docile and won’t bother you as you walk by. It reminds me of home when I would walk in the pasture surrounded by cows. It’s a nice taste of home far away from home, haha!
9. The church choir – it’s a legit gospel-style choir every Sunday! They sing from their hearts and aren’t afraid to break from tradition. It’s pretty powerful and amazing to witness. This is my first actual home-grown gospel choir experience. They love to sing with all they have.
10. The Combi’s (pronounced comb-bee) – it’s the name of the public transportation buses. They are 15-seater vans that cost, on average, 10 cents every trip. They are always packed with Swazi people when we hop in. We usually squeeze in with them and get to listen to a Swazi radio station that plays very upbeat music. Every song has some sort of loud drumbeat in it.
11. The Market – it’s a double-decker set-up where produce is on bottom and souvenirs/trinkets are on top. It’s seriously packed with both people and items to purchase. The first day I went there, we got caught in a HUGE storm of rain, hail, and gusting wind! It felt like a monsoon. Everything shut down for the storm and we sat in a circle in the center of the markets top floor – hiding from the elements…Swazi’s and Americans huddled together for dear life, haha. A fun experience to say the least. 🙂 But the market is cool because you get to meet a lot of people and see a lot of what makes Swaziland Swaziland. Markets are one of my favorite experiences in every country so far.
