hey guys! IM ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know its been forever, but seriously i am living in the middle of nowhere.. the bush of africa!!!! and its been an awesome month.. learning so much about swaziland and the people here.. corine our contact is unbelievable.. she started this non profit called hope rises and its wonderful the impact she is making on the community.. the women here have given me a siswati name of busisaewai.. meaning the blessed one.. here are some other siswati words .. the language here is by far the hardest for me to get a hang of.. YOU TAKE A STAB AT IT…
work: umsebenti
beautiful: umuhle
cooking: uyapeka
church: lisontfo
drink: natsa
water: emanti
dog: intja
person: umntfu
peace: kuthula
flower: imbali
one thing we cant stop doing is the south african accent!!!! its hilarious we all started doing it without realizing it then one day we were like oh my gosh its out of control.. one of the boys steve said im about to feedback all the girls on both teams !! 🙂 its always something.. we have had the indian head bob, the nepali clap, romanian “NO,NO”, moldovian scared going over the border face, and in swaziland its the south african accent.. oh life on the race.. well here is an update on whats been going on in my world the last couple of weeks..
after an intense debrief in romania team fuego has finally made it safely to swaziland.. how can i describe this place? i have spent the last couple of nights sitting underneath a midnight sky full of stars i have never seen before..no big dipper, no orion’s belt.. its an overwhelming feeling.. the last couple of days have just left me in awe of who God is and his beautiful creations.
on our second night here we had a huge lighting storm come through and i found myself sitting under an unfinished preschool with my team and 5 swazi women singing worship songs.. we had a little battle going on, we would sing one then they would sing us one, and it was completely surreal. at this time we didn’t know these women and they didn’t know us but we all had one commonality and that was jesus and our love for him. it was a powerful night, one i will never forget.
sooo let me tell you a little bit about our living conditions here.. we are currently living in our tents !!! YAY*!! im so glad i am able to use the tent i have been lugging around for the last four months!!! we are back to bucket showers, mile walks to the market and a ton of smiles and warm embraces by the locals.. and it feels so good!!! there is something behind simple living.. i felt it in nepal and im feeling it again now in swazi.. its just a feeling of enjoying life and appreciating the small things around you.. i am just taken back when i come to meet people so poor and yet so full of joy and love.
the sad reality of swaziland is that 90% of the population is HIV+ and its estimated that by 2050 the entire population will be non-existent.. i knew this startling static before i left the states and how that computed four months ago is completely opposite of how its computing now.. before it was something i couldn’t possibly grasp or make sense of, and now i wake up every morning to the faces of the people who know this as their life. Poverty is not swaziland’s only problem and throwing money at the issues isn’t the answer, swaziland is in serious trouble because of their culture.. if a women is married, has kids and then divorces and remarries, her new husband will not take in his new wife and her kids from the previous marriage.. the wife then disowns her kids leaving them homeless or with the gogo (grandma).. so what you end up having happen is a gogo taking care of 8 or 9 children. the gogo doesnt have the means to care for this many children leaving them in a sense orphaned although both parents are still living. another scenario that’s very real here in swaziland is a single mother so desperate to feed her children that she sells her body for a days worth of bread.. you also have a king that not only promotes polygamous marriages but does nothing to change the culture of rape and abuse that is so prevalent here, all of this intermingled with the aids crisis leaves this country’s problems too big for anyone to fix.. although many claim to be christians, you find many of them still tied to the culture of witch craft and old african traditions.. my emotions and tears seem so petty compared to what these people need.. my compassion doesn’t solve the injustice here.. my american money doesn’t cure their disease.. BUT MY SAVIOR DOES. he does, and as i go to bed tonight feeling burdened, feeling overwhelmed i have to remind myself that God knows exactly what’s going on here in swaziland, and although its hard to to have hope when your surrounded by so much death, i trust my God and i have faith in the unseen and the things not yet revealed.. i believe my eyes will see God’s kingdom come and his glory cover the earth!!!!
so much more to come from swaziland!
write again soon,
and sending all my love from africa!!!!
busisaewai
