Coming at you from within the African bush!
78 hours of travel later, my squad and I have officially made it to our ministry location for the next few months; Swaziland, Africa. Living conditions are better than I expected despite no Wi-Fi, electricity going out frequently, and no A/C (It actually gets pretty chilly here). Surrounded by hills, mountains, and plains, Swaziland is a fairly rural country. It is common to randomly see a giraffe or zebra on your way to the gas station. Goats, chickens, and pigs join us as we walk in the streets.
The most exciting part of travel was as we were bussing from South Africa to Swaziland, our tire flew off the trailer! Everyone was okay, but we were stranded on the side of the highway for 5 hours. Most of the squad took the opportunity to sleep amongst the many hiking packs piled up. We eventually got back on the road with a new trailer and safely made it to Swaziland.
Church here in Swaziland is like a party and it can last anywhere from between 2 – 4 hours! The service includes dancing, singing, and some preaching from the pastor. Many Swazi’s speak English well, so the language barrier hasn’t been much of an issue though their accent is quite heavy. During church, our squad introduced ourselves and the locals were very welcoming and kind. Each Sunday we will continue to make a presence there and get to know the members.
The past few days have been filled with nights of worship, cooking meals for our squad, bible studies in hammocks, hand washing clothes, chasing just washed clothes getting taken by the wind, and eating many PB&J sandwiches (Don’t worry, that isn’t all I’ve eaten). Living communally with 45 other people hasn’t been all too bad. We are much like a huge family!
Here is a picture I took our first night here in Africa:
(Queue “The Circle of Life”)
Lastly, I’m so pumped to begin ministry this week! Monday through Friday is ministry, Saturday is our off/adventure day, and Sunday is church. Every Monday my team will be staying at a dutchman’s house to do prison ministry the following day. We will bounce back and forth between other ministry points throughout the rest of the week. In my next blog I should be able to give more detail as to what that looks like.
So, that about sums up the past few days here in Swaziland… This is Africa!
