Living in Swaziland for a week has already been so amazing but also so challenging. It is a month of being uncomfortable and having to thank God for the littlest things in order to realize how good we have it. We are in a house with 20 girls total. I am sleeping in a room of 9 people in bunk beds. We have already had a bat in our room, many frogs, spiders and much more. Our water goes out each time the electricity goes out which is every time it rains and that happens about every other day. I shower about every 3 days usually by a bucket that we fill up from a community pump outside our house. We eat peanut butter and jelly every lunch each day because that’s what the grocery stores offer. Even though I have listed all the “uncomfortable” things about this month let me tell you what really matters. There are kids outside our door 24/7 that live with no water, one meal a day and don’t have beds so in no way can I complain for my living situation or “roughing it” because this is their everyday life.
Each day we go to Care Point centers or feeding centers, we hang out with the kids and teach them a lesson from the bible. They cling to us because most of them are orphaned and just want someone to hug them even though they are filthy or don’t have pants on. They are the sweetest and most loving children I have ever come in contact with. On the days we don’t go to a care point we garden and clean the base house because it is the end of the year for them and everything has to be ready to close for a few weeks. Some afternoons we get to visit “Gogos” which are older women in the community. One we visited was named Gogo Egypt and she was so full of life.
I love my month so far in Swaziland and the simplicity of life here. I will never truly be able to understand the way they live or empathize with them but I can love them. I can live outside of my uncomfortable situation and myself and give my all this month because when I go home and have it all, they stay in their current situation. It’s hard to think that little can be done but every little bit counts. Each smile, hug, and word of encouragement goes a long way. We only have a week in a half left here and I plan to make the most of it. I will play until I am so dirty my clothes need to be thrown away, I will laugh until I have abs, I will give until I have nothing left and I will love till my heart explodes because to me it is worth that much. I have such little time here and I do not intend to waste it.
