Hey friends and family! Coming at ya live from my month one debrief in Nelspruit, South Africa! It’s been a wild month adjusting to a life of living in the rural bush of Africa. I never thought I would fall in love with Nsoko, Swaziland yet here I am at debrief longing to be back there! This blog will be a sneak peek into how I’ve been living the past month. YEBOOO (yeah in Siswati).
The Compound:
My home! Where I do life with my 50 other squad mates and our leaders. We’re actually the first squad to stay in the newly built house, and man are we blessed here! There’s no electricity and no wifi, which seemed like a bad thing at first but I can’t imagine having either of those now. It’s so nice to be completely unplugged from the world.
Sleep: I sleep in one of our bunk rooms with 20 other girls. 11 bunks, new mattresses (praise the Lord for no sleeping pads!!), and believe it or not nobody’s fallen out of the top bunk yet!
Bathrooms: We’ve got all the bathroom things y’all whaaat! Regular showers, flushing toilets, and sinks! Now it might seem odd to people back home that I’m so stoked about this but going in I was expecting bucket showers, squatty potties, and hand sanitizer instead of a sink. And on top of all this goodness we’ve got safe water so we don’t have to worry about getting sick from using the water to brush our teeth. World Race? More like the Four Seasons!
Laundry: We go to the best laundromat in town, it’s called… hand washing our own clothes!!! Yebooo. It’s definitely a process, but I’m getting the hang of it. There was one evening I was hand washing my clothes with the most beautiful sunset to look at and I felt like I was in Little House on the Prairie.. it was definitely a highlight.
Food: We eatin’ gooood here! Also eating our whole body weight in peanut butter, yum!
Breakfast- oatmeal and maybe an apple with peanut butter if I’m feeling fancy
Lunch- 1 or 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Dinner- Swazi meals! We have some amazing ladies cook for us during the week. These meals consist of some sort of meat in sauce, rice or potatoes, and veggies! Wow I can’t wait to get back to these meals next week.. SO GOOD!!
Ministry:
Maba 2: This is the carepoint my team and I go to during the week. A carepoint is basically a safe place in the community for kids, from preschool to high school, to come after school to do homework, play, sing, and just be a kid! Our ministry here looks like serving the gogos & shepherds in any way, as well as loving and getting to know the children. A normal day at Maba 2 looks like:
arriving at 10am
sweeping the floors of the main room
helping the gogos prepare the rice and bean meals
goofing around with the little kids on the playground
playing soccer for a couple hours
helping the shepherds with paperwork or clean up
listening to the high school kids practice for choir
leaving around 3 or 4 pm
I love Maba 2 so much, I look forward to ministry here each day and I’m so grateful to have 2 more months with this carepoint!
The People:
Swazi locals: I love Swazis with my whole heart, it’s impossible not to. These amazing men and women carry around such a spirit of joy, friendliness, and genuineness. I was really nervous I wouldn’t be able to connect with them because of the language barrier between us, but God is really teaching me that he speaks through more than words. He speaks through smiles, hugs, laughter, actions, and so much more. I feel such a deep connection to the Swazi people and I know it is only because of the Spirit of the Lord working in each interaction.
U Squad: Man oh man did I get lucky with these people! So many awesome brothers and sister to live with, laugh with, and grow closer to the Lord alongside. I have had such a fun time getting to know my squad mates better and I couldn’t possibly expect how cool they would be. We have so many intentional conversations about the Lord and it’s really opened my eyes to different characteristics of God that I never saw on my own. I am so grateful to be able to walk this journey with them all.
Prayer Requests:
If you feel led to, here are things you can be praying for as my squad and I head back to Swazi for the last couple months.
– the children of Maba 2
– safety and health of my squad mates and I
– God’s provision over the people of Nsoko, Swaziland
Thank you so much for reading! Thank you to every one of my supporters, I truly could not be serving the Lord here if it wasn’t for you amazing and selfless people. Hope everyone back home is doing well, miss you guys!
Danielle
