• Highest HIV rate in the world. 40% of all people that can afford to be tested are positive.
• The unemployment rate is over 60%
• After the 7th grade you have to pay a lot of school fees and test fees. Not many people ever finish school.
• In one day I saw a scorpion, a camel spider, and a black mamba snake. Everything that scares me the most. Literally everything in Africa can and will kill you.
• Swazi is a Monarchy; the king has 20 wives (very common)
• No middle class- wealthy and poor have a very large divide. Nsoko is the poorest area and is known as the “forgotten land” of Swaziland
•Swazi people are joyful, private and clean.
•Not making eye contact is very respectful.
•Women must cover their knees and wear a skirt in public.
•They have their own currency- the Emalangeni. But they also accept South African Rand everywhere because the exchange rate is 1:1, $1 USD = 13.4 Rand
•They make whistling sounds, dance, and clap their hands at church
• The church has microphones and a keyboard. They love blasting the music as loud as it will go.
• The offering at church is split between Jan-June and July-Dec birthdays and is added up in a competition.
•Combi’s are the local van transport vehicles (like Chapas in Mozambique)
• Swazi’s are terrified of thunder and lightning. Before AIDs lightning was the number one killer in Swaziland. It is now the second.
• Church is full of children and women- the only men are the pastor, worship leader, and a handful of others that sit in the very back.
