Nsoko is the community we’ve lived in during the past three months and it’s fairly small. There’s a small grocery store a few miles away, and a larger one with a few other shops about 20-30 minutes away by public transportation. Taking Public is always a toss-up though because often we wait at the bus stops for an hour or more before we see a white van that will take us to the next town over. They’re also often fairly crowded and cost about 20-something Rand each way (about $1.50). Most of our off days are spent going to the grocery store to get snacks (Cadbury chocolate bars, sweet chili Doritos, granny smith apples, and coffee grounds for the french presses we’ve collected are most of the squad’s favorite) and to just get out of the team house.
During the week when we’re not at ministry or when we don’t go anywhere on the weekends there have been a lot of different activities we’ve started doing to keep ourselves occupied. Here’s a list!
playing card/board games
cooking/baking in our toaster oven
making popcorn over the stove and seasoning it with Swazi spices
art/writing/creativity parties
read our Bibles
hold a cinco de mayo party at midnight
make homemade tortillas for dinner
watch the sunsets and sunrises
play soccer with the locals
soak our feet to try and get the dirt to leave
watch movies we’ve shared between hard drives
write blogs
do our laundry in buckets
hammock
talk about the same things over again
throw lit matches at each other
journal
drink a lot of water
prank wars
clean the kitchen (no one really does this…)
make announcements about being better at cleaning the kitchen
reminisce about Guatemala and Asia
talk about food
search for clothes that have blown off the line
make friends with the goats that wander through
workout
hold talent shows
go through our camera rolls
squad-wide game of clothes-pin assassin
read
argue about who was in line next for someone’s book
clean our water bottles (no one really does this either but we really should)
think about going home
talk about America
try and find somewhere to be alone
trap a giant spider and a few praying mantises in a water jug and see what happens (nothing)
drink a lot of coffee
hold nightly baking/cooking sessions
bonfires
volleyball
and many other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten!
