She may sound like a character from The Hunger Games, but in reality, Primrose is a 31 year-old woman we got to know this month in Swaziland.
When we first met her upon arriving at our ministry site for the month, she greeted us with a stern face and very few words, and as we said goodbye to her three and a half weeks later, she told us she loved us and she will never forget us.
Like many Swazi women, her story is a sad one. Primrose has 4 kids, the youngest is only 4. She and her husband met in high school (where neither of them finished school) and I doubt they had ever had a proper wedding ceremony. In the three weeks we've known her, we saw her come to the place we lived everyday early in the morning and leaving before sunset, walking miles on foot each way, sometimes carrying her 4 year old daughter Notsi. She toiled in the fields, in the cooking hut, and around the grounds all day, only to rest in the afternoon and play a game of netball with the neighborhood single mothers.
Primrose and her family lived on her single income and often skipped meals because they ran out of food to eat and had no extra money to buy it. We got to bless her and her family one day by cooking a large meal for them. It was fun to see her and her kids enjoy the feast like a Thanksgiving dinner.
"Where is your husband?" We'd ask her.
"At home, doing nothing." She'd say.
"Why doesn't he look for a job?"
"He doesn't want to, he's never held a job."
Come to find out later, that her husband does do some things, like keep a mistress. "He may have contracted HIV by now." She sadly tells one of our team members, and so she will get tested for HIV just in case.
Unfortunately, AIDS, tuberculosis, asthma, diabetes, and malaria are all everyday diseases here in Swaziland. In the three weeks we've been living in Buhleni, we've heard either from the hospital or from Primrose of someone dying every few days.
"People died here so much, they used to drop like flies." Musa, a 30 year old born again Christian that we got to know says. "But I believe there's hope for our country. Through out the years, I've seen God work miracles and healing here, that I myself cannot explain."
It is my continued prayer that God will bring salvation and healing to this land. Please say a prayer for Primrose and her family!
Primrose and I, saying goodbye this morning. She gave me the Swati name "Gcinile" (pronounced with a click).
The huts we lived in, kept us cool during the day and warm at night.
Michelle and I, on her birthday hike to Sibebe Rock.
The beautiful rolling hills of Swaziland.
With cutesy Notsi, Primrose's 4 year old daughter.
