Two really cool stories that have occurred here in Buhleni,
Swaziland in the last week that I just wanted to share with everyone back home.
Hope everyone has an amazing thanksgiving eating turkey and watching football!
Our team will be with three other teams in Manzini, Swaziland; twelve chickens
are waiting for slaughter as I write this. Miss you all!
Encounters:
Early last week my boy Isaac and I just wanted to have some
guy time. With four other ladies it gets slightly girly here in our compound,
so we just wanted to escape that and spend some time together. Our compound is
100 feet from the road, and until now we had always turned right into the
direction of Manzini, we had never turned left going towards Piggs Peak/Matsamo
(border gate). Isaac and I decided to hitchhike and head to the left. We were
picked up almost immediately, which is normal. The drivers of the small pickup
asked where we were going, but we just told them that we would go wherever they
were going. Isaac and I sat in the back of the pickup and had some great
conversation as the driver hit speeds up to 120 km/hr. During this time, God
made it clear to me that we would be encountering someone during our trip. I
was confused and didn’t know who or what would happen, but hung on to that thought.
Soon, we had hit the t-junction where we could go left towards Piggs Peak or
right towards Matsamo. The driver veered left and we discovered we were Piggs
Peak bound. This action was short-lived, however, as the driver pulled in a gas
station and told us that was as far as he was going. We hopped out and surveyed
the situation. We weren’t really near any civilization and we were alongside a
spot where cars travel fast on. It didn’t look good for us, but we mutually
agreed to head to Piggs Peak. Literally no more than 15 seconds after that
situation, a car pulls up to us after I give the hitchhiking sign. The car
stops and I asked the man where he is going. He replies that he is going all
the way to Piggs Peak.
Conversation is immediately started and we discover that
this man is FASINATING. His name was Robert, he works at the border doing taxes
and repossessing things that don’t get taxed. He was on his way to Piggs Peak
to repossess a car that hadn’t had its taxes paid. He had two kids, a wife, traveled
to the states before, and was a Pentecostal Christian. He knew all about the
area we were visiting and gave us helpful tips, although he was very confused
once he knew that we didn’t know we would end up there. He asked us all sorts
of things about the World Race, being a Christian, our faith, our beliefs, and
our values. He was very confused with all the denominations that Christianity
had branched into so we did our best to explain what we believed. Before the 45
minute car ride was over, I was able to pray for him and his family. His
biggest problem was that his wife and children lived too far away from his
workplace, so he would only get to see them on the weekends. We prayed for that
issue and that his job would relocate him or he would be able to get a new job
closer to his family.
The coolest part of the story is now. Robert dropped us off
dead center in the town of Piggs Peak. Isaac and I had no idea what we were
doing there, so we just walked down the main street, bought a Coke, and then
walked back. We planned to take a local bus back to Buhleni. As we were walking
towards the station I heard my name being yelled from a parking lot. Of course,
it was Robert. He had finished his work in about five minutes, and had been
waiting, hoping, that we would be going back. He offered us a ride back to
where he had picked us up before. The ride back with Robert was even better. We
met his mother in the maize-producing factory where he picked up his corn for
the month, he told us a hilarious story where he impounded expensive wine
destined for a hotel in Piggs Peak because they couldn’t afford the taxes on
it, and he gave us some advice on reaching out to the people of Swaziland. God
used our guy time as encounter time, and we benefited from both of these things
greatly.
Review Games:
Education in Africa at times can be very very very
frustrating. I’ve had my worse experiences in Nigeria, but here in Swaziland it
isn’t top notch either. The last seven school days, students in the primary
school were writing their exams. They had already written six subjects which
might include religious education, SiSwati, English, and social studies. It was
Tuesday, and I headed to my classroom where I teach grade 3A. I found my
teacher grading papers and the students all sitting down talking to each other.
ONE student was studying her practical education book. I asked the teacher what
was happening. He replied that the students had one last exam to write
tomorrow, and that they were supposed to be studying for it now. I then
proceeded to ask him why they weren’t studying. He answered that the children
didn’t want to, and that he couldn’t force them to. He then said that
eventually he sends them outside to play because they start to make too much
noise in the classroom.
I sat by the teacher for a couple minutes, but wondered what
I was doing. I watched the teacher grade yesterday’s science exams: 8/50,
12/50, 20/50 – the results weren’t looking good. I had gone to the school with
Liz, and I decided to go vent to her. I expressed my frustration and she asked
what I was going to do about it. I told her that I didn’t really have any good
ideas. She stood up and told me that we were going to play a review game with
the students. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t think about that before. We
started organizing the game and the teacher from 3B brought in all of her
students too, so we had almost 75 children. We played a game, girls against
boys so there would be competition, for almost 2 hours. The children amazingly
cooperated well, and were able to learn the material for their test tomorrow.
The teacher thanked us for our help, but I hoped that we
taught him more than we taught the children that morning. I was so proud of
myself and Liz that we stepped in and taught these kids. I know that they did
so well on their exams today because of our help.
