For the month of December, my team and I were living in Swaziland. We stayed there from the 29th of November to the 19th of December. We were only able to stay until the 19th of December because the AIM office in Manzini closed for the Christmas Holiday. It was such a precious time there.
We left Nelspruit, South Africa at around 6pm on the 29th of December. It was a bit of a cramped bus ride to Swaziland. We ended up arriving at our homestead at 2am. We were all tired and groggy from the bus ride, but when we entered the house, I don’t think any of us were prepared for what we encountered. We were going to be living in a three bedroom house. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? I mean, a team of seven living in a three bedroom house would be pretty comfortable. I would be so content with that. However, that was not the case as my team was also staying with two other teams. We had 22 people for a three bedroom house. Talk about cramped!
The toilet was a porter potty outside. We had no running water, except in the bathtub, where we could take bucket showers. There were no beds, but there were pads that weren’t the cleanest which we could place on the cement floor for some cushion. Surely this couldn’t be where ALL of us were going to be living for the next 20 days. We were certain that in the morning, our contact would split us up into some of the other houses on the homestead property. We laid our pads down, pulled out our sleeping pads and sleeping bags, and crashed.
It was at orientation that we discovered that we would not be splitting up at all. This was how we were going to be staying the entire 20 days. For an only child who has only shared a room once in college, this was bit of a stretch. There were 10 girls staying in our room. Our beds were lined up literally shoulder to shoulder. There was no space even for our stuff. This was going to be a challenging month for sure.
Community is emphasized so much at training camp and at launch. It’s a vital aspect of the race. I thought I had experienced community living on the race before now, with my team. This small space with so many people was about to blow my concept of community living right out of the water. There literally was no space to be alone in. Every single room was occupied, almost all the time. The homestead grounds was fairly small and we can’t go anywhere outside of our living spaces without a buddy, so alone time became something very precious to me, because it was so hard to get. One thing I have been learning on the race is that I am very much an introvert. I love being around people, but if I do not have my alone time, I begin to get very weary being around people all the time. Alone time is where I get energized again.
As time passed on, though, I began to realize that our living conditions weren’t all that bad. Though the porta-potty smelled bad most of the time, it was still a toilet we could use. It was a little inconvenient to have to put on your rain jacket and headlamp at night so that you could stay dry and see as you made your way to the porta-potty at night, it still was a blessing to have some sort of facilities to use.
Filling up water from a Jo-Jo was inconvenient, especially when we had two bowls in which to do our dishes and wash our hands in to fill up constantly, but we still had water. It really sucked having to do dishes at night when it was raining, because you got soaked and you had to have a head lamp on, but as time passed on these things became less and less inconvenient and more just a way of life. Cold bucket showers weren’t so bad. At least we had running water inside for that. I could just fill up my bucket and go.
We also had no internet. Since we had no internet, that meant we had no distractions, so we spent a lot of time talking to each other. We could go to an internet cafe in town, but you had to pay for time and you could only use their computers. This became a hot spot to be at on our off days. Since so many people decided to go into town on our off day, I would just stay behind at the house. It was nice to have only a few people in the house for a while. Not that I had issues with any of the people I was living with, it’s just nice to have fewer people around for a little while when you’re an introvert.
As the first few days went by, I became aware that this simpler way of life really wasn’t that bad. As more time passed on, I realized that I actually really like it. I liked us cooking for each other. I liked not having internet. I liked getting up early and hearing the cows and the goats getting ready for their day. It was a little hard with so many people. Honestly it’s been the hardest living condition for me so far on the race, but it has also been my favorite.
In fact, Swaziland has been my favorite month. It put a lot of things into perspective for me. Things that were once so important to me, seem so small and meaningless. When I have seen people live with so much less, when I have been challenged daily to die to my self and my selfishness for those around me, that’s when God changed my heart. I am enjoying a more simpler lifestyle right now. And it’s been so good.
To my readers: I am sorry this blog is more of a reflective than actual ministry information. INternet is scarce and time short, but I promise I will have more ministry focused blogs up as soon as we get to India. Thank you for your patience!
Until next time,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
