I’ve been in Swaziland for one month now and it’s so amazing. Every week we have four days of ministry with the kiddos, one adventure day, a half Sabbath day half church day, and a half Sabbath half cleaning day.
Our ministry has been going to care points which are places for kids to play, learn a little about Jesus, and get one meal of rice with soy protein. On Tuesdays, through Fridays at 10:30, we hop on a van and ride it about 10 minutes to get to Joyela where we spend the rest of the day until about 4. Going into the very first day of ministry I expected there to be a ton of kiddos but there were only five when we first got there. Most of the mornings have very few kids but then the school kids come in the afternoon. For the first hour and a half, we hold the little ones or play with them on the swings that really aren’t swings, and we just love on them the best we can. They have some cute little singing type games that we love to play like “My Teddy Bear” but it’s kind of a joke now because we have played them for so many hours. Around 12 the kids all wash their hands and bowls for food that they brought from home. They all stand in a line and say the sweetest prayer for God to bless their food and then we serve them their scoops of rice. As the kids eat lunch, we eat our own lunch consisting of PBJ’s, an apple, and sometimes a carrot. Most of the time we end up eating lunch in the closet of the little building because the Gogo’s (grandmothers) are in the classroom making bags to sell. As we squish into our little lunch room closet we get to talk about the fun little experiences we’ve had with the kiddos so far.
After lunch, we go back out with the kids for another few hours but by this time there are more kids there and many more on the way! The afternoons are so fun because the older school kids come and they speak more English so we can actually talk with them. With the older kids, we can sit and talk with them for a bit or we dance or play some of their favorite games like “Double Double” or the bottle game or the rope game. Sometimes kids just come up to me with their hands up and say “double double” meaning that they want to play a little hand game with me. For the bottle game, there is a large glass bottle in the center with sand all around and one kid, and then there is one kid on each side of the bottle standing farther back. The goal of the game is to fill the bottle with sand before the two people on the end hit you with the little ball of bags. That game is so fun but I’m not upper good at it. For the rope game, they have a long rope tied together and they put it around two girls at opposite ends so that there is a small gap between the two sides of rope and it’s about four feet off the ground. Then they proceed to jump through the rope while twisting it and landing in the middle of it. Watching them is incredible because it’s so hard but they are so good at it!! With all the games and things we do with the older kids, the time goes by so much faster and we also get to teach them all a lesson sometimes so the afternoons can really fly by.
When the bus pulls in around 4 o’clock we are all so exhausted and dirty or “busted, dusted, and crusted” as my team likes to call it. When the kids see our ride they start to attack us with hugs almost! We get so many hugs from so many different kids in a very short span of a few minutes but it’s the best to see all of their love and it really shows me that even though playing with kids doesn’t always seem that important or fun, we still can really impact their lives. I love our kids so so much and I’m thankful every day that God has sent my little team to Joyela.
In doing ministry four days in a row we get pretty tired so it’s nice to have a few days with little to no kids hanging off our shoulders. Every Saturday is “adventure day” so I have options of fun things that I want to do or places I want to go. The base is pretty far from everything so at this point my options are limited in what I can do. One week my team decided to walk to SaveMor which is the little grocery store that about a 5 minute drive away to buy ingredients for cookies. The drive is short but the walk is not at all!! It took us an hour and 45 minutes to walk there on the side of the road with cars zooming by! It was definitely a fun experience but I will NOT be making that same trip again! Other days we have taken a kumbi to Nisela which is a niceish restaurant with the kinds of foods you could find in America. The food is mostly good and it’s fun to go out and about in Swazi. Sometimes for adventure day we can also go to the market which is two hours away or we can go to Lao’s house who is a missionary that partners with our host. A week or two ago me and my team got to stay at Lao’s house and it was so fun! We stayed there for a few nights in their little oasis and it was almost like an extended adventure day. These adventure days are a good time for me and my team to bond more over things that aren’t just kids.
On Sunday’s half, the day is filled with church and the other half is part of our Sabbath day. Around 10 we all get dressed up in our church clothes which are really our only clean skirts or dresses and we walk down the street to the local church. When we get to the church we spread ourselves out so that we can talk and bond with some of the locals. Now Swazi church is not like any other church, it’s kind of crazy sometimes. The service can last around three hours and that time is filled with lots of standing, singing, trying to understand what the preacher is saying, and even dancing!! At one point in the midst of the loud singing we all get up and dance around shaking everyone’s hands and meeting them. Church is a little crazy and can really drain the energy out of me so the second half of the day is Sabbath for us. This can look like a lot of different things, but the main idea is to rest and be recharged physically, mentally, and spiritually by God. Sometimes I paint or draw, or lay in my hammock, or read and journal, but no matter what it is, everything should be time intentionally spent with the Lord. Learning how to Sabbath is something that I’m still working on and trying to figure out what I can do to be fully charged for the next week and I can’t wait to see how I am able to grow in that over the next little bit.
Mondays are sometimes my favorite days because it’s the other half of our Sabbath but it’s also cleaning day! Yes, that may be strange, but I actually have found that I really enjoy cleaning because it’s often very soothing and rhythmic so it can calm me down and make me relaxed. It’s also very very nice to get everything clean so it doesn’t feel like we are living in filth and we can just start the week off feeling nice and clean and renewed.
Well, that’s Swazi for you! It may not seem super glamorous, but I love Swaziland and I know that it will always have a special place in my heart!
