Today was one of those days that might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of life, but was great for me.
I woke up, ate some corn flakes with “long life” milk, and made plans to go get “air time” (minutes) for our phones. I grabbed my things, and my co-leader, Jace, my squad mentor ,Shad, and I set off on our walk to the shop. Shad has spent time at this place in the past, and we walked with him in the way that he remembered. He told us about how there used to be grass everywhere and that it had changed since 2014 when he was last here.
We walked up the path towards a cinderblock group of homes (a homestead.) As we approached the structure, 2 kids ran out. We greeted them by saying, “Sanibonani, unjani?” (hello, how are you?). They responded in English, and we continued asking them their names and how old they were. They responded again in wonderful English, and we continued walking a few meters with them. We reached the house, and more people came out to interact with us. Jace took a beautiful picture of flowers in a tree while we talked to more small children. Shad asked one of the older girls where the shop was to make sure that we were on the right track. She gave him directions while one 7 year-old asked me, “where’s your baby?” I said, “I don’t have one.” She looked at me with a slightly confused look and asked her question again. I answered again and said. “I don’t have one… do you?” She let out a small laugh and showed a big smile before she ran back to her home. I would count that as a good interaction.
We walked a little bit further and turned towards the shop. We arrived, only to find out that they wouldn’t have what we needed for another two days. We decided to get a glass bottle of coke and chill for a second. It was starting to get hot, so the cold drink felt amazing. The wind blew while we held the bottles, making sounds as if we were blowing across the top. We played around them, realized that we probably looked like insane foreigners, and laughed it off. We finished our cokes, returned the bottles, said “siyabonga” (we thank you), and made our way back.
Soon after returning back, we made plans to go find wifi at Nisela Safari Lodge, a place 11 km from here. We got everyone ready, and headed out to the main road to catch a kombi. These local transport vans can come within minutes of getting to the road, or you could wait an hour. You never know. Today, we got lucky. One stopped for us while we were still walking to the kombi stop. We hopped in and made our way there. Our ride cost us 10 Swazi emalangeni per person, which is about 75 cents each. Not too bad.
We made it to our destination, walked in, and I saw that I recognized this place. I had no idea why, until I figured out that this place housed a very feisty zebra. This zebra attempted to bite many of my team members last November, and was successful in putting his teeth on me. Don’t worry, we’re still friends. We ordered some drinks and food at the restaurant, and attempted to use the internet. It worked for some things, and not for most, but we got some work done. We scheduled, planned, communicated, and mostly waited for webpages to load. It was a grand time. When it was time to head back, we made our way to the kombi stop, waited for a little while, and eventually got picked up by one of the only people we know here… our host. He just happened to be driving by and recognized the multitude of people that just don’t really fit in, asthetically.
I can’t say that all of our work got done, or that everything was what we had planned, but it was a good day all around.
Now, I am sitting on my sleeping pad bed, listening to “Safe Retreat” by King’s Kaleidoscope to drown out all of the sounds around us. Those noises include some bats that live with us, large wind gusts against the creaking door and the tin roof, and the zippers of sleeping bags being adjusted by the 8 Racers here. As I am leaning on the concrete wall, the wind gusts are strong enough to shake the wall ever so slightly. They are LOUD.
In conclusion, I would like to state that this is my second Swaziland experience, and I am extremely grateful to be where God has placed me in this moment – with these people, in this place, with this life.
UPDATE: We have been in Nsoko for 6 days, and things are going well. We have had two days of scheduled ministry, and the squad has been adjusting to the new climate and culture.
k hills.
