As most of you know, last month was difficult and I was ready to get out of Mozambique and to the promise land of Swaziland. Nothing about the month was easy including the process of leaving.
Our trip to South Africa should have only taken three hours but ended up taking 15. We were supposed to be picked up from our ministry at 7am and around 9:00 they said it would be 5min. Around 1:00 we found out that our transportation completely fell through and we had no way of getting out of Mozambique, a problem since our Visas would run out at midnight and we would illegally be in the country.
Through some circumstances none of us understand, two vans finally arrived at 2:30 and we were able to head out.
Thirty minutes into the trip the police stopped us because we didn’t have the correct permits. We were finally released after our drivers paid them off and we headed to the border. We arrived at the border around 5 and found ourselves in a 2-hour line that wrapped around the building. Unfortunately, the South African border closed at 8 and we needed to make it through before our visas ran out. Luckily, we were able to talk to a Mozambique official who allowed us to head to the second border point and move through VIP immigration.
After two Mozambique border points we arrived at the South African border and with a lot of pushing we were able to enter into South Africa. We spent four days at a hostel in the jungle of Nelsprit for our month 5 debrief. Our room had airconditioning, warm showers and we each got our own beds; I don’t think I had ever been so excited to sleep in a bunk bed.
The bus ride to Swaziland and immigration was a breeze and after only 4 hours we had arrived. The Kingdom of Swaziland (one of the only absolute monarchies in the world) was more than we had expected.
The landscape here is BEAUTIFUL, a lot of rolling hills, streams and lakes. As the sun began to set behind us, we were talking about how cool it would be to see a giraffe. Only 5 minutes later our driver pulls to the side of the road and on our left is a herd of giraffes and zebras! We all jumped out of the van and were able to watch them as night fell.
We arrived at our location to a power outage and no running water but were so excited to be in Swaziland that it didn’t faze us (especially after last month). As we walked into our new home, we found a room full of bunk beds and mattresses, so many beds we could actually triple up our mattresses for extra comfort—we were all so excited I think our ministry contact thought we were crazy. We were also told that malaria was not a threat in this area and that we were safe to sleep outside under the stars. OOH and the stars! I have never seen stars more beautiful, the sky was filled with them and because we are in the middle of nowhere there are no lights to block them out.
Our electricity finally turned back on including the water. We also have 4 showers and we can drink out of the sink again, this truly is the promise land!
