"'Dirty Secrets in Swaziland'
This is my second time being here in Swaziland.
The first time I came was back in 2011 on a 2-week trip through AIM. I went because I felt The Lord pulling me towards overseas missions, but I didn’t want to do anything crazy like quit my job and peace out of the states for an extended period of time….so 2 weeks seemed like the perfect alternative to get the overseas thing out of my system.
That plan didn’t really work out the way I thought it would…
I’ve sat around the fire here at our campsite sharing with Christin, Jason, and good ole’ Pappa Noah about how different my first experience in Swazi was; showers, sleeping in a bed, dinner at a table, clean clothes, electricity, thinking I was going to die when the power went off for 12 hours, being afraid of a critter crawling or slithering into my bed…sigh.
This time around I’m living in my tent that’s pitched in a plowed cornfield on top of hibernating pythons. I splash myself with freezing cold well water behind a tarp once maybe twice a week, and our meals are cooked in large cauldrons over a fire that Christin almost fell into. Our bathroom is pit latrine during the day and once the sun goes down I just do my thing right there in the cornfield. My daytime outfit is my orange fitted tee and a piece of colorful cloth wrapped around my waist, and my nighttime outfit is a long sleeve shirt, my sheep fleece, red Thai pants, Smartwool socks, and sandals…I make the boys stumble.
My experiences were different and so was I, but one thing that remained the same was how this place has affected me.
This country has a death sentence. AIDS has ravaged every village and city in Swaziland and by 2050 this country will be completely wiped out. Girls in every village are being raped left and right. If a girl walks to collect firewood and man approaches her and forces her to have sex with him nothing is done! The girl is told that the man used her to relieve himself and that isn’t illegal. Young children with HIV fill the clinics here, and how they got it is the best kept secret in Swaziland. It’s believed here that a man will be cured of AIDS if he has sex with a virgin, and the younger the child the better of a chance that they’re still a virgin.
Witchcraft is used throughout the country. We’ve heard stories of witch doctors snatching children, cutting them to pieces, and then using them as an ingredient to a curse someone bought to make their husband leave his mistress.
There are so many more stories like this that all lead to this country’s death. But no one talks about it and everything is kept in secret.
I was talking to my squad mate, Sage, today about how all the chaos in Swaziland reminds me of Sodom and Gomorrah. Is Swaziland’s sin so grievous that The Lord would let the burning sulfur continue to rain from the sky until it’s completely destroyed?
It would be easier to think that way. To pack everything up and move on to somewhere that’s a little more hopeful. To forget and never look back.
Or what if Swaziland is like Nineveh, and God’s sent out little Jonah’s to come here and to preach the truth and bring light to all the dirty little secrets here.
I believe the second one, because like Jonah I’ve wanted to run from this place. There is nothing in me that would ever want to be in a place of so much death, or visit patients in hospitals that look like insane asylums, or have children with worms crawl all over me, or sit with my team and count the number of people that have died since meeting them this month.
But here I am, and not because of me, but because of the Jesus that lives inside me that fills me with the love and compassion for people that I am completely incapable of having on my own. And that’s it."
I LOVED All American Rejects in high school (song title reference), but my secret is that I stole this blog from my old teammate, Shayna Brocco, because she is awesome and a great storyteller & I wanted to be a part of exposing these dark secrets of Swaziland. These pictures are also hers. Enjoy!
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Please pray for this nation!
