Snapshots of Swazi:
The breeze is a welcome relief to anyone sitting under the hot African sun. I sit behind a makeshift cinderblock hut where the GoGo’s make food everyday for the children. This is called a Care Point and is one of G42’s growing vision. In the last 14 months, this new organization has put up 19 Care Points in Swaziland. They desire not just to feed the children (a cost of just 3 cents a meal, and for just $7,600 they can have 228,000 meals/month), but give them school and Bible education.
There are three GoGo’s (grandma in SiSwati) sitting next to me chatting up a storm, dogs catching some afternoon z’s, and chickens roosting underneath the nearby cactus. A boy is sleeping at our feet, no more then two years old. Because of the dump nearby, scores of flies trounce around on his body as if he was the talk of the town. I notice he is missing a shoe and discover it is being used as his make shift pillow. I look up to my left at the brush covered ridge and discover not even a half mile away is South Africa. Most of the children fed at these Care Points have no parents and a little girl orphans about 4 and 5 years old live in the nearby ditches and under the trees. With a nation literally dying faster than it’s growing, where the average life span is 28 years, staticians project that Swaziland won’t exist in 2050. That’s just 42 years. The children travel miles a day for one simple meal of pap (pronounced pop, or grits) and beans. If they fail to make it, they don’t eat.
I look around me; Tammy is playing catch with a boy who’s blind, encouraging him and making him smile. Mark is playing futbol with the boys. I decide to make use of the small wheelbarrow, load it full of kids and cart them around the bush. I crouch down to talk with a little boy and put my hand on his swollen belly. It’s hard and tight. I remember from my schooling it’s marasmus a form of protein malnutrition. It is a rare exception if a child doesn’t have upper respiratory infection, a runny nose, and eyes full of gunk. A little boy climbs into my lap and with in 2 minutes is fast asleep. I’m probably the most comfortable thing he’s slept on in a while. I look into the girl’s eyes sitting next to me and notice how amazingly beautiful she is. They all are. The verse in Genesis 1:27 says we are all created in the image of God. I see Jesus in all of them.
