Two days ago, a bunch of us guys spent the day with Gary Black. Gary is one of the ‘big guys’ here. He, Seth, Andrew and Tom are sometimes called the ‘four horsemen’ by some of the people here. The more time I spend with these men, the more I respect them. So, on Tuesday, I was given the opportunity to join Gary for the day. I really had no idea what we were doing.
Jake, Josh, and I did some form running and sprint work at 6am on the dirt of a small soccer field. We had been joined by about 20 elementary school kids in this workout. We taught them butt kicks, high knees, grapevines (cariocas), skips, backwards running, and a couple hundred reps of lunges. We had fun with these kids, we nic-named them Bruce Lee, Rambo, Rocky, Arnold… and their eyes lit up. We told them they were powerful men and women of God, then we rushed to Gary’s house.
We arrived at Gary’s house, and I took off my Mountain Hardware hat and looked in the mirror…realized I had not brushed my teeth and my hair was a mess. So I cleaned up in the yard spigot, and we piled into Gary’s van.
We travelled for a little more than an hour. We pulled in to where we were meeting some men, and walked into a board room and met with some Swazi business men who are concerned because it is projected that half of their workforce will be dead in three years, and by 2050, at this rate, there no longer will be a Swaziland as we know it. Swazi has the world’s highest deathrate from AIDS. The average life expectancy for a woman is 33 years old. These men hope that it is not too late to save their businesses.
I sat quietly in this meeting. I had left my notebook in the van, because I had no idea we were having a meeting like this. This meeting was incredible to me as Gary shared his vision to these eight men. These men shared their vision. There was an atmosphere in the room that worked, the win-win stuff I have heard about, read about, but have no idea how to actually implement or direct. I watched this happen.
Gary shared the vision of self sustaining communities of orphans, living in ‘Mercy Homes’, where 6-8 orphans will be raised by a mom or grandmother. Fathers are needed, but are in short supply. There would be a school and a church. At the start food and water will be provided (addressing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). Teaching business skills, entreprenuership (is that a word?)….gardening, and my favorite, fish farming. But not just any kind of fish, Koi! I believe Gary said one koi costs 2000 rand to produce and sells for 8-12000 rand. The world wide demand for koi is huge, and here in Swazi it seems a man earns respect by the number of wives he can support (each wife costs about 20 cows), and a business gains credibility based on the size of its koi.
We then travelled to four different little villages. The first was a structure just off the highway, crumbling concrete block secured by chain link fence. A small cooking fire inside, with a single pot boiling a mixture of gruel. A ‘gogo’, or grandmother/matriarch type attending the food, preparing to feed up to 95 children. We played (or frightened) with the children, teaching them ‘ohlele’, tickling and tossing them, making them giggle and squeal and cry. We held back on the wedgies, at least for our initial encounter with them.
The second location had a much nicer building. These buildings are one room, the size of a large living room, and another small pantry room. The buildings are installed by the business men who are trying to give back to the communities. In this building a group of 30 children were being taught by a few gogos. Learning the english alphabet and counting to 10. Learning window, roof, door, and floor. The teaching is almost all done in a sing-song style. We played ‘aruchacha’, ‘ohlele’, and ‘head, shoulders, knees, and toes….eyes and ears and nose and chin’. Then we left for location three.
The third location was a brand new building with a locked door. We looked in the window and saw that building materials still sat unused on the floor. It took 15 minutes to find the person who might have the key, and 10 more minutes for that person to find the key. The pantry was full of food. We asked if this building was serving the intended purpose. “Yes”, was the response. Yes is the response to every question here. (Andrew says we are supposed to have yes written on our hearts) But yes here does not mean anything, because the culture here does not want to let anyone down. Finally it was discovered that this place was not being used because there is no firewood in the area. With out firewood, they can’t cook the food in the pantry, and with out food, it seems most people can’t do much of anything else. So, in this place, all it takes is a means to cook. Easy solutions, but people are starving because those with solutions don’t know the problems.
Location four. We arrived to the most arid area of the four. Aloe plants growing everywhere. The Swazi business man named Troy told us that where you see aloe, you will not find water. This location has no water, making it difficult to solve the issues. Wells for water are drilled up to (I believe) 300 meters deep. In this area, it seems that water is even farther away.
There are two huge tanks that the government is supposed to fill. The issue is the government does not always keep up with these tasks without someone reminding them. (reminds me of someone I know…uh, me) When the government does fill the tanks, in this location intended for the orphans, the adults steal it. Adult men, who in this area don’t seem to do much more than spread disease, steal water from the babies. So here, providing and protecting water would seem to be our first step. Next step, I guess, is figuring out how to grow gardens and have fish farms with out water. I have no idea how to do that.
After we finished these visits, we headed on out.
