On adventure day, a few of my squadmates and I decided to leave our base in Nsoko and travel to Manzini which is around two to three hours away from us. Nsoko is in the bush of Swaziland, while Manzini is a more of a developed city of Swaziland. My friend Bill wanted to go to Manzini. He was on a mission! He wanted to meet the king of Swaziland. He felt God that God wanted him to meet the king and deliver a message to him. It might sound strange, but this is actually a true story.
When we got to Manzini my friend Bill tried to work on a plan that would help him meet the king. We found out that the king had 15 palaces in Swaziland and that he also had 11 wives. So our luck was slim on finding the King in one of his palaces. Out of nowhere, we found out that there was a festival in La Bamba. We found out the king would be there! We decided the best way to meet the king would be to go to this festival.
Our friends pointed us to a taxi and finally we were on our way! On our way to the festival we had our taxi drive us to a market that sold traditional Swazi clothes. We went up to the market and immediately two women started putting clothes on us. Bill tried on several tops while the two women put several clothes and necklaces on me. I felt like I was playing dress up. It was honestly a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure the ladies at the market thought that Bill and I were married. They kept taking pictures of us, and stopped trying to sell me items when Bill told them I had a budget. Finally I got my dress, and Bill got his top and we were on our way to the festival!
Finally we made it to the festival! We get out of the taxi and immediately we are greeted with hellos from the people at the festival. Someone came up to me and tried to sell me a watermelon, while people came up to us asking us if we had mrula. Bill was stopped by a few people, and finally some people offered him some of the mrula. Mrula is a plant here in Swaziland. And that’s what they use to make bear out of. We were told by the taxi that the mrula was free at the festival. So Bill got some, and then we casually went on our way. We made some other friends a long the way, and kept walking towards the large group that was conjugating. It was a group of around 500+ ladies. They were all wearing red traditional Swaziland attire with bracelets and necklaces. Some of them were even carrying instruments they were playing on. They were all dancing and heading in a general direction together. So we followed the crowd, and eventually ended up in a general area surrounded by these groups of dancing women. We wanted to see the king!
Bill was so excited! Every time we talked to a Swazi person Bill said, “I’m so excited to see the King!!”. They laughed and smiled at us every single time. They asked us where we were from and we shared that we were from America. Whenever we tell people we are from America they are always surprised. Bill and I briefly met a lady and her husband while trying to shuffle to the front of the large group. All of a sudden the lady we met earlier grabbed my shoulder and pointed towards a direction of people walking past us. She said, “There’s the king,” She heard that we were really excited and she wanted to make sure we saw the king.
When the king walked past us, I tried taking a video, but unfortunately I missed him by a few seconds. He had orange spikes coming from his head. When he walked past us, he made direct eye contact with Bill and I. Bill was so excited! We got to see the king! It’s crazy to say that we saw the King of Swaziland!
I will be posting another blog in addition to this blog in a few days!
