The King
Swaziland is truly on of a kind. Never have I been in a place like it.
First of all, it is the last remaining Absolute Monarchy in all of Africa. King is king, his word goes! In almost every building, including homes, there are 3 portraits. The first, above the other two, is the King, Lalikhulu Emalangeni. Next of importance is a lovely photo of the Queen Mother(the mother of the king) and lastly a picture of the Prime Minister.
Social Norms/Fun Laws
Like every other country in the world there are random strict laws. Here, if you get caught J-walking you have to pay E 60, which is about $5 in total. If you don’t have it on you, you get taken to the police station/got to jail. Woohoo! That’d be a thrill! Some part of me wants that to happen because it would be a fun story to tell, but luckily this hasn’t happened to anyone on my squad yet, but, personally, I think would be really funny to happen to someone.
When you are not in your own cultural context, you are able to pick up on things that are different than what you are used to. For example, in the USA, when you go to shake a hand it’s a simple grab of the hand and you shake. Here, you do the same to start, but there are like 5 other hand movements thrown in there. If you want to show someone respect or honor when you shake their hand, you do what I described above, but you place you left hand under your forearm, palm up, and shake the persons hand. In the States, for the most part, it is okay to spit on the ground or burp, but here is seen as extremely disrespectful. If you’ve been drinking some soda, you’d better go burp in private!
The Beautiful Wild
This place is so beautiful, you wouldn’t believe it. Typically, if you I asked someone, in America, what they imagined Africa to look like, you would probably get a response to the effect of flat, dry, hot, desert, etc. You’d be wrong. Although some days it has been hot, it hasn’t been unbearable. Honestly, it has rained 1/3 of the days we have been here. Mountains cover Swaziland. Swazi is all mountains!!! The mountains are covered in green, wild life roams freely, there are all sorts of birds, which are quite noisy in the mornings, cows/bulls, donkeys, chicken. Today i saw an eagle no further than 20 feet from where I was. It was so cool!
Like I said, Swaziland is one of a kind.
