In November, Swaziland proved to be full of surprises. I was on the agriculture team that turned out to be a bit more of a “do whatever needs to be done” team. Which was fine; we were ready and available to be wherever anybody needed us whether that be at a Carepoint playing with children, planting cucumbers, handing out cabbages and goodie bags at Carepoint Christmas parties, or tearing down huge vines off of the perimeter walls where we were staying. My team was able to dabble in a bit of everything this month and it was fun seeing so many ways to serve.
One opportunity that the Lord provided was with a woman that a couple people from our squad met by divine intervention. She happened to be an incredible woman who had started a preschool in Swazi and was working with The Swaziland Network for Early Childhood Development. She was working with UNICEF and other cooperating agencies to put on the very first conference in Swaziland for Early Childhood Development. It was incredible to have the opportunity to help out with that. I was able to help put together some of the decor and activities that would be used at the conference to illustrate the importance of early childhood development. Some of use helped with the prep, helped decorate the Royal Swazi Hotel for the conference and then were invited to get dressed up (as dressed up as you can get as a missionary on the World Race) and attend the opening night banquet and speeches.
That was truly amazing, not only seeing the fancy side of Swazi culture and listen to the Deputy Prime Minister speak but to be there witnessing history. It was inspiring to hear the passionate speeches of the people we had been getting to know over the last week and hear their vision to bring hope and progress to the young children in Swaziland. With my educational background being in this field and having been apart of various early childhood programs in school really got me excited in seeing a network for early childhood development in its genesis. The conference worked to get the right people from the government, parliament, teachers, legislators, sponsors and more all together and finally talking about how important it is to invest in this field. I’ve been so blessed to have had the opportunity to be apart of this new network and make international connections in my field.
