Official Name: Kingdom of Swaziland
Population: Around 1 million
Capital: Mbabane
Official Language: SiSwati and English
Official Religion: Christianity and tribal religions
Where We’ll Be for Ministry:
El Shaddai, an orphanage at the top of a mountain!
Famous Landmark: Execution Rock, lots of safari opportunities, a few cool mountains to hike
Strange Foods I May Eat:
-Pap, a traditional porridge made from ground corn
-Lots of maize
-Sorghum
-Goat meat
-Incwancwa (sour porridge made of fermented cornmeal)
-Siphuphe setindlubu (porridge made from peanuts)
-Basically a lot of different varieties of porridge
FUN FACTS:
-Swaziland has the highest HIV infection rate in the world and also the fourth-lowest life expectancy at 49 years. This is a major health concern in the country
-Swaziland is the smallest country in Africa, and almost completely surrounded by South Africa. Part of its eastern border is touched by Mozambique.
-Swaziland is home to one of the world’s oldest mines
-Swaziland is a monarchy. The king has a lot of wives, and the wives like to go to KFC a lot, according to my teammate Amanda 🙂
-The accepted way to propose marriage to a girl is for a man to offer her cows. The more cows, the more precious she is to him. Thankfully if I’m offered cows, I can always say, “Not enough cows” and walk away
-The dirt is red in Swaziland, and will probably dye my shoes red
-Since Swaziland is below the Equator, the seasons are reversed from the US. So while I will be going in June, I will be experiencing winter!
-There are lots of monkeys everywhere, and they can be naughty!
-Grandmothers are called go-gos, and it’s common to find a go-go taking care of her grandkids because the kids’ parents have died from HIV/AIDS
-If you go to school in Swaziland, you learn English. So there should be quite a few people that know English for me to talk to!
Prayer Opportunities:
-We could come in contact with some spiritual warfare while we are here. Pray for our spiritual protection!
-A lot of ministries in Swaziland are working with kids to raise a generation that believes in the Gospel and makes wise health choices to stop the spread of HIV. Also, these ministries work to stop the spread of polygamy. Pray that these ministries would continue to affect change in the lives of these kids and the men and women they will become
-Pray that ministries in Swaziland (and us!) will continue to find favor with the king. The king is very benevolent and allows a lot of freedom for the various ministries and missionaries in Swaziland. Pray this continues!
-Pray for U Squad’s strength, spiritual, emotional, and physical! We will be doing a lot of work with kids, just loving on them and teaching them, as well as odd jobs around the orphanage property. As I can attest from working with kids for most of my life, it is hard work, especially towards the end of our Race! Pray that God will give us an overflow of strength and love for these people!
I will not have internet this next month, so please bear with me as I won’t be posting anything until I get to South Africa for month 11! Thank you for your prayers!
