Bittersweet.

With Vuma and his precious niece

THE swazi man kick!

Mbonisi, Tori & Phinda

Soaking up those sweet hugs

Last assembly at Mkhuzweni

Love these kids.

Our sweet Ntabas girls

This week was my last week of ministry in Swaziland. A very bittersweet week for me. I am SO looking forward to coming home and seeing family and friends, but will be leaving behind my new family and amazing friends here in Swazi. That also means this will be my final blog post for the trip. Atleast I think it will be unless we go to internet somewhere in South Africa. I will probably do one last update when I get home so I can post pictures from debrief, etc.

Sunday was one of my favorite Sundays by far. I brought my video camera to church and had asked Pastor Malaza if I could record some of the service and he was happy for me to. Little did I know that it would be one of the most energetic services yet! I was standing in the back recording during the singing and all of a sudden Musa starts doing the traditional Swazi man dance. (Explanation: Musa was extra joyful this week because someone paid for him to get the underground cable he needed in order to have electricity, the night before. This cable was the last step in getting electricity at his homestead so he was overjoyed when he found out someone had paid for it.) As Musa is dancing, everyone starts whistling and shouting then Pastor Malaza ties his coat around his shoulders and dances down the aisle and starts doing the Swazi man kick with Musa. I could not stop laughing and was so excited that I picked this Sunday to bring my video camera to church! After church, we had some friends come over for lunch again; Vuma, Sihle/Michael, Selby, Phinda and Ayanda. We made them grilled cheese sandwiches and just sat outside talking like we did the last time they came over. They are just so entertaining and I never laugh more than when I am with them. They stayed all afternoon so we took lots of video and pictures. Phinda loves to get my camera and video camera and document everything we do so he took a video of Ayanda talking to the camera. It was so sweet because he was talking about me and how much he will miss me, that I am his first American friend and how much he loves me. This boy is like my little brother so my heart melted just a little when Phinda played back the video for me. Katie and I asked them to teach us the words to the chant they say when doing the Swazi man kick. They could not stop laughing at how we pronounced the words, then I started to do the dance and they just screamed and grabbed my camera and took pictures. I'll post one of them for you! They stayed way past sunset (I say that because I don't always know what time it is) but we asked them to write in our journals so they all put on our headlamps and wrote us letters, definitely something I will treasure forever.

Moments before I slammed my leg into that wall :)

Some of my traditional outfit

Monday was our last day to go to Khanyisile Primary in Manzini. We just wanted to have fun with the kids this week so when we got there we took them out to the big field and played "duck duck goose" and some other games that eventually turned into them just running around chasing each other. Which I'm sure their teachers appreciated because they had a lot of bottled up energy for that early in the morning. It was very strange to say my first 'goodbye' to people here. I wasn't really sure how to do it. But I will have lots of practice the next few days. Musa picked us up from the school and drove us into town where a few of us ordered some Swazi sandals that are SO cool! I can't wait to wear them. They are handmade and have animal fur on the top.

This morning before going to town

Tuesday I went to Timbutini for one of the last times. I didn't even want to think about saying bye to the kids this day. So I didn't. I was able to serve them the sour porridge which is one of my favorite things to do. I sometimes forget how crazy it is that I'm in Africa, serving food to children I have dreamed about forever and that I've been doing that for the past 3 months. I can't even express how much my heart feels so right when I'm bent over scooping out the food and putting it in their dishes. No matter how hot it is under the metal roofed 'kitchen' my spirit feels so thankful. I can't believe that God chose ME to come and do this the past 3 months. Such a dream come true for me.
That afternoon I walked with some of my teammates to our friend Vuma's house to get him to come play football because he hadn't come the past few days so we wanted to make sure he came. His super cute niece was outside when we got there and I got to hold her! She was super cute and tiny, and I took a picture with her that I will also put on here.


Wednesday was another day that will stick out in my memory. Billy and I went to Musa's house because he was digging where he is going to put the cable for his electricity. He put me to work sweeping his house as he and Billy did man work, which I was totally okay with. After they were finished he took us to the homestead he grew up on and we got to meet some of his family. On their property they have a man that raises pigs, cows and goats to be slaughtered so Musa took us on a tour of all of that. Billy and I both agreed we felt like we were on a field trip. The pigs were the biggest pigs I have ever seen! They smelled absolutely disgusting but I just laughed the whole time because they were so fat. Then Billy went and Musa showed him how to milk a cow. Definitely took a video of that. Billy is so hilarious and because it was him milking the cow, it was just that much more entertaining to watch. We were about to leave when Musa said his make (mom) was cooking for us so we had to wait. He told us she was making this Swazi meal that is basically sour milk with some flavor. I almost started crying because I was just not in the mood to try anything exotic and knew I had to or else I would offend her. Musa was just laughing at Billy and I because Billy also was not too thrilled about this upcoming meal. His make walked out with the tray of food and I was relieved to see that it was just pop, beans, potatoes & chicken!

Sunday afternoon with our friends at the homestead

This afternoon I also went to Phinda’s house to take him a pair of socks I had bought for school and to give his family the picture I took when I brought him his shoes about 1 ½ months ago. They were so thrilled to have a picture and it brought me so much joy to see the smile on their faces when I handed it to them, they couldn’t stop staring.

Thursday was my last official day at Timbutini. I didn’t want to even think about the fact that it was possibly my last time to see most of these kids that I have spent the last 3 months with. But I had a great time just taking pictures and stealing as many hugs as possible. After I left the care point I went to Ayanda’s house. I’ve been trying to go there for probably the past month but it has never worked out so he was really excited that we came over. I also took some pictures at some care points of the kitchens that the Gogos and Makes cook the meals for the children in. I’m hoping to be able to help out in building some new kitchens, but I wanted to be able to show everyone back home what the kitchens look like.

Friday was a very relaxed day for me. I woke up early to go to Mkhuzweni Primary for the last time. I video taped the whole assembly, there was lots of singing and dancing so it was a very memorable last time there. All the kids said “awwww” when the head teacher went up front and announced that it was our last time there. They have been so welcoming of us and the kids really were sad to see us go. Bandile motioned for me to come over to him and asked me if I could come and greet his teacher before I left. It has been so beautiful to see kids open up in the time I have known them. Especially Bandile because as I have mentioned before he was very withdrawn when I first met him, but now he follows me everywhere. Since Khanyisile school is over with, I didn’t have anywhere to be until 2:30 at Ntabas care point. So Landon and I were the only 2 that stayed at the homestead. It was so nice. The most alone I have been since I left for Africa, even though I wasn’t completely alone. I just laid in the hut and called mom! I turned my phone on just to check if I might have reception and I did! I was so excited so I called my mom and we had a very expensive conversation; but so worth it right? Landon and I walked to Ntabas, which was so incredibly far, even to a Swazi. I told Musa we were walking there from the homestead and he said ‘that is punishment Jess!’ But the walk was so good, and we ended up walking a good distance with some of the kids which I always love to do. We had our last Bible study with the girls at the care point. This place is probably the one that I am least attached to. But at the end of the Bible study one of the girls spoke on behalf of all of them thanking us for spending the last 3 months with them. I was have to work so hard at not crying, definitely fighting back the tears.


This is when I realized how hard the next few days will be for me. Saying goodbye to people I have given my heart to; who have loved me in ways I neve3r knew imaginable and been so welcoming of me, a stranger just 3 months ago. But they treat me like one of their own. Swaziland will forever have my heart and I know that these goodbyes will not be ‘goodbye’ it will be ‘see you soon.’

Handing out sweets to the kids

The Ntabas kitchen where we did the girls Bible Study

Last day at the football field

 

15 Days

Just some people by public station

Walking home in Timbutini

What our village looks like; this is a homestead we walked past on our way home one day

 Right outside our homestead; there are cows everywhere!

Those cows on the right are the ones I took a picture with (above)

Mbonisi's sisters & brother at our homestead

Closer picture; cutest kids ever!

The dump in Manzini; we had to walk past this = smelly

This has been another great week in Swazi.  I am entering my last week of ministry and can’t believe it is all coming to an end so quickly.  Although I have 2 weeks until I come home this coming week is my last week of ministry because on the 21^st my team will leave for our final ‘debrief.’  A debrief is basically just time for us to relax and have fun, but also reflect on what all has happened the past 3 months and all the God has done in and through us.  It will be so hard to say goodbye to all of my beautiful Swazi friends that last week but I am SO excited for our debrief because we are going to St. Lucia, South Africa!  It is on the Indian Ocean which is pretty sweet and we have heard it is absolutely beautiful.  Our leaders told us last night in the team meeting that we were going there and I screamed and couldn’t stop smiling, because I was hoping that is where we would go but wasn’t sure if our budget would allow it.  It is going to be so awesome I’m so excited. 

Since my update on Wednesday it hasn’t been too eventful of a week.  But our khombi did breakdown on Thursday morning so we are without any vehicle for the remainder of the trip because our other khombi broke down a few weeks ago.  Now we just take public everywhere which is what some other people and I had already been doing. 

Thursday, since the khombi broke down was very different than it usually is.  Normally one group goes to the hospital and one group (my group) goes to Timbutini care point.  But this week everyone just got to choose what they wanted to do so that was rather freeing.  I ended up going to Manzini with Zanele.  It was so fun because she had been wanting to go to town with just me but we never could figure out when to so this week worked out perfectly.  She was going to buy the traditional wear for her sister so I went and bought part of the traditional wear, the necklace and the wrap.  I’ll buy the rest of the outfit next Saturday hopefully.  Then Musa picked us up in town and drove us home.  Thursday night is supposed to be guy/girls’ night but since we didn’t have a vehicle we all just ended up staying at the homestead and watching a movie in Lelo’s house.   So, Thursday = pretty uneventful.

Friday a few of us went to Mcuzweni Primary School down the road and did the morning assembly with the kids.  That afternoon my group took public to town for our last Friday at Khanyisile Primary School.  We didn’t realize at the time that it was going to be our last Friday so we were kind of caught off guard by that.  We got a ride from some random guy to the public station because it was going to be a really long walk.  It’s really hilarious how trusting we are of people here.  In the States I would NEVER get a ride from a complete stranger, but here it is just normal!  So we really appreciated the ride even though we were crammed in the back of his Pajero, it was just one more African experience to add to my list.  When we got back to Timbutini Neil, Landon and I walked to Musa’s house to visit him for a while.  I absolutely love how laid back life is here.  You are never in a hurry to go anywhere and have as much time as you want to just sit and be with people, I wish America would get a small dose of this mindset.  Kevin, Landon and I walked to the general store by Musa’s and bought crème donuts and Sprite, a typical purchase here.  Kevin drove me to the football field to see all my friends so I was there for a while then hurried home with Katie because a huge storm was blowing in.  It’s so crazy because all day there will only be a few clouds in the sky and super hot outside, then around 5:30 huge ‘thunder heads’ (like that mom!) come out of no where and lightening is crazy.  So the lightening was getting way to close for my comfort so we hurried home just in time to make it before it started to rain.  The rain didn’t last long but brought with it very windy cool weather for the night and early this morning.  So the past few days have just consisted of me soaking up every second with my Swazi family.  Whenever I have free time I fill it up with them.  That is what this next week and a half will be like for me.  Probably very exhausting but so worth it. 

Today I have spent lots of money!  Buying gifts for people adds up after a while and it’s so hard to not buy for every person I know.  Everything is so cheap but after buying lots of cheap things it starts to get expensive. 

Today is also Lelo’s birthday.  If I haven’t already said before, we are staying on Lelo’s homestead.  He’s 26 and they guys have spent a lot of time hanging out with him so tonight we are doing a big party because it is also a girl on the team, Becca’s birthday tomorrow and Kevin who I mentioned on Wednesday’s blog, is moving to Mbabane tomorrow so we are having a joint birthday/going away party tonight, so I’m excited about that.

Enjoy the pictures!

At Khanyisile Primary on Friday; with Thabiso & Qiniso

my 2 favorite Grade 3 kids

Qiniso & Thabiso

Siviwe; he's in my Grade 2 class

Kaci & I with our Grade 6 girls

they all started screaming for this picture

 Musa doing laundry at his homestead

So this is really dark but this is Michael/Sihle; he calls me

his wife, I had to hold his face for the picture because he kept looking at me 

 See?

Finally!

 Michael & I with his brother Musa

In the khombi this morning; all my friends & I always look for 

this guy when we take public, this morning a few of us were waiting by the road to take public and a khombi turns around to get us and it was his!  The 3 of us (girls) screamed and when he got out he gave us all a hug then I asked to take a picture with him.  He then proceeded to tell my friend Debbie that 'I love you.' Swazi men are very bold!

Beautiful People

I had absolutely NO time on Saturday to update my blog because I came to town with my 4 Swazi brothers that we hangout with and had over for dinner on Sunday so we spent all day with them and  took them out to eat at Nando's which is one of my favorite restaurants here in Swazi.  So I'll give a quick update of what the past week has been like since last Wednesday's update.

 The market in Manzini

After taking public home to Timbutini last Wednesday I stopped at the carepoint to see if Bandile was there because I had his shoes.  He was so I had him walk home with me and he was so excited.  I had him wash his feet off and helped him put on his new socks and shoes.  It was such a beautiful few moments for me, I felt like I was washing and putting shoes on the feet of my Jesus.  It's hard to describe what it felt like completely but it was perfect.  It was so exciting to see him this week come to the carepoint with his socks and shoes on because since I met him like the first week of being in Swazi I have just known him to be barefoot all the time, he looks so different!  But so precious.

Where we go to take public home

In the back of the khombi

Phinda, Ayanda & Vuma (when Phinda saw this he laughed

and said I was just so happy!)

Painting Phinda's toenails :)

Thursday I usually go to Timbutini carepoint but went to the hospital instead because Nkhosingphile, the little boy that we have been taking to the hospital for his foot, was going to get his bandage changed and I have really gotten close to him.  We went to the grocery store first because a girl on our team, Tori, had a doctor appointment for her back, so I asked Nkhosingphile if he wanted anything from the bakery inside and of course, as a 13 year old boy he said yes.  He hobbled inside with his crutches and walked over to the bakery with me.  I could see him scoping everything out trying to pick what he wanted so I told him to get as much as he wanted.  He got 3 things and a soda :)  He had the biggest smile on his face it was so precious.  When we got to the hospital I sat in line with him waiting to get his bandage changed.  I won't even go into the craziness of hospitals here and how unorganized they are. Sometimes I just laugh and think how shocked people would be in the States if they went to a hospital like that. So we just sat and listened to my iPod and played a game.  Another one of my favorite moments in Swazi.  It's the little things.

 The finished product

They love the iPod and dancing to it!

Love them

Our little family, minus Mbonisi

Love moments like this

Walking to the general store

Friday, was Good Friday so a few of us went to a church service about 20 minutes from the homestead.  It was pretty cool, very long of course because all Swazi church services are long but it was quite the experience.  I'll write more about that for Sunday.  Honestly I can't remember what else I did Friday.  I just asked Tori who is sitting next to me in the internet cafe and she couldn't remember either!

 Mbonisi; the boy that reminds me of Daniel

Joeboy I can't wait for you to meet him

Bandile and the shoes that finally fit!

 Highlight of the week

One of my favorite pictures

This is outside Nando's on Saturday

We were all finally looking after like 5 pictures

This is what we found Phinda doing :)

My bobhuti (brothers)

Saturday was so so fun.  Mbonisi, Ayanda and Vuma came to the homestead and walked with Tori, Katie, Debbie  I to meet Phinda at the football field.  He wasn't there so Ayanda & Mbonisi started walking over the mountain to his homestead to get him.  Well a few minutes later here comes Phinda from a different direction, by himself. There are no cell phones.  So Vuma does this crazy loud whistle, and a few seconds later we here the same kind of whistle answering back, then here come Ayanda & Mbonisi running through the bushes.  It was so exciting I started screaming because of the way they can just communicate through whistling!  Love Swaziland.  So then we walked to the main road which is about a 20 minute walk through our village and got public to Manzini.  Once in Manzini we just had fun.  We took them to eat at this restaurant called Nando's and each one of us paid for one of the boys public and lunch.  They were so cute eating their food, I'm pretty sure Phinda (my bhuti) may have never really used silverware before so he struggled but it was precious.  We were all sitting in the booth waiting for them to bring the food and realize Phinda isn't sitting with us. (Side note: Phinda it 13 and in his own little world; he is such a little boy and sometimes we think he is not even aware of reality).  So we start looking around and see him sitting in some booth with a random guy, taking pictures of himself with my camera.  We all started laughing so hard, it is just so like Phinda to do something like that.  So I asked him what he was doing and he just giggled and said "taking pictures."  He loves my camera so anytime I have it he takes it and goes to town, it's always fun to get my camera back and see what pictures he has taken.  He had my camera all Saturday.  Lunch was fun, it was good for us to know the boys were eating a good meal that would fill them up.  We took lots of pictures as always and I will put some on here for you to see.  I can't even say enough how much I love these 4 boys.  We have just become a family and when I tell them I'm leaving soon they get so upset and ask when I'm coming back.  Mbonisi told me he is going to steal my passport so I can't leave.  Phinda told me he doesn't trust me when I say I'm coming back soon because he doesn't want me to let him down.  Ayanda told me I'm his best friend.  So you can see how hard it will be for me to leave this place that is home to me.  The people who have become my family (never could they replace my real one though!).

Swazi ice cream is SO good!

See?

My Swazi Daniel Joe

Sick of me, but adorable of Phinda

Vuma

It rains a lot here

Saturday evening I went to another Easter church service with Musa and 2 other girls on my team.  This night was absolutely crazy for me.  I have never been in a service like that.  I have a whole lot of researching to do when I get home after some of the things I saw but let's just say I would not have been able to hold it together, had I been sitting next to my brother, Adam.

Sunday, Easter Sunday!  Went back to the same church but this time with the whole team.  The place was packed out, it was in like a school gym type thing, so bigger than the CLC at FBCNB but not much.  About 2 1/2 hours in I was sweating like crazy and couldn't even understand what was going on so I went to the back and found Phinda so I stood outside with him where the wind felt very nice.  Then walked down to our pastor's house which was on that property and watched some of the National Church service that the king goes to.  Our church service ended up lasting from about 9:00 - 2:00.  Can't imagine what people in the States would do if a church service lasted 5 hours.  Probably leave like myself and most of my teammates did.  Even Musa and Pastor Walter did so there was no guilt :)

 Phinda's photography

Playing cards with the kids at the hospital yesterday

Nkhosingphile

Kids at Timbutini eating

At the football field

What I go watch everyday :)

Sunday night was a lot of fun.  Musa and Bheki came over for dinner and hung out for a long time.  We played musical chairs.  We walked in a circle around Musa's car which was like 30 feet from the scattered chairs and when Katie would stop the music we would all run, screaming to the chairs that were definitely not lined up.  It was the most fun game ever!  And pretty crazy, with lots of shoving and falling out of chairs but so entertaining. We also had an 'easter egg hunt.'  Tori & Melissa just hid a bunch of star/heart beads and we found them and got a cookie for each bead we found.  Doesn't beat the easter egg hunts at home!

 Phinda again

Soccer shoes :)

Monday all the kids had off for holiday so I didn't go to Khanyisile Primary.  There were just a few of us at the homestead so we stayed back and interceded (through prayer) for somethings here in Swaziland like: our khombi (we are down to one now and need it to keep working), Audrey a lady at Hope House who is demon possessed so we prayed for deliverance and freedom for her, and then for the D-Team here in Swazi because their stress load is so much.  Musa who is the leader of the D-Team has an incredibly crazy amount of responsibility and stress here.  He actually has been suffering from back issues due to stress and has been to South Africa 2 times the past week for doctors appointments.  Mom, he is the male/swazi version of you.  He is the person EVERYONE calls to help with things because they know he is such a servant and will say yes to everything, even if he doesn't really have the time or energy to do it.
Tori & I cooked quiche on Monday which tasted super good thanks to my mom passing down her great cooking talent to me :)  It rained ALL day Monday and some yesterday too so the weather has been super cool!  Love it.

Tuesday I went to the hospital again because we were taking Nkhosingphile to get his bandage changed so I went with Neil to pick him up from school.  Such a good feeling that when I got out of the khombi he started smiling.  I love this kid.  So we went back to the homestead and I gave him some corn flakes for breakfast.  Then to the hospital and this time we didn't have to wait nearly as long to get his bandage changed so we went to the children's ward and played Crazy Eights with some of the kids there.  It was a lot of fun, even though I lost every time.  We went to the grocery store and Nkhosingphile was once again very excited when I told him he could get whatever he wanted at the bakery.  Dad, he got one of these homemade pink snowball cake things that you like.  It was a great day.  Every day I keep loving this place more and more, even though it doesn't seem possible.
Tuesday night we had a big team discussion.  We have such a big team and it's been really hard to be honest. Lots of us are here for completely different reasons but we never discussed that at the beginning so it has caused some issues but thank goodness it's not the end of the world!  I decided form the beginning that I was going to get out of this trip what I put into it.  I have had to push through exhaustion at points and choose love and choose the people.  But oh the reward.

Wednesday (today) I've just been in town hanging out.  I haven't had much down time lately and wanted to spend some time at the internet so that's what I've done today!

18 days until I come home.  It's going to be a HUGE adjustment so I covet your prayers in that.  Love all of you and thank you for your support of this trip that has changed my life forever.