Bird Attacks & Soccer Players

This is Cheeks. The cute baby that fell asleep

on me

At dinner in Nsoko last week

My friends :)

Before church on Sunday all the girls minus Liz our leader

Back row: me, Stephanie, Becca, Debbie, Katie, Melissa

Front Row: Tori, Kaci, Calie, Katie

Girls night on Thursday at Rustic Tavern

One of our Grade 3 classes after Crafts

Eating a chicken they had just killed

I'm holding a bone :)

My man Sibusiso at his homestead

Go Spurs Go! This was for you Dad :)

Us with the guy we previously called Donkey

We learned his name is Thulane; we call him Wayne

Cute Singosee. One of the little boys at Timbutini

Owen, Me & Seth

My 2 new best friends at the soccer field

Sunday - Church starts at 11:00, Swazi time, which means not really at 11:00 but that's when we get there. This Sunday was a little different because the main pastor, Pastor Walter was not here and Musa who leads the music was also gone.  I love when he leads the singing because he is the most joyful person I have ever met, he radiates Jesus. Each week, they have asked 2-3 of us to be part of the service by going up to the front and testifying about something we have been learning recently or really anything we want to share about. I volunteered to speak this week about Romans 8:1-2 which says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." I shared that although I have read this verse many times, not until I have been here in Africa did the Lord really speak to me through it. I told them that for a while now I have felt like I had to earn God's favor. So, for example if I have not spent time reading the Word, I will start to pray and then think that I'm 'not allowed to' because I haven't read the Bible in a few days. So, because I hadn't spent time with Jesus, I keep not spending time with Him because I feel like I have to earn His favor, and it's just a confusing cycle of that over and over. But, praise Jesus that He has set me free from believing the lies that Satan was telling me. I told them that if we believe that we have to earn God's favor, then that makes it about us, and God's grace has nothing to do with our actions. So that's what I shared, and I had a translator which was pretty cool & Mom I had Tori video tape it so you can see it, I knew you would want to :)  After church every week we come home and eat PBJ for lunch, same thing we eat every day for lunch. Then take naps, which were awesome because the weather has been beautiful lately  I actually got cold Saturday night and had to use my covers for the second time here. 

Monday - Manzini Primary School from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm which is my favorite day of the week! This week Landon, Stephanie & I taught our Grade 2 class the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors.  We stopped the story at the place where his brothers throw him into the pit and he is sold into slavery.  We told them we would finish the story next week and they responded with lots of "awwwww"s. One boy, Pohla, who is an American said "I know the end of the story!" So I quickly told him not to ruin it for everyone else :) Then we had this black paper that when you scratch off it turns all different colors.  So we cut out coats and gave the kids construction paper to glue it on to and they loved scratching off the black and seeing the color underneath. Once boy said, "Teacher, how do you make these magic sticks?"  and I just laughed and said "I don't know it's just magic I guess." He was disappointed. Then Kaci and I went to our two Grade 3 classes and did arts & crafts with them like we do every week. This week we brought string and every possible bead you could think of. The kids started squealing when we walked in the classroom and were so excited to see us. Then when we said we were making necklaces they got even more excited. The boys even wanted to make necklaces and one boy said, "Teacher these beads are marvelous. They are magnificant!" We had a lot of fun, but decided necklaces are not going to be a repeat craft because beads were every where.  All the kids would come up to me and want me to tell them how beautiful their necklaces were. Man, they are so cute! We got to go swimming after we were done with all our classes and the swimming pool was amazing. Then on the way home we stopped at the gas station and I bought a Rolo ice cream bar, doesn't sound like Africa huh? But we were soon back at the homestead and so we were reminded we are not in America :) 

Tuesday - my hospital ministry day.  Starting this week, 2 other girls on the team & I are doing a Bible study with our translators, Titi and Zanele. We just want to be able to minister to them since they are always on ministry with us helping translate so we wanted to do something that was just laid back and that would bless them. We plan on studying different women in the Bible and just talking about what that would look like for us today. Well we told them to get to the homestead at 9:00 am and 9:30 rolled around and still no Titi and Zanele. So I called Zanele just to make sure they were coming because there was still just a chance they were late (Swazi time!). But Zanele said, "Oh Sisi I'm so sorry I forgot, and Titi went shopping in Manzini for the day."  So I laughed and told her we would meet Wednesday morning instead. So that's how today started out for me! Then we go to the hospital from 12-2 and pray for the people and just talk to them since not many people visit there. The little girl Nothando that I have a picture with from the hospital a few blogs ago, the one that was abandoned by her mother, well she was adopted this weekend!  It was bittersweet for me because I was so looking forward to seeing her, since last Tuesday was our day off for the week and so I didn't go to the hospital. But I'm so happy she has a family now, that I heard are from New Zealand. So praise the Lord! The hospital was pretty empty today, which I guess is a good thing, but that also meant we didn't have many people to talk with. Katie, Tori, Titi and I went to the women's ward to pray over them. The first woman we came to was talking very quietly and didn't look well at all. Titi asked her why she was in the hospital and the girl told her that yesterday (Monday) she drank poison because she was trying to commit suicide. When I heard that I was overwhelmed and didn't really know what to say to her to encourage her. We were about to start praying for her when the nurse came up to take her blood, then she started to throw-up black stuff so we went to the other side of the room to pray for another woman. We asked her why she was in the hospital and she said because she has been bleeding for a long time and it won't stop.  This morning I had just been reading the story of the woman who had been bleeding for years. Jesus was being pushed on by the crowd from all sides but the woman shoved her way through the crowd because she just wanted to touch the hem of Jesus' garment.  When she did Jesus turned around and asked the disciples who had touched him, and they said "Jesus there are people crowding all around you," he answered "Yes, but there was someone because I felt the power go out of me"  and he turned to see the woman who had come back to Him.  She was immediately healed because of her faith.  So when the woman in the hospital told us this was her disease I was so excited to pray for her.  Tori and I prayed for her to have the faith that Jesus will heal her and then I read that story to her, not even knowing if she understood English.  When I finished she said, "Ngiya bonga sisi,"  which means 'thank you sister.'  So I guess she understood!  We were about to go back over the the young girl who tried to commit suicide but there was another woman across from her that did not want us there.  She told us that 'we are sick, you shouldn't be here, leave us alone.'  When I walked in the ward I noticed how this lady basically looked really mean and so we didn't know what to do.  We pulled the girls Mage (mom) aside and told her the situation and the Mage told us she wanted us to still pray for her daughter.  So I read Psalm 139:1-3; 13-16 which say, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways...For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful I know that full well.  My fram was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  I really wanted to emphasize that last part to her.  What beautiful words to be spoken over someone who wanted to end their life yesterday.  We told Mage that we will continue to pray for her daughter.  So overall Tuesday was a pretty slow day, but being able to pray for that one girl was worth it.

Wednesday - as I have mentioned before, Wednesdays are our day to choose what we want to do.  Our leaders go to Manzini for the day so we are in Timbutini by ourselves. Last week I stayed at the homestead and cleaned but this week I wanted to go out with the translators and do home visits.  I went with Zanele and two girls from the team to Musa's Go-Go's homestead.  When our team visited her last week she had not been doing well. She suffered a stroke a while back and last week was not able to talk or sit up. Today she was sitting up on the floor and talking with us. She wanted us to read the story about when Elijah stayed with the widow and her son and asked her for food. I guess this is one of her favorite stories in the Bible because she was very happy for us to read to her. When we were getting ready to leave Zanele tells the Gogo that I am Musa's girlfriend. So Gogo asked me if I was ready to cook dinner for them tonight! Musa walked in and was enjoying the idea of me being his girlfriend, it was pretty hilarious. Then as we were leaving, Gogo said, "She is still Musa's girlfriend!"  So what do you think Mom? :)  We went over to Musa's house and talked with him for a while then he gave us a ride to the other homestead some girls were visiting. The woman's name is Timbi. Her son is Sibusiso, I have a picture with him on my last blog. Kaci & Katie were there with Titi and they had just killed a chicken and it was cooking when we showed up. So we waited until it was finished so we could eat some. The chicken they killed actually had a bunch of eggs she hadn't laid yet so they asked us to eat them. It pretty much tasted like hard boiled egg yolk (when we got back to our homestead, Lelo told us that now we will get bad diarrhea from eating it, so we will have to wait and see!). As we were leaving Timbi's house Musa pulled up in his van which was very convenient because one of the girls had just broken her flip flop and couldn't walk back to the homestead so Musa gave us a ride. But, before I got in the car he said, "Jessica, say to me 'How's it going sweetheart?' ".  Haha, so I did and he was thrilled. You never know, maybe I'll just get married here, I have plenty of options! Anyways, the rest of today we are just around the homestead, I'm planning on having some much needed alone time.  The weather is awesome today, super windy and very overcast.  I'm not too good at guessing what the temperature is outside but I would say its in the low 70s which is a nice break since it's summer here right now.  It's pretty funny because on days like today we don't 'bundle' up because it's not cold, but we met our translators at the church and one of them had a heavy coat on with a beanie. Swazis definitely aren't used to cooler weather. We show up to the care point and kids have on 'ski' jackets and heavy pants! So that's Wednesday.

Thursday - I go to Timbutini care point from noon - 3:30 when the D-Team does their Bible study with the kids.  We took beads and string to make necklaces and bracelets with the little kids and they abslutely loved it. I am continually amazed at how well behaved the children are. Titi just told them to sit down on the floor in a circle and we would pass out the beads and string to them. The oldest kids there were 5 years old and we had even 2 year olds that would just sit down and quietly wait for us to hand them the beads. One little boy, Slelo, was helping his little brother make his necklace and it was so cute!  All the kids help each other, even if it's not their brother or sister they are just all so helpful.  One little boy, Cheeks, fell asleep in my arms for a long time. Mom, you would have loved it :)  The D-Team was there preparing for their lesson and one of the guys on the team, Bheki (pronounced Beggy), we have built a good realtionship with him, so I talked to him for a long time.  He is the kindest person in all of Swaziland and always has a smile on his face. Eventually the older kids started showing up and my Tnamiso was there! I always love seeing him.  He wanted me to make a necklace with him so as we were making it I had him practice telling me the color of the beads in English.  He would get frustrated because he would confuse them sometime, but once he figured out something was 'red' he would point to the red flowers on my skirt. We finished making his necklace and I tie it around his neck.  Then he sees that other kids have longer necklaces so he gets a longer piece of rope and brings it to me and says he wants to put the beads on the string now. So I had to take all the beads off his necklace and put them on the new one. So I made him practice his colors again! He was very excited when I put the necklace on him.  I looked up and all of a sudden there were kids surrounding the bead bags and all I could hear were beads hitting the floor and decided against picking them up. They had a lot of fun though, necklaces seem to be a big hit here. Next, back at the homestead for about an hour.  Tori, Katie, Kaci and I went on a walk, we have been walking everyday because that's the only time we have for exercise.  On Tuesday, Tori and I were on a walk and saw some boys playing soccer down the road from our homestead so we stopped and watched them play; so now we go watch them and when we leave they all stop and wave and say 'see you tomorrow'. I made some friends, Seth (13) and Owen (12) and they translate for me what they guys on the field are saying.  Which usually consists of them talking about how beautiful we are as they play soccer.  If you need a confidence boost, just come to Swaziland, because everyone loves white girls!  We met a few other guys too: Donkey, Voma, Noti and Justice.  Donkey told us he was 24 and we believed him. Then Owen told me Donkey was 'very lying, he is only 15.'  I think he just wanted us to think he was 24 because we told him how old we are. I seem to always make friends with the boys here, Mom why do you think that is? So we have a lot of fun cheering for them as they play and counting as they do their pushups when the other team scores.  They laugh at us and we laugh at them. Switch gears again. About 6 people on the team have been sick this week.  Four girls have Tick Bite Fever, either a tick or flea bit them and they get this scary looking bite and a fever and body aches. So I'm pretty paranoid about getting sick, mainly because ticks are disgusting and I would freak out if I got bit by one. So pray for health for me as it seems like lots of people are starting to get sick. 

Tonight we had our girls night, which we are supposed to have every week, but our leader has slacked off so this was only our second one. She surprised us and took us to Manzini to get dessert at Rustic Tavern.  I got a brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce, yum. It's always nice to get off the homestead and do something because we get pretty bored around here.

Friday -  I go to a primary school down the road from the homestead.  Musa picks us up at 7:00 am and we go to the school and play with the kids outside until assembly starts at 7:30. Bheki went with us this morning too. We told the story of Moses Parting the Red Sea and so we needed kids to come up on the platform and be the Red Sea parting. First I told Musa to have kids come up if they wanted to volunteer. No one was coming, so since I have a lot of friends there I started yelling out all of their names telling them to come up on stage. There are about 400 kids so they were getting embarrassed; they forgot I knew their names so when I started yelling for them to come up they were hiding behind their friends, especially the older boys. I got a few of them to come up on stage but eventually just got some of the little ones on the front row to do it. I played the part of the Egyptian so when I tried to cross the Red Sea the water came all around me so I told the boys to circle us and wave their arms around, and all the kids thought it was hilarious. Success. Also, Donkey who I mentioned on Thursday, was at the Primary school this morning, so when I saw him I grabbed Tori and told her we had to go tell him we knew he wasn't 24. When he saw us coming he just started laughing and his friends were laughing at him. I said "Donkey, I know you aren't 24," and he said, "I am 24, I am 24." I am having so much fun making friends here. That is one thing I will not be ready to leave.  It's really hard because I am making such close friendships with people but when I go home I can't call and email them like you can a friend in the States. So that's been really hard for me to think about, but that also means I will be coming back, and I want to bring some of you (fam) with me next time. Swazis are such beautiful people and they have stolen my heart for sure. 

This afternoon is Khanyisile Primary School in Manzini. We teach Grade 6 & 7 a Life Skills class. Kaci & I will be doing Grade 6 & two other girls do Grade 7. The topic for this week is "Respect: Gossip and Reputations." It went really well, I think the girls enjoy having younger people teach them.  Quick story:  on the way to the school, I was looking out the window to the right and all of a sudden I hear a fluttering and something hits me in the face/neck.  Initially I thought it was a piece of trash, but look down and quickly realize that, no it wasn’t a piece of trash, but a BIRD.  Yes, a bird. We had driven through a flock of birds and somehow one flew inside our car because the van windows were open.  It managed to hit me in the face and land in my seat. I started screaming, which is what I do best and flew to the seat in front of me and crouched in between 2 of my teammates. Not really sure how I got up there, but was all of a sudden screaming and hiding from the bird.  We continued to scream for a long time and my eyes were watering I was laughing so hard.  Zanele just picks it up and says, “It’s just a bird.” So I yell and tell her to throw it out the window!  It was a very exciting ride to the school J

One more story. The guy I mentioned who we called Donkey and wasn’t 24, well he told us that it is actually another guy, Noti, who is called Donkey.  I asked him why they call Noti, Donkey and he said, “Because he would always go to school and then leave.  When we asked him why he would leave school he would say it’s because he missed his donkeys.”

We watched our soccer guys play again, they now expect us to show up everyday and all start smiling when we walk up to watch. It’s a lot of fun and they are all so good!  Even the little boys.  So that’s all for now, there is always more that I can write but I never have enough time. Thanks for reading J And enjoy the pictures!