Shoes & Hospitals

Friends at the soccer field

 Tor-Tor before church

Katie wearing my wrap

 Kids playing with the parachute

 Cutest thumb sucker ever

 Cheeks

Girlfriend and Diane

(Girlfriend is the nickname we gave her 

because she has attitude!)

 Zanele and I were serving food to the kids

 my friend Bheki (he's on the D-team and I'm cooking

his birthday dinner monday night!)

 pretty girls

 for you mom :)

the day it rained and poured!

 Phinda the day I gave him his shoes and socks

with Phinda's family (he was holding my hand) I love my

Swazi brother

 waterfalls we went swimming at Saturday

Culture show

 the Swazi man kick..SO awesome

Week 7 in Swazi was perfect.  Each week I fall more in love with this place.  I can't believe we only have 5 weeks left until we come home.  I'm excited to be home, but not excited to leave.  Does that make any sense? The Swazi people have become a second family to me and the friendships I have made are so beautiful.  I can't put into words how thankful I am to be here.  The outcome of certain things the past 8 months allowed me to come here and if they would have been different I know I would not have chosen Africa now.  I am so SO glad my life has turned out the way it has.  God, your plan truly is SO much better than mine, and your ways SO much higher than mine.  It's so crazy because at the time of certain things happening in life you don't understand why and think there couldn't possibly be a better way, oh but there is!  There is no place I would rather be in life than where I am right now.  The Lord has given so much freedom for me to go wherever and not have circumstances at home tie me down and I absolutely love it!  In Jesus there is the greatest freedom. 

So this week my blog is going to be a little different because I don't have much time to type so I won't do a day by day explanation of the week. 

The week was great though.  Each week is better and better.  I get to be with my friends on the team, but more importantly I get to be with my beautiful, amazing Swazi friends. I can't belive how close you can get to someone in only 2 months. On Monday after Khanyisile Primary School we went to the hospital to visit a 12 year old boy, Nkhosingpile, who we took 2 weeks ago.  Some of the team met him at a care point and his leg was bandaged. He had been in some kind of accident involving a motorcycle so they decided to take him to the clinic where they found out he had a broken bone.  So, very glad they took him. When I met him, he had been in the hospital about 5 days because he was waiting for a hard cast.  At the hospitals here, people spend so much time just waiting for something they need, when at home you can go to the doctor, get a cast, and go home all in the same day.  Nkhosingpile said that he hadn't seen his mom in a few days and no one knew where she was.  By the time I saw him, he said she had only come to visit him once.  I almost burst into tears.  He still had a smile on his face as he sat alone in his wheelchair outside.  We took him back inside and he hobbled to his bed. I felt and instant connection with him.  I introduced myself and he said "I'm sorry but I don't know if I can remember that." So I told him to call me by my Swazi name, Nothando.  That, he could remember :)  So I got on the hospital bed with him and we played the dot game, where you try to make as many squares as you can.  He loves that game.  He was so sweet, at one point he just put his little arm around me.   Once again, my tender heart (that has become even more sensitive since being here) melted.  We just sat with him and talked, because he doesn't have any visitors.  Can you imagine that?  Being 12 years old, by yourself in a hospital that isn't in the best condition?  He was so brave and joyful.  It was really hard for me to say goodbye to him, because I don't go to the hospital anymore, and because I knew he would be spending the night by himself.  So I wrote him a card that one of the girls on my team took to him on Thursday and he read it to the whole team.  He was discharged Friday night and Musa was able to pick him up from the hospital and take care of him. 

One of the highlights of my week was taking the school shoes to my Swazi bhuti (brother) Phinda.  We had planned to meet at the football field on Wednesday at 3:30.  Well, the biggest storm I have seen in Africa blew in about 2:30 so I wasn't able to meet him Wednesday.  I was pretty bummed out because we had both been looking forward to Wednesday.  I do see him everyday at the football field because he is on the soccer team that me and a few girls go watch practice everyday.  I decided to walk down to the field once the rain slowed down just to make sure he hadn't walked there to meet me despite the storm, but he wasn't there.  Tori & I just hung out on the empty field doing stupid things until the boys showed up.  So when Phinda showed up we decided that I would come to his house on Thursday.  So, Thursday afternoon I had been waiting for him at Timbutini because he said he would meet me there after school, but he didn't show up.  I started walking back home and saw and kid in a blue hoodie walking along the road watching us.  I didn't know who it was but figured out it was Phinda so I yelled for him to come walk home with me.  I asked him if he had any socks and he said no.  Sweet Melodee Burt bought me some new socks before I left for Africa and there are a few pairs I hadn't worn yet so I brought them out to him and he was so excited.  He picked a green pair and a blue pair.  So Melodee if you're reading this, know that you blessed the sweetest boy in Swaziland when you bought me socks that day at Old Navy.  He looked at me and said "I'm so excited,"  I said, "About what?" and he said "My shoes!".  One of my favorite moments here.  His homestead was about a 20 minute walk from mine.  Through the brush and off a mud path, which is how you get to every homestead here.  When we got to his house we shouted "Ekhaya."  This means 'home' but it's what you say when you get to someone's gate and that lets them know they have visitors.  We went inside the gate and I met his family:  3 brothers, mom, dad and sister with 2 babies.  They had mud huts for their home (I took some pictures).  When I pulled out his shoes their faces lit up.  His dad said "Sgiya bonga kakhulu" (thank you so much).  I asked if I could take a picture with their whole family and his Babe (dad, pronounced Bah-bay) wanted to change into a nicer shirt first.  I showed them the picture and they asked if I could bring them a copy, which I was planning on doing.  I'm confident they don't have one picture together as a family, so I'm happy the picture I give them will have me in it!  This is one of my favorite memories in Swaziland. I told Phinda that I am his American sisi and he is my Swazi bhuti.  I can't wait to come back and visit him. 

Last week I prayed for clouds because it had been such a hot week and the Lord gave us clouds and wind all week long, and even a few days of rain.  The African sun is merciless so clouds are always a nice relief. 

On Tuesday I taught the lesson for the Bible study Stephanie, Calie & I do with the translators.  Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, was who I chose to talk about.  I told Titi and Zanele that I was really challenged by her prayer life.  She was in her 60s-70s and was still praying for a son.  She didn't grow weary in worship of the Lord and knew that if the Lord chose not to give her a son, He would provide for her in other ways.  In those days, if you did not have a son to take care of you when you got older then you were on your own.  Elizabeth didn't fear this because she knew that if there was not a son, the Lord would be their provider.  She prayed years and years for the same thing, not receiving an answer from the Lord for a very long time but she continued to pray for it.  That was definitely challenging to me in my prayer life.  Am I willing to continue to pray for something I am passionate about even if I don't receive an answer in MY timing?  So often I think I have the right to receive a quick response to my prayers, but where do I get that idea from?  At the end of the Bible study I was so encouraged when Zanele told me how much the lesson spoke to her heart.  She had been struggling with prayer about things and she said this lesson is exactly what she needed to hear.  She went into more detail, but I won't write about it because it's not important to y'all.  So that was great confirmation for me that the Lord had given me the right words to say and that it wasn't me catering to what I thought they might need to hear, because I had no idea these things were going on in Zanele's life.  All the glory to my Jesus. 

We left Friday morning for our halfway debrief, although we are more than halfway because we have been here 7 weeks and only have 5 left.  We went to a game reserve in Mlilane and stayed at a hostel.  It's a 2 story room so the boys beds are downstairs and the girls upstairs, even though we could see over the railing down.  It was a good time of relaxation and getting away from the homestead.  The point of a debrief is for you to get away from ministry for a few days and 'process' what has happened so far and look forward to what is ahead.  I didn't really have much to 'process' because I do that pretty well in my journaling.  I really ended up missing my ministry in Timbutini while we were gone.  I absolutely love the ministries God has given me here and am soaking up every second I am here.  We spent Friday and Saturday night at the hostel and came back today (Sunday).  That's why I wasn't able to post my blog yesterday because we just got to Manzini today. 

I hope the blog was okay this week, I just didn't have the time to type about each day, but the 2 stories I shared were the highlights of my week and definitely close to my heart so I hope you could see that through my words.  Enjoy the pictures!  See you in 35 days!  I love you family.