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
