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.

Swazi my Home

Our soccer boys warming up :)

Tickling Sibusiso

Pinda and Ayanda 

Pinda is the short one & I bought shoes for him today!

Tori, Debbie & I with our husbands

Mine is in red!

Love Africa

Singing with Bheki

Eating Sugar Cane with Gogo

(never had it before so good!)

My 2 favorite men in Swazi

Bheki & Musa 

Soccer shoes before they practice

They bring a big bag and dump it out; whoever gets there

first gets the first pick of shoes

Ayanda my friend

Thulane

Go bobhuti go!

View from the Soccer field

On our walk by the field

This is why they are so "fit"

Mr. Mamba carrying the parachute for me

Tnamiso :)

Pinda, the boy I bought school shoes for today!

Nahti & Thulane

The boys

This was hilarious

Best friends :)

Week 6 in Swaziland.  I am in love with this country.  Each day I fall in love with it more than before.  The people just make you want to stay here forever.  I am already getting sad about the fact that I have less than 2 months left here.  It's been a weird switch emotionally for me.  Not that I don't want to come home, I do and I miss family and friends and the comforts of home.  But when I am here, I am completely care free.  I get to hangout with my Swazi friends all the time, talk about Jesus with them, eat meals together and go on walks.  That's pretty much what each day consists of for me.  I have really bonded with 3 girls on my team and we have so much fun together.  Since I know I can talk to them when I get back to America I am trying to soak up every second with my Swazi friends.  Zanele and I have become incredibly close, she is truly like a best friend and I get really sad when I think about saying bye to her.  Down the road from our homestead is the soccer field that Tori, Katie & I go to every day and watch our friends play soccer from 4-6.  They always expect us and watch for us down the path and get huge smiles when they see us coming.  The other day we brought some music for them to listen to while they practiced and they loved it.  It makes me laugh when I realize that most of my Swazi friends are boys.  That comes as no surprise to me, having grown up with my 3 brothers and their friends.  A few of their names:  Nahti (18), Thulane (19?), Owen (12), Seth (13), Selbi (?), Wandile, Ayanda (14), Pinda (13), Tnamiso (11ish), Sibusiso (5).  These boys are what I look forward to every day.  All of them but the last 2 boys play soccer every day.  I actually met Ayanda and Pinda at the Fun Day Saturday we had a few weeks ago at Timbutini.  So I have known them a little bit longer but Pinda plays soccer at the field so I was excited the first time I watched and saw that he was on the team.  Musa and Bheki are two guys I have talked about in other blogs.  They are on the D-team and we spend a lot of time with them.  We go to some schools on Thursday & Friday morning and they are the ones we go with and then this week when I cooked on Monday, I invited them over for dinner so we got to hangout with them outside of ministry so that was fun.  We probably see them 4-5 days a week and I have really enjoyed getting to know them.  I could write forever about my friends but I will save that for my journal :)  Now I'll let you know about this week!

Sunday - church is always something I look forward to every week.  It's such an awesome start to the week, being able to worship with the people here and getting to hear their perspectives on life.  I went with 3 other people on my team to go teach Sunday school at 10:00.  I was in the younger kids class and we taught them the story of Joseph because that's a lesson I had prepared for the school I go to on Mondays.  So it was a lot of fun getting to teach the kids in Sunday school.  Then church was after and lasts about 2 1/2 hours which I am so glad it does because the singing is amazing.  I haven't recorded a church service yet but I will before I leave because there is nothing like Swazi church.  On Sunday nights we usually do worship together as a team after dinner.  I invited Bheki to come because he told me he wanted to come the next time we did it.  He and I were talking about playing the piano and I told him I played so he brought his keyboard to our homestead and wanted to play with me.  He carried it on his back all the way from his homestead, so crazy.  He showed up at the gate with a huge smile on his face and the keyboard on his back.  We went inside and he started playing and wanted me to sing so I did and we had so much fun.  I will post some pictures from that.  So anyways we started team worship pretty soon after that.  In the middle of worship a police car pulls into the homestead following Lelo's car and we were kind of wondering what was going on but had a good idea of why the police was there.  Two girls on the team have had money stolen from our hut while we were not there.  One girl had $240 USD stolen and another had 170 Emanlengeni stolen from her.  We had come back to the hut on Sunday from church and her sheets were pulled off her bed and everything was on the floor.  We have our hut door locked so weren't sure how the thief was getting the money then I walked outside and realized that my arm could reach the stuff on the bed.  So anyways long story short, the guy who had stolen all the money was Maxwell.  Lelo's cousin who comes to the homestead all the time and is drunk 24 hours a day.  It's pretty sad because we had somewhat befriended him, as much as you can befriend a drunk.  So he was arrested that night.  They couldn't find him so they were looking at our homestead for him but he wasn't here but they found him later.  So all of this happened in the middle of worship so we decided to go inside and asked Bheki if he would lead us in singing with his keyboard and he looked so happy.  It was so great to be able to bless him and give him the chance to worship with us. 

Monday - Khanyisile Primary School day.  We taught Part 2 of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors this week.  We didn't finish the story so the kids were all upset because they want to know what happens at the end.  In mine & Kaci's Grade 3 class we did picture frames for crafts.  The kids were ecstatic and it was pretty chaotic.  We never realize how crazy it's going to be, but it seems like Grade 3 is the most difficult class.  We had a lot of fun with them though and they were all excited about the sticky foam designs they were able to put on the frames.  So the school was fun as always.  We got finished a lot earlier than normal so spent a good amount of time at the pool after.  I got sunburned.  This African sun is so much hotter than Texas sun, you can get sunburned after being outside for 15 minutes.  Tori & I cooked hamburgers for dinner and Bheki (pronounced Beggy) and Musa came over for dinner.  Monday nights are fun because it's a free night for us and we just got to play games with them.  Then we all got in a circle and they had a dance off with a few guys on our team.  Swazis definitely dance better! 

Tuesday - Calie, Stephanie & I were planning on doing a Bible study with our translators last Tuesday but they didn't show up so this week was our first meeting.  They were a little late but that's Swazi time for you.  We talked about Mary & Martha and how Jesus told Mary that, "Martha has chosen the good portion."  How we so easily get distracted by being busy for the Lord that we forget to sit with Him and listen to Him instead of always serving serving serving.  Mom, I definitely have your servant's heart and that's something I have realized here in Swaziland that it's good to serve but I can't forget to spend time with Jesus.  So the Bible Study went really well and they are looking forward to next week.  I have been going to the hospital every Tuesday but now I am going to Timbutini care point.  I requested that I be switched with another girl that had been wanting to go to the hospital.  I already go to Timbutini on Thursdays so I like being able to see the kids on twice during the week.  We just play with the kids on Tuesdays because Christine, the American we work with at the school on Monday's comes and teaches a lesson to the girls while we are there so we don't have to prepare anything.  Which is really nice because we have so many lessons it seems like we plan during the week.  Also, my friend Ayanda came and I haven't seen him in about 2 weeks so we talked for a really long time and I told him to meet me at the soccer field where I go watch all the boys play.  Sibusiso (5) fell asleep in my arms which was really funny because he is always so full of energy but he wanted me to hold him.  So after I had been holding him for about 2 hours he finally fell asleep and it was SO precious.  I want to bring him home with me.  I always tell him "ngiyakhutsandza" which means "i love you" and he says "love you Nothando."  He is my little boy :)  After the care point we come home and so I asked Ayanda and Pinda to walk with me.  Tori let them listen to her iPod and they were so cute singing the songs.  American R&B artists are incredibly popular here so they were singing all the words to the songs.  I showed them pictures of my family and they just stared at them for a long time.  I told Ayanda that I would make him a bracelet and bring it to the soccer field.  We met them at the soccer field at 4:30 and he was waiting for me to get there and was so excited when I gave him his bracelet.  He said "I will wear this for all of my life."  I can't say enough, how much I look forward to going to the soccer field and meeting my friends.  At first they are a little shy but it doesn't take long for them to be your best friend.  One of the boys I was sitting next to proposed to me.  It's so funny because it's like no big deal to just straight up ask a girl to marry you if you like her here.  On Monday I was proposed to as well.  A nice self-esteem booster!  Katie and I wanted to walk up this path on the side of the mountain by the soccer field so we started to walk off and Selbi yelled after us to stop because "there are lions".  So I told him to walk with us, then he said he was kidding so I told him he just told us there were lions because he wanted to walk with us.  Which was true!  So Tuesday, another perfect day in Swazi.

Wednesday - Our day to do whatever kind of ministry we want.  I go on home visits every week and really enjoy it.  This week we went to a Gogo's house we have been trying to see for a few weeks but she is never home.  Today she was finally home but when we got there she was in the field so her great grandson went to get her for us.  She is 90+ years old and still works in the field!  Swazi women are so strong it amazes me.  We talked to her for a long time and brought her a loaf of bread and a liter of Coke.  She was so thankful because she had just run out of food this morning and didn't know what she was going to eat.  She told us that the Lord always takes care of her.  She has 11 kids (6 have died), 27 grandkids, and I don't know how many great grandkids or great great grandkids.  She still walks to church every Sunday.  What a powerful woman of God she is, I was blessed just to sit and listen to her talk.  We were going to fetch water for her so we walked down the road with the containers but the person in charge of the padlock for the water pump didn't have the new key so we couldn't get any water for her.  Then we went and visited Musa's Gogo again.  She is still in the same physical condition with not being able to use her legs from her stroke and has slurred speech but every time we ask her how she is feeling she says "The physical doesn't matter, my spirit is well!"  What a testimony of joy she is to me.  Last week I mentioned that Zanele told her I was Musa's girlfriend and this week she remembered me and said I must marry Musa and so should Zanele.  Then Zanele and I can live on the same homestead together and cook for her!  She is a pretty funny lady and she was just eyeing me the whole time, I guess sizing me up!  I read Psalm 73 to her.  I especially wanted to read the verse in the chapter that says "my flesh and my heart may fail, but God remains the strength of my heart and my portion forever....the nearness of God is my good, I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works."  Then we sang "How Great is Our God" with her and prayed for healing of her body.  When we left, her caretaker climbed the tree with Zanele and picked Guavas for us.  I'm pretty sure they aren't the same as Guavas in the States but they tasted pretty good.  I'm always nervous to eat things right after you pick them here because I don't know how clean it is but we always ask for grace on our bodies and haven't been sick yet, so praise God.  Wednesdays are a lot of fun for me because our leaders aren't around and we just get to do whatever ministry we want and I love seeing our translators so we get to spend the day with them.  We invited them over for dinner and it was a lot of fun to just hangout with them. 

Thursday - I go to Timbutini from noon-3:30 with just three other girls on the team. It can be a little overwhelming some days because there are so many kids and just 4 of us but this week wasn't bad because a lot of the Primary School kids were at their track meet in Manzini. I met some new boys and talked to them for a long time. Boys here like to talk a whole lot more than girls, at least they talk to me a lot. They are so entertaining. I feel like I'm gaining new little brothers every day and it makes me sad to think about leaving all of them, but I won't talk about that now! We brought one of those big parachutes that kids love to play with. I was carrying it from our homestead to the church and we came up on a group of boys so I had one of them carry it on their head for me (note one of the pictures).  His name is Mr. Mamba, I couldn't remember his first name because it was really long so he told me to call him Mr. Mamba. The kids went crazy when we got out the parachute. They were screaming and running underneath it, I wish I had my video camera because it was awesome. I love Thursdays at Timbutini because normally our leaders don't come with us so it's just me and the kids, which is my favorite thing.

Friday - we went to the Primary School in the morning.  There was a lack of communication with Musa not letting us know his van was broken down so we got to the school later than we wanted to but it all turned out fine. Of course, I always love going to the primary school so this week was great just like the others :) This afternoon we went to Khanyisile Primary School to teach Grade 6 & 7.  Kaci and I have the Grade 6 girls and this week we taught on abstinence and the girls received it really well. They were very interested in what Kaci had to say and they asked some really good questions. At the end of the lesson they wanted to act out a boyfriend/girlfriend scenario and it was absolutely hilarious. They acted out a first date and eventually proposing and they loved it! Kaci and I were incredibly entertained by them.  After the primary school we go to Dabas care point. This week the girls wanted to talk about 'puberty.' A surprising topic for us to talk about but girls here are very interested in learning about things and are not shy when asking questions so we really like spending time with them every Friday. 

After we get home from ministry every day a few of us girls go on a walk to meet our friends at the soccer field.  We have been going for 3 weeks now and look forward to it every day. The other day I met a guy, who proposed to me and still gets excited everytime he sees me.  He says "my wife! It's so good to see you!"  Don't worry mom :) He is pretty cute though, I'll post a picture. Swazi men are something else, I can't even describe them to you, so if you want to know, come to Swaziland! So all that to say I am SO enjoying the friendships I have made here and am not ready to leave them. Luckily I have just as much time left here as I have already been here. Does that make sense? In other words, I've been here 6 weeks and still have 6 weeks left! The first few weeks were all about building relationships and now I just get to enjoy them which is the best part.

Swaziland has a huge piece of my heart. I know I will come back here many more times and am already planning in my head when the next time will be and I want to bring some of YOU with ME!

Pictures

Sibusiso & "Michael Red"

The lion masks we made for our Daniel and The Lions' Den

story at the Primary School Friday mornings

Crocodile at dinner in Nsoko!

Kaci & I

Katie Thrasher

Piled in the van on our way to girls night at Rustic Tavern

I might have put this picture up before

But I love him, so here it is again

On the wall by my bed

My S'Swati name is below: Nothando

Grade 3 kids smiling

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!