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!

Jesus In a Wheelchair

At Ramblas in Manzini

 Tnamiso wanted to take my picture

Tnamiso & I (he is one of my 5 boys)

Tickling Sibusiso (another of my 5 boys)

Excited about some good lemonade

My American relief

Outside the Manzini market with my 3 girls (Tori, Katie, Kaci)

 

Bakery goodness

Skype with the fam in the internet cafe

Me, Debbie, Kaci, Katie in Manzini

Landon, Tori & I outside the Manzini market

 

Sunset from our homestead

Sweet kids waiting in line for the jump castle

 

Passing out bananas & apples on Fun Day

These boys loved posing for the camera

Our kids at Timbutini

(left) Bentley (right) Sibusiso 

my 2 favorite boys at Timbutini

I have officially been in Africa a month on Sunday.  In some ways it has gone by so fast by then again it does seem like a very long time since I have been home.  I am building some really close friendships with a few of the girls on my team.  In a group of 16 people, it is natural for certain personalities to be drawn to each other more than others, and everyone seems to have found their place on the team.  Once again I will just give you an idea of what I did each day of the week, but first I want to tell you a little about Swaziland.  I realized last night that I haven't really said much about the country so I want to take the time to do that. 

Swaziland is first of all beautiful, as you can tell from some of the pictures I have posted.  It does not look like the Lion King, which is what I was expecting!  There are some places that do, just not in our village.  There are mountains all around us.  Actually if you are using the toilet that doesn't have a door, you have an awesome view of the mountains, it's so beautiful.  The other day, Kaci and I were filming the homestead because she wanted to do a video tour of the place and when we got to the toilets we were showing how gross they are and then looked up and said "Well I guess the view is pretty awesome"  as the sun was setting and the mountains looked pretty amazing.  So even in the dirtiest places, if you just look up you will see something beautiful.  Swazi people are incredibly friendly, sometimes too friendly.  The men here SO want to marry a white woman, that proposals are pretty much a daily experience for at least one girl on the team.

 Let me give you an example: Thursday morning I was brushing my teeth.  To give you an idea of how everything in this story goes I'll explain brushing your teeth here.  Obviously we don't have sinks/running water so we just grab our water bottles and go behind our hut in the grass to brush our teeth.  A 'road' runs behind our homestead, so every morning while we are brushing our teeth kids on their way to school stop and talk to us on the other side of the fence.  The road is about 20 feet from where we brush our teeth, and about 3 feet from the toilets, so we have to be careful & fast when we use the door less one in the day time because people will walk by, and if you are using the bathroom you just casually wave and laugh, only in Africa :) .   Okay well Thursday morning I was brushing my teeth and 5 men are walking down the road.  They all stop and come up to the fence and start talking to me, as my mouth is filled with toothpaste.  A little more background:  right now it is the season for a certain fruit that falls from the trees and the people collect it and make a very strong alcohol from it.  Their version of moonshine?  So all these men were on their way to very drunk.  So I just said hi to them and kept brushing my teeth.  They were very excited to see a white girl, and said that I looked "very lovely."  I've never been told I looked lovely while brushing my teeth.  Well my leader Liz is really paranoid about men talking to us here so she didn't want me to stand over there anymore so I had to finish brushing my teeth some where else. If I had stayed I probably would have been proposed to by all 5 of them.  But, a guy on our team, Billy, went over and talked to them.  They were offended that I had left (I felt rude for leaving) and one guy said that it was his Go Go's homestead we were staying on (which it was) so Billy couldn't tell him to leave, since we were from America.  Billy asked them where they lived and said he would come visit them.  The man said "I don't want to be friends with just you, I want to be all of your friends."  Another guy said to us "You don't need to be scared"  "We leave here with your respect and you have ours."  Pretty hilarious to hear them yelling across the fence.  Liz and Neil, our leaders are nervous about us talking to people so they always come out when men walk by and say "Okay bye, you have to leave now," but they are harmless, and just want to talk to you so I always feel bad when I have to just walk away or ignore them when they say hello, so when my leaders aren't around I talk to them!  Don't be afraid Mom, they really are harmless, just very friendly and hilarious. 

So all that to say Swazi people are very friendly and forward.  It's funny because in their culture it's rude to ask personal questions but they will straight up ask us if we are married or have kids, which we can't really ask them so it's kind of interesting.  Swazi people literally do nothing all day.  You ask them what they did that day and it usually involves waking up at 5:00 am or earlier, doing their chores and once they are finished with work around the homestead for the day, they just sit around.  We go on walks and you just see people sitting, everywhere, doing absolutely nothing.  That's one thing we were told in our culture orientation our first day here, that Swazis do nothing all day long.  It's nice at first but I am definitely excited to be home with things to do.  There is this thing called "Swazi time."  I don't know if I have mentioned it before but basically it means that Swazis don't really go by a watch.  If they say something is starting at 11:00, there is about a 50% chance it will start at 11:00 so that's why there is not really a time for us to get out of church on Sundays.  Church is never less than 2 hours, like this past week I think it was around 2 1/2 hours.  I can't imagine people's reaction back home if FBCNB went until 1:30!  Swazis just live a very slow paced life, so something else that I've noticed is that they walk SO slow.  Not a big deal, but they are never in a hurry.  They think PBJs are really strange.  They love to take pictures.  I gave my nice camera to Zanelle on the Fun Day last week so she could take some pictures and she got so excited and I saw her organizing all the kids to pose for the camera.  They are very strict with their children.  Zanelle told me that it's okay for you to 'beat' a kid with a stick if you don't know him.  So if a kid runs across the street when they shouldn't have, it's okay for you to "shia" (beat) them with a stick, and they parents don't care!  Can you imagine that happening in the States?  They love "umlungus" (um-loon-goos) which are white people.  We will be driving down the road and hear kids shouting "Umlungus!" and then waving at us and running after the van. 

Okay so I realize how long all of that was, so I will give more facts about the country on a different blog, but now I want to tell you about the week, it has been very different than the others. 

Monday - my day to go to the school in Manzini.  This is definitely my favorite day, besides communication day.  This week we taught them the Tower of Babel and had a craft for them to make their own towers which was a whole lot more fun for them than I expected.  It was really funny during the story when I was talking about how God confused the languages of the people and gave the example of a person going up and speaking Chinese to their friend, and their friend answering in S'Swati.  Then I said "Wouldn't that be confusing?" and one kid said "No! I speak Chinese" keep in mind I was in Grade 2.  We just started laughing because we forgot that kids outside of America can speak more than one language.  So I asked the kids to raise their hands if they spoke 2 languages and all of them raised their hands, then 3 languages and some put their hands down, 4 languages and their were 3-4 kids who still had their hands up!  It was crazy, and I was so jealous.  But we had a lot of fun telling them the story.  So that was my Grade 2 class.  Then Kaci & I went to our Grade 3 classes and did the Salvation bracelet for their craft.  They loved it and it was a really great way for us to present the gospel to them.  We did the reading time with Grade 2 & 4 which is one of my favorite parts because they are just so fun.  Then, the headmaster told us last Friday that we can go swimming anytime we want to as long as there is not a class swimming, so we all went to the pool, but I left my "swimming costume" as Swazis call it, at the homestead so next week I will be bringing it!

Tuesday - this was our day off from last week.  Since Saturday we did the Fun Day at church all morning we only had an hour and a half at the internet cafe so we got this day as our day off.  We left for Manzini around 9:30 so we were there by 10:00 and spent all day there.  First a few of us went to an air-conditioned internet cafe that we found a few weeks ago.  The A/C felt so good, I hadn't been in a cold room in like a month, so that was nice.  By the time we were done there it was noon so we walked to Ramblas, the restaurant by the grocery store we go to.  Eventually the entire team was eating lunch in there.  I got a chicken & cheese quesadilla, chips (fries), lemonade & a strawberry smoothie.  What a nice taste of home; that was the first time I had something other than a PBJ for lunch in the past 5 weeks.  They also have WiFi in the restaurant so I paid for that and anytime I go back I get to use it so I got to talk to my sweet mom on skype.  Then a few of us walked to a bakery called Bakers Corner.  The best baked goods and pastries, Dad we could have done some damage in that place and it is so cheap you would have wanted to buy everything!  Tori, Landon and I split a slice of carrot cake that tasted like heaven, I got a chocolate cupcake & a white-iced with sprinkles donut.  We decided we will be visiting every Saturday.  Then we all went to the Manzini Market.  It is kind of a 2-story building with no walls.  The bottom is just vegetables and fruits and next to that people sell clothes and shoes and other random things.  I would describe the look of the booths as what you would imagine houses in a slum looking like.  A bunch of tarps making the roof and walls of each of their booths.  Then the top floor is where I will be doing all my gift shopping at.  They have all the handmade jewelry, bowls, drums, paintings, jewelry boxes, etc.  I took videos of the place it's pretty crazy all the things they are selling.  I kept myself from buying anything this time because I want to do all my shopping right before we leave.  Okay then I went back to another internet cafe with Kaci & Katie (2 of the 3 girls I'm closest to, the other being Tori).  I got to hear Dad, Nathan, Adam and Mom's voice!  It was so good to hear from home and sorry for waking all of y'all up, but it was worth it right?  After round 2 at the internet I went to the grocery store, then back to the homestead.  It was a great day off to be away from our homestead because I get stir crazy there.  Then that night we did what they called a Prayer Watch.  We were up from 10-4 am and worshipped, prayed and read scripture.  It was an awesome and encouraging time for the team. 

Wednesday - Since we were up until 4 am we didn't have to be ready for ministry until noon.  I was up until 5:00 am because I've been sick the past week; I won't go into detail but most of the team has been some kind of sick this past week.  So I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep but God's grace is enough.  Wednesday is our day to do whatever ministry we want to do.  Yesterday there was a group that went on a prayer walk/home visits, one to the Timbutini care point, and my group of 4 girls stayed at the homestead and cleaned all afternoon, which definitely needed to be done.  I didn't leave the homestead all day which I didn't realize was a big deal until Thursday.

Thursday - As I write this part it is Thursday. So I woke up this morning feeling pretty discouraged.  Every morning we meet at 9:00 as a team to pray, sometimes we just pray as a big group and sometimes split up and pray in smaller groups.  I was completely honest with my group and told them I didn't want to be in Africa today.  I didn't leave the homestead at all yesterday so I think I just feel really bored and ready to get back to having things to do at home.  I told them I don't want to feel like that because my heart does desire to be here but today was just a day where I didn't feel like being here and wanted to be home.  But this afternoon we are going to Timbutini care point and doing some crafts with the little kids and I will get to see some boys that I've started building a friendship with so I'm excited about that. 

This part I am writing on Friday, about Thursday:  God really used the kids at the care point to lift my spirits, I knew that would happen once I got there.  We took bubbles and foam visors for them to decorate.  I had one of those really big tubes so the bubbles are huge and when the wind blew and the bubbles appeared the kids started screaming.  I got Kaci to video tape me doing the bubbles with the kids because it was the cutest thing, they would chase them so far until they popped them.  They loved decorating the visors and they looked so cute wearing them, except they couldn't keep them on so we had to fix them over and over.  At around 2:30 the older kids show up because they get out of school at 2:15, my favorite kid, Tnamiso (I have a picture with him on the last blog & today)  showed up and I wanted to go to the store across the road to buy some fat cakes so he went with me.  He wanted to race me so he said "1,2,3, we go!"  He was fast, but I beat him :)  Then we get to the store and he beats his chest and says "I AM TIRED!"  It was so funny so I did it back to him, then we raced back and he beat me.  I absolutely love Tnamiso.  He asks the rest of the team where I am when I'm not at the care point so that always makes me feel good.  I met another boy on the Fun Day last Saturday whose name is Ayanda.  He is 13 years old and one of the sweetest kids.  I saw him a few days ago on our daily walk around the village and we talked to him and his friend Pinda.  I noticed that Pinda's shoes were falling apart so yesterday I found out what size shoe he wears and I plan on buying him a new pair since he only has one.  So Pinda & Ayanda walked us back to our homestead then went on to theirs.  Here when you are good friends with someone you hold hands, so Ayanda & Pinda walked away holding hands.  When I first got here I was still in the American mindset so I thought it was weird, but now I think it is such a great thing.  So, then I see Ayanda again on this day, Thursday, and he is walking to the care point as I am walking back home and we stop to talk for a little bit and he says, "I wrote this for you,"and hands me a folded up note that says 'My Friend' on the outside.  He wrote that both of his parents don't work and he wants to go to an all boys school because they teach very good English there, and he doesn't like being distracted by the girls at his school, so he wants to go to the all boys school.  Since both of his parents don't work (which is not uncommon in Swazi) he needs support to go to school and was asking me for help.  Obviously I can't write him a check for his schooling but I want to do something.  He told me I am his very best friend and "I love you my friend, very very very much my friend."  It was a sweet note and I know that he really does want a good education so I'm not sure what to do, any suggestions Mom, Dad, etc.?  It's no surprise that I always am drawn to the boys here, having grown up with all boys, and I feel like I am just beginning to build lasting relationships with the people here, and I want to come back and visit (possibly bring my family, ya?).  So all this to say, that Thursday turned out to be an awesome day in the Lord, being blessed by my beautiful kids here that I grow to love more and more each day.

Friday - Normally on Friday afternoons from 1-2 I go to the school in Manzini and teach Grade 6 girls, but today is a holiday for them so we didn't do that.  But I am starting to go to another Primary school just down the road from our homestead with some people in the morning to do a lesson at their morning assembly.  Musa picks us up at 7:00 and drives us to the school, it’s about a 5 minute drive.  WEll as we were driving, I was sitting in the front seat with him and he slows down as we approach a little boy in a wheel chair that comes to Timbutini care point and church, named Thando.  Musa asks me if I want to get out and push him to school.  I jumped on the opportunity and got out of the car before Musa could even stop completely.  I walked over to Thando and his brother who was pushing him down the road and asked if I could do it, so he let me.  It was one of the most beautiful times for me so far in Swaziland.  Pushing a little boy down a gravel road, with the beautiful mountains in front of me and hearing the kids laugh behind me; it doesn't get much better than that for me.  I started praying silently for him as I walked, and the Lord brought to my mind Matthew 25:35-40 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the rightewous will answer him saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?....' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my borthers you did it to me."  All I could think about was that I was pushing Jesus in a wheelchair.  I can't even describe to you this moment for me, but it was beautiful, and something I will treasure forever.  Thando & I weren't even speaking but I felt so connected to him because it was just the 2 of us going down the road with only the mountains ahead.  Thank you Jesus for this amazing opportunity.  It is these kind of things that I long to do here in Africa.  I would walk that boy to school everyday if I could.  I could go on and on about this morning but I won't!  We did Daniel & the Lions' Den story with the kids and I got to play a lion, with my 3 girls (Kaci, Katie & Tori) so we roared/screamed as loud as we could, and Mom you know I loved that!  After we were finished with the assembly we say bye to the kids and you feel like such a celebrity.  They all ran up to me and wanted to hug me and do the Swazi handshake which I will be bringing back to Texas because it's so cool!  One of my little boys from the Timbutini care point, Sia Bonga ran up to me and gave me a huge hug, once again, melt my heart!  I so look forward to every Friday I will get to go and see these beautiful kids. 

Switch gears. We have to leave the country every 30 days, not sure why maybe it's because we only have permission to be here 30 days at a time, I don't know.  Sunday will be 30 days, so Friday is the best day for us to leave the country.  We went to Nsoko, Swaziland where another AIM team, the Novas Team which is an 8 month program, is staying and doing ministry and spent the night with them.  Our team got to go out to eat at a restaurant called Safaris and it was absolutely amazing! I forgot to bring the pictures to post this week, so I will put them up next week, but the restaurant was breath taking.  There was also a real crocodile outside in the pond that I took a picture of so that was pretty exciting.  I ate margarita pizza which made me think of Europe family!  Then got ice cream for dessert which was super tasty.  We spent the night in Nsoko and then came back this morning so we could come to Manzini for our communication day.  Less than 2 months left in Africa, this month has gone by so fast.  Each week seems to go by faster than the last.  Thank you to those of you who pray for me and my team, we have been so blessed. 

What I hope for myself each day in Swaziland:  Jesus above me, Jesus below me, Jesus to my right, Jesus to my left, Jesus in front and behind me, When people think of me they think of Jesus, when people look at me they see Jesus, that everyone I talk to hears His voice, and everything I touch feels the warmth of His hand. I want to be mistaken for Jesus.

Only 3 Pictures Because Internet is Slow! TIA

Bentley, Me, Sibusiso & I don't know his name

We named him Bentley because he dresses so well!

Kaci & I with the kids eating their meal at the care point

Our church/Timbutini care point that we spend a lot

of time at