What are you doing anyway?

Over the last few years many of you have heard me talk about Swaziland.  You have heard stories of my previous trips and statistics about this country. 

This post is for those of you who have not heard those stories and statistics.  I want to quickly share with you all a little bit about my home for the next four months and why I love this place so much!  I also want to give you an idea of what I will be doing while I am here. Enjoy.

So, Swaziland is a small land locked country surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique.  This is an absolutely beautiful nation.  This trip I am here during the summer and I have really enjoyed the lush green that covers the landscape, it looks much different than my first trip which was during their winter.  Swaziland is the last full monarchy in all of Africa.  The king, King Mswatti the III, rules this country alongside is 13 wives.  Today I learned that Swaziland has an enormous security budget because the budget includes protection for the gigantic royal family. 

Swaziland’s biggest challenge is the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  It has been estimated that 1 in 4 adults living in this country have the deadly virus.  Because of the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS the country is dying off at an alarming rate.  In fact, Orphans and vulnerable children account for an estimated 15% of Swaziland’s total population. 

Another challenge that I have seen on this trip is school fees.  The school year starts in January which is also when school fees are due.  For a nation that lives off an average of $2.00 a day it can be very difficult to collect enough money to put all of your children through school.  It has been proven that without education the cycle of extreme poverty will continue.   Thankfully Adventures in Mission (the organization that I am working alongside) has started a sponsorship program for school fees.  If you are interested in supporting this program financially check out this website. http://www.adventures.org/swaziland/projects.asp

During my trip here in 2009 I quickly saw that amidst the poverty and illness in this country there is a strong presence of joy, faith, and love.  I was amazed at how drastically different this was from our hectic yet lavished lifestyle in the States.  I loved every moment of my 2 month trip to a rural community called Nsoko.  I learned so much from my team mates and more importantly from the people that we were interacting with.  We spent our days at care points loving the children, we danced alongside our translators, played soccer with the children at the primary school, helped the Gogos prepare meals and wash laundry, prayed with families at their homesteads, and most importantly we experienced Christ every single day.  The moment that I left Swaziland I knew that I wanted to return.

Our home until May.  The bottom uploaded a little goofy.

So here I am, 2.5 years later, back in Swaziland.  This time around I am living in a small apartment with one other student from BSU (Bailey) in Manzini, Swaziland.  Manzini is a much bigger and more developed city when compared to Nsoko.  I am here finishing up my last semester of my undergrad.  For the next four months I will be working with Timbali Crafts (http://www.timbalicrafts.org/index.html...buy something) .  Timbali crafts is an income generating project for women.  Many of the women involved spend their days volunteering at one of the many care points around Manzini and Nsoko.  At the care points the Gogos provide a meal and a basic education for the hundreds of kids that flock to the care points daily.   These women, or Gogos, were not getting paid for their work at the care points.  Timbali empowers the women through basic crafts.  Through these craft projects the women are given an income so that they can support their family.  Timbali also helps the women save money for school fees and other expenses such as Antiretroviral which helps to control HIV/AIDS.  Timbali also provides a match program when the women save their money.  Finally, and most importantly, Timbali crafts does yearly retreats and weekly Bible studies with the women.  This aspect of Timbali builds a community of support around the women that is vital in this place with so many hardships. 

While here, we will be helping out with many aspects of Timbali crafts.  Weekly we will do home visits with our translator Titi.  The purpose of these visits will be to build relationships with the Gogos and update information on them and their family.  We will help out with some of the logistics such as buying and transporting fabric, helping out with different crafts, selling crafts to teams, and hopefully a special craft project with some of the older girls at the care points.  Bailey and I also hope to take some trips while we are here, such as days at the Indian Ocean and a trip to Krueger national park.

This first week or two will be mostly orientation to the community and the culture.  I will do my best to update you all as we really start everything here.  For now Bailey and I are going to keep practicing driving on the left side of the road.