Swaziland etc.

Here we are at the end of April. It's hard to believe how fast the months fly by. The next three months will probably go even faster as we try to get things set up and as sustainable as possible before coming home end of July/August/September.

Here are some interesting things we've seen and done lately:

* A woman walking along the road with a watermelon on her head! Try that sometime.

* We saw Swaziland for the first time. It is beautiful, with many mountains. Some have called it the Switzerland of Africa. We thought it looked like the mountains of TN/KY. The nice part was that most everyone speaks English. We didn’t know that the Swazi monetary unit was identical to the SA rand. We did go shopping and find that some things are cheaper and others are more expensive, so you have to watch.

* How about a package of 7 chicken heads and 14 feet at the grocery store? Or tripe?

* There are 59 speed bumps between the border and the first city in Swazi (about 2 hrs). They usually come in groups of 5 and there is not always a warning.

* We saw a sign on the road in Swazi that said "Cyclists and pedestrians beware of lions and elephants." The road runs next to a small park for wildlife. I think I'll stay in the car, thank you.

* Steve and Pieter had a meeting/discussion while they each had a couch to lay on at Pieter's house. They decided more meetings should be held in that position.

* I, Rachel saw lots of people stranded on the roads last Tuesday because of a chapa strike. It affected me also as I was counting on a ride back to the city after training (Steve had gone to Chokwe.) Five of us started walking and joking about it until we realized there really were no rides anywhere and then we called a friend to please come pick us up. Many people do not have friends with vehicles and walked for hours to get to their jobs. Thankfully it was only a 1-day strike.

* We saw more small pickups than usual with 20+ people piled into the back because of the strike. Steve saw two guys hanging on to a pickup roof as it went down the road.

* Rachel saw pastors who said their heads hurt after a lesson on finances. I also saw them laughing and having a good time over a toss-the-rock-in-a-bucket game during a lesson on setting objectives.

* We heard from one of our students about a group marriage ceremony that will take place at their church. This is for couples who live together and have never made it official, partly because of the huge expectations and costs associated with a traditional wedding. It is good to see some churches beginning to take initiative in this area and bucking the cultural expectations. We’ve been invited to our first traditional wedding this Saturday.

* Steve saw 700 km of road in two days between Chokwe and Xai-Xai and also Bilene where he went to talk with AIDS program supervisors about the chicken project.

Tomorrow is the last day of training and we are looking forward to giving these new trainers their certificates. It is always a rewarding time for us and for them.

Take care,

Rachel and Steve