So, I went to Africa. Swaziland to be specific. I can’t even begin to tell you how this trip impacted my life and how the other 16 people on our team were affected seeing what we saw, and doing what we did. There were so many times where I didn’t know whether to smile, laugh, or cry. God is truly amazing. We traveled to Swaziland to be a part of an organization called Advocates for Africa’s Children (AFAC), an organization a woman from our church started after visiting Swaziland about 6 years ago. Here’s a glimpse of our time in Swaziland, and other countries along the way…
Days 1-4 Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: TRAVEL
The route we took to get to Swaziland was long. We flew from Honolulu to Manila (Philippines) , Manila to Hong Kong (China), spent a night in Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore, Singapore to Johannesburg (South Africa), then drove about 6 hours to get to where we were staying in Swaziland. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Although it was a LOT of travel time, it was a great time for our group to start a bond, because being together for about two weeks you kind of need a bond to happen so craziness doesn’t begin. Some good times to be had, for sure!
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| H&M in Hong Kong |
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| Yes, I ate pigeon |
Day 5: Wednesday
Our first day in the village of Mgambene. We spent the day at Pastor Edward’s homestead, working and learning what a typical day looks like for the Swazi people. For the women at least, the day consisted of hauling ears of corn from the field to the house and shucking the corn off the ears. Other people began the project of building a green house. It was a great day of building relationships with the men and women who live there. In the late afternoon, around 70 kids (mostly orphans) came to the homestead to receive a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and half an orange from our team. In order for us to understand a bit more about these kids’ lives, Pastor David and Pastor Edward asked the kids to raise their hand if one of their parents had died, and then again if both of their parents have died. The number of kids who raised their hands was astounding. He then asked who went to school and didn’t go to school. About half. WOW.
After passing out sandwiches and oranges to the kids, we had a chance to hang out with the kids and play with them. While some of our high schoolers danced with the other kids, I held back and spoke with the local preschool teacher. Her students were there, and showed us all the songs they knew in English and how much English they have learned already (because schools in Swaziland begin teaching English from day 1). I asked her what her greatest challenge was, and she told me not having any toys. She has students ranging from ages 3-6 in her classroom, and she proceeded to tell me that she lets one of the 6 year olds in her class go to school for free, because he is HIV positive and has nowhere else to go. She was also really worried about the school closing down because there are no funds to keep it open. Most of her students do not have parents anymore to support their schooling. Several of them are HIV positive. School is the only stability they have in their life and that might have to end? It’s not fair.
Day 6: Thursday
More corn was shucked, and relationships blossomed among us and the Swazi people on Pastor Edward’s homestead. The highlight: going to the local church, observing a typical church feeding for the orphan children, and playing with them. At least three times a week the church feeds the kids. The food they receive is a certain type of rice mixture, with seasonings that help malnourished children get the right proteins and vitamins they need to stay somewhat healthy. I can’t even begin to explain what it felt like to witness this.
I was playing with several of the younger children. We were sitting down, me facing them, and I wanted to know how much English they knew and what they’d been learning in school. They proceeded to count up to 150, count by 2s, 5s, and 10s, say the ABCs, and we spelled words together. It was an exciting teacher moment for me, and the joy on their faces when learning how to spell words was indescribable. WOW, again.
Day 7: Friday
We slaughtered chickens. My chicken’s name was Victoria. Yes, I named her. For some reason killing chickens didn’t bother me at all. Is that strange? Probably. But an awesome learning experience! After beheading the chicken, we were taught how to pluck the feathers and gut the chicken piece by piece. SO CRAZY. Later on in the day we ate the chickens we killed, prepared by the wonderful ladies on the homestead, along with rice and boiled cabbage. Really yummy!
This day also consisted of fetching water from the river and balancing it on your head, shooing the goats away from the chickens, learning how to wash clothes in the river, and chopping down a tree.
We ended this day at the church, where all the kids from the previous day met us and we had Shakira dance party – blasting “Africa” from the van. Incredible!
Day 8: Saturday
This day was…hard. We visited five local homesteads in
Mgambene, homesteads where poverty stricken families and HIV affected families lived – in the worst conditions I have ever seen in my life. One homestead we visited was lived in by a young woman, who was caring for about 7 children, all orphans, because they didn’t have anyone else to take care of them. Sleeping conditions consisted of a mat on the cement floor of their teeny tiny room, where all of them slept together (which is incredibly uncommon because the boys and girls culturally sleep in different houses but on the same homestead). All of the other families had more adults and children living in the same or worse conditions.
It was cold this day. I mean, cold. And here these orphaned children are in these homesteads where running water and electricity is the least of their problems. No blankets, sweatshirts, shoes, good clothing to keep them warm. There was one little boy in particular, probably not even 2 years old yet, wearing a pink flowered fleece and no pants or underwear. Just dirtiness, and nakedness. I can’t get this picture out of my mind. These people are lucky to even get a meal once a day. How are we just supposed to let this go? How is this okay by any standards? Well, it’s not. Sometimes all you can do is…
pray.
Pray that God will protect them, because really…that’s almost all they have.
It’s just not fair.
Day 9: Sunday
Church! We went to the local church of Mgambene, where Pastor Edward preaches and the orphans get fed. The service was an experience. In those unstructured hours, we sang Swazi songs, Kate Miller and Jack Thibalt gave their testimonies, Mahea danced hula, we sang our own songs, Pastor Edward preached, Drew preached, an offering was given, and Nina’s shirts from Punahou were passed out to the people. The day ended in difficult goodbyes to the people of Mgambene and of course, a Shakira dance party with all the kids. AMAZING.
Day 10: Monday
A LOT of driving today. We drove to a local chicken business that AFAC supports, ate KFC, then drove 2.5 hours to a game reservation to go on a real African safari! We saw several different animals, including rhinos, gazelle, giraffes, birds, elephants, and warthogs. To be honest, it’s not really what I expected. I don’t know why, but I kind of expected a safari to be like, a ton of animals walking around your safari jeep – so close you could almost touch them. Nope. Not at all.
The animals were difficult to spot at times, and the ride was almost 3 hours long. We really wanted to see the lions, but they weren’t showing themselves that day. So, all in all, it was a long day. But at least I can say I went on an African safari!
Day 11 and 12: Tuesday & Wednesday
We began our time in the village of Nsindatje. This was kind of the point in our trip where everyone was getting irritated with each other, and wanted to go home. We all needed an extra push to be open to the new things we would encounter in this village. In Nsindatje, we tilled the land, planted tomatoes, harvested sweet potatoes, blessed the land, I slaughtered another chicken (Helen), and led the kids in “The Ants Go Marching,” which proceeded a march around the church at least 10 times. It was awesome! Wednesday was my last day with the group. Thursday morning I flew out of Manzini to begin my long journey home to Hawaii. I stayed in Hawaii for one night, and now I am currently on the plane going back to the Dominican Republic (school starts Thursday!).
I think I’ve had about…oh, 5 emotional breakdowns since I left? From leaving early saying goodbye to the youth and amazing friends in Swaziland, to processing Africa, to saying goodbye to family and other friends….you would think this “saying goodbye thing” would get easier right? After years of doing this whole “leaving-for-long-periods-of-time” thing? Yeah…FALSE. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly excited for this next year in the Dominican Republic, and I think God will show me a lot this year. However, I’m also incredibly excited to move back to Hawaii next year and start a new, hopefully more stable, chapter in life. Well, I think this blog entry is long enough. If you got this far, I thank you for your interest in my life and what God is doing in not only my life, but the world. Your support means more to me than you could ever know.
“You’re the God of this city, You're the King of these people, You're the Lord of this nation, You are. You're the light in this darkness, You're the hope to the hopeless, You're the peace to the restless, You are …”
Photo Cred to Josh Mcfeeley and Mahea Schuman for a couple pictures :)
