The Big City!

We had the opportunity to spend this past weekend in the large cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa. We stayed with Chantelle Vorster (our new South African friend-thanks, Elani, for hooking us up!) in her home in Pretoria. The time in the city was a much needed reprieve from the slow, rural pace of Swaziland.

We were so excited for our trip, and so thorough as we packed clothes, snacks, drinks, iPods, Rand (South African currency), cameras, and everything we thought we would need for a good journey. Ironically, as we entered Siteki (about 2 km from the farm), Ben questioned us, “Uhhh….do any of you have your passport?” All four of us were passportless. After a few slaps on the forehead and several exclamations, we were able to turn around and retrieve our passports quickly. We would have had a less than enjoyable 2 hour drive to the border post and 2 hour drive back without our passports! The rest of the drive was rather uneventful and despite crossing the border with our car for the first time and some confusion about two “Forest Drives” on either side of the highway, we made it safely to Pretoria.

When we reached the city we met several of Chantelle’s friends at a braai on Friday night. We had a great time sharing about each other’s culture and meeting new people. Since I love food, I will expound on several of the South African foods we eat regularly and some new ones we experienced this weekend. At the braai we had steak, boerwors (a less spicy sausage-like meat that is cooked on a braai [grill]), milk tart (a milk-based custard type dessert in a crust), and cook sisters (a fried, twisted donut-like pastry that is soaked in a sugary syrup). All were delicious…as if you could go wrong with grilled meat, custard, and fried dough!

We were able to experience Pretoria on Saturday. After awakening early, we visited the Boers Mark (Farmer’s Market). This large market was a collection of fresh produce, local cuisine, flowers, South African handcrafts, and much more. We thoroughly enjoyed the sights and smells of well-made wares and cooking food.

That day we also met new people including Landie Erasmus who made us a lovely welcome basket with all kinds of special South African foods. Some we had tried before and some were new. These included biltong (dried meat), droerwors (dried boerwors), Astros (bite-sized chocolate covered biscuits with a hard candy shell), Jelly Tots (fruit flavored gummies), Speckled eggs (soft jelly eggs in chocolate with a crisp candy shell), vanilla fudge, more cook sisters, mince fattis (which are just what they sound like—seasoned hamburger on fried dough), funky fruit sticks (dried fruit sticks rolled in sugar) and some other cookie-like things; I don’t even know what they were but they were good to dip in tea. Needless to say, we not were short for food this weekend! We also had tea with Elani Fourie’s (our South African friend who lives in Kentucky) witty grandmother who lives in Pretoria. We enjoyed meeting with her and hearing some of her fun stories.

Some of the South African governmental offices are located in Pretoria. We visited and basked in the ornate and beautifully designed, curved Union Buildings. We were able to see the high school where Chantelle and Elani attended as well as the University of Pretoria where Chantelle currently attends. We also saw a part of the city center called Church Square where several old, stately buildings and palm trees surround a square where Johannesburg was founded.

Our day was extremely enjoyable overall, but I especially enjoyed going to some malls in the afternoon. It just felt comfortable to be in civilization again. Even though we consider Mabuda Farm in Swaziland our “home,” I definitely needed some external stimulation. These South African malls were awesome and huge! One of the malls had a climbing wall, bumper boats, inflatable jumping rooms and a drive-in movie theater on the roof. As you can tell, by the evening we had had a packed day; therefore, we were all pleased to have dinner at home (Chantelle’s mother graciously made us a meal) and watch a DVD (P.S. I Love You for all you chick-flick lovers).

On Sunday, we went in to Johannesburg. We saw several places including Montecasino. It is an artsy area with a casino, two theaters, bird garden, fountains, many restaurants, and quaint shops. However what is unique is that it is constructed to look like old world Italy, and it does! Being there definitely hearkened back to our travels through Italy in 2007 and I was sorely tempted to sample some of the fine gelato offered in the piazza.

We also saw Sandton, which is very modern and urban up-and-coming area of Johannesburg. We saw Nelson Mandela Square where a larger than life statue of Nelson Mandela overlooks a square of hotels, restaurants, library, and theater. We had lunch at a great restaurant with delicious gourmet pizza. We had been craving pizza and it totally hit the spot! We had a welcome diversion at the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens Included in the day was seeing the Nelson Mandela bridge, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Melrose Arch (a new area of chic restaurants and shops).

Our afternoon adventure was a drive to Soweto. This is one of the slum areas of Johannesburg that was designated for black people during the apartheid regime. At that time they were divided up into zones (if you have seen the recent movie District 9, it is loosely based on this area). Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmund Tutu (both Nobel Laureates) grew up on the same street in Soweto. It is still an extremely run down and poverty-stricken area. Though we had some difficulty finding it at first because the main road was closed down and then we drove off the map, we were still able to see the pitiful squalor that people live in just outside of the main part of Johannesburg.

We left Monday morning after stocking up on some food items in South Africa that we cannot find in Swaziland. Despite some significant low-lying fog and some crazy Swazi drivers, we arrived safely home. The day had significantly cooled to approximately 55 degrees, which was a wonderful taste of the fall that we will miss in the states. All in all, our jaunt into civilization was stimulating, relaxing, and an ultimately a success.

-Grace

September 13, 2010

Having a Huge Braai, Hiking, Swimming in mountain waterfalls, and Frisbee… Could it get better?!

This past weekend Will’s (another doctor working with Dr. Pons) girlfriend and close friend came for a visit from Joburg, SA which was a ton of fun. Saturday night we got together with Jono and Helen, Will’s friends, and “The Four” for a huge barbeque (Braai in South Africa) and we pulled out all the stops! Three different kinds of meat, rice, salad, Potato salad, sweet potatoes, papaya, chakalaka and CAKE!

That next morning we went on a big hike in one of the game reserves on the western side of the country. Our hike led us from the top of the ridge down into a valley filled with lush landscapes, great rock formations, and beautiful waterfalls. As the Swazi summer is starting to ramp up now, some people in our group of 7 decided to take a little dip in the pools underneath the waterfalls; very cold, but quite refreshing with the sun beating down on us. The only casualty was Grace’s pride as she took an unfortunate spill into rushing water; thankfully no physical pain and a good laugh after she was dry!

After our hike, we met up with some people in Mbabane for a game of ultimate. Our group consisted of Swazis, Mozambiquans, Afrikaaners, South Africans, Canadians, Middle Easterners and Americans (quite a few other than just us). We had some great fun and were invited to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament being held Joburg in October.

All in all, this was a great past weekend. For those keeping up with our activities, the secret garden is going well (putting in a new road to get a tractor in… I’ve had enough of manual labor!), Brad and Grace are in the swing of the school season, Eric is having great success as both a surgeon and teacher for Will, I will be meeting with a psychologist on Monday to discuss working with the government on their counseling (private and group) protocols. This looks to be a big week!

Sorry all for this blog entry being late, Swaziland is in the middle of a very dry time of the year and many places are catching fire and burning the telephone polls which have left us again without internet.

-Ben

Psychologists’ Meeting in Mbabane And Swaziland Burns!

September 16, 2010

(Sorry this is only coming up now; I had some more Internet woes! Oh, and prepare yourselves for a long blog entry!)

Psychologists’ Meeting in Mbabane And Swaziland Burns!

This has been one of the craziest weeks so far in Africa! I’ve given an account of this past weekend and about all the new friends we met, but I forgot to tell you about the new medical student that arrived on Sunday night. His name is Stewart Jackson (lives in Redding, England, but goes to university in Edinburgh, Scotland) and the small amount of time we’ve spent with him has been enjoyable and an optimistic start to our relationship. He will be here for a full month so we look forward to getting to know him more.

On Monday the 13^th of September I spent the majority of the day working on the garden (as is the norm). I filled the day with building a road and harnessing water from a mountain spring. The job consisted of funneling the spring water into a tube running under the road in order to eventually connect that water source, along with many other springs, together to create another source of water for the farm. As I have said in the past, I am trying to establish dual purposes for the garden. First, by using the natural topography of the land, we will establish a location where we will harness badly needed water and, second, we will create a place of beauty and serenity for guests of the farm.

While building a garden on the side of a vine-infested mountainside, one recognizes the copious amounts of debris that needs to be cut. Since there is no real option for taking the debris to another location, the only suitable solution is to make large piles of debris and burn it. My first team of Swazi men spent the majority of Monday doing just that: cutting out vines, trees, and weeds and setting them ablaze. Knowing that the bush veld (bushes on the side of the mountain) was very dry, I made sure to spend extra time dousing the fires to prevent flare-ups. We put the flames out and headed up to get ready for a birthday party being held for Will that evening. The party went very well and the food was delicious [my first time for having prawns (really big shrimp with gross looking heads)]. We got back a bit late, but made it to bed at a reasonable hour.

As I slept, Jono Pons came to my window and started knocking feverishly! We jumped up to see why we were being woken up at 11:30 at night. “Ben, your garden has caught ablaze,” Jono said, “and I fear that if we don’t go tend to it the whole mountain will catch fire!” I collected myself and looked out my window to view a cauldron of fire sitting at the valley’s end. Grace and I jumped out of bed and ran to Eric and Brad’s room to tell them to quickly equip themselves with flashlights, drinking water and gloves, as we needed to go to rescue the mountainside and the garden. We rushed down to the garden just in the nick of time to move a large collection of brush and logs that, if caught on fire, would have resulted in a fire too large to control.

We fought the fire as a whole unit until 12:30am when 2 more Swazi men came to give further assistance. At that point we decided the blaze was contained enough to leave the Swazis as sentries and we returned to bed. Brad and I, feeling the pangs of immense guilt and frustration, decided to stay while Grace, Eric, and Jono left to get some sleep, as the morning brought a big surgery day. “I nearly caught the whole mountainside on fire,” I reiterated to myself as I spoke to Brad and kept an eye on the fire. I couldn’t believe I had made such an error in judgment.

With morning coming soon and knowing that I needed to be up early, Brad and I decided to leave the hillside to the care of the other men and we headed back to bed at 2am. After a night of near sleeplessness, I boarded a van at 7:25am to travel to a governmental meeting regarding the treatment of psychological issues for the people of Swaziland. Government officials in charge of the country’s psychological care initiatives received word that a new person studying counseling psychology was now living in the country (there are VERY few psychologists in the country so the word passes quickly when there is a new face) and they contacted me to participate in the meeting. You may be thinking, “A government official sought out someone that has very little psychological training and asked them to come to a meeting of all the ranking psychologists and psychiatrists in the whole country?! That’s a bit hard to swallow!” Well, I assure you, I feel the same way! In the States, I am a counseling nobody, but ironically I have more psychological training and education than many of the persons providing psychological services throughout the country.

The meeting went great! Though I stayed mostly silent throughout the meeting, there were areas where I was able to provide a small amount of assistance. To make a long story short, they asked for my help in creating a protocol for stress management and also asked that I give a course on signs of depression and how to assist those who are struggling with its effects. Though I felt woefully inadequate to take on this task, I said that I would do what I could to help. After accepting their offer, I later found out that the work that I will be doing, along with data that has been collected over the last many months, will be used to create government protocol propositions that the King of Swaziland will review and, potentially, put into action. Though I am excited about this crazy opportunity, I feel very overwhelmed and have to come up with some way to keep my head clear. Rest assured, I will be reading and studying like mad to feel equipped to make this happen. I feel like I’m back in grad school again! To those of you back at school who are reading this, pray, meditate, give ohms or whatever you do on my behalf! Also, if there are any suggestions that you have, please, Please, PLEASE! give me your feedback! I’ll keep you abreast of all that transpires!

While at the meeting, I also met with a woman working with the ICAPS program through Columbia University (International Counsel on AIDS treatment and Preventative Services). She said she would love to have some help as well. I’ll be calling her later this week to set things up so I’ll let you know!

We drove back to Siteki after the meeting in the capital city, Mbabane, and arrived safely back at the farm. The sunset was casting a beautiful glow over the mountainside… oh, wait a minute… holy crap the whole mountainside was on fire (Not the garden side, but the other side of the farm)! Brad, Grace, and I rushed up to the Pons’ house to tell Jono. We knocked on the door, “Jono, have you seen the fire on the west side of the farm?” I asked as we ran out of the house to see the fire. “Get everyone together and be back up here in 15 minutes!” Jono said as he rushed back to the house. “We have a lot of cattle over there that we need to get to!” Thankfully Eric, Will, and Stewart were together and we all were able to get our dirty clothes on, get water, grab the chainsaw, and be back up to the house shortly thereafter. We all jumped in the Land Rover and careened down the road toward the blaze. We hurried past fire after fire, as our main purpose was the care of the cattle. We pulled up to the pen holding the beef cattle just in time as the fire quickly encircled the herd. I jumped out and started cutting down tree limbs to use as “fire swatters” and quickly went to protect the cattle.

The rest of the crew went down the fire line to create a perimeter while others started “back burns” to suffocate the large fires. We succeeded to some extent, but the devastation was too great to control for the most part. The tractor pulling the water tanker arrived about an hour later and I turned into “hose operator” for the next 2 hours. The enormous flames and suffocating smoke made the entire experience surreal as if we were all characters in a Lifetime made-for-tv film.

Our night ended not knowing just how big the fire was or how large it would become through the night. At any rate, we felt pretty good about our work saving the crops, cattle, hay, fences, and houses. The next morning, we went to see the reach of the fire and it was amazing just how little we did to curb that fire’s vigor! As we stood on the highest point overlooking the hillside, we saw a path of devastation stretching roughly 500 feet wide and over a mile long! More pictures of the fire will be up soon!

I’ve spent much of the week after these events not sleeping very deeply-constantly fearful of another flare-up. However, things have calmed down recently as we had our first mist of the season that helped the veld to be less dry. Strangely, fighting these fires has been kind of fun! The rush of excitement coupled with the satisfaction of keeping your home (or pseudo-home) safe feels so rewarding. I suspect this won’t be the last time we fight fires on the farm!

I apologize for its length, but for those who made it through this whole blog, I appreciate your willingness to stick with me as I detailed the week!

Ben

Back to School...

Another interesting turn of events occurred the day before school began on the 8^th. Brad and I were asked to teach at the Global Revival Mission School (primary school from Kdg. to 7^th grade). Brad would continue teaching Math and Science the 6^th and 7^th graders and I would teach English to some of the grades. Though quite exciting, this stirred a strong nervousness in me for many reasons. First of all, I am not trained as a teacher (I don’t think playing childhood “school” in my barn was quite enough), secondly, I don’t know how to teach English as a second language, thirdly, I don’t speak Siswati, and lastly, this is a big job!!! However, I went with it and Wednesday was our first day of school. After participating in a rousing assembly complete with group songs with hand motions, a sermon message, special choir numbers including “I Will Call Upon the Lord,” and a specific thank you to us for painting the desks, we began our first day of school. After speaking with the teachers, we determined what our schedule would be and Thursday we began working with the students.

The first class I taught was the first grade class and it was pretty much a disaster. The students could hardly understand me and they were a rowdy bunch. Their elderly teacher seemed very eager for me to teach for her and she left! I spent most of the class time trying to read the kids’ names on their workbooks and pass them out (too many letters and clicks!), trying to teach “in, beside, behind, under, and on,” and trying to play “Siphiwe Says” (Swazi version of Simon Says).

Today, it went a little better. I wasn’t supposed to teach today, I was just going to assist the teacher. However, when I arrived, the teacher was gone and the kids were chaotic! She had written some things on the board, so I just jumped in. We worked on action words, which was easy to convey and something I could act out. I was walking, winking, jumping, crying, sitting, holding, and eating all over the classroom! We had fun having the children come up in groups to act out the words as well. The difficulty came when we began the workbook page. As we were counting and identifying positions, I asked them to, “Write a 2 beside the two balls.” I received many blank stares and even the most accomplished English speaker in the class said he could not understand. I repeated myself several times, paused for many seconds, and wracked my brain. Finally I said, “Rrrrite a too by tha 2 boals.” “Oooohhhh,” they said and starting writing (this had a feeling quite similar to the story of We call her Leenda. J). Therefore, the rest of the hour consisted of Grace speaking in some sort of Swazi-British-American accent to communicate the instructions. Though, still not a wholly successful venture, hopefully, I can continue to assist the first grade teacher in English class.

I was supposed to teach my first lesson to the sixth graders today. I prepared diligently and was geared up to go; however, somehow, when it came time to teach, all the children were outside playing, eating, or getting ready to finish for the day. Since I have been genuinely confused by their class schedules already, I approached the teacher to figure out what was happening. He said that the day was over and they were skipping the last period. Apparently, on Fridays they start a ½ hour early to let out early. No one bothered to tell Brad or me until the day was finished. (That’s why I seemed to be late to every class today!) So, obviously, there is a lot I need to learn about Swazi schools, communication, and timing. What I can figure is that, 11:00 means 10:30 on Fridays, and 12:00 on special days or days with delays, and 11:30 or 11:35-ish on normal days. I will never understand. Anyway…after observing the teachers in the 5^th-7^th grades over the last two days, I am very excited about teaching those classes. They understand English much better and I feel like I have a grasp on the content. I’ll keep you updated on how my first lessons go next week and we’ll see what happens with the first graders!!

-Grace

Tutoring and Swazi culture lessons

Well, a lot has transpired since the last time I blogged. Sorry for the delay! I will try to fill you in on much that has happened in the last week or so. I have been meeting with two female high school students (ages 18 and 20) to work on English. Though I had little curriculum to use and little idea of how to proceed effectively, I tried to be creative. We had several conversations about Swazi and American culture including things such as weddings, daily life, and hair. I really enjoyed learning about them and their way of life in such a fun way…I hoped that just having conversation couldn’t hurt their English. We also read Swazi guidebooks (I have little appropriately leveled literature here!) and looked up words in the dictionary to learn new vocabulary.
One of my favorite interactions was when I was pronouncing “circle.” For some reason the girls could just not figure out what I meant. (I thought, “Oh, no, they don’t even know the word ‘circle’!” However, after several attempts and laughs, the girls said, “Oh, seer-clee!” (Apparently, the Swazis struggle with the silent ‘e’.) Anyway, we had another interesting conversation about hair. One day I wore my hair curly. This was new as I had had it straight the days before. The girls were very interested in how my hair was like that, so I talked about air-drying and blow dryers (at that point, I think I lost them) and white people’s hair. They both figured that because my hair was so long I had never cut it since I was a baby. Most of the women and girls here have shaven heads or very short hair. These interactions were all innocent, fun, and interesting and helped me learn a lot.
The girls also needed assistance in Algebra and, thanks to Brad, all three of us received some lessons in factorization and the quadratic formula. It definitely hearkened back to yester-year for me and, thankfully, Brad was able to explain it so that I understood at least that one concept so I could help the girls with it later.
Also on Tuesday, I had my first bout of stomach sickness. I don’t know exactly what did it, but I think I ate some bad fish!! I had made tuna salad and it was a day old and, apparently, it did not receive adequate refrigeration in the cooler. I vomited all afternoon. By the next day, though still somewhat squeamish and weak, I had recovered. I just may avoid the tuna salad for a little while!

-Grace

New Photos!

Check out our new photos in the slideshow on the left!

-Brad

My Routine

It's probably time to break my silence, as several have asked about my typical routine.

Monday- Surgery either in Siteki (where we are living), or Manzini (largest city in Swaziland, 45 minute drive from Siteki).

Tuesday- Clinic in Manzini

Wednesday- Clinic in Siteki

Thursday- Surgery in Siteki

Friday- Post-ops, short clinic, and administrative details in Siteki

Clinics can be quite busy and full of pathology. Efficiency is paramount. Patients line up on a bench, and at the end of the bench sits me and a slit lamp on wheels. Once the patient on the end of the bench is seen, he stands to leave and all the other patients slide down one slot on the nicely oiled bench (sort of like the reload of a revolver). The list of medicines has been pared down to only the necessities, and glaucoma is a surgical disease, as people cannot afford the many trips for follow-ups and medicine re-fills. The clinic sees about 75 patients on a typical day, but most of these are "doctor" cases, as the nurses have already pre-screened and treated the easy problems (red eye, corneal foreign body, chalazion, etc).

If surgery is indicated, the patient is admitted to the hospital for surgery the following day. Many patients cannot afford to go home and come back again, so the hospital is essentially used as lodging to ensure the patient gets the surgery they need. No patient is turned away for lack of resources, but all are asked to pay what they are able. A typical surgery day might include 2 cataract phacoemulsifications, 22 Non-phaco cataract surgeries, 2 trabeculectomies (glaucoma surgery), and 3 conjunctival cancer removals.

The clinic also has the capabilities for YAG and argon laser (to treat diabetic patients).

Overall, I feel the clinic provides excellent eye care. My mentor is fully capable, and a wonderful instructor. This experience has already greatly augmented my ophthalmic knowledge, and I will undoubtedly gain more confidence as my time here progresses.

-Eric

August 30th, 2010

(Please excuse our lack of posts over the last couple weeks; the internet feed throughout the whole country has been very tenuous. Welcome to a third world country! At any rate, these are the blogs that I have written over the last couple weeks that we are now able to upload)

Montezuma’s Revenge strikes with undue cruelty! Yes, I know this is not South America and I am not attempting to steal any gold, but I (Ben) was the first to succumb to sickness presumably from a water source. The bed and breakfast where we are staying has three springs that provides clean “earth filtered” water, which has been such a blessing. However, my first experiment with the city-provided water at the local school where we have been working went very badly! As you might imagine, my “constitution” has been pretty shaky for the last three days, which lead to some pretty bad dehydration. This whole experience coincided with our first trip to Bulembu, in the mountainous region of the North Country (where we will be going to serve for the last month of our time here). I felt very feeble on our way up the bumpy dirt roads that led to the mountain town and got a bit worse once at Bulembu due to the dehydration. (Brad, I believe will be writing about our time in Bulembu so check into his post for more info.) By the last day of our time there, I began feeling better and it was no hour too soon! After getting back from getting pizza, Brad, Eric, and I went down to the soccer field only to find a field that had good short grass, no wind, perfect temps… A wonderful Frisbee night! You might find it weird that I judge a night on how well a Frisbee flies, but this was one of the finest Frisbee nights (#2 on my best Frisbee nights list) I’ve ever had!

Feeling much better and looking forward to the Reed Dance and the coming week!

September 3rd, 2010

A Secret Garden to Create, Counseling to begin, students to tutor… It’s turning into a very busy month! Oh yeah… We bought a car too!

A few weeks ago, we heard about a secret garden that had been left many years ago to become the wild once more. Due to many things on our plate, extra travelling, and the “secret” nature of the garden we had yet to find it until three days ago. Brad and I had a bit of extra time so we decided to find this garden though we had only a vague direction to follow… on a 2500-acre farm; this is much easier said than done! Well after a bit of time and a lot of bushwhacking we finally stumbled upon an area that looked to be something of an overgrown garden scape. After twenty minutes of envisioning and “mental mapping” of the location, we decide to leave by a slightly different direction. After another couple minutes we stumbled upon a large rock with a small plaque on it. Long story short, we were in the totally wrong area and then had to start our envisioning once more.

Yesterday, Brad and I were sitting by the Pons’ pool when Jono Pons came out with Coca-Cola in hand and decided to have a bit of a chat. We excitedly discussed our findings and envisioning experience with Jono who excitedly replied that our discovery was most fortuitous. He has wanted to do something with that location for years, but just hasn’t had the time or the vision to make the old garden a reality again. Jono told us that he would give us a team of workers with all the tools one would need, his connection to the countries indigenous horticulturist (with whom he is friends) and his account to the local indigenous nursery if we would provide some oversight of the project and our ‘landscaper’s eye’. For someone who loves nature and creating in nature, how can you turn that offer down?! Needless to say, I’ll have something to occupy my time for a while.

On the counseling front, Grace and I found out that many of the government agencies have been without telephone and computer access for the same amount of time we have been without, about 1 ½ weeks; so our paperwork is still waiting to be finalized, but we have been assured that our skills and time will be needed. So we wait! I think God wanted to teach me some more patience, so that’s why He sent me to Swaziland!

To keep you up to date with Brad and Grace’s work with some of the students at the school; Grace has taken on two teenagers to tutor in English while Brad still has the class of 7^th graders (which ranges from ages 12 to 21… yeah, weird I know) that he will continue to teach math and science to into the school season.

At the last, we bought a Volkswagen Golf Wagon on Tuesday and should be receiving that on Tuesday the 7^th around 3pm. That will be really handy as we have been walking about 10km (6.6 miles) roundtrip each day to go to the school, internet, and grocery store and back to the B&B.

We hope you are all well as we have been feeling the pangs of not hearing your voices and seeing your faces for nearly 1 ½ months now, but we are healthy, happy, and full of purpose during these days.

Ben

Two Weeks In: Our First Road Trip

In three short days this past weekend we were both overwhelmed with the cutting-edge as well as intrigued by the age-old. Monday was a national holiday celebrating “Umhlanga” so we took the opportunity to set out on a road trip to visit Bulembu, Swaziland, our next volunteer location as well as get a glimpse (more than a glimpse, though, as you’ll see as you read on…) of traditional Swazi culture at the Umhlanga Reed Dance.

We packed up the Pajero (our SUV on loan from the Pons’s) early Saturday morning and set out on what would be a beautiful (and very bumpy) 3.5-hour drive through northern Swaziland on our way to Bulembu. For those of you who do not yet know, Bulembu was an asbestos mining town that shut down (for obvious reasons) in the 90’s and by 2001 had decreased in population from more than 10,000 residents to less than 50. A group of social entrepreneurs with a very big vision bought this ghost town to rejuvenate it to a self-sustaining entity that combines sustainable, innovative enterprises with orphan care for 2,000 of Swaziland’s most vulnerable children.

What should have been a 2-hour drive (according to Google Maps) quickly doubled when we turned off the paved road (no, this is not a Jeff Foxworthy joke) onto “roads” that heavily resembled logging paths. Safe to say, having an SUV made our trip to Bulembu not only more comfortable but also just plain possible! But the drive into the Bulembu valley was well worth it! It is completely surrounded by the tallest mountains in the country and sits in this bowl hidden from most of the outside world. Besides the fact that it sits on a huge asbestos mine, it is difficult to imagine a more idyllic location, let alone a more exciting vision.

After a tour around the town to get our bearings and to hear about the history and future plans, we dropped our luggage at our house and set out in search of cool sights and mountain air. We found an impressive set of waterfalls in what seemed to be a rainforest (not what you usually expect from southern Africa) as well as an incredible indigenous forest. We then started heading back to town only to get sidetracked by another interesting trail that took us to the very nearby border with South Africa. And, being us, we then commenced with making a funny movie about sneaking across the border to the freedom awaiting us in the developed world. It was tacky, but the source of a lot of laughs! From South Africa we got to see the sunset over some incredible mountains prior to heading back to town at 5:30 (remember, it is winter here now). We finished the night off with sitting around a fire in the fireplace laughing at our most recent photos and videos and just hanging out prior to going to bed at our normal 8:30 pm….

Sunday we were graced with another perfect morning for hiking followed by an interesting church service that more resembled what you would find in the West than what you would expect out of Africa. We got a chance to meet with some of the staff about the details of our impending involvement at Bulembu and then we quickly head out for another adventure that involved a last minute jaunt to another country for the sole purpose of buying pizza…. Looking back at it now, I don’t know how we convinced ourselves that this was a bright idea; we left 2 hours before the border gate was to close for a 45-minute drive each way through treacherous mountain roads to Barberton and we didn’t even have a clue where a pizza restaurant would be. Thankfully, we had the luckiest person we know with us (Eric) and we quickly happened on a great pizza restaurant that rushed our order so we could make it back in time. Nonetheless, I don’t think we could have cut it any more closely getting back to Swaziland before the border gates closed: All of the staff at both the Swaziland and SA border gates were amazed that we made it in time (which happened to be within 5 minutes of closing), but we made it and had enough time to find a really cool place for our long-awaited dinner (which happened to be on top of a “mountain” made out of asbestos slag—yet another decision that could have used more foresight).

We finished off a perfect day with barefoot Frisbee, idyllic mountain weather, and unmatched views. Safe to say, it was difficult to leave Monday morning. But leave we must; we droved down through the mountains to Mbabane, the capitol, and on to the Ezulwini valley to experience something that could only take place in Africa: 20,000 bare-chested maidens doing a Swazi cancan in celebration of the Queen Mother. As with everything here, the Reed Dance began on “African time”, which translates to “whenever it is convenient”. Two hours after it was supposed to start we were graced by the presence of the King and Queen Mother as well as the U.S.’s best pal, Robert Mugabe (the president of Zimbabwe), and the leaders of many African countries that happened to be in Swaziland for a trade convention, and we were ready to start! Over the next 1.5 hours, enough almost naked women poured into the stadium to fill the entire field even though they seemed to be packed in like sardines. I can safely say that I will never again have such an innocent mental picture of somersaults….

Well, there was our weekend in a not-so-small nutshell. We are continuing to have a great time with great people here in Swaziland. Be checking for new photos up soon as well as some videos. Thanks again for following along with us as we live and learn in Africa.

- Brad

Swaziland: Two Weeks In…

We have now hit the two-week mark for being here in Swaziland and it has been filled with great surprises to say the least. This idea that we had to begin with that we would be “roughing it” in Africa is as far away from reality as possible: our house and overall accommodations are incredible, everything is clean and our beds are made each day when we get home from work, our clothes are laundered and waiting for us in the foyer each week, and our view is as good as it gets! Our first weekend here was meant to be slow, but, as is our typical modus operandi, we filled it to the brim with activities from flying to concerts to food—life wasn’t supposed to get easier upon arriving in Africa, was it? The thing I have been most impressed with, though, are the people—I can’t even remember the last time I had a conversation on the side of the street with a complete stranger in the U.S., let alone one that seemed sincere. Granted, I rarely go down the street on foot instead of by car so I don’t often have an opportunity to talk to strangers, but would I do it anyway?

Within a day of arriving here I was thrust into the position of teaching math and science to all of the 12-20 year olds at a school here. Did I receive any teaching guidelines? No. Did I get any lesson plans? No. Did I get a textbook or any materials from which to teach? No. Did I have to submit anything to say that I was actually capable of teaching math and science? No. It is safe to say that the requirements aren’t quite as stringent as in the States…. It is widely believed, though, that the biggest thing that is holding development in this country back, besides the average life span of 31 years, is limited or no math and science education. Swaziland relies on expats almost entirely to run the technical side of the country because so few residents have the tools necessary to do the work.

I don’t know if I am cut out to teach these kids, but I can safely say that they have very few options for learning it and I feel like I am in the right place at the right time to help. As with every group of students, some move more quickly than others. I have been spending a decent amount of time working on fundamentals that hopefully everyone will grasp, but I have also been able to work with a few students separately from the rest to start learning higher-level math and science that will really help build a foundation for the technical and medical fields that they are shooting for. It has been a real honor for me to help nurture their drive and potential to really get these kids (well, some of them would more be considered adults) set for college and beyond.

I’ll let Ben, Grace, and Eric tell you what they are up to, but I can safely say that we are all having a great experience here. Life is slower and simpler, the people seem more genuine, and it already feels like we are part of the community. We are now 1 month in to this 4.5-month venture and we have had glimpses of homesickness but they are heavily outweighed by good times and long-lasting memories in the making.

Thanks again for following along with us on our adventure.

- Brad