Week 14 In Two Pictures

Sikhaleni carepoint (at base of tree on right side of picture);
couple meeting a sponsored child at the carepoint;
Emma with her heart shaped rock; Thembi coloring with Nomvuyo asleep on her back

On the edge of a drop off after our hiking "detour" in the bush
(with tiny white homestead visible FAR down below);
unloading bananas at the carepoint to give to kids;
women at the carepoint in need of medical care;
rhinos that walked right in front of our car at the game drive

Week 13 In Two Pictures

Overlooking the river in Western Swaziland, verse at orphanage,
housing on a hillside at an orphanage community,
three old friends who are doing well at the orphanage

Watching & waiting for playground to be built, sunset on a detour home,
giraffe on the way to the grocery store, my girls playing on the new playground.

Week 12 In Three Pictures

It's been such a busy week that I couldn't capture it all in just a couple of pictures...

Soccer distribution jersey at Madabukeni; Celimpilo leading the kids in songs at Madabukeni;
teenagers from CO & Swaziland working on the mural at Mahlabaneni; Zola (14 year old at Mahlabaneni with an amazing voice, who is also blind)

Students from Woodmen Valley team praying over carepoint kids as they leave for the day; one boy waiting in the slide as they build the playground behind him; handing out Bibles & solar-powered lanterns at Mahlabaneni; the screen for the movie out in the middle of no where - we previewed part of Never Neverland (a documentary about Swaziland).

Angel (Nompomelelo) all dressed up for the party; the cabbages & oranges we distributed at the party; American & Swazi teenagers giving their money towards building the church at Mahlabaneni (money given for more than 1000 concrete blocks today!); kids playing on the playground after church.

Week 11 In A Picture

The patriotic guy on the 4th of July at Nsoko Spar; the mom & baby in front of me in line in the dark, crowded hallway at the government offices; on a home visit to Gogo Harriet; Thandi & I in our matching "work uniforms".

From Where I Sit...

Some things in life are all about perspective.  The longer I spend in Swaziland, the more I realize how vastly different my worldview is than my friends here.  I can't fathom what it's like to go more than a day without eating, to not have meat more than maybe once a week at the most, to (at best) live in a cement house, to not have plumbing or electricity (I choose to go camping & go without these things, so it doesn't count).  I grew up in a culture where we went shopping as things went out of style or season, not because they went threadbare & we NEEDED new clothes.  I get frustrated when things go missing at our ministry center, but I can't be too quick to judge because I haven't grown up in a scarcity culture (I've heard that children growing up with this type of mindset often steal or hoard food, even after being adopted into families with plenty).  I have grown up understanding the concept of a savings account & stretching things to make them last.  But today I was reminded again of how vastly different my perspective is on money, possessions, & economics,  having grown up as a middle-income kid in suburban/rural America.
One of our ministry partners recently received a pair of shorts from the US with a price tag still hanging on them...for $9.99.  I cringed as I heard some Swazis start laughing, not knowing at first what was going on.  From where I was sitting, I could hear small conversations, but also see his face as I realized the commotion was about the price of the shorts, not the fact that they still had the price tag on them.  In my mind, I was picturing the clearance or sale rack at a huge store & thinking how excited I would be to get a pair of shorts for only $9.99 & that those shorts were a great deal!  But then I realized what they were really talking about...they started asking me how much those shorts would be in Emalangeni (Swazi currency) and I said 75 Emalangeni...they all began laughing again & the shorts soon earned the nickname "fancy pants".  While my first reaction was that the shorts were on the cheaper end of the spectrum, here they were on the expensive end of the spectrum. 
But, for a Swazi, they would have been 6% of a well-employed person's monthly income...for a person making $7 an hour in the US, that would make the shorts about $67. 
I take for granted that I can eat bread (a loaf costs about a dollar, but most families in this area can't afford it), that I could bake bread if I wanted (I have a stove/oven while most of the people I know here in Swaziland cook in a kettle outside over a fire ALL THE TIME), I could toast the bread if I wanted (I have electricity & a toaster, while most of my Swazi friends live without electricity and all of them live without plumbing), and I could even butter the bread if I wanted (refrigerators need electricity & usually you use silverware or a knife to butter bread....again things which most don't have).  Rice is a luxury here that most people can't afford.  I can't begin to wrap my head around it, let alone try to imagine the type of worldview that people growing up here have.
I knew I would be dealing with the cultural gap, language gap, gender gap (because of gender roles), and the economic gap, but I'm barely beginning to scratch the surface at how broad those gaps really are & am continuing to realize how I will never truly understand what it's like to walk a mile (or kilometer) in my Swazi friends' shoes (or bare feet).

Where There Is No 911...

I have spent many hours waiting in hospital waiting rooms over the last months & years here in Swaziland...here are a few bullet points of my experiences.

Where there is no 911...

...a truck will do for a stretcher/bed/ambulance.

..."emergency" can mean getting treatment within hours, not minutes.

...you will trust strangers with your medical care & decisions because you are desperate.

...help only comes when & if you find a neighbor/relative/friend/stranger to drive you to the hospital.

...sterile is redefined.

...isolation & tb wards often don't have the doors closed.

...you bring your own bedding & food to the hospital.

...it's not uncommon to pack several people into a vehicle to go to the hospital once they hear you are going.

...there is a trailer in the corner of the parking lot with food to buy for patients.

...you pay cash for your treatment as you go through each step in the process.

...hardly anyone gets admitted overnight & if they do, they are often discharged the next day.

...you hold & carry your own iv bag around with you.

Stephen Covey Never Lived In Swaziland...

This morning as I was standing outside of a building where a meeting was supposed to start at 10am, I began to think about how much my day would go against anything efficient or productive by American standards.  I continued to reflect on this as I was taken into the meeting room at 10:22am and then again when the ministry partner with me looked at me with a questioning look.  We had thought we were here to meet with 4 other people, but before we knew it, they had us sitting at the front of a room, behind a table, with three rows of chairs for people on the other side of the table.  We both said the same thing at the same time - "this meeting isn't what I thought it was going to be."  I laughed to myself as I thought about reading Stephen Covey's "7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" while I was in college & how inapplicable that was now here in Swaziland.  But tonight as I look it up on wikipedia to talk about how irrelevant it is, I stand corrected...it is pretty helpful, even in Swaziland!

1.  Be proactive

This is helpful anywhere, but especially here, where the tendency is to be overwhelmed by all of the needs all of the time.  But you've got to start chipping away somewhere, so it's better to just start.

2.  Begin with the end in mind

This is so true....but not in the sense that Covey intended.  Each day I wake up to spend time with the Lord, reminding myself that the things I do today & the conversations I have & the ways I interact with people & pray will have eternal impact.  This is motivating when I'm discouraged, and encouraging when I don't see any fruit from the seeds that have been sown.

3.  Put first things first

Again, helpful as much of my day can be dominated by the tyranny of the urgent.  It's been said that the devil is in the details, but in my life, the devil is in distractions (even good distractions).

4.  Think win-win

Serving cross-culturally with a ministry based on donors from around the world, this is a great one to think about.  Keeping in mind that we want to be more about development (where possible), this helps me to remember that I must be thinking about what will be a long term "win" for this person/family/homestead/community, and not just a quick fix.

5.  Seek first to understand, then to be understood

One of the first rules to learn anywhere, but especially serving cross-culturally.  I find myself saying every day "I don't understand what you're saying" or practicing my reflective listening skills to say back "so what I'm hearing is..."  I usually ask at least one person a day if they understand what I'm saying & if it makes sense.  At times I have been known to ask "how much do you understand - 50%?  90%"

6.  Synergize

This goes to a whole new level in a society & culture that values community & relationship above the individual...and is hard to learn when coming from our individualized culture in the US.  Decisions are made by groups after many people have had a say in the process, working together isn't just more efficient (most of the time), but it's just the way things are done.

7.  Sharpen the saw

Covey talks about renewing yourself & continuing to grow, and that's the MOST important "habit" or discipline of any Christian...especially serving in ministry or as a missionary.  I heard a prayer the other day in a sermon where the guy was talking about the only way to digest the bitterness of life in Africa is to drink deeply of the sweetness of Jesus each day.

So while Stephen Covey has probably never lived in or visited Swaziland, he taught me a few good lessons today.

Meet The People I Serve Alongside...

 Each day I have the privilege to serve alongside & lead several Swazis as we serve in this community.  I want to introduce them to you so that you can be praying for them by name. 

Celimpilo teaching children after school at a carepoint
(yes, this one meets under a tree & only has a cooking structure).

Discipleship Team
(primary roles include discipling kids at carepoints & initiating  home visits around the communities we work in)

~Nombali - 19 year old female

~Thandi - 26 year old female

~Celimpilo - 24 year old male

~Sanele - 21 year old male

Smanga grinding maize (corn)
to be taken for our food delivery
at the carepoints.

Facilities Team
(primary roles include maintenence & upkeep on facilities at all 10 carepoints, building/capitol projects, driving, food management & delivery for all carepoints, community garden, front desk support at medical clinic on our property)

~Smanga - 32 year old male

~Veli - 25 year old male

~Nelly - 24 year old female

~Phindile - 26 year old female

Mxolisi explaining the rules to the Olympics
games we played with 100 children
last Saturday morning.

Honorary Members
(we have two guys who previously served with us in the ministry that are currently at Bible college, but who are involved in the ministry in the community when they are around)

~Mxolisi - 33 year old male

~Mapile - 22 year old male

Please continue to lift each of them up by name as you pray for our ministry here in the community!

Sanele, Nelly, me, Veli, Smanga
Phindile, Celimpilo

Convergence

con·ver·gence:

the point at which lines, objects, etc. converge

As I go throughout my days here in Nsoko, I can't help but be in awe of the ways that God has prepared me to serve in this place at this time.  Experiences and passions throughout my life have come together in this place to allow me to serve fully & I have no doubt that God has led me through each one to equip me for this time in my life.  Even though an experience may have seemed useless at the time, God has given me tools through each one to allow me to better serve Him today.  I have been described as a "jack of all trades, master of none" or very adaptable, but it's humbling to see the ways God has worked to equip me for my daily life here.  A few of the experiences from my past that I've seen in action this past week are:

~ My dad is a farmer & I grew up working & living on the farm

~ My mom is an accountant

~ My grandma was a caterer

~ My sisters are both doulas & passionate about midwifery & home births

~ I loved math & science in school (to the point I was considering an engineering major because of a scholarship)

~ One of my favorite classes in high school was one where we collected, tested & monitored water samples from the Big Thompson River

~ I was a pre-med major for a short time in college & spent two weeks on a medical camp

~ I was a social work major for a short time in college (and even having 3 different majors managed to graduate early!)

~ I played basketball 

~ I have driven tractors & manual cars & ATVs

~ I love camping & wilderness living & cooking with random ingredients

~ I served in youth ministry for many years

~ I went to a diverse elementary school where many of my friends were bilingual

~ I lived on a ethnically diverse floor in my dorm at CSU with people from various countries, cultures & backgrounds

~ One of my best friends from college, that I still keep in touch with, was a foreign student going to school in Colorado so I saw what it was from that side to be an outsider in a culture

~ I have been counseling & directing camps, retreats & mission trips since 1996 (over 100 at this point so far in my life)

~ I have been a part of several medical clinics in rural Haiti & Nepal

~ Bananas & avocados are two of my favorite foods.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

(Ephesians 2:10)

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

(Psalm 139:13-16)

Week 10 In Two Pictures

Knitting with a stick & a pen, community woman painting at Mbutfu,
West Virginia team painting with community at Mbutfu

Tembelihle's big shoes, Mbutfu almost finished,
my "office" view at Hlane