Hello from Swaziland! Brace yourself – long blog since I
skipped yesterday.
The trip has so far happened without a glitch. Erika landed in Atlanta 10 minutes AFTER we
already started boarding for South Africa 5 terminals away – yet she made it
with time to spare before the airplane doors closed! Then, we had to cross our fingers as we
crossed the border into Swaziland “smuggling” too much money and too many donations
… The car in front of us was opening their trunk and going through their goods
with officers. I was nervous. Then, it was our turn. The lady asked what was in the trunk, I said
“personal belongings”, then she said “have a nice trip.” We made it!
Once we made it to Swaziland, we went directly to the Msibi
house where we played “bona bona bona” and Austin had a sing-off with
Sizo. Nosipho showed us traditional
dance….and how to Whip and Nae Nae as her purple extensions flew this way and
that. It’s great to catch up with the kids – Sizo is doing great in teaching
college, Nosipho is applying to college for business and fashion, Zinhle passed
and will go back to high school, Mazwi earned position 12 out of 50 and will be
in grade 7 next year (still cute as a button), and Philo passed and will be in
Form 3 – still wanting to be a police officer! What a fun night! Huge thanks to
Erin McCarthy and Carole Juranek for donating their old iPhones – now our
college students Lungelo and Njabuliso won’t have to struggle learning about
their assignments and communicating with their classmates. Anyone have a (male-ish in color) iPhone 5c
case so Lungelo doesn’t accidentally shatter his new favorite thing?
It’s always alarming to our volunteers just how packed the
car always is. It was full, full, FULL
of food we later delivered to the kids at their homes so they had meals for the
holidays lasting until Kait and I return in March. Around $80 can feed a family for 3
months. We’ve already made 2 trips to the WholeSale
shop! Poor Erika is the smallest, so she ends up squeezing herself in between
bags of beans or rice to fit in the vehicle.
We woke up early to collect boxes and boxes of soaps from
Beish. He did an incredible job gaining
new partnerships with hotels in the country. The used soaps donated by the
hotels will be sanitized by our group and distributed to the orphans in rural
communities to prevent the spread of communicable disease – Beish is amazing!
We then did a SuperMarket Sweep through 5 huge stores to buy
school supplies (thanks Sube) and got to the bank at 3:25 (they close at 3:30 –
Ty, what about those banker hours?!) to pay the kids 2017 school fees (Thanks
BahFed for allowing us to add so many new kids to our GHFP community!). The
Princess Chief added a girl going to form 4 who had to drop out of school years
ago due to the lack of fees. Her twin
brother already gave up going back to earn an education and refused our offer. We have another girl who finished elementary
school in 2013 and hasn’t been able to return due to the lack of fees. I’m so excited she’s going to be in a high
school desk next month! I am so grateful
for all of our donors who are changing the path of lives here in Swaziland…
Thank you!
We then went with Denise – the founder of the Rocking Horse
Organization – to the government hospital.
My tummy was in knots – I don’t do well being a bystander to pain and
suffering without being able to do anything to help. But the afternoon we spent with the kids of
Ward 8 was so much fun and productive.
We realized we need the following for them: Workbooks, GoFish – type
games/cards, Back Packs, Flash Cards (think low levels: animals, numbers,
letters), Crafts (crayons, coloring books, stickers, etc), Dominos, Puzzles,
memory games…do you have anything to help? Denise’s focus is to provide
education and entertainment to long term hospital and hospice pediatric patients.
She then took us to the ward where physically and mentally
disabled children were abandoned by their parents. These kids are now as old as 20 who have
lived their whole life in the hospital since their mom decided to leave them
behind after giving birth. And when I
say “living” in the hospital, I will revise as “existing in a cage” as Maddy
described it… cribs in empty rooms with 16 and 20-year-old crippled people
laying alone in their filth all day every day.
So, after an awesome uplifting afternoon anxious to make a difference in
the lives of the kids we interacted with, my heart was soon crushed into a
million pieces. Broken for the poor moms
who knew they could do nothing to help these children, broken for the hospitals
too overcrowded and overworked to be able to do anything either, but mostly
broken for these precious souls who don’t even seem to be recognized as human
beings…
More tomorrow … Goodnight from Swaziland! www.ifightpoverty.org/donate.html
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