Saturday

May: Day 4

Day 4 -
The group went on safari today and saw tons of animals! Hannah had a plan to sit in the middle seat and use the other volunteers as lion food if any got too close to the Jeep.  I am happy to report to you that we lost no one in this adventure ;)

But before the safari, we had the much anticipated meeting with one of the Malindza Chief's men.  The story starts years ago.  We had a brilliant high school boy, Sethu, who was living with an ailing grandmother.  He's orphaned and alone.  Things happened and he had no where to live.  The Chief allocated land for him, we were able to raise some money (forever grateful for our amazing donors), and we built him a permanent cement structure on his brand new yard.  For a few years, everything went well.  Don't get me wrong, he lives alone.  He faces food scarcity.  He has minimal water access.  He has no electricity.  But, he had a safe place to sleep at night and a roof over his head.

Now fast forward to today. We found out yesterday that Sethu's uncles were trying to steal his home and land.  Typically in Swazi culture, the elders have rights to family lands.  And Sethu had not yet even informed the chief of what was going on to see what his side of it was.  I went to bed nervous.  But, it was all for nothing. The Chief was upset to hear of the uncles trying to take Sethu's home.  He sent his men to remove to uncles and make sure Sethu was okay.  They noticed that the neighbors were also taking advantage of Sethu by slowly encroaching on his land (which is very valuable in rural eSwatini because everyone needs it for their subsistence farms).  They suggested we invest $100 to buy a roll of barbed wire and fence Sethu's place to prevent any more thievery from taking place.  SETHU GETS TO KEEP HIS HOME!! Off to bed, goodnight!
 


No comments:

Post a Comment