annie in swaziland

Day 15 & 16:

This morning we all went to Nomfundo’s church.  The pastor was extremely welcoming – he had all of his visitors (that’s us!) stand up to be greeted by the church.  Then he asked the church-goers to come give the visitors hugs.  There was a whole line of people waiting to hug us and thank us for coming.  And the church paparazzi was there to take pictures of it all.  Then Nomfundo sang for us in the Praise and Worship choir, and Sizo made a guest appearance and sang a solo for us as well. Sibusiso, Mazwi, and Nosipho were also there. 

After church, Amber and Kait went to the cultural village and Katy and I went to give her some time to say goodbye to the kiddos.  When we were at the Maziya’s, I thought for sure that Katy was going to cry, but she held it together.  Thank goodness because I would have lost it too if she did… We spent the walk home reminiscing on our favorite memories with the kids.  It will be sad to have Katy gone as we have been able to spend so much time together – even today we took a nap in the same twin bed with Cami (the cat) curled up in between us.  She’s been a great partner in fighting poverty crime!

In the evening the girls wanted to go out to eat to try some traditional Swazi food and since I didn’t trust my stomach with it, I decided to hang out with Hannock and Baby T instead.  Such charismatic and nice guys… The girls are driving to Johannesburg tomorrow.  It’s goodbye to Katy and Amber and hello to Nate, Sydney, and Joanna.  So much to do in our last week here!

- Today was a free day for me as Kait took the 2 girls back to South Africa and picked up the 3 new participants.  There wasn’t enough room in our car with all of the luggage and me, but I had a great day alone in Swaziland!  I met up with Hannock in the morning – although I thought he stood me up.  We were supposed to meet at 9 at the mall and he came strolling up at 10 til 10, total Swazi-style.  I bought a bunch of school socks for the girls (they have to wear white socks and wash them everyday as the red soil here stains them) and some under-roos (as Kait calls them) for little Mazwi because when I was helping him wash his laundry the other day I noticed that his were frayed to little more than an elastic band.  I got to see where Hannock lives with some of his friends who were very very nice.  I basked in the sun in his front yard, and had a relaxing day.  Then he needed to go rehearse with my eLangeni students for their dance competition on Friday.  He thinks they have a chance at taking home the Swazi high school title!! I will for sure be there with my eLangeni High t-shirt on cheering on my boys. 

While he was working on the kids choreography, I met up with Bheki to talk about the remainder of our time here.  We made plans this week that will be great experiences for Joanna, Sydney, and Nate including working with a soccer team of orphans and vulnerable children, finalizing the computer lab (thanks Sean and Pam!!), working at Baylor’s Teen Club, watching the dance competition, and delivering food to all of our child-headed homesteads.  Cant wait!