annie in swaziland

Day 3: Oh, just another 11 hour day…

The day started at the eLangeni Primary School where we planted 8 more fruit trees and cooked for the children’s lunch. When we left the school, we went to pick up Njabuliso – one of our original sponsored boys who was just accepted to college for automotive engineering – to go pay his tuition (Thanks Mom!!!!).  When we were done paying the fees, he got his acceptance letter stamped “Paid in Full” and at that moment he literally jumped in the air and clicked his heels together.  The whole way back to the car the boy actually skipped!! He’s been working 6 days a week as a waiter at the George Hotel in Manzini and he only makes $100/month.  He said that he cannot wait to start making real money after his program is over so he can give back to his community and to the younger kids who need help like he did.  I am always amazed by Njabuliso and Lungelo because I’ve never once heard them complain or see them frown.  It is as if all they know how to do is work extremely hard and smile while doing it.

We then headed to the pre-school.  This is my husband’s favorite place in all of Swaziland.  All 55 children literally bum rush you yelling “TEACHER TEACHER!! ME TEACHER ME!!” in their adorable 3 and 4 year old voices - which I think means, look at me, pay attention to me, hug me, hold me, and give me a fist bump.  Inevitably one takes a treacherous fall during the bum rush and tears ensue.  I raced to pick her up and comfort her to inevitably be covered in snot.  There was a booger that went from her nose directly to my shoulder/hair that was at least 8 inches in length.  But with a rub of the knee and a big hug the tears stopped – so the snot was worth it.  At the pre-school Andrea received some major dreadlocks from the girls while Ty taught the boys pull ups and Michael literally pulled them up – 15 orphans at a time – by arm curls. 

We bought a lot of things with recent donor donations that I will tell you more about when we deliver them (ohh my, I cannot WAIT!) and then went to play at the Maziya’s child-headed home.  Someone donated a 300 piece puzzle we completed (Mazwi and Philo LOVE puzzles), played Frisbee with a disc that a donor bought off of our smile.amazon.com wish list (http://amzn.com/w/1POQUXB2U1ARX), and then played hide and seek on their homestead.  It’s much easier to hide when the maize is tall – I decided to hide today behind a tree that was exactly my size and my wild hair gave me away. 

I am feeling so blessed to have such an amazing team here.  Michael and Andrea are the perfect volunteers – our pre-school teacher today asked if Andrea wanted to take over her job….for good – she’s so amazing with the kiddos!  And Michael has been such a help with the heavy lifting, not afraid to get dirty and work hard.  Until tomorrow… goodnight!