Every trip my volunteers marvel at
how overfull car we pack the car. Today
we had 360 pounds of wire to make fencing at New Hope Centre along with 16
pairs of school shoes (thank you Cathy Kennedy!!), 20 pounds of recycled hotel
soap for disease prevention, and 16 emergency meal packs for the Malindza high
school sponsored students (thanks Margaret and Sube!!) along with the 6 of us. Dave even has some bloody wounds to show for
his part in loading the truck! 
On our way out of town, we stopped
for breakfast with Sikhanyiso. If you
follow my facebook, you probably saw where my best Swazi buddy Sifiso died a few
months ago leaving his 3 year old sweetie behind. Thanks to your generosity after his death,
she is now enrolled in a wonderful preschool and will be moving to a new apartment
with her mom in April. At the beginning
of breakfast, she wasn’t so sure about us and I cannot say she was thrilled by
the end of breakfast, but she liked us a tiny bit more after she finished her
chocolate milkshake! (I love dessert for breakfast too!!)
The volunteers went on safari while
I enjoyed some quiet time in a comfy chair overlooking the royal national
park. Hannah was scared that she was
going to be lunch for the lions, but I am happy to announce that she (and
everyone else) is sleeping soundly as I write this blog.
After safari, we started delivering
the food to children’s homes. At Nothando’s
home, we saw Peliswe – her nephew (Teresa, this is your little sweetie who dissected
the bug when he was a baby!). Nothando
informed us that his mother died almost 2 years ago and they are now raising
him on their already crowded and extremely impoverished homestead. Additionally, since he never had a birth certificate,
he is unable to go to school although he is almost 7 years ago. We paid for the grandmother to go collect her
daughter’s death certificate from the hospice center and then use that to
fabricate a birth certificate for Peliswe.
Nothing is quick in Swaziland, and I’ve been informed that this is going
to be a process requiring the collection of multiple documents (easier said
than done), but I am hopeful that by next school year he is in a classroom
where he desires to be!
After we said our goodbyes to Nothando,
we had 14 more home food deliveries.
Although we didn’t spend as much time in Malindza this trip as I usually
do, as we traveled deep into the rural village the group easily identified the disparities
between our two communities. Even when
you think you’ve seen and comprehended “poor”, you likely haven’t until you
have experienced Malindza. The desperation
and hopelessness here are unlike the poverty in eLangeni. The homes have dirt floors and mud &
stick walls. The dogs’ rib cages look
like xylophones that would shatter rather than play music. The death rate of mothers is so alarming it makes
me cry…and then cry harder since I’ve seen the beautiful children they’ve left behind
all alone. The earth that grows food
offering life in other areas of the country grows only thorny bushes in its dry
red dirt. And the children are often not schooling…just sitting around waiting
for a miracle. But those who are granted
the miracle, that’s where the true beauty is.
I could go the rest of my life without seeing another diamond or rainbow
– but going a few months between these trips to Swaziland to see our little
beautiful miracles is a few months too long.
We leave tomorrow for home. But I’m
already looking forward to returning in June!
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