A week in the life in eSwatini

Monday:

We had overnight prayer last night for an hour per group of 3 people. This was between 12am and 6am. Everyone had to register for one of the hour time slots. A few of us woke up a bit late for our time slot, myself included. We were all very tired when we woke up in the morning. We do this once a week overnight before we wake on Monday mornings. I awoke late and missed the chance to eat breakfast and have some coffee, a thing I look forward to in the morning. I was off to start a pretty challenging day. My squad and I all walked from the homestead, about 15 minutes on a dirt road to the main road, where our van picked all 18 of us up. On the way to our destination, we picked up our friend Lucy at the Bible college that’s hosting her on her mission trip, and she went with us. Some time after we picked her up, we got pulled over for overloading the van… trust me, we innocently overloaded only by four people. Imagine 20

People in a large Ford Transit, crazy!

Mondays are the days we go into the middle of Manzini and we ask the Lord to guide us on a walk from one end of the town to the next. We call these days “ATL Days” which means ‘Ask The Lord Days.” Beforehand, my squad and I split into our 3 teams which are about 6 people per team. As we walk, we may often stop to pray for people that the Lord has us encounter. Sometimes there’s just one person he has for us on the way. Today, there were several people we prayed over, a few of them at a tiny hair salon that needed prayer for several big things in their lives. Sometimes it’s hard to find a local that speaks good English, but the woman at the hair salon spoke pretty good English as she was studying linguistics.

Euuugggghh! So many bugs crawling and flying about the room as I’m writing this… not even bug spray can keep them away! I just have to remind myself to be thankful that they’re not the Black Mambas that are native to eSwatini. Anyways,

The finish line of our walk across town is at a local grocery store called “Pick n’ Pay.” The names of the businesses around Manzini are pretty straightforward and it both cracks me up and puts me through culture shock. Oh, the sweet chaos of international travel… Anyways, then we have to bring our haul back to our homestead traveling by van, packing it all in every nook and cranny!

We arrived back home, got settled and then some of us started on laundry, which is no easy task in a 3rd world country. Wash, ring out; rinse, ring out, and repeat for every piece of clothing that you need to wash. I have pretty thick clothes, so ringing them out made my arms pretty sore. It probably took me an hour and a half to just wash what would be considered a small load of laundry in the USA. I hung my laundry to dry between a tree and a fence post, the line got too tight, then snapped the tree branch that it was hanging onto and all my clothes fell with the line onto the grass. This moment truly broke me down emotionally. I had to take a moment to recollect myself and pray that the Father would make all things well in his name, because we can’t do life without him. As I was praying, one of my squad-leads, Ben took my fallen clothes and found a different place to hang them out of the kindness of his heart.

One of my squad-mates has a relative close by who is a missionary and she wanted to bless our squad by bringing us dinner. She brought pizza and soda, which is pretty refreshing out of its simplicity. After dinner I was pretty pooped, so I decided to spend some time alone playing games on my phone. Personally, one of the things I found to be refreshing on this trip is having alone time in the afternoons or when I can at the homestead we’re staying at.

As said in John 13, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. We all wanted to take a moment and minister to each other by taking turns washing each other’s feet. As we washed each other’s feet, we prayed over that person. It was an experience that I’m still processing as I lay in my bed writing this at 12:30am…

Woooh! What a day today has been!

Tuesday:

I awoke this morning about 45 minutes before my squad and I headed out to our van that picked us up. I had a chance to have a quick snack for breakfast and my instant coffee to perk me up. Today being Valentine’s Day, one of our squad leads, Mak decided to get us all Valentines treats and write little messages of how she and Ben had been seeing God working through us. We headed up, got in the van, the smoldering hot van and headed to the bible college where we would usually pick Lucy up in the mornings. When we arrived, Ben asked everyone to hop out for a little surprise. We all hopped out of the van and walked towards the edge of the small bible college campus where we found 3 tables pushed together. Topping the tables were locally hand sewn bags, tablecloths, skirts and more. They had set up a mini market for us to purchase these things. On each of these items was a card that had the persons name on it who made the item. Of course I had to get a couple of these things to bring back home with me. After about an hour of looking at wild banana trees, walking around, and being able to look at and purchase the hand sewn items, we all packed up back in the van and headed to our care-point as a squad.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we all go to one care-point as a squad. On Wednesdays and Fridays we split up into our 3 teams and head to different care-points; it takes my team about an hour and a half to get to ours from when we get picked up. Luckily, today it’s not that far of a drive.

We trekked down a bumpy dirt road in our van to our care-point with a few kids waiting for us when we arrived. This care-point has more of the younger demographic that we minister to. We sat down with the kids while some of them ran around and played. Every care-point… pretty much everywhere you go in eSwatini has chickens running around. At our care-point, a chicken ran under the bench that my squad-mate Caity was sitting on. Caity grabbed the chicken’s leg and picked it up like it was nothing and everyone started cheering. I mean, it was crazy… it’s like she lives on a farm or something!

During lunch, all of us guys got the ladies Valentine’s Day cards just to be nice. We’ve all been eating foods we wouldn’t normally eat, and my stomach started hurting today during lunch. I’m okay, but I’m still getting used to the foods we’re eating here.

We got back to playing with the kids after eating lunch, then some of us took a walk together. The views on the walk were beautiful, God-given, God-made and God-sent! We hiked a few minutes up a hill, then up another hill and found a lookout point up that hill. I was worried we might find a Black Mamba, but the locals that we were with assured us that we were okay. I took a lot of pictures of the views from the lookout point that we went to. As we were walking back to the care-point, we found a plant that one of the locals named “Major” told me some fun facts about. He told me that the leaves of the plant were used to make cattle whips because the fibers in the leaves are very strong. We left the care-point praying that it doesn’t rain so that our clothes can dry that are hung outside at our homestead.

Good news! It didn’t rain before we got back! Our clothes are fine and didn’t get wet cuz the sun was still shining. We wrapped up with a great dinner and one of our squad-mates said her testimony. We then called it a night.

Wednesday:

Today was one of the more toasty days! We don’t have access to internet to get exact temperatures, but it was definitely one of the warmer ones.

It seems that I’ve been waking up very close to the time we have to leave as a squad in the mornings that we go to minister at care-points (Tuesday-Friday). I sprung out of bed at 8:15, fleeing to where we eat breakfast to get my coffee and some granola. We left right after I finished my coffee sparing no second.

We came back to the same care-point that we were at yesterday as a squad. Our squad leads had to do some prep today, so they stayed behind at our homestead. One of the kids at this care-point reminds me of a younger version of myself. Troublemaker, hard time focusing & hyperactive. I’ll reference him as “Dude.” All of the kids at each care-point eat sour-porridge that is made by one of the servants. The Swazi term for ‘sour-porridge’ is ‘Incwancwa’ and I learned how they made it today. At this point of the day, it’s felt pretty relaxing so far.

We all ate lunch together inside of the classroom at the care-point, talking about some of the upcoming activities in our trip. We finished lunch and slowly trickled out of the classroom and ministering to the kids again. Sitting down and chilling out with them, playing soccer, playing on the playground, or conversing with some of the older ones of the care-point. Dude got caught in the crossfire of some other kids that were running around by getting kicked in the face. I heard his cry and I came running like a worried parent. I picked him up very gently and carried him outside where I sat with some of my other squad-mates under the shade of a tree. I held Dude for a while to calm him down and he chillaxed with me until my squad and I left around 3 o’clock. I swear, I wish I could adopt this kid.

We headed home in the van along the same bumpy road on which we came. There were some moments on the ride where the van sounded like it was going to poop out, but that’s been pretty regular in eSwatini. The van driver usually waits for us all day at the care-point to take us home after he drops us off in the mornings. They really know how to keep the van from getting too hot when it’s sitting in the sun in this country.

We got back, and I tended to some laundry and tidying up. Today felt pretty nice and rewarding, considering how crazy the past 2 days were.

Thursday:

Had another average morning, wake up, put my contacts in, grab some breakfast and coffee, and then head out to the care-point with my squad. We all brought our empty water jugs that we’ve gone through to the care-point so that they could re-use them.

I read through Mark 5&6 today on the van ride to the care-point. In Mark 6, Jesus sent off his disciples to cast out demons and spread his good news. He asked that his disciples not stay in fancy inns along the way, but be modest with where they stay. I related to the disciples in this passage because I think it’s important to remember that it’s a good thing that my squad and I are staying somewhere modest while on a mission spreading the gospel.

We arrived at the care-point and started ministry for the day. Part-way in, the people managing the care-point made my squad and I corn-bread that they baked in the corn husks. It was very good! We also got to try some local corn. It had a lot more body and chew to it than corn does in the USA. Dude stole my hat and I had to chase him around for it. We all ate lunch, then returned to ministry.

We headed back to the homestead and on the way, we got gas. Folded some laundry when I got back, then played some guitar. After some of my other teammates graciously prepared quesadillas, we ate. After we finished, some guests (unexpected to me) arrived to spend the evening and the night with us; about 3-4 people. It was the media team! In the guys room, we had Josh stay with us overnight.

We had worship, then talked and headed for bed. It was an average day after all… oh shoot, I ran out of my instant coffee. I guess I’ll have to drink plain instant coffee instead of my fancy instant coffee. Oh well…

Friday:

I woke up today with 40 extra minutes of time than I usually have in the mornings. Had the luxury of some scrambled eggs, yogurt, granola and some coffee with plenty of time to feast. I’m slowly but surely figuring out easier ways to live around here with what we have to use. We left to walk up the hill to the main road today and were met 2 minutes into the walk with our bus coming to us instead of trekking up the hill. We arrived at the care point a couple minutes earlier than usual and picked up my bible and continued reading Mark right away, from chapter 10 until I finished in the afternoon. We had a prayer hour inside the classroom at the care-point from 2-3, then left at 3.

I really enjoyed spending time with the kids at our care-point this week. Mark 9:36-37 says that Jesus put a child in the middle of the room and said whoever embraces the child as I do, embraces me-and more importantly, God himself. I read that on Thursday night during worship and it confirmed my gifts that I have the patience to sit with children and to love them.

We arrived back at the homestead and I had some needed alone time, watching a show I downloaded on my phone. We all had a very nice deconstructed shepherds pie that was made by a few squad-mates, then one of my other squad-mates said her testimony.

This week was great! I feel that the Lord has grown me a LOT this week and I can’t wait to see how much more I’ll grow in my relationship with him! Im very excited for our day of rest tomorrow! Ahh, sabbath!

Saturday (Sabbath):

Today, I woke up at 8:30 and ate a big breakfast followed by returning back to sleep until 11am. I woke, then I continued watching my show that I watched yesterday until about 1:30pm when someone’s relative brought KFC to us all. I think it’s really funny how popular KFC is here.

I finished the season of the show I was watching at about 5 o’clock, then went and mingled with my squad. I volunteered to cook dinner with a couple other people, which felt pretty good to do. I went to bed at around 10pm… very good day!

Sunday:

Today is our adventure day! We are going to the most toured places in eSwatini and it’s a market! We have will have a worship session, followed by a quick bible study. After that, it’s an hour drive off to the market!

Next blog will be the last blog for eSwatini, we will all be traveling to our next stop after that! Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa here we come!