SWAZILAND--Where Change Happens, For Us !

SWAZILAND—WHERE CHANGE HAPPENS ( FOR US) !!!

We have really come to love and appreciate all the good things about Swaziland, the people, the hospitality, the culture, the geographic beauty…. the fabric of life and the quality of life, especially in light of the trying times that folks here face with the HIV/AIDS Pandemic swirling about us….

All that said, there really are, for Gail and me….…..two very different Swazilands.

One place is the rural areas, where 70% of Swaziland’s population still live-- on family homesteads, and existing by subsistence farming, and where women/ girls still carry water from streams for all household use, and carry wood from forests to build fires with which to cook. And boys and young men still herd cattle, often instead of attending school. It is our perception that life has been like this for many, many years….and really not much change takes place. In fact, usually when we go back to see friends living on homesteads, and we ask about “what’s new”….the most common answer we get is “nothing has changed”, “nothing new”.

The Swaziland where Gail and I live, and work is most definitely not the place described above. Every day things change. A lot. And for the better. New arrivals. Education Centers being built. Children learning skills like sewing. Sometimes in the swirl of our work day, we do not appreciate or even notice the change….but it is real, and good, and a big part of our life.

Two happenings just last week highlight this change we experience:

1) Last week we installed SOLAR GEYSERS !! FIVE !! We are “off the grid” for hot water !! Now this would be a big deal, in the USA, but really remarkable that we had to travel 11,000 miles—to Africa—to “go solar”. Here is the deal. In Africa, hot water heaters are called “geysers”—pronounced “geezers”( as in some people think I am an “old geezer”). And the vast majority of people do not piped water, let alone hot water geysers. And the geysers that are installed, are almost always installed, on the exterior walls of a house—on the outsides…and are electric. They pretty much look like hot water heaters as we know them in the USA, but are shiny, like stainless steel, and not white….being electric, they are pretty expensive to operate, and electric costs here are increasing dramatically. So, to make a long story short…last week a crew arrived, with all the frames, parts, housings, tubes, etc….to install solar geysers. It is really a great idea as we get plenty of sun, and the solar geysers will get water MUCH hotter than traditional, and can keep the water hot, for days, and use the renewable energy source of the sun, and save on electric costs. Pretty cool, we think.

2) On Friday last week ( the 18th) an earth leveler, (bulldozer ?) showed up and leveled the land for a third home to be built, on the grounds here at Pasture Valley. Most of you reading this know that the children are housed in two homes—David’s House, and Stella’s House. We have been at capacity since our arrival in August. Yet still we have taken in two additional children. And as you might imagine, the need is great and there is constant communication from Swazi authorities re: placement of additional children….and now it has happened. Ground being leveled, prepared to build additional capacity. When all the dust settles, it means more kids, and more to do, and more work…..but it is truly GOOD WORK, and NEEDING TO BE DONE, and we are ALL UP FOR doing it.

So as you read above….the Swaziland we call home, is most definitely not the place where……….”nothing ever changes”… and when friends ask us “what’s new”…..we always have an earful to bore them with……..and it is all good. Seems our existence here is a nice analogy for life….each of us is either standing still……or moving forward. And for now at least, Gail and I are quite happy—though sometimes tired --to be very much in a moving forward place…..

That’s all for now, Sala Gahle ( Stay Well !).