C-H's travel stories: swaziland, June 19, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,
June 19, 2009
Gary and I had a little road trip on Saturday, June 13th while Chris was in Jo’burg picking up the Nashville work team. We drove out into the country and took a loop trip that lasted about 6 hours. We had lunch at a great little outdoor café and then continued on the road through farmlands and beautiful scenery. We stopped at a couple of craft places, just to get an idea of prices. As we traveled on further west we came upon a beautiful valley with homesteads all about scattered on the hills. A gorgeous river was running through it. We loved the feel of the area and will go back again. The road then followed up into the hills where we drove through a huge logging town and then into the forested area where they do commercial logging. Then back down the mountain into the capital city of Mbabane. A great day to see some of the area and to relax together.

Saturday night the Nashville group arrived and the church members at St Paul’s Methodist had a welcoming dinner for them. The next day we all went up to Lomngeletjane School for church and a traditional lunch. During church there was much dancing and singing and I think the women of Lomngeletjane were really in a thankful and praising mood. The afternoon was spent visiting some homesteads around the church and the group divided up into smaller groups to visit, talk to the people, and to share with them the gifts of food we had bought for them. The groups were very moved by the poverty of the people and also their graciousness for allowing them into their humble homes.

One of the group members came back and told Chris that there was a family they visited with twins. One of the twins, Tiphelele, was very ill and Chris decided to go back to the homestead and see if the child was ill enough to go to the hospital. The mom brought both of the twins with her when she came to work with the New Orleans group. We had noticed at that time one seemed much smaller than her twin and slept the entire time. Chris decided to take the mother, Bongiwe, and baby, Tiphelele to the hospital. She was admitted immediately and put on oxygen. After some preliminary tests, the doctor said the baby had pneumonia and the infection had spread throughout her body. She also was malnourished. Chris stayed there to give the mom support and see if she needed any money and left late in the evening. The next day Chris went a couple of times to the hospital, each time bringing the mom food and the baby formula and nappies (diapers). She was such a caring support person for this sweet Swazi woman with a huge smile. She gave up most of her time on Monday and Tuesday to help this family out. I was so touched by her dedication to the baby and also to her mom. She had to go to an outside pharmacy to get a more potent antibiotic and had to go to three of them before she found one who had it. On Tuesday, the head pastor, Kanana, was going with Chris to visit and I asked if I could come along. It was an amazing experience. The hospital ward that the babies are in is one large room with many cribs spread around it, with a small area for the family to sit next to each crib. There was also a long table with several babies on it—I am assuming this is because they were out of cribs. There are a couple of low room dividers but everyone can see everyone else in the room. I counted at least 50 babies in that room and there were more in some hallways outside. The room is very old and the cribs are the old, metal kind with paint peeling off of them. Each mom has to supply food and drink for the baby as well anything else the child might need. The room was filled to capacity and I could hardly believe my eyes when we walked in. I was so moved by the sight of these sick children. Most were on IV’s that they put in their heads because their veins are so small. We stood and talked with the mom and then Chris asked to hold the baby. She snuggled with her and the baby seemed to just love it. We think the mom is very afraid to hold the baby and hasn’t done so since they came in. She thinks that she might hurt her or do something with the oxygen, so Chris held her to show her how. The mom did finally hold her for a bit but put her down almost immediately. I am sure this sweet baby needs to be held and cuddled. She needs not only nourishment for her body but love from her mom. The language barrier is hard but she can speak some English. We all said a prayer around the crib and then we left to go shopping for some more baby food and formula. My heart was so full by the time we left. As of when I am writing this (Friday) she is still in the hospital.

On Monday, when Jeri was driving to go to pick up some more local volunteers, she was rear ended at a right-hand turn (remember this is a “drive on the left-hand side” country) The driver did not see my signal and just slammed into the back of the tin can we have been driving. It caved in the back but I am ok—sore and have a bit of a headache. The accident happened right in front of the police sub-station—isn’t that convenient. This was quite an experience! I felt like I was the only non-Swazi for miles around. I was able to communicate and could tell the police what had happened. The other driver had no insurance (of course!) I finally got hold of Chris (Gary was up at the school about 15 km away) and she got there as soon as she could get away from the hospital with Bongiwe. We actually had some luck with all the procedures—getting a police report (only took three tries to get it!); getting two estimates from the “panel beaters” (yes, that’s right—that is what they call body shops here!) We thought this was country with no one to fix wrecked cars until we asked a local and they said to look under Panel Beaters in the Yellow Pages. We will probably have to rent a car while they fix our car because we use it so much to transport people and supplies. The estimates were a little over 15,000 Emalangeni (Swazi money), which is about $1,800 US. We’re sure they would have totaled the car in the states with repair costs what they are.

The Nashville team is made up mostly of youth (15 of them) and they are doing a phenomenal amount of work. They work so hard each day and there are still 2 more full days left of their week. Then we head to Kruger National park for more big animal viewing and then on to Johannesburg for three days. We will be working at a preschool, painting and then on to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. We will write more on the weekend of June 27th. Hope all is well with each of you.

Well, it’s Friday and we still haven’t published this blog yet! Must do it quickly—we are up late tonight and have to leave very early in the morning for Kruger.

Love to all,
Jeri and Gary