Swaziland, July 30, 2009

Dear Family and friends, July 30, 2009

This has been another week of contrasts for us. We went on a little road trip with Chris last week. On Wednesday we drove to the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa to see some of the natural sites in that area. The area we went to was west of Kruger National Park about 4 hours drive from Manzini (where we live). Nothing prepared us for the awesome beauty we found. Once again, we found ourselves saying over and over “This isn’t anything I would expect Africa to be like.” The area looked more like California, Utah, Colorado or Idaho than Africa. We marveled at the beauty and kept trying to remind ourselves that we were in Africa, not the U.S. We stayed at a small historic mining town in the mountains (about 4200’). It was a quaint little village with excellent accommodations in renovated houses from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. They all have that English touch and the look from that time period. The food was great and very reasonably priced. We even had a huge claw foot bath tub in our bathrooms! The only thing that reminded us that we were in Africa was the people constantly wanting to wash Chris’ car or asking us to buy nuts and the row of stalls selling handicrafts every place we stopped. There was so much to see and it was such a wonderful respite that we ended up staying two nights instead of one.

On Friday morning we headed back to Swaziland planning a stopover in Nelspruit, S.A. to shop for some things we can’t get in Swaziland. We slowly meandered through the hills taking our time enjoying every last second of the beautiful country side. Our first stop in Nelspruit was at Builder’s Warehouse. It is a new store in the newer, modern part of Nelspruit. When we pulled into the parking lot, Chris reminded us that we were back in the real South Africa and therefore we had to take our cameras, phones, etc. with us when we went inside the store and we had to keep all of our valuables out of sight. Even though we did that, we still felt like we were back in the U.S. The store looked just like a Lowe’s’ or Home Depot. We even remarked that the only clue that we weren’t in the U.S. was the type and name of the heaters they were selling.

From Builder’s Warehouse we drove to the old downtown area to go to a fabric store Chris knew about which sells a lot of great African print material for very reasonable prices. As we drove into the downtown area, 2 or 3 guys started running towards Chris’ car waving us down. None of us could remember if they got in front of the car or if Chris stopped to hear what they were saying but they kept pointing to her car saying there was something wrong with the tire. She waved them off and kept going. But since tire issues have been such a problem for her lately, she pulled into an empty parking spot about a half a block up the street. The parking/”security” guy tried to tell her she was parked too far from the curb. Chris told him she was only going to be there a second. She pulled the keys out of the ignition when she turned off the car and opened her door. The next thing we all knew, the guys that originally tried to stop us were running towards the car. Chris told them there wasn’t anything wrong with the tire. Then they started pointing to what they thought was wrong with the car. Chris started to get back in the car and all of a sudden there were at least 4 or 5 guys surrounding the car. We did not know what was happening because it all happened so quickly. Jeri remembers one of the guys opening the back door and fumbling around with all of our stuff. She thought somehow he was trying to find something to fix whatever what wrong with the tire. Then we realized what they were doing and we were all screaming “Stop, get out, don’t do that, give it back to me, etc.” He grabbed at some coats and the next thing she knew, he found her purse, the door slammed and he was gone! Gary took off after them and then so did Jeri. Chris was screaming at the parking/”security” guard to do something and stop them, and he just stood there looking at her, shrugging his shoulders. Chris got out, locked the doors, and started to go after us. We decided to try and find them where Gary thought he had last seen them. Gary almost got hit by a speeding car as he ran across the street and Chris returned to the car, afraid they might come back and steal the car. We went back to the car when we realized how futile this was. We had no idea where the guys went and realized we shouldn’t be chasing after a bunch of thugs. It was such a helpless feeling—we were yelling and saying “they stole my purse”. Not one person stopped what they were doing to help. They looked at us like we were crazy. We were in a very crowded area with many street vendors around so someone must have seen it. We realized later that they are probably as scared of these men as we were. We were safe but Jeri’s purse contained both she and Gary’s passports, our camera, two cells phones and all of the misc. stuff that goes into a purse.

We got back in the car, stunned, and, drove into the next block where we saw a couple of policemen walking. We told the two policemen that we were robbed and asked where the Police Station was so we could report the crime and get an affidavit of the theft, so we could get back across the border. He told us how to get there, and said it was close and we could walk. He pointed to a security/parking guy who would watch my car. We then discovered that we were less than a block away from the Police Station! We weren’t too sure about walking to the Police Station or leaving the car but they kept insisting it was ok. The security/parking guy walked us to the Police Station and even took us inside and made sure we were in the right spot and that someone was going to take care of us quickly. Chris brought her laptop with her to be safe. Actually, the Police took our statements pretty quick. It only took us about an hour or so. When we finished we walked back to the car, distrusting everyone we saw on the streets. We were pretty shook up and in shock. Chris drove us immediately to a store similar to Target to get a new cell phone. We did stop and have some dinner before starting on the road. The rest of the trip back to Swaziland was uneventful – thank God.

As we have relived those few minutes several times, we keep reminding ourselves that things could have been much worse. We could have been hurt and they could have taken both of our purses, Chris’ laptop and even her car. And luckily Gary had most of the cash in his pocket. It gave us just a glimpse into what people who are victims of physical assaults and robberies much worse than ours must feel like. In church we heard about a family in Mbabane that were robbed at knife point outside their home and Chris heard about a pastor friend of hers that was driving to Johannesburg last week and was stopped by thugs and robbed of 13,000 rand (around $1700)

One of the thoughts we have all had to deal with, were the feelings of anger at being robbed. Each of us has had to put it all aside and realize that being angry at them does no one any good. It is just sad that life is so hard for these people that they have to resort to this kind of behavior. The event is certainly not ever going to take away the feeling we have in our hearts for the people of Swaziland.

Below are some pictures of the area we visited before this unfortunate happening. As we said in the beginning, this has been a week of contrast. Take in some of the beauty you see below and it will calm you as it did us.


The Blyde River flows through this whole area--most of the waterfalls are on the Blyde River


In the area of Bourkes Potholes


The Potholes--looks more like Utah!



The Blyde River-shows a perspective of how deep the gorge has been carved over time.

Royal Hotel in Pilgrims Rest, where we stayed ($30/ea incl. a huge buffet breakfast)

Sign in the bar--Church Bar--actually an old church that was hauled up the mountain piece by piece--took 6 weeks

The cabin where we stayed

Living room

Our bedroom

Wonderful clawfoot tub

Berlin Falls

Lisbon Falls

One of the hikes we took---notice the view?

At God's Window

Walking through the rainforest

The Pinnacle

Mac Mac Falls--named because so many of the miners were named Mac-something(MacNeil, MacFarland etc). They tried to divert the river and in the process made two falls--hence the name MacMac

Swaziland, July 20, 2009

Dear Family and Friends ,

Gary and I had a great day on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago. We went to a local game park and drove all over looking for animals. It only cost us $2.50 to get in! They were pretty hidden but we saw some beautiful scenery. This area of Swaziland is very mountainous and we were able to climb to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view. We did see some zebra, warthogs, Cape buffalo and many beautiful birds. There was also a huge hippo mom and its ‘baby’ in the pond by where we ate lunch. It was fun to watch and see it amble up the bank to get to some hay. There are birds that sit on the hippos back all the time—I think they must eat off the small insects that live on the hippos hide. It was a very relaxing day and we were very glad we did it. There are 5 or so small game parks here in Sz--only one has lions, which we are still waiting to see! We will go there in a couple of weeks.

Chris was gone on her own mission trip for a week, the first part of July, so we worked around her home. She had no screens, so bugs, lizards and any other type of small animal could come in windows and doors when she left them open. During the hot season (November thru March) she needs the ventilation so this will be a big help for her. We were able to screen both her doors and two big windows. Her neighbors are fascinated by them--they all asked "what is that?" They don’t really understand the reason for them. There are no screens on any windows so all types of critters can get in!

She also needed some cement work done on her front area, so we mixed up cement in a wheelbarrow and repaired her front step area. In the rainy season, mud washes down to right in front of her front door and creates a small lake. We were able to remove some broken cement that was creating the dam and cement in a large area that was just mud. It is very 'interesting' trying to get materials here-we looked everywhere for screens--it is just not a concept they understand. We also cannot find a place that sells just hardware--it is all building supplies, laying in stacks all over and small bits and pieces of most things. Never a lot of stuff, just one or two items of each on a shelf. Most of it very crude and would not work in the US for putting into a home. So, it is challenging to say the least, when we have in mind what we want and it is nowhere to be found and have to 'kludge' something together. Takes a lot of imagination.

For three Sundays we have attended a church called “The Healing Place Church”. It is a wonderful, joy filled congregation that sings and dances and makes us feel right at home. It has mostly Black young adults and young families from around the area. They express their faith in the most loving way and we have really enjoyed being a part of this church. It meets in a strip mall using one of the vacant spaces. They are in the middle of a 4 week sermon topic on HIV/AIDS. It is very bold of them to talk so honestly about it and it seems that many churches are not getting involved in this issue. They have done some drama with the youth on the topic and this week, a young nurse from the States gave some facts on HIV with a rollicking drama about how HIV gets into the body. Next week there will be a panel of experts answering questions along with some HIV positive people telling their story. At the end of the 4 weeks they will have HIV testing in the church. The minister and the interns serving the church will be tested in front of the congregation to show them that they “walk the walk”. They really do feel that testing is a key to the stopping of HIV—people are afraid to get tested and so pass it on to others if they are HIV positive. Gary was reading an article the other day that said if the death rate from AIDS is not stopped, by the year 2050 there will be no Swazis. So sad….

Two women from California came for a couple of days last week to see what kind of work Chris is doing. For a week, they along, with 10 other women from CA (this is also where Chris had been on her own mission trip), had been up in a small mountain community called Bulembu. It used to be the area where the workers from a now closed down asbestos mine lived. At one time there had been over 10,000 people living there and working. A most unusual place—it has now been turned into a village where many orphans are being housed and taken care of by volunteers, nurses and house parents. A wonderful place that is filling a huge need in Swaziland. They have all of the old buildings from the community which are slowly being restored. There is a clinic, a small store and a school. They hope to turn it into a totally self-sustaining community, restoring health and providing care for orphans and vulnerable through hope, education and commerce. They currently have bee hives and package and sell honey. Eventually they hope to have a bakery, and tourism. Chris and the other women worked with the children there, playing, teaching and loving them for the whole week. See their website at www.bulembu.org for more information.

This past week we went to one of the Preschool Care Points way out in the rural area to deliver some uniforms that the Manyano women from St Paul’s had made. It was so heartwarming to watch the children go from raggedy clothes to these brand new uniforms. Some of them also got new shoes. Oh, and underwear—most did not even know what it was! We had great fun with them. We had brought peanut butter sandwiches for them. Most had already eaten their porridge from the school and we saw many quietly putting the sandwiches in their pockets for either later or for their siblings. There was a young man there from the local church and we began talking—he had been a foreign exchange student in the 80’s and started talking about where he had lived for the year. It was in Colby, Kansas! This is a place quite close to where Gary’s relatives lived and we just had to laugh—sending a student from the highlands of Swaziland to the flats of Kansas. What a small world.

We had an interesting evening last Friday. We were invited by a church member to go to dinner at the home of a member of the Parliament of Swaziland. It was way out in the country and we followed their car very closely in the dark to find our way. This woman Senator was recently elected and is full of life and fun. She is one of only eight women of 95 Senators in Parliament. Our dinner was held in a large rondevele, which is a thatched roof, round outbuilding, used for meetings and special times in lots of homesteads. It is also usually the place where the Gogo lives—maybe Damon and Jess will build me one on their property?? This one was very large and cold! (none of the homes in Swaziland have heaters) There was much laughter and very stimulating conversation about Swazi tradition, the government etc. The Senator did most of the cooking and kept coming into the room to laugh with us. I have included a picture of her—notice the slippers?

We are now official Swazi’s as the Manyanos have given us Swazi names. Jeri’s name is Nokulunga which means “Kindness”, Gary’s is Sipho which means “Gift”, and Chris’ is Nothando which means “Love”. We feel very privileged as this is a real honoring of a non-Swazi in Swazi culture.

Well, we will close this for now and get some pictures together so we can publish the blog. Every day is a new and wonderful adventure here is Swaziland but we are also missing all of you! WE LOVE TO GET EMAILS!!!

Blessings to all,
Gary & Jeri

Jeri mixing the cement

How it looked before the cement

Gary troweling the cement sidewalk

Work is completed on Chris' front area

The Healing Place Church

Bulembu

Our first picture of the preschoolers in the morning

With their new uniforms

Lunch time at the preschool

The children eating their porridge

These girls love their new uniforms

Cutie

Yummy--the porridge was great!

New uniform and shoes - cool!

Jeri showing pictures of California

Senator Dlamini (see her slippers?)

For those of you who think we have a "rough life" over here

Swaziland, July 12, 2009

This is a typical scene--a huge new soccer stadium for the World Cup 2010 and the shanty town right next to it. Where are there priorities?


Dear friends and family, July 12, 2009

Our hope is that you have all had a good week. It has warmed up a bit today and feels more like Spring in California than winter. Jeri mentioned how warm it was to a Swazi woman and she said she was still not feeling the warmth—guess our bodies all have a different way of feeling the weather. We’ve noticed that here in Africa, even on the mildest day, many people dress in heavy coats and warm hats—guess they have never lived through a Minnesota winter!

We are sorry we have gotten so far behind on our blog. There is so much to tell, we will have to separate it into two blogs.

First of all, we want to report that Tiphelele, the twin who was in the hospital is so much better. Thank you to all of you who have asked about her. I know our prayers have helped heal her. She was in the hospital for about 10 days. They told Chris that if she had not brought her in when she did that she probably would have died. She is now home and we saw her and her mom and the rest of the family at the community well on Wednesday. I have included several pictures of her and her family, plus some of the GOGO’s who have also cared for her.

We wanted to continue telling you about our time in Johannesburg. Our first visit on that Wednesday morning (June 24) was to the area of a huge student uprising in June of 1976. School authorities had decided that Afrikaners was the only language to be spoken in the schools. The Afrikaners were the white people in power—the minority ruling over the majority blacks. This decision caused much unrest and the students began a peaceful protest. It is still not clear why the police decided to notch it up a bit but they began to shoot indiscriminately. The students were chased through town and many police began shooting from a hilltop above the school where they were hiding—killing many. The students then ran to the Regina Mundi church for refuge, but then police stormed the church, firing live ammunition. Although no one was killed, many were injured and the church's sacred symbols were damaged. The broken marble altar (see picture below), the bullet holes in the ceilings and the damaged figure of Christ all bear testimony to the terrible lack of restraint shown by police that day. We were shocked to hear that the police had come into a place of sanctuary and refuge to do so much harm.

After visiting the church we continued to the Hector Pietersen museum. Hector was the first child (he was only 12) killed in the massacre and his picture was broadcast around the world. Over 800 people, mostly students were killed in the violence. We were all touched by the student’s stories and pictures at the museum. It was such a tragedy and showed the brutality of the Apartheid period in South Africa’s history.

Next we headed over to the Apartheid Museum. By that time we were overwhelmed with the stories of brutality and cruelty of humans against humans. This is an incredible museum with many exhibits showing the history of Apartheid and its ending with the first democratic election ever in South Africa, in 1994 with Mandela being elected president. This museum stands as a symbol of hope to the world for reconciliation. It had much the feel and impact of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

We then had to say goodbye to the women of Comeback Mission. They had been incredible guides to us this week and now it was time for them to go back. We hugged and off they went to continue their good work.

The next morning we all headed to a local market for some last minute tourist shopping. A fun, lively market in the heart of the city. Many incredible craft items as well as the things you would see at the local flea market. Where do they get all those watches????? Then it was time to drop the team off at the airport. Jeri had a bad experience at the airport. She stepped away from her car for a few seconds to say goodbye to our new friends and had her car “booted.” (meaning, there was a lock on the tires!) She was so irritated with the guy that she went upstairs and complained and told them she was not going to pay the fine and that they should have better signage. They took the “boot” off. Yebo, Jeri!

The next few days were taken up with errands, massages- Gary and Chris, haircuts for all of us; shopping and taking care of business. It is really interesting to live temporarily in a country like Swaziland. We are getting very familiar with the roadways and some of the customs. We still cringe when we meet up with a kombi (small mini-van crammed full of people that are used for transport—like a big taxi) because they have their own rules of the road—such as a stop sign is really a ‘hesitate’ sign or even a ‘maybe I will, maybe I won’t’ sign! They swerve around us at top speed, cutting in and out of traffic. They also continually honk to let their potential passengers know they are coming. They all need engine work—we can follow the stink of their exhaust for miles.

We have been able to find almost anything we want at the grocery store—except Mexican food. It looks different and might be packaged different but we are getting familiar with the stores and that makes it much more comfortable to shop. We eat a lot of chicken fixed different ways. People are very friendly to us and we have not yet felt uncomfortable in any situation. I would say there are not more than a 300 Caucasian people living here in this town of about 25,000. Some days we will go for the whole day and not see another Caucasian person but don’t really even think anything about it. This, after all, is Africa!

On Tuesday, June 30th, Chris, Gary and I, along with two of the Manyano women went out to a school to deliver some clothes and shoes to the OVC’s. They help with 12 children at the school and help pay for meds, transport and give them food from time to time. We often wonder if there is a stigma for these OVC’s or do the other children even know? We were so moved by the humbleness of these children. They stand quietly, waiting, so patient. Their eyes are what got to Jeri—so sad and yet, full of hope for whatever was coming. One of the little girls, Samkelesiwe is the one who was so ill the last time we came that she could not even stand. I have included a picture of her with Chris—see her sweet smile? Some of these children are HIV positive, some are single orphans and some are double orphans. Others might come from a family that cannot afford to buy them clothes and are therefore vulnerable. There are several pictures also of the children receiving the clothes and shoes. We both felt very sad to see these sweet children but also happy that we had clothes to give them. They seemed very appreciative and gave us shy smiles to show it.

The next day we went up to Lomngeletjane to water the trees that the last team had planted all around the fence area for a wind break. There are about 100 small pine trees and we had to walk up and down the hill to fill the 5 liter water bottle for each one. We worked hard at it for a while and felt like at least we were working off the donuts we ate for breakfast! (yes, they have donuts here) We had many bottles and filled a lot at one time but could only carry two at a time down the hill. The new head teacher (principal) saw us and asked if we wanted the children to help. Of course we said yes, and down they came, running gleefully because they were out of the classroom and also because they love to help us. It was hilarious to watch them—some with a water bottle almost as big as they were and some carried them on their heads. We got the job done in record time—the children thought it was a great game to outdo each other in the speed of watering the trees. The teacher said she is going to have the children water them each week, so this will give them some sense of responsibility for the school. YEBO!

Well, this is enough for now. I am going to close this blog and continue in a couple of days.

We love you all,

Jeri and Gary








A typical scene on the road--pushing firewood up the hill ( and it was a steep hill!)






The entrance to the Apartheid Museum

We thought this was an attention grabber for a trash can

The picture of Hector Pietersen that brought attention to the student's plight

Hard to read but gives the history of Soweto

Watering a tree with Chris

More water carrying

Carrying water to the trees at Lomngeletjane

The children and the Manyano women at the school with their new clothes and shoes

Some of the grandpas trying on clothes (one of them takes care of his 7 orphaned grandchildren)

A new pair of shoes!

Chris and Samkelesiwe

The Gogos and the sweet Tiphelele (her mom is in background)

Tiphelele's family at the community well

Tiphelele (L), the small baby that was so sick and her twin sister

Jeri, Bernie (from Comeback Mission) and Chris

The memorial to Hector Pietersen

One of the stained glass windows in the church

A painting of the Black Madonna, in the church

Altar in the church where the police beat on it to get the people out of the sanctuary