The Swaziland Photo and Video Blog

You all saw this one coming. I realize that this blog is two months late, so hopefully you can still appreciate it. I really wanted to share some pictures and video footage of my time in Swaziland with you! I didn’t do a picture slideshow from this trip and I didn’t get to go out with many people and share about my time, so this may be the first time some of you see the pictures, or atleast get an explanation to what the pictures mean. Enjoy!!! And I am still interested in sharing about both trips to Africa with anyone who wants to listen!

*Sorry if this isn’t the most visually appealing blog. I had some major problems getting all the pictures up in the right way…and after several hours, it still isn’t right. I hope you can still enjoy it!*

     

We started off our journey to Swaziland with a day spent in the Atlanta Airport. It was a REALLY long time, so the kids invented their own game: Using my eye mask to blindfold someone, and have them hold onto a sweatshirt and be guided around the atrium. Super fun!

This is a lovely group shot of the Swaziland Ambassador team in the Atlanta Airport, that we totally rocked and took over with the Kenya team! Notice the girl (Hannah P) sleeping on the chair…this has to be my favorite part of the picture!

This is the first glimpse we saw of Africa after being on the plane for between 12-14 hours. We were super excited to see it, and also super excited because this meant there was hope for us to get off that plane! The land that is pictured is actually the TALLEST sand dunes in the world. Cool, huh?

 

                                                                  

The picture on the right is the hut all the ladies slept in while we were in Swaziland. It wasn’t actually that bad…minus the mice. Toward the end of our time living there I found out my bed was the rat highway between our hut and the roof. Oh, joy 🙂 And the picture on the left is a far-off shot of our homestead. Isn’t it beautiful? We were in the middle of the mountains!

  

       

                                               

You all expected these pictures! The picture on the left is a street view of our squatties. They weren’t the best constructed squatties, but weren’t too bad. They made it impossible to not pee on yourself, and they didn’t have doors and they were facing the road that everyone walked on. And the picture on the right I like to call “The Squattie Throne.” This squattie was a dream come true! You just hop up on that bad boy and it is so easy to stay balanced on it. And it doesn’t smell bad either! The only downfall is that there are two squatties sharing a wall, so you can totally see someone else going if you are both there at the same time. But, I think it’s worth it! (Stay tuned for a related video at the bottom of this blog!)

    

The group picture is from a group of us got up REALLY early in the morning while it was still dark and hiked up a local mountain to see the sunrise. We were up there for a long time because the sun had a longer way to rise to be seen over the mountains. Even though I had toilet paper stuck up my nose because I was sick and I was totally attacked by prickers, I think it was worth it to see the sunrise and go up there with some of my beloveds! And the picture on the right is super random, but I like it because it shows a really long street name in Manzini. That has to be a hundred letters right there.

                         

                       

All four of these pictures were taken at the Timbutini care point, the care point we walked to most days. Picture #1 and #3 are of the same baby boy. Whenever I was at this care point his older sister would give him to me. And he would be asleep within five minutes and would be asleep for over an hour in my arms. This was my favorite part of the day. Picture #2 is of Sibusiso (his name means blessing in Siswati), my heart in human form. He was at the care point everyday we were there, from morning to afternoon. We had this connection from day #1, or maybe he just liked me because I swung him upside down when we first met. Either way, we spent everyday together and he would run to me and jump into my arms. It was so sweet getting to spend time with him everyday. There is so much that I would like to say about him, but that is for another blog. Picture #4 is of Tabani. I wrote about him in my blog “What Love Can Do” (hyperlinks are still not working for me. You can find this blog on the left side of my page. It’s a good one, check it out!).  He used to be mute, and after my team was done with him, He was speaking again. Yay, Jesus!

                                                                   

                                              

CHICKEN DAY!!! Probobaly the best day ever created, next to Christmas. My brilliant co-leaders and I decided to make a day all about chickens because our life in Swazi pretty much revolved around them. We ate them, played with them, slept with them, and lived with dozens of them. It only made sense to have a day dedicated to them! It started out by having a chicken dinner from Dusty Chicken (street vendor) the night before and waking up and making chicken hats from our arts and crafts supplies. They got pretty competitive with this. Altough I wasn’t there for the hat-making because I was in the city taking someone to the clinic, I was able to wear my own hat afterward! My action group (picture #2) were so awesome that they went into the chicken pen to pick up feathers! Now, that is dedication. Gogo actually helped my team by hand plucking feathers off of a chicken. We put them on hats and won the contest! Afterward we did several egg related games like an egg toss and that one game you do with a spoon and an egg. It was pretty amazing. But that’s not all…

 

We sent each group to go catch a chicken and dress it in a T-shirt. Brilliant, right? In the picture on the left my co-leader Caleb is handing me one of the roosters with a T-shirt that suits him very well. My excuse for my facial expression is that it started flapping his wings as he handed the rooster to me! It was a little unnerving. And in the picture on the right I successfully received the rooster. Yay, me! All in all, Chicken Day was a success and will be happening again in the future.

This is Jesus Baby at Mangoneni care point.  I wrote about him in a blog titled, “He is my shadow.” It’s worth checking out (on the left side of this page). And the picture directly below is a group picture of a group of ladies I took to that care point. Even though the kids are CRAZY, we had such a great time loving on these kids and being challenged as well.

  

This is me doing my favorite thing in life: holding a sleeping baby. I held him for five minutes, at the most, before he was asleep. What am I, a baby sofa?

😛

 

 

 

What trip to Africa would be complete without a Safari trip? Picture #1 is just ridiculous… I was sick with a nasty sinus infection but refused to let it prevent me from everyday activities (well, I tried. I did fall asleep during Sunday School once…) Since my nose was like a faucet and would literally drip, I was handy and would roll up toilet paper and stick it up my nose. I’m such a smartie. And yes, I did go out in public like that for several days. Picture #2 is of my safari group in our sick Safari style truck. Picture #4 is of the whole team posing with dead animal skulls. Who wouldn’t do that?