sanbonan and blessings from africa!!
a week late on the journey, but here i am - in swaziland, alive & thriving - and happy to be here. i arrived at the tiny swazi airport last tuesday morning (6 hours ahead of canadian time), to meet my three other classmates - susannah from new zealand, andrea from texas & andy from colorado. we struck up conversation with my zoned-out facade and distracted awe of the country i've dreamt of stepping into for so long. i snapped pictures left and right , so excited and in disbelief that i actually made it, and that this mountainous, grassy land was my home for the next 5 months.
i met the rest of my little 'family', consisting of jim & lisa nave - the base leaders, and their little ones - catherine & michael, as well as petros & elizabeth and their little ones - niso & pumi (sponiso & pumilelo). the other staff are younger, but really wonderful - nini (short for hlengiwe in swazi..try to say that 10x fast), matt & timbokhusi..... or just tim, to keep it simple.
they welcomed me right in, and since last tuesday, we've gotten really close and learned loads already. i've picked up random accents between the texan, colorado, kiwi and swazi accents - saying things like ya'll or just a slight twist in the way i say things. pretty radical.. i don't mind one bit. though i'll sound like one confused girl when i get home! (proud to say, i got a texan to say 'eh'... not even trying..haha..wow, i really am canadian)
class started almost immediately - as an introduction to YWAM and what they're all about, what we'll be learning - got my student handbook, as well as created a really nifty personal journal for weekly assignments and got our first book assignment - 'Is That Really You, God?' . i'm learning like crazy already - especially this week, our speaker's name was Pete Thompson - a kind British man living in South Africa who is in charge of all the DTS' worldwide with another gentleman. not only was his accent amazing to listen to, but he was wise, gentle and down to earth. it was hard to see him go, but our weekly speakers will be one of the biggest blessings and challengers while we're here.
we've been told that our outreach will be in Drakensburg, South Africa for two weeks for the YWAM conference (we'll be doing the children's part) and the other 10ish weeks will be in Malawi.. hopefully in the bush or rural areas! :)
and i know, you're thinking - angelie king - in rural areas? ...without showers or technology?
i know. it's sad how much i depend on them at home. huge awakening, or rather admittance, while being here. with internet access being once a week and expensive - i care less to use it unless it's to do things like this or contact my family and friends. a blessing in disguise, for sure. and showers.... well.. let's just say i'm kind of a dirtbag. haha just joking.. i shower.......sometimes. okay, but really, picture this - it's africa, but cold at night, hot during the day: your only chances to shower are a) 6:30 am when its FREEZING, b) lunchtime, when you'd rather eat. or nap. or hangout., c) 9+pm, when you'd rather go to sleep to get up at 6:30am, and it's also FREEZING again........ what would you pick?
OH and ps, the showers, aren't showers at all. it's a tub, with cracks that won't fill up for a bath, and a showerhead that either gets scorchingly hot (and rarely) or consistently icey, amongst the winds and cold tiled washroom...... all this was to say, hey, i'm in africa, and i don't shower much. meet the new angelie.
okay, now that i've grossed you out with my bathing habits, there IS method to madness. you'd think the streets of toronto or hamilton would teach you a lesson or two about poverty amongst wealth - but nothing so strange as this. i can't describe the conflict i feel while walking through mbabane or the small town area i'm in right now. i see men wearing pumas and women shopping at edgar's (higher western fashion) and wearing what i think are brand name heels and orphans dependent on others within the same church.
but material poverty isn't even what strikes me here. from the area i'm in - westernized and prospering, it's the AIDS billboards i see everywhere and not the fact that there are orphans - but that these orphans are orphans because of aids and the way it has affected a nation. i'm not even sure if i'm making sense, but i'd rather not go into detail since most of my time has been within the base so far.
yesterday we went to a local orphanage called sandra lee centre. not by surprise at all, i fell in love with a little girl. her name is tengitele, and she definitely stole my heart yesterday. we got to the orphanage and did a craft with the kids, masks that turned out to be more of a tape war and cutting up paper! oh and tables and pants covered in marker... or in the mouth, that was common too. priceless!
the first little boy that came in was shy, but edged closer and closer to andrea, touched her shoulder, then dove immediately into her lap. he later came to me, and pushed away any other children that got close. any chance he got to be held, he would take it.
i noticed tiny tengitele sitting by herself, drawing beautiful squiggles on her square mask. she wasn't smiling or saying anything at all. i went over to her, scared of how she might react, but i wanted to love her so badly. i went over and started playing peek-a-boo with her mask and she didn't react at all at first, then took it from me and hid her own face.. the more we played and she hid and showed her face, the more she started to smile and laugh.
we went outside after and i seriously couldn't leave her! i wish i could have adopted her.. but there were so many other kids needing to be hugged too.
it was hard leaving, but it's close enough that hopefully we can go back some saturdays to play with them.
i don't have a lot of time, but i'll try to get some photos up and more detailed stories and prayer requests next week!
thank you for your prayers and little notes of encouragement!!
i miss and love you guys!
love from africa:
busisiwe (my seswati name - blessed.)
(with limited time i didn't want to play around with this too much.. the picture of the house is the base i'm living at here in swaziland, the picture above with the two boys is the traditional umbufto warrior costume at a highschool dance competition, with sponiso - a son of two of our swazi staff members in my arms. the other is of the little girl from the orphanage, tengitele.)
