When I stand in front of my classroom, I seethirty-one pairs of hungry eyes looking to me.They come to class with a yearning mind and soul,wondering if they can really be made whole.Their stories are beyond my understanding of pain;yet, they don’t show sorrow; they know to play the game.Sometimes they don’t listen to what […]
It’s not about me. This phrase is much easier to say than to actually put into practice. I had a good lesson in humility this week. For some reason, I had a particularly difficult time keeping my students’ attention in the classroom. They were a little more noisy and disrespectful than usual, and yesterday I […]
A poem I wrote the other day about Tenele… With a hat tilted sideways,She struts the streets of Manzini,A see-through white topBarley meets the top of her jeans,Exposing her butterfly belt buckle. Men call to her;Women stare at her;The wrong people know her. She has few friends, too many “lovers.”She lies about them to cover […]
These are a few funny things to give you a better picture of my life in Swazi… 🙂 Being called “fat” is a compliment. Your nickname becomes “Blue Eyes” because blue eyes are so rare. “Ngisha dile” (I am married) becomes a regular part of speech so guys will stop proposing. A wild cat in […]
When people ask me how school/teaching is going, I sometimes don’t know what to say…I find myself at with a lack for words, not because there’s nothing to tell but because there is so much to say. It is a challenge, but one I enjoy immensely. It has been very, very difficult to go from […]
I traveled to South Africa this past weekend to join my Swazi friends at a wedding. It was quite the wonderful experience! I learned a few good lessons though… 1) Never travel alone with a bus full of Swazis if you want to be on time. Again…I am learning patience. It was such a loooong […]
I am so humbled by the love my Swazi friends have shown me. They are seriously the most selfless people I have ever met. I am amazed by them, and I learn something new about love and faith from them every day. I wish you all could meet them. They would change your life, like […]
Stuck in the ghetto: Ryan and I have made several trips to our old carepoint Mangwaneni (a carepoint is a feeding center for OVCs [orphans and vulnerable children]). Ryan made me drive to the carepoint so I could get used to the opposite side driving in Swazi. It was a little scary at first, but […]
SAFE Problems with Arrival?After my passport frenzy, I finally made it on the plane and had a 16 hour flight to Johannesburg. I slept surprisingly well on the plane, watched a few movies, and made friends with two young kids from Botswana to pass the time. Swazi is four hours from Jo-burg, so I had […]
Starting with a storm… I should have already been on a plane to Johannesburg by now. But we had a slight mishap with my passport. And since I have time and access to internet, I thought I might as well fill you all in on the story… Key characters:Hannah: friend who lives in AtlantaEllen: Hannah’s […]
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