The Great Kingdom Of Swaziland!

Swaziland. It just sounds cool, don't you think? I have always wanted to visit and finally the time was right. As Carmen and I entered the country we were suffering a bit of exhaustion from our long journey but still the excitement and curiosity of a new country kept us going. Immediately we could see why this country is renowned for its hiking and outdoor activities - mountains, woodlands, streams, plunging ravines and waterfalls cover this highly untouched landscape. It really would be wonderful to spend a week or two hiking in this stunning region but this particular trip didn't allow for such lengthy adventures.

However, even with just a few days we were not disappointed. We were able to get introduced to the culture and beautifully rich traditions. One highlight was
accidentally finding Maladela’s Homestead with the unique venue House of Fire. While there we toured the base for a community women’s cooperative for basket weaving called Gone Rural and saw the women dying the grass and weaving stunning stuff basket, mats and more! http://www.goneruralswazi.com/ We spent an afternoon at a cultural village where we were able to walk through a Swazi homestead, taste some traditional food and enjoy Swazi singing and dancing- a favorite for sure! One morning we strolled through the Manzini market where we bought some jewelry, played an instrument or two, marveled at the beautiful handicrafts and even learned how to wrap our heads the way the local Swazi women do. This was so fun as we were able to connect with the women and clearly they enjoyed showing us a part of their life and appreciated that we were willing to learn about them. We also stumbled upon a couple of nice coffee/pastry shops and indulged ourselves.

We were hosted by a lovely woman named Hlovisle along with her co workers at the Mennonite Central Committee. They are running an HIV and AIDS program very similar to our OVC program in World Concern. The statistics here are overwhelming and hard to grasp as nearly 40% of the country is HIV positive. There are different explanations for such high rates- polygamy (you may have heard of their King who picks an additional wife each year) as well as cultural practices and beliefs. We learned there is no Swazi word for sex so it clearly hasn't been a topic of discussion, in fact it has been a taboo subject historically. Now sex ed is taught in school but according to what we heard it is not done well and starts too late. There are condoms available everywhere and billboards and posters teaching about the dangers of AIDS but clearly the government has a huge task ahead of them to see that this disease doesn't destroy this nation.

This country is beautiful. The scenery is breathtaking (especially this time of year when the jacaranda trees are in bloom and literally dotting the whole region in purple), the people are noticeably warm and friendly, it exhibits a unique culture and has a surprisingly strong infrastructure with its smooth roads and clean water- we could drink from the tap (something I haven’t been able to do anywhere else in Africa apart from South Africa). Though we only had a few days here it quickly jumped high on our list for favorite countries visited so far.