Greetings all Swazi. Companions.

Well, per usual all the words, etc. could not totally prepare us for our Mission '06.

The training and shared experiences from Toni, Ron, Melody, Karen, et al, however, were very valuable.

"My land"(as my mother used to say), what an experience we shared and lived. Now we can really get our arms around..."the dust of Africa on our boots".
We all left a part of our selves there and brought home a huge portion of reallity. Will we ever think of concrete blocks, school buildings, safe drinking water, daily food, oral health and health in general the same way again? I think not and that is part of the beauty of what we brought home. The smiles, the singing, the joy! They will live on in our hearts and memories.

The reciprocal joy is that we made a difference(however small or humble) in the lives of those we interacted with. We are forever connected.
Somewhere, half-way round the world, they can know there live people who care and believe in "loving their neighbor as themselves.

Thank you all for one of the most spiritually significant and meaningful events of a lifetime..... ........................................................................TR(Terry)

reflections

I have been home in the states a little over a week now and still can't get the images of beautiful Swaziland out of my mind..... the smiles and the dust on the childrens faces, the singing voices, the smell of the wood fire cooking lunch and the warmth of our new friends. Tears fill my eyes each time I think of that young woman drinking the muddy water, and the pride the young man showed as he carried the chlorinator. We did make a difference. But they made a difference in the way I will forever view my life. I am so privileged to have been a part of such a rewarding mission. I am still writing in my journal and just finished a short piece for our church news letter. Each time I write I feel more connected to Swaziland and its beautiful people. I am forever gratelful for the experience and our wonderful team.. Margaret Hansen

Mike's Accident

Mike, Terry and a visitor sent by the Chief

We had the afternoon of Thursday July 27th off after meeting with the localtribal chief in the morning. I walked to downtown Mbabane with five others.As we were returning about 5 PM and as we passed a muti-purpose store, I tripped on a brick that was far from level. I was focused on the person in front and I went down very quickly while saying "oh shit. The full effect ofthe fall was absorbed by my left thumb which was then 180 degrees out of place and I was bleeding like the proverbial stuffed pig.

The shop owners invited the party in and arranged to help stop the bleeding. The shop owners' son was a near by physician and he appeared and offered to take me to the hospital. I chose the private hospital. Terry went with me; Toni and Stevie waited for help from the Center; andKeith and Holly went to the Center to summon help. Many appeared at thehospital.

Result was a dislocated thumb; numbing shots; relocation of the thumb; 2stitches; X-rays with nothing broken; Rx for pain, inflammation and ananti-biotic for under $300 cash. I had bought trip insurance including medical. Between our vet and dentist I was in good care. I saw the doctor again the day before we left. On 8/7 my family physician removed the stitches and referred me to PT for therapy and wound care. I am a diabetic. This was the most memorable event for me but I had many that were more pleasant. On 8/2 I revisited the shop and they were glad to see me and I bought fort he school thru the generosity of Margaret a leather soccer ball with many thanks.
Peace.
Deacon Mike

Another use for a wheelbarrow

Last day at St. Augustine's

Yesterday we began the departure stage of our trip. We made our last trip to Mpaka. Even on the trip out, it was very tough.

The big event was Terry’s program on dental hygiene, conducted for all of the childen at Fr Mbatha’s. Stevie, Margaret and Sue assisted and Fr Charles translated. The children listened attentively and then responded enthusiastically. You must ask Stevie to perform her “song and dance” for you! Later each child was given a kit including a toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss.

The class was held outside at Father Mbatha’s because the St. Augustine’s too small for all the children to be in. The pre-schoolers are taught inside, while the older children in grades 1 - 3 take their instruction on benches under some “trees” along the back of the property. They face the trees, with their backs to the road so that they will not be distracted by cars, cows, goats, and other assorted passers-by. On our first day at Mpaka, Lucy Mabuza held a math class with the older children. She used a blackboard propped against a tree to drill them in multiplication tables, giving praise and correcting the mistakes in both siSwati and English. She sets a mean pace, I will tell you. I don’t know how the report card came out, but the teachers do, because she met with them briefly before we went to Fr Mbatha’s place.

Yesterday Gene, Holly, Keith, Carla, Andy, Meghan, Ron, Cheryl, Hayley and Terry spent most of their time mixing cement and making blocks. I think they worked through three double batches of mix, our best day. There was constant wheelbarrow traffic at the mix pile and the block forms were really flying. They were assisted by a Swazi crew, including Jack in his Oxford shirt, who has been with us each day. They also stacked the blocks we made last week.

The actual ground breaking for St Augustine’s school will happen when the grant from the UK arrives. Bishop Mabuza explained the goal of the project is to cater to the educational needs of about 70 orphans aged between 5-13 whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS. Te otesHeHhe children will also be fed and clothed. This will benefit the community because orphans who might grow up to be a burden to society are given love and hope and a future by the teachers at the school.

They have architectural plans for a steel frame structure, drawn by a volunteer who has designed and constructed several large projects, and who donated his services. Larger blocks for the outside of the building will be made or purchased and then the whole skin will be plastered. I recommend supporting two blockyards we drive past every day. One advertises “sturdy and affordable blocks”. The other company promises strength, security and passion. The 9-inch blocks we have made will be used to divide the rooms. They will need a great many more to complete the school, but we hope our blocks will be scattered through the classrooms, in the heart of the school, where the children will be taught.

We have learned a lot about what it takes to staff and run a school and feeding program like this one. The Chairman of the Board of Education was at the site yesterday. He gave many details about how to apply to register the school. Feeding programs must also be registered in order to receive government support. When registration is complete, teachers will be chosen by the Diocese, but paid by the government. The completion of this plan is likely more than a year out. The superintendent told me that there will be a wonderful pre-school and feeding program at St. Augustine’s soon and thanked us for the part we have played in getting it started.

The older grades spend the late morning in a “Practical Skills” class in the garden, while the pre-schoolers come into the homestead to play and sing. On Friday and yesterday, Margaret, Sue and Stevie made a peanut butter sandwich snack for the children. We all take turns singing and playing with them, but the afore-mentioned three, and Lydia, Holly, Hayley, Carla and Meghan are the regulars. They have gotten to know many of the children and their stories.

The women prepared a marvelous feast for our last day. A goat was killed and roasted and the rest of the meal prepared under the unfortunate goat’s skin, which was hung in a tree near the cooking fires. We had jello salad, potato salad and a wonderful cooked cabbage, onion and carrot side-dish. We had chicken, mashed pumpkin and cauliflower. The trees and the round house were strewn with bouganvillea flowers. It was quite a party.

After the meal, the children sang for us and we sang for them (we figured it was safe since it was our last day). Then the presentations started. In addition to our mission team, ArchDeacon Lonorosa and Fr Charles, the members of Fr Mbatha’s household, the lay minister, the teachers, the fellow from the Board of Education, and three members of the house of Malindza, including the Chief’s father, were in attendance. School supplies, books and other gifts than many of you sent along with us were presented in a wheeled duffel bag. Rice, beans, and fresh vegetables meant to supplement the children’s meals for the next week were presented. Each child received the toothbrush kit and an orange. Many thanks, hugs and final prayers were shared. Then we began to say good-bye to our new friends. In the midst of this, the most extraordinary thing happened. A rainbow appeared in the sky over the Lubombo Mts to the south. There in drought stricken Mpaka, in the middle of the dry season, a rainbow appeared.

Last night, here in Mbabane, the skies broke open. Thunder and lightning, followed by drenching rains washed down the hills around the centre. Today part of our group will hike at Malahlotja Preserve. They hope to see more big game, but whether they are successful in achieving that or not, they are sure to see the famous Malahlotja Falls. Just today, even though it is the dry season, the falls will be flowing mightily, a gushing fountain of water, a symbol of the life giving energy available to us in the southern Africa landscape as everywhere else.

Reflections on Changes in Southern Africa . . .from Andy

Reflections on Changes in Southern Africa

Like everywhere else, rural Swaziland (and South Africa) has changed in the last thirty years. In spite of the reports that make it sound as though poverty and hopelessness are endemic and the permanent state of affairs, to someone returning after years of absence, the changes are striking.

While mud brick and reed huts are still dotted around the countryside, they have largely been replaced by cement block dwellings, or relegated to secondary storage purposes. Because Swaziland is still a poor country, cement blocks are made a few at a time as sand and cement can be afforded. Thus there are piles of cement blocks stacked in people’s backyards throughout the countryside, almost like bank savings accounts, waiting to become the next course on someone’s new home. Half-finished buildings litter the landscape, frequently built up to the eaves, and looking as though they have had their roofs ripped off, and their windows blown out, by some recent devastation. But, in fact, they are merely mute testimony to the determination of the local people to better their lives, and they await the accumulation of sufficient resources to purchase the final most expensive items: the roof , the windows and the doors.

Bur this is another place where the AIDS epidemic breaks through to public view: many of the homesteads are in fact deserted, because the wage-earner(s) have died, and the kids have been farmed out to relatives (if they are lucky). The property will eventually revert to the local chief to redistribute (if there is anyone to redistribute it to!). Also, like elsewhere, the youth are migrating to the cities, so that the countryside is being depopulated.

Another obvious change is the power lines that now criss-cross the countryside (often on drunken wooden pylons). Power and, with it, electric lights have come to rural southern Africa, with all its implications for life not ending when the sun goes down.

The most obvious change is in the traffic. The roads in Swaziland are excellent, often dual carriageway, well contoured and planned. Traffic, on the other hand, is not. There are far fewer bicycles than 30 years ago, but everywhere a swarm of small cars and pick-up trucks. These are frequently a major road hazard, since when fully (over)loaded, (their normal status), their top speed is about 30 MPH, and less on the many hills. Thus traffic backs up behind them and the overloaded and underpowered heavy over-the-road trucks, and the kombis (taxi vans – Toyota HiAces) also fully overloaded, attempt frantic overtaking maneuvers also at 30 MPH on blind curves and hills, where both grind up together, side by side, taking both lanes, and neither willing to concede defeat.

On the other hand, because rural Swazis do not live in compact villages, but rather in homesteads (kraals) scattered over the hillsides, off the main roads the roads are essentially cattle tracks, and cars and tires take a beating, because every homestead needs its own track to the paved road. All in all, it can be a lethal mix that requires constant vigilance.

Sunday Service at St. Matthias

Last Sunday, Beth, Andy, Cheryl and I attended church at St Matthias, one of Fr Orma’s parishes. Reverand Orma is one of the women priests ordained in Nov 2004, when the delegation lead by Bishop Scarfe came to celebrate. She drove to the Thokosa Centre to meet us and show us the way to St. Matthias. As she stepped out of the car and looked around, her presence literally permeated the air. This spirited woman just EXUDES love. When she talks, you must listen.

She welcomed us with a huge smile, hugged each one of us and said, “I am so happy you are coming to my church today.” She told us we should follow in a van because she would not be able to bring us back, since there was a large community meeting at the Chief’s Kraal after the service. She had just come from visiting a family sick with HIV/AIDS and had conducted a funeral and we had better go because she wants us to have a tour of the priest’s house that Iowans had built before the service (this is the house that Ron and Toni helped build in their first trip to Swaziland). Warm words just spill out of Fr Orma, with such energy and emphasis, they feel like they are smiling as broadly as she is. So we followed, Andy driving.

The church is “just in” the Ezulwini Valley and it has a spectacular view, green even now. Fr. Orma rousted the lay minister who lives in the parish house and we had our tour. Then we followed her to her office. There she explained that in spite of the computer on the desk we should contact her through the Cathedral because she is hardly ever in her office. “If I am here, I am not doing my work”. She told us of her visits to the sick, particularly of taking a relative to the hospital in Mbabane the night before. He is in the terminal stages of AIDS. He needs to be in the hospital, but there are no beds. She takes him to the out-patient clinic for meds to help control the pain, but it does not control the pain. She wishes we could visit him so that he knows the people of Iowa are here and are thinking of him. But she has to go to the Chief’s Kraal after the services. And she is smiling. I have to write in the present tense. There is no past or future tense in Orma’s vocabulary.

Beth tells Fr. Orma about the information she has been gathering about the impact of AIDS on the communities we have visited. Orma says, “yes it is a very difficult thing to know about because people here don’t talk about it.” She tells us the story of a young Christian man who appeared at St. Matthias a few months ago. A short time ago he asked her to visit his family. One parent has died of AIDS, the other is in the terminal stages and a younger sibling is sick. And she said to him, “why didn’t you tell me? We can help you.” She said to us, “these are great opportunities to bring Christ’s love to people”. She tells that she and others go to help the sick people be peaceful and to know they will have a holy death. And the love she has for ALL of us and her work just sits on every word.

We left her office just minutes before the service started. We choose seats midway back in the church (good Episcopalians all) and are immediately given prayer books and song books. We use the Service Booklets we were given by Bishop Scarfe because there is an English translation. But we read and sing along in siSwati. It is a wonderful service. Fr. Orma asks the lay readers to please read the Ephesians text in English so we can understand it. The man reading the Psalm hands off to a women who reads from the English Bible. Later Fr. Orma gives a brief synopsis of the Gospel reading so we can follow along. She starts her sermon by telling the congregation that we are visiting from Iowa. She says, “someone tell them what you know about Iowans.” A women in the back answers ,”they built the priest’s house.” She says to us, “see, we know who you are here. Here you are known.”

She asks us to come up and say a few words, and we do. Most of the congregation understands us; and clap as we explain why we are here and how happy we are to meet Fr. Orma and her parish. Andy spoke of Bishop and Lucy Mabuza’z trip to Iowa last summer and the Healing Services. I told them that one of our priests had preached at Fr. Orma’s ordination and that Reverend Barbara had told us about Reverend Orma’s work. When we sat down, Orma said, “but you didn’t tell them the news. Your priest is going to Iowa. In November. Yes, I will visit Iowa and take greetings from the people of St. Matthias to the people of Iowa. I will visit their churches”. Everyone clapped.

Fr. Orma’s sermon on the feeding of the 5000 was very powerful. She laid out her main theme, “if you have two of something, do as Christ would do. Give one to someone who needs it more”. She said, “God’s love brings these people all the way from America. They don’t have to come here, they don’t know us. God’s love brings them to the Swazi people. Because of God’s love they love the Swazi people.” My thoughts flashed to the Commissioning Service at Christ Church, in which Barbara asked, “do you intend to carry the love of this parish to the people of Swaziland?” And we answered, “We intend to”. Well, we needed some help, but through Fr. Orma, we did accomplish this charge.

Reverend Orma walks around while she talks, giving examples of sharing sandwiches to the children seated along the side and examples of sharing school books to a youth sitting in the front row. Still more messages to the adults. One was, “what are you doing with 8 candles and you have electricity? You have electricity and you keep 8 candles in case it thunders, when your neighbors crawl through their dark house to find their beds at sunset? What are you doing? Are you living like Christ? These people came from America to worship with us and help us, out of God’s love, out of God's love we can help each other. We can help our neighbors, we can love our neighbors. When I see someone with 15 chickens or 20 chickens in the yard, I think, do what Christ would do. Feed your neighbor who doesn’t have any chickens.”

So here ends the story. Through experiences like these, we, each and all, are every day receiving much more than we have brought or given. Amen.

A Black Webbed Belt . . from Toni

Some of the orphans at St. Augustine's












An interesting thing happened on the way over here. I borrowed an old green woven cinch belt from my daughter-in-law to keep one of the bags I was planning to check secured during the flight. When I got here and claimed the bag at the airport, I noticed that the belt was missing. My first thought, and only concern, was how I was going to explain to Tonya that I had lost it. At the Thokoza Centre, when I unpacked the bag, I was surprised and amused to find no official notice in the bag, but a brand new webbed belt in charcoal black. I couldn’t imagine where it had come from, or why it was there.

This whole week I have been trying to figure out what this meant. Is it a metaphor? Is it an omen? Or is it just a black webbed belt?

During Father Advent’s sermon Sunday morning it finally struck me. The black belt is all the unexpected assistance that has turned up at just the time most needed to solve the mini-crisis of the moment. It was the night watchman coming out of the 6:30 a.m. shadows to throw a bucket of water on the windshield of the van and melt the ice so that we could get to church on time. It was the kindness and resourcefulness of the owners and staff of the A to Zee store who made sure that we got the help we needed when Mike fell down. It was Terry finding a key ring that would fit his finger and could stand-in for a wedding ring during his and Stevie’s renewal of their marriage vows. It was the guides at Hlane National Park pooling their information so that everyone was able to see the animals. It was Bishop Mabuza’s eloquent defense of the project and of why the chief, and his councils should allow us to continue to work at Mpaka.

It was so many large and small beneficences that have made our first week in Swaziland comfortable and smooth.

And so I give thanks for black webbed cinch belts – as well as for delicious food, beautiful weather, sensitive and cooperative traveling companions, the awe inspiring beauty of the Kingdom of Swaziland, but most of all for the never-failing graciousness, goodness and warmth of the people of this country.

South Swazi

Greetings from Mbane and Thokoza center. Yesterday was gratifying, disurbing, potentially life changing. We drove to the very southern edge of the country, through beautiful mountains with forests of gum and pine trees. Then farther south, into the dry country bordering Natal, which was visible across the valley on our right. We picked up the Archdeacon of the southern area and Rev Nancy, known to those who were on the last Swazi trip. She graciously offered us tea and a variety of treats, very refrshing after our morning drive. She has a neat and beautiful church surrounded by a large garden. There is such a shortage of priets here that each serves several parishes. One of her's is very poor, so each time she goes, she brings them food and cooks dinner so they don't leave church on an empty stomach. Still, it is so far for some that they must be hungry again by the time they get home.

We then drove to this parish, so the Coe team could demonstrate water chlorination. This was poverty. Folks here live in traditional wattle and daub homes with straw roofs. They were probably wearing most of the clothes they own, and they were ragged and torn. Mostly barefooted, even the adults. Since traditional women always cover their heads, theirs were covered with whatever they had, including woolen mufflers or a stocking cap.

But what really gripped us was their water situation. Below the village (and as Gene the vet pointed out later, below the cattle dipping tank) is a water hole which fills with rain water and from which every living thing gets their water for the year. This was a smelly muck hole that even cattle would turn away from if they had a choice. As it was, the cattle dived in up to their bellys in mud to get at the water. And the people drink from this too. They got us a couple of buckets (it appears they've laid logs over the mud to get at the water), which was thick and brown. Paula asked if this is the water they drink, and one of the young women laughingly grabed a small pitcher, dipped it in and drank from it. If any of us had done that, we'd be in the hospital today. How do their immune systems allow them to do this? Rev Nancy says it is the hand of God, protecting people who have no other hope.

The Coe team demonstrated the chlorinators to the 20 or so people gathered there, then asked someone to go through the procedure. A young man stepped forward and immediately went through the entire procedure accurately. Shows how fast one can learn when the information is important to you. It turns out he and his wife live closest to the water hole and will be in charge of distributing chlorine to all who come for water. The archdeacon emphasized that the chlorinator is to belong to everyone in the village and chlorine is to be given to everyone, Anglican or not, Christian or not. Rev Nancy will be checking back to see that it continues to be used and used correctly.

We then did the rejoicing and celebrating, giving them "I am loved" buttons and our packed lunches, them singing to us in return. Then they all returned to their homes, some of them heading far across the valley, carrying their babies on their backs and other goods on their heads, water buckets, a machete, whatever. It was a great day for us to see what a difference a small gift can make, a day to see how much God has for us to do, an example of how we cannot give without receiving, a day too much to take in but to ponder on and make sense of over time.

Beth