Visiting Friends

From my kombi into town, I saw my friends, Ruth and Rudy last week
walking down the street.

We first met in December when they were back in the US visiting at ECHO
(they are both ex-ECHO employees). We chatted about Swaziland for a
couple hours before they had to hit the road again. They gave me some
good perspectives on the way things are here.

Anyways, the schools were on break so Ruth and Rudy were in town doing
some shopping. They invited me to visit their home just 45 minutes east
of Mbabane and so I did.

Last Thursday, a PCV friend and I got a ride with a missionary and we
all headed out at around noon. In the afternoon, the girl from the
mission was trying to set up a soccer team with the local school girls.
She came out with 10 soccer balls slowly girls from around gathered to
play. The boys, whom had plenty of opportunities to play soccer, were
trying to get in on the fun but Rudy shooed them away. They were making
clear that this was just for the girls. If they decide to take this team
seriously, we have offered to sponsor them.

Gender inequality is a serious issue in this country. Constitutionally,
women have the legal rights of a minor. Of course, this is played out
differently in the country-side and in the city. In the city, the women
are more educated and demands more respect just by their abilities. The
business-woman who owns the Grifters lodge owns several other businesses
and is a Parliament member. The gender power distribution in the
government bureaucracy seems as balanced as it is back home; men still
have the highest rank, but women are not too far behind. For example,
the head of Forestry is a man, but his second in command is a confident
and capable woman.

That evening, Ruth showed us around the school and her garden where she
grew all sorts of fruits and vegetables. The guava was delicious. We
talked into the night about development, capacity building, attitude
change, and so on.

The next morning, Rudy took the PCV and I on a hike to a nearby
waterfall in the mountains. The walk ended up being about 3 hours
round-trip. It was a difficult with the steep hills and carrying of the
children. But, wow, it was absolutely beautiful. This secluded waterfall
fed three sequential rock pools before flowing into the bush. Looking
out away from the waterfall, we could see the entire valley. The travel
nurse back home had told me never to go swimming, but I couldn't resist.
Schistomiasis, here we come!

On the way there, three little children followed us and ended up joining
us at the waterfall. While Rudy was chatting with them, I noticed that
the smallest had a chunk of flesh missing from his thigh. The one inch
diameter gape looked like a bite of sorts. They said it was a snake bite
from the day before. It was very deep and it was starting to get
infected; the child had a mild fever and swollen upper leg. There was a
black thing in it, he said it was his mother's muti (medicine). We
walked him back home and talked to his mother about the seriousness of
the injury. However, none of us were confident that she would take him
to the hospital. This kid really needed oral and topical anti-biotics.
Not knowing what to do next, we hiked back with the agreement that Rudy
would come check on the kid a couple days later.

That was a very frustrating experience. The obvious and nagging thought
was and is, "If only I had the training..." I could, with difficulty,
muster up the resources systemically address issues like that but the
medical training... that's just not something I can pull off just by
determination and creativity. Right now, that child is up in the
mountains with his other six brother and sisters in a mud house. Alive
and well, I hope.

I want to say to him in siSwati, "Buthi, I'll be back and, next time,
I'll be ready."

Quickie

I had a couple unofficial meetings with the Ministry of Ag now. They are
somewhat supportive but suspicious. Everybody keeps asking me why I am
in Swaziland, what organization I am from. Everyone is so used to people
coming from some NGO or another, that they get confused when I say I am
not really with any big NGO.

Theres a company called D1 Oils that planted many many jatropha
trees for biofuel production. This is a for-profit venture and very
large scale. There have been some controversies regarding this project
and this has created, I think, this mood of suspicion.

But, no worries. We will assuage any suspicions by showing that we
are 1. doing small scale trials, 2. open to monitoring by all
stakeholders, and 3. putting these trees under ownership of the
community and local NGOs (we are not taking any profits or other benefits).

Things are progressing well, I think. There are some things to worry
about, but its headed in the right direction for sure.

I met Ruth and Rudy in Mbabane just a couple days ago. They are
teaching and living up north of Mbabane. They are also alumni of the
ECHO internship program so they are familiar with agricultural work
(including moringa). They invited me out to see their farm up north
tomorrow. Ill be staying out there for a day or two days. They offered
to act as a nursery for future moringa propagation (produce seedlings)
which is very nice.

Today, I met with Polly, the PCV that is producing and selling
handbags with her women's support group. In 6 days, she will show me
their products. We can definitely apply the things we learned with MKU
to help with along with this.

There are these little girls forming a soccer team by where Ruth and
Rudy live. I said that we can get jerseys (shirts) done and sponsor
them. swaziAID sponsored girls soccer team, its gotta be done.

TGIF

Tonight is my last night at Waterford. They have been very kind and hospitable; things would have hairier they didn't let stay here.

Im moving to a house tomorrow. There is a family going on vacation and I'll be housesitting for them for the next month. Haven't seen the house yet, but it is in a nice neighborhood (Queensgate) within a quick walk to town where all the offices are. 

There isn't much to update. Still waiting on meetings. Attached are a couple more pictures of the Waterford cottage where I was staying and Grifter's Lodge. There is one of the road dividing non-irrigation and irrigation (sugarcane owned by wealthy folks). Finally, one of some kids playing checkers with a cardboard box with hand-drawn squares and bottlecaps. Awesome. 

1.5 weeks in the Swaz

Umjani!

I got into Mbabane, Swaziland on April 5th but have had problems with
getting a good internet connection. Got that issue fixed now and
should be having more regular updates from now on.

The first coupe nights in Mbabane, I stayed at Grifter's backpackers
lodge. The night I got there, I walked in the door and saw a bunch of
Americans watching TV. They appeared to be backpacking travelers like
any other, but it turned out that they were actually PeaceCorp
Volunteers (PCVs). Apparently, Grifters is where all the PCVs come in
for R+R. They spend most of the time in the rural areas, aka "the
bush", living with Swazi families on their homesteads. The time that
they spend at Grifters with each other, they unload and go wild. There
are a total of 35 of them right now in different parts of the country.

When I started speaking with them, they of course asked me what I was
doing in Swaziland. The conversation went something like this, "I'm
working on a pilot program for this nutritious plant in the
Lowveldt..."

"Oh, you're the TREE GUY!"

One the PCV had emailed me right before I left the US with great
interest in the project. Over the course of those couple days, I spoke
to many of the PCVs about the project and several were interested in
getting involved. The PeaceCorp country director also seems to be open
to a joint venture. I am officially meeting with her this coming
Monday to discuss this. Fingers crossed.

Between then and now, I have met with many contacts and making good
progress. I don't want to bore you with too many details. There's been
downer meetings and upper meetings. The prospective greatest challenge
is to convince the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) to
give us a permit to run the trials.

However, I should brag a little about the place where I am staying.
the UWC Waterford-Kamhlaba school has put me up in their volunteers
cottage. I have a room and private bathroom. The school is located on
top of a mountain and when I am making Rooibas (bush tea) in the
morning, I look over the entire valley and city of Mbabane. It is
incredibly beautiful day and night. I climbed the cliff behind my
house with a PCV (see picture).

The people here are generally down to earth and very nice. Strangers
are addressed as "bu-tee", "sisi", "ma-ke","ba-ke" which means
brother, sister, mother, and father respectively. The pace of life is
very slowed down here and there's not the feel of rush as back at
home. It may be just due to my learning curve, but it takes me 2 days
to do here what I do in one morning in the US. The reason is that
things are just not as efficient; internet access, public
transportation, and other services. Communication is by text message
(0.80E = 0.10USD) and phone calls (2.20E/min = 0.27USD/min). Those
kinds of charges crimp up the coordination and teleconferencing.
Business seems to be done mostly face to face (which I like).

This last weekend, I went out to the Lowveldt to watch a PCV workshop
conducted with a rural women's support group. It was held in a small
concrete building and we had more than 20 men and women in attendance.
The Swazi health educators discussed HIV truths and myths. The
educators would read out a statement and the women would step right or
step left to indicate true or false. After the health portion, they
showed the women how to make fabric softener and fruits jam. This can
be made and sold for a small income. After the workshops, we all made
a nice chicken stew, carrot gravy, and rice lunch. It was delicious
and we shared it among all of us and also some neighborhood children.

will have more pictures parati next time :)

Pikchas

Good morning! it is 11:10am here in Joburg and 5:10am in the East Coast
states. I have taken some pictures from my outings and just wanted to
share.

1. The mall has an ice skating rink year-round!
2. The supermarket is just like the ones at home.
3. The hostel where I am staying until Saturday morning.
4. The owner driving me, the British couple, and the little girl
Jacqueline to the mall.

Foot is on the Ground

I just got into Johannesburg this afternoon. The weather is wonderful;
its like mid-Fall in Florida. The dirt is red, people smell like people,
and everybody is very friendly.

The hostel Im staying at is large but still very homey. It is owned by a
white and black couple and they have a little six year old girl named
Jacqueline. She made me go tree climbing with her and play around the
house in the big backyard; green grass, pool, and even a little straw
hut for fun. As I am typing this, there is the UK couple playing with
Jackie (the little girl), a girl who is the vice-captain of the Canadian
underwater hockey team here for world championship talking with two guys
going to the Zambia to build a hostel. There is also 2 New Yorkers
hangin somewhere around the house.

Here in Joburg, everything looks fairly modern. The owner took me and a
British young couple to the local mall to shop for food and random
necessities. Red dirt dusted the roads and sidewalks. As we were
driving, people just got off work and were all walking home. Walking! A
novel concept! There is a large nuclear powerplant just a couple miles
away and car-dealerships lining the road.

Ill post some pictures of everything in the morning.