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 :)