While I am very happy to be back home, I have definitely grown attached
to Swaziland. Its hard to pin down exactly what it is but it has to do
with the imperfections in the Swaz. Advertisements and consumer products
are not crafted to exacting standards.Rules and policies are more like
guidelines; "This is the rule, try to stick to it." It was an aura of
human flaw. Society was not perfect and orderly and people didn't try to be.
There is neat movie called "The Island". In this near-future movie, the
main characters live in a perfectly clean and ordered "island". There
every needs are met; machines clean up after them so that there are no
blemishes anywhere, meals are prefectly healthy, colors on uniforms and
walls are all perfetly neutral off-white, and soothing music and videos
are played everywhere.
Coming from Swaziland, this was exactly what America felt like.
While I was waiting in line in immigration, there was even a cliched
video showing Americans smiling and saying "Welcome". It looked
absolutely insincere like one of those prescription drug commercials.
Anyways, though we have returned, this does not mean the work is over.
We have a Swazi colleague, Thokozane (Thoko), that is driving the
project forward as I write this.
Because we were not able to plant seeds due to the cold, we are now
waiting for the September heat (remember the seasons are reversed) for
the first planting. Thoko will travel around the country to all our
partners' sites and carry out this first planting.
While we definitely wanted to get the seeds in the ground ourselves
during our stay, we would rather get it right. Thoko will have that
pleasure in proxy!
Once the seeds get in the ground, it should take about six months for
the moringa to reach 5 feet. We plan on returning right before the
growing season ends (April) to conduct a series of training workshops
and further propagation.
This summer has been an absolutely awesome opportunity and I am very
glad that we were able achieve the results we have. Many development
experts in Swaziland said it couldn't be done with our timeframe, but
thanks to the support and encouragement from our friends and colleagues,
we managed through it, didn't we? :)
We have some other mischief up our sleeves and we'll let you know once
those plans are ready!
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