Tuesday, May 24, 2011
So, today, we crossed the border into Swaziland. Finally. It has been a very long day. It kind of feels like this morning was yesterday or the day before, or some day in the past. We got up and ate breakfast at the Koinonia Inn (guesthouse we stayed in) in J-burg. Then we headed out for 5 hrs. to get to Swaziland. Once here we had to get past the border. We ate lunch around 2:30 at a restaurant, which was pretty good. Today was good because I felt like I made a lot of connections with the other team members from SNU, and some of the team leaders, like Andy and Amy Curry. They have been living in Swaziland for the past year and our our hosts. They were the on-site coordinators for Bethany First Church that took Brent and Michaele's place when they came back to the States (I mentioned this in the first blog). We also met members of SIFE who are in charge of taking care packages to schools. SIFE stands for Students in free enterprise. Its a business club for university students. These students are absolutely incredible people with beautiful hearts for God, and for their people. They are constantly doing projects for their community, and we will be working with them over the course of our stay. One of their main projects is taking hygiene packages to schools. We worked for a while this evening on putting together the packages. The packages consist of a wash cloth, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and for girl packages, 5 sanitary pads each. One of the main goals SIFE has with the sanitary pads is teaching girls how to use them, and providing them with the pads. Girls are missing school every day of their menstrual cycle because they don't have pads. They are therefore, not getting as many days at school, and are missing so much its hard to make up, putting them at a disadvantage against boys and a general disadvantage when they are trying to go to universities and advance to careers. We will be going with the SIFE team one day this week to the schools to help distribute the hygiene packages and educate the children about hygiene. I met one of the women from the team today. Bogenweh. I know that's probably spelled way wrong, but it's pronounced "Bo-gain-way". It was cool to be able to talk to her, and get to know her a little.
The family in charge of the Luke Commission talked to us today about what their clinic does. We will be working with them tomorrow--half of us. We were split in half today, Team A, and Team B. I am on Team A, and that is the team working with the Luke Commission. I'm a little nervous about working with the medical stuff...I'm not that great with that stuff.
Bad things about today were: Realizing I don't have contact with my family and friends. I don't know when/if I will be able to talk to them, and that is REALLY hard. I miss all of them tremendously. I hope I get to talk to them before the trip is over. Also, I realized I didn't bring towels. I did so on purpose, because I misunderstood Joe. He said to bring a couple towels if we wanted that we could leave behind here at the mission. I thought that meant to not bring towels unless we were donating them. Oops. So now I have been drying off with my t shirt. I don't want to ask someone to borrow her towel. I forgot bath stuff too, and I'm dreading living in a room with a bunch of girls. There are five of us in this one room. This should be interesting. I really miss Mike and my family way more than I thought. I just need strength from God to make this week work.
I am determined not to say anything negative about anyone on the trip to anyone else on the trip. That's my personal goal that I am going to try to reach.
I have to be up at 6:30 am tomorrow.
Until Then,
Holly Peffer
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