Rural Swaziland, 1st Trip to Bulembu

---

Today we went to a clinic, a care point for orphans, and took our first trip to Bulembu. At the clinic, there were hundreds of people there to get care. A large percentage for HIV/AIDS I'm sure. Lots of people of all ages. We interviewed a nurse and a counselor. Both went well. Didn't see anything graphic, but a lot of sick people. One man asked for something, and I had nothing to give him, and he seemed so ashamed. Timbissini Care Point was our next stop. 50 kids come each day to get food and learn under a tree. Miles had a great time playing pied piper with the kids. They sat us down and cooked these huge yams and gave us each a bowl with 3 of them in it. I felt extremely guilty eating anything with the kids not having eaten yet. Next stop was Bulembu. We met Pete Johnston and interviewed David and Sophia, two badly abused and enslaved children. I was not in the interviews but saw pictures of what they'd experienced. It was pretty brutal. David would be chained to a tree and whipped. Bulembu is an abandoned old aspestos mining town. 1000 empty houses about the size of trailer homes line the hills and there are plans to turn them into an orphan village.

---