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Published: September 30th 2010
Well everyone, it has been awhile since I have updated the old blog so let me get you up to date. I came back to Canadia in March, feeling pretty gross. Fast forward to the end of May and I had the most devastating news to date - I have celiac disease. The girl who loves to eat can no longer have bread, cookies, cakes, or anything containing gluten. In the meantime I applied for a CIDA internship with Canadian Crossroads International, was slightly delayed as I was diagnosed with another auto-immune disease called Graves, but the doctors ok’d me and bang... here I find myself with a six-month communications internship in the Kingdom of Swaziland.
After a fun bbq send off on the August long weekend... my mom dropped me off at the airport on Tuesday night, and as a treat Adrienne was there to hang out with me before I left. When I checked in they had no record of my gluten free needs, so Age drove me to Safeway in Leduc to stock up for the plane ride. It was a ghost town in security when I went through with my oversized carry on, and was slightly
embarrassed with the cute security guy looked at me while he was x-raying my bag and said - do you have a chicken in your purse?
The 7 hour flight to London was decent but sleepless, and when I made it through security Eng (my guinea-pig eating travel buddy I met in Peru) was there at the meeting point. After hugging and jumping up and down we spent the next 6 hours chilling out, drinking tea and fruit smoothies and catching up. Such a nice girl to come meet me at Heathrow, and even nicer when she let me have a quick nap on her when my jet lag started to kick in. Can’t wait to have a real visit with her when I come back through London.
Sadly I had to say goodbye, but even sadder was to find out they had no record of my gluten free meal request from the day before in Edmonton. Thankfully there was no one in the seat next to me and the flight attendant found me some fruit to eat. Best part was when I figured out that South Africa Airways has Appletizer! So... fell in love with this fizzy
fruit drink in South Africa 4 years ago... and guess what. It still tastes amazing!
So... after a 7 hour flight to London, a 8.5 hour layover, an 11 hour flight to Jo’berg, I then had to wait 5 hours before catching a seriously sketchy flight to Swaziland to find out my bag with all my clothes was missing. The “computers” were down so they couldn’t look it up, so some random guy photocopied my bag tag.
I was dropped off at my host families where I quickly crashed for 5 hours. My house mom woke me up to introduce me to the rest of the family. So... Zethu is the youngest of 5 daughters, and she owns the house. She has no children, but in Swazi culture, any children on your sisters side, are your children? So, there is Smanga (22), who is her neice, (but she calls her daughter), then there is Xhosi (24), who is married to Smanga’s older brother, who is the daughter in law. Her daughter Tema (6) lives at the house and is Zethu’s great neice, but in swazi culture it would be her grand-daughter. Then there is Temalanga (15) not related
Sarah from New Zealand
totally pissed because she has to drive backwards out some sketchy dirt roads- who goes to school in Ngwane Park Township and lives here because she lives out of town. Then there is lucky and Dwi- who are not what we would call related, but here they are. Too complicated to figure out the connection.
First weekend I joined my house mother for a funeral in her home in the country, I attended the night vigil. Normally they start on a Friday night at after 8 pm in a big tent for hundreds of people, and it goes all night until sunrise when they burry the deceased. Swazi note - it is expensive to have a funeral here, and the people who attend are in for one long haul of an evening. On the way into the tent Zethu was introducing me (probably a novelty as I was the only white girl for miles) and the highlight was when an old man said hello by touching both my boobs. My response “he just touched me boobs” Zethu’s response “he’s my cousin.”
I looked slightly out of place in the tent (insert moment where 200 people all stared at me), and hung out for a few hours listening to singing and
Andrea - a fellow CCI volunteer
lost on our way to find the labola. Basically we drove around a random township asking where it was... when we found the meat a cooking we were in the right place. preaching in SiSwati -Jesus was certainly in the house - before being able to crash in bed for a few hours. I didn’t get up for the burial but we were back on the road by 6 am. My house mom works for a tax firm and I was introduced to everyone she works with at the annual Inter-audit games. They needed 2 girls to play on each soccer team so I grabbed my runners and surprised everyone by being able to play soccer. We lost to KPMG, but we won the second game and I almost scored- I had one serious fan club on the sidelines. Go girl power!
There are two other CCI volunteers here and Andrea came to pick me up to meet the rest of the ex-pat (insert white volunteers) crew for dinner in town. Andrea lives with two of my FLAS work colleagues - Alex from London and Sarah from New Zealand. I can’t understand half of what Sarah says - but the girl is a celiac and has given me insight into the limited GF goods in Swaziland. Basically - you drive to South Africa and load up at the Spar - can’t
sigh.
my only box of gluten free peanut butter panda puffs wait to get back to SA.
On Sunday I went to a Labola ceremony. When a woman gets married here a man has to pay her father in cows. I was offered 15 cows in exchange for marriage at the soccer game the day before, but then I found out that Smanga was worth 21 cows because she is the first born. I decided I was seriously low-balled. At the Labola I met Tenille - the other CCI volunteer and we basically ate a huge pile of meat. Yum Yum! Highlight was when we were leaving and three drunk men accosted us. Thankfully Alex was there to be the brave man for us - as we walked away he commented “I think between the three of them they might have had a full set of teeth.” Very insightful.
My first week of work has been interesting. On Monday I went to a workshop on changing behaviour for sexual and reproductive health needs before going to the airport to pick up my glorious bag filled with things I love.... like clothes! The bag actually lost the tag - thankfully I could easily describe it as the bright blue canvas
chillin at home
me wearing my house mother's "work" wig bag with bunnies on it.
Tuesday Sarah started in the communications department and since then I have been sitting confused as she makes plans to make plans and task lists. The girl is seriously organized and with her fast talking Kiwi accent I am in utter confusion most of the time. I was invited to Gluten free pizza night on Wednesday, which was amazing!
I am lucky to get a ride to work in the mornings, but after work I take the public way home - aka run-down white vans called a kombi. For about 60 cents I get to pile in for the 15 minute ride home (which includes a dip through a river valley as the bridge collapsed 2 years ago). I am convinced I am the only white girl living in Ngwane Park Township, and Saturday morning when I went for a run I got some serious stares and laughs - I am sure they think I am all nuts!
I am catching up on my sexual and reproductive health information, and you may be interested to know there is a serious male circumcision campaign in Swaziland. HIV transmition rates are lower among circumcised
fat child
this kid lives on the property and is totally terrified of me men, but some believe that being circumsized means you don’t need condoms, or that becoming circumsized makes you immune to HIV - major communication issues. The clinic at FLAS - Family life association of Swaziland does MC - but only for males 15 and older. Hopefully with more funding they can lower the age, but I will keep you posted on things.
In the meantime I may finally lose a few pounds since I am in gluten central. Thankfully there are things like chutney chips, Appletizer (and now Peartizer!) to keep me happy and full of sugar. Oh, and they have wine gums.
This Friday Vusi - who was to be my manager at work - had his last day. Sarah and I now run the marketing and communications department, great to leave the communications strategy to two crazy white chicks -I think I may have enough material already for a short story. When I got home from work my house mom invited me to attend the half marathon the following morning, there was the option of a 5 km walk or run.
Off we left at 5 am on a Saturday morning for Ezelwini (rich area)
fat child runnin away
her sister - who is not scared of me of Swaziland. I couldn’t believe how many white people there were. It was a riot. I convinced Smanga to run the 5 km with me, which we did in 37 minutes. Um - the guy who won the half marathon, running 21 km did it in 1 hour, 7 minutes. Holy Crap! For the $1.50 entry fee I scored a medal that says I did the half marathon, some chutney chips, candies, and a bright orange t-shirt from one of the gas stations her e- Galp. I know you are all jealous!
Saturday afternoon I attended a bday party for a 10 year old of one of Zethu’s friends. Um - they love bouncy castles in this country and when we arrived there had to be 50 kids terrorizing one another on a bouncy castle made for about 10 kids. They all stopped dead to check out the white girl, and I spent the party avoiding the crazy kids and being a jungle gym for a few others. After helping hand out handfuls of candy and insane amounts of cake, the kids were totally hopped up on sugar - they had to wait half an hour for a bible
session and speeches before cake, so the sugar storm was due. My favourite baby was a two month old little girl with the cutest fro, I fell in love. Apparently she is “coloured” which here is what they call anyone who is a mix of Swazi with someone who is white or Indian decent.
Any who, many more adventures await me and I promise with the next email to tell you more about the politically incorrect comments and statements that are perfectly ok in Swazi culture.
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Jen
non-member comment
yay! first one!!
Sharman!! the bouncy castle and fat kid are my 2 fav pics so far...keep it coming. love feeling a part of the adventure! miss you!!! jen