swazi update!!!

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Hello! This is my first entry so here goes! Am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Mbabne (the capital) and its RAINING!!! shock horror. still rocking with the flip flops though. So what have I been up to? THe first 4 night (i think) i spent in a place called sondzela backpackers in the milwane game park (north west Swaziland). We left there on Sunday the 11th to head to Shewula, a remote community in the north east of the country. This is where we spent the first 2 weeks, working with the local community renovating a school building in a school for orphans called Majembeni. We were staying in Shewula mountain camp in lovely rondavels (apart from the scorpion spiders under the beds and the trillion tiny ants wasn't so lovely). The view here was amaaaaazing. indescribable. Other little side projects were were doing were building some pit latrines (long drops) at the Quest created environmental education 'centre' .... more a sort of 'area'. And also we helped make thatched shade umbrella thingys on the escarpment.

So we finished the project on Friday the 23rd (MY BIRTHDAY!!!) so it was nice to spend the day painting pictures on the walls and getting everything finished. On my birthday evening, which was our last night at mountain camp, the Tanzania Quest team came to stay for one night on their way to Mozambique to start the expedition. It was a really fun night - the Swazi croo bought me 2 bottles of wine AND 2 bottles of cava type stuff!!! And had kept it secret cos i'd spent the whole week going 'i want wine! i want wine!' Having gone to bed no later than 9 during my time here (due to backbreaking manual labour and getting up at 5am!) it was nice to stay up till 3am, dancing on tables and generally having a great birthday!!! We left Shewula the next morning which was sad but i'm also excited about the next part of the project. We get to say goodbye to all the people we met there on Tuesday as we're heading back to Shewula for an official opening of the school building and a thanksgiving celebration. Notable people to mention that I will miss are December, a lovely man (with an ace name! cos he was born on christmas day) he is something like head environmental dude at shewula and he was so amazing and he's got me saying 'cool man!' all the time. And he did the best handshakes EVER! Another is Umbus (prob spelt wrong) a little boy who came to the school and he was sooooooo sweet!! i loved cuddling him so much! and we taught him to say 'oh my days' which was well funny.

So now we're back staying at Sondzela, well actually we're leaving today but we've been there for the last 2 nights. Saturday night was cool we went out for a meal, which was a bit wierd...well the starter was nice (mushrooms with garlic dip COME ON!!!) but main course I thought i'd go a bit crazy and have crab curry, but when the waitress came and put a hammer between me and Eliza (she was having the same) it didn't bode well! so yeah we had to crack open our own crab but then it was all overcooked and weird! But after the meal we went to the openair club nextdoor called House on Fire and it was amaaaazing!! so much fun.

So i'll sign off for now cos ive only got 5 mins left on the net! But having a great time, everyone in the 'team' is ace and we're getting on really well and i'm really looking forward to the game ranger course ill be doing this week!

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Comments

[Fleur]

Very good
Well I'd just like to say well done on cracking open your first crab. You must feel jolly pleased with yourself about the whole affair. Ok, I've emailed anyway so :-P xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx very good, well done on havig fun, must be awfully hard bt you seem to be managing it splendidly xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx