Mum in Mbabane

---

Hello dear friends and colleagues around the world!

Many moons it has been since you last heard from the TWIG Project. This is not because we were taken hostage by Maoists on the countryside roads of Nepal and ran into the woods to escape from the siege, eating nuts and berries to survive…

No, we write to you now from Dartington in England, back in the place we began our TWIG Project journey exactly a year ago. There are many blogs unwritten about the last two months of our journey, which gathered momentum and speed due to a few unnegotiable international laws, such as: no matter who you ask or what you say, there is basically no way that you can get a place as an international passenger on a freight boat from Mumbai to Durban. Even bribery doesn’t work (and pleading certainly doesn’t).

So the question of how to escape Mumbai without having to tell Mum “Bye” (in other words, without having to disappoint Richard’s mother who was awaiting our arrival to see her in Swaziland) was answered by the dreaded airplane. Without having to backtrack our whole journey through India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Russia, Belorus, Poland, Germany, etc. (including the necessary obtaining of visa permissions, which would take months), we decided to fly to South Africa. Via Kenya. On short notice, Air Kenya offered the most inexpensive tickets, which routed us through Nairobi for one day.

Once we finally arrived into Mbabane, Swaziland, the night before Richard’s mum, Jean’s birthday we announced our surprise arrival at her front gate by singing Happy Birthday loud enough to shake up the dogs.

It was a relief to be in a real home, with Jean cooking wonderful, familiar food and welcoming us in a safe, peaceful haven free of rattling trains, rancid hotels or dodgy curries. Jean’s garden there was lush after the rainy season and we got stuck in planting trees and launching an herb garden too. Such were the characters of our small gardening projects while we recovered from Nepal and India.

Swaziland now holds the world record for a population with the highest percentage of HIV infection. We knew this before arriving, but were appalled by the poverty of visual propaganda advertising solutions or responses to the issue. If you walk down a road in Swaziland and see three people coming toward you, at least two of them are HIV-positive. This means that there are huge amounts of AIDS orphans there as well. We soon also got in touch with organizers of the Moya Community Healing Center(http://www.moya.co.sz/), an orphanage and education center which works with AIDS orphans of Mlilwane, Swaziland, supporting them in schoolwork and life skills. They invited TWIG to give presentations for two days at the school associated with the Moya Center, and this is what we did.

Kids there were much older than ones we’d worked with yet, but once we got them moving became receptive and excited about what we were teaching. We played energy-passing games with them and taught the Aikido exercise “Unbendable Arm” as a way of discussing how our environment exchanges energy with us constantly. We tested our reflexes and sensing skills with “Go-Freeze” outdoors, and finally planted a mango tree (with a mango tree dance) in the vegetable garden tended by the students.

---

Photos

Extend the Mind! "out there to that tree..."
R demonstrates unbendable arm.

Happy Veggies
The student-run organic garden at the school we visited near Mlilwane Swaziland.

Mango Moves
Looping loopy in honor of the waxy, curvy confident leaves of this small tree.

Mango Tree
Planting the tree, after the dance.

more weavers
...in Mlilwane Game Park, doing their thing.

Our Jacaranda-Ensconced Hostess
...who also happens to be Richard's raison d'etre: Mum!

Comments

[Catherine]

back in Devon?
>No, we write to you now from Dartington in England, back in the place we began our TWIG Are you guys back in Devon? For how long? I would love to see you again! So let me know.. my number is 07962 423338 email [e-mail] . So much news to share and also perhaps you guys would like some massage after your long journey? *grin* I'm off to stonehenge for solstice stuff this week but around from then on. hope to see you again. Loved reading about your adventures and travels, inspiring as always love Cat x

[miwa]

your mum
Rechard !! you looks like your mum. she is so well looking . Be happy with your mum and girlifriend.