Hello everyone! The internet at Lidwala has been down again,
so I am at a restaurant with internet to write this post.
The building we made is officially finished. There was a big
ceremony for it on Thursday featuring Roland and the village leaders. Nosipho
acted as a translator; to siSwati for Roland and English for the village
leaders. The leader’s speech primarily involved yelling at the villagers for
not being as helpful as they could.
Over the weekend the trip to Mozambique began. Since
Samantha left yesterday, James and I are currently the only volunteers here.
Lidwala has never been so empty.
Lobamba, on the other hand, has never been so crowded. The
reed dance is this week, and people from all over Southern Africa are coming to
Lobamba to find spouses. Over the course of a day, the parts of Lobamba that
are normally empty have been filled with temporary shops. The bus I took to
work this morning was packed to the brim. To make more room, James and I moved
to the back. The bus then proceeded to take a more direct route to Manzini,
thus skipping the stop I get off at. As soon as we noticed the different route,
we had to get off the bus. We weren’t really able to make it to the door until
it had driven down the highway for a bit. Luckily when we got off, we were only
about 500 meters from the usual bus stop, and we had no problem walking.
Whenever Swazis talk about the reed dance, they begin in a
serious voice and then proceed to break out laughing. From what I understand at
this point, it is a giant dance. Women do anything they can (yes, anything) to
try and attract a husband. Men come from all over Swaziland to watch. That is
it in a nutshell. Lobamba has become more crowded than ever before. I have only
a vague idea of what to expect.
The building is done at Ekuzukekeni. Tomorrow we will begin
building a home for a teacher at another local school.
Cheers!
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