May 24 (day 2)

Tuesday

Sleep last night was rough. I was so paranoid that my phone alarm would set back to US time and I would never know what time it actually was or when to get up. But once I got up to use the bathroom, I concluded that it was actually 2am South African time and that put my mind at ease and I eventually fell asleep.

I woke up around 7 this morning...It was a little strange waking up in a different place. It really doesn't feel like I'm in Africa yet. But anyway, we had a great breakfast and got all of our things packed up and loaded into the conveys. While we were waiting outside I met this woman named Niri (I don't know how exactly to spell it). She is here with a group from Canada that will be receiving a large shipment of books and other things to distribute to schools. But she was really sweet and was just asking me questions about myself and what not. We finally loaded up and set out for Swaziland! I sat in the back with Claire Decker, Josh Lane, and JT. They are really funny and we had a good couple of laughs. The drive into Swaziland was beautiful. The hills go on forever...There is just so much S P A C E. It was awesome.

Once we crossed the border and went through immigration we had lunch at Ngwenya Glass. It was okay. I sat with some people from the MVNU group...Rich Humphrey and his wife Misty, and JT. Rich was actually in my Lit class this spring but I didn't know him at all then. He talks so much! After we ate lunch we just explored the shops for a bit and watched Josh Lane chase a peacock. Ha. But it was really beautiful there and the weather here is perfect. After a bit we loaded up once again and headed for our final destination: Manzini.

The campsite [which I now know is actually a Nazarene mission station] was not at all what I expected. I think I thought it was actually going to be like a campsite, similar to where I stayed in Belize. But it is really big and has several primary schools, a university, a hospital, and whatever else. But I mean I'm not disappointed by this, it's pretty and everything, I just need to try and not have any expectations whatsoever! The ride up to the girls' flat was so bumpy and I banged my head really hard on the window. Haha. The guys are staying down the road in another flat. They are much nicer than I anticipated. We have electricity, a kitchen, living area, two full bathrooms, beds. I really thought things would be much "simpler". But anyway, I'm in a room with Krista Hansher, Misty, and a girl named Katelyn who is from Point Loma, She seems really nice.

Before dinner [which took place in the girls' flat every night] we sorted through all the donated stuff we brought with us. We had a ton of stuff! Such a blessing. The SIFE team from the Swaziland Nazarene University also came over and we helped them put together their hygiene packs to hand out in schools, which we'll be helping with. We also got to meet Harry and Echo Vanderwal, who run the Luke Commission (TLC). TLC is a mobile clinic that travels out into rural areas and provides some medical care. They have such an incredible ministry going on and I'm really excited to get to work with them. Echo is a physician assistant [what I'm in school to be], and it's just cool for me to see her doing what she's doing.

Once things were wrapping up our whole group split into two teams. Tomorrow Team A [AKA Team Awesome] will be going with TLC. Team B [AKA Team Better/Best] will be going around with the HIV/AIDs Tasks Force. I'm on team B. I'm really excited to start working with the people and I really hope God shows me some incredible things. I'm also looking forward to getting to know my team better and hopefully we'll all have a lot of fun.