I spent Valentine’s Day in town with a few volunteer friends
of mine. We went to an event at House on Fire and then spent the following
night making tacos and eating chocolate and watching movies. Since then I’ve
been going to school almost every day to discuss different aspects of the
library project and just hang out with the teachers. The library room was being
used as an overflow staff room, but the staff have since been moved to their
new home, so the project is officially underway! I’ll be submitting a grant for
tables, chairs, some paint, a TV and DVD player, and some supplies in the next
couple weeks, and am hoping to be able to do most of the purchasing during the
school’s April break. Then we’ll be ready for the books to arrive in May!
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A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to attend
one of Swaziland’s 5 big annual ceremonies, umkhosi webuganu (or the marula
festival). This ceremony is one of two marula festivals that takes place in
Swaziland every year, and it is held at the King Mswati III’s palace in Buhleni,
which happens to be less than ten minutes from my house. The Buganu festival is
traditionally a time Swazis get together and cook, drink home-brewed beer made
from the marula fruit, and party. The event had a very 4th-of-July-in-the-park
vibe to it. Everyone was barbequing and tailgating and enjoying themselves all
day. Several PCVs attended, as it was
one of our first chances to see the king in person since we’ve been in country.
I dressed up in traditional emahiya, which ended up working out to my advantage
when my friend Hannah and I were persuaded to sneak past the police officers
and into the actual procession of dancers as part of the ceremony! We joined
thousands of bomake (married women/mothers) in dancing for the king for over
two hours, after which the king’s mother and His Majesty himself both gave speeches.
During the procession early on in the ceremony, each group of dancers got to
parade before the king. When our group was up, we could tell he was looking
directly at us (we did stand out a bit, despite having on the proper attire) so
we decided to be bold and wave at the king. He waved back! Definitely a
highlight of my time in Swaziland so far.
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My host Gogo and me at Buganu
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Swaziland Electric Company's stash of marula beer in their tent
The group of bomake dancing behind the group we joined
Such a fun day!
During the week after the festival, I had my regular lesson
with my siSwati tutor, who is also a teacher at the high school. I asked her
about the significance of the Buganu ceremony, since the only thing I ever hear
Swazis talking about is how it is the time to drink marula beer. The other
Swazi ceremonies like Uhlanga (the Reed Dance) and Ingcwala are rich in
tradition and symbolism, but I had never heard the story behind Buganu. And the
reason I hadn’t heard about the deeper meaning behind this particular annual gathering
of thousands of Swazis is because there isn’t one. Buganu really is just about
showing up to see the king and drink marula beer; and if that purpose is good
enough for Swazis it’s good enough for me. She did mention that there is some controversy
surrounding both marula festivals because of their lack of significance. Some
Swazis believe (and I would have to agree) that it is an irresponsible use of
government money to put on these large productions in the name of home brew.
The king, however, likes to exercise his power to call his people to gather
somewhat regularly, so there’s no sign of Buganu going away anytime soon.
Just a few days ago I had the opportunity to get a firsthand
look at a really cool aid organization called the Luke Commission, which is
doing truly incredible work here in Swaziland. It is a strongly
religiously-affiliated organization that was started by Americans (the only
Americans not associated with Peace Corps or the US government that I’ve seen
since I’ve been here, actually). They employ a Swazi staff of doctors, nurses,
and counselors, and essentially they bring a clinic right out into the middle
of a rural community, set up shop, and offer free services for an entire day,
pack up and move on to the next village. They serve three communities each
week, and in a country the size of Swaziland, that means they’re reaching a
significant percentage of the population. Luke Commission set up shop at the
primary school in my community (the school closed for the day but most students
and their families came for the services) and used the classrooms as their
health center. Basic health screenings like blood pressure checks, diabetes
testing, and physician consultations were offered along with HIV testing and
counseling. They rolled out operating tables, partitions, and floodlights and
performed male circumcisions (proven to reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV
transmission by up to 60%) and other simple surgical procedures all day and
well into the night. They even partner with Toms and handed out shoes to every
kid who showed up. (Sidenote: Toms and comfortable and super cute. Buy them if
you like them. But don’t think you’re doing any favors for any “poor children
in Africa”. Yes, they really do hand out shoes and yes, the kids are really
stoked about them…but all these kids already have shoes. They choose not to
wear shoes most of the time. And they will lose/damage/forget about their Toms
in a matter of weeks, and that’s okay. I love Toms, but not as an aid
organization.) So anyway, it was really exciting to see this kind of work being
done in my community. Especially with the issue of male circumcision as a
measure to help prevent the spread of HIV in the country most affected by the
virus in the world today, bringing the procedure out into the rural areas and
offering it right here, right now, for free is the only way to really get
people to participate. I was super impressed with their whole project, and even
though I typically don’t support religious/missionary organizations, in a
country as strongly “Christian” and Swaziland, I think it’s working to Luke
Commission’s advantage in their outreach.
Oh yeah, I’M GOING TO RWANDA IN FOUR DAYS! It is seriously a
dream come true, and I can’t believe its actually happening. Ever since I
returned home from studying abroad in Kenya and Rwanda exactly two years ago
(it feels like much longer than that!) it had been my goal to get back there.
Sadly, Peace Corps isn’t allowing volunteers to travel into Kenya currently
because of recent violence. But I’ll be spending a week in Rwanda with three of
my best volunteer friends, and we’ll be meeting up with my Rwandan friends and
roaming around the country! I can’t wait!
That being said, I won’t have regular access to
communications from March 3-10, but I’ll be in touch when I return to
Swaziland!
I’m leaving you with some pictures I took when some kids
came over for their after-school mangoes a few weeks ago.
The last mango of the season!
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