SarahAndBethInSwaziland.com

Sanibonani!!

Sorry to all those who have been nagging us about the lack of a blog this last month but it seems to have gone so quickly with every spare minute being spent lesson planning, holiday planning or learning siSwati(which I am told I am getting very good at apparently!)

It has sadly been a month of emotional goodbyes as volunteers come and go but we have a new group of volunteers who are all lovely and we will again miss them when they leave. Huon, Craig and Alison left on Monday the 15th Feb, and we also dropped Hugo at the airport but helfway through check in he discovered his flight was in fact the next day nd so we came back and did the same thing on the 16th. Tuesday also happened to be Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day!! We got up early to cook Pancakes as a farewell to Lucy and Hugo!

On the 21st Feb we waved last months group farewell as they traveled to Tofo, Mozambique for their tour. We (Sarah, Paddy and myself) then were left at the lodge as the only volunteers. On the Tuesday we needed to renew our Visas so we took a Khombi to the Ngwenya/Oshoek border and walked into South Africa. We then bought a bag of sweets and literally sat on the side of the road for about half  an hour before strolling back into Swaziland completely unquestioned!!

That week we decided, as it was just the three of us, to be civilised and lay the table for dinner every day – we even attempted dessert two days! Then we went back to House on Fire for Friday night as they had a DJ playing. One of the best experiences I have had on a night out has to be when everyone kicked off their shoes ad started dancing barefoot which is a lot more comfortable than dying in high heels back home. Blagging a free lift off our neighbour, Robbie, we arrived back at Lidwala at about 3:30am, collapsing tired into bed!

The Mozambique volunteers arrived back, exhausted from their 12 hour drive, the next day so noone was up for doing much…..so we thought. That is until we got dragged to this “Coyote Ugly” night at a local Rugby Club. After what was a mad but hilarious evening we decided Sunday would be a day to relax.

We waved a sad goodbye to Patrick at Matsapha Airport on Monday the 1st and greeted the new volunteers still a bit sad from thedays departures. Seriously……Paddy, Emma, Kendra, Kylie, Tim and James. How could you leave Swaziland???

The next couple of days were sad as we were all missing those who had left and to top all of it off we arrived at the NCP on Wednesday to find it raining, no teacher and NO discipline. The 15 odd children who had turned up had been running wild for 45 minutes already and were set to terrorise. One boy, Sibusiso, had  cut on his forhead and some of the boys were running around with Sticks ad jumping on the (very fragile) tables. Regardless of all our Mani(Stop)s and Beka Phansi(Put it Down)s they weren’t going to listen to us. One girl through a rock at my head which really hurt and at that point I had had enough and we left! Thankfully the next day Teacher Glory was back and told them all off! They have actually listened to us pretty much ever since.

And with the (vaguely) good behaviour has come good weather it seems. This week it reached 40 degrees at Bethany and some days it has been a struggle to even play outside in this heat! Even so it gives a real sense of achievement when you know you have taught them something as simple as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So after a quiet weekend its back to work tomorrow to start week number two of teaching 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!! Off to think up some games and exercises to make this interesting now so wish us luck!!

Hope you’re all well.

Salakahle (Stay Well)!