Hello everyone,

It is good to back. Liina and I just got back from our community stay. It was 5 days that we stayed with a family to see how they live and also how they serve the community in where they live. We went to an area called Clau-Claw or it means the scream of the monkey. It is mostly Swazi people that live there. Also, it was huge deal for Liina and I to live there since there are not white people. Many people just stopped and stared at us not sure what to do. Over the 5 days though people began to warm up to us.

We stayed with a women named Fortunate. She is married and has 4 children. They have done quite well for the area that they live in. I would say they may even have one of the nicest houses in the area. They really looked after us and also we had traditional Swazi South African food. It was really good. It took some time for the rest of the family to warm up to us, but eventually they took us in as if we were just one of them. They taught us a lot about the culture and how families live. Also, we spent time outside playing with all of the neighbor kids and also some of the neighbors came out to talk with us. They wanted to see what we were doing there and asked why we were there. It was great to explain to them that we were there to learn about their lifestyle and their culture.

During the days with Fortuate we worked at the Home Based Care center. They have a group of 23 ladies who volunteer their time to make 5 home visits a day, monday through friday. Because the community has all grown up together they are well connected to each other. Not much happens that people don't know about. Also, the school keeps the HBC center informed as they hear things from the students. Many of the care workers have very little training, but what they do know they use. We went to visit a patient with TB, but they did not want to see us because they don't want to admit that they are sick and need medicine. Or another problem is the medicine is quite strong and they don't have any food to take it with which will make them more sick. We also visted some teenagers who had HIV. With them it was just monitoring that they were taking their medications. We visited an older lady who just regained her sight. She is still bedridden, but with some basic stretching excercises or even some basic physically therapy she could be walking again. Problem, no one knows how to give basic stretching excercises or even anything about physical therapy. So many of the problems seem so basic to us, but because of lack of food, medicines, and skilled people in these areas things are not moving forward like they should. I was blown away by these caregivers. They care for people in a way that would go beyond most peoples comfort zone. They may end up taking care of someone injured, changing someones diaper, cleaning someones house, or even doing someones laundry. They do so much everyday to take care of the people in their community. I have so much to learn in this area from them, even though we have so much that we can teach them to help take of more people even better.

I think that one the thing that I learned the most from Fortunate is how generous her and her family are. Even though they don't have a lot, they give generously. Besides their mediate family, the husband takes care of his three younger brothers and sister. They also help a child headed household with food. (a sixteen year old takes care of 2 kids plus her-self) Many other neighbors come to their door when they don't have any money or food left in their house. Whatever they have in the refrigorator or cupboard, they give what they can or they give what money they can.

The next few days are public holidays, so we hope to catch up on some sleep and take time to evaluate the past week living with the families. The family has already called us asking us to come visit again. We have a family in Africa now.

We will update again when we can. Thanks for your prayers.

Chris & Liina