"What's Her Name?..."Uhmlungu"

Hello my dear friends.

Last week we spent some time at Buhleni/Fondotje with Corine helping
finish up her preschool. The guys were finishing the floor so they
were mixing a lot of concrete. They kept yelling, “More water!” So we
had to carry 20 & 25 liter containers of water on our heads most of
the day. I can’t lie, I kind of enjoyed it. On the way home that
night, though, we got a tire puncture. We went to jack up the car and
realized that Corine had lent her jack to someone and they had not
returned all the parts to it. We called Hillary & Courtney, our
friends/neighbors, to come and rescue us. When they got there, they
brought out their brand new unopened jack and noticed that it also was
missing parts! Somehow they used the parts from both jacks to make it
work and we changed the tire.

We went back to the preschool to help a couple days later and a guy
who they just call by his surname, Gama, was there. He doesn’t have a
fully functioning mental capacity. He loves it when people come from
America, though, and he was so happy to see us. But he really became
very in love with Kim when he saw her carrying the water on her head.
He kept following her around and confessing his love to her. Futi was
there and making it worse, I do believe. At some point Gama thought
that Kim had accepted his marriage proposal so he was asking her if
tomorrow she could go and meet his mother at his homestead and all
these things. He kept coming over to me and saying, “Indvoza sisi
wakho” which means…
“Your sister’s husband”! haha I wasn’t making it any better because I
was announcing her “teka” which is similar to an engagement. We had so
much fun giving her a hard time. When we dropped Futi off at her
house, she said, “Nomsa (Kim), please invite me to your wedding.”  It
was just such a funny day.

We have been going to a few schools to try to get in to do the TLW
presentation but it has been somewhat unfruitful. We left letters with
them and they are supposed to call us. We’re hoping to get at least a
few since we haven’t been able to do any in the schools yet!

Last Friday, Kim was sick so I just got to go out with Corine with
just the two of us and spend a lot of time with her. I was thankful
for that time because I had never had it. Monday, she returned to the
United States until February so now we’re living in her house with her
car and her dog…bug she’s gone. It’s nice to have the car so we know
we have reliable transport every day but we do miss her!

Our Word study with the kids is trucking right along. This last time
we were learning about Noah. The game that we played was SO HILARIOUS.
We've done this at an ICS Retreat before and we enjoyed it even more
with the kids. Each of them had a type of animal and they couldn't
talk, they just had to find the other people who had the same animal
by making the animal noise. It was so funny for us to watch the kids
running around making all kinds of noises. I'm sure people around
Mafucula found it pretty interesting. :)

We have a new interesting thing that we’re doing. There are some
ladies from Section 19 (the very poor area we have worked in just a
couple times) who are involved with the CHIPS program who are learning
how to sew from some of our friends in Mafucula. Every Tuesday and
Thursday we take them out to Mafucula from 9 in the morning til about
4 in the afternoon. It makes for long days because we just stay out
there but I eat it up! I love being there more than anywhere else in
Swaziland even on uneventful days. Being out there all day gives us
some awesome opportunities for relationship building and language
practice.
The other day I was playing with Bongiswa, our nephew, and we were
throwing my purity ring around this concrete pavilion and racing to
see who could get it first. Swa threw it above his head and it got
stuck in the thatch! We had to make a plan! We got some concrete
blocks that were lying around and I held him up on my shoulders and he
hit it down with a stick. It was a sight!

My friend Fikile is the owner of the hair salon next to our parent’s
shop. I like to just hang out in the salon with her and watch her do
people’s hair and chat it up. Yesterday when we were out there, there
were some kids from our Word study and some just from town who were
following me around. They were holding my hands and just constantly
touching me. Fikile was saying in SiSwati to the kids, “You love her
so much…what’s her name?” and Winile, who doesn’t really know me that
well, said, “Uhmlungu” (which means white person)! I got such a kick
out of that!! I said to her that my name is Mavi Ekuphila not
Uhmlungu! We just laughed and laughed out it. I got my hair cornrow-ed
again yesterday as well. It is a great time of just sitting with
Fikile and Kayise just talking. They were trying to teach me names for
body parts in SiSwati or they would quiz me on random items. I enjoyed
that time so much. I thank the Father so much for the relationships
that He has allowed me. Those are the things that would bring me back.

The next few weeks are so packed with stuff…we’re very excited for all
the things that we’re going to be doing. The next blog should be so
exciting you will hardly be able to stand it! :)

Here are some ways you can be talking to our Creator for us:
•      That we would be able to get into the schools in our area to do the
TLW presentation. The youth here need this message because there is
nothing in place for them to educate them. Exams are beginning soon
and it will be difficult to get in so we’re hoping that we can get in
before that!
•      We were beginning a TLW study with some girls from Mafucula but we
still haven’t met with them because we haven’t been able to get a hold
of them.
•      Our teammate Heather, who is living in Mbabane, is having some
concerning health issues so please lift her up!
•      Continue to lift up the darkness in this country. We are beginning a
very spiritually dark time of the year leading up to the Incwala
festival, which takes place at the beginning of the year.

Keep the Tide

Well everyone, I am amazed that my time here is now more than half
finished! Some days it seems like I’ve only been here for a week –
other days it seems like I’ve been here for a year!
Our children’s Word study has been going pretty well. We have about
thirty kids coming every week. We’re storying the Word chronologically
so we’ve been trying to hit all the big stories and emphasize points
that are relevant to our kiddos.
We have struggled with getting our girls all together for our True
Love Waits study. Funerals and transportation are among the obstacles
that we face. It gets a little frustrating but I know that the Father
will make a way!
Last weekend we had an awesome opportunity to go to Mozambique – so we
took it! Some of our friends, some South African belungu who live in
Swaziland wanted us to see the beach :) It took SO LONG to get there,
although we aren’t terribly far from Mozambique. The reason? The
roads! On the Moz side it was mostly sand roads so we had to drive
very slowly. We camped out by the beach for a few nights. It was
absolutely gorgeous. One of the ways that I experience the power of
our Creator the most is through His creation – especially the ocean. I
had some really great time to commune with Him and sing and just bask
in His glorious sunlight. (Which led to a glorious sunburn! Haha)
I’ve begun going on a walk in the game reserve near our house every
morning for a while just to be alone with my Father. I have been SO
blessed by that time. I didn’t realize how much I absolutely NEED that
time to be able to speak aloud and just be alone. Living with two
other women doesn’t give one very much alone time so I have learned
this need about myself. I like the exercising part of it as well as
the being alone – and I get to see wildebeests and impalas on a daily
basis.
During that time, I kept thinking about this gogo, named Gogo Impapa.
She kept coming to my thoughts, so I decided that I needed to go visit
her. I SMSed our Make and asked her if we could go to visit this lady
together and she said that would be great. We showed up at Mafucula
and greeted everyone. Then as I was thinking (which I happen to do a
lot), I thought that this gogo might need some food or things like
candles, so we bought some things from Make & Babe’s store and went on
our way. We were somewhat unsure of how the gogo’s condition was or
what her illness even is. I now believe she’s just old and
experiencing old age…and maybe dementia. But they say she’s “not okay
in her head”.
While we were sitting out on a grass mat waiting for her daughter to
go into Gogo Impapa’s hut and bring her out to see us, I was asking
Babe how Gogo was.
Here is how I heard his reply: “She’s dead. Yeah…just too dead. She
smells.” I. WAS. MORTIFIED! Were they going to bring out a dead woman?
Why hadn’t they taken her to the morgue?! How am I supposed to react
to this? They don’t bring out dead bodies to greet people in my
culture!
Here is what he really said: “She’s dirty. Yes, too dirty. She
smells.” Thankfully, Kim had understood him correctly and hinted to me
that he was saying “dirty” and not “dead”.
When they brought her out, Babe went to greet her and I would almost
swear that he said, “Uyapapa” which means “You’re Crazy”. I was
like…rude! But her surname is “Impapa” so I assume that I just
misheard. Believe me, I cleaned my ears that night when we got home!
Anyway, we prayed for this woman and sang with her (in true Swazi
fashion) and gave her the things, then went back to the store (which
is kind of the hang-out place in Mafucula) for a little while.
We found out this week that one of Corine’s close Swazi friends,
Florence, passed away from complications of the AIDS virus. It put a
face to a common occurrence here. The life expectancy is now down to
43 in Swaziland. Please lift the pandemic up to our Father. It is a
desperate situation.
This past weekend was Kim’s birthday. Saturday night we decided to
braai (grill out)…so we’re just sitting out on our veranda getting the
grilling done…and we decided to get out iHome out and listen to some
music…and dance. As we’re standing outside dancing, our neighbor girl
Munju came over and joined us. Then another woman who lives just down
the street (who also operates a delicious chicken dust business) named
Busisiwe came to bring us some chicken. Somehow it turned into a dance
party. Busi left and came back with a CD of Swazi house music and a
friend and it was ON! We attracted most of our female neighbors and
their children and had an impromptu dance party. I don’t know if I
have laughed so much since I’ve been here! It will definitely be one
of my favorite memories for a long time :) We ended up inviting
everyone to stay for dinner and then there was some post-dinner
dancing as well.
This week we were blessed to have Mrs. Kym Coe with True Love Waits
here with us. We did some True Love Waits training and did a practice
presentation. We had not done much of the presentation ourselves so it
was nice to get a chance to do that. We had some awesome fellowship
with Kym while she was here in Tshaneni and we are thankful for all
her love and support.
Here are some ways for you all to be lifting us up to our Creator:
•    It has been reported that the SwaziCan Citrus farm is closing down.
We know many people very involved in this situation, including many
from the ch*rch that we attend the most in Vuvulane. A large number of
people will be losing their jobs and homes due to this change of
hands. We are unsure of exactly how the situation will turn out but we
ask for you to lift it up!
•    That the true TLW message would make an impact on these people. We
have been trying to start a study with the girls at Mafucula for a
while now and we keep hitting roadblocks. Ask Dad to make a way!
•    Continue in asking for help with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We do have
ARVs now but sometimes the virus is resistant to the limited types of
ARVs that this country has.
•    Strongholds and falsehoods: many people are dying because they
simply stop taking their ARVs. They believe that the Lord will heal
them rather than them having to take their medicine.
•    Time magazine recently published an article on the Kingdom of
Swaziland. While from a biased source, the article made some very
revealing points on the state of Swaziland. I encourage you to read it
and pray for this place!
•    Transformation. Ultimately the Gospel needs to penetrate the hearts
of the people and cause them to change their lives. Until that
happens, nothing will change.