Two Dramatic Days

Yesterday, the 17th, was the toughest day so far. Our first visit was to an extremely small rural community called Mbekelweni, which was about ½ an hour outside of Manzini (which is, of course, where we’re staying). Dr. Campbell was, again, unable to be with us, but we have quickly become comfortable without him, and are relying on each other as a team. I believe that we are becoming quite effective and efficient. At any rate, I had been thinking and trying to prepare myself for this day, as I had a pretty good idea about what was coming down the pike. This was our first visit to one of the communities of extreme poverty that we had been seeing as we drove around.
The location of our visit within the community was a care center that was being constructed by outside groups. The construction was not taking place as we were there, and there was no indication that it was to resume any time soon. The building that was the most complete was a cinder block structure that had a roof. That was it. This building was the place where a group of about 40 orphans, most about 4 or 5 years old, spent the majority of their time. They were being “educated” by three Seventh Day Adventist women who cared for them no fewer than five days a week. The women did this for no wage. Their schoolroom consisted of a few benches without backs, and a single chalkboard propped against a wall that measured something like 2 feet by 4 feet. Phil and I did some stress management and counseling with the caretakers, as we know that these people are all but completely burned out. We essentially teach these people that it’s OK to be attentive to themselves; to take a break from caring for others. This, of course, is difficult, as Swaziland is essentially a land in crisis, and so everywhere they go they have work. This is actually why they need this type of intervention. They don’t have the kind of coping skills necessary to deal with the tremendous strain that they face. We teach them to look out for each other, to take breaks, to provide positive comments to each other, and to ask for help if they need it. This all sounds basic, I’m sure, and you may be thinking that we’re not doing much; however, these ideas (as I’ve previously stated) are unknown to them, so we’re actually teaching them brand new skills that they can continue to use to improve their overall well-being. Anything that they can do to help themselves after we leave is an improvement. The rest of the team worked with the children (Phil and I have largely settled into the role of dealing with adults and caretakers) as best they could. Of course, since they were so young and some spoke no English, there was not a whole lot that could be done with them. Basically, with the children, the team tries to meet with them as a group, telling stories and processing feelings, and then identifying children with the greatest needs and pulling them aside for separate counseling. We ran late getting there (as usual), so we spent only about 45 minutes there. As we left for our next destination, the entire bus was silent. I imagine that everyone was doing the same thing as me, which is to say re-evaluating my entire life.
About an hour later, we arrived at Big Bend. At this time, please scroll down to the map of Swaziland, look in the southern portion of the country, and locate Big Bend. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here. OK, now that you’ve found it, you now know where the poorest place in the world is. Not poor, not really poor, but the poorest. I tried, but could not think of any place or people worse off than them. They live their lives in the midst of famine, drought, disease, death, and hopelessness. There is one water pump for the shanty town, and it is usually “closed” as there is no water to pump. The Big river, for which the town is named, is almost completely dried up. The orphanage that we went to is run by five church volunteers and their pastor. I say volunteers, but they really do it because no one else will. They do it six days a week. They have no jobs. They run out of food for the children constantly, and so they are only fed every two to three days. This is because their government either ignores them, when they make the two hour trek, or because the government cannot do anything for them. When we got there, we were slowly approached by all of the children, with their hands outstretched, hoping for anything. We gave each of them a small bag of Cheetos, smaller than you would get from a vending machine, and it was like gold. We were able to provide socks and shoes for a couple dozen, and they wouldn’t even put them on. The children just held on to them like you might do with a diamond. I don’t even know if that’s the right way to describe it. You couldn’t even imagine receiving something and holding on to it the way they did.
Phil and I met with the caretakers, as we had for the previous school, and through one of them that translated, we heard the whole story. I looked over at Phil and he looked the way I was thinking. We both were floored by what we heard, and didn’t know if they would tell us to take our psychological services and take a hike or not. Again, I am really at a loss for words to describe to you the situation, and the computer here freezes up when I try to upload photos. To skip to the end, after about ½ and hour, we had them with smiles on their faces and laughing. We did more or less the same type of work as we did in the morning, but with greater intent and intensity. After we did our thing, we insisted that they stay on the porch, while we took care of the children, even for just a short period. They didn’t need convincing, and didn’t come out until just before we left. I feel that if we have made the most destitute and desperate people in the world laugh, than we can do almost anything. More than that, we let them know that people all the way on the other side of the world were thinking about this remote place and it’s people. And so we gave them hope.
This post is already running long, and summing up today will be tough. We broke into three groups and did presentations and discussions at different points of a rural community called Mafutseni. Gretchen, Chrissyl, and myself met with adolescents and young adults to cover empowerment, communication skills, depression and suicide, and substance abuse. The last topic really hit home with them, since it was a big issue. Since these people have no skills to deal with this crisis, it was empowering for them to learn that they did not need money, or tools, or anything material to make a difference in their community; they only needed each other, and the collective support they could provide. Maybe more on that later. We’ve actually had somewhat of a day off, as we got back here at 2. We really need a breather, as the work we do here really works over the soul. Alright, next post in 2 days. Until then…