Hi from Swazi!

hello. :)

Well, if you haven't heard already, my team made it to Swaziland late yesterday afternoon. Today has been our first full day out and about in the city, and we did a scavenger hunt to kind of help us get our bearings a little bit. I was the map reader on my team, and I managed to get us everywhere we needed to go without anyone getting raped or mugged or lost or anything like that. So it's been a pretty successfull day.

Our team is staying in a house that is about a 10 minute walk into the city...we have to walk by the dump, which is the most dangerous place in the city, but our home is really nice. We have a gate and a night guard and a PUPPY! It almost feels like home. Almost.

My team is pretty awesome...and if I had time I would go down the list and tell you all of the awesome things about each of them. But there are 18 of us...15 of which are girls. Lots of estrogen, but it's been fun.

Tomorrow we are going into a more rural area for church. I hear it lasts all day here, so that should be interesting. Monday we start ministry. I believe we will be going into the hospital and also to one of the care points, so I should have lots more to share on that front next week.

Notable things...
Evidently you can't use you're left hand in public here in Swaziland. It's the hand used to wipe your butt with, so it's seen as highly disrespectful. Ugggghhhhhhhhh. Strangly enough, there are 4 lefties on my team, so we're all suffering together.

You also can't point with your index finger....try not doing that for the rest of the day.

Water only works half the time.

There's no sense of time in Africa...."I'll meet you at 10." Actually means, "I'll be by to pick you up around noon."

Our first night in, we stayed in Joburg, and right after we got there, a car ran wrecked into a substation and took out all the power and water for the rest of the night/morning.

All we eat is carbs.

Our puppy's name is Nala. Yes, like the lion king.

I'm terribly homesick, and I miss you all.
This is good though.
~Staci