Finishing Up

This will probably be my last blog post from Swaziland. On Tuesday morning, I'll be taking the shuttle to Johannesburg, where I'll board a plane that will fly me to Abu Dhabi and from there on to Chicago. So in less than a week, I'll be back inside the United States.

The last few weeks have been packed, as I've been trying to get ready to leave what has been my home for the past year. There's been a farewell party for me, and some last adventures. But no matter how prepared I am to leave, it'll be a tough transition to suddenly leave the people, places, and ways of life that have become ingrained in me.

When I get back, I'll begin transitioning back to academic life. At the end of August, I'll move to Madison, Wisconsin and begin orientation at Wisconsin Law School. It'll be a radical change, but also an exciting new stage in life. I'll be living with a family from the CRC church, about a mile and a half from campus. So that's a major blessing.

I greatly appreciate all the support that you have shown me. I'll probably post one or two reflection posts when I get back to the US, and then I will sign off this blog for good. It's been an amazing year and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thank you, and God bless.
-Ben

Happy 4th of July

To all my American readers, happy Independence Day. I hope the fireworks and grilling provide an enjoyable day for all. I think there is probably some sort of celebration at the American embassy, but I'll be spending my night at church (Wednesday night service).

There are two topics I'd like to draw your attention to today. The first is one that you've probably heard of, and I've even mentioned in my blog (back in March). Last week the AFP ran a story about the forces tasked with opposing Joseph Kony. The story (found here) mentions that about 5,000 African troops have been pledged to track down Kony in an area the size of France. Their chances would be much better if they had boots, uniforms, rations, etc. But despite 91,000,000 YouTube viewings of the "Kony 2012" video, there is no funding for properly equipping the troops. I know this is the age of the internet and social media, but I think it's clear that liking a facebook status has very little real power. So, if you feel the urge to do something, I would urge you to quickly email or phone your congressperson (see info at the bottom). The African Union representatives for this mission are meeting with the UN today and will be talking to American officials tomorrow.

The other topic is an article by Nicholas Kristof, a writer for the New York Times who I have found to have some interesting things today. His article (found here) talks about balancing our view of Africa. He recognizes that most of what we hear of of Africa is negative, and he claims that our warped view is hindering many of the good things going on here. He points to an article in the Economist (found here) that shows that six of the ten fastest growing economies are in Africa. Personally, I think both articles are mistaken to not predict that Zimbabwe will become the powerhouse of Africa in the next decade, but they are very interesting nonetheless.

Representatives:
Gwen Moore - Wisconsin 4th District (incl. Milwaukee)
James Sensenbrenner - Wisconsin 5th District (Milwaukee area suburbs)
Find your representatives by zip code

Disparity n. A great difference

In his book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes, "How can you expect a man who's warm to understand a man who's cold?" Whether or not they realize it, this question pervades the work of every person who tries to reach across cultures. When an American team came here, one of my friends described them as "a bunch of cheeseboys and cheesegirls." The best definition I've heard for that term is, "someone who thinks that cheese comes from the refrigerator," but it basically means that the person doesn't have an idea of what it means to work hard.


Don't get me wrong, I know plenty of Americans who work very hard (I'm related to a few of them). If I had pushed my friend a bit more, I think we would have gotten closer to the truth, that Americans who come here don't understand the life of a Swazi.


When we leave our homes behind and move around the world, there's a natural urge to make our new homes feel like the old ones. And because money is worth more here, a missionary who sells his/her house and moves here can certainly afford to live on a standard equal with home (slightly less so those of us who have a small stipend and big student loans).


The problem is, the standard of living in the US is different than the standard of living here. And the closer we get to our old standard, the farther we get from the people we are here for. We can afford nice cars, beautiful houses behind gates, and gourmet food. But then we go to meet with the average Swazi, who takes public transportation with 19 other people, lives in one room, and struggles to feed her family. And although Jesus does understand her problems, telling her that must sound awfully empty when it's clear that we can't even come close to that understanding.


I think it's a similar lesson to what we're learning in the middle east right now. We go in with guns blazing (or sermons blaring, or care packages flowing), doing everything that makes sense in our world. And to some extent, we succeed. But we don't always reach the roots of the problems, we don't always reach the hearts of the people, because we don't fully understand.


My point isn't that missions are worthless, or that missionaries need to starve to reach people. But I think we do need to rethink our approach. We practically applaud our own arrogance when we waltz into a new culture and start telling them things without taking the time to understand. And that's not an easy thing to remedy. It takes many months to get a basic idea of a culture, and we Americans feel like that's time wasted.


Please don't take this as a critique of American culture from someone who thinks he's superior. It's true that this article reflects Swazi attitudes toward things (prizing relationship over efficiency), but I remain an American. These are simply my thoughts as I reflect on my time here and realize that only now am I starting to have a working understanding of the culture here. If I were to create an internship for Southern Africa, I think I would include a 6-month period where the intern did nothing besides walking the streets and talking to people.

Have a great Wednesday,
-Ben

What does justice look like?

Today in the paper, the Swazi Council of Churches has called for in inquiry into the deaths of three people related to the police. The highest-profile death was 'Scarface', an alleged serial rapist who the police claim was shot and killed while he was fleeing.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the shooting, and it probably wasn't good that the police used deadly force on a fleeing man. But in a country where guilty people often go free or pay a small fine, it's somewhat hard to fault them if they did kill him without the dignity of a trial.

Justice often looks odd here, and I'm not always sure how I feel about it. A few weeks ago, I read an article about a man who was stealing electricity. He was caught by two guys posing as electric company workers and paid them a E50,000 (~$6,000) bribe to stop them from reporting him. The next day, he paid a E100,000 bribe to two guys posing as police officers to keep them from arresting him. When this all came out, the police issued a statement saying citizens should check the identification of people instead of paying them. And I couldn't figure out who was right and who was wrong in the situation. Obviously the guy was defrauded of a lot of money, but he was stealing and bribing. And the police are partly at fault for perpetuating a system where bribery is common.

At the same time, it's not easy for me to simply impose my upbringing and beliefs on Swazi culture. Some of the reasons that things work differently here is because the culture works differently, and I can't just force everyone to think like I do, no matter how many problems it would solve.

Nevertheless, the warped justice and flat-out injustice is still something that bothers me regularly. Hopefully that struggle is something that is good for my intellectual and ethical development. But it's something that one cannot be a part of life here without encountering.

-Ben

First World Problems

There's an internet meme going around that's known as "First World Problems." Basically, when someone complains about something trite or ridiculous, another person points out that it is a "first world problem. For example, if I complained that the server didn't bring me enough whipped cream on my hot beverage, someone might point out that it's a first world problem.

I think it's an interesting concept, and I wholly support re-examining the things we complain about, but I don't think it's quite accurate. It rests on the assumption that people in the third world are substantially different from people in the first world. And that assumption just isn't true. Just because people are poor doesn't mean that their lives are one continuous misery. Even people who live in mud huts get offended if they pay for something and get less than they were expecting. In fact, people who live in mud huts get offended if they don't pay for something and get less than they were expecting.

From my mission project days, I remember that one common observation was about how happy the poor people were. Now that I know a lot of the poor people, I think I can say that they're happy about as much as everyone else (the higher percentage of smiling people may be due to the sight of strange white people in fanny packs clearly feeling uncomfortable in new surroundings). Everyone, rich or poor, has concerns and troubles, but everyone also has inside jokes, friends and loved ones.

We all complain about stupid things. If they don't put enough pepperoni on the first pizza I eat when I get home, I'll probably complain about a stupid thing right then. And it's definitely worth realizing that the old lady in the crosswalk who is holding you up really isn't a big deal in the grand scope of things. But I think it's also worth noting that people in the third world also honk when we get cut off. And I'm willing to bet that waitresses here get just as much flak as the ones in the US.

Have a good weekend. The Avengers finally made it to our cinema, so I'm planning on having an exciting evening!
-Ben

Different Worlds

One of the things that I've been struggling with on this blog is the total inadequacy of words. I can write many things, from anecdotes to statistics, and I'll still never be able to convey the experience. There will always be things that you cannot understand until you actually walk the streets and talk to the people here. Trying to put those unquantifiable properties into a few paragraphs is the challenge I struggle with.

So today, I'm going to take another shot. One of the newspapers here conducts online polls. To be clear, only about 200-1000 people answer these polls, and the sample is definitely skewed, so please don't take this to be authoritative. But I do think that the polls provide an interesting insight into how people think here. So I'll post some of the results that I think you will find most interesting. One of the most difficult things to do when reading these is to refrain from answering them ourselves. I'm not putting this up as a referendum on Swazi culture or the beliefs of people here, just an insight.

Swaziland's army is about 3,000 strong and is mainly used to quell protests.

A few years ago, there was a serious controversy because the kombi drivers raped a woman who was wearing a miniskirt and significant portions of the population didn't think it was wrong.

These kinds of stories are often in the news.

This probably explains why there is no real sex education going on in Swazi schools.

Pizza Party

Saturday night, we had a get-together for a team of missionaries that was here from Louisiana. We ate Swazi pizza and talked, which was interesting. After we talked with a few of them for a while, I feel like there are some things that I should clear up for those of you at home.

First, in Southern Africa, there are three "racial" groups. In the US, people are white or black (there are other groups, but I'm leaving them aside for now). Everyone who has a hint of color in their skin is considered black. Here, people who have both black and white ancestors are considered "coloured." The term is considered offensive in the US, but here it's common and not anything to blink at. So if you come to Southern Africa, now you'll know what they're talking about.

Second, Apartheid. If you don't know about it, you should. It's not that old (it ended in '94) and it still has a major influence on the culture of Southern Africa. My best friends here are black, but when we were born, our parents probably could not have predicted that would even be possible. If you come to Southern Africa, you'll be expected to know Apartheid.

I'm sure most of you were familiar with these things, but they're probably good reminders for all of us. It's important to understand other cultures, especially when we visit them. Have a good week.

-Ben

Preparing to readjust

Some days, I feel like I'm not very far from home at all. On Sunday, I saw a teenager wearing a maroon sweatshirt that said "Holland Christian Swimming" on the front and "Hoekstra" on the back. I'm fairly certain my sudden outburst of laughter sounded a bit insane, because my friends looked at me like I had lost it.

Other days, I know I'm a long ways away. Swazis are fond of saying that it's not a meal unless there's meat, a sentiment I wholeheartedly support. Unfortunately, I think they feel the same way about their snacks, because potato chips are flavored with flavors like "BBQ Beef". They're not much tastier than they sound.

As this phase of my life begins to close, I'm trying to figure out what the transition is going to be like. I've talked to a number of people who've transitioned back and forth, and I've gotten some interesting answers. One girl said that the key to going to the US is patience. I thought that was funny, because that's what I had to learn coming here. She said coming here takes patience for things happening, while going to the US takes patience for people. I can't say I completely understand, but maybe I will in 2 months.

So I'm doing a bit of reading, and probably some journaling as well. I slipped into Swazi culture pretty easily, so I think that slipping back will be easy enough. My hope is, however, that I will be able to retain some of the things I've learned and use them to take a fresh look at the culture I build for myself.

Have a good weekend,
-Ben

Another on-time post!

Our office is located fairly close to the major city park, so we see all the protests as they're setting up. They come to the park to gather and dance, and then march from here. It's quite a sight, even if it doesn't happen particularly often. But today was a very big march, possibly the biggest since I've been here. The public high school teachers were marching for increased salaries. It's unlikely that they'll get the increases, because the government really doesn't have any money. Swaziland is going to have a rough time in the next couple years, so we'll see what happens with the money. A number of people I've talked to think that the marching is a positive thing. They hope that it's building a foundation for people to speak out about issues they care about.

Over the past month, I've been noticing that I have adopted some of the speech mannerisms of Swaziland while I've been here. They're not major things, but they do sound strange. For example, in the Swazi dialect of English, it makes sense to say, "I was lazy to get out of bed." You can understand what it means, it just doesn't sound quite right. Hopefully, getting back to the US will help me cull some of the stranger sayings. But it's quite possible that ten years down the road, a judge will read a brief I've written and think, "That's a very strange way to phrase that."

Have a good Wednesday,
-Ben

Restart

Ok, it's been a long while since I've posted and judging from the emails I've gotten, I should be doing it more. I'll try to catch you up.

For the most part, things aren't much different. I've been a little busier with church and social stuff. Monday is always small group, and this past week we had our first Wednesday night worship service. Because that was Wednesday, we moved worship team practice to Tuesday and Friday night I went to dinner and a movie with a group of friends (the factual errors in Battleship almost drove me crazy).

It's also gotten a lot colder here. It's winter now, which mainly means it's the windy and rainy season. There hasn't been a ton of rain yet, but the wind is just incredible. I don't mind it most of the time, but it makes a cold motorcycle ride much, much colder. It's a good thing I don't mind walking much.

The temperature changes are pretty radical. On a sunny day, it usually gets into the 60s or 70s. Very nice weather. But at night, that heat leaves very quickly (it doesn't help that Mbabane is at a high elevation and I'm at one of the highest points in the city). So around 3-4am, it gets into the high 30s and I am wondering why houses here lack basic insulation.

I've got less than two months left here, so I'm slowly starting to start thinking about the next year. There are many reasons I'm excited to get back (see my family and friends, get back to my church, eat pizza, etc.), but I can safely say that I'll be sad to leave here. I know it's strange that the same event will cause feelings of happiness and sadness, but it will. I'm hoping that the transition will be smooth, so we'll see.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Have a great week,
-Ben

Big Steps

I did a couple things today that I recognized as big steps. You may or may not agree.

First, I realized that I know Mbabane well enough to navigate using directions. That may not seem like a big deal where we use directions like "Take 94 West" or "Take the Beltline North", but here directions are "Go past the spar and take the little path, you know where that is? Then go towards the bakery and look for the people frying meat." Or "Take the golf course road, then go up the hill and when you get to the top of the little hill, take the turn up the small hill, then turn down the big hill and go to the first big intersection and then turn and look for the gate behind the other house." So navigating is really something that only works if you already have an idea of where you're supposed to go. And apparently, I've been here long enough to figure it out (to some extent).

My second big step was to accept my student loans for law school. So today I have 2.5 times as much debt as I did yesterday. But come this fall, I'll be able to pay for my education at University of Wisconsin Law School. It's something I'm looking forward to very much, and I think it will be a great next step in my life.

Have a good week,
-Ben

Africa

During one of our many public holidays, I went to a local game park with a couple friends. Here are some pictures of what we saw, but one of the main things I realized was that pictures don't do any sort of justice to these animals. I guess that's why game parks draw so many people, but it was very cool. You can click on the pictures to view them better.

This is just one landscape shot, but the entire park was extremely beautiful. It was also a great day.

Here is me standing quite close to a Nyala. This is in the picnic area, where a number of antelope chill.

A real-life warthog, just hanging out.

This is a male impala.

We saw quite a few zebras. This was a particularly good picture, especially with the landscape in the background.

These are either wildebeest or water buffalo. I'm not really sure.

This was the find of the day, two hippos. We were pretty far away, but close enough to see one stand up,  walk into the water and swim away. 

As we were leaving, we found more zebras.

Catching up

Well, you may have noticed that I've been falling a bit behind in my blogging. There are a number of factors contributing to this. Some days, I've got to get to something (Monday nights are small group, Friday nights I help with the youth group, some nights I hang out with friends or church folks, etc.). Some days, I'm a little worn out and feel like there isn't much new to report, which is a bit silly because as much as I've written, I'm sure I can't really convey the experiences I'm having. Some days I just forget about it altogether. For all these reasons, I need to apologize to those who've been wondering about me and whether I'm ok. I am ok, and I'm happy that I've gotten more involved in the past few months. If it means I have to start blogging in the mornings or something, I should be able to handle that.

One fairly significant thing that's been going on regards a fellow missionary. The director of Children's Cup (his name is Mitch) recently had his appendix taken out in Swaziland. He has spent most of the past 6 weeks in a hospital in South Africa with tubes running through his body. I think it's mostly some nasty infections and he's not in great shape. Yesterday he was put back in the ICU, but the reports are that he's doing better. I know most of you didn't sign up to support an entire missionary community down here, but so far I have been enormously blessed with wonderful circumstances, health, and a great support network. So if you could pray for Mitch and his wife Char, I would be very grateful and consider it a favor to me personally. Pray for physical strength and healing for Mitch, and pray for emotional strength for Char as she cares for and supports her husband. Both of them are wonderful, caring, and giving people who I know I could count on if I needed them.

Thank you,
-Ben

Busy Weekend

This weekend was quite busy. On Friday, I went to church to help out with the youth group. They brought in a Christian band from Manzini, so I ran sound for their concert. They have a different philosophy on the importance of hearing the vocals over the music. So we had to change all the sound settings. It was interesting, but the concert seemed to go well and a lot of the kids who came enjoyed it.

On Saturday, I got up at 5:15 and we left for Johannesburg (hereafter, Joberg). My two small group leaders and two other guys from the group. We drove for about 3 and a half hours, and we stopped at McDonalds. I got real American french fries, and everything tastes the same here as it does in the US (if you think about it, it's a bit troubling, so don't).

After McDonalds, we went to an extreme sports park, full of circus-like things. There was a rock wall, trapeze, giant slip n' slide, tight rope, and one of those spinning rope ladders that require balance the whole way up. We had a great time, mostly laughing at each other as we failed spectacularly and numerous little children succeeded.

After that, we went to a big mall, walked around for a while, and had seafood. It was a good day, with good fellowship and a lot of fun.

Sunday I was up at 6:15 so that we could get to church and fix the sound system. We got it sounding good for worship again, which was rewarding. Then, after the second service (circa 1:30), some friends picked me up and we watched a movie and ate some delicious chicken before I went home and passed out.

Hope you have a good week,
-Ben

You sure?

The other night (Saturday), I was talking to a missionary friend here who had a rough week. We were talking about how rough things happen and it's pretty easy to get discouraged because it seems pretty major, especially when you don't have much of a support network and it feels like you're balancing on a very thin wire. Her trouble was mainly financial and administrative, and I talked about how I think God has been teaching me to rely on him and trust that he'll work things out. It's true, and he's worked many things out.

Anyway, at 2am on Sunday, only a half-dozen hours after we had been talking about this, I woke to hear what sounded like something was boiling over or getting ready to explode or something. So I shook off a bit of stupor and discovered that the rear tire on my motorcycle was rapidly deflating. So tonight I'll be taking the rear wheel off my motorcycle so I can try to get that fixed. Unfortunately, it looks like it's more complicated than taking the wheel off of a car.

Even though I'm not thrilled to have to fix this, and I don't like being without my mode of transportation, I do think that I've learned a lot about trusting. It hasn't always been a fun lesson, but a lot of the time here, I don't always know what's coming next. And I don't have a good plan for the next ten years of my life. But my time in Swaziland has turned out to be great for me, and I think I've learned that although I don't always know where I'm going, or what will happen, God does.

-Ben

Tragic Realizations

I generally think of myself as a good person, at least a decent one. That's probably why the Hunger Games intrigued me so much (just the books, the movie hasn't made it here yet), because I was thinking about what I would do in a situation where I would have to kill to preserve my own life.

As it turns out, you wouldn't have to put my life in danger to get me to act like an animal. On Thursday I went to the government offices to pick up my residence permit. First I had to wait in one line to get a reference number, then bring that to another office where they gave me the paper that is my permit. Then I had to wait in two other lines for two offices that stamp the permit. After an hour waiting in a dark hallway with a half-dozen other people, I was no longer behaving out of an ingrained sense of right and wrong. If someone had convinced me that all I had to do to finish everything was be the last man standing in that hallway, I probably would have pushed everyone to the ground. It was a sad realization.

Anyway, I now have my permit. Yesterday after work I helped out with sound for the youth group meeting. Tonight we have young adults, but I just attend that.

Hope all is well with you,
-Ben

And we're back

I hope everyone had a great Easter Weekend. Celebrating Easter here was a different experience, and I felt like we didn't make a very big deal about it. We did have a worship night on Saturday, and that included communion, which I had been missing very much. Sunday we had our typical two services (one in English, one in SiSwati). I stayed for both because I was on sound, but I spent the second service training an apprentice, so I was sitting second chair to deal with feedback loops and such. For some reason, the stage lights stayed off Saturday night, but worked Sunday morning. No one's really sure why.

So after a 4-day weekend (Monday is off here too), we're all back to work. Below are some pictures from the training last week.

Some farmers loading up on the sandwiches we made. This is tea time, approximately 11am. Lunch is at 1pm.

Pastor Daniel talking to one of the Ministry facilitators while the farmers are queuing for sandwiches.

Another government employee giving a presentation. We had presentations on budgets, vaccinations and feeding, biosecurity, marketing, etc.

Farmers being attentive. The feedback was very positive and I think it was a good thing to do. We'll see how much it helped performance, but I think it at least encouraged the farmers.

Good Holy Week

Well, our training finished up yesterday. It was a very good thing, and I think our farmers got a lot out of it. Most of the training was in SiSwati and wasn't for me, so I helped out as much as I could. It turns out that hosting an event means a lot more here than it does in the US. We were responsible for the farmers transportation up here, their tea break (we made sandwiches. We cut them into quarters, but I'm not sure why, because everyone took at least 4), and their lunches. I don't want to calculate how much it cost, but I made a number of grocery runs to keep us stocked. And Bonisile and I had an interesting conversation about what would happen in the US if a host provided generic tea and the guests demanded that they go to the store and get name-brand tea.

Right after work, I headed down to church for worship practice. We're doing a worship night on Saturday, and I'll be running sound. I spent the first hour at the top of a very tall ladder, turning off the strobe feature on the lights. But something in the system is fried, so they just stay on, whether the light board is set to on or off. But a short while into practice, our new pastor and his wife showed up. They basically asked me how to improve things. They're American, and I'm not sure how I feel about shipping American pastors to pastor an established church in Swaziland. Nevertheless, I am definitely a personal fan of theirs. I started making recommendations, mainly about sound. The church is basically in a concrete warehouse, with a metal roof. Terrible for acoustics, but the main problem is that the sound board had very little control. The drums are an electric set, but are controlled independently from the stage, and basically drown out everything else. That set off a figurative arms race, with everyone wanting themselves louder just so they could hear. Before it's done, 75% of the sound in the church comes from the monitors on the stage.

So we started changing things. I started talking and Pastor Adam just said, "Ok, let's do it." So now the drummer hears himself through headphones, and the sound board controls how much he comes through the speakers. Then I cut everyone else down to half volume, and now only a small portion comes through the monitors. The singers aren't very happy, because they don't like the sounds that are coming through the monitors. But we've assured them over and over that it sounds infinitely better from the rest of the sanctuary. My next step is to hide some foam panels behind the curtains on the stage so that the monitors don't reflect directly into the first row. We'll see how that goes, but I'm very hopeful that we're making positive changes.

Be blessed this Good Friday and Easter,
-Ben

Ministry Training

Those of you who read my blog daily may have noticed that I took a break during the latter half of last week. Most of what we were doing was preparing for this week's training by the Ministry of Agriculture. That meant printing out documents (the government here can't afford to do much printing) and organizing tea, biscuits, and lunches for the farmers. Apparently, if we host a training for them, we are expected to shoulder all costs for a fairly luxurious event. I'll try to write more about the training on Wednesday.

We are also trying to deal with the new VAT here. It's a 14% tax added at every step along the value chain. So prices everywhere are going up, which is a pain. It means that our farmers will be paying more for their chickens, so they'll need to charge more and pay taxes on their sales, and by the time our chickens get served, the government will probably make more than the farmers. If you're asking whether a 14% tax is really the best thing to do to a struggling economy, I would not want anyone to infer from my baffled state that an economist could not find a good reason to do something like that.

-Ben

What's inside

Because it's Monday, I have small group tonight. So I thought I'd write a bit about what we've been talking about at small group.

My small group is 6 guys about my age. One of our leaders is the worship director at church (or the worship director's husband, I'm not sure who really has the title, but they both do a lot of work). He's from Zim, and our other leader is an American married to a doctor who works at Baylor Clinic. We're talking about character and, because we're young men, how that relates to sexuality. It's been a very good and provocative group, and our discussion is always interesting.

Anyway, one thing we've been talking about is how we need to develop an inner strength to deal with the pressures of life that press on us from the outside. Basically, we need to be strong enough to do the right thing even when all the pressures of life are pushing for other things. This isn't easy, but Psalms says, "Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble."

I think all eight of us would appreciate your prayers as we learn together and grow.

-Ben

March Madness

Some things really are crazy in March. For one thing, I'm actually second in our family bracket challenge. I've lost Michigan State and Duke from my Final Four, and I was counting on Wisconsin to beat Syracuse, but apparently most everyone else is getting shaken up even more. I'd say that it's because I haven't seen a basketball game all year, but even when I'm in the states, I only catch a couple.

This morning I met a couple farmers from Oregon. They're stopping here with the AfricaWorks crew on their way out to Zambia. They partner with some farmers out there, and have been doing so for something like fourteen years. So not only did I get to meet fellow Partners Worldwide people (they were doing it before it really existed), but for about 48 hours, the CRC was statistically overrepresented in Swaziland. I've heard best estimations put the number of Americans in SD at about 300. So if 3 of us are CRC, that makes 1% of the American population here CRC. If it was that high in the US, we would quadruple the size of the denomination. It's also just fun to be connected to people I've never met before and who show up in Swaziland.

Anyway, have a good weekend,
-Ben

Game Night

Last night, I did something I haven't done in seven months. I ate a taco. You may think this is a strange thing to write home about, but let me tell you, when your diet has been pretty bland for half of a year, something like home cooking is pretty amazing.

Where, you may ask, did I find this taco? It wasn't at a restaurant, because latin cuisine is impossible to find here (even, ironically, at the restaurant named "Latin Cuisine"). One of the missionaries here had a game night at her house last night. She made taco meat with seasoning she brought with her from the US. It was a primo treat.

The second treat of the evening was the game playing. First we tried to play Pit. Between explaining the rules and trying to explain a bear market and a bull market, I was almost driven to drink. But we shut that down after a few hands. I don't want to say Africans are less competitive than Americans, but I don't think they all enjoyed the yelling and aggressive attitudes that Pit requires. So we moved on to spoons. Being a simpler game, we didn't have too many rules issues, and played a good game. There was lots of screaming and pushing when the spoons started flying, but no biting, kicking, or punching. I think it was one of the better-behaved games I've participated in, which may explain how I didn't get any letters.

Anyway, it was a fun time and I thought I'd let you know that sometimes, my life here looks a lot like my life in the US.

-Ben

Things you don't see in America

I think it's been a while since I've posted on the differences between the US and Swaziland. So I thought I'd share a few things that aren't particularly common in the US.

1) There's a billboard on the road to Manzini. It's an advertisement for a bank, trying to attract customers. The thing you wouldn't recognize is the statement, "Sign up for an account today and be entered for a chance to win two cows!" Even in Wisconsin, cows are not typically used as prizes for drawings related to banks.

2) People walk on the sides of the highway. Well, actually, people walk on the sides of every street. But the thing that separates Swaziland from the US is the amount of people who walk and hitchhike from city to city. In fact, so many people try to walk across the highway that the government has put barbed wire fences up in the highway median. Basically, if you don't have a car (which many Swazis do not), you walk or wait by the road for someone to pick you up. It works surprisingly well.

3) An intersection without a gas station. This is kind of a converse, but I think it's worth noting. In the US, every highway exit has 1-3 gas stations and you're never too far from one. Here, there are only about 3 gas stations in Mbabane and once you get on the highway you're out of luck until Manzini. On the question of whether this has ever been a problem for me, I'll exercise my 5th amendment right.

Have a good weekend,
-Ben

Small world

The past couple days have found me making visits to the Ministry of Home Affairs. When I came to Swaziland, I got a 6-month residence permit because a 1-year permit required a police clearance (and I have no idea what that is). So it was set to expire soon, and I needed to apply for a renewal. That's what occasioned my entrance into the Home Affairs building.

The hallways were full of people waiting in lines in darkness because the lightbulbs have been removed (probably for use in the offices). So we slowly move forward in poorly-defined lines until we get to an office where they tell us that we really need to be in another office. Anyway, I did get my application in and I have my 1-month temporary residence permit.

But much more interesting than the government work was the line itself. I waited for a long while next to a man named Atif. He's originally from Pakistan, but he spent 9 years in South Africa and now his job moved him here. It was very interesting to talk to him. He wanted me to know that the common people in Pakistan aren't responsible for what the government officials do, and that Islam condemns violence. I wanted him to know that not all Americans are crazy either and that I have no problem with the people of the Greater Middle East.

It was a good reminder that people really aren't much different. Governments will continue to posture and threaten, militaries will attempt to improve and secure national interests, but that's not really what the average person is worried about. We're worried about what will happen to our jobs next year, and whether our kids are getting a good education, and about how much we'll need to pay for housing. Atif was more concerned with Swazi immigration policy than with the fact that my country has been launching military strikes into his country. And I shared his priorities.

-Ben

Kony's end?

If you've been avoiding the news for the past few days, you may not be aware that a massive information campaign has been launched by an NGO. It has targeted Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord's Resistance Army. It has greatly increased the understanding of what Kony is doing, especially his use of child soldiers.

I'm not really sure what sparked this. A recent movie called "Machine Gun Preacher" was also focused on the topic (not a particularly good movie, but a true story), and the US government sent soldiers to aid in his capture in October. Strangely, that decision was criticized at the time.

I am glad that the public is taking notice. This is indeed an issue that affects us all (the inability of a state to secure its own territory is a problem for the international community). But no matter how many people watch the YouTube video and even if we shut Facebook down with the volume of traffic produced by this, we will not solve this problem by talking. I am very hopeful that the public outcry will soon turn into a demand for action.

Just my two cents,
-Ben

Go Team!

One of the things that the Ministry of Agriculture told us when we met the other day was that our expectations were too high. Kambula has a contract to supply a catering company with 1500kg of chicken portions, but they only want portions from chickens that were at least 1.2 kgs. So we are aiming for our farmers being able to reliably produce chickens whose dressed weight is 1.2 kgs. Some of our farmers have managed to do this, and some have failed. And National Chicks (our supplier) believes that these are the weights we should be hitting by day 33. But the Ministry told us that we shouldn't expect our chickens to be that big by day 35.

So yesterday, we showed them. The farmer who finished yesterday ended with a mortality around 30. That's only about 3% mortality, which is at least as good as most commercial farms. And almost all of her chickens were above 1.2kg. Needless to say, she will make quite a bit of money when all the figures are in.

So that necessitated smiles all around the office.

Have a good weekend,
-Ben

Week 60% complete

Today we had another meeting with a few of the Ministry of Agriculture people to discuss the training. They explained some of the stuff they want to talk about, and we gave them some more details and talked about ideas that we are considering to improve the model.

One of the ideas we are now considering is paying our farmers based on live weight. You may recall that I mentioned that we have a unique situation at our abattoir (here). Tinashe is now thinking that it will be easier for our farmers to grasp if we simply pay them based on the live weight of the chickens when we take them. Then Kumbula (the marketing company) would pay the processing and packaging fees.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Agriculture had to delay the training for two weeks. So it will now take place during the first week of April. Some things we just can't fix.

-Ben

Just Waiting

Swaziland is waiting under a cloud. Literally. There's been a lot of talk about a major cyclone over the weekend. We were expecting it yesterday, but apart from a bit of rain and wind, we haven't had much of a problem. No one really knows what this means, so it's a bit of fun. This morning the two Swazi newspapers had different headlines, one claiming Swaziland would not be hit and one claiming it would be.

For now, I'm just watching the dark clouds and listening to the thunder. I'd better get to small group.

Happy Monday!

Picture Friday

I thought I'd give you a break on the reading and give you some pictures of our tour of the chicken houses with the Ministry of Agriculture. I hope you don't mind.

Have a good weekend,
-Ben

Contact

Strangely, it feels as if a large amount of my day has been used dealing with American things. My parents had a question about my taxes, my student loan payment wasn't withdrawn from my account as it should have been, and I'm looking into a grant from the American embassy. AND I just caught my grandmother online, so I got to chat with her for a minute. Lots of American stuff.

So I passed on the tax question to someone who might know enough to help me, and I'm currently working on sorting out my student loan problem (which is why I'm at work so late). I also almost forgot it's a leap day, which is a fantastic, 2-3 times in a decade experience.

Well, I'll finish this up and head out. Have a good Wednesday.

-Ben

The Weekend Update

This post comes on Tuesday because Tinashe and I spent much of Monday at the abattoir, and I had to leave work a bit early to make my small group car pool. I hope you don't mind.

We were at the abattoir basically to get a feel for how things were going. I'm working on a report for how we can better operate at the abattoir from an efficiency and operations viewpoint. Most of what we learned at the abattoir was the same as what I'd already seen, but it was good for Tinashe to get exposed to some of it. We also implemented a new system for tracking chickens and weights through the abattoir. It's been helpful for us so far, and we're hoping that it will prove even more beneficial over the long-term.

The weekend was sunny and warm (which is always good, because it means my laundry doesn't get rained on while it's drying). While Skyping with my parents on Saturday, however, I learned that Len Zydowicz passed away late last week. I had known he was having health problems, but I was caught off-guard. Len and Barb have been such close friends of my family that they have become family for all intents and purposes. I think the hardest part was not being able to attend the funeral, but my heart prayers certainly go out to Barb and her family.

God bless,
-Ben

Ministry of Agriculture

Yesterday the Ministry of Agriculture toured the areas, and we are happy with the way it went. We rented a van, picked them up, and we all went out. We started in Myoloza, where the ministry people spent a fair amount of time talking to the farmers about ways they could improve and questions they had. National Chicks people also came, which was good.

When the ministry people were done there, we all (with the farmers) went up to Lamgabi. We looked around a bit more, and then sheltered inside an empty chicken house as it started to rain. So we had a big meeting with the government, our supplier, us, and the farmers all sheltering from the rain in a chicken house. The ministry set up a 3-day training course for next month, which we think will be good. The farmers also got to air all their concerns about AfricaWorks, and the ministry promised that they would try to be fair judges.

Overall, I think it was good. I think the training will be good for the farmers, as well as having an outlet where they can talk through frustrations with AfricaWorks. Frankly, AfricaWorks has had all the power in the relationship up until now, and I'm sure the farmers will be glad to have someone who they can express their complaints to. We'll know more after the training.

Have a good weekend,

-Ben

Ministry Meeting

Tuesday we met with the poultry department from the ministry of agriculture. All seven of them came here and we had a big meeting with presentations by Tinashe and me, and a lot of discussion. We also had one guy from National Chicks (our supplier) and two of our farmers. Altogether, I think it was a successful meeting. We'll be picking them up this morning and taking them to see the chicken houses themselves. Then they've agreed to run a training seminar for 3 days in March.

I think it would be a very good thing if our farmers get more connected to the ministry. The ministry seemed very committed to making an effort to help small-scale farmers. Although I'm not sure how much impact they have, or how deep their concern is, I think they do have some resources that we don't.

So we're hoping this is another good meeting.

-Ben

Big meeting tomorrow

We're having a big meeting with the Agriculture Ministry tomorrow, so that's something to anticipate. If all goes well, tomorrow morning will find the AfricaWorks staff, a few of our farmers, and seven members of the ministry meeting to discuss how we can work together to achieve our goals. Our main hope is that they'll be able to provide some training to our farmers. I'm not sure exactly how much help they'll be able to provide, because of the country's financial situation, but we're hopeful.

Please pray that the meeting goes well. I'll let you know how it goes.

-Ben

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Yesterday I went out to the Eastern side of the country with Daran and his wife Theresa to see what they were doing out there. It was a very interesting and informative trip, so I'll try to run you through the highlights.

We first stopped to meet a woman who works closely with Daran and Theresa. She came with us and brought along two girls who are on a short-term (1 month) mission here as part of a mission trip through 11 countries in 11 months. From there, we went to the house of an older couple who retired to the Swazi bush in order to help as much as they could. They do a lot of visits to the communities out there, where they work with kids and try to minister as much as possible.

They came with us into one of the main villages they work in. Their main purpose is to test and get treatment for the children and caretakers in the communities. One of the challenges they see are organizations that come in and test without figuring out how the people will get the necessary treatment. But Daran was quick to point out that if they don't do something about the economic situation of these people, the cycle will just continue.

It's currently the Murula season, so we saw a number of women busy pitting the Murula fruit, which will be brewed quickly and turned into the favorite alcoholic beverage here. Sadly, there aren't many other economic options for these people. They're hemmed in by sugar cane fields and maize fields, so there's no real room for agriculture or raising poultry. The missionaries have gotten some of the women sewing machines and connected them with a business that will pay them for well-made items that it will then sell in the US. Hopefully that will improve their quality of life somewhat, but I'm not sure if their situation will develop further in the next 10 or 20 years.

So while I wasn't inspired with hope and optimism, I am glad I had the experience and got to see how they're living. We'll see what God does in the next couple weeks.

Also, while I saw neither lions, nor tigers, nor bears, I did see antelope and a monitor lizard. I also saw the eyes and nostrils of a submerged crocodile, and saw a hippo, elephants, and apes far off in the distance.

Openings

Today I met with Mitch, the director of Children's Cup and Daran. With Mitch, we talked about our visions for Swaziland and our ideas of the best way to get there. I'm hopeful that someday, we'll get to a point where we can work together to make both of our organizations irrelevant. One challenge is that much of their food is donated from the US. So I'm searching for a way to find food of equivalent nutritional value at a cost that's lower than what they pay for transport. Not easy.

Daran came into the office and met with Tinashe and me. We rehashed much of the same stuff he and I talked about on Monday. I'm excited about the ways God could put all of this together, but I really have no idea how it will all work. We will see.

-Ben

Did it again

Well, Happy Valentine's Day. We had a church Valentine's event on Saturday evening at church. I've been told that, although some churches might not have an Easter service or a Good Friday service, every church here will have a Valentine's day event. It was a fun time with food and dancing. I learned an African dance, but I'll have to learn it a lot better before I can do it without lots of laughter.

Yesterday I met with Daran, another missionary here. He's working with HIV patients in the eastern area of the country. His goal is to get a self-sustaining clinic going in one of the villages out there. To do this, he wants to buy a large commercial property that he will then be able to lease out to support the clinic. We talked for quite a while and I think he's got a very good plan going forward.

We were talking about possible ways we can work together, and I explained that our focus at AfricaWorks is more focused on developing the economic capacity of the community. We talked about some of the opportunities that might arise, especially if they have commercial space where we could set up a business/processor. One of the options we're looking at is growing Moringa, an extremely nutritious plant that I think would have very positive impacts in Swaziland.

Some of the speedbumps that we still have to get over include:
1) Daran hasn't been able to put together the money necessary to buy the property. I believe the property costs about $400,000, and he's only raised a fraction of that money. So our (AW) work in the community is purely speculative until his organization can move that forward.

2) We need to do major market research to see if we could sell moringa if we grow it. Although it's worked very well in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Swazis haven't adopted it into their diet yet. So we'll have to see if we can create a market or export. That will need to be worked out before we decide whether or not to get involved.

Because the area is so far east, we can't really connect them with our abattoir because all the profits will go straight to transportation costs. So I'm just trying to figure out the best way to create opportunities for the people out there. Hopefully more to follow someday.

-Ben

Early this time

Kuyashisa. That means, "it's hot" in SiSwati. And it is. I know most of you are dealing with temperatures 60 degrees cooler than this, so I'm not trying to rub it in. But a major storm is brewing and I want to get this in, just in case we lose our internet tomorrow.

I thought I'd give you a little idea of what driving is like here. We drive on the wrong side of the road, which wasn't too tough after I mastered walking on the left side of the sidewalk. It still gets me a bit when I'm on the highway, because the passing lane is the right lane.

Stop signs change their meaning depending on the time of day. During rush hour, you're expected to roll through unless someone is trying to turn. Then you do a full stop. When the intersection is abandoned, it's a yield sign, so you slow down and make sure no one is coming from another direction. Late at night, it's probably more dangerous to stop than to just fly through, because the guy behind you isn't stopping.

The highway has gotten more interesting since Christmas because the ore trucks have been coming down from the mine that's now operational again. Two weeks ago, five of them piled up in one morning. It can get exciting, getting around them but not getting picked off by the much faster traffic.

My favorite part is the speed bumps, which everyone else has to slow down for. Because my motorcycle is half dirt bike half road bike, it can't keep up with most vehicles on the highway. But it is perfect for the dirt roads on the way to the abattoir, and when everyone else is stopping at speed bumps, I can slip right past and go over without a problem.

Have a great weekend,
-Ben

Abattoir Emergency

Yesterday I spent a few hours at the abattoir. It was a good chance to talk to the employees and I got a lot of good information that I'll be able to work into a report. Unfortunately, one of the freezers was not working, which meant they couldn't process chicken yesterday (nowhere to put them when done).

The crisis is that we probably won't be able to process anything for the next couple weeks. So we had an emergency meeting today and ran through our options. For now, we're going to sell our chickens to the live market. We'll actually be making more money this way, but the price is very unstable, so we can't count on this in the future. We also had to determine how to allocate the profit, because Kumbula is supposed to be buying the chickens from the farmers, but at the price they should buy at, our farmers are making losses (mainly because they're not very good at raising chickens yet). So we're giving them a bit of a break, and Kumbula is cutting their own profit margin. It seemed a bit silly that we (the AW staff) was deciding that Kumbula would cut their profit margins, but I guess that's how this works.

On a more serious note, one of the other PW interns had to be flown home due to a medical emergency. I've gotten conflicting reports of what exactly is going on, so I'll just say that she was in pretty tough shape, but we're very hopeful that she'll make a full recovery. Of course, we appreciate your prayers.

-Ben

Tuesdays

Since I've been back, I'm not sure if I've posted on Monday yet. Yesterday I was just working on AW Mozambique expense reports until it was time to go home, then I went home. I'm going to have to work out some sort of reminder system that shocks me if I try to leave.

Anyway, today I'll be heading to the abattoir to meet with the workers there. My goal is a report on how we can improve operations there for the good of the abattoir, their investors, and our farmers. Wish me luck.

I've been throwing "abattoir" around a lot, but a lot of the missionaries here don't know what that means. Although I'm confident you're using it in everyday conversation by now, in the interest of completeness, I'll  post that it's a slaughterhouse. Our chickens go there, wait in the holding pen, then are taken inside, killed, plucked, gutted, frozen, and packaged. It all goes pretty smoothly, but my goal is to make it better, so I'm off.

Since going down the mountain on my motorcycle is probably one of the most dangerous things I do, I'll say goodbye now. It's been a pleasure. Tell my family I loved them. ;)

-Ben

Abattoir

Today we had a meeting with Oscar at the abattoir. I would be hard-pressed to describe the progress we made, but I think Tinashe and Oscar worked some things out with transportation and tracking of chickens. We're getting closer and closer to figuring this all out. Then (hopefully), we'll have a smooth ride as our farmers' chickens go directly and smoothly into the abattoir, where we are able to easily track them and quickly determine the weights so payments can be made.

Our abattoir situation is pretty unique, in my opinion. We deliver the live chickens and they're processed, frozen, and eventually sold. But the abattoir never owns the chickens. I thought all abattoirs bought their animals live from the farmers, processed them, and sold them. But our abattoir just charges a processing fee. So I'm really not sure whether the farmers or the marketing company own the chickens while they're in the abattoir. Tinashe seems to think this is the only way abattoirs work, so maybe I'm just out of my depth here.

Have a great weekend,
-Ben

Highway Wisdom

We were driving back from the abattoir yesterday and I saw a Kombi that struck me as funny. It had a phrase on the back, like many of them often do. "Train up a child -Proverbs 22:6". That made me laugh, mainly because it strikes me as a very Swazi editing of the verse.

The whole verse is "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." But from the amount of children around, you would probably believe that the command is just "raise children." I thought that was pretty funny.

Of course, the situation is a bit sadder than that. The ratio of kids to adults is getting to be a problem. So many middle-aged people have died that the amount of orphans has exploded. If my parents both died, my sisters would go live with my grandparents until I got situated and we worked something out. And it really would be a manageable situation. But now imagine that each set of grandparents has to deal with all of their grandchildren. And grandparents aren't always around either, so neighbors and distant family have to step in. Pretty quickly, everyone is taking care of kids.

That quickly became more serious than it was yesterday in the car, but it's definitely a situation that needs prayer.

-Ben

Meetings

We were stuck late in a meeting yesterday, so I didn't manage to get a post up. Luckily for you, today has added to my material. So today I can update you on some of the stuff we talked about in our staff meeting this morning.

1. The Ministry of Agriculture is becoming interested in our project. We have a meeting with them February 21 to see if and how they can be more involved in what we're doing. Due to the current state of government funds, I would expect they might be able to help with some training. Tinashe is a bit more optimistic about additional funds.

2. Our farmers in Lamgabi are running into some issues as they're taking care of their chickens. They're all on their first or second cycles, so this isn't surprising. We're working through these growing pains and working on helping them any way we can.

3. We have a new staff person starting tomorrow. She'll technically be working for Temashinga, selling chickens and making sure we get the payments. That will be welcome. She'll probably be around here a lot, because although Tinashe technically doesn't work for Temashinga, I haven't noticed a real strict division of powers.

4. Our portfolio is now large enough to support all of our farmers, which is great news. It's letting us get into a cycle, and move forward. Now we're looking to expand into another village. Very exciting.

I hope that fills you in on some of what we've been doing and will be doing in the next couple months.

-Ben

We're being watched

It's Friday again. I thought it would also be a good idea to see who's following my blog. When I was home, I was really amazed by the amount of people who mentioned that they read it. I was truly honored, but don't worry. I'm not going to quiz you or ask if you've been reading my blog. What I'm most confused about is the foreign countries.

In the past month, people have viewed my blog from the following places:
Ghana: Another PW intern is serving there, so I'm more honored than surprised.

Honduras: My former high school teacher is pastoring a church there. We've been exchanging emails, so I'm not too surprised. (He did a very similar post on his blog)

Russia: I think Russia is the generic place where random hits are assigned.

United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany: I've gotten a lot of hits from Europe. I don't think I know anyone who's currently in Europe.

Mexico and Brazil: I'm also not sure who these can be attributed to. Brazil has been a fairly consistent hit as long as I've been here. Maybe there are a lot of netizens there?

Malta: This is really the one that sparked my interest. Someone from Malta read my blog? Of the 415,000 people there, one of them is interested in my work in Swaziland? Cool.

If you are one of these people, or if you just want to send me questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email me at BenjaminCVerhulst@gmail.com.

Have a good weekend,
-Ben

Alone Again, Naturally

It's only been 24 hours since my last post, but I'm generally still trying to stick to my MWF schedule. In those 24 hours, I've realized that Africa has made me weak. As I've mentioned before, we can buy boxed milk here in Swaziland. Well, there was a deal at the grocery store such that I could purchase a box of 6 individual 1-liter cartons for the price of only 5 individual cartons. The difference is about E10, or $1.25, but that's a deal and I'm Dutch. What I didn't take into my considerations was my walk back up the mountain to home. So, as I was near the top of the climb and I realized that I was doing basically the same thing in Washington 10 months ago. Maybe I've just forgotten what it was like, but I think I'm getting to be a wuss.

Some of you may wonder why I walk so much. I know most of the Americans here think I'm a bit weird when I walk to church instead of drive. For one thing, I think it's good exercise (which I'm always in need of) and it saves fuel. But I think more importantly, it lets me walk on the streets with Swazis. Sure, passing someone and nodding or throwing out a quick greeting isn't a deep relationship, but I think it's a good experience to get. I hope that makes some sense.

-Ben

Great Excitement

I forgot to post yesterday, so I'll have to post today. You probably remember all the rain we got last week. 72+ hours straight. It looks like we're going to be doing something similar this weekend, which I'm not looking forward to. But I'm now more convinced that we won't wash away. I am a bit worried that my roof is leaking, but nothing has come through the ceiling yet. So, at most, it'll just be water damage.

Those of you who know my hobbies know that I'm a bit of an Oscar follower. So, my big excitement of the day was seeing that Oscar nominations are out. Generally, this is a list of movies considered to be the best, and I usually try to see as many as I can. Things are going to be a bit different this year, because I'm a bit limited in my choice of movies to go to. Well, that just means I'll have some movies to see when I get back.

In case anyone is looking for something to do, a friend sent me a NY Times article on Alvin Plantinga, in honor of his new book. Although the Times isn't known for being a haven of Christian philosophers, I thought the piece was very positive and a good read. I'm a huge fan of Dr. Plantinga, so this got me excited and I thought I'd share it.

-Ben

Ncobile Ethel Simelane

Today I interviewed a farmer for our newsletter. I thought I'd post a draft of her story.

            Some people learn business by studying it in school. Some learn it by trial and error. Ncobile Ethel Simelane just has intuition, but she makes the most of what she has. After all, she’s had seven children, and is also taking care of two orphans. So when AfricaWorks began talking about raising chickens, she was one of the first to seize the opportunity. She and her husband rallied the community, and now there are fourteen chicken houses in their village. And there are more people who want to join.

            With the money she makes from her chickens, Mrs. Simelane hopes to pay school fees for her children and build a house with 5-7 rooms, enough for her family to move out of their current two-room house. But she isn’t content with the income she receives from her families. She is also using the manure from her chickens to fertilize her vegetable garden so that the vegetables her family grows will be improved.

            But it’s not the income from the chickens or the prime vegetables that make Mrs. Simelane proud. It’s not even the chickens she brings to her family if they’re too small to be slaughtered at the abattoir. She is proud because they’re doing something better than what they were doing before. Before, they were eking out enough money to live by growing vegetables. Now, they have a real business and enough money to pay for luxuries like a home with five rooms.

-Ben

Wednesday it is

Well, it's still raining. So I'm probably only writing this to put off walking home through the river that has taken the place of the sidewalk. But rain not only soaks shoes, it also nourishes the land. So I we are thankful for that.

Other than the rain, not much else is new. I'm working on our Q4 newsletter, so if anyone wants to buy space in the back for advertising, let me know (only half joking). Tinashe will be travelling to Mozambique tomorrow, but he'll be back on Friday. Hopefully, all the rain that's going through these two countries won't be a serious problem for him. They are, though, a problem for some of our farmers, because it's tough for us to get up the mountain on dirt roads when we have this much rain. These are the weeks we're very glad that we put concrete under our chicken houses and elevated them slightly so that water runs around them instead of into them.

Hope all is well in the States, now that winter weather has finally arrived. For those of you who didn't know, my sister had eye surgery and it went well. Please pray for a swift recovery and for it to help keep the pressure down. Thanks.

-Ben

Welcome back to Africa

It's been pouring rain here for the past 36 hours, knocking the internet out for most of that time. That's why this blog is late, and why my jeans are wet, and why the walk to work was entirely mud. Forecast is more rain the rest of the week, but at least we're not in the middle of the cyclone that's hitting Mozambique right now. So, as long as we don't get washed away, we'll keep working here.

I did make it to church on Sunday, and it was nice to see friends there again. I also recovered from my jet lag, so I'm staying awake now from 5:30am to 8pm, which is good enough for now. I've also managed to load some pictures, so I'll post a few of them from my trip and our visit to the abattoir.

Zurich from the train window. I don't understand German, but I think I may have snuck into first class on this train ride. It was only 10 minutes, and no one checked my ticket, but I didn't mean to.

This is the city street right outside the train station. A lot of cool old buildings. The city is made for pedestrians, even though there are thoroughfares for vehicles.

I walked down the Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich's main street. It's a really cool street, with all sorts of fancy, classy, and expensive businesses and banks. But if you enlarge this picture, you can see a sign for Claire's farther down the street. Sad.

This is another picture of the street. The weather was chilly and the skies were grey, but the city was beautiful.

This is off main street, back in the neighborhoods. Little shops line these streets, which are too narrow for cars. It's the definition of idyllic.

This is the Grossmunster, a church said to have been commissioned by Charlemagne. It was an amazing church, but pictures were not allowed inside, so this is the best one I've got. I'd never been in a church that had been standing for a millenium.

Back in Swaziland, one of our farmers brought her baby in to the office for our meeting. Always good to know who we're helping.

Mbabane. I just thought I'd throw this in for contrast to the streets of Zurich. Interestingly, there are many fewer smokers in Mbabane than Zurich.

Some of the less-bloody shots of the abattoir. This is where they turn the clucking, feathery things into tasty morsels.

Here, our farmers are watching as abattoir workers weigh and wrap boxes of chickens. From here, they'll be frozen and sold.

-Ben