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