Day 6We are all in complete awe that we have made it this far. Based on distance, we have passed the half-way point but we have yet to go through my “zone” (the 3½ days that I was in charge of planning/coordinating). Today we walked through the big city along a very busy corridor. It was a short walk into the city where we held an event at Jubilee Park. We had a marching band and drum majorettes group from a Manzini high school perform before the HIV/AIDS education. NGOs in Manzini set up booths for people to get more information about their services and after all the speeches (and there were many), the crowd marched through the city. I ran ahead to get pictures—it was stunning. NGO workers out with their banners and t-shirts alongside the nation walkers and led by the drum majorettes. The excitement of the singing and dancing infected the typically unfriendly city. Shop owners stepped outside to view the passing crowd. People on errands stopped to watch the walk and ask what was happening. Raising awareness about HIV—that’s what was happening!
We walked to Matsapha for our lunch break. Matsapha, a nearby city to Manzini, is the industrial center of Swaziland—international companies like Coca-Cola have their factories sprawled out amongst smoke stacks and concrete buildings. Not the most attractive city, but it does have fast food. And, instead of eating the undercooked rice and beans that we have been eating the past few days, I had a burger, French fries, and bought fresh fruit from the market. Oh…how I love Steers! After lunch, it was a short walk to the Taiwanese Technical Mission, down the road from Matsapha. It has a beautiful complex but found there was not enough space for everyone to sleep inside. So, most of us ended up sleeping outside…Not the best way to spend the night and a cause for many complaints from our nation walkers. Some were troopers and some would not give their complaints a rest. What did they think? We’d be staying in 5 star hotels? I just don’t understand how it’s any different to sleep outside under canopies than it is to sleep in school classrooms with all windows open (or broken) and doors falling off their hinges. The same onslaught of bugs and morning dew. The same noise level. The same discomfort. I guess I just don’t get it.
Day 7
Saturday, a big day for Walk the Nation, and the first day that I am completely responsible for. UNICEF agreed to take on this day as Youth Day and work with Adam, another Peace Corps Volunteer, in Emphini, our final destination. I, unfortunately, did not get to be part of the walk today. Instead, I was put on advance team duty and went to Emphini to unload the truck and ensure that everything was set up. We had a bit of a crisis with water and Adam explained that the sports activities that were supposed to happen in the morning (teaching HIV prevention through sports) were cancelled because of miscommunication about transportation. This is the frustrating thing about event planning in Swaziland—a central part of the day focused on educating the youth in Emphini just didn’t happen because someone told someone else the wrong time to meet in Manzini to drive to the site. The result—300 children at the primary school hanging around expecting to play some sports and left disappointed.
The walk would have been a great experience. The American Embassy and many NGOs showed up to participate. It was a huge crowd and the program at Emphini Primary School was highlighted by special guests—U.S. Ambassador Maurice Parker, the Director of UNICEF for Swaziland, and a Swazi prince. I was able to watch a bit of the program and relax in the shade for a while. I saw Colile, a girl from Adam’s soccer team, who remembered me from a soccer match in January. She is a really sweet girl and kept me company during lunch and the afternoon.
Fortunately, we were not responsible for lunch on that day but dinner turned out to be a disaster. We decided to make chicken salad sandwiches for 130 people. Sounds delicious, right? Well, we didn’t really consider the time it takes for chicken to cool after it’s been boiled. After an hour of pulling hot chicken off the bone (and Josh mistakenly putting cooked chicken into raw chicken juice), my fingers ached and the walkers were pacing for their meals. When all was said and done, the sandwiches were made, people ate, and it was time for sleep. The day had been peppered with dealing with people’s egos and problem solving the lack of water among other issues. The next day would be similar as I had to continue with advance team duty and miss out on walking to Khalangilile with Colile.
Day 8
The closer we get to my community, the more nervous I get. I feel as if I have to prove that all this work will have some impact on the people of my community. I have spent so much time in Mbabane and Manzini planning for this walk and now my energy is expended on trying to make people happy. Ensuring there is enough water to bathe, dealing with the egos of event planners, and appeasing all the stakeholders. My focus is being pulled away from the central purpose of the walk—providing HIV education to rural community members.
On advance team, we packed up the truck, passed the walkers en route to Khalangilile, and were pleasantly surprised to find a group of women awaiting our arrival, willing to cook for us. They had been organized by Zide, who I had worked with to plan the event. I am constantly shocked by people…never knowing what to expect in Swaziland. We unloaded the truck, organized the food preparation, and I was actually able to enjoy the program. This community was really into the drama skits provided by Red Cross—the group performed a skit about the rights of orphans and explained how, as a community, the lives of orphans are everyone’s responsibility. People were moved by the message and judging by the amount of children in the audience, many were probably orphans themselves.
The late afternoon was spent with laundry (all the kitchen towels), bathing (finally—I washed my hair and body!), and cooking. We feasted on pasta and tomato sauce—not a favorite of the Swazis but I thoroughly enjoyed. The night ended on a bit of an odd note…with a round of gun shots. As I was entering the girls’ “dorm” I heard the shots. There was definitely some confusion. The boys yelled at me to get inside and I called Sipho, our Peace Corps driver, who was sleeping in the car near where the shots came from. The shots hadn’t even woken him up…that’s how exhausted people are getting. With some investigation, we found that one of our walkers had walked down to the latrine with his cell phone as a flash-light and was attacked by someone awaiting his opportunity to steal a sleek new phone. Our walker yelled for the police who remained seated, directed their guns towards the night sky, and wasted a round to scare away the attacker. They didn’t even leave their seats. Well, I guess I am thankful they were there. After that, it was time for me to sleep. I have given up on trying to find a sponge/foam to sleep on and started to sleep on the concrete floor. It’s much easier and, surprisingly, much more comfortable.
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