Swazi update #1

Dearest Friends and Family,

I have arrived safe and sound in Swaziland. Sorry it took so long for me to let you know, but internet access is somewhat limited. I do have to say though, when I did finally open my email and saw that there were 36 new messages sitting there waiting for me I was just so overwhelmed with love for you all. I wanted to just say thank you so much, it means more than I can express that I have so many wonderful people standing behind me as I try to adapt to a new culture, a new living situation, and a new workplace!

Anyways I can hardly believe I have only been here a week. Time has just flown by and I honestly cannot imagine being somewhere else. I think because I have lived in four different towns/cities in the last year that I am getting fairly good at adjusting quickly. I just sort of accepted when I arrived here that this is where I am and there is no going back. While I thought once or twice in the first couple days that I would like to be at home, I have NOT for one second not wanted to be here in Bulembu if that makes sense. It’s pretty incredible how well I have transitioned to my new life, God had obviously been preparing my heart for this move for awhile.

My plane landed last Friday after an extremely grueling 30+ hours. I don’t think I have ever been so happy in my life to step on solid ground! A friend’s brother-in-law picked me up at the airport and we began the five hour drive to Swaziland. It was a lovely trip, as the surrounding country between Johannesburg and Bulembu is very nice. I was really surprised at how similar it looked to Canada. If I thought that country was beautiful though, I was in for quite the surprise when I finally rounded the bend and caught my first view of Bulembu. It is, I think, the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life. It is the most luscious shade of green. There are flowers and trees and bushes everywhere. The town is built on all different sides of a valley, and it is quite charming, as it is painted pink, blue, and yellow, they call them “smartie box houses”.

Since that day life has been a whirlwind of trying to recover from jetlag and trying to learn a million different things about my new home. My house is really lovely and I have my own room which was particularly wonderful the first few days I was here, as I could not sleep enough. Partly this was due to jetlag, but partly it was due to quite bad altitude sickness… I was quite sick for the first five days or so when I arrived, with nausea, shaking, feverish feeling (clammy), white face, inability to eat. Praise the Lord I am feeling a lot better now, though I am struggling to fight off a cold (a sore throat, and sniffly nose mainly).

One of the most difficult things to adjust to has been surprisingly enough the weather. When I first arrived it was around five degrees and raining for about three days… Now many of you might not think five degrees is very cold, but take away the central heating, the parka, and the car, and you will arrive at where I am at right now. Needless to say I was wearing about five layers the whole time, and was tucked under five covers as well! However, when Monday rolled around I was in for the next shock, it was about 30 degrees and humid!! All I could think was I did not bring enough light weight cotton skirts and dresses. However now it’s Friday and the weather is changing again, I woke up this morning put on pants because it looked cloudy and chilly out, by the time I finished making breakfast it was hot so I switched to a skirt and tshirt, by 11:30 it started to get cloudy and cold. I went home at 1 and changed again into pants and brought a jacket just in case, sure enough by the end of the day I would guess its around 15 degrees outside and POURING, and my favourite thundering out ;). Apparently this is a normal day in Swaziland, the weather changes fast. Hot in the morning thundershower in the afternoon seems to be the pattern. Everyone has been warning me about the storms since I got here and seriously Praise God he seems to be just slowly easing me into them… I figured out why they are so bad though, it’s because we are literally in the middle of the cloud when it storms! I have never seen anything like it, but it’s because of the altitude…. Oh speaking of thunderstorms the power just went out!!!!

The community here has been incredibly welcoming, both in and out of work. It’s so small that I already feel very familiar with quite a lot of people. Also people tend to rely on each other a lot more since there is a very limited amount of cars, and in order to get things people need one another so you have to get to know each other, it’s really lovely. Bible study here has also been such an encouragement. Some of the girls just decided to hold it and I went, and honestly God’s hand was just there so heavily, and he used them to speak a lot of truth into my life. The volunteers also celebrated American Thanksgiving last night which was loads of fun. I honestly cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard or ate so much! It has been really a lot easier because I knew some of the girls out here from university, and we get along fantastically. They are all leaving for Christmas though (some indefinitely) and I hate to think how lonely it will be when they leave! My roommates are also really nice girls, one is from White rock and is a nurse (no wise cracks regarding my health please!), and the other works in the office and is from Mozambique. They have gone out of their way to make me feel at home here.

My job is really wonderful, as are the people I am working with. I am working as the project administrator for Bulembu Ministries, which is in charge of the orphan care/sponsorship program. I am responsible for many different tasks. Mainly developing and putting new systems in place for doing things, as they don’t really have systems in place up to this point, but they need them in order to facilitate the rapid growth they are experiencing. So I will develop things like a database with all the information on all the orphans. I will also need to develop a way of keeping track of finances, and spending reports. I am responsible for communication (so if you send an email to info@bulembu.org I will be the one responding to you!)… I also have a number of various jobs from talking to donors, to writing up sponsorship reports.

… despite how normal day-to-day life feels for the most part (wake up, read bible, go to work, come home, cook dinner, see friends), this is definitely still Africa… I have to keep slippers on in case a snake gets in the house, which is a legitimate possibility, as I learned when a snake showed up at work on Tuesday!~

I keep having these surreal moments where I feel more like I’m in a documentary than real life, and half the time I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry. Even today I got a ride home from work because of the storm, and we had to drop off some of the African ladies as well… as we were driving 10 km/h on the tiny windy potholed rural streets with water gushing down them, we passed tons of school children who were just meandering along, some in bare feet, some barely looking as though they should be walking, it just made me want to leap out of the car and scoop them in my arms! They are the most beautiful children I have ever seen in my life. Another moment when I knew I was in Africa was when i came home for lunch two days ago and outside leaning against my house sitting in the shade was a Swazi woman… at first I wasn’t really sure if I should say something or what to do because it’s so not something you would see at home. But then I remembered this is Africa, and she is probably hot and tired from working. So I brought her some water and made her lunch and went and sat outside on the pavement next to her (she didn’t want to come inside), and we talked, and I was reminded people are just people no matter what they look like or where they are from... God made us all. it is very different though, because you dont have to go to the scummy areas of downtown to find those who are hurting and hungry, they are everywhere, and strangely it is sort of nice to be among them, i cannot do much but i hope that i can be faithful in small acts of love....

Anyways this update has gotten ridiculously long and I still have so much I could share that I will save for next time. I hope you are well at home and that God is blessing your lives in beautiful ways. Thanks so much for all the messages and prayers they mean so much. I pre-apologize if I don’t write back, the only time I can use email is at work, and I am so busy that I haven’t much time to write back. However, if you want to send me a message regardless the best way to reach me is at Heatherd@bulembu.org.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! God bless!

Yours with Love,

Heather Davies

Prayer Points:

- Health
- for my cold
- Safety:
- it is a common myth here that having a sex with a white woman will cure you from Aids
- it is also snake season so protection
- protection from storms and no fear!
- Continued smooth integration into the community and work
- That I can support the ministry and quickly pinpoint how I can effectively help them.
- That I could contnue to have opportunities to show those around me incredible love!
- That God would change and grow my heart!~
- That the ministry would continue to grow, and resources would be provided!