One of the most important aspects of our annual trips to Swaziland is the building and maintaining of relationships with the local churches. They are our hosts, our partners, and our friends; people we have worked alongside, in some cases, since 2007. In pursuit of the goal of relationship-building, the past 2 years we have scheduled a recreational "sports day" in Madudula, for which all of the churches gather and compete in races and games.
The USA did not field a soccer team this year; the less said about our previous soccer teams, the better. Suffice it to say that I was eligible to play again, because apparently the red card for dangerous play does not carry over from previous years. Nonetheless, I did not come out of retirement to play this year.
The races were fun to watch. There were separate divisions set up by age and sex. The most interesting race to watch was the older women; I wish I had taken a photo of the bogogo (grandmothers) dashing across the field, but alas, I did not have my camera at the ready.
Of course, where there is sport there is injury. Two of our men pulled hamstrings during their races. I got some pretty nice pictures of the injuries as they happened (not nice that it happened, but a well-captured shot of the action).
I also captured some interesting photos of the races as they finished, including one of team member Antwan winning by a finger ...
... and the grin of a victorious pastor Themba Fakudze as his team defeated the US team in the 4x4 relay. That was quite a race to watch. Our 2nd runner was out in the lead when he stumbled and fell. In a move that became a living parable, he got up and continued his race! He actually made up some of the ground he lost and passed our teams baton on to the number 3 runner. He gave us a picture of perseverance in the face of difficulty, and finishing the race! Another living parable was when our 3rd runner passed the baton to our anchor man, his son.
Two other new and interesting things I saw that day were the library at the school in Madudula, and the playground. Both of these were the work of a Peace Corps worker who has been in Swaziland for the past year. She was an invaluable help to us in communicating with the school. She's back in the US now, but her legacy will live on in Madudula.
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