Thursday, August 14, 2014
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Friday, August 1, 2014
July 2 - Mafutseni, a slow day on the field
On July 2 our team visited the CMC church at Mafutseni. The Mafutseni location was the first daughter church planted by CMC, and the closest, which made for an easy travel day. It is also the smallest site, less than one acre with a single building which we used for the clinic.
There is very little natural shade at the Mafutseni site so I arranged the clinic line to utilize what shade the building itself offered. I had the line begin at one door and wrap around the building. A half hour later I saw people entering by the opposite door. Investigating, I learned that as the sun moved, the scant shade on the side of the building where I had placed the line had disappeared and it was now growing on the opposite side. I made a mental note for next year.
Since the "exit" of the clinic was now where I had originally placed the "entrance," we had to move the prayer team.
The prayer team is a group mainly composed of pastors, including Pastor Van Moore of Vision of Missions Tabernacle Church in Philadelphia -- a founding member of Swaziland Relief. The goal is to have every person who goes through the medical clinic also see the prayer team afterward. "The nurses treat the body and then we treat the soul" is how one of the pastors described it (he then amended his remark to acknowledge that it's really God who treats the soul, the prayer team merely acts as intercessors). To keep the prayer team comfortable, we set up under a tree near the road. It is winter in Swaziland when we go so there was no foliage but the tree's branches offered enough shade to make the team reasonably comfortable in the intense sunlight.
Now on most of our field days this year I found myself hustling around, checking on the team, and offering assistance where needed, but it was a slow day at Mafutseni, so you can see me taking a turn at the prayer station. (Blue shirt and khaki pants, with my back to you.) I also presented my Zacchaeus puppet show to a small group of children who had gathered.
Our vans were overfilled for the trip back (I don't recall how that happened) but I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with my good friend Lelo, who had dropped by after work (just in time to interpret for our puppet show). It was nice to chat with him on the 30 minute ride back to St. Juliana's.
-Mdu
There is very little natural shade at the Mafutseni site so I arranged the clinic line to utilize what shade the building itself offered. I had the line begin at one door and wrap around the building. A half hour later I saw people entering by the opposite door. Investigating, I learned that as the sun moved, the scant shade on the side of the building where I had placed the line had disappeared and it was now growing on the opposite side. I made a mental note for next year.
Since the "exit" of the clinic was now where I had originally placed the "entrance," we had to move the prayer team.
The prayer team is a group mainly composed of pastors, including Pastor Van Moore of Vision of Missions Tabernacle Church in Philadelphia -- a founding member of Swaziland Relief. The goal is to have every person who goes through the medical clinic also see the prayer team afterward. "The nurses treat the body and then we treat the soul" is how one of the pastors described it (he then amended his remark to acknowledge that it's really God who treats the soul, the prayer team merely acts as intercessors). To keep the prayer team comfortable, we set up under a tree near the road. It is winter in Swaziland when we go so there was no foliage but the tree's branches offered enough shade to make the team reasonably comfortable in the intense sunlight.
Now on most of our field days this year I found myself hustling around, checking on the team, and offering assistance where needed, but it was a slow day at Mafutseni, so you can see me taking a turn at the prayer station. (Blue shirt and khaki pants, with my back to you.) I also presented my Zacchaeus puppet show to a small group of children who had gathered.
Our vans were overfilled for the trip back (I don't recall how that happened) but I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with my good friend Lelo, who had dropped by after work (just in time to interpret for our puppet show). It was nice to chat with him on the 30 minute ride back to St. Juliana's.
-Mdu
Thursday, July 31, 2014
July 1 - Madudula, the old stomping grounds
[For those confused by the dates, see my post on time-shifted blogging.]
On July 1st our team traveled to Madudula. For those who don't recall (or don't remember the Swazi place names), Madudula was the original site of "the tent" from our first mission in 2007. The community is vastly different seven years later.
Where there was once only an open field, there is now an enclosed compound free of cow traffic (and cow pie), where a large common building houses a classroom and three additional classrooms are in operation. Three more classrooms are nearing completion.
On July 1st our team traveled to Madudula. For those who don't recall (or don't remember the Swazi place names), Madudula was the original site of "the tent" from our first mission in 2007. The community is vastly different seven years later.
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| Setting up the tent in June of 2007. |
Where there was once only an open field, there is now an enclosed compound free of cow traffic (and cow pie), where a large common building houses a classroom and three additional classrooms are in operation. Three more classrooms are nearing completion.
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| One of the unfinished classrooms. This classroom was having a concrete floor installed when we were there In Madudula, we held a clinic and visited the classrooms. Some of our team held a hygiene session emphasizing hand-washing. For this purpose, they had kids look into a microscope to view the germs that were on someone's hands. Others did a puppet show presentation of the story of Zacchaeus. We also played with the children in the field and visited with people in Madudula, some of whom we have known since 2007. It is always nice to return to Madudula to visit the "family" there.
This day was the first one in which I had to make some "field director" decisions. I had to secure locations for our hygiene and puppetry sessions, plus a room for a prayer chapel for our pastors. I also had to make sure everyone who needed an interpreter had one. Also, I knew that my friend Eric desperately wanted to visit a woman named Bhelina with whom he and his wife had developed a relationship with over several years. Eric's wife, a physical therapist, had helped Bhelina regain some of the mobility that she had lost to age and arthritis. So upon arrival I spoke to one of the church leaders in Madudula, Joseph, and asked him to arrange a visit to her home. Eric and his on left soon after and had a wonderful visit and reunion.
 One additional "executive decision" I made concerned our time of leaving Madudula. Usually we try to leave while there is still some daylight. This is not only for our safety but for the safety of the people in Madudula. Walking home in the dark can be dangerous. However, the sunset in Madudula is breathtaking, and for those members of the team who had never seen it, I decided we should stay until the sun had gone down. We left immediately after sunset, so that we (and the people of Madudula) could travel home in the evening twilight. As you can see from the picture below, the view was worth it. -Mdu  |
Monday, July 28, 2014
Correspondence, 21st Century Style
I am currently reading Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. I am struck by how much of what we know about Franklin's life comes from letters either written by him, to him, or about him. Correspondence is history!
Since returning from Swaziland I have renewed my commitment to stay in touch with people I met over there. I have also become desirous of strengthening my connections with people here in the States. So I have been thinking a lot about different ways to keep in touch, and today, I have decided to devote this blog to correspondence, 21st century style.
Letters and Cards
This is "old school" correspondence. Sometimes we call it "snail mail" because its slower. I hardly ever use this medium. I write support letters each year for the mission trip, and I pay the grasscutting bill each month to my landscaper. Occasionally I send a card to someone through the mail. Other than that, I really don't use the mail for correspondence.
Telephone
This is my favorite form of communication. I am a "talker" more than a "writer." Given the option, I'd always prefer a phone call. I can also call while driving thanks to the blue tooth hands-free option in my Jeep. How I love that! However, one problem with phone calls is that they are by nature always urgent. They have to be answered immediately and both parties must be available simultaneously.
SMS/Texting
It's convenient, it can be close to real time, but I find texting tedious. It is difficult to write a long message via even with T9 predictive text. The iPhone has made it better but I am keep deleting, especially when I type the letter "m." Also, iPhone autocorrect mistakes are legendary (no link for these, too many are naughty. You know what I'm talking about.)
Email
This is my preferred form of written communication. I have (much to the consternation of my friends and family) tried many different accounts at various times. I started using Gmail when it was "by invitation only" -- sometime between 2004 and 2007 -- and I still use it today. Email allows both short and long messages, allows me to draft messages and send them later, allows me to store and keep messages and threads, and allows me to send and share photos. It's everything I want. But lots of people I know don't use it.
Facebook
I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I see its value in many ways, but I also find myself wasting a lot of time on FB. For example, do I really need to know what Marvel Super Villain I would be (answer: The Green Goblin) or which classic 80's action movie I am (answer: Die Hard, of course)?
I have found FB to be invaluable in promoting Swaziland Relief and in connecting with past and present team members, so I usually am most active on FB between May and August, just before and just after the annual trip.
Twitter
I actually tried using Twitter this past year to send updates and reminders to my students. But I won't be continuing it this year. I just became "one more thing" to do, with questionable efficacy.
[addendum: I spoke to a colleague who uses Twitter regularly. I am going to ask her to promote my blog through her Twitter feed. I might be convinced of its worth.]
Linked-In
Like you, I have been invited to join Linked-In over a thousand times. This year when I got home from Swaziland, I finally joined (as many of you know, and as some of you regret. My apologies for the invitation "blast").
Linked-In seemed at first like a Facebook for grownups, with a goal of actually connecting people professionally. Then I joined, and it seemed like a fiendish plot to spam everyone I know with invitation emails. I got the latter under control, and the jury is still out as to the worth of the former.
WhatsApp
Last year I started using WhatsApp because one of my good friends in Swaziland said it was the best way to contact him. At first I was skeptical, but then I checked into it and learned that WhatsApp was the fastest growing social media app and was much bigger than Facebook or Twitter in Europe and Africa.
Since returning from Swaziland I have renewed my commitment to stay in touch with people I met over there. I have also become desirous of strengthening my connections with people here in the States. So I have been thinking a lot about different ways to keep in touch, and today, I have decided to devote this blog to correspondence, 21st century style.
Letters and Cards
This is "old school" correspondence. Sometimes we call it "snail mail" because its slower. I hardly ever use this medium. I write support letters each year for the mission trip, and I pay the grasscutting bill each month to my landscaper. Occasionally I send a card to someone through the mail. Other than that, I really don't use the mail for correspondence.
Telephone
This is my favorite form of communication. I am a "talker" more than a "writer." Given the option, I'd always prefer a phone call. I can also call while driving thanks to the blue tooth hands-free option in my Jeep. How I love that! However, one problem with phone calls is that they are by nature always urgent. They have to be answered immediately and both parties must be available simultaneously.
SMS/Texting
It's convenient, it can be close to real time, but I find texting tedious. It is difficult to write a long message via even with T9 predictive text. The iPhone has made it better but I am keep deleting, especially when I type the letter "m." Also, iPhone autocorrect mistakes are legendary (no link for these, too many are naughty. You know what I'm talking about.)
This is my preferred form of written communication. I have (much to the consternation of my friends and family) tried many different accounts at various times. I started using Gmail when it was "by invitation only" -- sometime between 2004 and 2007 -- and I still use it today. Email allows both short and long messages, allows me to draft messages and send them later, allows me to store and keep messages and threads, and allows me to send and share photos. It's everything I want. But lots of people I know don't use it.
I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I see its value in many ways, but I also find myself wasting a lot of time on FB. For example, do I really need to know what Marvel Super Villain I would be (answer: The Green Goblin) or which classic 80's action movie I am (answer: Die Hard, of course)?
I have found FB to be invaluable in promoting Swaziland Relief and in connecting with past and present team members, so I usually am most active on FB between May and August, just before and just after the annual trip.
I actually tried using Twitter this past year to send updates and reminders to my students. But I won't be continuing it this year. I just became "one more thing" to do, with questionable efficacy.
[addendum: I spoke to a colleague who uses Twitter regularly. I am going to ask her to promote my blog through her Twitter feed. I might be convinced of its worth.]
Linked-In
Like you, I have been invited to join Linked-In over a thousand times. This year when I got home from Swaziland, I finally joined (as many of you know, and as some of you regret. My apologies for the invitation "blast").
Linked-In seemed at first like a Facebook for grownups, with a goal of actually connecting people professionally. Then I joined, and it seemed like a fiendish plot to spam everyone I know with invitation emails. I got the latter under control, and the jury is still out as to the worth of the former.
Last year I started using WhatsApp because one of my good friends in Swaziland said it was the best way to contact him. At first I was skeptical, but then I checked into it and learned that WhatsApp was the fastest growing social media app and was much bigger than Facebook or Twitter in Europe and Africa.
Staying connected in the 21st Century
To keep up with his correspondence, Ben Franklin had to: 1) read letters and 2) write letters.
To keep up with my own correspondence, I have to: 1) read my email, 2) respond to my email, 3) read my text messages, 4) respond to my text messages, 5) log onto Facebook, 6) read my news feed and like or comment on stuff, 7) update my own status, 8) read messages, 9) reply to messages, 10) check Twitter (not planning to keep that up), 10) read my WhatsApp messages, 11) reply to WhatsApp messages, and of course 12) answer my phone or, if I don't 13) listen to my voicemail and 14) call people back.
Of course I probably missed something.
What we have saved in time with our technological methods of communication, we have lost by having so many different media to check. It is a lot of work; I have decided that people are worth the effort.
Oh, and I haven't even mentioned video chat apps like Skype or Google+ Hangouts!
-Mdu
Friday, July 25, 2014
June 30 - Container or not, here we come!
The container had not arrived. And so the week had to be rescheduled.
We started the day by going to the main CMC church in Matsapha, with the intention of picking up some translators and then going to the orphan care point in Manzini. We actually learned that there would be no children at the care point until 2pm so we stayed at CMC Matsapha until around 12:30. We stacked the chairs in the church and swept and mopped the floor. Also did a little planning and prep for the day and some of us took a trip over the hill into the neighborhood across the street.
We spent most of the afternoon at the orphan care point, where saw the improvements that have been made since our last trip: an addition on the building, significant work in the garden, and brand new toilets (not the flush kind, the pit kind, but new!)
I had fun singing songs with the kids. I sang songs that I had learned in Swaziland, and they seem surprised (and somewhat impressed) that I knew "I am the winner" and "Le Ligama le Inkhosi" (translation: "The Name of the King").
Enjoy the pictures!
-Mdu
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| Collette, who runs the orphan care point, stands with several of the children who have come for lunch. |
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| Collette shows the new addition to several team members. |
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| Two of our team members, Michelle and Carrie, served the children as they came through the line. The simple meal consisted of corn "mealy pap" and bean stew. |
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