Our Time in Swaziland

The kitchen

The "backyard"

I do not think that I am exaggerating when I say that our week in Swaziland was life-changing. For five days, we were part of the family of Petros and Elizabeth. The loving couple decided to open up their house to orphans and love them like their own children. By now, they are the parents of 15 children and they are considering taking in another child. During our time with them, I asked several times but I never found out which ones of the children were actually their “own.” However, I have realized something much more striking: The culture here does not actually separate their own children from their siblings’ children or their grandchildren etc. If they live in the same house, they are part of the family and that is all that matters. So if there is no such differentiation in this family, who am I to try to bring in this Western separation between “immediate family,” “adopted children,” and “relatives”? So eventually, I stopped asking such unnecessary questions.

Plastering :)

The sad thing is that all of the adopted children in Petros’ and Elizabteth’s family actually come from their extended family – most of them from Elizabeth’s sisters and brothers that have passed away over the years. At some point, she had 10 siblings – now there are only 5 left. Swaziland has a population of 1.2 million --- and 200 000 of them are infected with HIV; that means about 17% of the country. The sad visible results are that the death of loved ones is part of the everyday life in Swaziland, leaving behind thousands of orphans.

Laundry

During our time with the family, our PhotogenX team helped with the yard work (who would have ever thought that we would have to burn a field instead of mowing it?!), helped finish the façade of their house, and most of all spent time with the kids. Even though the family is so strong in their love for each other and for the Lord, there is not much time for individual attention for each member in such a large family. From the moment we arrived and I smiled at one of the girls getting out of the taxi, this girl, Tibusiso, grabbed my hand and followed me around whenever possible. I realized that for me, it had been a simple smile. For her, it must have meant the world to be the first one to be smiled at by this white lady (me) who came from a different place of the world that she will probably never be able to see. It is amazing for me to understand that sometimes even the little things we do might have a great impact on somebody else. That’s why we need to live intentionally.

The bathroom

For the five days in Swaziland our team also learned to live without running water, without a flushing toilet, without electricity and without silverware. What holds the family together are not any luxurious possessions but the daily family dinners around the fire and the nightly good-night prayers. There is so much that we can learn from this humble style of living. On the last day, we wanted to give back some of the blessings we had received: our whole team (also the guys!) had spent several days knitting scarfs for each one of the kids! And even though it seemed like a small gesture after all, we received thankful eyes and great big smiles for it!