Swaziland Recap

When I last wrote, I was about to leave for Swaziland. We drove some hours down highways and through cities. Eventually we pulled up to the Swaziland boarder. It took us a few minutes to get our passports stamped and step into my favorite country I’ve been to yet.

I would call the Swaziland base rustic and down to earth. When we got there no one had stayed there for about a year so it took some dusting and de-cobwebbing. It will always be a memorable and well loved home to me, with its creaky doors, large spiders in the showers, the daily tally of crickets and cockroaches that hop out of your bag when you open it, the toads that lurk between the water jugs and the ever persistent blanket of hot air that wraps around you at all hours of the day. Little discomforts soon became the comforts of a home. 

It was a blessing and a joy to have all of K Squad back together. During our time split up we definitely missed each other and our time in Swaziland was filled with games, pranks, laughter and enjoying each others company. 

I was blessed with the opportunity to work in the clinic that is situated right next to the base. Three other girls and I went down on our first day joking about preforming brain surgery. In reality the days we spent there were filled with sorting pills and medicines into bags and chatting with the nurses there. At first, I have to admit, I was a little frustrated because it was kind of boring work. We would come home at the end of the day and hear everyone talk about the kids ministry they did that day while we were sitting in a room counting pills. But soon I realized that when you are sharing the love of Jesus it doesn’t matter if what you are doing is boring, it’s about loving on people and building relationships. That turned everything around. The nurses there quickly became some of our best frinds in Swaziland. We got to learn and laugh together. We even got the opportunity to go on medical outreaches with them!  A couple times a week we would pile into the back of a pickup truck and drive down some bumpy dusty road to get to a village or little group of people. There we would get to hang out with the kids and assist the nurses in getting medicine to people and setting up/tearing down the makeshift clinic. 

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:12-13

Anna and I decided to share a tent. We pitched one out in the yard because the bunk rooms were full of bugs. It was so lovely to fall asleep to the sound of crickits and rain showers. 

One night it rained for about 8 hours straight. At that point my trusty tent that has been up mountains, across oceans, shoved in many a backpack and through storms of all kinds decided to start leaking.  Drip drip drip, right on my forehead, then on my toes too. We pulled our stuff out of there and hightailed it through the rain to the bunk rooms. In the morning I came back out to the tent and it was practically a bucket of water. RIP faithful tent. Blessed as we are, Anna had her tent so we were able to set that up and sleep well the next nights. 

It’s crazy to be doing the Lord’s work over seas, but it’s even crazier to suddenly have people from back home join you in it for a week. Many of our parents came all the way from back home to join us for a week of shared ministry to get a little bite of what we have been doing. It was amazing to get to share that with them, even if it wasn’t exactly the same as what we had been doing. To get to share with my mom and dad the joy of playing tag, swinging kids around on your shoulders, sitting with a little baby on your lap and visiting the sweet families of the kids and getting to pour into and learn from them was beyond what I could have asked for. I hope that everyone gets a chance to do something like that even if it is just for a week. Reading about them is one thing, actually getting to sing and dance with them is another. 

Love, 

Rosella