- Sawubona.
- Yebo.
- Unjani?
- Ngiyaphila. Unjani wena?
- Ngiyaphila nami.
Translated literally, this greeting is:
- We see you (Hello).
- Yes.
- How are you?
- I'm living (I'm fine). How are you?
- I'm also living.
(An alternate response if you're not feeling especially great that day is "Ngikhona" which merely means "I'm present/here")
This short conversation is of tremendous importance in Swaziland, and these words are probably some of the most-used in the Siswati vocabulary. Greetings are a part of life here, essential and inescapable. Greetings are a way of starting a conversation, of showing respect, of finding out how someone is doing, or at the most basic level, an acknowledgement of the person you pass on the street as a fellow human being.
I've often been curious about how often I go through this routine everyday, so yesterday I began to keep count to entertain myself during my morning run. And then paying attention to the people I greeted every day as a matter of routine was so interesting that I kept track throughout the day.
So here is a summary of my greeting exchanges for Thursday, January 24. It will also tell you something about my typical day - if any day can be called typical, since there are always surprises!
6:20 am (recorded after getting back from my run)- 5 family members (Tema*, Make, Gogo, Notsopi, Njabuliso)
- 15 people I met during my run (either on the road or working the adjacent fields)
*My three-year-old sister Tema wins the prize for the most noteworthy greeting of the early morning. It consisted of us yelling back and forth from her door to mine while I was stretching. Not only did she enquire as to how I was doing, but wanted to know the location and well-being of my father, mother, brother, sister and grandmother. This is not unusual for her. She's always particularly interested in knowing where my father is. I can't figure out if this is maybe because I told her he might be coming to visit and she's wondering when this will happen. Or maybe because her own father is a police officer who sends money and clothes and toys for her but has only been to visit her once in the last six months (that I know of).
8:45 am (recorded upon getting to work)- my sister Zinhle
- 2 neighbors in their maize field
- 2 people on the kombi
- Nonhlanhla*
- the post office clerk who I bought stamps from
- the guard at the post office
- Fiston**
- guy with dreads riding on the back of a truck
- Nhlonipho (a co-worker)
*Nonhlahla was the first surprise of the morning. She was a girl on the street that came up to me about a month and a half ago asking for money. I'm always uncomfortable in this situation, because there are always a number of questions I have that can't be answered: Who knows if the person actually needs it or is just trying to take advantage of the umlungu (white person)? Are they actually going to use it to buy food or for bus fare to get home like they're telling me? If I give them money, will I just reinforce the stereotype of the umlungu as an ATM? If I don't give her money, will she go hungry tonight because of my stinginess? etc. But on that day, I gave Nonhlanhla the bus fare she asked for, and then told her I would accompany her to the bus rank since I was on the way there myself. I thought, since her ride home is on me, the least she can do is let me practice my bad Siswati with her. And I thought, this may be a way of establishing a relationship, however short, so she can see me as more than a white person giving handouts. So we walked to the bus station together, and I found out about her family and how far she had gone in school and I told her what I was doing here. And when we parted ways at the busrank, I felt satisfied that hopefully I had led her to challenge some of the ideas she had held about white people. And apparantly the establishing a relationship worked, because yesterday morning I felt a tap on my shoulder and there was Nonhlanhla, who uttered a shy greeting before slipping back into the market crowd.
**Fiston was the second surprise of the morning. I was trotting down the hill to work, already late because of my stop at the post office, when a short guy walking past me said "Bonjour!" and continued walking. He had already passed me by the time the French-ness of his greeting registered in my brain, and I spun around and yelled "Comment ca va?" after him. This resulted in a conversation on the street corner where I learned that he's a Congolais who's been studying computers here for three years. It was wonderful to be able to speak a familiar tongue with someone who has been equally thirsting for someone to converse with in his own language. He remarked several times on how good my French was, and how happy he was to be speaking French again. It put a smile on my face for the day, and reminded me that no matter how inadequate I feel in Siswati, I can speak a language other than English fluently!
9:30 am (work)
- Make Ndzimandze (the HBC coordinator)
- 2 children that had come with Make Ndzi
- Nomcebo (the Peer Education Officer at FBS)
- a woman on the phone
2:10 pm- Sidney and his assistant (computer technicians networking the computers in the Centre, which involved the excitement of crawling around in the ceiling to wire cables through)
- Trevor (fellow SALTer who sometimes drops by FBS at lunchtime)
3:50 pm (before leaving work)- Lungile (the cleaning lady)
- Shane (FBS is ordering T-shirts from his company)
6:03 pm (on arrival at home)
- Primrose (my friend at the internet cafe)
- a random guy trying to pick me up on the street
- Nomsa (a neigbor and cousin)
- 2 women on the road
- my sister Nonhlanhla (who I hadn't seen in the morning because she was already in the fields when I left)
8:07 pm (after supper and prayer)
- Wandile (my brother who just got home from helping the neighborhood herd boy bring the cows in for the night)
So that's 48 individual greetings. I didn't count people I greeted more than once throughout the day. For example, some of my family members I greeted in the morning, then again when I got home from work, and for a third time after evening prayer, when we always go and shake hands and hug everyone at the end, like they do at the end of a Zionist church service. I initiated most of the greetings, but some of them recorded here I merely returned (for example the guy trying to pick me up - it's actually unusual that in this day there was only one. I'll have to do another post sometime on hilarious pick-up lines that I've heard.) I did count people I greeted in the plural "Sanibonani" as whatever number the group consisted of, since the greeting included all of them, and in most cases they all responded.
So now you know the number one rule of PR in Swaziland, and a daily ritual in my life. Just for the record, this morning on my run I counted again, and the number just from people seen on my running route was 24. I think it's because today was sunny and clear, as opposed to yesterday where the weather was kind of yucky and cloudy. So if I had kept going today, I might broken yesterday's record! But if I ever wonder if I'm having an impact in Swaziland, this is at least one small way where I can show friendliness and humanity and a willingness to enter into the "Swazi way". To close to 50 people a day, just by saying "Hello, I see you."
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
a south african christmas and swazi new year
my christmas vacation started the day after youth camp ended. camp, by the way, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. ie - i'm glad i lived through it, and i don't feel a strong urge to repeat the experience anytime soon. it consisted of 311 "youth" (by which i mean people aged 2 - 34) spending 7 days together at a boarding school. these figures are to be trusted, by the way, since i happened to have the title "office admin" which meant i spent the better part of the week in our makeshift office, registering the participants as they continued coming throughout the week and selling snacks from the tuck shop to children who seemed to have an insatiable appetite for junk food despite three square meals a day provided by our excellent caterers. i also served as the nurse, which basically meant giving spoonfuls of stomach medicine and tablets of pain killer to kids who complained of feeling sick, but really what i think they wanted was a quiet place to lie down and sleep. which was completely understandable, considering that the usual sleep schedule was about from 12:30 to 5:30. which is why, when i think back on camp, it is somewhat of a blur.
so, somewhat-rested from this experience, the next day i departed for durban, south africa, by kombi. but it's not quite that simple. i had been advised to get to the bus rank early, because once the first kombi fills up and goes, you have no guarantee of when or if another one will be departing that day. so after finishing up my packing, i left home in good time. however, no sooner had i hopped on the kombi and pulled away from home on the way to manzini, then i had that uh-oh! feeling. and sure enough, i had forgotten my passport. so i jumped off at the next stop, literally ran back home to get my id, but when i finally arrived panting at the bus rank 30 min later, i found out that my delay had cost me my spot in the first kombi. which had literally left minutes before i arrived. so then i sat in the kombi for four hours, baking in the sun and observing the bustling activity of the bus rank - which is a fascinating place, by the way. i'm sure most of swaziland has passed through there at one point or another. when we still had two empty spots at 12:30, and my fellow passengers started murmurs of dissention ("this is taking so long, i'm going to leave and come back tomorrow!"), the driver finally decided to start the motor. the rest of the trip was wonderfully uneventful, and i spent most of it catching up on my sleep debt from camp.
phil and christine picked me up in durban and we drove the 45 minutes to their home in pietermaritzburg, south africa. the lindell-detweilers are like family to me, because they were in benin when my family was there, so them and their children nathan, annika and lydia were part of my growing up years and many previous christmases. so it was really wonderful to get to spend a week with them, reminiscing about benin and also getting to discuss and process some of my south african experience thus far.
that evening we headed straight to a presbyterian church near their home for a service of lessons and carols by candlelight, which was lovely, and got me into the christmas mood. the next day all of us, along with christine's parents, carl & faith, who were also visiting, visited tala, advertised as durban's finest game reserve. it really is amazing that this park exists so close to the city. at some points when we driving through the hills, you could see the city suburbs stretched out in the distance.
although the park doesn't have the famous big five, we got really lucky with the animals we got to see. it helped that i was driving with christine, who could have been a big game hunter with her ability to spot animals in the distance, and her parents, who are avid birders who were always willing to stop and take a closer look with the binoculars. this was my first game park in this land famous for them, and i wasn't disappointed. we saw rhino, hippos, zebra, impala, blesbok (another type of antelope), ostrich, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, warthogs, and countless types of birds that really excited the birdwatchers but i couldn't really tell apart. except for the bright-orange birds which were so neon in color that they looked artificial. some highlights of the day were seeing a papa ostrich (which i never knew were so tall, he was over 6 ft!) tending a nursery of 10 little baby ostriches, and seeing a mama rhino with her little baby, whose folds of skin and funny nose were so ugly they made him cute.
we also got to see two blesbok down on their knees, locking horns in some kind of mating show-offery, and a pair of zebras in love, touching noses. and i was so proud of myself for spotting the giraffes, which we were hunting for. christine said "just look for their heads above the acacia trees" and i was scanning the distance, thinking, "what on earth does a giraffe head look like anyway" when i saw one!
so after a christmas eve that exciting, christmas day could have been a letdown, but it wasn't at all. we went to a morning service at breakthru international, where the l-ds attend. very charismatic, the people jumping up and down while singing praise songs and the posters on the wall proclaiming their goals of how many new members and new churches to be planted by 2010 were worlds away from the rural zionist church i've been attending. but the sermon, about loving even when we don't understand, really spoke to me and afterwards i had a chance to meet the pastor and his family, who are wonderful people. the rest of christmas day involved a huge feast of delicious food, including, ironically enough, a jenni-o turkey from minnesota purchased at the local pick'n'pay. dan and yvonne, another missionary couple in pmb, and auntie norah, a friend from breakthru, completed the guest list, and we spent a wonderful day together singing carols, acting out the christmas story, decorating cookies, opening presents, and eating, eating, eating...
another highlight from the week was the day before i left, when we headed into durban, a top surf destination, for a day at the beach. the lovely temperature and clear waters of the indian ocean delighted me. i've missed the beach so much, so even though the waves were awful and i only caught about three decent ones on my boogy board, just getting to be there was enough. an interesting thing about the durban beachfront is that you can see a naked beyonce sunning herself on a huge double bed, or a dog being swalled by an enourmous snake, or an intricately-detailed mosque, or a monstrous crocodile. these awesome sights are created with lots of sand, some water and a few utensils such as a broken plastic spoon by aspiring artists who then sit next to their creations all day, to chat with passers-by and ask for small donations.
i was really sad to leave pmb. it was good for my soul to get to talk about my experience with phil and christine, and to swim and play take two and watch movies with kids that felt like my own sibings. and yet, maybe it was the right amount of time, because we felt like family but hadn't started getting on each other's nerves yet...
i got home the day before new year's eve, which i wanted to spend with my swazi family since i missed out on christmas with them. new year's eve was busy: i woke up at 5:30 to run before the heat of the day set in. however, when i got back, i spent 3hours weeding the corn field with my family in blistering heat. thank goodness for that ridiculous straw hat they made me wear, which protected me from major sunburn. after a well-deserved tea break, i washed sheets and towels - which is quite a workout when you're doing it by hand! then we went to bring my other sister home for the holidays. she's been working for the past few months at a butcher's shop in eteni, about 30 min away. on the way home, we stopped to pick up ingredients for the new year's feast.
my part in this extravaganza was to bake three cakes and a tin of cupcakes. ever since my family discovered the delights of the hollinger-janzen wacky cake (see previous blog posting about wandile's birthday), they've been asking for more. so the wood stove got going at about 5:30, and when the firecrackers started going off at midnight, i was still writing "happy new year 2008" with icing squeezed from a plastic bag. the extended time frame was mostly due to the fact that we had one cake pan and three cakes to make, so there was a bit of a relay effect where we had to wait for cakes to cool and be evicted from the pan before the next one could go into the oven. still, it was good i had something to occupy myself with, because otherwise i might not have made it to midnight!
so in the first moments of 2008, the kids and i rushed outside to ooh and ahh over the bursts and sparkles decorating the hillside. then we welcomed in the new year with a midnight prayer service. the big even of new year's day was a huge feast, involving fried chicken, porridge, 5 kinds of salad, and trifle for dessert. i was so happy to see veggies that i filled up my plate with salad, while my astonished family couldn't believe that wasn't having any porridge. according to a swazi, you haven't really eaten if you haven't had liphalishi!
i also had a chance to do some journaling and reflecting on new year's day, which was very appropriate. this feels like a significant marker in my time here, and it's an opportunity for an emotional and mental turning point. it was good to kind of assess the situation and begin to figure out how to make the most of my remaining months here.
so: there you have my holiday season. coming soon... pictures to illustrate the festivities!
so, somewhat-rested from this experience, the next day i departed for durban, south africa, by kombi. but it's not quite that simple. i had been advised to get to the bus rank early, because once the first kombi fills up and goes, you have no guarantee of when or if another one will be departing that day. so after finishing up my packing, i left home in good time. however, no sooner had i hopped on the kombi and pulled away from home on the way to manzini, then i had that uh-oh! feeling. and sure enough, i had forgotten my passport. so i jumped off at the next stop, literally ran back home to get my id, but when i finally arrived panting at the bus rank 30 min later, i found out that my delay had cost me my spot in the first kombi. which had literally left minutes before i arrived. so then i sat in the kombi for four hours, baking in the sun and observing the bustling activity of the bus rank - which is a fascinating place, by the way. i'm sure most of swaziland has passed through there at one point or another. when we still had two empty spots at 12:30, and my fellow passengers started murmurs of dissention ("this is taking so long, i'm going to leave and come back tomorrow!"), the driver finally decided to start the motor. the rest of the trip was wonderfully uneventful, and i spent most of it catching up on my sleep debt from camp.
phil and christine picked me up in durban and we drove the 45 minutes to their home in pietermaritzburg, south africa. the lindell-detweilers are like family to me, because they were in benin when my family was there, so them and their children nathan, annika and lydia were part of my growing up years and many previous christmases. so it was really wonderful to get to spend a week with them, reminiscing about benin and also getting to discuss and process some of my south african experience thus far.
that evening we headed straight to a presbyterian church near their home for a service of lessons and carols by candlelight, which was lovely, and got me into the christmas mood. the next day all of us, along with christine's parents, carl & faith, who were also visiting, visited tala, advertised as durban's finest game reserve. it really is amazing that this park exists so close to the city. at some points when we driving through the hills, you could see the city suburbs stretched out in the distance.
although the park doesn't have the famous big five, we got really lucky with the animals we got to see. it helped that i was driving with christine, who could have been a big game hunter with her ability to spot animals in the distance, and her parents, who are avid birders who were always willing to stop and take a closer look with the binoculars. this was my first game park in this land famous for them, and i wasn't disappointed. we saw rhino, hippos, zebra, impala, blesbok (another type of antelope), ostrich, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, warthogs, and countless types of birds that really excited the birdwatchers but i couldn't really tell apart. except for the bright-orange birds which were so neon in color that they looked artificial. some highlights of the day were seeing a papa ostrich (which i never knew were so tall, he was over 6 ft!) tending a nursery of 10 little baby ostriches, and seeing a mama rhino with her little baby, whose folds of skin and funny nose were so ugly they made him cute.
we also got to see two blesbok down on their knees, locking horns in some kind of mating show-offery, and a pair of zebras in love, touching noses. and i was so proud of myself for spotting the giraffes, which we were hunting for. christine said "just look for their heads above the acacia trees" and i was scanning the distance, thinking, "what on earth does a giraffe head look like anyway" when i saw one!
so after a christmas eve that exciting, christmas day could have been a letdown, but it wasn't at all. we went to a morning service at breakthru international, where the l-ds attend. very charismatic, the people jumping up and down while singing praise songs and the posters on the wall proclaiming their goals of how many new members and new churches to be planted by 2010 were worlds away from the rural zionist church i've been attending. but the sermon, about loving even when we don't understand, really spoke to me and afterwards i had a chance to meet the pastor and his family, who are wonderful people. the rest of christmas day involved a huge feast of delicious food, including, ironically enough, a jenni-o turkey from minnesota purchased at the local pick'n'pay. dan and yvonne, another missionary couple in pmb, and auntie norah, a friend from breakthru, completed the guest list, and we spent a wonderful day together singing carols, acting out the christmas story, decorating cookies, opening presents, and eating, eating, eating...
another highlight from the week was the day before i left, when we headed into durban, a top surf destination, for a day at the beach. the lovely temperature and clear waters of the indian ocean delighted me. i've missed the beach so much, so even though the waves were awful and i only caught about three decent ones on my boogy board, just getting to be there was enough. an interesting thing about the durban beachfront is that you can see a naked beyonce sunning herself on a huge double bed, or a dog being swalled by an enourmous snake, or an intricately-detailed mosque, or a monstrous crocodile. these awesome sights are created with lots of sand, some water and a few utensils such as a broken plastic spoon by aspiring artists who then sit next to their creations all day, to chat with passers-by and ask for small donations.
i was really sad to leave pmb. it was good for my soul to get to talk about my experience with phil and christine, and to swim and play take two and watch movies with kids that felt like my own sibings. and yet, maybe it was the right amount of time, because we felt like family but hadn't started getting on each other's nerves yet...
i got home the day before new year's eve, which i wanted to spend with my swazi family since i missed out on christmas with them. new year's eve was busy: i woke up at 5:30 to run before the heat of the day set in. however, when i got back, i spent 3hours weeding the corn field with my family in blistering heat. thank goodness for that ridiculous straw hat they made me wear, which protected me from major sunburn. after a well-deserved tea break, i washed sheets and towels - which is quite a workout when you're doing it by hand! then we went to bring my other sister home for the holidays. she's been working for the past few months at a butcher's shop in eteni, about 30 min away. on the way home, we stopped to pick up ingredients for the new year's feast.
my part in this extravaganza was to bake three cakes and a tin of cupcakes. ever since my family discovered the delights of the hollinger-janzen wacky cake (see previous blog posting about wandile's birthday), they've been asking for more. so the wood stove got going at about 5:30, and when the firecrackers started going off at midnight, i was still writing "happy new year 2008" with icing squeezed from a plastic bag. the extended time frame was mostly due to the fact that we had one cake pan and three cakes to make, so there was a bit of a relay effect where we had to wait for cakes to cool and be evicted from the pan before the next one could go into the oven. still, it was good i had something to occupy myself with, because otherwise i might not have made it to midnight!
so in the first moments of 2008, the kids and i rushed outside to ooh and ahh over the bursts and sparkles decorating the hillside. then we welcomed in the new year with a midnight prayer service. the big even of new year's day was a huge feast, involving fried chicken, porridge, 5 kinds of salad, and trifle for dessert. i was so happy to see veggies that i filled up my plate with salad, while my astonished family couldn't believe that wasn't having any porridge. according to a swazi, you haven't really eaten if you haven't had liphalishi!
i also had a chance to do some journaling and reflecting on new year's day, which was very appropriate. this feels like a significant marker in my time here, and it's an opportunity for an emotional and mental turning point. it was good to kind of assess the situation and begin to figure out how to make the most of my remaining months here.
so: there you have my holiday season. coming soon... pictures to illustrate the festivities!
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