So this will probably be my last posting until I come home (so soon!). Things have been picking up in the work department – especially after a difficult discussion with the culture barriers in full effect. Apparently UBC gives part of our program costs to the organization to assist with things like transportation while on our placement. So, 7 weeks into our placement we receive these funds and we are able to visit support groups!
At our first support group the ladies were very kind and explained what being in a support group means to them (through our translator/colleague Thabiso). It is a place for them to be with their peers – other HIV positive women – and it is a chance to share information. Also the women have a mini co-op on meeting days – the people that have fruit bring it to share as do those with vegetables, and by the end of the meeting everyone has had a balanced meal! These women were examples of living HIV positively and were truly inspirational.
I feel that this is an appropriate time to introduce you to the transportation system that is in place here in Swaziland. First of all there are no bus timetables or maps or schedules – what happens is this: If you happen to be at the bus depot you get on a 12 to 22 seater van (called a kombi – see photo) and wait until it fills up with people – then you depart. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, and other times (like today) it takes an hour… If you are not at the main bus depot, you basically stand by the side of the road and wave at the buses to stop. Hopefully you stop a bus (which is like a greyhound bus in size – not in style) and you can grab a seat. If not – you get onto the kombi and try to squeeze yourself between a granny and a child going to school and pray that someone opens a window to let a little bit of a breeze through. It’s pretty exciting – and I will share with you our most memorable kombi experience.
After a long day of meetings at the SWANNEPHA National Office Aye and I decide to grab a burger for the ride home. Once we have our lunch in hand we try to get onto a kombi – little to our knowledge that it is rush hour in the main city. So we ask a young man if there is a kombi to Manzini and he informs us that there will be one shortly and to wait with him – or we can get into the 3 block long line up… So we wait with this man and sure enough a kombi pulls up. It is so intense that Aye and I have to hold hands to block people from cutting in front of us (this is rush hour remember). This particular kombi is one with 2 seats, the aisle, and then another two seats. The only two seats left when we get on are across from each other and in each occupied seat is a lady with larger proportions. So this is the seating plan: Large Methodist Church nun – Me – Aisle – Aye – Other large Methodist Church nun. Now Aye picked the seat next to the smaller large lady and I sort of had to perch on the remaining 3 inches of seat and the rest of me was in the aisle. I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to squat the hour to our destination so I sort of straddled the aisle and was pretty much in Aye’s lap. It wasn’t so bad – but was really funny was when we were in the middle of eating our hamburgers someone had to get off and basically climbed over the two of us while we continued to eat… Oh Swaziland…
Well, that’s all for now – your Siswati word for the day is “Stesh” meaning stop. It is what you say to the kombi driver when you want to get off the bus – a very useful phrase!
Thanks so much and love to you all!
xoxo
Gina
