1 Month Already

It's been a month already... say whaaaat! It's gone so quickly it's quite scary. We've both settled in really well now especially with our projects. At the beginning I thought doing the Soup Kitchen was the best out of the three but now, although all 3 projects are amazing, I think I love Injabulo Preschool the most. I think it's because it's our school and we've connected with the kids really well. I even miss the children over the weekend! Also it was the hardest project at the start so now, because it's a lot of fun instead of hard work, I feel like we've made a breakthrough with this project.

Me and a very few of the Injabulo kids

Mayenziwe

We received some amazing news the other day that one of the previous volunteers has told me that her Guides has decided to donate money for fresh fruit to give to the Soup Kitchen!!! Cannot express enough how grateful everyone will be and how much this will mean to them that someone so far away would want to help them.

Moriah Centre is also going really well! There is THE cutest child in the planet there and I can't help pick her up all the time. We're getting on really well with the teachers as well.

I'm really enjoying taking the public kombi to Injabulo as well as they are always quite entertaining, especially at the kombi station at a place called Matata. We've gotten to know a few of the people who are stationed there and it's always a laugh. We have learned some SiSwati as well and everyone is always trying to teach us more but still can only have a very simple conversation including how to say hi, how are you, I'm fine thanks, bye and thank you. We are still learning and when we start speaking in SiSwati they always seem to think we know more and say something we have no idea what so then they start laughing. The other day I walked to the post office to get my first parcel from my parents (wooh) and I heard someone shout "Fikile! Fikile!" ( my SiSwati name)  and I turned around and it was a woman from the market we made friends with the other week haha. That was the first time someone has called me by that name! Made me smile so much.

This last weekend we decided to go to Manzini, the closest city us, to visit our reps Richard and Kathy. We had to go at about six in the evening by kombi because we had to go to soup kitchen before. Even though it was getting dark we felt so safe. After having an enjoyable ride in a spacious kombi, we got transferred to a much smaller and packed one about half way. During the first kombi ride I decided to share out the sweets we were eating to everyone which was pretty funny. When the first kombi stopped, we didn't know we had to transfer to another kombi so we were just sitting at the back of it by ourselves for ages until the kombi conductor was like 'come on girls let's go'. Although the second kombi wasn't as comfortable it was still quite entertaining.

We finally got to Manzini and Richard picked us up and drove us back to his place where a delicious meal was awaiting us ( a good change from hostel food). That night I managed to skype my parents! It was really nice to see them again and hear about all their news but thankfully it didn't make me homesick. I was planning on skyping my friends as well but couldn't get through to them which was annoying because I would have loved to speak to them having not seen them for a whole month. On Saturday we went to do a bit of shopping and then after that Richard and Kathy took us to a cultural village for lunch. There were really nice shops there which sold their speciality candles and other traditional crafts.

The next day we went to Hlane Game Reserve which was amazing!! Their four-wheeled drive wasn't working so we could only go to the reception bit which was next to a waterhole. They warned us before we went that sometimes you see something sometimes you just weren't lucky so I didn't have high hopes. However, when we arrived there were about 11 rhinos, maybe more, laying next to the water in the heat and also 3 hippos in the water!! It was amazing to be so close to these huge animals. We went to lunch to a place where the Thompsons used to live and on the way we saw 3 giraffes near the road! The whole day we were willing for an elephant to come to the waterhole but never did. We had to leave about half 3 so by that time we had given up hope that we'd see one. However, on the way back we kept our eyes on the trees in the Game Reserve and funnily enough in the far distance we could just about see an elephant! I've never seen an elephant before so I got so excited even though you could barely see it. It was still there. I loved spending time with the Thompsons and seeing Manzini and can't wait for next month to do it again.