Staff Blog

My Arrival in Swaziland

I arrived in Swaziland last Wednesday afternoon, after a gruelling thirty-six hours in transit that took me through Paris and Johannesburg and finally landed me in Manzini.  I love it here. From the moment I left the airport I felt at ease. It feels very different than Kenya or Uganda or Tanzania, in a way that I can only describe as “softer”. I don’t know why that is, but I wonder if, at least in part, it is due to the small size of the country. Manzini is one of the two largest “cities” in the country, with a population of 70,000, and driving down the main street I can hardly believe that this is probably the busiest spot in Swaziland (apparently Manzini is the busier of the two cities, even though I think Mbabane has more people).  The whole country only has a population of 1.1 million.  It could also be due to the fact that the people of Swaziland are almost all of one tribe (a rarity in Africa that one tri! be is bounded together within a single border) so there aren’t tribal tensions to contend with. I’m sure there are many other contributing factors, but regardless, I feel safe and comfortable here.