Staff Blog

Joe From Swaziland:  Part II

Intercordia Canada Executive Director, Joe Vorstermans sends his second blog while visiting SWAPOL (Swaziland for Positive Living)...

I have just spent a week living with 2 host families in the rural areas of Swaziland. As always there is such an open welcome from everyone. The adults want to know where I am from, “What is your staple food in Canada?” they ask (I never know what to say to that…. flour and beef = hamburger?) and they want to know how to get to Canada. “Could you find me a job and a place to live in Canada?” At first the children keep their distance, giggling to themselves and eying my white skin, until they overcome their hesitancy and end up in my lap and laughing at my English and poor attempts to speak S-Swati. 

Swaziland is a rural country made up of thousands of homesteads, 5 or 6 cement block or adobe buildings around a central yard where the chickens, goats and dogs scratch out a living. There are so many contrasts! There is so much poverty and hardship because of the 4 year drought and unemployment but there is at the same time so much laughter. People draw water from the river that is a 1/2 km away from their house, in plastic buckets, and and yet some homes have a big screen TV in their main room that blares American Rap videos. Some people have an electric stove in the kitchen but they prefer to cook over the open fire in the outdoor kitchen, where the smoke is so intense it makes your eyes water. Swaziland, like all developing nations, is in the middle of a huge transition from a rural, subsistence farming way of living to becoming more urban and the transition is displayed in these contrasts. There are a minority that are moving forward very quickly, who are becoming rich. There is a large majority that are involved in this confusing transition, struggling to make a better life for their families and then there are those who cannot or do not want to leave behind the rural, traditional ways. 

One morning I walked into the commercial crossroads with several women in the heat of the morning. In Africa these commercial centres are similar. Two roads cross and on all four corners situated haphazardly are cement block buildings for the butcher, tailor, miller and grocer. Then scattered in each direction are tin roofed huts where you can buy vegetables, shoes, candy, whatever you need and a shack to make a phone call. There is garbage strewn everywhere and men loitering, woman carrying everything they buy in baskets on their heads and children everywhere. The children are all smiles, their bright white teeth and eyes alive with hope and innocence. The adults smile too in response to a “Sowbono” but only with their mouths… their eyes are tired and in some you can see resignation or bitterness. I am walking to the crossroads with some woman from the community I am staying in and each of them is carrying 15 kg. of maize in a sack on their head to be taken to the miller to be ground. It is a 1 hour walk and a 3 - 4 hour wait until their corn is milled and another 1 hour walk home. All the way to the mill and back there is an easy banter among them, puncuated by raucous laughter. Everyone we meet on the road gets a joyful greeting “Sowbono! Unjani!” (“Good morning! How are you?”) and a comment about where they are going or what they are wearing, followed by laughter and a “Good bye, See you soon!” You cannot pass someone and not acknowledge their presence. I am introduced to each one. I hear my name mentioned amidst several sentences of S-Swati, laughter and a special handshake before we move on. This becomes the day….. two hours plus of walking; double that time waiting in line; all in the intense 35 degree heat and all to grind a weeks worth of corn! Such hardship and inefficiency and yet such joy and life. If I think about it I get frustrated for them and about the injustice of this world. If I just stay present, I appreciate the beauty of the total emphasis on community and family.

The HIV/AIDS situation is the predominant concern here in Swaziland. There are advertisements everywhere about prevention and testing. “Keep the Promise” is the call to everyone, (ABC….. Abstain, Be Faithful, Wear a Condom). The disease is more hidden than I imagined. The ARV drug treatment programs can help an infected person lead a very healthy life. I am surprised when someone who looks very healthy tells me they are “sick”, their way of saying they are living with AIDS. They look well and healthy and can stay that way as long as they are faithful to their drug regimes. There is no evidence yet if this can be a life long, winning battle (it is not a cure) as the ARV programs are relatively new. The challenge is for people to overcome traditional ways of living and age old customs and take the necessary steps to prevent contracting the disease or treating it and staying on the drug regimes. This morning I visited a family of three in a small adobe hut. The father has AIDS and TB. He has infected his wife because, “she is my wife and we want children” and now they are waiting to take their 1 month old baby to the clinic to be tested. The care givers from SWAPOL (Swaziland for Positive Living) are trying to educate and help this family to get the support they need. Of course all the health concerns are compounded by the poverty the family experiences because the father cannot work, and subsistence farming is the only way to survive. It is heartbreakingly beautiful to witness the SWAPOL Care Giver patiently speak with the family and tell them the next steps and bring them to the clinic and try and support them in this dire situation in a non judgmental and patient way.

When I am in North America and I hear the statistics about HIV/AIDS and poverty in Swaziland and I feel paralyzed.  But being in their land and sharing their meals and the poverty and laughter I feel different. It becomes more human and complex. Statistics never tell the whole story. They simplify a human reality so we think we understand. Yes there are many severe problems caused by poverty and HIV/AIDS and the confusing blend of the traditional life style and the western influences that are attracting the young to the urban areas where they get lost and separated from their families. Yes, there is corruption and abuse by those who have power and do not use their influence for the common good. Yes there is all the inefficiency and poor use of resources. But the human struggle to be alive and better one’s family is a powerful force and I am more aware of the patience, courage and beauty of the people as I sit with them on their porches. I see the love that every mother has for her child as she nurses them and carries them on her back tied with a cotton cloth. I see the pride in the fathers as they show me their goat herds and fields of maize. I am embarrassed when the young people say they only want to go to Canada because everything is good there and they will be happy.  Tomorrow I leave for Canada and I am so glad that I can say more than just good bye.  I tell the families that I am staying with, that more Canadians will be coming next May to live and work with them (students from the Intercordia Program) . “Ah, yes,”  they say, “Make sure they are strong because the life here is hard.” “No problem,” I say, “They will be strong and open to learning your ways.”