'Average' Swazi Problems

Today was spent driving around the Swaziland country side attending to errands- picking up files from Save The Children, checking up on a counselling site run by SWAGAA, attempting to get a work permit and dropping note books off at one our highschool which holds a 'girls empowerment club.'

Notice that we only attempted to get the work permit, highly unsuccessful. But very important considering I told the lovely border officer who was sitting behind a plywood desk when I landed in Manzini that I was only here for a holiday for a few weeks. The government building which holds all to do with immigration, visas and work permits, is like an old victorian hospital, like something out of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events.' Imagine a badly lit, zero security, measles outbreak era hospital with various food stuffs being sold in the lobby. After we found the correct floor we walked up and down the hallway, knocking on numerous doors, stepping over and around the queues of people in the hallway. When we found the correct room, literally a 2 metre by 3 metre room, we were told in 3 words that we didn't have the correct documents. Right, better luck next time.

But no complaints really, the next stop of the day puts the queues in perspective. We went by one of the girls empowerment clubs in a girls highschool about 40 minutes drive out of Mbabane on rough dirt roads. A girls empowerment club is a forum for girls in primary school and highschool to learn about issues that effect them, and to speak up on the same. Maybe there will be a workshop on AIDS issues one week (age permitting of course) and the next about violence in the home.

We get to the school and one of the highschool teacher says, 'we lost one of the girls.' Since we were talking about membership and activities in the club, I didn't understand immediately what the highschool teacher meant. One of the girls in the club had died of AIDS. She was 16 and had been suffering from birth. I can see why the government buildings are falling apart, when in the every day reality for a Swazi person there are much bigger fish to fry.