Pictures

1. This is the room where I've been sleeping recently, but I move into my new place on Tuesday.
2. It's a hippo!
3. This is a picture I took at Mlilwane. It's my desktop background.
4. The souvenirs I bought from Mozambique. Great picture of me and Jessie.
5. I've seen a lot of women here walk around with huge, heavy things on their heads. It still amazes me.
6. The painting I bought in Maputo.

"Brad Beats Hitler! Buy! Buy!"

It's been a busy week. On Thursday, I rode with Veki, my house owner, to Maputo in Mozambique to take care of some issues she's having with her husband's visa. Malaria is a major issue in the area, which made me pretty nervous beforehand; once we got there, though, I learned that mosquitos aren't really out this early in the year. Because we're starting the rain season and entering summer, next time I visit, I'll have to take more precautions. I'm still processing everything, but let me try to summarize the experience. The country and its people are so much different than Swaziland! Because of the Portuguese influence in the gene pool, the people even look entirely different than Swazis.
Maputo is a great place. I hear that crime (pick-pocketing, mostly) and corruption among police are common, but I didn't have any problems. People haggled me on the street to buy their products, but to be honest, I didn't really mind it. This one man in particular was selling pirated dvds and he had an illegal copy of the new Quentin Tarantino movie with Brad Pitt. He couldn't at all speak English, but he tried when I walked by, which is where the title for this entry originates.
The food. Veki and I ate lunch and had really good draft beer at this restaurant on the Indian Ocean (my first time seeing and touching it!) and I ate a platter of clams caught the day prior. In the evening, I went to the market and bought a handmade ashtray and picture frame for the very reasonable price of $6.00 US. And I bought a huge painting of the market for $40.00--once I move into my new place, I'll post a picture of it on here. Like all major cities, you need to spend more than a couple days to really experience what it has to offer, so I can't wait to go back. All-in-all, it was a successful trip.
In other news, tomorrow begins the annual Swazi festival known as the Reed Dance, at which Swazi women from all over the country present themselves to the king as potential wives. Apparently, over 80,000 women will be present and dressed in traditional garb. I'm going tomorrow, and I'll definitely have a follow-up post sometime shortly afterward. In early October, a group of us will travel to Johannesburg to represent Swaziland in the annual southern African ultimate frisbee tournament. I want to take this moment to publicly apologize to the Kingdom of Swaziland for impending embarassment.

Manzini and Mlilwane Nature Preserve

In my last entry, I mentioned that I'm living in the capital city of Swaziland, Mbabane, home to about 60,000 people. The largest city in the country is Manzini (population 80,000), which is about 20 miles southeast. I unintentionally visited Manzini yesterday, where I had an, um, interesting experience. Let me start from the beginning.

Yesterday, I hoped to visit Mlilwane Nature Preserve, a Swazi national park. As I've only been here a week, I didn't really know how to get there. I asked a friend of mine, who recommended that I take a Kombi (comb-bee), which is really nothing more than a glorified van. Each Kombi holds between 10 and 20 people and they will not leave until they've reached capacity. I didn't know exactly where to get off (Kombi's don't have set stops--they stop where the passenger says, for the most part), so I asked this nice gentleman next to me for some help. He didn't understand "Mlilwane," so I told him that I want to go to the park. This is where things go wrong. He perked up and said he would gladly show me. His confidence put me at ease. Next thing I know, we're in Manzini; he points out the window to a small city park and says, "Here it is!" After telling the driver to stop, nice gentleman volunteers to walk me to my destination.

Because he was kind and went out of his way, I lied to him by saying that was exactly where I wanted to go. There's always a silver lining: I'd not yet been to Manzini, so this was a perfect opportunity to tour the city.

The feel of Manzini is much different than Mbabane. It is very crowded, loud and it just doesn't feel as accessible. I may be off, but that was my initial reaction. After walking around for a while, I was ready to head back to my home, Mbabane. I decided to catch a Kombi back, which led to the highlight of the day. This drunk Swazi man approached me to chat. Here are some snippets from our conversation.
"We are honored to have someone like yourself riding with us. Where are you from!?"
"The U.S."
"I could tell by the accent. You have the best sneakers and hip hop music. I like underground hip hop music."
"Oh yeah, who do you like?"
"Do you know why Slim Shady is the best hip hop artist? Because he was the first white man in hip hop!"
- - -
Drunk Swazi: "Our King was left much money from his father. Many Bens."
"Benjamin Franklin?"
"No! Ben! The President whose face is on the money!"

All the Swazis on the Kombi gave me sympathetic glances.

Today, I decided to take a taxi to Mlilwane, so as to not run into the same problem as the day prior. During my three hour hike, I saw impala, hippopotomus, zebra, warthog, crocodile, and other strange things. It was definitely one of the highlights of my experience thus far. Swaziland is a small country with many politcal and economic problems, but its people and its landscape make it a wonderful place to stay in spite of everything.

And so it begins. . .

Hello blog readers!

This is an exciting moment: you’re reading my first ever blog post. While I hope to organize my posts around some sort of topic or idea, this first post will most likely be a bit scattered, as I’ve only been in Swaziland a few days and I have so many unrelated experiences I’d like to share। Let me try to fill you in on the Swazi adventure up तो this point.

I left the States this past Saturday (the 15th) for what was undoubtedly the most grueling travel experience of my life. It started with a short flight to O’Hare, at which I had a five-hour layover; I then flew to Frankfurt, Germany, where I experienced the joy of sitting in a German airport for seven hours, only to be followed by an eleven hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. At Jo’burg, I stayed in the airport for 7 hours, after which I finally flew into Swaziland. After 40+ hours of travel, I finally arrived in the Kingdom of Swaziland, the smallest country in Africa, the only remaining absolute monarchy in Africa and the country in which I will spend the next ten months of my life.

A woman from the U.S. Embassy picked me up and drove me to Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland, home of 60,000 people, and more importantly for this blog, the city where I’m living. While it's only a few hour drive from Jo’burg, the difference in terrain is incredible! Whereas Jo’burg is a huge city surrounded by vast farmland and flatlands, Mbabane is surrounded by stunning mountains. I haven’t uploaded any pictures yet, but check out this one I found on google:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5650323.jpg. It’s a beautiful country; this picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

I’ve had some great experiences thus far. Last night, a group of us Americans and a few Europeans—most of whom work for non-profits in the area—had an epic ultimate Frisbee game at a soccer field up in the mountains. Today, I just showed up at the Anglican parish down the street to see if I could peek my head inside. One of the staff members, a local named Hlanhle, greeted me with open arms and spent nearly an hour of his day giving me a tour. The Swazis are, based on my experiences thus far, gracious and friendly, which as a tried-and-true Midwesterner, I can certainly appreciate.

My time at the internet café is about to run out, but I want to share two more things that I’ve come to love about Mbabane: I have to walk everywhere and the food is incredible. On average, I probably walk four to five miles a day, which helps me to experience things all the more. Instead of being rushed, I can take everything at a slower pace and enjoy the people and scenery around me. Cheers to the food: all of the meat I’ve had has been locally raised and prepared, which is unparalleled. Without a doubt, in the last three days, I’ve had the best chicken and beef of my life.

Most things here are really cheap. I bought a great bottle of wine (which me and this fun middle-aged Italian woman who works for the EU finished off tonight) for just over $3.00. I buy lunch most days for about the same price and I got a cell phone and plan for around $35.00.

It's a great place. You should come visit!