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.