Gobble, Gobble

The expats came out in droves to celebrate Thanksgiving in Mbabane! Our friend Michelle offered to host at her place and since she lives immediately next-door to two other PAC doctors, this gave us convenient access to two ovens (granted, one had to be closed with the assistance of duct tape). My partner-in-crime in the kitchen, Jason, and I cooked three turkeys and a ‘turducken’ for about 40 people. The ‘turducken’ was all Jason – I was merely the sous chef mixing stuffing in a cooler because we didn’t have a big enough container to house all of the stuffing for the four birds! We even projected the previous weekend’s football games (Titans/Texans and Colts/Patriots) on the wall to really make it feel like Thanksgiving with the sound of football in the background. For our Thanksgiving ‘potluck’ we asked guests to bring a ‘family tradition’ dish or something specifically Thanksgiving themed. A couple of folks had recently been to the States and secured luxury items like canned cranberry and canned pumpkin, so we really didn’t go without any favorites! There isn’t much to report apart from we ate a lot! Our fun fact of the evening was how many countries were represented at our ‘first’ Thanksgiving in Swaziland…and the answer is TEN! (Swaziland, U.S.A., Canada, England, Spain, Argentina, South Africa, Mozambique, Italy, and India)

Forty people and four turkey's = a big mess...so, this is the 'before' picture of Michelle's wonderful home

My potluck contributions...non-cooler made stuffing and macaroni and cheese

Turkey carvers caught in the act (Nick and Dan)

What Thanksgiving could be complete without a couple of princesses? (Molly and Sophia)

And of course, our friends

The African Library Project

Two weeks ago, I met two philanthropists from California who came to Swaziland to deliver books and to visit their libraries around the country. The women were with the nonprofit, The African Library Project (ALP) http://www.africanlibraryproject.org/, whose mission is to increase literacy in Africa by creating and improving small libraries. The ALP partners with dedicated volunteers across the continent whose mission is education. Their partners include U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, National Library Service staff, education districts and African Non-Governmental Organizations. In order to supply the books for the start-up libraries, ALP seeks partnerships with U.S. schools to host book drives and then uses fundraising dollars to ship the books accordingly. In order to improve sustainability, on the African side, the school must provide the space, bookshelves, and a librarian. The way in which I got connected is a ‘small world’ story. One of the other PAC doctor’s (Dan) wife, Meredith, has a sister in Palo Alto, California who has 4 children whose school sponsored a book drive for the African Library Project. And, low and behold, they were partnered with a high school outside of Mbabane. Since Meredith had promised to visit the school and to take pictures of the book delivery for her sister’s children’s school (are you following this?), we met up with Chris Bradshaw (the founder of ALP) when she was in town. I was really just along for the ride and to volunteer myself as an in-country resource since Meredith and her family are moving back to the States at Christmas and I am working with the Ministry of Education. All-in-all it was a fun afternoon and it’s always nice to meet new people and to learn about another nonprofit operating in Swaziland.

The school is just on the other side of Manzini on the way to Siphofaneni, which is a more rural area. Here’s the view from the school.

The school buildings are fairly similar to ‘mobile’ classrooms or ‘bungalows’ as we like to call them in Los Angeles.

The third term ends this week and students will be off for summer vacation, so it was ‘final exam’ time when we visited. Here are some of the students hanging out after class.

These girls were begging me to take their photo!

Hail

Today, it hailed (actually, just a few minutes ago)! It was remarkable. This morning, I ran in short sleeves and now I can see my breath on the patio. The storm only lasted about 8-10 minutes, but it was intense while it lasted! Living in the mountains we’ve gotten used to fog, afternoon showers, cooler temperatures, etc. but never hail. Just when we thought summer was finally coming to Mbabane…P.S. The electricity has gone on/off 4 times since I started writing this blog entry.

Downpour

The pool

I don’t think that these flowers appreciate the sudden chill

Our complex

Bureaucracy

I have tried to remain positive in my blogging for many reasons, but most importantly: 1) I don’t like complainers, and 2) I want to remember the good things about Swaziland, as opposed to the bad. But, today was a special day and it deserves to be documented. In an effort not to waste MORE time, I’m going with a chronological approach as opposed to a full narrative (for real, I’ve already been tortured once):

8:20am Left home and drove to Matsapha (30 kilometers)

8:45am Stopped for the third time to ask for directions to government sanctioned auto shop

9:00am Arrived C.T.A. (government sanctioned auto shop). Let the record show that there is not a single sign anywhere indicating the location is in fact C.T.A.

9:30am Completed paperwork, road worthiness test, and received ‘stamped’ receipt proving so

9:50am Back in Mbabane (30 kilometers)

10:00am In line at Income Tax office in pursuit of ‘tax credit number’

10:15am Sent away from Income Tax office to ‘Grade Tax’ office (different building) to complete paperwork for said tax credit number

10:40am Back in line at Income Tax office with tax credit number in hand

11:00am Departed Income Tax office and drove to national Revenue headquarters

11:05am Sent away from Revenue headquarters because their ‘system’ is down

11:15am Departed Revenue headquarters for Revenue ‘satellite’ branch in town (where aforementioned ‘system’ is working)

11:40am In line at ‘satellite’ Revenue branch. Let the record show that the line is out the door.

12:00pm Give window teller 8 ‘stamped’ documents in pursuit of changing over the title of our car to our name

12:05pm Informed missing 1 document

12:10pm Departed for Manzini Police Station (35 kilometers) to retrieve missing document

12:40pm In line at Police Station

1:00pm Departed for Mbabane (35 kilometers) with ‘stamped’ missing document in tow

1:30pm Arrived back at ‘satellite’ Revenue branch. It is closed until 2:00pm for lunch…

1:40pm Departed for Swaziland Water Services headquarters to resolve duplicate billing issue

1:50pm Waited in parking lot for headquarters to re-open following lunch

2:05pm In line at Swaziland Water Services headquarters

2:10pm Sent away from headquarters to ‘satellite’ branch in the Swazi Plaza where the old MTN offices used to be (oh, right, now I know where you’re talking about…of course)

2:30pm In line at Swaziland Water Services ‘satellite’ branch

2:35pm Sent away from ‘satellite’ branch because their ‘system’ is down (seriously?)

3:05pm In line at ‘satellite’ Revenue branch with 8 ‘stamped’ documents plus previously missing document

3:20pm Owner of vehicle and now title for Toyota RAV 4

Yep, that really did take 7 hours. Awesome.

Domestic Goodness

As you have read before, one of my favorite things about living in Swaziland is the amount of time I have to do the things that I ‘never had time to do’ while living in California. I use quotation marks because I made my own choices about how to spend my time in Los Angeles and obviously, one day is still 24 hours no matter where I am living. But, when I traded a 2-3 hour commute (depending) for a 4 minute commute (literally), and switched from a full-time job to a part-time consulting gig, I’ve simply got a lot more free time (even when you factor in going to bed at 9:30pm). And, one of my favorite things to do with that time is to cook. I am my mother’s daughter and I love to cook and especially to host dinner parties and to woo (‘win-others-over’) with my creations. Case in point, I recently received an e-mail from one of my frequent diner friends that said, ‘Dear Paisley, You like to cook and I like to eat, so I can see a mutually beneficial opportunity in the making.’ Then, he attached 8-10 on-line recipes to the e-mail. As you can imagine, cooking in Swaziland is an adventure in ‘substituting’ since many ingredients are not readily available. For example, yesterday, we went to a friend’s house to watch the Cowboys/Eagles football game and were having jambalaya. I was in charge of the side dishes and dessert and had planned to stick to the southern/Louisiana theme by making creamed spinach, cornbread, and bourbon balls. However, plain old spinach does not exist in these parts, even in the frozen food section…nor does cornmeal, for that matter…nor does light corn syrup which was one of the key ingredients in the bourbon balls! So, I ended up making broccoli casserole, cornbread out of polenta, and a sour cream cake. And here’s what the kitchen looked like when I finished cooking (thank goodness for housekeepers). Okay, maybe that’s the real reason I have so much time on my hands…

Trick or Treat

Halloween is not really recognized by Swazis; however, the expat community keeps the celebration alive in Mbabane. If the locals do dress-up for Halloween, they stick to traditional costumes like a witch, ghost, black cat, devil, etc. So, the fact that our costumes were a ‘play on words’ was very confusing. Regardless, Doug and I managed to win the costume contest for ‘best couple’ as ‘Swazi Candles’ and ‘House on Fire.’ Doug was ‘Swazi Candles’ which is a popular restaurant and candle factory in Enzulwini Valley. Doug dressed as a traditional Swazi and then fixed a candle to his shoulder to perfect his, ‘Swazi’ ‘Candles’ ensemble. The local concert venue in Enzulwini Valley is called, ‘House on Fire,’ so my costume consisted of a cardboard box, decorated to look like a house, on fire. At least we thought that we were pretty clever…

Doug as 'Swazi Candles'

Me as ‘House on Fire’

The ‘Jackson 4’ (Jessica, Michelle, Alison, and Erin) and Tao (not sure what he was)

The Joker (Tal)

Elton John (Jordan), Guinea Fowl (Mallory), and Morton Salt Guy (Nick)

Traditional ‘gogo’ or grandmother (Stephanie)

Mallory's 80's Birthday Bash

Two Fridays ago, we celebrated Mallory’s birthday with an 80’s themed party. ‘Cookies’ were eaten, Twister was played, and 80’s rock ballads were sung (while feverishly dancing, of course). It was a really good time and even though everyone didn’t get into the 80’s spirit, those who did, really did. Since a recap of the evening will be embarrassing (my little party ended at 10:36pm) and probably a bit boring, I’ll use this as an opportunity to introduce you to some of the regulars in our circle of friends.

Happy Birthday, Mallory

Joe and the Italians

Tao, Jordan, and Uri

Annabel and Johannes

Mallory Nick, and Fernando

Tini, Paisley, and Erin

Doug (a.k.a. ‘Chaz’) and Brett (a.k.a. Flava Flave)