Safe and Sound in Swaziland

Hey everyone! Once again this must be a pretty quick post. I
didn’t realize we would get internet time today so I didn’t write a blog in advance.

I’m in SWAZILAND!! Yay!! We are all doing well. We got into
Nsoko (the name of the town/village where we are staying) around 8 PM local
time on Wednesday feeling pretty jet lagged. In all we had 50ish hours of traveling.
The next morning were woken by the sun rising at 4:30. Around 8 AM we were told
that because it was Thanksgiving morning the real life time (a team that is
here for one semester and is leaving next week) was inviting us to celebrate
Thanksgiving with them at Julie Anderson’s house. I’ve heard a lot about Julie
and her daughter Ellie from some of my friends that have been here before.  Julie is American and has been living in
Swaziland for 5 years now. She adopted Ellie, who is a precious 4 year old
Swazi girl, a few years ago. And one of the leaders of the real life team is
Sydney Sample, was a leader that I really bonded with at our training camp, so
it’s great to get to see her again!

I never realized how mountainous Swaziland is…it’s
absolutely gorgeous! I’ll upload pictures as soon as I get the chance but that
may be a month away. It’s still hitting me that I’m actually in Africa,
actually in Swaziland. It doesn’t feel real, it still feels like a dream.

So yesterday we went to Manzini to Julie’s house, spent the night at Timbutini
with the girls on the real life team (sorry if that’s not spelled correctly,
its between Nsoko and Manzini). And then this morning we came into Manzini to
use in the internet for a bit and to shop for groceries for the next week. The
real life team is heading back to Nsoko with us tonight so we get to spend some
more time with them. I don’t know when I’ll get internet again as we are still
figuring out our schedule. I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was great.

Thanks for all of your prayers and keep them
coming! Please continue to pray for team unity, rest, and just figuring out our
schedule, or at least some semblance of one.  Our leaders leave us in two weeks and then we
are on our own except debriefs in February and April. That will be a difficult
goodbye for all of us. I love y’all! Talk to you soon!