The night before we left we had over
for dinner a student who has become very special to us. He is a
refugee from the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where 2 of
his brothers were killed. He has lived for 2 years at the nearby
Refugee Camp with his parents and 4 remaining siblings, and was in
Malawi for 5 years before that. He is now starting his last year at
the local High School, where he was selected by the faculty as “Head
Boy.” He is described by some teachers we know as “brilliant.”
He is only 16 – most Swazis in his class are 18, or older, some
up to 22 and I think a few even older than that. We were exploring
scholarships and other opportunities he might want to consider for
after high school graduation this coming December. This is the kind
of opportunity that Nomphumelelo has a great ability to see and
pursue. (I’ve been reminded on our visit with family that this
blog has some occasional readers who may not know that Nomphumelelo
is Katherine’s Swazi name; translates “success.”)
We walked out of our village Monday,
roughed it one night at our favorite “backpackers” hostel in
Mbabane
and arrived in snowy, dark and cold
Boston Wednesday. The contrast was necksnappingly surreal. Suddenly
clean water flowing out of taps, both hot and cold. Unlimited and
fast internet access! Wide varieties of fresh, healthy food.
Temperature control (mostly). Not being stared at as inexplicable
oddities. Not stepping around dog/chicken/cow poop. Among
Katherine’s loving, supportive family.
The services for KUF’s Dad were
beautiful, a celebration of a long life, well-lived. This Blog is
not supposed to be about as, as such, but instead about our African
adventure, so I spare you more details of our visit, except that it was really, really nice
being with our children and their spouses. Really hard to leave, but
they have to get on with their lives. As do we. I guess.
Because I paid for my flight but the
PC paid for Katherine’s and the PC can only pay to cross the
Atlantic on an American-flag carrier, we returned Friday on different
flights, so Katherine flew overnight to London, spent the day at
Heathrow, then overnight to Jo’Burg, but she caught the early van
Sunday morrning and got to Mbabane in time to get to site Sunday
afternoon. School starts Tuesday.
Culture shocks!
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