A posting from Mark's sister Martha

[Mark's sister Martha did a tour of southern Africa in February and March, visited us briefly on February 24 at a nearby game preserve and then for 4 days March 13 to 17.  Here are her impressions.]

Below are some thoughts about my visit in Swaziland. You showed me so much, I had a hard time picking what to discuss.  It was an amazing visit.  I’m so glad you let me visit.

In the 4 days I spent with them, Mark and Katherine packed in visits to four schools, seven classes, and some of their favorite students and teachers.  They showed me three vastly different, but quintessentially African, communities: I stayed with M&K in their fairly basic homestead, spent a night at a lovely, European style farm B&B, and visited a refugee camp.

I had so much fun visiting some of the classes M&K have been teaching from pre-school to high school.  Both students and teachers love M&K.  Mark explained that I was his “sisi” (that’s siSwati for “sister”) who came from America to visit them.  We showed the classes my trip from Denver to Swaziland on an inflatable globe to illustrate flying around the world. 

 The students were surprised to learn that it was still dark in Denver when it was the midday in Swaziland.  They were also puzzled by the concept of snow in the postcard of a skier at Vail.  In the shadow of the AIDS epidemic, M&K have been emphasizing female empowerment, so I made sure the students knew that I had been a lawyer.
The kids spoke and understood English well and so were able to ask good questions.  Several fifth graders had recently had a short airplane ride to celebrate the opening of the new Swaziland airport and were interested in what I could see as I flew over the Atlantic Ocean.  They told the class that when they flew, houses and cattle were as tiny as ants.  I’m sure they didn't understand a body of water so vast that you can’t see land at all.
At the preschool we visited, one very good teacher was in charge of all 80 children because the other teacher was away on a family emergency.  Nevertheless, the children all sat down in front of me and listened to me tell them, in English, how I had flown across the ocean. 

 When the teacher asked these preschoolers where I had come from, one, and then all, of them answered “America”.  Then we asked them to sing a song for us, and one started a song about Jesus, in English, with lots of hand motions.  They loved the attention we gave them just as much as we loved the attention they gave to us.

Unlike the preschoolers, the birds at Mabuda Farm B&B, where we went Saturday night, were not quite as engaged with us, but the owners of the B&B definitely were.  One of the owners took us for a bird walk at 6am on Sunday morning.  He identified about 20 birds by song and knew their habits well, but most of the birds were hanging out deep in the woods and were heard but not seen.  The owner also walked us through his fruit orchard and offered us grapefruit, oranges, passion fruit and persimmons that were ripening in the late Swaziland summer.  The farm is beautifully set on a verdant ridge above the steamy, brown lowveld where M&K’s homestead is located.  While at Mabuda (which means "place of dreams") Farm I could understand why the early European farmers loved Africa.

Life at M&K’s homestead is so much more basic than life in Denver or at Mabuda.  M&K share a water tap in the yard with the homestead's family.  They also collect rain water from the corrugated metal roof.  Shower water is heated in a solar reservoir; drinking water is boiled 10 minutes, then poured through a special filter and finally flavored with Crystal Light drops.  The path to the latrine is about 100 yards with dogs, chickens, cows and their poop to dodge.  M&K's two room cinderblock house has fairly reliable electricity with which Katherine turns out splendid meals on electric (or gas) burners or in a small electric oven.  Food can be kept cool in a small refrigerator if the power stays on.  Mark does the dishes using as little of the scarce water as safely possible. For many reasons, the kind of home-centered entertaining that M&K were so good at in Denver doesn’t work at their homestead. 

After I had experienced the European comfort of Mabuda Farm, and the relative privacy of the homestead, M&K took me to the nearby refugee camp where refugees from places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia live.  Some of the refugees live in buildings appropriately called “warehouses” with fabric curtains to separate each family’s small space.  Food for the whole camp is prepared in a pot that is heated by biogas (generated from fuel collected from the latrines and from the cattle herd). M&K introduced me to some of the amazingly resilient students who live in the camp.

M&K continue to be the consummate hosts they were in Denver.  Katherine is still an excellent cook, even with limited ingredients.  Mark gave up his bed for me and moved into a rondavel in the homestead.  They helped me work out the arrangements for getting from and back to the airport in Johannesburg.  While M&K’s Peace Corps site may not make it into the Lonely Planet guide, my visit was priceless.  I think they’d love to have others visit too.

[M&K:  it was indeed a great visit.  So nice to show Sisi wami our new home.  The pix are ours - Martha took lots, but sending more than just one or 2 would absorb all the internet we're likely to have for a while.  There are nice pictures of Mabuda Farm in our Sept. 20, 2013 blog posting.]