Melanie and Musa's wedding reception

          Saturday night we gathered at Swaziland's main live music venue, House on Fire, where the Bushfire music festival occurs each May, and had drinks and then dinner at the really nice restaurant there to celebrate the marriage of a volunteer from the group ahead of ours (she had extended her service for a 3rd year) to a Swazi man who is building manager for construction of a youth facility for an NGO.

 They exchanged vows:

 The PC volunteers had a picture

We had drinks as the long summer evening waned:

They had planned to have the civil wedding part done on Wednesday, but we ran into the bride in town that day;  the necessary government functionaries had not come to work that day.  They got it done on Friday.  When Melanie's service ends this year they will go to the US.  Musa is very fluent in English, which is helpful in his work here.

      After dinner

we got a taxi to the homestead of a volunteer in our group, where she and 4 others of us crashed.  She insisted on sleeping on the floor, giving Katherine and me her bed!  She has a really nice house, with indoor plumbing and a separate kitchen, windows that seal, an insulation layer below the metal roof, and a spacious living room; when our group first gathered after we had been to our sites it was quickly reported that Patty's is the place to crash if you can't get back to your site.   We had bought food on our way to the reception Saturday and we fixed up a fine breakfast in her lovely home.

     School should finally start Tuesday, January 27, after a week delay.  The official reason for the delay was that the "regiments" (men who participate in the "first fruits" ceremony to celebrate the summer, who are organized into military-style units, which are more like fraternal order than a militia) had not finished the last stage of that event - weeding the King's fields, but now we are hearing that the delay may have been because the government lacks funds to open the schools.  Upon return to site Sunday I visited the nearby Refugee Camp and learned that the camp manager lacks funds to pay school fees, and the High School Principal is saying students from the Refugee Camp cannot attend school until the fees are paid.   But I think that face-off between the Principal and the Camp management has occurred at the beginning of every term, so maybe that will be quickly resolved.  It would be nice if the students and all others in education here could start soon to focus solely on education.