Odds and ends

Sanibonani!

Life is rolling steadily along in the Kingdom. I did have something of a success lately, and it came about through happenstance.

I asked for a meeting with the International Planned Parenthood affiliate in the SWZ, just to see whether I can work with them on public health initiatives they're doing. As it turns out, they have peer educators who work at the high school in my community. They also had some money in an account for a female condom event. They asked if we could take the money and organize an event.

Short answer: absolutely.

The peer educators did all the work to raise awareness about the day, which was April 13. They went to umphekatsi, or the community meeting place, and asked the elders for permission to host the event. The inner council told them to go for it, and we were off and running.

This came together over about three weeks, and we were frantically buying food the day before to feed 300+ people. It was highly stressful at the end.

But we had bomake (women/mothers) volunteer to cook for us. So they were up early early, cooking fried chicken, samp (a bit like hominy), rice, vegetable salads, beef and more. We were frantic the day of the event, buying more meat down the road when it looked like we'd be low. It was pretty crazy. The people from the IPPF affiliate were frazzled, I was frazzled, the peer educators were frazzled. Working with Swazis is different from working with Americans. The two cultures just communicate differently. I learned A LOT about what it takes to put on a community event here.

Our 10 a.m. event started at about noon, which is not at all unusual here, and we had dancing, a great DJ, drumming, female/male condom demonstrations, prizes and lots of food. We also had more than 450 people, which was completely crazy. The IPPF affiliate handled the demonstration and all the AV stuff. They also brought in the DJ. Really, all I did was try to coordinate between the peer educators and the staff of the NGO.

On the whole, you could call it a success. There was madness, and we didn't spend as much money as we were supposed to (does that ever happen?), but our community turned out and learned what we hoped they'd learn. It was definitely a learning experience. The best part is that I didn't have to fill out any kind of grant application. "Hey, will you use this money to put on a free event in your community?" Any time. I'll take it.

So in case you were wondering what I'm doing, that's it. Now on to other things! Stay tuned for details on the income-generating chicken project I'm working on with a women's support group.

Keep fighting the good fight, America!