Foresters Arms Hotel Mbabane

... a girl from Bristol who is teaching here.

We had a really good night, I played a couple of tunes on the guitar and they sang along which was cool. We ended up getting quite stoned on the local weed which is really strong actually. I had not been stoned like that for a long time, expect maybe that evening with Lee and Bex! So we obviously had the giggles and a bit of paranoia was kicking in - we were taking the **** out of John a bit who can be a bit intense!

... We stop and pick up passengers along the way, smokers taking advantage of as many stops as possible, but our first major stop isn’t until St. Lucia. This is set in a coastal wildlife region famous for its marine as well as terrestrial wildlife, particularly crocodiles. It’s also about as tricked-out as a tourist town can be, plenty of pizza and ice cream, probably even Thai food. The white South African brags ...

... to what I experienced in Lesotho with them. They aim at providing emotional relief through play and laughter to the orphans.
This gave me more insight on the country "real" life; outside of the touristic places. And to meet very interesting Swazi friends from the Performing Arts association.

But I was also called by Mozambique and the prospect of beautiful beaches, huge prawns and a more "latin" touch country...

... to see the children in green or burgundy uniforms walking home from school. It was amazing to see such young kids, maybe 5 years old, walking along the busy road without any adult supervision or village in sight, sometimes barefoot.

It took a couple of hours to get from the border to our first stop in Swaziland, at Swazi Candles where I monitored Sophia in the playground. She went on the swing, jumped on a trampoline (not very ...

... different languages and beliefs that all live in the same country. Here every one is swazi and all go to the Christian Zionist Church (the main church of Swaziland). #3. Xenophobia. Many people have told me that the Swazis are fairly distrustful of outsiders, particularly Mozambicans. There are some Mozambican refugees and immigrants who have moved here b/c of the civil wars in Mozambique and I have yet to hear a Swazi say nice things about them ...

... given that she had depression treated with medications before. But the only way to find that out would be to spend time and talk to her which i got to do. I had a really good day today. I saw also a gal who may have drug resistent TB so we are extending her treatment and along with a pregnant lady who may need medications. Overall it was a good day and learned some interesting things and felt like I helped some people!! take care,. sumeeth

... the HIV kid who had kidney failure and needs to be trasnferred to south africa for surgery but can't until they get paperwork, special fund applied for, travel permits, and accepting hospital squared away...which can take up to 1 month. in the meantime the child is swollen and fairly sick and just sitting in the hospital. There was another child you needed to be transferred to south africa in the past for a heart valve replacement, they couldn't get the transfer authorized, they ...

... every child must have 2 people to vouch they will give the meds) and created many problems. Today she said she wanted the child started on the meds and would not let the african mom talk at all. We then asked her to leave the room, and talked to the patient's mom alone. She said that she felt comfortable administering the meds but she felt intimidated by the white lady and that the white lady has only shown up recently and often dictates things to her ...

... was situated. We stopped at the first place we came to which was a bit out from the main city, to try and ring and Fiona, cynically if you ask me, said I bet ya he will say we should stay here. She was of course right but still the lack of faith was a little disturbing. Righteous indignation did take over at this point and we demanded to be taken into the city but the place we had in mind was a complete **** hole so we ...