Im still alive!!!

Dont let the silence fool you. I am still alive and well! Internet has just been tricky. I took a kombi to Mbabane on Thursday (details omited here for the peace of certain potential readers) to use the internet, but because it was so overcast, I was able to check only 3 emails in my 50 minutes in html mode, and facebook and blogging were right out.

As of yesterday I felt truly settled in. As I sat in my PJs watching a horrid movie (called Tribulation, with Gary Busey) with Make Thobile, her two sons, Samu (9), and Aki (5) and the 4 girls who are currently in the program, eating popcorn and peanuts, I had to stop and ponder the fact that I was in a a foreign country half way around the world. It all felt too normal.

Of course much is not normal. We leave the windows and doors open all day, which I love. A breeze blows through, which is good, seeing as how it was 35 C the first day I got here. The food is good, though I think Thobile is trying to fatten me up, as I seem to be eating 4 meals a day instead of 3. Meat and boiled vegetables, but they have all been good. Praise God for galvanizing my GI tract, as I have had no "runny tummy" despite having some ice and fresh fruits. We wash the dishes with bar soap and the flies are expertly swatted with a kitchen towel. My bathroom has no light so at night I shower in the dark in a stall shower that only has only a half a wall, so it is an art to shower without soaking the entire bathroom. And these are only the differences inside the walls of the centre.

The centre strikes me as a cross between a summer church camp and an inpatient adolescent psych unit. There are 4 girls there now, ranging from 14 to 21. They stay for 8 months to complete the program, and some stay on for safety reasons. They have very hard stories, but they are beautiful and gifted girls. I feel priveledged to be able to hear their stories and lend some help. I have been surprised how open they have been with me, me being a complete stranger and foreigner and whatnot. I live in the small 2 bedroom staff house in the centre, inside a security wall. I am going to ask Glenda if I can venture out to walk in the neighborhoods during the day. The land is so beautiful. The contrast of the poverty in the midst of paradise is so strange. It is hard to put myself in the shoes of the people here, to think that this is their world, the only one they know.

I love that the center is a Christian-oriented facility. We start and end each day with chapel (though I have gone to evening chapel only once), and there is much praying together. I have freedom to make faith a part of my counseling sessions as seems appropriate, and that is very refreshing, but a whole new learning curve as well. Luckily Glenda, the director of the centre, is a great supervisor and I am able to discuss cases and experiences with her in ways that seem to be mutually beneficial. She will have me going to talk to a few other local organizations that help abuse victims, and we may also visit a prison, an orphan organization, and possibly talk with some politicians. Crazy!

I have been here 4 days, and I am already feeling my time here may be too short to accomplish all I would like to. At the same time I feel I have been here a long time. And certainly I will be anxious to get back home as well. Strange paradoxes. Paradoces? Hmm....

K. That is enough for the moment I suppose. I miss you guys!