Yesterday was our orientation day. I met everybody, and they seem like a good group. We also learnt a lot about Swaziland. 70% of its population live below the poverty line, and this is due to an AIDS/HIV epidemic. As this mostly affects 20-40 year olds, 49% of the population are under 15 years old! Thus there are many children looking after other children, or their grandparents. There are an estimated 200,000 orphans in Swaziland, and their population is only 1 million. Because 80% of the country live in rural areas, they have no access to health care or any other form of help. The company that I am volunteering with, All Out Africa, help these children using various projects. They send volunteers to Neighbourhood Care Points, where orphans can go for food and education. They also send volunteers into schools to teach English, as well as doing building projects. I am going to be going to a school and teaching 9-11 year olds. I will start as a teachers assistant, but then I will be taking classes by myself, something I find rather daunting, but hopefully once I get into it will be fine. We are given a book on lesson planning and other people will be teaching the same age group, though not the same class, so we can help each other out!

After this we went on a tour around Lombamba, the local area. First we were shown, and told about the parliament in Swaziland. We were then shown a model of an old style village made out of grass (photos to come). A man can have as many wives as he can afford in Swaziland, and each wife needs 3 huts, one as her bedroom, one a food kitchen, and one a beer kitchen! Therefore, a man's wealth could be seen by the size of his village. Next we went to a museum where we learnt about Swazi culture. Cows are very important, and very valuable to Swazi's, for example a wife is worth 17 cows. We also learnt about the traditional Reed dance that takes place every December/January, in which the women dance in front of the King, and he can chose a new wife. We also visited the memorial park for the much loved previous King of Swaziland.

After this we were shown a current Swazi village. We were actually shown where our guide lived. Although the houses are not still made out of grass, the majority were made of mud and sticks, so are still very basic. It was really good to actually see how the people really live in Swaziland, I also think I am going to take the opportunity to spend a few days living in a Swazi Homestead with a Swazi family whilst I am here. After trying some interesting looking beer, we had a BBQ Swazi style, eating with our hands! We also had the maize (mieliepap) they often eat as part of their staple diet.

I spent the evening packing, and getting ready for the safari I am going on today in Kruger National park in South Africa, so hopefully when I get back in 5 days, I will have even more to tell you!