Sawubona!

We arrived in Swaziland last Thursday, after spending 14 hours at the airports, 14 hours in airplanes and 6 ours in cars. Unfortunately, the weather in Mbabane was very cloudy and rainy, but we did see some sunlight in South Africa, when coming from the airport. I cant describe how good it felt, when we finally arrived at Fairlady Mountain Cottages (the place where we are staying). We were excited to be in Swaziland, but culdn't wait to lay down and get some sleep in an actual bed.

The next morning, we woke up to find out that our roof had leaked and Heidi's shoes were filled up with water. Apparently, I had also been sleeping on a bug, becouse in the morning there was a big brown stain and pieces of a crushed bug on both my t-shirt and the sheet. We had no big plans for the day, so we went to the city to use the internet, buy some food and to get local extensions for our phones... all kinds of basic stuff to get things started in Africa. In the evening, our whole group (10 at that moment) went to spend some time at DJ's house (one local friend). It was nice to just hang out and get to know the other Finnish studentsbetter and to also make friends with some new people (DJ's friends). After hanging out at DJ's place, we packed 14 people in 2 regular cars and headed to Manzini for some clubbing.

Saturday started well. Sun was shining and we all went to hang out at the pool. Some of us were feeling a bit weak after last night's party, so we decided to order some "hangover pizza". After a short discussion, I ended up being the lucky to call and place the order. Some may think ordering a pizza is simple and easy, but they are wrong. After talking on the phone for about 15 minutes and answering the weirdest questions ever, I was finally able to place to order. I never knew if they got the order right, becouse suddenly the person on the phone started talking to smeone else and just hung up the phone. Surprisingly though, the delivery guy came in about a half an hour and had almost everything I had ordered. There was only one coke missing and one pizza was different than I'd ordered, but everyone was still happy.

Around noon, DJ showed up at Fairlady and took some of us to the Mantenga falls. Becouse of all the rain from the previous weeks, water in the river was all brown and the current was extremely strong. We had to swim really hard, but made it acrooss the river. It wasn't till then that we saw there was a snake in the water. We saw it heading towards us and the rocks we were standing on, so everyone was starting to get a bit scared. We had no idea how to get back to the other side, but we waited for a rigt moment and then just jumped into the water. I have never swam that fast in my life, and when we finally reached the other side, everyne was feeling more than ready to leave and go get something to eat. We jumped into DJ's car and drove to the Finnish embassy for lunch. After catching our breath and stuffing ourselves, we went to Royal Swazi Sun Hotel & Casino to enjoy the luxuries of the finest spa in the country. After all, I will have to say we had an extremely nice and relaxing day.

On Sunday, we jumped into a kombi with DJ and a driver, and drove all the way to South Africa. We spent the day in a very nice waterpark, called Forever Resort. They had hot springs, many different slides, put-put golf, go-karts, paintball and tons of other stuff. Everyone had fun and it was a very nice day with perfectly sunny weather and lots of fun activities. We even bought shorts for our driver, so he could come have fun with us. Right before we left, something happend...we saw a snake...again. This time it was in one of the water slides and wrapped itself around a womans arm. I don't think it was poisonous or anything, but I was still happy to be out of the wate when I saw it.

On Monday morning, it was finally time to go to work. Around 9 a.m., me and Heidi arrived at the Cheshire Home of Swaziland, near Manzini. Cheshire Home is one of the few, if not the only rehabilitation center in Swaziland. We weren't supposed to go there until the end of March, but apparently they were short on staff and really needed some help. At the moment, they only have one occupational therapist (also taking care of the administration stuff), one physio therapist and one therapy assistant doing all the rehabilitation. Most of the clients at the Cheshire Home have a dignosis of an unspecified neuropathy (usually caused by HIV) or they have had a stroke. Some of the clients live in the residence, but some of them come only once or twice a week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they have a children's clinic, when x number of kids come in for therapy (all at the same time).

I have really enjoyed my first week at the Cheshire Home and I'm very excited about having an Australian occupational therapist as my "teacher". This is a great opportunity for me to practice my skills and to learn new things - it's very challenging, but I can't wait to go back next week! Some of the clients I work with, can speak English, but some of them only speak SiSwati. I have promised myself (and them) to learn at least one new word everyday, and this far I've done pretty good. I do have some difficulties with the pronounciation and all the different clicks... but hey, at least they get a good laugh when I try to repeat what they say.

To go to Matsapha, where the Cheshire Home of Swaziland is located, we have to take two kombis (a van with seats in the back) in the morning, and two in the evening. (It takes us about an hour and 20 minutesto get there from Fairlady.) Kombis also don't have schedules, so they leave whenever they are full. (It's amazing how many people they can fit in one Toyota Hiace!!) When someone wants to get out, they just yell sí-téshi (meaning "station") and the driver pulls up at the next stop.

Wow...I could go on and on for hours, but I'm afraid this will have to do for now... I have basketball practise to go to at Sifunzani high school..