Swaziland Tidbits

It has come to my attention that there are some schools using my blog as a way of teaching classes about different places in the world (specifically Swaziland, however, I am sure they could browse through posting from years gone by and find plenty of cultural information from other places I have lived like Australia and Japan and other places I have traveled like Europe, Colombia, maybe New Zealand is in there or something... I don't know). So, I decided I should do a little more to give information about Swaziland and what life is like for people who live here. So here is a little stream of pictures and small tidbits about The Kingdom of Swaziland and its culture.

Once a woman is married, she is not to be seen in public with her hair exposed (this is the way they show they are married - instead of a ring). Most of the time women wear some sort of scarf or wrap like this, but for church they often wear hats - most religions have uniforms that people wear, so the women wear the hats assigned to their uniforms. Also women are not supposed to wear pants. In many communities this is becoming less of a rule, but there are times during the year (October-December) when people travel the country and fine women everywhere for wearing pants, exposing their knees, wearing jewelry, or fingernail polish. While some communities are becoming more liberal with the dress wearing for ladies, a married woman must never pants. So once a Swazi woman is married, she pretty much wears this (pictured - Swazi dress)  forever.

Collecting and chopping firewood for cooking is the job of women and girls.
Swazis like to dress nicely whenever they are in public, so even when doing manual labor,
they sometimes wear their nicest clothes.

Basically every family in Swaziland has cows. Cows are a sign of wealth (much more so than fancy cars or jewelry or a nice house). Cows are used for paying for wives and for... well, not really for anything besides that. They are eaten only at very very special occasions. But every morning every family must heard their cattle up the mountain to a place where they can graze all day and not wander into somebody's maize field. Then at night the cattle must be herded back to the homestead and into the cattle kraal where they sleep. Motor vehicles or horses are far too expensive to keep, so the herding is done by the men on the homestead when the children are in school, but the job is the job of the boys in the family. They heard the cattle by series of whistles, throwing rocks, and whipping them with sticks. It is incredible how the cows actually know what the whistles mean - I can't even figure out the different meanings of them!

Children are usually sent to the village center to get maize ground at the maize mill. I am impressed by how young these kids acquire the skill of carrying such heavy loads on their heads!
The only way Swazis carry water from the river is on her head - I am talking women carrying 20 liters on their heads for miles and never spilling a drop! It's incredible!

In some communities it is becoming more common to have electricity, but in rural Swaziland, it is still not the norm. People that get electricity after their homes are built often have a set up similar to this. It MIGHT not meet the building standards we have for American homes, but, it works! (Yes, that is the light switch hanging on the right.)

This is a very common scene in Swaziland. Just a typical dog in a typical yard out front of a typical house with a bucket of knob-sticks.

ALL (and that is no generalization) Swazi villages have a soccer field exactly like this one (three gum tree poles wired together on either end of the field). Soccer (called football here) is a HUGE sport that pretty much all boys play. Girls do not. Girls can play netball if their school has the hoops, but, unfortunately at this point the two do not mix. Soon, slowly, they will. We are working on that.

This is just a stinking cute picture of some of the grade 1 boys on the orphanage. You can tell it is Sunday because everyone is dressed in their nicest clothes for church... except David who is wearing a pine-needle wig fashioned by some of the little girls. I love these kids!

This kid blew me away! You'll never guess how old he is. When I first saw him, I was sure he was too young to have a grasp on English yet, so I bent down and talked to him like a baby and he put his hand on his hip and goes, "What's your name?" I just about died! This little dude is 4 years old and quite a whipper snapper!

This is what a typical Swazi school looks like.

Two-Toned, one color.

Long rows of classrooms with an outdoor hallway. It is not very common for schools to have electricity in the classrooms, just in the office. They have large windows on both sides that provide plenty of light.

Swazi students wear uniforms that typically match the color scheme of the school (The school above - green. Also the school is in the background behind the girls). Primary school uniforms are the same style across the country (there are 4-5 different color schemes) and high school uniforms are the same across the country. Most kids have one uniform that they wash 2 times a week. (Wash by hand, remember. You can either wash them in the river or carry water home and wash in a bucket at home.)

I hope this (and future educational posts I will try to put up) gives you a better picture of the Kingdom!

Thanks for keeping up with me!!