snail in the bathroom

Last weekend it rained quite a bit. I got up in the middle of the night, went to the bathroom, and saw this little guy waiting for me on the tissue box which is on the toilet.

I tried to pull him off (gently) but his suckers were too sticky. So, I put the box of tissues outside on the porch near the garden and let him make his way off.

Also, thus far two other interesting animals/insects have laid themselves to die on my front stoop -- a praying mantis (which I've saved for my husband who likes them) and a little lizard who was missing his front left leg/arm. I think he must have fallen off the roof in the rainstorm and his poor leg got torn off. I tried to keep him but he was stinky after a few days.

scenes from the swaziland national museum

Here are some pictures from the Swaziland National Museum. I think seeing the curiosity and happiness of travelers/visitors and students alike reminds us why museums are important places. Some people say that Swaziland does not need a museum, mainly because its cultural traditions are alive and well. Having been here for only five weeks, I can attest to that statement. On the other hand, life is changing for Swazis, and a central repository for culture (material culture, but also oral culture if possible) might be much important in the future than some believe.

at a swazi orphanage

Hi all -- Christine and I spent a wonderful afternoon at an orphanage in the northeast of Swaziland last Saturday. One of the best things about Swaziland is that it is easy to meet people. Everyone, Swazis and ex-pats alike, are friendly and willing to talk. One day I went to the Mountain Inn, in search of a good Internet connection. This gal Margie was also there and we started talking (Americans gravitate towards each other).

Turns out, she is from San Diego and was a social worker. She is a Christian, and was called to Swaziland two years ago and has been here since. She found this orphanage, and has participated in its growth. Today the orphanage has reached its maximum size, with about 50 children -- babies, toddlers, youngsters and teenagers. As Margie explained it, the folks who run the orphanage, Kallie and Charmain Coertzen, started with nothing. They do not ask for anything (monetary donations or otherwise), but things come their way. As many Christians believe, these things happen because God is watching out for them and helping
them.

This little orphanage grew, in the past few years, mostly due to the HIV/AIDS deaths, and some of the children are HIV positive. But, though they have added new buildings, and continue to work the land, there remains a family atmosphere. Margie believes, probably quite rightly, that very few orphanages can compare to the standards of health and loving care shown to these children.

Margie herself is in the process of adopting a 4-year old Swazi boy, though the baby she holds in the first
photo is Angelique. She came to the orphanage undernourished and still shows some signs of slow development. But, the "little angel" has made great progress. Margie is her primary caregiver.

The magogo in the last picture is cooking a big pot of pap (or papish), which is the staple food of Swaziland. It is a very finely ground maize, which is boiled and stirred. If Swazis have money, they will have a piece of meat with pap, such a chicken livers, or beef. Pap is very plain, but makes an excellent accompanient to dishes. I eat it everyday because I love the taste and texture. Swazis eat it because of the taste, and the healthiness of it, but also because it is very inexpensive. A large helping of pap costs about 20 cents in American money.

indian ocean coastline of Maputo, Mozambique

Last week my co-worker Bheki (you pronounce "k" as "g"in Siswati) had to go to Maputo -- the capital of the country of Mozambique -- to pick up a visa for the SNTC's CEO. He kindly asked me along, and we drove through the border post in the northeast corner of Swaziland, got our visas to enter into Mozambique and then drove into the city.

Mozambicans speak Portuguese, though there almost everyone in the city also speaks English. Bheki drove out of city, along the coast, so that I could see the Indian Ocean. The tide was out very very far, but by the end of the afternoon, the beaches were full
of people swimming.

Mozambique was/is known for its seafood and I did have a giant fish for lunch. The name of which I couldn't figure out - even though the waiter was telling us. Unfortunately, the waters have been overfished, and the prawns (shrimps) are much smaller than they used to be.

The Indian Ocean is only about 40 km (a three hour drive) from Swaziland. The country is much different and the cities of Mozambique are very crowded, congested with traffic and fairly dirty. But there are very good, big markets (where Bheki bought bags of cashews, another Mozambican specialty), many museums, and of course, the ocean.

visiting a friend's homestead

These pictures show you a typical Swazi homestead. On the way back from Maputo, Mozambique, Bhegi-Themba Thusi, one of my co-workers at the museum, asked if we could stop at his family's homestead. I was very happy to meet his parents and to see his homestead -- which is the center of family life for Swazis. His parents, seen in the first image, raised 8 children here, and continue to care for the youngest family members, including grandchildren.

Bhegi's father is a farmer and they own cattle -- which is the traditional way for southern Africans to gain wealth (and status). Cattle is absolutely one of the most important parts of Swazi life -- respect is garnered through the number of cattle you own, and droughts and other calamities can wreck havoc with your ability to feed your children when cattle are sick or die.

On the homestead there are ALWAYS chickens and roosters, and now, because it is spring, there are also chicks to be seen everywhere. Chickens and the like are allowed to roam free, though they have roosts in the form of handwoven baskets which are placed high off the ground so dogs, cats and other scavengers cannot get them and their eggs.

Also on a traditional Swazi homestead is another building -- always round with either a thatched or wooden roof. This is the "magogo's" house, which means grandmother. Here, women sit for conversation and important family events, such as marriage are discussed.

The cat I am holding was such a sweetie. The Thusis let him stay because he did not bother the chicks (apparently an earlier cat was "taken out" because he kept attacking chicks). This cat just laid himself on my shoulder. It was all I could do to not take him home with me. You see in Magogo Thusi's left hand a woven mat -- even though we appeared at the homestead unexpectdly, she presented me with three of these handwoven mats and also gave us cold juice, which we were grateful for as it was hot day and a 3-hour hot drive.

Bhegi's parents were generous and very kind -- just as he is.

spring in swaziland

Swaziland is located below the Equator, which means that its season are the opposite of the seasons in the northern hemisphere -- where Connecticut is located. So, as much of the United States enters into fall and winter, Swaziland and southern Africa is entering into spring and summer.

The weather can change dramatically and quickly. So far I have experienced very hot sunny days, very cold rainy days and very windy days. Many Swazis say that their weather is changing as compared to years' past...the same commentary you hear from Connecticut people!


The rock you see in the upper photo is called "Executioner's Rock." This rock was reserved for royal family members who committed a crime -- and they were killed (pushed?) off this rock.

This beautiful tree is called a Jacaranda. The leaves begin life purple -- it is an amazing site amidst all the green that is starting to sprout here in the Middle and High Velds. I was commenting on how lovely these Jacaranda trees were, and was told by a naturalist that they are actually an invasive species, and are removed from nature reserves and parks.

traditional swazi wedding

Last weekend I was invited to attend a traditional Swazi wedding. A SNTC staff member named Wisdom was getting married the traditional way -- though he and his wife had already had a modern or Christian wedding and had an infant son.

Swazis can choose to get married in multiple ways. One is way is the traditional or polygamous wedding, which the royal family practices and therefore much of the country as well. Another way is the modern or Church wedding, where Swazi brides where white, have bridemaids and do the usual western things.


Some Swazis like Wisdom choose to have both, thus praticing their Christian beliefs while holding on to their historic practices. Wisdom said he did this second wedding for his family, especially for the older folks who think this is the "only" way for Swazis to get married. Thus, some Swazis like Wisdom will not take multiple wives because it goes against their Christian beliefs.

In the first image you see the bride surrounded by the older women of the clan, while in the second image you see the men, who dance, whoop and make exaggerated movements to the women elders -- thus proclaiming their virility and ability to protect. The day was so cold, but the smile on everyone's faces made the hours all worth the wait.

More images from the sacred site of Nfungeni

Here are two more images from that sacred area near Nfungeni. On this rocky outcropping are many sites that the Swazis have used as sources for stories and history.

QUESTION: What do you think the Swazis see in the image at the left?

And, in the image below, what you see are pottery sherds left between rocks, near where Swazis in the past cooked. The guide told us that women worked in several areas on the outcropping, and there are still pot sherds and lots of debitage (stone flakes from making projectile points).


As noted in another post, I expressed my enthusiasm for creating a cultural heritage site that the local people care for by leading guided tours and keeping all proceeds from admission. But, I also am worried that all of the archaeology examples will "disappear." All people -- myself included -- have a natural inclination to pick things up off the ground and stick them in their pockets. Despite warning signs or human eyes watching.

How can we open sites like this? The SNTC does not have enough money for staffing, especially in rural areas.

my second marriage

So, the Royal Guard member who was also our guide at the sacred site of Ntfungeni asked me to marry him. I said o.k., though only for the day. Swazis can actually enter into marriage contracts of any specified time -- 3 months, 3 years, whatever they wish. He is a member of the Royal Guard. We heard the trumpet call from across the valley, and the men came out to the Royal Kraal and practised their "moves" and menacing stares (meant for the enemy). As you can see, this rocky outcropping was also very good as a look-out, and it is said that the kings would hide under the rocks we were sitting on -- so that could view the whole valley, and stay protected from sun or rain.

sacred site, ntfungeni

This rocky outcropping, located not too far from the Royal Kraal at Ntfungeni, is a sacred site for Swazis. This young man is a member of the Royal Guard, wearing the typical clothing of a Swazi man, with the Swazi flag on his arm and a feather in his hair.

At the moment, the large rocky area is closed off by a barbed wire fence. But, the SNTC, who I work for at the museum, is working with the community to enable them to "open" the site to interested viewers -- and for the community therefore to retain all profit from doing so. If funded by the government, the museum will set up a small visitor's center and exhibit
area, and community members will be
"trained" to take visitors to see the special areas in the park.

For example, here the guard/guide is showing us an area in the rock where Swazis believe a lion put his paw and the print was left behind. And, in the next picture is the famous "footprint of God," which Swazis and many southern Africans believe is a footprint left by their God who was walking the continent. There are examples of other footprints in Lesotho and Botswana -- so God is a giant whose strides were so long, the strides cross the whole continent.

Visit to the Royal Kraal, Ntfungeni

This week I was very fortunate to visit the Royal Kraal at Ntfungeni, far north in Swaziland. The kraal is the outside enclosure made of sticks and reeds, which protects the beehive huts (homes) on the inside from wind, animals and enemies. Swaziland has many royal kraals -- places only inhabited by royal family members (remember the king always has multiple wives, and each needs a place to live) and their guards.

In this picture you can see a group of community women who were called by the royal family to come with reeds to repair the kraal. They are sitting under a tree, talking and laughing.

The women you see in the next photo are on their way to the kraal, bringing with them the large reeds (phragmite I believe). We sat under one of these trees with a Royal Guard Member (who was to become my "husband" for the day), and spoke with one of the elders of the community. The reason for the visit was to speak with community leaders about the establishment of an "official" cultural heritage site in Ntfungeni, which you'll see in other pictures. Because of my association to the museum, I have been able to see things most tourists cannot. It is wonderful.

natural history dioramas at the Swaziland National Museum

Here are two of the wonderful dioramas located in the Natural History wing of the Swaziland National Museum. The two dioramas that you see here is the "lowveld" environment, which is hot, sunny and contains grasses that dry out.

These animals were "taken" by a Smithsonian staff member, Paul Rimer, and members of the Swaziland National Museum. The skins were cleaned and dried out, and fitted over plastic forms. Rimer came to the museum to help train staff in taxidermy and creating realistic environments for the flora and fauna.

Unfortunately, the wooden rails,
beautifully built by the on-staff carpentar
are too low, and students and other
visitors climb over, trampling the grasses. We are in conversation as to how to get these rebuilt -- because why bother replace the grasses and put out other materials, if the same thing will happen?

Also, the lovely apples on the Malula tree in this photo are often touched by visitors and need repair. Unfortunately, the museum is so completely pressed for money that this wing of the museum has not been refurbished for 10 years and it shows signs of wear. In fact, the wing was never fully completed, and some of the exhibit cases are nearly empty.

collecting natural history specimens from Mlawula

This past week I went specimen collecting with the Natural History Wing of the Swaziland National Museum. Mbandla is the Exhibition Specialist in the museum, so it is his job to update and care for the museum's exhibits, which consist of both natural and cultural materials, including animal skin, pottery, cloth and wood. He works closely with the museum's conservator Donald.

In the top picture Mbandla and I are collecting impala and baboon poop. Reason for this, is, of course, to put into the lowveld and highveld dioramas. Fortunately, when animal poop is dried out it does not smell at all. It no longer contains bacteria or insects, making it o.k. to be placed into a museum environment, which needs to be "sterile."

Sterkfontein -- Cradle of Humanity museum, South Africa

These are images from the museum at Maropeng a Afrika -- the Sterkfontein Caves which are famous for the number of highly significant hominid fossil discoveries.

As you can see, the glass case with fossil skulls is directly across from a wall with startingtly large computer aided graphics depicting what these homind skeletons might look like if we could look back millions of years ago.

I enjoy seeing these kind of pictures, because the fleshless skulls tend to look like "museum objects," whereas flesh, fur, eyes and movement connect us clearly to our ancestors.

This room was used as a "holding room"
for the tour group. We were then led out of the museum and into one of the caves in the area -- down where "Mrs. Pleis" and "Little Bigfoot" were found.

giraffe in two parts

Christine and I were able to go to Johannesburg last weekend with our American Embassy cultural/educational liason Marjorie Balarin.

Christine generously agreed to share my interest in seeing some wildlife at Krugersdorp, before going on to Sterkfontein -- the Cradle of Humanity.

Krugersdorp is a small reserve only 45 minutes northwest of the city. In addition to seeing giraffe close up, we also saw rhino, wildebeest, sleeping lions and a small but nice bird sanctuary. One duck in the sanctuary
actually lets people "pet" him -- and he shudders and makes satisfying sounds when you do.

If you look closely at the tree limbs, you can see the huge thorns which cover the branches. Giraffes clearly can eat their way around them -- each thorn is bright white and about 2-3" long and very hard.

For fans of the novel/movie Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karin Blixen), there is a moment when she forces her way through acacia bushes and is covered in bloody welts from the thorns.

Krugersdorp National Park, South Africa

swaziland's major export: sugarcane

Swaziland's economy relies greatly on their production of sugarcane. There are at least five majors "fields" of the plant, and processing "factories" to accompany them.

These great expanses of planted fields are far away from the two major cities, but towns have grown up around the fields, providing goods for the workers.

Unlike in the U.S. brown sugar is favored here and available more commonly than white (or highly refined) sugar.

bulls dancing

Another common sight in Swaziland: these bulls had a skirmish on the side of the road. The third bull joined in and the three of them went across the road, horns locked, passing in front of my car by about 2 ft. My hands were gripping the steering wheel too tightly to catch a pic of how close they got.

A video of the Reed Dance procession

Here is some footage of the girls marching down the field. Each group is dressed in a different style of traditional costume. As you can see, there are many photographers running about trying to get good shots. Also, if you have audio, you can hear the girls singing as they march.

more scenes from Mlawula Nature Reserve

This is Vuyo Dlamini, a game warden at Mlawula Nature Reserve. He is a nice young man, having been trained, like most of Swaziland's park rangers, at a special program in Kruger. He lives in the park, and was able to point out a giraffe to us way down in the valley from this high vantage point.

You have noticed that Vuyo carries a gun. This is because most of Swaziland's park animals still suffer from poaching. The day before this photo was taken, Vayo and another warden came across a poacher who had killed three animals in a snare. They were able to arrest the poacher without incident, but, clearly, the rangers lives are in danger too. Sometimes poachers carry guns too.

The thing about poaching is -- many Swazi people are in need of food. Some park wardens, as I have been told, those in the Big Parks system (not the SNTC system) shoot to kill poachers. Perhaps some poachers just take the abundant small game, such as blesbok. But they do it in a protected area -- who is right?
This is one of the SNTC's "bakkies" (trucks), which are needed to travel from headquarters, to the various parks. Many of these trucks are donated to the SNTC. As you can imagine they are very expensive, and gas is about TWICE the cost of gas in the United States. Being underfunded places the SNTC in a constantly difficult battle. What projects to fund, and what to leave behind for a year, 5 years or more. In the National Park Service in the United States this work is called "backlog maintenance" and our parks suffer from millions of dollars of backlog work.

new thatched roof "huts" for overnight visitors, Mlawula

These wonderful huts (modeled on the traditional "beehive" housing of the Swazis) are located in Mlawula Nature Reserve, which is in the eastern part of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, this camp site has not opened yet, because the restaurant and other amenities at this site were recently vandalized -- possibly an "inside" job.

Giraffes in Hlane Royal National Park

On our way to Mlawula Nature Reserve last week -- one of the SNTC's sites -- the road cuts through Hlane Royal National Park and we were lucky to see a herd of giraffes along the edge of the road, eating the leaves on the trees.

Hlane is a special park that I will talk about in the future.

These are common things to see in Swaziland: many people do their laudry and get water directly from the rivers. Women (and sometimes men) all over southern Africa, including Swaziland, walk with piles of food, clothes, firewood, baskets, water, etc...on their heads. Though these women are holding on to the edges of their clean clothes buckets, women can balance their loads and often walk miles without holding the objects up.

The second image was taken from my rental car.

Umhlanga (Reed Dance) celebration

Greetings from Christine (an English teacherfrom Alaska):

Laura and I went to the main celebration day of Umhlanga, which was Sept. 1. In the background of this photo you can see just a portion of the amazing number of girls who had gathered from all over the country to parade and dance before the Swazi king and the queen mother. The huge line extended all the way around the giant stadium. The newspapers reported anywhere from 40,000 to 130,000 participants.

a croc and a turtle at Mlilwane

If you look "hard" enough, you will see a crocodile in the upper left of the photo, and a turtle in the lower left.

Some of the museum folks I work with told me that crocodiles are still killing people in Swaziland. Apparently they can hide under water for 25 minutes, leaving people feeling safe. Then, of course, they can jump up and out of the water at tremendous speeds.

This croc is sunning himself with his mouth open (notice row of white teeth), because that is how crocs get body heat.

zebra herd in Mlilwane Nature Reserve

Lungile in the umgcula (dress) for 40/40

This nice gal is Lungile Magagula, who works in the Business Center at the Royal Swazi Hotel. On Sunday, 9/6/08, Swaziland celebrated 40/40 -- 40 years of independence and the 40th birthday of King Mswati. Tens of thousands of people went, in Swazi clothing, to the events held at the newly built National Stadium. But, some people had to work, so Lungile wore her Swazi dress to work, which in this case is the flag with a picture of the King, over one shoulder.

It is interesting to note that in Swaziland, people can wear and love to wear, the flag and the picture of the King on their dress called the umgcula, but in the United States, we do not do usually do this.