Swaziland

This morning we installed the battery in the little car and headed for town.  Thankfully I remembered where to shift to the next gear...using my left hand.  It was exciting.  There wasn't any unusual occurances that made me nervous, thankfully.  so anyway, I have passed the road driving test.  I made it into Manzini, the grocery store (where it is hard to get a parking spot) and then back to campus.  I'm pretty much a professional now.  It's a big deal, ya know.  Someone asked me if the traffic is more crazy here or in America.  I thought about it for a while, and truly, if you are in a big city in America, people are risky drivers and cut you off and so on...but then here, people will pass into the other lane even if a car is coming and so it is a bit more dangerous here as well.  I don't know which is worse.  It's just that I know the way American drivers drive and don't know how African drivers drive as much...so it seems, to me, that it is more crazy to driver here.  But that's because i'm used to American driving.  The traffic wasn't heavy today though in town and so it was easy. 

 

We've been listening to The Chronicles of Narnia books on CD and it is making me anxious to see the new movie coming out.  I saw the previews for it before I left for Swazi and it looks like it'll be a quality production. 

 

So I guess sometime recently Michael Jackson came to Swaziland and visited the King.  He was not instructed on the culture and just went up to the king and put out his hand to shake hands.  The king was insulted.  What a joke.  Did Jackson seriously think that he could just walk up to a king of a country and shake his hands.  Some of the nationals here were mocking him when we were talking about it.  They were like, "you have to get down on your knees and bow and grovel and...".  So anyway, Jim and Nhlahla aren't Swazi natives and so they enjoy mocking the king as a "loser polygamist".  Our conversations with those two are quite interesting.  Their perspectives are unique since they aren't Swazi's. 

 

Praise:
-I was able to learn to drive
-Beautiful day

 

Prayer Requests:
-That God would continue to teach me and change me
-That we would not go crazy getting ready for next week when the students come back.