We Made It!

From here on out the blog posts might get a bit more interesting… 

We made it to Swaziland exactly one week ago. We spent our first week reorienting ourselves to Swazi life--including reuniting with kids turned teenagers, meeting many new faces, adopting early bed times, navigating muddy roads and creative driving, defending against countless ants and mosquitoes, and enjoying stunningly beautiful mountains and valleys. Mandi was introduced to the curriculum that she will be teaching and I spent time familiarizing myself with the farm and work crew.We both began to ask many, many questions. To say we are in the “learner” phase would be an understatement. For kicks, we thought you might be interested in what we are doing today. 

Mandi has a school staff meeting in the morning and will be spending the rest of the day preparing for the first few days of class, which starts on Tuesday. She always has plenty of helpers (kids and cows) stopping by her classroom door. 

I (Tommy) will be taking eight pigs to the abattoir early tomorrow morning in Manzini (1.5 hour drive), picking up some feed, and running a few errands. Later in the day I will meet with Mhti, the farm manager, to talk about his vision for the farm in the coming years. 

Please continue to pray for our transition. There are a number of small frustrations we are facing, including credit card issues and minor computer problems, which would be easy to fix in the US but are testing our patience here. Despite all of that, we have so much to be thankful for. The missionaries who we are working with have been awesome in helping us get settled and the kids have come running with open arms. Our stomachs are full and the mornings are peaceful. What more can we ask for? 

Thank you for praying.