Last Stop: Swaziland

Call it Swaziland, call it Eswatini, call it whatever you want, my last country of the race was pretty different from anything I could have expected. Swazi is a less developed country and definitely not a tourist spot. At least, not where we were. It was a wild ride, but it was an incredible experience. Highlight: All squad month! All 24 of us were together in one two-bedroom house (and some in tents outside due to lack of beds). The craziness of getting 24 people through one shower and cooking in one tiny kitchen was only worth it because of the sweet fellowship that came with sharing meals and dance parties. We ended many nights with ultimate frisbee out front or card games on the one couch and fold-out chairs. Ending this year together was the best possible way to go out. We needed that community; we were all aware of how different things would be when we got home. Whenever I felt ready to finish this year, I remembered to take it all in, to make the most of every second living in such close proximity with all of my best friends. We spent the mornings working in a preschool. We played with the kids, danced a lot, and helped draw out worksheets by hand. I walked in on the first day so excited. As a preschool teacher in the past I knew I was in my wheelhouse. Except one slight snag: these toddlers did not speak any English. Whelp, thumbs ups and fist pounds it is. It was hard but so fun. I definitely had favorites! Be real, we all do. In the afternoons, the nearby schools would let out and all the kids would rush to the feeding center to get food. They had to sit through the entire program before they could eat. It was kinda like a Young Life-y youth group type vibe. We played games and hung out, lots of soccer and Cha Cha Slide. Jacob would play his guitar as we all danced around, then the leader would give a sermon. After all of this was over, they were allowed to get the food. Feed My Starving Children sends food all over the world, and I even had the opportunity to pack boxes years ago on a school service project. But it was so different actually helping the old women in the kitchen prepare it and spoon it to children who hadn’t eaten since the last time I handed them the same dirty bowl the day before. Some kids picked at it without eating much, telling me their parents said they had to bring it home to share with the whole family for dinner. Every single day. I noticed the kids being enamored with our jewelry. They always stared at our bracelets and played with our earrings. In one day, I would probably have around 30 different hands on my small flower necklace. Not just preschoolers, school-aged kids got in on it as well, even the teenagers thought it was so cool and couldn’t stop touching our anklets or necklaces. We talked about maybe looking into buying beads for the kids or strings to make their own friendship bracelets. We had the opportunity to lead the lesson one day. We thought for a while about what to share with the large group of children from preschool to high school. I kept thinking of their obsession with our jewelry and Jacob had a great idea! He said we should make salvation bracelets. We had already bought the beads and were sitting there the day of the lesson when Jacob gave this idea AND asked me to lead it. The idea is simple: you tell the story of the Gospel using the colors from the beads. Green signified newness, black signified sin, red like blood, and white like purity. We even included gold to talk about Heaven. I told some rendition of that story in front of nearly 100 kids. We handed out string and beads in all the colors. Every kid made a bracelet, and there were even enough for us to make some too. Me, Jacob, and Emmery walked around asking what each color stood for. The craziest thing… THEY KNEW. They could basically tell the whole Gospel story back to us. It worked perfectly. Days went by and the kids all left their bracelets on. Every afternoon, they would come running up to show me they still had them. The sweetest thing. Lord, remind me that You are using everything. Everything. For so much more than I can even imagine. I just wanted to give them a fun accessory. You wanted to change their lives, their families, their community. Thank You. For all of it. -K