Safe Travels

Arlyn and I were blessed with safe travels on our trip to Swaziland. All of our flights went well to Johannesburg. All of our connections between flights were short so there was a lot of fast paced walking in airports (thankfully I perfected my fast paced walking skills in Haiti!). Our longest flight, from Atlanta to Johannesburg, was 14.5 hours long. This is much longer than I had ever spent in a plane before, we watched lots of movies, tried to sleep, and with the time change we arrived pretty tired.

Brian Wallace, one of the Manna board members, who is starting this mission in Swaziland, was waiting for us at the airport. Brian drove us to his sister’s house, which is about an hour outside of Johannesburg, and we spent the first night in Africa with her and her family.

Arlyn had visited here last year and although he had told me what the area was like I had trouble imagining it like he had described. I was surprised that the airport was so big, that the roads were so good and that the area looked so developed. There are big buildings, nice motorways, nice houses but yet as you continue to drive the houses start to change, people have electric fences guarding their homes, there are signposts warning you of areas that are unsafe to stop in and the poverty becomes more visible.

When we arrived at Brian’s sister’s house we were treated to a South African traditional bri (sp), barbeque that tastes delicious. It was a huge plate full of meat with chicken, sausage, steak, boerwors (a traditional SA huge sausage), salads and our hosts apologized for not having more meat! People are so hospitable here and we felt so welcomed and well cared for.

On Thursday morning we began our journey to Swaziland. Before we set off for the long drive we visited one of Brian’s school friends and had breakfast with his family. Again we were able to enjoy the local people’s hospitality and friendliness. Our breakfast was very similar to a full Irish breakfast, another plateful of meat and we were ready to go!

The drive to Swaziland was beautiful. We passed thousands of cornfields, lots of forests and wood mills, coal factories and millions of green fields. The landscape is a little similar to Ireland’s with all the green fields and the mountains and hills. Brian had purchased a motorbike in SA and we unloaded that before we came to the boarder. Arlyn’s favourite part of our trip was riding the bike through the boarder and to our new home just outside of Manzini. The landscape became more mountainous in Swaziland and this area is not as developed as South Africa. The views as we drove were breath taking; it’s been wonderful to see another part of God’s awesome creation. The drive was about 6 hours and even though we were exhausted after travelling we kept our eyes open the whole time, making sure that we didn’t miss any of the spectacular views...and of course the fresh air from the motorbike ride kept Arlyn wide awake (and also kept him smiling, it was a good change for him after being cramped on a plane for so long).

We are so excited to be here and are excited to see what God has in store for us in this beautiful place. Unfortunately this is a picture less post because the internet is incredibly slow. Hopefully we can figure out a way to access faster internet or I can become more patient because I would love to share pictures so you too can see the beauty that we are surrounded by. We are still adjusting to the time difference and the heat but are so happy to finally be here.