Harriet

Laura and I are in Madrid for a long layover, thinking about grabbing the metro to take a little trek into the city. But wandering the streets of Madrid doesn't sound nearly as inviting right now as grabbing a kombi and wandering dirt roads, visiting homesteads with caregivers, Swazi heroes who give time day-after-day to care for and love their neighbors who are suffering.

On our last day Kristin and I visited with Nomsa and Zandile, the three generation of Harriet, Else and Khanysile, who has a 2-year old son (and whose name also happens to be my Swazi name). Harriet is a stroke victim who cannot walk any longer and whose facial muscles are also paralyzed. There is little for the caregivers to do for her but encourage and love. We read some scripture, prayed and sang. As we said goodbye we gave each woman a hug. When we hugged Harriet she grabbed our hands to her face and struggled to form her frozen lips into a kiss. In Siswati she thanked us over and over for coming all the way from America to pray for her. My own heart swelled as I thought about Swazi volunteers doing this day-after-day, asking nothing for their time, paying taxi fees from their meager income, even sometimes giving from their own limited food supply to those they care for.

Each teammember experienced similar emotions as we traveled with caregivers by foot and kombi to visit their clients( BTW, a kombi is an African taxi filled with people, bags of corn and rice, even chickens). If our time in Dwaleni encouraged these heroes to keep on keeping on, then it was worth it.

Please join us in praying for them.

Stay tuned for more as we process our time in Swaziland.

Wendi