I am not Mowgli

Here is a blog from June 12; this is the first chance I've had to upload it. I don't have much time now even, but please be in prayer for my team. This has been a very rough week. I don't have time to go into a lot of details, but 2 girls on our team have been robbed in 2 seperate incidents. Our spirits have all been very discouraged this week.

6/12
Today was filled with very humurous cultural moments. We drove to the schools as usual. Everything went incredibly well at today's school, Mlumati High. It was so amazing to see teenage girls teaching their peers about how very much God loves and treasures them and about how much value each one of them has as individuals. These were the main points of today's lesson on identity. On Thursdays we go back a different way than we came, since Zabiba needs to go home to Mbabane. We drive through Pigg's Peak, which is a very beautiful drive. Today they had me take a little detour, so I could see the dam. This dam is apparently the pride of the Swazis. They were so proud of the dam. They asked if the US had dams, and when I answered in the affirmative, they wanted to know how superior the Swazi dam was to all other dams I had ever seen. I assured them it was the most beautiful dam I had ever beheld, which it was. Although, I must admit, I was much more enamored with the mountains and the river and the sunset and the little waterfall (and the "Beware of Hippos" sign!) than the dam itself. It was a quality dam though.

A little while later, my ipod shuffle turned to The Beatles. I asked if they had ever heard of The Beatles. They hadn't! I had to remedy that at once, so I carefully selected my favorite Beatles songs to introduce them to each other. After about 5 songs, I asked, "Girls, do you like The Beatles so far?" They all replied ,"No." Zabiba clarified for me: "Faith, they are very white. Look at us." Oh, well, I tried...

By far though, my favorite cultural moment of the day happened as I almost turned too soon to get on the highway to Mbabane. the girls kept saying "Faith, where are we going?" and "Tell us the story." and "Faith, would you like us to be your bridesmaids?" I was so confused, and they kept saying the same questions over and over. Finally, Hlonphile asked a question that made me begin to realize what they were talking about. She said "Faith, why were you taking us to the man village?" I was astounded. A MAN VILLAGE?! Yes, folks back home, there is a MAN VILLAGE. I didn't know that phrase existed outside of "The Jungle Book." I am still not really that clear on what exactly a man village is, although it sounds eerily similar to a monastary...