Wet from head to toe.

Yes, I have literally been praying for rain daily. Not necessarily for it to rain every single day but frequently would be nice given that it is the rainy season. Well the rains have come and now we are knee deep in mud before finishing our first home visit. Yesterday we got an early start only to be hampered by the rain, mud and poor traction of our HBC truck. The wheels just keep on spinning and spinning flinging mud in all directions, on us, the patients, their homesteads and the random cow or goat that happens to get too close. I must admit that I take a cavalier attitude toward driving, afterall I have been driving for too many years to count and experienced the ice and snow of the northeast. Of course, as well all know, all men are great drivers so there you have it. So I feel pretty confident in my driving skills whether this is justified or not is negotiable. There is little hesitation on my part when it comes to following a request to head down a saturdated dirt road with no room to turn around and expecting to be able to get out as easily as we have entered. Well that was not the case. We became stuck on our first visit, the rain was coming down in every which direction. The kind of rain that an umbrella is of little or no value. It was a rather soft but steady rain, it came from above, the north, the south, the east and west carried by a fairly good wind current from Mozambique. Please note that with the rain there is usually a heavy fog to make navigation that much more difficult.

The look of horor on the face of the old gogo in that very first homestead as she watched me from behind the nearest large tree was priceless. I asked the team to apologize right off, saying that I was sorry that I was making huge tracks outside her hut. The team assured me that it was truly of no concern to the gogo, her big concern was whether or not she might have to share some of the food parcels we had just delivered if we became stranded for the night. So tireless I moved back and forth and back and forth a foot or two at a time. The team offered to push but there was nothing but slipping and sliding and I feared that one of their arms or legs would become the needed traction to free us from the homestead, so I asked them to keep their distance. Matron Zwane remained in the front seat, directing me at every turn or attempted turn while reciting the Hail Mary continuously. After 45 minutes she enlisted all of the saints and a few apostles to help in our endeavor and sure enough with the help of Saint Ann (her patron saint, why she waited so long to enlist her help I have no idea), a couple of dozen rocks, the branches from several trees, and a big push from the team were we on our way up the hillside at rocket speed. It took another ten minutes for the rest of the team to meet us at the top, giving Matron Zwane enough time to thank God and Sipho (Sipho is the Swazi name given to me by the team last month, it means 'gift' in Siswati) and to recite the Our Father in both English and SiSwati. As the team reassembled in the truck we had a good laugh and decided to be more cautions as the day progressed. Fortunately, Matron Zwane gave the order to go down the hill so there was no blaming going on because she is the eldest and therefore gives the final say on most matters of concern to the team.

We drove another 25 or 30 kilometers before the inevitable happened again. By this time we were literally drencehed from head to toe, making our visits as qucikly as possible. As you may or may not know, all patients, everywhere, want to have their time with their nurse and/or team. So as much as we tried to keep a good pace there was more resistance from the patients not move on too quickly. Fair enough, we were already soaked to the bone, the patients need our attention and the rain is no consequence for them whatsoever. The photo the homestead I have attached is the location of our next frolic in the mud. We were basically stuck before we even arrived, so the team went into see the patients without me while I shifted gears from first to reverse and back again about a thousand times. We ended up with mud splattered in every direction possible. There wasn't a piece of grass along side the dirt road that survived and I nearly took out a fence on either side of the road in the process. I must have been making quite a commotion because a couple from a neighboring homestead came to our rescue. Both the woman and man were dry and clean but still offered to help push us out. The team came out of the homestead as well after completing the visit and one and all started to heave and hoe, push and sweat and of course pray up a storm. I have never heard so many Hail Mary's and Our Father's in one day since practing to make my First Communion forty years ago. Well, it all came together after another 45 minutes and we were once again freed from the mud and knee high grass alongside of the road without the destruction of the nearby fencing. The above photo is of the aftermath of the team and our good samaritians. We rewarded them with food and E50 from my pocket, money well spent and greatly appreciated by the couple.

I hope that you are enjoying the attached photos. As many of you know I am basically computer illiterate so it has taken some doing to make it happen. David has spent a couple tutorials here in the internet cafe with me and yes our friendship has survived. Before I forget I wanted to let you know that David has started keeping a blog as well. Here is the information for it: http://www.davidinswaziland.blogspot.com/ I hope that you enjoy it. I must confess that I have not read it yet because I do not want it to influence my blog or my interpretation of events here. So if there are inconsistencies I apologize, they are not intentional but rather our individual perception of life here in Swaziland.

Peace,

Scott