School hasn't started yet so I've had this week to
explore more of the town and transportation. On Monday, Stacie and I went out
to Mkhuzweni School. This involved taking a Kombie to the bus ranks in Manzini. Just
imagine a large, sloped piece of dirt land with hundreds of kombies and
hundreds of men and that's the bus ranks. It's quite a hassle and always an
experience to navigate through the bus ranks. When you finally find the one you
want, you must wait on the Kombie until it's full and eventually you get to
your destination. It's what you could call "organized chaos". Once at the
school, the head teacher (principal) informed me that I would need to speak
with the REO- Regional Education Officer to get official permission to teach
and assist at the school for the first term. The following day, I found the REO's
office and waited for awhile before realizing that I wasn't going to get to see
him- there were over 15 people waiting to see him. On Wednesday, Katie and I
arrived at the REO's office at 8am. We sat in the small waiting room with 14 other people. We waited,
and waited, and waited. At 1:30pm, I had the opportunity to speak with the REO. I don't know if you
just did the math in your head but yes folks, that's 5 ½ hours we waited. Once
in his office, it was a brief meeting- 2 minutes to be exact. I explained that
I had stayed in Timbutini in November and had walked to Mkhuzweni and would
like permission to teach there. He inquired about where I stayed in Timbutini
and I thought it was a weird question but I told him that we stayed on Gogo
Shongwe's homestead. He smiled and asked if I was ready to be shocked- he was
Gogo Shongwe's son! Oh, another hilarious moment in Swaziland. It made my day that he was so excited and I'm excited
because I'm ready to go to school on Tuesday the 29^th to begin
teaching.  After this week, the concept of "AFRICA TIME" means more and more to me.

 P.S. I also wanted to
announce that I now have a Swazi name- Thandeka. It means lovely or loveable.  I think it fits me quite nicely:)