That means hello to all of you in Siswati! My team is now in Swaziland and it feels so good to be back here! This past weekend we had really intense training in our separate teams. The weekend was led by a group of South Africans. It included making a shelter out of tarps and string, using the bathroom in bushes up to our waists, caring for two chickens- I mean our new teammates that we named Lunch and Dinner, running, push ups, crunches, insane obstacle courses, tiny amounts of food and sleep, disabling a fake bomb, and a 3 hour solitude on top of a mountain without a watch or light in the middle of the night. Our team grew so much closer through all of these challenges and more. Read some of my teammates blogs for more details and probably some really great stories. On Sunday night, it started storming so they brought us back to Alabanza and we slept on the floor of the barn with our wet clothes and sleeping bags. We woke up really early to travel back up the mountain and clean up the camp site. However, I woke up to find my left eye completely shut, a huge knot on my forehead and my right eye feeling really puffy. Apparently, some creature decided to crawl across my face and bite me right in the middle of my forehead. My face was pretty upset with the creature and decided to get huge to show how angry it was. I could only laugh. A lot. I will definitely share a picture when I can post one but it looked like I had golf balls under my eyes. Needless to say, I went to the clinic the next day and got a shot and some medication. I'm totally fine and it's an awesome story:)

Anyway, Monday we kicked community living into high gear. We had to pack light for Swazi and everything else was put away. We are trying to practice biblical principles shown in Acts. We are sharing everything- all of our stuff and all of our hearts. It's definitely a challenge but I think there is freedom to be found in it and it's the way God intended for us to live. For the past few nights we have been staying on a homestead. We are in a round hut with a thatch roof.  No running water, no electricity, cows and chickens and goats everywhere.  It's rural Africa at it's finest and I love it. We have been grocery shopping and cooking for each other as a team and that's been really fun. My favorite thing is washing my hair in the morning. I'm in the yard with my bucket and Nalgene pouring water over my head and the little school kids walk by and laugh at me. I would too if I were them.

Well, there is more to come, including more Siswati words. I love you all. Thanks for everything as always:)