Energisers

Since the last video went down down do well, here's another. This is volunteers who work at the neighbourhood care points energising themselves after a good lunch, before an afternoon's teaching.

Two chicken lickens and a hungry lion

Back from Paris three weeks ago now and back into the routine. Week in Lubombo, week in Shiselweni and then a week in Mbabane. During the week in the communities, Monday is spent sorting out logistics - catering, venues etc. Tuesday and Wednesday is spent training and Thursday is supposed to be for supporting the result of the training. That would be community awareness raising meetings. People that we have trained are meant to collect people in their community together and talk about what they have learnt, spreading the information about HIV and Nutrition. They also should be screening the children for malnutriton. Should be. It's happenning but slowly. People seem to be extremely good at coming up with excuses as to why it's impossible for them to apply what we have been teaching them. They all agree that it's interesting, relevenat and important, but not that it's so important that they should do it themselves, as we have trained them.

I have faith that we will be able to inspire them believe that they can have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing for people in their communities. These things take time! Rome wasn't built etc..!! Fortunately for the builders of Rome, they did not have an interim report to write about the progress made so far! It will be fine - I'm sure they will pull it out of the bag. It's just a bit uphill at the moment. Who wouldn't prefer to sit an chat rather than harass people into "eating wisely to live longer"!!

I've been a bit rubbish with writing on the blog recently because I became a bit aware that it was being read by people who are not my only friends and family but people who are interested in Action Agaisnt Hunger, and I've been a bit conscious that I should put interesting insightful things on here rather than the usual blether. Change of mind however - it's back to the blether and smatterings of Swaziland life. When it has become a routine it's harder to find interesting things to write about.

I have been struck recently by the impact of culture on development work. Swazis are very proud of their culture and their heritage. People who are called Dlamini, are aften called Nkosi, which means King, in recognition of their sharing their surname with the king. The Dlamini part of the phone book is about 8 pages long,I'm guessing, it could be more. Many many people are Dlamini. All others can trace their name back and everyone has a praise name which recognises their ancestors or other family heritage. A surefire way to get in someone's good books is to learn their praise name. I have a little list of them in my siSwati book. Recognising cultural value eases relations and easy relations translate into progress. Swaziland is a small country of relationships. People know each other and have done all their lives. Many people are related!! To come in as an outsider with a plan and a proposal is brave. Often newcomers have to prove their worth before they are taken seriously. It feels like that's the way things work in a more closed traditional society.

Enough with the analysis - I went on a road trip to Botswana last weekend and I am sharing a photo of a shop we passed. What a bargain.


Free pair of socks - don't see that everyday. We went through this tiny town and it was all exposed, how parochial we have become. We are gazing out of the window at this one street town, shouting out shop names marvelling at the choice, sometimes, only in partial sarcasm. One member of the group shouts out "Two chicken lickens and a hungry Lion! They have everything!" And we momontarily had a moment of clarity, and sadness that this car load of city loving ladies from London and other cosmopolitan cities, could be quite so impressed with a one street town with a choice of three fried chicken joints. So sad.

One more photo as a reward for reading this epic. Security. Ha ha! Love it!

Paris! Je t'aime!

So, a week in Paris, not bad. I was there with Arantza for a HIV and Nutrition workshop. All the interested people from ACF international came and we spent a week learning from each other and making an action plan about what next for ACF in the world of HIV. It was loads of fun and blisteringly hot! What was odd for me was being dropped into a European Summer. You spend so long during winter waiting for summer to come, dreaming of beer gardens and long evenings. It was surprisingly disconcerting to realise that this was what we are waiting for all year - sometimes it's easy to miss when it sneaks up. The fantastic week was topped off with a weekend at home with friends and family the first weekend and a visit from my sister for about 4 hours in Paris, the day our flight left. She's such a silly love. Her train was delayed because of storms, so she only got a few hours in Paris, but we managed to fit in all the essentials - crepes and walking!

Unsurprisingly, team Swazi were quite far ahead of the other country programmes. We should be, with a national prevalence of 26% compared with the next closest, Zimbabwe with 16% and the rest all 1-3%. It was cool to share experiences and to hear how others are struggling to explain to people why it is so important that people who are HIV positive have access to good food.