Nov. 26 – Returning to Ngwena Glass Factory and Seeing Sibebe Rock
We drove to the Ngwenya Glass Factory again—our 3rd trip and I’m sure we’ll return with Carolyn. Starting this month, prior to the holidays, literally hundreds of tour buses stop there and the factory ships thousands of pieces to South Africa and a few places in the U.S.
The site is near the Ngwenya iron ore mines, which are supposedly the oldest in the world. The factory was started in 1979 with Swedish funding and guidance from Swedish glass designers who trained a few Swazis to become masters in this trade. Though the Glass Factory closed in the 1980s, it was re-started less than 10 years ago by a white Swazi family who found and re-hired the Swedish-trained local masters. The beautiful, heavy glass vases, animals, tableware, etc. are all forged and blown from recycled glass gathered then sold to the Factory by a network of rural poor. The Factory helps clean up the bottles littering the landscape, teaches the rural children brought to the factory about how the glass is used (and improving their environment), and it gives their families a little extra income. This kind of “value chain” is what TechnoServe tries to create in agriculture and other local industries.
I would love to take some of the glassware back to Calif. as gifts, but don’t want to worry about breakage and extra weight. So I have to "make do" with the jewelry designed by the owner's daughter-in-law and forged at the factory. Oh well, it's all to benefit Swaziland’s economy, right?
Because Sunday was bright and sunny, after non-stop rain Saturday, we rode over to Sibebe Rock outside of Mbabane. It is either the largest or 2nd to largest block of granite in the world. We drove through more beautiful Swazi landscape, and though Sibebe Rock was not marked, we guessed it was the huge grey chunk that reminded us of a dome in Yosemite.
Nov. 24 – Our Going-Away Party, One Week Early
With our travel plans starting December 2nd and our return to Calif. on Dec. 12th, the TechnoServe office wanted us to have an enjoyable send-off after our five-month stay. To ensure maximum attendance, we gathered 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon on the poolside terrace of the Mountain Inn, overlooking the Mbabane valley. It was a glorious view, the sun shone (after an earlier rain got us worried), the wine and beer flowed, and the whole office relaxed in each other’s company. Yes, we will see them all next week, but I already know that I will miss these people.
Nov. 23 – Weird Thanksgiving
I felt as though something was out of place all day. And it was: no Thanksgiving. It was weird to not have the day acknowledged anywhere. None of the few Americans we know were planning a get-together, never-mind a turkey dinner. It was stranger to have no Thanksgiving than to minimize my birthday since Rick gave me cards, bought a chocolate cake, the office sang happy birthday to me, and both kids called. We left work at the usual time about 6:30, went home, snacked on cheese, crackers, and nuts, had a bowl of tomato soup, and watched TV. We did see a bit of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and President Bush’s annual “pardon” of the turkey (not Dick Cheney) on CNN. And I think there was the clip of the cartoon turkey singing “I will survive” with Gloria Gaynor’s voice over. About 20 minutes in total devoted to Thanksgiving…
Nov. 20 – Last 10 Days of Work Here and Anticipating Carolyn’s Arrival
So much to do and so little time left now. Grants to write, meetings with new donor prospects to set, knowledge to hand off to Atiba, capacity building with LULOTE, and JA Company training with JA South Africa.
Besides the friends we’ve made, I’ll miss the nightly frog symphony. Their multi-tone croaking strongly resembles the noise from sticks rubbed along the backs of wooden frog toys. Of course I’ll miss the monkeys, warthogs, hippos, and giraffes.
Nov. 18 to 19 weekend – Neither Thunder, Lightening, Rain nor Fog Stops Us from Having Dinners with Friends
We now understand why Emafini, the location of our homey cottage, is named “in the clouds”. When we drove on Saturday to get our massages at the Royal Swazi, the fog was pea soup thick. Bad enough during the day, it was truly scary at night.
We drove at a crawl to dinner Saturday night to meet Atiba and Doris. For the last half a mile, we could barely see 10 feet ahead on the road. Considering how far inland we are, this fog spreads for miles, appearing and disappearing in unpredictable places. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to travel too far, especially Saturday night.
On Sunday evening, we met Mkhululi, Katie, and their adorable daughter, Ayanza, for dinner. They had hosted us at the Reed Dance when Adrian was here (go to our website for a picture of them at the event). Rick has been working with Mkhululi on 2 livestock projects—assessing the potential success of establishing a dairy industry in Swaziland that can compete with South Africa or developing an integrated piggery business that can fill gaps that South Africa cannot. Despite the odor, pigs seem to be a better bet to network the typical, Swazi family farmers who can manage small parts of the market chain. And the pig-associated vocabulary is certainly much more interesting! Rick and Mkhululi are constantly discussing the pros and cons of different stages of raising pigs: suckers, weaners, porkers, cutters, and baconers, multipliers, nuclei, and abattoirs. We certainly never expected to learn this much about piggies!
