July 13, 2006

We landed in Matsapha Airport outside Manzini, Swaziland about noon on July 13^th (having left SFO 5pm on July 11^th) with 2 amazing events occurring: 1) as we parked at the terminal, the left plane engine started spewing smoke and 2) all of our suitcases arrived with us (!).  Kiki, the Technoserve driver, drove us and our (OK, mostly my) hundreds of pounds of luggage to our new home. 

The scenery on the drive from the airport and even the view from our cottage is like California’s central valley and the Sierra foothills combined.  Sunny, in the 70s.   Brown hills sparsely dotted with trees next to a wide open valley.  Our yellow stucco cottage has a fabulous canyon view out back, along with a bench-swing. Even the house itself feels like a California bungalow: living/dining area, kitchen, bathroom, small master and guest bedrooms, and an office, all with no central heating or air conditioning. After we unloaded our suitcases, Kiki drove us to the office in Mbabane to get oriented. 

Mbabane could be a city in rural California as well, but with about 90,000 people. The downtown area is neat and clean, with paved roads and sidewalks.  One of the biggest differences from our part of California is that Mbabane is probably 99% native African, with the 1% being mostly Caucasian and some Asian/Indian. 

The Technoserve office is upstairs in “The Mall” and across from a shopping plaza and a 2^nd mall that could be anywhere in the U.S.  We met some Technoserve people; checked our home emails; had lunch with 2 staffers, Alla and Mpendulo, in the nearby mall; got cell phones; bought some groceries and were back at the cottage by 5:30pm.  Monday, July 17^th will be soon enough to starting working for real!

As we were unpacking our neighbors, Patrick then later his “Mum” Liz, stopped by.  Both friendly and delightful people, Patrick’s wife Katherine is from the U.S. but the rest of his family is from Swaziland.  Their family owns the Emafini compound (our cottage is part of this) and Christian conference center as well as a large hotel near the summit of Malagwane Rd.  Having had peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for dinner (yes, American comfort-food), by 9:30pm we called it a day or 3.