Day 4-Getting Warmed Up

Rise and shine at 5:20 am for our 6am sunrise safari! It was still dark as we started the drive...and immediately we saw a rhino and her baby trotting down the path together (running away from our car lights). We drove around, watched the sunrise and came across 2 male lions (3 years old), just chilling on the path. I thought i was special being 30 feet from the lions the day before, but now we were only 6 feet away!


I was getting a little nervous, as I snapped pictures of the licked clean bones of their breakfast on the ground right by our truck..... but they were just chillin. I shared with the girls while driving on how our seeing the animals was like what God has in store for us. Like, "look at this, isn't this great?" the first night we saw the lions from afar. Then the next morning, He brings us lions right by our truck. Then He was starting to show off.....and apparently I cannot handle everything He has for me at times.....

Enter big male elephant.




This joker was huge, eating his breakfast right on the road. Sure, bahbe' (sir in siswati), go ahead and turn off the truck while he is right by us only 5 feet away. no problem! Well, then mr. elephant was starting to think we were a tree or he was getting annoyed, so he started to CHARGE our truck. Tenae started screaming and I yelled at her to stop screaming because they told us not to scream. It made total sense. I was nothing short of freaking out.

Then there is Sarah, who just had to pick *that* moment to say she lost her sunglasses somewhere on the path (they fell out of her pocket, out of the truck somehow). So what does bahbe do????? Decides to turn around to see if they are by the elephant. WTF? (and I seriously asked that). I was FREAKING out. I had my sweatshirt over my head as if that would give me some miraculous form of protection. I told them I'd rather not see him coming for us. He drove by the elephant a couple more times-who was NOT happy. We somehow managed to escape his wrath, praise God. At that time, my safari was OVER. i was so ready to go back!

But no! We went ahead and kept checking things out, driving FOREVER it felt like. We drove by some more lions on the path. I once again pulled my shirt over my head as i could not bear to even watch. I was DONE. But of course the lions were chilling out by that exit gate and bahbe was no fool to get out and open the gate, so we had to drive all the way around to another gate. We pull over to drink tea and eat their version of scones while in the wild. What? We are eating and drinking hot tea with the animals?????? Safari Barbie did not step foot out of that truck.

We drove around lots more and over some very rough terrain. I was just over it already and rejoiced as we approached the camp! We grabbed breakfast and chatted with Glen (deemed McYummy from the single gals :))and then we got ready for church.

We drove 20 minutes to Family Life Church. It was nestled in on a huge sugar cane plantation. Such a beautiful area! We were unknowingly late-and they tried to usher us to the front of the church upon arrival. We kind of stuck out in the crowd :) They had a guest preacher from south africa who truly reminded me of my days at my Assemblies of God college. But overall, it was amazing to see how open the Swazi people are to God. As we were praying for healing over many from the back in the distance, my hands became numb-like on fire,many on the team experienced the same thing. There is a lot of prosperity and healing preaching in that area, very different than what we are used to here. We had tea and chatted with the pastor and were on our way.

We swung by the airport and AMEN Tenae's baggage was there! We grabbed a quick lunch at King Pie (which I want to open in the states- pot pies to go!) and headed back to the Red Berry Inn. I napped for a few minutes and dreamt about stray dogs chasing me.

We then went to Jacci's house, she is a missionary with Children's Cup as well. With Zinty (more on her later), we prepared a true Swazi dinner with pap and beans, cabbage, butternut squash, chicken, and a yummy trifle dessert. We received our Siswati language lesson from Zinty and then watched "without the king" a documentary on Swaziland.....it was very heavy.

Zinty, Christy, and Jacci

The team learning Siswati!

Here are some stats on Swaziland:
* The population is just over 1 million people (the country is the size of New Jersey).
*There are over 100,000 orphans-that is 10% of their population.
* 43.6% are confirmed to have HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 70% are infected.
*Life expectancy is age 31.
* Some say Swaziland will not exist by 2030. WOW.

We came home, after seeing lots of stray dogs. I didn't sleep too well. I really missed my kids.