Happy Halloween!

First, Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone had a day full of candy and all kinds of spookiness! Halloween is not celebrated here, and some, but not most, Swazis have a faint idea of it. So after a few failed attempts at explaining Halloween (you go around to the neighbors and they just give you emasweets?? my favorite question i heard that was asked to another volunteer about it was "why don't you do that everyday?" ha.), I just explained it was an American holiday that all the volunteers were getting together to celebrate. And we did, some in costume, some not, but it was very very fun none the less. As it always is, getting a break from site for a night to see people I hadn't seen since August...

So anyway my attempts to upload pictures again this weekend failed. I think I need to give up on the wireless internet at the office, it just does not work to upload pictures. i think i'll have to make a special trip into town to upload pictures at the internet cafe that steals its internet connection from South Africa (so the rumor goes...), so it's very very high speed.

In the mean time, I have had some correspondence with a class in Sleepy Eye, MN the Peace Corps set me up with to be my "Pen Pals" while I'm here. Their teacher asked a great question about Swazi traditions and holidays and religions and such, and I thought I would pass this information on to my friends and fam at home. So you can know a little more about my fair country. : )




Swaziland is full of so many traditions that are so different than those of America and though they are now trying to find a balance between their traditions and western influence, traditional Swazi culture is still going strong, especially in the rural areas.
The Swazis live on homesteads, a plot of land with many houses on it. The typical Swazi homestead today consists of a main house/hut, usually Gogo’s (grandmother) house, a hut where cooking takes place on the fire, and then other houses that the children build on the homestead as they get older. The children do not build their own homesteads until their oldest child is at least 12 years old, but instead build homes on their parents’ homesteads. Then there is generally a chicken coop, a place for the goats and/or pigs, and a kraal for the cows (basically a place for the cows to be made of sticks, but as cows are a symbol of the family’s wealth, the kraal is also a place for special meetings and such in Swazi culture). Each Swazi homestead is like a mini farm like we are used to in Minnesota, with the animals and a small field that the family grows their maize for the year. The seasons here are opposite those in America, so the families have been busy plowing and planting their maize fields these last few months (all with cows, no tractors!).
The main food here is maize. As they will proudly tell you, it is their “staple food.” They make pap or lipalishi with it, and eat it at every meal. It is ground maize, made into something like stiff mashed potatoes. They eat pap with beans, or chicken, and cabbage. Swazis generally eat with just their hands as well, actually, just their right hand as the left hand is considered very rude to use, in shaking hands, eating, or giving and receiving. This is why they eat pap to use its stiffness to help in eating beans with their hand. There are many avocado, mango, banana and papaya trees here as well that families generally have on their homesteads to grow their own. Families here are mainly self sufficient, growing everything they eat from the maize in the fields, to the cabbage, tomato, and onions in the garden, to the chicken/goat/cow meat that they eat. It used to be that the men ate in a seperate and the women ate in the kitchen, and though this is still seen to some degree, families generally eat together in the kitchen or outside.
The activities that are done in their free time vary with gender and age. The men are generally gone working in town or South Africa and come home for one weekend at the end of the month. The women spend their days cooking, cleaning and sweeping the homestead, and washing the whole family’s clothes by hand. After school, boys and girls do very different things. The boys generally tend to the cattle, taking them to the mountains to graze before school and herding them to bring them home in the evening. Right after school though they have a little time to play soccer with their friends, or if their family has electricity, to watch TV or listen to the radio. Older girls (junior high and high school) cook dinner for the whole family, fetch water and care for their younger siblings. The girls play games like jump rope with each other while waiting in line to fetch water and may watch TV or listen to the radio at the end of the day if they have a TV or radio. Fourth percent of the community I live in has electricity and seventy-five percent have a radio.
Christianity is the main religion in Swaziland. One of the early kings had a dream that white people came to the country and offered him the choice between a scroll or book (representing the Bible) or a round piece of metal (or money). He advised his people to accept the book and try to avoid the money and to not harm the white people. Many years later, in 1844, King Mswati II invited missionaries from South Africa into Swaziland and Christianity has remained the top religion since, though there are some who still practice African Traditional Religion, most of the country is devoutly Christian. Most Swazis generally attend church on Sundays and one of the first questions they will ask you upon meeting you is if you have been saved, or if you go to church. Church is a very big part of Swazi culture.
Swaziland celebrates the main Christian Holidays (Easter Friday and Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day) as well as some that are strictly Swazi. The most notable of these is the Umhlanga or Reed Dance. This annual ceremony takes place usually at the end of August, beginning of September, depending on the moon. The young, unmarried girls of Swaziland gather together to honor the Queen Mother and the monarchy, to renovate the enclosures of the Royal residence. During the week, the girls cut reeds to bring to the Queen, walking great distances across the country to collect them. The week ends with a dance before the royal household where the girls dress in traditional Swazi attire of short beaded skirts with fringe and buttons, anklets, bracelets, necklaces and sashes. Princesses wear red feathers in their hair and lead the song and dance. The ceremony promotes unity within the country. The boys have their own ceremony called Incwala or First Fruit Ceremony, taking place in late December or early January, again depending on the moon. This ceremony unites Swaziland in entering the New Year and giving thanksgiving for blessings and life. It begins when two groups travel to fetch water from the Indian Ocean and from the various rivers of Swaziland. The collecting of this water is a tribute to the origins of the Nation and is used by the King. The men walk to these places to fetch water wearing the traditional men’s attire of Swaziland including a skirt of fabric and an animal, usually monkey or goat, skin tied around their waist. As the men collect the water, young, unmarried men gather as the girls did, this time to cut sacred shrubs used to build a sacred enclosure where the first fruits of the season will be consumed by the King. On the third day of the ceremony, the young men kill a bull using no weapons, only their bare hands, as a sign of solidarity and bravery. On the fourth day and last, the King joins all the men, young and old in traditional dance, wearing traditional attire. Finally, there is the day that Swaziland got its Independence, September 6, 1968, from Britain. And the current King’s birthday, April 19.


Well I think that's about it for now... Happy November tomorrow. Can you believe it's November already? Don't forget to vote on Tuesday! I already did! ; ) Happy Halloween!

Miss and love you much!
Megan