Weather conditions
There have only been five days of rain over the last twelve months and as the drought eats deeper into the country we are seeing people beginning to starve. There is limited US food aid distributed to the needy rural people and we have a regular group of frail elderly and sick people coming in to the mission each Monday for food parcels. These contain mealie-meal, sugar beans, brown sugar, oil, salt, candles, matches, soap, soup and tea. We have had many people coming in to ask for food. Because our funds are limited we have had to devise a screening process based on official criteria to try and choose the neediest. So I have been visiting homesteads to check the condition of the people and their environment. I find this a very difficult job because anyone who comes begging for food is needy but we have to look at it on the basis of relativity. Fortunately most people understand when they are not selected that there are more needy people than them.

The land is really parched and many of the cactus plants are gradually dying and looking limp. Amazingly every now and then when walking through the bush we see some brightly coloured flower standing out against the browns and dull greens of the low veldt. We had an extremely hot humid summer with temperatures reaching the low forties C (104F) on several days and conditions were trying. There were many snakes around during the hot period & we were all particularly concerned about one huge rock python that the children had seen when out collecting firewood in the surrounding bush.

One afternoon we discovered an adolescent green mamba lurking under our refrigerator in the kitchen. It probably managed to enter through a gap under the kitchen door & gave us a bit of a scare! Another evening Henk heard a hissing noise behind a box in the garage - it belonged to a cobra, which he killed quickly. The Swazis are very skilled at killing snakes with a stone but we keep a broomstick or spade on hand.

It was wonderful to occasionally have a cooler overcast day to refresh ourselves. The early mornings and evenings were the best times of the day and sunrises and sunsets are simply beautiful and often spectacular here. Also stars are amazing at night with the Milky Way stretching across the sky and we often see satellites in the evening. Now, with the start of winter, the weather is perfect - mild sunny still days in the mid 20sC/70sF with cool evenings & mornings.

The mission water is pumped up from the river one kilometer away into tanks and occasionally we have problems with the supply. For example, recently we were without water for one week as the pump broke down and spare parts had to be obtained from South Africa. This caused much activity in and around the mission as people had to find alternative ways of obtaining water. There was a regular stream of people along the gravel road to and from the river carting water in all sorts of containers. Fortunately the weather was still hot as we had to take all the children to the river which is cold to wash every afternoon. All hostel washing had to be done in the river and as you can imagine we had mountains of it -- bed linen, uniforms, and regular clothing. One day, much to the children's amusement, I took my washing as well. The children were well experienced and very efficient with this procedure. As the river is so shallow now they dug wells in the riverbed with their hands or a spade and it was like washing in a big deep bucket. Sand and river stones were used as an abrasive to erase marks and the items were draped on large rocks to drain. In the bush the women drape their washing over bushes and trees to dry and bleach in the sun and their clothes are generally pristine.

Health
We are delighted that most children are thriving and have settled in well to the school year. They are more now like a big family and have formed friendship groups. At present we have an outbreak of chicken pox with many children lining up in the evening to be painted with calamine lotion. I have taken one child into town for speech therapy and another to see an ENT specialist. In the next few months we will be visited by a dental team who will check the children's teeth and a school nurse is coming for a vision screening session.

There has also been a couple of children seen at a special epilepsy clinic as the hostel mother had noticed them twitching occasionally at night. All children who become unwell continue to be taken to St. Philips clinic where they are treated by the nursing staff and accurate medical records are kept on all of them.

School Holidays
You may recall in my last newsletter I wrote about the long summer break when the children spent six weeks in their homesteads. Over Easter they had 3 1/2 weeks away and this time with the worsening drought we saw many more children coming in for food. We were giving weekly food parcels to most children and some were just coming to say hello and spend some time with us. We also visited some of them in the homesteads to check on them as well as their relatives who are caring for them. Around 70 percent of the children had lost weight when they returned and many seemed very hungry.

You may remember me writing about one grandmother who had a hut built by the local youth group. She has settled well into her new environment and we have relieved the burden somewhat by taking three of her grandchildren into the hostel. They are enchanting children -- so full of energy and affection, and have adapted well to their new life. Because we already have their older brother in the hostel the experience has been eased for them. Once again many of the children sang happily as we returned to the hostel after picking them up on the roadside at the end of the holidays and they seemed pleased to see their friends again.

Another food supplier has donated excess bakery items such as loaves of bread, cakes, muffins and delicacies such as trays of vanilla slices, cupcakes, chocolate brownies and other assorted items. As you can imagine, many of these items were foreign to the children but once they discovered how sweet & delicious they were they were polished off quickly. We also distribute some of these items to the poor and the sick and I can remember one old grandmother who was given a tray of six cupcakes. After studying them carefully she opened the packet, selected one with bright green icing and proceeded to eat it by dunking it in her soup! She appeared to relish the experience.

Sister Anna Maria has just finished supervising the gardeners with the planting of many vegetable seedlings. We have two large gardens containing silverbeet, peppers, cabbages, onions, beetroot, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes. These vegetables will be mainly for the children. We also have a fruit orchard containing orange, tangerine, grapefruit, mango and pawpaw (papaya) trees.

Activities
In March the inter school athletic sports were held at Big Bend, a sugarcane town about 30 kilometers from the mission. Many of the hostel children participated and all did very well considering the extremely hot conditions on the day. Nobuhle, one of the girls, won a medal for best long jump performer and there were several good runners.

The children are enjoying watching television which we restrict to weekends only. They especially love nature programs, singing and dancing, sport and comedy cartoons and look forward to the sessions. All 97 of them, along with the hostel staff, crowd into the dining hall & hurriedly take up their positions on the benches.

Two new chiefs and gigimas (helpers) have just been elected for the new school term. They are taking their roles seriously & have the children well organized in the evenings with chores such as cleaning the bathrooms, fetching water, sorting laundered clothing etc.

On a Sunday recently Sara along with one of the hostel staff & some youth group members took the children on a hike to a local small store. It was a beautiful mild, sunny afternoon & they all had a great time. They were like a big family group with the older children caring for the younger ones and carrying them when they became too tired to walk. They also picked up suitable pieces of brush branches along the way to be used for brooms.

2003 Hostel changes
I mentioned in the last newsletter that eight of the bigger boys were transferred to the boys' boarding hostel at the beginning of the year. They have adjusted fairly well and we see them regularly with requests for toiletry items etc. They are growing up very quickly & seem to be accepted by the other boarders after some initial bullying.

One 15 year old girl has run away to live with her boyfriend & no longer stays at the hostel. She continues to attend school. In relation to this occurrence, the risk of HIV infection within this young age group was discussed with the older girls with emphasis on the cultural pressures on these vulnerable young people.

We have just fitted all the girls out with school shoes, much to their delight. The boys received new shoes last year before the hostel opening. At that time we bought white canvas shoes for all the girls for dancing.

The mission carpenter has made bookshelves and noticeboards for the dining hall & dormitories and the children are encouraged to pack away books neatly on the shelves before bedtime. They continue to devour books and are beginning to treat them with more respect with more frequent handling. The notice boards contain photos of the children and art work which will be changed from time to time. This brings a personal touch to the hostel and the children love looking at photos.

Donations
Earlier this year we were invited to the Rotary Club in Mbabane (the capital of Swaziland) for Henk to speak about St. Philips mission. The members were especially interested in the hostel program and in March we invited them to visit us. They came with boxes of clothing, books and tinned foods and enjoyed meeting with the hostel staff and children. They have also since donated two large water tanks for the hostel.

Last week we were invited to the US Embassy in Mbabane to accept a donation of used clothes from a school in America. The hostel delegation included five children, two priests, Sister Anna Maria, Henk and myself and we were received by the Ambassador James McGee. It was quite an event with Swazi TV and representatives from the press present. In the evening we gathered all the children into the dining hall to watch the evening news to watch the event and they were excited. Siphewe, one of the older girls in the delegation officially thanked the Ambassador for the donation, speaking first in English and then SiSwati as the TV news is presented in both languages. Needless to say, we were very proud of her.

Ahead
Building for the new 100 bed hostel is about to commence after many delays with the drawing up of plans. Local labour will be used for much of the work as we are trying to involve Swazis as much as possible in mission projects.

Once again this year I am collecting art work from the children to give to you and have just taken digital photos of all the children which I will send to you soon. As I would like to be able to give all the children some information about their sponsor/s I would really appreciate a photo of you & your family to give to them if you have not already done this.

Items needed
Please continue to send all donated goods to the Cabrini Mission Foundation in New York or Cabrini Hospital Melbourne. Although everything you send is appreciated I would like to stress that it is just the simple things that the children need. As you can understand if some children receive goods while others do not, severe jealousies are created and therefore we wait until we accumulate enough goods of each type before we distribute them to all children.

For this reason, if you have not already sent a photo of you and your family could you please do this soon. Thank you if you have already done this. The children are very interested in you and just love seeing photos, especially ones connected with their lives. We plan to build lockers for them all soon & I would like them to keep their photos & sponsor details safely there.

Useful items would be:

• Used stamps
• Long durable skipping ropes
• Playing cards
• Art paper
• Books and Magazines
• Children's clothing (4-15 years)
• Sheets of stickers for artwork

Thank you for all the items that you have sent. Your interest and support is always appreciated.

Please click here to learn more about Sponsoring a Child in Swaziland.

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