APOLOGY
Sorry we haven't written in a while! The mornings have just been taken up with other things. It's good to be sharing our experiences again.

LUKHELE
Make Lukhele is one of the two wives of the deceased Abner Dlamini. Make Malinga was my "main" Swazi mom, and when she died then the next woman Abner married (make Silolo) became my main contact with the homestead. Still, it does not seem right to pay no attention to make Lukhele, so Jabu and I went over there a couple of weeks ago. She seems to be doing fine. Except, of course, when a goat with a rope around its ankle (an arrangement intended to keep the beast from wandering into the neighbors' homestead) bolted when released from its pen and knocked down Lukhele's mat-weaving loom and a 1-year old child. We all laughed (except the 1 year old, but she got over it pretty fast).

CHAYA UP!
After visiting make Lukhele, Jabu and I passed make Silolo's homestead. We greeted them briefly. Just as we stepped away from the gate, I noticed a newly-planted vegetable coming up. Over my shoulder I asked make Silolo if she had planted chaya cuttings from our place. She had! You ECHO folks must be glad; chaya has moved off our property and taken root in one genuine Swazi homestead. For those of you not familiar with the plant, chaya is a spinach-like dark green vegetable with iron and vitamin A. It grows profusely and needs little care. Chaya would integrate well with traditional Swazi cuisine. We hope it proves beneficial to this (and eventually other) Swazi homes.

EXSULTATE DEO
"Praise God with sugar cane and dance; lay on your face and worship Him". Not quite the Psalms, but it's close. Recently we found Jabulile (who can walk now) with a stalk of sugar cane in her hand, turning circles and smiling as the music of Alessandro Scarlatti (Exsultate Deo) and Anton Bruckner (Os Justi) played on the boombox. These music selections came from a cd of choral music entitled "Songs and Psalms of the Divine".Occasionally she would fall to her belly and lay face-down on the floor for a few moments; whether she had lost her balance or wished to express obesiance to the Lord or just got tired I don't know. Without doubt, however, she had a great time. Just watching her was a joy to us also.

PAY SCALE
For several years the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has told the Swazi government they need to reduce their civil servant payroll in order to keep the nation financially sound. The government has not done that, and has in fact given pay increases on several occasions since we arrived in January 2003. Swaziland's main source of income is a portion of the customs receipts for several southern African nations; the vast majority of this customs money goes through South Africa, and Swaziland was given a cut. The Swazi percentage has been reduced, and now the government is trying to find ways to keep their budget on an even keel. They have proposed cutting civil servants' salaries 10%. This has caused two nation-wide one-day teacher strikes. It is impossible to know how this will turn out. I feel I am overpaid for the work I do, and I think a 10% cut would be a fair step. Part of the opposition to the cut (other than the basic fact that very few people jump at the opportunity of making less money) is the belief that government has and continues to squander money through unnecessary spending and corruption. Some teachers don't want to give up money they are working for until other government officials stop wasting money. I told a meeting of teachers that folks we know in the States have had 10% pay cuts and shortened work weeks due to the global financial downturn for two years, and that if government has promised to pay you 20 Emalangeni but only has 15 in its pocket, maybe you should take what you can get. The comments were not well received. We will see what happens.

TRIP TO TOWN WITH THREE GIRLS
Our school operates on a 6 day schedule. Pretend the first day of a new school term is a Monday. That is day 1. Tuesday is day 2. Friday is day 5. The next Monday is day 6. The Tuesday following this next Monday is day 1. And so forth. Each day has its own teaching regimen; that is, a teacher does not teach the same students at the same time every day. I'm not the biggest fan of this setup, but that is neither here nor there.

What is relevant is that on day 5, I do not have any classes. I do not know how this came to pass, but I do not bring it to the attention of the folks in charge of the schedule either; no need to incite jealousy or a "How can that be? No teacher should have a day without students!" reaction from the administration which might result in a change. I do occasionally use that day, however, to run errands in town (most times I use it to do outside work around the school).

On Friday June 10th, I took the oldest three girls to town with me. I had a slew of errands to run, the most important one being the installation of some lights at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) campus. We got a nice lift in someone's sedan all the way to town, visited the church, got the electrical stuff I needed, dropped off the back wheel of my bike (I'd broken a spoke; bike wheels don't work too well with even one broken spoke), purchased a big bag of oranges, bought various clothes items for three of the four girls (my 9-years-old-and-younger female companions had a ball with that), visited our post office box (where we found a large envelope from my dad; this provided delicious anticipation for the girls, as envelopes from Grandpa Poglitsh usually mean issues of Highlights magazine), picked up a few groceries, then took a kombi to YWAM. Given the number of personnel and posessions, this Poglitsh contingent took up the entire back seat (which accomodates four adults). I was happy with this, as controlling that entire space made sure the light fixtures would arrive at YWAM unbroken.

We got to YWAM and the girls ran off to play with the other kids. I got the lights installed just in time for dinner. After the meal the girls (with ours there, the total came to 5) had pajama party to bid Catherine Nave (daughter of Jim and Lisa Nave, leaders of the YWAM campus) bon voyage for three months. Jim is getting some training in the States. So my daughters happily clambered off to Luciano and Ane Duarte's house (the Duartes are Brazilians working at YWAM-Swaziland) and stayed up until 1AM watching movies and eating popcorn. I retired and got a long night's sleep, and did some pleasure reading in bed in the morning (something that otherwise happens only when I'm sick). When I learned in the morning that the girls had only 6 hours sleep, I knew I had three ticking time bombs on my hands; I figured the tiredness and accompanying crankiness would detonate in irritability and tears by 10AM. So they played for a little while with the other kids, the Duarte's gave us a lift back to town, and we ran a few more errands. By the time we'd picked up my bike tire, another big bag of oranges (the first bag was given to YWAM), and a big bag of carrots, we looked like Okies en route to California. Kit rode on my shoulders with the oranges across her lap, I had the wheel in one hand, I held the hand of one of the girls with my other hand, and bore a full but not very heavy (clothes are pleasantly light) backpack on my back. We got to the bus rank where we sat down and waited for the Nsukumbili kombi. The girls sat down and ate their fat cakes (the enormous donut holes mentioned a little while back in these newsletters), and within 10 minutes our kombi arrived. We again dominated the back seat (the conductor asked us repeatedly if we really intended to occupy the entire seat; I assured him we did) and were home in an hour.

The point (which I've made in this space before) is that Swaziland affords us tremendous quantities of (fun) time with our kids. A friend of ours who heads a faith and family outreach in the US said that in preparation for his ministry, he asked fellow seminarians which of their Sunday school teachers taught them most effectively. It turned out that those teachers who did fun but simple things with the kids were the most memorable. For a child, "love" is spelled "T-I-M-E". This weekend jaunt gave us lots of time together and built bonds and memories to last a lifetime. For experiences such as this, I am very grateful to Swaziland.

GIRLS RULE!
Ruth still conducts Girls' Club on Friday afternoons. One recent Friday about eight girls, from ages 5 to 17, descended on our house to hear the story of Boy's Town (a little ironic, I suppose, at an all-girls function), hollow out eggs and paint the shells, and play freeze tag. I am very glad Ruth does this. It seems that opportunities for girls to gather and just have fun, without work responsibilities or male attention, are rare in Swaziland. I usually take Jabu and make dinner in the kitchen while the activities take place in the living room. Everyone has a good time.

LIFE AND LOVE
Find attached two letters to the Times of Swaziland; one is by a woman named Simple Lilly Ruth's response to Ms. Lilly is below. These letters encapsulate two very different approaches to life, and the approach each of us chooses will determine whether we build societies of love or societies of selfishness. Note that the presence of such an exchange in Swaziland indicates that the clash of ideas as to what constitutes the good life (commonly known as the culture wars in the global West) has spread to Swaziland.

Response to Single Lilly
Single Lilly's important piece ("Teenage Abortion: Why It's Not So Bad") helps explain why societies support abortion and why friends and family either "gently encourage" or forcibly push women into abortion.

Her closing paragraph reads "They [women who choose abortion], very kindly-and potentially at great risk to their lives-make what could be a problem for us all simply vanish. Personally, I don't particularly enjoy the sight of unhappy, malnourished children". Lilly clearly expresses a chilling vision of human relationships we are all tempted to indulge: "I don't care if you murder others or damage yourself, as long as those lethal actions keep me from having to deal with your problems." What are these "problems?" They are weak human beings-the young, the old, the sick, the disabled, the poor, even the depressed-who might bother us with their troubles or demands.

Consider this parable. Once upon a time a man saw a vision of hell. In it he saw a beautiful banquet table loaded with food. The guests sitting around the table had very long forearms, however, so that none of them could feed themselves. There were shouts, anger, and cursing as everyone tried to spoon up the delicious food only to find they could get it nowhere near their mouths. Then the man saw a second vision, this one of heaven. In heaven he saw the same banquet table and guests similarly deformed. In heaven, however, everyone took the food in their hands and carefully fed their neighbors until all were satisfied.

We can selfishly focus on our own needs while resenting the needs and demands of others; in doing so we create hell on earth. In the 1930's the United States suffered a great economic collapse which became known as the Great Depression. Several decades later a man named Studs Terkel interviewed hundreds of people who had lived through that time. He compiled his interviews into a fascinating book entitled "Hard Times". Terkel found that some people looked back upon those years with nostalgia saying things like, "It was so wonderful, everyone pulled together and helped each other through." Others looked back with horror, saying how awful it was and how people selfishly grabbed everything that they could get with no consideration of others. The challenge of the situation created opportunities for individuals and communities to grow in selfishness or to grow in love. Heaven or Hell.

Swaziland faces a similar challenge right now, and the same choice lies before all of us. When confronted with the needs of the weak and needy, are we going to wish that they would simply vanish, or hope that other people will do us a favor and make them vanish? When our family members, friends, and neighbors come to us with their needs, will our response show that we care and will do what we can to help them? I know a gogo who, several years back, was barely surviving. She took in, fed, and cared for a child who had fled his homestead because of an abusive second wife who didn't want to share food with him. The gogo and her grandson showed love because they believed that Jesus was giving them an opportunity in this boy to show love to God himself. Heaven or Hell--which one will we create here?

I hope that Single Lilly discovers the happy surprise that God fills the universe and our everyday actions with meaning and eternal significance, that Christ is present in the needs of others, and that in the adventure of love no one's life need be "dolorously boring".

Sincerely,
Ruth Poglitsh

HILLBILLY
Your electricity has been unexpectedly going out after dark for a couple of weeks. Your girls plan for the outages by attaching glow-in-the-dark plastic stars to the living room walls with bostick (a tacky adhesive similar to chewing gum). When the lights go out, they find their way to the wall (the stars "charge" as long as the lights are on) and stick the stars to their foreheads. Now they can know each others' locations, and find their way around until a grownup lights a candle.
hillbilly headlights

Most kids' household chores include raking the leaves, cutting the grass, and shoveling the snow. Your kids take the hammer to a rock-hard, basketball-size anthill in search of the queen ant.
hillbilly yardwork

An evening's entertainment includes your daughters taking 10 liter plastic buckets (used to store sugar, flour, and corn meal) and banging on them with hands and sticks like drums.
hillbilly 4 channel surround sound home theater

Have a good day,
The Poglitsh's