Letter from Swaziland

We received our first letter from Lenhle a few weeks ago, and I thought I would share. Since she’s only 4, her teacher wrote it for her, and in English no less. I found the drawing absolutely adorable, especially the interesting head of the person. It looks as though the teacher wasn’t satisfied with the head that Lenhle drew, so she added it for her! Gave us a good laugh.

Dear John and Melody, Hello. My name is Lindiwe. I’m Lenhle’s Bible club teacher. I’m going to write her this letter because she is not able to write. Her name is Lenhle. She is a girl. She is 4 years old. She lives at Mpolonjeni with her grandmother. She is not at school. She likes playing homes. She likes eating bread with eggs, friend chicken, and rice. She said when she grows up she would like to be a police. Lenhle said have a Merry Christmas. Matthew 1:23. Goodbye, love your child, Lenhle.

I decided to google earth her location… and it looks like Mpolonjeni is a small village which can’t be directly searched for. But the nearest city is Mbabane, Swaziland, which is very close to the village. There’s some articles on Google that even refer to Mpolonjeni and Mbabane as the same region as Mbabane expands its borders. http://www.times.co.sz/News/65316.html. 

The third photo is from a village just south of Mbabane which could portray a village just like Lenhle’s, although there are some articles that state that Mpolojeni housing is a lot of mud and brick.

Swaziland

City of Mbabane

Village outside of Mbabane

The Mpolonjeni Child Development Center is located in Mpolonjeni, a small community west of Mbabane, Swaziland's capital. If they are not subsistence farmers or raising cattle, some adults attempt to find work as day laborers in the city but incomes are sporadic. This area provides special challenges: the rolling hills of Mpolonjeni and higher elevation makes for cooler nights and a frost risk in winter. The children of Mpolonjeni face difficult circumstances on a daily basis, rarely having enough to eat or access to basic health care to treat the chronic skin conditions, intestinal problems, and tuberculosis. HIV/AIDS continues to ravage Swaziland, leaving many children in the care of older siblings or relatives.
The Mpolonjeni Child Development Center provides love and security to children who desperately need stability in their lives. The center provides nutritious meals to combat malnutrition while hygiene training and medical screenings are slowly improving their health. Most importantly, the children of Mpolonjeni are spiritually nourished through Christian education, prayer, and Bible study with caring adult role models. 


I’m just so fascinated by it all! We’ll go there someday to visit her, and spoil her. But until then, this cute little letter will just have to do…
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It’s just like Santa Clause

I can actually get out of bed energetically on Thursday mornings (when I say “energetically,” I mean I can open my eyes with slightly more ease). Part of it may be because it’s the last day of work for the week, but the majority of it is because of what’s waiting on my porch. At 5:15 I rush down the stairs, let Dasha out to do her business, then throw open my front door. There, on my doorstep, sits that little white box that I know is full of wonderful, wonderful things. I throw open the lid, and though they’ve never missed a day, I am always pleased to see that there is indeed something inside.

Oh, Royal Crest Dairy, how you remind me so of Santa Clause. On Wednesday night I write to you my wish list, and just before bed I place my wish list in a spot where you can find it. Then the next morning, you magically bring me delicious all natural milk, butter, and eggs… and when I really get carried away with my wish list, you leave me with rich chocolate milk and decadent cookie dough. I open your little box lid as if it’s a special gift, and arranging my fresh dairy products in my refrigerator is my favorite Thursday morning task. In fact, I won’t lie; I often open up the refrigerator door a few times afterwards just to look at the new items inside. Leaving for work I feel rest assured that my dairy needs are met for the week, and excitedly I think about the next wish list I get to write to you.

Maybe I’m exaggerating my Royal Crest Dairy obsession just a tad bit, but it honestly made me think about all the little things in a day that keep me going. Some are pretty ridiculous, like Royal Crest Dairy or writing up a to-do list. But it’s good to notice the little ridiculous things in our days that keep us going.

What about you? What little things (ridiculous or not) are part of your days that you look forward to, that give you that little extra kick?

Death by Chewing

I’ve determined our dog’s fate today… My husband is going to slaughter her, with his bare hands, because of her terrible, terrible chewing habit. And I can’t say I blame him…

Dasha loves to chew, and she knows very well what’s okay and what’s not okay to chew. Our first chewing disaster happened when we was only a few months old. She discovered the rough, resistant texture of bark on our small little backyard trees. The first and smallest of the trees is stripped away to nothing but a few rather short branches.

We'll obviously be planting a new tree here.

The second tree is much taller, but she’s stripped away every bottom branch she can reach, as well as removed the entire bark covering around the base of the tree.  Don’t even get me started on the pesky digging she did, all the way down to the roots.

Appropriately, she has a stick from the tree in her mouth...

Our third tree has been almost untouched. Except for a few rebellious leaps into the air at the branches, resulting in not much more than a mouthfuls of buds.

Then came the day that mama, me, wanted to let her stay out of her crate all day. John, my husband, just doesn’t understand. He's not the one that has to go home at lunch to let her out, only to put her back in and deal with those pathetic, pitiful eyes. She can barely enjoy her 45 minutes of free time as she walks around dreading that terrible moment when I grab her collar to direct her upstairs. It's just not right for a pup full of energy and curiosity. No succulent bone you can buy can convince her that her crate is where she wants to be. So John gave in, as any loving husband would.

All went surprisingly well in the morning. She slept a lot (on the couches I might add), but then afternoon hit. She searched the counter tops and table for anything she could get her teeth on. It resulted in a chewed up wooden spoon, slightly damaged Wii remote, and a gnawed on corner of the couch pillow. (Note: We have a “puppy cam” set up that we watch her on from work. That’s how we know all of this…) We blamed ourselves for leaving such tempting items in her reach and put everything away for the next day. Yes, we put away every single thing… oh, except for the lamps. But what dog in her right mind would chew a LAMP?

Dasha would. And did. And now my cute IKEA lamp is no more. (I wished I had gotten a picture of this, but during the moment, taking a photo was the last thing going through my mind.)

A few weeks passed. She was spayed, and I figured that a good spaying had surely matured her. What seven month old dog would chew something she wasn’t supposed to after being spayed?

It was my coffee table. My cute, long sought after, craigslist coffee table that John and I were planning on restoring and finally completing our living room set with (minus a lamp). She didn’t chew on the knob of the coffee table drawer, or any of the contents in the drawer, but instead gnawed the entire corner of the drawer completely off!

You can now guess that this was the instance that just about cost her her life. My beloved coffee table ruined in just a few short minutes. Well, it’s been proclaimed that she will never be left out of her crate for the day again, and that bad behavior results in a firm beating of the butt. Give us a few weeks… we’ll once again be convinced by those loving, miserable eyes that we just need to give her another chance; just one more chance.

Idea: Next time put all of the furniture in the garage, remove the rug, and the entertainment center with everything on it. What a solution! Leave her a completely empty house. Too bad we can't put away any of the walls...