Father Philaemon had many sons

Tiff came to Africa hoping to experience the culture. And since her bags were lost, we spent two days in a suburb of Jo'berg and 4 days in Kruger park. With 2 days to go, we decided to rent a car and visit the kingdom of Swaziland. Not knowing much about it added to the excitement.

As we drove in we noticed children everywhere. Turns out, 200,000 children are orphaned due to HIV and poverty in Swaziland, a high number considering it has less than 2 million citizens. We arrived in Ezulwini and called a guy named Richard who I was told would set us up with a cultural tour. We eventually found him and he introduced us to our host for the night: Philaemon.

Philaemon lives in the mountains and survives a traditional life. This means, he has two wives, and 20 children, and lives in a hut made of cow dung. For 100 Rand (about 15 dollars) we were able to stay with him for the night and enjoy a dinner and breakfast. Since they hardly spoke English, the tour basically meant that we were invited to come observe an average evening with him and his family.

As we arrived we were greated by dozens of kids. It was a baby factory. There were babies everywhere. Children and grandchildren of Philaemon. We spent the first hour just playing with the chilren. I'm guessing it was Tiff's favorite part of the trip. One girl in particular caught her attention and Tiff spent a lot of time with her. We sang songs and watched the kids dance. SOmehow they learned a dance where they tuck an arm into their pants and start humping. It was hilarious. We laughed for an hour and the mother said that they looked like donkeys.

We learned quite a bit about life in Swaziland despite barely being able to communicate. Pictures will tell the experience as well as anything. After a terrible night of sleep, we drove all day to make Tiff's flight. We arrived a bit late but oh well. Tiff's departure was much like her trip, very quick. We pulled up, slammed on the breaks, grabbed her bag, she hit me in the nuts on accident and then she was gone. It was a good visit and I think she had a lot of fun. Look forward to guest blog coming soon.