In Manzini

I’m writing from my office in Manzini. It’s just past eight o’clock and it’s already scorchingly hot. Even the Swazis are complaining of the heat. We had a few drops of rain last night... just enough for a quick tease before the thunder and lightning took over.
I’ve been in Swaziland for about a week and a half now, but am already feeling quite comfortable living here. I’m staying with two single women in a little bungalow on the edge of the city, about a twenty minute walk from the centre. Samu works for a pension company, and Gcinegile (her name starts with a click!) works at one of the local supermarkets. Samu is probably not much older than I am, but has already had so much grief in her life. She’s lost two children. One died at just three months old in a car accident. The second had meningitis as a baby, leaving her in a wheelchair and unable to talk. But she was otherwise a healthy and happy child until a year ago, when she suddenly died of some sort of complications. She was seven. But Samu’s incredibly strong, and has learned to distract herself with work, night classes and church, and visits family regularly.
Our little house is in a fairly quiet neighbourhood just below a soccer pitch, where most of the city’s boys spend their time before dark. Like every other house in Manzini, we have a small yard with a high fence topped with barbed wire, a locking gate, and a dog. Swaziland has its share of crime, and I’m told that Manzini is where all the tsotsis (gangsters) live. Locking the door at night is quite the process... first the metal grate is secured with a big lock. Then the door itself is locked. Then the inside bolts are slid into place, all four of them. All the windows have metal bars on them. Probably a good thing, since our “guard” dog, Snoopy, is pathetic. She runs away with her tail between her legs when anyone comes within five feet of her.
Manzini is a bustling little city draped over the top of a hill, with suburbs spread throughout the surrounding hillsides. It was quite a surprise for me. I’d been bracing myself for the dust, stench, noise and chaos that I’ve encountered in so many cities in Asia’s developing world. But Manzini is actually quite clean and organized by comparison. Throughout the day the two main streets are busy with fashionable office and retail workers, though at night the city centre is empty, with everyone safely locked up in their compounds. The streets are lined with clothes shops, electronics stores, small restaurants (two KFC’s!) and there are even two cool, sparkling shopping malls.
The people in Manzini are a very friendly bunch. They’re always smiling, willing to help, and love a good joke. The young men are particularly friendly to young white women who wander the streets... To call them aggressive might be an understatement. The women are very stylish, often wearing heels and smart business suits on the hottest of days. And I learned quickly not to recognize women by their hairstyles, because if Thandi has long braids one day, the next she might be sporting short curls. It seems that most of them keep their hair very short, and use a variety of wigs and hairpieces for style. I often see bits of fake hair loosed from the wigs blowing through the streets.
Work has been quite good so far. At the moment I’m with the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), an organization that’s fighting to change the culture of abuse – physical, sexual, and economical – that’s quite predominant in Swaziland, especially in the rural areas. They carry out a wide range of programs, including counselling, education and women’s empowerment. I’m making a promotional video for them... something they can use to show potential funders or partner organizations what they do. I’m also going to be working on a promotional video for Canadian Crossroads International (the organization that’s sent me here) – they’ve got seven videographers in seven countries working on it, so it’ll be a small project for me.
I was a little worried they’d work on Swazi time (slowly), but they got me settled right in with a desk right away, and helped me sort out a tentative shooting schedule almost immediately. I’ve been on two shoots already, and have a few more really interesting ones lined up for the next few weeks.
More on that later!