Winter Vacation

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After waffling back and forth between going to the Dolphin Coast near Durban, the Cape Town Wine Route, or up to Mozambique, Sarah and I decided to spend her last week here traveling to the warmer beaches of Mozambique via Swaziland. Due to our combined inability to make solid decisions or plans, (too) early one morning we headed to the border post at Ficksburg. We had been hoping to catch a direct ride to Swaziland from Lesotho, but found that the only public transport route was via Johannesburg. This was not unanticipated, but did make the journey to Swaziland's capitol, Mbabane, a dawn to dusk affair, ending with a thrilling/teeth-grinding kombi ride to our hostel, as the driver tried to drop us off before he raced back to the border before it closed for the day. We never did find out if he made it, but bless that guy for hauling us all over the place in search of an elusive hostel and putting himself at risk of sleeping in his taxi all night, stuck in Swaziland!

We spent a couple of days in Swaziland, checking out the markets and wandering around. We really only spent time near the bigger cities, and I was impressed with the quality of their infrastructure. It is a country that has been made easily accesible to tourists.  The roads were all well marked and maintained. I'm not sure if that is also the case in more rural parts of the country however. Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence of any country in the world and it is the last absolute monarchy in Africa. The HIV epidemic may not have an end in sight (though it hasn't worsened considerably either) but we got the sense that the Royalty are in for some trouble. I was surprised to find how vocal many of the citizens were about their dislike for the current government and the abuses of power they saw. A copy of the daily paper in Manzini, one of the larger cities, was almost entirely filled with stories of government ministers and departments making off with absurd amounts of money and giving each other raises, while the people's basic needs go unmet. 

The paper didn't have much direct criticism of the King himself, but the displeasure with him was apparent. A couple taxi drivers we talked with had no qualms about bashing “His Majesty.” King Mswati III has something like 9 wives (he can take any woman he wants, married or otherwise for his wife) and draws silly amounts of money from the public coffers for his family and friends. Meanwhile teachers and factory workers have been striking for better pay, workers rights, and such things. The country was actually closed to visiting Peace Corps Volunteers a few months back during a large factor worker strike. Rubber bullets and teargassing seem to have become the normal police and military reaction to the protests. With tales of officials absconding with large sums of money, my general impression was that many people see the inevitable change and are getting away with as much as they can while they still can. Let me reiterate that this blog represents my personal views and in no way reflects the stance of the Peace Corps or the U.S. government. That being said, I would not be surprised if this last monarchy sees it's end before I return to the States. The transition seems inevitable with about 1 million unhappy citizens, lets just hope it happens peacefully. I have confidence that it will, especially since Swaziland has such good examples in it's neighbors, South Africa, Lesotho, and Mozambique.