cameltaur 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 If anyone happened to notice on the "old" board, I haven't posted anything in a good long while. That is because I just spent my March break doing community work in Swaziland (a small country between South Africa and Mozambique). I was living and working at an elementary school about an hour away from the swazi capital, Mbabane. While there I was helping ith the construction of a new school building (everything by hand- the hardest work I have ever done), fixing up the old buildings, and teaching classes. I spent my spare time with the local kids, playing sports and hanging out with them. They were the happiest people I have ever seen, despite the fact that most of them struggle daily to have enough food to eat. It was truly an eye-opening and life changing experience. About halfway through my trip, we got word that Swaziland had just been declared the country in the world with the highest rate of HIV infection. Almost 40% of the people in the country are infected...as I looked out over the almost 400 students at assembly the next day, it hit me that 2 in 5 of them would die of AIDS. It was one of the most frightening things I had ever thought about. That is the abridged version of my march break, I just thought people might want to know what i've been up to. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
habsfan87 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 That's interesting, but sad also. I was wondering why you weren't on this board yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest phillyfan Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Congratulations on your hard work and dedication. Must have felt pretty damn good helping out that project. Just curious, was it a program of some sort, maybe through your school? Or did you just volunteer out of the blue, by yourself, and opt to go there? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris_H 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 A couple kids at my school went to Jamaica to help out, in the poor ghetto part, not the place where people vacation.In a couple years I want to go do that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NCPUCK26 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 i'm going to costa rica to build houses for a little with my two friends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NashvillePreds 1 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 I'm going to Turks & Caicos on vacation tomorrow :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hockey_player_11 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Didn't some guys from your school also go down to Thailand a couple years ago? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjobity 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 I'm going to Turks & Caicos on vacation tomorrow :) Canada's next province. B) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cameltaur 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Didn't some guys from your school also go down to Thailand a couple years ago? Yeah, my brother went to Thailand (about 5 years ago I think). My school has done Thailand a few times, this was I think the 6th time going to Swaziland. There were about 20 of us and 20 Havergal girls. If I ever travel myself after high school i'm definitely going to go back there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kosydar 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Thats sweet. How long were you over there? My cousin did something like that He was pre-med and he went and volunteered at a hospital over there for a year. He had minimal training in any sort of medicine, but over there, he was delivering babies left and right, plus doing many other advanced medical procedures that nobody would trust him with over here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cameltaur 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Thats sweet. How long were you over there? My cousin did something like that He was pre-med and he went and volunteered at a hospital over there for a year. He had minimal training in any sort of medicine, but over there, he was delivering babies left and right, plus doing many other advanced medical procedures that nobody would trust him with over here. haha yea, they trusted us building a building eventhough we were just a bunch of kids who had never laid a brick in our lives...but it wasn't that bad a job really i don't think. We were there just under two weeks, plus one day on the way in Paris, and a day in Mbabane. Then we were in Mbabane for half a day at the end and a half day in Manzini, then a day in Malalotja nature reserve in Swaziland and two days at Kruger national park in South Africa on the way back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan_The_Man_16 0 Report post Posted April 5, 2004 Thats terrible about the AIDS thing. Soudns like an interesting trip. I wish my school would do somthing like that. How much did it set you back? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cameltaur 0 Report post Posted April 7, 2004 Just in case you guys are interested, Saturday's Globe and Mail should have an article about my trip. A few of us were interviewed this morning for it, and they took some pictures as well. It is as a follow up to a series of articles on Swaziland that were in the paper about two weeks ago. I'll post a link if it goes up on the Globe website, or the page number in the paper. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kosydar 0 Report post Posted April 7, 2004 This may sound dumb, but is Swaziland close at all to Rwanda? I'm doing a huge research paper on the Rwandan genocide that actually started 10 years ago today. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
