This was our group the first day. Heart for Africa works with three different homes in Swaziland and two in Kenya, so this was just our group at our home. There were 141 volunteers on this trip altogether. There was a large group from Taiwan on our trip. They were there the same length of time as the rest of us -- 11 days total with traveling and each of them only packed 2 pairs of clothes (only what would fit in their backpacks) so that they could bring the kids computers (their first at the school), 1000 pairs of shoes (yes, one thousand), and sunglasses. Besides being so giving, they were also really funny and kept us laughing the entire time.One of the days we were there we had the opportunity to walk out into the community to plant gardens. This is a huge deal to people who are pretty much hungry all the time and never have enough to eat. They were so happy to have us and prepared their gardens beforehand. I got to see what it was like to walk around the hills like they do every single day, all day. I barely made it up the mountain on the way back up. I was really ashamed of myself afterwords -- Here I have this body that works perfectly well and I have enough to eat (too much, really) and I don't take care of it. You hear about people that are starving and don't have anything, but until you see it with your own eyes, I guess you don't really pay that much attention.

This little boy was playing at one of the houses we were at. I was just standing here and someone else was praying over the garden (its a Christian organization, so they prayed A LOT). This little boy just came over to me and laid on my foot and cuddled my leg. I didn't want to move.

And here is a typical mother in Swaziland. Sometimes we would be talking to women at the market or out in the community and not even know she had a baby strapped to her back until it fussed or she turned around. Speaking of the mountains and all the Africans that walk everywhere -- the women that we saw usually had a bundle on her head and a baby on her back walking up the side of a steep mountain.
They do what they have to do to feed their children, which sometimes means they prostitute themselves, which leads to more children and the spread of AIDS. Swaziland has the highest rate of AIDS in the world -- 42 per cent (and that's only the RECORDED number). As a mother myself, I can imagine if my child were hungry I would do just about anything for money to buy food, too.