The Last Communication from Swaziland from the Land's

March 28, 2000

Dear All,

This may be our last communication from Swaziland unless something unusual happens at our visit to Hospice this afternoon with Connie, Dane and Ned. Yesterday we all went to the Usuthu farm and met with John Weatherson, the farm manager who we've talked about in earlier e-mails. John is dedicated to making the farm, a joint venture between the Diocese(Anglican Diocese of Swaziland) and World Vision, a success. They have built an infrastructure which will support a much larger operation and they are currently exporting some of their crops to Europe. However, they still have needs and we witnessed one while walking through the fields: a broken tractor which had halted their bed preparation. They have two second hand tractors which are constantly breaking down, one is currently in the shop and the other was the one we saw in the field with the left wheel off due to a broken bearing. The cost of a new tractor is about $25,000 and I sure would like to get that sum raised quickly to help them with their problem. Any ideas?

From the farm, we went to the primary school and gave Dane and Connie a short "Cooks Tour". Actually the tour was led by the Headmaster who was intrigued by the prospect of having his picture displayed on our web site.

From the school we went to the community clinic where we were given another tour by one of the two nurses who work and live there. This clinic sees about 150 patients per day, five days a week, plus emergencies during nights and weekends. Very tough duty! However, the nurses of this country are the backbone of the health care delivery system of this country as they are responsible for about 90% of the patient contacts.

We had a relaxing afternoon, showing Dane and Connie some of the sights of Mbabane, followed by a nice dinner at the Inn. Maggie is a little under the weather, perhaps because of the upcoming trip home. We leave her tomorrow to drive to Johannesburg where we will pick up a 9:20 p.m. flight to JFK for a 7:20 am arrival. It will be good to be back, although the stay here has been most rewarding. We've decided that we'd like to return here, perhaps in a year to see if what can be done will be done. We look forward to relating our stories and showing you our many pictures. Until then.

Fondly, Maggie and Dan

P.S. The pictures I'll attach will be:
The Headmaster
The broken tractor
School kids - several pics

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