Another trip to another school

Dan and I traveled south, about 150 kms, with Charles Kunene, the acting rector of All Saints-went to Holy Trinity in Nhlangano, to a school a bit north of there, and to St. Mary's, Hlathikhulu. The day was a full one, and we met the rector of Holy Trinity, Phendhu Dlamini, a 62 yr. old father of 11 --he seems to have been in every parish and out station in Swaziland, and was another example of dedication of the priests in this country.
I won't go into great detail about the church visits except to say that the school that we visited was begun by two Anglican nuns, one whom we met at St. Mary's, as she is at St. Peter's Convent, located behind that church - a heartwarming experience, and we were honored to meet her, even though she is not well.

The school , of course, was the highlight of our day. Charles drove his little car up another one of those "non roads", and we found ourselves perched on top of a mtn, with a primary school, named by the nuns as the New Warm Primary School. There were about three bldgs with classrooms, and another 3 or 4 small houses for some teachers. The headmaster is very handy, as he built his own office, a small bldg., put in electricity for himself, and for the teachers' houses, and also put in a new water tank (rainwater collection) - there are two such tanks on the school property, so this school has water (when it rains, that is). Anyway, Dan took out his camera, and the children went wild-I had mine, and between the two of us, had swarms of the 260 or so 1st thru 7th graders posing for us. We met several teachers and chatted with them briefly.
One of the teachers, Elsie Dlamini,(this last name is like Smith to us) literally begged me to build a HS, right there on the hill, as the children have so far to walk into town,(15 minutes+ for us to drive!!) that most of them quit before they get too far. This broke my heart as I knew I could not fulfill such a wish, but it still hurt, as education is the way out of poverty for so many here. I also know that this particular school, with its setting on a mtn top, and its name, have something special going on, as the children were busy cleaning up their rooms, were happy, pleasant, and thrilled with our visit.

The crowning event was when we began to talk with two teachers who teach music and one informed us that New Warm School had placed third in the country in their singing. We congratulated the teachers and lamented that we would not hear them,--- with that, even though it was dismissal time, the teacher gathered about 80 (4th - 7th) children, and we were treated to three songs. They went into a classroom, took chairs that some of the boys stood on in the back rows, and invited us to hear them. The minute that Dan and I heard the music, we both began to cry, -- and could hardly compose ourselves with the beauty of the three part harmony-all a cappella, of course --- the teacher used a harmonica like toy for setting the key for the choir. We were deeply moved by their generosity and thanked them profusely. I was not allowed to take pictures of the choir and still don't know why, as the teacher may have misinterpreted what I was asking. A small addition for your visual senses - all children were in green uniforms, but many had no shoes. Amazing, eh, and they walk for miles downhill to home, and uphill to get to their school. The Holy Spirit surely was with us yesterday, as we experienced people doing so much with so little, even at the two churches.
More will follow in our next event, perhaps, the SS class tomorrow.

We will be in touch, and Dan will add photos to this note. love, maggie

P.S. I'm attaching several photos of the children and one of the two music teachers and Fr. Phendu Dlamini.

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