On The Ground

35 hours after leaving Boston, I made it to Swaziland!  I have a lot of early thoughts, not much time to write right now en route to Nairobi, but I've captured a few below.  Pictures to come, I haven't had a chance to break out the camera yet.  I do have some of my farewell tour, including the bonus 12-hour London stop, which I'll try to post shortly as well (for practice if nothing else).  


Some thoughts, conclusions subject to revision once I get a chance to spend more than 12 hours in the country:
- American Airlines had the worst food I've tasted in a long time.  It was indistinguishable mush, but apparently it was beef.  South African airways apparently had good wine, but I was asleep before takeoff and didn't get a chance to try it.  Thankfully, I was able to sleep for most of the 11-hour flight from London to Johannesburg.  
- I have never seen a smaller airport in my life than the one in Manzini, Swaziland.  Ever.  And it says "Welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland" on the front, which I found funny for some reason.  I'll get a picture if I fly back in there later this week.  It had one room, maybe two or three others that I didn't see.  They didn't blink when I told them I was staying for 1 day (true-ish, since I'm going to Nairobi today) but was carrying three suitcases, a backpack and a laptop bag with me.

- Mbabane (pronounced alternately "ba-ban-ee" or um-ba-bahn" depending on who is speaking) is absolutely tiny. I'm talking don't blink while driving through or you'll miss it, tiny.  Everyone lives on a hill overlooking some scenic view or other, no one lives in the city center that I can tell.  It feels even smaller than Concord, NH, even though I don't think it actually is.

- The food is respectable, possibly even good.  I had two meals in Swaziland yesterday, and both were good.  One was a panini and one was a pasta dish with chorizo.  Both were tasty.  And pretty cheap, ~10USD for dinner, and 5 USD for breakfast.

- The currency is the Emalangeni, and it trades at about 7 to the dollar.  7 is a terribly difficult number to use in division, but I expect I'll get better at it.

- I will probably be able to go to the World Cup pretty easily, if not cheaply.  Will investigate later this week.

- I went on a hike yesterday just after I arrived.  A "rock" called Sibebe.  Described as a "little walk" it turned out to be a three hour hike up a rock face and down through a valley.  It looked like it would have been fun to rock climb/boulder in some parts.  There seem to be some pictures here: http://www.sibebe.co.sz/gallery.html

Now I'm off to Nairobi for four days to meet with the global pediatric HIV/AIDS team and learn a little about what I'll actually be doing for work.  I expect it will be a firehose of information, but I'll try to retain some of it, at least.


More to come.   I'm excited to be here, the place seems interesting with a lot to explore and I expect to have some interesting stories to tell.

Garrett