Last week I spent about four days down in Durban at the University, eating a lot of curry, hanging out with a good friend, meeting the staff with who I'm vaguely affiliated (they're all completely lovely) and having quite a few really helpful conversations with people who have been doing this a lot longer than I have. I gave a brief presentation on what I'm doing out here, which was attended by 'the media' -- in the form of a very nice gentleman from the University newsletter. He took photos. Apparently I am a famous US researcher.
I've spent the rest of my time attempting to get myself situated -- finding university students who are interested in working with me as research assistants (my offer of payment: "On the days we go out to the field, I promise to take care of transport and feed you. Also, you get a certificate." I figure this is about equivalent to what I get to come out here, so it's fair), figuring out where, exactly the Ministry of Health has relocated itself to (the offices over the abandoned gas station, obviously), and generally sorting out my next six months in Mbabane. I want to spend some time describing Mbabane, and the bit of Swaziland that I've gotten to see so far, but I know from experience that I'll probably get it horribly wrong and only be embarrassed about my assumptions three months from now. So maybe I'll stick to the physical for now, and see what else I can figure out about this place later.
Mbabane is a good city -- I like it. I'd rather live here than Pretoria, or Dar es Salaam, or Nelspruit for example. It's exceedingly small, in the way you'd sort of expect the capital of one of the smallest and most rural countries in southern Africa to be. Everything somehow manages to be uphill from everything else, a trick that I'm still not certain how the city planners managed to pull off but is definitely true. I live a 10 minute walk from the town center going (thats the downhill part) and maybe 15 or 20 minutes coming back (which would be the severely uphill part). "Town," such as it is, is glorious. There's a grocery store in which I can by quinoa -- quinoa, people!!! A few western-type restaurants (that means they sell coffee that approaches decency), a few fast food places, a couple of internet cafes, and lots and lots of shops where you can basically buy whatever you need. Sure, it still shuts down on Sundays and after 6pm, but mostly I feel like pretty much anything I need is just down the hill. I'm still adjusting to this idea.
Fifteen minutes in the other direction is my gym (I know...a gym!) that is just as nice as the gym I went to in the US. It features circuit training, spinning classes (the major ex-pat social event on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, as far as I can tell), a restaurant with wi-fi and -- as happened a few nights ago -- occasional fire walking seminars. You don't have to tell me about the absurdity of this, I already know.
In between me and town and me and the gym is this strange mix of University and NGO outposts (Baylor, Columbia, and UNFP to name a few, and I know JHPIEGO is lurking around here somewhere), middle-income type homes (middle income for Swaziland), kombis driving by, men and women in bright yellow vests selling airtime, and shockingly little livestock. I can't remember the last time I saw a goat or a chicken wandering around in the road. It's sort of freaking me out.
Overall, it seems like the city is partially geared towards the general administration of the country -- government offices, people in suits, places for the running of errands -- parts of it exist almost entirely for the benefit of NGO workers, and parts of it are just your average city in which people are attempting to live and get things done and dodge everyone else who has come in for the day or the year. All in all -- not bad. Certainly not all that exciting, but not a bad place to hang out and shoot the breeze. Which was pretty much my entire goal in the first place. Success.
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