During my fact finding trip to Swaziland in May this year (2011) I was part of a group taken to a very smart guest house, which in fact was a superb privately owned villa, very close to Manzini airport accessed by about two miles of dirt track road and then concrete road. We were shown the letting rooms, dining room and common areas which were all first class and decorated and furnished to an extremely high standard. After the tour we were given lunch and before moving on and I was introduced to a young lady called Sindi the step daughter of the lady who owned the villa, who runs the guest house working all departments and very long hours. She had prepared and served our lunch. Thanking her before I left, and knowing I had an early flight from Manzini in eight days time, I promised to return to stay the night before departure as it was close to the airport.
Sindi
Keeping my promised I arrived at 5pm and checked in with sindi and found I was the only guest. The owner of the house was in and Sindi introduced me to her stepmother who was both very smartly dressed and charming. As the only guest and not wanting to cause any work, I told Sindi that I will not have dinner so she can have the night off, her stepmother just lives here and does not work in the guest house. It turned out that Sindi was cooking for herself so she cooked the same for me and we sat and had a chicken and rice dinner which was very nice. I bought a beer and sat and talked to Sindi about her, her work and her step mum. She told me her parents had her whilst they were still at school and soon split up, she was looked after by her Grandfather who worked as a painter and paid her fees for school but the money stopped when ill health stopped him from working. Good hearted teachers paid her fees until she was officially classed as an orphan and school was then funded by the government. After leaving school with four o levels she contacted her father who did not want know her, but his second wife, her stepmother, even though divorced, gave her a job in the Villa for very little pay but good accommodation, but she had really wanted to be a nurse.
Sindi
In Swaziland to go to college to be trained as a nurse you need six o levels and she only had four, and the guest house work was the best job she could get which gave her a place to live. In fact her room was a good size with nice furniture and a shower with hot water, far better than the village she would have been living in with her grandfather with no running water at all like most Swazi families. She then told me she was saving up to pay to go back to school to take two more o levels and hopefully then go to college and become a nurse. She told me it would take her a long time perhaps two years to save the one thousand three hundred Rand required as her wage was poor and she would not ask her stepmother for help, why I don’t know. One thousand three hundred Rand is £130.00, this was all that was stopping this young girl from going back to school and achieving her dream. I promised her I would send her the money on my return to England and after a few attempts I successfully transferred the money and she is now attending Hillside College in Manzini studying physical science and Geography. I and all my family wish her all the best and I will continue to support Sindi the best we can so hopefully she can become a nurse.
She has promised to keep me up to date with her college work and exam results.
Best of luck Sindi