Stopover Swaziland
Date: 26th July
Location: Mbabane, Swaziland
The 6 weeks are over. And I’m heading for the beach. That journey if not taken with a plane is quite the ride involving 2 border controls and time getting there and having to wait for a visa. Yes, Mozambique is my final destination but before I get there, I have to pass through Swaziland where I have to await my Mozambican visa.
Swaziland is a sleepy little thing. It has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world and the average life expectancy hovers at 32 years of life. Is there hope for a country like this, with such a high infection rate and a short lifespan? With an almost terminal disease like this, almost rampant in the country, if I was a swazi and infected with HIV, I wouldn’t care about my education or saving up money. I would live each day with as little income as necessary to sustain my activities of seeing friends and family and basically having a good time as possible throughout my short life. With up to a third of the country thinking like this, I don’t know if Africa can count on Swaziland for spurring on the forgotten continent.
