It’s all coming back to me

I’ve been back in

Swaziland and I had already forgotten so many things about this place but it’s all coming back to me now.
  Like my SiSwati which I thought I had lost most of has quickly returned once faced with non-English speakers and a desire to communicate with them.
  Another thing I had forgotten, how slow pace of life is here.
  I mean I knew it was slow but I had forgotten how slow.

 

Just a glimpse into the slow pace of Swazi life – Wednesday I went to the post office and I had four packages awaiting me there (Praise the Lord).
  The make (pronounced mah-gay which means woman) behind the desk recognized me right away and said “Rebecca, you are back, you have so many packages”.
  She has to fill out customs forms and I have to sign 3 or 4 things for each package and then I of course have to pay and she writes out a receipt for me.
  So she brings the paperwork out and begins to fill it out but she only brought it out for one package.
  She fills it all out and charges me for only one package and I said “Can I pay for all of them at once?”
  “No” she replied with a smile on her face and she went on filling out that paperwork for the 1 package.
  Then she leaves the counter goes to the back brings the package out into the lobby and goes back behind the desk and starts the paperwork for the next package.
  I knew this was going to take forever but I didn’t want to have to come back, I think you understand why.
  Anyway she gives me the second package and goes back behind the desk and she says “Go, Leave”.
  I said “What, what do you mean?”
  “Go home now”, she said.
  I thought I had offended her and I said “Make, I’m sorry I don’t understand what you mean”.
  She said “If I do the next package I will be late knocking off (getting off of work)”.
  Isn’t the customer service here in

Swaziland great?
  Of course I was thinking in my head, “if you would have done all four at once I would have been gone 20 minutes ago and you could have knocked off early”, but what do I know?
  So I had to come back the next day and start this process all over again.
 

 

So now, it’s all coming back to me…