Some of you may remember an email from last year's Reed Dance or Umhlanga Ceremony so i won't bore you with too many pictures, but i will bore you with a few :).  Since the schools are on break I've taken this opportunity to learn more about Swazi culture including going to the Reed Dance and I just learned the Swazi National Anthem, it has less than 20 words but its all in SiSwati and have you ever tried to sing a song with "clicks" in the lyrics?

Me and my friend Dolly in traditional Swazi attire.  On the top is a lihiya (lee-hee-ya) of the Swazi flag, my Swazi skirt, and shoes with the Swazi shield on them.  Oh and my traditional Swazi sunglasses...hey, it was hot and sunny, ok?  Before I reached the Reed Dance i stopped at the gas station to buy a coke. I had forgotten what I was wearing and the EVERYONE at the gas station was staring at me and all the men were trying to get my attention to see how many cows my father would want as my brideprice. 

Tourist central. Here's the drive into the Queen Mother's royal residence which is just a few minutes from my house.  The decorations are the Swazi flag colors and the Swazi shield.

All 50,000 plus Swazi maidens dance into the stadium.  Leading the girls is the princesses (King Mswati's daughters, His brothers daughters and His fathers daughters).  They sing about 5 or 6 songs which have only about 5-10 words and they sing the songs over and over and over and over...you get the point.  The songs are all in SiSwati and the first song says "turn and come here", singing to all the girls who aren't at the dance to come from wherever you are and come.  Other songs say "We are the flowers of Swaziland" and others praise the King.They danced for 3 hours and then the King came out and dances around admiring the girls.

Can I be honest? The Reed Dance bores me, like i said its the same song over and over and over.  This year the highlight of the Dance was watching these tourists jump up one at a time to have their pictures with the girls as they dance past and then the Swazi police (the woman in the white shirt) scold them and push them out of the way.  There was like 20 of them in this group and they each went 1 by 1 as soon as the police looked the other way, it was hilarious!