There is one thing that is so unique to Swaziland that even Swazis use the prefix to describe it: Swazitime. At first, I thought it was just lateness, which it was in my first encounter with the phenomenon. But it's much more than that. It can be lateness, earliness, utter lack of planning, unexpected arrivals and expectations, and often total absenteeism. It's interesting at best and infuriating at worst, but we're getting used to it and have even learned to anticipate it. The first week, though, it was tough because we didn't know what was going on. More on Swazi-time later. For now, store it in your Swazibrain for future reference.
There wasn't much work to be done the first week so we did a lot of exploring. It's technically winter here, but, apart from rain the first couple of days, it's been consistently 75-80 degrees here. It still gets dark at around 5:30, which I'm not thrilled about on my summer vacation, but it could be worse. Swaziland might not be a bad place to retire (to my fellow journalists, take note, as you will not make enough money to retire in Florida).
Walker and I found an internet cafe in downtown Manzini, so Swazinet (which is not one of my Swazi___ constructions but actually called Swazinet - and appropriately so because the connection is incredibly slow most days, pretty fast on some, and not working at all on others) is where we hang out most mornings, when it is least crowded and at its fastest. It's also the reason this blog is so long in the making.
Sibusiso, one of our team members showed us around on our second day here (on Swazi-time, so it took a while). Manzini a working town and industrial center that has a daytime population of about 90,000. There's a huge outdoor market that we passed through on our way to the bus rank, which is flooded with Kombis (little minibus things that shuttle people in and out of the town to the outlying areas where most people live). It's a trip. I have a video, but it might take a while to upload. After going all over town to get permission, we got access into the soccer stadium in town, which was the national stadium and has probably seen better days. [click pictures to enlarge
We stayed there for a while and talked about Swaziland and the particular challenges it faces, in general and with regard to the legal system specifically. I'm sure I'll get into that stuff later, as they are many. As for now, I'm just trying to keep my sense of humor. Interestingly, so are the Swazis. Despite its problems, it's a pretty peaceful kingdom and the people laugh more than any other population that I've encountered in my travels.Digression over.
Sibu also took us to the University of Swaziland, where he is a law student studying under Dube, our team leader. School is out for winter right now, but we got to tour the campus, which is very nice. We learned that the king is the chancellor of the school and controls it, like everything else in the country (a country that doesn't have a public school system, by the way). 
There was a beautiful mountain nearby that looked like a good place for a hike. When I asked about it, Sibu told us that it is a sacred mountain where the kings of Swaziland are buried and nobody but (you guessed it) the king is allowed to go up there and we would most likely be shot if we tried. This is why it's good to have a native guide.On our first Saturday, we covered a workshop with local law enforcement about excessive force and prisoners' rights in a village near the western border with South Africa. Since it was in siSwati (the native language here), we couldn't really understand so we just took pictures and video. After we got transcripts, we were able to put something together and put it on the blog. Check it out here: http://blog.ibj.org/2009/06/13/swazi-justicemakers-run-workshop-with-community-police-on-prisoner-abuse/. Since we can't upload video from here, that'll have to wait until we get back to New York.
I wish I wrote this all while it was fresh in my mind, but that was about it for the first week. Bear with me while I try to catch up.
Take care,
Nick
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