Burdened and Broken

There are some hard truths that I have had to face while being here in Swaziland, and what I am about to share with you are one of them.  The “tree line” at the slums became a reality to me this past Thursday. The slums is the poorest part in Manzini and it is located directly across the street from the cities trash pile.  You can only imagine what it smells like.  The houses (more like one room shacks) are made mostly of rocks, sticks and mud.  Many of them lose their homes when it rains and it is absolutely filthy there.  It can be very dangerous at times because there are a lot of drunk men there.  We have to walk in large groups when we walk through to gather up kids, but we’ve never actually had anything happen there.  Praise God!  The Treeline is a part of the slums where a group of men sit around and play cards under this line of trees.  At a certain time during the day young girls gather there to sell themselves to these men who meet there.  The girls are sent to the Treeline by their parents in order to provide money for their family.  What the girls get paid is equivalent to about 30 cents.  These girls range from 3 months old to teenagers.  It is very common for a 2 year old to carry their 5 month old sibling on their back everywhere they go.  These poor children don’t even have the chance to have a childhood. 

 

This past week as we were walking through trying to gather up children for VBS at the care point two young girls attached to my arms.  One was 8 years old and the other girl was 9 years old.  The 9 year old girl was named Lundi and she was very friendly, and eager to come with me.  We were walking back to the care point when we passed a man who stopped Dan to ask him for money.  We were waiting for Dan and as soon as Lundi saw this man who was talking to Dan she darted off in the other direction to hide behind one of the other girls.  I noticed something was wrong and I kept trying to get her to come back over to where I was and she wouldn’t.  Finally, once we moved on from that man and kept walking she came back over to me and grabbed my hand again.  I asked her what was wrong and she didn’t say anything.  I said, “Why did you run the other way once we saw that man?  Do you know him or has he hurt you before?”  She nodded her head yes and it broke my heart.  We continued walking to the care point and I was putting the pieces together.  I changed the subject and just talked to her about other things for a while.

 

Once we got to the care point I asked her if she wanted to come sit on a tire with me so we could talk some more.  We sat and talked for a while and I was asking questions about her family.  Her mother cleans houses and her father cleans and shines shoes for work.  There are 8 children in her family and 5 of them are girls.  I asked her if she had to work and make money for her family.  She said, “yes”.  I asked her how she made money for her family and she didn’t say anything.  I asked her if she went to the Treeline and she bashfully said yes.  My heart broke at that moment.  I’m in tears even writing about this.  I told her she isn’t a bad person for going but that she shouldn’t go because it isn’t safe there and she could get hurt.  It was then confirmed that the man she was hiding from 10 minutes before our chat had raped her.  I’m nervous for her sisters as well because they are probably in the same position as her.  From her parent’s point of view it’s either sell your daughters in order to provide food for your family, or let your children starve to death.  This little girl has been on my heart so much this past week.  Please pray for Lundi and her family.  When we went to the slums on Tuesday I couldn’t find her so I haven’t seen her since our conversation last Thursday.  Pray for protection and safety over those children.  There is not enough work in Swaziland so this is what they resort to.  My heart aches for these children!