Bush clearing and rubbish removal around the houses and on the slopes of the village is probably one of the most challenging activities of the Swazi 1000 experience.
The goal is to clear the alien plants and illegal rubbish dumps so that a proper refuse removal infrastructure can be extended into the greater community.
The task entails sporting orange industrial-type gloves, taking up any form of shovel / pick-axe / panga – looking utensil, and then wreaking havoc on the overgrowth and alien plants that have taken over the slopes and yards of the houses in the village.
“This is one of the projects where what we do is visible to the community. They are watching us as we work,” said Anneke Barkhuizen, a student volunteer from the University of Pretoria. “Hopefully, what we are doing is an inspiration to them as well, and a visible expression of God’s love.”
The Swazi 1000 teams are working alongside the Bulembu Ministry teams, climbing into the alien overgrowth with chain saws and weed-eaters to uncover the layers of rubbish underneath that has heaped up over the years.
Enter litter elimination squad.
The “treasures” found in the backyards and between the houses includes everything from rotting shoes and decomposing household garbage to more unmentionable debris. Picking these gross remains up with your hands is possibly one of the best tests of the love we profess for this community.
As with most of the physical work done as part of the Swazi 1000 outreach, the significance seems to be more spiritual than visible.
“One could see that the area that we did the bush clearing in was utterly abandoned,” said Swazi 1000 volunteer Drickus Blom. “It felt like, as we were removing the trees that have even started to grow in the houses and the overgrowth around the structures, we were removing the sense of abandonment as well.”