It’s incredible to think that today was our last formal day of class. We began our day with a global health lecture on cancer and population trends in the morning and a visual literacy lecture in the afternoon. It was for the most part a pretty uneventful day, with the exception that a group of us went to Gables today to watch 22 Jump Street. Now that we are ten days from the end of what has been an exhilarating class, and about to enter full speed into some of the most chaotic and hectic days yet, I’ve decided to make this a reflexive blog; one that can represent our current state and mood. Naturally, there is no better way for me to express our current state than with one of my favorite things: a running metaphor. Every morning on my run I see a giant hill looming in front of me. Uncertain of what it holds I usually run right past it, but today felt different. The past few weeks could not be better described than with this hill. I do not mean that it has been an uphill struggle, or that it has overwhelmed me with its magnitude. Rather, for the past few weeks we’ve been working away; step by step, lecture by lecture, experience by experience. But every step in itself becomes our entire world. I feel like every lesson we learned along the way consumed us entirely, and shrouded the end goal under a cape of mystery. It’s difficult for me to put it into words, but for example when I look back at Stillpoint manor my world was that place. While we were in Kashoba, my entire focus was there. While we were making a slacklining video or a short film about our soccer prowess, I was not looking ahead, I was simply working frame by frame and scene by scene to complete that task. Like when running up a hill, my gaze was down, my focus was placed upon each step, and I rarely focused on the looming summit represented by the culmination of this class. But now that we’re cresting the hill, now that we’ve learned the film skills we need, and acquired a basic foundation of global health everything has come into focus and I can clearly see the vast process we’ve made. From the top of this hill this morning, I saw the valley far below shrouded by a thin misty fog, I saw the mesmerizing dark green mountains ahead, the cloudless blue sky above, and the steep descent down to the main road. I found a large boulder, climbed up it, laid down and simply soaked in the beauty of the landscape. From far above, I could see how every step upward had allowed me to reach that point far above the ground, and how every lesson we learned and every experience we had allowed us to tackle on an incredibly ambitious TB film project with only a week to go. From this point, I could see the entire landscape of Ezulwini, ranging from its scattered houses and random golf course, to its mountains and valleys.  Similarly, I now see how our time in Swaziland has shaped our learning to the level we’re at today. I should add that although I’ve described reaching the top of a hill, I actually didn’t reach the summit of this mountain today. I still had several miles to go, and a gated complex stood in my way. But even this can describe my feelings right now with ten days to go. While we have climbed an incredible amount, I feel that my run is not over. I still have much to learn, and do in this field.

On a completely unrelated note, we are still without Internet here. Apparently someone stole a copper wire, and because of that the entire region has lost the Internet connection. If any family or friends are wondering why we haven’t been answering emails/messages, this is just a short note from a few of us to let you guys know that we are all alive and happy:   Hello, family! I hope all is well. Swaziland is still fantastic and we are all having a great time. Missing you all. Love, always, Jess.   Cailin, welcome home!! I hope your trip was amazing. I will call you as soon as I get the chance. Love you heaps. Sending all my love to you,