The best thing I have done in Swaziland is take up running.

Yes, in Swaziland I have become a runner. This is a move contrary to my exercise preference back home. After one not so enjoyable season of track towards the end of middle school, I pretty much had decided that pure running for exercise wasn't for me. But running is the only option I have for personal fitness in Swaziland, so begrudgingly I took it up and have learned to love it.

But why would I say it's "the best thing I have done in Swaziland"? Let me explain.

Whenever I run in my community (or walk out my door for that matter), I am clearly visible to everyone. Since the community is situated along one road, I pass the same homesteads and greet the same people each run I take. At first I would find such lack of anonymity a bit unnerving, but after time I have gotten used to it.

As it would have it, my display of running caused others to think and after a few months of thinking and watching me run, Make Mavuso approached me and asked me if I could run with her. Make Mavuso is a teacher at the primary school, but she is also married to a man from my community and lives as a wife on a homestead not far from mine. Because of Swazi cultural norms, a woman, especially a wife, should never be seen doing the "un-traditional". Of course, everyone challenges this in many small ways, but in Make Mavuso's case, the idea of running with me in public, was too far to challenge such a norm.

We devised a plan to run in the school hall. Last October when we started we were four. Now there are eight women, including myself, who come regularly. We meet at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and exercise for about an hour. In the beginning we socialized more than we exercised, but slowly they've become more serious about the actual running.

So again, why is this the best thing I have done in Swaziland?

First off, friendship here is hard to come by from my position as an outsider. These women are all a bit older than me, yet they also really feel I have something to offer them and therefore we are seen as equals. It's a kind of relationship I have very few of here, it's a relationship that is based on a real connection and not just the novelty me being the white girl.

Furthermore, it's has been import to me to realize that girlfriends all over the world laugh about, cry about and share the same things. Whether we are talking about sex, about gender roles, about personal grief or even just making jokes about fishy smells, being with these women and having this group of friends saves me on the hard days and makes the good days that much better.

But beyond me, this is not just a gathering of 8 women. It's a gathering of 8 women in Swaziland and therefore it has a twist. It's a sad twist unfortunately. It involves tales of abuse in many different forms. Husbands who cheat on their wives, husbands who control their wives because they are the only source of income, husbands who drink and drink and don't do much else, husbands who are seemingly "good" yet simply don't do ANYTHING, besides sitting and watching TV.

But it's not just the husbands; it's also just the world around these women. It's the fact that two of them have daughters under the age of 4 that were sexually abused (raped) by the bus driver that is STILL DRIVING THEM TO PRESCHOOL TODAY (??!!). And unfortunately a rape in this country also can easily mean the transmission of HIV. How does one deal with that reality?

And of course, it's also the reality of death and dying. It's the reality that one of my co-runners buried her father, brother and sister because of AIDS related deaths within 6 WEEKS last June-July. It's the reality that these women go to funerals EVERY weekend.

But, just maybe, despite all that adds pain to this reality, having a group to run with, having a reason to take more pride in your body and yourself, having girlfriends; maybe that helps make them laugh a bit more often and smile a bit more often and hopefully it takes away a bit of the pressure and stress of life to know that everyday at 5, for at least an hour, the world won't be more complicated than laps around a hall and laughs with your friends.

So, for these reasons, and for the sheer joy of it, I can say that running is the best AND probably the most important thing I do in Swaziland.

Tegan Callahan was profiled in the September 29, 2004 issue of the Ballard News Tribune on the eve of her departure for the Peace Corps. She graduated from Ballard High School in 2000.