This week I actually attended every single one of my classes for the first time pretty much all semester. Classes went well this week and we picked up pretty much exactly where we had all left off a couple weeks back. The only bad thing is now we have about 9 weeks straight of classes with no break since spring break has been cancelled. Hopefully the same continues next week, although early signs say there may be some disruption. There have been letters and signs calling for another protest/strike to begin Monday morning. We shall see if there is still enough leadership (since most got suspended) to continue striking in the fashion they were. No problems have been resolved yet, so the likelihood is still there.
Besides classes this week, I didn't do too much. It was extremely hot all week with no rain whatsoever, making each day gruesome. Since my class is about a 20-25 minute walk from my dormm down a street in direct sunlight, I typically leave around 730 am and stay at campus area until 5 pm or so and walk back, essentially avoiding my dorms the whole day if I can to stay out of the sun. I read a really good book this week: A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. The book is quite lengthy, but extremely well-written. It provides a great history of not only the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, but the general history of southern Africa throughout the 20th century. It surprised me of how good a writer he really was. The majority of it he wrote while in prison at Robben Island which provides an interesting perspective. Upon finishing that, I bought a new book: Dinner with Mugabe by Helen Holland (I believe?). So far it is pretty good, though not as good as Mandela's book, yet. It is quite itneresting to see the parallel lives Mandela and Mugabe, two "great" leaders of southern African nations, run and then also how much they diverge over time.
Not too much else has gone on this week. Hopefulyl next week is calm again and I can keep this routine I have developed going. But I wouldn't hold my breath for another uninterrupted week of classes.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Journey
After leaving Jo'burg, we sparingly (actually pretty much never) had access to the internet. So, I am going to have to post for pretty much all the days that I missed during our journey. Sorry if it is quite lengthy.
8 February 2009
Today, we took a mini-bus to Maseru, Lesotho from Jo'burg. A mini-bus is truly mini and they run on absolutely no time schedule. The bus will leave by a certain time, say 1 o'clock in the afternoon or later, only if it is not full. If it's full, it will leave earlier. This would be a recurring problem for us throughout the trip. Also, before explaining more, I should describe these "mini-buses" which are called taxis (very confusing term since taxis are small cars in other counties) throughout South Africa and Lesotho and Kombis in Botswana and Swaziland. These taxis are typically 13-17 passngers and are very, very cramped. Most times you sit with your backpack or luggage or whatever on your lap or between your legs. Only sometimes are you lucky enough to have one with a trailor.
Anyways, we arrived at the taxi rank at 630 am in Jo'burg. The taxi rank is located in one of the worst areas of Johannesburg, which is pretty bad. We were instructed towards which taxi was ours and told us to stay put, so we did. The ride to Maseru border crossing cost R150, or 150 rand, which is equivalent to about $10 since 10 ZAR = 1 USD. However, the taxi doesn't actually take you into Lesotho since most drivers do not carry passports. Therefore, you are left at the border and must find a taxi on the other side, which we found to be pretty easy. Back at the taxi rank, we left for Maseru pretty early at 830 am. We stopped after a couple hours to get some food, etc. and finally reached the border around 1230 pm. The ride to Lesotho is surely boring. Outside the cities in SA, there is practically nothing except corn fields and sunflower fields on this drive. Also, the driver drives extremely fast (160+ km/hr) through straight roads.
After reaching the border, we successfully negotiated our way through immigration and began calling the lodges we had picked out that we hoped to stay at. However, non answered the phone, so we grew agitated. Luckily enough for us, a really nice woman and man stayed around to help us find some lodging. The young man (I think about 27) said he knew of a nice place up near the National University of Lesotho in Roma, about 30-45 min drive outside Maseru. Further, he said typical accomodation only costs about R100 per night, which is very reasonable ($10!) so we said, let's go. Originally, I thought he would just tell us how to get there since he had to meet a friend in town, but he told us to wait one hour and he'd come back and take us himself. Sure enough, an hour later he returned and helped us negotiate our way out to Roma. The countryside here was much more interesting with valleys ringed by tall mountains. Lesotho is known as the Kingdom in the Sky for good reason, since it is the only country in the world where the entire country is 1000m or more above sea level. Our newly acquired guide helped us all the way out there on a series of taxis (about R20). In Lesotho, they have their own currency the Maloti (or singular, Loti) but they accept South African Rand (ZAR) as well (the "Z" in ZAR comes from the Afrikaans spelling of the Republic of South Africa). Maloti and Rand are pegged 1-1 as currency, which makes the process very easy.
So we arrived at Roma Guest House and Trading Post. The owners were not around, but a man staying there with his wife told us there were two open rooms in the guest house where we could most likely stay. So we put our bags down, knowing that we could just figure out lodging later in the evening. The spot for the guest house was really magnificent. It was situated in a typical Sotho village. The house had a really nice back deck area in a garden and a pool adjacent. The only thing was the place was self-catered, which meant we needed to buy food and buy food soon since it was nearly 3 pm on a Sunday in rural Africa, which means everything would be closed soon. So, we gave some money to our truly awesome guide to get back to Maseru, and the guy staying at the guest house (a native of Vancouver, Canada, there to about a Basotho boy) drove us to the local supermarket to buy some food. After returning, we met the owners daughter, who also helps run the place, and she told us we could stay at leats 2 nights at R100 per night. She also said she could arrange for horses to pick us up at 9 the next morning to go riding through the nearby mountains and villages. After cooking dinner (noodles with butter and some chopped up tomatoes thrown in, quite delicious really) I was exhausted and headed to bed.
9 February
A little after 8 this morning I heard some horses out towards the entrance to our compound area and figured the horses must have arrived early. So, the four of us, Kelly, two girls from Finland, and myself set out on 5 horses (one for one of the guides) and a second guide. We rode up and down mountains and through valleys, all very picturesque. I am hoping later today I can post some pictures since I really can't explain what we saw. We got the chance to ride through some very rural villages, with no electricity or running water and no cars to be seen. People all lived in traditional huts and we actually got to see some people in the process of making the bricks for their huts. It was a truly awesome experience, especially comparing the hustle, bustle, and moderness of Jo'burg against the background of these rural villages in Lesotho, a mere 5 hours drive away! We rode until 130 pm, which was quite enough for me. The horses are amazingly adept at making their way up and down seemingly impassable and steep inclines littered with loose rocks. I was very nervous at times that the horse may not be able to find a path up, but everytime he did. Also, I had to be careful with mine because he did not like some of the other horses, so we had to keep our distance. After riding and eating leftovers from the previous day for lunch, we headed back into Roma to get some food and beer this time. Beer in Lesotho cost only R5 per can, which is truly remarkable. It is also the reason that alcoholism is so high in South Africa and Swaziland especially.
10 February
Today we decided we wanted to head to Swaziland, which on a map does not look too far from Lesotho. However, we couldn't be more wrong. It may only be an 8-10 hour drive from Maseru to Swaziland, but we found out using public transportation is much harder. Anyways, here is the story.
We reached the Lesotho/SA border around 7 am and began talking with the taxi drivers on the best route to get to Swaziland without having to traceback through Jo'burg or go to Durban, South Africa which is on the southeastern coast. The taxi drivers told us to take a taxi from the border to Ficksburg, SA and then take one to Secunda, SA where we could find a taxi to take us to Swaziland. Luckily enough, they negotiated with a man nearby to drive us in a taxi to Ficksburg right away for R25 each. After a little more than an hour, we reached the depressing little town of Ficksburg. I think it was more depressing this morning than most since it was raining and muddy. Also, as we came to find out, the taxi rank is usually located in the worst parts of cities, so we ddin't get the best views of many cities.
At Ficksburg, we talked to some more taxi drivers about getting to Secunda. They told us the bus wasn't leaving until 8pm unless it was full. Being it was 830 am, waiting until 8 pm was not an option. We asked if there was another way via Ladysmith, and they said there was if we first travelled to Qwaqwa (sp?) for R80. It was also leaving within a half hour, so we said okay let's go. After a lengthy drive, maybe a little over 2 hours, we arrived in Qwaqwa. The one good thing sbout the drive was the scenery we saw as we travelled through Golden Gate Highlands National Park. It was really beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I was in a bus. We did get to see some babboons here as they were just sitting out in the road. In Qwaqwa, hey told us a bus was leaving in 5 minutes for Ladysmith, so we immediately crammed in (another recurring theme) and we were off to Ladysmith. In Ladysmith, they said we needed to get to Piet Retief in order to get to Swaziland. However, no taxis from Ladysmith go there, but some do from Newcastle, which was about an hour's drive away. So, for another R40, we crammed, this time really crammed, on a bus bound for Newcastle. This was a quite interesting experience as there was actually a box of chickens on this tiny little mini-bus, neither of which were very quiet. Nonetheless, we arrived in Newcastle (a quite large city I came to find out with a population about 300 thousand) about 430 pm. Once here, they said all taxis going to Piet Retief had left for the day, but we could come back at 7 am for the one on the next day, unless we hired a private taxi for R600. The problem with this was we would still most likely get stuck in Piet Retief by doing so. So we decided we should just stay the night. We grabbed some dinner and one of the girls phoned home to have here dad look at places online that we could stay at around there. Crazy how the world is now that she phoned home to Finland to find a place to stay in the city we were in! Anyways, we found a B&B that would accomodate us for the night and we went to bed not looking forward to another early wakeup.
11 February
At 630 am, we showed up at the taxi rank to wait for our bus to take us to Piet Retief at 7 am, or so we thought. Once the bus did show up, they told us it would not leave until 1 pm, unless it was full. So, after telling us the day before it left around 7, now it wasn't until possibly 1. Very frustrating! So we decided to wait it out some, to see if it began filling up. 9 am came around, still no one. Then 10 am and still not a single person. I began talking to the driver and other people running the place to see if there was a way we could get it to leave now. He flatly refused, unless we paid for every seat in the bus.Finally, I think they got sick of us enough complaining and negotiating they arranged for someone to take us to Piet Retief for R600 for all 4 of us via private taxi. t felt good to finally just get out of there. After about 2 and a half hours of driving, we reached Piet Retief and bordered another taxi to the Swaziland border. We finally made it! Crossing through the border was slow but not difficult and we picked up a kombi on the other side to take us to the first smaller city where we caught another kombi to Manzini, which was near Matsapha, where we planned to stay. After reaching Manzini, we took yet another kombi to Matsapha to Swaziland Backpackers where we had arranged to stay for 3 nights. Swaziland also had its own curreny, emalangeni (singular lilangeni) which similar to Lesotho, is pegged 1 to 1 with the rand, making things very easy. We finally got to the backpackers lodge and headed to a local bar/restaurant for dinner and then went to bed after planning a trip for the next day.
12 February
Today we took a "Swazi Highlights" tour with the owner of our lodge. He was a remarkably knowledgeable British guy who also spoke siSwati, the language of Swaziland. We first went to the locak market, which lucky for us is biggest on Thursdays. On Thursdays, all the borders soften a bit and allow people to travel from all over, especially Mozambique, with their stuff to sell here. At the market you could buy anything from wooden bowls, pots and pans, cloth (and they made clothes there too), fruits and vegetables, trinkets, even stuff to burn in a fire to talk with your dead ancestors (local tradition). There was even a place at the market where medicine men could buy roots and bones and anything else they'd use in their concoctions. It was a really cool place to walk around and see, and of course I bought a few things including a loin-cloth made from rabbit skin for Nick. It's good to buy here because you are helping support the local people, and not some business exporting stuff.
Manzini, which is where we went to market, was originally the capital of Swaziland before it became a British protectorate. However, when the British came, they thought it was too hot in the valley where it was located (which all locals will attest to it being VERY hot) and they moved it just north to the top of the hill where it is currently located in Mbabane. Manzini is where the King lives in residence and we actually saw the King's Mother drive by in her all black Mercedes escorted by police in Kia Sportages. In this culture, the King's Mother is the Queen and is the most important woman in the country as a sign of strength. Currently, the King also has 13 wives (completely normal in swazi culture), so picking a wife to be queen would be quite difficult. Also, it must always be a king and must always come from a wife with only 1 son. The reason the King must have no brothers comes from a past virulent ruler of the Zulus in South Africa, whose territory abuted Swaziland. At one point, a brother ascended the throne to only be killed 5 days later out of jealousy by his older brother to become king of the Zulus (whose history if you read about is quite vicious). Therefore, the King of Swaziland mus have no brothers, to avoid any temptation. Also, the new King is never chosen until the death or departure of the previous king, allowing the line of succession to be shrowded in mystery. Current rumors feel it is a son that spends quite a bit of time out of the country and is being educated entirely in England.
After that length historical side note, we left the market in Manzini and headed for Mantenga Nature Reserve and Cultural Village. Here, we hiked a short way to Mantenga Waterfalls and took some pictures before we headed back to the village to see some traditional dancing. The dancing was really good and cool. After that we went on a tour of the village. All the huts were the traditional "beehive" hut. Hard to explain, but they are made entirely out of woven grasses women pick along the sides of the mountains and valleys. There are so many, many things in this culture made from these grasses. We had a quick picnic in the village which was quite difficult not because of the usually bees or ants, but because of monkeys! We had to eat under a thatched roof, or else they will just drop from the trees and steal whatever food they can. Pretty funny to see them surround you and just stare at your food. From there, we went to a company called Gone Rural (if you want to look at some of their products, or even order some, their web address is http://www.goneruralswazi.com/). It's a completely women run company started when a woman noticed the potential of all these women that weave these native grasses. The process is quite interesting.
It all starts on Tuesdays when woman lineup to bring in their bundles of grass they have collected throughout the week. They are paid a set amount per kg, which is all profit since the grass is free. Then, they can either stay and help dye the grass into different colors, or they can say thank you very much for the money and be on their way. If they stay, they get a set rate per hour to stay and help dye the grass or do other work around the company. Then, if they want they can take home wire frames to weave around to produce different products and weave certain patterns using the dyed grass during the next week. Since each clan or tribe has different patterns they are used too, each woman can produce something completely different. The next week, she brings back what she has woven and it is inspected. If accepted, she is paid for her work. However, during the inspection process, there is a whole line of ladies waiting for the same thing, and if hers doesn't pass, then all the rest will know and gossip about her. Pretty good quality assurance huh? Being rejected in thsi culture would be a huge taboo against the woman, so they make sure it's of top quality. This company makes all sorts of things using this process from table mats, rugs, and wine holders all the way to pins and tiling for walls. It's really cool. Our guide knows the owners of all the places we went, so we could go through the whole process and see how everything worked. It was quite cool.
From Gone Rural, we headed to Swazi Candles. Many men carve different animals like Hippos and Elephants traditionally from wood. However, it takes a very long time to make just one. Someone noticed this and try convincing the men to do it out of wax and make candles, which is a much, much faster process. After some convincing, strange they needed this, they accepted and so was born Swazi Candles. The candles are really cool and come in all different shapes and sizes. It's also a company that gives all of its profit back to the local economy and community and the workers that make the candles. We also stopped by a pineapple field en route back to the backpackers where we ended our day of sightseeing around Swaziland.
13 February
Today we took it easy and relaxed some. We were invited for a traditional Swazi lunch with the owner and a guy who works at the backpackers, where they go every Friday afternoon. Basically, it's a bottle store next to a Butchery with a huge fire pit and grilles out back and picnic tables. At the butchery, you can buy potato salad, pap (local food - maize meal...really good!), salad, tomato and onions, and of course chicken, steak, and sausage, and grill it all out back and it's served family style in a big wooden bowl. And then you eat the food using only your hand (only polite to use your right hand when eating) just as they traditional do. Don't worry though, they provide a wash basin and soap to wash your hands before eating. This was by far one of the best meals of the trip. The food was so good, and we stayed there talking to the owner until about 5 o'clock which is when we headed back to the lodge. It was a really nice and relaxing day.
14 February
On a nice clear, sunny Valentine's Day, we had to unfortunately sit on a bus pretty much the whole day. We took a bus (the Baz Bus - really cool if you want to check it out online) directly from our lodge to Jo'burg via Nelspruit, SA, which is really close to Kruger National Park (and oh so tempting). After arriving in Jo'burg around 530 pm (after travelling since 730 am), we went again to Die Kneipe, the German Pub, because the food was just so good the first time. This time, we also had local entertainment has some rugby matches were being played, and people support them very strongly...
15 February
Yesterday, we headed back to Gaborone from Jo'burg via Intercape Bus lines. The ride was long, boring, and I was carsick since we ran out of Draminine from all of our busing, but it felt really good to be back in Gaborone. It was a strange feeling. Almost felt like being at home again, but not quite. It's good to be back in a routine and know regularly where I will be spending the night! It's also nice to not have to change or buy sim cards for my cell phone every other day. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to call internationally, I do have a cell phone here in Botswana they can call me on. Typically on weeknights I am free anytime after 6 pm my time (or 11 am on the east coast. My number is +267 71781309, where the +267 is the country code for Botswana, and the rest is my cellphone number. I know it doesn't always work the best, but it works fairly well. Hope you all have a great week, and I will try and post some pictures later tonight after classes.
8 February 2009
Today, we took a mini-bus to Maseru, Lesotho from Jo'burg. A mini-bus is truly mini and they run on absolutely no time schedule. The bus will leave by a certain time, say 1 o'clock in the afternoon or later, only if it is not full. If it's full, it will leave earlier. This would be a recurring problem for us throughout the trip. Also, before explaining more, I should describe these "mini-buses" which are called taxis (very confusing term since taxis are small cars in other counties) throughout South Africa and Lesotho and Kombis in Botswana and Swaziland. These taxis are typically 13-17 passngers and are very, very cramped. Most times you sit with your backpack or luggage or whatever on your lap or between your legs. Only sometimes are you lucky enough to have one with a trailor.
Anyways, we arrived at the taxi rank at 630 am in Jo'burg. The taxi rank is located in one of the worst areas of Johannesburg, which is pretty bad. We were instructed towards which taxi was ours and told us to stay put, so we did. The ride to Maseru border crossing cost R150, or 150 rand, which is equivalent to about $10 since 10 ZAR = 1 USD. However, the taxi doesn't actually take you into Lesotho since most drivers do not carry passports. Therefore, you are left at the border and must find a taxi on the other side, which we found to be pretty easy. Back at the taxi rank, we left for Maseru pretty early at 830 am. We stopped after a couple hours to get some food, etc. and finally reached the border around 1230 pm. The ride to Lesotho is surely boring. Outside the cities in SA, there is practically nothing except corn fields and sunflower fields on this drive. Also, the driver drives extremely fast (160+ km/hr) through straight roads.
After reaching the border, we successfully negotiated our way through immigration and began calling the lodges we had picked out that we hoped to stay at. However, non answered the phone, so we grew agitated. Luckily enough for us, a really nice woman and man stayed around to help us find some lodging. The young man (I think about 27) said he knew of a nice place up near the National University of Lesotho in Roma, about 30-45 min drive outside Maseru. Further, he said typical accomodation only costs about R100 per night, which is very reasonable ($10!) so we said, let's go. Originally, I thought he would just tell us how to get there since he had to meet a friend in town, but he told us to wait one hour and he'd come back and take us himself. Sure enough, an hour later he returned and helped us negotiate our way out to Roma. The countryside here was much more interesting with valleys ringed by tall mountains. Lesotho is known as the Kingdom in the Sky for good reason, since it is the only country in the world where the entire country is 1000m or more above sea level. Our newly acquired guide helped us all the way out there on a series of taxis (about R20). In Lesotho, they have their own currency the Maloti (or singular, Loti) but they accept South African Rand (ZAR) as well (the "Z" in ZAR comes from the Afrikaans spelling of the Republic of South Africa). Maloti and Rand are pegged 1-1 as currency, which makes the process very easy.
So we arrived at Roma Guest House and Trading Post. The owners were not around, but a man staying there with his wife told us there were two open rooms in the guest house where we could most likely stay. So we put our bags down, knowing that we could just figure out lodging later in the evening. The spot for the guest house was really magnificent. It was situated in a typical Sotho village. The house had a really nice back deck area in a garden and a pool adjacent. The only thing was the place was self-catered, which meant we needed to buy food and buy food soon since it was nearly 3 pm on a Sunday in rural Africa, which means everything would be closed soon. So, we gave some money to our truly awesome guide to get back to Maseru, and the guy staying at the guest house (a native of Vancouver, Canada, there to about a Basotho boy) drove us to the local supermarket to buy some food. After returning, we met the owners daughter, who also helps run the place, and she told us we could stay at leats 2 nights at R100 per night. She also said she could arrange for horses to pick us up at 9 the next morning to go riding through the nearby mountains and villages. After cooking dinner (noodles with butter and some chopped up tomatoes thrown in, quite delicious really) I was exhausted and headed to bed.
9 February
A little after 8 this morning I heard some horses out towards the entrance to our compound area and figured the horses must have arrived early. So, the four of us, Kelly, two girls from Finland, and myself set out on 5 horses (one for one of the guides) and a second guide. We rode up and down mountains and through valleys, all very picturesque. I am hoping later today I can post some pictures since I really can't explain what we saw. We got the chance to ride through some very rural villages, with no electricity or running water and no cars to be seen. People all lived in traditional huts and we actually got to see some people in the process of making the bricks for their huts. It was a truly awesome experience, especially comparing the hustle, bustle, and moderness of Jo'burg against the background of these rural villages in Lesotho, a mere 5 hours drive away! We rode until 130 pm, which was quite enough for me. The horses are amazingly adept at making their way up and down seemingly impassable and steep inclines littered with loose rocks. I was very nervous at times that the horse may not be able to find a path up, but everytime he did. Also, I had to be careful with mine because he did not like some of the other horses, so we had to keep our distance. After riding and eating leftovers from the previous day for lunch, we headed back into Roma to get some food and beer this time. Beer in Lesotho cost only R5 per can, which is truly remarkable. It is also the reason that alcoholism is so high in South Africa and Swaziland especially.
10 February
Today we decided we wanted to head to Swaziland, which on a map does not look too far from Lesotho. However, we couldn't be more wrong. It may only be an 8-10 hour drive from Maseru to Swaziland, but we found out using public transportation is much harder. Anyways, here is the story.
We reached the Lesotho/SA border around 7 am and began talking with the taxi drivers on the best route to get to Swaziland without having to traceback through Jo'burg or go to Durban, South Africa which is on the southeastern coast. The taxi drivers told us to take a taxi from the border to Ficksburg, SA and then take one to Secunda, SA where we could find a taxi to take us to Swaziland. Luckily enough, they negotiated with a man nearby to drive us in a taxi to Ficksburg right away for R25 each. After a little more than an hour, we reached the depressing little town of Ficksburg. I think it was more depressing this morning than most since it was raining and muddy. Also, as we came to find out, the taxi rank is usually located in the worst parts of cities, so we ddin't get the best views of many cities.
At Ficksburg, we talked to some more taxi drivers about getting to Secunda. They told us the bus wasn't leaving until 8pm unless it was full. Being it was 830 am, waiting until 8 pm was not an option. We asked if there was another way via Ladysmith, and they said there was if we first travelled to Qwaqwa (sp?) for R80. It was also leaving within a half hour, so we said okay let's go. After a lengthy drive, maybe a little over 2 hours, we arrived in Qwaqwa. The one good thing sbout the drive was the scenery we saw as we travelled through Golden Gate Highlands National Park. It was really beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I was in a bus. We did get to see some babboons here as they were just sitting out in the road. In Qwaqwa, hey told us a bus was leaving in 5 minutes for Ladysmith, so we immediately crammed in (another recurring theme) and we were off to Ladysmith. In Ladysmith, they said we needed to get to Piet Retief in order to get to Swaziland. However, no taxis from Ladysmith go there, but some do from Newcastle, which was about an hour's drive away. So, for another R40, we crammed, this time really crammed, on a bus bound for Newcastle. This was a quite interesting experience as there was actually a box of chickens on this tiny little mini-bus, neither of which were very quiet. Nonetheless, we arrived in Newcastle (a quite large city I came to find out with a population about 300 thousand) about 430 pm. Once here, they said all taxis going to Piet Retief had left for the day, but we could come back at 7 am for the one on the next day, unless we hired a private taxi for R600. The problem with this was we would still most likely get stuck in Piet Retief by doing so. So we decided we should just stay the night. We grabbed some dinner and one of the girls phoned home to have here dad look at places online that we could stay at around there. Crazy how the world is now that she phoned home to Finland to find a place to stay in the city we were in! Anyways, we found a B&B that would accomodate us for the night and we went to bed not looking forward to another early wakeup.
11 February
At 630 am, we showed up at the taxi rank to wait for our bus to take us to Piet Retief at 7 am, or so we thought. Once the bus did show up, they told us it would not leave until 1 pm, unless it was full. So, after telling us the day before it left around 7, now it wasn't until possibly 1. Very frustrating! So we decided to wait it out some, to see if it began filling up. 9 am came around, still no one. Then 10 am and still not a single person. I began talking to the driver and other people running the place to see if there was a way we could get it to leave now. He flatly refused, unless we paid for every seat in the bus.Finally, I think they got sick of us enough complaining and negotiating they arranged for someone to take us to Piet Retief for R600 for all 4 of us via private taxi. t felt good to finally just get out of there. After about 2 and a half hours of driving, we reached Piet Retief and bordered another taxi to the Swaziland border. We finally made it! Crossing through the border was slow but not difficult and we picked up a kombi on the other side to take us to the first smaller city where we caught another kombi to Manzini, which was near Matsapha, where we planned to stay. After reaching Manzini, we took yet another kombi to Matsapha to Swaziland Backpackers where we had arranged to stay for 3 nights. Swaziland also had its own curreny, emalangeni (singular lilangeni) which similar to Lesotho, is pegged 1 to 1 with the rand, making things very easy. We finally got to the backpackers lodge and headed to a local bar/restaurant for dinner and then went to bed after planning a trip for the next day.
12 February
Today we took a "Swazi Highlights" tour with the owner of our lodge. He was a remarkably knowledgeable British guy who also spoke siSwati, the language of Swaziland. We first went to the locak market, which lucky for us is biggest on Thursdays. On Thursdays, all the borders soften a bit and allow people to travel from all over, especially Mozambique, with their stuff to sell here. At the market you could buy anything from wooden bowls, pots and pans, cloth (and they made clothes there too), fruits and vegetables, trinkets, even stuff to burn in a fire to talk with your dead ancestors (local tradition). There was even a place at the market where medicine men could buy roots and bones and anything else they'd use in their concoctions. It was a really cool place to walk around and see, and of course I bought a few things including a loin-cloth made from rabbit skin for Nick. It's good to buy here because you are helping support the local people, and not some business exporting stuff.
Manzini, which is where we went to market, was originally the capital of Swaziland before it became a British protectorate. However, when the British came, they thought it was too hot in the valley where it was located (which all locals will attest to it being VERY hot) and they moved it just north to the top of the hill where it is currently located in Mbabane. Manzini is where the King lives in residence and we actually saw the King's Mother drive by in her all black Mercedes escorted by police in Kia Sportages. In this culture, the King's Mother is the Queen and is the most important woman in the country as a sign of strength. Currently, the King also has 13 wives (completely normal in swazi culture), so picking a wife to be queen would be quite difficult. Also, it must always be a king and must always come from a wife with only 1 son. The reason the King must have no brothers comes from a past virulent ruler of the Zulus in South Africa, whose territory abuted Swaziland. At one point, a brother ascended the throne to only be killed 5 days later out of jealousy by his older brother to become king of the Zulus (whose history if you read about is quite vicious). Therefore, the King of Swaziland mus have no brothers, to avoid any temptation. Also, the new King is never chosen until the death or departure of the previous king, allowing the line of succession to be shrowded in mystery. Current rumors feel it is a son that spends quite a bit of time out of the country and is being educated entirely in England.
After that length historical side note, we left the market in Manzini and headed for Mantenga Nature Reserve and Cultural Village. Here, we hiked a short way to Mantenga Waterfalls and took some pictures before we headed back to the village to see some traditional dancing. The dancing was really good and cool. After that we went on a tour of the village. All the huts were the traditional "beehive" hut. Hard to explain, but they are made entirely out of woven grasses women pick along the sides of the mountains and valleys. There are so many, many things in this culture made from these grasses. We had a quick picnic in the village which was quite difficult not because of the usually bees or ants, but because of monkeys! We had to eat under a thatched roof, or else they will just drop from the trees and steal whatever food they can. Pretty funny to see them surround you and just stare at your food. From there, we went to a company called Gone Rural (if you want to look at some of their products, or even order some, their web address is http://www.goneruralswazi.com/). It's a completely women run company started when a woman noticed the potential of all these women that weave these native grasses. The process is quite interesting.
It all starts on Tuesdays when woman lineup to bring in their bundles of grass they have collected throughout the week. They are paid a set amount per kg, which is all profit since the grass is free. Then, they can either stay and help dye the grass into different colors, or they can say thank you very much for the money and be on their way. If they stay, they get a set rate per hour to stay and help dye the grass or do other work around the company. Then, if they want they can take home wire frames to weave around to produce different products and weave certain patterns using the dyed grass during the next week. Since each clan or tribe has different patterns they are used too, each woman can produce something completely different. The next week, she brings back what she has woven and it is inspected. If accepted, she is paid for her work. However, during the inspection process, there is a whole line of ladies waiting for the same thing, and if hers doesn't pass, then all the rest will know and gossip about her. Pretty good quality assurance huh? Being rejected in thsi culture would be a huge taboo against the woman, so they make sure it's of top quality. This company makes all sorts of things using this process from table mats, rugs, and wine holders all the way to pins and tiling for walls. It's really cool. Our guide knows the owners of all the places we went, so we could go through the whole process and see how everything worked. It was quite cool.
From Gone Rural, we headed to Swazi Candles. Many men carve different animals like Hippos and Elephants traditionally from wood. However, it takes a very long time to make just one. Someone noticed this and try convincing the men to do it out of wax and make candles, which is a much, much faster process. After some convincing, strange they needed this, they accepted and so was born Swazi Candles. The candles are really cool and come in all different shapes and sizes. It's also a company that gives all of its profit back to the local economy and community and the workers that make the candles. We also stopped by a pineapple field en route back to the backpackers where we ended our day of sightseeing around Swaziland.
13 February
Today we took it easy and relaxed some. We were invited for a traditional Swazi lunch with the owner and a guy who works at the backpackers, where they go every Friday afternoon. Basically, it's a bottle store next to a Butchery with a huge fire pit and grilles out back and picnic tables. At the butchery, you can buy potato salad, pap (local food - maize meal...really good!), salad, tomato and onions, and of course chicken, steak, and sausage, and grill it all out back and it's served family style in a big wooden bowl. And then you eat the food using only your hand (only polite to use your right hand when eating) just as they traditional do. Don't worry though, they provide a wash basin and soap to wash your hands before eating. This was by far one of the best meals of the trip. The food was so good, and we stayed there talking to the owner until about 5 o'clock which is when we headed back to the lodge. It was a really nice and relaxing day.
14 February
On a nice clear, sunny Valentine's Day, we had to unfortunately sit on a bus pretty much the whole day. We took a bus (the Baz Bus - really cool if you want to check it out online) directly from our lodge to Jo'burg via Nelspruit, SA, which is really close to Kruger National Park (and oh so tempting). After arriving in Jo'burg around 530 pm (after travelling since 730 am), we went again to Die Kneipe, the German Pub, because the food was just so good the first time. This time, we also had local entertainment has some rugby matches were being played, and people support them very strongly...
15 February
Yesterday, we headed back to Gaborone from Jo'burg via Intercape Bus lines. The ride was long, boring, and I was carsick since we ran out of Draminine from all of our busing, but it felt really good to be back in Gaborone. It was a strange feeling. Almost felt like being at home again, but not quite. It's good to be back in a routine and know regularly where I will be spending the night! It's also nice to not have to change or buy sim cards for my cell phone every other day. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to call internationally, I do have a cell phone here in Botswana they can call me on. Typically on weeknights I am free anytime after 6 pm my time (or 11 am on the east coast. My number is +267 71781309, where the +267 is the country code for Botswana, and the rest is my cellphone number. I know it doesn't always work the best, but it works fairly well. Hope you all have a great week, and I will try and post some pictures later tonight after classes.
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