On The Sani Pass!

April 8-11th^th, 2013

To try and use up some of my well-earned vacation days (seriously I have enough to take vacation for month), I planned a trip into South Africa with a few of my PCV friends.

It was so Amazing!!  I spent the first 3.5 days on the Sani Pass, in the Drakensburg area of the Kwazulu-Natal region, which is the southeastern part of South Africa; from the bottom of Swaziland to the bottom of Lesotho.

At this point there were three of us and like the public transportation rock stars that we are, we made it from the center of Swaziland to the Sani Pass in one day.  It took a total of 5 different transportation changeovers, and we were in transit from 6am to 7:30pm, but we made it, cutting our costs by several hundred rand because we took public rather then a backpacker’s bus.

We stayed at the Sani Pass Backpacker’s Lodge, which I give a 5 star rating, because it is the best backpackers I have ever stayed at!  Best staff, best view, and best shower and all for the same price as most of the questionable backpackers out there.  They have free milk from the diary cow that is milked daily, guided tours into Lesotho, unguided day hikes, a warm fireplace, 2 fully stocked kitchens, drinkable tap water that is the freshest I’ve ever tasted, and they make your bed everyday, adding extra blankets when the nights get colder.  It doesn’t sound like much, but when I am used to paying the same price at most backpackers and getting very basic accomadations, musty bedding, a cold shower, and a kitchen you’d rather not cook in, it felt like the Sani Pass Lodge was a high class hotel.

Day one on the Pass, we took ourselves on a 4-5 hour day hike, which took us 8 hours.  We weren’t slow, we just got caught up in the views, and a very fun cave we had to walk through.  It is so beautiful in this region.  Mountains in every direction you look.  On our hike they just engulfed us from all sides.  We ate lunch by a blue lagoon, but I didn’t swim as it was very cold water.  Then we found the waterfall, which required us to stand on the very edge of a cliff to look down on it.  Very scary, very awesome!  The hike became more adventurous and less fun after the waterfall.  Two wrong trail turns (let led us on some very narrow paths along a steep mountain before we realized we needed to turn back to get to the real trail) and three awful walks through the cold river later we finished the hike.

Pool along the hike

The very clear spring water

Day Two we took a guided day trip into Lesotho.  The Sani Pass into Lesotho is crazy scary and can only be done by a 4x4 vehicle.  A heavy fog descended on the Pass during the night so I couldn’t really get the whole effect of the dirt roat, but it included 14 switchbacks to get up into Lesotho.  Some requiring a three-point turn they are so narrow.  Once up, we decided that it was too foggy and cold to do the scheduled hike up the Hodgeson’s peak (the highest point in SA), so we went further into Lesotho and did a hike just up one of the mountains.  It was so cool, but so cold.  I was unprepared for winter like temperatures and was freezing.  We were hiking over 3,000 meters so altitude made it hard to function, but we finally made it to the top just as it started to snow.  Well it wasn’t really snow yet, more like ice chunks and it was super windy so were actually just getting pelted in the face with pea size hail (not fun).  But the view was great.  We could see the tallest point in Lesotho, and the mountains that stretch forever with the sun peaking through and highlighting further away ridges.  We had lunch briefly as to not let our body temps drop and then headed back down.  We met some shepherds along the way.  This area of Lesotho is very unpopulated; only the Shepherds that bring their flocks of sheep and goats up during the summer to graze.  They build little stone huts and carry everything on horseback.  Aside from them there is a tiny village of a few women we brew beer and make bread to sell to the shepherds.  There are no schools, no stores, no clinics, nothing but views and a sheep-shearing shack. 

up in the mountains

A shepherd

 We headed to the village after the hike and watched them sheer the angora goats.  This wool gets exported out everywhere and ironically gets sold back to the shepherds in the form of blankets.  Then we visited with one of the women in the village and she made us some bread.  They use cow dung as a fire source and cook inside their stone and cow dung huts.  The huts have no windows to try and preserve the heat during the winter.  The lady we visited runs the village pub.  She sells homebrewed maize/sorghum beer and bread and plays a radio that is powered by a solar panel. 

We soon left her because it started to actually snow and we needed to make time for one last stop before heading down.  The last stop being the one and only real pub up here.  In fact it is the highest pub in Africa, and they make a deliciously warm mulled wine that was wonderful to drink after a day in the snow.  The ground was completely white now and I was so happy.  It felt like home, breathing in the cold air.  We descended the pass back into South Africa slowly, now we had the extra challenge of doing the pass in winter conditions, but we made it no problems.  We spent the evening eating our poor PCV meal of beans and rice by the fire, defrosting before heating up hot water bottles to snuggle with in bed.

We slept-in our last morning there, it was too cold to leave the comforts of our warm beds.  The fog had lifted and the sun was out again, but it was still frosty out.  We had the lodge to ourselves, which was nice compared to the night before.  The lodge was packed when we got back from our trip into Lesotho with a new wave of backpackers.  It was overwhelming, so many people wanting to chat, I’m no longer used to that.  We enjoyed a makeshift rice porridge breakfast by the fire and then set out for transport back to Durban.  Despite the 2 hours we had to wait in a khumbi for it to fill up, we made it to Durban by dusk.  

Durban!

April 11-13^th, 2013

Our last two night of vacation were spent in Durban.  An actual city!!!  It was a short two days, but the best two days!  Here in Durban we met up with 4 more PCVs from Swaziland.  It was great to expand our group a bit, and even though there were only 7 of us, this is now 1/3 of our group that’s left in country.  It was fun to be on a Group 9 only vacation.

Night one, after reuniting, we all went out for a nice meal.  A real meal, it was amazing.  We went to an Italian restaurant in walking distance of our backpackers.  It had gluten free options so I had real pizza for the first time in 22 months.  Thankfully g-free pizza only came in one size – large, and I ate the whole thing not feeing one bit of guilt.  It was great being with my Peace Crops friends in a modern environment.  We had so much fun at dinner!  I felt we were that table that people wanted to be with, our happiness for being surrounded by good friends, food, wine, and having gotten a shower that day was radiating.  We felt alive!

For our only full day in Durban we spent the whole day at the waterfront.  We leisurely walked along the entire beachfront, toes in the sand, sun on my back, and the smell of water in the air.  It was so relaxing.  The afternoon we spent eating of course (my one an only plan for Durban…eat, eat, and eat some more) looking over the water, and shopping!  We headed back to the backpackers and got all glam-ed up for a Friday night out on the town.  We started with a sushi dinner, which spanned 3 hours and several bottles of wine, simply perfect.  Then we hit a rough spot trying to find a place to go dancing, but after walking off the sushi for a while we found a place called Tiger Tiger.  Best night out of my Peace Corps Service.  We spent the entire night dancing and singing our hearts out to the best music.  We closed down the dance floor around 4am, and then in pure American style had our cab drive-through McDonalds (we don’t have them in Swaziland).

After one hour of sleep, I roused everyone and we packed up the best we could and half functioning got ourselves to the bus rank.  Seven uncomfortable hours later we were back in Swaziland.  We all grudgingly crossed the border with the fuzzy memories and the faded entry stamp from the night before to remind us of our fabulous weekend in Durban!  

PCV girls:  Emma, Me, Mia, Kelly

Library Complete!

April 5^th, 2013

The Malindza High School Library is officially complete…well as complete as far as my participation goes.  All 1000 donated books are out of their boxes and labeled and shelved with the existing books.  If I had to guess I would say we labeled around 5000 books total.  Each book got categorized with a color by topic and have been placed in numerical order according to their subject number.  The library looks so beautiful now and useable!

The system isn’t quite sticking with the students yet, I find pinks in the blues, and greens in the reds, but the point is there is a system.  The students are already really enjoying the new selection of fiction books that came in the donation boxes, and there are desks now for the students to work on.  Its just amazing to look back at what it was before, a disorganized mess.  Granted there are still about 2000 books that need to be labeled, and some shelves still need fixing, and the teachers resource room needs to be finished, but there are plans for these and that’s all I can ask for.  The technology and design class is helping every Friday to fix up the teachers resource room, which will also serve as the check-in/out desk.  It’s a slow process, and for a while I wasn’t sure we would see the end, but I am glad I was able to witness the progress to the point we are at.  I look forward to the day when I can return and see the library even more functional!

The Library Before

Library After

With the Librarian David

Easter Sunday

March 31^st, 2013

I learned about and attended an interesting Swazi event today.  I can’t remember the name of the event, but it is a celebration that a family has when the price of 5 cows has been paid in order to acknowledge a pregnancy out of wedlock.  Someone in the Dube Family was in this situation and her boyfriend’s family paid the 5 cows to honor her.  Eventually those cows will be included in the Lobola price if she gets teka (traditional engagement) in the future.

Traditionally only married women and women with children are suppose to attend, but I was invited along as a guest.  Only these women attend because one of the cows is slaughtered and eaten to celebrate.  It is thought that by eating this cow you are welcoming children into your life there fore only married women or women already with children should eat it.  They let me eat the cow anyways and take annoying photos of the men eating the cow’s head.  The cow’s head is always reserved for the men only.  I did get offered some intestines however, which I gracefully declined.

It’s amazing that 21 months here and I am still learning the intricate workings of this culture.  I was happy to be invited along to participate in this event.  It took place on Easter Sunday, so in a way it just felt like a nice family get-together for brunch.  We ate not just the cow, but chicken, and salads, and of course pap (maize meal porridge), and drank Coke-a-Cola.  One of my older host sisters and her two sons came over for the event so it was really nice to see her.

If Books Could Talk

March 15^th, 2013

I am currently opening and shelving 16 boxes of donated books to the High School library from the Books for Africa project.  As I examine each book for cataloguing I am having a great time discovering the remains of many book exchanges.  Its just amazing how much information a book can leave behind from its onetime owners.  I have found so many things within the pages of these books, its like buried treasure: receipts, greeting cards, scratch paper with scribbled notes, and even a dollar bill (I pocketed that one).  And of course there are all the messages scrolled on the first pages that caption a moment in a person’s life; birthdays, Christmases, graduations, deaths, its seems anything can be said with a book.  It’s sad, in a way to think, about these one-time gifts no longer holding meaning to the receiver.

Today I was reading a message from Jon to Karen in a book that was given by Jon to Karen for her birthday with many XOs after his signature.  I read the message out loud to Addy and we quickly developed an entire plot line of Karen and Jon’s life; what significance the book meant and why it ended up in a donation box in Southern Africa.  Basically Jon did Karen wrong and the book was too painful for her to keep, all those XOs were just too powerful. 

It really makes you think twice before writing that nice, private, message in a gifted book.  Someday, somewhere, someone else is going to read it.  Probably a Peace Corps Volunteer, so feel free to keep forgetting your buried away dollars, and know that out of sheer boredom and craziness from high heat exposure, we will over analyze your message.  I only have 6 more boxes to go, and one is textbooks so that will be no fun, but I can’t wait for what else I find within the pages to come!  

Consolidation Drill

March 14^th, 2013

Every Peace Corps Country has an emergency action plan to keep volunteers safe during times of turmoil within a country.  Each stage increases the severity of the security threat and gives us instructions to follow.

Today at the first light of 5:45am I received a SMS (text message) that said we were in a code orange and I needed to get to my consolidation point as soon as possible.  At the time I didn’t know this was drill (had an inkling, but didn’t know for sure) so I diligently packed my emergency bag – clothes, food, water, medicine, Emergency Action Plan guide, both passports, id card, phone, and South African Rand in case we needed to cross a border out of Swaziland.  I told my family I was going to the town my consolidation point is in and didn’t know when I would be back.  As I walked away, I realized that if this weren’t a drill this would be last time I saw them.  That was a sad moment, I almost ran back to hug my Make. 

Thankfully it was 6am so transport to Siteki, where I consolidate, was easy to get.  I met all the other PCVs in my area and we all figured out that this was just a drill.  Members from our Peace Corps office arrived a few hours later and checked to see how long it took us all to get there, if there were problems, and if we all packed what we needed.  I passed with flying colors.  Nice to know if stuff is going down I can get all packed and to my consolidation point within an hour, even when I am half asleep.

I was home by 10:30am and explained the whole thing to my Make.  She thought I was acting really weird as I left in the morning so it was nice to clear the air.  She didn’t even tell my Babe (host dad) I had left because I didn’t give her an explanation.  Overall I am glad it was just a drill.  It was an exciting hour until I found out, but also a nervous hour.  Being forced home with no notice at this point in my service would be hard.  Being evacuated would be hard period having to return to America with only the stuff in my emergency bag, but even harder would not being able to say goodbye to my friends and family here.

I am a Real Swazi Woman Now

February 13^th, 2013

I crossed one more thing off my Swazi bucket list today and in doing so earned my place as a real makoti (bride, but what they call you when you do something well befitting a wife).

I killed my first chicken.  I really did it and it wasn’t a bad experience.  I remember my first encounter with the beheading of a chicken and it smelled bad, and was gross, and made me queasy.  I have put off being involved since then, but decided I needed to kill one for myself at least once while I was here.

My sisi Nosipho helped me.  Babe picked out a young cock and Nosipho caught it and held it for me as I wielded the knife.  It went fast, but it is still a bit freaky that the body continues to move after the head is separated.  I then helped Nosipho pluck it, cut it apart, and cook it in a pot over the open fire.  Ekhaya Inkhukhu (Home chicken) never tasted so good.  I am really going to miss fresh homegrown chicken. 

Biff and Tiff Take Africa

February 8^th – 19^th, 2013

For the past ten days I have had the awesome company of one of my best friends Tiffany.  She braved the 48 hours of travel and met me here in the Kingdom, where Swaziland really pulled out all the stops to give her one unique experience.

To commemorate the epic adventure we went on, I will give you all a virtual scrapbook of photos to explain the shenanigans we got into.

Reunion at the shuttle drop off in Swaziland!

We hiked Sibebe, which is the largest granite rock face in the world and visited a glass factory in Mbabane that uses all recycled glass bottles to make hand blown items.

Sitting on what we thought might be the top of Sibebe with our friend Mia,
its questionable if we made it all the way or not.

I made her try every weird thing Swaziland has to offer:

Iron Brew, Emahewu (maize drink), Amarula (marula liquor), and Ginger Beer

Bottoms up!

Maganu (marula brew), emafethi (fat cake), and chicken dust (chicken BBQ on the side of the road)

How to eat a hot fat cake

And all the local beers and ciders, and take away food (chicken stew, liphalishi, and salad)

A Sibebe beer to commemorate the hike and
take away food to reward the calories burned!

 She even had a hand in making some traditional food.  She helped my Make make Sinkhwa Sembili (mealie bread), while I helped my sisi make some emaganu (marula brew).  After we had a great traditional meal with my host family of fresh home chicken and mealie bread.

Make and Tiff making mealie bread

Me making marula beer

Swazi meal

We braced the public transportation system here and Tiff got the full experience that is a Swaziland bus rank.   We rode in khumbis, buses, back of trucks, and hitched several rides to save money.  We survived our bus getting hit by a car and on two separate occasions the vehicle we were in running out of gas and having to find alternative transport.

The Manzini Bus Rank

One of your buses that forgot to fill up before we left town

We spent several days roughing it at my homestead, where Tiff fetched water, washed her clothes in a basin, that she then later learned to bucket bathe in, cooked over an open fire, watched Generations (local soap opera), and she got a Swazi name from my host family.  She is now and forever called Nomsa, meaning it is God’s grace that she was brought to us here in Africa.

washing clothes

Tiff came to work with me two days.  We went to the refugee camp to teach my English class, where we got caught in a rainstorm and she experience what its like to walk home on a very muddy path.  My students and counterparts loved meeting here however, so it was all worth it.

with one of my counterparts Mudu at the camp

She also came to the High School with me to help in the library.  She taped bookbindings all morning like a pro, and then walked home in the opposite of a rain shower.  It was hotter then a pistol that day, and she finally understood what I meant by saying that my site was way hotter then Mbabane, where we started our adventure.

Tiff at the school's gate

working in the library

For Valentines Day we visited Hlane Royal Game Park here in Swaziland.  We went on a sunset game drive and saw giraffes, rhinos, elephants, lions, impala, warthogs, hippos, and tons of birds.  We camped at the game park and fell asleep to lions roaring.

Tiff viewing a giraffe from the game drive truck

Elephant!

Lioness!

Tiff came at just the right time and got to attend one of Swaziland’s national festivals.  We went up north to the Marula Festival and we watched all of the boMake dance in celebration of harvesting their marula and making emaganu.  We saw the King and Queen Mother from a distance and even got dressed in traditional wear for the occasion.  We made a stop at the Manzini market before we went and picked Tiff up some traditional jewelry and a lihiya to wear.

In our traditional wear

Buying fabric at the Manzini market

The ladies from my community represented with their flashy outfits!

Our adventure ended with a day of shopping the large traditional craft markets here, a pitcher of sangria, and a long hot shower (well deserved for Tiff after a week at my site).

All in all it was an amazing ten days!  I am so glad Tiff was able to make this trip of a lifetime and experience a new place by discovering its heart, not just the tourist façade it puts on.  For me it was so great to have a familiar face to share my world with.  Her presence helped me see Swaziland in a new light and made me realize just how fantastic this place can be, just how adapted I am to living here, and what I will miss most.

I was sad to see Tiff leave, but am happy to know that in just 5 short months we can meet again and reminisce.  It will be nice to have another person who will “get” my Swazi stories when I get back.

Superbowl Blackout 2013

February 3^rd, 2013

In true American style, most of the Swaziland PCVs assembled to watch the Superbowl, conveniently streaming live at 1:30am.  We all met at a Sundowners Backpackers and escaped the heat lounging by their pool.  We have befriended the owners of the place and basically rented it out again for the game.  The owners rigged up a big screen TV with DSTV so we could watch the game, helped us put on a BBQ dinner for everyone, and allowed us poor PCVs to pitch our tents in their yard, rather than pay for beds.

It was a great day until about 12:30am.  I was napping on the floor prepping for the 1:30am start time, when I huge thunderstorm broke.  Intense lighting, which provided awesome storm watching, also blew out the power.  Being flexible and embracing times of hardship, are two key features of a PCV so we partied on anyways.  At 1:30am we broke out the football snacks and all ate around one lit candle, as those who have iphones begged people from America to update us on the game.  We had made a squares board and all bought squares hoping our numbers would be the score at the end of each quarter, so it was very important that we at least got updates on the score.

Around 2:30am, at the end of the 2^nd quarter our power came back on.  Never have a heard a cheer so loud that erupted in that room.  We happily finished the first half the game, thoroughly rocked out to Beyonce (so amazing), and witnessed that awesome 109-yard touchdown!  As all of you know, that’s when your power outage happened.  At this point it was 3:30am for us and we had seen approximately 5 minutes of play.  By 4:00am, finally all the lights were back on (both here and in America) and we finished out the game, the final points being scored as we watched a beautiful post thunderstorm sunrise over Swaziland.  Just FYI I didn’t win any of the squares L.  Extremely sleep deprived, we cleaned-up, packed-up and went and ate lunch at 9:00am.  Then we tiredly got ourselves back to our sites, where I slept for 13 hours. 

I have to say, despite the electrical difficulties on both ends, the Superbowl was very fun to watch this year.  Maybe its because I just really miss America, but I think I might start liking football when I get back.  Skol Vikings?!? (is that what Vikings fans say?)

Sisi wami uphisa emaganu (my sister brews marula beer)

January 29^th, 2013

Its marula season again!  Marula is a small green fruit that grows on a fabulously big “African” looking tree here in Swaziland.  The fruit is traditionally used to brew marula beer, a staple at any Swazi function held during these summer months.  Swaziland even has two marula festivals in honor of this fruit, one up in the north and one in my area.  Anyone who wants to go and participate has to bring an offering of their marula beer to the King.  Then a daylong dance celebration is held in honor of this plentiful fruit.

My host sister Nosipho is brewing some this year.  It’s actually a really great investment to make.  We have two marula trees on my homestead so the product is free.  She collects the fruit when it falls and lets them get very ripe in the sun.  Then she plucks out the nutty seed and squeezes all the juice from the fruit.  She breaks up the bits of fruity flesh that has fallen in and then adds some sugar and lets it sit for 5 days in the warm cooking hut.  Once finished she can sell a 25 liter bucket for 100 Rand, not a bad profit when all you have to buy is a 20 Rand bag of sugar.

Other uses of marula are in a delicious liqueur called Amarula, and at the local factory Swazi Secrets.  This factory collects the local marula seeds and uses them to make spa products.  The seed is extracted, warmed, and then crushed.  The oil from the seed is used to produce marula essential oil, as wells as lotions and soaps.  The left over seed extract is used to make a marula scrub.  They are really great products and produced locally, by locals, and with local product.  My family sold their marula fruit to the factory last year.  Check it out here and look for it at specialty stores in America.  http://www.swazisecrets.com/

So many uses for 25 liter buket here in Swaziland

Where the magic happens.  Five days later we got ourselves 100 liters emaganu.