A lot of Updates!

Ok so I know it has been a while since I updated. I’m going to try and give a brief overview of everything that has happened! As I wrote before in Johannesburg we went to the lion park and the apartheid museum. Lion Park was amazing, we saw a pride of white lions that were literally only a few feet from our car, and back at the entrance area we were allowed to pet some 2 month old cubs they have. Being so young doesn’t keep their paws from being bigger than my hands though! Luckily I have a crazy puppy at home and have been a little desensitized to being chomped on, but the lions seemed to be more interested in tearing up Jon’s sneakers.

The apartheid museum was really interesting. It’s set up much differently from museums I have been to, but it’s more of a museum about identity than anything else. When we got there we had to take cards that labeled us as either coloreds or whites, and the entrance was split so you had to follow the entrance for you. I was colored. Jon is currently reading Nelson Mandela’s biography which seems really amazing, I’m going to start it when he’s done. The ironic thing is that the museum is in a theme park. It’s an old gold mine turned into an amusement park called “Gold Reef City”, complete with hotel and casino. Things like this are really interesting because they bring up so many other things to think about. I spent several hours on the bus thinking about American identity compared to an African identity after visiting the museum. The villages brought up some good debates about whether or not modernity causes poverty. Now I know I can be argued into the ground on this one, but I really think that the people in the villages with absolutely nothing are much better off than the people living in the ghettos in Jo’burg.
The hostel we stayed at was really nice and felt like a home to us while we were there. The driver was a young guy who grew up in Jo’burg so he showed us around, and we went to dinner with the owners, and their friends and the pub their friends own called Die Kniepe, or the bar in german. I had AMAZING pork schnitzel. Haha

The next day we took a 6 am kombi (mini bus) to the border of Lesotho. When we walked across into the tiny kingdom of Lesotho we had absolutely no idea where we were going. (Throughout this trip Jon kept telling me how proud he was that I wasn’t having panic attacks at our lack of planning. Haha.. I was proud of myself too). Some really really kind people who had been on the kombi with us actually got us reservations and then accompanied us to our hostel. We stayed at a guest house which was absolutely beautiful in a village next to the town of Roma. The owners of this guest house owned pretty much everything in the village, most of Roma, and when asked simply called the village “our village”.. though I think it was called Manyonane. This tiny little village was so amazing, and our first night there we went for a walk through it. In about 2 minutes we had a posse of kids who walked with us for about an hour. They were so adorable and funny it was great to have them with us. The older ones spoke English and were able to translate for us, they found it extremely important that I learn how to say “cow poop”. Just in case. We saw those kids each day, and before we left they even told Allie that they loved her “like a chicken in the oven”.

Our full day in Lesotho we went on a four hour pony ride through the neighboring villages and countryside. I can’t even begin to describe the scenery. At the end we saw dinosaur footprints left in the rock. People from all over were stopping and talking with us, and our guide picked us some peaches. My horse of course got into a fight with other horses every time I got off it, and refused to walk more than five steps without munching some greenery. The name for my horse sounded something similar to piggy, so I just called it Pig for the day. They were really well behaved, and much much bigger than I was expecting! At the end of the ride though we were all very sore and very sunburned.

The next day we set off again to Swaziland. Though everyone thought we were crazy we were determined to get there via public transportation (white people don’t usually use the public transportation system). We made it, but it took us two days 7 kombis, and one taxi. Haha it was worth it though, we got to see a lot of the country side and drove through all of Kwa Zulu-Natal, which is a really beautiful green and hilly area of South Africa. Swaziland was equally amazing. We arrived there just in time to go on the hostels Swaziland Highlights tour led by the owner of the hostel. We went to a huge marketplace that happens every Thursday and had many people from both Swaziland and Mozambique selling things, a lot of which are sold to tourists in curio shops, but this is where the owners of the curio shops buy it, and they were so inexpensive I actually gave an older woman more than she was asking for a thatched water pitcher. I also got a rug/mat made out of chip bags. Its about 2.5x6 feet and its bright pink. It’s actually really cool, I’ll try and load a picture of it.

Most of the goods there were made out of a type of grass that is used to make EVERYTHING there. In the U.S. we see some place mats made that way, but here it’s a livelihood for so many people, mainly women. We later visited a company called “Gone Rural” and it’s something I recommend to everyone at home. They have a website as well, google gone rural Swaziland. This company was formed to help give woman in Swaziland a trade to empower them. They cut and collect as much of these grasses as they want/can, and bring it to this company where they are paid for it. They can either take the money and leave, or they can dye the grasses and make things out of it, for which they are also paid. These women make some amazing things out of the grasses, and they are sold in a shop there and all over the world. This company also works with many other companies which empower women and help them go to school, or put their children through school. I didn’t purchase any grasswear, but I did get a purse which I am in love with.

The end of the week came far too quickly and we were back at good ol’ UB. Classes began, and things have settled down into a pattern again. We’ve actually started getting real work, and it’s nice to have a routine.. though the food on campus is still awful.

Update on the Strike: Unfortunately though the strike may start up again.. the students are rallying Friday at 9 am to discuss their options. I am able to keep up with what’s going on due to my saintly roommate Phemelo, she’s a senior here and pretty involved on campus so she keeps me up to date on what’s going on, and what’s said in Setswana (I still can only request food, and tell people what I’m wearing). The Vice Chancellor addressed them today, and basically totally shot down all of their ideas, and when they school was closed nothing was resolved. The student government members are still suspended and awaiting a trial. We’ll cross our fingers things go smoothly. I can actually see the point more from the governments side though. Depswana (sp?) is the largest private employer in the country, and they sell diamonds. Apparently they haven’t sold a unit of diamonds since November, and have told a huge number of their employees that they will be taking a 50% pay cut or they will be fired. This is going on all over the country, and since the country cannot make any money, people are being laid off, people are defaulting on loans and mortgages, and more important things than the students allowances need to be dealt with. Unfortunately though this is not how the students here see it. They feel entitled to the allowances they have become used to and apparently feel they should not be required to attend classes without their allowances (the inconvenient part is they think no one else should attend either.).

Despite the fact that it is the rainy season it has been ungodly sunny much more than it has been rainy. The rain brings the added benefit of weather under ninety degrees, which is why I love it so much. The thing is though when it rains here, IT RAINS. You can see storm clouds coming miles away because it’s so flat, and as they gather you can see all the international students get a little nervous because it looks remarkably like what I’d picture the apocalypse to look like… and then the rain. In the space of thirty seconds it is pouring so hard you can’t see more than five feet in front of you. Now this can continue ten minutes, or an hour, or on one occasion almost an entire day. It’s pretty crazy, most of the campus floods, but as long as you have some good plastic flip-flops and don’t mind getting a little wet it can be a lot of fun.

I’m going to try really hard and update more often, but if you want more details or pictures make sure to check out Jon’s blog also. He’s a lot better at keeping updated and has a much different perspective than I do! It’s www.aajd.blogspot.com