south africa - part 2

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yes i did. that’s the answer from round 1 of the south african adventures if u missed it. yes i survived the bunjee jump + then we reminisced about how brave + awesome i was with mark, mary, milllie + lyn (owners of the b&b) in front of a cosy fire, a beer or two + an incredible meal to match the conversation.



we then travelled on to tu casa in east london which is a mexican style accommodation with indepth political + religious conversation over breakfast with owner helena vd ham + her mother.



we then zipped up to the wild coast where we had been given contacts (roger, karin, tessa, pete galloway) who work with a fascinating bunch of old medical school mates working with + around the local hospital. zithulele hospital is a small 150 bed rural hospital situated in what in apartheid times used to be the homeland of the transkei, an area deliberately starved of infrastructure development and other investment under the apartheid government. as a result, it is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped parts of south africa, with a host of social + health challenges on the one hand, + a beautiful, unspoilt coastline on the other. roger arranged for us to do a homestay siyephu + his family in a remote powerless hut with stunning 360 degree views.



further on the way up the coast we picked up a hitchhiker called babalina ‘babes’ makalima. she is studying journalism at university + played for her province in netball. we had heaps of fun chatting on the way + she taught us about a famous xhosa african saying which goes “umntu, abantu, ubuntu”. umntu means one person, abantu means a group of ppl + ubuntu means humanity. i challenged her to write a writing piece about how the west could develop its ubuntu. we have remained in contact + she claims she is still working on it!



we arrived at pietermaritzburg + talked late into the night with the amazing paul, sylvia, daniel, emma, scott, abby anderson family.

paul runs his own creative business as a consultant for NGO’s. he is also an online farmer! sylvia works researching the social benefits of play with orphans + their 4 children all go to different schools.



we then moved on to kruger national park where we stayed with cleve, belinda, samuel christian, rachael iona mcintosh + goodness. they are both doctors, cleve runs his own homeopathy practice + belinda works in the incredibly under-resourced local hospital. their son sam is 6 years old + speaks 4 languages! lauren + i played one of my favourite gigs singing ‘round + round’ as a lullaby in the kids bedroom as they drifted off to sleep.



we also met with the incredibly fun + vibrant family from barcelona, desi giannoni, xavier, montse, marc, oriol, ferran gomez-olive fernandez. the father works in health sector with the bill gates foundation. interesting fact: xavier is in the photo used for the bill gates foundation logo photo! the family are also doing incredible things by improving school soccer development thru their 3 boys captaining their schools soccer teams! We also met their friends fabio, giulia + ishmael who are italians community developing in mozambique.



cleve + belinda organised us to do a homestay with likki, temoso (means advice), thakgalo (means joy), + their grandma. we went to church the next day with them. lauren went with thakgalo to the young ppls church + i went with likki + grandma to a more traditional service. when I entered the church they ushered me to the front + sat me down on stage with the other 4 men. down below danced + sang the 20 or so ladies. i was asked to give a prayer despite the fact that none of the audience spoke english so i prayed for australia. i then sang a song + they made a kinda like conga line, then danced + sang me out of the church.



whilst in kruger, we saw 4 out of the 5 big five (we didn’t see the leopard) which are among the most dangerous yet most popular species for big game hunters to hunt. we even saw wild dogs which we only discovered was rare to see afterwards when we told cleve.





we then drove to johannesburg where we visited the apartheid museum which was amazing. we then boarded the plane filled with great memories + stories.

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