South Africa - 2005

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September 25, 2005 Pretoria, South Africa

Hello again everybody, time for my second Africa journal installment. We’ve been living in Pretoria now for almost 4 months and it is amazing how a different perspective and experiences change one’s attitude.

Security. For example, we are much less uptight about security. When looking for an apartment we were overwhelmed with the realtor’s concern for a “safe compound” and cautioned not to walk anywhere. The place we found has a security system, but not with armed response. It has a night safety gate at the top of the stairs, which theoretically you should lock at night (which we don’t bother with), the idea being that if someone broke in at night they could burgle freely, but not be able to reach the bedrooms where you would be, no doubt, cowering.

We also walk everywhere - to the gym, the vegetable vendor, the shopping center, around the neighborhoods for exercise. And we are soooo glad we chose to embrace our surroundings rather than be afraid of them. We live in a lovely neighborhood, big beautiful homes, and friendly people, and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Could you imagine NOT walking through neighborhoods like the one below (which is near us) - see photo below.

That is not to say that crime isn’t still a problem, it is. I don’t carry a purse, for instance, but use my money belt at all times. When I go to the fitness center (a 15 min. walk) I carry pepper spray in my hand as a precaution, but have never had even the slightest thought of using it. We don’t walk at night.

People & Politeness. For the Europeans who deem American greeting niceties, (How are you?) particularly confusing, how do they ever deal with South Africans?!! Seriously, in Germany if you ask someone how they are in greeting, they are flummoxed - don’t know how to answer, think you really want a report on their well-being. I used to make it a point to greet a certain young man (Sven, you know who you are) at the Institute where Bernard worked with “Hi, how are you?” whenever I saw him as I got such a kick out of his confused reaction. But I digress; the point is South Africans are extremely polite and friendly. “Niceties” are mandatory and not done while, for example, a cashier bags your purchases (as in America). No, you have an exchange of pleasantries before any business is conducted. So when you approach the cashier, you are greeted with “Good morning/evening. How are you today?” And before anything else, you must look him/her in the eye and respond in kind: “Fine, and you?” Only when your inquiry has been answered (and often it is lengthy - “Fine, but it was cold this morning wasn’t it?” - can you precede with the transaction. This is true of every transaction or exchange, every day - gas stations, banks, etc. After four years in Europe, we were caught off-guard by these gentle and genuinely friendly people.

Also, and again more in-line with American openness, we have been invited to locals homes for braais (BBQs). Our neighbor had us over the first weekend in our new apartment, and then the man who installed our DSL computer line invited us to an extended-family Sunday braai - delightful. In the Netherlands people get together, of course, but it is more common to meet at a restaurant. Being in someone’s home is more personal and the effort made for dinner parties and braais is particularly enjoyable. Just this past weekend we attended a dinner party of a friend of a friend (Ernie & Kaye in Charleston’s SA friend Peter & Suzie here in Pretoria). These people didn’t know us but included us in a lovely dinner party (3 other couples) and then invited us for Christmas dinner too!

Circumcision Season. In most places you have the holiday season, hunting season, etc., but in Africa you also have circumcision season.

In early July the schools had a three-week winter break. White South Africans took to the beaches around Durban (too hot there in the summer) or to the wine country around Cape Town. But for 15-year old Black South Africans, this was a time of initiation into manhood. The many different groups initiate in different ways, but central to all of the ceremonies is circumcision. Naturally we know only what we read in the newspaper or what locals have told us. We can only guess that the horrible statistics that follow come about from the rudimentary methods of many of the tribal practitioners. At the end of the three-week circumcision season in one province (Eastern Cape):

5,833 boys were circumcised
535 boys left in the bush to die, but rescued
239 admitted to hospital by family
5 genital amputations preformed in hospital
20 boys dead, but only
1 “Practitioner” charged with 2 of these deaths

The next circumcision season is during the November-December summer holiday break. I’ll keep you posted.

Corruption. Crime is very high in SA, however there is scant newspaper/TV coverage, unless it is sensational. Locals have told us they prefer it that way - no use getting inundated with negative news. Makes one wonder, however, if it doesn’t create a kind of attitude of acceptance.

What you do see, in spades, are articles on corruption. When we arrived the current Vice President, Zuma, was under scrutiny for his involvement with a man (Shaik) on trial in a high publicity corruption scandal. Shortly after Shaik was convicted, President Mbeki fired Zuma - a move everybody told us would NEVER happen - corruption was just too rife to single out one man, and a sitting VP at that.

That was a high profile incident, but there are stories every night on the local news and in every daily paper about the fight against corruption. In one province the Scorpions (federal prosecutors/investigators/enforcers), after an “identification period” from December to March, identified 41,000 (no, I haven’t messed up on the zeros) corrupt public officials. How does a court system handle that volume? Actually if the offense wasn’t “aggressive” the official was allowed to repay the bribe and not lose his/her job. Some lost pay, some were demoted, but some were indeed fired.

We had our own experience with corruption, albeit on a moderate scale. On day one of our arrival in SA we had our bankcard stolen ($1,000 withdrawn, $750 reimbursed by our Dutch bank). Our bank required us to report the incident to the police. A few days later a detective came to our guesthouse, report in hand, and asked us to go over the details again. We did, he made some notes. Before departing he asked when we would be in the states again because he sure would like a new pair of Nike running shoes (size 9 ½ please), and a Chelsea football (soccer) jersey. We didn’t even bother to tell him Chelsea was in the UK; we just nodded. Left a bad taste in our mouths, as you can imagine.

Returning to News Coverage, when we first arrived in SA from Europe we were pleasantly surprised that the evening news was 99% local - not a word about Iraq, Bush, the EU, no, all news had an African focus. No worries, we had CNN and the BBC World news stations to get our international fix. Now we find the lack of international news and indeed awareness rather provincial. A local friend told us that for SA the war in Iraq is over. Okay, wish THAT were true. There was extensive coverage of the London tube bombings, but I think mostly due to the fact that the G8 Gleneagles Summit, which had African aid as its focus, coincided with the bombings. SA is, like the US, inward looking and not much fussed with things not directly related to it. Even though we are identified as foreigners by our accent, there is little to no interest in where we are from. We are asked if we are enjoying SA, and when we reply in the affirmative, they are happy. I think they really do want visitors to have a nice experience, but are not particularly curious about the foreigners themselves.

Just one more tidbit about news coverage/TV in general. The Apartheid government was so controlling and paranoid that television wasn’t allowed into homes in SA until 1975!!! Can you believe that? We met a couple who in their 20s had gone to work in Germany for the SA government. On news broadcasts there for the first time they heard the name Nelson Mandela, who by that time was known worldwide.

They’ve come a long way since those bad-old-days - have lots of vibrant local soap operas, sitcoms. The latest evening soap (think “Dallas”) is set in the wine country around Cape Town and the ad for it says: “Where the air is crystal clean and the women incredibly filthy.” My favorite part of these soaps is that they go back and forth from Zulu or Xhosa, for example, and English or Afrikaans - one sentence in Zulu/Xhosa, the next in Afrikaans, back to Zulu/Xhosa, several more in English. Everything not in English is subtitled. Clever and fun to watch.

Clever advertisements too. My favorite is for a local budget airlines, Kulula Airlines. Remember the movie The Gods Must be Crazy? The opening scene is of a Bushman (primitive hunter-gatherer in loincloth) walking through the SA grasslands when a Coke bottle falls out of a small plane and almost hits him. It is the first time he has seen an airplane, and he thinks the gods have dropped the bottle. The movie continues with his trying to return the Coke bottle to the gods. It is one of my favorite movies EVER and the sequel, The Gods Must be Crazy II, is also quite entertaining. Anyway, the ad for Kulula Airlines shows the same Bushman (or his twin) almost getting hit by a falling Coke bottle, which he picks up and taps - trying to figure out what it is made out of. He says something in the Bushman/Koi-San click language, and starts walking, but then a deluge of Coke bottles pummels him, hundreds of them while he jumps around frantically to avoid getting hammered to death. Then it shows a Kulula airplane flying overhead and the caption: Hundreds of flights every week.

Kruger National Park (roughly the size of the Netherlands). As most of you know, SA has one of the premier wildlife parks in the world. The best time for animal viewing is in the winter here (May through September) when the foliage is off the trees and bushes. Water is scarce as this is also the dry season, and therefore animals congregate at rivers and waterholes. It is also the cool time of year (temperatures were 25-28° C. 75 - 80° F.) as summer (Oct. - April) can be brutally hot.

Knowing this, niece Denise and almost-7-year old daughter, McKayla, came for a 2 ½ -week visit, with the majority of the time spent in Kruger. We entered at the most southern gate and worked our way north staying one or two days at six different camps/compounds. Visitors must be in a compound (in hotel, chalet, hostel or camping accommodations) by 6 p.m. and cannot leave again until 6 a.m. The gates are locked and guarded. The exceptions are for night drives or morning walks with Park Rangers - for drives you go out about 8 p.m. For morning walks you go out just before sunrise, around 5:15 - 5:30 a.m.

We highly recommend the Ranger-led walks and drives. Our night drive didn’t turn up anything particularly interesting, although we did see some nocturnal hares and the highlight was an African civet (see below). It is possible to see genet (also a cat), African wild cats, honey badgers, bush babies, owls, hippos out of the water (that is when they go on land to feed), and elephants and various antelope are also active at night.

One large male elephant that night gave us a bit of a scare. Seems he was in “must” (ready to breed) and we came upon him around a corner quite suddenly. Our Ranger/ driver took one look (and whiff of) this bull and sped a good distance away before stopping. Since elephant aren’t particularly dangerous, we were curious as to why he had seemed to panic. Well, he had seen the streaks of must on the elephant’s face (from the temple), but had also smelled the must odor, and indeed he pointed out that you could see a trail of must on the road. Bull elephants in must are very dangerous, particularly if you get too close. McKayla had a particular fear of elephants (had heard a scary story early in the trip) and she was shaking with fear as the big bull charged up behind our open vehicle. She was murmuring into my chest “let’s go, let's go” but it wasn’t until the folks at the rear of the vehicle, closer to our horny friend, started yelling in fear that the driver moved off.


McKayla wasn’t afraid of elephants as long as there was a fence between her and them! (See photo below.) Most of the camps/compounds have cafes or restaurants that overlook rivers or waterholes, so there is a good chance to spot animals while sipping a cold drink, and this was right beside a café in Olifants camp, which means, you guessed it, elephant.

Our morning walks with Rangers were much more productive. On the one Bernard and I did we were trying to find a dead elephant. The Rangers knew there was a carcass somewhere, and we were looking for it. They knew the general area, but not specifically where to find the carcass. We knew we were close when we saw signs - elephant dung full of half-digested mopani leaves. Elephants die of old age when their teeth are worn down. They cannot masticate their food enough to get many nutrients and it comes out almost whole in their dung. We never did find the elephant, but we did find a pride of about 11 lions. They were lounging in the shade of the riverbank near where we had parked and begun our walk. We kept a close eye on the pride as we walked along the river, seeing hippos galore and lots of birds, but never did find the dead elephant.

At one point when we were at the hippo pool we saw across the river some tourists who got out of their car and started walking toward the hippo pool. First of all, the first rule of the park is STAY IN YOUR CAR AT ALL TIMES, you can get expelled from the park if you just put a foot outside your vehicle without a Ranger present. And worst of all, the pride of lions was just below these extremely dumb tourists!! The Rangers started yelling and waving, which made these brain-dead people walk TOWARD us and thus closer to the waiting lion pride. It wasn’t until our Ranger held up his rifle (yes, both Rangers were armed) and gestured with it for them to retreat did they get the message. I certainly got the message: even if it looks safe, there could be a deadly predator lurking nearby. Sad to say but every year tourists are killed in Kruger, mostly by hippo, buffalo and lions.

Yes, our Ranger said that hippo charges account for more deaths in the park than all of the Big Five put together. Hippos are very territorial and if you are around their pool they might just charge out of the water and stomp you! They’ll also stomp you if you happen to get in their way as they are returning to their pool after feeding on land at night. They locate their own pool in the dark by smell. When they leave the pool they defecate and smear it around so they can find their way “home.” See photo below.

The walk that Denise and Bernie went on was even better (I stayed with Mac - you have to be 12 to go on the walks). Again the Rangers knew about a kill, this one a giraffe that lions had taken down. As they approached the kill area they could hear and feel the rumble of the lions roaring. Indeed, Mac and I back in the camp could hear the roars!! They smelled the dead giraffe before they saw it. The pride of lions was feeding from the side opposite the approaching group. There were two cubs in the pride, and when the cubs heard the five people (Bernard, Denise, another tourist, two armed Rangers) approaching their curiosity got the better of them. They ran around the giraffe carcass toward the group! You can image the panic the Rangers were feeling as they tried to herd the group back and raised their guns in preparation for the adult lions to run out and protect their young. The two little cubs got within two meters (yards) of the group before a vocal signal from an adult halted them in their tracks. They stopped, looked at the stunned people and then went back around the carcass to rejoin the pride. To the Rangers’ great relief, the pride then moved off. The people could then walk around the carcass and see exactly how it had been killed, what parts had been eaten, etc. As they headed back to their vehicle, they heard the pride returning to the carcass to continue their feast. See photo below.

We were there just to enjoy and experience the wonderful park and see as many animals as we could. To our immense joy, we managed to see the Big Five (most people’s goal) within 6 hours of entering the park! Big Five: Lion, Rhino, Buffalo, Elephant & Leopard.

Elephants (10,000 in the park) were the first big animals we saw after entering the park - you cannot count the scores of impala, as there are 150,000+. Next were probably zebra (32,000), buffalo (25,000), wildebeest (17,000), giraffe (9,000), kudu (a type of antelope, 5,000), warthog (3,800), waterbuck (5,700), and white rhino (5,000).

We were so lucky to see hyena (2,000), as they are nocturnal so we had to catch them first thing upon leaving the compound while it wasn’t full light yet, and we did. Found a den where the hyenas were still hanging out near its entrance. See photo below.

Our other hyena sighting was in conjunction with a leopard. We saw three leopards during our visit, and in one instance the leopard had a kill that it had dragged up into a tree (which they are wont to do to keep other predators away). There was a hyena circling the tree below the kill catching any scrapes the leopard dropped while feeding.



McKayla is an avid Animal Planet viewer, so knows tons about birds and animals. However, her biggest assets were her young eyes - she was so sharp-sighted that she saw almost everything before we did. Her best “sighting” was a leopard. We were driving along when Mac yelled for us to stop, she’d seen what she thought might be a cheetah. Bernie was prone to ignore her (he was the one who was driving and would have to reverse the truck a ways), but Denise and I could tell from her voice that she was dead serious. Sure enough, after we backed up quite a distance we saw a leopard walking at the forest edge. It quickly got behind a tree and climbed into its foliage where you could barely see it (the most common “view” of a leopard). We had been fortunate to get a good view before it leaped into the foliage and “disappeared.” Actually we could still see it lounging over a branch and watching us. We were all by ourselves (the other two leopard sightings were “shared” with lots of other vehicles) and so could just sit there and enjoy “Mac’s” leopard.

Mac’s eyes were also useful for bird watching, which is a particular love of ours (Denise and Mac too). Africa has many large birds, other than ostrich, that were fun to see. See photo of Crowned Crane below.


The smaller birds were also colorful and a delight to watch, and there are over 500 species of birds in Kruger.

I could wax indefinitely, really, about how wonderful Kruger is, but suffice it to say that, in addition to the animals already mentioned, we also saw: black-backed jackal; wild dog, Chacma baboon; dwarf, slender and banded mongoose; Vervet monkey; bushbuck; common duiker; hartebeest; reedbuck; nyala and waterbuck.


When we left Kruger we drove to Blyde Canyon National Park. See photo of me in canyon below. It doesn’t have the wildlife that Kruger has, but because of that hiking is allowed. We stayed at a luxury resort. Before arriving Mac asked, is this resort going to be “paradise?” To which we all laughed, and laughed harder when we arrived and Mac said enthusiastically “It IS Paradise!”) We had some nice walks, ate some scrumptious food (Kruger’s food can be less than gourmet) before heading back to the big city of Pretoria.

Ledesi Cultural Village. While Denise and McKayla were visiting we visited a cultural village near Pretoria. It was a bit touristy, but did give those of us ignorant about the different peoples of this area and little insight into five cultures: Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Panda. Unfortunately I lost most of my photos from that visit - learned the “mandatory back-up” rule the hard way, but a few survived. See photos below.


And so another journal comes to a close. My next journal will include Mozambique (where Bernard lectured at the university in Maputo) and Cape Town. Friend Almarene Snead is coming for a visit next week and the “girls” are flying to Cape Town for a long weekend.

We sincerely hope all of you and your families are well and were not affected by Katrina or Rita - they had full coverage here so are up to speed. For our fellow Red Cross volunteers, GOOD JOB! We know how hard you work and indeed felt a bit guilty not being on the “front lines” with you all.

Remember, we love hearing from you also, so keep in touch.

Much love, Kathy & Bernard

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