Blogs from Swaziland, Africa - page 2

So yesterday was a work/play day. We finished up painting at the pre-primary school. More work done on the playground and the electrical. Then after lunch we played games with the kids again. Same group of kids but different games. This time I was on the soccer field. 2 hours of running in the sun. At one point the clouds came in and I said to the auntie playing with us that it’s nice to have the clouds come. She said now it’s getting cold. The kids had lots of fun - well those that like soccer. The others just wanted to chat. Cam got accused of cheating because he had shoes on! I got smashed in the face with a soccer ball but luckily the brim of my hat saved me from broken glasses. Have ... read more

We broke off into groups and did a variety of tasks. Our 4 electricians went out and put in a new transformer. Surprised by the voltage - was supposed to be 380 coming in but it was 430. Apparently that’s not a good thing :) And so have some other work to do. Michele worked in the kitchen - made us homemade pasta for lunch. 2 of the guys went up to start building a playground template so that they can sell playgrounds to other communities as a new adventure. 4 of us went down to the preprimary school that needs painting. But first some scrubbing needs to happen. Not an easy task to differentiate where the dirt ends and the clay brick begins. After lunch, we spent the afternoon playing with the kids. Broke them ... read more

The past month we have spent at what feels to us like a more African part of South Africa. The Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal are provinces where we ended up in rural areas, small villages, sleeping in traditional rondavels (roundhouses) or camping in the middle of nowhere or in the huge nature parks close to animals. The Wild Coast as it is called is in large part undeveloped and very rural. The small village of Nqileni is a very typical undeveloped village, there is no running water and no electricity. People generally don’t really own stuff and most don’t have a formal job. The village consists of wide spread scattered colourful rondavels covering the beautiful hills where the Bulungula river reaches the ocean. The Bulungula lodge is created as a community project and gave us ... read more

Alarm goes off at 05:03 (I never set it for round numbers), it’s still a bit dark. I’ll have five more minutes I think. Wake up five minutes later, check my phone, it’s 5:45. Quickly jump up and put shorts on, t-shirt on, socks and shoes on that had been left at hand as this was my last chance. I’d promised myself to do it yesterday too but couldn’t bring myself to venture out of the sleeping bag at such an ungodly hour. Tent zipped open and there are actually a few people about which takes the edge off my premature sense of achievement. Chloe is there, licking fat off the braai (Chloe is a nyala – a pretty spiral horned antelope). Stopwatch is fastened to wrist as I stumble stiffly to the bathroom for rapid ... read more

Sadly, our time in Swaziland had to come to an end. We didn't want to leave this amazing country and we didn't really want to return to Johannesburg after our experiences there. We were determined to see more of the country before we left so we plotted a route that went straight to the Ngwenya border post but turned off just before arriving. The road would then take us up through the mountains, via the Maguga Dam, to Pigg's Peak and hopefully the Phophonye Waterfalls, if we had time. First we needed to stop at Swazi Candles, a craft centre which was on our route to the farm but we'd not had time to stop before. The candle shop had some beautiful hand-made candles... Some shaped like animals, some shaped like pine-cones or mealies and others ... read more