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My Crazy Little Sithoko
This girl is the BEST, I'm going to sponser her school fees when I go home!Hello all! Sorry it's been so long since I last updated!! It seems I can never get on the net now except for about ten minutes, and there's always something more important to do :P
Anywho I'm still in ol' Ingwavuma, but only for another two weeks! 😞 The time has gone sooo fast, I can't believe I've nearly been here for five months. And it's just going faster and faster now, when the term began we didn't have that much to do but recently we've been so busy with school things and travelling that I can't remember the last time I had any time to myself!
Well let me get started on some backtracking! Back on the 22nd of April was the SA elections. It was a public holday so we weren't at school, but we had been warned to stay in and be careful as there were expected riots in our area. Ingwavuma is pretty much halved between IFP and ANC supporters and it could've been bad, but luckily not much went on except the road got blocked with rallies for ANC outside Spar.
Now I don't know a whole lot about politics but when Ruth
Me and Mama
The Grade One teacher explained the ANC to me I couldn't believe it. Jacob Zuma is the leader of the ANC (African National Congress) and is a Zulu belonging to a Xhosa party. That's cunning because the Africans rarely turn their backs on their tribe, and he already has two of the largest tribes on bhis side and therefore secured a heap of votes. The thing is Zuma has had over 700 charges against him including fraud, embezzelment (sp) of AIDS money, and even rape! (For the rape he claimed the girl deserved it because she was wearing a skirt above the knee, which apparently in Zulu terms means she's asking for it..AND he said publically that he wasn't worried about catching HIV because he'd had a SHOWER afterwards! Ugh). But all the charges were dropped 'in case they got in the way of the election'!!! Ridiculous! The thing is the Zulu's don't ant to turn their back on their tribe so if they don't agree with Zuma then they just don't vote at all - which to be honest is just adding to the problem. Everyone thinks Zuma is another Mugabe waiting to happen. ANC got in anyway with a landslide vote, and
Game Drive
6:30am on my bday! Me, Samy and Kory :) they were only a decimal away from having two thirds...which meant Zuma couldve changed the constitution! Things seem OK at the moment, but I really hope the country doesn't go downhill. It's a beautiful country and the people are amazing, if they had the right leader and sorted a few things out it could be one of the best countries in the world.
Also our water problem is apparently due to a political argument! It used to be that we weren't getting water because there was something wrong with the pump and it couldn't pump up past the hospital, but now apparently the pump has been fixed but our area is considered an ANC area and the municipality is IFP, so they're refusing to give us water. It's so illegal but apparently happens all over the place, someone told me in one street once one side of the street was considered ANC and the other IFP, and the one the municipality supported had water and electricity and the other side had nothing!
That's enough negativity though, I'm still having an amazing time! I'm just glad I find these things out as it makes me more aware of what
needs to be done to help. And mostly it'd educating people!
Since I last blogged we've done lots of things! I won't go into too much detail but I'll do a quick run-down 😊
* Mik's Birthday Party (end of April) - Our friend Miks from the hospital turned 25 so we threw her a surprise party, children's party theme. It was fun and there was lots of sweets and cake and party games :D and I won pin the tail on the donkey woo!
* Tembe Elephant Park (the first time - end of April) - Nothing in comparison to the second time but more on that later! We went on Monday (day off for Freedom Day?) with Ruth and Si in their 4x4. It was a fun day and my first time seeing elephants and giraffes up close and in the wild! We were very lucky actually, although we only saw giraffe, wildebeest and buffalo from far away we did come across a particularly special elephant, who decided to come relatively close to us and have a mud bath! It was so cool, I could've watched him for hours 😊. We had to be a
Me and Samy :)
In bed on my bday, I LOVE THIS GIRL!!! <3 bit careful as some of the males were in musthe, which means it's their mating season and they can be unusually aggressive. We were fine though and it was a really fun day - even though we came to a path where either storm of elephant damage had knocked a tree down blocking our way, and took a bit of a risk by getting out of the car to lift it up as Ruth drove through! It was funny though, and no lion attacks :P. Arr when we stopped for a tea break too we were under a very cool tree and watched a snake chasing a lizard for it's lunch which was very cool :D. They have a fantastic warning sign...I'll try and upload a picture when I've finished writing.
* We have a new volunteer! His name is Kory and he's from Canada, just finished his degree and going back to do a master later this year. He's lots of fun and it's cool to have a new young face around and to come with us travelling! He's also coming to England in August (and Norwich believe it or not!) to do some volunteer thing so we'll
be meeting up again.
* We've started studying Romans in-depth in Bible Study and even have Bible Study homework boo 😞. I'm definitely not becoming a Christian now, if anything the more I learn about it the more it puts me off! But I am understanding it a lot more and parts of it are really interesting so I want to keep going - also partly so I can disucc it with Pete when I get back! (Plus there's still pudding...)
* Funny story about Minky, one of the ladies we live with :D. It was about nine on a school night and we were in bed and heard her screaming. We assumed there must be a snake in her room or something so we went out to see what was the matter, and she was like "there is a lizard! it is hunting meeeee!" - she's so funny! It was just a little gecko, maybe about 20cm long!!
* Brownies is going well, we had a winter themed afternoon where we played the chocolate game and made paper snowflakes, and we've had games and sing-song sessions, and they wrote their pen-pal letters to my Brownies in
Pumbaa and Pumbaa!
The best photo ever :D the UK. They're currently doing a "keep our school tidy" poster competition 😊. Sadly I don't think anyone i willing to carry it on when I leave 😞 but I'll leave the info with the next GAPS just in case.
* Arr one afternoon (I can't remember when this was) we met our friend Dumi in town, (with Kory and Samy too) and decided as it was daylight it'd be fine to go and have a drink in the "shabeen" (dodgy little Ingwavuma bar thing). Unwise choice! We were harassed by about a million men, and I was offered 17 cows for my hand in marriage! (Which is flattering, as the general price for a wife is 15 cows, though you can subtract a few if she's got any baggage like kids...honestly!). One man was so persistant, even when I moved my ring to my wedding finger and told him he was engaged. He told me it didn't matter and my fiance was all the way back in England, and he'd treat me like a princess and pay a good price for me. Then he said he wanted me to marry him so I could cook for him, and
Fern Gully
(Kosi Bay) he wanted me to have his baby! Then he even took my arm and tried to 'take me to meet his parents' and wouldn't go away until our friend Dumi yelled at him. Safe to say I'll never be going there again!
* MY 19TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - (9th May, Tembe Elephant Park) - I was verrrry lucky as the special priced doctors weekend at Tembe was happenin on my bday weekend, so we got to pay only 800 rand for two nights accomodation, food, and three game drives. (Normally it's 1600 rand for ONE night, game drives not included!). I can see why the price is normally so steep though - the accomodation is AMAZING! We'd head it was tented caps which was fine, but itwas the nicest tent I've ever been in in my life! It was more like a cabin made out of tent material, and it had a massive double bed with heated mattress, huge fan, and en-suite bathroom and massive shower and towels and anything else you could possibly want :D. Heaven for my birthday! The food was incredible too. On the first night we had a first course of soup and bread, followed by
SPRINGBOKS!!!!!
L to R - Alvaro, Samy, me, Kory - at Kosi Bay Lodge a buffet of kudu steak, veg, rice, pasta and salad, followed by apple tart and custard, yum! We went to bed early that night to make the most of the amazing bed, and then I got up unnaturally early on my birthday to have a shower and open my presents :D. Mum had sent me the coolest stuff! Random charity shop finds :D :D :D including a cuddly Pumbaa who is now our mascot!!!! (I have the BEST picture :D). The hosptal girls also bought me presents and a card which was really sweet - a teddy bear and some warm socks (it's getting chily here now) and chocolate 😊. Our first game drive started at six thirty, so we went for breakfast (toast, fruit and yoghurt, AND cereal) and then got in the vehicle. All the game drives kind of roll into one in my memory so I'll tell you about those in a minute. When we got back we had "second breakfast" which was cooked, then me and Samy decided we were going to go and have a nap. We didn't actuially get to nap though coz we were too hyped up, so instead got in our pyjamas,
Us looking cool
in our 3D glasses from the cinema in Durban :D laid in bed and played with my new toys! :P haha it was lots of fun, I love that girl! We then had lunch and went on our second game drive at three ish, which went on into the dark. Sadly we didn't see much on this one, but driving through the bush in the dark is an experience, even if all you see are nyalas and impalas darting about! We had another three course meal that afternoon and I tried warthog :D which was very nice but I did have to cover Pumbaa's eyes with a napkin! We stayed up and played 30 seconds with some of the hospital crew, but then everyone went to bed except me, Samy and Kory 😞 so we sat round the fire having a few drinks with the Maguzi hospital people. (It was one of their birthdays too). We did decide to go to bed at about midnight, but were told we weren't allowed yet as an elephant had gotten through the gate into the camp and was hanging around right outside our tent!! Not just any elephant either, but Esilo, the biggest one in the park haha! Eventually we were told we
were allowed to go, and being slightly intoxicated by this point I thought it would be a good idea to dance down the path singing "suka lie-onns, suka ndlovuuuuuuu" (suka means go away in Zulu, and ndlovu means elephant!) haha, there are some hilarious videos! On Sunday morning we went on one more game drive in the hope of seeing rhino and lions but no luck 😞, it was a good one though, and I totally did it in my pyjamas :P - six in the morning is no time for normal clothes! Over the three game drives in all we saw heaps of impala and nyala and some bucks and deikers, as well as some fantastic close-ups of giraffes, elephants and MONKEYS!!!!!. We had two of the most amazing encounters with elephants. The first one was walking towards us so we stopped the car expecting it to stop, but instead it carried on walking and passed us literally about 5m away from the truck, it was incredible! He stopped to look at us when he was right in front of us and my heart literally stopped, it as amazing but so scary at the same time! Our second encounter with elephants was on the third drive when we found a big family, including a few huge ones, some medium, some small, and one TINY, maybe only a couple of weeks old! They walked in a line just like on the march on the jungle book :D and I blatently sung that disney song :P "in a military styllllleeeee!". They came really close to us too! Ooh but then something scary happened, they went behin some trees a fair way behind us, so our driver reversed, but there was a tree in the way of his mirror and he didn't see the epehants behind us, meaning we almost reversed into one! It got really mad and stamped and flapped it's ears, so we had to get out of there pretty sharpish! We also came across a giraffe right in the middle of the road in front of us, and some hippos and crocs. I have some incredible pictures and I can't wait to show everyone when I get home. Also the monkeys were AWESOMMMMEEEEEE!!! But monkeys always are :D. Also for my birthday we had a meal with Si and Ruth later in the week, and Samy made me pizza and a cake and a card :D.
* Jozini (May sometime) - not a very interesting weekend really! We just dragged poor Kory round lots of chinese shops looking for cheap nice dresses, and then had a huuuuge KFC!
* Kosi Bay again (end of may ish) - We went back to visit Alvaro and Helen at Manguzi again (probably for the last time, how weird!) and went to Kosi Bay Lodge this time and camped over. It was a lot of fun, this cool Afrikaans guy who looked like Tarzan showed us through the bush (which looked EXACTLY like Fern Gully :P) to the bay, which was beautiful though you have to be careful of hippos. We also had a nice meal and stayed up chatting with some fun Afrikaans people who owned the lodge, then went back to have a campfire round the tent. It was lots of fun except...
* ...The following week I got real sick! At first I thought it was just a sickness bug, but it was very on and off and was getting steadily worse and worse throuh the week. By midweek Ruth suggested I take a malaria test - she had a home kit, but it was a finger prick test with a needle so you can imagine the mental state I was in that day! The next day I was absolutely exhausted and STILL sick, so Bongi took us to the hospital. The Zulu hospital was an experience! I first had to go to a little shack to be weighed and have my blood pressure and temperature checked and get a card, and to another little shack to sit on some garden chairs and wait to see a nurse. Then a lady came in and noticed Bongi, who explained the situation to her, and then she announced we were "special teachers" to everyone else waiting and made us jump the queue - which I felt pretty guilty about coz I'm sure there were people a lot sicker than me! When I saw the nurse I went in alone (it's just behind a curtain in the shack, so everyone can hear you anyway), and I explained what was wrong, and she obviously didnt understand a word I was saying. She kept insisting I take a pregnancy test even though I explained that it was impossible that I was pregnant, and it took a whole lot of arguing before Bongi overheard and came in to explain in Zulu! Then they had a ten minute conversation about me in Zulu, and I was referred to OPD for "further investigation". We waited in line for a couple of hours, which is apparently pretty good as you can be there for five or six, and I got a bunch of anibiotics and things. The queue was scary, there was a woman next to us who wouldn't stop coughing, and I'm pretty positive she had TB. I bet some people get sicker for going to the hospital! Also it's all very loq security, Bongi went to get me a case file and they didnt need ID or anything - she even made up my birthdya which was completely wrong!
* The antibiotics helped lots which was good coz we had to go to Durban early Friday morning. We got up at four am and I was still sick ish, but was feeling better after having some water and my tablets so we went ahead and caught the half five bus. It turns out this was a huge mistake, as on that bus I was the sickest I've ever been in my life! I had to keep running off to be sick, one minute I was freezing and the next I was way too hot, and at times I really felt like I needed to pass out. I think at times I was in and out of conciousness. Halfway trough the journey one of the bus' tyres burst, but it kept driving (very slowly!) and then two more burst so it EVENTUALLY stopped. We had to get off and get on another bus, but I was so weak I collapsed on the floor and a random lady had to pretty much carry me onto the new bus! I also came up in a weird random rash all over my body which was painful and itchy, and my legs swelled up to about twice the size! It was horrible, and scary coz at leats when Im sick in England I know it'll pass, but in Africa there's always the chance it's something deadly :/. Anyway luckily when we arrived in Durban Simon's parents (who we were gonna stay with) picked us up and I felt much better. The bus trip had taken nine hours, but it was worth it when we got to Si's parent's house. It was beautiful! They luve on The Bluff, which is right by the beach, and their house is incredible with a pool outside overlooking the ocean. You could even see monkeys on the rooves of houses below! They fed us too and we had real bread and salad and things :D it was amazing, and we could watch telly!!!! The next day we went into Durban to the beach front, looking for someone to do dreadlocks for Samy. We couldnt find anyone but there were some nice market stalls and the beach was nice. We then got a taxi to The Pavilion which is a big (and amazing) shopping mall, where we had fun being back in civilisation looking round the shops and having a meal, and we even saw a movie! My first cinema movie in four months! Coraline - it was amazing :D. As much as I adore Ingwavuma, it's nice to go somewhere with more stuff to do sometimes. We needed to be in Durban to sort a few things like my bus to Capetown in June, but it was also sooo nice as the mall really reminded me of home 😊. However Im still sooo happy I decided to do my placement in rural Africa - it's been the most incredible experience! I've been able to see the real heart of Africa, and I really feel like Ingwavuma is my second home, I'm definitely going to come back someday 😊.
* Drama at school is going v well, though it's keeping me sooo busy! We now have rehearsals Tuesdays and Thursdays after school as well as lots of break and lunchtimes. I've written a script for the presenters and planned the running order, and the show includes plays that kids have written themselves, gospel singing and modern singing, dances that they've choreographed themselves, and raps and poems that they've written, including one about Ingwavuma which is fantastic! There's one girl, Siziwe, who is sooo talented. She's in a Shakespeare piece which is one of the best in the show, and she's the lead in the gospel singing AND she's written an amazing poem called "Africa - What Have You Done?" and the Ingwavuma rap. She's amazing and I really hope she goes onto big things in the future. I also have two great guys who are my presenters - Sixolele and Mpendulo. They're really funny together, and I've written them a pretty lame script but i think they will be able to make it funny :D. The show is on Friday 12th June and lots of people are coming - school students, parents, teachers, and people from the hospital and from the NGO's, so there's lots of pressure! I'm hoping it will be OK, I'm scared but also very excited as the school has never really done anything like this before. We're gonna have a donation bucket and all the money will go to the school, and the grade 12s are gonna sell refreshments durng the interval to raise money for their Matric Dance. Wish us luck! Im hoping to get a friend to video it for me and get a copy of the DVD 😊.
* School has been exceptionally busy recently as we've been covering lots of classes as well as arranging everything for hockey club, the drama show and Brownies, and now arts and crafts clubs we're running at break time too. Can't believe there's only 2 weeks left, I'm gonna miss it so much!!!!
* Yesterday was school sports day which was MENTAL. We met at six in the morning with a million excited children, and got them onto four taxis and the Mkuze bus. The bus in itself is crazy, we watch it drive past all the time and it speeds along even with the steepest of mountain drops right next to the road, and it's so dodgy it even rocks from side to side! We had about double the amount of students that should be allowed on a bus, and as hard as we tried to make them sit down another teacher came and actually encouraged them to stand on the seats and sing and dance! So we gave up and just tried to stay upright and enjoy the loudest craziest bus journey I've ever been on! The Sports Day was at Mkuze Primary School and there were about seven schools so it was pretty crazy, but actually very well organised and I had a really good day. Our year seven boys went and we love them sooo much! There's one called Senemile (Goba) who calls me his "mom" and he cracks me up :D I'm really gonna miss those boys too.
* After sports day we had Jan and Kory round and cooked them a very posh dinner or roast chicken, potato bake and veggies (turned out surprisingly well for an experiment!) and we watched a movie as we're house-sitting for Simon and Ruth. And that's where I am now!!
Anyway that's pretty much the updates. I'm gonna be so sad to leave here, especially my babies at the school 😞 every day I give them love and cuddles and I just never want that to end. I am in love with this place!
Hope all is well at home, missing everyone but only 8 weeks til Im home! Capetown in three weeks and expect blogs about shark diving, elephant riding, penguin spotting, and coolest of all my 216m bungee jump at Bloukrans Bridge...eeee!!
Lots of love 😊 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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~marilyn
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Hi: I know how you feel about leaving, I was at Asibuyeni Primary which is right across the road from the entrance to Tembe, and I stayed at the research camp in Tembe for that time. When I wasn't teaching, I did lion and elephant monitoring, and spent as much time at the waterholes as I could. Then I travelled for a month before I came home. But I really miss SA. I'm hoping to be able to spend part of each year there after I retire. If it wasn't for the politics and its attendant problems I might think of retiring there for good. But you've got a long time to go before you reach that point, so enjoy your travels. Cape Town is incredibly beautiful. If you start feeling nostalgic after you get home, you could catch my blog and photos at: grannym.wordpress.com I'll watch for the rest of your blog with interest.