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Published: December 10th 2010
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Beach babes
Marina and I scouting for a good spot to lay on the beach at ponta, Mozam So, one of the major perks of volunteering in Swaziland is being landlocked by Mozambique and South Africa. The one negative of volunteering in a land-locked country... is... well, being land-locked and so darn close to the Indian Ocean.
As an Alberta girl I should be used to being far from the ocean, but here it is so close you can almost smell it. Two weekends ago I joined the Mbabane crew as they ventured to Ponta do Ouro. Uh, if you look on the map it is 11km across the border from South Africa. From Swaz the easiest way on the map is to head to the Goba border and you are almost there. Well – infrastructure kinda blows here so not long after crossing into Mozam we hit the mother load of potholes, followed by sand roads that I know my little VW polo would not make it through.
I understand how potholes happen in Edmonton because of our brutal winters. But seriously, you can’t imagine the size of the craters we went over. You have to go in a 4 x 4 because of the sand roads (which happen after the potholes) so I was able
Fishing bait
A local woman collecting worms from the coral to give to her man friend who was fishing to jump aboard with Doug and Paisley (Americans). Yao – the Taiwanese neurologist and I bounced away in the back seat for the 5 hour drive. I was slightly terrified since we were on random sand roads in the dark – but the trusty Rav 4 got us there.
There was a 12 person house that I could have crammed into and slept on the floor (I was the last addition to the trip), but instead Yao, Marina (Brazil), and Sierd (British guy who was born in Malawi), scored a sweet deal at a place on the beach that included breakfast and the windows had screens – something slightly important in the land of malaria. Come on – who wouldn’t want to share a double bed with a hot Brazilian girl?
I had a pretty chilled out weekend – walking to find a more secluded beach, chilling with Marina and watching a pastey-white Sierd turn lobster red from sunburn after playing in the ocean all day. I had delicious prawns, bought a scarf off some guys using traditional looms (Tressa you would have loved it), and ate some ice cream once or twice with Marina. I pulled the
Hand made scarves
Tressa - this is for you - my scarf is lovely! loser on Saturday night because I could feel I was getting sick. Also wasn’t that jazzed about hanging out with the annoying rich white South Africans that had invaded Ponta.
Sunday I woke up with a cold – spent the day at the beach, and then got to see what happens when your vehicle gets stuck in the sand. Team Tawain didn’t engage the 4 x 4, and got stuck. Took almost half an hour but the locals got them dug out and towed out so we could keep going. By Sunday night I was feeling like garbage and had a crap night of a fever and runny nose. I did my best to go to work – but when I arrived on Monday I was swollen and red and told to go home. (renamed my flu malaria – probably not that funny since you can get it in Ponta) Nothing like hanging out at Liqhaga house in the middle of the day and listening to one of my neighbours try to turn his engine over for an hour on his piece of crap car. Stephen has promised to start throwing eggs at him – but hasn’t hit him
yet.
December 1st was International Aids Day. Since Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world, there was a plethora of activities going on. Instead of baking in the sun that day, I was stuck in the office writing away. The one good thing I did was work with Candice (communications guru) at Canadian Crossroads International back in Toronto on a piece that was accepted by ICAD – Inter-agency coalition on Aids Development as part of their special World Aids Day newsletter. (I can send anyone the link if they are interested)
Our ghetto pad is slowly transforming to less ghetto. Stephen arrived home this week with another computer chair (much more comfortable than our slanty chairs). He also brought home some bookshelves he got off Laura (thankfully he had the Irish connection). We organized the books in fiction, non-fiction (American politics, religious, science, and African heavy shit). Everyday... it feels a little less likely that someone will condemn our apartment. And then a giant flying cockroach swoops in and that feeling goes away.
In other news – I have become a pudge. Swaziland has gotten to me and I can no longer avoid what I
Sand Trap
The taiwanese doctors getting dug out - made it 2 minutes out of town. can only describe as Swazi-ass. (Please note this does not appear to be offensive, and has some of my coworkers howling with laughter). I had every intention of starting spin class – but my wannabe malaria flu had me out for the count.
By Friday I was still sniffling, but had enough energy to join a girl’s weekend (Michelle, Christy and Alexandra) to Sodwana Bay, South Africa. So – I had heard that Sodwana was a diving town, but since it had a beach I was in for sure. I got certified to dive in Thailand in 2003 – please note I hated it. My eyes do not like the burning sensation of salt water in my mask, I panicked under water, and my sea sickness problem had me barfing off the boat between dives . So... no diving for me in Sodwana.
I did have a rare sighting of the Lumberjack, who had been there visiting with friends. He too
k me to a white trash Africaans bar. Apparently beach wear in Sodwana is open to interpretation – one of my faves was a skinny guy rocking what I can only describe as rugby shorts. The music was
Bookshelves!
Look how swank our apartment is starting to look... and look how sweet Stephen's boots are. horrendous, it all sounded the same (insert terrible) and they all do this partner dance that is so easy (sockey?), it’s like they are wannabe cowboys or something.
Michelle, who organized the trip, was getting certified to dive. We rocked up to find out permanent tents came with mattresses, but we had to spray everything down with doom first to kill off all the bugs. In contrast, the lumberjack was rubbing it in that he had a private air-conditioned cabin with satellite cable. I would say my disgust for rich white South Africans continues... but I was just jealous. My tent was located next to a guy who snored, I was woken by the sounds of dogs fighting, and there was a damn rooster that just chirped all night.
Michelle is vegetarian, but was open to some violence towards the rooster. “Seriously, who puts a rooster on a holiday vacation site?” She said that when she paid the $20 a night charge for each of us stay in the tents, she told the owner – with this money I expect you to remove the rooster.
You would think that being so close to the coast, I would
The Lumberjack
pouring me a double cane and cream in a white trash Africaans bar- green but quite tasty be indulging in seafood, but nope. Instead we ate our meals at one of two places, a chilled out cafe or the smoothie bar. The smoothie bar made the best damn frozen cocktails and apparently made some amazing pizza. I chose to indulge in their gluten-free salads and what I can only describe as the best steak I have had outside of Alberta. Glorious, red meat, oh have I missed you.
Saturday night I took the girls back to the white trash bar and a lovely guy from Cape Town made us all do a spin around the dance floor – Africaans style. Michelle was hilarious – she said she just felt like she was running backwards. There was one really gross married woman creeping on a young guy – her belly/gunt hanging out for all to see. At one point I think she knew we were staring at her – she gave us the finger and then came over to introduce her cougar prey to us. She said “these are my friends – they are a little slow.” Took Michele a little while, then she realized belly lady was in her dive course!
Random – anyways the
Sodwana Bay
right about the time I started burning my bum cheeks. dancing was hilarious and they all do it barefoot which is weird. I guess no drinks on the dance floor. I didn’t realize until the morning when I rolled over in my super sweet tent that Alexandra and I had gone home with alternating shoes.
Sunday I lazed on the beach some more and burnt my bum cheeks. The beach was pretty nice and we were all sad when we had to leave. In typical form – it started raining just as we got to Swaziland. Michelle thought it was a sign we should turn back for the beach... but alas I am back in the Kingdom.
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ben
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lumberjack
lumberjack looks hot.