sebebe rock hike and a word on combies

 today Louis and I   decided to hike sebebe rock hiking trail.    sebebe  is  the second largest exposed rock in the world. the bigger one being   in Australia.    when you see it from the road it looks like a  not gigantic, round   hard mountain-  I guess, basically what it is , a  very large exposed rock-      there is some green on the bottom , growing from the black of bushfires, and then the big rounded rock.  we  hiked from the back end  up so it  ended up not seeming like it looked from the front.  Louis said it looked a lot like iceland .                  the day was cool which was great.   , we got to the base of sebebe  about 11 am and  we were the first hikers of the day. we were actually the only hikers of the day.              .  the first part of the hike is a  dirt path road heading up passed some  houses made of small logs and mud, brick combo. and as always , smattered with chickens and a couple dogs- partially burnt trash ,  and hanging laundry.  . steep, just challenging  enough. dry grass and small rocks.      then it starts to  level off .        the walk from then on is mostly  grassy, with lots of boulders strewn about-  one  probably 60 or 70 ft high     .  I guess at one point , they all rolled there from somewhere higher. but now, they all seem pretty stable,    although they did look like they somehow stopped mid stream.   the green is  mostly on the background of the black of fairly recent cleansing bush fires-  there are  lots of wildflowers starting and a   very nubile green .                       just when I hoped to see some cows, we were amidst a herd of about 30, lots of whom had very large horns.  they didn't seem to mind us, but they definitely noticed us.  we walked with and then passed  them onto the top , where we climbed up some steep rocks to a vast overview of mountains and valleys.  Swaziland is very mountainous-   we turned back, revisited our herd and this time had the pleasure and brief company of a shepherd, or as Louis said, since  they were not sheep , the man was a cowboy.  he pointed us in the right direction since we lost sight of our markers and a couple hours  later we  were back on the road , hailing a combie . really nice southern African music playing in the background , through the rolling hills.  it was a good day. really nice to spend time with luigi Louis. 

The long road to nowhere

Michael was sick today for the first time since I got here and was unable to go to work. That meant that James and I got up early for no real reason, and were left in comfortable weather with no work to do. We decided to take a kombi to Ngwenya, the town in Swaziland just across the South African border. The glass factory is there, as well as some shops. I had been once before, and it is the only place I have seen Swazi flags for sale. James and I each bought Swazi flags for our collections, and were once again left with nothing to do.

What to do...

We were getting hungry. There was a café near the glass factory, but we were feeling a bit more adventurous. The South African border was just a stone's throw away, so we figured we would go to Oshoek (The town on the South African side) for lunch.

For all the talk that Oshoek gets, there really isn't much there. A convenience store isn't much of a place to have lunch, especially if you cross a border for it. Unfortunately, that is literally all that is in the "town" of Oshoek.

Without a kombi in sight, James and I decided to walk down the road a bit in search of a town or pizza place. We walked for about ten minutes, until a white guy in a pickup truck stopped.

"Where are you guys going?" he asked.

I didn't really have an answer.

"Um...to the nearest town?" I said.

"I'm not going there, but I can take you seven kilometers down the road."

Without any sign of food in sight, we hopped into the back of his truck and we were off. Some other people were in the back too, and I had my usual siSwati conversation with them.

"Saobuona!" (Hello)
"Yebo." (Hello)
"Ungani?" (How are you?)
"Niyapila, ungani?" (Good, how are you?)
"Niyapila." (Good.)

That is about all the siSwati that I know, but it made the guys in the back of the pickup happy.

After seven kilometers, the pickup turned down a small dirt road and we hopped off.

If we thought we were in the middle of nowhere before, we hadn't seen this place. A car would pass every five minutes or so, and we could see was the beautiful farmland of rural South Africa.

Now what?

Road signs showed that there was a town on this road eventually, but it said nothing of the distance from it. We figured it was possible that it was just over the hills, and if not a kombi would eventually pass and we could flag it down.

A kombi passed, but it was full.

We kept walking.

Sitting under a distance-lacking road sign was an old woman. We asked her how far it was to the nearest town, but it was apparent that she could speak no English.

We kept walking.

We passed a woman walking down the road in the opposite direction, and asked her how far it was to the nearest town. She didn't know.

We kept walking, and decided that we would flag down a kombi headed either direction. At that point we would have had no problem going back to Swaziland.

We walked past a farm, and a man plowing the field flagged us down.

"Ungani!" he shouted.
"Siyapila, ungani?"
"Niyapila!"
"Do you know how far it is to the nearest town?"
"You don't want to walk there, it is 130km away."

@$#&!

So there we were. 130 kilometers away from the nearest town with only flags. At that point we figured we should just cut out losses and head back to Swaziland. We turned around and began to walk the other direction.

Several Swaziland-bound kombis passed. They were the big 22 seaters, probably coming from Jo'burg. Unfortunately for us, they fill up completely in Johannesburg before coming to Swaziland so they don't need to stop.

What to do...

It wouldn't be easy for someone to mug us if we were in the back of a pick-up, right?

We decided to try and flag down every kombi or pick-up that passed.

None stopped.

We decided to try and hitchhike in any vehicle that passed other than huge trucks. Finally a man with a young child in the passenger seat stopped. He was very friendly, and offered to take us all the way across the border and into Mbabane.

Once back in Mbabane, we took the usual kombi to Ezulwini and went out for pizza. It was the best pizza I ever had.

I can now officially say that I have hitchhiked. Wawa says it is the way to get around in South Africa. It was a good experience, but I don't think I will do it again unless I need to. Overall I had a good day. My goal of getting a Swaziland flag was fulfilled, so I consider it a success.

Sorry I haven't posted lately. My computer seems to have lost the ability to connect to the internet, so I am on the desktop computer in the Lidwala office. I didn't tell you guys that the new building project is a house for a teacher, so we have been working on that lately. Snakes and cement thieves have been the only major obstacles. I will go back to work tomorrow.

Cheers.

The internet has been down for a week and just came back.

Hello everyone! The internet at Lidwala has been down again, so I am at a restaurant with internet to write this post.

The building we made is officially finished. There was a big ceremony for it on Thursday featuring Roland and the village leaders. Nosipho acted as a translator; to siSwati for Roland and English for the village leaders. The leader’s speech primarily involved yelling at the villagers for not being as helpful as they could.  

Over the weekend the trip to Mozambique began. Since Samantha left yesterday, James and I are currently the only volunteers here. Lidwala has never been so empty.

Lobamba, on the other hand, has never been so crowded. The reed dance is this week, and people from all over Southern Africa are coming to Lobamba to find spouses. Over the course of a day, the parts of Lobamba that are normally empty have been filled with temporary shops. The bus I took to work this morning was packed to the brim. To make more room, James and I moved to the back. The bus then proceeded to take a more direct route to Manzini, thus skipping the stop I get off at. As soon as we noticed the different route, we had to get off the bus. We weren’t really able to make it to the door until it had driven down the highway for a bit. Luckily when we got off, we were only about 500 meters from the usual bus stop, and we had no problem walking.

Whenever Swazis talk about the reed dance, they begin in a serious voice and then proceed to break out laughing. From what I understand at this point, it is a giant dance. Women do anything they can (yes, anything) to try and attract a husband. Men come from all over Swaziland to watch. That is it in a nutshell. Lobamba has become more crowded than ever before. I have only a vague idea of what to expect.

The building is done at Ekuzukekeni. Tomorrow we will begin building a home for a teacher at another local school.

Cheers!

Final touches

I know I haven’t posted in a while…sorry about that. I just didn’t get around to it. I think if I post every day it will just be repetitive, so I am going to post less frequently than before.

On Friday I bought some paint to cover over an awful and completely inaccurate map of Swaziland that World Challenge painted. As a geography enthusiast, seeing wrong maps makes me cringe. I bought some cream paint to match the walls, as well as some coloured paint.

On Saturday I went on All-Out’s highlights tour. It included the second largest rock in the world, the oldest mine in the world, zip lining, a glass factory, and the untimely death of my camera. We stayed overnight in an incredibly remote part of Swaziland, where it was very windy.

Yesterday we worked on the building site. I began to work with James, my new roommate from the UK. He will be here for two months, meaning he will go around the same time as me. Before coming to Swaziland he was volunteering in Thailand.

The building is essentially finished. Today the doors and windows were installed, and I began to paint a map of Africa with flags on the wall. On Thursday there will be a ceremony for its completion, with the special guests of Roland and the village elders.

I have a bit of a cold, but I am excited to go to work tomorrow. I think the map will be finished, as well as the rest of the building.

Tata!

Victoria Falls

I returned to Swaziland today. The road home was long, but fairly well paved. I spent last night at a friend of Nosipho's apartment in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. To get to Bulawayo from Victoria Falls we took a Kombi, which is not an easy task while carrying an entire bloody Marimba set. For a few extra dollars we were able to put them in the trailer. We arrived in Bulawayo at around 4:30 am. I spent the previous night at an old friend of Nosipho's in Victoria Falls, and every night before at a nice hostel called Shoestrings. I stayed on the Zimbabwe side for nearly the entire time, only crossing into Zambia for a functional ATM machine and an incredibly shady currency exchange.

I spent more time in Zimbabwe than I had planned. I expected to be back in Swaziland by Thursday or Friday, but the Marimba set was not yet complete. In a way I am glad that the Marimbas were so important to this side trip, because it made me feel that I wasn't totally slacking off from my volunteer work. Because we went to Zimbabwe, some of the schools in Swaziland will now have a music programme. That feels good.

I still had a chance to do the things I wanted to in Victoria Falls; mainly seeing them. I went by myself because Nosipho needed to yell at the Marimba guys for taking too long. It is interesting to walk to the falls, because you can see the smoke through the trees before you can actually see the falls themselves. It seems like a very thick fog, and all of a sudden the falls are there. They are also much less crowded than I expected.

I was also able to see some of "real Zimbabwe" which was good. I never like seeing only the touristy bits.

Swaziland feels like home now. When I returned to Swaziland from Zimbabwe it felt like I was returning home. I guess when I come back to the US it will be like going to double home.

At this point I am just rambling because I am tired. I should probably end the post now. Tata.

Crossing many a border.

I apologize that my post is once again incredibly delayed. I do have a lot to post about, but with limited access to a South African style outlet it has been difficult. I am currently in the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Today is 5 August. That means yesterday was 4 August, the day of many borders. But in order to understand that, you must understand what happened on 3 August. I will begin with that. We woke up in Botswana. Somewhere in Northern Botswana, Roland illegally passed a slow moving truck, and was pulled over by the police. We met them in the police station where they said the minimum fine was 1,000 Pula, or about 120 United States Dollars. After negotiating with them for about an hour, Roland talked them down to 400 Pula. It’s so nice that Botswana cops aren’t corrupt. If it was Mozambique they would have you open your wallet and fork over whatever you had.

We  drove through until we made it to the ferry to Zambia. The line of trucks at the ferry was kilometers long, and we were told that many truck drivers need to wait for up to three weeks to get across. Furthermore, the ferry that is based in Botswana was currently out of order, so only the Zambia-based ferry was running. The line of trucks was twice as long as usual. Apparently prostitutes complain when there is a smaller line of trucks, so I guess someone was happy.

Once we made it to the border, Roland figured that we would have enough time to meet up with some friends of his for lunch. They operate a hostel in the northern tip of Botswana. From their beautiful property, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and, of course, Botswana can be seen. They were incredibly friendly, and the lunch they made for us was wonderful.

We went back to the ferry. After going through Botswana exit customs, Roland decided to cross the border on an earlier ferry than the rest of us so he could begin Zambia’s annoying formalities for allowing a car into the country. Bob, Nosipho, and I waited in line with the car. That’s when it happened. The ferry made one last trip to the Botswana side, and then spent the night in Zambia. Roland was in Zambia with no way of getting back. Since he had all of the papers for the car, we could not meet him via Zimbabwe or Namibia. Furthermore, Nosipho is on a tight schedule as she is attempting to get instruments to begin a music programme in Swaziland. She needed to meet someone in Zimbabwe in the morning, meaning that she could not afford to spend another night in Botswana. Basically, we were stuck with a car that could not cross borders, and somebody who needed to cross a border. Not to mention Roland, who was stranded in Zambia for the night. Bob and I dropped Nosipho off at the Zimbabwe border and spent the night in Botswana.

Botswana needs to seriously consider closing their customs office before the ferry. Our group of four spent the night of 3 August in three different countries.

We crossed into Zambia on the first ferry that morning (6 AM), and Roland was waiting for us on the other side.  He had gotten most of the formalities figured out, and was surrounded by a circle of scammers telling him that he needed even more. Once I got my visa and Roland got third party insurance and extra reflectors for the car, we were off. The drive through Zambia was a beautiful one, with Elephants and Zebras visible from the car window. We arrived at the hostel in Zambia, and all I wanted to do was take a nap.

Nosipho came into Zambia at around 1:30. She arrived at the hostel, and said it would be much better for her if we could stay on the Zimbabwe side instead. The hostel in Zambia kindly gave me a full refund.

So that’s how I ended up in Zimbabwe. It is weird to use the United States dollar here. Last night a traditional Zimbabwean band came to the hostel and sang. Being the lover of African music that I am, I bought their CD. They were very happy, and let me take a photo with them.

Today I went white water rafting on the Zambezi, beginning right near the base of Victoria Falls. My only experience with white water rafting is from a Boy Scout trip in upstate Pennsylvania or something, so I didn’t expect much. It was only once I was in the raft when I learned that this course houses the number one toughest white water in the world. Yikes. The boat capsized twice, and both times I found myself under the boat and pulled down the rapids. Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience. I just swallowed about half of the Zambezi.

Zimbabwe is a nice country. Western news makes it seem like the most backwards country on earth with no development at all, but it doesn’t seem any worse here than Zambia or other countries in the area. People here are also much more hyped up about the elections than you would see in any dictatorship as bad as the news makes Zimbabwe look. Election posters are everywhere, meaning at least some people believe their vote actually counts.

I don’t know when I will leave Zimbabwe; probably Thursday or Friday. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the late post. 

On the road

I am writing this post from Palapye, Botswana. We drove for about 12 hours today through the beautiful countrysides of Swaziland, South Africa, and Botswana. The roads were good for the whole trip, besides an area with a lot of potholes just past the border in Botswana. The scenery is spectacular. Since Botswana has, by law, free range for all wildlife, it can be seen from the car in plain view. I am off to Livingstone, Zambia tomorrow.