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.
