Archive for September, 2007
Much ado about very little
Well, so far the ‘Durban experience’ has been a total washout.
Day 1: The African Art Centre wasn’t where it was supposed to be. After searching a street both ways (took me an hour to find any street numbers) someone told me it had moved over a year ago. I did find it by happenstance the next day, but . . .
The Durban Art Gallery at City Hall – 3 of 4 galleries closed for renovation. And they don’t even tell you until you walk up the 2 long flights of stairs.
The BAC Centre – in the midst of winding down. It took me 2 hrs to find it, as you have to cross the railway tracks and then find your way along a fenced area – and each person I spoke to gave me different directions. Only one craft shop and one studio of artists, and the cafe at which I hoped to hear some music and have some of their famous bread pudding was gone and a beer bar is there now.
Day 2: The Kwa Muhle (Apartheid) Museum is closed, no one knows why or for how long.
The Botanical Gardens were nice, though very poorly kept up. Durban residents say that all the city’s money is going to change street names right now. That’s their priority. But there was a fairly nice display of orchids, a great fern garden, and a “sensory garden” where they have a map at the entrance of things to smell, touch, hear etc. Saw some neat birds and a mom monkey with her baby on her lap, grooming him. Some of the trees there are pretty amazing too, but what I liked best was all the wedding parties that were there getting photos. The wedding outfits were really colourful, and the little flower girls were just too cute for words.
The iscathemiya music I’d come to Durban especially to hear didn’t get heard. No one seemed to be able to find it, even the licensed guides. Dan Patlansky was here somewhere in town starting his tour for his new album, and couldn’t find him either. There doesn’t seem to be a paper here like NOW that lists all the happenings, and no on seems to know where anything is if you ask about a theatre or other venue.
The one music festival I could find was at some dam way out of town and it would have cost a packet to get me there and the music featured wasn’t especially appealing, so I’m feeling quite grumpy today. It seems as if nothing much I came here for actually got done, but I walked and walked until my legs were falling off trying to find stuff.
Not to mention that it has rained almost all week (I’m *really* grumpy) and even if it wasn’t actually raining, it was threatening and no sun – just grey and dismal, which I hear is very unlike Durban. BAH!!
I have to be at the bus station at 6 a.m. tomorrow to pick up my ticket for my 7 a.m. trip to Grahamstown. Had to go with City-to-City bus as Greyhound and Translux were both full. I didn’t know it was a holiday here with lots of travel going on. AND I didn’t know that the trip to Grahamstown takes over 12 hours.
The urge to just pack up and come home is almost overwhelming. I know though that if I do, I’ll always wonder what else I might have experienced that would be wonderful, so I’ll stay and finish what I started. Just have to hang in and see what happens next.
Thanks for the memories . . .
and the birthday wishes.
Celebrated my birthday with a take-away dinner and a small bottle of wine which was quite nice. Then I watched the SA version of that star-contest (boy I forget everything about TV) program – and a movie called High School Musical, I think, which Kate would really like, I think. I love musicals, so it’s all good.
More later on the day yesterday, if I get a chance.
Gotta run . . . .
Well, the new B&B is really nice. Clean and quiet and also convenient to everything. I’m taking some Mynah busses – that’s the city bus – and some Mozzie taxis, depending on where I want to go.
Yesterday I bought some new undies to replace a couple sets that got shredded in the bush laundry, and then went to see the Umgeni River Bird Park. What a wonderful place that was. They had scores of birds there that I’ve never even heard of, and have breeding programs for some endangered species. Quite a few of the birds are out in the open, and I fell in love with a (macaw) guy named Rah. He was sitting on a tree by the path and I stopped to talk to him. He came creeping down the tree and then put out his leg towards me, opening and closing his foot. It seemed he wanted me to pick him up, so I did and we had a wonderful snuggle. He decided he had adopted me, and wouldn’t get off afterwards – a common problem with birds – so the staff had to come and take him off me. It was great!
Did you know that one of the vultures routinely flies at 37 THOUSAND feet!! and sometimes collides with big passenger aircraft. His eyes are good enough that he can read a newspaper at 7 km. All sorts of amazing birds.
Today I’m doing the African Art Centre, the Durban Art Gallery, and the Bartle Arts Trust (BAT) Centre.
Gotta run, tight schedule and computer time running out . . .
Home again
Well, I’m at my new place, and it seems wonderful! The spa time was definitely a mixed experience, and I’m not too happy about it at all.
The spa time itself was fine. Irene, the woman who did my wrap and massage, really knew her job and did it well, so I was happy with that. The room I had was really not up to scratch, with so much air freshener and various perfumey stuff that you just choked when you walked in. I spent most of the first night on the bench in the courtyard. The sink was the size you generally see in a train, so no chance of washing out any clothes, unless you wanted to do it one sock at a time.
The worst part was that though I had sent them the list of food and product allergies (as required by law, both here and in Canada) no one seemed to take any notice of it. The soup I had for lunch the first day was delicious, but obviously contained something with capsaicin, and I spent a lot of time in the “library” because of it. This after being asked what I wanted for lunch, and we settled on the SA standard, cheese and tomato sandwiches. I told them how it affected me, and despite the seeming contrition and the promise to look at my lists, what did I get for lunch again yesterday?? THE SAME SOUP!!
The mattress had to be 25 years old and was worse to sleep on than the camp beds at the park. It was cold, and I froze my bum off. I know that SA law says they can turn the heaters off at the end of July, but considering the temperature and the rain, coupled with the price I was paying for the room – more expensive by far than any other room on my whole trip – they could have upped a heater!
The blanket (and the room’s floor) were full of twigs and bits from trees and so on. I was given a room with a nice private courtyard – I thought. I turned out to be the kitchen courtyard too, and at 6 a.m. it started. Staff coming to work and unlocking gates with a clang. Kitchen cleaning, courtyard cleaning, someone sawing (!!) something. No way to get a lick of sleep – especially as I had my door open to let out the perfume as much as possible. I was really glad to get out of there.
The place I am now seems much nicer. The room is big and clean. The house, like so many here in Durban, is built up a hill, so has many levels.
It rained again, so I didn’t go out for fish as I had wanted, but ordered in pizza. Whole different system for that here, and it has caused some commotion. Never mind I have trouble understanding the SA accent on the phone – or even in person sometimes.
Anyway, I’m taking up the office here, so will keep this short. Am trying to figure out how to download pics here, but not having any luck so far.
Keep well, y’all.
Cold and wet
That’s how it’s been the past couple of days. Not much fun for getting out and about, but I had my spa day today so not worried too much. Tomorrow I move to MyThai, and I feel almost civilized again.
The trip down from the park to Durban was kind of sad – I’ll miss a lot of folks up there for sure. But new adventures await, so will not dwell on the past, but keep looking forward.
Durban is a very beautiful city, set on many hills. This area of S Africa is known as 10,000 hills, and I think they don’t exagerrate. This is the heart of the old Zulu Kingdom. The folks where I was before, up north, call themselves Zulu, but in reality they are Tsonga. I’m not surewhat the story is, I’ve been told two versions. Maybe both are partly true. One is that they were ‘annexed’ into the Zulu Kingdom and forbidden to speak Tsonga for about 30 years, so it has been all but lost. The other story I heard was that when the men from that area went to work in the mines, the people who hire the workers had a preference for Zulu employees, as they were perceived as being better workers than anyone else. So the men tried to pass as Zulu so they could get jobs. They learned to speak Zulu and didn’t speak their own language for so long, as they didn’t get home much – maybe years would pass between visits – so now only a few old women still speak the baTsonga language.
Whatever the situation, it’s sad. Languages and cultures are dying out all over the world and we can only all be less when part of the human race passes away.
Can’t attach my camera to this computer, so no pics again today.
I have been really upset that the last day at the camp, when I was packing, everyone who went out on the lion monitoring saw two bigs males sitting with two females an the 3 cubs of one of them. I really, really wanted to see the cubs.
Also, MT, I looked up the derivation on ‘boondocks’ as you had wondered if that word was derived from the word use here, bundu. Boondocks (boonies) is derived from the Malay ‘bundak’, and as there was a large Malay emigration into this part of SA, wouldn’t be surprised if bundu was also derived from the Malay.
Some days I am just a fount of useless information, eh?
Aw-w-w-w nuts
Things have just generally gone really African on me today, so unlikely any good stories until next time I get to a computer.
It is blinking hot here and can’t get done what I need to because of various other glitches.
ttyl,
Catching up
Yep, I’m still here. Thanks to some computer gremlin and/or the blasted unreliable SAfrican power grid, the nice long update and pics I posted last night blinked and disappeared just before I was about to publish it. I was too tired and fed up to do it over at that point.
So – the school party was a hit. Music (including some numbers for the teeny-tinies), cookies and cool-drinks were all appreciated. I left the CD with them for future festivities but didn’t stay long, just an hour and a half, as the kids are writing exams and I didn’t want to throw them off schedule too much.
One thing is different though. At a Canadian party, all the kids would be up dancing at once. That’ll never happen at a Zulu party. The music starts, a circle forms and everyone sings and/or claps, and one or two at a time dance in the centre, showing off their best moves.
I was sad to leave, and hope that I have contributed something constructive to the school and that they will remember me in a positive way.
Next – I didn’t get to go to the viewing platform. A mother lion and her three cubs were located by GPS before we went in on the path, and she would have tried to kill us all to protect her cubs. She wouldn’t be moving until sundown at least, so we were skunked.
Oscar wouldn’t even let us get out of the car, since if she got our scent and came at us, he would have to shoot her, and then have to shoot the cubs so they didn’t starve. As there is no shortage of lions here, no societies to take in strays or orphans.
We spent the day with Oscar and Bongani driving around to the various hides and pans and saw quite a few interesting things. At Ponweni hide, there was one big old buffalo laying in the mud and relaxing when we got there. Shortly a huge herd of 115 more came dawdling and bellowing their way down to the mud and water. The old guy took exception to the noisy young intruders and faced off with the leaders, but as he was severely outnumbered, he eventually just walked off.
But then a huge old elephant came wandering down, and he had an attitude. That was “Everyone outta my way”. If the buffalo didn’t move quickly enough to suit him, he would snort and shake his head so his ears flapped so hard you could hear it far away. They moved quickly then.
The past couple days (today I went lion monitoring, but saw no lions) I’ve seen hornbills, francolins, suni (3, and they’re rarely seen – little antelope no bigger than a large house cat), and plenty of elephants, as well as giraffe, wooly necked storks, rhino and reed bucks. And in the mist this morning, an astonishing variety of spider webs. Talk about amazing architecture.
As we came down one of the roads, a small elephant walked out of the bush and walked down the road in front of us. Just as he got a bit further away, another, larger elephant came out and followed him. We had to wait of course, until they were off the road before we could continue.
Yesterday, a cute “little” guy called Simon learned how to climb up on the termite mounds to get at the tasty branches of the trees that grow there. Did you know that a termite mound is properly called a termitarium?
And a very touching scene at the same pan (Mfugeni) when a large elephant arrived and approached one of the very young bulls. He took his trunk and touched the little guy on the forehead, then the two of them twined their trunks around each others and they just stood like that for a few minutes. (OK you English teachers – should ‘others’ take an apostrophe? And before the s or after it?) It was one of the best “Aww-w-w-w moments” I’ve had here.
Tomorrow is packing and tidying up, then Monday off to Durban for a couple days at African Sensations Spa before I carry on to MyThai and my planned sightseeing. Gonna get all this sand and dust pounded and soaked out of me.
I probably won’t have a computer there, and am not sure if I will be able to download any more pictures as I move around. I’ll try to get what I have on disc so I can access that anyway, if there’s nothing I can do to get the new stuff up.
Early night
We just finished (another) braai, and I’m not going to write much tonight, since I have to be up early. Oscar is taking the new voluinteer Jim, and me, to a platform 30 or more feet up in a tree to watch wildlife – hippos and so on – at another water hole.
We have to walk in on the elephant path so Oscar has to carry a jeezly big rifle, and we may have to stay there in the heat for the whole day if the path doesn’t clear for us to get out.
Wish me luck. This is going way beyond for me, but it’s an experience I don’t want to miss, no matter how awful some of it might be . . .
I am *so, so* tired!
Oh boy! It’s been a long while since I’ve spent the majority of the day with a bunch of grade 7 and 8 students. Where do they get the energy? I am going to sleep well tonight, no matter if the roof falls in.
Mandla was absolutely wonderful with the kids, explaining food chains and why the sand forest was important and all sorts of other things that they hadn’t really grasped properly. We spent an hour and a half at the hide, and the kids were fascinated by the elephants and various birds and antelope that they saw. Then we went to the picnic area and started our fire and he gave more instruction while the fire burned down.
Then, since MT clued me in to asking what the Zulu name was that the kids would have been calling me, I told them no food until someone ‘fessed up. They steadfastly maintained that they had always called me Makhokho as I had asked them to, since Marilyn is practically unpronouncable for a Zulu. It seems to be the sequence of the consonants that gives them trouble.
Now, I don’t believe that for a minute. Have you ever known a class of kids that age that didn’t have an apt and rather rude name for every teacher? But they were obviously so uncomfortable about the subject (makes me suspect the name must have been an especially good one) that Mandla relented and asked them to pick one for me then. They decided on Gugu – pronounced more like Koko – which means Precious. That’s really heartwarming, and didn’t *seem* to be tongue-in-cheek, but my kids might say that they had slightly misread my personality <G>
Anyway, we ate boerevers on buns, had juice and cookies, and every tummy was full. The kids sang my favourite Zulu gospel song for me – Siyahamba – and they were so good it made the hair stand up on my arms! Then they sang another song I wasn’t familiar with, but it was wonderful too. More video you’ll have to wait for.
We came home by the long route, and I finally got a picture of a kudu, though a small one, and a crested hornbill, which I’ve been trying to do since I got here. Both of those just take off before I get close enough usually. So it was a good day that way.
While we were at the hide, 3 of the 7 bull elephants there decided to show of their masculine charms, if you know what I mean. The girls were in stitches, and the boys adopted very disapproving faces about the girls’ behaviour. It was just hilarious.
Also, I had picked out one of the papers as being so much better than the others, that I decided to award a special prize to that student. I had a couple of small gel pens with brightly coloured ink to give away. As I haven’t memorized anyone’s name – I have enough trouble pronouncing most of them so that they know who I’m talking to, and there’s 8 grades of that – I wasn’t sure which student it would be that matched the name. I was really pleased when it turned out to be one of the older returning students. As I remember, she’s 20 and just come back to school after dropping out some years ago.
Tomorrow is the big party at the school. I’m taking the music, and the teacher is bringing his DVD player and the principal is going to get some petrol for the generator, so it should be loud and lovely – but I’d better get some sleep tonight <G>
Sweet dreams everyone.
