Sunday sunset

Mostly Saturday...

Bead mamas on the beach
My new friend Sakiwho
The boys with a big crab they caught
Sylvia and Pretty, after singing for me (Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika)
Bomvu at night with a good drumming cirlce

At Raptor's View

Kiara and Pok playing
Troy and Kobus in the bar
The girls entertaining themselves
Mr Spud the artist at work, doing my unfortunate sketch

To 'Raptor's view'

A little section of the view from 'Raptor's view' bar
Pok, the little girl from 'Raptor's'
On the deck at Raptor's
On the bakkie, heading for Raptor's

On the way to Raptor's

030711, Sunday rest day

Slept late today, really enjoyed the morning sun shining through the window.  It’s slightly windy so I don’t really feeling like going outside too much.  Just having a really relaxing Sunday.  Milli’s sitting outside reading her Stieg Larsson. 

Made a nice fire yesterday and braaied some tjops and wors from Umthatha, let’s call it my monthly meat intake.  I haven’t made too many fires myself yet, but that was quite a good one, just charred the braaibroodjies a little bit on the one side but nothing serious. 

Friday turned out to be a nice and interesting day.  Just wanted to take Milli around a little bit to get a feel for her surroundings, so we took the shortcut, scenic route via the beach and river to get to the other side.  There weren’t many beading ladies and it seems that Snooks and Asefika have gone somewhere for the holiday time.  Not sure when they’ll be back. 

We had to drop off some medicine for the owner of ‘Raptor’s view’ (a place with a superbly amazing view over some hills stretching into the ocean, some kilometers outside Cofee Bay, “Hole in the wall” direction ….really to be recommended for a visit!).  So we went to the three guys, Jurgen, Kobus and Troy, at Gogo’s place (where I stayed for the 1^st 2 weeks- they are currently setting up a bit of a fish&chips restaurant there).  They made us some coffee and said we could come with in the bakkie to go visit ‘Raptor’s’.  It was a splendid idea.  We gave a lift to some other kids (a lot of them dressed in red- a great color to wear in the Transkei, it juxtaposes nicely with the green hills) on their way into that direction and enjoyed the wonderful views along the way.  Some of the road runs very closely along the cliffs that drop off into the ocean.  Very much like the cliffs in Ireland.

At ‘Raptor’s’ we were warmly received by Spud and his wife Delene and made to feel very welcome on their deck enjoying the amazing view.  As Jurgen says, it’s a place where you can literally see the roundness of the earth.

 I had a brandy and coke and sat with Spud in his bar with a view and really wanted to take a picture of this character of a man.  Later when I asked his permission he said fine, but only if he can do a sketch of me too.  So we had a deal.  I took a photo, which wasn’t brilliant and tried to sit still for him to sketch me.  Apparently I didn’t sit very still, cause he was very unhappy with the sketch he made and destroyed it afterwards.  I thought that I really tried to sit still but maybe the 180 degree view in front of me was a bit distracting…  Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity to improve on our art.

In the evening we went out to Bomvu Backpackers where they were having a nice big drum-circle, with even the backpackers staying there joining in.  I took my pois with, so had a good time twirling them around on the drum beats…

Yesterday not too much happened, drove to Ngcwanguba to get gas, went to the beach for a bit and met Sylvia and Pretty, who sang the National Anthem for me, then young Sakiwho who took us up a hill to see yet another stunning view of the breaking waves, then came back and started the fire… 

010711, Friday, Christmas in July!!!

Feels like Christmas morning, Santa came and dropped off some amazing gifts for the kids...!

Thank you soooo much Nicoletta and Chris!!!! What awesome gifts, these are going to make a lot of differences in the kids lives here!!  I'm so especially happy for the Beginner's grammar and Reader books and the ABC sheet and the Handwriting Penpals book!  And I'll check out all those CDs.... It's all great!!!  Much love to everybody at EC Language school in Cape Town!  Wish you could all come over and we could start a little school here...

Picked up Milli from Umthatha yesterday afternoon, still in good spirits despite 21 hours on the bus.  And when we got home we discovered that there was no water in the taps...again!  So, Milli had her first experience of washing in the tub (Luckily I had some water saved in a 5litre bottle after the last time that we didn't have water).  After a good night's rest, we had some omelettes with spinach and cheese, then tackled those gift parcels.  Milli also brought a whole lot of Emma's old clothes and I think Snooks and Asefika are also going to have another Christmas today...

Oh, Milli wants me to say that she met Koos this morning.  Koos is the little pet monkey that belongs to the people who run the campsite here.  He tried to follow her into the shower this morning (Yes, thank God the water is back on!) and she chased him away with the broom...

Okay, we have to get going now, the days are too short!

280611, Tuesday, A good day for washing. Beautiful sunshine and no wind.

Moses and Lukholo outside their house
The bright room inside Moses and Lukholo's house
The tap closest to the boys' house.  It sometimes goes dry for about 2 weeks at a time...
In Ninti's room

After the washing, Moses and Lukholo came to fetch me and took me to see their house in the hills.  (My students whose parents died  some years ago and they are basically fending for themselves)  We drove in my car and I’m guessing that walking would take an hour to an hour 1/2 one-way.  In the mornings they walk to school and in the afternoon they walk to town and later back home again.  That’s a lot of walking.  For me that would surely be way too much.  And I’m the kind of person who enjoys walking.

They have  beautiful surroundings where they live, quite remote with the blue ocean behind distant hills.  Ninti stays in a separate building a little walk from the other guys.  He shares this building with a girl who lives on the other side of a half built mud wall.  Not extremely private.  The only furniture he has is a bed and a broken plastic chair.  There is no kitchen or bathroom in this picture.  He has a little paraffin lamp.  When these guys want to cook any sort of food it would happen outside over a fire in the only pot they own.

The younger guys stay together in another building consisting of 2 rooms.  Only in the first room, which has the entrance, is anything visible.  A bed, an old chest, a little wooden ‘bankie’.   

 In the other room it is impossible to see your hand in front of your eyes, even in broad daylight.  There is a double bed and I asked Moses if he isn’t scared that there may be a snake and he wouldn’t even see it.  He says that once he heard a noise under a bed and when he shone a torch under the bed, it was indeed a snake that had just caught a mouse…

Sometimes when I’m alone in my caravan I wonder if I’m just crazy or am I even really supposed to be here and why.  When I went with these guys today, it feels like maybe that’s why, if only to be a witness to their lives and the hardships they endure.  When I see their living conditions, I really feel like I want to do something about it, although I’m not sure how.  It’s not like I’m loaded with money.  But I think of those American programs where they do those house make-overs and I try to imagine what they could do for these guys.  I wish I could build them just a little house with windows that let some light in and a little kitchen and a little bathroom and clean linen and a comfortable chair to sit in and read a bit. 

Milli will be on her way here by bus tomorrow!