So we just got back from a long weekend out in the country. On Friday, we left for the Drakensberg Mountains, which is north of Durban. We spent two nights in a camper’s lodge..so without electricity, but WITH plumbing, thank god. On Saturday we went hiking through the mountains. My friends and I spent 6 hours trekking through valleys until we reached a plateau that had the most amazing views of neighboring mountains and plateaus. One of the interesting things is that some mountains are really green and some are really brown, and the green and brown parts are literally separated by a line going down the mountains. While we were hiking, we also came across a band of baboons that were leering down at us from a ridge in the mountain. It was sooo cool, they were totally perplexed by us and were just checking us out. That is, until the big daddy baboon started glaring at us very menacingly and we decided to get out of there to avoid the soon-to-be monkey attack.
So on Sunday, we went to Impendle, a village in the middle of nowhere. It was so rural that people let their cows graze along the highways and you have to watch out when you’re driving so you don’t hit one of the millions of cows crossing the road.
We stayed with families in Impendle that had never had foreigners stay with them before. My friend Brianna and I stayed with a Gogo (grandma) that did not speak English and her two granddaughters, who did not really speak English either. So communication was very limited, but we still had a really good time. Every morning, our Gogo would wake us up with a tray of coffee at 6:30 and give us a basin of hot water to bathe in. For breakfast we each got like a potful of porridge-and porridge here is NOT oatmeal, it is this white goop made out of some sort of mashed starch. Gogo also had a couple cows, a bunch of sheep, a baby goat + mama, and a whole lot of chickens. We had electricity and running water, but no plumbing. So we had to use an outhouse that consisted of sheet metal walls roped together and a wooden seat with a bucket underneath. That was interesting.
While we were in Impendle, we shadowed a couple of women who are home-based carers in the community. They go to all the sick people’s houses in the village and bathe them and make sure that they are being taken care of by their families. They also offer comfort and support..a lot of it is religious support..and as someone who is not religious at all, I could completely understand how important it is for these women to pray and sing for their patients. Their singing and praying is so beautiful and uplifting..it’s really really emotional and amazing. One of the students took a video of the singing, hopefully i’ll be able to share it with all of you.
So anyway, now we’re back in Durban, and coming back here I had major culture shock with all of the modern stuff. I can’t even imagine how bad it’s going to be coming home to america.
by the way, i’d appreciate your posts and feedback to know if theres anything you want to know that im not telling you or to let me know what’s going on at home!
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