February 25, 2005

Hi Friends and Family.

It's been some time since our last written update. The last time we wrote, we were in Cape Town getting ready to embark on a drive from Cape Town to Durban along the beautiful coast of South Africa. Here are some of our adventures along the way!

Before departing, we decided to outfit our trusty Ford Ikon with all of the essential survival tools. We wandered through the local markets of Cape Town in search of an ice chest. We considered all options, from an expensive Coleman ice chest (didn't fit in the budget) to a large plastic bucket with a lid (didn't have any insulation). We finally settled on a modest grey ice chest from Pick-n-Pay. We purchased meat pies, a loaf of polony (don't ask), Ricoffey, marmite, leche juice, brie and a load of fruits and veg. And of course Castle Lager and Savannah Cider. We weren't traveling light. 4 backpacks, an ice chest and a food box pretty much packed out this car.

One of our early stops along the coast was Wilderness. This area is known for it's lush and untamed countryside and meandering rivers. We checked into our backpackers, Fairy Knowe, for the night. The accommodations were in the oldest farmhouse buildings still standing in the area. While the building looked quaint and was set in a beautiful garden, it was rife with mildew. And lighting the gas stoves in the communal kitchen proved to be a life threatening experience.

One morning on the way to Oudtshoorn we stopped by Dolphin Point, a scenic viewpoint, to check out the beautiful ocean and long stretch of beach. As we drove in and parked, a proud warrior in full leopard-skin garb greeted us. When Cindy stepped out of the car, she was greeted with "Oh, you are a strong and proud woman." Leah was greeted as "Princess" and kissed on the hand. We were enjoying our sharing of mutual philosophies on life when 2 large tour buses drove in. Unlike us, they were not amused with our warrior's jovial ganja-enhanced monologue. Not one of the retired Swedes cracked a smile. We, however, were left with these words of wisdom. "Don't smoke, don't drink alcohol. Eat only good African food and drink only good African Beer. And don't vote for George Bush." Hmmm.

Leah wanted to visit Oudtshoorn to relive some fond childhood memories of the Ostrich farms there. We stopped along the way and took pictures of Ostriches that had been partially plucked for their feathers. We even took a tour of an Ostrich Farm. Cindy committed her first social faux pas of the day when she accused a Canadian woman of pilfering the tip jar for the tour guides. The poor woman was just trying to leave a tip and make change for a large bill. So much for Cindy's future position as a U.S. Ambassador.

Knysna, a picturesque fishing village and budding tourist town, was our next stop along the road. We splurged for a nice meal here and had fantastic food at Knysna Oyster Company (after all we had been living on a spaghetti budget). After Cindy terrified Leah with her right-hand drive 'technique', a stop at Fat Suzie's for a Latte was in order to calm Leah's rattled nerves. An open-air market and craft fair was in full swing across the road. Cindy befriended a local artist, Peggy. Peggy had exiled to Zambia with her family as a child, only to return to South Africa after apartheid was abolished. She was bubbling enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit, and hope for the future. Her enthusiasm reiterated for us our desire to connect with local people and not just have an insular 'tourist' experience.

Stormsriver was our 'adventure' destination along the coast. We were equipped with harnesses, helmets and padded leather gloves. We took to the tree tops for a tree canopy tour on cable zip lines. If you're finding it hard to imagine, check out the pictures. Cindy felt the need for speed and flew into one of the platforms a bit too fast, but no permanent injury was sustained. Leah took the slower and more scenic tour so she could fully appreciate the 90 foot drop to the forest floor. Yikes!

In Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa's Huntington Beach, surf's up all day, every day. Billabong even has an outlet store there. We didn't partake in any surfing lessons; however, we were fortunate to get Xhosa language lessons from the local gas station attendant as he pumped our gas. "Ubomi Bumandi" is "Life is Beautiful".

We supplemented our grocery shopping by stopping at the local fruit and veggi stands. In Jeffery's Bay, Leah scored a giant pumpkin, a giant bag of potatoes, and a giant bag of onions for $4. We ate stir fry pumpkin, pumpkin curry, chicken and pumpkin, pumpkin and spaghetti, pumpkin and pumpkin. Pumpkin for days.

After checking out the backpacker's scene at Coffee Bay and being hit up hard by the local ganja dealer, we decided to move up coast to a higher grade of accommodation at Port St. Johns. Cindy located a cute little place called Gwenyth's Barn (a tree house accommodation). Gwenyth was a purple-haired ex-Capetonian bead and jewelry maker that welcomed us warmly to her tree house lodge. It was clean, cute and full of character.

We felt at home immediately and decided to spend some time exploring the Ponda people's wild coast. The next morning we were signed up for a locally run Ponda Pony ride. On our ride, we tasted real African beer and real African food. And had a real painful gallop along the sandy beach. Who knew galloping could hurt so bad! It looks so fun in the movies. Then Leah got real sick, so we had to upgrade our accommodations yet again for a couple of days until she got better. Bummer. A private bathroom for Leah and a swimming pool for Cindy.

At last we arrived in Durban, South Africa. It's a bustling, industrial beach city. Here we prepared for our next stint in the bush, got our "fashionable, bring us into the 21st century" haircuts, and took a quick look around the city. We watched enough Cricket at the Hippo Hide backpackers to finally grasp the elementary rules of the game. We also managed a walking tour of the colorful local markets, with their fruits and veg, traditional African healers, medicinal herbs (and animal parts), and festive custom-made Indian garments.

From Durban, we moved on to volunteer at Tembe Elephant Park, where we are now. It is located just on the border of Mozambique along the east coast of South Africa.

Shortly after we arrived, we were invited to attend the local Marula Festival. We watched the ceremonial blessing of the marula beer by the Tembe people's king, Nkosi Tembe. The beer is made from the marula tree fruit and can only be consumed once the ceremony has been completed. The maidens danced in honor of the king and queen, and ladies from the village were led in by the warriors. Marula beer was carted in by drums, Tupperware, and oil jugs for this festive occasion. Leah made friends with two toothless grandmas in the dancing circle. They joined arms and stamped their feet. The ground shook to the beat of the drums. What a great day!

As part of our volunteer work, we are filming wildlife at Tembe Elephant Park for the webcam (www.elecam.org). We have had some great encounters with the big elephants of Tembe on our game drives. One day we found ourselves sitting in our Toyota Land Cruiser just 15 feet from a big bull elephant. He happened to have tusks that were about 4 or 5 feet long. We have never sat so quietly and so still in our entire lives as we did during those moments. We watched him. He watched us. And after a few minutes the big tusker moved on to continue his browsing somewhere else. Yeah baby!

Also as part of our volunteer work here at Tembe, we have been introduced to two of the local rural schools: Esibonisweni and Asibuyeni. Both teach grades 1 to 7. Amazingly, the kids are up to age 20. Some of them start school quite late here due to financial circumstances at home. And their lessons don't seem to match up to the standards of the US. They do have books. All in English. Which is ok for grades 6 and 7, because by that age they have at least a grasp of English. But at the younger ages, they mostly speak Zulu. Leah and I taught with the aid of a teacher / translator.

Our first lesson was on geography. We did the full circuit, grades 1 to 7, at 2 schools. We taught about 1000 kids in all. We showed the kids a map of the world. Where we live. Where they live. Taught them the oceans and continents. Told them about
our house and family. Asked about theirs. Many of them have houses made of reeds. They wanted to know if we had chickens in our yard. Cindy showed them a family picture of Susie, Ken, Kaylee, Bethany and Jeremy under a tree. They loved it. They smiled and called them a 'beautiful family'. The kids are so curious about the USA. And fascinated by the similarities and differences. They asked loads of questions.

Our next lesson for grades 6 and 7 at the schools was English. We taught the kids about the format of a personal letter. And we had each of them write a letter to a student in the USA. What a challenge for them with English as their second language! Cindy's sister-in-law, Susie, has volunteered to pass the letters on to some teachers and students in the Lompoc area. Hopefully an ongoing pen-pal program will grow out of it. You wouldn't believe how excited the kids and teachers are at the prospect of receiving a letter from the USA!

One of the teachers at Asibuyeni School is more American than us. In discussions with Mr. Bongani Joseph Nkosi, we discovered that President George W. Bush had a strong supporter in Kwazulu Natal. The others teachers went on to tease him because he supposedly flies an American flag in front of his reed hut. Leah suggested that he write a letter to GW. So we are now in possession of a 2 page official document, accompanied by family photos, which we are to post to Mr. Nkosi's favorite president.

Imagine our surprise as we were driving near Tembe Elephant Park one day, and we saw a bunch of kids playing basketball on a nice outdoor court, hoops and all. A giant sign proclaimed www.zuluhoops.org! Boys and girls were playing a virtually unknown game in Africa with passion and pride. It turns out that a guy from Los Angeles started a basketball program here in order to give the kids at Nsalamanga School something constructive to do after school. And it has worked. These kids were not just casually shooting hoops. They had structured drills running. Not only that, but the kids themselves are entirely in charge of the program. They have referees, coaches, teams and practice schedules, as well as a president of the basketball organization.

We approached Jubilee, the principal of Esibonisweni School about the possibility of doing a similar program at his school. He was enthusiastic and his staff quickly jumped on board. The next thing we knew, we were on a field trip to Nsalamanga School for a basketball demo for Jubilee, his staff and some of the students. We needed to ignite a spark of enthusiasm in the crowd to carry them forward if this project was ever to take off. Cindy jumped into the fray and was shooting hoops with some of the girls. Leah whooped it up on the sidelines during the demo game and talked it up with the boys. As of now, it looks like there is a warm ember that might ignite.

Well that's it for now. Hope you are enjoying our journey as much as we are.

Cindy and Leah

Life is Beautiful!
Ubomi Bumandi (Xhosa)
Yinhle Impilo (Zulu)