ill :(

I write this under the influence of several potent pain-killers... so apologies for any lack of coherence!

Not wanting to appear a hypochondriac, I was hesitant about visiting the Dr today when I've been battling a mega-headache and fever for the past couple of days. But HJ persuaded me to go... (in her role as 'substitute mum'!). Probably good job that she did.

And so I'm fighting an infection, possibly a bite gone wrong, possibly tick-bite fever... Time will tell, but I've been signed off work for a few days (interesting concept of being 'off' work when I live 2 seconds from my office) and I'm on a lovely concoction of dyclofenac (an old friend) and something called codoxol (although I've just discovered that it had caffeine in it, which I've been avoiding for the past 5 years so that's me probably not sleeping tonight!)... in any case, I'm fairly happy and fairly out of it right now so an evening sitting in my chair is looming...

Opinions vary as to whether I could have Tick-bite fever. Apparently it's very nasty and would nearly kill me (one source) or I might just get a headache and fever (another source). All the South Africans here blame it on the fact that Brits aren't used to the local bugs and so go down quicker and for longer than them. At least I'll have time to blog and catch up on emails (apologies if you've sent me one and not had a reply yet!) That's if I can stay awake!!!

hot

It's too hot now. This is not funny anymore....

Apparently it gets even hotter in February but I'm am being totally wiped out by the heat. I don't know if it's that or just a build up of working 12 days then only having 2.5 days off, or if I'm ill or something, but I definitely am lacking in energy and enthusiasm right now... I've just had a great weekend off, but despite sleeping loads I've started this week feeling worse than I have before! not good, please pray for energy...

Update on the kitten - I decided that I'll be travelling too much this year to look after it properly, and conveniently enough a lady appeared on Friday morning who took her off to a lovely big house in Hillcrest with kids to look after her and everything, so that's one less thing to worry about... Kitten fostering is much more my style...

I will write more when I get chance...

Goodbyes and hellos

It's been a funny week. Very busy again with lots of different projects to manage. Very quiet around site now the kids have gone back to school.

On Monday night a small group of us headed out for a final meal with Josh (pictured on the right of Matthias) before he headed back to the UK on Wed. There's an Italian restaurant chain called 'Primi Khaya' which he loved and so we went there.

In a mere 6 weeks, Josh managed to fire a passion for rugby into the boys at GGA, he brought kit and enthusiasm from Warwick School. He also levelled a whole area of land and created a tennis court, basketball, netball and volleyball courts and also got official rugby posts and soccer nets. In addition to that he designed and arranged for special posts to be built to be multi-functional for basketball, netball, tennis and volleyball nets. They are quite amazing and maybe will be the next big thing in sport! In his spare time he managed to jump off Oribi Gorge with a bungee and out of a plane to skydive over Durban, catch a zebra being eaten by 12 lions on camera and create the perfect pizza combo at Primi Khaya.

All in all, a successful time. He will be missed. He'll be back.

But a new arrival has taken up my evenings now in the form of Thembalina, a mixed race kitten (tabby and ginger). Three kittens were dumped on the wire fence outside preschool this morning and were rescued by the teachers. We managed to give one away to a parent whose own cat had recently died. One of our teachers took one and that left little Thembalina who makes up for the fact that Tubbles was merely with tapeworm rather than with child.

My original plan with the original (yet non-existent) kittens was to introduce the children at GGA to them so that they learn about how cats grow and behave and learn to respect them. Plus the kitten will grow to love children if exposed to them enough, in a safe way where they are not terrified. So Thembalina will fill this role nicely.

She's about 4 weeks old, so too young to go outside. I'm keeping her in until I can get her to a vet for a checkup. Then when she's big enough we'll venture to the playground and find those eager boys who want to look after her. Kittens are supposed to sleep 16 hours a day, I hope she doesn't decide to play in the middle of the night, she's already scratched me stupid... Hmm, some training will be required... After 2 hours of manic racing round, she's currently asleep on my lap. As she's about the length of my hand, she looks teeny next to the mighty and rotund Tubbles, who wasn't too impressed about this little upstart moving in on her territory. A lot of hissing and arching of backs has given way to a bit of growling. Give them a few days, they'll be fine. I hope. Thembalina is a mixed-race name for a mixed-race cat... Themba means 'hope' in Zulu and '-lina' is Italian for 'little'. But it also sounds a lot like Thumbelina, who was tiny too.

It's my weekend off tomorrow and I'm going to take a short break this time to somewhere nearby. That way I can make it to church on Sunday. Going to stay in a guesthouse that looks like it's been taken straight out of Stratford and placed in the Midlands Meander village of Hilton. Mock Tudor, est.1938 (authentic Tudor then?!?!) . The thing about working for nearly 2 weeks without a break is that by this point I am nearly always verging on totally exhausted and it takes me the whole weekend to recover and relax! These past 2 weeks have been long and particularly stressful, although I can't really pinpoint exactly why... I'll be writing my next newsletter this weekend too, so look out for that next week.

my door step...

This is what I have to negotiate to get into my house...

They are best friends really.

memories of smooth roads...

When I get back to the UK I'm going to be pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of the road surfaces. As my Dad is into building good roads (check out Warwickshire for the sheer quality!), I'm looking forward to letting him experience the African-style road systems in a few months when the great family visit occurs.
The N3 is great, smooth, fast (except when there's an accident involving some truck driver asleep at the wheel, or in common cases of fog) and efficient. There are even convenient passing places at appropriate moments. It's great.
But to get to GGA you have to come off the wonder road that is the N3 and get on a minor road.
There's not too many potholes on this road, but at one corner, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I think my tyre has burst as the car shudders terribly and shifts slightly. It's just the road. I can't explain how or why.
And then to get up to GGA itself you have to come off the tar roads and go on a dusty track which I am now used to and so I can confidently dodge the biggest pot holes, but the dust that is blown up by passing vehicles is incredible. And when it rains, it's 2.5km of mud! Lovely.
To get to meet my friends in neighbouring Sankontshe valley, I have a quick route (when it's dry) and a long route (via the tar road, with only one major hairpin bend with sharp precipice to the left) That and about 20 speed bumps. South African road authorities love their speed humps, of all shapes and sizes. On one road I regularly drive there are no less than 10 speed humps all together in one place...

Yesterday I had to visit various people in Swayimane Valley. It's only about 20 km away, but to get there you have to drive along the ridge and down through the Valley of Kwa Ximba, along the river Dusi valley and up another mountain, then turn right at Nagle Dam and round another cliff to finally reach the start of Swayimane. It takes me about 1 hour to drive.
Crazy, but beautiful. Especially when the sun is out. There are no real junctions, just the odd cow or goat sitting in the road to slow you down.
The other thing is that no-one has road names, this is a farming community. People refer to places as to where they are near. I wanted to visit our preschool in this valley, to get there involved turning off the main road onto a dusty track, negotiating a herd of cattle and driving over a field to avoid serious muddage, before eventually stopping to ask for directions as we didn't know whether we needed to go along a muddy track or down a muddy track to the left.
But we got there in the end.
I was glad I'd taken Smilo with me, as everyone I had to see couldn't communicate in English and he had to do all the talking and interpret for me. I'm progessing with my Zulu and can now discern what the topic of conversation is, but still not really enough to contribute majorly to the conversation. Anyway, Swayimane is his home valley, so he knows it like the back of his hand, which was useful as we had some fairly major tracks to drive over to get to the houses we needed to visit.
As some of the GGA were re-integrated back into their communities in December, we had to deliver a couple of things to several children. The kids themselves were at school, but it was interesting to see what is now 'home' for them.
We also visited the fifth, and final (for the moment) preschool that GGA supports. We've just built a new building for the lady who runs it. But it's still literally a little building in the middle of a field. They still need water and electricity and then a toilet. The kids weren't back yet, but the teacher was encouraged by our visit...
But my car is still holding up despite the gruelling tracks I take it on. I knew I should have got a 4x4... My next car will be a Toyota Hilux (if I stay here long enough) - 'virtually indestructable' as one of my Jaguar friends once claimed... we'll just see...

Experiences of a Zulu Wedding

Here in Africa, 'Bantu time' means that you can turn up a couple of hours late for an event and find it's still not kicked off.

Our plan failed dismally yesterday as we hadn't planned on there being a funeral in the same church as the wedding we were going to, meaning that for once the service ran exactly to time...

Thus my impressions of the ceremony of a Zulu wedding are non-existant, as I was driving in the gate of the churchyard as the bridal party was walking out of church!

BUT, all was not lost! We headed for the reception (which usually lasts 2 days) and made that in good time.

The happy couple were friends of Smilo (my boyfriend!) and he had been invited to sing at the reception. So me, Vincent (guitarist) and Josh (English rugby captain, not 'England' rugby captain, yet!) went along for support.

I'm still not sure what to make of the reception that we get when we go to the valley. The guests and the family were overjoyed to see us and invited us into the house to sit in the best seats. Everyone wanted to come and shake our hands and we were offered whatever we wanted to drink. During the meal we were given seats near the top table and I'm sure that the video camera was pointing our direction every time I looked! It's kind of embarrassing as we don't feel any different, we're just white. However most people who talked to us were really pleased that we'd come and told us that a lot of white people don't come to talk to them but that it is good to have reconciliation. As we tried to leave we had to say goodbye to almost everyone. I now understand what Jude must feel like...

Obviously, this being a wedding, as the reception continued the conversations became slightly more difficult to follow as they became more alcohol-inspired (although not from us, I was driving!) and we left at just the right time, as the merriment was going to continue long into the night. They say that Zulu men fight majorly over women. One guy was telling me all sorts about his life, he was interupted by another who wanted to talk to me and it nearly turned nasty... But my boys were not far away so I didn't feel threatened. But it was good not to stay too late in any case!

I managed to predict correctly the meal though. The classic Zulu special meal of beef curry (do we have beef curry in the UK?) and rice, spicy bean salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, mashed butternut squash and salad followed by fruit in custard and ice-cream. It was all quite delicious. The dessert on our table was accompanied by a large bottle of smirnoff and 5 bottles of beer, but I think that's because there were a lot of men there!

Smilo and Vincent performed as the cake was being cut and got their usual response of screams from the women and cheers from the men. Watch out for them, they are going to be big one day soon. If any music industry people are reading this and want to sign the next big thing in South African soul, get in touch! ;) We have demo CDs and a full CD out soon.

The little girl with the beautiful smile in the bottom middle picture fell for Josh big-time! But I don't think his girlfriend should worry if she ever reads this!

From what we saw, it seems Zulu weddings are quite relaxed affairs, we ate in a marquee in the back garden of their house, but about twice the number of people in the tent were outside the tent eating and drinking and generally celebrating. Apparently you can just turn up at these events and you'll be made welcome (forget about wedding planners and seating plans) ...

I'm a bit sad we didn't get to see more of it really, but anyway, it was a good day and everyone looked beautiful!

comments...

Sorry if you like to leave comments on my blog but I've had to block all comments due to some unpleasant and offensive messages from an extremely racist blogger who chose to abuse the system.

My friends know where to find me should they wish to comment on anything...

cat

So it turns out I've been conned by a cat!

The beautiful ginger tabby that I've been refering to as Cleo for the past few weeks and feeding premium kitten food so that she'll keep healthy, and generally being very nice to, is in fact NOT Cleo (nice sophisticated name for a cat) but in fact is TUBBLES (not so sophisticated... ;( )

And she's not pregnant either, she's just fat.

ah well... she's still cute and now I don't have to worry about buying a litter tray...

Back to Work!

After all the festive fun of Christmas and New Year, this week saw the return to work for the office staff and it was back to business! The first few days back have been an incredibly positive experience for all of us, even if we are still rushed off our feet in organizing things. A couple from the UK, Ian and Kirsty, have taken over as Volunteer Co-ordinators and are already ‘co-ordinating’ things excellently, this takes a little pressure off me and I’ve moved offices (yet again!) this time back into the office I was in when I arrived, to make room for them.

But this time I’ve got a computer! Hurrah! And a semi-decent internet connection to boot so I’m happy for the moment. From my desk I can also see who is coming into the offices and who is going down the Heather Reynolds’ house, plus I have a great view of the veranda so I can see if any marauding monkeys pay a visit, like one did yesterday! (no, I didn’t have my camera sadly)

So I’ve been genuinely very busy for the past few days, hence no blog…

Here’s a message specifically for Leamington people, Heather Reynolds will actually be at St Paul’s for the morning service this Sunday. She’s had to go to the UK for an interview and will be popping in to speak instead of a powerpoint of me being shown (although that will be shown in the evening!) If you can make it, go along to hear her and to meet her! (and if you think about it and want to send anything small out to me, here’s your chance, only mark it clearly that it’s for me!)

On Safari!

Am feeling relaxed after a fantastic few days in near St Lucia in North KZN. It’s a great destination, taking only a few hours to get there from here up a very straight coastal motorway. It was brilliant to go somewhere a bit further away this time.

St Lucia Wetlands is a world heritage site boasting great sandy beaches, lots of wildlife, lakes and an estuary. It’s very picturesque. The town of St Lucia itself leaves a lot to be desired though, being made up primarily of backpackers, guest houses, tourist shops and restaurants all of which were full or closed on New Year’s day.

There was ONE restaurant open in the whole town and it was full with a queue of people waiting for tables. We eventually managed to find one pasty in a garage for dinner… The town has also not woken up to the fact that apartheid is over, and segregation continues there, as we drove through one area it was all whites and just 10 metres down the same road, all blacks. Crazy. I’m getting used to walking into restaurants and having people give us strange looks as I’m with a black guy, even though he could easily be American. Apparently the same segregation occurred on the beach too with a white area and a black area. The world is mad sometimes.

Anyway, we were staying at a very tranquil guest house in a little place called Monzi, just outside St. Lucia. We virtually had the place to ourselves and enjoyed lounging around in the garden hammocks under massive chestnut trees, by the swimming pool. It’s a great place to stay and very reasonably priced too, so it you are around that area check it out – it’s called Marnik Lodge and it’s a real find!

The main reason for going up that way was to see some wildlife and one day was spent at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve. It took us a while to find the way in, having driven right up to the North Gate entrance by mistake. As soon as we were in the park we spotted a family of bushpigs and excitedly thought we’d see lots more of them… 2 hours later all we’d managed to see was an eagle, a tortoise (ufudu in Zulu – one of the first words I ever learnt!), many swallows and a lone dung beetle ( minus any dung!)

Game Reserves are funny places, we’d made the mistake of going around 1pm when it was hot and all sensible animals were hiding under the trees somewhere. The park is massive – probably bigger than a city and because it’s summer the grass was high. You drive round scanning the horizon for anything that could look like it moves and get quite disheartened by the lack of creatures. And then suddenly without any warning, a rhino in the field nearby… and the excitement of being close to these amazing, not to mention dangerous, creatures takes away all previous boredom and frustration.

We failed to find any elephant or big cats, but did see many giraffe and zebra and all sorts of deer and some buffalo, so we did do quite well in the end. And I got to use my new binoculars from the staff at Copsewood – cheers guys, they are GREAT!

Swallows are strange birds. They fly very close to the ground in front of the car and then sit in the road facing the cars, almost as if they are playing a game of ‘chicken’. Just as you can see the whites of their eyes they suddenly take off and fly directly towards the car and then over and away… crazy birds…

Highlight of the second day of game reserve – this time at St Lucia – was a black rhino right up close to the road, and also a tiny Vervet monkey beckoning me to come closer in the car park of the beach (cheeky little so-and-so). I kind of imagined that he was the cute one to attract the tourist and that the rest of his mates were hiding in the bushes ready to ambush unsuspecting visitors and steal cameras and food… but I was onto them and didn’t get too close… BEWARE – MONKEYS ARE A PROBLEM said the sign. Remember that.

Disappointing not to come face to face with any really dangerous creatures – the elephants are apparently rather aggressive and need to be approached with care. Big cats are lazy so we gave up hope of finding them, but you’d think you’d be able to spot an elephant, after all they are not so small…

Tips for travellers – Games to play in a Game Reserve
Number 1 – Bluffing
Drive along at a slow enough rate until you have a few cars behind you. Then stop and put indicators on. Look out over the bush and point excitedly, get out binoculars. Remember to put on hazards for maximum effect. Then when all the other cars have stopped to look and are craning their necks to see what you see (precisely nothing but trees), drive away quickly chucking about how gullible some people are! Award points for number of vehicles stopped. (best played in convoy)
(we didn’t try this, but how we wanted to! )
One guy did get us though, by coming towards us, motioning for us to slow down and pointing back to the way he’d come. I really hoped we were going to see something spectacular, but no, nothing at all… Of course whatever he’d seen could have meandered on by the time we got there.

Thoroughly recommend visiting a game park at least once in your life, hours of fun and so unpredictable too.…