2nd of March and it was our mid-term break. This was to be our first break from work since returning from travelling, and it was well needed after everything that had been going on! We were heading to Jo'burg to visit our good friend Beth, who is also a Pt volunteer, and attend a traditional African wedding up in Limpopo!
On the Friday we were up early to head to the kombi rank in Big Bend and catch a kombi to Manzini. In Manzini it was then a short wait for the next kombi to Jo'Burg to fill up and at around 9am we were off and on our way to Jo'Burg. This kombi was definitely just your average kombi and nothing compared to the lovely mini-bus we got back from Jo'Burg in January., but oh well, can't complain really. Soon enough we had made it to the border post, so we all had to get off and go through border control. Having already had a 90 day visiting pass into South Africa, I was just expecting to be given enough time to last me this short trip. However, the man behind the counter didn't seem to notice that I'd already entered South Africa about 4 times and ended up giving me another 90 day pass. Result! It does help that we now have 'Swaziland Study Permit' stamps in our passports, which is basically our visa to allow us to stay in Swaziland legally. And we only got those stamps the other week....African time! Anyway, at the border post they have this big sign saying 'Welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland' and it looks really cool, and so Robyn casually just asks one of the security guards if we can go behind the counter and get our picture taken in front of it. This being Swaziland, and them having no real security measures, the man said yes and so we got our picture taken!
Swaziland Border Post
So after out stint at the border post it was back on the kombi and within a few hours we were in Jo'Burg. Now, I was sure the kombi was going to drop us off at Park Station, which is infintely safer than the random street of last time, but as we delved deeper and deeper into downtown Jo'Burg I started to have doubts! Fear not though, I was right and soon we were in Park Station, now a familiar place to us. Off the kombi, round the back of the building, into the main building and there was Beth waiting for us! Funny thing is, Robyn and I had been really excited at the thought of seeing someone else our own age again and, when thinking back to who the last person our own age we saw, we realised that it had been Beth when she dropped us off to return to Swaziland after travelling! So it had been a while...
We headed straight to the Cotland's Flat (where Beth stays), to dump our stuff and hang around for a little while as Beth still had some work to do. All the kids who had been staying downstairs were now moving to a children's home called 'St Mary's' just 5 minutes away, and so there was lots of moving of luggage going on. We weren't due to be picked up to head to Limpopo till around 8pm and so after Beth had finished work we went to the shopping centre as Robyn and I didn't actually have anything to wear to the wedding, there having been nothing in Mr Matata or PEP (our two choices of clothes stores!). I managed to get a dress at the ever reliable Mr Price, a shop where I never fail to find what I need. After a short shopping trip it was to the bottle store to buy some cider and have my first drink since the end of travelling. Back at the flat we made some food and had showers (as we were to be without running water while in Limpopo). And then at around 9pm Desmond (Beth's friend who had invited us to the wedding), Karaba (Desmond's friend from Lesotho) and our driver (who lives in a near-by village to where we were going) turned up, and we headed off for Limpopo! Our ride there was a pimped out red kombi/car type thing that had an extremely loud stero inside, and so the whole journey was spent bouncing about to some very loud house music. It was really good fun actually! At around 3am in the morning we eventually made it to Desmond's gogo's (grandmother) house, which was where we were to be staying. It being the early hours of the morning we pretty much got there and then headed straight to bed. Not without, that is, a trip to the long drop toilet where I pee'd looking out at the millions of stars in the sky. A very surreal experience.
Our ride to Limpopo
The village that we were in is in a very rural area. It took 45 minutes of driving along gravel road to reach it, and all the roads within the village are gravel as well. There is no running water and so for our whole time there we used long drops and didn't shower. The village was very much like where we teach at Injabulo, although Ndobadoba is much worse off, as many of the houses in Limpopo were actually very nice and no one seemed to be in extreme poverty, they just chose to live in a very rural place.
On Saturday morning we were awoken to the sound of drilling, as builders were in the house fixing the roof. Although this house had rooms and walls, the walls didn't actually reach the roof, meaning sound spread throughout all the rooms. We were up and ready to leave within 15 minutes, there being no need to shower or wash properly. Desmond and Karabo took us round to Desmond's aunt's house which is where the whole ceremony/wedding was taking place. When we arrived there we were greeted by Aunt Jane and then told to go round all the people sitting and greet them. There was a lot of people, but after we had done that it was into the living-room where we were served tea, scone type things and biscuits. As people passed through they would introduce themselves and greet us. We were getting lots of attention as we were the only 5 white people (Robyn, Beth and I and Alicia and Maria who are also volunteers at Cotlands) in the village I think. After tea we went out into the back garden to see what was going. There was lots of preparation going into making masses amounts of food. There was about 8 pots of all different types of pap being cooked over a large fire, a smaller fire where a man was cooking a whole oxtail and a big tent where all the vegetables where being prepared. I tried my hand at stirring the pap which I pretty much failed at because it requires far too much muscle!
My fail of an attempt at making pap
As Robyn and Alicia assisted in cutting onions and carrots the rest of us headed over to see the meat, where the man then invited us to try his homemade pineapple beer. It didn't taste anything like pineapples, it was just really, really sour, but to be fair it didn't taste too bad actually. Who knows what the alcohol content of it was though! We then spent some time helping to wash the dishes before Desmond arrived again and we all headed off to the local tavern.
The man who made the homemade beer!
The tavern was the local drinking place of the village, and was a building with a small counter to buy big 750ml bottles of beer, a pool table and some benches along the wall. We all sat outside under a tin roof on some crates, each taking a turn to go buy two big bottles on Hansa and then we would just share them around. Desmond's friend Benefit (a.k.a Ben) was also with us. While sitting there we attracted the attention of many passer bys. One of them was a man who nobody could understand because he mumbled everything, and who then gave Robyn 50c as a way of greeting her as he didn't know how to in English. The other was a weird man who seemed to have an obsession with Beth. He was constantly coming up to her, shaking her hand, saying he loved her and then trying to kiss her! Even when everyone told his to go away he kept coming back, resulting in the mumbling man starting a fight with him! He ended up just giving Beth R10 and then leaving her alone. It was actually pretty funny!
The local tavern
After a while at the tavern we all headed back to the house. When we arrived there it was time to serve out all the food that had been prepared and this turned out to be our job. We were all given a certain thing to dish out and then all the women came along with their plates and we served out the food. It was all very traditional food, such as pap, samp and beans, chicken, oxtail, beetroot, coleslaw, mash potato, sweet potato and, of course, chakalaka (a spicy sauce type thing mixed with lots of vegetables and it tastes so GOOD! We get it in Swaziland all the time.). After we had served out all the food it was time for us to eat and then we just spent lots of time under a tent, chatting with everyone and drinking lots of different types of beer, as there was just a big barrel of beers in the house and you were allowed to just go pick one out of there whenever you want. Hansa, Castle, Black Label (all African brands), guiness, some random German type and a variety of random Thai and Chinese types!
As it began to get dark there was suddenly lots of beeping car horns as the bride and her family arrived from their village. A wedding in Africa isn't just a day thing like it is back home, it takes place over a number of weekends. There are lots of negotiations between elders as to how many cattle etc one family is going to give the other. This weekend it seemed to be nearing the end, and it was when the bride eventually came to the grooms house and 'moved in'. Each family would eat at their own village with everyone and then afterwards they would come together. So during the day we had just been with the grooms family and village and now the two families were coming together. As the bride arrived there was lots of singing and dancing, and as she was taken out the car she was covered in a blanket so no one could see her and taken straight to one of the rooms in the house. We though this would be the last we would see of her, as the elders still had some negotiating to do, but instead we were taken by Pretunia (Desmond's lovely sister who had been looking after us all day and making sure we knew what was going on) to the bedroom and, after Beth paid R10, we were allowed to see the bride and greet her. She looked very beautiful in the traditional dress of beads on her hat and skirt. We then left to allow the negotiation to continue. Outside there was lots of traditional dancing going on and everyone celebrating. It was an amazing atmosphere and completely different from anything I have ever experienced before. We were definitely seeing the real Africa!
The traditional African dancers
Eventually, as it got later, people started to head back home and everything came to a close at the house. We were going back to the tavern with Desmond and everyone but wanted to get changed first. This being Africa, instead of the man who had a buckie giving us a list back to the house, he just gave us the buckie and so it ended up that Robyn just drove us back to the house in this random mans buckie. Anyway, we got changed and then drove back to Aunt Jane's house, gave the man his vehicle back and then headed to the tavern. Here, we all sat around on crates again and drank some more hansa before it got pretty late, it had been a very long but incredible day and so we headed back to the house and went to bed.
On Sunday it was time to head back to Jo'burg and so in the morning we headed back to Aunt Jane's house in search of Desmond who seemed to have gone missing somewhere in the village. As we had the whole village searching for him (it ended up he was back at the tavern again) we had some more juice and biscuits and then witnessed the handing out of the sheep that had been slaughtered the previous day for the ceremony. It seemed that the elders were the only ones being given the food, which was the sheep meat with some pap. Firstly, though, a man cut off the sheep tongue and two older ladies ate it. At one point I was sure the man was going to ask us to! Soon enough our big, red car turned up (with Desmond and Karabo inside thankfully) and so we said our goodbyes and thank you to everyone before leaving the village and Limpopo and heading back to Jo'Burg. It had been a very good weekend and real insight into a completely different culture! Definitely an experience to remember!
The ride home was again spent listening to house music, in particular 'Sky is the Limit' and 'Facebook', which I think are my two favourite house songs. At around 5pm we arrived back at the Cotland's flat. Again, we said our thank you and goodbyes to Desmond, Karabo and our driver and then they headed off. Straight away we were all fighting for the shower having spent the weekend without cleaning! That evening we had a braai with everyone at the flat and then headed off to bed, as they were all back at work in the morning and we had sleep to catch up on!
On Monday Robyn and I were up after everyone had already left for work. Our plan was to do something in Jo'Burg while we were there. We had thought of going to the Apartment Museum but turned out it was closed on a Monday. It then also turned out that public transport in Jo'Burg was not very reliable, dangerous and confusing and so we thought it best just to stay and help out at Cotlands. We spent the afternoon spending time with the older kids in Sanctuary and taking Setho, the little boy that Beth does one-to-one with, for a walk. Later on we then went to St Mary's to see the kids who had just moved there and drop off some more of their things. I met the boy who had declared me his girlfriend the last time I was there, and this time round he decided we would get married at 8am the next day. He then proceeded to take me by the hand and give me the grand tour of the children's home, which was actually a really nice place to stay.
That evening all the girls cooked and ate together and I got to have some APPLE CRUMBLE! My favourite desert which I have been desperately deprived of while being here because they just don't seem to have heard of such a thing in Swaziland! It was then to bed as the next day we would be up early to head back home to Big Bend.
And on Tuesday Beth took us to Park Station, we said our goodbyes and it was on the kombi back to Manzini (which was a lovely mini-bus this time) and then the kombi to Big Bend and that was us home. It was a lovely weekend spent with people our own age and heading up to Limpopo for an African wedding was a very surreal but amazing experience!
