Back to South Africa! Trip segment 4...

Hello again everyone!

So, after Swaziland we ventured back into South Africa. We headed up to the most northern coast of the Indian Ocean where South Africa borders Mozambique. This area is characterized by large sand dunes, and beautiful ocean scenery. We began at the Kosi Mouth Bay - an estuary and lake system that feeds into the Indian Ocean. The Kosi Mouth Bay is a place that is known as "the aquarium" and so you can 4x4 down to the mouth, wade across it with your stuff on your head and then swim the snorkel channel and see amazing tropical fish of all sorts of morphology and color! We had an underwater 1x use camera that we used to take photos (thanks mom!) but we sent it back with my dad to be developed stateside - so sorry no photos of the actual fish.

The native people of this area are called the Tsonga people and one of the most remarkable things that we got to see were their fish traps. The fish traps funnel large fish into a corral (of sticks) where the fisherman can come and spear the fish he has caught as he is ready to eat them (helps when there is no refrigerator). The fish traps have been passed down from father to son for generations and are still a really prominent part of this area.

We did a boat tour of the several lake system that eventually feeds into Kosi Mouth and that was very fun and informative. Passing between the lakes we went through channels of reeds and even saw local women collecting the reeds for their house repairs.

Unfortunately, the page that these photos are on is acting funny, so I wasn't able to organize them well or add captions - sorry for that but hopefully you enjoy the photos anyway!

Kosi Bay and the lake system form the northern part of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park. When we left there, we went south and stayed in the town of Hluhluwe, which we used as a base for exploring the southern and central part of the park and also Hluhluwe National Game Reserve. The photos I just put up are from Kosi Bay, our False Bay hike, Cape Vidal beach, St Lucia estuary, and a boat cruise up the Lake St Lucia channel where we saw lots of hippos, crocs and birds, including a magnificent African Fish Eagle! We enjoyed Isimangaliso a lot and I really loved the idea of it because it is actually protecting 5 ecosystems: Coral Reef, Costal Forest, Beach/Dunes, Savanna and the lake/swamp/wetlands. It was great to experience these ecosystems during our visit there.

There's a bit on that segment of the trip. I'll try to wrap it up next time with Hluhluwe Game Reserve, the Dlinza Forest ariel board walk, and Durban!

We hope you are all doing well, and I'm really looking forward to the post after next where we can talk about all of our latest update - so stay tuned!

Lots of love from Lesotho,

Carol and Shane 

The Kingdom of Swaziland

Dearest Readers,

After our amazing experience in Kruger, we spent 5 days in Swaziland. Many PCVs from Lesotho end up going to Swazi at some point during their service, so, we’ve heard some good things about their wildlife and crafts previously. To be honest, another reason that we went into Swaziland was because of our visas, South Africa has recently restricted overland entry by bordering country residents (which we are considered as for the 2 years we’re here because of our Lesotho visas) to 7 days. Whatever the reason for going to Swaziland, it was definitely worth it. We were expecting something a lot like Lesotho; Swaziland is a small, mountainous country, presided over by a King, and claiming the highest HIV rate in the world, is definitely still entrenched in poverty as a “developing country” and is also mostly bordered by South Africa. Swaziland was strikingly different than Lesotho.

We entered in the north of the country and were immediately given a newspaper specifically for tourists that had different activities and events as well as feature articles about the various destinations and events. We then drove on excellent, well marked roads – the whole way. We noticed that the houses were generally nicer in the villages than in Lesotho. It was more heavily vegetated – some of that is the more tropical climate – and as a result soil erosion didn’t even seem to be an issue. The average person seemed to be more well dressed than in Lesotho and even the cows seemed to be fatter. There were also loads of really cool handicrafts! We visited a glass factory where Swazis took recycled glass and turned it into lovely creations using used motor oil to fuel the plant!  There were locally made chocolate truffles, beautiful wool and mohair weavings, locally made candles and soaps, many beautiful things woven from sisal grass and my all time favourite – a huge variety of locally crafted jewellery! In Lesotho, as some of you have seen, we struggle to find a postcard to send home.

Swaziland also did a good job emphasizing the local culture as part of the tourist experience. We went to a cultural village and saw the traditional houses and dancing. We learned about the tradition of polygamy and how that looked on a family compound, the roles of men and women, even the grandmother and sangoma (traditional healer). We also really enjoyed a traditional dancing show. We went to the national museum and learned about traditional weddings (lobola – bride price is still alive and well in both Lesotho and Swaziland... 18 cows seems to be the going rate for the groom to pay the bride’s family) and the reed dance where “maidens” from all over the country meet for a week to dance, sing and collect reeds to bring to the Queen Mother’s compound. I also enjoyed the Swazi cattle – called Ngweni cattle, there are so many amazing variations of colors and patterns, they are locally adapted and hardy so they thrive in the area.

We stayed in some really interesting places as well. The first place was a small B & B where the owners also had permaculture based landscaping and they had worms (check out the photo!), chickens, lovely gardens and fruit trees – they humoured us and gave us a lovely little tour of their place. The next place was a super artsy B & B which also had amazing landscaping with all of the lovely tropical flowering trees such as plumeria and hibiscus. The last place we stayed was a “Safari Lodge” which unfortunately seemed to be a bit run down, but they had the option to stay in one of the traditional beehive huts – so we did. It was really different, but nice – we didn’t have wooden headrests for pillows or have to sleep on grass mats but it was a good experience. The grass is really good at keeping the inside cool when it is hot out and warm when it cools off. We went on a little safari drive/hike, it wasn’t much compared to Kruger but was still quite interesting. The animals were much more skittish – apparently it is hunting season and they have issued permits to help manage their populations (Dad was quite sad to find this out a bit too late – no impala roast for us!) Our guide was really great though. The actual safari vehicle blew up last year so he set up chairs in the back of a truck for us to enjoy our safari drive! The guide’s name was Sibu and he actually did an 18 month internship at Disney World’s Wild Kingdom in Florida, so it was interesting to hear what his experience of America was in that context as well. He already had had guide experience before, and it showed that he knew a lot about the animals and the bush – because we’re a bit nerdy we were even asking about insects and such and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t tell us about.

Other things: we got to go to the “Cuddle Puddle” hot springs – which was pretty nice, since we haven’t been to a hot springs for 2 years.  We stopped at Maguga Dam, this was interesting because we got to talk to the guy responsible for the relocation of the villages in the area where the dam was built and he actually told us that he learned from a lot of other resettlement projects, including Katse in Lesotho and he feels that the Maguga Dam relocation was probably one of the most successful dam relocations in the world. We also briefly met some Swaziland Peace Corps Volunteers which was pretty cool, they directed us to some of the best pizza that we’ve eaten since being in Africa and they mentioned that they only knew of one Swazi PCV that had visited Lesotho...

That pretty much wraps up our experience of Swaziland. I’d like to point out that Swaziland really is a true Kingdom. Lesotho follows the British system where there is a king as a figurehead but then there is a democratically elected Prime Minister and Parliament. One of the subjects that is talked about in “development theory” (hopefully that’s right, keep in mind that my focus really is Ag), is the realized merit of democracy for development and if it is really the most beneficial system for building a country up. Cleary, corrupt dictators are not the only other alternative. I can’t speak to this too much but again, it was quite interesting to see the difference between Swaziland and Lesotho – though I understand that it is impossible to pinpoint one cause. Also, all I’m going to say on this is that the King of Swaziland is a bit of an interesting character.

Stay tuned for the next instalment from our trip which was Kosi Bay, several other parts of the “Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park” also known as Isimangaliso (it means “something amazing” in Zulu) Wetland Park, and also Hluhluwe National Park.

All our best from Lesotho,

Carol and Shane

The Big, The Beautiful, The Amazing - Kruger National Park!

Hello Again Everyone,

Did you know that the "African Elephant" is named that because their ears look like the continent of Africa? How about that a group of Zebras is a "dazzle"?

The last post was a bit hurried (and I'm even a bit short of time today) but I wanted to get some of the photos from our great trip up amidst the current whirlwind of busy-ness before it is old news. Also, since this trip was 21 days in South Africa and Swaziland, there are going to be a few increments. Previously, I talked about our trip begining at Blyde Canyon in Mpumalanga province of South Africa, it was a blast, with lots of panoramas and a bit of hiking.

From there we went into Kruger National Park on Easter Sunday. We spent 3 nights in Kruger, one at Letaba Rest Camp and the others at Olifants Rest Camp. We spent most of our time in the North/Central part of the park. We saw most of the "Big 5" Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino and Leopord. The Lion, unfortunately eluded us. We did see all of "The Ugly 5" which is Wildebeast, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Marabou Stork, Warthog and Spotted Hyena. We had plently of cool sightings though, like the super-awkard giraffe drinking, which they aparently only do every 2-3 days! We saw some very large Nile Crocodiles chopping down, in the water, on something with large hooves. We saw a hippo grazing out of the water at night, while on our night drive and so many more amzing things!

I took something like 3 gigs of photos during our time in Kruger, so I selected just a few for your enjoyment. It was lovely, we saw a lot of charismatic mega fauna, other animals, birds, reptiles and even plants and ecosystems that were all completely new and amazing to us.  We woke up very early in the mornings and spent a lot of time with our poor, tiny Hyundai on, almost exclusively, the dirt roads and loops around the park. I was actually quite afraid of an angry elephant crushing our tiny car - aparently it has happened before and our rental car was pretty much a little tin can. We also did a night drive where we spotlighted nocturnal animals which was also quite amazing, Shane was one of the spotlighters and his MT upbringing seemed to make him exceptionally good at spotting the wildlife in the dark.

Kruger was really an amazing experience for all of us, this was Dad's first time on the African continent and even with 2 years living here, it was our first time to see all of the amazing "African" animals - as there is virtually zero wildlife here in Lesotho. It was really fun for all of us, and we enjoyed the opportunity to do this almost "grand tour" together. From Kruger we went on to Swaziland and I'll get those photos up sometime next week. In the meantime check out the Eastern South Africa and Swazi photo page for more photos.

We hope you are all staying warm as it seems that winter's grip doesn't want to loosen from the mid-west! Also, I am happy to say that Dad safely made it home last night, and wasn't even too exhausted after his very long journey home.

Best from Lesotho,

Carol and Shane

We're back and Dad is on his way home

Hello Everyone,

It has been awhile since I have updated, but with good reason! We've been on vacation with my Dad in South Africa and Swaziland since before Easter. He is the first person from The States as far as family and friends that we've seen in pretty much 2 years! It was really great! Our trip was a blast and I'll give updates in segments along with photos on the new page. Dad just left for his 3 day journey back to the states yesterday, and we've both been busy catching up with our projects here in Lesotho since we got back last Monday. I'm still catching up and on the way to the field with WFP, so I'll post more another day, but check out the photos from the begining of our trip at Blyde Canyon the 2nd largest (and "green"canyon in Africa).

Hugs from Lesotho,
Carol and Shane

Our Life in Peace Corps - update

 

Dancer from Moshoeshoe Day - March 11th

 

Dear Lovely Friends and Family,

 

Whew! 5 months and counting left of our service and we’ve both been in a whirlwind. Things are starting to feel more and more bittersweet as we experience the final portion of our service whizzing by.

 

It is harvest season in Lesotho, hot days with cool nights in the highlands. Basotho are starting to talk about winter and they are cursing the Cosmos (flowers) as they take over the fields. We’ve had good heat and rain this year, but the storms have also brought several hail storms, yet again reducing yield for the subsistence farmers, not-even eking out a living on the rocky, terraced fields of the highlands. Actually, during one of the storms, lightening killed a welder here in town whose shop is near the bakery. Another volunteer lost her host brother to a lightening strike! It is a scarily common occurrence and the Basotho say that they can harness the lightening, so the deaths are said to be black magic/muti done by one to another, they laugh at us though, and say that we can’t because we’re not Basotho.

 

Otherwise we’ve been quite busy, mostly pushing forward the projects that we’ve had ongoing. Shane finally got his (his group’s) martial arts mats – it was still an ordeal, after 7 months and them going from Cape Town, to Jo’Berg to Durban and finally getting dropped at the town across the border, they even encountered challenges bringing such a big shipment across the border. Nevertheless the mats are here and they are all very excited/triumphant – one downside is that they didn’t work out a secure storage place, so we now have about 50 mats of 1 square meter each, taking over our 1 roomed house.

What they have been training on....

His and Hers excercise mats

Shane is also in the thick of implementing the building of an energy efficient conference center at Snake Park with Ntate Nkhooa, they just got their funds from their Global Environmental Fund proposal and that has been pretty exciting.

He also spent quite a bit of last week in Maseru with the Face Your Fear Self-Defense Academy group at the National Gender Links Summit, they got to present and were nominated for an award based on their Fight Like a Girl Rape Escape training work, but the judges selected another candidate instead, in large part because she was female. His massage students have hit a benchmark as well, they now know how to give a full body Swedish massage (being a seasoned massage-receiving veteran, I have enjoyed being a part of their training as well!)

Gender Summit

The Lovely Massage Ladies... and "Ntate David" the anatomical man - handmade with markers and clear tape by Shane

 

As for me, I had to go to Maseru a few weeks back for another, medical issue – joy! As much as I dislike going to the capital city, it was a nice opportunity to have lunch with a couple neat gals in Maseru, use faster internet and wander aimlessly around the mall for a while – and have a chocolate espresso milkshake! Last week was a busy one, with another successful Nutrition Corner – one of my neighbors taught me how to cook one version of traditional Basotho bread that normally uses cornmeal, but we substituted the fortified Corn-Soya blend that is distributed as food aid by WFP, so that is what we cooked last week for Nutrition Corner. It was well received by both mothers and babies (over 6 months, of course!) because they often look at this unfamiliar food and don’t know what to do with it. ‘M’e MaTumelo at the bakery now has her own business cards that we made together, she was able to print and laminate them and she’s really excited about them. We are also starting to do the steps of a feasibility study, which is a great learning experience for both of us. Last Friday, we had our 5^th market day, this month was a success because we had more of a balance of vendors and customers and one of my local counterpart’s colleagues from the Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation came to check out our market and report back to the national office. It was also great to see all of the fresh vegetable and especially peaches both dried and fresh. I actually have had a chance to can 11 jars of peach sauce this year! We have also really been enjoying spending time with our Welsh neighbors – all teachers who arrived in January. They are also enjoying my yoga class and we, along with my committed Basotho students, had 3 yoga classes last week. Visiting with ‘M’e Magdelena this weekend, I discovered that the stone water tank we started last year around this time has finally been completely constructed! I am hoping that this will increase the water security of the Infirmary and its agricultural projects for years to come. One of the recent joys that I’ve adopted, is going and reading books, with one of the Welsh teachers to our local Preschool, the kids are really adorable and get really excited when we show up, it is a blast sharing simple classics with them, like Dr Suess. The Saturday, kids library program is still going and last Saturday, we read The Land Before Time and made drawings from the book and then I cut the drawings into puzzles for the kids to put back together. I hope that I’m successfully able to impart my love of reading to at least a few young people with these activities. The beekeeping group is at a bit of a standstill, after writing their constitution, and a business plan, they are waiting to get the registration certificate – its been a bit of a wait because, apparently the Cooperative office in Maseru is out of the paper to print the certificates on. We also got a proposal submitted to World Vision to see if they are willing to give them some booster capital for more equipment, so we are waiting to hear about that as well. So, we are currently re-grouping and rethinking the action plan.

 

In other, non-project news, we have made quick friends with our 3 Welsh neighbors. There have also been some self-funded, non-affiliated Canadian volunteers in our neighborhood for the last month or so. We decided it was time to organize a BBQ at Snake Park for all of us PCVs, Welsh and Canadians to get together and socialize, so we brought not only meat, potato salad and beer but also the makings for S’mores –which the Welsh had never had before. Needless to say, they enjoyed them! A few Basotho joined us, and they laughed at the idea of even roasting marshmallows –until they tried them! It has been really fun to be exposed to so many other people and cultures since we’ve been here – mostly, our immersion in Basotho culture, but the chance to meet people from other places has also been a highlight of our service.

Lebohang (PCV Tara's fiancee) Alyssia and the Welsh Sharon and Canadian Sharon

 

Welsh Anna, first S'more bite

 

 

The Bo Ntate cooking the meat

 

Ntate Nkhooa and Alyssia experiencing S'mores for the first time - God Bless America:-)

We got to attend the annual Moshoeshoe Day celebration in the district on March 11. Last year, it was one of the coolest things we did, with all of the school children competing in different traditional dance categories. The boys mainly do Mohobelo and Ntlamo and the girls do Moqoqopelo and Mokhibo. It’s really quite a fun event, with a carnival-like atmosphere, lots of traditional dress, great dancing and lots of cheering and ululating.

Ice Cream and Waffles for sale

 

 

This guy said his outfit was made by his grandfather, from miscellaneous animal hides including rabbit and jackal

Mohobelo

Mokhibo

Mokhibo

 

Ntlamo

Waiting her turn

Ready to win!

 

Many of you know that as we have been looking ahead to what’s in store for us after Peace Corps, a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Agriculture has been in my sights. After applying to several schools and pestering countless scientists and program administrators at schools around the country, even starting in 2010, I got an offer that I’m really excited about at Washington State. The offer is to get an MS in Soil Science working on a very interesting sounding soil acidification project. Shane and I both really like this option, the program looks like a really good fit for me, there are some good options for Shane as well, the area looks beautiful and is in a part of the country that we love, and we will not be super-far from home – yay!

 

Another upcoming thing that we are really excited about is my Dad’s visit, he will be arriving on Wednesday and we will be meeting him outside of Kruger Park to kick off our 20 day, eastern South Africa and Swaziland tour, hopefully filled with the Big 5, hiking, beach/snorkeling and some great time together! We’re all excited! This means that I probably won’t be posting again for a few weeks, but when I do it will hopefully be with tons of great photos of a different, lion and elephant ridden Africa than what we get here in Lesotho. This will likely be our last holiday during Peace Corps because the last three months we are committed to spend wrapping up our projects and we aren’t allowed to take leave.

 

I think that pretty much wraps up our happenings here for now. I am currently reading Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott and Shane is reading Farewell My Subaru by Doug Fine. We’ve been a bit slower on our reading though since we’ve discovered the joy of watching the show Bones on our laptop – we are officially much more current on our American (and now even British TV) than we’ve ever been! Unfortunately, my cooking has been decidedly uninspired lately, though a couple of weeks ago I made chocolate, chocolate cookies with real butter that Shane brought back across the border – they were a pretty amazing treat from the Cook’s Illustrated cookbook. We are looking forward to self-catering in South Africa, going into real grocery stores and eating dairy like it is no big deal! What’s not to love about real butter and hot showers!

 

On that note, we send all our best to our readers from across the ocean – until next time…

Carol and Shane