BLOG 7

It is so long since I had time with my computer I almost forgot how much fun it is. . . . . .

As I was ending the previous blog, I was about to go to Lesotho.  Pronounced -  Less oo (as in who) too. 

I have not only done that and returned, but it is now a week later.    I am also a week behind in my journal book and have planned to do ‘ketchup’ again this weekend and get this blog out to you all.

I am now a registered ‘criminal’ in Swaziland and they have my thumb print and E500 payment in fines for overstaying my welcome.   WHAT ????

On our way to South Africa, for our trip to Lesotho, we had to go through a border control point between Swaziland and South Africa.  Our Swazi team of 6 volunteers with our country coordinator were on a bus from Mbabane and headed for the airport in Johannesburg – Tuesday 29^th Oct.  I will remember this date for a long time.

We all got off the bus and filed into the check point with passports etc.  

We are allowed to stay in Swaziland for 30 days without any visa or permit.  On this date I had been here for 46 days and did not have my Temporary Resident Permit YET or evidence of a permit application, even though it was submitted on the 25^th Oct and it is normal practice that a receipt is given!   A senior customs officer who wanted to flex her already big muscles (?) really gave them a work out with me.   Oh boy!  Was she savage!! I was taken out to a back room.  Then came 2 police officers into the picture – playing at good cop, bad cop and a senior male officer waiting with the cell door open.

I’m not going into all the detail of this only to say it was a very stressful situation that would have been avoided if I had gone out of country on or before my 30 days. Which I would have done, had I known.  I was allowed back into Swaziland after our visit to Lesotho and now I have another 30 days for my application to be processed and hopefully approved.

I have my date of escape marked on my calendar now in BIG PRINT.   Just in case I need to a border run.    Sounds like a TV show ???

Lesotho – a good story.

A must visit again place. !!

I was fortunate to have a window seat on the flight and the approach to Lesotho was spectacular.  The majority of the country is high altitude and mostly mountainous.    I was again seeing similarities in the appearance of the terrain to the Kimberley and was eager to get out of the plane to see it at ground level.

In every direction I looked there were a serious of hills after hills and hills all getting higher and higher.  I understand that they are covered in snow every winter.  The temperature was very pleasant.  I had been told to expect cold and was loaned a jacket -  I had longing thoughts of my favourite blanket jacket that was left behind.  Anyway – it was not needed.  The weather was just perfect for the 3 days of our visit.

I need to add in here the purpose of our visit!!  Once a year all volunteers are to attend an In-Country Meeting (ICM).  Swaziland and Lesotho volunteers were grouped for this ICM and the location was chosen by the Lesotho team.  PERFECT. They get full marks for this spot.

From the airport we were taken to Malealea lodge by kombi bus, about an hour’s drive south of the capital (and airport) Maseru.

Along the way the terrain and buildings etc. was so different to Swaziland.  We were in rural locations and it appeared that residents live in small round or square dwellings and have a small plot of land for growing a variety of crops and having some form of livestock.  Every one of these plots has a herd attendant.  I noticed how clean and tidy they were.  (My drive route from Mbabane to Mananga is littered with litter and straying animals without attendants etc.)

While we were all in short sleeves, the attendants all wear a blanket that is historically and culturally linked with Lesotho.  (Checkout  Louis Vuitton -  he has used these blankets in his latest fashion shows.) They also have a beanie or hat and a stick for gently moving the animals if they stray too close to the road.    This is totally the opposite to what I experience when travelling out to my location in Swaziland, the cattle and goats just stroll along the side of the road or across it when they can see that the grass is greener on the other side. 

The dwellings are mostly made from concrete block bricks (modern – it used to be mud) with a thatched roof or a tin roof that is secured on top of the building with many large boulders, rocks or more bricks.  One thing really stood out --  all of these little plots has a bright shiny tin square object with a vertical white poly pipe on one side.    YES  outdoor dunnies, of the self-composting variety.   They are all so new and shiny – it looks so out of place with all other dwelling types that are very grey and brown.  But it is so good to see this type of humane development.  We could do with a few of these at section 19.

On the way to Malealea there is a rough handmade sign  “Picture Perfect”.  For a few seconds you wonder what it means and then over a little rise  -  in unison we all went WOW !!   and the driver of the van, probably seen this a thousand times, just kept driving.  We all wanted to get out with cameras and capture what words just cannot describe and I’m not even going to try.   Well just a little bit -  an amazing vast valley that was surrounded with mountains and dotted throughout were little huts, sewn crops and livestock, all of them minute from our platform.

We eventually arrived at Malealea Lodge after about 10 kms of gravel/dirt road that makes my daily journey seem totally glorious. 

The lodge is spread over several acres and caters for up to 150 guests in a variety of accommodation huts!.   I forgot to charge my camera battery !!  I do have some photos, but not what I really wanted to capture.  The colour theme of the location is a reddish brown mud finish on all buildings, with thatched or bright blue roof and red window and door trims.  The mud render on walls is patterned with finger drawings and embedded stones.  There are round huts, square huts and larger oblong shaped buildings that have 3 rooms.  All are scattered across an acre or 2 with lawns, gardens, trees and stone pathways.    Very basic accom inside the rooms and a communal dining room, bar and activities room.  Also a meeting / function room that we occupied for our meeting.  The atmosphere was made for relaxing and de-stressing.  Separate to the dining room there was a small coffee shop where you could get good coffee, tea, muffins and great cakes for a good price.  I had coffee and cake, twice,  for E35 – about $4.

Some of the older buildings that are not mud finished are painted with murals depicting life in Lesotho.  I am planning to return before I leave Africa just to unwind and take the photos that I didn’t get.

Every evening a group of local men and women come to the lodge to entertain with their singing and dancing – all in their local language, but they give a story prior to each song.  The lead singer / teacher has the most amazing voice -  soprano !  Their harmony is fantastic and they sing about 8 songs and do their feet and hand movements. One of the songs is about a dance that is performed in a kneeling position.  It did look rather strange.

After the choir, the men take over with their hand made instruments and their song and dance routine.  The instruments are made with roughly carved sticks and tin cans with some form of wire.  They hold these like a guitar. There is about 4 of these and one drum.  It is a 40 litre drum with a solid rubber top and attached to it the percussion!  This is fashioned from a solid piece of wire like an upside-down U and small tin/metal discs attached across the top.  The drummer has two short and solid sticks as drum sticks and he bashes out a pretty good sound.  There are about 3 – 4 men who do a dance routine and they all sing.  Some of their dances are very cheeky and they get lots of laughs.  They have a very strange shoulder movement that is very captivating -  one of the other vollies said “its not captivating Georgie, it’s HOT!”  Liz has recorded one of these routines on her iPad and has agreed to share it.  I will get a copy from her one day soon to show you.

They have CD’s that sell for 100 Rand - $11  Liz purchased one for us to share and I put in donations for both groups.

While we were there many other tourists were staying as well.  Our group was 17 and other groups were larger than ours, plus many couples and smaller groups.  It was always busy in the dining room and the bar.

The food resembled boarding school menus, but was at least wholesome. ???

On our last afternoon Liz and I went for a walk into the village area where life is very basic and rural.  We were joined and highly entertained by 3 young girls age range was about 3or 4 to about 8.  I have great difficulty working out the ages of the children, they look older than their years.  The girls were very entertaining and loved to dance and sing.  Especially the youngest.  She was so gorgeous I was very tempted to smuggle her out of the country.  Their smiles were huge and showed beautiful teeth. They just lit up for us and performed so well.  We were then joined by a young boy as well who joined in the dance routines and he did the shoulder thing as well.  It must be something they learn very young.  We tried to do it but – no go !!!  It looks like their spine from base of neck down is separate to the part of the spine above.   Liz has videoed some of the entertainment also and I will get a copy from her soon. The little one who kept following us, appeared to be having shoe problems as she kept bending to remove something from her shoe – I thought it was stones, but no she was giving us her treasure collection.  The ring pulls from cans.   We both came home with about 6 of these.  We were told later that they save them.  Not sure what for.  All I had with me to give them was a handful of mints that I had taken from our class room at the end of our sessions.  We now think that money was the preferred exchange.  OOOPS !

We also stopped to talk to some ladies in the craft centre who were sitting and stitching by hand.  We both bought a pair of earrings handmade and I purchased a stuffed doll of sorts depicting a mother and baby with traditional fabrics and the Bosotho blanket.  Each doll had a tag that showed a photo of the creator – I was very interested to discuss this back here for our ladies.   I was wearing a bag that I have made here using the traditional shwaeshwae fabric.  It hangs across chest from one shoulder and is just big enough for passport, money, cell phone and has 3 pockets that are secured with a large flap that velcro’s closed.  One of the ladies was very interested and wanted to examine it.  I bet next time I visit she is making them.  She asked how much I sell them for.  I had made it to show my ladies and it will be the next item I introduce into their product line.  Since making this little bag I have used it almost daily.  Especially when shopping, travelling etc. it is very handy and secure as it is under your arm or can be worn under a jacket.  Brilliant creation.  Even if I say so myself.

All orders welcome and will be filled ASAP of course.

The tragedy was having to leave on Saturday morning.

I was a bit nervous travelling back and not feeling confident of getting back into Swaziland.  I’m happy to report that I got through with a fantastic greeting and a great smile from the customs officer.   PHEW !

Saturday was a very long day -  I know it still has 24 hours -  and 13 of them was travelling or waiting at airports.  I arrived back at Penny’s around 7.30pm.

On Sunday Penny had arranged to take me to Forrester’s Arms for lunch.  It is one of the landmarks in Swaziland that is a must.  The drive from Mbabane is roughly 40 minutes in rolling hill country, with some great views.  Forrester’s Arms is a restaurant / guest house / function centre.  Sunday brunch is very popular and the food is fabulous and selection is huge.  It is buffet and cost is E140 per head.  $15.  Many people consider this expensive and use it as a special treat location.  Keep in mind that salaries are very low here in comparison to our basic wage.

After lunch I packed my car and headed for Mananga.  It had been raining quite a bit while we were away and there was a pretty nasty storm on the Wednesday and many trees down etc.  I left Mbabane around 4.30, had to call into a store for some fresh supplies and knew that I would be getting home on dark.   Before I reached the gravel part of my journey it was dark.  The roads were a mess and it took ages for me to reach my home.  About 200 meters before our gate a power pole was almost on the ground and took up ¾ of the road and right at the point I was there another car was coming from the other direction.  I had to stop and pull over to allow the other through.   It was Wednesday before the pole was righted.

This last week was HOT and so the roads have had a chance to dry out.  Most of the roads where I drive have since been graded, but the Mananga end has not.  I think when the roads are constructed a layer of river stones is compacted into the soil and with constant use they embed themselves further.  The rains were so bad, apparently, that the soil has been washed away leaving the stones exposed and reasonably high making the road very rough -  ‘rocky road’ without chocolate and marshmallows- who ever heard of such a thing.

Did I mention before that the COUCH has gone to a new home???  While in Mbabane I met a couple who are returning to US and have things for sale.  I have secured a futon bed/couch for the lounge and some outdoor furniture that will also go in the lounge and a lawn mower for Mcoze to use instead of his back breaking hacksaw.  He is so excited.

Last week at work was very hot.  The direction of the sun’s rays is moving and our sewing area is in a bad spot.  From lunch time we had sun at the edge of the veranda and by 2.00 it covered half of our space.  It was so hot on Wednesday that the heat and glare from the floor was very uncomfortable for me, but they just kept moving to avoid direct sun and continued to sew.   I think they are determined to get the order of 50 bags done as it means good money for them before Christmas. 

They revealed to me last week that they are the same as people anywhere!   There was some unrest amongst them based on the uneven number of bags being made by each person.  Of course the beginners are much slower and still require assistance and I was not there for a week, while the experienced sewers had more bags made.  On Monday I had to sort this out and ensure that each has the same opportunity to sew and achieve the same level of income.  This is going to be a bit tricky as the sewing skills of 3 are still pretty raw.   I do all the cutting out at home as it saves time while with them and means I can help more.

After experiencing the heat and discomfort of the sewing location I am determined to find a way to gain funding for a location that they can easily access and will provide for a more suitable facility to cope with the extremes of summer heat, the wet and the cold of winter.  I have been talking to Liz, another vollie about crowd funding and Daran has come up with WORTH for micro loans and I am already donating to KIVA for micro loans.  So with all the above we should be able to secure something more suitable eventually.

I have obtained some frangipani cuttings for my garden.  I had to go the Simunye Police Stn on Friday for Teresa and Daran to get forms signed. . . .  that didn’t happen – normal stuff, wrong person, wrong look, wrong form etc.  (They will need to do it themselves next week.)  my reward for the journey was -  I saw a garden opportunity just waiting for me -  it appeared that maybe during the storm while I was away, a large frangipani tree had blown over and was cut up and stacked ready for disposal -  I picked up 3 lovely pieces already dried and ready for planting.  It is a beautiful magenta / red flower and will look fantastic at my little cottage. 

I think that’s about it for No.7.

How did you all go with the Melbourne cup?   Picked the winners I hope. 

Cheers from my part of the world,  Georgie xxx

it's been a hottie today,