Back to main page and index of daily reports

December 22 thru December 30, 2005 - Our last day in Durban, Eshowe in the heart of Zululand, How we talked ourselves from getting a traffic ticket, and Benny said: “We can stay for a week at International Backpacker in St. Lucia!”, Visiting the village of Khula with Mboli, Inside a rondaval, How we lit Chanukah candles while watching hippos and crocodiles, meeting Betsy the maple syrup farmer from Vermont, Hopping on lava rocks at Mission Rock beach, How do you pronounce Hluhluwe? Looking forward to a Zulu New Year party


Photos

Shiffy and Benny attempted to send some 287! beautiful photos for this report, but unfortunately, the photos did not arrive yet due to inadequate Internet connection in this region.

Thursday, December 22

When we left Port Edwards, Bernice gave us small rocks and a figure made of tin. This morning Barbara gave us two red lucky beans and said: “The red lucky bean is an indigenous tree with thorns and it only grows in Africa.” She added that trees with thorns have healing power.

When I told her that people born in Israel are called Sabras, the Hebrew word for prickly pear, she said, “Yes, it is your protective barrier.”

It is our last day in Durban. We walked today from Nomad, on Essenwood Rd up to the Ridge View Rd, enjoyed a great view of the city and also came across “Beth David”, the Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation.

We continued walking towards the Durban Botanical Garden. We enjoyed strolling through the garden. The garden has many impressive large size trees, including a few trees that I have never seen before like the cannon ball tree. We enjoyed the birds around the lake especially the Red Bishops. We spent time in the Orchid House that has wire animal sculptures beside the flowers.

On our way back we stopped at the Durban United Hebrew Congregation, an orthodox shul, located across the street from our Backpacker place.

In the afternoon we walked to the craft market in Essenwood Park. It was a warm day, but in the afternoon dark clouds covered the sky, there was a thunderstorm and the rain came pouring down. I felt sorry for all the exhibitors and the people who sold food. Everyone left to find cover from the rain.

The rain lasted for about two hours, and when it was over, there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky, and the evening was warm and humid.

Cooking and eating are an important part of our day, we both love to cook and eat. We cook the same as we do at home, but sometimes, there are very few ingredients left and we become creative. Today we had “balls” made of tuna, avocado and cooked butternut squash on a salad of spinach, parsley, garlic and yogurt. For dessert we had whipped mashed banana with honey and raisins and some coffee spread on a toast.

Friday, December 23

We hardly get to read the newspaper or follow the news, but this morning, the local paper was left in the lobby: Elton John got married and there is an account of four attacks on tourists in the area, one was stabbed to death.

Time to leave Durban. Barbara walked us to our car. She is a good woman, but we will not be able to keep in touch with her. She is a nomad who lives on the planet. Our next destination is Eshowe, in the heart of Zululand. As we drive, we try to avoid toll roads and prefer to use side roads, where we can pass through African villages. We are passing miles of sugar fields, the city of Stager, which has a memorial to the famous Zulu king, King Shaka.

After driving 3500km, we were stopped for traffic violation: speeding and passing a car over a solid line. The fine 1300R we told the African policeman that we are tourists and that we do not carry much cash with us. He wrote our information on his hand and his next question: How much money do you have? He did not have a car and I suspect that he was waiting for us to offer him a bribe, but when it was not offered, he just let us go, the case was too complicated for him.

On with the road, passing some famous battlefields between the British and the Zulu, few British Forts, and we arrived at our next destination: Eshowe. Eshowe is the oldest town in Zululand. It was home to four Zulu kings, one of them was the famous King Shaka. It was the British military headquarters after the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879. The British selected Eshowe to be the post-war capital of Zululand. Eshowe was also the home of John Dunn, South Africa’s only official white Zulu Chief and husband to 48 Zulu wives. In the evening we lit the Shabbat candles. Later we enjoyed a conversation with Jacqueline from the Netherlands who came to Durban to attend a flight school, but her course was cancelled due to the weather.

Shabbat, December 24

The streets of Eshowe were busy with last minutes shoppers. Most Zulu also celebrate X-mas. As I look at the local crowd, I see families, mothers and children; young people all well dressed, Western clean clothes, new tennis shoes, matching outfits.

Zulu people seem to be more relaxed, friendly and peaceful. Natal has always been more liberal, the people live a rural life and did not experience apartheid to the extent that the Xhosa did.

The plan for today was to go and see the local museum and to the “made @ home” market. When we arrived, both were closed early and will only open again on Monday. Maybe it was our luck, because when we got back to our backpacker camp, it started to rain and the rain did not stop.

Zululand Backpackers shares the same facility with George Hotel, so we spend the rest of the day in the hotel lobby, reading and talking to some guests. Digs Pascoe owns the shopping center in town. He is also involved in developing projects for the Zulu people and he is inviting us to visit Thonga Village, one of his projects.

We came to Eshowe to experience Zulu life, but we are a bit disappointed and the weather does not help. The cultural tours are very expensive and tailored to tourists. We will move on and catch the Zulu life in the next town.

Sunday, December 25

The rain did not stop all night. At times it got very strong. We got up early and moved the tent under the covered patio. When the tent was dry enough to fold, we packed and moved on to St. Lucia.

When we arrived to BIB International Backpacker in St. Lucia, Benny said: “We can stay here for a week!” our kind of place. The grounds are very nice, the facility is great and they offer many activities.

The staff is dressed for the holiday, the place is decorated, there is a complimentary champagne breakfast and there will be a special dinner and drinks.

Sandil?, a young Zulu man who works as staff, chef, tour guide, barman, took us for an orientation ride around town. Our tent is next to the couple from Jo’burg who are camping with their son and their daughter-in-law. There is a sign on the grass “Beware of Hippos in the night”. The grass is full of tents.

Sandil? wrapped a warthog with foil and put it on the open fire for dinner. Over here they do not say barbeque. The local word is braai.

We took a walk down to the water where we sat and “lit” the pretend Hanukkah candle, a small twig, and recited the blessing and sang some Hanukkah songs.

Back in the camp, we ate the vegetarian portion of the dinner, leaving others to taste the poor warthog.

We enjoyed talking to Betsy from Vermont, who is here with her 11-year-old daughter Julia. They have a maple farm in Vermont and they produce maple syrup.

Monday, Dec 26

St Lucia is crowded with holiday guests. It is a popular vacation spot for families from Durban and Jo’burg. Most accommodations are full. The city is clean, and we are told that it is safe. The locals sell art and fresh produce along Main Street. St Lucia is located between the Indian Ocean and Lake St Lucia. The city sits on the estuary, where the lake enters the ocean. It has a game reserve and the lake is a haven for hippos and crocodiles. There are 1000 hippos and 2000 crocodiles in the lake. It is known for great fishing, boating, beautiful clean beaches, snorkeling, diving, canoeing, biking, bird watching, and Zulu culture.

I went to the Information office to inquire about the possibility of visiting the local village. The woman in the Information Office is involved in community work. Her church sponsors orphanages. She told me that so many kids are losing their parents to AIDs. She told us that some sangomas (witch craft doctors) believe that in order to be cured from AIDs, one must rape a child. She added that she reads everyday in the local paper about missing kids and kids who have been raped. She was also telling us about the doctors who are treating AIDs victims with whatever medication they have and send the people home to die. I told her that I would like to visit a Zulu village but do not want to be part of an organized tourist package. Benny is not interested to visit the Zulu villages; he does not want to witness misery and poor people. The lady from the information office introduced me to Mboli, who will lead me with seven other tourists on a tour of her village. I will try to relay my experiences in the same manner as Mboli, my guide.

Mboli means flower and she lives in a village called Khula, meaning growing. It is a short drive from St. Lucia. The village is only twelve years old. Prior to the village, 40,000 Zulu people in this area lived in the forest. The government did not know that they were there. When the government found out that so many of them live in the forest with no water or electricity, the government offered them land across the road. Only 12,000 people moved out of the forest. The rest of them prefer to stay in the forest and live there to this day. In the forest they grow vegetables and make crafts from carved wood and straw. Another reason to stay in the forest is that they believe that the spirit of their ancestors is in the forest. In the village, there is 80% unemployment and the clay soil is not good for agriculture. Most families live off the granny pension, which is 700R per month. Young women live off their babies. They get 170R per month for each child until the age of 18.

Those who work, mostly in service to tourism, make a minimum wage of 800R per month. Very few make up to 4000R per month, they are the professionals and few government employees.

In school they learn in Zulu and English. Afrikaans is an option. Following Mboli, we walked into an old rondaval with a thatched roof. The roof is made of thick layers of dry grass. It has to be replaced every ten years. The roof is made of special grass and they are allowed to cut it once a year.

The entrance to the house is low and it serves two purposes: respect and security. When entering the home, man enters first and woman follows. Man goes to the mat on the left, woman to the right. Man sleeps on his mat, woman on hers. If the man wants his wife, he hits her with a special stick. The woman goes to his mat. The woman lays quiet, only man makes the movements. When he is done, she goes back to her mat.

Men eat together and women eat together. Only men can eat the head of a cow, only women can eat the “tzitzi” of the cow. Cooking is done outside the home on an open fire. A man must pay eleven cows for a wife. If she is from a royal family, the price can go up to 18 cows. If she has a child, the price goes down by two cows for each child.

The parents used to chose the mate for the child. Today, the young people get to choose, but the parents still pay the eleven cows.

When a husband passes away, the wife wears dark mourning clothes. She wears the same clothes for one year; she can wash them during the night. When the year passes, the family slaughters a goat or a cow, all the community comes to celebrate, and the wife can start a new life. The horns of the slaughtered animal are placed above the entrance to the house.

The houses in the village are small and scattered. Some houses are not finished, broken; windowless, others have a field of corn.

Next to a square house, there is a round rondavel. Mboli explained that the round traditional house is for the spirits of their ancestors. She goes to her ancestor’s rondavel whenever she has a dilemma, needs advice or just needs some comfort. A year ago she met a man, twenty years her senior who lost his wife. She moved in with him and his two children and she hopes that next year he will pay the cows for her and marry her.

Zulu people go to church. They believe in God and his son Jesus. In addition, they believe that after Jesus, God sent another messenger, and he is alive. He is Shembe. Shembe lives in Durban. He is a fifth generation Shembe and his son will be a Shembe. He is very rich; he lives in a nice house and drives fancy cars. He encourages people to have many wives, but he has only one wife.

Mboli tells us that one person in the village has 18 wives and 120 children. He is very busy all day visiting his family. He is 90+ years old and his last wife is 20 years old. Next we went to visit a sangoma, the traditional witch doctor.

It is not for everyone to become a sangoma. It is like a gift. You get a message in your dream. The message will tell you where you must go for your training. If the person refuses to go, something bad will happen to him. Training is 2-3 years with an experienced sangoma. During that time the trainee cannot see his family or be with a woman. When the training is over, the new sangoma must pass a test: a goat is left to wander, and with his spiritual power he must find it. The goat is then slaughtered and there is a feast for the community. The next test is to find a python, kill it, cook parts of it and eat it, and wear the skin around the shoulders.

The sangoma looks old, but he tells us that he is 34 and got his calling when he was 20 years old. He sits on the floor of his rondavel. On a mat, next to him is a collection of herbs, roots, bones, feathers, shells and more stuff that I cannot identify. He speaks in a very low deep voice. When I asked him if he always speaks so low he responded via our translator Mboli, that he can speak very loud when the spirits are with him. Most people come to him to read their future. He uses bones, shells and water to predict the future. When I asked him what illnesses he can cure he responded that he couldn’t cure AIDs, but can help headaches and stomachaches. Since he is a witch doctor, he can also bring disaster upon people. In the village of 12,000 people, there are about 20 sangomas.

Our next stop, a home where the family weaves straw mats. Very simple tools and very nice products. A young boy was sitting on one of his mats; there is a board with slits, and spools of thread on both side of each slit. The boy placed a long piece of straw next to the board, moved the thread spools from side to side and in three days he will complete a nice long mat. He was teaching me how to weave and I enjoyed it very much, but I cannot match his speed.

Next stop is the shabeen, where the guys are drinking beer made from oats. Next we went to a home where a group of young men and boys were doing Zulu traditional dances. Lots of high kicks and “hoo-hoo-hoo”.

We are walking toward Mboli’s home; she cooked lunch for all the visitors. Along the way, we passed a few nice homes where the professionals live. Mboli lives with her man friend and his family. The doors and windows are missing; the house looked like it was not finished. Inside, it was completely different. Small size rooms with nice couches, television with DVD, CD player with a collection of music. The children brought the food from another room and we enjoyed western-style meal.

Back in BIB Backpacker, Benny is waiting for me with a big lunch; it will be my dinner tonight.

We took a short hike through the forest, went down to the beach where we watched the hippos and crocodiles. On the beach we “lit” two Hanukkah candles, two twigs and a third one for Shamash.

Betsy from Vermont gave me a bottle of maple syrup from her farm. The label on the bottle: Adamant Sugarhouse, The Barstow Family, Rick, Betsy, William & Julia Box 15 Adamant, VT 05640 802-223-3311

She explained the process of producing the syrup and had some photos of her farm. It sounds like such a complicated delicate process that with a change of temperature or overcooking can destroy the whole crop. From 40 gallons of sap they will get one gallon of syrup. Betsy holds a black belt in Kouk Sun Do. It is mountain Taoist breathing meditation that started in Korea and was practiced by Hermits as early as 9000 years ago. Someday I would love to visit their farm.

Another address I need to remember is Gillian’s in Port Edward: Emithini Studio, Old Pont Rd, Port Edward. 073-201-0430 gillian@emithini.com

In the evening we heard beautiful voices, a group of local young people came to sing for us. Strong voices, great movements. The only word that I understood was Afrika, with rolling R.

The zookeeper from the Netherlands went fishing today and he is putting his fish on the fire. He made so much fish, everyone was invited to eat.

Tuesday, December 27

We had an early start this morning, we will visit the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park today and they only allow 150 cars at a time.

In the kitchen we met a woman from Durban who spent the night in the back of her truck because she could not find accommodations. We wonder about the safety of sleeping in a car and she told us that if you place a frog or a snake on the front of your car, nobody would touch it. Frogs and snakes are evil for the locals.

St Lucia Wetland Park is a Unesco World Heritage Site. 35 km of driving through the park, where we had to wait for two large rhinos to move before we could continue driving. We also saw many zebras, buffalos, warthogs, wildebeests, Kudos and monkeys.

We stopped at Mission Rock, where we walked along the beach, hopping on lava rocks. We discover Cape Vidal, a popular beach for the South Africans. White soft sand, very blue water and the relatively warm Indian Ocean. I was not planning on swimming and left my swimsuit at the camp, but shorts and a top did the job. It took a second to adjust to the water temperature, but once I was in, it was hard to get out.

I was jumping up with every new wave, thinking about my last vacation with my mother, when she was 92, on the beach in Tel-Aviv, how much she loved the water.

Benny is the official family photographer. Whenever he sees a father or mother taking photo of the rest of the family, he takes their camera and takes a complete family photo. We took a walk in the viewpoint, but the sign says “Beware of animals”, so stick in hand, I am ready for whatever crosses our path. The warm weather and plenty of water must be good for nature. Every living creature is larger here. The birds, butterflies, bugs, worms. I saw a very large roly-poly and a dung beetle the size of a fist. The rainy season here is between September and April. In the evening we went to watch the sunset at the Elephant Lake View Hotel grounds where we “lit” three Hanukkah candles.

Wednesday, December 28, the fourth Hanukkah candle

Waking up to a fresh morning, checking the grounds for hippos or crocodiles, trying to avoid stumbling into the ropes of a neighboring tent, it is going to be a hot and humid day. We are joining Sandil? for an early morning walk through the wetlands. Sandil? is a Zulu and he knows the territory very well. The sign reads “Attention, Danger, you are entering a dangerous game area. You could encounter animals such as buffalos, rhinos, hippos, elephants, leopards and crocodiles. You walk entirely on your own risk” And we follow Sandil?, who walks slowly, with a steady pace. He pointed to the Zebras and we continue walking parallel to them. A herd of blue wildebeests, a group of vervet monkeys, impala, antelopes. Sandil? tells us that the Zebra’s stripes, besides serving as camouflage—lions are color blind—serve as temperature control. The black stripes contain more fat cells and the white stripes more blood vessels. We saw a huge dung beetle in a pile of hippo-poo. When we got close to the water, we heard a loud roar. The male hippos starts, and the rest of the family joins in. Hippos spend all day in the water and come out to eat grass at night. There is one adult male and a few females in each family.

The young German couple that invited us to Thai dinner in Port St John arrived. Tonight we are inviting them to dinner. They are traveling and working along the way. They install creative mosaics along poolsides, walls and bathrooms.

Betsy and Julia from Vermont are leaving tomorrow to go back home. Julia showed me a book that she is reading now “Tales Of A Female Nomad”, by Rita Golden Gelman, Living at large in the world. (www.randomhouse.com) Did I remind her of the author? Betsy gave us pancake mix and more maple syrup.

Thursday, December 29, the fifth Hanukkah candle

How do you pronounce Hluhluwe? When I said Halleluiah, Sandil? was laughing, he knew exactly what I meant. Hlu in Zulu is pronounced as a whistling sound, schlu. Today we are going to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Hluhluwe=schlu-schlu-we. There are about 600 National Parks and Reserves in South Africa. The “big five” are the lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant. We saw many elephants, buffalos and rhinos. We did not see the cats; they are the hardest to spot in the game reserve. I already know that driving through game reserves is not my choice of activity. I love animals and love to watch them, but driving a whole day in the hope of spotting animals? Not my kind of a game. So this will be the last game park we are visiting on our Africa tour. We already went to the game reserve in Karoo, the Addo Elephants Park, and the St. Lucia Wetland Park and today the grand finale, Hlualuwe Park. We entered the park before 6:00am and left at about 5:00pm. I love watching the giraffes nibbling at the top of the thorny Acacia trees, the mother Chacha baboons carrying her babies, the four baby warthogs nursing as their mom is walking, the two male impala fighting, but I do not like sitting in the car for a whole day, scanning the bushes in hopes of seeing a living creature. After a while, every tree trunk and rock starts looking like an animal. We saw many Burchell’s Zebra, Blue Wildebeests, Impalas, Antelopes, Nyala, Giraffes, baboons, vervet monkeys, Black Rhinos and only one elephant today. Tonight we are camping at another little paradise, Bushbaby Lodge in Hluhluwe.

Friday, December 30

For breakfast we tried that Old Fashioned Buckwheat Pancake Mix that Betsy gave us with the maple syrup and it was delicious. Alfra is the owner of Bushbaby Lodge, and we can remember each other’s names because they rhyme. She let me use her computer to write. We spend the day walking around the area, doing laundry, reading and writing. Pics, the person who we met in Eshowe, invited us to a New Year Party for the staff in Thonga Village. Thonga Village is not on the map or in any guidebook. We are looking forward to this Zulu experience.

Back to main page and index of daily reports

Back to Top
1