Some Random Photos

This is a method for getting water into my room that I employed for a few months until my family got the JoJo (a big tank for storing water). The family installed a tap in the yard, but we only receive municipal water once every four days (if things go smoothly) so it is still necessary to store it. After Japhta installed the JoJo I didn't need to store so much in my room.

Here is the Induna's wife working in her beautiful garden.

This is the wedding of one of my teacher's sons, Mrs. Mongwe. They begin the ceremony in western clothes (white dress), and half way through they leave and change into traditional Shangaan (Tsonga speaking culture) clothing. They are proudly displaying their baby girl. Most couples have at least one child before marriage. This is helpful because it ensures the wife is able to bare children.

This is a well-dressed wedding guest.

Circumcision School

During the June-July School holiday many young men and women in the village attend circumcision schools. The young men and women range in age from 8-22. The schools are around 4 weeks long, and often held in the mountains. The purpose of the schools is to instill cultural values as children transition into adults.

In the olden days the boys would hunt everything they ate throughout the course of their four-week school. Today there is nothing wild left to hunt so families bring meat for the boys, but the still wear nothing but the traditional loin cloths and learn many secret songs and other secret things (that I don't know about). Many of the boys are circumcised at the school, but these days it is not uncommon for boys to be circumcised at the hospital before attending the school. Men who do not attend circumcision school are not allowed to participate in Community meetings.

Women go through a similar process of rugged living, learning secret songs and participating in endurance testing activities. As recently as 20 years ago all boys and girls would attend these schools, but they are slowly falling out of fashion. Previously some women had been circumcise, but people say the practice has fallen away almost completely. Especially for women, mountain schools are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

I attended the graduation ceremony for Modika, the first year of the boys' circumcision school. There were over two hundred boys at this particular school. Families pay between R400-R500 im tuition (approx $60). The families of the boys waited for them to be released. Mothers brought straw mats and danced and celebrated (as seen in the photo above). The boys arrived in silent procession, covered from head to toe with an oil mixed with die. The procession was serious and eerie (but the mothers were still dancing and hollaring in celebration of their boys becoming men). The mothers lay down their straw mats and all the boys sit down. Then they are ladden with candy necklaces and head bands as you can see in the third photo. The chief that had hosted the school called the name of each boy and he was lead away by his mother.

Once at home there is a party for the boys. You can see in the third photo, these are two brothers (my host nephews). We all came to the house to welcome them home. We gave them money (around R50, or $7); upon receiving the money they would recite a memorized statement of gratitue and determination to be a strong man. They get to keep the money, I think they used it to buy candy and games.

Boys are meant to return to the school the following year. At this time they qualify as Bagwera. They learn more secret traditions and songs in this session. The bagwera initiates are dressed in elaborate reed costumes and sent into the villages. They walk around with sticks and beat anyone that gets in their way, but only young people--never adults. The kids in the village love this game, they follow the bagwera around and creep as close as they can before taking off through the streets at the mouse end of hot-pursuit. It's a little like the running of the bulls.

You can see the bagwera pictured below in the last two phots (bagwera is plural, mogwera is singular). When they aren't chasing people they stand and undulate silent and ominous. It was by far my most exotic experience in the village. As I crept close to photograph them, everyone parted and drew away. I felt like a lamb creeping towards the slaughter. I could hearone of the older men who was chaperoning them ask who the heck this white person was. Lucky for me I'm well known amongst the kids, so to a chorus of "Ke Lebo" (it's Lebo), I took my photos. Then they turned and walked away.

Mom, Bonnie and George pay a visit to South Africa

17 June 2007, I waited with baited breath to see my mom and God parents emerge from a boeing 747. It had been almost two years; I was beside myself with excitement to see them again, show them my South Africa, and introduce them to my family and village. Their trip was a lot of fun, and the village absolutely loved them and was honoured to be hosting my elders! The only kink was that the schools were on strike and we weren't able to visit. My teachers were terribly disappointed to have missed them. It took a lot of time and energy just to process family and friend introductions. We even had tea with a collection of kokos (old women). Mom, Bonnie and George even hung out with the Girls' club, playing games and doing crafts. The visit was equally unforgettable for both my American and African families!

Above, Mom, Bonnie and George pose with my koko (grand mother) and a neighbor, who had come over to demand they leave me in the village when they go back to America. Below Mom, Bonnie and George with my host parents, Japhta and Susan, and little Tshoga.















Here's the whole fam!















While staying in the village we met with the girls camp. Because it was such a special occassion we allowed boys to also attend. Mom brought visor kits. They loved making them, and I saw bedecked visors floating around the village on the heads of all sorts of people for weeks afterwards.















Below my host brother, Poopo, the chess champion, sports his fashion creation.















We visited the rare cycad forests, and had plenty of time to take them in after I locked the keys in the trunk of the rental car! I blame deculturalization (a term I made up for the occasion). Fortunately George made some calls, and a Afrikaaner in very short shorts came and rescued us!

Here is the whole group of girls (and boys) celebrating after finishing their hats. You really

have to look for Mom, she blended in well with the locals.

After we left the village we spent two nights in Kruger National Park viewing the animals. Then we went up and spent a few nights in a cushy lodge. Here Bonnie and George are enjoying the big tree swings.

We took a lovely boat tour and saw one of the world's few remaining Tufor Waterfalls. The surface taht this water falls over is very thick and spongy, basically full of life. From the proper angle the cavernous holes the water emerges from look like big eyes and the whole thing looks like a crying skull. Very Treasure Island!

Here is a broad view of the Blyde River Canyon, where we were boating along.

Here are Mom and I, at the Pot Holes, cliffs that have been worn away by running water into long narrow holes over the years. Below is a broader view of the rock face.

After leaving the Lodge, Bonnie and George headed for Capetown and the Wine Region, and Mom and I headed for Ingwe Game Lodge, where we fleshed out our animal spotting cards with some excellent (and sometimes scary) lion, elephant, rhino, hippo, crocodile, leopard, cheetah, and cape buffalo sightings. Posed below are the guide and tracker.

Girl's Club Photo Scavenger Hunt

We've just come through a four week public sector strike, which means in the village we haven't had school in four weeks! To pass the time a few volunteers, Kelsey and Amanda, came to visit me and help me do a photo scavenger hunt with the girls club. This is the group that I followed around and took photos of. In the end all the girls were able to look at the photos of each group on my host sister's computer. See if you can guess the categories (1. with shopkeeper 2. in taxi 3. in tree 4. playing the brick game 5. with a koko (grandma) 6. doing hair 7. on the phone 8. holding chickens 9. baby on the back 10. carrying water on the head 11. cooking over the fire 12. herding cows 13. traditional dance)

Chess Camp

Over a long weekend a friend of mine who teaches English at a highschool in Pretoria came and taught some of the learners at my key school how to play chess. We ran the camp for three days over a long weekend, and had an impressive turn out for each day. Lincoln patiently explained how each piece moved, and for two days they mostly practiced moving the pieces and got a feel for the game. On the third day we had a tournament, and they showed their brilliant colors playing a number of games (very quickly). It was amazing to see how far they could come in just a few days, from knowing nothing about chess, to playing competitively! THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who sent me chess boards!! You made this possible and sustainable. My host father, who is an expert chess player, plans to maintain the chess team and tutor them toward mastery.

To the left is the demonstration board that lincoln brought to teach the children how the pieces move. Below you can see my host brother, Poopo, (a grand master in the making).

The final photo depicts the Tournament held on the third day of the camp. A lot of chess was played this day, but it all came down to Poopo and Alice! It was a close game, full of intensity (you can see the rapt audience), and Poopo won it in the end. I was so proud!

April Trip to Cape Town

This April I took a trip with some friends to see the famous Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, resting just at the southern tip of the continent.

Below is a photo of the wine region where we did a lot of wine tasting and became very educated and cultured, and sometimes tipsy.
To the right Jillian and Cait are hanging out on a walkway to the beach in the Wilderness park area east of Cape Town. Here we beach combed and kyaked, and I fell off a cliff while looking at a bird, but I'm alright!

These are a couple of photos from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. We climbed up through some ridiculous winds that were trying to blow us down the mountain. It took us 3 hours. It was freezing at the top so we drank 2 hot chocolates and then took the cable car back down to the base. Jillian took an alternate route and got a little lost so she finally appeared at the bottom about four hours later looking like she had just bushwacked her way through a jungle!

To the right is my birthday cake specially "baked" for me by Cait and Jenny. It was a sleeve of thick white chocolate around raspberry tart--delicious! We hung out at the backpackers that night and marvelled at the stories of some American volunteers from the Congo who were staying there. Below is me asking the time from someone with very small ears so I had to lean over and shout.

This is the view from the Pikes Peak route that we took to get back to Cape Town coming from The Cape of Good Hope. Below is Jillian, Jenny, Cait and I posing on the cliff's edge.


Below Cait is charming some of the Jack Ass penguins we saw at the penguin colony we stopped at at the way to the Cape of Good Hope.