I guess I’ll pick up where I left off, we left the homestead
in Vusweni super early the next morning and got a ride into Manzini, then took
a minibus to Mbabane where we had our bags in storage at the hostel. Eli took it upon himself to negotiate a
fare with a taxi driver (who didn’t really speak English) to take Michelle and
me up to the hostel to get our bags and then to the next town, Esulwini, to a
hostel called Legends where we were going to be picked up by the Baz Bus in 2
days. Then Eli bid us adieu and
went his separate way to a Peace Corps (finally put the “s” in, Uncle Larry!!!)
workshop.
Our taxi driver ended up passing Legends and taking us to a
different backpackers in Esulwini, but it turned out to be really nice and
there was a near-by orphanage that we walked to and played with the kids for a
bit. I tell you, kids love a
ukulele! We also had our first
experience with insanely slow internet…we both paid for an hour and I was just
able to upload that last blog entry by the end of the hour. We left Swaziland early the next day
with Michelle saying “I think Swaziland is perfect.” I reminded her that Swaziland is an absolute monarchy with
the world’s highest HIV infection rate, and she amended her comment to “I think
our experiences in Swaziland were perfect.” And while this dialogue makes it sound like I am the
realistic fact-checker and Michelle just has her head in the clouds, check out
her blog at http://blogs.bootsnall.com/mjweiner
for a reality check of your own. I
have to admit that her blog is more professional, informative, encyclopedic, if
you will, while mine is more about day-to-day activities and impressions and
warm fuzzies. Or something like
that…
We arrived at our hostel in Durban later that evening after
a long day of driving through beautiful (albeit occasionally rainy)
countryside, went to an Indian restaurant nearby (Durban is famous for its
large Indian population, who came here to work in the mines…although I’m sure
you already read that in Michelle’s blog), and settled in for the night.
The next day we went into downtown Durban with Isabelle, a
French-Canadian from Montreal we met on the Baz Bus. We walked around Victoria Market, which is a huge indoor
marketplace, and then walked for what seemed like hours to the beach. It turns out the Indian Ocean is
cold! Michelle and Isabelle went
in the water first while I watched our stuff, and then Isabelle came back and I
ventured out. As soon as my toes
hit the water an adorable little girl started making eye contact with me as she
jumped into the waves. After a few
minutes of laughing together, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to her other
friends. They had all come to
Durban with their school for a day at the beach, and a few of them spoke some
English. It was nice to be
surrounded by trusting children unafraid of holding hands with a stranger, and
we all jumped around in the water, counting “One, Two, Three!” for each
incoming wave.
The next day we took the bus to Chintsa, which is a gorgeous
area on the Wild Coast of South Africa. We basically relaxed at our super
awesome hostel, hung out with Isabelle and our new best friend Kuno, a
Zimbabwean who’s been working as a dive instructor in England for the past 3
years, and ate an amazing Xhosa dinner.
Michelle and I have mostly been grocery shopping and making our own
food, but in Chintsa to get to the store you have to basically ford a river, so
instead we pampered ourselves.
Now we’re in Wilderness, a stop along the Garden Route. And hurray, I'm sitting on the side of the rode in a posh neighborhood stealing someone's wireless (don't tell the kids)! Tomorrow we go to
Capetown where we are staying with a family for 2 nights and then meeting up
with the rest of the people on our 6-week camping trip…wish us luck…
