FANTA GRAPE

Time to explore further than the borders of Swaziland! On Monday we hopped on a kombi to Manzini full of excitement for our holiday travels; we then reached Manzini and sat in the Durban kombi for over 2 hours while they waited for it to fill up. Angry, cramped and annoyed we finally set off – so 4 ½ hours after departing from Big Bend we found ourselves passing the exact spot we got the kombi from that morning... Damn Swaziland and its one tar road!
The excitement started kicking in again and I’m pretty sure we might have been those annoying people at the back of buses who make more noise than is actually necessary... oh well.
We had a lovely surprise at the border gate; a man with the world’s longest and dirtiest fingernails came to stand at our open kombi door asking for money. The front of his jeans was also non-existent; they might as well have been crotch-less chaps so we had a lovely view of everything hanging out. We all failed spectacularly when it came to keeping a straight face, so we left pretty promptly to walk to the border gate to hand over our passports to be scrutinised and questioned.

Entering South Africa wasn’t what we expected at all; the kombi was getting pummelled by torrential rain and thunderstorms, visibility must have been down to about 20% and we were getting nowhere fast... which is very surprising for a kombi!
Due to the slow going we were due to hit Durban at night... in the dark... not knowing where our backpackers was... with no alternate transport. F**k. Living in Swaziland we’ve been quite sheltered, but we’d been told that South Africa was much more dangerous, so we weren’t looking forward to wandering around Durban at night carrying everything that had any importance to us on our backs.
Luckily there was a couple on the kombi from Durban and they offered us a lift with them – thank god! The four of us crammed in the back of their truck with our massive backpacks and watched the Durban city lights pass us by. I felt like a fish out of water in the city; after being in Big Bend for 3 months the bright lights and large buildings felt overpowering and daunting. We drove past a huge casino complex that was lit up with LED lights and looked like it had been brought straight from Las Vegas, this felt more like America than Africa!
The couple entertained us on our travels with comforting anecdotes about living in Durban; “Yeah, I’ve been mugged twice, once with a knife to my throat and once with a gun in my face”, “Damn this area is risky, s**t, I don’t have my pepper spray either...” Great first impression of Durban.

We hit uShaka Marine World for the first tourist day of our holidays; dolphin shows, seal shows, the biggest aquarium EVER and a water park. uShaka boasts the tallest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere, so we were all buzzing for that! It was pretty high as well; you shoot over the edge at what I swear to be a 90 degree angle and by the time you reach the bottom you need surgical assistance to remove your bikini bottoms from unknown places.
That night we bought meat, rolls and ingredients to make a kick ass potato salad, and we set about having a braii on the roof of our backpackers. It was awesome. We had some spectacular views of the Durban lights, a few drinks, braii and some intelligent conversation with Jacob, a Canadian and the fifth person in our five person dorm.

Unfortunately for the next 3 days Ashley fell really ill and we had to cancel our plans to carry on down the coast and stay in Durban until she recovered; we took her to a private city hospital and after waiting for 4 hours we finally walked away with 5 bags of drugs that would hopefully pull her back around to reality!
Thankfully the medicine did its job and Ashley felt well enough to travel, so we each begrudgingly parted with E2500 (£180) for a Baz Bus ticket, and we set off for Port St John’s on Saturday morning.

Getting on the kombi was eventful in itself; Ashley and the Sam’s were already on the bus and I was trying to sort out a ticket problem with the driver outside. Then an actual kombi driver comes over and starts grabbing the Baz Bus drivers’ clip board, starts pushing him and is shouting for him to move the bus. “You need to learn how to respect another person” the Baz Bus driver keeps yelling, he wants to stand there and sort the tickets out before we set off... but this is getting pretty serious. There’s now an audience of people on the backpacker balcony watching the scene unfold below and I do not want to be involved in a street brawl between two fully grown African male kombi drivers. I politely tell them both to calm down, stop pushing each other and get the Baz Bus driver back on the bus to sort out the ticket problem when we have driven away.  Good call.

Port St John’s is beautiful and Amapondo backpackers has to be the most amazing backpackers in the world. Port St John’s itself looks like Brazil rather than Africa; large hills covered in dense jungle foliage make up 95% of your view, and just on the coast is a perfect bay with crystal blue waters. The backpackers itself is perched on the side of mountain, and you can see small homesteads everywhere, they look like Brazilian flavelas or small villages from a Pirates of the Caribbean film.  

That night we eat an amazing homemade Thai green curry, which turns out to be free because Sam Rutherford gets chatting to a guy at the bar and because Sam is Scottish he offers to pay for our meal!
Later on that night two ladies light up the firepoi and there’s a mesmerising impromptu fire show; it’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen so we all decide to have a bash at it! Not with the fire obviously, just with the practice ‘sockpoi’. Sam Thomas picks it up straight way and makes us really jealous with his skills; this infuriates me even further because I’m so uncoordinated and my left arm and hand are pretty much useless. Everyone goes to bed and I’m still stood there failing spectacularly but not willing to be defeated by these sock balls on string, it finally takes a flaming sambuca burn to the hand and I can’t carry on – so I call it a night and go to bed. 

Sunday brings English weather, so we hitch-hike into town to buy some food, and yet again have another KFC. I’ve eaten more takeaway food in Africa than I ever have in England – who would have thought.
Back at Amapondo I finally crack the sockpoi and my skills are on par with Sam’s, so I’m pretty chuffed with myself. We can’t do much though as a crazy thunderstorm lights up the whole valley, rain comes down in sheets and the power goes out. So we chill in the darkness and listen to the phenomena outside.

One week into travelling and I’ve seen some of the most beautiful places I may ever see in my life. Can’t wait to see some more!

Love Kate xx

(P.S. The way Ashley says fanta grape is really funny, so us impersonating her is now a running joke we have. So that’s the title for you. It’s not funny if you’re not here, sorry!) 

SIZEZE

Let the festivities begin! Even though it is still ridiculously early to be thinking about Christmas, we have to. Because the schools finish before December even begins we have to fit all of the Christmas themed activities into November. At Injabulo we braved the paint for the first time (much more risky than crayons!) and my worries were confirmed – water was spilt everywhere, paints were wrecked, paint was splattered everywhere and it was a total disaster. I think the kids enjoyed themselves though!
They’ve successfully made stockings, Santa Claus on a wreath, cotton wool snowmen and Christmas baubles – quite impressive for a large bunch of easily distracted 3-5 year olds.

The people who work in PEP must be getting sick of us now, we’ve been back AGAIN for more shoes for soup kitchen, and we found they have a lunchbox/water bottle combination for about 60p so we bought up all the stock they had of them too!

We’re also becoming more and more Swazi by the day; the kombi that has been donated to Moriah Centre is now back on Swazi soil, and Ashley and I have been allocated as its drivers. You can’t get much more Swazi than driving a kombi around, however you do get lots of people trying to wave you over at the side of the road and then look at us confusedly when they realise that there are two white girls in charge of a kombi! Might pull into the kombi park next time and shout ‘MATATA MATATA’ for the banter, try and charge people for a journey, hahaa.

Soup Kitchen has been crazy this week; we’ve had an influx of new children and teenagers... Apparently word has been getting out that the two white girls at soup kitchen are buying everyone clothes and shoes, so people are starting to turn up thinking that they’re going to get some handouts. So our numbers have been bumped up from about 50-60 on an average day to around 80!
The tough decision is whether or not we actually do give them something, it would be nice if they made the effort to come to soup kitchen as regulars, but then again they might be looking after younger siblings at home and they can’t physically make it. Do we give them clothes and shoes even though they’re only turning up BECAUSE  they think they’re going to get clothes and shoes, or do we say ‘sorry, no you can’t have’?  Aunty Vina is well informed on people’s home situations, but then again we don’t have the money to clothe the whole of Mpolongeni community! However if Aunty Vina says they are needy (which most of them are), then I guess we buy for them... That’s what this work is all about, giving help to those who need it the most.
On the way to soup kitchen on Tuesday we were pulled over by police for the very first time! It was just a random maintenance vehicle check, but we were pretty nervous because we had Sisekelo students in the back of the truck... Luckily Ashley had her licence (sometimes we forget, but you’re meant to carry it everywhere with you when you’re driving) and everything was okay. She did get a little bit flustered though and when the Policewoman asked for her to test the indicators she accidently flicked on the windscreen wipers! Easy mistake.

Friday was the first day that we started handing out our wares at soup kitchen; we decided to shift all of the second hand clothes that we had been collecting from the Sisekelo students so we had more time to hand out the nice things that we had actually bought with money. 

The girls were really civilised about taking the clothes, however they got embarrassed when we were handing out the bras that we’d been given, none of them wanted any! Ashley and I thought that it was really strange because surely teenage girls would be grateful for a bra, but it seems that that isn’t the case.
The boys were the opposite of the girls, they were mental. Pushing, screaming, fighting, snatching... everything. We’d even explained that everyone was going to get something, but they just didn’t want to be polite about it. Every time I lifted up an item of clothing to have a look at the size about 20 hands all came up and started grabbing and pulling the clothes; it wasn’t nice at all.
Sometimes when we try to do something nice for soup kitchen I still don’t feel good about it; giving out the clothes should make me feel happy because we’re giving the children something that they don’t have something that will benefit them... but it makes me feel awful. The way they desperately snatch clothes from you and from one another makes me realise they’re in such a dire situation they’re willing to do anything to gain. Larger boys pull clothes off the smaller boys, clothes that won’t even fit them, JUST so that they have something. It breaks my heart and makes me wonder what sort of effects poverty really has on a person. Just how far would they go to try and improve their own situation? Here they are pulling clothes off each other like wild animals, even though they are all friends and they all know how hard they have it, how tough their lives are. Something takes over them and they aren’t the same children I know and love and see every week, which is a shame because I want to feel good when we give them surprises, not feel shocked.

Injabulo Christmas party was also this week! We had so much fun with the kids, they all made little party hats to wear and then they all sat down at their little tables to have some party food; cheese and ham sandwiches, crisps, biscuits and icing, jelly and lolly pops... Lots of really healthy food obviously. Shoprite  doesn’t sell straws and they wouldn’t  donate us any of the free ones you get when you buy a drink so Ashley and I had stolen loads of them just to make a point that we couldn’t be defeated and we used them in a sucking Jelly race at Injabulo. It was the funniest thing ever watching 50 kids all with their faces in plates of jelly trying desperately to finish first, and the SOUND, wow.

This Saturday brought the Swaziland vs. Botswana National Rugby match! We caught a kombi to Manzini and walked to the Mavuso Sports Centre – our friend Mike is the Captain of the rugby team and his two brothers are also part of the team. It was Swaziland’s first National home game in 6 years, and we started off with high hopes for them. Then we saw the Botswana team... they dwarfed Swaziland’s team with their massive guys and we became more doubtful of how the game was going to go.
Unfortunately Swaziland were creamed by Botswana, but they’re a young team and it was the first time they had all played together, so there’s room for improvement!
Mike’s parents gave us free ‘Sizeze vs. Botswana’ t-shirts though, so that was pretty awesome! Sizeze is the rugby teams nickname, and also the name of the Swaziland spear.

Looking fat but whatever... This is Mike (on the right) and one of his brothers.

The Dos Santos Family! Mikes family, they are actual legends.

Next week is going to be stressful as hell, but it’s almost the Christmas holidays so it’s time to really knuckle down before we have 6 weeks of travelling!

Kate xx