Clicks and such

So I am trying to learn the local language called Xitsonga, and I can tell you that it is very difficult. I speak four languages and I can’t seem to pronounce anything correctly or remember more than a word or phrase every week. Let me give you an example.

Let’s take the relatively basic question: What is the time? The translation would be: Xana i nkarhi muni? Sound easy? Not so fast. The letter x is not pronounced phonetically the same as English, it is actually what is called a lateral click. That’s right, a click. Here is the instruction for the lateral click:

“To pronounce the lateral click, x, place the tip of the tongue against the hard palate as if you were going to produce the n sound. Press one side of the tongue against the side of the jaw. Then, without shifting the tip of the tongue from the hard palate, withdraw the side sharply from the jaw. This sound differs from the other two [clicks] in that the release takes place at the side(s) of the tongue and not at the front. This sound is sometimes made to express regret or to spur on a horse.”

So if you read that carefully you would have noticed that there are two other clicks. These are the dental click and the palatal click, both of which are not easy to master. Fortunately, those clicks do not seem to be used as often as the lateral click.

As far as interesting news goes, I can’t say a whole lot has been going on while Lili has been away. I have been working a lot and developing a routine here. I get to work around 8 and leave around 4:30 p.m. I walk home for lunch and make a nice avocado and cheese sandwich with plenty of fruit on the side, and a nice coffee from my stovetop contraption to get me ready for the afternoon. Everyone who works around me, not just my organization (AWARD) but all the workers, including the grounds keepers and administrative staff, have tea at 10:30. It is a nice break and we all sit around two round concrete tables with benches outside the offices. There is a magnificent lemon tree that seems to have an endless supply of sweet lemons next to the tea spot, and most people cut a lemon and squeeze some juice into their tea. Most of the workers speak Xitsonga together, so I am often left out of the conversation. But it is really nice to listen to them speak.

After work I usually go for a run through the bush trails and watch the sunset, and then come home and start to make dinner. I have been trying all kinds of new recipes, mostly Indian or Iranian food. I then read or write for a few hours and hit the sack listening to the hyenas woop in the background.

As for news about South Africa, there is a lot going on. The most troublesome news is the threat of a media tribunal. The politicians are so fed up with being exposed on a weekly basis for their dirty dealings that they now want to enact a tribunal for the sole purpose of stifling free press. They have summarily dismissed other obvious routes to address their discontent, namely to stop their blatant corrupt practices. Let me give you another example. The premier of the province where we live, Mapumalanga, is one of the darlings of the investigative press. A few weeks ago the paper exposed a shady deal, where the government was going to buy a building for 5 times the value of its appraisal at the instruction of the premier. Of course, the building owner it turned out was friends with the premier. Or just last week, the media did a huge story on the current president’s son whose company was paid over US $100 million from a mining company for “strategic purposes.” That company had just lost a concession to mine ore, and was trying to get its concession back. So, it is pretty clear why the politicians don’t like the media here (because it is doing its job). Despite the obvious absurdity of this mock tribunal, there seems to be a serious threat that these tribunals will come to fruition.

There is also the matter of the public sector strike, which is in its third week. I was caught in the middle of this two weeks ago when I met with a government official (one of the few who seems to not be on strike) in her office in Nelspruit. After I got to her office, strikers surrounded the entrance to her building and started blowing their vuvuzelas and chanting all kinds of slogans. Oddly enough, despite this incredible distraction we were able to continue our meeting. I was a bit worried about leaving the building amidst the strikers, but thankfully they decided to move on to the next building by the time I was ready to leave. The strike has had a devastating consequence on society. All of the teachers and hospital workers are on strike, and the few that do not want to strike are threatened if they come to work. The result is that students have no place to go and hospitals are literally shut down. Patients are being sent home and turned away at the door. How these professionals can ethically do this baffles me. I really hope the strike ends soon because a lot of people are suffering from it.

Land of the Red Dirt

Lili has gone back to the US and Canada for a month to sort out her Canadian residency, so I (Ramin, in case you are wondering…) am alone for a while and writing this post. Two weekends ago, Lili and I went camping with some of our friends (Vusi, Sharon and Kevin and their two beautiful children Lulama and Zara) in Venda, the north eastern part of South Africa near the border of Zimbabwe.
The Venda is one of the tribes in South Africa, and during Apartheid their traditional land was designated as a homeland for them to continue living in. They were thus largely unaffected by the forced removals and could continue their traditional way of life in their ancestral lands. Other tribes were less fortunate and often evicted from their fertile lands and forced to live in other less desirable areas. Because the Venda were allowed to continue living in their ancestral lands, their traditional way of living was apparent as we drove through their villages scattered throughout Venda’s rolling hills of red dirt.

The Venda mostly live in compounds of three or four round huts, which probably house different members of the extended family. The landscape and feel of Venda was one of the nicest places I have been in South Africa and it really felt like stepping back a little bit in time. Unfortunately our pictures do not do justice.

The campsite we stayed in was run by one of the local villages. It was sad because, as the caretaker explained, only three or four groups had stayed there since it opened this past January. It was a little off the beaten path so maybe tourists and other South Africans are a bit hesitant to come. They are definitely missing out. The campsite was surrounded by riverine forests, and once the sun went down the owls came out. Their calls were so loud that you could almost hone in on them in the darkness. One owl’s call pierced through our tent in the middle of the night and made me almost jump out of the sleeping bag. We were fortunate to see a few of them in the trees with our flashlights. As for the art of camping, it had been a long time since I spent the night in a tent, and my hips felt it in the morning. That being said, it was a great time and it felt refreshing to wake up to the crisp Venda air sipping a warm cup of coffee brewed on our portable gas stove.

I also spent this past weekend in Swaziland. I went with my neighbor from down the road, Amy, who is also from Canada. She had spent a few months in Swazi previously doing research and so it was great to go with her as she knew lots of people and her way around. We decided to go because a concert was scheduled at the House of Fire to benefit a recording studio for local up and coming Swazi musical artist. House of Fire is where Bushfire is held, the annual music festival in Swaziland. Musicians from all over Africa are now coming to play at Bushfire and it has gained quite a following as an organic festival. Lili and I missed it this year, but we are going next May when it is being held again. They have set out a campsite adjacent to the venue, so it really has a festival feel.

Swaziland is a strange country as it is entirely landlocked within South Africa. At first it does not feel very different than South Africa because you see the same stores and the rural architectural style is similar (mostly basic cinder block houses). After a while you begin to sense a subtle difference- similar to that when you enter the US from Canada or vice versa. Soon enough it really does feel like you are in a different country, and in many ways it feels a little more traditional than South Africa. It is ruled by a king with something like 11 wives, who all have their own black BMW M6s. Much of the country from what I saw was dirt poor, so it makes the casual visitor ask a lot of questions about what is really going on that no one really wants to answer while you are there. Nevertheless, despite this rather in-your-face inequity, the country seems very much more relaxed than South Africa, and the people are amazingly friendly. The black and white populations also seem to be more integrated than their counterparts in South Africa. The concert we went to had a very mixed crowd that mingled together and it was refreshing to see that after living in South Africa where usually the opposite occurs.

Here are some pics from our trip to the organic veggie patch in the village we went to. Long awaited I know...

Safari!

It has been a while since we have posted but things have been busy. Two short stories to share…about two weeks ago, we went around some of the villages where AWARD (the organization Ramin is working for) has been working. AWARD has done many different types of work since its inception around protecting and ensuring sustainable water resources. They have approached this goal from many angles, from teaching people in the local communities how to build and maintain rain water harvesting tanks to working with setting up regional water management institutions. One of the projects that they recently conducted was teaching people in one village, Craigeburn, how to sustainably grow their own fruit and vegetables, both to encourage sustainable use of the land and water and also as a way to promote food security and create a source of potential income. The project started with around 100 households, and unfortunately after 18 months, only a few individuals have kept going with it. There are many reasons for this that we will not get into now, but those few who kept with their fruit and veg patch or mini farms are doing exceptionally well and inspiring others in the community. One of the ladies we visited, Clancina, is a great example. We bought the best tasting carrots, beets, and swiss chard from her, and all organic. She is growing sweet potatoes, herbs, and tomatoes too. She has a thriving garden, more like a small farm, and sells her vegetables in addition to feeding her family of ten. She has been able to open a bank account for the first time. What is amazing is that she is setting a great example and often teaches others in her community who are now interested in growing food. I will upload some pictures later this week of her garden and us buying the very fresh veg.

This last week, our very dear friends, Eliza and Daniel came to visit us from New York. Their first night here we went for a walk in the bush and “braaied” some food and had a delicious meal. We spent the next three nights in Kruger national park which is a huge wildlife area spanning three countries (SA, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe). We saw tons of animals (leopards, lions, white rhinos, elephants, lots of amazing birds, giraffes, zebras, hippos and many more), cooked some really amazing meals at the camps and drank a lot of good cheap wine sitting under the stars. It was so nice to have a little piece of home here and we’re really going to miss them.


Here are five favorite birds among the over 100 we identified:
Crested Barbet, Lilac Breasted Roller, Blackcollared Barbet, Hoopoe, and Burchell’s Coucal. We also liked the eagles we saw, particularly the Martial Eagle and the kingfishers.

A drunk Squirrel

It has been a while since we wrote our last entry, hence a longer post. The reason is that we have been travelling around following the World Cup; we were lucky to see the quarterfinal game in Cape Town between Argentina and Germany and the semifinal game in Durban between Spain and Germany (Go Spain!). Since we assume most people watched the games, we are not going to write about them except to say that the organization getting to and from stadiums has been amazing, and the stadiums themselves are breathtaking. We have posted some pictures of the last few games we went to.

Cape Town is a magnificent city that is a nature lover’s dream place. It has lovely beaches, mountains, two oceans, tons of hiking, good food, wine country, whale watching, parks and gardens, wild penguins, some of the most beautiful views and drives, and the list goes on and on.
We spent the first two days outside of Cape Town in a seafront town called Hermanus, famous for its whale watching. The town was very lovely and the beaches were amazing. We saw some whales and after a long walk on a long sandy beach we came across a flock of flamingos hanging out in a lagoon.

In Cape Town, we were lucky enough to stay with the director of Ramin’s organization, Tessa, who is based out of Cape Town and who lives in a vibrant and colorful neighborhood that is primarily a Cape Malay area. We are not entirely sure what this means, but most of the people living there looked like they were a mix between Indian, white, and African, and there were tons of mosques around. The houses were painted in different bright colors and the neighborhood was on a hill overlooking Table Mountain, so you often had steep streets and many made out of cobblestone. The neighborhood was really convenient and we walked everywhere, including 45 minutes to and from the stadium. Although Cape Town has a ton to offer in terms of natural beauty, it is a pretty subdued City (except for the World Cup buzz), as far as street life goes, compared to our next destination Durban.

Cape Town also highlighted for us the enormity of the economic disparity along racial lines and the separation between white people and black people in South Africa. For example, when we would go restaurants or pubs to watch games in the City, the crowd would be almost entirely white. We took a short road trip around some of the beach towns and wine country and the people eating in the cafes and restaurants were all white. Even the beaches in Cape Town, like Camp’s Bay, were primarily white. Most troubling, however, were not just the demographics, but the extreme wealth around the City. Luxury cars and huge houses were common sights, and entire neighborhoods seemed transplanted out of Malibu. This is not odd in and of itself, until you start to drive past the airport through the area known as the Cape Flats or visit many of the other parts of the country where extreme poverty is the norm. The Cape Flats is an enormous ghetto or shanty town that sprawls as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway- makeshift dwellings made mostly out of corrugated iron stuck together with tons of people walking around the highway. Of course this drastic economic disparity is common in a lot of countries but I think the reason why it is unique here is that it is so clearly black and white in a country where whites are very much a minority and is set against the backdrop of Apartheid, which ended only 15 years ago.

From Cape Town we flew to Durban where we rented a car so we could drive back to our house in the north (about ten hours). Arriving in Durban, we felt like we were in an entirely different country from Cape Town. We arrived at King Shaka airport as it was getting dark and got lost trying to find the back packer’s lodge we were staying at (at $70 a night, we don’t see how they can call it a backpacker’s lodge). We missed the turnoff on the highway and suddenly found ourselves in downtown Durban at night without a map or anything to help us navigate. It was totally crazy and it seemed like thousands of people were on the streets running in every direction. There was an energy in Durban that just didn’t exist in Cape Town. However, the biggest difference from Cape Town, apart from the fact that Durban is an uglier city, was that we did not see any white people as we entered the city center after sunset.

Durban is also home to the largest Indian population in South Africa (at least 3rd or 4rth generation- not recent immigrants), and I am sure it is one of the largest populations of Indians outside of India. We also heard that one cannot visit Durban without getting a good Indian Curry, and we must say that we think this is true after having one of the best Indian curries ever, at least that is what Ramin thinks.

An extremely scary issue that we encountered both in Cape Town and in Durban was the threat of violence by black South Africans against other Africans living and working in South Africa, mainly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana and the Congo. Not too long ago xenophobic riots and hate crimes rippled throughout the country, and things seem to be heating up again. Many black South African feel that these foreigners are stealing their jobs or bringing criminality into the country. The radio and newspapers are filled with discussions and reports of another imminent wave of hate crimes. In Cape Town and Durban we spoke to two Congolese men who were clearly uneasy about being here. In Durban, the man we spoke to seemed desperate to leave the country and was genuinely scared. He was pleading with us to help him get into Canada (once he found out Ramin is Canadian), and it was really sad to listen to his pleas knowing that we probably could not help. Most disturbing is the tone on the radio from many listeners calling in. We heard 4-5 South Africans in a row call-in to a discussion making the most horrific accusations. One man was yelling about how Nigerians and Zimbabweans are all drug dealers and mixed up in crimes, and how they need to leave South Africa. What is remarkable about this is that this current wave of xenophobia and racism comes from people oppressed under apartheid based on race, and it is almost like people are blind to history. We hope that the rumors going around about an eruption of violence are just hyped up and that whatever is in the air right now does not explode into the xenophobic violence that South Africa witnessed a couple of years ago.

After watching the game in Durban, we headed for the Drakensburg mountains or “the Berg” as South African’s refer to it, a range near Durban that hugs Lesotho (a mountainous country that seems very intriguing and that we plan to visit soon we hope). It is a beautiful mountain range with some peaks up to 10,000 or so feet. There is plenty of hiking and camping to be done, and unfortunately we only spent two nights here on our way driving back home. We sort of fell upon a really quaint log cabin and for only $80/night it was a steal (trust us when staying at a hostel is the same price in this country). It overlooked a stunning reservoir and rolling hills (see pic). The Berg is definitely some place we will return while we stay here, and it is filled with tons of national parks all full of amazing hikes. One could easily spend months exploring these mountains.

For our animal sighting this week I have posted a picture of a Pangolin. Apparently this is a very rare animal to see, and it looks like an armadillo with scales that look like artichoke leaves. The woman we were with, Stacy, told us she has always wanted to see one “her whole life” and that this was an incredibly special moment. We felt honored that we got to see one so soon into our time in South Africa and only 200 feet from our house!


We also came home to an act of animal vandalism. The bright orange squirrel that lives in our roof (made out of dried reed) decided that it was finally time to raid our pantry. It tore up all our cereal, flour and even the wine, which was found by us in a huge puddle on the ground. Apparently the squirrel has a taste for wine. It also apparently likes our bed, because we found plenty of droppings on our bed cover when we arrived. This was just taking it a bit too far! Unfortunately our decision to attempt to live in harmony with the nature around us will no longer apply to the squirrel. Ramin has borrowed a live trap to capture it and should the trap work, he plans to release it 20 kilometers away so it does not find its way back to the wine.

Sombreros Everywhere

Our pet frog

Impala at our Front Door

The last ten days or so have been a bit hectic as we had to buy a car (something that neither Lili nor I have owned for the past ten years or so) and we also found out we may be evicted from our house which is too long a story to get into, and has to do with internal politics at Wits University and their relation to the non-profit (Award) that Ramin works for. To make a long story short, Award is independent of Wits and Wits needs the housing to accommodate Wits-linked projects, even though there seems to be very few of those around here. What’s troubling is that Award has been operating out of Wits Rural for almost 20 years so the eviction came as a shock to the organization. We shall see what happens but we’re not too worried yet.

Looking for and buying a car, although stressful initially, turned out to be surprisingly painless. The only annoying part was driving on several occasions to a town called Nelspruit, a 2 hour drive away from where we live, to look at cars. And of course there was the added stress that we are foreigners and at least by appearance, easy to fool…but we stood our ground and charmed our way to a pretty good deal…at least it seems we did. Our only real worry was that neither of us knows much about cars and so buying a used car, we couldn’t really assess for ourselves the dealer’s representations about the condition of the car. The car dealer was an Afrikaans named Org (pronounced Orgh and who we nicknamed Ogre) with a heavy accent. He communicated in short, abrupt and extremely loud sentences, almost like barking. But at the end of the day, Org turned out to be pretty harmless, unconsciously very funny and nice guy. So we ended up buying a VW Citi Chico 1.4. It has no power steering, no automatic locks, manual windows, no AC, and needs to be turned on with the choke pulled out when it is cold, but is a very sturdy and in good. Lili has yet to drive it but Ramin is really enjoying it since we bought it this past Saturday.


Our car!

What else…so much has happened in last few days that it feels like we’ve been living here months, not weeks. It’s been hard to keep track of the date and time as we don’t yet have a routine. Ramin has not really started full-time work since we’ve been trying to get settled and have been travelling quite a bit looking for a car. As far as working here goes for me, I (Lili) am definitely going to help Ramin with his project which is turning out to be very ambitious. One of his tasks is to work with various laws schools in South Africa to start a legal clinical program to address and investigate and possibly litigate the many legal issues arising from environmental degradation in this area, ranging from water rights to illegal encroachment on communal land to violations committed by the mining and agricultural industries. It’s going to be very challenging but exciting. I will also be working with a friend of ours, Jan, who wants to start a community learning/research center in the villages in the Bushbuck Ridge area. Just to give some context, we live in a conservation/wildlife sanctuary owned by Wits University and are therefore, although very close in proximity, somewhat removed from the rural life around us. The villages here are extremely dense and very poor. To put in historical context, the villages around here are 100% black African, mostly – it seems - from the Shangan tribe. During the apartheid regime, this area was called a homeland, an area designated for blacks. My understanding is that large sectors of the black South African population were forcibly removed from their land and ordered to live in this area. Today, things are not so much better than under apartheid. It is still a very segregated and poor area, lacking in many basic services from sanitation to education. So Jan, who has a lot of experience in community development projects, wants to see a type of Wits Rural propped up in the middle of the villages, rather than removed from village life. The objective would be to create a facility that is inclusive and directly engaged with the rural black poor in this area and serves as a launching pad for developing solutions to the many socio-economic problems plaguing this area. I envision the facilities operating as both village community centers and research/action facilities set up to accommodate local and foreign faculty and student visitors. If this idea comes to fruition, it will not only create employment in this area but also help assess the needs of the residents living in these villages and develop, in a cooperative and inclusive style, practical and sustainable solutions addressing sanitation, food security, education, and so forth. I’m looking forward to helping Jan further brainstorm and develop the idea and hopefully get funding to make it happen.

So aside from what awaits us in terms of work, we also wanted to share a few of the highlight from a very eventful week last week. Last Sunday, we, along with some friends, went to a dance festivity, which is held every Sunday in one of the local villages, called Muchongole. Basically residents from various villages gather in a designated village for that week and perform traditional dances. There are anywhere from 10-20 villages that participate and dancers from each village performing to a cheering, somewhat inebriated audience. The “dance party” we went to this past Sunday was held in a village called Cottondale. It took us a while to find it as it’s not easy to find unless you live in one of the many villages. But our friend, Adam, had an inside connection and so we had a poorly drawn map to guide us. When we finally arrived after 40 minutes on a pretty lousy dirt road, the dancing was already underway. We, as usual, forgot our camera, so have no pictures to share but we plan to attend a few of these, so we promise pictures in the future. We were definitely the only non-black people in attendance and I assume were also the only visitors who did not live in the local communities. People were looking at us for a while, mostly out of curiosity because I guess it is rare for white people to show up at these things, but we received a very warm welcome and one woman even brought a bench for us to sit. At this particular event, there were about 15-20 villages participating and there was a list posted on a tree that indicated the order of the dancing groups. We arrived during the third group’s performance. Seven or eight men, ranging from 15 to 70, were dancing and dressed in what appeared to be traditional warrior costumes, made of various animal paraphernalia. A few women were chanting and dancing in the background. The dance consisted mostly of the men stamping their feet in rapid succession with great force to the beat of drums. The dancers all had a gaze that was very focused and intimidating and occasionally the biggest of the dancers would edge up to the crowd with eyes that were fierce and penetrating. The audience was diverse in terms of age- mothers holding babies, kids ranging from 2 to 16 running around, and adults – both men and women, of all ages. The atmosphere was very festive with several food vendors dishing out pap (porridge made out of corn maize), chicken and other delights, and many picnicking on the ground with blankets and lawn chairs. There was also plenty of alcohol (mostly beer and huge jugs of a milk-like liquor made from the local marula tree) going around. We ended up staying for about three or four different dance groups before leaving, all of which had various styles of dancing. People were very friendly and we talked to a lot of different people. One interesting and kind of funny observation to note is that many of the black South Africans we’ve met who come from the rural villages around here all have a “Christian” name to supplement their African names and the funny part is that some of these names are totally over the top. We have met Loverboy, Big Boy, Rest, Happy, Macdolf, and so on and so forth.

Another interesting event we went to last week, on June 16, was to go watch Jacob Zuma speak. After all he is the president and is hugely popular here, even though is private life is filled with controversy. June 16 is national Youth Day and marks the anniversary of the 1976 revolt in Soweto against the Apartheid policy to make the Afrikaans language mandatory for all black South Afrikaans. During that revolt, a young black kid, Hector Peterson died. His death was followed by mass protests. The day is symbolic because (as we have been told, but have not done our own research) it marks the first time the violence and brutality of the Apartheid regime received international condemnation. Many people believe it was the first sign of real trouble for the regime and also demonstrated to the world that all is not well in South Africa. Zuma’s speech in this poor rural part of South Africa was significant and people had a buzz about them. Regrettably, it seemed the buzz dissipated rapidly after Zuma finally took the stage to speak. Zuma is a large man with an intense presence. He walks very slowly and deliberately and has an air of great confidence about him. When he arrived by helicopter and drove into the stadium with a black motorcade of Mercedes and police (what is up with governments and black luxury cars?) the stadium erupted (see pictures). It was a celebration and people were blowing their Vuvuzelas, that loud horn we talked about before, and waving and cheering. Once again we were the only white people around. Zuma took his time making his way around the stadium waving and saluting the people before going to the stage. Unfortunately, the sound system was so poor, and that combined with the incessant sound of the vuvuzela made the speech very difficult to hear. Also, Zuma’s presence was totally negated by his remarkably uninspired speech, which did little to rally the masses. His speech was dry and typical politician-speak, talking about all the steps his government had taken to help the youth. He spoke about the historical importance of youth day and the importance of the young people to the country. While some of the content of his speech may have been important and interesting, its meaning was all but lost as his delivery only inspired sleep on our part and the sound of the vuvuzela on the part of those armed with these horns. He read extremely slowly from his notes in English in a monotone voice. Only in the end when he put down his notes and spoke in one of the local languages did he finally captivate his audience. We wish he spoke more from his heart.

Last but not least, a few days after Zuma’s speech, we drove to Polokwane (three hours) to see our first World Cup match, France v. Mexico. The organization here is impeccable and we drove our car to the airport where there were free shuttles to the stadium and back. There was very little waiting and the atmosphere was what one would expect before a match- electric. It was really incredible to be there and feel the energy and buzz this event has created in South Africa. We don’t how or why, but the Mexican fans outnumbered the French by what seemed like ten to one, and the stadium seemed like a sea of green. The Mexican fans were incredibly lively and before the game there were spontaneous groups of 50 to 100 Mexicans dancing in circles, chanting and singing in Spanish. All the fans were so happy to be there. They were dressed in all kinds of outfits, ranging from full out sombrero and poncho to those Mexican wrestling masks featured in Nacho Libre, and we were included in at least ten group photos of drunk fans trying to soak up the experience. The French fans - we assume - were too scared and intimidated (due to the bad press about the dangers of South Africa in the European media in the weeks and months leading up to the World Cup) to make it to South Africa in large numbers, but there loss was Mexico’s gain!

First days in South Africa

It’s been one week since we arrived in South Africa. We arrived in Johannesburg, rented a car (or hired a car as they say here) and made our way in about four hours to Nelspruit, a city near the Mozambiquean border, where we spent the night in a very small animal reserve that doubles as a lodge. We just had a 14 hour layover in Madrid and about 18 hours of flying time, so we were pretty tired. It was getting dark and the remaining two hour stretch to our house was the most dangerous to drive at night, not because of crime, but because of all the people, animals, and bad drivers on the road.

Nelspruit is an odd place. It was a small town that has grown into a medium sized city and it is one of the host cities for the World Cup. The town has a main road or small highway that runs through it with plenty of car dealers and strip malls, and a few decent size buildings downtown. It reminds me of the seventies, the buildings seem to all be made of a kind of dull concrete and it just has that feel to it. Even though it lacks in architectural charisma, Nelspruit is very important for us because it has a mall, a movie theatre, plenty of household supply stores, and it has an Indian spice store, and all within 2 hours drive from our house! A small price to pay for such luxuries.

The best thing about driving here is that you can listen to the radio, which is really enjoyable here. It is a blend of news, commentary, and music. Of course, the talk of the nation is the World Cup, the first to be hosted by an African nation. Half of the soccer talk revolves around what chances the South African team, Bafana Bafana, has and the remainder is a mix of discussing how important this World Cup is for Africa, explaining how the tournament works, and random programs, like the politics of FIFA and how Africa finally got a chance to host as a continent. The oddest thing about the radio is that it seems to report any road accident throughout the entire country. So at first we were getting worried because it seemed that there were frequent accidents, but then we realized they were reporting accidents in Cape Town.

The next morning we headed to our house. Ramin had driven this same route almost six years ago, so he was a bit anxious to see what he remembered and how much it had changed. Nothing seemed too different except it seemed slightly more developed. Like before, there were tons of people, animals and bad drivers on the road. Except for being pulled over and questioned by a pesky police officer for no given reason, we made it to our house.

Our house is not in a town but close to a town called Acornhoek in a wildlife sanctuary owned by the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) based out of Johannesburg. The town of Acornhoek is a funny little place. It is a traditional Shangan village (one of the African tribes in South Africa) that has grown and now supports two supermarkets and lots of little businesses. It also has the best hospital around and an unbelievably amazing chicken joint called Anjos with the best soggy fries around, just ask my friend Neil back in New York. It is rare to see a white person in Acornhoek or any of the villages around where we live, as this area is a traditional African homeland area, and that is just the way things seems to be here in South Africa.

The sanctuary where we live is called Wits Rural, and it encompasses a really large area. It takes about 3 km just to get to the reception from the entrance, through a winding dirt road. Wits Rural is used as a research facility, but it really is just a place for people to live, and the university appears to run it as a private lodge. There are a few houses sprinkled throughout the area, and some dorms and camps. There is also a main reception where there are about 15-20 small offices, including Ramin’s organization, AWARD. There are also plenty of animals around. This week we were kept up by a pack of hyenas that make a characteristic “woooooooooooooooooop” sound. We saw two kinds of antelope (Impala and Daiker), baboons, monkeys, plenty of birds, a bush hare and signs of many more animals. All the properties surrounding Wits Rural are animal reserves and the land is connected to Kruger National Park, one of the biggest national wildlife areas in Africa. Although no big animals are supposed to get in the sanctuary because of the perimeter fencing, the big ones do get in from time to time. A few months ago an elephant got in, and there always seems to be a leopard spotted roaming around. This does not deter us though, as we have been going on long walks and runs when we get a chance.

Our house is on top of a small hill (picture above), and it is essentially a medium-sized loft. It has cement floors and a reed (dry grass) thatched ceiling. Although we do not have a walled-off bedroom, it is upstairs (wood floors) in a loft area overlooking the living and dining room. We have a nice but old kitchen and fairly large pantry. The house needs some work (screens have holes, toilet leaks, etc…) but it has a lot of potential. We plan to build a small vegetable and spice garden (with monkey protection wiring) and a barbecue pit with some nice benches around. Overall, it’s a pretty comfortable house, even with all the little creatures crawling and flying around. A lot of daddy long leg spiders which we are living with only because we know they will eat the other bugs. We also have a small beautiful frog living in the water tank of our toilet. We do not know how he/she got there and when it will leave, but it seems to be happy although we are not sure what its food source is. There is also a squirrel living on the roof and it has already invaded the house once to eat our bananas. We have found its droppings, albeit small, in various corners of the house. But this is the small price you pay for living in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary with the gentle purr of hyenas to lull you to sleep.

On Friday night we went to watch the opening game of the World Cup, South Africa against Mexico, at a local Shabeen or traditional African drinking spot. You could feel the euphoria in the air all day, and when we walked down to Ramin’s office today it seemed no one could really concentrate on work. Lili decided to go with some of the other people around our offices to the local stadium in Acornhoek first, where the president of South Africa is by the way speaking on Wednesday, to watch the opening ceremonies on a giant screen. On the way there Lili was stacked on the back of a pickup truck with a few other woman all armed with the famous vavazula, the loud horn everyone seems to have lately, and which truly is annoying when it blows next to your ear. The drive there was amazing, tons of people on the road dressed in yellow and green and blowing the vavazulas. Lili and company would blow theirs and the people on the road would reciprocate. The atmosphere outside the stadium was full of energy, but unfortunately, the screen inside was too small for anyone to really watch anything, so it was a buzz kill! After ten minutes, Lili headed back to the Shabeen to rejoin Ramin. On the way back they picked two people on the road anxious to watch the game.

The Shabeen was a mad scene. A big projector was set up in a pretty small room, and the room was packed for the first half with tons of vavazulas. There was such an excitement in the air, it was buzzing. The funniest were these 5 woman decked out in yellow in the front. Every time they would see this one Bafana Bafana player, they would start fanning themselves with their hands, as if they where sweltering with heat. At half time, the decision was made to take the projector outside, because hundreds of people had turned up and the little room was too small. A huge bon fire was lit, chicken was on the grill, and people where dancing and celebrating endlessly. When South Africa scored the first goal, every one jumped around and starting cheering and dancing, it was such an amazing sight. Ramin got so into the game, he would jump out of his chair almost every minute. In the end, the game was a tie, but people where delighted. Bafana Bafana showed they could compete with the world elite and who knows how far they could go. We are just so happy to be here to witness the first African-hosted World Cup. It is about time!