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!