Ok, I have been busy and not blogging as I should. So, I am going to go a little bit back in time and catch you all up to what Jim and I have been doing. At the beginning of February, I was hard at work at Manguzi Hospital - attending doctors meetings, going on trips out to rural clinics, observing tons of surgeries in theatre. It was really great. I felt like I was learning so much, and getting so much exposure. However, because I was working fulltime at the hospital, Jim was alone running Tholulwazi. It was a lot of work for him, and getting quite stressful. To take a break from it all, we attend the Marula Festival near the Zulu Chief's house (the Nkosi Tembe). It was such an intensely cultural experience. Men wore their skins and headresses, and carried their spears and shields. They wore furry sandals and dranks LOTS of marula liquor (a fruit here that they ferment at a certain time of year). The young women were topless and wore short beaded skirts. During the festival, there was lots of dancing, music, and drinking. Everyone wore a cup - in their belt loops, in their hands, in their pockets. And people would use anything as a cup - old tin cans, mayo containers, plastic pitchers, etc... The craziest thing was when a line of about 30 zulu women carried 25liter jugs of marula beer to a jojo (5000 liter container) and filled it (maybe not to the top - but you get the idea). Anyhow, it was quite an incredible event to watch. After that, we headed to Mozambique to camp for the night at a place called Ponta Malongane. It was a beautiful camp ground, right next to the beach. We camped with Colin, and two friends of our Johann and Marilize. We barbequed and sipped Savannah ciders while the sun went down. The next day we hung out at the beach, and then headed back to Manguzi.
The following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Jim and I worked at Tholulwazi in preparation for our little vacation. Colin was traveling to the capital of Mozambique for a job interview, and we decided to go along for the ride. We left Wed. afternoon and sne sketchy border post, one flat tire, and five hours later, we were there. The night we arrived was Jim's birthday, so we went to eat dinner at a fish market. It was so much fun! Mozambiquan people were just throwing raw fish, shrimps, squid, crab, etc... in our faces and yelling out prices. Eventually we chose a few things and had them cooked for us in a local restaurant. We did kinda get ripped off - but it was worth it. We ate so much seafood and just had a lovely dinner. Colin gave Jim a book, and I gave him some clothes and a nice letter. Back at the hostel, we enjoyed birthday brownies with milk and then headed to bed.
The next morning, we woke up at 5am to drive Colin to the airport. Then, we went back to sleep for a bit, went for a jog on the beach, and walked around Maputu. It is such a chaotic city, in that no one obey traffic laws and people are all over the streets sellings things. But, it was a wonderful chaos - filled with color and life. Plus, the portugese conquered mozambique, so the main language is portugeese - which is quite similar to Spanish. It was helpful to be able to use some of my language skills - but wow, I have already forgotten so much Spanish. Anyhow, before leaving the city Jim and I realized that we had forgotten to bring our ATM card and had very little cash! With some creative shopping and very limited spending, Jim and I made it to our destination - Bilene (a beautiful paradise) but couldn't fully enjoy it because we had next to no spending money. Regardless, the beaches were beautiful and Jim and I had a nice and relaxing Valentines Day.
We headed back to Maputu on Saturday night to pick up Colin. We were so happy to be back with someone with money - it was like a load lifted off our chests. We were so lucky to even have had enough money for petrol, food, etc. and didn't get some crazy fine for being tourists (which happens a lot with corrupt Moz. policemen) - it was a miracle. After our survival course had finally ended we enjoyed tea at the fanciest hotel in Maputu and had a nice dinner at a famous peri peri chicken place all on Colin (our saviour).
Finally, Sunday we drove back to Manguzi - after making a few stops along the way to Ponta Mamoli and Ponta de ouru (nice beach spots). All in all, it was a great vacation, and Jim and I both are dying to go back to Maputu.
3 comments:
So excited .... PS. Brice you are so skinny!
Hi Brice and Jim:
Boy, have I got a lot to say!! First off, how did we miss meeting each other? I am a Canadian and was teaching at Asibuyeni Primary School for August and September (it's the school just across the highway from Tembe), and staying at Tembe in the research camp. Met quite a few of the doctors at Manguzi hospital, and remember particularly a brown curly haired woman who cracked me up one day when we met at Steerburger, when she referred to her prescriptions as "Muthi".
If she's around, if you could say Hi for me, and also ask her if I can get her contact info, as I have been wanting to ask her a couple of things concerning my former students.
Which brings me to one thing I wanted to shed a bit of light on, if I can - the death of the infant. I had a disconcertingly similar situation with the infant of one of my Zulu co-workers at the park (I also worked at the park, doing lion and elephant monitoring, and teaching computer basics to lodge staff)
There seems to be a situation with the Zulus, due to their history, which is much similar to the First Nations in North America - much of their culture has been lost. One thing that seems to have been lost in KZN, much to the people's harm, is the distinction between a sangoma and a nganga. Traditionally, a sangoma is a diviner and spell maker - not a herbalist. The nganga is the traditional herbalist, and that's where you'll find the proper herbal cures. I don't know when, or why, people started going to the sangomas for healing herbs, but it's been nothing short of a disaster! Of course the nearest nganga is in Jozini, as far as I know, so distance may have something to do with it, and I'm sure the sangomas have encouraged the practice in order to enhance their own pocketbooks.
That said, I hope you're not still worried about boiling your water and staying close to the hubby at all times. Not necessary, eh? I haven't read all of your blog yet, someone told me about it while I was still in Tembe, but for some reason, and though I tried many times between then and now, have never managed to actually get your site - every time has been 404 or some darn thing. Today is the first time, and I'm kind of overwhelmed with the feelings I developed for the place and the people all coming flooding back.
That brings up another point - a young chap who was a game guide and the elephant monitor at Tembe (Bongani, my adopted mzukulu - do you know him?)is now working for Disney in Florida. We keep in close contact, and he has asked me about bursaries for foreign students as he'd like to spend more time in either the US or Canada upgrading his education. Being so long out of school, I have no idea how to even find out about those things - would you have any ideas?
Anyway, I'll close now, and if you'd like to see some of my adventures and photos, you can see them on: grannym.wordpress.com
My name is Marilyn, though most at the park and the school called me magogo (grandmother) since the sequence of sounds in my name is really, really difficult for the Zulus to pronounce.
I can best be contacted at:
cybercrone@gmail.com, in case you luck out and identify the curly-brown-haired doctor lady for me.
Really, really nice to have "met you" and get to see your adventures and challenges. Enjoy your time - I'm quite envious - though I have to say that when the python tracks started showing up on the driveway to our cabins, and the deadly poisonous spider fell out of the toilet roll, I was not too reluctant to be heading out of the bundu and to the cities to start the touring part of my vacation <(^o^)>
Keep well . . .
~m
Hello, I hope you enjoyed your experience, I have read your blog but not entirely, so I would like to comment on a grave error you have made among many others. A Sangoma IS a herbalist, a diviner,spiritual healer etc. A nyanga is strictly limited to the herbal aspect of healing. Do not be mistaken. Zulus and other Native tribes have not lost their culture in the least, which you would learn in any household. I am a 23 year old highly educated and thoroughly travelled Sangoma, first and foremost. Please make it a priority to understand our culture in order to prevent further misrepresentation. Thank You :)
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