A Final Hello from South Africa

Tomorrow we'll be catching an early morning plane back to Eritrea, so this is our last posting while in vacation mode. I'm already starting to have the "back to school" jitters!

I'm writing from our nice, safe backpackers' hostel in Pretoria. Our mini-bus from Swaziland dropped us off yesterday in a not so safe part of town, but luckily the manager of the gas station looked after us until our hostel owner picked us up. We're now behind three locked gates in a home that is protected by "armed response security" and is located in a quiet suburb, so all is well.

I'm having troubles answering my emails, though I can read them all. So if you're waiting for a response, I'll get back to you as soon as Yahoo is working again.

We just spent a wonderful week or so in Swaziland. Before arriving there I knew pretty well nothing about this little country, located between South Africa and Mozambique, but I had a hard time leaving it yesterday. We met some very friendly people and saw some incredible countryside and got up close to lots of animals. It was a great way to end our vacation.

We stayed most of the time in Swaziland in a backpackers' hostel located inside a small game reserve. The reserve was created by a wealthy farmer with the help of the King of Swaziland. All of the country's wild animals had been wiped out, so they brought in some from elsewhere in Africa, and aside from the giraffes, (the last one died a month ago of old age), they have multiplied and done well. There isn't enough room for rhinos, elephants and wild cats, so aside from avoiding the crocodiles and the fairly harmless looking hippos, you can wander around the park on foot. We went on lots of hikes and came up really close to zebras, various antelopes, wildebeast, and our favourites: warthogs. We also enjoyed watching the family of hippos (one is kept well fed on corn so you can get really close to him). On our last walk together, Maya and I saw some monkeys grooming each other and what looked like baby crocodiles jumping into the pond. We also went on a hike up "executioner's rock" a mountain with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside. The rock was once used to sacrifice people who were accused of murder or witchcraft. They were led up the mountain at spearpoint then pushed off. Luckily all of us stayed safely on the trail, which was incredible compared to what I've hiked on in B.C. It had little footprints on bricks showing us the way, bridges, ladders, a brick wall to keep us from falling, and even a toilet made of stones inside a little cave.

The highlight of Swaziland for Kim and Lukas was definitely the Reed dance. We were really lucky to arrive in the country at the same time as this annual festival. Young "maidens" dress up in traditional clothes (including short skirts and basically a very small sash as a shirt). They gather reeds, then all go to the king's village where they present their reeds to the king and dance and sing around a stadium while the king looks on. If he sees someone he likes they become his new wife (the last king had a hundred or so wives I think). It was incredible to watch and the singing was beautiful. On our way there, we met up with a group of girls who invited us to walk with them then gave Maya reeds to carry. Before they got to the point of dressing her up in traditional attire, we whisked her away. It was a fun experience for her though.

We're going to spend our last day here visiting with our friend Saba's husband who is studying at the university here. We'll also get stocked up on a few essentiels and eat as much yummy food as possible (pizza last night!) before we're back to cabbage and taita.

Guess that's all for now.

Take care,

Barb