Trevor's Photo Journal

I'm going camping with six other volunteers down in the Drakensberg starting tomorrow. I hadn't repacked my tent since I lent it to my host brother in late January so today I cleaned it out and rolled it up as small as possible.  I let the kids help me and they had lots of fun putting it together and sitting inside once it was built.  When I said I was camping in the mountains all next week my Gogo was worried about snakes, but she's mostly convinced that snakes can't get into the tent at night now.

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Day_270_March_27.zip (257 KB)

Today was the Longtom Marathon which SA PCV's use as a fundraiser for the KLM Foundation to help send learners from rural Mpumalanga to a private secondary school.  Fifty four volunteers ran, seven of them the ultrua 56 km marathon up and down a mountain.  I only ran 21 km down the mountain and managed to do it in 2h 18 min, which since I've only ran 6km since the end of December I was quite happy with.  Thanks to everyone who donated in my name to KLM - once again this year volunteers raised more than last year.

Just after the start of the race we passed the 20km to Lydenburg.

These are four beautiful watermelon bowl fruit salads made by the English teacher at one of my schools for a circuit function - a job that would be outsourced to a third party in American schools, but is left to the teachers here.

If you think that's a pile of barbecued chicken feet you'd almost be right - it's a pile of braaied chicken feet.  Most evenings this small spaza shop braais chicken feet and sells them dowsed in peri-peri sauce for R1.

I liked making the panoramas from yesterday so much I decided to do another for today.  If this scene looks vaguely familiar it's because elements in it have been featured many times before.  I bike down this road almost everyday. That giant trash bin on the right was Day 69 and the water spout on the left was Day 49 . And as always the mountains of Barberton loom in the distance. Even though this is one of the poorest areas of the township with hand built houses, no electricity and no noticeable sewage system the houses and yards have so much character.

Day 265. Not that I'd normally be counting, but this photo blog makes it pretty clear that I have 100 days left before COS (close of service).  Leaving here is a scary thought and very bittersweet.  In some ways these last 33 months have been some of the best in my short life: I've learned so much about myself and the world, made friends with people from a wide range of backgrounds, and overall have been extremely happy.  I'll miss it here that's for sure.  At the same time I'm looking forward to spending being much closer to my family and friends back home and beginning a new phase in my life.

Here are two photos giving a 360 degree view of the township from my neighbors roof. (click on them for full size and more detail)  I enjoy climbing up there and just watching life go by, pondering the moment, being present in the now.  I have to lay down mostly out of view to avoid being seen and therefor attracting groups of children to stand on the street and yell up at me and keep calling more kids to come look at the crazy American on the roof - that definitely ruins the moment.

I was told today that there would be an engagement/marriage celebration at my old neighbors house.  The number one thing to get for any event like this is a giant tent the covers half the road and shades the whole yard (I've even seen people cut down trees to fit the tent in their yard). The second most important food cooked in giant South African sized quantities - one large pot of pap coming right up!

The details of this event were a little uncertain, but I remembered a Lobolo ceremony happening there about 2 years ago so figured it was connected to that. It turned out to be a wedding ceremony for Kanisilie, the women who lives there.  Now I'd always assumed that Kanisillie was married to Joe who lives in the house (but doesn't seem to be the father of the two kids there).  Of all the houses on my old street the family situation in this one seemed to be the most similar to my upbring and the prototypical American family: there was an adult male, adult female, and two kids under 10.  It never occurred to me that Kanisillie and Joe might not be married. Just another reminder about how little I actual know about the world that surrounds me.

Mafero pretending to eat a grasshopper he caught. 

Note: Just a small reminder about the Longtom Half Marathon which I'll be running next Saturday with about 60 other PCV's from South Africa.  We're raising scholarship money students in rural Mpumalanga to go to a private high school in Nelspruit. Please consider helping out and donating in my name. Even small donations help add up and it's for a great cause.

Once again I took the kids from my old street to the pool.  They'll ask me all week about it and show up at my door early each Saturday morning just to make sure that we are indeed leaving at noon.  Today was cloudy and cold so I told them we shouldn't go but they insisted.  After about an hour and half in the pool everyone was to cold to continue.  The nice thing about the weather being bad was that instead of the usual 150 swarming the place there were just eight.

Mafero, the boy in this picture, was in second grade when I first came - now he's in fifth grade. He used to be able to get his feet straight above me when doing this - but now he's a little to big.

Here are a few pictures of the kids on my street playing.  They basically ran on every single hit throwing the bat in a mad sprint.  In the last picture the ball has hit the "wicket" (plastic bucket) and is bouncing off - not that the batter ran, but its just fun to through the ball at the bucket.

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Day_261_March_18.zip (294 KB)