Saturday, August 29, 2009

Perspective.

Tonight I am sleeping in a police station in a small town in rural Limpopo called Vuwani.

While I was waiting for the room I am staying in to clear, a boy of about 7 years old sat tentatively on the chair next to me and I greeted him in the little bit of Venda that I know. Quietly he looked up at me and nodded a badly bruised head. The combination of bruises and a police station can lead one to a pessamistic view on the origin of bruises, but I hoped that he had fallen while playing soccer or something and only looked so dazed because he didn't know quite how to react to this scruffy white guy sitting next to him. The lady who had greeted me earlier in English smiled and asked if I knew Venda, and I explained that I had just started learning. The little boy asked me something in Venda which she translated as, "Where is your car?!", I laughed and tried to explain what I was doing in English while the lady translated. He milled this over for some, then asked again, "But where is your car?!". The lady and myself just laughed...

The room cleared and I went down to where I would lay my sleeping mat on the floor and spend the night. The officer explained that the room I am staying in is used for counseling victims of domestic violence. We headed back to the main building of the station so that he could show me where the bathroom was. As we were walking I asked the officer if there is a big problem with domestic violence in the area, to which he replied, "A very big problem! This lady for instance is a [victim] of domestic violence." and pointed to a woman who was laying down her blankets, much like I was about to do, to spend the night on the concrete floor of the police station. She had one child strapped to her back and her oldest stood next to her with that dazed look that I had hoped was just out of suprise at seeing a white hobo in his small town. But the dazed look wasn't because of me and the bruises weren't from falling during soccer or some other fun thing. As I lay my sleeping mat down on the concrete floor in the counseling office I realised that I was doing it out of choice, that boy's mother was doing out of necessity.

That just added a little perspective to my night and my lifestyle in general. I suddenly have a far greater appreciation for my freedom of choice.

Feet are feeling better by the day and looking forward to another good days walking tomorrow! By choice.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Louis Trichardt... I mean Makhado... No wait... Louis Trichardt!

I must apologise for the lack of blogging, but I've not really been in the mood... So this is just a quick "I'm not dead yet" (Don't worry! I'm not planning to die on this trip but my eventual death is inevitable, hence the "yet").

I'm currently in Louis Trichardt, which was Makhado for a short while before officially changing back to being Louis Trichardt (though many of the local signage is as confused as I am). I am being accommodated by Carel, a local cyclist who found be on the road while training and I have had a fantastic 2 day rest (after not having a single rest day last week!) in the nature reserve and environmental education centre that he works at. I recently had a wonderful visit from some close friends (basically extended family) whose company did me a world of good!

Details and updates to follow soon... ish...

Also, check out the September issue of Go or Weg magazine, I'm on page 16!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

QWERTY!!!

A QWERTY keyboard now lies beneath my fingers, much better than blogging from a cellphone!!! I'm sitting at an Internet cafe in Mafikeng, there are malls, restaurants, franchises and chain stores! All quite a change from what I've been walking through, but more of that later.

From Andriesvale where the Germans had found me and Johnny Depp dropped me off, I headed a short way to Askham. That's where the whole lightweight revolution happened which I've already mentioned. It's also where I met TJ who made the change possible by letting me leave Olive in his garage till I finish. It was great to meet TJ not only for that reason but also because he was a welcome change from the largely unfriendly, conservative population on the stretch between Noeniput and Askham. I was starting to wonder if there was any truth to the rumour that Kalahari people were friendly (aside from before Noeniput were people were incredibly friendly!), luckily TJ confirmed it. He seemed to get the ball rolling because after that I met the owners of Loch Broom Paradys who gave me a free night's stay and tried their best to load me with as much food as they could give me! I met Jaco and his family who ran a hunting lodge, they also had the coolest pet meerkat that they had rescued from someone dragging it around by a piece of wire. I thought I'd see more meerkats along the way because I was walking past the area where they filmed Meerkat Manor, an Animal Planet documentary series, but there were far more mongooses than meerkats along the way.

Entering Van Zylsrus there is a sign that says, "Relax, this is Van Zylsrus". The laid-back and quirky nature of the welcoming sign was echoed by the Van Zylsrus Hotel. A highly recommended stopover if you're in the Kalahari, the decor is really something and facilities are excellent! I am doubly glad that Erns (the journalist from Weg! Magazine) recommended I try the hotel because before Van Zylsrus I would see pretty girls here and there and wonder if they were really pretty or if they just seemed so because I had been in the bush for the past two months, far from the window of Drifters in Sandton where the other guys and I would goggle at the models walking past (a cry of "Muesli" or some other code word would alert all the staff that something worth looking at was walking past, I think the customers must have thought we were insane when the fashion shows were on because shouts of "Muesli!" were frequent enough to make anyone think we all had a health-food variety of tourettes), but a girl in Van Zylsrus set a new standard! Sjoe... Hopefully more to write about her one day...

Well, that's as far as I got on the QWERTY keyboard before the café closed. I left the hunt for an internet café till Saturday because I thought Mafikeng would be a big enough town for shops to stay open late on Saturdays... I was wrong. So back to the cell phone! Will carry on blogging to get back up to date but I'm not making any promises on a date, things tend not to go according to plan anyway.

For now though, this is my first day leaving Mafikeng after I rested there for a week. The idea was to let my feet recover and get them good and strong but they feel worse now than when I walked into Mafikeng!! This makes the week feel like a waste but at least I ate and slept well...

More to follow in the not too distant future...