Easter and out on my own

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  Durban, South Africa
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I drove to Durban today, it was a long drive. the highlight was giraffes i saw near the highway. crazy, i got really excited- it was like driving through a game reserve for free.

so here i am, the free woman out in the world alone traveling through africa. what an adventure. well not so adventurous i will have to admit- i was on a tour bus thing listening to my i-pod for the whole day. it's annoying to be so much of a tourist, but i have listened to local advice and south africa isn't the place to be cruising alone solo on public transportation. it's a bad idea for a lot of reasons.

since i am paying such a premium on transportation i have decided to see how much i can save on my food budget. today i spent 2 rand on lunch, so far so good.

I wanted to write about Easter Sunday. I went to the stadium in Lobamba, with a group of volunteers, dressed in my easter best. The kombi we were in stopped because of the flood of people marching, running, singing, to the stadium. it was the most spectacular thing i have seen since i have been out here. there were just droves of people, all dressed in their church uniforms, which i am sure uses some traditional dress. I think all of Swaziland must have been out for it. We were also the only white people in sight, and I haven't ever been stared at as much, and I am pretty sure i have never been so out of place. I might have well landed on mars. Let's just say it was a little bit of a different ceremony than easter mass.

Talking about it now, it's hard to remember why i was scared, but i was. a lot of the men were talking tongues (I figured out what they were doing, the other volunteers had no idea...thanks mom for not raising me a hethan) as people poured over the hill at us we were the ones that had to move not them. so here comes waves of people, yelling swazi, in glazed over eyes, running at me, and the people who aren't about to run over me are staring at me with a look that says, "what is she doing here?"

so, what could possible happen to mkae me feel more uncomfortable, more out of place, and more of a tourist? the six other volunteers all pulling out their cameras and snapping away. it didn't even occur to me to bring a camera. i suppose i was under the impression that i was going to participate in the celebration, when i got there i realized that wasn't really going to happen. anyways, they all lined up and starting snapping pictures. So there i was in the midst of the only white people anywhere to be seen, and they were all flashing their 300 dollar toys. people were understandably getting mad at them, and asking for money for taking their pictures. i know that it is nice to have pictures, but there are just certain moments when it's better to let the moment happen then taint it by interruptioning the present moment by snapping pictures.

i have to go...

cape town tomorrow

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