The final stretch

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  Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Saturday, December 20, 2008

this past week has been unbelievable. probably one of the highlights (if not THE highlight) of the trip thus far. louis took us to his home in magwa, which is about 2 hours inland from port st. johns where we stayed for 4 of the past 6 nights. the floors of his home were made of cow dung. no running water except the stream by his house and the barrel that held rain water. louis is the original maguyver by the way. i was amazed watching him building things from nothing. we stayed there for saturday night, then he drove us to the coast (up north from his home) and dropped us off with our guide where we were to begin our 3 day hike.

bogani, our first guide, was from a village in the area and spoke excellent english. we hiked the first day for 12-13 km and saw amazing coastline; waterfalls, cliffs, gorges, etc. two of the falls we saw were 2 of the 9 waterfalls in the world that fall directly into the ocean. the 2 falls were only kilometers from one another. the views were unbelievable. the hike was not that hard because it was flat, but it was extremely hot which made it tough.

we stayed in bogani's village that first night. typical village stays include your own hut (dung floors, of course) and an authentic village dinner and breakfast. we arrive to his village early so we went to the local cafe (which is basically a hut with a few shelves holding food basics and a cold cooler for drinks, which is rare). this particular cafe had a pool table so we made ourselves comfortable and challenged everyone to a few games. i think once word got around the village that there were random white people in the cafe, people starting flooding in to see what was going on. the one thing that i can't get over is how friendly everyone is, and very curious. little kids will just follow you and look at you in astonishment. and everyone waves, all the time. they LOVE waving. if you wave back, they'll put their other hand in the air and wave with 2 hands with all their might. if you flash a peace sign, they'll do it back. it's the cutest thing. and all of the kids were learning english so they were practicing their english with us. most of them were very good. we were trying to learn their language as best we could. kent was awesome at trying to learn all different kinds of words/sayings, but he would always get one syllabul wrong (for instance, the word would be "kulu" and he'd say "kula"). he's repeat it over and over and would always miss one syllabul.

the next day our guide took us to some more beaches and coastline views, and then dropped us off with another guide from another village who was to finish our hike with us. the second guide, caine, was more quiet but still very good. kent actually was guided by caine 4 years ago when he was here. small world. he said his english has improved tremendously.

the second night we stayed in caine's village, which was amazing because our hut was on the top of a cliff over looking the ocean. a peice of land that would be worth millions in the US. we had another great meal that night and the village girls performed a tribal dance for us after dinner. the days were long and very hot and we were only given a small amount of warm water to wash with at night, which means we used it for brushing teeth and washing our hands. during some of the hikes we were able to swim which helped rid us of our nastiness.

the third day caine guided us back to louis' home, tuesday afternoon. this is when our true adventure started, because this is when we decided to stay with louis and volunteer. he needed help building things for the village school and around his home so he put us to work in exchange for a free place to stay and meals. the village kids became our best friends. they came by every day and helped us work and were so into it. getting to know them and hang out with them was the true blessing; they are amazing and more sweet than you could imagine. we helped them with their english and they helped us learn their language, khosi (not sure if that's the correct spelling). louis was great with helping us get immersed in the culture. one night there was loud music/singing coming from another hut so he took us to the hut to participate in what he thought was a tribal celebration/dance. instead, it was actually a church service. we walked into the middle of it (about 40 people standing around or dancing in a circle and singing). turns out it was actually a christian service, which was surprising. the service was mostly singing/dancing and everyone was 100% involved. it was awesome to be a part of it. it was all in their language but i was able to pick up the amens and hallelujahs. louis was great with that type of stuff; knowing what was going on and encouraging us to get involved. i offered up kent for a sacrafice that night but the preacher said they were all set. haha.

we ended up staying with louis until friday. it was a tough 4 days because we worked hard and in the blazing african sun. we lathered on 40 spf every day, a dozen times a day. on wednesday i got sun poisoning and was a mess. bevin, if you're reading this it's exactly what happened to me when we were in mexico. on wednesday we worked the hardest, building a fence for the school garden and i pushed myself too hard. immediately it hit me. i knew my body temp was off when i started to get goosebumps and was freezing in the shade. someone in the middle of all that i ate something that did not agree with me (i probably drank a tadpole or something considering all of the drinking water was out of the stream), so my stomach was in knots too. kent was not affected by the sun at all, so at least one of us was able to be among the living. when i got home on wednesday i passed out and felt like i was hit by a truck.

friday we got back into port st. johns (the jungle monkey) where our car was parked. we ended up staying there friday night since we were a sweaty, sticky, hot mess and needed a legitimate shower (none of this cup full of hot water crap). we got up early this morning (saturday) and drove up to the drakensberg mountains where we're staying at a bed and breakfast called the pizza tower. hysterical. and yes, the pizza is fantastic. we'll be here for the next few days hiking and such and then head to joberg to begin our safari, the final adventure of our trip.

i could spend at least 12 hours talking about the last week's experience...there's just too much to say. it was amazing and a life-changing. i did feel a little like angelina jolie because i wanted to take home at least 3 of those kids. not that they needed a life in america, their life is actually quite nice. but we just fell in love with them. oh, and kent fell in love with louis' cat. i never thought i'd see the day. his cat was about 4 pounds total and was the cutest thing...i almost drop-kicked it a dozen times because it was so cute. kent wanted to put her in his backpack. i might have to get him a cat because he can't stop talking about her.

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