December Wrap-up Part 2

Dec. 29. 2009

December Wrap-up Part II

Continuing…

Over the course of the weekend, I kept myself pretty busy with outings as well. Which included a dinner at a friend’s from NCF, where I met up with another friend and some new people. One of these new friends has traveled to Canada and enjoyed our French Cappuccino at Tim Hortons. Who knew I could meet South Africans who know what Tim Horton’s is without me explaining what type of business it is. So far I have met two people here who like our French Cap from Tim Hortons back home in Canada, who knew!

The next day the 19th, I went to my first Zulu wedding, where I was the only white person in attendance, talk about being a minority! This hasn’t been the only experience of feeling like a minority because of skin colour, I have experienced it before here. When attending African weddings it is a good idea to make sure you check what time the ceremony is actually going to start at. I arrived at Pretty’s wedding with friends from work on time 10 am, and we waited and waited and soon discovered that there was another function going on at the same church. And eventually we finally saw other’s from work starting to arrive and they said they were on time! And then the ceremony began over 2 hours after we had arrived and it was all spoken in Zulu! The wedding party entered the church dancing down the centre isle and I soon discovered that in Zulu tradition that all the brides’ maids all looked identical from dresses to hair styles. Following the procession of the wedding party, the groom danced down the isle and then the beautiful bride. Also want to note too, that weddings here very similar to Western style of weddings where the bride will wear a white gown and the bride maids and grooms men in beautiful dresses and suits as well as the flower girls and ring boys.

The next day 20th my friend Liesel took me to see Howick Falls, and then we headed next door to Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve. Where we ate our picnic lunches sitting on a stone ledge over looking another breath taking view of God’s beauty, and then we took off for our hike in search of the zebras, wildebeests and giraffe’s we had seen from our picnic spot up above. As we got down into the grass land we followed a tire track path and followed it around. We came to a fence line and past the fences in area we found the giraffe’s we spotted from our picnic lunch, but they were pretty far away. As we continued our hike through the grass lands we came across and got very close I might add to a heard of wildebeests, a herd of zebras and eventually we finally spotted 2 giraffes just off the trail, oh so close! Other animals we came across were impala, blesbuck, and Nyala; we also heard the African Fish Eagel, and the Trumpeter Hornbill; and lastly came across a Koppie Foam Grasshopper and an Assassin bug. What a fantastic day, and I look forward to many more adventures with my really good friend Liesel! This hike I would like to say I was better prepared for and wore my hikers and slacks instead of my sandals and skirt!

The next few days after my amazing hike, I spent time trying to learn some Zulu, which I find not an easy language. So, Sanibonani (greeting hello to more than one person), unjani (How are you?). And then it was Christmas Eve where Lucille’s daughter Lyndall and her husband Clint have been staying here for a few days and leave in the morning.

Christmas Day, I spent going to Church first thing and a little while later, my friend Kath and her family picked me up on the way to their family Christmas. The days leading up to Christmas Day were some pretty hot days, that even reached 37 degrees, ouch it was hot, but Christmas Day it decided to be a cold wet misty rainy day. Kath’s family stated that this weather we are having was not normal, actually the summer thus far hasn’t been very normal, thanks to global warming! And in the end, I had a really nice day with them.

Boxing Day I called up Liesel to see what she was doing, and I ended up going over to her place where I took a little time of journaling and some good conversation and took in watching the monkeys swinging around in the near by trees. Probably the scariest part of the afternoon, was watching Liesel’s roof tiles getting blown off her roof. But thanks to her brother, who climbed up and nailed down the lose ones that still managed to cling to the roof, while Liesel wondered around her neighbour hood picking up the tiles that did fly off. Later on she took me over to her mom’s place where I finally met her mom and her mom’s boyfriend and had some supper with them.

Now tomorrow I am leaving to go to Richards Bay and then onto St. Lucia and to Hluhluwe Animal Park to finally have an animal game drive, and lots of fun searching for animals. Hopefully I’ll spot the Big Five! After returning for less than a day I’m off to Port Shepstone to meet up with my SwaLeSa SALT’ers, the Radical Journey participants, the other MCC workers, past IVEPer’s, and Mennonite Church USA & Canada people. I think there are over 30 of us who are going to be together for 4 days from the 4-8th of Jan. I am so looking forward to this retreat! Then back to work on the 11th and hopefully some Christmas family mail awaits me there which will be more like birthday mail instead!

Signing off…
Wishing you all a Belated
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I had a wonderful Christmas Break, stay tuned for my holiday travel adventures. I will post them as soon as I can and when I have internest access!