Living in SA, My Thoughts & Opinions

There have been a couple topics that I struggle to blog about. I have made attempts to write them but I seem to fail in getting my thoughts down the way I want to, grr! I want to share these things with you and I know you would all be interested in them; my opinions of these matters of South African and its reality of living. So I will try my hardest to give it another go.

South Africa is a very beautiful country and I have experienced many incredible adventures exploring its landscapes, animals and people. I absolutely love the nature here; it’s just so beautiful and stunning. But there are other items of this country that make me sad, and even sadder. One of these sadder items is Apartheid, my opinion on this matter is that it was a very cruel period in this country’s history, but it happened and now they are still struggling with its after affects.

Growing up in a Mennonite Family and church, I am a pacifist; I don’t believe in fighting but would rather work to avoid conflict and develop peaceful resolution. How the black South African people were treated by the Afrikaner Government I find rather appalling, how they were segregated and forced out of their homes so that white people could build and live there and sent to live in harsh conditions such as shacks on the outskirts of the cities and towns. Families were destroyed; if a white family was thought to be a little dark they were classified as coloured and removed from their family. There were white only schools and no coloured child was allowed to study there. There were curfews set in place and they were to be home by a certain time. You had to carry your identity booklet with you and could only go to certain places that you were allowed, no blacks or coloured could enter a white only place. Most jobs employed by black people were domestic or working down in the mines. Education was limited and with very little material for the black children and so when they went to find work it ended up being low paid domesticated jobs. I am sure there are other things that happened during the Apartheid era that I did not mention.

I know my own country’s past treatment of the First Nations people is almost the same and it’s also appalling. I believe in equal rights and both these incidents we are all made in God’s image and we all should be treated as equal and enjoy all things together without hatred for each other.

Today as I walk the streets of PMB, the evidence is still here but slowly it is changing little by little. Quite a few black Africans have now moved into towns and cities where they weren’t allowed to live before, they are getting better education in most schools and now are able to get better jobs and careers the same as white. But most of the domestic jobs are still employed by the black citizens, but job creation is very evident, if they can create a job then the better. Even though some of the black people have moved into the towns and cities there are hundreds and thousands of black people who still live in the townships on the outskirts of the city. PMB is located in the bottom of a hollow and in the rolling hills around the city lies the many townships of black communities. The poorer schools that the black children attend, lack in government assistance for school material and educational aids. There are still sections in town where the large Indian population still live, and sections where the black people have moved into. I myself would not walk through these sections on my own for safety reasons. Muggings are very common in SA, as well as home robberies. This is why all homes have burglar bars and fenced properties and alarm systems just for added protection.

But this is how life is here. Some people here call it a 3rd world country and some call it a developing country, but they strive to become 1st world. I see lots of characteristics of 1st world thrown into life here. Lots of KFC’s more so than McDonalds (2 here in PMB), lots of groceries stores including a Woolworths store that sells groceries and I think clothing and other stuff too, a shopping malls like ours back home. And many other things of first world living. But you don’t have to drive far until you see 3rd world characteristics of homeless people or squatter communities/informal communities where people struggle for the basic things. Their homes consist of sheet metal maybe wood if they found it. They won’t have plumbing and so they would have to find water and carry it home in large pails, and they probably won’t have electricity unless they have been smart enough to hook up an extension cord to someone who does. The streets are often more littered in the black poorer communities compared to the wealthier sections of town.

When I drive by these areas I have felt very blessed of how I have grown up and not have had to deal with these situations like this. We grow up with a proper roof over our heads, a warm bed, food in our fridges and pantries and maybe most importantly clean drinking water. We aren’t usually concerned of getting mugged at possibly knife point for our wallet or cell or have our home burglarized because we were forgetful and didn’t lock the driveway fence and left the door wide open. We don’t go snooping through garbage bags set out on the street for pickup looking for maybe some food that is till edible to eat, worry about if it rains so hard that our homes will get washed a way. No we are very blessed.

I hope this has finally answered some of your unasked but pondering questions about how I find the living here. I really do enjoy living here, and even sometimes I feel very much at home here especially when I become a minority amongst the black Africans; as I make my way down to the Kombi (taxi rank) stepping over the littered garbage laying on the streets and walking past the many street vendors with tables set up selling fruit, candy/snacks, used clothing, cd’s or dvd’s, chicken kabobs cooking on a braai or maybe a soft hot meelie (corn on the cob) to get home for the day. So this has been apart of my life here and I hope I haven't offended anyone.

Signing off…

The Drakensberg (The Dragon Mountians)

The highest mountain range in Southern Africa is the Drakensberg Mountain, and is located along the Eastern border of Lesotho and South Africa. It reaches a height of 3,482 m or 11,420 ft, wow that’s high and is 1,000km in length! In Zulu, the Drakensburg is called uKhahlamba, which means “barrier of spears”. The range has many different spectacular sections with numerous hiking trails to explore. Some of these sections are Cathedral Peak, The Amphitheater, Giant’s Castle, and many more. Throughout the Berg there are probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of caves, and in these caves you may find cave paintings painted by the Sani people (bushman). Another significant historical fact or event of the Berg is the Great Trek of the Voortrekkers. When the Dutch farmers who had arrived in the Cape, decided to migrate further inland, they traveled through the berg with their families and livestock; carting all their belongings in wagons through the treacherous regions of the Berg to start anew.
So this past weekend I had the opportunity to go camping and hiking in the Berg and I jumped at the opportunity. I had be eager to spend some time hiking and exploring in the Berg since I arrived here, and finally I had time to organize myself to go. So on Saturday morning I was picked up and met up with other friends and new friends; finished packing everything in vehicles and headed off. We were headed to Highmoor, which is located just south of Gaint’s Castle. My friend Lisa, who organized the weekend, told us that Highmoor is the highest camp site in the Berg at 2000m in altitude!
Once we arrived at the camp site, we set up our tents and ate a quick lunch. At about that same time the last of our group arrived, and we decided to go for a walk down the winding road to take in the spectacular landscape. Along the way we came across large stones that we stopped and climbed, flowers and waterfalls we photographed, baboons fighting and chasing each other and ended up along a stream where we slipped off our shoes and enjoyed a refreshing walk through

the water.

Protea (SA National Flower)

Highmoor

Once we arrived back to camp, the others in our group who had arrived earlier and had gone off on their own hike were back at camp. The rest of the day which was late afternoon and evening, we chatted and then finally got the braai going for our supper.
Sunday morning I woke up and my feet were freezing, I hadn’t put socks on the night before and it had gotten quiet chilly over night. After everyone had gotten up, changed and eaten and cleaned up breakfast we started off for our hike. From the start of the hike we had an awesome view of Giant’s Castle. It is a huge mountain ridge! What was even neat was the little dam called “Kamloop’s Dam” that we walked past and in the water reflection was the Giant’s Castle. Our hike was only about 3 km, but we ended up at a waterfall and a double cave that was really nice. Some of us brought our swimming costumes, and I changed into mine and went for a dip. It was great fun and the hike was awesome! I love going on adventures here. God has certainly created a masterpiece of beauty.

Giant's Castle with reflection in Kamloop's Dam