May 22nd, May 23rd, May 24th

May 22nd

I Hugged A Tree

This morning we all met up and make the morning trek to the petrol station to get our usual team caffeine mix of coffee, coke and coke light. We then drove through the mountains that looked more like the northeast or out west than Africa on our way to the Capricorn Therapeutic Riding Program sponsored by the Capricorn Rotary Club. It’s a horse riding program for handicapped children – a really neat program but it was so cold we could barley stay out of the car. Being my non-wimpy self I tried to stay out longer but only lasted about 15 minutes – my ears were about to freeze off.

We then went to see a tree that was 6,000 years old – it was huge! Somehow Meesh got a picture of me hugging it – and then I discovered we were allowed to climb it so I went for a little climb. I then found the bar within the tree. It was a whole little bar room carved out of the base of the tree – unfortunately no one was manning the bar.

We made a stop at the local mall - which is insane. There is no rhyme or reason to the walking traffic pattern in the mall or the grocery store so it’s a kind of fend for yourself, try not the get run over, dodge the carts type of place. Craziness…

May 23rd

Africa Is Not For Sissies

Through the mountains of Tzaneen once again, we headed round and round, up and around to the first artist gallery. Now get your image of any regular artist gallery out of your head. This one is in the middle of nowhere and when we got there and needed to use the loo the woman pointed to a metal shack on the far side of the property. At least it wasn’t just a hole in the ground ;). The artist has died in an accident a few years back but his widow runs the shop (which is actually just a series of rooms oddly connected to her house) where artist from the community bring pieces. Everything is made from fallen wood - people, animals, and such.

We then visited a school that one of Corrinas friends is trying to build to teach local artist how to make a living. It’s a one room hut and they don’t have running water or electricity – yet. Up the street a little was the home of the artist – his wife, carrying their 1 month old baby swaddled on her back, welcomed up into their home. The “gallery” was also the computer room where we found 2 chickens standing on the computer key board.

After another visit to another wood artist, we went to a pottery place. These women support a huge amount of people in the community and export their pots all over the country. The pottery is very basic – using only a few colors but beautiful. A little too big to bring home in my suitcase.

By the time we got to lunch, I think my body had had it. I caved into not feeling well. SO I muddled though the rest of the day and then when we got to one of the host’s house to work on our presentation for the conference I put in my work and then crawled up on the bed. I could hear conversations in Affrikan “Blah, blah, yada, yada Christine – doctors – shot - blah, blah.” I could hear that my girl Meesh had my back and said Oh no – she’s taking medicine and just need to sleep.

So I got up when it was time to go home and got bamboozled by one of the hosts. I booted up my laptop so we could copy the presentation on it and he saw the photo of my family (mom, dad, older brother, sister in law, nephews, little brother). And he asked me where my husband was. I told him I wasn’t married and he asked how old I was – I said 29. He then launched into a lecture about “didn’t I want to get married;” “didn’t I want to have kids;” “You’re not getting any younger;” “by the time you find someone, get married and have kids it’s going to be at least 4-6 years and that’s a while.” And then he brought me down the hill to a photo of his family and kids and how they weren’t that much older than me and we married and had kids (except for one of the sons who was 33 but that was ok because he was a male). By the time he was done I was ready for a few shots of liquor on top of my nyquil.

May 24th

A What?

It’s amazing what a good dose of Nyquil can do. I woke up this morning feeling so much better. Solomein (our host) god bless her made up appointments at the Spa so off Meesh and I went to the spa. Once we got there we decided to splurge on the “Stress Relief” package and got a full body scrub and massage. We walked up the stairs and the therapist asked who wanted the mineral bath and who wanted the vichi (spelling to be checked when I have internet again). I not knowing what a vichi shower is decided its better for me to explore than Meesh (as I’ve had a little more experience in the spa world than her). And did I find out what the vichi shower was – I was on the table for the scrub and over me was a shower contraption with 6 nozzles on it. So I laid on the table and got massaged by 6 pressured show heads. It was lovely. After my massage and I spent some good quality time in the steam room and sauna and then we moseyed up the street to the hotel store. They were closed until 4 pm but decided they could open for us. So Meesh and I made it worth their while by buying quite a bit.

We’re off tonight for the District Conference this weekend – where hopefully I can get some laundry done somehow….