Non Sequitur: Adventures in the life of Kirsten: Venda, Limpopo

So as many of you know last weekend I visited the city of Venda in the Province of Limpopo. Limpopo is the most Northern of South Africa's Provinces and is by far the poorest (and noticeably so). It is the only area in South Africa affected by Malaria and Cholera, it has a subtropical climate (which means its very, very hot) and it is much more rural than other areas in SA. You will notice from some of my pictures though, that it is also very beautiful and the people are even more friendly than in Gauteng Province, which is almost mind blowing.

The Bus
Venda is approximately a 5 hour drive from Pretoria, which means in bus riding time it is at least 7 hours away. When I arrived at the bus station in Pretoria last Friday at 9:45 I expected my bus to leave promptly at 10. However, we waited and waited, and our bus only arrived at 10:45. In this time I had managed to make good friends with a baby who kept me occupied for the rest of the trip and had been informed by several people that the bus was ALWAYS late. So when the bus arrived I sat down and prepared myself for a 7+ hour bus trip. Initially a man from Venda sat with me and assured me that I would love the province and that it was the nicest part of SA. He also told me to expect that the bus would arrive at 6 at the earliest, which it did which was an hour and a half late. The bus ride was quite nice though as the route to Venda was quite scenic.

The Bus stop in Levubu. The building in the background is a hospital. When I looked down after taking this picture 3 little girls and 2 women who were sitting at a stall started waving at me so I waved back. I soon learned that waving was a good way to start conversation or at least elicit a smile.

On the way back I picked up the bus at 7:30 in the morning on Monday where I was met again by the same man who sat next to me on the way there. When the bus arrive he looked at the bus driver (who was within earshot) and proclaimed "Oh no, I have had this driver before, he is incredibly slow and is always doing silly things. We will be at least an hour and a half late" Ironically we actually arrived home 10 minutes early, which I can only conclude was because, hearing this comment, the bus driver decided to improve his reputation. Worked for me. Below are a couple of pictures from the bus.

The First Evening
Upon arriving in Sibasa which is the city with a bus stop closest to Venda I was met by Chatta and Nick who are two student teachers from the Netherlands who lived with me for a short time in Pretoria. With them was Coos, the administrator of the school they were teaching with. He drove us to Nick and Chatta's home which is in a small community which is part of Venda. There house is down the hill but on the same property as two women who the locals kindly refer to as "the pot smoking grannies in the hills". They were both very kind and interesting. Enough said. That evening Nick and I cooked dinner and I went to bed early after acquainting myself with the family of dogs which inhabits the property.

Venda Cultural Festivities

En-route on the mini bus.

On Saturday Flo and Felice, the pot smoking grannies, drove us into Sibasa to meet a girl named Nikoumi who worked with Flo and took us to a cultural festival in another part of Venda. At the festival the King of the 7 tribes who inhabit the area and speeches were given by he and other dignitaries including the Premier of Limpopo (who was ushered in by a band) to commemorate the unique culture and history of the Venda people. Unfortunately much of what was said was in Venda so we didn't understand anything. The speeches were followed by traditional Venda music and dance which was more captivating.

The Premier of Limpopo being ushered in by the marching band

I had quite the experience at this cultural event. It started with my first minibus ride where I was crammed into a space not meant for more than 12 people, with 20 in it. Upon arriving at the festival we got a lot of stares and shout as we were the only white people there (and there was quite a crowd) with me attracting the majority of the attention as the Venda people apparently have some kind of awe of blonde hair. This lead to quite a few interesting encoutners including at least 2 marriage proposals.

Female Performers in their Traditional Clothing

At one point during the day Chatta mentioned to Nikoumi that I wanted my hair braided after I chastised her for not having her's braided and so a bunch of women went about trying to braid my hair (un)fortunately, they did not have the materials to make the braids stay in and so my hair remained straight.

A traditional Pipe Dance (the men were playing wooden pipes while dancing)

I also gathered a heard of little girls over the course of the day who I guess were originally just curious to meet someone from out of town but then stayed once they realized that that person was actually interested in talking with them and playing with them. Although they spoked varying degrees of english, they told me their future aspirations (ranging from Doctor to Soldier) and spent a large amount of time dancing and playing with my camera. At one point I bought them all a lolipop which they seemed very thankful for, although as someone later pointed out that I may have reinforced the belief that it will make them expect white people to give them things in the future, although after some good though I concluded that if that was the case the problem was at the educational and social level within the community as the adults should not expect such things nor should they teach their children to accept such things. The children seemed to enjoy their lolipops anyway. When I eventually had to leave all of the little girls gave me big hugs, and some additional adult women and children joined in as well, with two little girls following me back to the main road.

Some of the little girls who became part of my Pack. These girls had participated in a maturity initiation that day.

On the way out of the area and back to the mini-bus I again started getting quite a lot of attention from a variety of males. So Nick started promoting me as a fictitious pop icon names "Nouria" after some drunken man earlier in the day bestowed this name on me. It was quite funny as when he asked people if they recognized me they would say yes. He got one fellow (who wasn't bad looking) into such a state that he started crying and begging for my phone number. Perhaps this was somewhat of a cruel joke but it was quite fun at the time and I can't say I didn't like the attention.

At the end of the day, the marching band that originally ushered in the Premier of Limpopo came back and interrupted a band performing on stage which resulted in people gathering and dancing to both performances.

A truckload of Singing Men, to whom Nick promoted my character of Nouria, eventually one of the men jumped down and asked for my phone number.

Beautiful Sunset in the hills of Limpopo from the window of a mini-taxi

40 Degree Sunday
On Sunday the temperature went up all the way to 40 degrees (without the humidex) and so we spent most of the day by the pool and sunbathing after cancelling our plans to go for a hike in the mountains (which was somewhat disappointing). This did help my tan though and I only developed a minor sunburn.

Late in the afternoon I convinced Nick and Chatta to go for a walk around a nearby dam (although Chatta eventually turned back) We saw monkies on the road before arriving at the dam, which was surrounded by tea fields and mountains. For those of you who have never seen tea fields before, imagine the greenest thing you have ever seen and make it 50 times greener. They were really amazing. Nick and I walked around the dam for about an hour and a half, climbing over rocks and dead logs, at one point running into a naked man swimming near where his friends were fishing (upon seeing us he ran out of the water and into the distance (presumably where his car was). After taking dozens of pictures we rounded a bend which lead us to a small inlet where the water was perfectly still and reflected the surround mountains, tea fields and the setting sun. It was surrounded by red mud with the hoof prints of Spring Bok (a kind of deer) and there was a small stream whose trickling sound completed the setting, with thicker brush lining the perimeter of the inlet. Of course this was the point when my camera battery died so I can't share the beauty with you. This inlet was really one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and to think that such a small proportion of humanity will ever get to view it made the experience even more special.