An Abridged, Whirlwind Tour of South Africa

I celebrated my year anniversary in South Africa with my parents, who visited recently. It was nice seeing them – hopefully it’ll plug up the whole in my heart for another year.

Emotional what-what aside, it was awesome being able to wake up to a warm shower everyday. Though I must admit, I sort of enjoyed returning to my bucket bath this morning – until I slammed my head into the overhead water heater, that is. How quickly a space can become unfamiliar and unnavigable. It’s also reassuring to know that there exist people in this country that use vegetables other than onions and tomatoes in their cooking – and that this cooking is only a short 7 hour taxi ride away.

We started in Capetown with the best intentions to enjoy a tour of Robben Island (the Island prison where Mandela and other freedom fighters were imprisoned for 27- years) but the weather was against us and the ferry was canceled. Then we visited the Winelands, sampling top shelf wines and awesome food. We met Tat’s wine hero, Mike Dobrovic, a half Croatian wine maker known for his sauvignon blanc. He was liberal with his wine samples, gifts of cheese and photocopies of Rumi (should I assume a winemaker’s support of Sufism is an attempt to crack open the Muslim market?) and in no time at all, we were engaged in philosophical banter. We got a quick tour of the Cape of Good Hope, which was, as Mom pointed out, “like being at the edge of the world”. From there, we took two short flights to Nelspruit, did some quickie craft shopping in Swaziland, and then drove into Kruger. Sadly, three of the big five eluded us, but my parents got to see elephants and buffalo. We popped out in the North of the park and drove to Venda where my parents met most of my office, feared my hometown, corrected my garden and declined sampling mopani worms, a delicacy for which my region is known. The trip was capped with some quality time with my Moletjie homestay fam, including the newest addition, baby Sonia. Trippy seeing my dad sing a lullaby he wrote for me to my little Venda doppelganger.


If this isn't incentive to check out the new pictures at the link to the right, I don't know what is.

I arrived to an empty home on the evening of my birthday after 8 hours of travel on 5 different taxis. Thula has gotten a job in Jo’burg and moved on to greener (or less green) pastures. If every Peace Corps Volunteer were issued a Thula during training, the attrition rate would surely decline. I owe all I know about South Africa (as well as some hard-to-admit personal insights) to her mentorship. We inspired creativity in one another over bizarre cooking concoctions and homemade furniture. In Thula, I found someone who saw no limitations that couldn’t be obliterated by the workings of imagination – and I feel more free for our friendship. It’ll be tough without her.

Thank you all for your birthday well wishes and pre and post celebrations. I really appreciate the support.