Ha oho na matata.

All the photos I have from the safari in Kruger National Park, from my birthday in Swaziland, and from the remainder of my trip throughout the eastern part of South Africa can be viewed here.

To get a better understanding of where I traveled, check out this map:

From: http://www.ezilon.com/maps/images/africa/political-map-of-South-Afri.gif

The morning of my birthday, we packed up at the backpackers in Swazi and headed back into South Africa. By that afternoon we had reached our next destination, St. Lucia, the world’s largest estuary. We relaxed small, then went out for deliciously cheesy pizza dinner with a group of newly-made international friends from the BP. Then Sadie and I (rather enthusiastically) made a giant bowl of guacamole while Joy photo-documented the night and Maren went hunting for Lefty, the one-eyed cat at the BP.

A Guac-tastic Night

The next day we went on a nice, hour-long walk to the beach. We had finally reached the Indian Ocean!

We splashed around in the water for all of ten minutes before a saw some storm clouds rolling in, so we headed back to the BP, but at least I collected some cool sea shells before we left! That night, we went out for sushi and I had THE BEST MILKSHAKE of my entire life. And then I got sick from it (or the sushi or the combination of the two) for nearly a week. Totally worth it though.

After St. Lucia, we made our way to the quaint town of Clarins, where even the trees are kept warm!

Then we made our way to Bloemfontein, one of the larger cities in the Free State province. The last night all four of us were together, we went to a festival at the University of the Free State.

Joy, Sadie, Maren, and Me at the Festival

Honestly, it was a bit strange for me. “There were so-so white people,” as we’d say here in Liberia, and I'm not used to interacting with large groups of them anymore. (Is that weird? How am I going to be able to handle coming back to America?!) The majority of them were speaking Afrikaans, which I had never heard being spoken before, so that was interesting. One thing I noticed at the festival and didn’t particularly like was that more of the festival-goers were the white, Afrikaans-speaking people, the black South Africans that were there were working in the some of vendor tents and shacks, and both groups mostly kept to themselves. But I'm sure if you really look for it, you'll find that sort of self-segregation anywhere.

At this point in the trip, Maren was going to fly home and Sadie had to return back to her site in Lesotho to begin school. Unfortunately, there just wasn't the time or the funds for Joy and I to see Sadie's site, so Joy and I stayed in Bloem for an extra day. We went back to the festival and ate multiple types of foods on a stick, including donuts, waffles, and chips. A bit of Americana had made its way to South Africa!

To get back to Johannesburg, where I had to fly out a few days later, Joy and I took an overnight bus. We had our new South African friend, Milton, come pick us up from the bus station at 4 A.M. (We met him in St. Lucia on my birthday, and he offered to help house us if the need came up...which it did since I had practically no money at the end of my trip.) I had never stayed with a couch surfer before, but I would definitely recommend it! Milton was so warm and welcoming and literally saved me from having to sleep in the Joburg bus station for the last 3 nights of my trip.

Why can't more people back home be as genuinely helpful?

Milton took Joy and me to the Joburg Botanical Gardens for a picnic one day, and we enjoyed delicious food and interesting conversation with people from all over the world. The next day, I was invited for lunch and tea time with his family and had a great conversation with Milton's mother, Michelle, who also gave me some books I could use as resources for ideas for income-generating activities with my Girls Club here in Liberia. It was refreshing to interact with people who were so helpful and expected absolutely nothing in return.

While I never made it to Lesotho ("Leh-su-tu"), Sadie taught me a phrase in her local language, Basotho ("Ba-su-tu") during my time down there. The phrase is reminiscent of Disney's "Lion King" (and a bit cheesy, admittedly), but it encompasses something that was reinforced for me during the last leg of my trip in South Africa. "Ha oho na matata" means "There are no worries." I really didn't need to stress out about money during the end of my vacation thanks to my incredible friends and the goodwill and generosity of complete strangers. All my worries from the end of the trip simply vanished because people looked out for me. Things like this reinforce the faith I have in others. I now know that when a sticky situation arises, others will be there to help you out. Someway, somehow, you'll make it through.

25th Birthday in Swaziland

If you would’ve asked me as a kid where I’d be when I was 25, never in a million years would my answer be “in Africa”. Now I’ve been living in Liberia for 16 months and have traveled to South Africa, Swaziland, and Ghana. How incredible is that?

Customs Checkpoint Entering Mbabane, Swaziland

Swazi Flag

Alright, so the morning of my birthday, I woke up just before dusk to go on a short run around the backpackers in Mbabane ("Ma-ba-neh"), the capital of Swaziland. Let me tell you, I have definitely acclimatized to tropical West Africa and down south it was COLD. Never did I think I’d job wearing gloves in Africa! I ran on some winding roads, climbing up and down the red, rocky, dusty hillsides and was fortunate enough to be able to see the sun rise from behind a mountain backdrop. It which was gorgeous. I also spotted a monkey running up a tree, which I found surprising because the area was residential, and then I almost run up into a tree, too. "Why?" you ask. Well, because a giant, scary guard dog was barking ferociously at me and started chasing me. Fortunately, it was in a fenced-in yard, however I didn’t notice the fence until AFTER my heart skipped a couple beats and I screamed. Thank goodness for that fence!

View of Mbabane

When I finished my run, I could see the steam rising from my skin up into the cold, foggy, morning air. I stretched small out on the gravel road, then walked back inside the BP, singing to myself the end of a hip-hop song I had been listening to on my run. As I entered the BP, I was met with a surprise birthday breakfast! I sat on the floor of the dining area and stretched some more while the girls sang me “Happy Birthday”. When I stood up, I fully surveyed the spread on the table, and this is what I saw: 

The Breakfast of Champions

You know there was a PCV involved in the planning of this breakfast because there was a match in my cupcake! Hey, when you don’t have candles available, you have to be resourceful, right? And who needs fancy glasses to drink out of when you have giant chicken-soup cups? The girls had planned for me to have a morning mimosa as well, but they accidentally bought the alcohol-free variety. I was fine with the mistaken purchase though; I didn’t want to start drinking right at 7 A.M., and really, who wants to drink when they’re already slightly dehydrated? Not me! But it was the thought that counted, and I felt very fortunate to be able to celebrate my birthday with such caring friends.

The day before, we visited a craft market, which was a really interesting experience. In Liberia, there aren’t really any crafts that are locally-made. Beads come from China, clothing items come from the States, and the lappa fabric comes from Guinea. So, I was a little more than excited to be able to buy some authentic, locally-made crafts, and consequentially, that’s where the majority of my money was spent during the trip. (I literally had $0.40 US in cash when I left South Africa at the end of my trip and no plastic. Not smart, I know, but somehow at all worked out.) I was purchasing items that I could use to decorate a U.S. house I don’t even have yet!

Anyways, we separated and went into different shacks to browse the stock of items for sale:  paintings, figurines, bowls, jewelry, fabrics, etc. I began chatting with the women, asking their names and about the process of producing the crafts I was interested in purchasing. This helped me get brownie points while haggling! The vendors were much less aggressive than those from Liberia, and I found that just taking the 30 seconds to chat with them small when you first walked into their stall made a world of difference. I learned that one of the woman’s cousins makes all the crafts she sells and another woman’s name begins with a click! (How cool is that?!) I even found myself using small Liberian English while talking with them, which has a different cadence and intonation than the English spoken in Swazi, of course, but it seemed to help. Also, once I mentioned that I was visiting from Liberia, West Africa, that usually got me brownie points, and I was able to talk them down a little more. So I didn’t get as ripped off as I could have. I am SO my father's daughter.

In the Craft Market

South African Safari

In late June the school year ended. With tests corrected and final grades submitted, I had survived my first year of teaching and my first year of living in Liberia. It was time for a much-needed vacation. So I headed to South Africa and Swaziland for 2 weeks in early July. I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on the Fourth of July and was reunited with some close friends I hadn't seen in a long time.  Here are some photos of our airport reunion!

African Sisters:  Me and Sadie, an Education PCV in Lesotho
(Photo credit goes to Maren.)

Thanks, Sadie, for planning EVERYTHING for our fantastic trip. :-)

Maren and Me, After Multiple Embraces and Tears of Joy
(Photo credit goes to Maren.)

Maren didn't know I was coming until the day I arrived. You should’ve seen me try to sneak up behind her in the airport that day. People were staring at me as I peered out from behind these giant marble columns, trying not to topple over from the weight of my backpack. Let’s just say the surprise wasn't executed all that well on my part, but the reunion itself was priceless.

The fourth member of our group, Joy, unfortunately got stuck stateside for a bit and would join us the next day. Once she joined us, our party of Trumanite grads went road-trippin’ small through South Africa and Swaziland together for just under 2 weeks.

On my first full day in South Africa, I got to go on a safari! We woke up at 5 A.M. to make our way to Kruger National Park, which is northeast of where we were staying in Nelspruit. If anyone ever wants to go to KNP and stay with a very lovely family for an affordable price, go to Nelspruit Backpackers! Our tour guide, Paul, runs the BP with his wide, Natalie, and they were so very friendly and helpful. I learned so many things from Paul during the safari itself…I just couldn’t write fast enough! During the two-day safari, I scribbled down as many facts as possible during the bumpy ride throughout the park. We camped there one night in the Skukuza Campsite. In Shangan, one of the local languages there, “skukuza” means “he who turns everything upside down”, and it was the name given to the white people that first came to the area. Sounds about right, eh?

Overall, the safari was probably my favorite part of the entire trip, so that's why I'm going to highlight some of the cools facts I learned from Paul while at KNP right here. For all the wildlife-loving, bio-nerds out there like me, I hope you enjoy this!

• The “Big Five” game animals in Africa include the rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard, and we were fortunate enough to see ALL of these amazing creatures during out short safari.
• The white rhino was the first animal we saw there. It takes 70 bites per minute of low-lying vegetation.

• Starlings are blue, iridescent birds that are always near rhinos, and ox-pecters have a mutualistic relationship with their large friends, as they eat parasites right off the rhino’s skin!
• The black rhino is more endangered than the white rhino and has some different characteristics than its fairer cousin. There is no back-of-the-neck bump, it eats leaves so it holds its head up higher, and its mouth is narrower. It’s practically blind and this animal can get aggressive once provoked, which happens easily.
• Male bull elephants have such high levels of testosterone in their bodies that it makes them go a bit crazy. Their coordination gets compromised, so sometimes they drag one of their legs as they walk. Full-grown adults have seven sets of molars and get the last one when they are about 50. They live to be about 70 years old (woah!), and they essentially die from malnutrition when their teeth wear down. Females also have a 22-month-long gestation period and once their babies are born, they can’t control their trunks their entire first year of life. (Thank goodness the gestation period for humans is NOT 22 months. Can you imagine that? I wonder if that would serve as a population control measure if that were the case….)

I digress.

• The spots on giraffes get darker as they get older, and their lifespan is around 25 years. So if I were giraffe, I’d be an old lady about to kick the bucket.
• Female hyenas have higher levels of testosterone than males, which makes them bigger and stronger and more dominant during mating. Due to this, the scared males literally run away from the females immediately after copulation finishes! Also, hyenas can digest bones! Isn’t animal physiology just fascinating?!
• The lilac-breasted roller is a perfect example of sexual dimorphism exhibited in male birds.

• Here’s a snippet from my journal the second day of the safari:  “We just saw a pride of five females and three cubs walk right by our vehicle. They posed on the road for us, and we could’ve reached out and touched them! Ah! 3:05 P.M., Sat., July 06, 2013.” While it was awesome to be so close to such beautiful, powerful animals, we made sure to keep all limbs inside the vehicle at all times. The animals in KNP are used to the cars, trucks, and jeeps and don’t feel threatened by them. Even if they would be comfortable around humans outside of the vehicles and would come up to lick you like a friendly housecat, you wouldn’t want that. “Why?” you ask. Because the tongue of a lion is so rough that if it were to lick you, it would rip your skin off. (“Shit,” I said when I heard this. “That would really suck.”)
   
   

  

  (All lion photo credits go to Maren.)