Being a Tourist

I’m over two months in to my year in South Africa and I had a visitor!

Chris flew down to visit his family and I got to sneak in a couple visits too!

I flew up to Durban and Chris and I drove up to Drakensburg to do some hiking. The temperature difference between King Williams Town and the Drakensburg area was incredible – went from rainy and cold to 29 degrees, sunny and humid.  The first day there was so hot we were ready to cool off after about an hour of hiking. We stopped at a creek and jumped in a pool, cooling off under a little waterfall. It was a gorgeous setting and we enjoyed lunch sunning on some rocks while we dried out. The walk back was really pretty, and I was busy thinking about the flowers, mountains, trees and chatting with Chris when off slithered a black snake! GAH! UH! Yeh!  I did a little snake dance and hoped along the trail to get away when another longer snake squiggled away from the center of the trail. AH! Noh! OH! ... this time I backed off and pushed Chris to the front! Chris got a kick out of my squimishness  as they were ‘just like gardener snakes’ back home. I grew up in the country and never saw a snake at home. I have been here for two months and have seen three, and they have all been close to my feet! I do not like snakes!

We drove up to Sodwana Bay to camp for a couple days with his family and chill at the ocean. The camp site was really nice with a gorgeous tree canopy full of curious little monkeys! Within ten minutes of being there they made off with one of Chris’ pineapples and earlier in the morning they had snuck away with the milk. Camping was great: Monkey watching, beach walking, snorkelling, card playing and best of all scuba diving.

Chris, Leola (his sister) and I took a discover scuba diving course and it was so great! We had a two hour lesson in the pool and the next day at eight we headed for the ocean. We all piled into the zodiac and zoomed off! The ride was great, the ocean was calm and the water so incredibly blue. We got to our destination two kilometres off land and our guides jumped in to secure the buoy and we began to gear up ... rocking to and fro, nicely floating on the water, rocking side to side... my stomach was churning, my face was getting pale, my mouth was going dry, I couldn’t concentrate on getting on my gear, I was going to be sick... “Leslee, look up!” Chris reminds me to look up... Right! okay, I start feeling a wee bit better and am able to gear up. Weight belt, vest with oxygen tank, goggles, flippers, check check check. The driver yells, “over on three. One two three” – over we go! We all flip backwards off the zodiac. I come up thinking, "wu-hoo I did it! This is so great!" and I look over to Chris to see him holding his head with a confused / mildly worried look on his face. His head is completely covered in blood, his hand is covered in blood and he’s saying something about 'wait a sec, I might need some help'... The waves are moving us all apart while the guides are yelling for us to swim up current to the buoy while another already has Chris in the boat. People are telling me, "you're super pale, are you alright?" Am I alright... yeah I think so... I still kinda want to throw up, my boyfriend is gushing blood from his head, the waves are bashing me and the spit in my goggles isn’t working as they are totally fogged... but yeah I’m good! Let’s go down! I was a little freaked at the top feeling like I couldn’t breathe but once I put my head under water – everything was calm – all was still and I could breathe. Down periscope. Swimming down the rope to the bottom was probably one of my favourite parts. It was amazing swimming down down down to the sandy bottom and being able to look around at all the fish, coral and fellow divers. Such a different world. At the bottom they gathered us all together until everyone was down and we had to kneel on the sand so that they didn’t lose us. "Okay, I can chill here no problem... Woh, woh! wait, don’t leave me alone. I think I’m having a hard time breathing, oh gosh, what if I get water in my goggles, oh – I’m having a hard time breathing, yup, I’m scared I can’t breathe!" A guide asked if I was okay and I did the ‘no, I’m having a small anxiety attack 15 meters under water’ reply and he came and got me settled down, making me look him in the eye and actually making me breathe... turns out I could breathe – I just didn’t like sitting still 15 meters under water - so off we swam. Mmmm, so nice! We swam up and over, around, and between the coral seeing purple, blue, yellow, orange, and pink fish. Striped fish, dotted fish, thin fish, and long fish. We also saw big schools of yellow fish, two long eels, and one lonely star fish. Then it was already time to go back up! Forty minutes under water felt more like twenty and I really wanted to explore more. Up we go! We swam up a ways and then had to stop for a couple minutes to let our self adjust, just nicely floating in the water, back and forth, swaying in the water, looking around, not much to see at this level, just swaying in the water... Hmm, I don’t feel so good. Can you throw up under water? How long do we have to stay here for? Seriously I am going to be sick! Thumbs up sign from the guide, ‘thank God!” Up I swam.  And then I threw up... yup, I sure did! Who knew you could get sea sick under water? Not me! That part was horrible, luckily I only had tea and a rusk for breakfast.  Off to land we zoomed and then up to the beach where we found Chris getting stitched up in the ambulance. Aww, poor guy! Turns out the man sitting beside Chris on the boat hesitated when we fell into the water, so when Chris was swimming up he fell in and cracked Chris on the head with his oxygen tank - giving Chris seven stitches. Ouch.

Chris was able to dive the next day and even came back with bragging rights after seeing two sea turtles that I had been talking about wanting to see.

Sodwana Bay was gorgeous, the weather was amazing, the beaches and sand dunes were stunning, and the company I kept was fantastic.     

   

  

Submission

There are two main things that I am disappointed in South Africa for:  #1 the garbage that lines the streets, and #2 the screeching lady that sings at church. Now really! I have travelled around the world, arrived in South Africa and I am expecting an amazing black choir with rhythm and soul that really uplifts the mass and my spirit. What do I get? The same screeching lady that I left behind in B.C.  Now, when my mom reads this she is going to be cringe, as she asked me not to write it... but after today.... there is just no way that I can let it slide. Come on Catholic church!!!! Why oh why do you have these middle aged ladies sucking the life out of the mass? They are singing far too high for anyone else to sing along and the songs are incredibly outdated and slow. I am in Africa! When I think of places where I could go and get uplifting - make you want to worship and bring you closer to God kind of music I think of Africa and probably Brazil or somewhere in Latin America.... but what do I get? A middle aged white lady singing hymns, and not toe tapping hymns. I get dry, lengthy hymns that have you confused about whether or not you should be sleeping or leaving... then I remember – I’m not here for the music – I am here for the word  of God – okay – I am now going to enter into a peaceful God centered time .... Then I think, “I wonder when she’s going to stop?” Okay, say some prayers.... “thank You that this woman is blessing us by leading worship because maybe no one else would”.... hmm, “maybe nobody would be better than this lady. I really enjoy it when everyone signs together with a guitar, no one leading with a microphone – just everyone singing”.... oh, I’m supposed to be praying... “please Lord make her stop!!!!” So here is my request: Catholic Church – stop the madness!!! I am currently in a country full of vibrant cultures! The black people here have inherent rhythm – I completely admit that white people for the most part do not – so get the white lady off the podium and let’s get an amazing black choir to lead us in worship!

The homily was really interesting at least. The priest read a letter from the Bishop talking about how there is a shortage of priests and religious in the diocese. This topic is interesting to me because the priest from my parish at home speaks on this subject quite often and it’s always amazing how similar things are even though you are all the way across the world. Worldwide families aren’t encouraging their children to go into the religious life. Why? I guess it’s because we are trained to want to be doctors, lawyers, carpenters, etc... so then we think what is so glamorous about being a priest? I think that it would be an honour to have my son become a priest, my son would be helping thousands of people to become closer to God (and he would have an amazing worship team!). It would be a little strange as I wouldn’t be getting grandchildren, and he would be the first in my family to enter the religious life – but it would be a blessing.  I have thought many times since being here that if my children are sexually active at 13 I will be sending them to the convent or monastery for the rest of their teenage life ... so the chances of me having a child enter the religious life seems quite high.... J

Although the music at church is bad my not having a vehicle is by far the greatest hurdle that I’m adjusting to. At home we are so incredibly independent. If we want to drive into town to buy chocolate chips for cookies, go hiking, or go watch a movie – I just do it. There is no planning, no strategising – I just do whatever I want whenever I want to do it. Here, I do not have a car. I live 20 minutes from the town where I work, and 60 minutes away from the beach – I can’t get there. There is a Saint Vincent de Paul group here that I would love to help at – I can’t get there. There is a feeding program for children with HIV, where they make children the only meal they get a day, which I would feel so honoured to volunteer at, and I can’t get there. There are clients whom I have tested positive that I would like to revisit and I can’t get there. You might be saying – well why don’t you take a taxi? There are no taxi’s that go from where I live and into King Williams Town. The taxi’s here are also 16 seater vans which zip here and there transporting people that I have been warned approximately 100 times to not take alone because I won’t be safe. I think I would be able to handle myself getting around King in a Taxi despite what people say, but I haven’t had enough free time to spend my day testing the taxi’s reliability... I guess taxis have a reputation of dropping you in areas you don’t know and driving away. Take a city bus? They don’t have city buses. In order to get from place to place people ‘hike’ as in hitch-hike. The main street in town is lined with people at the end of the work day trying to get home. Hitch hiking here includes a fee of about 7 rand to get me home, and of course I am only allowed to hike when I’m with my male roommates. I have hitchhiked and was a little disappointed at the normalcy of it – I was expecting something a little more exciting as it’s a little bit ‘taboo’ for a woman to hitchhike.... nope, not exciting at all.

 I have been having a very lengthy struggle with God about this transportation situation – he is telling me to submit and I am out right refusing. I am sure you have all heard the stories of people wanting to do all sorts of tasks for God and God responding that he simply wants them to sit and spend time with him... well I have a sneaking suspicion that that’s where I’m at, but at the moment I’m refusing to give in! Submission includes doing nothing on the weekend except for washing my laundry (by hand), sweeping my carpeted floor, and eating - and trusts me - I am eating far too much. Doesn’t He know that I am used to doing whatever I want – whenever I want to do it and that this is plain torture!? There are people I could be visiting, beaches I could be walking, water I could be surfing in and children I could be feeding! ...instead I am making cookies with the children that I live with (which includes eating a very large amount of cookie dough) and pretending that I have disappeared when they knock on my door every ten minutes... hmmm, my ’97 cavalier without air conditioning sounds so nice!

If anyone happens to know someone in South Africa that has an extra car they don’t need I know a very good organization testing people for HIV that could use it!!!! I also know a volunteer who could use it on the weekends in order to maintain her sanity. J  



Washing laundry with the kids is a pretty good time. It's amazing having six little hands reaching in and helping me 'scrub scrub scrub'. The boys always start by being super helpful and shortly after we have an impromtu water fight. After the water fight I then have to fight to keep my clothing from going straight into the rinse bin without being washed or from becoming a water bomb tool - but that's what adds to the fun.