Chillin’ with the children (literally)

While Mimi was traveling with Ellen and Sandy and making her way to sunny Mozambique, I traveled with my children: my son, Michael; my daughter, Julia; and my daughter's husband, Michael. (Yes - having two Michaels is confusing.) Not only was it great to see my children, but I loved seeing South Africa through their eyes.

The kids arrived, appropriately enough, on Sunday, May 12: Mother's Day. Although Mimi and I have always used public transportation or had guides or drivers, I decided that, given South Africa's great road system, I would rent a car. Thus, after picking up the kids, we piled into our rental car and, repeating the phrase “stay left, stay left, stay left,” headed out for Pretoria. The kids' immediate reaction was that South Africa didn't look like the Africa that Julia had seen in Uganda or that the boys had seen on TV or in the movie that they had watched on the plane ride: Blood Diamonds. Their image of Africa was changed even more dramatically when we arrived at the B & B that Mimi and I had stayed at when we were working in Pretoria, a colonial-style home on a tree-lined street with large rooms and silver in the dining room.

Early the next morning, we headed out on the M-4, a modern toll road, for Swaziland, an independent country in the eastern part of South Africa that is ruled by a 39-year-old king who dresses in his traditional clothing for all of his official photographs. While Swaziland is relatively prosperous, the kids decided that it looked much more like the Africa that they had imagined. The roads were narrower, there were people and animals everywhere, and, for the most part, their faces were the only white faces.

We spent Monday and Tuesday nights at Milwane Game reserve, which is in the central part of Swaziland. The game park is unusual in that you can drive through it, getting out of your car whenever you choose to do so.

Thus, we were able to get within a few feet of ostriches, zebras, warthogs, and the numerous impala that inhabit the park. Heeding the warning from part rangers, we did, however, keep our distance from the hippos and the crocodiles, who lined the edge of the waterholes.

Some of the highlights of this part of the trip were staying in the traditional beehive huts (and watching the locals construct new ones) and eating impala steaks for dinner. (Because there were only six guests at the park, the food choices were limited – it was impala steak for dinner or nothing at all.) As it turns out, impala steak is delicious, and we were assured that, by eating the steaks, we were doing the environmentally right thing by helping to “cull” the ever-growing herd.

On Wednesday, we headed to St. Lucia, a World Heritage site on the northeast coast of South Africa that features a large lake, an estuary, the only sand dunes in the world that are covered with vegetation, and the warm Indian Ocean. On our first night we saw one of things for which St. Lucia famous: hippos walking down the main street of town. (Actually, when we saw them, they were in grazing next to the main street.) The next day, Thursday, we headed to the beach to watch the sunrise and to give my Michael an opportunity to practice throwing the spear that he had purchased at a market in Swaziland. After a game of tag that ended with Julia, fully clothed, in the ocean, we headed back to the hotel for a late breakfast and a boat trip on the lake and estuary. It was then back to the beach for more spear throwing and football.

The day ended with a surprise. At a bout 8:30, a group of Swazi dancers appeared at the hotel for a performance for the small tour group that was staying at our hotel. Given that the performance was less than 20 feet from our rooms, we were invited to join the tour group, and we enjoyed an hour of boisterous stick fighting, dancing, and singing. At the end, Julia and her husband were given the opportunity to perform and, while they don’t have all of the moves down, they showed great promise.

Friday was “cultural day.” After breakfast, we drove to a trading center that was about 20 miles from our hotel to meet our guide, Mitta, who we were supposed to pick up at 9:00 a.m. for a morning visit to her village. Although we got to the trading center at 9:00, the school group that Mitta was supposed to greet and send off on a separate tour had disappeared, and she spent the next hour and a half looking for them, while a couple of young men took us shopping for bananas and other groceries. The delay gave my kids not only an opportunity to experience “African time,” but also an opportunity to hangout with people their own age: the young men filled my kids in on the local music scene, and my kids taught them how to play American football, which ended, unfortunately, with the ball going into a spiritual area.

We did, however, eventually leave for the village, about a 45-minute drive on dirt roads. We spent about an hour and a half at one of the local schools where we met with the principal and visited each of the three classrooms to let the students practice their English by asking us questions. We then moved to the school’s “auditorium,” a relatively large but dusty room where we were treated to a preview of the songs and dances that the kids were scheduled to perform the following week at a cultural festival.

After visiting the school, we piled back into the car, Mitta took off her wig and put on the traditional scarf that she needs to wear when she is on her father-in-law's homestead, and we headed to visit her father-in-law, with whom she lives with her husband, children, and assorted other relatives. As it turns out, Mitta's father-in-law is quite wealthy, "owning" more than 50 cows and two wives. Although he does not speak any English, Mitta taught us the basic greetings and showed us all of the buildings, which included both traditional buildings and kitchens and Mitta’s English “house” and English kitchen. (The kids sleep with one of Mitta’s two mother-in-laws)

Because Mitta’s father-in-law has cows, he also has flies. As a result, we went to a poorer

neighbor’s homestead for lunch in a traditional beehive hut with dung floors and walls. We sat on the floor and had a great lunch of chicken, spinach, some type of rice, and juice made from water from the local “tap.” At the end, all of the neighborhoodchildren crowded into the hut, where each of them were given a marsh mellow and, for reasons we did not quite understand, sang the South African national anthem for us. We ended our visit with some time with the kids, who seemed to love having their pictures taken, particularly while talking on their banana cellphones.

As the day ended, we headed back to the trading center, where we dropped Mitta off and headed for a quick visit to the Croc Centre, which was on the verge of closing for the evening. (Everything in town closes when it gets dark, which is at about 5:00 p.m.) We were, however, able to see the research center and the crocodiles and, as an inducement to get us to leave, someone who may--or may not-- have been a staff member, let my Michael hold one of the small crocodiles. Later that evening we joined the locals at one of the town’s two bars for a couple of quick games of pool.

Saturday was a driving day. Although originally we had not planned to visit Kruger, Julia wanted to see giraffes, and Kruger was the only place where we knew that we had a good chance of seeing them. Although the lodge that we booked turned out to be deep in the woods outside of town, by this time the kids were ready for some “night life,” so we made the 30 minute drive down dark roads into town in search of “the mall.” In town, we promptly got lost and spent another 30 minutes driving around a town in which many of the street signs did not match the names on our map (South Africa is the process of “Africanizing” many of its place and street names, which has created problems not only for tourists but also for the locals.) We did, eventually find the mall, and the attached casino, but after spending so much time looking for the mall, we were tired and, after eating dinner and witnessing a fight, we headed back to the lodge.

We started Sunday with a drive through some of South Africa’s most spectacular scenery: beautiful forest-covered mountains with waterfalls and viewpoints with names like “God’s Window.”

We then headed further east into Kruger. Although I had been skeptical about Kruger, thinking that it might be too touristy, we had a wonderful time. One of the rangers told us which road to take to find giraffes and, after about an hour of driving, we turned a corner and there were giraffes standing right next to the road. The giraffes seemed to be as interested in us and we were in them, and instead of running from us, they approached us, peaking at us from behind trees. Later, we had the opportunity to spend time with a herd of elephants who had taken over possession of the road and to see what we are quite sure was a leopard.

The next day was another driving day: Julia and I are great fans of the “Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series of books and, although it meant a bit a driving, we were determined to go into Gaborone, Botswana, where the stories are set. Because we made a number of stops along the way (and were attacked by birds), we did not get to Gaborone until 5:30, which means that we did not get there until after dark. We had made reservations at the President Hotel, one of the hotels featured in the books. Finding the hotel was not, however, easy. As it turns out there are very few directional or street signs in Gaborone, and there isn’t even a sign on the hotel itself, which can only be reached via a one-way alley. After asking at least six people for directions, we finally arrived at what we were quite sure was the hotel – a building that matched the description given in the books and on one of the few streets that had a street sign: President Street. Unfortunately, the street was the back entrance to the President’s home and the gun-toting guards were none too happy about the fact that we had driven up to the gate. When I got out of the car to ask about the hotel, the guns were pointed at us, and I was ordered back into the car. Although we thought that the subsequent hand motions meant that we should leave, when we started to leave, the guards got angry and asked us why we were trying to “run away.” Eventually, we found the hotel. Unfortunately, though, the hotel was in the process of being remodeled, which meant that the dining room was just a cold room and not the veranda described in the books.

We spent the next morning, Tuesday morning, exploring Gaborone before heading out to one final game park, Madikwe Game Reserve, which is on the border between South Africa and Botswana. After entering the reserve, we started on what should have been a forty-five minute drive to Jaci’s Tree House Lodge. However, within just a few minutes, we began seeing animals: impala, kudu, zebra, and warthogs, which required stops and pictures. In addition, about twenty minutes into the drive we saw a car stopped by the side of the road: a sure sign that the occupants of the car had spotted some sort of animal in the bush. As it turns out, the occupants had spotted a lion. Although the other car didn’t stay long, we stayed to watch and, as we did, a safari vehicle from another lodge pulled up beside us. The guide, who had just dropped some guests off at the private airport, asked us if we wanted a closer look. We said yes, and he had us drive short distance down the road, where we parked our car and got into his vehicle. He then took us “off road,” where we saw not only the one lion that we had originally seen, but a group of five lions who were busy devouring a wildebeest that they had killed earlier that morning.

As our forty-five minute drive turned into close to two hours, we continued to the lodge, which was spectacular. We had two large “tree-houses,” which were beautifully furnished and which featured not only huge tubs and outdoor showers but also great decks. Even more important, though, was that the tree houses had heaters of sorts: although the rooms were never warm, they weren’t freezing.

We spent the next two days taking morning and afternoon game drives, sitting by the waterhole watching the elephants come and go, and eating classy food (maybe a bit too classy for the boys) and doing our best to stay warm. On each of the three-hour game drives, we wore most of the clothing that we had brought and huddled under blankets that the lodge supplied. In addition, during the early morning drives, each of us received our own hot water bottle, which we placed on our stomachs. Although on some drives we saw relatively few animals, we learned a lot (one drive featured a dung lesson and another a tracking lesson.) In addition, two of the drives featured show downs with elephants and, after two drives spent looking, we finally found my Michael’s animal of choice, white rhinos, which we tracked and then got very close to.

Thus, by the last day, we had seen all of the big five, including the buffalo, which we have taken out the big five and replaced with the giraffe; my little five, which includes mongoose and bunnies, and even my middle five.

We ended the trip with a bit of shopping, first at curio stores in a small town outside of Pretoria, where we were mobbed by vendors and my Michael got to know the guys at the local bar, and with a final day in Pretoria. It was then off to Wits University to drop off my suitcases the projector, and teaching materials. Unfortunately, our directions were not particularly good and we ended up in downtown Joberg during rush hour and almost missed our plane. We are currently in the final hour of our very long plane ride, which included which included a 17-hour flight from Jo'berg to Washington DC, where Julia’s husband was detained for about 20 minutes for police questioning. With any luck, we will get home in time to shower before we head off to Matt Enquist’s wedding.