Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Out of Touch!

So if you feel I’ve been a little absent recently in cyberspace, you’re right. We have been out in the rural Eastern Cape and I haven’t really had access to the wondrous world of cyberspace, for better or for worse. Let me just give a brief synopsis of the trip.

We flew into East London, a small town a hundred km or so from Port Elizabeth. There we stayed at a small backpackers situated on a beautiful beach. We got to hang out there for a couple days before the back breaking manual labor commenced. Just kidding, well, kind of.

Then we drove a couple hours to a TINY village named Tuku. There we were welcomed with open arms by the villagers. They seemed excited to have us there and show us their beautiful hamlet of a town. We stayed with home stay families, mine was fantastic. There was a lot of estrogen – a grandmother, her daughter and 4 grand daughters – but I could deal with it. It was fantastic being out of the city which allowed us to see the stars at night and be waken up – much to our dismay at about 4 A.M. but the roosters perfectly situated outside our window. It wasn't exactly luxurious; we washed in a bucket and didn’t have running water. Yet the family’s warmth more than made up for what it lacked in accommodations

Our task in this town was to fix up a forsaken school in complete disrepair. Apparently the government isn’t into fixing up old schools, merely building new ones…it showed. We spent three days sanding, painting, and trying to fix broken panes of glass… the works.

From there we came back to the backpackers and spent a few glorious days lying on the beach, body surfing and tanning (read turning my body from white to pinkish-red). We took a plane from there to Joburg, where I am at the moment.

Now we are just finishing up a quick stop in a backpackers by the airport before we start a loooong drive to Chobe, Botswana for a safari. From there we travel to Victoria Falls. I apologize if I fall out of touch again. I most likely not been eaten by a lion, just most game parks don’t have wireless.

If I have in fact been eaten by a lion, honor me, please.