The Kraal

On my trip I also visited the Kingdom Of Swaziland, which is an independent country in the interior of South-Africa.  As soon as you cross the border, you notice the difference. Houses are poor, mostly only clay huts with a straw roof.  The main road is sponsored by South-Africa. Besides this highway, mostly only dust roads is what you’ll find. You see people walking along the side of the highway. We intended to visit a typical ‘kraal’ (local family housing).  Of course people are used to tourists and know you’ll have something to give away – as soon as the car has stopped, tens of children come out of nowhere… After our guide asked the inhabitants of the ‘kraal’ permission to visit their homes, we could enter their houses and look at their furniture, their entire household, their bed, etc… At some point, this was quite embarrasing, mostly for us – imagine people stopping right now in front of your house and asking if they could take a look around, entering your kitchen, bedroom and bathroom !  

Gifts

But on the other hand, the gifts (worn clothes we wanted to throw away anyway – these are still better than the ones they wear –  soap, shoes, …) make them happy – and you can tell this is not acted.  “In a way these people seem a lot happier than we do”, I thought.  I gave some boy – of about 15 years old I guess – a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. He just couldn’t stop looking at them, and the big smile on his face… that was something I’ll never forget.  He quickly ran away holding the old clothes as if it was his treasure. Maybe he would sell them because they were ‘too good’ for him.  This often happens. People get this way some money to buy some meat or something else they need.

Souvenirs anyone ?

Next to the main road are plenty of little stalls selling the typical souvenirs like wooden or soapstone elephants and rhino’s, african masks, etc… Every time you visit such a stall it’s hard to resist not to buy something.  These things cost only a few Euros, but for most of them it’s their only income.  And one must admit it , they are good in making these sculptures.  Often next to the stall, you can see them making the objects they sell. One more reason to buy : the smile on their face when you agree to buy for a bargained price.  Some textbooks will tell you it’s not the ‘true African Art’ you buy there… but the buying by itself makes it more worthwile.  Something bought in a fancy shop will mostly not help these people next to the road.

The primary school

Next stop was a primary school.  Again plenty of people surrounding us immediately.  We first had to cross on foot a very basic hanging bridge across the river. It was the only access to their school.  Inside the school the children were as excited as we were.  They showed us their classroom and their books, and they were proud about it. We gave some of  them a pen.  Most of these kids don’t have a pen or pencil because their parents cannot afford one.  The school does not supply the children with pens and note books etc… Imagine all the paper we waste everyday… it really makes you very quiet.  Again the happiness of the children was present everywhere – someone let them look at themselves using his video handheld camera.  True magic for these kids, big fun for us too.

Swazi dancing

Some hours later I was sitting in the bar of the hotel, drinking some wine.  The contrast of that day was really too much.  That evening the locals also had a surprise for us.  All of a sudden, a group of dancers,  mostly children, came into the bar; accompanied by African drums.  For about fifteen minutes they have been performing typical Swazi dancing.

It made me think back of the children we had seen earlier that day next to the road dancing for money, stopping with their dancing as soon as the tourists were gone.  Of course these kids dancing right here also expected some little money, but one could see they were also enjoying the dancing and their motivation came from their hearts.  This is where I saw some of their roots, their original culture.  How gray their day-to-day life may be, how they may hunger for more western ‘modern’ things, a ‘better life’,… they all seem to forget it as they dance to the beats of the drums.

Later on my travel, I’ve encountered many street dancers and visited organised African dance performances, but the spirit of that evening was never matched again.

Our first zebra

At first, it started rather disappointing.  After a couple of hours driving in the Kruger park, after the ‘thrill’ of seeing your first zebra or impala in the wild, you start thinking ‘where has all the wildlife gone, where are the elephants, the rhinos, the lions,… – did I travel this far to see some zebra and a couple of birds ? ‘  But then suddenly it happens, the show begins, … suddenly an elephant or a rhino crosses the road, right in front of your car, ignoring all about you, just as if you’re not there – you’re not allowed to drive faster than 40 km/h in the park, so you’re supposed not to bump into something.  Seeing these big animals in their ‘daily life activities’, in their natural habitat, it’s really impressive.  Sometime later we ‘bumped’ into a family of elephants, feeding on the leaves of the trees. The whole family including the little ones.  The sound of the elephants, the trees that crack as they pull against them.  It’s something unforgettable.

The lion sleeps today

Another 4WD passes by and tells us they have seen lions further down the road.  Let’s go ! Arriving there, what we saw was really impressive.  Eleven lions sleeping together, just besides the road. A real intimate athmosphere. We could touch them if we wanted to – but beware :  these are real wild animals !Every year people get killed in Africa because they get out of their vehicles ‘for the picture of a lifetime’.  Soon after we arrived, some of the lions started to wake up, but none of them were aggressive to us; just like the rhinos and elephants we had encountered before, they just seemed to ignore us completely.

So did the couple of elephants we met later on. 

From a distance they seemed to be fighting with each other, but as we approached we quickly saw these two had something completely different in mind.  Love was in the air, so we approached even more to watch the spectacle.  After half an hour of approaching each other, it seemed the male was too small (young ?) for her, so he seemingly went away… She stood there without moving, flapping her big ears heavily, as he went away and started feeding.  Was she still waiting, was his leave just a part of the ritual, could he come back ?  What has happened next , I’ll never now, as we had to move further…

Again, what surprised me was that these two also ignored the presence of humans-in-their-vehicles completely – as if we were invisible intruders.  It really felt like an intrusion into the life of these animals at that time.  However…  a couple of hours later, after we had seen almost nothing since this last meeting with the ‘love birds’, except for the odd eagle and a turtle, we encountered an elephant that was not ignoring us…

Nearly our last elephant

We just came driving by, and from a distance, we could see an elephant next to the road.  Big deal … we had seen elephants before… we did not intend to stop to take pictures.  Suddenly our guide stopped and put the vehicle in reverse.  She had seen a snake on the road, and that was something to stop for !  The snake appeared to be hit by a car and as dead as a dead snake can be.  So we moved on again, approaching the elephant again.  
The next moment, as we came next to this massive animal, it started to chase us !  Our driver didn’t notice this at first, so we shouted : “Full throttle ! Elephant behind us”.  The elephant was accelerating fast and approaching our vehicle dangerously close.  If he would hit the car, we would flip over ! Luckily enough our acceleration in first gear was good enough to escape from this aproaching danger and the elephant stopped following us – thank you Volkswagen.

Who said safari was boring again ?