Daily life in Nqiningana

Sometimes I feel a bit like a pilgrim here, it is a really interesting experience. I imagine this must be how life was for our ancestors who first came to North America. Everything we do takes time here, and we do everything by hand. It has been a very eye opening week. If our clothes are dirty we must first walk 25 minutes to the water tap, and then 25 minutes back, we then wash our clothes by hand in a bucket (ok we do that in Thembalethu too).

Also, there is no refrigerator here so all of our meals are made at the time of eating. There is no processed food here, just real whole foods like beans, rice, mealies (corn) etc. Each meal takes about 2 hours to make and we cook it on a paraffin stove which kicks off a terrible odour, we must open the windows or our eyes begin to hurt. I am enjoying learning how to cook this way though, I even learned how to make homemade bread with just flour, water, yeast and salt. It was very good! We are actually fortunate because most women cook over the fire here and must spend an entire day collecting firewood from far away places, then carry it home on their heads in large bails.

Bath time is interesting, we heat water and then bathe in a metal bucket, it is not glamorous but it does the job. We use as little water as possible for all of these jobs because it takes so long to get new water. The ladies have been trying to teach me how to balance the bucket of water on my head but wow it is difficult. It gives me so much respect for the women here, as well as my beautiful friends Fatima, Fatuma, Afsa and Rukiya because they all know how to do this! I want to learn so I can show them my new skills when I get home!

For me this is 8 days of an interesting experience but for the women here it is daily life, certainly not an easy life however I believe that they are happy. They enjoy a very strong sense of community in which their neighbours really do care about each other and where people will help you if ever you need it.