Eastern Cape

I am sitting inside of a traditional house made from cow dung and grass, it is surprisingly cool inside of this house considering that outside it is sweltering hot, I kind of like the heat though, so either way I am happy. Yesterday Gcinisizwe and I left Thembalethu and drove the far distance to the village that he grew up in, it is called Nqiningana and it is pronounced Nin(with a click)-in-ghana. It is a very tiny village near Lady Frere located in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This is the place that his family lived for generations until his mother moved to Thembalethu in the late 1980's after the death of Gciniszwe's father. The people of Thembalethu come from the Eastern Cape province so I wanted to come here to understand what it was that was making them leave and come to places like Thembalethu.

It is kind of funny really that I am on a laptop right now using the internet ha ha, outside the men sip brandy, a tradition when someone comes home from far away. Some of the men outside have just come home from the bush, their faces painted red to signify that they are now men, they are very beautiful and I have so much respect for them because their culture is still strong despite the Apartheid history that once reigned here. At one time the boys and men were killed in this village due to that war.

People are very friendly here, and I can feel the warmth that they have in them, I am in fact the first white person to ever come to Nqiningana and the response has been lovely. In Thembalethu people stare at me and giggle, but here people come up to me and shake my hand and hug me, they cannot believe that I have come all this way and are very happy to see both me and Gcinisizwe. He is very well respected in this village and I feel quite proud to be here with him.

The house that we are staying in is at the base of a large mountain, I have plans to climb it in the coming days so stay tuned for more photos! In the meantime I am spending time collecting water which is a 25 minute walk away (one way), and getting to know the nice people who live here. My goal is to understand the challanges of life here, to find out first hand what the people need in order to stay here. I would love it if people wouldn't have to leave and go to places like Thembalethu.

One thing I noticed is that the houses are different in some places, what used to be a village made of only round houses with a grass roof, now has a few square houses with metal roof material. This is a result of global warming, there is less rain now and the grass does not grow very high anymore so they are unable to collect enough grass anymore and must use metal for the roofing material. The metal roofing material gets very hot during the day and inside of these houses is terribly hot. Inside of the grass roof houses however it is very cool.

Until tomorrow, I will be here enjoying the beautiful scenery, seeking a little relief from the heat in the shade of our house and pondering my next move.

Love Catherine