Originally distributed January 2010
Happy new year everyone! Thank you for your periodic emails and replies. It’s always good to hear your news.
During this year in Swaziland I’ve learned something very important. All Swazi events are Late, Loud, and Long. So eat before go, but don’t drink too many liquids. Bring earplugs. And use the bathroom right before the event starts, which will probably be 1-4hrs late. Then you just might make it through the whole thing without too many pains—eardrum pains, stomach pains, bladder pains. The rear end pains are inevitable though. Why is a preschool graduation ceremony over 3hrs long? And why is there a full drum set, keyboard, and gigantic speakers? And people are singing at full volume into a microphone…which is also on full volume. Awesome.
So recapping recent events, I attended a preschool graduation. But my friends and I ducked out after 3 hours. People followed us to the car to ask why we were leaving. Sorry, we have to go! They were probably surreptitiously checking to see if there’d be any space for them so they could leave too.
I also attended the long awaited, much anticipated traditional dance competition between the Big Game Parks staff, which was also long and started late. It was extra fun for me because I know the staff from Hlane, where I’ve lived and worked most of this year. They’re like family. Unfortunately, they didn’t do so well against their biggest competitor Mlilwane. The staff from Mlilwane had been practicing for months and they won every single category. Hlane walked away with nothing but a 2nd place rankings across the board. The poor folks at Mkhaya got 3rd place, out of 3, in everything…again.
During my leave time in December I went on a birding extravaganza around Mpumalanga in South Africa, which borders Swaziland in the North and West. Birdwatching in fog. How productive do you imagine that is? Luckily I only had one day of that out of 8, so I’m not complaining. But it really seemed like the clouds had it out for me that day. The natural areas I visited were always near the towns where I stayed. So that morning I went to the park and couldn’t see 10ft in front of me. Still I managed to see a few birds and mammals. Then I went back to town for several hours, hoping the clouds would lift and clear out. It rained off and on. I spent a lot of money on a few things. (I was in a fly fishing town where the average tourists must be rich. Why is an old, secondhand book $25?!) Anyway, the clouds lifted and I returned to the park. As I was entering the park the clouds came rushing in. I did my best to outpace the fog. When it was obvious I would lose, I took a video of the fog coming in to prove I’m not making this up.
Altogether, the birding trip was fabulous. Male Long-tailed Widows doing display flights over grassland with their exorbitantly long tails, as their name states, was mesmerizing. These birds reminded me of Japanese fighting fish with their long, flowing tails. Swee Waxbills, which are tiny finch-like birds, were also fun to watch. There was a pair sitting together on a branch preening each other. The female would periodically raise her head facing away from the male so he could preen her head. He’d oblige, but after he’d stop she’d still sit there as if entranced. So adorable! For the counters, I saw 148 species on the trip and 48 species were new for my Africa list. The list surely would’ve been longer if I had an experienced local birder with me. Maybe next time.
Blyde River Canyon was the landscape highlight of the trip. It’s stunning. When my parents finally come visit, I’ll take them there :)
Christmas was different, as you might expect. It was a warm, sunny day and one of my coworkers hosted a barbeque at her house. It was like a typical summer party attended by mostly young adults who like to enjoy their drink. The menu was much like that of a summer barbeque in the US: salad, potato salad, burgers, cookies, cake. All of us from up North had to keep reminding ourselves it was Christmas.
On a totally different note, for those of you who have seen the film “Little Miss Sunshine” please take a moment to remember all their adventures with the car. It had to be kick started. It would honk randomly…. That film came on tv here a few weeks ago and as I was watching I realized, “that’s been my life with cars in Swaziland for all of 2009! Wow, there it is on screen.” So if you want to get an idea of the misery and misadventures I’ve experienced with cars, just remember that movie.
What’s in store for 2010? First of all, I’ve managed to convince a couple of schools that they should have me teach environmental education to their 4th-7th graders and help them create outdoor classrooms with native landscaping. One school that couldn’t take me on would like me to hold workshops for their teachers instead, so I’ll work on putting those together. Also, a recurring theme people keep bringing up is organizing “summer” camps for kids when they’re on school holidays. In Swaziland the kids go to school Jan-Dec with a couple of month-long breaks in between 3 terms, plus a few week-long midterm breaks. The owners of an ecolodge where I stayed in SA said they’d love for me to have camps there. The beauty of that option is I could still live in Swaziland and just go to SA periodically. So we’ll see.
And one last thing, I’m going to one of the World Cup games in June. Even better, one of my friends in the US got a ticket to the same game so we’ll be able to attend together. Can’t wait!
2010 kutawuba umnyaka lomuhle (2010 is going to be a great year)!
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