Playing Hooky

We’ve had a busy week at the schools.  Last week we spent the day at Vukandlule, with plenty of crit lessons and on Friday, spent a long morning at Cwebeni working on the computers – a hot, dusty job – before going along to Majola to watch the Sicambeni teams playing soccer and netball.  We certainly didn’t know how far Majola was – 25 km on windy dirt roads (it took us nearly an hour), but the views were worth all the travel.  This week has been spent working on ECO schools projects, trying to upload software onto computers, training teachers to use the computer centre and the inevitable crit lessons.

So this morning we decided to play hooky.  We needed to go to Port St Johns for some supplies, so we took the back roads and set off for the “big smoke” – or probably a better name would be “the big traffic jam.”

Instead of going to the tar road, we took the road that winds behind Sicambeni school and down through the forest.  What a beautiful trip. 

At the top of the hill is my dream for a bit of our future – a thatched roof house – not quite finished – looking over towards Sugarloaf and the sea.  We asked Mr Shumane about it one day, and he said he thought it was probably being built as a B&B type residence, but he wasn’t sure.  My dream would be to come and live in it for a year – bring Lindt, Jingle and Bell with us (and Sihle if he wanted to come) and live in the community for a year, doing a bit of work in some of the schools, growing our own veggies and keeping chickens for eggs.  I don’t want to go totally “native” – a shower and a flush toilet are still critical parts of my life – but I could live with solar power, a gas stove and lights, a lot less furniture and  a lot less access to shops.  I could even live without TV – haven’t watched for nearly 3 weeks and haven’t missed it at all, but I would like a radio and access to news on-line.  Anyway – that is a dream.  Anyone know someone who wants to rent my Pmb home furnished for a year?

The drive took us down through a couple of villages – one school which is bright white and turquoise – it looked almost Mediterranean – and some small shops and taverns.  The homesteads are mostly neat and almost all of them have a building-in-progress on them.  Then we went past the road to Majola and into the coastal forest.  The forest is quiet and beautiful – we really enjoyed the drive through it, only occasionally meeting a pedestrian or another car.  We saw the turnoff to the Port St Johns airstrip.  Jane tells me the plane takes off over the edge of the cliff, and when landing, it looks as though you are going to crash into the cliff and then the thermal lifts you onto the top.

At the top of the big hill before PSJ we stopped to tow a bakkie which had run out of petrol.  They just wanted a tow to the top of the concrete road and then would freewheel down into PSJ where they could get some fuel.  We were glad they didn’t want a tow down, and went as quickly as we could down the very windy road so they wouldn’t catch up to us, just in case they lost control and crashed into us.  When we drove back there was no sign of a wreck, so we assumed they had got there safely.

We saw a guy dressed in a camouflage uniform and Pete said someone he’d given a lift to had told them there was an army camp in the area.  We caught a glimpse of the trucks and tents through the bushes.

On our way back through Sicambeni, we met Mr Shumane and some boys with a spade – they were going to dig out a plant to plant near the school gates – all part of an environmental project and competition.

This is such a beautiful area – wild and rugged and charming, but also harsh.  When the wind blows, like it has done the last few days, it can be bitterly cold and growing crops must be difficult.  But it’s still somewhere I would like to spend a year of my life.