Women's power and beach walking

Tuesday 13th April 2010

After a long day travelling I slept well and woke to the sound of the sea. Opening our door to the hut I saw this:





Our hut is the second from the right:



The view inside the hut:



I used the paraffin showers...note to self: Do not mistake the clear paraffin container for the clear 'water for brushing teeth' container.

At 9:30 we walked with a local lady to her village to show us the life of women here while the men are away at the Gauteng mines. The walk over was very beautiful:









Here are some mud bricks drying in the sun:



Here is our guide in her hut:



And another lady. I'm not sure who she was:



We had our faces painted for decoration and protection from the sun and collected wood and water from a well:







Here is the water well:



I also collected some spinach and sugar beet from the vegetable patch in order to help to cook our lunch. We ground maize and mixed this with the spinach to form a pap on the fire:





The resulting pap:



Whilst collecting water, a group of women were also collecting. My sense of chivalry made me want to help, but I was put off by the fact that women do all the hard work and I did not wish to offend (not through laziness I hasten to add). We walked with our collected water and firewood on our heads (which is very difficult to do) and the whole experience was a lot of fun. It was interesting to look at Xhosa life in such an interactive way.

There were a couple of modern twists, however. Inside the hut was a windowsill full of mobile phones:



A tin-walled local shop sells mobile phone air time where you can buy pay-as-you-go codes written on a piece of paper. Our guide also had a T.V. for the World Cup.

I spent the afternoon walking on the beach and reading. The beach went on for miles and was totally deserted. I collected shells for people back home and had my feet in the water the whole time, feeling like the only man alive:











It was amazing and I am falling in love with Bulungula. It is such a peaceful and tranquil place. I could easily spend a week here. The rooms and living areas are so bohemian, Morcheeba plays on the stereo and it seems to attract very friendly and relaxed people. Here are some shots of the living room and chill out area:





There were also interesting decorations hanging from the ceiling:



The Xhosa people are also friendly although most of them do not speak English. In the evening I took more pictures that I think show the tranquility of this place: