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Articles Tagged ‘Xhosa’

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Beach’n Bulungula

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

Day 232

As much as there is to do here at Bulungula it is also a fantastic place to just kick back for a day of relaxation. With no cars, no electricity, no tv’s and no crime and beautiful beaches we planned on doing absolutely nothing today. Yes you read that correctly, crime is unheard of here. In South Africa to find an area with no crime is as rare as a Maple Leaf Stanley cup win. We don’t even have a lock on the door to our room.

After breakfast we read and lazed around the lodge before finding a spot on the beach where we spent the next few hours. The beach here is long, empty, and clean with soft sand. The water however is still pretty cool, we never really got all the way in. A group of girls from the village walked passed us, smiling and giggling. “Molweni!” Jordana and I said hi in Xhosa. “Can you take my picture?” One of the girls asked. I snapped one photo of her and Jordana and one of just her. She wanted to see the picture on the camera after, something that gave her a good laugh. This was a new concept, locals asking the tourist to take a photo of them and not wanting any money in return.

Eventually we made our way back to the lodge where we just lazed around some more and talked to some of the people working at the lodge. Allan was an interesting guy. A volunteer from Johannesburg he was here building a new school for the community. It was interesting to talk to a white South African about race issues, political correctness or the amusing, sometimes refreshing lack of it here in S.A. Mostly though the rest of the day was spent doing some writing, reading and enjoying a few beers while the sunset over the beautiful river.

Dinner was yet again fantastic and the stars in the clear sky tonight were incredible. I haven’t seen stars like this since camping in Killarney. Tomorrow we planned on getting a bit more active and cultured as I bravely signed up for the “Village Womans Power Tour”. A tour in which we would take part in the daily chores of the village women. I looked at my participation as a kind of display equal gender rights. I’m sure the village men will just look and laugh.

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Clicking with the Herbalist

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Day 231

One of the things Jordana and I, and countless other travellers search the world for is a traditional, local and authentic cultural experience. Its not an easy thing to come across. We tried and somewhat succeeded in very remote amazonia Ecuador, but in the end I wasn’t sure if our presence helped or hindered the community. Here at Bulungula Lodge in the Xhosa village of Nqileni we may have found just about the perfect mix of tourism and local community. Its not just my observation either, the lodge is actually Fair Trade certified. The community actually owns 45% of the lodge and currently has an important roll managing the place. The goal is to one day soon have the lodge 100% run by the local community.

We sat down for our breakfast, 2 poached eggs, baked beans, 2 veggie sausage links and a huge piece of homemade bread. Veggie sausages! This place got better all the time. We had signed up for a day of walking with the village herbalist. He was to take us through the woods and show us plants used for medicine. Just after 10am we were led about half an hour away to the edge of some woods where we met the herbalist and his translator. He only speaks the local language, Xhosa. Have you ever Xhosa spoken? Its a language that is a fun to listen to and even more interesting to try and speak. Filled with clicking and unfamiliar sounds. For a example the letter “c” is pronounced by placing your tongue against the front of your teeth ans sucking. Try it. Or try saying Xhosa, the “x” is a click. Click-hosa. Fun eh? Right, so we start to walk into the woods with the herbalist and the translator. The translator is a soft spoken young lady with her face painted clay red, protection from the sun. We walked from tree to tree and he chopped some bark off or a few leaves then proceeded to explain the use of each. Some plants were for headaches others were love potions while others were for good business or plain old good luck. No matter the plant it seemed everything was to be boiled, mixed, and drunk 3 times daily. Quite a few people still get their medicine from the herbalist, although there is a medical clinic near by. Well near by for Canadian standards, here nearby means a 2 hour walk.

We finished the tour and were walking to the herbalists house when a woman emerged from her rondavel to greet us. She invited us in to her home, we weren’t sure if this was part of the tour or she was just curious about us. She sat us down and asked questions about what country we were from, if we were married, had kids and if we could grind maize well. She was just a friendly, curious lady who wanted to talk to the strange white folk passing through. No demands for money and no attempts at trying to sell us anything. We said goodbye, she wished us luck and we continued to the herbalists house.

We saw the collection of different medicines and then paid the herbalist 40 Rand each for the tour. Another great thing about the lodge, the tours are run by people from the village and the money goes directly to them. Unlike the majority of overpriced so called cultural tours we’ve seen in South Africa where the majority of money is staying with the well off white owner. We began to walk back to the lodge but first we stopped of at the village restaurant. This was an initiative of the lodge. A rondavel that was fitted with a couple of solar ovens where some women cook up some tasty food. We were given some rattan mats and took a seat on the grass outside. Who needs tables when you have a great view of the Indian Ocean, kids playing football on the far hillside and chickens walking about. I thought to myself how far this place feels from Cape Town in ever sense. We had squash filled crepes and then nutella filled crepes. It was good, so good the nutella crepe gave the nutella crepes in Paris some competition. We finally moved on and walked back along the wide sandy beach back to the lodge.

To save some money Jordana and I passed on the tasty dinner and made our own tasty veggie curry. After dinner we sat around with other travellers in the chilled out common room of Bulungula. Today was a great day, we saw first hand how the lodge was benefitting the community. People in the community who were working and benefitting due to our presence, all in a positive way. We never had any ask us for money, even when we snapped photos of old ladies and young children. Just hellos and great big smiles. That’s not to say all is perfect here, a large part of the community still lives in poverty. It is however fantastic to see how tourism can actually be a positive and not always a negative influence.

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