Woman Power
Day 233
I thought about changing my breakfast order this morning to yogurt and fruit but the veggie sausage is just so good. We sat outside for breakfast in the cool morning air while we stared at the rollings hills rising behind the river. Jordana and I along with the Brits, John and Hannah waited for our guide for the womans power tour. Joining us on the tour was Karen from Israel and David from Germany. We met our guide, who embarrassingly I never got the spelling of her name.
She introduced herself and slowly led us away from the lodge. She was friendly and answered all our wacky questions. The plan for the day was to go to her home, well her mothers home and spend a day participating in daily womans chores. Since the woman do a large amount of work here it should be an interesting day. She explained to us how she does not wish to marry, men are too controlling. So since she has made this decision and her parents are OK with it she has to pay them with 10 cows. That’s what she would have cost to a new husband, that’s quite a bit of money. As we neared the family home about 6 children came running from the house towards us. Laughing and jumping all around they were very excited to see us or just had a load of caffeine. One girl got into a game of holding onto Jordana’s hands as she flung her up and down. Kids are the same all over the world, they are excited to see something or someone new, they wear the biggest smiles regardless of their economic situation. We entered the rondavel, this was the kitchen area and were most things occurred. Our guides mother was here, her sister, brother and other siblings. Inside was a table, some shelves with cooking pots and a rock to grind maize. After introductions we all had our faces painted white with a sort of clay, protection from the sun. Then we got to work.
We were each given a pail and walked down a steep hill to a well. An NGO had built this a few years ago giving the village clean water. Each of us scooped up some water and then were told to carry the pails on our head. Just like the village ladies. Jordana actually did best of all, as for myself? It just wasn’t going to work and rather than waste water I just carried the pail. This was a tough start to the day. After we had the water up it was time to gather fire wood to cook lunch.
We walked into the woods and gathered dead wood off the forest floor. The sun came out and the day started to heat up. We collected our wood and tied it together with sweaters and shirts or whatever was available. After enough wood was collected the group walked back up the hillside to the rondavel. We deposited the wood and went into the garden to pick spinach for lunch. The garden was full of squash, spinach, onions, beans and other vegetables. The diet mainly consists of vegetables here, meat is a luxury and eaten about once a month. Back in the rondavel a meal of corn, beans and vegetables was already cooking. Outside we built a small fire to boil the spinach on.
The group sat down and we were each given a bowl of the corn mix. “This is meat, shavings of beef I think”. I said to Jordana as I contemplated what to do with my non-veggie meal. Jordana asked, “Is this meat?” “Yes, chilli beef”. Uh huh. We couldn’t exactly give it back, that be a bit insulting. Jordana and I have actually talked about this very moment happening and now it has. So what did we do? We ate it of course. We both picked out as much of the beef as we could and ate the rest. Oh and it was good, well not the beef part.
After the corn/beef meal we each took turns trying to grind maize, not very well mind you. We took the maize and added it to the spinach outside. Soon enough that was ready and we dug into a huge plate of spinach. It was good but I’m not sure we washed all the sand off, a bit crunchy. We then went outside to make some mud bricks. Most structures here are made with mud bricks. We took turns making a nice moist pile of mud then filled in a square to form a brick. Oh wait, the most important part is to spread cow dung around the box so the brick slides out easy. Our guide asked if there were any volunteers. We all just stood there, I wasn’t sure she was serious until her sister dropped a pail of wet poop in front of us. Yeah its as gross as it sounds. Finally someone volunteered, Jordana. She slapped her hand in the pail and spread the dung around the box. I have to say I was a bit surprised, womans power indeed. I wasn’t going anywhere near that pail.
Eventually our day was coming to a close and I realized how hard the woman work here. Just the mud brick construction would wipe me out for a day. They have to be always doing work of this sort, everyday. Where are the men you ask? Well its not like they aren’t doing anything, the ones in the village look after raising animals. While most have had to leave the village for work in the mines or factory work. They only return to the village for December.
The day wasn’t over yet though, what would a tough day of work be without finishing it off with a pint at the local pub. Well shebeen in this case. We entered a dark and smelly rondavel that functioned as the village pub or shebeen. There were men on a bench on one side and woman sat on mats on the other. It looked like a grade school dance. A white flag outside meant there was some of the local brew available today. We all sat down and the woman wanted to know every detail about everyones lifes. I wasn’t sure how this worked so I told our guide I would like to buy a drink. A lady came over and gave me a can of corn, well it was once a can of corn now it was filled with the local home-brew. It sat in a bowl so I would spill any, the Xhosa version of a pint if you will. Oh god was it bad. Something didn’t go quite right with the fermentation process here. I passed it around the group and we barely took a sip. When I asked how much she said nothing since we didn’t drink any of it. She just poured it back into a large pail to serve another customer.
Back at the lodge I ordered a more traditional Windoek Lager to wash away the taste and remind me that beer was good. This was one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling days of our trip. It was one of the few times we first hand learnt new things about a culture and understood everything. It reminded me why we travel and why I’ll be a bit sad to leave Bulungula in the morning. This truly is a special place. If you ever find yourself in South Africa and only see one place make it this one.
Tags: Bulungula, cow dung, South Africa, woman power
Michael Coroneos
Yes, meat wins again
Mike – women’s lib will let you march with them anytime.