Leanne’s Loteni Life

Loteni village is in the Southern Drakensberg about 30 km from South Africa’s border with Lesotho. There is no electricity in Loteni, nor is there running water, indoor toilets or paved roads. Leanne lives there, and I had fun visiting!

The whole area around Loteni is beautiful, being so far up in the mountains and all, and people there really still live the simple rural lifestyle. All the water used for cooking and washing is fetched from the mountain stream. Leanne’s host mother, Florence, cooks everyday over a fire in the rondavel (hut) on the family farm that serves as a kitchen. While I was there she made traditional African sweet bread in a big round pot. She also made samp and beans – one of both Leanne and my favorite South African dishes.

Leanne stays in her very own rondavel beside the family’s house. She cooks on a gas stove but has to buy the majority of her food at the nearest town, Underberg, about 55 km away and brings it back to Loteni on public transport (mini-bus taxis). She boils water fetched from the river before she can use it for drinking or washing dishes. She claims to have learned to carry water home in a bucket on her head – a feat I didn’t actually see her perform with my own eyes. I will take her word for it however, since I didn’t actually help with any of the water-fetching during my visit. Laundry day is particularly dreaded in cold weather as this requires lugging alot of water around.

Leanne’s House (aka Rondavel)

Its been almost a year and half now that Leanne has lived in Loteni, but she still doesn’t complain much about the the lack of modern conveniences. Her rondavel is cozy and pretty well insulated from the elements outside – except for the winter cold. Snow does fall in the Drakensberg in the winter and temperatures can get as low as -4 degrees F (or -20C)…not pleasant when all you have are a few blankets and a hot water bottle to keep warm! My visit happened during what is only the beginning of autumn, and it was already uncomfortably cold at night and in the morning, so winter must really suck!

In addition to doing a little subsistence farming, most families have some livestock like cows, pigs, goats or chickens that can be found around the farmyard or grazing in local fields during the day. At Leanne’s house Florence’s husband Justice looks after the livestock and crops with the help of their two sons, Sifiso and Lebo.

Livestock theft is a major problem in Loteni. Basotho men cross the border at night, break into local farms and stealthily herd cattle back into Lesotho under the cover of darkness. And when I say dark, I mean it gets DARK – like you cannot see a thing at night except for stars – so I’m kind of amazed that these guys are able to pull that kind of thing off as often as they do. In response to the problem, residents have organized Citizens’ Stock Theft Patrol groups that go out at night (between 10-2am) to keep watch over a group of their neighbors’ animals. The responsibility rotates between families and family members living in close proximity – and I hear that pretty soon it will be Leanne’s turn to go on Stock Theft Patrol!

Nursery School Building

When she’s not chasing cattle thievin’ Basothos off the family land, Leanne works for a literacy NGO. This work requires her to travel frequently between the three nearby villages…well maybe the villages aren’t actually that close together….sometimes she has to walk upwards of 10 km during one day if she’s not lucky with transport. Walking that far is pretty typical for most people in Loteni lots of kids walk that far to school – one way.

Grannies attending Literacy Group – and sporting new glasses!

Because Loteni still doesn’t have electricity it’s pretty unique in SA – almost all of the rest of country is electrified (most of the time anyway). There’s talk these days that power will be coming soon, but Eskom has yet to do more than talk at community meetings and people are getting frustrated. Another point of frustration is the poor quality of the roads. During the rainy season some sections get so muddy they become impassable and all year-round the potholes are formidable. People complain to the powers that be but see few results and hear a variety of excuses for the lack of action.

Change is coming but its coming slowly, and whether or not that’s a good thing is debateble. People want access to some modern conviences, but at the same time they value their rural way of life – something that will be irrevicobly changed when Eskom finally gets its ass in gear. I guess finding the balance between those two things is the real challenge.

Leanne has become part of the Loteni community and in alot of ways and it will probably be difficult for her to leave in October. But, she says, she’ll always feel like she has a South African home to come back to.

Nobody worry…I’m OK!

So these big waves hit Durban last week. Well not just Durban – the entire east coast of South Africa was affected. The waves were freakishly large, not like tsunami large, but big enough to wreck alot of businesses on the Durban beachfront and homes along the coasts north and south of the city.

This was the scene in Ballito a short drive north of Durban.

But in Durban Proper the damage was localized to the beachfront area only, meaning my flat on top of the huge hill on the other side of the beach was safe, as was most of the rest of the city. To my amazement my sponsoring organization, the US PC, did actually check to make sure I was alive the next morning. Although had it been a real emergency like a tsunami, I probably would have already been dead. They also checked to make sure that that all the other volunteers in the province were OK, even those living several hundred km from the coast…just in case.

Diving on the Aliwal Shoal

Last Sunday I spent the day scuba diving on the Aliwal Shoal which is a point off the southern coast of Kwa-zulu Natal near the town of Scottburgh. It’s about an hour’s drive south Durban. The Aliwal Shoal is named after the Aliwal, a British ship that ran into trouble there about a hundred or so years ago. The shoal is also famous for being home to a Ragged Tooth Sharks – or “Raggies”- a docile group that can be found in the winter months (i.e. June and July here). Since this is technically still summer we didn’t bump into any Raggies, which is fine with me!

I went with Tom and his son Aidan (who’s visiting from the US) who are in the process of getting their diving qualification together. This was my first diving trip after being certified, so I was a little nervous that I had forgotten alot of stuff. My initial attempts at putting together my equipment reinforced these fears – I forgot or confused a couple things – which Aidan, unfortunately for him, was quick to point out.

In my defense though I should add that it was about 5 in the morning, definitely NOT the time of the day when I’m at my best and brightest! But once I got in the water I was good to go. During my dive course I think I had been paying alot closer attention to the underwater stuff than the equipment assembly – which isnt really the smartest thing since if you put your equipment together wrong you’re screwed!

We did two dives that day and both times the visibility (how clear the water is underneath the surface) pretty much sucked. It seems like the stronger the current or the rougher the sea the worse the visibility since more sand and debris gets stirred up on the ocean floor. The sea on this particular day was rough hence the crappy viz (diving lingo for visibility!). I did see a bunch of cool fish but nothing overwhelming or spectacular.

The conditions were perfect, however, for trying out my new seasickness pill. The pills worked OK since I didn’t puke or pass out. I did feel very nauseous on the way back in from the first dive when I think they were wearing off. I wasn’t even hungover at all this time – which is really unfair.

A Simian Sighting of Note

The other morning on my walk to the bus/taxi I saw a vervet monkey approaching on the sidewalk from the other direction. As the monkey and I got closer to each other we both slowed down a bit.

In my case I was trying to figure out how to best avoid any monkey-human contact. I decided that I would slowly, and in the most non-threatening way possible, abdicate the sidewalk to the monkey and walk in the street until we passed each other. The strategy worked perfectly and I think the monkey may have even been relieved that he didn’t have to bite me.

A burly Afrikaner man was standing across the street observing this course of events beside his parked bakkie. Our conversation proceeded as follows:

Man: You afraid of that little thing? (which incidentally was by no means little)

Me: I’m not afraid of monkeys. I’m afraid of monkey diseases.

Some things should just be obvious, even to burly Afrikaners.