**Note: I wrote this a month ago, and some of it's already out of date, but I figured better late than never now that I have internet at home. I know I'm wayyyy overdue for a new post, and I'll try to get to it this week, but for now, here's an update from a month ago. Imagine it is dated June 7, and it will make things more clear. Update from month 2 will include new thoughts and updates, I swear.
I’ve been in Africa for a month already. What follows is a bit of a disorganized stream of consciousness, but it will have to do:
Apart from being extremely small, Swaziland is an extremely comfortable place to live. “Africa Light” is probably a good description, given the country’s large network of paved roads, well-stocked grocery stores, restaurants, yoga classes, drinkable tap water, etc. We met some Peace Corps volunteers living in Mozambique last weekend who said it felt like they were back in America because (among other things) people stood in lines and signs actually tell you where to go.
Speaking of meeting people, I’ve been consistently reminded (or perhaps taught) that it’s an extremely small world. Since being here I’ve met several people who know my family and friends, including one girl who went to college with Val and knows Lani, and another who knows both Nick and Val.
Having spoken highly of the physical infrastructure, the telecom infrastructure here is horrible. For being virtually surrounded by South Africa, it’s astonishing how poor the Internet and phone is. I had to make a collect call to my credit card company last week (“How many times do I have to tell you that I am living in Africa now, so transactions that happen in Africa are not automatically suspicious and shouldn’t be blocked!?”) which completely baffled the operator here in Swaziland and was “resolved” over an absolutely horrible connection. Between 2 (14:00) and 5 (17:00) p.m. every day, the Internet basically grinds to a halt. This may turn out to be the best time to have meetings.
It is legitimately cold here. It’s not New England in winter cold, but the homes and offices aren’t insulated in any meaningful way, so it’s not like you walk into someone’s house and escape the cold. In many ways it’s worse inside than out. Hearing about the summer weather (long daylight hours!) in the US causes jealousy.
The healthcare system here is a mess, but there are a lot of dedicated people working to improve it. Sometimes it seems like the various groups and government agencies are working at cross-purposes, but on the whole there appears to be a serious commitment to improvement. Material resource constraints don’t seem to be the biggest challenge, but I haven’t seen enough yet to offer a well-formed opinion.
Women are extremely skilled at carrying things on their heads. I want to learn how to do that before I leave, but have been told it’s not something a man should ever learn. I will not give up.
The poverty of this country is largely hidden from view (see the infrastructure comments above) but is apparent outside the main cities. Perhaps the most consistently visible signs of this are the well-worn walking paths through and across the fields and mountains everywhere. Getting somewhere for most Swazis entails walking to a main road and then hoping a small bus (Kombi, see below) comes by going your direction to get you where you’re going.
The attached picture is from in front of the house where I’m staying, to give you a sense of what these Kombis look like. The good news, I guess, is that the Kombis are ubiquitous in southern Africa, especially on the main roads, so it is a somewhat effective, if unpredictable, means of transportation.
Woman boarding a Kombi on the road in front of my house
People LOVE KFC here. It’s literally everywhere. The soft-serve ice cream cone for 3 Rand (~50 cents) is great.
I think I doubled my total 2009 frequent flyer miles in May alone. My trips, including several on very small planes with propellers:
- Boston to London
- London to Johannesburg
- Johannesburg to Manzini
- Johannesburg to Nairobi
- Nairobi to Johannesburg
- Johannesburg to Manzini
- Johannesburg to Gaborone
- Gaborone to Johannesburg
- Johannesburg to Manzini
I’m not doing well with taking pictures. I would love some ideas about how to improve, for those of you with amateur or professional experience. The second trick is finding a way to get myself into some of the pictures that are taken with my camera. Another work in progress.
Sadly, I still haven’t seen a Zebra (though I’ve been told I’ll only see a zeh-bra, not a zee-bra) or much else in the way of African game, so I’ll have to make that a priority for the next month.
On a personal note, I’ve moved in to a spare room in a friend’s house for the rest of this month, and plan to permanently move into a house that’s being vacated later this month. The place I’m in now is beautiful, but extremely remote. The view from the front porch is an awesome panorama with a river down below, and extremely quite except for the occasional bus passenger blowing his vuvuzela out the window. That typically happens at 6 a.m.
View from my new (temporary) front porch
The people here are great, and I’ve enjoyed meeting a really diverse group of people from all over the world. Mostly western European and American/Canadian, but people who have lived all over the world and tend to have much more experience with the developing world than I.
More to come. This next month brings the World Cup, trips to Nairobi (hopefully with more time for sightseeing) and Gaborone, and possibly a trip to the beach in Mozambique depending on how the weekends shape up.
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