Everyday schtuff in SA

Vote for the most beautiful object in South Africa!

http://mg.co.za/multimedia/2011-02-23-the-most-beautiful-object-in-south-africa/

There are some really gorgeous things, not least of which is a chair crafted over eight weeks by women in Kwazulu-Natal.  The chair looks as if it has wings each in the shape of Africa.  People around the world have had the opportunity to sit and dream in the chair called “Dreams for Africa Chair.”

The chair was used as a revenue-generating project for women in the community.  We see the women of Africa stepping up to make positive change.  In literature we have talked about the emasculation of men as a result of the Apartheid.  Men were not able to serve their role in a patriarchal society of protecting their families and providing for them.  We even read a story about a man who was forced to buy his child’s body from the police under the Apartheid regime because the officer who killed the child with a random bullet meant to intimidate confiscated the body when he realized what he had done.  The legacy of Apartheid continues to prevent black communities from exceling and women seem to be the best hope.  In Bradley’s tours of PE in the townships he showed us enterprises begun and supported by woman including a 5-star “backpacker” (hostile).  There is an article from the New York Times about the promise of third-world success lying in women who tend to spend their money on children’s education and community development (http://www.pbk.org/home/FocusNews.aspx?id=662 ).

I followed the theme for the day and took some pictures of things that are beautiful to me in South Africa, or at least make up my days.  There is a painting of a township that I picked up at the Sunday market, my swimwear, journal, travel and cook books, school ID, water bottle, and the newly-found trans-fat free peanut butter “Black Cat.”

I also took a picture of some foods that I have been trying out.  This shows litchi juice, a nectar of the gods withheld from my taste buds for twenty years.   The juice is a litchi puree with grape or pear juice.  Litchis look like woody strawberries and have a white colored blueberry-like texture on the interior.  The juice is also creamy-looking, but it is fresh and tasty.  Also pictured is rooibos tea, known as red tea, which is indigenous to South Africa.  There are whole and cut-up papaya and a whole mango.  Papaya is not as flavorful as I had imagined, but mixed with mango or with some yogurt they are great.  Mango is awesome alone, in fruit salads, in chutney, or even as a meat-tenderizing agent baked with chicken.

This is the blue pumpkin that I bought at the market in the township.  I don't have knives big enough to chop a vege like this, so I baked it with a banana and some mango juice to add a bit of sweetness and I have been having it for dinner with noodles, pesto and walnuts.  I also tried it with a nut and raisin mix with some cinnamon to kind of mirror a hearty sweet-potato casserole, but pumpkin has a much milder flavor than pumpkin.  It was fun to try blue pumpkin though, how often can you eat a natural food with blue in the title?  Maybe blue wildebeest will be my next experiment :O ?!?