Hogsback Weekend:Sunday

Saturday night we had a feast of salad, spaghetti bolgonese, and dark chocolate at about 10:15 and went straight to bed.  Sunday we woke to see the sunrise.  By about 9 am I was starting to feel good and awake when I took a shower in the unique atmosphere Terra Khaya offers.  Check it out!

Early sunrise

Sunrise

The view from the outdoor bath

The lodge" a porch, kitchen, den and fire pit surrounded by art and cacti!

The shower.  The water is heated by a fire below a metal barrel.  After a few hours you've got a hot shower!

This is the view from the shower.  To the left there is a full-length mirror and a pedestal sink.  It was one of the best showers I've ever had.  Great smelling biodegradable products, luke-warm water, warm enough outside, and I could see a big more of the mountain than the picture shows.

The rondavel we slept in.

Cool bug on a plastic flower.

The toilet.  It's just a drop toilet, and you drop sawdust down it when you're done.  I'm not sure how they dispose of it when the pit gets full.

The atmosphere on the porch.

Flowers that grow on rocks and the steep parts of the mountain.

crawling.

cool

pretty

the lodge from across the creek

Two of the girls left at about 8 to go get the car.  I took a shower and got a tour of the permaculture farm from the gardener Thembeweni (pronounced Tem-bu-wen-ey).  Permaculture is a method of farming meant to sustain itself.  For instance, at TK there is a lot of wattle, an invasive tree species.  Pigs browse on wattle leaves and after the leaves are gone, they eat the roots.  So the wattle is eradicated, and the pigs also eat table scraps.  They cannot digest the seeds, so the pigs actually plant seed as they clear the wattle.  So, TK has some plots with butternut squash and other plants without buying the seed.  They also let chickens roam the gardens, and they aerate the soil nicely as they scratch and search for bugs.  Marigolds and another K_____ plant (I can't remember the name) grow freely in the gardens, because their scent is a natural pesticide.  None of the plants are in rows, even those planted in raised beds, because pests invade when one plant is sectioned together.  So, tomatoes are paired with lettuce to provide shade, and many kinds of lettuce grow all around with pumpkin, squash, and beans.  Thembeweni weeded to prepare the beds, but he just pics out little shoots once in a while from the beds, because the weeds don't grow as profusely with methods of permaculture.  I think it's pretty cool stuff. 

After my tour, we went to two pottery studios in the area and went to Away with the Fairies to chill.  I read a lot over the weekend for my lit class and seminar, and we have a music test.  So, we had the widely-acclaimed pizza at the backpacker, which was ok, but it had a lotttt of cheese on it, and then I read myself to sleep.


Culture for Bruce
A Canadian woman named Gabby stayed at Terra Khaya.  She had been traveling for nine months on her own through Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, and now South Africa.  When we expressed our amazement at her adventure saying, "Wow that must be great," she paused a second.  She looked as if she was kind of tired of the question and answered, "There have been some really rough times and some really great times."  I think I knew where she was coming from to some extent.  Before I left, everyone asked, "Are you excited?" and although I sometimes got tired of answering, I was very excited.  I felt obligated to respond with the same enthusiasm to everyone's wishes of good luck and assumptions about embarking on a life-changing event. But Gabby highlighted and important point for me, it's not all fun.  I don't know where I got the idea that self-growth, getting out of one's comfort zone, operating in a constant state of unfamiliarity, all without the normal friend, family, and community support structures is a fun process.  It's not always fun to watch oneself from afar realizing more each day that I am who I am because of my community.  That is an African idea illustrated in our ethics book, and when I'm so far from my support network, I am feeling this truth.  Considering that I don't have a best friend who constantly supports me or one place that I call home, I was surprised at the struggles to find my feet here in SA.  I realized that the patchwork of friends, family, professors, and mentors who each give a little support are the people that make me, me.  So now the challenge is: in realizing my roots, can I spread my wings and fly.  I know it's cliche, but now that I have realized their worth, can I take the advice, examples, and strength of my support network and put it to work to reassemble myself on foreign soil?  That's the challenge.