Africa Post Two
I have been taking pictures and movie clips like mad, but I can't stand to wait on them to upload on this bad internet that costs me money, so unfortunately, you have to wait until I get back to the States.
Spent January 23, 24 and 25 hiking around in the Soutpansberg mountains, which surround Lajuma. Our current task is to find sites, which at this point consist of small weather shelters in the rocks.
The other two archaeology students and I split up and searched different approaches of an area before meeting and deciding where to go next. After seeing several sites previously found, Molly, Alandra and I split up and found six new ones on Wednesday... and I found one! It was so cool. Most of these sites are mini-caves -- literally, just rock overhangings that we know to be sites by potsherds we find.
We hike up to a nearby ridge, which has an awesome view at the top. We've spent the first part of these surveys in some forest-entangled rock formations, looking for likely sites. The last part we spent in the "moonscape," a curious field of big rock formations pockmarked by rain. In the course of looking for sites, I've definitely done some free face climbing.
We had hot weather on these days... I am very sunburnt. :D
The weather varies wildly -- hot and sunny one day, cool and clear the next, rainy for three days and then hot sun again.
So far, a typical day shapes up to be: breakfast, do work for a few hours (finding sites, recording them, whatever else), lunch, break for a few during the hot hours, then back out before dinner and dark. We usually spend the evening playing card games or word games. People also read a whole lot. Today two of the Germans here finished Harry Potter books. Alternately, if the previous day was hard, we just slack off for the morning and get out early in the afternoon.
I'm going to buy a power adapter for my laptop today so that I can use my laptop without borrowing someone else's... you have no idea how good it is to listen to my own music (as opposed to... ahem... random European pop.) :D
I miss my guitar badly.
It's weird, using your time here. In one sense, it is so easy to become bored and think you have nothing to do, but at the same time, the time always passes quickly and easily. I've never been in a situation where both seemed to be true at the same time.
I especially enjoy how easily my body clock attunes itself to the sun. I can easily get up with the sun and I usually go to bed by 10 PM. It gets dark, I start yawning and after a hot day in the sun, it seems only natural to go to bed "so early." It seems unthinkable most other times, but that's how it is here... I like it.
Town day is the exception to the routine. On Mondays, we do shopping and stuff. I was surprised by Makhado... it is very clean, relatively safe and has most things you would expect to find in an American town. I bought a very nice pair of flip-flops for 30 rand, which translates to less than US $5. Apparently, South Africans really like chicken, so there are multiple KFC's and other chicken shops in town. There are lots of pedestrians and when I am being heedless, I still step into the street as cars are coming since I don't expect them in the opposite lane than the United States.
After waiting ten minutes in one check-out line, the power went out all over downtown and I had to leave the merchandise in the store. It seems our power problems at Lajuma are not isolated. Ian was able to fashion a homemade pelton wheel so we have had power for a few days now... which, though nice, is surprisingly expendable if need be.
*********************
South Africa is very much a country in political flux. They established a permament, modern government only seven years ago. There is a native African backlash after apartheid, which to my understanding is a white-controlled attempt to split South Africa into little white and black states. This created tons of problems, obviously, since whites and blacks have been inseparable in South Africa since the first Dutch, German and British settlers. Now, many Dutch-named towns are being renamed to traditional African names (Louis Trichardt becomes Makhado, Pietersburg becomes Polokwane).
The government is also presiding over land disputes -- sometimes local Venda people will lay claim to ancient lands that a white farmer has had for a few generations. Often such disputes are difficult to justly decide, and obviously the issue is extremely emotional on both sides.
*********************
Thursday was Australia Day. It's the Australian equivalent to July 4th... though apparently the event is the day upon which the British invaded Australia. I need to read up on my Australian history -- in any case, we celebrated the day with an outdoor barbecue and a kangaroo-shaped cake. Ahhh, international holidays... so many poor jokes being exchanged.
Speaking of international... there are nine students currently at the Barn and six of them speak German very well. They'd roll their eyes at me for ranting on this... and I won't for long, but certainly, English is not the default language here. I'm picking up a little German but mostly I'm getting very good at smiling and nodding even though I don't understand a word of it. To the other students' credit, they are very often good at laboriously keeping a conversation in English for the benefit of the Australian and two Americans.
*********************
On Friday evening, Alandra, Nils and I made an evening hike to the top of Mt. Lajuma. As far as I could tell, it's the highest peak around. We packed lightly and made it to the top for sunset. A little summer haze made for a clear sunset that shrunk with the receding sun. We played with our cameras til after dark and then made dinner.
Alandra is Australian and has spent her share of time in the outdoors... she has a degree in archaeology and spent some time as an outdoor tour guide. Nils is a German, though after a few years in the United States, his English is very good. He is studying termites (and I would argue Harry Potter too -- he's in the last book now). The two of them, and the ensuing banter, make interesting and hilarious hiking partners.
The night was clear and we laid in our sleeping bags looking up at the stars. I must have seen so many at some point in my life, but it hadn't been for a while. And some of these were new stars for me, since many Northern hemisphere constellations never show down here. I did find Orion's Belt, but mostly I focused on objects revealed only from the lack of artificial light.
The Milky Way was clearly visible, as well as two other fuzzes of light that we thought to be other galaxies. I saw half a dozen shooting stars. The wind was constant and cool at the peak, but we found shelter inside a crescent of rock near a fire ring.
I woke an hour before daylight. The Milky Way was gone, wiped up apparently by the growing light in the east. We got up at 5 AM and again pulled out our cameras. Again, the haze confined the first point of sunlight to an obscure spot, but as the sun grew, it stretched gold around the horizon until its arms were on our right and left... without being over-poetical, it really looked like the sun embraced the mountain.
Spent January 23, 24 and 25 hiking around in the Soutpansberg mountains, which surround Lajuma. Our current task is to find sites, which at this point consist of small weather shelters in the rocks.
The other two archaeology students and I split up and searched different approaches of an area before meeting and deciding where to go next. After seeing several sites previously found, Molly, Alandra and I split up and found six new ones on Wednesday... and I found one! It was so cool. Most of these sites are mini-caves -- literally, just rock overhangings that we know to be sites by potsherds we find.
We hike up to a nearby ridge, which has an awesome view at the top. We've spent the first part of these surveys in some forest-entangled rock formations, looking for likely sites. The last part we spent in the "moonscape," a curious field of big rock formations pockmarked by rain. In the course of looking for sites, I've definitely done some free face climbing.
We had hot weather on these days... I am very sunburnt. :D
The weather varies wildly -- hot and sunny one day, cool and clear the next, rainy for three days and then hot sun again.
So far, a typical day shapes up to be: breakfast, do work for a few hours (finding sites, recording them, whatever else), lunch, break for a few during the hot hours, then back out before dinner and dark. We usually spend the evening playing card games or word games. People also read a whole lot. Today two of the Germans here finished Harry Potter books. Alternately, if the previous day was hard, we just slack off for the morning and get out early in the afternoon.
I'm going to buy a power adapter for my laptop today so that I can use my laptop without borrowing someone else's... you have no idea how good it is to listen to my own music (as opposed to... ahem... random European pop.) :D
I miss my guitar badly.
It's weird, using your time here. In one sense, it is so easy to become bored and think you have nothing to do, but at the same time, the time always passes quickly and easily. I've never been in a situation where both seemed to be true at the same time.
I especially enjoy how easily my body clock attunes itself to the sun. I can easily get up with the sun and I usually go to bed by 10 PM. It gets dark, I start yawning and after a hot day in the sun, it seems only natural to go to bed "so early." It seems unthinkable most other times, but that's how it is here... I like it.
Town day is the exception to the routine. On Mondays, we do shopping and stuff. I was surprised by Makhado... it is very clean, relatively safe and has most things you would expect to find in an American town. I bought a very nice pair of flip-flops for 30 rand, which translates to less than US $5. Apparently, South Africans really like chicken, so there are multiple KFC's and other chicken shops in town. There are lots of pedestrians and when I am being heedless, I still step into the street as cars are coming since I don't expect them in the opposite lane than the United States.
After waiting ten minutes in one check-out line, the power went out all over downtown and I had to leave the merchandise in the store. It seems our power problems at Lajuma are not isolated. Ian was able to fashion a homemade pelton wheel so we have had power for a few days now... which, though nice, is surprisingly expendable if need be.
*********************
South Africa is very much a country in political flux. They established a permament, modern government only seven years ago. There is a native African backlash after apartheid, which to my understanding is a white-controlled attempt to split South Africa into little white and black states. This created tons of problems, obviously, since whites and blacks have been inseparable in South Africa since the first Dutch, German and British settlers. Now, many Dutch-named towns are being renamed to traditional African names (Louis Trichardt becomes Makhado, Pietersburg becomes Polokwane).
The government is also presiding over land disputes -- sometimes local Venda people will lay claim to ancient lands that a white farmer has had for a few generations. Often such disputes are difficult to justly decide, and obviously the issue is extremely emotional on both sides.
*********************
Thursday was Australia Day. It's the Australian equivalent to July 4th... though apparently the event is the day upon which the British invaded Australia. I need to read up on my Australian history -- in any case, we celebrated the day with an outdoor barbecue and a kangaroo-shaped cake. Ahhh, international holidays... so many poor jokes being exchanged.
Speaking of international... there are nine students currently at the Barn and six of them speak German very well. They'd roll their eyes at me for ranting on this... and I won't for long, but certainly, English is not the default language here. I'm picking up a little German but mostly I'm getting very good at smiling and nodding even though I don't understand a word of it. To the other students' credit, they are very often good at laboriously keeping a conversation in English for the benefit of the Australian and two Americans.
*********************
On Friday evening, Alandra, Nils and I made an evening hike to the top of Mt. Lajuma. As far as I could tell, it's the highest peak around. We packed lightly and made it to the top for sunset. A little summer haze made for a clear sunset that shrunk with the receding sun. We played with our cameras til after dark and then made dinner.
Alandra is Australian and has spent her share of time in the outdoors... she has a degree in archaeology and spent some time as an outdoor tour guide. Nils is a German, though after a few years in the United States, his English is very good. He is studying termites (and I would argue Harry Potter too -- he's in the last book now). The two of them, and the ensuing banter, make interesting and hilarious hiking partners.
The night was clear and we laid in our sleeping bags looking up at the stars. I must have seen so many at some point in my life, but it hadn't been for a while. And some of these were new stars for me, since many Northern hemisphere constellations never show down here. I did find Orion's Belt, but mostly I focused on objects revealed only from the lack of artificial light.
The Milky Way was clearly visible, as well as two other fuzzes of light that we thought to be other galaxies. I saw half a dozen shooting stars. The wind was constant and cool at the peak, but we found shelter inside a crescent of rock near a fire ring.
I woke an hour before daylight. The Milky Way was gone, wiped up apparently by the growing light in the east. We got up at 5 AM and again pulled out our cameras. Again, the haze confined the first point of sunlight to an obscure spot, but as the sun grew, it stretched gold around the horizon until its arms were on our right and left... without being over-poetical, it really looked like the sun embraced the mountain.
Is the random European pop in English or German (or austrailian, goodness help us)?
Keep away from R.O.U.S.'s and we luv ya man.