hindu temples and bus rides

2.14.10

hey guys! we finally found an internet cafe with cheap and working internet which is very exciting (but as always, no coffee...).

since i last wrote we have traveled around quite a bit. we left joburg for kimberley (about 6 hrs away). There we went to a diamond mine/ museum and saw 'the big hole' (the largest hand-dug (i.e. not machine dug) hole in the world. it used to be a volcano, diamonds were mined, and now it has beautiful blue-green water at the bottom-- pretty cool). We visited the africana library where we did archival 'research' from primary sources, had a tour, and learned all about document and photo preservation. we also had a tour by this old guy with a cane wearing a trucker hat, a diamond mine polo, a camo vest, and navy sweat pants. he was pretty classy. dinner at the halfway house (this famous bar/club) took an hour before we could order and another hour to get our food, but it was still fun-- c'est afrique.


another 9 hour bus ride brought us to pietermaritzburg. the ride was pretty enjoyable-- breathtaking scenery, ostriches, impala/ springbok-type animals (i always get them all confused), and zebras!

we're in a hotel right now, which has been very nice. yesterday we went to a shembe service outside. we had to take our shoes off and sat on little mats in the shade, segregated male and female, and surrounded by hundreds of shembe followers. it was really interesting. they all were taking pictures of us on their phones, haha.

last night several of us went to a club at this casino because the owner made a deal with one of our guys to get us in free and get vip privileges, haha. it was a special valentine's night thing and a really funny experience. we were the only ones there for a while, so we just had our own party and chilled in the vip section. finally, once people got there, we were almost the only non-indians there. it was a pretty tame club and some of the music was hilarious. it was fun going out with our group.

today, we went to a hindu temple, which was fascinating. the religion is so complex. (interesting fact: i've now seen 3 penis statues in my short time in south africa - yes, 3.) we also went inside a mosque and ate at an indian restaurant decked out in cheesy valentine's day decor. i ordered a seafood platter, which turned out to be enough food for about 5 people! that was embarrassing/ funny, but i got to give the rest away to some hungry guys later, and they started jumping up and down they were so excited.

we took pics with gandhi's statue today, which was cool. he apparently started his non-violence here. i also saw alan paton street and got excited because he wrote cry, the beloved country, a book i've actually read. he was born here, so i'm told.

anyway, tomorrow we're off to the mountains around giant's castle, where we will have some time to relax and hike! apparently there are lots of monkeys around (mom, i'll do my best not to get scratched this time).

~sarah