Imagination Time

Let me take you on a journey.

It's December, school is closed.  9 friends and I have been planning a trip to the Drakenseberg Mountains in the Free State Province just north of Lesotho.  I get on a bus at 4am and head from Pfukoni, Ha-Lambani to Sibasa.  I meet my friend at 8am.  He was heading to Pretoria to catch a bus to spend a week on the beach in Durban.  As we wait for the bus, Peace Corps calls and says they are in the area and can give us a ride to Pretoria.  We have to sell our bus tickets. 

We start asking around.  Most people are going on holiday and ordered tickets ahead of time.  An older white lady must have noticed two goofy white guys walking around with their heads chopped off and asked if she could help us.  We told her our situation.  She said she couldn't help.  I felt like our options had been exhausted, so I struck up a conversation.

The lady's name is Fiona and was born in Tanzania but has lived in Sibasa, Venda, South Africa for over 30 years.  She became a Venda citizen and was protected from Apartheid because of Venda's homeland status.  She runs a non-profit for victims of sexual assault.  She told us to come volunteer at Teen Victim Empowerment Program (TVEP http://www.tvep.org/).  More to come.

We find out from the front desk that we can use our tickets again for a service fee.  So we cut our losses and join Peace Corps in their vehicle around noon.  The usual 5 hour trip from Thohoyandou to Pretoria, quickly turns to 8 hours.  Our fun and lovable driver Vele stops at fruit stands in Tshakuma and buys a tree and a half of litchis, mangoes, and pears.  We then head to Makhado for an unknown reason, but Kyle and I get out of the car to purchase KFC for our Language Coordinator while are other friend Joni joins the Peace Corps workers on the unknown journey.  20 minutes later, they return, we give them the chicken.

Now I am certain we are headed to Pretoria.  I start noticing the landscape is different.  Vele says, "We are going to Mogabe's village."  Shoot, at this rate I am certainly not going to catch a taxi with friends.  Quiet and nervous, I finally remind Vele that I need to get to the suburbs tonight.  He says, "Oh I forgot.  We'll drop Mogabe near his village and you'll take the Gautrain."

The Gautrain?  In preparation for the World Cup and to accomodate for the growing Gauteng (Joburg, Pretoria, and surrounding area) population, South Africa created a high speed train to bus people from the suburbs and city to city to cut down on congestion.  I arrived in Hattfield and was dropped off in Marlboro in less than 15 minutes for under 30R.  That same taxi ride was 70R for my friends.  Bring back the rail Kasich.  Haha.

We spent the night with an awesome friend of my family in a suburb of Joburg called Edenvale.  They made us stir fry and rolled out sleep spaces for all ten of us.  In the morning, we bordered a bus to Drakensberg to reach our first destination.

No story telling can really do justice to the photos my friend took -  http://200norththompsonst.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/ukhahlamba/

I'll add funny stuff later.

I now volunteer one day a week at TVEP.  I am mentoring a new full-time employee and planning an eco-therapy camp for young perpetrators.  At present, the justice system only releases children back to their parents.  Fiona has worked with them to get permission for an optional clinic.  More to come.

Enjoy,
Sean

P.S.  I hope to update more regularly with this new internet access at TVEP.