26 August 2006

23 August, 2006

It’s springtime here in South Africa, and you know what that means. Flowers! And not just any flowers, desert flowers. Last weekend we grabbed two friends, took a taxi to Upington, rented a car, and drove west to Namaqualand. The spring flowers of Namaqualand are legendary here. We were near a town called Springbok – about 3-4 hours west of Upington, and let me tell you there’s not much between the two. We drove through some of the emptiest land I have ever seen, and yes, I have driven through Nevada. We barely even saw other cars, and maybe 4 farmhouses. It was beautiful though, in a rustic way. We camped out in Springbok – some of the only people in the campground in an actual tent, not the giant RV complete with TV, fridge, stove and toilet that most Afrikaaners call ‘camping’. They were the smart ones that night though because it was COLD! There was frost outside our tent door in the morning. But never fear, the outrageous South African temperature swing had us in shorts and t-shirts by noon. We set out early for the nearby national park. We were too early – the flowers hadn’t woken up yet. So we headed out for a hike and watched the flowers open along the way. They were everywhere! Every color and variety you can imagine and even some you can’t. Flowers were blooming on every patch of dirt in sight and some even right out of cracks in the rocks. It was quite amazing. After the hike we went on a little drive. The most spectacular displays are in the open fields, which are just awash in orange and purple, yellow and white. It was really incredible and I have never seen anything like it. I really can’t find the words to describe it, so I’m going to include some pictures too.
Back in the village, life is busy. We have started the World Map Project, the calling card of any Peace Corps education volunteer. It involves - you guessed it - painting large maps of the world on an exterior wall of the school, as a resource and decoration. This week we started painting the first of our world maps. We have only had one minor problem so far – the realization that overhead projectors don’t work really well in the middle of the day. So Tuesday evening we hopped on our bikes and rode the half-hour to school to trace the projected map after the sun had gone down. That attracted some attention! But we got it drawn, and then had a wonderful half-hour ride back home in the pitch-black African night. I mean we could hardly even see the lines on the road, much less those cows and donkeys that wander around all the time. But it was a cool experience, alone on our bikes in the dark, quiet, veld, and we made it home safely. A friend is coming next week to help us paint at the rest of our schools, in return for us helping him paint his schools too. We’ll include some photos soon.

Take care,
Lerato