How do you get around South Africa if you don't have a car? By taxis, particularly mini-bus combie taxis. These 14 passenger vans are parked at the taxi ranks in cities and towns and don't leave for their destination until they fill with at least 15 passengers. The taxi I needed to get from Pretoria to Vryburg took about an hour to fill up. Since it's a long distance taxi, everyone was going home for the holiday and had luggage. I sat in the back aisle seat with luggage filling the floorboards and aisles. There were 15 adults and 4 or 5 kids perched on top of the luggage. The trip was faster than I expected and I was able to get off in Delarey since from there it's easier for me to get home.
I managed to catch the last taxi to my village, with a driver that I know. A lady and small child on the taxi became my instant best friends. The girl kept playing with my hands and feeling my smooth skin. The woman sitting beside me started coughing and asked me, “Don't you have some water for me?” Ah, I'd gotten used to being on vacation and not having people ask me for money or something everyday.
It's now rainy season, and the dirt roads into my village were kinda scary. Largely washed out, with huge puddles, I can totally understand how school attendance drops dramatically during the rainy season. The taxi took these obstacles in its normal fashion, at bone jarring speeds in across the path of least resistance. It was pouring the rain when I finally made it home, where Mom told me that all her kids and grandkids were waiting on me. Only one daughter and 3 grandkids were home and awake when I arrived, so it was nice and low-key. I had to have Lebo help me open my door since the rain had swelled it so much it was stuck inside the frame. There's a LOT of dust in my room but it really wasn't as bad as I expected.
Back in the main house, I meet all 5 of mom's kids and 4 grandkids. We talked and played cards. The men told me about this “traditional beer” that women make but only men drink. They even gave some to the 9 and 3 year old boys. Somehow it ends up just me in a room full of men and they start joking with me, telling me all about “traditional initiation schools” and what happens there. My oldest brother, Nelson, tells me that he'll take me tomorrow to the initiation school. The boys' initiation school is coming back from the bush tomorrow, after 42 days away from home. The only thing I know about these schools is that it's where boys get circumcised, they learn “to be a man” and kill wild animals with their bare hands. The scarier the animal they kill the better men they will be. Nelson said he killed a wolf and Kenny, another brother, said he killed a python. I make my escape to the kitchen, and the women.
Later, Nelson goes to collect his girlfriend so she can meet me. He comes back with his baby-momma and two of her brothers. They are all drunk to the point of not being able to stand. She is really quite and one brother only wants to ask me about my marital status. The other brother goes on this ridiculous rant about Titanic, Romeo and Juliet and Caesar of Rome. I guess he's trying to impress me with how enlightened he is. He knew the gist of the stories, but there were several flaws in his lecture that I didn't bother to point out. He didn't believe me that the Titanic is a true story. At midnight, exhausted, I went to bed.
The next day most of the family left with promises to return for New Years. Resego was in a grumpy mood all day and cried at the drop of a hat. Literally, at one point his hat fell off his head and he started crying. I took a wheelbarrow for water and was surprised at how shaky my arms were afterwards, I've been spoiled with running water the last 3 weeks. I chased Lebo and Resego out of my room a few times so I could organize my things and start typing these blog posts. Lebo has a bad habit of pretending to be reading or playing with his phone when he's really reading the computer screen over my shoulder. He gives himself away when he comments or asks a question about something I've typed.
At the tuck shop I got some fresh tomatoes (fresh in December!) but they didn't have bread or eggs. So I'll try again tomorrow. Just outside the shop a grown woman started talking to me and asked me to give her some sweets. She didn't believe that I'd go into a shop and come out without something I could share. I just ignored her. Welcome home!
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