Local Artisan Tour

One of my dearest friends (and boss) from Teach For America, Felicia, recently visited us in Swaziland. As she is not a fan of pictures, it is not surprising how few I have with her physical presence (wait until the Cape Town entry – there’s one or two - MAYBE). Case in point, bet you didn’t even know that she came to Pietermaritzburg with us for the triathlon weekend described in my previous entry! I know, not a single picture! Well, if I can’t show you Felicia, at least I can show you some of the things we did during her stay! Here’s a brief overview of her itinerary:

• Monday, March 1 – Arrival Swaziland
• Tuesday, March 2 – Literacy Workshop, Swaziland
• Wednesday, March 3 – Swazi Candles, Mkhaya Game Reserve, Swaziland
• Thursday, March 4 – Mkhaya Game Reserve, Swaziland
• Friday, March 5 – Mkhaya Game Reserve, Swaziland
• Saturday, March 6 – Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
• Sunday, March 7 – Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
• Monday, March 8 – Artisan Tour, Swaziland
• Tuesday, March 9 – Miliwane Game Reserve, Swaziland
• Wednesday, March 10 – Royal Swazi Spa, Swaziland
• Thursday, March 11 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Friday, March 12 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Saturday, March 13 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Sunday, March 14 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Monday, March 15 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Tuesday, March 16 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Wednesday, March 17 – Cape Town, South Africa
• Thursday, March 18 – Souvenir Shopping, Swaziland
• Friday, March 19 – Departure Swaziland

This entry is all about our journey on Monday, March 8 as we toured around Swaziland visiting many of the local artisan workshops, factories, and showrooms. We started our day at Ngwenya Glass Factory where recycled glass is turned into beautiful handmade wares. We toured the workshop where the men and women were using their hands or tools to make shapes out of the putty like hot glass. Some did actually blow through a long pipe to form a wine glass, while others rolled their steel rod quickly between their hands to spin a desired shape. It was quite impressive.

Everything at Ngwenya starts as recycled glass

Working their magic

Blowing a wine glasses

Ice bucket

The final step in the process, once the glass has completely cooled, is sanding and buffing

Drum roll…the finished products!

Next stop on our tour was the Manzini Market. Manzini is the largest city in Swaziland (population ~80,000) and people set-up stalls daily to sell poultry, fruit, vegetables, clothes, arts & crafts, grains, beans, etc. You name it, they sell it… you can even pick-up underwear, shoes, an exhaust pipe for your car, broom, recycled cell phone…the list goes on!

Main entrance

Makes (mothers) selling vegetables

Stalls

Arts and crafts

After the Manzini Market we made our way to the Malkern’s Valley to visit the Baobab Batik factory. Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of the pineapple fields (I don’t know where I thought pineapples came from, but I just didn’t picture them growing on bushes such as these!).

The Baobab Batik factory permitted us to tour their entire facility and to see the batiks being made at each phase of the process. The women who work at the factory are very talented artists and craftswomen. Again, very impressive.

Dyed cloth drying in the sun

Drawing the design/pattern on the dyed cloth

Painting the wax on the pattern

Dyeing the cloth in a second color

More wax and more dyeing

Finished products drying on the line

The sewing room. Here the ladies take the final batiks and make table runners, napkins, tablecloths, pillow covers, aprons, backpacks, t-shirts, and more!

Next it was time for lunch. While I have been to this restaurant and concert venue numerous times, it is usually for dinner or an evening concert; therefore, I took the opportunity to take pictures during the daylight. The restaurant is called, Malandela’s and the concert venue is called, House on Fire. It is locally owned and operated and was built to showcase local artists, musicians, and singers. The design is very eclectic.

Restaurant entrance

View from the table

Indoor amphitheatre

Gallery

Bar

Our final stop on the tour was the Cultural Village where we saw traditional singing and dancing. Thankfully, Felicia’s camera had all of the videos of me being pulled from the audience to dance with the performers and there aren’t any to upload, now!

Traditional Healer

Lastly, Mantenga Falls. Swaziland is beautiful.

Midland's Triathlon Weekend

Earlier this month, Doug and I dipped our toes back into triathlon waters just outside of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (while it is hard for even me to imagine, it has been nearly 5 years since I completed a good ol’ swim/bike/run. Gasp!). Because Doug has been nursing a few injuries, I registered him for the Sprint Triathlon [16 miles] and myself for the Ultra Triathlon [50 miles]. My training buddy, Michelle, also competed in the Ultra. I have come to fully understand that Doug is not a ‘sidelines’ man. He simply can’t stand to watch if there is any way that he could compete, so bum ankle, achilles, knee and all he tore up the sprint course. If he hadn’t sacrificed his road bike to his loving wife, we estimate that he would have been 2^nd in his age group. Next time. When Doug finished his race he switched to photographer mode; unfortunately, this means that there are no pictures of his spectacular performance though, due to the overlap of our races. Michelle and I both finished in about 5 hours and were satisfied with our efforts (I have to admit, I was ready to be done after the bike. Alas.). We were a motley crew with borrowed gear, mountain bikes, and rusty ways, but we all lived another day…

As I mentioned, we had a lot of borrowed gear. Even our car was borrowed. We couldn’t find a rack to fit the Rav-4 and needed to haul 5 people + 3 bikes so stuffing them in the trunk wasn’t an option. Fortunately, our friend Antz traded cars with us for the weekend as his Jetta had a trailer hitch and accompanying rack equipped to haul 4 bikes.

As usual, the views along the way were beautiful.

And, what would an African roadtrip be without a few totally random events? Here we are on a one lane bridge playing ‘chicken’ with oncoming traffic. Since there’s no traffic light or procedure (other than the first come/first serve honor system) both directions of traffic ventured onto the bridge in hopes of intimidating the other into reversing. I am sad to report our side ‘lost’ and we had to reverse off of the bridge.

The silver lining is that while we were waiting for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge, we saw this awesome sign for a traditional healer. Traditional healers are often the thorn in Dr. Doug’s side as they are heavily frequented by Swazi’s in lieu of visiting a hospital or clinic (I resisted the urge to type ‘REAL’ healthcare provider, just now). For your entertainment, I’ve included some of the services provided…the traditional healer can help with your: 1) unhappy marriage, 2) penis enlargement, 3) bringing back lost lovers and friends, 4) if you need a job or to attract more customers, 5) with family issues, 6) financial issues, 7) protection from bad spirits, and MUCH, MUCH MORE! Okay, I’ll stop.

Eventually we arrived in Pietermaritzburg and here are just a few shots from the car as we drove into town. Nothing like a tractor on the highway to hold-up traffic!

The number of people that are willing to jump onto an already packed pick-up is mind boggling.

When we finally arrived at Midmar Dam and checked-in with the National Park Service we scoped out our ‘rustic cabin.’ It was more pre-fab than cabin, per se, so we inquired about a cancellation in the ‘chalets’ just in case. Luck was on our side and we got a two-bedroom chalet on the waterfront with a carport. It was awesome!

Out with the rustic...

And in with the chalet!

View from the patio

Once we ditched our rustic cabin and were settled in our chalet, we visited the race registration tent and picked-up our race packets, etc. Hysterically, Michelle was racer #1. I say ‘hysterically’ because Michelle and I were in the last 10 people to finish the race. Seriously.

Transition

Finishing Chute

Pre-race jitters

Swim Start

Bike

Run

Happy to be finished