Back in Europe

Posted by Janine and Mikkel

Writing about attacking rhinos, beautiful Mozambican women, swimming with whale sharks and magic muti markets in Jo’burg seems rather weird when it is done in grey and rainy Netherlands…but we’ll give it a try anyway. And yes we arrived in Amsterdam yesterday. Janine will stay here beginning her studies already next week whereas I will be heading for Copenhagen Wednesday.

After having enjoyed some well deserved luxury in Durban we drove north towards Mozambique with a stop in Swaziland on the way. In this tiny country, it is still allowed to have several wives! Only one day in Swaziland, we managed to meet two Swazi women, Lovejoy and Gladness (no joke!). Both were very progressive: they rejected having to share their husband with other wives. Goodness seemed very sure of this and her husband was also supportive although many of his friends didn’t really understand how he could settle for only one wife. Lovejoy however seemed like she might settle for just being “first wife”. She explained that if the woman just makes sure that her husband always gets everything he needs, he doesn’t have to look around for another wife.

As you can hear, the ideas of the western nuclear family unit are not very well established in Swaziland. The sovereign king doesn’t do much to change this; at the moment he has 13 wives (he’s in his thirties) and an unknown number of concubines. What we did learn was that the system with men having several wives is breaking up due to poverty and unemployment (somewhere around 40-50 % it seems). A man can only have several wives if he can support them all (each having the right to her own household). Instead people have more informal relationships which have provided extraordinarily circumstances for the spreading of HIV. In 15 years, more than 40 % of the population has been infected with HIV.

In Swaziland we slept at a camp site inside a national park. The camp site was just next to a water hole so we spent the evening having a drink while watching elephants, rhinos and hippos bathing. These rhinos were luckily in a good mood, which couldn’t really be said about those we encountered on a little drive inside the park: while Janine was just about to take that perfect picture, the rhino started running towards our car. Mikkel gave full gas and speeded out of there, ruining Janine’s picture…

Mozambique was a totally different story. The Portuguese colonists definitely left some Latino roots behind in the capital Maputo. We asked several people where “it was happening” on a Saturday night and all of them told us to go to ‘Coconuts’. Obviously we had to check that out and it turned out to be a huuuge club which seemed to cater for the whole town’s under 30 population.

After a few days in this cool city, walking up and down Karl Marx Avenue, Vladimir Lenin road, Oluf Palme Avenue, Fidel Castro Street, Mao Tse-Tung Avenue as well as streets named after all the big African leaders of the independence movements, we went on a seven-hour drive to a little beach town – Baia de Tofu. While most people get two traffic fines on this road, we managed to get only one –for speeding. These police guys are quite smart: they place themselves right at the 80 sign and then blame you for driving 120! Well, Mozambique is one of the poorest countries of the world so as a tourist, you just have to regard these fines as some sort of tourist-tax.

In Baia de Tofu, we snorkeled with a 7meter-whale shark (his massive face was right in front of Janine the moment she jumped in…) and did a dive-review (where Janine shot herself up to the surface and Mikkel managed to get seasick). All this was obviously very tiring, so we spend the rest of our time swimming, reading, chatting and enjoying fresh barracuda’s, giant prawns and crabs.

After a long drive we got back to South Africa, which suddenly seemed so civilized! Good roads, trustful police, drinkable water, petrol stations with toilets, super markets etc. In a small place in the mountains, we went mountain biking past waterfalls and forests, and in the evening Goodness - the (black) girl who worked at the hostel - was brave enough to take us to the only bar in town: a real (white) Afrikaner bar with the worst taste of music in the world… The owner bribed us to stay by giving us drinks and shots. It worked and we hit the dance floor!

Last stop on this little holiday was Jo’burg (also called Johannesburg, Egoli, City of Gold and Jo’si). We stayed with Mikkels Danish friend Morten in Parkhurst – one of the nice Northern Suburbs with big houses surrounded by even bigger walls. It’s an area where everyone got a swimming pool and someone working there to keep it clean (except Morten who cleans himself).

Jo’burg is great: Lots of cool suburb areas with cafes, bars and restaurants and a high-rised city center where most business and affluent people have left. The lower circles of society have taken over this space, making it quite a unique experience for those who dare to venture in there. We did, together with Morten and one of his friends who took us around in the center. Among other places to a local magic muti market with animal fetus, dead birds, monkey skulls, all kinds of different roots, dry plants and much much more. These things can cure everything: bad stomachs, low performance in bed, winning back of a lost love, flues, winning the lottery, good luck with exams, protection from thieves and robbers, etc. etc. On the amount of vendors and products it was obvious that this was a big industry.

From Joburg we went straight to Cape Town just to have time for an afternoon on the beach and a great, but also a bit sad, evening with most of the people we have met there during the last 6 months. As you might have sensed, we have had an amazing six months in the diverse, interesting, contrasted but oh-so-beautiful South Africa.

We WILL miss it!

But at least we get to see a lot of you again soon, this will surely make up for some of the loss...

Janine & Mikkel