Living in a rural community
This is Katherine writing. We are living in a small rural, farming community on a homestead with our host family. We were told that hugging is not “Swazi”, but the Dlamini family is warm and welcoming.
The family consists of Make (Mother)
Olpha and Babe (Father) Mandelenkhosi, a retired South African
diamond miner, their youngest daughter Phelile (26), her son Thabiso
(4) and her sister's son Leytokahle (4). Winile and Tembiso are the
two older children, both around 30, and work elsewhere and come home
a few times a month. In addition to the family there are also
numerous chickens, several roosters, dogs, nursing puppies and a
weird cat. All this animal life takes place just out our front door.
The chickens roost in the avocado or mango trees 10 meters from our
front step. Our homestead is on the side of a hill overlooking an
agricultural valley. In the late afternoon there is a golden light
which reminds me of Tuscany, and the rolling hills are also similar.
Make (Mother) Olpha has given us Swazi
names: Mark is Sipho meaning Gift and I am Nophumelelo which means
Success! I helped Make saw a big log and after we finished she gave
me my name. “Katerina, You are strong.” Mark and I are now
part of the Dlamini family. The only problem is the Dl sound it hard
to say. Swazis greet each other every time they meet. It is thought
rude to pass someone by and not say “Sawubono” and ask how they
are. Everyone does this: Old, young, carrying a heavy load, or in a
hurry. They all asked what our names are, where we are from and where
we are staying...in SiSwati, though they help out with English if we
need it.
Life on a rural homestead is not easy.
They do have electricity, but no running water. Fortunately, there
is a water tap close by, but it has to be hauled in by buckets to
the house. Laundry is done by hand in cold water out in the farm
yard. It is backbreaking work, I know as we have done our laundry
several times since coming here. The family keeps the homestead very
clean, even scrubbing the front steps. We live in a one room house
consisting of a bed, a table with our propane cookstove and water
filter equipment, two chairs which we use as bedside tables. We eat
sitting on the end of our bed. It is cold (winter here). This
morning it was 51 degrees inside and a little colder outside, but it
warms up during the day. We are grateful for all our layers and high
tech clothes. Often we get into bed for warmth to study our
language manuals. We are learning ways to make our life here easier.
We bought an electric kettle recently making bucket baths and dish
washing water available much faster. We are perfecting our bucket
bath skills. It is possible to get fully clean, hair washed and legs
shaved in two inches of water!
In future blogs I plan to write about Make Olpha and Swazi food.
I especially enjoyed this post because it gives such a feel for what your life is like. I open my email always in hopes of finding notice of a new post, and if one is there I read it immediately. I got Rob set up to receive notice of new posts in his email too.
ReplyDeleteI hope commenting on your blog is the best way to communicate news of us. If not, or if this is too long, please let me know.
Shoulder healed. After 5 1/2 weeks off, played my first match Tuesday and got my first win at 4.0.
Enjoying the succession of wildflowers. Rob photographs them, and I identify them. We collect seeds every few days and will sow them in the fall in hopes of establishing wildflower meadows in disturbed areas. Trying to keep the weeds from outcompeting the native grasses we sowed in spring. Planted about 60 drought-tolerant, deer-resistant shrubs and perennials near our front entrance and driveway turnaround. Organic mulch is a wildfire hazard, so we chose to use rock--ten loads in Rob's pickup, which was a lot of work to spread.(I helped.) I look forward to everything maturing so that less rock is visible. Also planted a dozen containers for continuous color and patio decoration.
We found our binoculars and are slowly learning to identify our local birds. Highlight is a pair of great horned owls that roost in our pines, seen once in daylight and frequently at dusk. Saw four young kingbirds take their first flights out of the nest on our covered patio. American goldfinches and lesser goldfinches perch on our wild sunflowers and eat the seeds. Latest birds identified are Bullock's oriole and western bluebird. Broadtailed hummers visit our two feeders every few minutes.
A mama deer with two young ones in tow has crossed our property a few times. We frequently see males singly or in small groups.
Levi starts kindergarten in 3 1/2 weeks, so our Fridays caring for him all day at our home, which began before he was 1, will change to picking him up from school at noon and caring for him at his home until a parent arrives home from work.
Diane