some photos ...

our garden before the cow attack ...

 

high security zone

wow, it's been a while since this blog has been updated, sorry, we were quite busy here. Things have been going slow until now, it took a lot of time and effort to motivate the village to actually join in and volunteer their help to build anything. About two weeks ago I got really angry at a meeting and told them that they need to get their act together or this is never going to work. That without their help, it might take months on end to build that Lodge, but WITH their help in can be done in several weeks! We also handed over some funding to the committee, to use as they see fit, and explained what we need: building materials such as cement, poles, nails, thatching, bricks ... and there is only little money and it needs to go a long way. My getting angry, and us handing over some money, seemed to have done the trick. Shortly afterwards, some women appeard on the hilltop and started digging up the topsoil, to make bricks. Since then, more and more villagers come to help, and today we counted a total of 34 people working on the hilltop!! That's fantastic, we're very pleased with the new turn this whole thing is taking. The project has stood still for too long - for lack of funding and lack of help from the village. Thanks to some funding from friends in Switzerland, we could finally buy some materials again, and mobilize the workforce - and suddently things look different. Another reason for the people's sudden willingness to help might also be that the planting and harvesting season is over ... so they have some more time to spare. However, it's all looking very positive for now, and we're happy.

the other problem we had is the spring that supplied us with drinking water. At the end of the harvest, the farmers opend up their fields to the cattle, to let them eat the leftovers and clear the fields. To our dismay, they trampled not only through the fields but also through our spring, that lays between two fields and has therefore not needed a fence so far. Well, things change. When we came back from a weekend in Bulungula, we found our spring to be nothing more than a dirty, foul smelling mud hole. What a heartbreak. So we started fencing it in, with whatever scrap and leftover materials we had, but the cows kept on breaking through it, knocking everything over. Finally, thanks to the swiss funding, we managed to buy barb wire and build a strong fence around the water hole. The place now looksl ike a high security zone, and in fact, that's exactly what it's intended to be. No more destructive cows in there! Unfortunately, the sheep and sneaky goats might still get through, so we will have to make a plan about that. :-)

mmmmmh...mussels!

Yesterday we ran out of canned food, and as our next trip to Mthatha is probably still far off we had to go collect mussels if we didn't want to eat plain rice tonight. These days it's low tide all the time and so the mussel collecting won't be such a problem as it was last time, when we got soaked from head to feet and a big wave almost swept me off the rocks. Besides, it was nice and cloudy and therefore not too hot, so off we went ... down to secret beach and scrambling up the rocks. The mussels grow here in millions and billions! I must actually take my camera next time, it's really quite a sight. In higher regions you find the small ones, and if you want big ones, you need to venture down the rocks to the surface of the water. Only problem is, the waves come splashing in constantly ... and the mussels hold on to the rocks quite stubbornly. So we cling to the rocks, one foot in the water, one hand ripping mussels off, and of course we get wet anyway. This time we collected two shopping bags half full of mussels, which is quite a lot. Then we have to carry them aaaaall the way back up to the hilltop ... and then, you need to steam these things so that they open, and then you crack them open and scratch the fleshy part out, and that stuff you can fry in the end to get it nice and tasty. But scratching all the fleshy parts out takes a hell lot of time ... so if any backpacker decides to have mussels for dinner, make sure you start collecting them around midday, or your dinner might happen after midnight ... At least now I know why mussels are so expensive: not because they are rare, but because to harvest and prepare them just takes too much time! But hey, time we've got plenty here, actually we make a point of having time, and anyway, a tasty mussel dinner is reward enough for all the bother. ;-)

Fetching Poles

Today we will learn how to get poles. It's a quite easy receipe: pack about 10 kids into the landrover, drive to the forest, cut the poles down and drag them back to your place. No kidding. In the Mpame Forest they have plantations for poles, and you just go there and say which ones and how many you want, pay for them (we pay R 1.70 for a 6m gumtree pole) and go cut them down in the section that they tell you. The kids are useful, apparently they like doing that work, cause often we don't even have to ask them if they want to help – they just jump into the landrover by themselves. (Maybe they just want a ride in the landrover and don't know that we're off to the forestry and will make them work ...) Anyway there are some kids that really are very helpful: little Dedisa (don't know if the name is really spelled like that) never misses a chance to be around us, and Sandile is also a very reliable and important helper. So off into the forest they all go, with saws and machetes (don't worry, they know how to handle that stuff), and cut the trees and chop off all the branches. Then we drag them to the landrover, stuff them all in, tie the bundle to the side of the car and drag the whole thing back – with the kids sitting on the pile of poles inside the landrover. I hate the drive back, the landrover creaks and the noise of the poles being dragged over the stoney street drives me mad. I'm always glad when we finally reach our hilltop. There, we unload all the poles and immediately strip the bark off. Like that, they don't only look nicer but also don't get eaten by borabeetles. So that's it ... and with these poles, we built the boma and the new kitchen space and half of our treehouse. Right now we're out of poles again, so we have to fetch more but we're blocked because the landrovers tires are flat – well one was flat, so we put the spare tire on, and now that one's flat too – a kid was playing with it and let all the air out. Arrrgh. Now try to find a pump in this village ... it's impossible. Looks like we'll have to stuff the extra tire into my poor beetle and drive to Mpame to find someone with a pump ... wish us luck!

Mousehunt

Yes, very funny. It may be rather easy to hunt down a mouse in a clean house with sharp angles and thick walls and doors that close. But in a all open treehouse? No way. That naughty little thing sitts in our kitchen cupboard at night and happily eats away at my plastic containers full of flour. Did you know that mice like flour? I didn't, but really, it attacks the container with flour. The lid is completely ruined already. Our kitten is too small to catch mice yet, and we are ... too big. And there are too many holes through which it can escape. Last night I put a bucket in the cupboard and some oats and flour into it and thought, if the mouse falls in there, it can't get out any more. Well – I thought wrong. These are Transkei mice and they are fitter than anything! Bloody thing just jumped right out of that bucket again. During the day we hear them rattling in our wall. The walls of the treehouse consist of three layers: palm leaves on the outside, tent fabric in the middle and thatching on the inside. The mice obviously live under the palm leaves, on the outside. First we thought it might be the snake but no, I can hear feet trippling around, and gnawing noises. Ever seen a snake tripple and gnaw? Me neither. ;-) Anyway, so now we either have to get rat poison, which I don't fancy, or ... anyone got an idea? How to catch a mouse in a forest? Good ideas and tips are welcome!

Searching for Water

Water.
Without water, no life is possible. And, I tell you – no lodge either. This is supposed to be the rainy season but the rain is letting us down – it just refuses to fall. Right now the sky is cloudy and I hear distant thunder and maybe a few drops find their way onto my roof ... and then the evening sun shines through the leaves of the forest again. Arrgh. Our dam on the hilltop dried out about a week ago. Before that, the water was getting less and less ... until only some muddy puddles were left ... and then, gone. All gone. And no rain to fill it up again. Now that I've gotten so used to having constant water supply, it's very annoying to be without it again. The shower doesn't work any more – it is gravity fed from the dam – and neither does the toilet, that needs to be flushed with a bucket of water. So, off to the bushes we go again ... and into the river if we need a bath. Our clothes are getting dirtier and dirtier and so are our fingernails, and soon we will have to give our plates to the cat to lick clean cause there's no dishwashing water. Just kidding. ;-) Anyway, somewhere nearby we found a spring, so now we try to use this water source by pulling a pipe from there to our treehouse – if the treehouse is actually lower than the spring. Pray to the heavens that it is, I want water! If it isn't, well ... we'll have to figure something out. But we certainly need a pump at one stage or another. Still, now it's the rainy season (apparently) and I don't want to imagine what this place looks like in the dry season – or where we get our water from! I once walked down to the river just to get two buckets of water for a shower, and I tell you, it's a hell of a walk, down a steep hill overgrown with thick grass, and then, all the way back up! Well at least we'll all stay fit.

Ghatto visits us on the Wild Coast

Hi All,

Ghatto is visiting us on the Wild Coast, he lives in Kurland in the Crags.
Baz Bus sponsored his return ticket from Nature's Valley to Mthatha. Thanks for the help...
The Baz Bus Site: www.bazbus.com

More info coming soon..

He has been very helpfull