Week 14 – Cultural Blog

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”

Aldous Huxley

Mirkwood forest

Having finished two full weeks of teaching practice, we were delighted to find out that already we get a long weekend off. As Glenn and I were quickly realising how few weekends we had left, we decided to travel, as usual, with a group of Americans. We spent the weekend in Hogsback, which is a small woodland village in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere. The Amatola Forest in the Hogsback area is often claimed as JRR Tolkien's inspiration for The Lord of the Rings, in particular for his fictional forest of Mirkwood. Having spent Saturday hiking through the forests it is easy to see how he could have been inspired here, the forests were beautiful with some incredible waterfalls and the peace and calm within the forest is something that is not often experienced. We had a great two days spent in Hogsback, staying in a backpackers called ‘away with the fairies’  and some of the people we met there could definitely have been described as being ‘away with the fairies’. 

On Sunday we moved on up the coast to a place called Coffee Bay, and it seemed that the further up the coast we went, the worse the roads became but the better the scenery became. As always, we were amazed by the scenery and the diversity of South Africa, and this was another part of South Africa’s culture that we had not yet experienced.  As we got closer to Coffee Bay it started to feel like we were stepping back in time and it became much more rural than we had yet seen in South Africa. There was something very refreshing about spending a few days here amongst villages of mud huts, long beaches, and ladies selling hand-made jewellery at the side of the dirt roads. 

On Monday morning we went on a village tour of the local village, which gave us an opportunity to learn more about the Xhosa beliefs and traditions. We were shown the scared pools in which the Xhosa people believe their ancestors live and they pray to them there. We also were given traditional clay face painting which the ladies of the Xhosa culture wear each day. Following this we were taught of the traditional procedure of marriage within this culture, which involves the male buying his wife from her family for the price of ten cows! If the lady has been educated she is actually worth fifteen cows, and to be bought by a male she must show good qualities that they may seek for in a wife. When brought into the home of a Xhosa family we were given a preview of how a typical day works in this home, as the boys of the tour were seated on chairs and beds while the girls were expected to sit on the floor. Following this we were expected to dish up and hand out the food to the men before serving ourselves.  Some of the other girls and I were not too impressed with this culture, and the more we were informed of the ‘women’s duties’,  the more respect I had for the ladies of this culture as it seems they do most of the duties within and outside the house while the men of the house seemingly did very little!

From the moment we arrived at Coffee bay it was clear that there was more poverty here than in other areas that we have seen. We quickly learnt that tourism in this area keeps these people employed, like car park attendants, ever present drug dealers, the ladies that sell their handmade jewellery and the tour guides, and we were left to wonder how these people survive financially when there are no tourists to interest in their business. I found it interesting to hear that the safety for tourists in this area is good as the locals are very aware that if a tourist is harmed in any way that they are only damaging their own income. After hearing this I did notice that the tourists went out of their way to help us as tourists and be kind to us, and we felt very safe during our stay here. We enjoyed a ‘sun-downer’ with the people of the hostel, which involved a group of us in a tractor-pulled trailer heading off to the top of a cliff to watch the sunrise, and we found that the owners of the backpacker were very friendly and served us a traditional south African meal that night which was very different to any of our own but very tasty!

On our way back to Port Elizabeth on Wednesday we made a stop at the infamous ‘Hole in the wall’, which is a natural hole through a cliff wall that attracts many tourists. The scenery here was really something else, and I almost felt at home as much of the scenery was similar to scenery we have in Ireland. Aaron, a child that offered his services to give us a tour, was a very interesting child who was 14 years old. We enjoyed chatting to him as he showed us the natural wonder and brought us to the top of a steep cliff to appreciate the view further. I was surprised to hear that he gave up on school long ago to give tours to people as he wanted to bring in more money to support his family. I find it so sad that some of the children have to give up their childhood and education in order to support their family at such a young age. However, this child changed my view of young children who opted not to go to school, as previously I assumed

they would rather be begging on the street or were too lazy to learn, whereas this child decided to leave school for selfless reason, and it has made me more aware of the various reasons why children leave education.

I think our visit to Coffee bay has been my favourite so far as it was a completely different culture to experience and with Shannon’s not-so-gentle persuasion, the two of us got up at 630am for an hour long surf lesson. We both enjoyed this a lot, and spent a lot of our time laughing at each other, and although we weren’t exactly pro’s, we enjoyed the chance to try something new and have both decided that we would like to surf more when we return home.  Experiencing a place like coffee Bay has made me realise that despite the bad reputation South Africa may get for crime within Northern Ireland, it is only now that I have seen area’s like this that I realise that it is a beautiful country with a unique culture that is no more dangerous than any other country.

 Unfortunately, the holiday had to end so on Wednesday we started the long journey home to Port Elizabeth for a very short two day week of teaching on Thursday and Friday!
It’s hard to believe that we only have two full weeks left in placement, and already the thought of goodbyes is not an enjoyable one. Next week brings my tutor visit for placement and a number of assignments due in, which suggests a rather dull week next week, but we look forward to our weekend away with my South African friends and also our American friends in Plettenberg in two weeks for a final celebration before we leave.

Hope all is well at home

Lynsey