Chicken Feet

On the 8th of September David, the Commissioner of the Nsikazi District invited us over for his birthday. He already told us several weeks in advance and every time I met him he made sure, that we were actually coming. And he was also making sure every time I saw him, that I remembered that we would have chicken feet. I would always promise him that I'd try what ever he served. So the day was coming up and Caro and I would get more and more freaked out about the chicken feet. Even on our drive to David's place we would say: No way! We are not gonna eat chicken feet! This is way too much for us! Deep in our hearts we knew, there's no way around it and deep in our hearts we also knew that we were kind of curious to actually try it. When we arrived in Kabokweni David had already prepared everything for dinner except for the pap. The pap would be our thing to prepare for dinner. Making pap is an art for itself but we all took turns and in the end we had pretty decent pap. With the pap we had, of course chicken feet and a kind of potato soup as well as tomato gravy. I'll get to the feet right now, but as for the rest was delicious! Ok, since there was no way around it and as a good guest you don't want to upset your host we all at least tried the feet. Fabian went first and he actually ate the whole thing. Then it was Caro who split one foot with me. You usually eat everything that is in some way related to meat or fat on the foot. I only took three bites from it though.
It actually didn't even taste bad or anything it is just the thought that you’re holding a chicken's foot in your hand that freaked me out. After that little adventure David brought out the calabash with nice cold beer. Now, this was better! David seemed to enjoy how we were fought with ourselves to try the chicken feet and then happily drank some of the beer. We could see that he was having a good time.We all drank from the calabash
and Caro, since she was the youngest had to empty it in the end. Now that was a birthday the South African way! That night we learned a lot about this countries culture and we were once again lucky to meet such nice people who like sharing it with us.

Caro & Rebecca goofing off

For those of you who were wondering who I'm living with, here's a clue:
I used to live with three guys (no Zuckerschlecken, I'm telling you!) But when one of them had three of his friends to visit, I was about to freak! Because all of them stayed at the office. So I was living with 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guys for weeks.
Although they were all really nice and fun and what not, it really wanted, needed, craved for a girl at the office. Just someone you can talk to and who actually understands you.
For that reason I was looking forward to pick up Caro, the new Volunteer A girl I thought! I was also hoping that we would get along well, you know, you never know!
But I never dared to dream that we would get along that well!
Here's some prove:

We went to Mr Price and both got the same Jacket, not on purpose though!The sox we did get on purpose! But they are also really cool! They say boom and kaboom and stuff!

BP's Scouts in a vegetable garden.BP's coolest Scouts on da earth :D
And, there's also Jan and Fabi.

Panorama Route

Last weekend, the four of us living in the office and Jana, an Au-pair from Hazyview decided to go on a trip, traveling along the Panorama Route. Since there were now five of us, we sadly had to take the VW Bus ;) instead of the small old Mazda.
So we packed up everything we would need for spending the night, eating, and so on. and were now ready to hit the road with our heavenly vehicle!
While driving through banana plantations, passing lakes and dry rivers, seeing beautiful mountains, we arrived at our first destination, the Bridal Veil. This is a waterfall, in the middle of a forest (not to be confused with the forest falls) which might not seem as interesting at first. At a second glance though, it’s really exciting. With our given adventurous nature, we first went behind the waterfall, to feel the breeze. Then we discovered a little path going up the mountain and behind the waterfall on a midlevel. There we sat down on a little terrace right behind the water. By doing so we probably destroyed the tourist’s pictures, but we had a great time.
Going back to the car, we ate muffins, which I made the day before and chilled a little bit in the car. The next sight would be the Pinacle View, where I’ve already been.

Leaving the Pinacle we went back to Graskop, at town with a tourist information, which was closed. So we were looking out for the local Spar, which was supposed to have a little traveling agency in it. While the rest of us bought some lunch for everybody, Jan was checking out the girl working at the agency, I mean, checking out the available backpackers…
Having a space on a camping site now, we travelled to the Lisbon Falls. Again waterfalls, as you can probably tell. Since there weren’t many people around, and the guard already left, we climbed on top of the waterfall, which was actually forbidden. But we were rewarded for breaking the rules by the awesome view!
So we just stayed on top of the waterfall till the sun set

and then we made our way to Harries Pancakes! Harries Pancakes is a story for its self. BEST, and I’m not kidding, BEST pancakes in da world, yo!
By the way, on our way to Harries, I read two SMS both saying that I had a place for English at the Wuppertal University. It’s not my first choice but at least I can now actually start studying, which I’ve been waiting to do for a year now!
After our delicious dinner we went to the campsite Jan booked for us. It was more like a lodge, which also had a space to camp on. Since it was already dark we were too lazy to pitch up the tent we brought. It also didn’t look like it would rain, but it was still cold. So we decided that the guys sleep outside and the girls in the bus.
But before we went to sleep we had a couple of beers and Savanna and talked, listened to music and had a great time.
After a cold, but very comfortable night we woke up at what some people still consider night, at five in the morning to see the sun rise behind the three rondavels.
When we arrived at the entrance to the three rondavels, we found the gat closed. So what to do? We left the bus in front of the gate and climbed over it. Then we hurried to get to the actual view point, which was still further away. We three girls were walking faster, so we were 200m away from the boys. On our way we passed a little house and we said jokingly, that the night guard would come out and kick us out. At one point we were wondering why we couldn’t see the boys anymore but since we wanted to see the sunrise we thought, oh they’ll be fine. Soon we could make out the sound of a car behind us, and there, approaching the hill we just climbed up, was our beloved blue scout bus with the boys in the front. They stopped and let us in. Inside was also a guard. The boys told us, that there were actually two guards in the little house, who stopped them to tell them to please leave the site, because it was still closed and would only open at seven. Practicing the South African way, the boys convinced them that they should open now. And so they did. The guard told us that he would join us to protect us from the tigers. Yeah, as if! And he was never seen again.
We enjoyed the most beautiful sunrise,

took cool pictures, had breakfast in one of the most beautiful spots in the world and enjoyed having it just for ourselves.


Then we made our way to the giant potholes. This is a sight where the water ate its way through the stone and left little tiny canyons with waterfalls.
Here we wanted to go hiking and so we did. After climbing over stones for a little bit the trail continued through flat grassland with hills and mountains at the horizon. No trees for shadow or anything and it was burning hot. I mean, I like it when it’s hot, but this heat was a little bit too much for us used-to-the-cold-Europeans. So we turned around after an hour or so and went to Harries pancakes again.
Jana, who lives near Hazyview on the bottom of a Banana plantation wanted to show us her place. On our way there we went down a long but very narrow and stony path which was kind of an adventure. But the way up was even more adventurous because now, we were driving through the plantation and I found out that banana trees are highly interesting! Cause the tree is not like most of the other trees with a trunk and branches and then leaves on the branches. No, it’s like the palm tree you can make out of newspaper, leaves wrapped around each other and then, on the top, they don’t wrap anymore, but fall in different directions as the famous banana leaves. I know it might not be interesting, at least the others thought so, but think it’s fascinating.
In the middle of the plantation we had to stop the car, because Jana’s car turned off all of a sudden. So we sat between the trees waiting for her host dad to help.
After rescuing Jana, we went home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Chips'n Church

As most of you might know and to those who don’t here’s the confession: I’m a french fries addict. (Or as we say down here, chips addict)
Yeah, there you go. (Chips and Toast and Peri-Peri)
The South Africans in the townships have their very own way of eating and serving chips, and I can tell, you: It’s delicious!
Excellent, a Rover from Huntington, who has also been to Germany last and this year, started his own chips shop in his town.
(In the Marvelent Shop)
He and his partner Marvin founded the Marvellent Enterprises and being the nice guy, he is, he invited us to spend a day and a night in Huntington.
(Jan and I in the shop)
After a nice Breakfast on Saturday, Caro, Fabi, Jan and I packed up the VW Bus and went to Pick’n Pay Supermarket. There we bought chicken for the braai we would have in the evening, 10 kg of potatoes and of course Black Label.
Having the beer in a cooler box, the people who were not driving could enjoy such in a very refreshing way. Sitting in this old bus, driving through the beautiful landscape of Mpumalanga and listening to good music from the radio we declared that a VW Bus with cold beer and good music must be haven!
When we arrived in Huntington (Beach, haha) everybody in that little rural village recognized the Scoutcar and we were let to Excellent’s shop without having to know the way. Huntington has the most Cubs in the Province and so it seems as if we landed in a Scoutvillage, which is actually a pretty cool idea, if you ask me.
Since I’ve told Excellent beforehand that I loved chips he prepared some right away.
After we finished eating, we went to watch a Soccer game. Huntington was playing a neighbor village and of course they won!
(Huntington's Soccer Field)
After this successful match we went back and while Excellent was preparing the fire for the braai, Marvin showed me how to make chips. First, they boil in hot oil, when they’re done you salt them. So far so good, now comes the fun part. After salting you put vinegar and Peri-Peri sauce (really hot chilly sauce with big pieces of chilly) on top of everything. To actually be able to eat them now, you take a piece of toast, put some chips on it, wrap the toast around them, and eat. Sounds weird at first, but tastes really nice! For sure!
Before eating, we dropped off our stuff at Excellent’s house. While going there a little boy with the name Likai

joined us and had a lot of fun with Caro and I and we decided to take him home with us, but for whatever reason his mom didn’t want us to ;) Nevertheless, he sat and played with us and when dinner was ready, we ate from one plate together enjoying the pap, chicken, peri-peri and bread roll.
(playing Hoppe, Hoppe, Reiter)
I was the one in charge of putting the pap on everyone’s plate. So if somebody wanted to have more I would be the only one giving it to him.
(Excellent the Grill Master!)
As I’ve said, Huntington seems to be a Scoutvillage, and Scouts have campfires for their guests.
Before campfire started two chickens were caught, killed and hung up in the tree next to the campfire, ready to be grilled.
A campfire in South Africa is very different to one in Germany. No romantic listening-to-the-guitar-and-watching- the-stars campfire, but standing, dancing, singing, playing games around the campfire. Everybody participating, cups to leaders and everybody has to contribute something. It was a lot of fun and exhausting for body and voice. As a final the chicken was grilled and everybody got a piece.
In the morning we helped to peel potatoes and even slice them in a potatoe-slice-machine.
(Peel potato, peel, peel, potato)
Busy as we are we left early because Lunga, another Rover and friend of mine invited us to his church where we arrived right before the service started.
Since Lunga is the bas-player of the church band we were sitting by ourselves. When we entered the church people were already singing. The service lasted for two hours and by the time we got out we, were exhausted! It was a very noisy, in a good way, service, where everybody could just get up and pray out loud. We even had to get up to be introduced to the community. It for sure was a new experience and I would like the churches in Germany just to be a little bit more like this.
After the service Lunga invited us to his house, where his mom had prepared lunch for everybody. It was rice, with nicely spiced chicken, salad and as a desert, custard. Again, delicious! I was surprised how selbstverstaendlich(any suggestions?) it was for them to prepare food for four more people. And I felt very grateful.
When we were done eating Lunga kept his promise, to show us how to make those little South African flag made of beads.
(Crafting at Lunga's House)
While busy working with the beads we watched the Kaizer Chiefs playing Ajax Capetown.
After a couple of hours our eyes were sore and the flags done!
Thanks to Excellent’s, Lunga’s and his family’s hospitality we spend a fun weekend with a lot of new experiences.

Forest Falls

The Sunday after we came back from the glorious Swazicamp we did nothing but relaxing, having a nice breakfast, sleeping in the winter sun, doing nothing. In the evening we had dinner at an Italian restaurant that serves really nice food.
On the next day, Gregor, his brother’s friend Alex, Jan, Muzi and I planned to go to the Forest Falls.
The Forest Falls are surprise, surprise, waterfalls in the middle of a forest!
The fun part about them is that only few people know about them and therefore you have them all to yourself when you go there.
When we arrived at the Falls we all put on our bathing clothes and climbed up the hill next to the fall to get on top of it. Since the sun was shining very nicely we just sat there, enjoying the warmth. After a while this was too boring so we went down again and jumped into the water. Not just like this though. We held on to a rope which was hanging from a tree, then we swung forth and back, at the perfect we let go and jumped into the water. Although some people chickened out, it was a lot of fun!
When we had enough of the waterfall we went to two of the natural sights you have to go to when you’re in Mpumalanga. One is the Pinacle view and one is God’s Window.
They are both very touristic, but we went nevertheless.
When we were done sightseeing, we had pancakes at Harrie’s Pancakes, the best pancake place around.

Just a day

Today is Friday, the 21.
I woke up at 7.30 to take a shower. After that I sat in the kitchen and had a cup of Rooibosh tea to keep me warm because it’s still very cold in the morning.
After finishing my tea Jan, Fabi and Caro joined me for breakfast. We usually have breakfast together.
At 7.40 Nikki came to the office and at 8 o’clock everybody settled themselves. Nothing special happened during work, just some phone calls, working on our projects and some people stopping by.
We were done working at one today. Then we sat outside, had some toast and Caro and I prepared a troop meeting of the Nelspruit Girl Guides. Our boss, Nikki, asked us to do it because she didn’t have time, so we jumped in and prepared a Paper Aeroplane Competition.
The Girl Guides Meetings start out with a Flag break. The Flagpole is only two meters high, so it fits into the hall. Marching to the flagpole in the troop, breaking the flag, marching back, lining up took about ten minutes. Then it was our turn. We told the girls that we were engineers from Germany who need their help to build airplanes. We gave them some choices of airplanes they could build. They got together in groups and the competition started. We judged them in Design, Innovation, Construction, Flying, and we also gave them funny points for whatever we thought was funny about the paper plane itself or about the way they flew. As a break we played "Mülleimer Rugby" and the girls had a lot of fun although they were really nice to each other and not as aggressive as my Scouts. After the game Gracious, the coolest twelve-year old, goofed off and put the bucket on her head. All in all it was a nice Guides meeting and I think the girls had fun, too.
On our way back we saw a beautiful sunset, and as we are German, we took pictures of it :D (Our boss always says: What is it about Germans and sunsets?!)
When we came home, Jan already prepared our dinner, salad with chicken stripes= delicious! Since I was eating kind of slow they started to tease me and they made me laugh, which isn’t really hard, but then I couldn’t eat anymore. Yeah, funny.
As a desert we all had a chocolate Muffin, sponsored by Becci.
After dinner we had nothing to do and we didn’t feel like watching a movie and there’s no place to go out (except for an Afrikaans Club, but it’s really bad, and we only go there, when we’re really desperate), so we stayed home and played a funny game, which I lost all the time.
Then we went to bed.