Day 9 - Zululand

We arrived in the Valley of a Thousand Hills around 11am and were straight away introduced to two local volunteers who would be guiding us through Zululand for the day and night. 

We were taken into the local community library which was a dilapidated storage container with books and learning material on all four walls along with four (very old) computers. They told us that out of 50 children who might start school each year, only around 8 would pass through the full education system. This library was for the use of the whole community for those who needed to learn computer literacy or those who needed further education. We were treated to a serenade by a local man who was well known in the area for the "Jazz Keyboard" and I was honestly really pleasantly surprised by how good he was. He played and sang about 5 songs that he had composed himself and we had the chance to ask him questions about where he saw himself in 5 years time. "Playing and being happy" was his response. 

We then walked down through the hills and through local villages and houses with adults saying hello as we passed and small children waving and shouting hello to us in perfect English. 

We entered a round hut with a corrugated iron roof and were told that this was the “workplace” of the local Tradition Healer and she was brought in and introduced herself. We then spent the next 45 minutes listening to her explain about how she become to know she has a gift and what was included in her 6 years of training, during which time she was to have absolutely no contact with friends and family. It was really interesting and we got a real understanding of just how important the culture of traditional healing is as well as modern medicine and the relationship between the two. 

We were then taken to a mud hut with thatched roof and cow pat flooring and were told to sit down. The Zulu guide then brought in village children of all differing ages, all in traditional dress who then performed 5/6 dances for us. It’s was wonderful to see this in person and to understand the reasons for some of the dances. One of the moves that is popular amongst these dances was a movement in which you raise you leg as high up as possible and then slam it down on the floor with power. This is supposed to signify the strength of the dancer and the passion in which they dance. We were dragged up individually by members of the dance and asked to copy them, needless to say most of us failed miserably and luckily enough my camera battery died just as I was dragged up towards the end.

All of this then led to us being introduced to our families that we would be staying with for the night. Luckily we were staying in a slightly more modern house with a flushing toilet. We met “momma” the matriarch of the family along with her daughter and granddaughter Lily who was 4. We had a lovely meal of chicken, potatoes and chokulaka (a traditional dish of cabbage, carrot and beans) and then collapsed in a heap with a large beer to watch some rubbish tv and chat. We then went to bed in a room with a tiled floor (which was nice) and a very thin mattress but it was fine for us. Other than being woken up at 2am by dogs having an arguement and then from 3am onwards by numerous roosters it was a nice sleep. We have since called the area of Zululand, the Valley of a Thousand Roosters!!!!