Officially Feels like Africa!

This weekend it finally hit me that I am officially in Africa. On Saturday morning we drove about three hours from Durban to see the traditional Zulu Reed Dance. I mentioned a little bit about it in my last post, but basically it’s a ritual done every September in which Zulu girls are tested for their purity as virgins and then must present reeds to the Zulu King, dance for him, and hope that he might choose one of them as a new wife (in addition to his many other wives).When I was told a group of virgins would be presenting reeds to the king, I had no idea just how many girls my family was actually talking about- I just assumed 15 or 20. To my surprise, our van pulled up and was met by over 50 thousand topless girls, extravagantly dressed in nothing but beads, all carrying giant reeds to the king. Having a western/American mindset, I couldn’t help it at first to think that this entire ritual was somewhat oppressive to women and even though I brought my camera, I wasn’t really sure how a group of white people taking pictures of a bunch of topless teenage girls was going to go over. I quickly began to see that these girls didn’t feel oppressed in any way, and most of them had been looking forward to this day for their entire lives and had prepared extensive dances to perform for the king. It was an honor for them. As soon as I took my camera out I was immediately SWARMED by girls all begging me to take their picture and for them to take pictures with me. It was a really awesome experience.

To get from the reed dance to St. Lucia, where our hostel was located, we had to drive through a wild game reserve. None of us were really expecting to see much other than a few gazelles (or Springboks as they call them here). Literally within 10 seconds of being within the reserve, a GIANT elephant crossed the road right in front of our car. It was crazy. Driving a little further, we saw zebras, springboks, wildebeest, water buffalo, a warthog, and rhinos (which are apparently one of the rarest animals to see in Africa). It was amazing! This was no safari, just our group in our van driving through the reserve. We spent the night in St. Lucia and the next day went to a river basin to see hippos. This weekend was definitely a true African experience.