A snapshot of yesterday: On a quick drive to secure a setting for a home based care giver in-service: to discuss with the local Chief availability of a community hall...Brown mountains surround the horizon, many with plateaus- the hills are speckled with shrubs some brown, some a faded shade of green. The land around me is dusty, for it is winter and there is no rain. It is rocky. Goats wander through the streets and on the surrounding land- in fact everywhere you look there are goats. Roosters & hens meandering, pecking at the ground. Today we saw baby chicks. In South Africa it seems you don't always need a "road," as we are accustomed to, to drive from one place to another. Any land will suffice. You can make your own simply by where you to decide to drive your vehicle.
The markets of Tugela Ferry are bustling: women selling sweet potatoes, onions, avocados, long net bags of oranges and even long plastic bags filled with "Cheetos." Clothes are laid out on the street for sale. Blankets & towels are draped over fences & aloe plants to be sold for use. These are used creatively here. Women wrap towels in many ways. Some wrap them around the waist as a skirt, or even on top of another skirt, as added layer. Some use towels as a means to attach their babies to the their backs. The process to do this is certainly worth observing. As the process begins, the child appears magically suspended in air, or suctioned to the woman's back. The woman manipulates the towel so that it surrounds the child's back. It is tucked under the child's bottom and then again at the child's shoulders, and finally tied in front, at the woman's chest. It appears unstable & unsafe to our American eyes: will the child fall out the bottom, will his head swing to freely with so little neck support? Yet, this is done enumerable times, everyday, and it works. I notice that some teens & younger women wrap their towel skirts much shorter, letting it hit at the knee. Skin care: many women here rub a kind of soil over their faces to act as a shield from the sun, dare I say sunscreen. It appears as a pale orange color over the skin- like a mud mask of sorts.
The diet of the Zulu people of this area is fairly simple, in that they have & can afford very little. "Mealie meal" is a staple, or maize meal, and it is made into many things depending on the consistency or form it is shaped or stirred into, when it is prepared. One preparation is a putu porridge, resembling the grits of the American south but less creamy. Putu porridge is most often eaten with milk, or meat if this is available. Sugar beans are a common staple, as well as pot bread which is made from cake flour. The pot bread I was told, is a staple to eat especially when there is no other food. It would be eaten with tea-most likely rooibos, which comes from South Africa. Sugar, salt & cooking oil are other items that an individual here would want but might not always have.
The diet of the Zulu people of this area is fairly simple, in that they have & can afford very little. "Mealie meal" is a staple, or maize meal, and it is made into many things depending on the consistency or form it is shaped or stirred into, when it is prepared. One preparation is a putu porridge, resembling the grits of the American south but less creamy. Putu porridge is most often eaten with milk, or meat if this is available. Sugar beans are a common staple, as well as pot bread which is made from cake flour. The pot bread I was told, is a staple to eat especially when there is no other food. It would be eaten with tea-most likely rooibos, which comes from South Africa. Sugar, salt & cooking oil are other items that an individual here would want but might not always have.
No comments:
Post a Comment