PICTURES! and trip to LESEDI

Today after we lounged around, I mean worked diligently on our lesson plans, we went to Lesedi, which is like a living cultural museum. We were given a tour through some simulated viliges that represented the way each of the five major South African tribes lived. It was really cool. We had a guide who walked us from "village" to "village" and explained the way the people live there--from their house designs to the way they spend their time or the types of food they eat. In the Predi (I think that's how it's spelled) village they let us sample a common food--Mopani worms. KT and RL and I ate one. They were chewy, crunchy, and salty. Yum.

The best part about the tour is that there were two sets of actors (probably 12 total) who would portray the village inhabitants. We'd leave one village and the half a dozen actors from there would leap-frog ahead of us while we visited the next--where a different set of actors was already waiting for us. So, the Zulu spear makers ended up being the xohsa [sic] villagers who sang for us in their Clicky language (that's Nelson Mandela's tribe!)... Sherwin described it as "A really hilarious high school play" It was definitely entertaining and educational.

After the tour, the actors danced for us and then we were served a really delightful dinner. I tried ostrich, crocodile and lots of different types of vegetables.

Here's some pictures from the last few days::

The SMS crew at Pretoria U before our Mini Symposium.
Pretoria University--the Old Art Building. It was a pretty busy campus.

Sherwin and I working hard on our lesson plans.

Zulu gate-keeper.


Pile of Spit-rocks. Apparently it's Zulu tradition to pick up a rock, spit on it and throw it into a big lucky rock pile before you go on a journey. I did it. I found a small rock and liberally applied some spit and hucked it. Most of the spit flew off the rock way before it hit the pile, but I think it still counts.

Zulu lady making a mat. You can tell she's maried because she's wearing a giant red hat. In the olden days they would sew the hat onto the lady's head. No divorce in the Zulu nation.

The besotho [sic!] tribe. They wear these pointy hats because they're mountain people, the hat and their pointy houses remind them of their mountain--the Mountain of the Night.