The students got their first introduction to South African culture on Saturday when Sipho Mpepho, our wonderfully reliable bus driver, took us to the San Education and Culture Centre, !Khwa ttu, 70 kilometers up the coast, near Yzerfontein. We arrived in time for a lesson in the San Language, attempting all the click sounds with great enthusiasm!
!Khwa ttu has a most informative photo gallery where I could have spent much more time, but the tractor-trailer was waiting for us. We boarded and were taken to the start of a short walk. First we learned how to track animals from their hoof prints. Then we were shown how to trap animals. We learned a bit about plants that were useful to the San and ended our walk at the San village where we sat in a circle in the boma listening to San stories, some translated from different San languages.
On our way back to the craft shop we passed a sizeable herd of Eland, an animal important to the San people. Some zebra and springbok too.
Heading for 5:30 pm, it was time to move on to Darling, a small town where South Africa's famous satirist, Pieter Dirk Uys performs in the theatre he created out of an abandoned and disused railway station called "Evita se Perron" (Evita's platform) at Darling's old station.
At 7 pm on Saturday evening Pieter performed Elections and Erections beginning with a Hillary Clinton skit that got us off to a good start. He knew there would be US students in his audience and he interacted with them during the show. It was great fun to be in the cosy theatre, sitting at tables with drinks while the show went on right next to us. A buffet style dinner was served afterwards.
And then Sipho brought us all safely home again. We are so lucky to have him as our regular driver.
Here are the photos! Enjoy!
Coming up next is the weekend field trip to the Cederberg. Watch this space!
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