Into the Thousand Hills

A typical "homestead"

Durban is another big city, so I decided to get out into the country to see how the rest of the people live.  During Apartheid, blacks were moved into separate areas called homesteads.  These were usually a ways away from the main city even though the people worked in the city.
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The area is called the Valley of a Thousand Hills.. When you looked down from the village, the hills stretched as far as you could see.

Even the restrooms had a "native" flair

There are also villages where the Zulu people live a more traditional style.  We went to a "model village," a reconstruction of a typical village with dancers displaying the traditional dances.  As an added attraction(?) they kept a reptile collection of Nile Crocodiles, snakes, tortoises and lizards.

Some of the crocodiles liked to fight, so they were kept in separate enclosures.  This fellow lost part of his upper jaw, but the teeth kept on growing, even without an opposing jaw.

A Leopard Tortoise.

A small (10 foot) albino boa

They had  many poisonous snakes, but the one we were allowed to hold was not one of them.  This one was called a Ball Python because when startled it curls up into a ball.

The Welcome Dance

The dancers wore traditional clothing and performed welcome dances, a dance about a young girl rebuking a suitor until he said he had a cow to give her parents, a dance where the boy went to the Medicine Woman to see if this was a good match and a wedding celebration dance.  The final dance, we were later told, was the Gospel story.

The Medicine Woman is on the right.

This dancer stole the show.  He came out with the men and already knew most of the motions.




When we arrived in Durban there was another plaque exchange.  A representative from the Durban Neonatal hospital, the oldest one in Africa, came aboard to receive the remaining 220 baby hats.