We left Cape town for Zithulele on Saturday 26th May and 1800 miles of driving round trip. Nearly half of that was with me behind the wheel, practicing my manual shifting. Very scary!We stayed the night at The Armagh Country Lodge in Tsitskamma, a national park and my favorite spot on the Garden Route, a stretch of road that functions as South Africa's greatest hits along 500 miles. The route runs parallel to the Indian Ocean and lies in a region with one of South Africa's highest rainfall. Sheer gorges, lagoons, lakes, rivers, indigenous yellow wood forests, white sand beaches, and Fynbos (fine-bush), unique to the Western Cape province and the most varied floral kingdom in the world, are the entertainment. We loved the lodge and filled up on the hearty South African home cooking, played Scrabble, and enjoyed the scenery.
Along the route you cross from the Western Cape province to the Eastern Cape, tribal home of the Xhosa people, Nelson Mandela's tribe. The area of the East Cape we were in is commonly called the Transkei. It is known as a spectacular part of the country for all it's green coastal plains and rolling hills.
The Transkei population is emptying out into the Cape Town townships, primarily Kayelitsha, as people seek work and education. There are virtually no jobs in the Transkei. Literally, nowhere to work. One of the four permanent doctors at Zithulele hospital said that during one house call, where about 25 adults were seen, all the patients reported they had never attended school or been employed. Mornings in the village you see children dressed in uniform walking to school. The school day seemed to be very short. From about 9 or so to 12.30. One doctor said the government is starting from nothing in terms of educating people, where no schools and no infrastructure existed to support educators teaching in these rural sites. Also, an estimated 25% of the population is HIV positive.
Mark helped to install electricity to this HIV clinic on the Zithulele hospital grounds, his electrical engineering degree coming in handy again. The clinic had not had power since October 2006 so staff were very excited. Now they will be able to have a computer in their office and more efficiently deliver their service. Mark is also developing a database that doctors will use to monitor HIV patients and to deliver follow up services. Lacking one, doctors and outreach staff have struggled to administer their service and some patients have fallen through the cracks. These doctors are amazing. Any of them could live somewhere with paved roads, reliable taps, an easily accessible food supply but they have committed to building Zithulele hospital and serving this rural black South African community.Mark and I lived on rations of rice, beans, and egg. Very Mexican. Fortunately, we'd passed through Mossel Bay to visit Sunelle's parents and they loaded us up with Tani Malie's home preserves. That proved to be our supply of fruit and veg for the week.
I accompanied Mark to the hospital a couple of days. Otherwise I busied myself 'cooking under incredible circumstances' as Mark jokingly put it, knitting, and going for walks. Don't cry for me I know! Here's a shot of Sea Lily, she washed ashore and turned to yarn because she wanted to go live with Tigerlily in California.
Here's a picture of kids playing soccer in Hole in the Wall, the village we stayed at which is near Zithulele. The picture at top is us on our last day in the village, getting ready for the long drive home and another stop at the Armagh.
