The Magical Wilderness of Bulungula!
First of all, I apologize for not blogging in a while. In my defense, I have to have about a spare 2 hours to complete one post. I come to school with everything written but it takes about 2 hours to upload all the pictures. Also this is an extremely long post! I digress....
I went to Bulungula this past weekend and it was one of my
favorite trips here! It is currently ranked number two: only below Cape Town.
It was so beautiful that I have to write about it before my Jo-burg trip even
though Jo-burg was first. I’ll first write about what I did in Bulungula and
then I’ll write about my thoughts on the area.
We left for Port Elizabeth at 8:20 am and we reached
Bulungula around 7 in the night. It was an extremely long drive and 3 hours of
it was on unpaved dirt roads. There was a collective feeling of dread in the
car on the unpaved roads as our small VW Polo rental car was taking quite a
beating and we are all poor college students. Thankfully the little car came
out all right at the end and we hiked up to the lodge in the dark. I could hear
the ocean but it was pitch black in the mountains and I had no idea what the
area really looked like. We immediately had dinner and went to sleep in small
huts.
When I woke up in the morning, I went outside our huts and
the sights absolutely astounded me. Below are some pictures of the view from
the lodge: I think you’ll understand my jaw dropping open after you have a
glimpse.
On the first day we went canoeing and had a village tour.
This is my second time canoeing and it felt much better than
my first time- I didn’t worry about tipping at all this time! We started in the
lagoon and continued down until we were up river. The day was warm but the
waters were chilly. However this didn’t stop my friend Andrew (an avid canoer
who has gone to the Arctic) from jumping in. Here are some pictures!
Local men catching prawns!
Are we wearing dress socks or is that simply the African mud? Hmm.....
The village tour was quite interesting. We walked up and
down a lot of mountains to get through the village. I have no doubt that I
would confuse all the mountains and get lost if I was alone. Thankfully our
guide knew how to differentiate all of them and had no trouble finding her way
around. We tasted some traditional village beer…an experience that I hope never
to repeat again. It was a thick liquid that had a rather horrid taste- not
quite sure I want speculate what was actually in there. Unfortunately, the
language barrier didn’t allow us to have many conversations but we were able to
see the area.
A soccer match- so colorful!
Inside a rondevelt hut. 
They don't have cars here so they have warnings on the beer cartons for walking- I thought this was hilarious!
Eeek!- local African beer
On our second day, we went horseback riding. My riding
experiences were limited up to this point: I had ridden on ponies in Sri Lanka
on the beach for a few minutes at a time but that was about it. My group was
quite excited to see me try and mount a horse alone for the first time: much to
their dismay, I didn’t have too much trouble. However, I still gave a few yelps
of surprise when the horse began galloping down the hill. We rode on the beach,
through the sand dunes, and then through the mountains. I can’t say I find
horse riding very comfortable but it was quite an experience.
Liz and I were the only two girls on the trip and we went on
a ‘Women Power’ activity. The boys said it was very stereotypical of me and
refused to participate. We gathered sticks, cooked pap and cabbage, painted our
faces, carried water up the hills, built bricks, and talked to our guide about
village life. Unfortunately the language barrier prevented much conversation
again. Here are some pictures.
One of the many puppies I wanted to steal
Face paint!
Gathering wood
A village woman I saw on the way ;)
Outside the Inxola's hut
Women making bricks
Liz lifting the cowdung and mud while I watched and took pictures =]
Getting my hair braided
End result: 
Everything I did with my group at Bulungula was a lot of fun
but my short stay also opened my mind in a different way. Let me explain.
My stay in Bulungula, even for just a weekend, helped me understand
some nuances of South Africa’s history. Bulungula is in the area of the Transkei.
Towards the end of the apartheid era, President Verwoerd created what he called
‘black homelands’ in the Transkei area. The idea was that the black homelands
would be where the blacks of South Africa would be citizens. Essentially, there
would be two South Africa’s: the small area of the Transkei for the blacks and
the rest of South Africa for the whites. The Transkei area was meant to have
its own political system, a vibrant economy, and become a cultural hub for the
blacks. Instead, it became a dumping ground for poverty where famine was
widespread and unemployment was rampant. The creation of the black homelands was
a tipping point against the apartheid regime because the dismal conditions of
the areas created frustration and anger within the black community. As I walked
through this area, I started understanding their feelings of outrage. There’s
no running water or electricity. Roads are nonexistent: there are only unpaved
gravel paths. The small one room Rondevelts (the round houses) generally have 8-10 people living in them. The
soil is dry and not very suitable for farming. I see all this 20 years after
apartheid has ended: I cannot imagine how much worse the conditions were during
the last years of apartheid. The emotions I began to understand in Bulungula go
beyond what textbooks have taught me about the intense frustration and outrage
that existed during apartheid.
The magical wilderness of Bulungula was truly a one of a
kind experience: the sights, my group, our activities, the history…simply
everything about it. I'll leave you with some pictures of the beautiful sunset at Bulungula =]
