Back in Belgium

I think I promised to write one more message on this blog.
Three weeks back in Belgium ... and of course mixed feelings.

All those people here are concerned and ask me if it is difficult to adjust again to Belgium, but that part of coming back is actually the easiest thing. I was happy to come back and see my family and friends back. Although I tell everybody that I don't have difficulties leaving people behind for a certain time, I was looking forward to see you all back. Nice to see my parents and Ellen waiting for me in the airport.
And Belgium didn't change a lot, so adjusting to my old life here is a piece of cake. After six months, I was also full of energy to start working again. And yes, some of the kids still remembered me :).

But now that I am three weeks back, it seems already ages ago that I was in South Africa. It is actually a little bit frightening. I am working again and it actually feels like I didn't leave the job. Everything in my appartment - or almost everything - is again on his place. Sien is used to the fact that there is someone more living in the house and she knows my name. Just played my first soccer game after six months (and we won!). South Africa already seems like a distant memory ...

But when I think about it - and put my south african music on -, I feel the sun on my body while running next to the sea, I see my little friends asking for a ride to go to the beach, I can see the children of Die Sterreweg, I hear the music and see the dancing in the club, I see whales jumping out of the sea, hear people calling me Nkuli, hear Lindelwa's stories, and above all ... I miss Ayanda.

So, I am enjoying my life in Belgium now and I am making a plan to fly to South Africa again or wherever I can find her.

And if you want to know about the new stories in my life, you'll have to visit me, because with this message I am closing this blog.
Thanks to all the readers and especially to all the ones who wrote a comment!

Vakantie in Plett

Januari is er wat anders gaan uitzien dan gepland. De geplande reis voor januari moest geannuleerd worden, wegens werkverplichtingen van mijn reisgenoot Ayanda. Ik vervloek die blanke bazen hier.
Maar uiteraard is het nog altijd meer dan mogelijk om hier een goede tijd te hebben zonder de geplande reis. Wat er zoal op het programma heeft gestaan?
- Huisvrouw spelen in ons townshiphuisje.
- Tweedaagse fietstocht met Matthias naar Oudsthoorn. De timing was iets minder, want de regen viel die dagen met bakken uit de lucht. Maar zo'n douchke daar konden we wel tegen. En die bergen hier, die kunnen onze benen tegenwoordig ook aan. Ik denk dat ik klaar ben voor een alpenrit van de Tour de France.
De eerste dag hadden we onszelf iets overschat, of waren we te laat vertrokken, of ... . Wie al het zeggen. Maar na zo'n 70 kilometer in de bergen, vonden we om 18u wel dat het tijd was om een slaapplaats te zoeken in een klein boerengat. Uiteraard geen jeugdherberg of bed en breakfast te bespeuren, maar gelukkig vonden we een sympathieke boer ( niet letterlijk te nemen; de boeren dat zijn de blanken hier). We kregen meteen het huis van zijn broer aangeboden, dat momenteel toch leeg stond. Het huis was groter dan onze twee townshiphuizen te samen, dus daar konden we geen neen tegen zeggen.
De tweede dag waren we perfect voorbereid en hebben een bergrit van 110 kilometer op ongeveer 9u afgelegd. We kregen zelfs aanmoediging van een kudde struisvogels die mee de berg afliepen. Volledig nat geregend in George, maar toch redelijk droog aangekomen in Oudsthoorn.
- Braai georganiseerd voor Lies en Bella die hier op bezoek gekomen zijn. Superleuk om op de hoogte gebracht te worden van het wel en wee in Belgenland en dan vooral in de voetbal. Aangezien ik weet dat deze twee vrouwen echt beesten zijn, heb ik ze ook een wandeling op Robberg op slippers aangeboden. Beiden hebben deze beproeving perfect doorstaan. Vandaar dat ze een gamedrive verdienden in Rhino Base Camp. Giraffen, neushoorns, leeuwen, zebra's, nijlpaarden, krokodillen. Het is toch allemaal indrukwekkend.
- En voor de rest: strand liggen, en uiteraard strandloop - Sander en Stienie, het strand ligt er perfect bij deze week - lezen, braaien, feestjes houden, ... Ik verveel me hier niet.

Ik vermoed dat dit de laatste blog is voor ZA. Een afsluiter volgt wanneer ik in het koude Belgie ben.

Traveling through South Africa

A short story about our travel from the last two weeks: hitch hiking with Sander through South Africa.

Top 3 of the best travel vehicles:
1) hitch hike in bakkie (car that you see a lot in South Africa and Lesotho - has an open boot in the back where you can take everything, like hitch hikers ... )in Lesotho. In the bakkie Sander and I enjoyed the nice moutain view. After an hour we got a friend with us at the back: a living sheep. Quite soft actually.
2)Taxi minibus in Lesotho. In such a minibus you sit with the driver and 17 people, quite cosy together. The tyre had to be replaced before we left and that didn't seem an easy job, so it took us a few hours before we could leave. When we finally left, every 30 minutes we had to get out, because they had to lift up the front seat to fill the engine with new water. The engine was getting hot quite fast. Maximum speed of the bus was 50 km/h and sometimes 70 km/h when we went down. But than as well, I liked the 50 better than going down in this thing at 70 km/h. When we had to climb I suppose we got a maximum of 4 km/h. But we got where we had to be: safe and quite in time.
3)4 by 4 drive in the wild coast with a closed bakkie with strong engine. So that was more like a ride in the rollercoaster. At one point I was thinking am I now sitting or am I lying down in this car ...

Top 3 of best places we stayed:
1) Rondavel hut in a little village in Lesotho. This was one of the chiefs rondavel huts and they welcomed us really well.
2) Stay in township house in Mthatha; We arranged this stay with somebody we met in the taxi, because we didn't have a place to stay in this city. The house was quite full with all the relatives visiting. So I slept with one of the kids in one bed and Sander had to sleep on the ground. But again we felt really welcome.
3) Big luxurious house in Jo'burg. We hadn't actually planned to go to Johannesburg, but since our drivers went to Durban, we thought we might go as well, in stead of going to Durban. So we finished our travel in a big house with electrical security fence and security guides.

More stories later or in Belgium!

What’s up with Goedele ?

It looks like it is ages ago that I have been writing my blog. My excuse: life is too busy to write blogs.

After the Otter Trail I have been travelling a week with mama, papa, tante Flavie en Gaston. And I really enjoyed that. Not only the nice hotels, which I am not used to and the nice food. But in the first place the company of my family. Although I must say that homesick is a word that doesn’t appear in my dictionary, it was really nice to see them back and spend a whole week together. And of course I enjoyed seeing all the whales in Hermanus, walking two kilometres on bare feet in the river not knowing how far we still needed to walk and how deep this river would become, the table mountain, the nice views from out of the car, the discussions about how the sun turns in South Africa and so on … .

Afther this trip life has changed a little bit for me. We finished the Laridae-era. Laridae used to be the name of our appartment and this name is associated with a lot of good memories, due to my companions over there: Bruno, Sander, Thomas and Eugene. At the end of November, time had come to change. Bruno and Thomas left Plett and Sander and I made the decision to go and live for our last two weeks in the township.

And I can tell you life in the township is a bit different: a one-room house, cooking water to have warm water to wash, allways neighbours around, during weekend there's a party from the morning until the evening and you'll listen to the neighbours music from morning till evening - or to your own music if you play your music really loud -, trying to learn some Xhosa - my tong turns in a knot when I try to pronounce their clicks -, no internet, ... . What can I say? Different, interesting and nice!

Die Sterreweg is finishing now and I am trying to get everything ready of what I had planned to do. So that tomorrow Sander and I can start our trip. This will also be interesting. We decided to make a hitch-hiking tour, so that means we didn't make too many plans yet. So I will have to tell you all about it when I come back!