(from Sept 12, 2006)

Hi All!

Two weekends ago Shannon and I, plus 4
other girls went to Swaziland for the reed dance ceremony (all the virgins
go to dance for the king and he picks his new wife. He is in his 30's and
already had 14 now I think, crazy huh?). But first we had to get there. We
all thought we could just rent a car (a mini van) and
drive there, no sweat. Well ... We left late and ended up in the middle of
nowhere south Africa, in the dark, driving through sketchy impoverished
towns,on road that were un-lit and under construction. We had to stop and
get a hotel for the night. Oh, and did I mention
that the Swazi border closes at 10pm - so were were trying to beat the
clock too. The scary part was that we all realized how vulnerable we
actually were. At the hotel we all broke down and just cried and hugged.
But we learned a valuable lesson about traveling in Africa, we got lucky
and won't make the same mistake twice.

The rest of the weekend was great though. Swaziland is beautiful.
Saturday, we saw
traditional Swazi dancing (which is a lot like traditional Zulu Dancing).
The singing and drumming are really beautiful and complex, plus they do a
lot of kicking and stomping. We took a tour through the village, and our
guide kept saying things like "In our Swazi culture the woman must always
be submissive to the man. She must never eat the head or feet of the cow.
If she eat the head she will be more intelligent than the man, and if she
eat the feet, she will walk away to the man."

Sunday, we went on a game drive, Shan and I gave all the animals ridiculously
normal human names, like Bruce, Mel, Eric, and Geoff. We thought it was
hilarious - maybe you had to be there. We also had a moment with a zebra
(named imbali - Zulu for flowers) that I can only describe as
magical - zebras are the closest you can get to unicorns in real life. She
was up on a hill overlooking the Ezulwini Valley. Shannon and I got
emotional, and started talking about how luck we were to be able to see
such things.
After the game drive we went to the ceremony itself. We didn't have time
to stay for the
dance, but we saw all the girls in rows walking to see the king. Hundreds
and hundreds of girls - in traditional, beautifully colored Swazi skirts
and bare chests. Even we had to wear the traditional skirts, which a bunch
of 11 and 12 year olds helped us tie, but we got to keep our shirts. It
was amazing and Shan and I had another moment. But the strange
thing was that the girls seemed even more excited to see us than we were
to see them. They grabbed our hands and tried to pull us along, called out
to us, wanted us to take their pictures, and hugged us. It was crazy and
incredible. The whole time I just kept thinking - moments like these are why I love
traveling.

Plus, Shan was proposed to. It went like this:
Man comes running up in front of her, shakes a stick in her face and says:
I want you to be my wife!
Shannon freezes, I run up and put an arm around her
Me: She's already married
Man: Then what about you?
Me: I'm married already too
Man: What about them? (points to our friends)
Me: They're married too.
Man: I don't even get one!?

He was very disappointed. It was a moment.

We left in the afternoon, we wanted to drive home in the dark for as
little as possible. After we got back across the border, the ride went
very smoothly, except for a patch of fog. I got home late and fell into
bed. It was quite the weekend.

This past weekend I just hung around 'Maritzburg. The first weekend I've
been home since the first weekend I was here. I have made a lot of art and
drama student freinds. I went to a student film screening and spent a lot
of time just hanging out in people's flats. 'Maritzburg is a small town,
so there isn't a whole lot to do - so it's nice to have people (both South
African and American) to spend time with. It's September here now, which
means its spring approaching summer. Very strange, but nice to be able to
study by the pool.

Other than that, I have been doing a lot of art, and
have joined the girls' soccer team. We had our first game just this past
Saturday. I'm horrible, but it is a lot of fun, good
exercise, and a good way to form bonds with South Africans. During the
games the people watching sing these beautiful Zulu songs. I have no idea
what they were saying, but when I heard them I stopped playing and missed
the ball. What can you do?

Hope this finds you all well.
All my love,
Lauren