Candover Community Visit

 Day 9 – Candover

Liam’s birthday!!! We got up and sang Liam happy birthday before heading to the museum to look at the results from our camera traps and give Liam his card. Over the few days we managed to get pictures of a leopard, hyena, porcupines, mongoose, stork and many more.

We then said goodbye to Pongola and headed for Candover community. First, it was necessary for us to visit the Nduna (similar to mayor), she was known as Mama Nduna and was rare to be a female. We had a very interesting meeting with her, discussing her role as leader and how she operates. We had some good discussions about her struggle as a female leader, the structure of politics, COVID and much more. We then drove to see the traditional healer to learn her craft. This was a fascinating experience and gave us further insight into their beliefs and function within the community. They gave us a demonstration of one of their rituals, which allowed them to see beyond the normal eye by contacting the ancestors. She chose me out of everyone to come with her to hide money somewhere in the village, we then returned and her students performed a ritual where one of them had the ancestors speak through her – this was an extremely emotional experience which ended with them finding the money! – I was shocked but honestly stayed a bit dubious due to my cynical mind. Upon leaving, we were swarmed by local people wanting to chat and take photos, which was so much fun. We then left for lunch, all feeling extremely happy and a bit existential – at least I was anyway.

After a delicious lunch at Noctula’s, and giving Liam his birthday cake, we all went to our family homesteads where we would spend the next two nights. We met Nokubonga’s family (mother Pilile, grandmother Jesi, son Kazmulu) and settled into our new home. We then met up with the others and played a big game of netball on the nearby pitch. We then went back to our homestead and had a delicious meal with the family before getting an early night.

 

Day 10

Today we woke up and had a lovely breakfast with the family before heading out to the local creche with the rest of the group. A creche is like a day care/nursery for the young kids in the village – up to about the age of 5. We brought some donations, like clothes and toys, then had a lovely couple of hours playing with the children. This was one of the best moments of the trip so far, they were all amazing – one little girl went in my bag and almost stole my sunglasses!! She would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for Ellie who noticed.

After a wholesome morning, we went to visit an expert working for an organisation called Wildlife Act, helping to prevent the vulture poisonings troubling the area.

We then went back to Noctula’s for lunch. This was fuel for the big football game that had been organised for later – this was to be England vs South Africa. The pitch was on gravel bedrock so was covered in rocks of all sizes, which concerned us but not the locals who turned up barefoot and in crocs! Really showed us what we’re made of. The game was a lot of fun with a wide range of talent on the pitch.

After South Africa took an early lead, things didn’t look good until Ruby put away the equalizer with an excellent finish in the bottom left corner after pouncing on a rebound ahead of the defenders. The South Africa team had a couple of unlucky decisions not go their way, with two goals disallowed for offside, one on the stroke of halftime. However, they went into halftime with a 2-1 lead. Early on the second half England substitute Zama took a long shot that the keeper parried in front of the England attacker who put it away to equalize. The momentum continued behind England with a scrappy goal around the 6-yard box which saw Liam smash one past the keeper and give England the lead. After continued pressure from the England attack, South Africa threatened on the break but was stopped by myself who turned on the ball at the halfway line, drove forward with two touches and hit the ball on the half volley from 40 yards out and saw it sail over the keeper’s hand to give England a 4-2 lead (will be flying off this forever). This took the wind out of the South Africa side and allowed England to see the game out to take a momentous victory. We ended the game with a friendly penalty shootout, which saw some great goal but also some horrendous misses.

We then returned to our homestead where we did some manual labour for the family. They are currently in the process of extending their kitchen and living area, so had a delivery of about 300 bricks to be unloaded. The truck arrived covered in the local kids, so they helped us, along with the uncle of the family. This gave us a chance to interact with more of the locals and showed us how the community operates. Everyone helps everyone and trusts each other enough to let the children roam. Something we could learn from. We then helped put the family goats and cattle back in their pens. This all went smoothly apart from one goat, who is known to be a troublemaker. We ended up running around the farmstead chasing this one goat that we ended up tackling and carrying to its pen.

After a busy day, we sat down with the family and had a delicious chicken stew cooked by Pilile. We spent the evening chatting and playing cards with Nokubonga’s younger brothers, which felt more authentic and real than any experience I could have hoped for. It was a very wholesome evening in which the kids really warmed to us – even if there was some cheating going on!! We got to know each of their individual personalities even with a language barrier and I am so grateful to the family for welcoming us into their home and getting to know us, I will remember it for the rest of my life.