dispence

After 37 days of work I finally got a day off so I decided to hop a bus to Swaziland. I got myself to a hostel in Joburg to catch a ride on the Baz Bus. It a van bus thing that goes door to door to hostels around South Africa.
I waited early in the morning and saw the Joburg rush hour for the first time. The streets where packed with what we would call vans but they go by mini buses, or mini combis here. But they are really just vans. Locals filled the shoulders walking to work. Everyone was walking. No bikes. It took a conversation a few days later to realize people don’t ride bikes here. After being in China for so long Im surprised I didn’t notice that for myself but the fact is everyone commutes by foot. Driving past villages everyone walks to town over dirt paths from their homes.
Before getting to Swaziland, the bus passed through Nelspruit. There was less residential security here in the form of walls and barbed wire. The barbed wire was less prominent and some homes lacked walls altogether. This was some sight after coming from the fortified northern suburbs of Joburg.
When we finally reached the border to Swaziland the driver told us to get out. Take your passports and walk there in Swaziland, he said. So all us white people in this bus walked across the border and got all the stamps we needed.
Not far into the country I could see orange lines of fire winding up hillsides. A friend of mine in Joburg told me locals are afraid of tall grass because they say evil spirits live there. (more…)