OK, so at the risk of sounding repititive - check out the Jacarandas in this town! The streets are a sea of purple with Jacarandas lining both sides and creating the most perfect purple canopy over the streets. An unexpected and delightful surprise.
The rest of Limpopo is quite poor & dusty, but they've done a fantastic job on the downtown (CBD) area - I expect because some of the World Cup soccer matches were held here.
I've done a bit of walking around to try and get to know my home for the next month and I certainly stand out! Polokwane's white population is only small (about 5%) and there are absolutely NO blonde heads to be seen anywhere. It makes a walk down the street very interesting - the kids love to test out their english skills and I generally end up with a long line of them following behind me singing out "HELLO"! And they get SO excited when you say hello back to them. And if you give them a lolly when they say hello well you've made a friend for life! The smiles are wonderful.
The one thing that has struck me since being in South Africa is the warmth & hospitality of the people we meet. Particularly in Limpopo. The people here are very proud of their culture and the work they have done to build their community & infrastructure but they are very poor in comparison to our western standards. It is incredibly humbling to realise how much I take for granted on a day to day basis and yet these people always have a warm smile for a visitor to their province and are always wanting to open their homes & share tea & food with you - food which I expect they can ill afford to give away.
I'm happy to say it's knocked my perspective on it's head - I hope in a very positive way.
I'll be spending the week working with our client who has already taken us to lunch on our first day, dinner last night and has a golf game planned for Thursday - for project planning purposes I'm assured ;) I'm told that most client meetings in Polokwane are held on the golf course though.
This weekend the team plans to head off to the Polokwane Game reserve for a night safari and traditional outdoor dinner. We'll then head to some traditional villages on the outskirts of Limpopo where we'll see some wood carving, traditional art and visit with a Sangdoma - an ancient form of Health Healer or Witch Doctor who follows the ancient ways. I plan to get some hints & tips on diabetes management whilst I'm there.... We'll stay Saturday night in a lovely lodge in one of the river villages on the Limpopo/Zimbabwe border and then head to Blouberg on Sunday to see some ancient cave paintings and walk the famous Blouberg route before heading back to Polokwane.
As usual I've also been taking the opportunity to taste some of the excellent local wines and beers. Here again, there are striking similarities to Australia, with some fabulous wines (particularly the white varietals) and some truly thirst-quenching beers. And to make it even better, the average beer or glass of wine costs about $2 in most restaraunts! A girl could learn to love that..........
Til next time dear reader.
