Some of the housing we passed along our tour. You can see that some of the people have decided to g with a more western look with their homes. Some have kept the traditional round hut look of the Zulu tribe but have built their homes out of block instead of sticks and animal dung!
Which way do we go? A road sign along the way to see the Zulu's. You can see that the weather was overcast. We were lucky that the rain held off until our ride back to the ship.
These local people had their vegetables for sale along the roadside.
WELCOME to the land of Zulu! This village was actually in a movie in 1964.
The tribe has many customs. One is throwing a stone on this pile. You must first spit on the stone and then throw it. If your stone stays on the pile you wll have good luck, if it rolls to the ground you will have bad luck! Fortunately, all of our stones stayed on the pile! As you can see there hve been many lucky people here in the past!
These girls are in the tradional bead dressing of the tribe. They can carry most anything on the tops f their heads. Pots full of the beer that they make mostly. Some of the people we were with tried the beer. We did not. They had us all gather around the chief and he got to drink first. Then the cocnut looking cup was passed among the men first and then to the women. Men and women sit seperately during this. The chief seemed to like the beer but when I asked the people that tried it, they said it was just terrible! I guess it is something you have to get used to.
Nicholas got to be a Zulu warrior for a minute or two.
The Zulu warriors demonstrated "umshiza", stick fighting, competitons, for us. They really go at each other!
The warriors showed us how they can throw spears. They could hit targets that were about 50 to 60 yards away with ease. They asked for volunteers and of course Nicholas wanted to try. He will have to stay and live with the Zulu tribe a few years to get the hang of it!
The chief on his throne before the daning began.
Some of the girl dancers. Their beads make noise while they dance!
The men all tried to get their knees way up high and hit themselves in the head with them! When they were successful at this they fall to the ground. All of their dances tell a story. The Zulu people are very affectionate people. Many of the dances we saw were of love and expressing love- letters written in beaded necklaces and color. They gave us all a small Zulu love-letter that was made of beads. No words just the beading can tell a Zulu warrior how a girl feels about him. White represents purity, vision and love itself. Black means "I fear you have taken another maiden". Blue represents loneliness. Yellow represents jealousy. Pink represents that she feels like he is wasting his money on her and that he is not making enough effort to pay the "brideprice", called labola, which is 11 cows. A warrior has to have 11 cows and give them to the girl's father if he wants to marry her. Red represents intense love. Green represents that she is pining away for him and cannot eat. Brown represents that her love is like the earth which gives rise to new life. As you can tell these people were very smart. Back in the 1800's they actually defeated a British army that was trying to take their land. A true embarrassment in that time for the British.
A little Zulu dancing! He was about 4 years old.
A tree that looks like a pine at the base and then grows to look like a cactus at the top.
athleen and her new friend, Buffalo skull!
When we got back to the ship we were all tired but the children wanted to try Karoke night! This is Kathleen and me with Megan and Shari, two of the dancers from the cast singing Crocodile Rock.
Thank goodness Joe showed up to help with the singing. They had 30 minutes of fun and we called it a night.
1 comment:
hey kathleen i saw your cool pictures. it looks like your having fun.those penguins are so funny.did u have to eat sheep heads for a meal?thats disgusting.how were the ostrich eggs.they must be pretty big to fill up your family with just 1.is it really that hard to open it?
going on a cruise around the world sounds fun.i wish i could take a cruise because it hurts my ears to fly.maybe we could go do something when you get back like go see a movie.just call me or contact me whenever you get back(which will be a while im sure.)is everyone having a good time?it sure does seem like it.i want to know how many days total this trip will be if u can email me or you could just tell me that whenever you get back.well it seems fun going around the world.
From Spencer
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