Sterkfontein Dam

This week we're in Arusha, Tanzania, where Peter is attending a conference and where I am catching up on hundreds of emails and lots of blog posts. Though we are terribly behind, I will try to get lots of photos up in this week while I have medium-speed internet...so I've backdated this post and will backdate the next few until I am caught up, just so I can find them in the future...

In late March, we drove eight hours to spend the weekend with my friend Lisa, Lisa's mom, and two friends. Though the drive was brutal (eight hours), it was absolutely worth it to catch up with Lisa and to explore some new parts of South Africa and Swaziland. We rented a cottage at Qwantani, a resort at the lake created by Sterkfontein Dam.

Saturday morning the weather was windy and rainy, so Lisa and the others opted to drive to Clarens, a nearby town known for its art galleries. Peter and I braved the elements for a short hike. As it was quite warm, the rain didn't bother us too much, and it stopped raining after about 30 minutes or so.

Later that afternoon, we biked around the resort. Though these photos are slightly embarrassing (due to my stunning lack of coolness as an athlete), you can see how pretty the place is, especially at that time of day.

On Saturday night, we enjoyed a South African tradition: the braai. As far as I can tell, a braai can also mean a barbecue at someone's house, but in this case, it was a communal (sort of) affair. In the afternoon, we reserved a table for the six of us, and then that night, we showed up at a building specially outfitted for gigantic barbecues. I said "sort of" about the communal aspect because, although there were probably 100 people there sharing some huge grills, each group pretty much kept to itself. There was some chatting at the barbecue, but once we were back at our table, we didn't really interact with others. And actually, that was fine with us; it's nice to feel like you're part of a big activity, but not have to talk to anyone you don't like.

We picked up a few packs of various meats - sausage, steaks, chops - and a few salads (beet, potato) and headed to find an open space on the grill. Lisa managed to squeeze in next to some people, and Peter went up to help her.

The rest of us busied ourselves with drinks and the "pap and sauce." "Pap" is an African traditional dish - porridge made of maize, a corn variant - and it is often served with a tomato sauce. (Though Wikipedia says it can be found in West Africa, I've only had it in southern and East Africa.) At this braai, there were gigantic pots of both - and once you paid a minimal fee, you could help yourselves to as much of it as you wanted.