Our Last Night In Johannasburg

Our time in Cape Town and the surrounding area was fabulous. We met, and stayed with, our new friend Nick. He and his family live in a “ranch” of sorts outside of Cape Town, and are amazingly dedicated to anything having to do with the health and well being of our planet. Nick seemed to be a never-ending source of information regarding sustainability practices, eco-power, organics, and more. Our time with him left me inspired and curious about knowing and doing more and more and more. We talked a bit about apartheid and Nelson Mandela as well. He shared his experience growing up during this huge change and left me quite inspired with his closing statement that sounded something like this: “me and my generation have actually lived through a peaceful revolution, we know, intrinsically, that social change and evolutionary advancement is possible. We believe we can make a difference, and that the change is happening.”

Smart man.

Thursday morning we headed north to the Cedarburg Mountains and to the towns of Nieutville (sp?) and Malkaraal. Nieutville is the home of the Hiedvelt Cooperative. This cooperative is a group of 64 members who farm Rooibos tea. These farmers have come together in this joint venture to bring their tea to the world in a way that is sustainable, organic, fair trade, and powerful. Their membership is growing every year.

Our hostess for our stay in Malkaraal is one of the co-op members. She is a powerhouse of a woman named Tempest. Her actual given name is Katrina, but she said that since before she could remember her family called her Tempest. She said she wasn’t sure why they called her that, but meeting this woman left no doubt in my mind why her family would think of her as “a violent storm” as the name implies.

Tempest is 63 years young and for most of her life owned little/nothing during the time of apartheid. She is one of nine children and her mother died when she was 8 years old. She began working as a maid or nanny in homes of white people (mainly “old white women”) when she was 13. After the loss of her baby girl, the severe and permanent brain injury of her son, and the death of her “daddy”, she is now a woman who works her own Rooibos tea farm, helps run a collaboratively owned “guest house” they call “Rietjieshuis Eco Lodge”, takes care of her own homestead, and serves as a community member in ways that are far too numerous to mention. She says her life is entirely different now. We spent time sitting around the fire talking about her life, how it has changed, and what she sees for the future of other South African people. She too left me hopeful that things can and do change, and that anything is possible.

Malkaraal, where the Eco Lodge is located, is 30 minutes from the nearest town. It is situated in the wide-open meadows of what is known as the “highveld” (which literally means “open, uncultivated country or grassland in southern Africa”). There are no stores, no gas stations, no post office and not even a church (which I had once been told is what makes a town a town). Instead, it is simply a huge spread out area of simple homesteads. Each homestead has 2 or 3 small, round, brick structures that are made from the local rocks that have been hand cut into brick size chunks, and topped off with hand cut reed from the open meadows for the roof. And this area is, amazingly, the only place on the planet where Rooibos tea is grown.

We arrived, quite coincidentally, during the opening week of South Africa’s famous wildflower season. The meadows are covered in bright, vibrant colors of all shades of yellow, orange, purple and red. There are long winding footpaths that run from each homestead through the meadows, and children roam freely from home to home. It’s no wonder that Tempest says she lives in “heaven on earth”.

Tempest introduced us to other farmers, children, moms, aunts, uncles, and to the man who was one of the founder’s of the Hieveldt Tea Cooperative. Rory and I interviewed Coos Cooperman and his nephew, Gerrie, at the Co-ops “tea court”. This is the facility designed to process and package, in bulk, the rooibos tea generated by all of the members. By the end of the interview I was covered in chill bumps, and for just a moment I had the thought that we were in the presence of true greatness.

While Tempest was the only English speaker at the Eco Lodge, there were two other women who took great care of us, Katrina and Maria. These women cooked our food over the open fire (including fabulous fresh bread), kept us supplied in an endless stream of hot rooibos tea, and chatted on in their native tongue with one another. It was great fun listening to them laugh, watching them play and sing with the baby (Valentino was born on Valentines Day, and is definitely a well loved and plump little boy) and helping them prepare and cook the food we brought (we found out they rarely get broccoli or cauliflower and we loved being able to feed them as well). They basically spent their days with us.

There were 5 boys who hung around as well. Initially, it appeared they didn’t know any English, but once Rory started playing soccer with them, and running around like a kid himself, they seemed to have more English in them than we originally thought. They took Rory and I on a “walk”, and I was surprised when we ended up at ancient Bushman stone paintings that were truly timeless. One of the boys made me a little heart cut from stone and had his mother bring it to me as we were saying goodbye.

We left the lodge at 4 am this morning to catch our return flight from Cape Town to Johannasburg. It was still pitch black out, and I marveled at the size of the sky and the amount of stars. I stood for quite awhile in the absolute silence of the highveld, marveling at the vast ways in which we live, in which we see the world, and in which the world sees us. I am grateful to have had this time touring through a small portion of a country I had once only imagined. And, as is usual, the real thing is oh-so-much-better than my imagination.

(pictures wont post... but you can see em in facebook for now)