A VISIT TO THE CRADLE OF HISTORY

Several million years ago, when the earth was still molten and bubbling, Mpumalanga province, Republic of South Africa, is where rocks began to solidify, and terra began to become firma. Forward millions of years, when Adam and Eve, and Lucy, moved into the nearby neighborhood. Forward again to the mid-19th century when the Voortrekkers (Dutch) began consolidating in the area, then known as the Transvaal, and ignited the Boer wars. Finally, the Voortrekkers established their seat of government in Pretoria in 1902, and de facto, became the center of apartheid. (Ironically, for many years, the president, who lives here, as well as the mayor, has been black.) Now, 108 years after that, is where you find me, reporting my travels to you from the cradle of history.

The Peace Corps set up an appointment for me in Pretoria for Wednesday afternoon. Transportation being what it is here, I traveled to Mbabane on Tuesday by bus, did a little paper-work in the PC office and was put up in a shabby guest house for the night. Promptly at 7:30 a.m., I was picked up by a PC driver and we began a gradual climb to the west, up the Drakensberg escarpment (of one thousand meters), arriving at the Pretoria PC compound about three and a half hours later.

I was impressed with Pretoria; a bustling city with signs of modernity and good infrastructure, but with large jacaranda trees shading even the business routes. The PC office is near Embassy Row and the University of Pretoria. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to spend investigating the city, but my overall impression was good. After my appointment, I was taken to my guest house (B&B) which was in an upscale neighborhood with nice homes behind large, solid fences, and old trees growing in the parking strips (maybe from the same period as the Magnolia district). I walked about two km through the neighborhood on concrete sidewalks to get to “Brooklyn Mall”, an older American-style mall, where I had a nice dinner. Back in my comfortable room, I even enjoyed some tv (the local channels were in Africaans), and I was able to drink the water right out of the tap. (I can sense your excitement.) Besides myself, there were about eight other PCVs from various countries in Africa and I enjoyed visiting with them. It’s interesting to note that three of us were from Washington State and a fourth was from Portland.

The next day, my driver picked me up and we got on the toll-way to retrace our route. The suburbs of Pretoria that I saw reminded me of the suburbs of Vancouver B.C., with similar homes, closely set, with an air of British about them. The road was very nearly American freeway standards; two tolls, R24 and R39, or the equivalent of about US$9 took us almost two hours away where we left the toll-way for the equivalent of a county road toward Swaziland. The highveld is flat or softly undulating green fields with the horizon far away. I saw hectares of maize, large herds of healthy cattle (in contrast with the few, scrawny, free ranging cattle of SD), and farther away, I saw mountains of coal out one side of the car, while out the other side were numerous cooling towers suggesting nuclear power plants. Closer to SD, we drove by pseudo-forests (man planted), a significant cash crop for the area. When we left the toll-way, the land began rolling more and more until we were back to an ancient sandstone of some type—some of it as huge boulders resting on top of each other, other times just breaking the surface, making smooth bald spots in the green fields. Passing that, and as we neared the border, it began to look more like SD; the rolling hills became mountains and valleys, the horizon drew nearer, and the brick huts gave way to the classic beehive rondevals. The border check was painless (you get out of your car and go inside rather than being checked while in your vehicle) and my driver took me directly to the Mbabane bus ranks where I caught my bus back to the 1940s.