Life in a Rondavel

A multi part post about life in a Rondavel

Part Two: The Pros and Cons

Like any other form of building in this world, a rondavel comes with it's pros and cons. The ultimate question though is do the pros out-weigh the cons in this environment? In my opinion they win by a landslide.

Pros:

•   A rondavel is constructed completely from 100% natural and renewable materials. That alone makes it a clear winner in my book. This also makes constructing a rondavel very affordable.

•   It's got natural A/C. The inside of a rondavel, on a hot African day, feels like walking into an air conditioned house. The combination of the cool floor and grass roof create an incredible cool and comfortable atmosphere in comparison to the blistering summer sun. I have found at times it can even be up to 10-15C cooler inside on particularly hot days. Western style homes here become incredibly hot in the summer time and most of the mid day heat ends up trapped inside the house for the remainder of the night.

•   When it rains, it pours in Africa. If you're inside of a house that has a tin roof when it rains here you can find it hard to think straight, let alone hold a conversation with someone or try to sleep. A rondavel in comparison is silent. The heavens can open up and you can still enjoy a good conversation with family or fall even deeper into your midnight slumber.

Cons:

◦   When it pours, it might leak. If you are staying in an older rondavel or the roof wasn't constructed properly, particularly hard rain can sometimes find its way through the grass and then you're left with a wet floor or whatever else is under the leak. It really has to be raining hard and for a long time for this to happen though.

◦   It's mortar is made of mud. Still pertaining to the hard rainfall, if there are long periods of hard continuous rainfall the fear of walls becoming unstable can become a real issue. However, this takes ALOT of rain for days and days on end.

 

Can We Go Thrift Shopping?

You hear all the time that you gotta enjoy the little things in life. I know it's a completely cliche saying, but the more time I spend on this rock the more I can't help but find myself living into it. Whether it be a hot cup of tea with a friend, watching young puppies wrestle around in knee high grass, or sitting down to a good book. All of these have a hidden beauty within them and sometimes, if you stop long enough, you can catch a small glimpse of it. However, tonight's cliche moment was sponsored by a Nikon Coolpix AW110, iTunes, and a awful cute five year old who loves to dance.

My little sister Kitlano and I were hanging out when Macklemore's Thrift Shop came across the airwaves. One thing lead to another and before long we were both dancing our hearts out and being completely ridiculous together. Now, everyone knows you can't have a awesome dance party with out filming it. That being said, the only logical thing to do in the moment was to pull out my camera and start recording.

To most people the video will be completely pointless and just silly. But six months from now, when I'm sitting back in America, I'm going to be able to watch that video and remember the innocent laugh of my little sister and the fun we had being completely goofy together in a small rondavel in Lekubu, South Africa. It's times like that which make all the injustices, pains, and misunderstandings of this world go away, even if only for a moment. I guess it may lead one to say, "You gotta enjoy the little things."

Peace

*written February 17th

 

Life In The Not So Fast Lane

For me personally, and I think many other YAGM as well, this is the first time in a long time that I haven't had the luxury of having the keys to a vehicle readily available in my pocket. In many ways it has been freeing, in many ways it has been frustrating, but all in all it has been a mystery during my time of service that has been an incredibly fun experiment.

I know a major part of all YAGM's experience during their time abroad is the public transportation system. The South Africa program is no exception to this part of the experience. In my time here so far I've had the privilege of being able to try nearly all forms of transportation offered across South Africa. From kombis*, long haul kombis, buses, trains, meter taxi, hired kombis, friends cars, and even donkey carts on rare occasions. Though all of these are all very different ways of getting around, they all share one common principal, time is elastic.

A big part of learning the public transportation systems here in South Africa is patience. In my opinion it might just be the biggest learning curve for foreign travelers, YAGM included. Time is not concrete for most South African people in comparison to the American culture. Transportation schedules and times aren't nearly as crucial, if there is a schedule in the first place. The reality of traveling on public transportation in South Africa is that you're going to miss some buses, you're going to be late sometimes, and there is always contingencies that are out of your control. Now, one could allow all of this to consume them, upset them, and worst of all panic them, but where does that get you other then the same exact situation you're already in? Except you also have a poor attitude to go along with it now. In my experience, embracing the chaos that can be the transportation systems sometimes is the best way to go about it. The mystery of whether or not you're going to make your bus on time, how long it will take for your kombi to fill up today, if the kombi drivers will be on strike today or not. It's all things out of your control and it's better to roll with the punches then become uptight. Things have a way of working themselves out in almost every instance.

Since arriving in country I have yet to take the same form of transportation to the same destinations twice, with one exception. Which is absolutely incredible considering I have been in country now for nearly six months. Ive found the possibilities really are endless in the public transportation service here, some good and some not so good, but they all can lead to new and incredible adventures if you merely perceive them as such.

* a kombi is a 15 passenger van that is used as a taxi service. They are not metered, but instead are a flat rate from one destination to the other. They only leave for their destination once the kombi is entirely full, whether that takes 5 minutes or 5 hours.

 

*written February 14th

Peace

Life in a Rondavel

A multi part post about life in a Rondavel

Part One: A History

Since the first part of November I have been staying in a Rondavel. So here is a multi part post about what it's like to live in a Rondavel. For starters, some of you are probably wondering, "What is a Rondavel?!" A Rondavel is a traditional South African style home. Pre colonization, they were the widely accepted standard across a vast majority of the African continent.

Unlike most western syle houses, they are round. Why round you might ask? The round shape of a Rondavel allows for great protect against the weather, namely wind. There are times when 70-80kph winds can come out of what seams like nowhere, throwing sand, dust and almost anything in its way all over the place. Flat walls wouldn't be nearly as effective or stable against such strong winds.

The next step: if you have time, take out a piece of paper and a pencil. Now try and draw a perfect circle. I don't know about you, but my circle doesn't look very "round". So how is it that people make Rondavels so perfectly round? Either with a stake, or a companion if one is available, one would pick a center point. From the center point, one then chooses the desired distance they wish for the walls to be from the center point. With your stake or companion held fast at the center point, one attaches a string from the center point, and with a stick attached at the other end of the string walks/draws a circle in the dirt. Pretty slick huh? On average, a Rondavel is usually about 10 meters in circumference. Sizes can vary though depending on the specific needs.

Once you've drawn your circle it's time to begin construction. Before you can do that you need to gather your supplies though. Decent sized stones, dirt, cow dung, and water. With the dirt, cow dung, and water one makes a mixture that very much resembles concrete or mortar. Once your mortar is ready you can start placing stones in the position you desire and filling the spaces with the mortar, much like one builds a wall out of bricks. Most walls are generally 2-3 meters tall.

Your walls are done, time for a roof. This means you need more supplies. This time you would be gathering, various sized sticks and A LOT of grass. The larger sticks are used to form trusses in a complete circle around the walls, meeting at a pitch in the central point of the home. Using your smaller sticks, one now makes rings that connect to the trusses starting at the walls and working upward towards the pitch. Each ring is roughly 30cm apart and becomes smaller each ring closer to the pitch. Now it's time for the grass. There are various techniques, but in some way, one needs to attach the grass to the rings you just built. Starting closest to the walls and working once again towards the pitch, layering grass on top of itself.

One last step! So we have walls, and a roof, what else could we need? How about a floor thats not going to continually be brushed away, muddy or dusty? In the truly traditional Rondavels the dirt is dug down a few centimeters and then replaced with the dirt, cow dung and water mixture. It's much more durable and easier to keep clean then just leaving the floor as dirt.

Stay tuned for more on life in a Rondavel!

Peace

*written January 27th