Day Three: Hello Free-State!

Every morning when I get in my car and hit the road, my head is a big melkskommel of stress, fear, doubt, and overwhelming uneasiness. I stress about how I am going to write my story, how I am going to find people to talk to, how not to get fat, etc. It lasts for about an hour and then the road sends a natural calmness over me. The road and the absolute beauty of our country.

After a not-so-healthy Wimpy breakfast in Queenstown I left for Burgersdorp to meet the van Schalkwyks. Philip van Schalkwyk and his wife (whose name I can't remember) work at Alberts Butchery on the Molteno Road. They did not have much to tell me so they sent me to the local museum where I was taken on a tour by Dalene Bredenkamp. Dalene is a born and bred Burgersdorpian and has worked as a secretary at the museum for 20 years. She also doesn't know much about the Great Trek but she took me outside to the back of the museum to show me a real ox-wagon. It is huge! I honestly don't know how the heck those voortrekkers managed up and down the rocky slopes of the Drakensberg and other mountains with such long vehicles! Strong and determined people they were.

I had lunch at a very cute coffee shop about 10m from the museum called Hagenhuis Coffee Shop. They have light meals, drinks, antiques, and crafts. Or what I call 'kakkies': those 'things' you don't need but buy anyways. There isn't a specific 'kakkie' item but I'm sure you'll know it when you see it.

I then drove on to Smithfield, which is about two hours from Burgersdorp (if you drive slowly and take photos of random things like I did), and is also where I am staying tonight (in a lovely Bnb called Bokmakierie Bnb). It's a big house with vibrant colours, a great collection of artworks by the owner himself (and others) as well as a whole lot of interesting looking, for lack of a better word, stuff.

Peter and Linda Retief, the owners, are a pair of wonderful people. They have interesting stories, great backgrounds, and really care about their town. Linda was born in Grahamstown and has lived all over, while Peter was born in Adelaide and also lived all over. Surprisingly, they are not strictly speaking Afrikaans, and Peter, similar to me, has is also confused about whether he is an Afrikaner or not. He believes that Afrikaners are really breaking new ground in music, art, and theatre. Afrikaans artists like Jan Blohm and Valiant Swart are often the inspiration behind his paintings.

I think these Retief's are perhaps famous in the arts world. I don't know. I just get the feeling. Especially because Peter told me that a well-known travel journalist is staying here on Tuesday night. And because he gave me two FREAKING AWESOME 'underground' South African magazines which cannot be bought in a shop, only from a contributing journalist. Hmm, where the hell am I?

I don't really care because I am so happy. And grateful. And I wish I could take out my eye-balls and stick them on here to show the world all they beauty that I have seen in the past three days. Happiness is this.

Side-view of an ox-wagon, Burgersdorp Museum, Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape. 2013

Front of an ox-wagon, Burgersdorp Museum, Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape. 2013.

Back of an ox-wagon, Burgersdorp Museum, Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape. 2013.

Dalene Bredenkamp in front of the Burgersdorp Museum. Dalene has lived in the

town all her life and likes the idea of shopping in a big town but wouldn't

move anywhere else. Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape, 2013.

Hagenhuis Coffee Shop. Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape. 2013.

Reid Street was renamed to Piet Retief Street in 1938 to honour the voortrekker leader

who was killed by Dingane in Natal, Burgersdorp, Eastern Cape. 2013.

Day Two: Kindness

Right now I am in a Bnb in Queenstown, listening to The Whitest Boy Alive, drinking wine out of a tall glass and eating lukewarm tuna salad out of a lunch-box with a spoon. It's cold and loneliness keeps on trying to creep up on me. But to be completely honest, I haven't felt this content in a really, really long time.

Today was not as adventurous as yesterday but it was still awesome in it's own way. I had two interviews, one with a Grey de Villiers in Adelaide and another with the Robinson's in Tarkastad. These people not only allowed me into their homes, offered me coffee and a bed for the night (which I had to decline due to Journ 4 applications which needed to be completed...argh), but they showed me a kindness that moved me to tears.

They had no obligation to help me out in any way but they did. They did more than just help me. They restored my faith in humanity; in this country. I don't even know how to explain it but I am truly touched by how nice people can be. Maybe it is because I struggle to be nice; both to strangers and to the ones I love. I am impatient and insecure and this leads me to shut people out and it is just not fair. And I think this is one of the reasons I am on this trip: so that I can learn that being nice doesn't hurt. Caring won't make me any less of a person or whatever other bullshit excuse I have in mind.

I don't have much to tell you except that there really are good people out there, and if we were all just a little nicer the world would be a better place.

Grey de Villiers, former Genetics lecturer at the University of Fort Hare in his home at 

31 Market Street, Adelaide, Eastern Cape. 2013.

Gwyneth and John Robinson outside their home on 11 Southey Road, Tarkastad, 

Eastern Cape. 2013