Mr Pilates

School starts again next Wednesday. In the meantime I am making the most of the last days of my long Christmas break. I have been filling days with reading (I can get through a book every couple of days), Zulu lessons, Pilates and house husbandry.

My Zulu is progressing but I am slightly limited by my learning resource. I half-inched a CD from one of the other doctors and have downloaded it onto the ipod. I walk the hospital grounds most days, or climb the water tower, listening and repeating. I am now able to manage certain encounters without resorting to too much English. For example, I am a master at the petrol station. I can ask the service guys to do almost anything. ‘Please could I have unleaded’. ‘Please could I have 50 Rand of petrol.’ ‘The tank is on this side.’ ‘No the tank is on the other side.’ ‘Please can you wipe the windscreen (iwindscreeni) while standing on your head’.

Unfortunately my conversational Zulu is less good. ‘Where do you live?’ ‘Are you married?’ ‘Do you have any children?’ Isn’t the weather nice today!’ Then I get a bit stuck and long to be with them at the petrol station so we can talk unleaded.

As some of you will know, I managed to slip a disc three months before coming out. It has been painful ever since. During the first few months in SA I became lazy at doing my exercises and made almost no progress. But help is now at hand. For I have joined Ingwavuma Pilates classes. They happen every day – taught by the daughter of the Baba Heese (senior doctor at the hospital). Surprisingly, no Zulu men have opted to join the class yet. So I am the only male. Nonetheless I am not being intimidated. Instead, I am gaining mental strength from withstanding the mirth created by my failure to master silly positions. And I am starting to feel the benefits for my back.

My house husbandry skills are also starting to improve. Edible deserts in Ingwavuma have to be made. I have now baked two chocolate cakes and a set of brownies. All were at least passable. Now, I am looking for the next dessert challenge.

Plans for this weekend are still to be decided. We would like to go to a game park in Swaziland. But it is much more expensive than the nearby Tembe Elephant Park. In addition, Tembe is luxurious, nearby, and contains almost all the big game (and also lots of birdies). So we’ll probably go back there.