Home » South Africa Swaziland » South African Adventure 1999, Part 8: From Cape Town back to Swaziland via Durban

Before flying to Durban we went on a guided tour of the black and coloured townships of Cape Town. It was a very interesting to see the conditions which a large part of the population had to endure, but we also learned that the situation was not hopeless and improvements were certainly happening. After spending the night in Durban we travelled back to Swaziland to stay at an orphanage in Nhlangano which was run by Borgny, a relative of ours.

South African Adventure 1999, Part 8: From Cape Town back to Swaziland via Durban

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 20:24:05

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provided some entertainment, but we weren't really paying much attention. Finally, at 1610 we arrived in Piet Retief and got off the bus. The town was not very large but at least there were a few streets and some shops. We were very excited about meeting Borgny and finally seeing where she lived. We had heard many stories but now we would see it with our own eyes!

We had expected to spot Borgny there at once, but she was nowhere to be seen. After waiting for fifteen minutes without her showing up, we were starting to get a bit nervous that there had been a misunderstanding, or worse, that something had happened to her.

However, finally she arrived, and it turned out she had been sitting in her car just around the corner from where we had been waiting. She hadn't seen the bus coming because it had come up a different street than the one she was paying attention to. Anyway, we were all really happy to see each other!

We drove back to Swaziland, this time crossing at the border at Mahamba. The border was very quiet and all formalities were settled in no time. To be honest, I was quite surprised to see how smoothly the formalities at the border went every time. We never had any trouble with officials during the whole trip, which was a pleasant surprise.

From Mahamba it was only a short drive to Nhlangano which was the town closest to where Borgny was living. The town center was not very big, only a few streets, and seemed quite empty when we drove through it. After coming through Nhlangano, we left the main road (which was currently undergoing construction) and drove on a dust road through some forest. The road was really dusty, it had this sort of red dust, and as a consequence the trees close to the road were quite red as well.

I guess we drove for about 10km before reaching Borgny's place. None of us had even seen a proper photo of the place, so we were really looking forward to seeing it for real. The whole area had several houses and was fenced in. The largest house was the orphanage and some of the kids came running out to open the gate when they heard the car approaching. They seemed very excited to see us!

We were pleasantly surprised by Borgny's house. It was very nice and cosy inside! For some reason we hadn't expected her to have much technical equipment, but she turned out to have both TV, video, satellite dish, PC and a game console (for the kids). Quite a few of the kids were in her livingroom, busily watching some TV series on satellite when we arrived.

Both of us were quite hungry now, so we all got something to eat in the kitchen. It was almost like being back in Norway, with Norwegian books on the shelves and Norwegian decorations on the walls. Being here was almost unreal! Borgny had been living here for 45 years and we had only met her a few times earlier on some of her brief visits to Norway. We had, however, always heard a lot about her work down in Swaziland, but seeing it with our own eyes was just incredible! We had always admired her courageous decision to leave safe Norway behind and travel to a strange foreign country to help other people, and after seeing the conditions in Africa we admired her even more!

One of the houses just stood empty, so we would be staying there by ourselves, which was very convenient. Each of us had our own bedroom, so it was quite some luxury compared to some of the accommodation earlier in the trip. After unpacking we went back into Borgny's house and relaxed for the rest of the evening. However, we were both so tired that even at 2100(!) none of us could hardly keep our eyes open, so we went to bed really early that night.