Erik generously woke up to let the office know we would not need to leave so early since we weren't headed to UWC today. Instead, we had breakfast at Malandela's and then headed out on a trip to craft markets in town and the Swazi candle store. Maria stayed behind to rest since she wasn't feeling well.
We went to Mbabne, where we first went to a store in the mall where they sold some traditional Swazi garb. Some of us bought some trinkets but the large stuff was expensive. We walked shortly over to some craft selling stores. Each merchant had their own small setup and would try to get you to buy things as you pass. They implore you to choose something and they will give you a special price. I bought one or two small souvenirs as gifts for people back home. As I rounded the bend to the second row of small storefronts, one woman caught me alone and guilted me heavily, asking if I could buy something so she could feed her grandchildren. I tried to get away a few times, and she kept cornering me for awhile, but I finally made it past and walked hurriedly through the other sellers and caught up with others in the group.
We briefly walked through the medicinal market, but could not recognize anything. Lots of dried plants and various colored powders lined the walls and counters, some premixed medicines mixed up in coke bottles and other reused containers lined the countertops, all of them labeled in SiSwati. We also briefly took a look at the fruit and vegetable market. Miles bought some kind of fried dough ball for ZAR 30 (about $0.30), and shared with us. It tasted like a zeppoli without powdered sugar on the outside, so I bought one, too - delicious! Leah bought Swazi bananas, which, much like male rhino horns, were much shorter and thicker than bananas we were used to. I haven't tried one yet, but she bought enough for us all to try one. We went to lunch in the plaza nearby. Each time we had to go to the bathroom, the restaurant had to print us a receipt to show we were customers (otherwise it cost ZAR 20 each). We then had to drop Andrew off at the minibus stop in Mbabane, his ride to the airport in Johannesburg. He seemed pretty sad he had to go.
We briefly walked through the medicinal market, but could not recognize anything. Lots of dried plants and various colored powders lined the walls and counters, some premixed medicines mixed up in coke bottles and other reused containers lined the countertops, all of them labeled in SiSwati. We also briefly took a look at the fruit and vegetable market. Miles bought some kind of fried dough ball for ZAR 30 (about $0.30), and shared with us. It tasted like a zeppoli without powdered sugar on the outside, so I bought one, too - delicious! Leah bought Swazi bananas, which, much like male rhino horns, were much shorter and thicker than bananas we were used to. I haven't tried one yet, but she bought enough for us all to try one. We went to lunch in the plaza nearby. Each time we had to go to the bathroom, the restaurant had to print us a receipt to show we were customers (otherwise it cost ZAR 20 each). We then had to drop Andrew off at the minibus stop in Mbabane, his ride to the airport in Johannesburg. He seemed pretty sad he had to go.
We then headed to the craft shops outside Mbabane, on the way back to Malandela's. These were outdoors, with shanty houses built over the cement dug into the ground. It was hard for us all to know where one another was once under the cover of the shanty rooves. Each merchant would ask you to please come in just a minute, and show you various things they were selling. They used a lot of the same tactics, including offering special prices (often they'd give one price and if you didn't immediately take it, they would start coming down on the price quickly). I really liked the paintings - which there wasn't much of in town in the last market we'd seen. We all bought quite a bit of stuff for gifts, etc. Many of the merchants also wanted to show us the specific items they had made themselves, which was laughable because the merchants on either side of them had the exact same carved figurines. We thankfully had a time limit to stop at 3:30 so we could make it to our final stop at the Swazi candle store, which was beautiful. We could see the waxworkers handmaking the candles, which had lots of tie-dyed and patterned colors on them, and were often shaped like rhinos, giraffes, zebras, etc. There was also some handcrafted soaps. We finally made it back to Malandela's and planned for the next day. Maria was feeling better and we told her excitedly about our day and showed her the things we had bought. The internet was working (though slowly) so we all attempted to contact our families before dinner. Tomorrow, we need to leave by 7 AM to get to Waterford (UWC) by 8 AM, so we will have to go to bed early and skip breakfast.
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