Today we ended up mostly shopping, though the plan was to do the shopping rounds and then head to Mlilwane, the wildlife reserve just around the corner from Malandela's, which has no natural predators and thus, allows visitors to walk around freely. However, the craft markets take forever as every merchant begs you to come in their store for just a minute, and then tries to sell you things you don't want. After thoroughly exhausting ourselves of our souvenir buying lists, we headed to Mbabne where we got lunch and then I sought out the dressmaker we'd met last time. I bought some cloth and asked her to make me a skirt and a man's shirt for a gift. I needed some more fabric and was able to buy some of the same next store (Maria and Erik went for me so I could stay with the dressmaker and get measured). Soon, Maria and I will match! :D
We made it back to Malandela's at nearly 4, exhausted (we had left at 10), and decided we had better rest a bit if we wanted to do anything later. Sifiso met up with Erik to get him the traditional Swazi male outfit he had been looking for, at a much better price via a friend of his. It was also clearly a much better quality and Erik was really happy. We celebrated the fourth at dinner with sparkling wine, and once again, were too tired to do much else. There was a large, loud celebration at House on Fire (the venue right behind Malandela's), but it was a private event so we couldn't attend anyways.
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