The Great Mabuleng Walking Tour

It’s a small village with my house just about at one end and the school at the far edge, so this gives a pretty good idea of the size and what is actually here. All these photos were taken on Tuesday June 1st, starting at approximately 7:30am.

In the first photo, we have the two latrines on the compound. Mine is the short, skinny tin one. Sun still hasn’t reached my house yet. Also notice the frost on the grass. This was the first real cold week we had.


Photos #2 and #3 are either side of the “driveway” from my house to the road. On the left as I leave is the garden and peach orchard (photo#2) and on the right is the family cattle post (photo#3).

This is an exterior shot of my house. My room is on the left (the solar panel is just below and to the right of my kitchen window).

Overlooking Mabuleng from the road in front of my house. (Thaba Chitje is the peak to the far left and Thaba Telle is the pointiest one to the right)

The tap covered in ice

One of the shops. The actual shop is the white part and the brick part is housing.

Finally in the sun! Chief’s compound and cattle post. The layer of darker “rock” across the top is cow dung out to dry for burning.

The all-tin Kubelu Mabuleng Phang Phang Supermarket

The combined school compound. The primary school buildings are to the right and the roofs of the secondary school are just visible to the left. In the foreground is the soccer field (the line of rocks are the boundaries)

Here is the primary school closer up. I’m not exactly sure what the square building in the foreground is – I’ve never actually seen it used for anything – but the building to the left is the hall. Just one giant room used as two classrooms during the school week or as a church/community center during off hours. The building in the back right is all classrooms – five total, I believe. The office is hidden behind the hall.

Here is Mabuleng Secondary School where I work. The building on the right is the office, the classrooms are all in the building on the left. You can also see the soccer field endline closest to us (again, the line of stones) followed by one of the metal goal posts for netball and between that and the office the posts for the volleyball net.

These next two photos are inside of the office. My desk is the one on the corner with the coffee cup on it.

These next two photos are inside of the Form A classroom. It is both the largest class (with 15 students) and largest room. To the left of the board you can see the crack in the wall. Can’t really tell from this angle, but I can actually stick my hand through the holes to the Form C classroom to bug the students sitting on the other side– and I sometimes do when I am proctoring a test and get bored. Also difficult to see from this angle, but the wall with the window is actually at about an 80 degree angle leaning out. The Japanese architect and engineer who came told us not to lean against it. These are the standard desks just about everywhere in the country and each sits 3 students.

These are some of my Form A students who dragged a bench outside into the sun to stay warm while studying before the second day of midterm exams.

That is all I have now. I have another dozen of so photos from around the village of just random houses to give some perspective of size and standards of living, but those will have to wait until they get sent to America, home of flat rate, high speed internet.