“Venda is beautiful!” everyone swore to us. We couldn’t name the place without hearing the refrain: “Beautiful! Beautiful!”
I confess to doubting what they meant. Should we be expecting more of the rugged, arid beauty we had witnessed so far since arriving in Johannesburg? If so, then why all the fuss?
We crawled onto the bus at 6:30am last Saturday and hunkered down for an all-day drive to South Africa’s northernmost province — just shy of the border with Zimbabwe. In exchange for seven hours of travel one way, the Peace Corps promised a taste of our future lives, courtesy of the much-anticipated “site shadowing” with a current Volunteer.
As these photos will attest, Venda made good on its reputation.
