South Africa: Rowyn Hansen (Local Interactions)

Program: UW Wildlife Conservation in South Africa, Summer

During my study abroad program titled “UW Wildlife Conservation in South Africa”, we had the opportunity to go on an excursion to Blyde River Canyon. Whenever we go somewhere outside of our game reserve, we always have a new guide, which means we get the opportunity to meet a local and exchange interesting stories with each other! For this drive, our guide’s name was Stanley.

On the drive to the canyon, Stanley started talking about his family, including how he had over 30 siblings. Most of us only have 1 or 2 siblings and could never imagine having that many. He said his house was never quiet, which is understandable. It was kind of funny because his brother happened to be driving the other half of our group and you could definitely tell that they were brothers because of all the inside jokes they were making when we met them.

Stanley and I also had our own conversation about how we shared the love of baking and cooking. We agreed that it was a talent that came naturally to both of us. He loves cooking with his family but also does it as a side hustle to make some extra money. From interactions with him and other locals, I have learned that it is not uncommon for residents to have a main job and another job on the side. His side hustle was making and selling corn dogs! He got the idea a few years ago from scrolling through cooking videos on TikTok. He ended up trying it and became very successful at the process, which involves making plain corndogs with his secret breading recipe and then dipping them into a homemade cheesy jalapeño sauce. Long story short, he really enjoyed making them and people really enjoyed eating them. Friends and family have asked him for his recipe but we both know a skilled cook never reveals their secrets! I bet they taste really good, I am kind of sad that I probably will never be able to try one. I asked Stanley if he would ever consider doing that as his main job; he said that he would love to, but it is a lot of work to start and maintain a business.

One of the things that Stanley and I both really like to bake are muffins (his favorite is banana, mine is lemon blueberry), cookies and donuts. Whenever he bakes, he always brings some to his parents, but he needs to make sure he has enough because his mom really loves his baking. He said most recently, he made a giant batch of cream-filled donuts with a cinnamon sugar topping that he shared with her. Again, I am really sad that I will never be able to try one. I have learned from interacting with the people of my program city that a big part of being a guide is knowing a lot about the land you are on. During the drive, Stanley told us a lot about South African vegetation. He knew a lot about the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) and told us about 2 popular folktales related to the tree. The first being if you take the fruit and rub the contents on your newborn baby, it will grow big and strong; however, if you rub it on the baby’s head, it will grow too big for its body. Stanley said he tried rubbing the fruit contents on his feet since they are smaller than his wife’s (and he joked that his wife looked like the man of the house because her feet were bigger than his), but since he was not a baby, it did not work. The second folktale is that originally, the baobab tree was planted right side up, but it constantly complained, which angered the gods. Since the gods were fed up with the tree, the gods picked it up, flipped it around and stuck it back in the ground upside down to keep it quiet. That is why the branches of the tree look like roots.