Bananas

When leaving Swaziland, the kombi pulled up to a border stop so that everyone could get their Swazi exit stamps. From there, we walked past a gate, down a road, and into another building to get our South African entry stamps. Next, we went through another gate to wait by the side of the road for the kombi to clear customs. It was taking a while and so a woman said to me, “You had the big bag right? Maybe they want to search your bag.” So I walk back to the customs point and the guard says to me, “Are they your bananas?” I say no. He says “The owner of the bananas must claim them and eat them.” I go back to the group and tell a Swazi girl what the customs official tells me. She tells everyone else and then half the group starts walking back to the customs point. I join them. One woman claims a plastic bag with bananas in it. She and her partner start eating them. But there’s another offending bag of bananas in the van! Another woman comes up and claims them. The agricultural inspector says to her “You must not waste food; you must eat them.” She hands out bananas to some of the people standing around. We are not allowed to leave the customs point until the bananas are finished! lol I only wish I had a picture of the group of us standing around at customs, eating bananas.

This, btw, is a kombi and the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban: