Hola! Phalaphala FM did it again by taking sixty listeners to Spain as from 23 September to 1 October 2007.

In case you have either forgotten or are not aware, hola is the Spanish version for "Hello", or Ndaa in Tshivenda. The long bus ride from Thohoyandou to OR Tambo International Airport did not dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic loyal Phalaphala FM listeners; neither did the 10-hour flight from OR Tambo to Madrid!

The 10-hour flight was scheduled for arrival at 07:00 in Madrid on the 24th and, to our surprise, it was still dark when we landed. We discovered that although there is no time difference between Spain and Mzantsi, the sun smiles on the Spanish later than it does on the Mzantsi people.

What struck me and the rest of the team was that there seem to be no "affirmative shopping" in Madrid. Take the case of Mr Muambadzi, who forgot his expensive wrist watch at the immigration checking point, only to find it 20 minutes later!

The flight to Malaga took about 40 minutes and the group was immediately transferred to Kris Princes Hotel in Torremolinos. Malaga is an ancient but very beautiful city. So is Torremolinos, a town where Phalaphala FM listeners would be stationed. They have very clean streets and tidy restaurants; however, having a decent meal is quite a challenge as you have to battle with flies throughout your meal. We assumed that this was due to the proximity of the city to the Atlantic Ocean.

Talking of the sea, the beach alongside Torremolinos right through to Gibraltar is far from tidy, despite efforts to clean the logs every night; I would rather be in Durban than in Malaga!

The less said about the Euro, the better. Since some of us wanted to reconnect with our Mzantsi pap that we were fortunate enough to sneak through the customs, we decided to buy two pieces of T-bone steak at a nearby restaurant and we were charged €50. Now, €50 sound like R50; however, on working out the real cost in Mzantsi moola, we discovered we had parted ways with almost R500! and this for a meal which was going to be consumed by three people; imagine the meat you can buy for R500 in Mzantsi!

The famous drink is a Cruz Campo, which goes at € .50 at some restaurants and €2.50 at a hotel; that’s the equivalent of R15 and R25 respectively, for a dumpy of Babylon waters!

The following day, the group departed for a full-day tour of the city of Grenada. They have quite a lot of historical sites, the Spanish people, including cave houses dating back to 17 BC. What’s interesting is that most of these sites are preserved and there are tour guides who know the stories behind, something that South Africans can capitalize on come 2010.

Again, "affirmative shopping" appeared to be a foreign concept, because one of our ladies forgot a camera at a busy city centre, only to find it 10 minutes later, exactly where she had forgotten it! However, the Spanish people have their own way of reclaiming their Euros, as Thilivhali Mulaudzi will tell you. A lady who presented herself as a prophet tried to read Thilivhali’s future and demanded at least €5 as a thank-you gesture. Thilivhali does not part with money that easily, so he refused and the "prophet" got so visibly angry that she avoided predicting the future for the Mzantsi people.

The Malaga city tour was also an eye opener. People got to see the bull fight arena and most of us who are animal lovers decided that we were not going to honour the practice of "cruelty to animals" by attending the actual fight. In Mzantsi we slaughter a beast in order to feast on it; however, in Spain, they fight with the bull until they kill it and drag it away! So why behave like a snake which kills and avoids eating? It is not fair. So the next time you want to criticize Mzantsi, start with España!

Of all the places we visited, the most heart-breaking is Gibraltar. Those of you who know the history will recall that the strip has been under British rule for 305 years, give or take a year. Gibraltar is technically in Spain; however, to get in there, you need a passport, whether you are Spanish or otherwise, and the currency is the British Pound! The distance from Gibraltar to Morocco is about 20 km; however, you do not see a single Moroccan there, despite the fact that the people of Morocco helped build the city of Malaga many moons ago.

There has been numerous stories written about the racist attitude of Spanish people towards Africans, especially soccer players like Samuel Eto’ of Cameroon. These were just stories that sometimes sounded far fetched, but some hooligans ensured that a few of our group experienced it. Sitting outside one restaurant, which happened to be by the roadside, some young fellows stopped their car at a robot, just about 15 metres from us, and produced a black thing which looked like the head of a gorilla and shouted " white power, white power!".

Knowing that we had endured more than their cheap antics, we forgave them even before they could disappear into the night. We felt it was better not to argue with them as people might not have noticed the difference. The strength of Mzantsi folks lies in forgiveness anyway!

The farewell dinner deserves to be mentioned. You see, Torremolinos is a tourist centre and we happened to share the hotel with some Germans, Belgians and Irish. The hotel had organised an Argentinian artist to perform for us. However, before he could sing, our own Mpho Nefale negotiated with the hotel managed to seek permission for our own Makhadzi Mpelo to sing a song or two. The hotel referred Mpho to the artist, who later agreed. Makhadzi so out-performed the poor fellow that he faked a throat infection; this after he had invited Makhadzi to do a duet with him. The Germans, Irish and Belgians were shouting "Makhadzi! Makhadzi! Over and above her own songs, she belted out Malaika, and the crowd just loved her.

Phalalaphala FM group had their last sessions where we reviewed the trip and sought ways of taking it to another level. People agreed that, since most of them are businesspeople, the next trip will have to include visiting business sites and meeting entrepreneurs to ensure that when they return to Mzantsi, they can improve on their own businesses. They resolved that they want to be well positioned for 2010 and beyond.

The only hiccup was when we discovered that six of our people were on standby for the flight from Madrid to OR Tambo. The airline managed to accommodate three of them, which meant we had to leave three behind. We tried to swap seats with them, to ensure that station personnel were the ones who were left behind, but the attendants refused because we had checked in already! We were, however, assured that they would be accommodated at a hotel in Madrid, and they would board the next flight, which was in two days.

To our joy, the following day they were flown to France, and when we spoke to Cocks Nevhutalu, he told us that they were in Paris, waiting to board the Air France flight to Mzantsi. It was a blessing in disguise after all! When we landed at OR Tambo on Tuesday, the 2nd of October, we reflected back and we all agreed, Spain was marvelous, but Mzantsi is the best!

Phalaphala FM, "It does not get better than this, Hu bvuma yone fhedzi"!

Watch this space for details of the next trip. Will it be Italy, Switzerland, Jamaica or Morocco?