I'm still in Africa.
I'm super busy.
I'm happy.
I'm coming home in 5 days.
I'll write about my last weeks in Africa once I'm home.
See you soon!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
This Week
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but there hasn't been much going on! Seriously, just normal daily life in PE and homework! We didn't have school last Monday because it was a public holiday, I'm not sure what it was but there wasn't anything really going on for it. So no class and no volunteering left us with a whole day of paper writing! Got another 15 pager done and turned in so that felt good. This week I just had class and homework. We had a potluck on Wednesday to celebrate one of the guy's birthdays. We had a South African braii and it might have been the best pot luck to date. There is one more potluck scheduled and it will be to celebrate my birthday!
I went to underwater hockey on Tuesday and Thursday but I didn't actually play. I've decided that the game is too rough for me, I get more nervous about it than have fun. So I go, socialize and then just swim and do synchro in the open lane. It works out pretty well. We had a braii with some guys from the team on Friday.
We made a miraculous discovery this weekend too. There is a bowling alley really close to where we live and we never knew about it! So last night, about 20 of us went out and bowled a few games. It was just fun to do something like at home. Bowling alleys aren't very common here I guess so our scores we're pretty impressive compared to the other lanes. We were also obnoxiously louder than the other lanes!
I wish today could just be a lazy Sunday, but I am trying to get one shorter paper finished and get started on another 15 page paper due on Thursday! It kinda sucks that the end of my trip is filled with so many papers, but I need to remember that I am here for credit, so I need to do some work!
Hope everything is well at home and that the weather continues to get warmer! Happy May!
I went to underwater hockey on Tuesday and Thursday but I didn't actually play. I've decided that the game is too rough for me, I get more nervous about it than have fun. So I go, socialize and then just swim and do synchro in the open lane. It works out pretty well. We had a braii with some guys from the team on Friday.
We made a miraculous discovery this weekend too. There is a bowling alley really close to where we live and we never knew about it! So last night, about 20 of us went out and bowled a few games. It was just fun to do something like at home. Bowling alleys aren't very common here I guess so our scores we're pretty impressive compared to the other lanes. We were also obnoxiously louder than the other lanes!
I wish today could just be a lazy Sunday, but I am trying to get one shorter paper finished and get started on another 15 page paper due on Thursday! It kinda sucks that the end of my trip is filled with so many papers, but I need to remember that I am here for credit, so I need to do some work!
Hope everything is well at home and that the weather continues to get warmer! Happy May!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Pendla
I don’t think that I’ve said anything about my volunteering in a while L It’s going great there, really fun and I feel a lot better about my experience since I’m in this new classroom. The third graders are so cute and so fun to work with in the classroom. They like to follow us around at recess too. We’ve been teaching one or two lessons a week and reading to the kids a lot more. We’ve also been meeting with our teacher, Nomatemba during break time to discuss the school’s needs and such. Before we came here, we raised a lot of money from events on campus so we just need to decide what to do with it. First, we are fulfilling the requests of the principal to pay the salary of the gardener and a maintenance worker. They have a vegetable garden that is used to supply lunches to students who don’t bring something from home. Paying these salaries helps the school, but it also helps two families in the community as the two workers have children. To put things into perspective, the yearly salary that we are paying these people for a full time job is R7,200 or $720. Things do cost less here, but $720 is a very meager salary to support a family on. It is what they requested though and we can’t spend all of our money on just those requests. We also are buying copying paper for the school and soap for the bathrooms. Depending on how much we have leftover after that, we will buy chairs for the classroom or more school supplies for the children. We also have money allocated in our program budge to host a family night for the entire school. Last year, the group served dinner to over 1000 people. We plan to do that and we will also supply some sort of gift to every student. It will be as simple as a pencil or a toothbrush, but they’ll have fun. There is a committee that is starting to plan this event and the date is already set for our last day of volunteering and my birthday, May 12th!
I am on a different committee to plan a Hygiene Day that will go along with the purchase of the soap. The kids need to be taught about germs and how to keep themselves clean. So we’ll have a morning devoted to this. The other girl on the trip who is an education major and myself are in charge of planning it. Except for having to add another thing on to my list of assignments, I’m excited to plan it.
I also got some money from a teacher at my mom’s school who donated to buy some school supplies for the children here. After talking to Nomatemba about what the class needs and what the students need, I decided to spend the money on making a reading corner for the kids. I’m really excited about this because Nomatemba does value reading a lot and the kids love it too! (I’ve begun to read to them at recess and always get a crowd around me). I’m going to get a big rug and some big pillows to put in one corner of the room so that they will be able to enjoy reading in their classroom. The school has a nice library that was paid for by a different group of CSB/SJU students about 10 years ago. I might also make some posters on how to take care of books, or how to read with a partner and things like that. I want to give this to them sooner rather than later so that I can help implement its usage in the classroom.
I am already getting sad thinking about having to leave Pendla. I missed them when I was gone for the 3 weeks for spring break! Being with them has been a great experience and one of the best aspects of my time here.
I am on a different committee to plan a Hygiene Day that will go along with the purchase of the soap. The kids need to be taught about germs and how to keep themselves clean. So we’ll have a morning devoted to this. The other girl on the trip who is an education major and myself are in charge of planning it. Except for having to add another thing on to my list of assignments, I’m excited to plan it.
I also got some money from a teacher at my mom’s school who donated to buy some school supplies for the children here. After talking to Nomatemba about what the class needs and what the students need, I decided to spend the money on making a reading corner for the kids. I’m really excited about this because Nomatemba does value reading a lot and the kids love it too! (I’ve begun to read to them at recess and always get a crowd around me). I’m going to get a big rug and some big pillows to put in one corner of the room so that they will be able to enjoy reading in their classroom. The school has a nice library that was paid for by a different group of CSB/SJU students about 10 years ago. I might also make some posters on how to take care of books, or how to read with a partner and things like that. I want to give this to them sooner rather than later so that I can help implement its usage in the classroom.
I am already getting sad thinking about having to leave Pendla. I missed them when I was gone for the 3 weeks for spring break! Being with them has been a great experience and one of the best aspects of my time here.
Election Day 22/4/09
Yes, South Africa held its fourth democratic election this week! Maybe this made the news at home? I’m not sure. Well I don’t really have a lot to say about it, because I didn’t even follow it (I was writing a paper that was due that day). Election Day is a public holiday here, so people didn’t have to work and we weren’t supposed to have school. But since we of course couldn’t vote, we still had class and had a paper due. Our class was just held at our professor’s house, which was a good time. We just had a normal lecture, but we were served coffee and sat on her comfy furniture. Her dogs and cats went around disrupting our learning too. And afterward we went out for some sundowners, but we didn’t stay long because the restaurant had to close down by 6:00 so they could take their employees to vote. There is a law that if you make your employees work on Election Day, that you need to provide time and transportation for them to vote.
Elections run a little bit differently here than they do at home. Here you vote for a political party, instead of a candidate. There are literally HUNDREDS of political parties that you could vote for, but the main ones are the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA) and Congress of the People (COPE). The ANC is organization that led to the end of apartheid and the one that I’ve studied most extensively. The DA is the party that most whites in the country voted for. And COPE is a new party this year that branched off the ANC. The elections were almost a joke in that EVERYONE knew that the ANC would win. Well, actually I don’t think that the winner has been announced yet, but I’ll tell you now that they won the election.
Anyway so you vote for a party and then the party chooses who the president will be, usually the president of the organization becomes the president of the country. Thabo Mbeki was the President for the last two terms, he took over after Nelson Mandela. But because of corruption and I don’t know what else, he was made to resign and Jacob Zuma took over as president of the ANC and the country. I think this happened pretty recently, maybe right before we came here. Jacob Zuma is not a favorite, he is involved in corruption and a rape scandal. But because of more corruption, he was never brought to trial. It is all very messed up. So the people knew that when they voted for the ANC, that they were voting for Zuma as President. I hope this isn’t confusing, or that I’m getting the facts wrong. Kate, post a comment if I said something wrong. A problem with this is that since the ANC is the organization that led to the end of the apartheid, it is the organization that the majority of the country supports. They don’t care if their policies don’t make sense anymore or if their candidate is corrupt and uneducated. It is sad, but the majority of the people voting aren’t educated enough to research and find out who the best candidate for them actually is. So the country is stuck with Jacob Zuma who thought he could prevent himself from getting AIDS by taking a shower after having intercourse with someone!
I heard that there were accusations of corruption on Election Day too. I guess in one city, a whole voting station went missing, ballots, pens, the tent, everything. So now, where are those missing ballots, who turned them in? Other places ran out of ballots, so the people waiting in the long lines couldn’t vote. Some voting stations had to close down before everyone who was in line got to vote, I’m not sure if they opened up again on Thursday to let more people vote or not, I just know that was an idea. I guess the main thing is that South Africa is still developing itself as a democratic nation so there are still things to be worked out. One great thing is they have a very high voter turn-out rate, I think it was like 80-85% of the people voted on Wednesday!
Elections run a little bit differently here than they do at home. Here you vote for a political party, instead of a candidate. There are literally HUNDREDS of political parties that you could vote for, but the main ones are the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA) and Congress of the People (COPE). The ANC is organization that led to the end of apartheid and the one that I’ve studied most extensively. The DA is the party that most whites in the country voted for. And COPE is a new party this year that branched off the ANC. The elections were almost a joke in that EVERYONE knew that the ANC would win. Well, actually I don’t think that the winner has been announced yet, but I’ll tell you now that they won the election.
Anyway so you vote for a party and then the party chooses who the president will be, usually the president of the organization becomes the president of the country. Thabo Mbeki was the President for the last two terms, he took over after Nelson Mandela. But because of corruption and I don’t know what else, he was made to resign and Jacob Zuma took over as president of the ANC and the country. I think this happened pretty recently, maybe right before we came here. Jacob Zuma is not a favorite, he is involved in corruption and a rape scandal. But because of more corruption, he was never brought to trial. It is all very messed up. So the people knew that when they voted for the ANC, that they were voting for Zuma as President. I hope this isn’t confusing, or that I’m getting the facts wrong. Kate, post a comment if I said something wrong. A problem with this is that since the ANC is the organization that led to the end of the apartheid, it is the organization that the majority of the country supports. They don’t care if their policies don’t make sense anymore or if their candidate is corrupt and uneducated. It is sad, but the majority of the people voting aren’t educated enough to research and find out who the best candidate for them actually is. So the country is stuck with Jacob Zuma who thought he could prevent himself from getting AIDS by taking a shower after having intercourse with someone!
I heard that there were accusations of corruption on Election Day too. I guess in one city, a whole voting station went missing, ballots, pens, the tent, everything. So now, where are those missing ballots, who turned them in? Other places ran out of ballots, so the people waiting in the long lines couldn’t vote. Some voting stations had to close down before everyone who was in line got to vote, I’m not sure if they opened up again on Thursday to let more people vote or not, I just know that was an idea. I guess the main thing is that South Africa is still developing itself as a democratic nation so there are still things to be worked out. One great thing is they have a very high voter turn-out rate, I think it was like 80-85% of the people voted on Wednesday!
Underwater Hockey
I forgot to write about this earlier, but I started playing underwater hockey!! I’ve been to two practices now, one last week and one two weeks ago. If you think it sounds like a very odd sport, then you’re right on! It is one of the weirdest sports in the world!!! I went with my friend Kirby, who played ice hockey. I thought that I would be better off because I have the swimming skills and he doesn’t, but I think the sport needs more hockey skills than swimming skills L. The team mostly has men, some college age and some older men from the community. There are a couple girls who play. The coach is female and she is Kirby’s marine biology professor here. She is very aggressive and mean when she plays, so I’m glad she’s not my professor.
This is how you play. Everyone wears a snorkel, mask and flippers. You have a glove on the hand that you hold your stick with. The stick is less than a foot long and it’s not the shape of a normal hockey stick. It is mostly a straight block of wood, with a little curve on the end that the puck can fit in. You are either on the black stick team or the white stick team. The puck is the same size as normal hockey I think, it made of lead and has a pink rubber thing around it so you can see it on the bottom of the pool and so it can glide easier. There are six people playing on a team at a time, you might have more but they would just be subs. This club isn’t very big though so they don’t have any extra people. That’s why they actually let me play, I’m so horrible at playing but they need me! The teams have forwards and a middle and defense but I don’t think they have a goalie. The defense is the hardest position because if the puck is down there, those players need to stay underwater. They don’t get to breathe as much. I play forward, which is the easiest position. Anyway, of the six players, not everyone is underwater at the same time. Probably 3 or 4 people are underwater. The rest of the people are above water, breathing through their snorkel and watching the puck on the bottom. When the puck starts coming their way, or when they know their players will need a breath, they go down and help with the puck. I usually spend most of my playing time on the surface breathing! But I do go down and touch the puck sometimes, a lot of the time when I go down I don’t even get to touch the puck because other players on my team already are playing with it and they can hold their breath longer than me. But one time I almost scored a goal!!! But someone came down from above me and took it away. That’s the hard part, you need to watch for people above, sideways, in front, behind and even under you. I guess this sport originated in Canada and they do play international against other countries that are part of the British circle.
But yeah, its mainly played just like hockey but underwater! So weird! And I’m not aggressive at all, so I suck. It also is hard because I’m playing against boys that are way older and bigger than me so it’s almost impossible for me to get by them or steal the puck from the. Especially since I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t do it yet, but some people can flick the puck “in the air” (so to speak), but I can’t do that yet. It mainly just slides on the bottom of the pool. At the deep end and where the pool starts to get shallow are too metal troughs almost. They have a little ramp that goes up to them so you can slide the puck in for a goal. Ooh and another really hard part of the game is after a goal, you have one minute to get back to your side (the goal you’re defending) and then you start playing again. So really, you NEVER get a chance to breath. I think we play two 15 minutes halves or something like that.
So although I suck, I’m still trying something new. It’s fun to play when I’m not scared of the puck or the other players (like that professor!) And it’s good to meet new people too. They’re all very friendly and always ask Kirby and I out for a beer after practice. We haven’t been able to go yet though because we have always had a paper due the next day. I told Blake and Brady I’d play this game with them this summer, but I think it’d be better for all of us if we just stuck to tag or something like that ;)
This is how you play. Everyone wears a snorkel, mask and flippers. You have a glove on the hand that you hold your stick with. The stick is less than a foot long and it’s not the shape of a normal hockey stick. It is mostly a straight block of wood, with a little curve on the end that the puck can fit in. You are either on the black stick team or the white stick team. The puck is the same size as normal hockey I think, it made of lead and has a pink rubber thing around it so you can see it on the bottom of the pool and so it can glide easier. There are six people playing on a team at a time, you might have more but they would just be subs. This club isn’t very big though so they don’t have any extra people. That’s why they actually let me play, I’m so horrible at playing but they need me! The teams have forwards and a middle and defense but I don’t think they have a goalie. The defense is the hardest position because if the puck is down there, those players need to stay underwater. They don’t get to breathe as much. I play forward, which is the easiest position. Anyway, of the six players, not everyone is underwater at the same time. Probably 3 or 4 people are underwater. The rest of the people are above water, breathing through their snorkel and watching the puck on the bottom. When the puck starts coming their way, or when they know their players will need a breath, they go down and help with the puck. I usually spend most of my playing time on the surface breathing! But I do go down and touch the puck sometimes, a lot of the time when I go down I don’t even get to touch the puck because other players on my team already are playing with it and they can hold their breath longer than me. But one time I almost scored a goal!!! But someone came down from above me and took it away. That’s the hard part, you need to watch for people above, sideways, in front, behind and even under you. I guess this sport originated in Canada and they do play international against other countries that are part of the British circle.
But yeah, its mainly played just like hockey but underwater! So weird! And I’m not aggressive at all, so I suck. It also is hard because I’m playing against boys that are way older and bigger than me so it’s almost impossible for me to get by them or steal the puck from the. Especially since I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t do it yet, but some people can flick the puck “in the air” (so to speak), but I can’t do that yet. It mainly just slides on the bottom of the pool. At the deep end and where the pool starts to get shallow are too metal troughs almost. They have a little ramp that goes up to them so you can slide the puck in for a goal. Ooh and another really hard part of the game is after a goal, you have one minute to get back to your side (the goal you’re defending) and then you start playing again. So really, you NEVER get a chance to breath. I think we play two 15 minutes halves or something like that.
So although I suck, I’m still trying something new. It’s fun to play when I’m not scared of the puck or the other players (like that professor!) And it’s good to meet new people too. They’re all very friendly and always ask Kirby and I out for a beer after practice. We haven’t been able to go yet though because we have always had a paper due the next day. I told Blake and Brady I’d play this game with them this summer, but I think it’d be better for all of us if we just stuck to tag or something like that ;)
Monday, April 20, 2009
Frontier Weekend
I had one of the best weekends ever up in the Frontier of South Africa!! We went into the Winterberg Mountains in Adelaide and stayed with host families and did the farm thing! The trip started off with a late start because our transportation was late (very common here) so we had to miss out on our visit at the Senior Citizens home and the tour of the Tomato Tunnel (not sure what that was going to be). We went on a very long drive in two big vans on windy, gravel roads. I was not the only one who got car sick on this trip!
When we finally got there, we welcomed by the over-the-top friendly Winnie, “our new mom”. She and her husband Marness owned a very large farm where they had some crops but mostly mohair sheep, goats and cattle. They also had a ton of other animals like tamed kudu, eland and duikers (all three are things that we look for on the game drives). We first thing we did after lunch was look around the farm. Some people petted the kudu and eland. I almost got tackled by a “tame” duiker that is pregnant and a little anxious. I also chased around a chicken with baby chicks, trying to steal one. When that didn’t work and everyone had seen everything, we went horseback riding. Horseback riding is not one of my favorite pastimes as it involves touching an animal, but I felt a “When in Africa…” moment and so I agreed to ride a horse as long as the farmhand held onto the reigns and walked me. We didn’t go very far, just up the road and back but at least I can say I did that. Other people had a lot of fun and rode numerous times. I’m lucky I had someone walking my horse with me because one kid on our trip fell off his horse while it was galloping around a turn! It was really scary to watch, but he ended up not hitting his head or being stepped on so he was all right. We also walked around a bit and saw impala, springbok (national animal) and fellow deer (a new animal for me to see). Next we went to a cow milking demonstration. Interesting and smelly. It was here that I had my first taste of milk in I cannot remember how long, probably 7 years or so. We were invited to climb down in the ditch between two lines of cows, where they were hooking the machines up to the udders. I got to milk a cow by hand and then squirt the milk into my mouth! Gross! The milk actually didn’t taste too bad, it was just warm and I’m interested to try milk from the store and see if I maybe like it now. The rest of the night we just sat out, looking out into the mountains at the weird farming landscape, watching the sun go down. We had appetizers and sundowners (happy hour drinks). Then we braiied!! A braii is like grilling or cooking over the fire. This night we had poikey (?) which was cooked in a very large cast iron pot over coals next to the fire. The key to cooking this was to cook in layers. It went chicken, noodles and then vegetables and in cooking and serving they were supposed to stay layered. Dinner was great and we enjoyed the food, company and scenery. I was part of 11 people who stayed at Winnie’s farm, the rest of our group went to stay at Marness’s cousin’s farm.
In the morning we were served toasted egg and ham sandwiches and a great tea that I guess we have at home, but I’ve never tried. Roiibos? If you haven’t tried it, find it at the store! I’m pretty sure its caffeine free! Then we got ourselves organized and went on a game drive. It’s just fun to be out in the country, driving around in bakkies (trucks). We all rode in the beds of the trucks that had high railings on the side that we could hold on to. But with 10 people in the back of each one, it was quite a wild ride! I usually got a good, safe spot to hold onto because people think I’m a wuss. But that works in my favor, so I’m okay with it! During the game drive, we stopped at a few pretty lookouts in the mountains to do short hikes. One of the hikes went down to a canyon that we went swimming in. The water was really muddy and there were bugs and crabs in the mud! And the problem with swimming in fresh water, doctors think, is that there may be runoff from the poor sewage systems. I think that’s why at least. But of course, I went swimming anyway. The water was freezing and there wasn’t much to see, but it was still fun. After the drive and the hikes, we went to the big farm and hung out by the pool. The other farm was a very old house and it was a mansion! The farmers there were Francois and Aurelia. Francois showed us his trophy room, which included tons of animals! Any hunter reading this would’ve had a hay day looking at all the mounts this man had! He had zebra, wildebeest, giraffe (I don’t know how that fit in the room cause it really was from neck up!), kudu and tons of kinds of buck that are native to South Africa and other parts of the world! We also saw his gun collection which he was quite proud of. We stayed by the pool and played tennis in the afternoon. Then we went to a sheep shearing demonstration which was painful to watch, but still cool. Francois owns 3,000 sheep and 1,000 cattle! Just imagine how much land he has! He also has the animals like the other farm, kudu, impala, springbok, fellow deer, eland and such, some as pets and some wild. We had a braii again, this time just steaks! But we hardly ever eat steaks or burgers, so it was a special treat! We went for a night game drive that was fun. I saw a lot of animals again, zebra and kudu were my favorite. Then off to bed because we were exhausted.
Sunday we packed up to go home and then went on one last drive in the bakkies to the highest mountain on their land. From the top we could see very far and it was almost all owned by Francois or Marness! Some good group photos were taken from up there. We got back to the bottom and said thank you to our wonderful hosts. I had brought some U of M and Wayzata t-shirts and other trinkets and a couple Nut Rolls that I gave as gifts from the whole group. Winnie started crying because I guess no group had ever given her a gift before (this weekend was organized through the International Education Office at NMMU so many groups have gone through this). I gave each of the hosts a gift and then the bus drivers who stayed with us all weekend got a Nut Roll each! Everyone was so excited! But then we were really sad to leave because we had such a good weekend with these families.
One thing about about this weekend that I mentioned before wasn’t true. These families were not racist at all, I think the group from CSB/SJU who went last year must have stayed with different families because Winnie loved all of us like we were her own children! Something that we did experience though is the concept of land redistribution. This has been a highly debated topic since the time that Nelson Mandela became president. I don’t know too much about it. Just the basics, that all of the land originally belonged to the black population, as they were here first. But the Afrikaners took almost all of the black people’s land and owned the majority. Some statistic like 10% of the population (white) was living on 87% of the land. If you do the math, that doesn’t leave very much room for about 90% of the people. Anyway, just by seeing how much land Francois and Marness owned, brought up the idea of fairness. There were drawings from the San-Khoi people on the cliffs we drove by on Francois’s farm. I think that’s proof that someone lived there before he did.
Then we just drove back to PE and I’ve been doing my school thing since then. Two papers due this week and a four day weekend that will be distracting me from doing the 15 page one! It actually has begun to get colder here, probably 45 degrees at night! It gets dark around 6pm so we can tell that winter is actually coming! Nothing too special this week, just school and homework I think. To all those college students at home: you only have 3 weeks left! So get excited! And to everyone else, sorry you still have to work for over a month L But in case you were getting excited for my homecoming, it is now only 31 days! Absolutely ridiculous!! I’ll post more later!
When we finally got there, we welcomed by the over-the-top friendly Winnie, “our new mom”. She and her husband Marness owned a very large farm where they had some crops but mostly mohair sheep, goats and cattle. They also had a ton of other animals like tamed kudu, eland and duikers (all three are things that we look for on the game drives). We first thing we did after lunch was look around the farm. Some people petted the kudu and eland. I almost got tackled by a “tame” duiker that is pregnant and a little anxious. I also chased around a chicken with baby chicks, trying to steal one. When that didn’t work and everyone had seen everything, we went horseback riding. Horseback riding is not one of my favorite pastimes as it involves touching an animal, but I felt a “When in Africa…” moment and so I agreed to ride a horse as long as the farmhand held onto the reigns and walked me. We didn’t go very far, just up the road and back but at least I can say I did that. Other people had a lot of fun and rode numerous times. I’m lucky I had someone walking my horse with me because one kid on our trip fell off his horse while it was galloping around a turn! It was really scary to watch, but he ended up not hitting his head or being stepped on so he was all right. We also walked around a bit and saw impala, springbok (national animal) and fellow deer (a new animal for me to see). Next we went to a cow milking demonstration. Interesting and smelly. It was here that I had my first taste of milk in I cannot remember how long, probably 7 years or so. We were invited to climb down in the ditch between two lines of cows, where they were hooking the machines up to the udders. I got to milk a cow by hand and then squirt the milk into my mouth! Gross! The milk actually didn’t taste too bad, it was just warm and I’m interested to try milk from the store and see if I maybe like it now. The rest of the night we just sat out, looking out into the mountains at the weird farming landscape, watching the sun go down. We had appetizers and sundowners (happy hour drinks). Then we braiied!! A braii is like grilling or cooking over the fire. This night we had poikey (?) which was cooked in a very large cast iron pot over coals next to the fire. The key to cooking this was to cook in layers. It went chicken, noodles and then vegetables and in cooking and serving they were supposed to stay layered. Dinner was great and we enjoyed the food, company and scenery. I was part of 11 people who stayed at Winnie’s farm, the rest of our group went to stay at Marness’s cousin’s farm.
In the morning we were served toasted egg and ham sandwiches and a great tea that I guess we have at home, but I’ve never tried. Roiibos? If you haven’t tried it, find it at the store! I’m pretty sure its caffeine free! Then we got ourselves organized and went on a game drive. It’s just fun to be out in the country, driving around in bakkies (trucks). We all rode in the beds of the trucks that had high railings on the side that we could hold on to. But with 10 people in the back of each one, it was quite a wild ride! I usually got a good, safe spot to hold onto because people think I’m a wuss. But that works in my favor, so I’m okay with it! During the game drive, we stopped at a few pretty lookouts in the mountains to do short hikes. One of the hikes went down to a canyon that we went swimming in. The water was really muddy and there were bugs and crabs in the mud! And the problem with swimming in fresh water, doctors think, is that there may be runoff from the poor sewage systems. I think that’s why at least. But of course, I went swimming anyway. The water was freezing and there wasn’t much to see, but it was still fun. After the drive and the hikes, we went to the big farm and hung out by the pool. The other farm was a very old house and it was a mansion! The farmers there were Francois and Aurelia. Francois showed us his trophy room, which included tons of animals! Any hunter reading this would’ve had a hay day looking at all the mounts this man had! He had zebra, wildebeest, giraffe (I don’t know how that fit in the room cause it really was from neck up!), kudu and tons of kinds of buck that are native to South Africa and other parts of the world! We also saw his gun collection which he was quite proud of. We stayed by the pool and played tennis in the afternoon. Then we went to a sheep shearing demonstration which was painful to watch, but still cool. Francois owns 3,000 sheep and 1,000 cattle! Just imagine how much land he has! He also has the animals like the other farm, kudu, impala, springbok, fellow deer, eland and such, some as pets and some wild. We had a braii again, this time just steaks! But we hardly ever eat steaks or burgers, so it was a special treat! We went for a night game drive that was fun. I saw a lot of animals again, zebra and kudu were my favorite. Then off to bed because we were exhausted.
Sunday we packed up to go home and then went on one last drive in the bakkies to the highest mountain on their land. From the top we could see very far and it was almost all owned by Francois or Marness! Some good group photos were taken from up there. We got back to the bottom and said thank you to our wonderful hosts. I had brought some U of M and Wayzata t-shirts and other trinkets and a couple Nut Rolls that I gave as gifts from the whole group. Winnie started crying because I guess no group had ever given her a gift before (this weekend was organized through the International Education Office at NMMU so many groups have gone through this). I gave each of the hosts a gift and then the bus drivers who stayed with us all weekend got a Nut Roll each! Everyone was so excited! But then we were really sad to leave because we had such a good weekend with these families.
One thing about about this weekend that I mentioned before wasn’t true. These families were not racist at all, I think the group from CSB/SJU who went last year must have stayed with different families because Winnie loved all of us like we were her own children! Something that we did experience though is the concept of land redistribution. This has been a highly debated topic since the time that Nelson Mandela became president. I don’t know too much about it. Just the basics, that all of the land originally belonged to the black population, as they were here first. But the Afrikaners took almost all of the black people’s land and owned the majority. Some statistic like 10% of the population (white) was living on 87% of the land. If you do the math, that doesn’t leave very much room for about 90% of the people. Anyway, just by seeing how much land Francois and Marness owned, brought up the idea of fairness. There were drawings from the San-Khoi people on the cliffs we drove by on Francois’s farm. I think that’s proof that someone lived there before he did.
Then we just drove back to PE and I’ve been doing my school thing since then. Two papers due this week and a four day weekend that will be distracting me from doing the 15 page one! It actually has begun to get colder here, probably 45 degrees at night! It gets dark around 6pm so we can tell that winter is actually coming! Nothing too special this week, just school and homework I think. To all those college students at home: you only have 3 weeks left! So get excited! And to everyone else, sorry you still have to work for over a month L But in case you were getting excited for my homecoming, it is now only 31 days! Absolutely ridiculous!! I’ll post more later!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Going away again
I started school again on Tuesday. It was weird to back on campus after over two weeks off! Classes this week were normal and we didn’t have volunteering because Pendla had their fall holiday break. I turned in one of the three big papers due in this next week, so that felt good.
Last night we went to a play called Ours Was the Dawn. It was a very good play, made us laugh and cry. It was put on by a husband and wife who we have a very unique connection with. Our director, who has been researching South Africa for many years met this couple about ten years ago. I don’t know the whole story, but somehow they became good friends and Gary asked the couple to come to St. Bens and St. Johns to spread the story of South Africa. They’ve been to a couple times now and Ours Was the Dawn is the play that resulted from the very long plane ride over there. Some people from my group saw the performance last year when they came to MN, but it was my first time seeing it last night. After the play we met with them and just talked about South Africa and MN. It just seemed like such a cool connection!
Speaking of cool connections, I forgot to write this in my spring break post. But when I was getting off the boat at Robben Island, I saw a boy that I graduated high school with. I went to school with him for all grades and he was on my Odyssey of the Mind team when mom was our coach! When we saw each other we both just freaked out because it was such a coincidence!! He is studying abroad with Loyola and is going to school in Cape Town. We got to catch up, but then we both had to join our groups again. This seriously is a small world!!!!
Today we’re leaving to go on our Frontier Excursion. We will be staying with white Afrikaner farmers who probably have different views on apartheid and the new government. We’ll see though. The weekend will consist of horseback riding, game drives, hiking, swimming, meeting new people and lots more I’m sure. I’m excited for the weekend because I’ve heard it gives us such a different perspective on South Africa. We are a little worried because we’ve also heard that people in the part of the country we’re going to are racist and we have a couple people in our group who aren’t white. So I hope there aren’t any problems for them and that we can maybe build some bridges.
I’m glad you’re all enjoying my ostrich riding and bungee jumping posts! They were fun to do and fun to write too! I can’t believe I got the place of Grandpa’s ostrich riding wrong! But I guess there isn’t that much a difference between Australia and the Fertile Fair…
Last night we went to a play called Ours Was the Dawn. It was a very good play, made us laugh and cry. It was put on by a husband and wife who we have a very unique connection with. Our director, who has been researching South Africa for many years met this couple about ten years ago. I don’t know the whole story, but somehow they became good friends and Gary asked the couple to come to St. Bens and St. Johns to spread the story of South Africa. They’ve been to a couple times now and Ours Was the Dawn is the play that resulted from the very long plane ride over there. Some people from my group saw the performance last year when they came to MN, but it was my first time seeing it last night. After the play we met with them and just talked about South Africa and MN. It just seemed like such a cool connection!
Speaking of cool connections, I forgot to write this in my spring break post. But when I was getting off the boat at Robben Island, I saw a boy that I graduated high school with. I went to school with him for all grades and he was on my Odyssey of the Mind team when mom was our coach! When we saw each other we both just freaked out because it was such a coincidence!! He is studying abroad with Loyola and is going to school in Cape Town. We got to catch up, but then we both had to join our groups again. This seriously is a small world!!!!
Today we’re leaving to go on our Frontier Excursion. We will be staying with white Afrikaner farmers who probably have different views on apartheid and the new government. We’ll see though. The weekend will consist of horseback riding, game drives, hiking, swimming, meeting new people and lots more I’m sure. I’m excited for the weekend because I’ve heard it gives us such a different perspective on South Africa. We are a little worried because we’ve also heard that people in the part of the country we’re going to are racist and we have a couple people in our group who aren’t white. So I hope there aren’t any problems for them and that we can maybe build some bridges.
I’m glad you’re all enjoying my ostrich riding and bungee jumping posts! They were fun to do and fun to write too! I can’t believe I got the place of Grandpa’s ostrich riding wrong! But I guess there isn’t that much a difference between Australia and the Fertile Fair…
Monday, April 13, 2009
Spring Break/Fall Holiday
Okay so here's how you can read the enormous amount of stories I just posted. Go down to where the post is titled "From Scuba to Cape Town" and that is the beginning of my spring break. I tried to break up the posts to make it easier to read, so you don't have to read them all at once.
Also, I want to add pictures to each post but the internet here is not working to my liking and won't let me post pictures on the blog or on Facebook. So it maybe a while for those. But I hope it's not too long and that it is a little bit interesting!
I hope everything is going well at home! Anything new going on since I've been gone? Whats the status in F/M? I want to wish Tyler, Mac, Erin and Andrew Happy Birthdays! There is just another thing to add to my middle child syndrome, all my "brothers" and sisters have their birthdays within 10 days of each other and I'm all alone in May! (I think that was planned.)
Anyway, enjoy this cause I sure did ;)
Also, I want to add pictures to each post but the internet here is not working to my liking and won't let me post pictures on the blog or on Facebook. So it maybe a while for those. But I hope it's not too long and that it is a little bit interesting!
I hope everything is going well at home! Anything new going on since I've been gone? Whats the status in F/M? I want to wish Tyler, Mac, Erin and Andrew Happy Birthdays! There is just another thing to add to my middle child syndrome, all my "brothers" and sisters have their birthdays within 10 days of each other and I'm all alone in May! (I think that was planned.)
Anyway, enjoy this cause I sure did ;)
Bungee Jumping
Saturday was the big day of the trip: bungee jumping. Now anyone in my group would tell you that I did not want to bungee jump, but you know the saying “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too?” And the answer to that is, yes, I would jump off a bridge. Now if you thought the ostrich riding story was fun, this one will be a riot! Okay so I didn’t want to go, but it was only $70 (I think that’s cheap for bungee jumping and compared to sky diving) and this is the highest commercial bungee jumping sight in the world!! (Look up Bloukrans Bungee Jumping on google or youtube if you want to see it). So we pay, get weighed, get harnesses on such and such. Oh, three boys came and joined our group of 9 girls so we had 12 people from CSB/SJU jumping. We were taking a zipline to get out to the jumping site. This is just a huge bridge over a gorge with a small river going underneath it. One side of the bridge looks down the gorge into the mountains and the other side looks out into the ocean. I swear this bridge was built solely for the purpose of bungee jumping because underneath the bridge is a huge platform and that is where we jumped from.
So we’re all hanging out, waiting to go across the zipline to get out to the platform. Everyone is calling what number they want to jump off in the order. A couple people who wanted to go first went across the zipline. Then the man who was in charge of our group, gets off his walkie talkie and starts calling, “Lauren, #64.” Everyone points me out and he goes, “okay you need to get over there now because you’re going first!” I started to freak out saying, no I didn’t want to go first, other people wanted to go first. But this man said that the order was fixed by weight and I was going first! I fought back with him on this point because my roommate Alison weighed one kg less than me, so I tried to make her go first (she would’ve wanted to). But to no avail, I was sent across the zipline ahead of the rest of my friends! The zipline wasn’t that scary for me. The only bad part was you saw how high you were up and what you would be jumping down to: rocks in a little bit of water.
When I got over there, I kind of hid behind the crowd of people (this is a very efficient system and they were doing like 50 people in a group). I hoped they wouldn’t notice me, but they did. So I got called forth and they started strapping me up. I was on the verge of tears again, saying I didn’t want to go and that my friends weren’t there to watch me. By this time there were four girls who had come across and who were trying to get me excited about jumping. Again, a man finally took pity on me and said I could go second. They like to have someone heavy go, then someone light. So this heavy, old man went before me. But I was still the first person from my group, so it still sucked. Anyway, I’m sitting there with a look of complete terror on my face (this was all recorded on camera) waiting till I had to jump. They’re hooking me up and the man says that the more you weigh, the tighter the rope pulls so you’re safer….he’s telling this to the person who weighed the least…basically telling me that I was the least safe out of the group, great! They tie no knots when they’re attaching the bungee to your feet. I got all hooked up, carried out to the edge. I’m standing there with my few friends yelling behind me words of good riddance. I didn’t look down before I jumped, but I knew what was down there. The two men yelled, “5-4-3-2-1-BUNGEE” and pushed me off the side of the bridge!! I made sure I was going head first and I almost enjoyed the free fall. The rebounding wasn’t so bad either, it’s not painful like it looks in videos. But every time I rebounded, I felt like I was going to flip back over, so my arms were flailing all over the place. I don’t know how many times I rebounded, but it was a lot.
When the rebounds stopped and I was just hanging there by my feet, I got a chance to look around and admire the scenery. It was very pretty and not too scary until I looked up and saw how far from the bridge I was. As I’m hanging there, I feel like my feet are going to slip out of the rope and so I’m flexing my feet so I don’t fall! (I was told this is a natural feeling) I also felt like I peed my pants. I was certain that I peed my pants and the more I thought about it, the more I had to go and the more I got embarrassed about when I would have to go to the top. I started wondering where the man was who was supposed to come and get me and I thought people at the top might be able to hear me, so I yelled “Hello?” I got a “hello” back. Then I said impatiently, “Come and get me” and a man yelled back at me “I’m coming!” When he finally got to me I grabbed on to his legs so tightly and we began to be hoisted back to the top. He asked me how I liked it, but I just said I wanted to go back to the top. I was still so embarrassed that I had peed my pants so I was trying to cover that up and ask about a bathroom. Of course though, there is no bathroom on the platform. When we got to the top, they unhooked me and then a man started trying to talk to me, asking about the jump and stuff, all I said was “I really need to go to the bathroom” then I looked down and saw that there was a microphone on his shirt. I figured out that I was being videotaped and it was displayed on a tv for everyone else to see!!! AHHHH! Embarrassing! I immediately went to sit down and told my roommate Emma about the pee problem. She looked down and informed me that I had not peed my pants! I don’t know what I was thinking but I guess it was all just my imagination because luckily, I didn’t!
All in all this was another thing that is checked off the list to never be done again. I watched the rest of my group go and that was more fun. Then we went back and bought tshirts, pictures and dvds of our jumps. We all hopped in our cars and drove the two hours back to PE!
Since I’ve been home it’s been so nice to sleep in my own bed with clean sheets and towels. To have a new bunch of clothes to wear, clean laundry, warm showers, an actual kitchen. All the things you miss from home. I’ve been busy getting re-situated and now I need to kick out a lot of papers again for this week and next week.
So we’re all hanging out, waiting to go across the zipline to get out to the platform. Everyone is calling what number they want to jump off in the order. A couple people who wanted to go first went across the zipline. Then the man who was in charge of our group, gets off his walkie talkie and starts calling, “Lauren, #64.” Everyone points me out and he goes, “okay you need to get over there now because you’re going first!” I started to freak out saying, no I didn’t want to go first, other people wanted to go first. But this man said that the order was fixed by weight and I was going first! I fought back with him on this point because my roommate Alison weighed one kg less than me, so I tried to make her go first (she would’ve wanted to). But to no avail, I was sent across the zipline ahead of the rest of my friends! The zipline wasn’t that scary for me. The only bad part was you saw how high you were up and what you would be jumping down to: rocks in a little bit of water.
When I got over there, I kind of hid behind the crowd of people (this is a very efficient system and they were doing like 50 people in a group). I hoped they wouldn’t notice me, but they did. So I got called forth and they started strapping me up. I was on the verge of tears again, saying I didn’t want to go and that my friends weren’t there to watch me. By this time there were four girls who had come across and who were trying to get me excited about jumping. Again, a man finally took pity on me and said I could go second. They like to have someone heavy go, then someone light. So this heavy, old man went before me. But I was still the first person from my group, so it still sucked. Anyway, I’m sitting there with a look of complete terror on my face (this was all recorded on camera) waiting till I had to jump. They’re hooking me up and the man says that the more you weigh, the tighter the rope pulls so you’re safer….he’s telling this to the person who weighed the least…basically telling me that I was the least safe out of the group, great! They tie no knots when they’re attaching the bungee to your feet. I got all hooked up, carried out to the edge. I’m standing there with my few friends yelling behind me words of good riddance. I didn’t look down before I jumped, but I knew what was down there. The two men yelled, “5-4-3-2-1-BUNGEE” and pushed me off the side of the bridge!! I made sure I was going head first and I almost enjoyed the free fall. The rebounding wasn’t so bad either, it’s not painful like it looks in videos. But every time I rebounded, I felt like I was going to flip back over, so my arms were flailing all over the place. I don’t know how many times I rebounded, but it was a lot.
When the rebounds stopped and I was just hanging there by my feet, I got a chance to look around and admire the scenery. It was very pretty and not too scary until I looked up and saw how far from the bridge I was. As I’m hanging there, I feel like my feet are going to slip out of the rope and so I’m flexing my feet so I don’t fall! (I was told this is a natural feeling) I also felt like I peed my pants. I was certain that I peed my pants and the more I thought about it, the more I had to go and the more I got embarrassed about when I would have to go to the top. I started wondering where the man was who was supposed to come and get me and I thought people at the top might be able to hear me, so I yelled “Hello?” I got a “hello” back. Then I said impatiently, “Come and get me” and a man yelled back at me “I’m coming!” When he finally got to me I grabbed on to his legs so tightly and we began to be hoisted back to the top. He asked me how I liked it, but I just said I wanted to go back to the top. I was still so embarrassed that I had peed my pants so I was trying to cover that up and ask about a bathroom. Of course though, there is no bathroom on the platform. When we got to the top, they unhooked me and then a man started trying to talk to me, asking about the jump and stuff, all I said was “I really need to go to the bathroom” then I looked down and saw that there was a microphone on his shirt. I figured out that I was being videotaped and it was displayed on a tv for everyone else to see!!! AHHHH! Embarrassing! I immediately went to sit down and told my roommate Emma about the pee problem. She looked down and informed me that I had not peed my pants! I don’t know what I was thinking but I guess it was all just my imagination because luckily, I didn’t!
All in all this was another thing that is checked off the list to never be done again. I watched the rest of my group go and that was more fun. Then we went back and bought tshirts, pictures and dvds of our jumps. We all hopped in our cars and drove the two hours back to PE!
Since I’ve been home it’s been so nice to sleep in my own bed with clean sheets and towels. To have a new bunch of clothes to wear, clean laundry, warm showers, an actual kitchen. All the things you miss from home. I’ve been busy getting re-situated and now I need to kick out a lot of papers again for this week and next week.
Wilderness
Still on Friday we drove to Wilderness, all this time each night we were getting closer and closer to home. When we got there we checked into our hostel which was on top of a mountain over looking other mountains, the city and the ocean. Such a beautiful view again. This hostel was also a farm, yes on top of a mountain! We then went and rented canoes and went canoeing down a river that went from a waterfall all the way to the ocean. Well actually, we started at the ocean end and canoed to the waterfall. Well even more actually, we canoed till the river got too shallow and eventually had to hike the last 45 minutes to get to the waterfall. But this time there really was a waterfall and we went swimming in the pool that was formed at the top and bottom of the waterfall. It was super fun, beautiful and refreshing/freezing! And the canoe ride was fun because you know how I love canoeing! The paddles were weird though and they were one stick with a paddle on each end, like a kayak paddle. It worked though. The hike was easy and it was fun walking on the rocks around the waterfall. Everything is so gosh dang beautiful here, you wouldn’t believe it! Friday night some people went out to dinner, but I opted with the group that stayed on the farm/on top of the mountain. We cooked hotdogs, corn, potatoes, beans and s’mores over the fire. It was a great night for it, pretty cool and a full moon.
Ostrich Riding in Oudtshoorn
First thing on Friday, we stopped halfway through our drive to do a little ostrich riding in Oudtshoorn. The only reason I wanted to do it is because I remember Grandpa telling me about he did it in Australia. Anyway, I was so terrified of that ostrich I was almost crying. All the girls in my group were just laughing at me! The guy tried to make me go first, but luckily I passed that role off onto someone else. Then when it was my turn, I still really didn’t want to go, but since I paid $5 for it I felt I needed to. To catch an ostrich, you put a sack over its head so that it can’t see you and it becomes immediately calm (ostriches are one of the stupidest animals and have the mentality that if they can’t see you, you can’t see them). Then to hop on it, you grab each of its wings and sit kind of on its back, kind of on its butt so you’re almost falling off. Then squeeze your knees around its middle section and lean back! If you know how much I love animals, you can imagine how much I loved riding on this thing. It was seriously the worst, I was more scared of that ostrich than I was of skydiving! I rode it around the pen once, surrounded by other ostriches that seemed ready to peck me to death. Four of the other girls were running around with their ostriches too. One girl got bucked off by hers. I wish I did, but I was stuck on mine because they didn’t tell me how to get off! So I’m just riding this thing around, about to cry, with pictures being taken and such, and I’m yelling to the guy who works with these horrid birds to take me off. While I was trying to get on and while I was trying to ride and while I was asking to get off, these men are just yelling all these commands at me. And everything was contradicting! It was “squeeze your knees,” “lean back,” “lean forward,” “let go,” “loosen up!” So confusing, finally one man felt sorry for me and told me I could just let go and slide off whenever I wanted to. So I waited until I wasn’t completely surrounded by other ostriches and made my escape! As we walked toward the car I said, “There’s one thing I can cross of my list and I never have to do again!”
Mossel Bay
Thursday our group drove to Mossel Bay where we planned on doing shark cage diving. But the outfit was honest with us and said they hadn’t seen a shark in almost two weeks and advised us not to pay the large amount of money to go. We’re going to try and go back in a couple weeks, when “shark season” will pick up. Instead a couple of us went scuba diving and the rest of the group went snorkeling. It was cool, the water was clearer than in PE and there was more underwater life. Our guide brought food down with us and so we were surrounded by fish and even some small, and harmless, sharks came. They were swimming between my legs and stuff, it was cool. We only had to keep our hands in a fist so that they wouldn’t think our fingers were pieces of food. After scuba diving we went out on a jet boat, which I can honestly say I don’t think most readers of this blog who I am related to would have enjoyed (unless your Dad or Mac). It was just a really wild boat ride that went flying over huge swells. We weren’t buckled in at all, just holding on to a metal bar. Yes, I thought I was going to fly out. You had to stay standing because if you were seated when the boat came down on the water you probably would’ve had the wind knocked out of you. It was crazy. We did slow down once though to see a large pack/herd/family? of dolphins that were surfacing. So that was really cool. Afterward we went out to dinner again and then dancing!
Swellendam
Wednesday we woke up early and drove to Swellendam. We stayed at backpackers there that was very large with a lot of people staying there. We were in a room with ten people, so there was us 9 girls and then Nick from Germany. I think he had a good time because we included him in everything that we did. There was also a large family of baboons that lived at this hostel, or in the woods right by it. So we had fun watching them. About half of us went on a hike during the day to see a waterfall, only to find out that there was a drought and the waterfall was no longer existent! It was still a good hike though. Then we went on what was my favorite part of spring break! We went on a “Sundowners Cruise” (sundowner=happy hour drinks). It was a little drive away but in a lake formed from a dam. It was a huge, homemade, double-decker pontoon that took us on a cruise around the lake and down a stream through some cliffs. It was only us and Nick on the boat. We had a great time just going around on the boat and when we got to the cliffs, we took out kayaks and went deep into the cliffs to see a waterfall that was still running! Some people went cliff jumping, but I didn’t. The water was black from the roots of the trees that grow there or something like that. On the way back, the driver stopped and we jumped off the top deck of the boat. It was fun to swim in fresh water (although some people’s doctors warned not to swim in fresh water in South Africa) and of course to jump off from up high. Some girls were scared, but I helped them all jump! We went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant with Nick too. When we got back home we had a fire and made s’mores with weird crackers and strawberry flavored marshmallows, but it was good!
Franschoek
Tuesday morning we rented bikes from the info center in Stellenbosch and biked around the town. It is a very beautiful town and the second oldest in South Africa. It has very old fashioned gutters that line every street with a small cement bridge that goes over the gutter to get into someone’s driveway. While we were biking, we saw our jazz music professor walking around with her family, they were on holiday too. We then biked to another vineyard. The bike ride was beautiful because it is fall here and the leaves were all changing colors in the mountains and around the gorgeous vineyards. Some people returned their bikes then and drove around town for lunch and then to more vineyards. But me and two other girls kept our bikes and biked to another vineyard and had wine and chocolates. Tuesday night we drove to Franshoek (where we had visited two vineyards on the wine tour on Monday) to stay at another backpackers. It was a big house in a vineyard with beautiful mountains on all sides. This was a new backpackers and they said that our group was the first large group that they had ever had. So they made this huge South African stew for us with lamb and it was so good! We only paid $3 for it too! We just sat around after dinner talking and then we went camping! But the camping wasn’t actual camping, because there were mattresses with sheets and a comforter in there and tons of room for our bags and such. But it was still fun to sleep outside with the nice scenery and stars.
Stellenbosch
Monday we picked up our rental cars, early in the morning and drove to Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is in the heart of wineland country and about 45 minutes away from Cape Town. There is also a university there, so we fit right in! We checked into our backpackers and hopped on a minibus to go on our wine tour from 10-5 (almost a full-time job I know!) We went to 4 vineyards and out to lunch. My favorite wine was a Chenin Blanc (dry white). We saw how wine was made, tasted wines, tasted cheeses and homemade breads, and just had a great time. I feel like an expert on wine now, so this summer I’ll help pick out some good ones for us to taste around the fire. I bought a couple of bottles, but I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be able to bring them home with me or not. After the wine tour we went out to eat at Cubana and had some more Mexican food (something that we all miss). Something scary happened on this night. I guess around 3am some girls who were staying in the hostel decided to make pizza. Somehow, they left the gas stove on and went to sleep. Luckily, my roommate Alison woke up around 5am or so and smelled the gas and immediately went and switched it off. She then checked on all of us and made sure we were still awake because the gas smell was so strong in our room. We told the hostel owners about the problem, but nothing was ever really done. Thankfully, we were only staying there one night.
And on the Seventh Day...
On Sunday everyone else took the bus back to PE while myself and the 8 girls I planned my spring break with stayed one more night in Cape Town at the same backpackers. We took the day easy because we knew we had a big week ahead of us! I went shopping with a few of the girls at some African markets and to a very fancy mall. My only and best purchase was a belly button ring that has the South African flag on it that I probably will never take off again I love it so much! Then the 9 of us started our bonding by going out to dinner in a ritzy suburb of Cape Town called Camps Bay. We sat at a table outside right by the beach and had some great seafood. It was a cold night though, so the restaurant gave us all a fleece blanket to warm up in! I think restaurants in MN should start to give out blankets to cold customers!
Jazz Festival
Friday night and Saturday night we went to the International Jazz Festival. This was THE event in Cape Town, the whole city was trying to get tickets to attend this event. Luckily, we were all planned out and taken care of. There were 5 different stages in the Civic Center, some indoor and some outdoor and we were able to just walk around and listen to all the artists as they overlapped. It was a great time and we heard some great South African artists. Not every band played jazz, some were a lot more contemporary and even rap, so we stuck to those ones. We were way, way the minority and everyone was very friendly toward us so we met a lot of people too. Actually everywhere we go we meet a lot of people. Everyone here is so friendly and as soon as they hear our accents, they want to talk to us, take pictures with us and make plans with us. After the jazz festival, our whole group went out to Long Street, the main spot in Cape Town that had a New Orleans feel to it, for dancing.
Parliament, Robben Island and Lions Head
On Friday we took a tour of Parliament. South Africa has two capitals, Pretoria is the capital for the president and Cape Town is the capital for legislature. I think that’s right, Kate? The tour was interesting and educational, however Parliament was not in session so we just saw a bunch of empty buildings! After this we went to see Robben Island! This is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 17 years (an additional 10 years were spent at other prisons). We got a tour of the whole island, which is only a couple miles off the coast of Cape Town. The island is now home to a village of people, all who work at the museum that was built out of the former prison. We took a bus tour of the whole island and then had a tour of the cell blocks, including the cell where Mandela lived. Our tour guide was a former political prisoner and gave us tons of stories of his personal experiences. This tour was so interesting and educational and when I left I was feeling very sad.
Saturday was a free day, so I spent the morning relaxing and reading. I started reading the popular Twilight series (the one about the vampire love affair you probably have heard about or seen the movie previews). I am caught up in the series and that is distracting me from my school work now haha. Anyway after I read half of my book, I hiked Lions Head with my friend Kirby. Its a mountain that looks like a Lions Head from the profile view. I wanted to do Table Mountain but no one else who didn’t go the other day wanted to and Kirby had already done Table Mountain. So we hiked the mountain that is half its size and right next to it. It was still a great hike and we got to see the beautiful city and a nice view of Table Mountain. Kirby decided for us that we would take the more rigorous trail that required us to use ladders and chains to climb up. So that was an experience! I’ll put up a funny picture of me trying to get up the chains.
Saturday was a free day, so I spent the morning relaxing and reading. I started reading the popular Twilight series (the one about the vampire love affair you probably have heard about or seen the movie previews). I am caught up in the series and that is distracting me from my school work now haha. Anyway after I read half of my book, I hiked Lions Head with my friend Kirby. Its a mountain that looks like a Lions Head from the profile view. I wanted to do Table Mountain but no one else who didn’t go the other day wanted to and Kirby had already done Table Mountain. So we hiked the mountain that is half its size and right next to it. It was still a great hike and we got to see the beautiful city and a nice view of Table Mountain. Kirby decided for us that we would take the more rigorous trail that required us to use ladders and chains to climb up. So that was an experience! I’ll put up a funny picture of me trying to get up the chains.
Penguins, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point
Thursday morning we left early for a full day excursion on our bus. First we went to Simonstown where we looked a colony of penguins. Can you imagine penguins living in Africa? It was the weirdest sight, almost as weird as the cows on the beach, to see all these penguins lying on the white sand! The Atlantic Ocean is in Cape Town so it is cold enough for them. Babies were just hatched so there were tons of cute penguins to watch. Next we went to the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwestern-most point of Africa. It used to be called the Cape of Storms because the storms kept ships from going around the point and returning. Once a ship made it around the point and lived to tell about it, it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope. It was the windiest day in the world while we were here and we barely could take a step without falling over. I think the combination of strong winds in the country and being on this point made it so difficult, but we just held on to each other and stayed low to the ground to make it out to the point for pictures. Next we went to Cape Point, which I guess I don’t really know the significance of. Maybe it was just the next point down the coast. Anyway there were several hikes to do there and lighthouses to see, so we did that for a few hours. When we got back to our hostel, aka backpackers, we got ready to go out to see a play. The play was called Coming Home and it was about a coloured (a person who is some mix of white and black) family living on a farm near Cape Town and the hardships they faced because of apartheid and AIDS. It was very interesting to see and get that perspective.
Table Mountain
Here we go, “quick” update of my spring break. Which by the way, isn’t spring break…it’s fall holiday. Of course! That confuses us every time too, but I think the South Africans get more confused when we told them we were on spring break. Haha! I’m going to post this in bits so it is easier to read.
From the last post, the Holocaust museum and the Jewish museum were very interesting. The cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain was cool too. That mountain is so beautiful and it gives the best view of Cape Town. The city, the ocean and the mountains spread out on all sides. Just gorgeous, check out the pictures of course! The group that hiked up the mountain was very tired because it was the hottest day ever and it was a three hour hike. I regretted not hiking with them a little bit, but I still got to see the top and I’ve hiked a lot so it wouldn’t have been that different. We got to see the sunset on our way down in the cable car which was also beautiful. We went out to eat at a traditional African restaurant as a group that night and had great food!! It was kind of like Buca in that there were several dishes that the whole table just shared. Only difference was that we had unlimited supply of all dishes!
From the last post, the Holocaust museum and the Jewish museum were very interesting. The cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain was cool too. That mountain is so beautiful and it gives the best view of Cape Town. The city, the ocean and the mountains spread out on all sides. Just gorgeous, check out the pictures of course! The group that hiked up the mountain was very tired because it was the hottest day ever and it was a three hour hike. I regretted not hiking with them a little bit, but I still got to see the top and I’ve hiked a lot so it wouldn’t have been that different. We got to see the sunset on our way down in the cable car which was also beautiful. We went out to eat at a traditional African restaurant as a group that night and had great food!! It was kind of like Buca in that there were several dishes that the whole table just shared. Only difference was that we had unlimited supply of all dishes!
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