me, andrea and dannie on Long Street
gme and dannie and the ship in the background along with a beautiful sky
ghere are the lions the Edwin promised us and made it a reality
zebras!! right next to our jeep!
gHyena!! Edwin was not expecting to see this and it scared him too!
the bull!
here is the 10 of us :)
me with a little boy i met at the township visit. you all know i love kids!
me watching the beautiful sunset in cape town.
i just thought this was an amazing picture that someone took of Erik taking a picture of Hilary, Dannie and me.
The two days before we arrived in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke to our global studies class. That is the class that everyone is required to take. When he speaks, he tells stories and always ends with the moral of the story. He is amazing to listen to. He is so inspirational, and you know what else; he is so funny. He laughs a lot, he dances, and he is genuinely a nice person. I have some of his lecture on video so I can see what I can do about posting at least one.
On Friday we arrived in South Africa! We arrived just as the sun was rising and it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. With Table Mountain in the background and the sun peeking through, it was amazing. After watching the sunrise, I went back to bed since we were not going to be able to leave the boat for a while anyway.
first day in Cape Town was spent wandering around Cape Town with a small group of people. We did a little shopping at the mall right where the boat docked, and then made our way to Long Street. Long Street is full of restaurants and more shopping. We ate outside at an amazing restaurant called Zula’s, which was on the second floor overlooking the entire street. I also tried the local beer, Black Label. I hate beer but this one was not that bad. I would have to say that it is my favorite beer. There was live music at the restaurant as well. It was a great start to South Africa.
That night, everyone went out on Long Street. We were looking for a club with music and dancing but all we were able to find were bars. Semester at Sea-ers (SASers) take over the city that we arrive in. It makes every bar and restaurant crowded and although it is good for the economy, it sucks for us. So the small group of people I was with found a bar that SASers had not found yet. There was a pool table in the back and music was playing. It was so small so we hoped that the crowds of SASers would not find it. Unfortunately, there was no such luck. Tons of SASers crowded into this little whole in the wall place. It was fine, we had found it first and already had seats, so everyone else was out of luck. When that bar got too crowded we walked down Long Street looking for something else that was not too crowded. There was nothing, SAS had taken over Long Street. So the group of people I was with decided that they were going to go down to the waterfront. Dannie and I being the tired lazy people that we are, decided to go back to the boat. Our safari was leaving at 4:30 the next morning. Some of the people going to the waterfront were also going on our safari, but we wanted some sleep.
Ten of us were supposed to be meeting at a set spot at 4:30am to head to the airport; Max, Eric, Dannie, Brenna, Hilary, Kelsey, Jamie, Robyn, Alex and me. 5:00 rolled around and Alex was still nowhere to be found. We thought it was a lost cause. We called her room millions of times and the boys knocked so hard on her door in case she was sleeping that they almost broke the door down. We were all upset about it but none of us wanted to miss our flight, so we left without her. We got the airport by 5:30 for our 7:00 flight. Everyone was exhausted. Having lost my phone in Brazil, I bought a phone card but couldn’t figure out how to use it. We got some small snacks before heading through security. Jamie was the only one that decided to have a sit down breakfast, so we left her eating and the 8 of us went through security.
The way the airport worked, arriving at your ‘gate’ did not meaning arriving at the plane. At the gate there was a shuttle you had to take to you plane. To get on the plane, you walked from outside, up the actually stairs of the airplane. So while waiting at the gate, we see Jamie coming who had finally finished eating. And who is she with? Alex! It was amazing and we were all so happy. We felt so bad leaving her. Her roommate had gotten ‘sick’ and she was helping her all night before falling asleep herself. Our calls and knocks did not wake her up. She woke up on her own at 6:00, got into a cab to the airport and was walking through security at 6:45 for our 7:00 flight. It was crazy!
I slept the entire two-hour flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. When we got off the plane, there was an O’Neill sign for us telling us where to go. Brenna had made the reservations and that was her last name. (Sidenote: it was weird that we had made these plans before anyone knew each other, when we all ended up meeting and hanging out and liking each other. It was an amazing group to go to the safari with.) There were 2 other SAS groups that had booked an indy safari using the same company. One was a group of 20 and the other was a group of 19. Each group had their own bus. Now we had a 5-hour bus ride to Kruger. So again, we could all get some more sleep. We stopped half way through for lunch with the other SASers before continuing on our way.
When we arrived, the group of 20 was taken somewhere else, and about 5 of the group of 19 went with them. We were going to be sharing a campground with like 14 other people. There were 12 tents set up for us, 2 people per tent. I was with Dannie. We through our stuff in a tent and then we loaded to jeep for our afternoon drive. The first day was amazing! We saw everything from impalas (deer), to giraffes, to zebras, to buffalo, to elephants, to rhinos…. The scenery was breathtaking. There were animals everywhere and we were all constantly on the look out. It was so much fun and our tour guide, Edwin, was partially responsible for that. He was great. He did everything he could to make this an amazing experience for us.
We got back to the campground right as night fell. We were served a delicious dinner and a really long table. There was a convenient store at the campground (we were obviously by no means roughing it) so some of us bought some ice cream after dinner and spent the night talking about how lucky we were to be there. We talked about how it didn’t seem real; it almost seemed like the animals were computer controlled and we drove by someone was saying ‘cue elephants.’ It was amazing! Everyone was asleep by like 9:00, which is earlier than anyone has gone to sleep in a long time.
The next morning we woke up before the sun did, around 4:30am. We had tea and biscuits before doing our morning drive. We were constantly talking about wanting to sea lions and we could tell how badly Edwin wanted to make that happen for us. Do far, no luck. Along with the same animals as the previous drive, we saw a hyena and a wild boar. These animals were feet from our jeep. There were males and females interacting, mothers and their babies interacting. There were monkeys everywhere including our campground. We saw alligators and hippos, we saw beautiful birds, and we watched the sunrise. It was amazing. There really is no other word to describe it and I hope that you will be able to understand at least a little bit of it when I post my pictures.
We were back around 9:00 where we had a full fledge breakfast with eggs and cereal. After that, it was naptime, naturally. It was hot as hell though so naptime did not last very long. Being in the tent at this time was not very enjoyable. So when I came out, there were two groups of people playing cards. Let’s just say I sat down with the right group of people. They were playing the game ‘camps.’ It is kind of hard to explain, but Pop and Paco, who I know love cards, I will be sure to teach the game to when I get home:) It is a partner game that involves secret signals and we had so much fun playing. I was partners with Shaan, an SASer from the other group, and we kicked everyone’s butt. Isaiah and Max and Kelsey and Leimer gave is some competition, and Isaiah and Max think that they won, but Shaan and I know differently.
Before arriving in South Africa, they lectured to us over and over again not to pet the dogs and not to pet the monkeys. During one of the lectures, Brenna whispered to me that she was going to be the idiot that gets bit by a monkey. And you know what, she was. She was taking pictures of the monkeys before she realized that maybe she was a little too close. So she turned to walk away and a monkey pounced on her. I didn’t see it but Hilary did. I would have paid to be there. It wrapped its arms around her calf and she had to shake it off. It didn’t break skin so no one was worried; it just scratched her and left a bruise since apparently monkeys are strong. She asked the tour guide what kind of monkey it was so that she could buy a post card of it; it was a vervet. I was in the tent with Dannie at the time and heard her scream and new exactly what it was. It was so funny.
Lunch was served at 2:00. Again, the food was great which has to be hard when you are serving 20++ people at a campground. Then around 4:00 we left for our afternoon drive. Animals are amazing and more than that, seeing them in an uncontrolled environment is amazing. They are wondering around doing whatever it is that they need to do to survive. No one is serving them three meals a day or cleaning their cages, they are free to do what they want. We spent a lot of the time singing Lion King, and then when that got old we sang every Disney song under the sun. Unfortunately I have the ‘Cotton voice’ so I let other people lead and just quietly sang along with them.
During this drive, Edwin took us to this rock that looked out on miles and miles of the reservation. It was amazing and we got some great group shots of us there. It was beautiful. We could see the necks of some giraffes roaming around. It was like Pride Rock from the Lion King. Kelsey is small so I chased her around for a minute trying to get her to be my baby Simba and I, Rafiki could hold her up and show her, her kingdom, but she didn’t like that idea. We laid down on the rocks and took funny pictures of each other. It was a great way to spend some of out drive. We wanted to stay longer but the gates to the camp close at a certain time and we were cutting it close.
For our classes on the ship, we all need to talk to locals and ask them certain questions relating to our classes. So throughout the drive we were throwing questions at Edwin and he was more than willing to talk about anything and everything. My questions get pretty personal since I am taking a women’s psych course and a class on race. I don’t know if he was open to talking about stuff because he knew it was for educational purposes or if it was just because it is the way he is. Either way, he was great to talk to and all of us got information that we needed out of him.
That night was even more fun than the night before. The convenient store sold liquor for really cheap, so people bought several bottles of wine and champagne. The tour provided us with beer and box wine at dinner, but of course Americans want more than that. So about 10 of us stayed up pretty late playing cards with Edwin. He picked up really quickly and was very good at the game. We all shared wine and stuff but fortunately no one got drunk since we had to wake up so early the next morning as well.
Although not everyone playing with us was in ‘our’ safari, we still talked about wanting to see Lions. So Edwin, being the amazing tour guide that he was, told us that everyone else was waking up at 4:30 to leave by 5:00, he promised us lions if we could leave by 4:30. We needed to be the first to leave. We were all ok with that idea and the people that were not in our group were sad about it. Around 10:00pm, while we were playing cards, other people had already gone to sleep. One guy came out and yelled at us. If he had asked us politely to be quiet, we probably would have listened. But he was a dick about it, so instead we did nothing. We paid the same amount of money to be there as he did, it was still early, and he was probably just jealous that he wasn’t having as much fun as we were. We all still went to bed early that night, although it was not as early as the night before.
The next morning we were all ready to leave at 4:30. Edwin knew exactly where to take us and he sped all the way there. Sure enough, there were 4 female lions walking down the street together. It was amazing! He told us that their stomachs looked full meaning that they had just caught something and ate it. Females hunt for their food together. They walked right passed the jeep and continued on their way. Edwin was so happy. Apparently they only see lions twice a week, so he went out on a limb by promising us, but he made it happened and we were all so happy about it. He was so cute too when he saw them; he threw his arms up in the air and quietly yelled ‘lions, lions, lions!’ After that we saw more of the animals we had already seen. We also saw hippos out of the water. Who knew they ever left the water haha.
We had previously decided that we were going to tip Edwin. He was great and he made all of our wishes come true. The dollar is worth a lot in South Africa. One dollar is worth over 7 rand, but we would just round down to seven. So we collected 100 rand from each of us, meaning that we would give him 1,000 rand. By each contributing 100 rand, it was tipping him about 14 dollars. We said our goodbyes and handed him the money before walking away. Brenna and I so badly wanted to see his reaction. So we only walked away a little bit before having a pretend conversation. His smile was the biggest smile I had ever seen in my life. He then skipped back over to where the other guides where and told them something, and then made some phone calls. The smile did not leave his face. We later learned that they make 1,300 rand a month. We just about doubled his month’s salary. They work 21 days and then have 6 days off. We each paid 500 dollars, or 3,500 rand to be there. And they probably do countless tours in those 21 days. They should be getting paid more. But it made sense why Edwin was so happy. It was amazing to have been a part of that. We then packed up our stuff, and loaded the bus for our 5-hour ride back to the airport. The safari was amazing!
We got back around 9:00pm on Monday and pretty much we all went right to sleep. It was an amazing three days but it definitely wore us out. The next day, a lot of my friends were doing a field directed practicum (fdp) so I decided that I was going to do a township visit on my own. I signed up for a bunch of things regarding children but I guess those were the popular ones and I didn’t win in the lottery for any of them.
So there was a township visit leaving at 8:30 the next morning, so I was there at 7:00 so that I could be first on the wait list incase someone didn’t show up or someone wanted to sell their ticket. Being first didn’t necessarily pay off since like 5 people wanted to sell their tickets, but at least I got to go. For so long I have done what other people want to do, I have let other push me around and I was so excited to finally be doing exactly what I wanted to do; I was going to Khayelitsha.
It started out slow with some history lessons (the word Khayelitsha means new village) and a tour of the public places in the township. We learned that in certain areas there are no bathrooms and instead there is a field where you have to walk to if you have to go. The government allows these townships to exist because there is nothing else they can do about it. The people build their own makeshift houses with whatever material they can find, and then the government provides them running water and minimal electricity. There are schools in the township as well as little stores where people can buy the things that they need. We then ended up visiting three craft markets, which is a huge source of income for the township, and visited three different schools. I LOVED playing with the children and I could have stayed there ALL day. We were rushed the whole time, which sucked, but at least I got to play a little bit. Seeing how these people live was mind-boggling. I cant even put it into words but hopefully through my pictures you will be able to get some understanding.
We got back in the early afternoon. Since I had not known anyone on my township visit, I jumped in a van with some girls to go to the Green Market Square, which is where all the handmade crafts are sold. It was a huge area with more stuff than I ever could have imagined. Everything was cheap and haggling was great. I then bumped into Brenna, Hilary and Kelsey and stuck with them the rest of the time in the market. Kelsey had heard about this place that was a mall and a market that she wanted to go to, so the 4 of us jumped in a cab and took the ride over. I was very disappointed because it was nothing more than a mall, a regular priced mall, which I can go to at home. Hilary and Kelsey split up and went shopping, while me and Brenna stayed together complaining and looking for the most comfortable places to sit. We found these giant red bean bag like chairs and sat on them in the store until our meeting time came.
We got back pretty late so a lot of our other friends had already left for dinner. So the four of us got dressed and went out. It was so much fun. I hate being in huge groups where no one really gets to do what they want since there really is always one leader. Being just the four of us, we knew that we could go wherever we wanted to go. We went to this Mexican place right by the ship and shared a drink called the fish bowl. We talked to this really racist guy because for our classes, we need to get different people’s point of views on a variety of things. And then we made our way to a club that all the SASers were going to. I know I said we all hate going to SAS infested clubs, but it seemed like the place to be.
It was fun at first because we thought the music would get better, but it never did. People were coming and going the whole time so it’s not like we made it an early night, we just didn’t stay out as late as other people. Besides, the next morning we were going to Robben Island and I wanted to be rested for that.
The next morning, 8 of us had tickets for Robben Island; Brenna, Dannie, Hilary, Jamie, Terron, Derron, Eric and me. Unfortunately, because of a computer error, we were unable to go and I was really upset about it. The day before, my original plan had been to go to the top of Table Mountain after the township, but I was not able to go because of the wind. I thought at least I was going to be able to do one of the 2 touristy things in Cape Town. Our tickets said one time but we were put into the computer as another time. So when we go there, we were told we missed our boat. They recognized their mistake but said that all the boats were sold out until Thursday so there was nothing they could do about it. We were pissed. We tried to make the best of a bad situation, so we went to eat. The crepes were delicious but it was not Robben Island.
We then decided that we were going to go to the beach to watch the sunset. However, it was early afternoon at that point. So I suggested we go to the market since my time at the market was cut short the day before. We all went and most of them hadn’t been before so they were happy with the decision. We stayed for about an hour and picked up Erik, another friend on our ship, before heading to Camps Beach. The beach itself was beautiful. There were mountains in the background, a bright blue sky, white sand, a grassy area between the sand and the sidewalk, and then a bunch of restaurants across from the beach. It was a very touristy area but it was still beautiful. When the sun was about to set, Hilary, Dannie and I climbed a huge rock to get the best view. And we did. It was amazing and I can’t wait to get my pictures posted. It was a beautiful sunset.
After that, we were ready to eat. Dannie and Erik headed home because there was poetry night somewhere else that they wanted to go to. I almost went with them but I am glad I didn’t because they ended up not going anyway and just going to sleep. So the rest of us went out to dinner. I finally had a salad, which I haven’t had in forever. The food was great and South Africa has great prices, even in what is supposed to be a fancy restaurant. We got back kind of late, around 9:00. Neither Brenna nor I wanted to go out so we just hung out a little bit before going to sleep. I know it was early and it was our last night in South Africa, but I had done so much in our short amount of time there that I was just beat.
I also had to be up at 4:30am to go cage diving. Let me just tell you that it was not what I expected. I did not have fun. Everyone I was with loved it but I just did not want to be there. We had a 2 and half hour drive where we were served breakfast. Then we got into the boat, and that ride was the most fun part of the entire day. We put wet suites on and then got into the cage 4 at a time. Andrea, Kevin, Dannie and I were like the last group to go in. This was an all day affair so from about 9:00 until 1:00 we just sat on the boat looking at sharks from above which also was more fun that going in the water. The water was murky and you couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of you. It was also freezing. We were in for a while when there was no activity and then one shark came, I missed it, and they told me to get out so that someone could have their second time in the cage. It was crap and I was pissed. It was a waste of money and a waste of a day in South Africa. I wish I had used that money for sky diving or something. Oh well. We headed back and were served a delicious lunch, another highlight of the day. We then started our drive back to the boat and got back around 5:00.
We all got home and needed to shower since we stunk of shark guts. Most of the people I went with then went out for one last meal but I wasn’t hungry so I went to the supermarket and then met up with them right before they finished eating. So I said good-bye to South Africa and headed back to the ship. It was a bitter last day but over all, I love South Africa, and this time I really do think that it is going to be hard to beat. I do know that I will come back here though. Some of us (Paco, Matt, Erin, Jamie, Tova…) have plans to go to the World Cup in 2010. This is a beautiful amazing country and I can’t wait to share it with the people that I love.
ps- Brenna wants me to tell everyone she knows that reads my blog that her computer is broken and she will update as soon as she can. She loves you!
On Friday we arrived in South Africa! We arrived just as the sun was rising and it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. With Table Mountain in the background and the sun peeking through, it was amazing. After watching the sunrise, I went back to bed since we were not going to be able to leave the boat for a while anyway.
first day in Cape Town was spent wandering around Cape Town with a small group of people. We did a little shopping at the mall right where the boat docked, and then made our way to Long Street. Long Street is full of restaurants and more shopping. We ate outside at an amazing restaurant called Zula’s, which was on the second floor overlooking the entire street. I also tried the local beer, Black Label. I hate beer but this one was not that bad. I would have to say that it is my favorite beer. There was live music at the restaurant as well. It was a great start to South Africa.
That night, everyone went out on Long Street. We were looking for a club with music and dancing but all we were able to find were bars. Semester at Sea-ers (SASers) take over the city that we arrive in. It makes every bar and restaurant crowded and although it is good for the economy, it sucks for us. So the small group of people I was with found a bar that SASers had not found yet. There was a pool table in the back and music was playing. It was so small so we hoped that the crowds of SASers would not find it. Unfortunately, there was no such luck. Tons of SASers crowded into this little whole in the wall place. It was fine, we had found it first and already had seats, so everyone else was out of luck. When that bar got too crowded we walked down Long Street looking for something else that was not too crowded. There was nothing, SAS had taken over Long Street. So the group of people I was with decided that they were going to go down to the waterfront. Dannie and I being the tired lazy people that we are, decided to go back to the boat. Our safari was leaving at 4:30 the next morning. Some of the people going to the waterfront were also going on our safari, but we wanted some sleep.
Ten of us were supposed to be meeting at a set spot at 4:30am to head to the airport; Max, Eric, Dannie, Brenna, Hilary, Kelsey, Jamie, Robyn, Alex and me. 5:00 rolled around and Alex was still nowhere to be found. We thought it was a lost cause. We called her room millions of times and the boys knocked so hard on her door in case she was sleeping that they almost broke the door down. We were all upset about it but none of us wanted to miss our flight, so we left without her. We got the airport by 5:30 for our 7:00 flight. Everyone was exhausted. Having lost my phone in Brazil, I bought a phone card but couldn’t figure out how to use it. We got some small snacks before heading through security. Jamie was the only one that decided to have a sit down breakfast, so we left her eating and the 8 of us went through security.
The way the airport worked, arriving at your ‘gate’ did not meaning arriving at the plane. At the gate there was a shuttle you had to take to you plane. To get on the plane, you walked from outside, up the actually stairs of the airplane. So while waiting at the gate, we see Jamie coming who had finally finished eating. And who is she with? Alex! It was amazing and we were all so happy. We felt so bad leaving her. Her roommate had gotten ‘sick’ and she was helping her all night before falling asleep herself. Our calls and knocks did not wake her up. She woke up on her own at 6:00, got into a cab to the airport and was walking through security at 6:45 for our 7:00 flight. It was crazy!
I slept the entire two-hour flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. When we got off the plane, there was an O’Neill sign for us telling us where to go. Brenna had made the reservations and that was her last name. (Sidenote: it was weird that we had made these plans before anyone knew each other, when we all ended up meeting and hanging out and liking each other. It was an amazing group to go to the safari with.) There were 2 other SAS groups that had booked an indy safari using the same company. One was a group of 20 and the other was a group of 19. Each group had their own bus. Now we had a 5-hour bus ride to Kruger. So again, we could all get some more sleep. We stopped half way through for lunch with the other SASers before continuing on our way.
When we arrived, the group of 20 was taken somewhere else, and about 5 of the group of 19 went with them. We were going to be sharing a campground with like 14 other people. There were 12 tents set up for us, 2 people per tent. I was with Dannie. We through our stuff in a tent and then we loaded to jeep for our afternoon drive. The first day was amazing! We saw everything from impalas (deer), to giraffes, to zebras, to buffalo, to elephants, to rhinos…. The scenery was breathtaking. There were animals everywhere and we were all constantly on the look out. It was so much fun and our tour guide, Edwin, was partially responsible for that. He was great. He did everything he could to make this an amazing experience for us.
We got back to the campground right as night fell. We were served a delicious dinner and a really long table. There was a convenient store at the campground (we were obviously by no means roughing it) so some of us bought some ice cream after dinner and spent the night talking about how lucky we were to be there. We talked about how it didn’t seem real; it almost seemed like the animals were computer controlled and we drove by someone was saying ‘cue elephants.’ It was amazing! Everyone was asleep by like 9:00, which is earlier than anyone has gone to sleep in a long time.
The next morning we woke up before the sun did, around 4:30am. We had tea and biscuits before doing our morning drive. We were constantly talking about wanting to sea lions and we could tell how badly Edwin wanted to make that happen for us. Do far, no luck. Along with the same animals as the previous drive, we saw a hyena and a wild boar. These animals were feet from our jeep. There were males and females interacting, mothers and their babies interacting. There were monkeys everywhere including our campground. We saw alligators and hippos, we saw beautiful birds, and we watched the sunrise. It was amazing. There really is no other word to describe it and I hope that you will be able to understand at least a little bit of it when I post my pictures.
We were back around 9:00 where we had a full fledge breakfast with eggs and cereal. After that, it was naptime, naturally. It was hot as hell though so naptime did not last very long. Being in the tent at this time was not very enjoyable. So when I came out, there were two groups of people playing cards. Let’s just say I sat down with the right group of people. They were playing the game ‘camps.’ It is kind of hard to explain, but Pop and Paco, who I know love cards, I will be sure to teach the game to when I get home:) It is a partner game that involves secret signals and we had so much fun playing. I was partners with Shaan, an SASer from the other group, and we kicked everyone’s butt. Isaiah and Max and Kelsey and Leimer gave is some competition, and Isaiah and Max think that they won, but Shaan and I know differently.
Before arriving in South Africa, they lectured to us over and over again not to pet the dogs and not to pet the monkeys. During one of the lectures, Brenna whispered to me that she was going to be the idiot that gets bit by a monkey. And you know what, she was. She was taking pictures of the monkeys before she realized that maybe she was a little too close. So she turned to walk away and a monkey pounced on her. I didn’t see it but Hilary did. I would have paid to be there. It wrapped its arms around her calf and she had to shake it off. It didn’t break skin so no one was worried; it just scratched her and left a bruise since apparently monkeys are strong. She asked the tour guide what kind of monkey it was so that she could buy a post card of it; it was a vervet. I was in the tent with Dannie at the time and heard her scream and new exactly what it was. It was so funny.
Lunch was served at 2:00. Again, the food was great which has to be hard when you are serving 20++ people at a campground. Then around 4:00 we left for our afternoon drive. Animals are amazing and more than that, seeing them in an uncontrolled environment is amazing. They are wondering around doing whatever it is that they need to do to survive. No one is serving them three meals a day or cleaning their cages, they are free to do what they want. We spent a lot of the time singing Lion King, and then when that got old we sang every Disney song under the sun. Unfortunately I have the ‘Cotton voice’ so I let other people lead and just quietly sang along with them.
During this drive, Edwin took us to this rock that looked out on miles and miles of the reservation. It was amazing and we got some great group shots of us there. It was beautiful. We could see the necks of some giraffes roaming around. It was like Pride Rock from the Lion King. Kelsey is small so I chased her around for a minute trying to get her to be my baby Simba and I, Rafiki could hold her up and show her, her kingdom, but she didn’t like that idea. We laid down on the rocks and took funny pictures of each other. It was a great way to spend some of out drive. We wanted to stay longer but the gates to the camp close at a certain time and we were cutting it close.
For our classes on the ship, we all need to talk to locals and ask them certain questions relating to our classes. So throughout the drive we were throwing questions at Edwin and he was more than willing to talk about anything and everything. My questions get pretty personal since I am taking a women’s psych course and a class on race. I don’t know if he was open to talking about stuff because he knew it was for educational purposes or if it was just because it is the way he is. Either way, he was great to talk to and all of us got information that we needed out of him.
That night was even more fun than the night before. The convenient store sold liquor for really cheap, so people bought several bottles of wine and champagne. The tour provided us with beer and box wine at dinner, but of course Americans want more than that. So about 10 of us stayed up pretty late playing cards with Edwin. He picked up really quickly and was very good at the game. We all shared wine and stuff but fortunately no one got drunk since we had to wake up so early the next morning as well.
Although not everyone playing with us was in ‘our’ safari, we still talked about wanting to see Lions. So Edwin, being the amazing tour guide that he was, told us that everyone else was waking up at 4:30 to leave by 5:00, he promised us lions if we could leave by 4:30. We needed to be the first to leave. We were all ok with that idea and the people that were not in our group were sad about it. Around 10:00pm, while we were playing cards, other people had already gone to sleep. One guy came out and yelled at us. If he had asked us politely to be quiet, we probably would have listened. But he was a dick about it, so instead we did nothing. We paid the same amount of money to be there as he did, it was still early, and he was probably just jealous that he wasn’t having as much fun as we were. We all still went to bed early that night, although it was not as early as the night before.
The next morning we were all ready to leave at 4:30. Edwin knew exactly where to take us and he sped all the way there. Sure enough, there were 4 female lions walking down the street together. It was amazing! He told us that their stomachs looked full meaning that they had just caught something and ate it. Females hunt for their food together. They walked right passed the jeep and continued on their way. Edwin was so happy. Apparently they only see lions twice a week, so he went out on a limb by promising us, but he made it happened and we were all so happy about it. He was so cute too when he saw them; he threw his arms up in the air and quietly yelled ‘lions, lions, lions!’ After that we saw more of the animals we had already seen. We also saw hippos out of the water. Who knew they ever left the water haha.
We had previously decided that we were going to tip Edwin. He was great and he made all of our wishes come true. The dollar is worth a lot in South Africa. One dollar is worth over 7 rand, but we would just round down to seven. So we collected 100 rand from each of us, meaning that we would give him 1,000 rand. By each contributing 100 rand, it was tipping him about 14 dollars. We said our goodbyes and handed him the money before walking away. Brenna and I so badly wanted to see his reaction. So we only walked away a little bit before having a pretend conversation. His smile was the biggest smile I had ever seen in my life. He then skipped back over to where the other guides where and told them something, and then made some phone calls. The smile did not leave his face. We later learned that they make 1,300 rand a month. We just about doubled his month’s salary. They work 21 days and then have 6 days off. We each paid 500 dollars, or 3,500 rand to be there. And they probably do countless tours in those 21 days. They should be getting paid more. But it made sense why Edwin was so happy. It was amazing to have been a part of that. We then packed up our stuff, and loaded the bus for our 5-hour ride back to the airport. The safari was amazing!
We got back around 9:00pm on Monday and pretty much we all went right to sleep. It was an amazing three days but it definitely wore us out. The next day, a lot of my friends were doing a field directed practicum (fdp) so I decided that I was going to do a township visit on my own. I signed up for a bunch of things regarding children but I guess those were the popular ones and I didn’t win in the lottery for any of them.
So there was a township visit leaving at 8:30 the next morning, so I was there at 7:00 so that I could be first on the wait list incase someone didn’t show up or someone wanted to sell their ticket. Being first didn’t necessarily pay off since like 5 people wanted to sell their tickets, but at least I got to go. For so long I have done what other people want to do, I have let other push me around and I was so excited to finally be doing exactly what I wanted to do; I was going to Khayelitsha.
It started out slow with some history lessons (the word Khayelitsha means new village) and a tour of the public places in the township. We learned that in certain areas there are no bathrooms and instead there is a field where you have to walk to if you have to go. The government allows these townships to exist because there is nothing else they can do about it. The people build their own makeshift houses with whatever material they can find, and then the government provides them running water and minimal electricity. There are schools in the township as well as little stores where people can buy the things that they need. We then ended up visiting three craft markets, which is a huge source of income for the township, and visited three different schools. I LOVED playing with the children and I could have stayed there ALL day. We were rushed the whole time, which sucked, but at least I got to play a little bit. Seeing how these people live was mind-boggling. I cant even put it into words but hopefully through my pictures you will be able to get some understanding.
We got back in the early afternoon. Since I had not known anyone on my township visit, I jumped in a van with some girls to go to the Green Market Square, which is where all the handmade crafts are sold. It was a huge area with more stuff than I ever could have imagined. Everything was cheap and haggling was great. I then bumped into Brenna, Hilary and Kelsey and stuck with them the rest of the time in the market. Kelsey had heard about this place that was a mall and a market that she wanted to go to, so the 4 of us jumped in a cab and took the ride over. I was very disappointed because it was nothing more than a mall, a regular priced mall, which I can go to at home. Hilary and Kelsey split up and went shopping, while me and Brenna stayed together complaining and looking for the most comfortable places to sit. We found these giant red bean bag like chairs and sat on them in the store until our meeting time came.
We got back pretty late so a lot of our other friends had already left for dinner. So the four of us got dressed and went out. It was so much fun. I hate being in huge groups where no one really gets to do what they want since there really is always one leader. Being just the four of us, we knew that we could go wherever we wanted to go. We went to this Mexican place right by the ship and shared a drink called the fish bowl. We talked to this really racist guy because for our classes, we need to get different people’s point of views on a variety of things. And then we made our way to a club that all the SASers were going to. I know I said we all hate going to SAS infested clubs, but it seemed like the place to be.
It was fun at first because we thought the music would get better, but it never did. People were coming and going the whole time so it’s not like we made it an early night, we just didn’t stay out as late as other people. Besides, the next morning we were going to Robben Island and I wanted to be rested for that.
The next morning, 8 of us had tickets for Robben Island; Brenna, Dannie, Hilary, Jamie, Terron, Derron, Eric and me. Unfortunately, because of a computer error, we were unable to go and I was really upset about it. The day before, my original plan had been to go to the top of Table Mountain after the township, but I was not able to go because of the wind. I thought at least I was going to be able to do one of the 2 touristy things in Cape Town. Our tickets said one time but we were put into the computer as another time. So when we go there, we were told we missed our boat. They recognized their mistake but said that all the boats were sold out until Thursday so there was nothing they could do about it. We were pissed. We tried to make the best of a bad situation, so we went to eat. The crepes were delicious but it was not Robben Island.
We then decided that we were going to go to the beach to watch the sunset. However, it was early afternoon at that point. So I suggested we go to the market since my time at the market was cut short the day before. We all went and most of them hadn’t been before so they were happy with the decision. We stayed for about an hour and picked up Erik, another friend on our ship, before heading to Camps Beach. The beach itself was beautiful. There were mountains in the background, a bright blue sky, white sand, a grassy area between the sand and the sidewalk, and then a bunch of restaurants across from the beach. It was a very touristy area but it was still beautiful. When the sun was about to set, Hilary, Dannie and I climbed a huge rock to get the best view. And we did. It was amazing and I can’t wait to get my pictures posted. It was a beautiful sunset.
After that, we were ready to eat. Dannie and Erik headed home because there was poetry night somewhere else that they wanted to go to. I almost went with them but I am glad I didn’t because they ended up not going anyway and just going to sleep. So the rest of us went out to dinner. I finally had a salad, which I haven’t had in forever. The food was great and South Africa has great prices, even in what is supposed to be a fancy restaurant. We got back kind of late, around 9:00. Neither Brenna nor I wanted to go out so we just hung out a little bit before going to sleep. I know it was early and it was our last night in South Africa, but I had done so much in our short amount of time there that I was just beat.
I also had to be up at 4:30am to go cage diving. Let me just tell you that it was not what I expected. I did not have fun. Everyone I was with loved it but I just did not want to be there. We had a 2 and half hour drive where we were served breakfast. Then we got into the boat, and that ride was the most fun part of the entire day. We put wet suites on and then got into the cage 4 at a time. Andrea, Kevin, Dannie and I were like the last group to go in. This was an all day affair so from about 9:00 until 1:00 we just sat on the boat looking at sharks from above which also was more fun that going in the water. The water was murky and you couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of you. It was also freezing. We were in for a while when there was no activity and then one shark came, I missed it, and they told me to get out so that someone could have their second time in the cage. It was crap and I was pissed. It was a waste of money and a waste of a day in South Africa. I wish I had used that money for sky diving or something. Oh well. We headed back and were served a delicious lunch, another highlight of the day. We then started our drive back to the boat and got back around 5:00.
We all got home and needed to shower since we stunk of shark guts. Most of the people I went with then went out for one last meal but I wasn’t hungry so I went to the supermarket and then met up with them right before they finished eating. So I said good-bye to South Africa and headed back to the ship. It was a bitter last day but over all, I love South Africa, and this time I really do think that it is going to be hard to beat. I do know that I will come back here though. Some of us (Paco, Matt, Erin, Jamie, Tova…) have plans to go to the World Cup in 2010. This is a beautiful amazing country and I can’t wait to share it with the people that I love.
ps- Brenna wants me to tell everyone she knows that reads my blog that her computer is broken and she will update as soon as she can. She loves you!
6 comments:
Baby, South Africa sounds unbelievable!!! I am so glad you had all that fun. It was funny that your friend said she knew she was going to get bit by a monkey lol... The safari sounds amazing and i can't wait to go there with you for the Soccer World Cup 2010, good thing we won't need a tour guide hehe I love you and i miss you como siempre!! chao!
p.s: Everybody missed you last night at Douglas party =(
Hi honey,
I also loved your blog! I could really picture each day. Can't wait to see more pictures. I can't wait to join you in Vietnam! I bought walking sandals and a big hat yesterday and am getting suggestions for us from the two Vietnamese people that I supervise! Love you and miss you. Enjoy every minute!
Mom
Hi Jordi - Your blog was great! Finally, I got the story of "the girl that got attacked by a monkey". Hopefully, Brenna's computer will be up and running soon so we get to hear her side of the story! It sounds like you two are having a great time.
Hi Jordi,
loved the pictures and the narration. I felt like I was there with you. But then again, so many of us are living vicariously thru you. Keep the blog updates coming. Sorry that the cage fishing didn't work out, but it still makes a wonderful story.
love you,
dad
Keep up the good work.
The information here is great. I will invite my friends here.
Thanks
Post a Comment