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Sunday, April 21, 2013

"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires." -Nelson Mandela

This post is long overdue! Since we have come home from “vac” things have been in full swing. I have settled into a routine and attend class most days! One thing that I have become obsessed with recently is Bikram Yoga. A couple of us are training for a half marathon that we are running May 1 and I decided to do this as my “cross training” on Thursdays. But instead of running I went to Yoga everyday last week. It is addicting and so good for you. Bikram is made up of 26 postures and can be done in 90 or 60 minute sessions in a room that is approximately 104 degrees. ...to bad I’m actually going to have to run the 13.1 miles of the half, not just stretch and sweat!

This past week Haley’s dad, Doug, was in town! It was great to meet him and have him spoil me for a few meals and outings. I am so thankful Haley included me, it was great to spend time with them and hear a parent’s perspective on our life here/life in Cape Town. They had some crazy adventures without me, but I got to join them for the Brass Bell (a restaurant on the water), The Taste of Cape Town (food and wine festival!) and then to top off the fabulous week we went to “Azure” which is the restaurant at the Twelve Apostles Hotel (the nicest in Cape Town.) Big fat and happy was the theme of the week... hence to my yoga craze this past week!

Yesterday, (Saturday) we went to Robben Island. We took a ferry from the Water Front then went on a bus tour of the entire island and then were guided through the maximum security prison where the political prisoners were kept during the Apartheid years. It was nuts. An ex-prisoner was our tour guide and he had been arrested in Port Elizabeth for protesting on what is now “Human Rights Day.” He was held in a group cell with 30 other men. Political “Leaders” such as Nelson Mandela were kept in solitary confinement. I already love the man, but gained a whole new level of respect after seeing the “cage” that was his home for 18, I repeat 18 years. The stories and the hard evidence made everything so much more real. In light of all the trauma that his hit the US this past week, the people of South Africa have been extremely sensitive and caring. One of my cab drivers this week said though “Man I lived through the Apartheid era and remember it so vividly. You could not pay me to go back to those dark days.” The horrendous activity that has gone on in Boston over the past week has only been a small glimpse of what it was like to live through the years of the Apartheid. I can’t even imagine and it makes me appreciate so much more the freedom and land of opportunity I was able to grow up in.

Thoughts/Reflections:

As time ticks on it is crazy to think that I have only 8 Saturdays left in this beautiful city. I am falling more in love with it everyday. Cape Town has sooo much to offer and when people said that before I came I would just grin and nod and be like oh yeah it’s going to be great. But, I truly had no concept of just how awesome it would actually be. The weather has started to change and the past 2 weeks have been pretty dreary, cold and wet. This week the forecast is sunshine and low to mid 70s! YIPPEE bring on the beach!

Cheers!

Celebrating Alex's 22nd Birthday!

The trip across the Atlantic to Robben Island

Ocean water blue

Mandela's cell, he didn't have a bed. Just the mat to rest his head.

Getting a dose of vitamin D at Clifton 4th.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Spring Break Twenty One Three was by far the craziest ten days of my life. We experienced South Africa’s 3 biggest cities, visited 2 other countries, witnessed wild animals in their natural habitat, rode in vehicles with random strangers, swam under majestical water falls, navigated via newspaper maps and lived to tell. I could most certainly write a novel if I were to recount and reflect on every crazy incident, however I definitely don’t have the time for that so here is the abridged version! The first part of the trip was organized through our program and the second included 9 of us backpacking through Southern Africa.

Day 1 - Everyone was giddy as we loaded our bags into the trailer to go to the airport. We flew to Johannesburg and visited the Apartheid Museum. It was hectic to see everything all together. Everyday we witness the repercussions of the Apartheid, but seeing it in its entirety was gut wrenching. We ended the day with a bike tour through Soweto (the mother of all townships) and were able to gain more historical context of everything we had seen earlier in the day.

Keep it classy South Africa

Getting ready for the bike tour

Shosholoza

Day 2 - We arose bright and early again and road tripped all day. We made a few stops along our route to Nelspruit which included: a beautiful waterfall, Blyde Canyon (the 3rd largest canyon in the world), Harry’s Pancake House, and God’s Window.

ROOMMATES

First of many waterfalls

Blyde Canyon

Three Rondavels

Blyde River

Day 3 - Eager to see animals we left before dark en route to Kruger National Park. That day proved very successful as we saw 4 of the “Big 5” before lunch (water buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion, and leopard). The rest of the afternoon we were in search of the lovely leopard, but sadly never spotted him.

Day 4 - Safari shanagins began to take place as we started to become less enthralled at the sight of the ever abundant elephants! The afternoon brought about a water fight between two vehicles, which escalated into a coke fight, which then resulted in a ellie dung fight, and ended with our driver, Basil dumping the dung all over the passengers of the other truck because the closed bag had nailed him in the head during the friendly fire.

Team L

Day 5 - The real adventure began when the rest of IES headed back to Joburg and Myxo and Bruce arrived to transport the nine of us to Swaziland. Along the way we stopped at a Swazi glass blowing factory (I am still obsessed), a local market, and “cultural village” where Zulu people sing, dance, and offer a tour through a traditional Zulu compound. Sondezela, our backpackers was great! Thomas was a fantastic host and we met a group of medical students who are interning in Joburg. We had a grand time playing cards and getting to know each other.

Rizzo - The Pink Lady

Myxo was the man

Glass Factory

Obsessed

Pharmacy at the market

Execution Rock

"Braids"... he was our roommate night 2 in Swaz

One of the many huts that a Zulu family would live in

Day 6 - We woke up to the sound of rain pitter pattering on the roof and went to breakfast in a hut outside where we were served fried eggs and toast that had been cooked over an open flame. Our plan was to hike “execution rock” but with the rain I was not feeling that. Instead, Monica and I decided to go to the spa. With a newspaper clipping of a map and the names of several towns neither of us could really pronounce we set out on what turned into an adventure of a life time. It was without a doubt not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, but I lived to tell and made lots of memories. The Swazi people are very prideful and not overly welcoming to outsiders. As you can imagine we stuck out like sore thumbs as it felt like we were the only white people in the country. We took three mini busses there and three back, Thomas had dropped us off at the first stop and when we got back to destination A we convinced ourselves we didn’t need to try to bum a phone from someone, we could just walk... THREE MILES later, barefoot, trying to out walk the rain, we arrived back at the back packers! I wish so badly I could have used the “go pro” to document the entire day. Sadly, we didn’t get any hard evidence, but it is something that will be permanently imprinted in my mind forever!

Day 7 - The following morning a zebra painted mini bus showed up to transport us back to South Africa! All was well until our driver was lacking a piece of information at the border. We sat for 30 minutes while he talked to different people and finally after paying a 2000 Rand fine we were on our way to Durban! “Dirty Durbs” as we coined it was not all it was cracked up to be. Half of the people you meet in Cape Town are from Durban and it is clear now why they all choose to reside in the Western Cape. I tried Thai food for the first time and we went out on “Florida Road” before we called it a night.

Zebraville stuck at the border

Casually working out of the trunk?

Day 8 - The chilling thrill came when I woke up to learn that we were leaving Durbs at 8 a.m. with a guy that we had called at 1 a.m. Trusting the opinion of my accomplices, I packed my bag and was ready to hit the road. About an hour later Benny arrived to fetch us. Aye may me. I have definitely seen one too many episodes of NCIS, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds... My imagination was going insane. Sitting in the back seat I had to find my happy place and have faith that whatever the circumstances everything was going to be okay. In the end though, everything was indeed fine and we arrived safely and unharmed at a quaint little backpackers nestled in the Drakensburg Mountains. The day turned out to be spectacular. Five of us went on a little hike in search of a waterfall and while taking in the breath taking scenery we would occasionally hear the sining from a Zulu celebration happening across the way. We finally found the roaring waterfall, just a little farther down was another smaller one and we treated ourselves to a dip in the icy cold river. INVIGORATING it was. The day came to a close opposite the way it began. We feasted on a great homemade meal, drank wine and curled up on our beds each reading our own book of choice like total nerds.

Green for days

Roaring Waterfall

Chunky dunk

Day 9 - After a family style breakfast, complete with baked beans the nine of us sat off in a Landy, Lesotho bound! The ride was far from smooth sailing. We bounced around on unpaved roads dodging huge pot holes and large rocks for roughly 4 hours. Once we finally made it to Lesotho it was like we had gone back in time. Shepherds were herding their sheep and the land was very much undeveloped. Sadly we didn’t get to go all the way into an actual town, but even just seeing the outskirts was nuts. Lesotho is a country inside of South Africa that looks straight biblical. Donkeys, sheep, shepherds, small huts...Sooo glad I got to see it! Before the equally long trek back down Sani Pass we stopped at the “Highest Pub” in Africa. In between relishing in our successful trip and making dinner plans, Alex got a phone call. When we sketchily rode with Benny to the Draks we had canceled on our planned transportation. We were also canceling on him for our trip back to Durban because he was trying to charge 600 Rand per person each way when we could get it for 250 Rand. He was not having that though. He threatened to call the Lesotho border, get all of our passport numbers and then make our lives a living hell at the airport the next day. This crazy man still wanted us to take his ride after the threat and gave us 5 minutes to decide, when we declined his response was “You will regret this!” eeeek. My main concern was not that he could obtain our passport information but that the crazy knew where we were staying and was only 20Ks away! Thankfully, the manager of the backpackers came and reassured us that we were safe and gave us a key to our lodge. Did I mention all of this was taking place during a torrential downpour! Talk about setting the mood.

Lesotho

Us...transport problems?

Shepherds

Day 10 - Escaping before we could be found in the daylight we left the Draks at 7 a.m. the following morning. I was never so happy to see an airport! Safe and sound we were almost home! We caught our flight from Durbs to Joburg and met up with all of our friends who had gone on their own journeys. After trading stories and catching up we all made it home to our humble abode in one piece!

Thoughts/Reflections:

The morale of the whole story is trust. I have never before in my life felt as vulnerable and defenseless as I did at some points throughout the trip, but that is when I would just take a deep breath and try to enjoy the moment. Being afraid doesn’t do anyone any good. My favorite days were the Swaz Spa adventure and then the first day in the Draks. The group of people I traveled with were all great, thankfully everyone remembered to pack a sense of humor and adventure and we were able to laugh at ourselves the whole way. I am not dying to go back to any of the places or countries any time soon, but I am sooo sooo glad that I was able to experience them. I have a whole new appreciation for Cape Town, ‘Merica, Texas, TCU... Plan to make a plan, Annie also realized the importance of flexibility and spontaneity. Both of these things were essential to our trip! SPRING BREAK TWENTY ONE THREE.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all!

This morning has been so rad. A girl that is in Haley’s small group picked us up and took us to the Hout Bay Market. I have developed a new love for markets since I’ve been here. They are the perfect place to get GREAT food, unique shopping and they offer a great atmosphere. Last Saturday we went to Old Biscuit Mill and my mind was blown. I was so overwhelmed, but enjoyed it so much! There, I had a loaded baked potato which was fabulous. The Biscuit Mill is huge in comparison to the Harbor Market, but is only in it’s prime Saturday mornings. The Bay Harbor is opened all weekend and has live music. This morning I had nachos for breakfast, because you have to take full advantage of any chance to get Mexican food here! The main purchase of the day was a pair of beaded sandals. Also, you know it is a great day when the song “Year 3,000” by the Jonas Brothers comes on while sitting at Coco Wah Wah. HA ONLY IN AFRICA.

The past two weeks have been very “normal”. The week is very low key and I do a lot of school work/catching up in the evenings and then play on the weekends. Last week, Wednesday, I had to the chance to visit Richard and his new wife, Avril. Richard was our driver/tour guide when I went on the mission trip to Namibia. It was great to see him and catch up. He lives in Constantia which is oldest wine country in Cape Town. It is a very beautiful, green place. I took a friend with me and before we ate dinner we went on a walk through the Green Belt and he gave us some history of the area. It was crazy that we were so close to the hustle and bustle of the city, yet sooo far away. It was a great escape and we had the best meal ever, complete with milk tart (buttermilk pie)!!! He told us stories and showed us videos of his son kayaking down rapids, it got me so fired up to be adventurous!

Last Friday we hosted a braai at the Alma house. It was such a cool time. The party was called “around the world” because there were people from all over. Ha but mostly America, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It was fun to meet everyone and several of them expressed their thoughts on Americans. Thankfully, we didn’t live up to their tainted TV view of all US people.

Saturday was chill. We did the Biscuit Mill in the morning then I spent the afternoon at the Claremont Mall by myself. That evening we went to a rugby game in Newlands to watch the Stormers play. We had no idea what was going on in the game, so we just kind of guessed/made up our own rules. We made friends with the season ticket holders sitting by us and they recommended we go to “Forries” after. We took their suggestion and found a little hidden gem.

Sunday, I went on the adventure of a life time. We set out to hike Devil’s Peak at 5 a.m. and we returned home at Noon. It was a long, invigorating hike. The view was definitely worth it and I can now say I’ve climbed all three “musts”: Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak.

Like I said, this past week has been pretty monotonous. Mondays I have class until 5 pm. Tuesday’s I volunteer with SHAWCO until 5 p.m. and Wednesdays I go to small group. Small group is always so refreshing and a great get away from real life.

While running on the Liesbeek river trail this week, I spotted a restaurant named “The Toad and Josephine” and we tested it out Thursday evening. I had great hopes for it as it offered, a “Woodshed” vibe, but in my opinion it was only average. womp, womp.

Friday, was yet another adventurous afternoon. I have a test on Monday and needed to study but wanted to “get away” to do it. A friend and I went to the city and found “The Book Lounge.” It was a lekker book store with a sitting area in the basement that we veged out at while enjoying coffee and tea. That evening we went to Haley’s basketball game! WOOHOO she won! Then we went to “Cameroonian food” with our RA, Roland. The food was quite different and it was definitely a cultural experience.

Last night, we went to the Cape Town Carnival. It was comparable to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, only at night, minus the big balloons. There were crazy cool floats and tons of dancers. We enjoyed gelato and good company. Yesterday morning however, we did something drastically different. We all took part in the University of Western Cape’s IES group’s clean up day of an informal settlement named Egoli. It was quite an interesting experience. Egoli is made up of around 2,500 squatters that live on Egoli, an informal settlement where 2,500 squatters live on privately owned land. As you can imagine since it is not their own property the desire to take care of the land and keep it clean is no one’s main priority. The IES health class has installed 4 new water taps within the settlement because the whole community was previously living on only five taps. No homes have running water or electricity and it is by far the most impoverished area I’ve ever seen. From the first day we went there I was just sick at my stomach. The smell, the living conditions and the lack of hope were all just heart breaking. That was a main reason I chose to do my research project in Maitland Garden Village, a community of about the same size that is made up of the working class who are hungry for education and attention. Egoli was just far to out of my comfort zone and a lot of other people, such as the health class, were already going to be volunteering there.

I hadn’t been back to Egoli since the first time we went as a whole group. Our eco justice field trip was canceled for today and we were encouraged to go out to Egoli and participate in the massive clean up they were going to have. Feeling kind of guilt tripped into this plan, I put my name on the list. Thankfully, it rained most of the night so the dust was all settled and it was a nice, cool, overcast morning. When we arrived we were immediately greeted by flies, mangy dogs, and barefoot children with runny noses. A short while after we were handed rubber gloves, trash bags, and surgical masks to start our clean up project. I had convinced myself it was going to be a great day and I was going to do this with a smile on my face, after all, it was just picking up trash, right?

The area was so polluted it was hard to even know where to begin. A couple of friends and I started bagging the rubbish that was already in a heaping pile next to the dumpster. This was all fine and well until I started noticing the amount of condom wrappers, old lighters, cigaret cartons, and broken bottles I was picking up. This quickly turned my happy go lucky mood into disgust. When you stood up and surveyed exactly what was going on, you found the women, the children and us doing all the labor and the men still intoxicated from last night propped up against the houses just watching. My blood started to boil. I quickly reminded myself though to have a servants heart and to put a smile back on my face. As we got deeper into the damp pile of garbage we started to find lots of old dirty diapers. My breaking point was when I pulled out a piece plastic and uncovered a diaper full of maggots. After that I decided it was best for my attitude and piece of mind to relocate to the garden where there was plenty of fresh air and candy wrappers that needed to be picked up!

While we were working away in the wide open, these two kids showed up out of no where with rakes. They started chopping at the weeds and suddenly we had turned it into a grand ole’ time. One of the boys had a phone with music and he started playing some tunes. The fun beat and energy from all the kids helping weed then escalated into a dance party. We formed a circle and the kids were extremely eager to show off their talent. Looking like an idiot, I was also cutting loose and getting my groove on. The kids all spoke Afrikaans and English which was fun, because I was able to practice the little Afrikaans I have retained with them. They were amazed that I could count to twenty and we started playing clap/slap games with rhymes and numbers. Soon, we had run out of all the trash bags and were able to go actually play soccer and other fun games.

It was by far the most eye opening, gut wrenching, challenging/stretching task I’ve done since I’ve been here, but I am so thankful to have been a part. My perspective of Egoli was definitely changed and even though it is quite a lot to comprehend and take in, I certainly wish to go back to volunteer soon.

Thoughts/Reflections

I AM SO EXCITED/READY FOR SPRING BREAK!!!!! We have only been here 2 months and in school for one, but I feel like being here it helps to constantly be busy. Sure, it’s nice to relax and I’ve done that quite a bit this week but I can not wait for a change of scenery and more exciting adventures.

Cheers!