Sweet mother of pearl, I have really let this blog thing go.

I might actually split this up into a couple different entries—since I wrote last, I have been to Cape Town, Durban, and down the Wild Coast—so it might take a little while.  This actually goes all the way back to March, so it’s not terribly fresh either…but I jotted down a few things in my notebook about each day while traveling, so it should be ok.  I also apologize that it’s basically going to be a chronology of what I’ve done—not really my thoughts, feelings, and reactions to it all.  Unfortunately, that would take much too long. Anywho, here goes.  I’ll start off with the couple nights leading up to Cape Town…

Elton John

On the Friday before we left, I went to an Elton John concert- amazing!  I’ll keep it short because I have so much else to write about, but it was pouring rain the entire time, we were super close to the stage, he was wearing an intensely flashy red suit, and he performed Circle of Life as his encore. It couldn’t have gotten much better—the rain made it even better, particularly because PE was in the midst of the worst drought in 88 years. 

Night in the Townships

The next night, we got to have a real taste of the township culture- something very unique because they often just aren’t safe for us to head into, especially at night.  An SJU graduate named James from the SA abroad group two years ago is actually teaching at a Benedictine school in Tanzania, and he visited us in PE for a little over a week.  He is still in contact with a few guys he met while studying here (they grew up in a local township), and he asked if they would be willing to take us out to a bar in the townships.  They said they would love to, and it turned out to be quite an experience.  After completely showing us up in several dance-offs, they somehow got us a kombi taxi—which we packed into like sardines and headed into New Brighton, the township that Pendla is in.  Before getting off, they told us that we needed to be careful, stick together, and never go somewhere in the bar alone—but if we did that, we would be fine.  We may as well have been aliens stepping off a mothership while we all got off the kombi—20 white kids really are aliens in a township.  There were people everywhere, and they were all staring at us.  Some yelled things to us, some welcomed us, but everyone was interested.  James’ friends were really protective of us, so that made us all feel much safer.  The most interesting part of the night was the attitude of the men in the township toward women.   They were completely about ownership; for example, one guy hassled me from the second I stepped off the kombi, continued into the bar, and followed me around everywhere I went.  He grabbed me, groped me, stroked my hair—did whatever he pleased, no matter how many times I told him to stop.  However, James took notice of this and told the guy I was with him—immediately, the guy backed off.  That turned out to be the trend for the night…as long as you had a guy say you were with them, you were fine—but until then, you had no control over what they would do.  One guy even asked another girl in our group, “Who owns you?”  This sense of ownership held true to this past weekend during a tour in the townships—my friend Katie had a man try to “buy” her.  It’s bizarre, much different from home, and extremely pervasive in the township culture—although a bit unnerving at first, we just have to remind ourselves that it’s a cultural difference.

Bungee Jumping

The next Monday, we packed up and headed off for our weeklong excursion to Cape Town.  On the way, however, was something I’ve been waiting for since I found out I was accepted into the South Africa program: the highest bungee jump in the world, off Bloukrans Bridge near Tsitsikama National Park, a couple hours from PE. It’s a 216 meter jump, which converts to about 709 feet—for all of you Minnesotans, imagine freefalling the height of over three and a half Wild Things stacked on top of each other. Hands down, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  We got there, and the bridge is SO much bigger and more intimidating in person—I had seen many pictures, but none did it justice. I was in the second group to go, so after harnessing us up, we had to watch the other half of the group go.  I was so excited/nervous to jump, that the wait seemed like hours and hours.  Once it was our turn, however, we took the catwalk out to the bridge—probably one of the scariest parts haha.  It’s this see-through mesh metal catwalk under the bridge that gives every time you step…they tell you not to look down, but of course that just meant I looked down the entire way.  On the bridge, they bump dance music to get you pumped up and distract everyone from nerves, so naturally we turned it into a massive dance party.  I’m grateful for this, as it got me even more excited to jump and allowed us the chance to “wiggle out the nerves.”  When one of the workers came and told me it was my turn, I still wasn’t terribly nervous—just really excited.  They tie up your feet and get everything secured for the jump, and then they carry you out to the edge.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is where my mind went blank.  It was TERRIFYING being on the edge—but in a really good way.  They make you hang your toes off the edge, and then all of a sudden there is complete nothingness in front of you—and you’re expected to jump into it. Thankfully, my metal freak-out wasn’t able to last for long, because they counted me down, and all of a sudden I was airborne. The first few seconds are definitely the craziest—it wasn’t a stomach-drop feeling, it was soo much different…really hard to describe actually.  Basically, it was the coolest feeling ever and it’s too hard to put into words.  I also realized I am still extremely capable of producing the most shrill, blood-curdling scream ever.  Allllllll the way down.  So much fun—I’m hoping to get back once more before I head home, because I reeeeally want to jump backwards. J

CAPE TOWN

After jumping, we went to Knysna (gorgeous) for a little while, then headed to our backpackers in George.  The next day, we finished the drive to Cape Town.  First, a little bit about CT…it’s the second largest city in SA, and it filled with history and culture.  It’s much, much different than any other city I’ve been to in SA…firstly because of its cultural makeup.  There are tons of coloured people in CT—much more so than in any other part of SA.  The Western Cape (CT’s province) is controlled by the DA rather than the ANC, further proving its uniqueness from the rest of the country. Rolling into CT was such an interesting experience, because it was unlike any of the other cities I have been in—it was much more like a city at home. Some parts of the city were so westernized that I felt like I was at home in Minneapolis, so that was a much different experience.  It’s an absolutely gorgeous city, right on the ocean, with the famous Table Mountain towering over it all.  CT is also the location of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.  I had heard all sorts of things about Cape Town, and I immediately felt like I could spent quite a while there.

CT Day 1:

We arrived, settled in to our guest house (our rooms were twice the size of langerry!), got some dinner with a couple people, and then headed to a play near District 6.  It was a play written by Athol Fugard, who is known as the “Shakespeare of Africa.”  The play was alright, but it was just really nice to be at the theater.  Opportunities for stuff like that are few and far between here, so it was a nice change of pace.

CT Day 2:

This was a big day.  We headed out on this huge Ilios Tours bus for our day-long city tour, hike of Table Mountain included.  Because the weather on the mountain tends to get foggier as the day goes on, we headed to the mountain first thing.  They have cable cars to take up, but almost all of us decided to make the hike.  It’s kind of one of those “we’re in Cape Town, we HAVE to climb it” sort of things… let me just say…there are cable cars for a reason.  It was tough!  It was basically these big boulders that kind of served as steps the whole way up—this made it much tougher on the leg muscles, compared to a normal mountain hike.  I hiked with Courtney S, Cat, Saige, and Jenny though, so that made it a little more bearable.  Once we got to the top, however, it was all worth it! The views were absolutely gorgeous—the ocean on one side, the city on the other.  It was a really great experience, and I’m really happy I decided to make the climb.  This is a picture of one of the views from the top of the mountain-beautiful!

 After Table Mountain, we headed to the Market Square for lunch and shopping at the markets.  Although I didn’t buy anything, the markets were fun to look at as always.  Following lunch, we headed to District 6.  District 6 (the area that the movie District 9 is based on) refers to an area where people of all different races—whites, blacks, coloureds, and Indians—lived together peacefully in a vibrant community. Under apartheid, however, it was declared as a whites-only area, and its residents were booted out.  The buildings were destroyed, but nothing was ever built there—it just turned into a wasteland.  It has kind of become the prime example for apartheid’s forced removals…just now are they starting to let people move back to the area.  It was really great to go there because our tour guide, Colin, actually lived in District 6 and was forced to leave.  After seeing the neighborhood, we went to the museum so we had a deeper understanding of what we saw.

Following District 6, we saw several other places throughout CT—parliament, some gardens, another museum…but the end of the day we were pretty wiped, so it was nice to be done.  That evening, we headed to Mama Afrika’s—a well-renowned restaurant on the famous Long Street—for a dinner of chicken curry, potkie, lamb, samoosas, and all sorts of other stuff.  It was great, and the entertainment was wonderful.

CT Day 3:

Thursday was another day with Ilios.  This time, we headed down the peninsula to Cape Point, which is the most southwestern point on the African continent.  It was beautiful, but the windiest place on the planet.  Next, we went to Boulder’s Beach—a penguin colony!  I was so excited.  I absolutely loved it….the penguins were everywhere, so adorable. That evening, we went to a free jazz concert in the Market Square.  So much fun!  There was a huge crowd, the music was great, and it was a great place to relax with friends.

Cape of Good Hope, right next to Cape Point

PENGUINS!

CT Day 4:

A few of us went to the Holocaust Museum in the morning, which was really interesting because it was from SA’s point of view.  It was really amazing to see the connections between the Holocaust and apartheid.  They are rooted under the exact same principle…thankfully, apartheid never reached the point of systemized genocide. 

That afternoon, we loaded on a ferry and headed to Robben Island.  Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years as a political prisoner, spent 18 of those on the island’s maximum security prison.  This was my favorite part of the Cape Town trip—having read Long Walk to Freedom, I knew about all of the different places in the prison we saw…the lime quarries they worked in, the garden Mandela planted while he was there, the tiny slab that served as their courtyard…it was absolutely incredible.  Actually walking through all of the places that I had imagined in my head was such a powerful, indescribable experience.  All of the guides for the prison tours were actual political prisoners on the island, which gives the tour a whole new dimension of awesomeness.  My guide was sentenced to 30 years on 16 charges, but was released after 7, thanks to SA’s liberation.  Ahhh.  It was one of the coolest things…if any of you decide to make the trek all the way down here, be sure to read Long Walk to Freedom first—in fact, read it anyway. J  

Mandela's cell--hard to believe he spent so long and did so much all in this tiny cell.

Cape Town Day 5:

We spent Saturday soaking up a bit of the Western Cape’s culture—wine. SA is known for its wine and exports to countries all over the world…basically everywhere besides the United States haha.  We headed to a winery called Spier where we took part in a wine tasting- it was a lot of fun and interesting to learn about the wines. After the tasting, we had lunch in the heart of wine country—Stellenbosch.  Although we had to deal with lots of beggars (price of eating at an outdoor restaurant), it was still nice to see a bit of the quaint university town.

That evening, we got to go to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.  It was so huge!  They had the biggest names in South African jazz (my favorite being Vusi Mahlasela!), so we just danced the night away to some really wonderful music. The crowd was so much fun to watch in itself—everyone was full-out dancing, much more than the typical head bob you get at concerts back home. 

Last day of CT and Durban, Day 1:

The night at the jazz festival was our last in Cape Town—Sunday would be the start of spring break.  Karla, Caitlin, Jenny, and I chose to fly from CT to Durban, then drive down the Wild Coast—aka the eastern coast of SA.  Durban is the third-largest city in SA, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.  There is a large Indian population there, and their culture is much more pervasive than anywhere else in the country.  There aren’t many white (or coloured for that matter) people in Durban at all, so that was a switch from Cape Town. It’s also not the safest place in the world, but it’s all a matter of staying out of certain places and making good decisions. 

Before catching our flight, Karla and I found a church down the road from our guesthouse in Cape Town so we could attend an Easter service.  It was quite the experience, but it was nice to celebrate Easter with a huge group of South Africans.  Our flight went completely smoothly, and we got to our hostel without much of a problem at all.  We spent the evening relaxing, getting dinner at a great place with lots of entertainment, and making plans for the morning.

Durban Day 2:

We signed up for a city tour with our hostel, but we weren’t really sure what to expect.  After waiting for an hour past our pickup time, our faithful guide Mbuso rolled up in his beat-up kombi, bumping Zulu hip hop.  A huge smile crossed my face immediately, because I knew the tour definitely wouldn’t be boring.  We spent the entire day with Mbuso…he brought us all over Durban, taking us to a huge Indian market, a fish and meat market, a couple museums…Mbuso is 32 years old so he remembers the apartheid era quite clearly, and he offered quite a bit of really good insight.  One of my favorite parts of the morning was a museum display on Darwinism and the human genome, which was presented under the framework of SA’s race relations (99.9% of all humans share identical genes—but it’s just that .01% variation that defines SA’s past and present). 

After lunch was the coolest part of the day, however—a trip into Cato Manor, the township that Mbuso lives in.  Before heading into Cato Manor, we stopped at a gas station to get bags of candy to hand out to the kids.  Even though townships are everywhere and I’ve been exposed to them over and over since January, seeing them is always a shock to the system—it’s absolutely heartbreaking.  Cato Manor is on a hill, which adds a whole new set of challenges for the people living there.  Mbuso drove us through some areas before taking us to his house, which is an RDP government unit.  After hanging at his place for a little while, we went for a walk through the shacks…something I haven’t been able to do in my time here. I’ve seen countless shantytowns from the outside and have walked around in the more developed areas of townships, but walking around throughout the shacks is a pretty rare opportunity for a white person.  The conditions were absolutely devastating—much worse than it even looks from the outside.  It smells terrible in most areas, there is sewage everywhere, and sometimes things were so packed that I didn’t feel like I had room to breathe.  There were children everywhere, which was wonderful and heartbreaking to see at the same time.  They were so happy that we had “sweeties” for them—even many of the adults took candy from us.  Everyone was incredibly welcoming and happy to see us, despite their living conditions.  I wish I could have gotten more pictures, but I didn’t feel like it would be very respectful to whip out my multi-hundred dollar camera to take pictures of the extreme poverty that is reality for the township residents.  I did manage to get a few pictures though, which I was very happy about—I want to be sure to preserve that experience for the rest of my life.

Durban Day 3

I know this is getting terribly long, so I’ll try to make these entries shorter—on our third day, we capitalized on Durban’s warm weather and sandy beaches by relaxing on the beach and swimming all day.  It was Caitlin’s birthday, so we went out to dinner then hung out on the roof of our hostel…we talked to a couple guys from Stellenbosch that told us about growing up in SA and the violence they have experienced personally.  No matter how many personal stories I hear, it still blows my mind that violence is so commonplace.

Port St Johns

Most of the Wednesday of spring break was spent traveling.  We packed up all four of us and all of our luggage into our tiny Kia Piccanto rental, and headed out on the long drive to Port St. Johns on the Wild Coast.  Jenny was amazing, it was her second time driving a manual ever—and she got us there safely (although after many, many kills and peel-outs! ;) ).  Port St Johns is a small beach town with beautiful beaches, rivers, and mountains…and very few Afrikaners.  We got to our hostel, which was this super laid back place called the Jungle Monkey.  The guys who worked there were really cool and a lot of fun to hang out with.  They took us up to an airstrip for the sunset and a couple sundowners, which was beautiful and a lot of fun…then we spent the night relaxing, listening to the live music, and playing the djembe with a few locals.

Bulungula

The next day, we packed up and headed to Bulungula, which is an extremely rural Xhosa village on the Wild Coast.  On the way, we stopped at Hole in the Wall, which is this huge rock formation created by crashing waves over thousands of years.  Although we didn’t have much time there, I jumped in and played in the waves for a few minutes…the water was so warm, I loved it.

The drive to Bulungula was long, particularly due to the large amount of “off-roading” it required. I didn’t mind, however, because the drive was gorgeous.  We passed rural village after rural village, where rondavels (mudhuts) decorate rolling green hills.  After finally arriving to the place we could park our car, we took another hour-long shuttle back to the backpackers…it was a VERY bumpy ride.  Bulungula is a backpacker’s hostel in the village, and is one of the first places trying out community-based tourism.  Most of the people in the village aren’t really even sure what tourism actually is (there isn’t a word for it in Xhosa), but the hostel is a way to bring some money and sustainable employment to the villagers.  It is 40% owned and run by the villagers, and all activities are completely run by the locals.  It’s really out in the middle of nowhere, has compost toilets and showers you heat by lighting toilet paper on fire, and has no electricity.  The village is beautiful…huge green hills and a breathtakingly beautiful beach.  I was OBSESSED with bulungula.  It was paradise…completely remote and relaxing.  That evening we just had dinner and relaxed, because the next morning we had to get up for the Women’s Power tour we signed up for.  

Snapped on the drive out to Bulungula...that hut on the left is rondavel. See why I tell you Africa is beautiful?

The village.

 In the morning, a local woman, Kululwa, took us on a hike through to the village to her hut.  We spent the entire morning and early afternoon with her, learning about how women in rural Xhosa villages live. We fetched water and firewood, carrying both back on our heads, and helped prepare a lunch of samp. One of the more “hands-on” things we did was help make a mudbrick for another hut to be made of—this involved filling a brick mold with cow dung and mud…it took a while for my fingernails to be clean again. We had our faces painted and played with her adorable son as well, so it was a lot of fun.  It was really great to see how much the women do in the villages—in the generally non-gender-friendly, borderline-sexist culture of South Africa, it was great to see these women so empowered over their roles in the village.

Some of the girls we helped make mudbricks...yumm.

Kululwa's little guy!

After the women’s power tour, I played in the ocean for a while (I have some scars to show for it!), then got a massage. J  A local Xhosa villager offered massages for only R100 (about $15), so I couldn’t resist.  It was a great way to relax, with nothing but the sounds of crashing waves in the background.  That evening while enjoying the sunset and the waves, a little 5-year-old named Mila came to sit by me.  I ended up spending the majority of my evening hanging out with Mila and several other kids that came to join us, which was actually pretty fun—the kids were really cute and a lot of fun to play with.  There were lots of local villagers that hung out at the hostel as well, but the vast majority of locals don’t speak English (and I certainly don’t speak Xhosa!), so unfortunately I wasn’t able to communicate with them very easily.  It was a great, relaxing night, and I really enjoyed it.  (side note—the stars were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.  I had no idea there were so many stars in the sky…unbelievable.)

East London

Although we wanted to stay longer at Bulungula, time didn’t allow it.  We spent the majority of our day traveling again, heading back toward PE. On the way, we stopped in Qunu—Nelson Mandela’s childhood village and current place of residence.  I was so excited!  We went to the Nelson Mandela Museum, and one of the guards told us where Mandela’s retirement house is…it’s right on the road we were traveling on!  Obviously, we lurked outside of it while we drove by…I tried to snap as many pictures as I could…since he’s retired and doesn’t really travel or do many appearances anymore, we figured he had to be inside!  He had a pretty extensive security gate on the outside so there wasn’t any way we could sneak in (yeah, we’re that creepy), but it was still really exciting to see.  VIVA MADIBA!

That night, we stayed in East London to break up the drive back to PE.  Nothing too exciting—quite a bit like PE actually.  After dinner we just hung out at our backpackers and tried to get some reading done.

Back to PE

The next morning we packed up and drove the last few hours to PE. Having been gone for two weeks, it was really nice to be back—it’s crazy how much this place feels like home now.  Overall, it was a great spring break—I got to see three very different parts of SA (Cape Town, Durban, and the Wild Coast), all while having a blast with my friends. 

Since CT and spring break, nothing too out of the ordinary has gone on.  We have LOTS of homework from here on out, so that consumes a good amount of time.  Pendla has been wonderful as usual, but I don’t really have room to blog about that now.  I’ve really been taking notice of race relations and racial tensions here lately…they’ve obviously been extremely prevalent from the beginning, but I’ve just really been noticing and reflecting on them a lot lately.

I can’t believe I have less than a month left here!  My time has flown by ridiculously fast.  I have never had such mixed feelings about something before—although I’m excited to see everyone and get back to a few American things I miss, it’s going to be soo hard to leave here.  Leaving the kids at Pendla and my friends I’ve met here is going to be crushing—I’m dreading it. There are so many things about this country that I’m going to miss, and I’m just starting to deal with it all now.  BUT, I am also ready to enjoy as much as I can with my time I have left here—it’s going to fly by!  Thanks you all for listening to this excessively long blog post…sorry I let it go for so long as well!  Missing you all and hoping that you’re enjoying the springtime warmth and sunshine.

Big hugs from under the African sun,

Logs

Well, I’ve officially failed at keeping this updated weekly—sorry dudes. Things have been really hectic these past few weeks with excursions, a long weekend, and a TON of schoolwork. I’ll try to get through it all, but I can’t guarantee that I will remember all of it—I will do my best to highlight the significant stuff, however….sorry if I seem a bit scatterbrained!

I probably should start with classes. Like I’ve said before, this semester abroad isn’t a piece of cake like I’ve heard about other programs. There is a TON of reading involved (that we actually have to do) and we have a good amount of papers and exams to take care of as well. I had my first political science paper due, which turned out to be about 5200 words…although it was long, it wasn’t terribly difficult to write. It was simply discussing the key parties and negotiations involved with SA’s transition to democracy. Like everything in my classes, it’s fascinating because it is SO recent. It’s cool because almost everything that has happened in this country is still happening, and I’m able to witness it. This is the first time in my life that I really feel like I am living through history, which is a completely novel, unique experience. I’ve now had at least one major paper/exam for each of my classes, so I’m really in the midst of things and I stay quite busy with homework and whatnot during the week.

Pendla….it’s been quite the experience as usual. I absolutely love the kids in my class to death. It’s funny to think about my first few days there when I was completely overwhelmed…I never thought I’d learn a single kid’s name, and I just didn’t see myself having any sort of impact on the kids or on the school in general. Now I know all 32 names of the students in my class (even if I can’t always pronounce them correctly!), along with some names of students in other classes or grade levels. I also see myself having an impact on these kids, even if it is very small. I just hope that in the end, I have a fraction of an impact on the kids as the kids are having on me. Like I’ve said, I’m hoping to do a Pendla entry one of these days where can get into detail about what I do, see, and experience, along with some info about the individual kids in my class.

Group Excursion--THE KAROO.

The Karoo is a very arid, mountainous area of South Africa. On the drive out, we stopped at a cheetah sanctuary where we were able to pet tame cheetahs, lion cubs, and other wild creatures indigenous to South Africa. It was pretty cool, and I didn’t have much of an allergic reaction to the animals like I was expecting—another girl on our trip, Emily, had a pretty bad one and had to deal with a swollen, watering eye for the rest of the day. After a 4 hour drive, we arrived in Graaf-Reinet, a predominantly Afrikaner town in the heart of the Karoo. It was strange entering the town because it was so Afrikaner. The architecture was European, everything was in Afrikaans, and there were white people milling throughout the town. At the same time, however, we experienced a huge amount of hassling and begging, much more so than in PE. There is a township directly connected to Graaf-Reinet (thank you, apartheid’s forced removals), so poverty is definitely prevalent—it’s just been shoved outside of the immediate city borders. I’ll get a little more into that when I talk about our trip to the Valley of Desolation.

On the Friday of the Karoo trip, we really spent most of our day traveling. The cheetah sanctuary was cool, but after that it just got VERY HOT. We went to the Zebra National Park right outside Graaf-Reinet, but we were all so hot that it made us tired and uninterested (for the record, we didn’t even see any zebras—all monkeys and bok, which are everywhere down here). Since we were all so tired, we decided to just lay low in GR for the night….went and grabbed a quick dinner and then hopped in the pool at our bed and breakfast. The pool felt great and was a lot of fun (WHIRLPOOL!), so it was a nice end to a long, hot day.

The next day was actually my birthday…yes, the big 2-1. I woke up early (standard haha) and started my morning by having coffee with our drivers, Shaddly and Henry, which was great—they are SO funny and have lived in SA their entire lives, so they have a lot of insight as to what really goes on in this country. After breakfast, we headed out in small groups to explore Graaf-Reinet and complete a small assignment Sister Mary Jane assigned us. We went to a few museums and learned about the fossils, art history, and the political background of GR (the leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress is from GR). Afterward, Karla and I had lunch at a cute little café and completed our assignment. Once everyone was back to the bed and breakfast, we headed to the Valley of Desolation, which was basically a beautiful high peak on a mountain. Before we went to the real valley, however, we stopped on a mountain to view Graaf-Reinet and the GR township. I am so happy we did this, because it was a way that I could photographically sum up South Africa—there is the Afrikaner town, but then completely separate (yet still attached) is the township that all blacks were forced to relocate to under the Group Areas Act. While one can say that apartheid is over and black people can technically live wherever they want, the division between black and white in this country is extremely apparent—as illustrated in this picture. The big circle is the main town, and the offshoot circle in the upper left is the township. Completely divided—apartheid’s main goal.

That night, we went to a local restaurant for a lamb dinner. The lamb was a little fatty, but I love lamb so it was a nice treat. After dinner we all just headed back to the B&B, where we just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. I ended up jumping in the pool completely clothed, so that was probably a birthday highlight. In the end, I got to bed before midnight because we had an early morning the next day.

On Sunday, we went and saw bushman cave paintings. It was SO cool to see paintings that were done 7000+years ago…I can’t believe that a concoction of blood, urine, and other animal bodily fluids could last so long. It offered a slightly different piece of South African history, since most history we are learning is within the past 20 years.

Long Weekend—JOHANNESBURG AND SWAZILAND

Since we had a large paper due Thursday, our poli sci prof gave us the day off. We also had the following Monday off because of a national public holiday (Human Rights Day), so everyone in our group ended up going for a weekend trip. Five girls and I decided to go on a guided trip to Swaziland, with a day trip to Johannesburg. Along with our group of six was Tony, our guide, his daughter Larissa, and his volunteer Noemi (from Switzerland). Tony picked us up at 5am so we could catch our flight to Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. Not only is it the largest and most dangerous city in SA, it’s the second most dangerous city in the world. It has its roots in gold mining…the mines are a huge part of SA’s history, as thousands of black men would leave their families to work endless hours in extremely unsafe conditions, live in tiny little dorms, and oftentimes only be compensated with alcohol. Immediately after leaving the airport, we saw what looked like a huge mountain of gold dirt from the mines—it was pretty cool to see.

We were originally going to try and see Soweto, the largest township in South Africa (and the location of the uprisings I mentioned in an earlier blog), but unfortunately it was not safe for us to do so. There are lots of riots going on there right now, mainly because the World Cup cities are not allowing kombi drivers to transport fans to and from the stadiums during the games. Tony talked to several people he knows from Joburg, and they all said we’d be crazy to try and go there now. Sooo, with those plans aside, we obviously headed to the next best place: SAB’s World of Beer. SAB (I think it stands for South African Brewing?) is a massive company that brews on five continents. For only 25 rand (about $3.50), we got an almost two hour tour, a small beer halfway through (and we got to keep the SAB glass!), and two tall tap beers at the end. The tour was super high tech and lots of the time I felt like I was at Disneyworld. The coolest part of the tour was probably when we learned about how traditional Zulus make beer in their villages, and then we got to try some out of a communal bowl, like they do. It was really gross (especially the white lumps floating around), but it was awesome to experience a little bit of the Zulu culture. The Xhosa culture is so dominant in the Eastern Cape where we live, that we don’t get to learn too much about the Zulus (they live primarily in the Kwazulu-Natal province).

After the World of Beer, we headed to Gold Reef City, which is actually an amusement park. Although there were rides, we went there for a gold pouring demonstration and a trip down into a mine. Unfortunately, the mine was closed for the day- but we did get to see the gold pouring. (I can’t believe how hot it needs to be! God bless the workers down in the mines, there’s no way I could do it.) While we were waiting for the demonstration, we decided to kill some time by hitting up the roller coasters (such a pain,I know ;) ) They were comparable to home, but the big difference I noted was the lack of safety checks and instruction. At home, they check you at least once and always have the instructions about ride conduct playing, but here they only check you once for the big roller coasters…and no instruction. There was one ride, the Tower of Terror, that brought you up in a car and then dropped you vertically down into a mine shaft…SUPER fun. Megan and I were the true ride warriors, riding every time that someone else wanted to try it. J

After Gold Reef City, we needed to start heading to Swaziland so we got to our lodging before dark. We stayed at Old School Trout Lodge (in SA), where we got an entire house to ourselves. The coolest part was the lake in the backyard—it took up the entire backyard, and literally came all the way up to the house. If you looked directly down off the porch, you could see all sorts of fish swimming around in the water. After breakfast, we headed out to finish our drive to Swaziland. Crossing the border was quite an experience. It’s not a busy border crossing at all, so the officers don’t see many people regularly. One of the officers had us write our names on this official-looking document, which we thought was part of the crossing process….turns out he wanted to add us on Facebook. Another officer was joking with us and telling us he was happy we were there because he wasn’t married yet, so we told him he had to pick one of us for a wife….lucky me, I was picked. My border patrol officer husband became kind of an ongoing joke throughout the weekend…crossing the border was really funny and bizarre, but few things happen completely “normally” down here.

Most of our day was sucked up by traveling, but we arrived to Mlilwane, Swaziland in time to have a nice dinner with live music and then head to House on Fire, a club for local Swazi entertainment. I’m not going to go into detail about House on Fire for time’s sake, but it was a VERY unique experience. After House on Fire, we headed back to our backpackers, which was actually on a game reserve. We were staying in these little two-person huts (Madiba huts according to Pehler and I, since they looked like the hut Nelson Mandela grew up in) with animals roaming around everywhere. Literally. There was this big cow thing lurking outside our hut door at night, an ostrich joined us for breakfast, and warthogs ran around like common household pets.

The next day, we headed out to do some serious crafting. Swaziland is known for their markets and crafts, especially candles. I got a lot of souvenir shopping done, so that was nice. The markets were incredible, and they don’t attack you like the markets in PE. Probably the most notable part of the market was my conversation with a local man that was just hanging around. It ended up being the strangest experience I’ve had so far in Africa…it started out with him saying he wanted to pray for me, moved to him trying to put ash on me to make me his wife, and ended with him telling me that Bill Clinton is his lawyer and America and Africa are the same now because we have a black president. It was all pretty comical, but we was getting quite a bit of attention—at one point, a European tourist was taking pictures of the whole ordeal. After a long day of crafting and shopping, we headed to SwaziTrails for the highlight of the trip—caving. It was SO COOL. We hiked 45 back to the caves, where we ended up descending 80 meters into the earth. It seriously was like Indiana Jones…Tony said that he has done a lot of caving and spelunking and this was by far the best. There were so many times in the caves when it seemed impossible to get through a hole or get up a boulder, but our guide, Darron, was so helpful and made sure we were all safe. We all felt really accomplished when we were done, and rightfully so I’d say—it was pretty intense, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Turns out I am highly allergic to something at the bottom of caves…surprise surprise, there really isn’t any escaping my allergies on this planet.

Sunday was spent exploring the game reserve (mountain biking and horseback riding), visiting this museum about the king of Swaziland, and then just chilling at a different backpackers we decided to stay at. That was actually a ton of fun…we met people from England and Germany, had a braii, and played the longest game of BS ever. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend our last night in Swaziland. In the morning, we packed up and headed to Ngwenya Glass Factory and some other shops in the area—I didn’t purchase anything, but it was cool to look around. Finally it was time for the long drive back to Joburg and the quick flight back to PE.

Nothing too monumental has happened this week—this weekend and the next couple weeks are what I’m looking forward to. Tomorrow I’m going to an Elton John concert, which is a pretty big deal because nobody ever tours down here. Saturday our whole groups is going hiking and snorkeling at our lit prof’s house, then we head out for Cape Town on Monday! After Cape Town we have a week off for break, so I think I will be heading to Durban for that. It should be a fun couple of weeks…hopefully I can do small updates so it’s not one massive update like this. I miss you all terribly and I hope everything is going great back home!

Until next,

Logie

Hi all! I’m sorry I didn’t stick with my weekly update (I know all of you were just DYING to hear about all of my life details), but things just got a little crazy with a weekend excursion and schoolwork. This time, I’m just going to give a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to, and then I’m going to answer some general questions that people have been asking me through skype, emails, and Facebook.

Not terribly exciting went on during the week last week—just Pendla, classes, homework, etc. I did, however, experience a pretty intense bout of sadness and anger during my senior seminar course. We watched a movie called Cry Freedom, which is the story of Steven Biko (an anti-apartheid leader that was killed by policemen during an interrogation right here in Port Elizabeth). The movie ended with a depiction of the Soweto uprising (Wikipedia it for more info), which basically was a peaceful protest by African schoolchildren that did not want to be taught in Afrikaans (Desmond Tutu coined it as the language of the oppressor). For some reason, the police opened fire and ended up murdering over 700 children and wounding over a thousand. The majority of these children were running away, fleeing the scene, and were shot in the back. (A very famous photo of a boy named Hector Pieterson is from this uprising—that is his older brother carrying him.) I had heard plenty about the uprising prior to seeing the movie, but seeing a visual depiction of it made me physically sick. How can you shoot a child? Much less one that is running away from you? Bleeding, dying children were laying everywhere, while the policemen continued to aim, shoot, and kill. The children were unarmed, defenseless, and posing absolutely no threat to the policemen. I don’t know if it was my mood or something that day, but it really, really upset me to see this. We had a break afterward and I went to the bathroom and just cried for a little bit. It broke my heart to think of the children that were murdered during the uprising (all I could think of were the kids in my class at Pendla), but I also became extremely angry. Why is crap like that necessary? And history just repeats itself. Soweto was only one event during apartheid—there were countless other instances of police corruption, such as the Sharpeville Massacre. The fact that these events happened in very recent years makes it much harder to swallow—it’s impossible to be in this country and distance oneself from it.

Which leads me to my next point (I promise I won’t be such a Debbie Downer after this!)…it’s extremely difficult to distance myself from everything I’m learning in my classes. Virtually nothing we are learning (with the exception of marimba day in jazz class haha) is lighthearted in the least—for example, for literature this week we read a novel about a 13 year old boy on the streets in Cape Town, prostituting himself to adult males in order to survive. Although it was a novel, it was a very accurate depiction of reality in this country. If I were reading it at home, it would be much easier to simply read it, think about it, and leave it. Being in this country however, I read it, think about it, then walk outside and see beggar children down the street. The same goes for everything I am learning in all of my classes—I’ve never applied classroom knowledge so frequently and deeply before. It’s tough to take it all in at times, but it’s honestly becoming the best learning experience I think I’ve ever had. It’s opening my eyes to a lot of things that I don’t think I would be able to truly grasp from the comfort of my apartment back in St. Joseph. On a slightly lighter note, we are moving on to examining the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (restorative justice after the end of apartheid), so I’m learning a lot about forgiveness (shout out to my main man Desmond Tutu). It’s hard to hear stories told during the TRC hearings, but it’s incredible to see people being forgiven for absolutely atrocious crimes.

Anyway, that’s enough of the depressing stuff for now! Pendla was great last week! I ended up teaching quite a bit because Mrs. Ndumi was out and about, which I really enjoy. It’s not quite as chaotic now because the children are beginning to respect me a bit more and I’m gaining an understanding of how to control the class. I just can’t get over HOW CUTE these kids are….and they are so affectionate, I absolutely love it. This first picture is just of some of the kids and i at recess, and the second is a picture with a couple kids in my class. The one hugging me, Asemahle, has been one of my favorites from the beginning. At first, he was so shy that he wouldn't say a word to me, but now he never stops hugging me and is constantly calling me "mom." He is so sweet and I absolutely adore him. :)

Last weekend we had a group excursion to Frontier Farms, which were these huge Afrikaner farms up in the mountains a few hours inland. To save time, I won’t go over all of the weekend’s events, but all you need to know is it was absolutely beautiful, I castrated a sheep, I drank milk from a cow’s udder, I climbed up a basically vertical mountain barefoot, and I went swimming in this beautiful gorge area that usually has a waterfall. It was funny being at a farm because in some ways it was a lot like home, but in other ways it was SO different from home. The mountain area we were in looked like it was straight out of the Sound of Music, so there were several rousing renditions of The Hills Are Alive and Climb Every Mountain while they hauled us around in these big truck things called backies.

This week has been pretty typical so far—Pendla was SO much fun yesterday. I’m hoping to do a separate blog entry solely on Pendla soon, because I have SO much to say about it. Class has been standard, went to rugby for a while on Monday, went to the mall with Kate today….nothing terrible against the norm.

Now onto the onslaught of questions I’ve received from all of you crazies! I think for simplicity’s sake I will just bullet point the different items below.

*Port Elizabeth is a city of about 1.1 million people. It’s in the province of the Eastern Cape and is in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The municipality is actually the only place in South Africa that Mandela allows to use his name, so everything here is named Nelson Mandela something or other. They love the guy here, which is great—side note, you should all read his autobiography, a Long Walk to Freedom. It’s an incredible story, and everybody should read it at some point.

*My university, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, has about 25,000 students. My classes take place at the main campus, South Campus (old UPE), which is always bustling with students. It’s a beautiful campus (filled with monkeys everywhere by the way), and I really like being at a large university for a change.

*Some have asked if I’ve experienced any culture shock since I’ve been here. I didn’t experience anything like that for almost the first month while I was here (which is apparently normal—they told us that culture shock doesn’t usually come until the initial “high” of the novelty is over), but I actually have experienced a little bit now. It mainly comes from the fact that some things just take forever to do here, and it’s just frustrating once in a while. For example, getting into the computer lab, getting online, and printing are all these multiple-step processes that just seem unnecessary. Don’t even get me started on the bussing system haha. It’s not too bad the majority of the time, but it definitely has been a culture shock.

*The AIDS rate in the New Brighton township (where Pendla is) is approximately 33%. There’s really no way for me to tell what kids in my class are affected, but it breaks my heart to know that some of their lives are going to be cut short.

*Safety…it’s all just a matter of watching your back, being aware of your surroundings, and taking the precautions necessary to protect yourself. People get very wound up over the large number of muggings etc that happen here, but often it’s just a matter of making good decisions. For example, a few international students a couple buildings over from us got mugged at knifepoint not long ago—people freaked, but then we found out that they didn’t have a guy with them (big no-no), they were walking on the path closest to the beach at night (bigger no-no), and they were carrying purses with them (biggest no-no). In the time that I’ve been here, I’ve become SO much better at knowing how to read people, getting a feel for when things are sketchy, and getting myself out of any area or situation I need to get out of quickly.

*The question I get the most is if I’m loving it here…of COURSE I am! It’s amazing, incredible, magnificent, fantastic. And SO much fun! I’ve met so many awesome people, which is one of my favorite parts. It’s going to be extremely difficult to say goodbye to this place! So yes…I am indeed loving it. J

*A couple people asked who exactly the Afrikaners are. Afrikaners are basically all the white people down here (whites make up about 9% of the population). They are of Dutch descent and speak Afrikaans, which is this totally weird language that is kind of a combination between Dutch and English. It’s really hard to read and pronounce correctly because it’s not phonetic at all (seriously, I think I could master Xhosa before I could begin to speak Afrikaans). It’s everywhere on signs and newspapers and everything, and I hear people speaking it all the time. I have learned a tiny bit and can tell people my name in it, mainly because it’s basically the same as English haha (mai nom es Logan).

*Food…they are big meat eaters down here, but I tend to eat a lot of vegetables, eggs, and bread. The overall types of foods are relatively similar to back home, but there are definitely some differences. Everything besides fruit and veggies tastes a little different than it does back home in the states—it’s slight, but it’s definitely different. This is most apparent in restaurants, because they tend to use a lot of different sauces and whatnot. It’s really good though and I like the food a lot….the only thing I’m having a hard time acquiring a taste for is the mayo (it’s tangy and tastes quite a bit different than at home). Other differences….when you go to the grocery store, the milk is warm, in a box, and just sitting out on the shelf. Same goes for eggs. I also refuse to eat the lunch meat down here (it is sooo sketchy-looking!), so it’s a good thing I love cheese and tomato sandwiches. Restaurants usually have some sort of ostrich option, which is really very good! I had crocodile a few weeks ago as well, which was great.

*For those concerned that I’m going to be eaten by a shark, the beach outside my flat is quite safe, and hasn’t had a shark attack for many years. Don’t feel dumb, Shark Week had me worried for a little while too. J

*The weather….it’s hot. SO hot. The amount of time we all spend sweating far outweighs the time we don’t. Apparently this has been a really hot summer for South Africa, which has made for plenty of beach time! Sunscreen is essential every day…I currently look like Michael Jackson during his transformation from black to white because my face is peeling and it’s all spotchy…pretty cute if you ask me. It’s so wonderful being in this weather, especially knowing how cold it is back in Minnesota.

Well, this is getting terribly long, so I should probably stop there! I hope all is well for all of you back home and you’re staying warm! Cheers!

Hey everyone! Here’s the weekly rundown.

Monday—Pendla was pretty normal on Monday. It was extremely hot, so the kids were all worn out and tired. In the afternoon, our jazz class went on a “field trip” to the private high school that my professor also works at. The place looked like a country club (couldn’t contrast any more with Pendla)—I felt like I was in the midst of South African gossip girl. There, we heard 11^th and 7^th graders play the marimbas—they are SO GOOD. It was so much fun to hear! They did lots of popular songs (everything from Andrea Bocelli to Coldplay to Black Eyed Peas), and then we got to try them out. I learned a part on the bass marimba, and then we all came together to play a mambo. During our “cool drink” break, I asked one of the students to show me how to play Just Dance, so I now know how to play Lady Gaga on the marimba. I also talked for a long time with another student—she is 17 years old and seems to be smart beyond her years. She was really curious to know what life is like back in the states, so we had a really good conversation about how we each grew up.

After class, we had our first taste of a thunderstorm here in PE—they need it like crazy, there’s a big water shortage because they are in the middle of the worst drought in 88 years. However, it only last a few minutes and there was a big rainbow over the ocean afterward. J Since the weather cleared up, a few of us headed to campus for the varsity rugby game. It was SO fun! There were tons of people there, and student section cheered and danced and sang the entire time. There also was a group of guys that were just like the Rat Pack, so that was fun too. Getting home ended up being quite the process because none of us there had a phone and the only cab number we knew wasn’t picking up…but it was totally worth it.

Tuesday—Again, Pendla was pretty ordinary this day. My favorite little guy (Awonke) got the ear-pull from Mrs. Ndumi and a letter from the principal, so that was sad to see (especially because I have no idea what he did!), but on the whole it was pretty standard. This picture is of a few of the boys in my class--Awonke is the second one from the right. SO CUTE.

After class, we went to a pancake dinner at the church a block from Langerry. I’m really happy we went. First of all, the food was great (pancakes here are actually crepes), and secondly, I got to talk to some cool people. I sat at a table with a couple of moms and their kids, so they were telling me about their world travels and the schools they go to. Afterward, I walked out the back door of the church and about 10 kids were there playing with a volleyball—naturally, I had to join them. I absolutely love the kids at Pendla, but playing with the Afrikaner kids at the church was a nice change for a bit. At Pendla, there are always 20 kids hanging on me at once and it’s always mass chaos; with these kids, I was actually able to talk to and play a game with them. The fact that they spoke English helped as well. J Like I said, I would never trade working with the Pendla kids, but it was just nice to get to play with kids in a setting more like home.

Wednesday---In the morning, we had our second community service learning lecture. I found out that lots of people have not had great experiences at Pendla, mainly because of the teachers. It made me really grateful to be with Mrs. Ndumi. Also, after hearing from the people at the House, I’m much more confident in my decision to go to Pendla.

Wednesday night, some of us went and saw Valentines Day at the boardwalk—it was really fun to get to a movie in the theater. It actually made me a little homesick for the first time (a couple other girls felt the same way!) because I felt like I was at home during the show. It faded pretty quickly though, so no worries. J

Thursday—Nothing too exciting on Thursday. I absolutely love going for walks and runs on the beach early in the morning here…so that was probably the highlight of my day haha.

Friday— I headed to the pool again for the late morning and early afternoon. I LOVE that place, so it’s soo wonderful. Sunburn city though, my Minnesota skin had a little too much of the African sun. In the evening, our entire group went to the PE cricket match versus Cape Town. It was so much more fun than I thought it would be! It was packed (15,000 people), the Castles were cheap, the crowd was crazy, and the weather was perfect. It actually felt like a Twins game, but outdoors (whaddup Target Field!). This coloured guy (still feel weird saying that!) sitting next to me was extremely helpful in explaining the game to me so I actually knew what was going on. He and a few girls he was with also told me a little about the coloured population down here, so that was interesting to hear.

Saturday—Jeffrey’s Bay! We crammed 14 people into two compact cars for the hour long drive to Jeffrey’s Bay, one of the best surf towns in the world. It is SO BEAUTIFUL there! I absolutely loved it. The ocean waves are massive, the beaches are a beautiful white, there are tons of sand dunes, and there are mountains on the outskirts of the city. It’s not huge by any means—it’s actually relatively small—but that is part of what gave it a really cool feel. I felt like there should be speakers everywhere in the town blasting Jack Johnson. People with surfboard are everywhere, and it’s just super chilled out. Billabong hosts their annual surf competition in JBay, so there is Billabong stuff everywhere (we definitely did a little damage at the factory outlet store). There were lots of cute little ice cream shops and whatnot, so it was a lot of fun to walk around town.

Unfortunately, the ocean was too rough and choppy for us to try surfing. Instead, we got some lunch, explored the town, shopped a little, then headed to the beach outside our hostel (Surfpackers) to climb on the rocks and search for seashells. For dinner, we went to this AMAZING place on the beach called Walskippers! Expensive, but worth it. The floor of the restaurant is all sand…you can just walk around barefoot. It’s lit by candlelight lanterns, and you can see everything being cooked—a great atmosphere! I had crocodile and calamari (yes mom, I voluntarily ordered seafood), and it was sooo so so good. Jake and Lauren split a meat platter that had everything from springbok to bone marrow (yes, bone marrow), and Jedlicka and Kenefick split a seafood platter…I’ve never seen so much food on one plate in my life.

On the drive to Walskippers, we passed the most run-down township I’ve seen since I’ve been here. We all were shocked to see such terrible conditions, but the real shock came about 30 seconds after we passed it—all of a sudden, we were surrounded by these unbelievably huge, extravagant homes. There was even a moat going around the estates (not kidding). It was just a really clear illustration of the political and social climate in this country.

After dinner, we went back to our hostel and hung out with some guys from Argentina that were also staying there. We were going to head into town, but we were having so much fun that we decided to just stay at the hostel! We just played games, talked, and had a blast. One of the Argentinans (is that what you call them?) taught me how to salsa, so that was a lot of fun. (Anji—they were very impressed with my knowledge of Spanish songs! They even knew david bisbal—we sang ave maria. YES.)

Sunday—We all got up early because some of us were going sandboarding and some of us were going horseback riding. I was in the horseback riding group, which I was really excited for because I had never ridden a horse before. My horse, Baby, was pretty good—she would buck around a little bit but stayed pretty calm for the first half of the ride. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL! We started up at the base of a mountain, overlooking the ocean…went through the sand dunes (I felt like I was in the desert and should have been riding a camel or something)…and ended with a long beach portion. Baby went CRAZY when we got to the beach, and it was soooo scary. I could handle it when she trotted quickly, but on the beach she launched into a full-blown gallop. Pulling the reins didn’t work in the least, so I just held on for dear life and prayed that my brain didn’t hemorrhage. All in all, it was a good experience, but the horses were a little crazy. A couple people got thrown off their horse, and one girl’s horse decided to launch into a full-blown sprint in the opposite direction. It all makes it more of an adventure though, so I’m really happy we did it.

So, here I am, back at Langerry for another week of classes. This week is going to be crazy on the homework front, so I doubt there will be anything too terribly exciting to blog about next week. Until next time, cheers!