Last weekend was our home stay weekend. From Friday until Sunday, we stayed with families in Langa township. Alice and I lived with a Mama and a boy who rents a room from her. It was interesting living in her house. The hardest part was a bit of a language barrier and eating food that we weren't used to (such as stomach and mealie meal and sour milk). However, it was also really fun going to a local bar Friday night and get an in depth tour of Langa on Saturday. The people we met there were amazing and very welcoming. We hope to be friends with them for a while!
The day that we got home, my brother Steve and his friends Ashley and Ryan came to visit for a week. They did a lot of fun stuff, most of which I got to join in on! Monday and Tuesday they met the kids at Manenberg who absolutely loved them. The teacher wasn't at school on Tuesday so we got the class to ourselves. Girls from NDP donated books to give to the kids, so we spent time reading with them. We had a lot of fun singing, dancing, reading and just having a relaxing day with them.
This was definitely one of the best days I've had at Manenberg in a while. I was really revitalized by seeing them recieve the books and also just joking around with them. The kids were so excited to get all of the new books. The books are the best quality books I've seen in the school. They were all eager to even just flip through the pages. One boy who I work with everyday came up to the table to exchange the book he had just looked through. When he saw a book about auto racing, he opened each page and stared at it for a while in amazement. He kept saying "Wow! Oh, wow!" After I told him he could take the racing book to his seat, he kissed the book he had just put down. Thank you so much to Steve, Ashley, Ryan, NDP, and everybody else who helped donate to the school! The kids and I appreciate it so much.
Tuesday we also had the opportunity to participate in a march demanding a library and librarian in every school. It was organized by Equal Education, the organization that one of my housemates, Pat, does service in. It was really powerful seeing 2,000+ schoolchildren so interested in their education. They recognized the injustice around them and demanded better conditions. Very few schools in the townships have libraries. Those that do most likely do not have a librarian and probably still contain old books that pushed apartheid messages. The march made the front of the New York Times world section. Check out the link above for the article.
Thursday and Friday, Steve, Ashley, Ryan, Eva, Grady, and I went on a safari about 2 hours outside of Cape Town. We had a lot of time to relax by the pool and fill up on their delicious buffets. We went on late afternoon and early morning safaris. We were probably only a couple of meters from lions. Check out my facebook for pictures! It was incredible!
Friday my housemates and I threw a braai at our house. We invited all of our friends from Cape Town and our home stay friends and families from Langa. There were so many people there, it was a great time!
I was sad to see my visitors go, but my mom will be here for a few days in just 2 weeks!
We're all getting a little anxious because we can feel the end of the semester coming. It's hard to imagine going back to life at home. The bonds we've made with each other, our service sites, and this city are strong. But there's so much to do until then. Manenberg has spring break this week so I hope to use this time to get together my research and capstone projects.
Hope you all are doing well!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Spring Break on the Garden Route
Hey! This has been one of the best weeks of my life. My housemates (plus a couple of their friends from home) and I drove through the Garden Route, along the southern coast of South Africa. We had a lot of adventures, so here's a break down of what we did:
Day 1:
Cango Caves- a huge cave, we did the "adventure tour," in which we had to crawl through tiny spaces, go up ladders, and slide down a foot high opening
Ostrich Farm- the fields along the Garden Route are filled with ostriches, we had the chance to learn all about ostriches and get close to the birds by receiving hugs and kisses from them, feeding them, standing on their eggs, and riding them!!!
The rest of the day we spent driving to our hostel. However, this day was also the first Vanderbilt football game. Eva (my housemate who also goes to Vandy) and I were a little bummed that we were missing tailgating and the game, so we stopped on the side of the road at sunset, blared some Taylor Swift, drank a beer, and had our own mini-tailgate. Go Dores!
Day 2:
Canopy Zipline tour- high up in the trees of a lush forest, we did 10 ziplines from tree to tree, by the end of the day we were expert zipliners!
Elephant Sanctuary- here we got to meet 3 of 6 awesome elephants, we "held hands" with them, fed them, and learned about them by looking in their mouths and touching their skin, eyelashes, tail and tusks
That night, at our hostel (The Wild Spirit Lodge- highly recommended!), there was an African drum circle. Lit only by campfire, people drummed/ danced/ threw fire all night long without uttering a word
Day 3:
Bungee Jumping- So, I never intended to go bungee jumping, but a couple of the people in our group really wanted to. We went to Bloukrans Bridge, which is the site of the highest bridge bungee jump in the world- 216 meters (about 708 ft). You jump from the arch underneath the bridge and to get there you can take a zipline or walk over a grated foot bridge. The valley is beautiful, filled with trees, a river, and sight of the ocean. Brianna and I did a tandum zipline to the bridge (so that we could cheer on the 2 people who said they would jump). We felt like we were flying! It was so beautiful.
Once we got the bridge, we saw our friends jump. It was so scary at first, but as they came up they were on cloud 9- they couldn't get over how great it was and encouraged everybody to do it. Slowly, one by one, each of my friends signed up. I have a pretty bad fear of heights, and even seeing other people jump of the bridge scared me. But, I thought about the quote that is on each of the workers' shirts- "Fear is temporary, regret is forever." So I signed up (and cried and hyperventilated immediately after).
My friends were so encouraging and gave me the strength to walk to the edge. At that point all I could think was that I made a mistake, but I didn't have a choice at that point. They counted down 5-4-3-2-1 and all of the sudden I was free falling. It was the strangest feeling to be in a complete free fall for a whole 4 seconds (which seemed like a million). There was no tension in the rope at that point so I really felt like I was falling to the bottom. I hung there until the man came to get me. The view was beautiful and the only sound was from the river below. It would have been incredibly peaceful if I still wasn't freaking out. After this experience, I can surely say that I will never bungee jump again, but I am SO glad I did it!
After that, we went to three animal places in which we learned about and were right next to the animals:
Monkeyland
Bird sanctuary
Cheetah sanctuary
Day 4:
This was our day off so we went to visit a beach near our hostel. The beach was in between a lagoon and the Indian Ocean. It was the most beautiful beach I've been to, plus I got to put my feet in the Indian Ocean! We also hiked up a nearby cliff to look out over the beach and ocean. This hike is called "The Otter's Trail," and at the restaurant we went to afterwards we got shots called "Otter's Arseholes" and a certificate in honor of completing the hike.
Day 5:
Most of this day we spent driving to Cape L'Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa. We reached the point around sunset and had sundowners. I also touched both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the same time.
That night we had a late dinner at a shady saloon by our hostel (the only place open). There, we all sang kareoke to Time of My Life while the locals looked on at the rowdy Americans. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
Day 6:
Shark cage diving- We arrived at Shark Cage Diving at 7. We rode out to the spot on the Baracuda. I felt a little seasick but nothing too bad. It was quite a challenged putting on wet wetsuits, but it was all worth it once you got down in the cage. It was a 6 person cage hung over the side of the boat. You kneel on a railing so your head is out of the water. Whenever a shark goes by, you dip down into the cage. At times you can be a foot away from the sharks. In Maddie's case, the shark actually stuck his nose into the cage where she was- a little too close for comfort. All of the sharks were Great Whites (one of the most populated areas in the world). They are amazingly beautiful creatures that take your breath away when they swim near. We also visited shark alley, which is in between a very small island with thousands of birds and an island with hundreds of seals.
I can't wait to give you more details whenever I see you again!
Day 1:
Cango Caves- a huge cave, we did the "adventure tour," in which we had to crawl through tiny spaces, go up ladders, and slide down a foot high opening
Ostrich Farm- the fields along the Garden Route are filled with ostriches, we had the chance to learn all about ostriches and get close to the birds by receiving hugs and kisses from them, feeding them, standing on their eggs, and riding them!!!
The rest of the day we spent driving to our hostel. However, this day was also the first Vanderbilt football game. Eva (my housemate who also goes to Vandy) and I were a little bummed that we were missing tailgating and the game, so we stopped on the side of the road at sunset, blared some Taylor Swift, drank a beer, and had our own mini-tailgate. Go Dores!
Day 2:
Canopy Zipline tour- high up in the trees of a lush forest, we did 10 ziplines from tree to tree, by the end of the day we were expert zipliners!
Elephant Sanctuary- here we got to meet 3 of 6 awesome elephants, we "held hands" with them, fed them, and learned about them by looking in their mouths and touching their skin, eyelashes, tail and tusks
That night, at our hostel (The Wild Spirit Lodge- highly recommended!), there was an African drum circle. Lit only by campfire, people drummed/ danced/ threw fire all night long without uttering a word
Day 3:
Bungee Jumping- So, I never intended to go bungee jumping, but a couple of the people in our group really wanted to. We went to Bloukrans Bridge, which is the site of the highest bridge bungee jump in the world- 216 meters (about 708 ft). You jump from the arch underneath the bridge and to get there you can take a zipline or walk over a grated foot bridge. The valley is beautiful, filled with trees, a river, and sight of the ocean. Brianna and I did a tandum zipline to the bridge (so that we could cheer on the 2 people who said they would jump). We felt like we were flying! It was so beautiful.
Once we got the bridge, we saw our friends jump. It was so scary at first, but as they came up they were on cloud 9- they couldn't get over how great it was and encouraged everybody to do it. Slowly, one by one, each of my friends signed up. I have a pretty bad fear of heights, and even seeing other people jump of the bridge scared me. But, I thought about the quote that is on each of the workers' shirts- "Fear is temporary, regret is forever." So I signed up (and cried and hyperventilated immediately after).
My friends were so encouraging and gave me the strength to walk to the edge. At that point all I could think was that I made a mistake, but I didn't have a choice at that point. They counted down 5-4-3-2-1 and all of the sudden I was free falling. It was the strangest feeling to be in a complete free fall for a whole 4 seconds (which seemed like a million). There was no tension in the rope at that point so I really felt like I was falling to the bottom. I hung there until the man came to get me. The view was beautiful and the only sound was from the river below. It would have been incredibly peaceful if I still wasn't freaking out. After this experience, I can surely say that I will never bungee jump again, but I am SO glad I did it!
After that, we went to three animal places in which we learned about and were right next to the animals:
Monkeyland
Bird sanctuary
Cheetah sanctuary
Day 4:
This was our day off so we went to visit a beach near our hostel. The beach was in between a lagoon and the Indian Ocean. It was the most beautiful beach I've been to, plus I got to put my feet in the Indian Ocean! We also hiked up a nearby cliff to look out over the beach and ocean. This hike is called "The Otter's Trail," and at the restaurant we went to afterwards we got shots called "Otter's Arseholes" and a certificate in honor of completing the hike.
Day 5:
Most of this day we spent driving to Cape L'Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa. We reached the point around sunset and had sundowners. I also touched both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the same time.
That night we had a late dinner at a shady saloon by our hostel (the only place open). There, we all sang kareoke to Time of My Life while the locals looked on at the rowdy Americans. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
Day 6:
Shark cage diving- We arrived at Shark Cage Diving at 7. We rode out to the spot on the Baracuda. I felt a little seasick but nothing too bad. It was quite a challenged putting on wet wetsuits, but it was all worth it once you got down in the cage. It was a 6 person cage hung over the side of the boat. You kneel on a railing so your head is out of the water. Whenever a shark goes by, you dip down into the cage. At times you can be a foot away from the sharks. In Maddie's case, the shark actually stuck his nose into the cage where she was- a little too close for comfort. All of the sharks were Great Whites (one of the most populated areas in the world). They are amazingly beautiful creatures that take your breath away when they swim near. We also visited shark alley, which is in between a very small island with thousands of birds and an island with hundreds of seals.
I can't wait to give you more details whenever I see you again!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Happy Spring!
Happy Spring/ September everybody!
Last Saturday I went to a local bar to watch the Arsenal vs. Manchester United soccer match. It was really fun hanging out with our friends, although the game got intense at parts.
On Sunday, we celebrated Ronel's birthday a day early by going to Mzoli's again.
This week was quite stressful because I had two tests and a research proposal due. All of this in addition to our service work was really overwhelming.
Also, yesterday I started my after school creative writing program at Manenberg. For now, it's only open to third and fourth grade (3 actual classes). 45 kids ended up coming. It was a little chaotic considering I was the only one running the program! But the kids seemed really engaged and excited to be there. I also discussed the program with all of the teachers at the school the other. The other grades are also interested in participating. Since I can't handle so many kids on my own, I'm currently trying to organize for college student volunteers to come help out. Hopefully this will work out so that we can reach as many kids as possible. The program is meant to address the literacy problem at the school and, from what I've heard from teachers, is really needed. I'm really excited to get it off the ground! I'll keep you updated!
Last night we went to the ballet (Giselle). It was really beautiful and made me miss dancing so much!
As of right now, we're on SPRING BREAK!!!! After a hectic week, we're all SO excited to have a week off. We leave tomorrow for our trip to the Garden Route. But more about that later.
Until then, lots of love from Africa!
Last Saturday I went to a local bar to watch the Arsenal vs. Manchester United soccer match. It was really fun hanging out with our friends, although the game got intense at parts.
On Sunday, we celebrated Ronel's birthday a day early by going to Mzoli's again.
This week was quite stressful because I had two tests and a research proposal due. All of this in addition to our service work was really overwhelming.
Also, yesterday I started my after school creative writing program at Manenberg. For now, it's only open to third and fourth grade (3 actual classes). 45 kids ended up coming. It was a little chaotic considering I was the only one running the program! But the kids seemed really engaged and excited to be there. I also discussed the program with all of the teachers at the school the other. The other grades are also interested in participating. Since I can't handle so many kids on my own, I'm currently trying to organize for college student volunteers to come help out. Hopefully this will work out so that we can reach as many kids as possible. The program is meant to address the literacy problem at the school and, from what I've heard from teachers, is really needed. I'm really excited to get it off the ground! I'll keep you updated!
Last night we went to the ballet (Giselle). It was really beautiful and made me miss dancing so much!
As of right now, we're on SPRING BREAK!!!! After a hectic week, we're all SO excited to have a week off. We leave tomorrow for our trip to the Garden Route. But more about that later.
Until then, lots of love from Africa!
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