Last 2 Weeks

I apologize for the lack of updates these past 2 weeks. It has been a crazy time. We have had finals and are trying to say our good-byes and finish up everything on our South African bucket lists. It’s busy. But here are a few snip-its from our past 2 weeks. Enjoy!

Pendla Teaching

Liz and I walked into our classroom on Monday and were told that another classroom did not have a teacher. That was our cue to take over the classroom without a teacher for the day. It was not what I was expecting that morning- but that is always the story at Pendla. Liz and I tried to tame our kids by speaking to them in Xhosa, teaching their subjects, playing games, and doing art projects. Basically whatever we could do to control them for the 3 hours that we were there. We started off by teaching them past tense verbs in English. We then taught Learner’s Rights as part of the Life Orientation course. They were sick of writing notes and actually listening so we taught the class how to make origami “cootie catchers” or “fortune tellers.” They absolutely loved them and ran around at recess playing with them. Then classes switched and we taught the next class how to play “Around the World,” a math competition game that the kids also loved. I think that was the moment that we had the best control of them and it was educational! I wish we had thought of it before our last week there. Lesson learned. Maybe it will be something that I can pass onto to next year’s Pendla group.

At recess a day later, it was raining. Bad weather limits the kids activities at break. They try to hang out under the overhangs right outside of their classrooms. We couldn’t read in our new reading area, and they couldn’t run around out in the open field. I sat down with about 10 learners and taught them how to play a couple of hand games that included BoBo Ski Whaten Taten and one where they sit in a circle, overlap hands, and slap them going around in a circle. I think they enjoyed both games and I hope they are games they can pull out again on their next rainy day!

Samrec Penguins

Bennies and Johnnies with their patches

On Wednesday, we took a trip in Literature out to Samrec, a penguin rehabilitation center. We arrived at the center and got to watch the penguins being fed. They were so funny. The volunteers actually had to keep the penguins back behind a fence and only let a few through at a time to the feeding area. The penguins were trying to climb over one another and most ended up falling off a 2 foot drop into the water. It was rather humorous. We then took a tour and learned all about protecting wildlife. It was quite interesting.

After watching and learning all about penguins, we did a patch presentation. Throughout the semester, we had a task to make a patch for our Lit class representing what we have learned in South Africa. Each person made one unique to their experience. We then presented them to the class. Our Lit professor is now making a quilt out of each patch. It was a neat project to do.

Langerry Appreciation

On Friday we took our flat cleaner out to lunch. Her name is Joyce and she has been too wonderful to us throughout the entire semester. For those who don’t know, we are basically living in long term hotel rooms complete with a kitchen and daily cleaning. Our flat cleaner comes in every day and makes our beds, does our dishes, cleans our bathroom, and cleans our floors. Yeah, we have basically been spoiled the entire time. Anyway, we took Joyce out for lunch to show her our appreciation. We took her to Spur, which is ironically an American-imitation restaurant complete with Native American logo. We had a good time talking with her and getting to know a little bit about her and her family.

That same day, we had a massive Braai for all of the Langerry staff to say thank you for everything that they have done this semester (I think our flat was extra appreciative because we have set our kitchen on fire countless times as well as broke a window. We were actually called Unlucky Flat 13. But that’s another story…). We made a ton of meat, salads, dessert, fruit, and bread. It was very tasty. I helped season the porkchops as well as clean dishes that had raw meat on them and needed to be washed to serve the cooked meat. After everyone was fed, the staff sang us African songs and gave us all hugs. It was the cherry on the top of a great day!

House Family Day

Mama Kelc and Baby Emmy all bundled up!

One of the three volunteer sites that our group spent their semester at was House of Resurrection. This is a center/home for children infected/affected by HIV/AIDS. There are about 5 to 6 House Mothers who all live with 6 to 7 kids in a house setting. It is truly a wonderful place and the kids are adorable. The volunteers from our group threw a Family Fun Day for them. They rented a Bounce House, asked people to face paint, found a musician/DJ, and brought all of us along to play with the kids. It was a blast! I was asked to hold a baby for a while, and next thing I knew, 3 of the House Mothers were strapping me into a harness to hold the baby “with no hands.” And that is where Baby Emmy stayed for the next few hours. That is also how I earned the nickname “Mama Kelc” from my fellow Bennies and Johnnies. The party was quite fun and I hope the kids slept well that night so that the House Mothers got some rest as well since they were in the Bounce House part of the time as well!

NMMU Choir Concert Round 2

Jim, Connie, Trang, Chris, and I took an adventure out to the townships to watch the NMMU Choir perform along with a couple of acapella groups. The posters advertised for the concert to start at 7.We arrived a couple of minutes after 7. The concert started after 8pm. That's Africa Time for you. The first group that performed were 4 men who were older who sang many gospel songs. They were characters. The second group to perform was made up of members  of the NMMMU choir as well as a couple of Alums. And we knew one of the stars because he taught us how to sing the South African national anthem in one of our first music classes. He was a fantastic singer! And then the world famous NMMU choir took the stage, well I guess the floor since we were in a gym-type room. And as usual, they were incredible! I’m going to miss their voices and lively performances! There weren’t many people in the audience and it gave a close and personal atmosphere. I even got to talk with a few of the NMMU Choir Members after the show which put a great way to end the night!

Sundays River Cruise

Dune Rolling!

Our final farewell with our group took place on a river cruise. We rented out a boat for a couple of hours and floated up and down the Sundays River. We had some delicious bunny chow made by the Mamas that we met at the Red Location. The views were amazing and although the weather was a little chilly, the sunshine made it wonderful! We stopped at a sand dune and climbed up to the top. We took many pictures and then took turns “sledding” and rolling down the hill. I felt like I was 6 years old again and it was great! After a few hours on the dune, we got back on board the boat and made our way back. It was a great study break before our hectic Finals Week.

Xhosa Day

We arrived at Pendla one day and were already beginning to dread saying our good-byes to the school. We found all of the students and teachers dressed in traditional Xhosa wear. It was fantastic! We asked the kids what was the occasion and they said it was National Xhosa Day. Little did we know was that it was all for us. The school had been planning a surprise for us for over a week. Liz and I got to watch our kids sing and dance all morning long. And then all of the students were let out earlier than their normal break time and they all danced in the courtyard for us. Right after, the teachers had prepared us a traditional African meal. We had (in their English names): mealie (like a corn-peanut), a spinach dish, ox tripe (stomach), pumpkin, and put bread. It was very, very kind of them. And to finish it off, the teachers sang and danced for us. It was too wonderful!

Pendla Family Night

We (the 12 Johnnies and Bennies who volunteered all semester at Pendla) threw one heck of a party on our last day at Pendla. We invited each of the 400 students as well as their parents to attend this night. We made sandwiches for dinner for everyone (800 sandwiches later….) as well as prepared bananas, candy bars, juice, and beans for every person. We also put together goodie bags for each student that contained pencils, pens, a glue stick, a bracelet, and a sucker. We also prepared teacher’s baskets which had more school and office supplies in it for each one. We worked with our classes to put together a performance to perform in front of their families. There were speeches from our advisor, 2 of our volunteers, and the principal of Pendla. The kids sang, dance, and acted the night away. There was face paint and hoola-hoops and lots of pictures and hugs. And many tears- okay maybe that was only me. It was extremely hard to say good-bye to those kids. I wish the best for each and every single one of them.

Liz and I with our favorite twins!

This was my last 2 weeks in South Africa in a nutshell. One more blog post will come once I get back in the States. Saving the best for last J

*Most of these pictures were taken from other members in my group. My camera broke after I decided it would be a good idea to take it to the sand dune and get sand stuck in it. Oops. Lesson learned the hard way.

Health Day at Pendla, Boat Trip, and Elephant Riding!

Our time is getting short and we are trying to make the most of the short weeks that we have left! Here are the top three highlights from my past week:

Health Day at Pendla

Learners happy with their new toothbrushes!

On Monday and Tuesday, Shaz and I went around to all of the classrooms and gave a 10 minute presentation on health and hygiene to each Class at Pendla. We taught the students the proper way to wash their hands, how to brush their teeth, how to cover their cough and sneeze, and how to keep their school clean by taking them out and picking up litter. Most of the students knew about all of these topics, but it is always good to remind them of the proper ways of doing things in case it may have slipped their mind. It also is nice to show them that "big kids" do the same things as they do. Also, hopefully we are another set of role models for them besides their teacher. At the end of the presentation, we gave a toothbrush to each learner which were donated by the grandparents of a girl on my trip. The kids adored them! Health Day was a success and will hopefully be continued by other future groups at Pendla!

Boat Trip
On Thursday I took a boat trip around Algoa Bay with my biology class. We were supposed to be looking at the effects that humans have on the shoreline and what is being done to minimize the impact of humans on the shoreline. But really, it was for fun. It was a great trip! We even left the bay for a moment and got to see how rough the ocean is just outside of the bay. Our poor little boat was being thrown around! It was an amazing contrast. We also were sprayed with water the entire trip. I got off the boat looking like I just stepped out of the shower. It was funny for a while and then we got cold. But we didn't let it ruin our trip! A few birds flew along side out boat. They were flying at the same height and speed and it was really neat to watch. We saw a lone penguin hanging out swimming in the water by himself. And the highlight of the trip was being surrounded by 300-400 dolphins jumping and playing alongside our boat. They were jumping in and out of the ways, swimming where we could reach in the water and touch them, and slapping their tails on the surface of the water. It was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had here so far!

Elephant Riding

Girls and the elephant!

On Saturday a group of girls decided to take a day trip out to Addo where we got to ride elephants! It was amazing! We got to the beautiful lodge and were immediately treated to coffee and muffins. We then climbed on the backs of some elephants and headed out for about an hour-long ride. I rode Duma and my guide's name was Prince. I learned a lot about Prince and Duma on this trip. Duma and the two other elephants were all 21-24 years old (Elephants live up to 60-70 years). They were rescued from the elephant culling (killing) in Kruger National Park about 12 years ago. They now live the high life of wandering the park and getting hand fed by tourists such as ourselves. After the ride (my butt still hurts from the bareback ride), we watched them lie down and went and took pictures with them as they posed. We then followed them on foot through the bush and watched them drink at a water hole and shower themselves in mud. We also got to see them eat an entire tree in about 15 minutes. When it was time to head back, the guide's told them to move on home. And they listened!! I commented that they listened better than my dog does at home! I was thoroughly impressed. We followed them back to the lodge and fed them by hand! With the elephant's stomachs full, it was time for the humans to eat. We had some fresh veggies, rolls, a sort of potato salad and chicken salad. It was delicious! This was a great last adventure to take on our own time! It will definitely be something that I never forget!

Angie Comes to Visit

I spent the past week hanging out with my cousin, Angie, who came to visit me here in South Africa. It was the best week ever! I picked her up Sunday night, brought her back to Langerry, and we sat on the balcony chatting and enjoying the South African climate. Monday was her first time seeing South Africa in the sun, and watching her reaction to the beautiful view of the ocean from my balcony made me realize how much I have been taking it for granted. Spending time with Ang while she viewed my city made me re-realize how awesome of a place I am living in. We headed out for Breakfast at Tiffany’s where we enjoyed tremezzinis and omelettes. We then took a walk around the PE area and saw the Boardwalk, Pier, and some sailboats doing races in the ocean. We then stopped and got ice cream and walked barefoot along the beach. We spent the afternoon at the beach constructing a well-made sand castle complete with triple moats, turrets, spires, and a guard jelly. We also spent some time playing on the new “kid” area alongside the beach. We rode rocking giraffes, balanced on a teeter totter and got thrown off a spinning circle that all of the kids seemed to be good at. After rinsing off the sand, we went out to dinner with a few people from my group. Angie has Cajun Chicken Pizza and I had a Malaysian Chicken Salad at the delicious Dulce Café. We walked back to Langerry and were pretty exhausted (and sunburned in Angie’s case) after a great day!

Elephant Parade

On Tuesday we went on an African safari! We spent the day with a group of students from the University of Florida as well as a Scottish woman and our South African guide, Malcolm, of course. We first journeyed to Addo Elephant Park where we saw many warthogs, hartebeest, jackals, kudu, monkeys, zebras, and elephants! It was an awesome experience because at one point, we had a parade of elephants walk within a few feet of our bus as they went toward the water hole. It was awesome! We also saw the biggest elephant in the park (John) and the smallest (a baby that was born 13 days before!). We had an American lunch consisting of hamburger and fries at Schotia. We then hopped in our Landy and took off for the safari! We saw many, many more animals including blesbuck, rhinos, giraffes (from afar), elephants, hartebeest, hippos, impala, lions, springbuck, wildebeest, and zebra. One of the coolest moments was that we got to hear a lion roar, which was a special treat! Angie also got to ride on the front of the Landy and was almost able to reach out and touch some zebras that didn’t want to move out of the road. We had a wonderful group of people around us as well as a great guide! We got to look at the Southern Hemisphere sky and admire the thousands of dazzling stars which put the Northern Hemisphere skies to shame. We had a traditional South African dinner of sweet potatoes, green beans, beef in sauce, rice, and mulva pudding. We took a short ride through the park after dark to watch the lions and other animals walk around when it isn’t so warm outside. That was also when we got to see the elephants, a brand new addition to Schotia about 5 weeks before that day. A successful day overall!

On Wednesday, we picked up a car at the rental agency and Angie got to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the street. She was a professional as soon as she started. It was a learning experience! We were then joined by 3 of my friends and we took a mini road trip out to Jeffery’s Bay, about an hour car ride from PE (don’t worry, Angie didn’t drive the whole way, we had a more experienced driver drive). We got surf lessons in the morning. Angie was able to stand up a couple of times and it was her first time surfing ever! She was a natural! I was content with riding the waves on my knees. Surfing is some hard work. I think it was Angie’s favorite part of her week here! We had lunch at Debonair’s Pizza where we had a Mexican Fiesta Pizza which was basically pure jalepenos. It was spicy. We then went and tried sand boarding. It is basically snowboarding, but down a sand dune instead of a snow hill. And our instructor didn’t give us much instruction. It was more like “strap your feet in, stand up, and fly down the hill.” Which is exactly what we did for the next couple of hours. It was a blast! The hardest part was walking back up the dune to get to the top again. It ended up being easier than I expected (the downhill part) and it is something that I would do again in a heartbeat! We returned back to PE, returned the rental car, and went to watch the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and University of Northern Florida Choirs perform. It was a fantastic show complete with African singing and dancing! It was a lot of fun to watch!

On Thursday, I went to class in the morning while Angie took the morning to rest up after our busy week thus far. We then took a tour of the townships with my advisers. We had bunny chow at a backpacker in Red Location in the New Brighton township with the Mamas who run the place. They are always so warm and welcoming. They greeted us with big hugs and chatted with us while we ate. We then visited Pendla, the school that I volunteer with at twice a week. The kids were so excited to meet Angie and each learner wanted a picture with her. They also gave us a brief Xhosa lesson and sent us on our way. We then drove through Missionvale where we were able to look at the shacks that are the homes of millions of people in South Africa. It is always a humbling site to see. And something that one cannot put words to. We headed back to our luxurious PE and had fish and chips for dinner, another South African must and watched a movie as we fell asleep.

Riding the Giraffes

Our plans for Friday were to go deep-sea fishing, but were cancelled when the guy called and told us that his fuel line was broken on his boat. It was a big let-down, but we did not let it ruin our day. Angie took her first kombi/taxi ride to downtown PE. We walked the streets for a while and did a little shopping. We walked inside the Public Library which is basically the coolest library I have ever seen. We then walked through an artistic part of town made of mosaic steps, a pyramid, lighthouse, and sculptures dedicated to Nelson Mandela. It was another cultural experience. We then got a bird’s eye view of the city from what used to be the “sky-deck” on a building. I had visited the sky-deck a few days before and the guy still remembered me, so he gave me the keys and let us go up on our own, only in Africa. We headed back and had a variety lunch made of all South African favorites: Chelsea buns, Simba chips, Stumpie milk, fruit bought off the side of the road, and Cadbury bars. Yummy! In the afternoon we went mini golfing where Angie beat me by a fair amount. We came home and began a braai with a few of the people that I live with. We had chicken and sausage and some delicious bread. Halfway through, the power went out at Langerry for about an hour. We cooked by torch light (flash light), told ghost stories, and sat on the balcony and watched the lit parts of the city.

On Saturday morning, while Angie still slept, I participated in South Africa’s Most Beautiful Road Race- a 5K just for women, men were only allowed to race if they dressed in drag. I ran it with 2 girls from my group.  Over 12,000 people were in the 5K race and we finished in the first 20% of the group, at the very least. It was an amazing experience and a lot of fun! I got a t-shirt and a medal and I crossed the finished line with a guy dressed in a pink dress and long haired wig. He gave me a big hug as soon as we were done. Probably the most random thing in my life, ever. My 2 friends that I raced with, my advisers, Angie, and I all went out to eat breakfast at Tiffany’s once again. Ang came back, did some last minute packing and we drove her to the airport. I was sad to see her leave. It was probably my most fun week in South Africa so far. I’m glad she had the opportunity to come to visit and see some of the things that I have been seeing these past 4 months. As I said before, words can’t describe much of what I do here and I’m so excited that I got to share this with another person. I think Angie had as much fun as I did and I hope she sleeps well on the plane!

Musings of the Week

This entry contains many short and sweet stories about the happenings of the past week and a half of my time here in South Africa. It has been very busy and the time has flown by! Here is what I have been up to:

Reading Area @ Pendla

"Before" 

"After" 

There is a library at Pendla Primary School that was created by the 1999 CSB/SJU group that spent their semester abroad in South Africa. It is a great library; however it never gets used. The principal of the school is protective of the precious books and thinks that the kids will destroy the books if they get their hands on them. This breaks our hearts since we can only imagine how much time, effort, and money went into creating the library. Also, the school nor the learners can afford to buy books “just for fun” and the library would be the one area where kids can read for fun. We came up with the idea of creating a reading area in the front of the library where kids can bring books out and sit and read them. It could also serve as a teaching area for teachers to bring their classes out to on a nice day. We worked a few weeks transforming a muddy area into a new reading area. We leveled the ground, took out rocks, pieces of cement, and weeds in this area. We took benches that were sitting on the top of the library that had the tables broken off of them, which were not useful in the classroom, and gave them a new coat of paint and stain to resist the weather. We dug holes, put up a fence, put in the benches, and laid gravel in this area. We did all of this work in a few days when the learners and teachers were on break. When they came back after break, they were very excited to see this new reading area! And since then, we have had the library open at recess and we are trying to teach the kids how to treat the library and books respectfully. And in order to make the project sustainable, we are working with the teachers to set up a schedule where teachers can bring their classes to the library once a week and let the kids get reading time for a few minutes. Hopefully it can be used year-round and not just when the next batch of Bennies and Johnnies show up. It has been such a rewarding experience and we hope the novelty doesn’t wear off!

Dudley Tito

We took a field trip in music class to visit the home of a famous South African Jazz musician, Dudley Tito. He lives in the township and practices in a “shed” in his backyard with his band. We heard many South African songs, particularly jazz. He is obviously a popular guy because the whole neighborhood showed up to watch them practice while we were there. I spent part of the time dancing with the kids that showed up. It was great to learn about Dudley in class and then see him perform at his own house in the township. It was a fun afternoon!

Bio Prac on Rocky Shores

Last week in Biology we had a practical that required us to get out in the environment. We went to a rocky shore area and counted the number of species of organisms living the 5 different areas of the rocky shore coastline. We spent part of the time in the water looking at sea stars, anemones, and urchins. We also played with snails and mussels and many different kinds of algae. It was awesome to have the ocean as our classroom for the day!

Grahamstown

Our Drum and Dance Instructor

Our group took a trip to Grahamstown and Peddie. In Grahamstown we had a lecture on the history of African music. I got to blow into a kudu horn and then was chosen to play the drum on a song that the teacher was trying to teach us on the spot. I failed. It was rather embarrassing. We continued onto Peddie where we had a traditional African meal of chicken, potatoes, pumpkin, pap, and pot bread. With our stomach full, we had an African drumming lesson lead by a man in traditional Zulu wear. We also learned a new song that we sang while drumming. I fared much better at the all group drumming rather than the drumming where I had a complicated part accompanying a xylophone. After the drumming, our teacher taught us how to Zulu warrior dance. It was a lot of laughs and I learned a lot! We finished off the day by watching an incredible sunset.

Iron Man

The Iron Man was an adventure and a half! I signed up to volunteer at showed up at 6am prepared to do whatever they needed me to do since I had not been given any other instruction. I met two new best friends right away and spent my whole day with them. They both study at my school and are from South Africa. They were great! We spent the first 6 hours wandering around and watching the race. We were on the Reserve team so as long as we checked in every hour, we were free to do whatever we wanted. We wandered around and started collecting our free things such as noisemakers. We even rode a mechanical bull. Since we all rode for longer than 10 seconds, we were given free scarves. And we needed them! It was a very, very windy and cold day!

We were finally called into work and I was placed in the transition area from biking to running. I basically had contact with every single athlete. It was great. It was my job to make sure that the athletes had the correct bag (the run bag, not the bike bag) as they switched shoes and whatever else before they began the run. I also had to make sure they grabbed the right numbered bag. Since they are in such a daze, I also had to make sure that the females went into the female tent and the males into the male tent. I also congratulated every single person as they went past to their respective changing areas. There were many characters. There was a blind man, a man with one leg, and a man who pushed/pulled his son the entire race. There was a world famous surgeon, half of the Springbok South African national rugby team, and many South Africa actors. It’s exciting to think about all of the brushes with fame I had that day.

After the bike cut-off time, we put all of the bags back on the racks in the pouring rain. I then went to watch some of the runners cross the finish line. It was very exciting! I apologize for not taking any pictures. Since I had no idea where I would be, what I would be doing, or what the unpredictable weather would do, I left my camera at home. (And thank goodness I did because it rained on and off all day!) It was a very, very long day, but one of my most favorite days here is South Africa so far!

Teaching Gym @ Pendla

After being exhausted from the Iron Man, I woke early and went to Pendla. I arrived and was asked to teach a gym class. I was not expecting that whatsoever. I couldn’t say no and ending up playing with the kids as they jumped rope and played soccer. I also attempted to teach some of the kids how to juggle even though I have no idea how to juggle. Yeah, that good. I also taught some kids how to play jacks. It was more of an activity class per say rather than a gym class. So I keep saying that I taught these kids how to do all of these things, however I am not very good at any of them. Africa has definitely made me realize how many skills I have, however at the same time, it also has made me realize how many skills I lack. Time to go practice my juggling skills now…

A New Perspective on Pendla

The Courtyard at Pendla

Now I know that I have spoken many, many words of praise about Pendla Primary, however I have only sugar coated everything that I have seen. Like most African schools, there is no one giant building that contains all of the classrooms; instead there are 4 cement buildings that form a square with a courtyard in the middle.  Each of these buildings consists of multiple classrooms. All of the doors to the classrooms open to the courtyard so the classrooms are exposed first-hand to the weather. There is not heat nor AC and the kids must wear uniforms year-round so they are hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Most of the uniforms are hand me downs and the kids wear them until the last stitch rips out. Most of the skirts are too short for the girls and many of the boys have tears in every article of clothing they have on.

The kids are packed into classrooms and there are usually not enough chairs for every learner. In that case, the kids run from classroom to classroom looking for a spare. None of the chairs match. Some are orange, some are blue, some are wooden, some are metal, some are plastic, there really in no one type. Some of the chair seats are not attached to the legs and I have seen many students slip out of their chairs for this reason. Also, most of the chairs have cracks in the backs or the back has completely broken off leaving a ragged edge on the chair making it easy for learners to cut themselves. The desks are rock back and forth because not all of the legs are the same height and all are scratched from the many, many years of usage.

When a teacher does not show up for class, which is quite often, the learners from that class are shuffled into the next classroom and the teacher must teach 2 classes as half of the kids sit on the floor. There are no substitute teachers. And when a teacher retires (which has happened this past week, with 2 more retiring before we leave) that teacher is not automatically replaced. All of the other teachers must pick up those extra classes or hop between multiple classrooms to teach the extra classes (I witnessed my teacher doing this today). There didn’t seem to be much discipline in the classroom until I realized that most of the talking spurred from sharing a single pencil stub between 4 different learners, in multiple cases. The learners share pencils, pens, sharpeners, rulers. They have one set of color pencils for the whole class. Their books are in very poor shape. Nothing is the same as what I grew up with.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour a couple of the homes where Pendla students live. Before I get ahead of myself, let me first say that Pendla Primary School is situated in a fairly nice part of town (I use the term “very nice” loosely, my perceptions have definitely changed since coming here). And we all assumed that the houses surrounding the school are the houses our students live in. We were sadly mistaken. Just a couple of blocks away is a large area of shacks that have been built on top of a trash heap. The majority of our students (Pendla total is about 450 learners) live in these shacks.  The shacks literally consist of 4 pieces of metal thrown together for walls and one on top that acts as the roof. The house that we saw had 3 rooms which housed 7 people. There is no kitchen and no electricity so they cook outside on a fire in a single metal coffee pot. There is no running water. They must walk a long way to the single tap that provides water to the whole area and then must drag that bucket full of water back to their house. The toilets work on a “bucket system.” There is a bucket located in the corner of the yard. If you are lucky, it has walls around it. This bucket is emptied once a week, no more, no less. If one family does not have a bucket, then they share with their neighbors. It rained about a week before we toured. Water was still sitting in the roads and yards. And like I mentioned, the whole place is situated on a trash heap, so the stench was unbearable.

In the first few days of volunteering at Pendla, I was amazed at how much learners shared their food with one another. They literally would pick food straight out of another kid’s lunch and eat it immediately. I was so surprised because it was a crime in my elementary school to share food with one another. However, I found out that many of the kids attending Pendla do not have money for food. Therefore, the teachers encourage students to share whatever they have with one another so that no one goes hungry. The school used to be funded by the government for lunches, however the government suspended their funding because they did not think Pendla had the “need” that other places did. The government assesses the need of the school based on the statistics of the students such as poverty. Since Pendla has not had the time or resources to put together a thorough report, their funding is still cut and most of the students go without food.

One of the houses that we toured was actually the house of a Pendla student who had drowned a week prior. His mother was kind enough to still let us into her home, yet you could see how much she was hurting. Like I mentioned with the rain, a mini lake had pooled in middle of the area. This little boy and his friend thought it would be a good idea to swim, but neither one knew how to swim and drowned in the “lake.” The family was devastated. And to make matters worse, that little boy was the only income into the household. His mother was unemployed and his two sisters in secondary school are too old to have grants provided for them from the government. The family was given a grant for R280 (approximately US $40) a month to support this entire family. With the loss of their son, this money was also lost. There is now zero income for the family. And one of the sad possibilities is that these two young girls may have to turn toward prostitution in order to bring money into the home (a commone occurrence in the township). And of course this doesn’t help the ever-present AIDS/HIV epidemic here in Africa. It is a vicious never-ending cycle.

Cape Town

These past 10 days have been full of fun and adventure! The amount of activities that we did were incredible so I will break things down day by day. Enjoy!

Day 1

Face Fear

The start of our journey. Our group of 30, plus a few family and friends, headed out early in the morning for the beginning of our trip! We piled into two short buses that came to be our home away from home for the next week. Our first stop along the away: World’s Highest Bungy Jump! I have been telling myself since the time that I was accepted into the South Africa program that I was going to complete this daunting task. It was a South Africa “Must-Do.” Surprisingly I stepped off the bus and could not have been more excited to leap off a bridge. That feeling soon left after I sat down and had my feet attached to the one rope that my life would be hanging on, literally. Filled with pure terror they helped carry me to the edge of the bridge. I made the awful mistake of looking down. As they counted down my jump I started to tell them “No, I do not want to jump off a bridge today,” but they did not listen and pushed me off. It was the scariest couple of minutes of my life. Not only was the initial 216 meter drop the largest in the world, the second bounce was the second highest bungy jump in the world. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible but I think it is safe to say that my eyes were glued shut the first ¾ of the initial jump. I have pictures that will soon be posted on facebook as well as a DVD documenting this “fun” experience. I’m glad to say that I survived, as well as the rest of my group, and I will definitely say that it was worth the experience, but man oh man, I do not think I will ever do that again.

Feeding the Ostriches

We continued our trip along the Garden Route and stopped at many beautiful outlooks along the way. We saw everything from beaches to the mountains and it literally felt like I was walking through a calendar with all of the pretty views that we had! Our next stop was at an ostrich farm. There I learned many interesting facts about ostriches including: ostriches only have two toes, those two toes can rip open in your chest cavity in one scratch, one ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs, ostrich brains are smaller than their eyeball, you can punch an ostrich in the chest and it won’t feel a thing (I witnessed this from our guide), as well as many other ostrich facts. We watched an ostrich give hugs, massages, kisses, and rides to many of the people in our group. I may or may not have “fallen behind” the group to feed the ostriches some of the extra kibbles on the ground and the ostriches may or may not have bit my finger which is why you weren’t supposed to feed them in the first place. Oops. Just a few small bruises was definitely worth the thrill of feeding a 6 foot tall bird.

We had dinner that night at Oude Muel, which is Afrikaans for Old Mill. It was an incredible dinner! I had kudu and springbok, and a toffee pudding that was to die for! Lots of native South African food this week. We spent the night in Oudtshoorn before continuing onto Cape Town.

Day 2

This is morning we made our way through the “Adventure Route” at Cango Caves. I have been to many a caves before, but this was definitely the most intense cave tour I have been on. We skinnied sideways through the “love tunnel,” slid headfirst down a one foot opening and hole at the “postal slip,” used all walls in the three foot opening to climb up the “devil’s chimney,” and army-crawled through many other parts of the cave. It was very, very fun! Extremely claustrophobic at times, but luckily I had many supporters behind and in front of me. We continued our long bus ride and finally arrived in Cape Town!! Our first Cape Tonian adventure was to the Cape Town international Jazz Festival. While there I watched David Koz, Allen Stone, Atmosphere (from Minnesota!), and a few other bands perform. It was a great kick-off to Cape Town!

Day 3

On Saturday morning we explored the Slave Lodge Museum. This was very eye-opening because I did realize that Africa also had slaves. A very, very brief history of South Africa: the Dutch colonized the Cape Town area, but originally just wanted to have it as a spot for their ships to “re-fuel” on their way from India to Europe. So therefore, many of the slaves that were used in South Africa were originally from the India area, the east coast of Africa, as well as the natives that were already in the area. This was quite amazing to learn about.

At the top of Table Mountain!

Our most physical adventure of the week was climbing Table Mountain. It was an hour and a half hike straight up the side of the mountain. It was so exhausting, but the view from the top made the whole thing worth it! We ate our lunch at the top of the mountain and looked over the massive city of Cape Town. We took the easy way down and rode  a Cable Car which gave you a 360 degree view of the descent. The hour and a half hike up was just a 4 minute Cable Car Ride down. Weird.

The next part of the trip was the highlight of my week! We participated in homestays within the township. We were paired up and sent off with different Mamas to their homes. My Mama was great! She was very kind and polite and hospitable! She had two daughters, one age 18, Pearl, and one age 24, ZoZo. Pearl took us out to a “block party” of sorts the first night where we met many new people and got a feel for the township. It was an awesome experience! We got back “home” and ZoZo taught us how to make “pap” a corn dish that is served with almost every meal. We feasted that night on chicken, sausage, pap, vegetables, and potatoes and shared in some small talk with our new family.

Day 4

On Sunday morning we went to church in the township. The first half of the mass was music that was performed by a soft rock band and I was lucky enough to know a few of the songs and sing along. There was lots of singing and dancing going on! The second half of the mass was basically run by the people of the church and was translated from Xhosa to English and vice versa. It was quite interesting.

Our big part of the day was touring Robben Island, the place that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned at for over 20 years. Since I have read Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, it was very interesting to make the connections from the book to the place where he spent so much time. Our tour guide was a former prisoner of Robben Island himself and it was really neat to hear everything from his point of view. I’m still amazed at how recent of history of South Africa is and how many people are still alive that can share their stories from apartheid and the first years of democracy.

Nelson Mandela's Prison Cell

We took the ferry back to Cape Town and I was one of the lucky ones who got to stand outside on the deck with the wind in my hair! I also was given the wonderful opportunity to see my “spirit animal” (given to me by one of my friends on the trip), the seal! Many of them were frolicking along the side of our boat on the way back. Talk about cool! We spent the next couple of hours exploring the Waterfront area, a very popular tourist attraction. I saw a marimba band, an acrobatic group, and other singers in the small stretch. I also treated myself to ice cream and a few souvenirs before heading back to my Mama!

It was wonderful to return to our Mama. Apparently she had missed us so much that she had called the person in charge looking for us and asking when we would be back. It was too cute! She made us another feast of sheep, rice, squash, salad, a delicious pudding and jello dessert! Also, we only were given spoons to eat with, so most of the meal was ate with our hands. We again sat around with our Mama and asked her about her part in the history of South Africa. She many great stories to share and two of my favorites were: she touched the car that had Nelson Mandela in it the day he was released from prison, and she stood in line for hours in the cold weather with her 2 week year old daughter in order to vote in the first democratic election in 1994. She is a very proud of her country and of her ability to raise a wonderful family and keep a roof over their heads. It was wonderful to learn about her life!

Day 5

After saying good-byes and not wanting to leave our Mama, we went back into the heart of the city to visit the building of Parliament. We sat in the room where the State of the Nation address is given every year (I actually watched it on tv the first week that we were here) and learned all about how their government was run. We then went on a tour of the Bo-Kaap area which is a very colorful neighborhood where many Coloreds live including Muslims and Cape-Malays. We went to the small museum and walked around the streets. Since this was our fifth day in a row of busy activities, I must be honest and say that I was rather exhausted and this was not my favorite part of the trip. However, the meal that we had for lunch at the Bo Kaap Kombuis (Afrikaans for Kitchen Over the Cape) made up for the slow tour. We had some delicious Muslim food that I don’t remember all of the names for, but it was great!

A few of us spent the afternoon at a place called Camps Beach which was a very touristy beach that was beautiful and had many restaurants and a few small shops. We sat in the sun and relaxed on our first afternoon off in a week. We also were now on the side of the country where the Atlantic Ocean is with the cold Alguhas Current. We warmed ourselves in the sun before taking a running start into the frigid ocean! I literally ran into the water, dunked, and came back out shivering. A friend said that the temperature was comparable to that of Lake Superior. Brrrrr!

We had our “farewell” dinner at Mama Afrika. It was a farewell because it was our last night tongether as a big group and with our guide as well as some of our guests. I had a Zimbabwe dish that was a chicken curry of sorts in a peanut sauce. Very yummy! The atmosphere of the restaurant was very lively! We danced the night away to a live band performing that night!

Day 6

It was an early morning on Tuesday for a long drive to Cape Point, or the most south-western point of Africa. We stopped at many scenic viewpoints along the way and took many pictures. We reached Cape Point and managed a short hike up to a lighthouse where you got a 360 degree view of everything around you. We got to see where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet, which was great because we learned about the two currents that meet there in my Biology class that I am taking. We ate our lunch at the top and continued onto Boulder Beach. At Boulder, we got to see penguins in their natural habitat! There were many out and about sunning themselves and posing for the tourists. And we all couldn’t help but laugh every time they walked around. This was our last stop altogether as a group and we said good-bye to our tour guide.

Sunset @ Camps Bay

I spent the afternoon back at Camps Beach with a few friends. But instead of swimming this time, we watched the sunset over the ocean. It was the most gorgeous sunset that I have ever seen! We then found  a place to eat and had some delectable pizzas for dinner and slow-paced night!

Day 7

I spent the day with 2 friends exploring the city. The first place that we went to was the District 6 Museum where we learned about the forced removals in the District 6 area in Cape Town. For all who don’t know about forced removals: in the 1980’s, the government decided to remove all blacks from their homes in certain areas and move them to another location. The black population was given no notice and had about 2 days to pack up their belongings and say good-bye to their friends and their homes. They were forced to live in places far away from their previous lives that the had. Children had to do to different schools and most people had much more extensive commutes to their jobs. The area that they moved out from was completely demolished and was supposed to be built up for whites. In the case of District 6, the area was never re-built and the empty land serves as a remembrance of Apartheid. The Museum was really cool to look through and the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around was that this happened only 30 years ago. That is very recent and there are still many District 6 inhabitants that are willing to share their stories with others.

"Untamed" Sculpture @ Kirstenbosch

I then did some shopping in the Market which is a square completely dedicated to locals who try to sell their African curios to the many tourists. We then hopped on a city bus and went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens, very comparable to the Botanical Gardens. It was gorgeous! We wandered around for about 2 hours and didn’t even see half of the whole place. It was so big and beautiful! We headed back to the city and had dinner at the Eastern Food Bazarre. I had a falafel, another new taste for me! We meandered our way back to where we were staying and called it a night in.

Day 8

It was a very lazy morning. I sat in bed all morning and wrote journals for one of my classes. We then spent the afternoon down at the Waterfront. We spent most of our time at the Aquarium which was really well-made. We saw many different fish, sharks, penguins, and coral. But the best part was that we were able to watch 3 of our friends SCUBA dive in the shark tank. It was really fun to watch them as they had no idea how close they were getting to the sharks and turtles and sting rays. We then walked around the Waterfront, did some more shopping and sightseeing and went out to dinner for Thai food and sushi.

Day 9

On Friday night a few of us went on a search for live music. We saw that there was a live piano at Kennedy’s and went to watch. We ended up being the only people who were actually paying attention to him, so he took some of our requests even though he usually doesn’t do that type of thing. It was great! After he finished, we stumbled upon another live band happening the floor below. They were quite the duo and obviously a crowd favorite. We watched them perform for a little bit and then left. We ran into a couple of classmates and sat and had hot dogs from a street vendor for awhile. We people-watched for a bit and then headed back to our Backpacker.

Days 10 & 11

Unfortunately, our shark cage diving was cancelled due to bad weather. So I took off with 9 friends for our road trip back to Port Elizabeth in the morning. We made half of the drive in the morning and stayed in Knysna for the night. Sadly the weather was not cooperative and since it was Easter weekend, basically nothing in the small town was open. We did find a grocery store and had a braai and sat around the bonfire for the night at our Backpackers.

Kayaking in Africa

We woke up the next morning and went on a Kayak trip. It started off great, the weather was nice and the sun was out. We reached our halfway point and stopped for a snack with our guide and froze because the weather became cold. Some of my friends jumped off a bridge into the river, led by our fearless guide. I sat and watched because I had enough jumping off of bridges for one week. Our break time was cut short because the winds picked up and it started to pour. We hopped in our kayaks and tried to paddle as fast as we could out of the rain. One of the kayaks went parallel to the waves and was flipped. It was funny but they didn’t think so until we got back to shore and had put everything away. We reached the shore wet and cold but still with smiles on our faces. After a warm shower we hopped back in the car and headed back to Port Elizabeth. It was nice to be “home” after such a busy week!

Frontier Weekend on the Farm

We spent this weekend on an Afrikaner farm in the Winterburg Mountains. I learned so many new things! Here is a quick synopsis of the activities that we did:

At the Top of the Mountain

-swimming in a swimming hole and water fall 

(2 different times at different places)

-fed an eland by hand

-chase, caught, and castrated sheep

-milked cows and sprayed milk in our mouths 

direct from the udder

-chatted with each of our host families and heard 

many of the stories of life on the farm

-watched a sheep get sheared

-hiked a mountain

-rode in the back of “buckys” as our main 

transport all weekend long

-played with baby lambs

Riding in style on the back of a "Bucky"

-ate delicious home-cooked food

-shot a .22 rifle

-toured a trophy room that contained a giraffe as 

well as a walk-in gun safe

-much, much more

It was a great weekend and completely different than any of our other weekends here. The families that we stayed with were so kind to open their homes to us and teach us all about their lives. The homes that we stayed at were beautiful and the food they made was so incredibly delicious! It was a weekend full of so many great things and I hope never to forget it. So many great times on the farm!