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!