The Great Karoo

Meet Ola

What an amazing weekend! We spent the weekend with an Afrikaans speaking 70+ year old male tour guide touring around the Great Karoo! We could not have had a better start than heading to a cheetah sanctuary where we got to pet cheetahs and play with baby lion cubs!! It was the best thing ever. We stopped Jansenville and saw a small cute antique shop in a bitty little town. Our next stop was Graaff-Reinet where we were able to get out and explore the town and local museums and the beautiful church that was situated in the middle of the city. Graaff-Reinet is also the city with the most memorials in all of South Africa. We then went on a game tour and saw a few animals including springbok, kudu, and a very rare Goliath Heron. (Props go to Dad for teaching me how to spot animals in the forest, I was the first one to spot almost every animal we saw.) We ended the day by going up a mountain that overlooked the Valley of Desolation to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the clouds were in the way, so we weren’t able to see too much of the sun set, but the view was still quite incredible. We returned back to our campsite (we stayed in bungalows) and had a braai. We cooked potatoes, chicken, sausage, and armadillo! Everything was delicious. I must say, we are becoming quite good at the art of braai-ing.

Pretty church in Graaff-Reinet

On Saturday we woke early and left Graaff-Reinet and made our way toward Ganora. It was a very rainy and cold day. And I’m pretty sure we even saw snow which was quite disturbing since we were in the middle of an African desert in an African summer. (Thanks to Mom for letting me bring with her rain coat on this trip, I would have frozen without it!) We stopped in a little town called Nieu Bethesda where we toured the Owl House and a few other small art centers in the town. We even stumbled upon a game of “Bowls” played by mostly the white British. Bowls is similar to bocce ball, but a little different. Our stop for lunch was great! I had kudu salami, figs, pickles, delicious homemade bread and many, many different types of goat cheese including: stinging nettle, chili, pepper, honey, feta, etc. We arrived at Ganora in the rain and spent most of the afternoon playing pool and table tennis while they prepared our rooms for us. After the rain slightly cleared, a few of us hiked down the river on the farm. We also met the family of tame meerkats that live on the farm. The owners of the farm then showed us their collection of fossils that they have found on their property and also showed us the San paintings made thousands and thousands of years ago. It was quite a view into the past and very interesting since we are learning about all of this in class. That night they made us springbok, potatoes, pumpkin, salad, and a delicious peach pudding. It was too good to be true! I ended the night by stargazing and watching the shooting stars zoom by overhead.

What a view! @ Ganora

Sunday morning I awoke extra early for some reason and took a book and read by the river (It was the only place on the farm that had sun and it was still cold!). We had breakfast and took off for our last day in the Great Karoo. We stopped briefly at an old police station where the PEBCO Three had been murdered along with countless other victims. We then headed to the town of Craddock where we wandered around the city and saw the monument dedicated to the Craddock 4 who were 4 young men that were killed in the apartheid struggle. That was a sad sight. It was supposed to be a huge and impressive monument, but never got finished and now is a mess and was a complete waste of time and money. We also broke into the house/museum of South African writer Olive Schreiner (I blame the breaking and entering on our tour guide. OK, we didn’t break anything, but we did enter without permission.). After Craddock, we meandered our way home to PE and I am now exhausted from a great weekend!

Thatha ixesha ukunikisa imbali

Teaching the 6th grade class about solubility

On Monday, Liz and I had the wonderful opportunity to teach a lesson to a class of 5^th graders. We taught them about solubility. We worked very hard the week before to come up with a great lesson plan and demonstration and it paid off! Not only did we teach both 5^th grade classes, our teacher also asked us to teach the 6^th grade as well. It was a great time and I think the kids learned a lot as well! Such a rewarding experience!

On Thursday, we spent our time at Lwandlekazi (the high school we volunteer at) teaching the kids how to dance. In return, they also taught us some new dances. It was a very fun dance exchange. We also exchanged English and Xhosa idioms. The title of this post actually means “Don’t be too busy to enjoy life.” These kids are teaching me just as much as I am teaching them. It is great!

Volunteers happily full after the Braai!

After being at the high school on Thursday, the group of volunteers all had a braai. However, this was definitely not your typical braai. We were in the middle of the township, which already gives everything a completely different vibe. We bought our meat directly from the butchery and went around the back to where the grills were. The only rule of the place is: “don’t take your eye off your meat.” That way no one else takes it, and you can also see if someone tries to sneak a bite. Once the meat was ready, it was thrown into a big cardboard box and put in the middle of our table. The 15 or so of us did not have any plates, napkins, or silverware. We ate the sheep, chicken, and sausage with just our fingers and used bread as plates (if you really needed to put anything down). And the only thing that we ate was the meat, there were no sides whatsoever, something that is different from the States.  It was a great cultural experience and we already talked about doing it again before we leave in May!

Hiking in Hogsback

This weekend was quite an adventure. From taking a wrong turn and creating an extra 2 hours for our drive to swimming in a waterfall, I could not have asked for a better weekend!

Lucky Find

The 9 of us piled into 2 cars for what should have been a 3 hour drive to Hogsback. After having to stop for groceries, gas, lunch, and bathroom breaks (where there was only ever one toilet so everyone had to take turns), we had already increased our time to get there. We then took a right instead of a left on a road after we had lunch and didn’t realize it until an hour later. We had to backtrack and find the correct road. The drive was beautiful, so it didn’t hurt to go back and look again. Plus we also had the chance to stop at a random huge pineapple building and take some pictures, which was especially exciting because we had watched a documentary that featured it. We bought a pineapple from there and it was delicious!! The drive ended up taking us 7 ½ hours. But it was worth the experience!

During the drive, we saw some of the most amazing views yet of South Africa! We were in the mountains and with the towns nestled in the valleys, it offered some amazing scenery. Especially by being from Minnesota, the hugeness of mountains still amazes me! Hogsback was given its name because on the top of the mountain, there is a strip of rock that looks like the hair on the top of a hog’s back. We village that we stayed in had a population of 300. Away with the Fairies was the backpacker’s that we stayed at. I will let your imagination run with that one.

Hogsback Mountain

We went for a mini hike that afternoon before it got dark. It was a good thing we did because we determined all of the wrong paths to take which made it much easier the next day to find the correct one. That night we had a braai. A braai is basically the equivalent to an American BBQ, just much, much more popular in South Africa. Seriously, everyone goes crazy for their braai! I was given some lessons on the way to have a good braai and was able to show off my skills. We (or at least I) called it an early night before our big hike the next day.

Madonna and Child Waterfall

Saturday morning we woke up and had a filling breakfast. It was misty and foggy, giving us the perfect weather for a hike. We hiked through the woods in the mountains for about 5 hours that day. We had to climb over rock scrambles, swing on tree branches, and hop across streams. We saw two very big waterfalls! They were beautiful! We even got to swim in a swimming hole and under the waterfalls! It was such a great experience!

We headed home in the afternoon. On the way back, we stumbled upon the University of Fort Hare and walked around the campus. This is the school that Nelson Mandela attended. It was also the only school for blacks in South Africa at the time that he went to school. It was really neat to walk around the campus that we knew that Mandela had been at. It was a beautiful drive home once again, and this time it only took us 3 hours to get back. 

Insert Creative Title Here

This week has seemed to fly by! Faster than the rest. I think it is because we are getting into more of a routine, which makes things go quite quickly. Some highlights from the past week are:

-Learned the South African National Anthem and a child’s song sung in Xhosa (posted on facebook)

-Attended my first rugby game at my University. We lost very badly.

-Rowed with Crew a couple of times

-Went for a run to Shark Rock Pier a few times to soak in the beauty of South Africa

-Listened to President de Klerk give an address at the Peace Prize Forum where he mentioned what he thought education, economy, and the constitution were the three things that South Africa needs to work on

-Taught 10^th graders how to play American football and learned how to play myself (the highlight of my week!)

American Football!

This weekend I am taking a trip with a few other people to a place called Hogsback. We are spending two days and one night there. I’m really looking forward to our excursion. Be expecting a blog post when I get back.

Crew, Music, Volunteering, and More!

On Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to row with the NMMU Crew Team! I got to meet a bunch of fantastic girls. Unfortunately, they were all quite a bit shorter than me, so carrying a boat proved to be difficult. However the row was fantastic! We had a senior member from the boy's team who acted as a coach and rowed a single along side of us and critiqued the way we rowed. Since I have not had formal training before, I learned quite a bit in just the one practice. The river that we rowed on was gorgeous! It was rather small and very pretty. I even saw some monkeys swinging through the trees, something that isn't normally sighted near Lake Sag! Throughout the practice, some helicopters were flying overhead and search and rescue boats were along the banks of the river. We later found out that a plane had crashed in the field across from the boathouse. I think everything was fine because by the end of practice, the search and rescue teams were giving boat rides to the people of Red House, a typical small town where everyone from the whole town came out to the river to see what was the commotion. Quite an exciting day. I woke up sore the next day with the worst blisters that I have ever had. It shows that I worked hard. I have plans to row with the team again this weekend. I cannot wait!

On Monday, instead of attending the lecture, we got to go to St. Dominic's Priory where we were given a marimba concert featuring pop music. The 9th and 11th graders who performed were incredible! After the performance, we were given a lesson on how to play the marimbas! It was so much fun! Not too many of us are musically gifted, but the students were patient as they taught us a few easy songs. It was a blast to learn something new and be able to pick it up quite quickly!

I have a few stories to tell from Pendla this week. First off, the teacher that we help out left the room one day and left us in charge of the class. The principal walked in and said "this would be the time to teach a lesson that you have prepared." Well since we didn't prepare anything, we instead spent the next hour teaching them songs, them teaching us songs and dances, and us teaching them games. Pictionary worked well until it turned out the only thing they could draw was a car. And they didn't want to stop drawing until all of the details were filled in. We also tried Heads Up 7 Up but that turned out hectic and violent as kids pushed and accused one another about putting their thumb down. I did learn quite a good lesson that day: I should never become an elementary school teacher. The second half of the morning we got to accompany the 4th and 6th graders to a field trip at Bayworld where they learned about fossils and then got to look through the rest of the museum. The next day, I spent Recess time with the younger kids. Since it was so hot outside, we decided it would be a good day to read to the kids. I brought out a few books and sat on the ground (which unfortunately had glass pieces everywhere so it was hard to find a spot) and instantly had 15 kids hanging on me. They all listened politely to the story, even though I am sure most of them couldn't even speak English. They just love to be around the Americans, and they are excited to do whatever we are doing. I really hope that while we are here that we can instill a spark in them or keep the flame going from previous years to help the kids believe in themselves.

Today was the first day that we got to volunteer and get to know the high school kids that I am volunteering with once a week. We broke into small groups and played get to know you games. I am working with 10th graders and when asked how old they were, the ages ranged from 15 to 19. It was odd to think that most of the kids were just 2 years younger than me, but 5 grade levels behind, if not more. I them helped them with homework that included English (adjectives and adverbs) and math (factorials). When I thought back to when I learned these subjects, it stretched back to junior high and even elementary school. I'm amazed at how far behind the education systems are here. Since I couldn't be the only one teaching, they decided to give me a lesson in Xhosa. I am currently learning some basic words such as hello (molo), how are you? (kunjani), school (isikolo), girl (intombi), boy (inkwenkwe), friend (umhlobo), car (moto), etc. It was a lot of fun and they promised to teach me games and such next week. I am much looking forward to it!

Lions and Tigers and Zebras, oh my!

On Wednesday night, our group attended a cricket match. My first ever cricket match! Since I, along with many others, knew very little about cricket, we had to ask around at the stadium to find some locals who were kind enough to explain the game to the American kids. Turns out that it is quite similar to baseball and kind of easy to catch on to. Usually cricket matches last 5 days, but we went to a short one. The home team put up a good fight but ended up losing near the very end of the game. We were lucky enough to get flags that were handed out at the gates to support the home team which were very fun to wave in your neighbor's face. We even got the chance to be on their version of a "jumbo-tron." Overall, it was a fun time getting to learn a new and South African experience.

On Friday, we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time in Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Safaris. On the way to the park we were given a tour and descriptions of the towns and areas we were passing through. The most interesting thing that I learned was that some businesses have started to make brick made out of human feces. It is quite interesting and we passed by a few places that were in the process of burning the bricks. South Africa is the leading country in the world in this business. It really makes you think that nothing, absolutely nothing goes to waste in this country.

In Addo, we were given a bus tour led by Bradley, the same man who gave us the city tour. He knows everything about everything. The first elephant we saw was within a few yards of the bus and kind of popped up out of nowhere. I remember being quite upset that I couldn’t see his face, but I did not have to stay upset for too long. We stopped at a few waterholes that had loads of elephants around them! We saw male elephants, females, and babies! We saw close to 200 elephants that day. It was amazing. They are such huge creatures, yet they seem so gentle. In addition to elephants we saw buffalo, elands, warthogs, and kudo in Addo. Bradley made us a delicious lunch and we were able to eat in a picnic area where only birds and South African chipmunks were able to get close to us. I would go back to see any and all of those elephants in a heartbeat!

 As if seeing elephants wasn’t cool enough in the morning, we were able to take an afternoon and night safari at Schotia Safaris! 10 of us climbed into an open landrover and took off to the park with our guide, Carl. The information sheet we were given beforehand told us that if our Landy were to run out of gas, we had to sacrifice our guide to the lions. We made sure that Carl was on the same page. The first animals that we got to see were zebras that were within petting distance of the Landy. Carl got out of the car and told us that they were African Killer Zebras, very rare. This was when we knew we liked Carl and realized we had the best guide in our group! In Schotia, we saw bushbuck, crocodiles, elands, rhinos, giraffes, hares, hartebeestes, hippos, impalas, kudu, lions, monkeys, mongoose, springbuck, warthogs, zebras, and more! As cool as the rhinos, hippos, lions, and giraffes were, my favorite part of the day was probably the crocodiles. Carl got out of the Landy and proceeded to throw handfuls of dirt in the pond that had both crocs in it. He continuously threw dirt at them until they came out of the water to investigate what was making such a noise. Carl was within a couple of feet of them and we were all nervous and told him to hurry up and get back in the Landy. Another awesome experience was having one of the rhinos rub against out Landy while we were in it. Rhinos are huge! It was quite exciting to see one in person. Toward the end of our afternoon safari, I was given a chance to ride on the front seat on the bonnet (hood) of the Landy. It was really exhilarating! We eventually made our way back to camp and had a delicious meal consisting of some heavenly dessert, mashed potatoes, chicken, rice, and ostrich. It was probably the best meal I have had thus far on the trip! After dinner, we got back in our Landys and went out for a night safari to see how active the animals are after dark. The lions were up and moving around a lot more, the hippos actually came out of the water, and all of the other animals were moving about quite a bit. It was really cool that we were given that opportunity.  One last amazing thing that put the cherry on top of the perfect day was seeing the night sky in a place with very little light pollution. I have never seen so many stars! I have heard that the southern hemisphere has better stars than the northern, and I am so happy that I got the chance to experience something that magical!

Today, Saturday, we went to the Activity Fair held on campus. It was really cool to see what the campus has to offer for students on campus. I put my name down on a few interest lists including Crew, table tennis, dance, and tourism society which has students come together and do fun things in the PE community such as beach parties or volunteering at the Iron Man. We will see how much time I actually have for all of this, but it might be fun to dabble in a few different things. I was already given an invite to row with the Crew team tomorrow, so I will definitely have some new stories after tomorrow! I can’t wait! The rest of my afternoon I spent watching a few classmates playing in an outdoor basketball tournament. Since I was not expecting to be outside, I did not put on sunscreen that morning and did not bring any with and now have an extremely bad sunburn. I learned my lesson, that is for sure. And of course I have a nice farmer’s tan going on. Good excuse to go to the beach tomorrow to even out the tan? I would say yes.

I Wish I Were an Octopus

Today’s blog will be devoted to the wonderful kids whom I have met at Pendla Primary School. I will gush, yes you heard it, gush about these fantastic little people that I am getting to know!

First off, every time my partner, Liz, and I enter a classroom, all of the kids stand up and say “Good morning, teachers” which immediately puts a smile on my face. Yesterday I was quizzing a group of 4^th graders on multiplication when the teacher left the room for about 15 minutes. They were pretty quick with their times tables under 5, but once I asked what was 7x7, it threw them for a loop. One little girl sat down to draw out 7, 7 times. Another little boy was crafty and recruited his friend to help him count on both of their fingers until they came out with the correct answer. I was impressed!

The second time a teacher left the classroom that morning, he had assigned the class to work on a few roman numeral problems. The kids started to act up once the teacher left the room and we swept in and began to ask the students what they were working on and if they could show us how to complete a problem. Then the students started to come up to me and ask me to correct their work. I had seconds to brush up on my roman numeral skills! Luckily all went smoothly and I felt like a proud teacher after the kids finally got the hang of their homework.

And probably my favorite part of the day is the break for lunch and recess. I have learned many new hand games, circle games, songs, and words (including names with clicks) in different languages. These kids adore us almost as much as we adore them. They fight to hold your hand and if they don’t get to hold your actual hand, they hold your wrist, or grab onto the closest link to you. It is times like those when I wish I were an octopus and had more hands for all of the kids to hold onto. And I’m not the only person this happens to. Today I looked across the playing field and saw every other person in my group in the same situation; kids attached to each hand and about 30 more little ones surrounding them. I also saw many different games being played including a train game, ring around the roses, duck duck goose, racing, and kids hopping like rabbits. The joy and happiness that these kids have is beyond contagious and I look forward to every moment that I get to spend with them!