JBay Surf Pilgrimage, Nov 12-16

I woke up early Friday morning (5:00 am) to begin the five-day surf pilgrimage to Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa. Jeffrey’s Bay is by any means a surf “Mecca” of the world, as it is claimed to be the best surf spot in Africa, and one of the top in the world. I set off on this surfing pilgrimage with my two fellow Californian surfer friends Bryce and Vinnie, and my closest companion Liz Mandle, who took on the role of “beach mom”/photographer - as she sat patiently on the beach through all of our surf sessions, and took awesome pictures of us shredding up the waves.

Our first day consisted of driving from Cape Town to Jeffrey’s Bay. We had rented an automatic little Nissan - a pretty classy car considering the last rental that we had taken out from “DayWay car rentals” was held together via plastic zipties. I drove the whole way, of which I am needlessly proud to brag about. We completed listening to all 8 burned CD’s, of which Bryce and I had made. I was on the edge of my seat for the first twenty minutes of driving, as I drove through Cape Town traffic. I felt as if I was driving with a bizarre growth on the left side of the car - a growth of which the dimensions I was unsure of. Liz, my dutiful co-pilot for the first part of the trip, was constantly reassuring me that I in fact had room on the left side, and that I was in the right part of the lane. I can proudly say, that I did not once turn the windshield wipers on instead of the blinker (haha Dad, I must be a sharper driver than you!). After we got out of the main Cape Town business, I began to enjoy this new challenge of driving on the left hand side of the road.

I drove for about five hours until we reached Victoria’s Bay - at which we got off the road and went to find some food. We ate the best greasy calamari and chips that I have yet had in South Africa. After which, Vinnie and Bryce went for an after-lunch dip in the warm Indian Ocean, while Liz and I napped on the beach. After I had made it driving for five hours, I felt compelled to push through and drive the whole way. Most memorable about this drive, besides the occasional ostrich or baboon on the side of the road, was the manner in which South African drivers convert a two-lane highway into a four-lane speedway for passing slow cars. An unwritten rule in South Africa is that if you are a slow car, and a faster car comes behind you on the highway, you should drive as much to the left in the shoulder as possible. Luckily the shoulders are relatively large, almost the size of an entire lane. The faster car then proceeds to drive at a fast speed (of around 120-140 kms or 70+ mph) in the remnant of his lane, but is often forced to also pass with part of the car in the opposite side of the road. Often large trucks spend the remainder of their time driving half way in the shoulder, and half way in the lane. After a car passes a slower car, they flash their hazards, as a way of saying “thank you for helping me easily pass on this two-lane high way.” I did my fair share of passing…and being passed, as it was windy and I was afraid of the three surfboards being hurt that were precariously held onto the roof of the car via soft-racks.

We drove along the Garden Route through many cute small towns. We also drove through some townships. It was interesting to see how townships differed once outside of Cape Town. It was also an indication of how greatly apartheid shaped the whole country, not just the larger cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg. After a long 10 hours we finally reached the exit ramp for the Jeffrey’s Bay. We were all very jovial at this point, relieved to have finally made it to the “surf Mecca”.

We arrived and the offshore winds were howling. After briefly checking into our hostel, Island Vibe Backpackers, we got back into the car to go and find “Super Tubes” - the world-renowned JBay break. We eventually found it and suited up quickly before the sun set. The waves were not large, but nonetheless Super Tubes still was quick and setting up little barrels along its point. Because it wasn’t big, I decided I’d try paddling out there with the boys. This might have been a mistake, as I was the only longboarder (and girl for that matter), and the locals did not quite seem to accept me being there. It was definitely not a longboarding wave as was quick and super steep and powerful. It also was crashing nearly right on the reef. After a few times of trying to compete for the smaller set waves with the local shortboarders, I made the paddle of shame, and went in without catching any good waves. I felt a bit defeated walking up, but once I was out of my wetsuit and in warm clothes, I felt happy that I could say I paddled out (and at least tried to surf) at Super Tubes. I knew that “The Point,” located a short walk north of Supers, would be the place for me.

The next two days followed a similar pattern of surfing, eating, sleeping, surfing again and eating. I surfed The Point for the first time the next day. The paddle out was a little tricky, as you had to paddle out through a channel between the reef. The offshore winds were howling (probably like 30 knots), making the waves shapely, but hard to get into. The spray off of the back of the waves felt like being blasted with a fire hose. The first wave that I caught was very memorable. It was probably head high, but slow and good shape. It lived up to its reputation and I felt like I was riding for 20 seconds. It was a great wave, and I knew that I would greatly enjoy this point break. In the afternoon the surf got even better. The wind died down and it was only me and two others out there at the point. With this pattern me and the boys had surfed almost four surf sessions in the last 24 hours. It was super fun, but my feet definitely took a beating. The breaks were all shaped by reefs, and getting in and out was always slow going and painful. There was sometimes an easy way to get out, but coming in was always a battle. I cut up my feet on the reefs pretty bad, but it was definitely worth it. I also went on a walk with Liz up the beach one of the afternoons. We walked past the backyards of the abandoned summer beach houses and talked about life and life plans. It was a good break from surfing. When we got to the end of the properties, the wind that was blowing off the dunes was extreme, and the sand was painfully pelting us, causing us to turn around.

The next day we adventured to Cape Saint Francis located twenty minutes away. Cape Saint Francis is the home of “Bruce’s Beauties” - the famous “perfect wave” in the movie “The Endless Summer.” Bruce’s Beauties no longer breaks in the same way as it did in the 1960’s - due to housing development changing the way that the dune sand blows into the ocean. So we surfed at Cape Saint Francis Point. It was super sketchy getting out to the point as we walked out on rocks, then jumped out into the water when a big enough wave came, and paddled around the shallow rocks. Luckily we made it out without any problems. The wave was pretty fun, but a bit sketchy as the tide was low, so certain parts of the wave sucked out to expose a jagged rock. We made sure not to take the wave at these spots. It was overall fun, and I can say now that I surfed Cape Saint Francis! After surfing Liz and I walked to the lighthouse, where we explored and I collected a ton of shells (correction: I collected a plethora of shells - Liz was not a shell collection enthusiast). It appeared that the Cape was a “shell Mecca.” There was no sand, only shells - it was awesome!

After this we went to find the true “Bruce’s Beauties” location. We drove through a bizarre upscale housing development (where the boys thought about jumping off of a bridge and into a canal, but decided against it) and eventually found the beach that 50 years ago was a completely deserted landscape of dunes and perfectly forming beach break waves. The waves were pretty much nonexistent at this location, but it was awesome to think that we were at the same part in the ocean as Mike and Robert surfed in the 1960’s. We decided to find shelter on some rocks and lay in the sun. We slept and made peanut butter sandwiches while watching the local kids play with fishing poles on the jetty. We got adequately sunburnt, while Bryce and Vinnie played the guitar. It was a splendid time spent lying by the sea. (On a side note, we ate peanut butter sandwiches for 2 out of 3 meals a day during this trip - I was so sick of this nut/bread combo by the end of our trip, I still haven’t eaten it since.)

The next day we said goodbye to Jeffrey’s Bay and drove three hours closer to home to Buffel’s Bay. We stayed at the hostel “Buffalo Bay Backpackers” which was by far the cutest backpackers I have ever stayed in. It was by no means nice or clean, and was quite sandy and old/rusty. But it was located amongst the most beautiful dunes and rocky landscape of the Indian Ocean with gorgeous white sand. It looked like a Northern California landscape, except for the ocean was a lot warmer. The hostel was adorned with shell art, rusty beach things, and was made of wood. It was awesome, and I will definitely post pictures up on facebook when I get a chance. Unfortunately there was no swell so we didn’t surf for the last two days of the trip. The next day we drove the long way home back to Cape Town.

What an enjoyable surf safari throughout a part of South Africa :)

Adios UCT! Nov 9

Wow, I feel really bad. I haven’t posted a blog in over two weeks. I was doing so well the first three months, but my blogging inspiration has of late, just fallen apart. But do not fear trusty blog-following friends; I will hopefully be blogging a lot more in these next two weeks, because I am finally done with my studying experience at UCT! I just got out of my last final for Memory History and Identity. I am officially done with my time of “studying” in South Africa. I have over the course of this semester been immersed in random snippets of South African culture through my three courses. I have written 8 papers, spent a depressing number of days in different assorted Cape Town libraries, given a presentation, and written three finals. I am definitely worn out on “the humanities” and, as nerdy as it sounds, am looking forward to resuming my ochem and biology studies winter quarter (which will probably only last for the first two days of my time back at UCSD). It is such a bittersweet experience to be done with finals. I am happy to be done with classes, but at the same time am sad that I will soon be leaving South Africa. I miss everything about home, but I know that as soon as I leave I will miss everything about here too. I am really starting to feel like I live here. I will miss the culture, friends, and exploring that I have been fortunate enough to have here. But enough of this sentimental stuff, I am still here for two more weeks :)

So now I am out of school for about two months! Yay! It is the summer I never had. I feel very burnt out on school right now, seeing as I have been studying for 14 months strait. No bueno. So now I get to spend two weeks here in South Africa without worrying about studying or writing papers. The sun has been hiding itself for the past two days, which has assisted in my studying efforts. But now that I am done with classes, I hope that the notorious Cape Town summer weather will soon reappear. I plan on spending my two weeks laying in the sun by the pool, hanging with friends, and surfing.

On Friday I am going to partake on a surf adventure up the Garden Route Coast with the end destination of Jeffreys Bay (“JBay” in surf lingo). For those of you who aren’t surfers, JBay is one of the most famous/best surf spots in the world. It is known for its perfectly formed tubes and the lengthy time period that the barrels last. As you all know, I am a longboarder, so I will probably (hopefully?) not be getting barreled too much. Lucky for me, JBay also has a spot called “The Point” - which from what I can gather is a perfect right point break just north of Super Tubes. Sounds good! I will be partaking on this adventure with my closest friend here - Liz Mandle Candle. Liz doesn’t surf…. yet. I plan on teaching her during our trip. She is also planning on soaking up the rays on the beach and going bungee jumping. South Africa has the largest bridge bungee jump in the WORLD! I will definitely not be jumping off of it. A seven second free fall does not sound like my idea of a good time. As of right now, I am unsure of who else is going to be going on our trip. We will most likely be joined by a couple of my surfer friends, but the particulars are still to be worked out. I am so excited for this five-day surfing adventure, and I will definitely post all about it upon my return.

Peekay and Sunshine, Oct 26

So I must begin this post by apologizing to all you (mostly my parents) who are following my blog. I haven’t posted in quite some time. It is not that I haven’t been doing anything; it is just that everything now is starting to feel very ordinary. I feel like I am actually living here like a local. So here it goes, this is a post that has been in the making for almost a week:

This past week was the last week of classes. I did a lot of paper writing, and am now on the final drafts of both of my final papers. I have written a total of nine papers this semester, and am so thankful to be done with history forever! I cannot wait to get back to studying biology. I know, I am weird. Over the next two weeks I just have to study for my finals, and then my semester at UCT will be over!

This past week I did a lot of running and hanging out with friends. I have started running on a path beside the highway that borders the Newlands forests. There are lupines (I think?) growing alongside the trail, and numerous other flowers. It is a good break from my normal track running. I cooked Thai Yellow Curry on Rotis for Liz and Jaclyn this week. It went a lot better than it did the previous week, and I am now proud to say that I have Yellow Curry officially in my cooking skills. This week I will be trying to make some Sweet Balsamic Potatoes and a Salmon dish.

On Thursday I stopped by the Student Y to say hi to friends. David Wells, a theologian from the US, was visiting for tea. He talked with us for a good hour and we got to ask him some questions. What stood out to me the most in his talk is when he gave advice to us as Christian college students. He told us that we must start fully trusting in God as young people, so that it will become a lifestyle. He emphasized the importance of fully trusting in God’s plan, especially when things are unknown and we are unsure of where he is leading us. I really enjoyed his talk. I feel that I have learned more about what it means to fully trust in God in my time here. While here I have been removed from everything comfortable about my life back home, and have had to trust on God for all parts of my life. It has been hard, but I am so thankful for this experience.

Later on Thursday I ran around town with my roommate Kate. She just left South Africa, and returned to New Zealand yesterday. I miss her! It is a bit lonely to be in the flat all by myself. But before she left we walked all over Rondebosch and UCT taking pictures or our “daily lives.” Kate videoed me at key spots in the walk, where I utilized my tour guide skills. I will make a video when I get back home. It was a very fun outing.

I had a great day on Friday. I went to class, which was not too exciting. After class I stopped by the Student Y where I met a new friend Gabby. Gabby and I instantly connected. She is a South African surfer, who rides a Vespa and wants to study abroad next year in the US. Needless to say, we clicked really well (and I am definitely jealous of her scooter!). She invited me to go surfing with her on Saturday morning to Muz. After the Student Y I went down to my favorite café that just opened up, called Everest Café. I am somewhat of a regular there, as I go and get a coffee a couple times a week and use their Internet. I take advantage of the free Internet to download most of my music and pictures. I ordered a mocha, extra strong. That was probably not the best idea. I had so much caffeine in my system I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. After working on my paper at the café, Liz, Kate, and I tried to go walk through Newlands forest. Little did we know, there is no walking through the forest, only hiking. We didn’t make it very far. After the walk I came home, took a nap, and then went to the Lover’s Walk house to celebrate Jaclyn’s 21^st birthday!

On Saturday I went surfing with Gabby at Muizenberg. The waves were the best that I have ever surfed here, and it reminded me a lot of Tourmaline. Just as we were getting out the shark flag was being raised and the sirens went off. There are “shark spotters” whose job is to sit up on the mountain and look for sharks coming close to the shore. The flag is put up when a shark is spotted in the bay. The siren is sounded when a shark has been spotted in the same depth as the farthest out surfer. Needless to say, when the siren is sounded, all of the surfers quickly get out of the water. We didn’t get to see any shark fins. It was a good reminder that I am surfing in very sharky waters.

Today is Tuesday. It was an amazingly sunny day. I woke up early and went running for 45 minutes. Then I came home, worked on the final draft of my papers, and rushed up to campus to turn it in. I am now in the process of my final draft of my last paper. After coming back from campus I went into Kate’s room to steal a hanger, and mope about how sad it is to live on my own. I looked at her bookcase, and low and behold was a copy of “The Power of One.” This was my favorite book I had to read in high school. It is about South Africa, and it was my goal to reread it when I was here. I feel like it probably subconsciously helped push me to want to come here. It is a popular book here, and I hadn’t been able to find it in any of the bookstores. I was so stoked that I found this copy! In celebration I decided to go read it outside by the pool. So I spent my afternoon lying by the poolside, reading about Peekay and his adventures as I ate dried mangos. It was a marvelous afternoon :)

Go Western Province!!! Oct 16

Tonight I went to the rugby semi-final match between the Western Province (Go Cape Town!) and the Cheetahs. Liz, Kevin, Collin and I walked from our house in Rondebosch down to the Newlands stadium, located a convenient 15 minutes jaunt away. We arrived just after kick-off. We paid 50R (about 7$) for standing tickets. Because we were a bit late, we had to stand in the back, but we got a pole to lean against, so that was nice. The rugby game was very exciting, and the crowd was very into it. Although I could not understand much of what was happening, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and cheered on Western Province wholeheartedly. We learned some new cheers, some of which were in Afrikaans. We also learned that Western Province fans love their crowd wave. Our section loved it so much that for fifteen minutes they tried to start up a crowd wave, focusing upon it more than the game. We were surrounded by crazy Western Province fans in blue and white striped polos who were waving the WP flags. We ended up winning by 24 points, which was very exciting. If the finals are in Cape Town, we are going to try to get tickets to see them.

Earlier today I went to downtown Cape Town and the Old Biscuit Mill with Liz. We ate delicious food at the Mill, did a bit of shopping (I found this really cute coat on sale because it is the end of winter here…lucky for me, I am returning to winter, so I felt justified in getting it :), and then travelled via mini-bus to downtown. Our day consisted of a lot of walking up and down and around government walk. We went to the old Slave Lodge, a place where the slaves of the Dutch East India Company were kept during the original settling of Cape Town. It was very informative and depressing. We also went to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s church and had a coffee (Tutu was a key figure in the TRC following the end of apartheid). After this we went and walked around the company gardens. Unfortunately we missed the last bus back home, so we had to walk a long distance to swindle a taxi cab to take us back to “the bosch” (aka Rondebosch). By the end of the day I was starving, about ready to pass out, and my feet hurt very badly, but I thoroughly enjoyed our adventures in downtown Cape Town.

Apart from this weekend, nothing too exciting has happened this week. I spent a lot of time working on my homework and papers. Finals are coming up soon, and I cannot wait to be finished with all of these history classes. I have written 8 papers this semester, which is more than I wrote at UCSD in my two years. I know this sounds bizarre, but I am actually looking forward to returning to my hardcore science studies…I even feel like I miss Ochem. I know, I’m a nerd. Besides studying, I went running everyday. I also got to walk Anuk, which was fun. I ate dinner on Main road a few times with friends. And on Tuesday I made Thai yellow curry with coconut milk from scratch. It was pretty good if I do say so myself. I did not get a chance to go surfing again, but I plan on fixing that and going tomorrow to "the berg" :)

“Do you stand on that thing?” Oct 9

Prior to today I hadn’t surfed in almost three weeks! I have been feeling anxious and depressed because of it. I knew that if I didn’t go surfing soon I might just explode. Today I was going to go to SHAWCO paeds clinic, but it was cancelled. It was a gorgeous and sunny day. I could not go back and do homework inside. So, I decided that regardless of if I had anyone to surf with, and despite the fact that my surfboard was in my house in Rondebosch, I would go surfing today! I called a few friends, but everyone was gone at a weekend concert, so I decided that I would trek it on my own to Muizenberg for a surf sesh.

My board was in my room, (thanks to George, who took me surfing a few weeks ago) No one who could drive me today. So, being the adventuring spirit that I am, I decided to haul my board through Main Street to take the train. This entailed walking my nine-foot board through Rondebosch to the train station. This drew a lot of attention, and I felt a bit silly. I reached the train station, and after waiting for 35 minutes, a train came. I barely managed to get my board in before the train started to move again. Once I was in the train I had the task of maneuvering it around all of the people, and putting it against some of the seats. The train was unnecessarily crowded for a Saturday, so this was quite the task. Everyone was really nice about it though, as I apologized to everyone walking by, who had to step around it. The people I was sitting by thought it was amusing that I was bringing this huge board on the train. One man asked what I did with it. I told him that I stood up on it in the ocean - he thought that was funny.

After 45 minutes we reached Muizenberg where I prepared to get off the train two stops prior. After much maneuvering and help from multiple people on the train, I was able to get my huge board off. Taking the train with my board was a definite adventure, one that I don’t think I will repeat. The waves were pretty crappy at Muizenburg - but just getting out in the water made me really happy. I caught some fun ones. The experience was definitely worth it.

Other than surfing, my week has been pretty uneventful since the last time I blogged. (Which was when I met Gerard Butler!!!! Crazy….still can’t get over it :) I have been working on my paper, and plan on finishing it by Monday. Then I will move on to my last paper of the semester. YAY!

Yesterday I decided in the moment to go down to Main to get a haircut. Some friends had recommended this cute Indian woman, named Nadia, for getting a haircut. I went to Nadia and explained that I wanted to keep it long, and wanted a little bit of layering. She went a little scissor happy. She cut my hair pretty short, and put in a lot of choppy layers…Not what I was hoping for, but now my hair is a lot more curly! I just have to remind myself that hair does grow back, and its not the end of the world :) So much for spur of the moment haircut decisions...

Jerry and Ostrich Burgers, Oct 5

Tonight I went to the SandPoint restaurant in Camps Bay with the girls. As we were walking in, Liz and her friend started whispering. Come to find out Gerard Butler was also dining at the restaurant! The waiter placed us in the table right next to his, (coincidentally?) and I sat directly across from him (on purpose, of course :) We were exceptionally giggly throughout the meal, acting like true Americans. I ordered an ostrich burger (my first one yet!). It was good, but extremely messy. Regardless of the fact that Gerard Butler was sitting in direct view 4 feet away from me, I continued to stuff my face, and engulf my extremely messy ostrich burger. It was so delicious! Upon leaving the restaurant my friend asked him if she could get a picture with him. We all met Jerry and took a picture with him. We then chatted with him for about 5 minutes about what we were doing in Cape Town. When we left the restaurant, we were in complete shock, and couldn't stop talking about it. Best celebrity to meet ever! (I loved the movie "PS I Love You":)

Besides meeting Gerard Butler, this week has been pretty normal. It has been really hot here (in the 80's), which has been nice. I love wearing shorts! I have gone swimming in the pool twice in the last 24 hours despite the fact that it is 65 degrees. Last night I went swimming after my run instead of showering. Don't judge me. And then after class today I went swimming again. I laid in the sun while doing homework. It was marvelous. I absolutely love looking at the view of Devil's Peak, as I lie underneath the huge tree in our garden.

I am continuing to do research on my SANTA topic. I spent the whole day at the National Library on Monday, and I was super depressed. It is not a very fun library. Tomorrow I have to go there again (for my third time in 6 days...). Hopefully it will be the last time that I have to spend in the stuffy and old library...I only have three more weeks of classes, and then finals! YAY!

Research, baboons, ubuntu, and other Cape Town randomness, Oct 2

On Friday I woke up and went running. I am very proud of the fact that I have been waking up before 8 am every day for over two weeks. My favorite part is running through the small park on the way home. There are always lots of squirrels and awkward pheasants running around, and the way the sun shines through the green leaves makes me happy :) I normally just run around the track in the morning, because I am lazy. If I am feeling adventurous I will either run to Rondebosch commons, which is a huge open field with trails and flowers, or I will run along the highway. I have yet to run on any trails, but since my routes are starting to seem a bit stale, I expect that I will soon be branching out.

After I went running I quickly got ready and rushed off to class. I practically had to run up the hill, because I wasn’t as quick as I thought I was. I entered class a few minutes late, sweaty due to the summer weather that we have been having. As much as I enjoy the heat, it is making this walk up the hill a lot harder. In class I watched a documentary screening about women subjected to violence during the Apartheid era, or at least that’s what I figured it was about... I was late, parts of the film were in Afrikaans, and it was filmed in the 1980’s on a low budget. All of these components made if very hard for me to actually decipher what the film as about.

After class I decided to get started on my research for my first paper due this month. For this I had to go to the National Library of South Africa. It is in downtown Cape Town. Unfortunately, I have to write a 3500 word paper on the South African National Tuberculosis Association, so I had to go all the way to the national library to do some intense research. I took the Jammie down to the Hiddingh campus. From there I walked along the government avenue to the National Library. The Government Avenue was gorgeous and was lined with huge green trees. I walked past the Company Gardens and art galleries. I will have to come back here after my research is over and have a summer picnic with tea.

Unfortunately, the National Library was very disappointing. It barely had any of the journals/news articles that I needed. The librarians were not very nice either. I will have to go back on Monday to finish looking through the material there, so hopefully the Friday librarians don’t work on Mondays...

But now it is the weekend, and because the libraries are closed, I don’t have to worry about research! On Friday night we celebrated Jen’s 24^th birthday. Jen is from Norway, and is one of the girls that I connected with on my Botswana trip. Liz, Jen, Ann, two other friends, and I went to a dinner restaurant venue called “Stardust.” I use the word venue because it was a two for one dinner and performance deal. We were served Mediterranean food by waiters that were also performing arts students. In between taking orders and bringing our food they would sing and performs for us. They performed music ranging from the musical Chicago to Buffalo Springfield. It was a lot of fun, and lasted until 1 am. Unfortunately I had to wake up at 5:30 am the next morning…I didn’t know that Stardust would be such a long dinner experience, but nonetheless I am very glad that I went.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 am. I was invited by my friend Kate to help out with a volunteer project with the Mountain and Ski Club (a club which I am singed up for, but had yet to get involved with). We got up at this ridiculous hour on Saturday to set up a treasure hunt for a group of high school students from neighboring townships. We drove to a forest near Constantia and set up a course for the treasure hunt, using a map of the forest that the students would later follow to gather the clues. While we were setting up the clues we came across a massive troop of baboons. There were at least 30 of them. Baboons travel in large familial groups called “troops.” Baboons are really very strange looking, but I must admit that the baby baboons were pretty cute as they rode along on their parent’s backs. Although the massive amount of monkeys was a bit intimidating, especially since they have been known to attack people for food, we were not too scared because the “baboon watchers” were nearby. The “baboon watchers” are a group of local guys that are paid by the national park to follow the baboons around everyday and make sure that they don’t cause too much trouble or damage. The baboons were fighting which was fun to watch. One baboon also climbed to the top of a huge rock wall and proceeded to climb down the artificial rock wall using the handholds. It was really funny to watch. The same baboon then tried to steal my friend’s jacket, which he had carelessly left on the ground next to the wall. The “baboon watchers” had to intervene at this point, as the baboon started to run off carrying his jacket. Baboon do not senselessly conduct their muggings. They will take anything. After the baboon experience we headed back to our basecamp where we met the high school students.

After a brief introduction we sent the high school students off on the treasure hunt. While they were busy hunting, we walked to the nearby farmer’s market. It was the most magical farmer’s market I have ever been to. The food was AMAZING, as always, and there were so many samples…Imagine Costco, but with gourmet home-cooked foods. I bought a homemade quiche and a brownie…very healthy. I loved it! I will definitely miss the amazing farmer’s markets of South Africa. After the students finished the hunt we had a brai, where we cooked some boerwors and bread on a stick. (you cook the bread just like you would a hotdog over the fire….but instead it is bread dough. delicious.) The baboons returned at this point and tried to steal our boerwors. We threw rocks at them, and they retreated. After eating we lounged around the picnic area in the woods. I was extremely tired at this point, since I only had slept for 4 hours on Friday night. The large amount of food consumed also didn’t help my tired state. We left the forest at 4 pm and travelled through the scenic route of Constantia back to Rondebosch.

Once back home I immediately fell asleep for 2 hours. I woke up to what I thought was Liz knocking on my door. I opened the door only to find a huge dog wanting to come and hang out with me. His name was “Griffin” and he was Hanli’s friends dog. He was huge, and was literally jumping up on my door to try and open it. Because my door is glass, I thought that this probably wasn’t the best idea. Griffin wouldn’t listen to me.

After partially waking up from my two hour nap I went up to the Student Y for the Potjie Indaba, where they were discussing the concept of “ubuntu.” The Potjie Indaba was a traditional style dinner where they made Potjie stew. They were talking about the notion of ubuntu, an African humanistic philosophy about recognizing and celebrating the importance of community and the humanity of those around us. It was an inspiring talk, prompting us to find our identity in Christ, and urging us to share his love with those around us through service and care of our fellow humanity.

And now it is Saturday night and I am planning on going to sleep soon. Tomorrow I will go to Church on Main again. At 4 pm I will be meeting up with Liz, Ann and Jen to have a Jane Austen marathon/dinner cooking party (and no, we are not having Jane Austen themed food). I have been place in charge of making the dessert…brownies? I think yes.

“Mexe-Beans” and SA Post Office Ransom Notes, Sept 27

Today has been an eventful but unproductive study day. I woke up at 8 am and went for a run around the track. I have been running every morning, and it is getting a lot easier to wake up. I am really enjoying it. Today felt like I was sleeping in, 8 am is the latest I have woken up in weeks! When I got home I showered and headed off with my 300 lb suitcase full of laundry to the Laundromat. “Wash ‘n Web,” the two in one Laundromat and Internet Café was ridiculously crowded for a Monday morning, but I was able to get both of my loads washed and dried with little problems.

While my clothes were washing I did my grocery shopping. I always go to Pick ‘n Pay first and then to Woolworths (the expensive and amazing health foods store :) I have been craving Mexican food for over 2 months. Thus I decided to try to find some ingredients to make burritos or quesadillas or something. Unfortunately all of the tortillas were out. I purchased “Roti” which is tortilla like Indian food wraps. Then I went to the canned veggie aisle. The only canned beans they had were baked beans. South Africa does not like black beans or refried beans apparently. Next I turned to the one foot Mexican spices/salsa portion of the shelf. And to my surprise I found two cans of “Mexe-Beans.” I bought some chili powder in place of the beloved chipotle spice I normally like to use. I finished my grocery shopping and went back to put my laundry in the drier. After my clothes dried I headed home to test out my South African Mexican food cooking.

I made a roti-quesadilla for lunch. The Mexe-Beans were more like baked beans without the tomato/sweet sauce, but they worked. My quesadilla was ok, considering I used Roti as a tortilla substitute. Needless to say I CANNOT WAIT to be back in Cali where I can eat and make Mexican food everyday without any trouble!

After lunch I folded my laundry and procrastinated by cleaning my room. Monica (our houselady) came to my door and informed me that I had a package. It turns out that the South African Customs is not as ridiculous as I once thought. My package that my mom sent (consisting of some used/new clothes) was being held for a ransom of 900R (over 120$). After days of trying to reach the customs dept by phone, I finally got through. They told me to send it back with a letter explaining the problem. I sent a letter to customs and my package was sent back to be reassessed. It arrived today and I only had to pay 25R (about 3$). I was so excited. It felt like Christmas! Thanks mom!

And now I am back at home, listening to good music while blogging. The sun has finally come out, and I think it is here to stay :) I have my door open and the chilly wind is blowing in. Anuk, Hanli’s poodle puppy, keeps running in and out of my room and trying to eat my toes. She is a pretty cute puppy, despite the fact that she is a poodle. But alas, I think it is finally time for me to stop procrastinating and to work on my last Tut Assignment. After this paper, I only have one more dance paper, a 2500 word Memory and History research paper, and a 3500 word Medical History research paper. I have four more weeks left of classes. YAY! I can’t wait for finals to start (finals last almost three weeks), and for it to get warm so I can go to the beach everyday :)

Whales and Trails, Sept 24-26

On Thursday night I hiked up Lion’s Head Mountain with Kate, Kevin, and Nora. It was recommended to do the hike on a full moon - where you hike up for sunset and then hike back down in the dark. When we went it had just rained and was a very cloudy day. It was a bit harder than I would have thought, and involved a lot of rock scrambling. Because it was so cloudy, there was no moonlight, so we were rock scrambling down the mountain in the dark, trying our best to avoid the rain puddles. Kate, who was leading the way, stepped in many big puddles. (Kevin’s small headlamp couldn’t illuminate everything…) I slipped once and fell on my butt on a rock, but besides that I made it down the hill without too much difficulty. It was a really pretty hike, and we got a 360-degree view of Cape Town and the Cape Point. I think I would like to do this hike again, but on a night where we can actually hike down by moonlight.

On Friday we woke up early to depart for our two-day Hermanus Whale Festival Trip. It was National Heritage Day, so we didn’t have any class on Friday. Liz, Kevin, Kate and I rented a car for Friday and Saturday in order to drive up to Hermanus. Our car that we rented was a bit sketchy. It was an old Toyota Corolla. When the rental man drove up to our house the hubcap fell off. He then proceeded to put it back on with a zip tie…This is when we knew that we wouldn’t be doing a ton of driving in one day. The car ended up getting us there the whole way without many problems - despite the broken hubcap and a shaky streeing wheel. It unfortunately didn’t have a CD player, so we ended up listening to the radio. The radio in South Africa is pretty bad. We often would only get three stations at a time - composing of old school hip-hop, polka, rap, soft oldies, or reggae…..not my favorites by far, but we managed. The drive there was gorgeous. It felt a lot like driving through Monterey CA combined with Washington. The traffic was a bit heavy due to the popularity of the festival and construction on the road. We ended up reaching Hermanus after 3 hours of driving.

When in Hermanus we drove around the town for a bit, and stopped to get lunch at a local café. The burgers were absolutely amazing. The town was very cute, and felt so much like California, that I almost forgot where I was. Of course, I was reminded quickly I was no longer in America when I heard people speaking in Afrikaans all around me. After eating we went down to the festival shopping tents that were set up. I bought some really cool jewelry and other souvenir type things. I have become pretty good at bargain negotiating, so I got a good deal on everything that I got. After that we went and sat by the ocean side and watched the whales off of the shore. The shore was cliffy and rocky, and the whales came very close to the shoreline. It was really fun to watch. We saw lots of whale backs, fins, and tails - but unfortunately didn’t see any breaching (which is when whales jump fully out of the water).

After watching whales for a bit we went to check in at the Hermanus Backpacker’s Hostel. It was my first hostel dorm experience. The Backpacker’s inn was really artsy and nice. It had a pool with a bar, and a huge kitchen and lounge where people could make food and hang out. There were 60 people staying in the hostel, but we didn’t really get to meet too many of them, because they were all out and about. After checking in, we went back to town and walked around and got dinner. I was wearing shorts, and once the sun set the weather dropped like 10 degrees and it was windy. I was freezing! We went back to our hostel where we played pool and met some students that were studying abroad here from England. After that we went to sleep.

On Saturday we woke up early and checked out of the hostel. We walked along the coastline for an hour and did some whale watching. Then we returned back to the festival and ate really good and greasy festival food. I ate a “cravedog” (bratwurst style) and a fried potato swirl on a stick. It was delicious. After eating we walked back to our car and headed home along the coastal route to Cape Town.

The drive was so gorgeous. It looked like a combination between New Zealand’s rocky cliffs, and the gorgeous blue of Kauai’s ocean. The contrast of the scenery was so gorgeous. It looked like I had entered into a world that had been photoshopped and the contrast enhanced. I get this feeling a lot when traveling around South Africa. The colors are so vibrant here. We stopped at some scenic outlooks and beaches. There were baboons on the beach, which was fun to see. We stopped in Gordon’s Bay around noon to get ice cream and walk around. We got huge soft serve ice cream cones at an old fashioned shop, and then went to a used bookstore and looked around. We took our ice cream to the beach shore and ate it while looking out at the ocean and the whales. It was perfect. I love the ocean, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to move somewhere that is not close to it….this could be a problem :)

After Gordon’s Bay we drove back to Cape Town. Once at home I took a nap and a much needed shower. For dinner my friends from Boston College were having a “tail-gating” party - which entailed grilling burgers and listening to the BC football game over the stream on the internet. This did not turn out well, as BC lost miserably and the internet wasn’t working very well. My friends were left feeling depressed and homesick. I personally was not very invested in the game, so wasn’t too devastated by the loss.

Today is Sunday. It is an icky rainy day. I just want to sit inside and read a good book or watch a movie, but unfortunately have a lot of reading and work to catch up on. I went to a new church this morning, which was really good. It is called “Church on Main” and is located a 5 minute walk from my house on campus. I already knew some people at the church because some of my Student Y friends go there. The worship and the preaching reminded me a lot of Upper Room. I miss UR and Flood so much, and can’t wait to come back home, and return to these communities and friends. But Church On Main was definitely very similar, and was full of students. I think I will definitely go back there next Sunday.

Springtime is officially here! September 23

In honor of springtime officially arriving in Cape Town I chose to wear shorts today. The morning was sunny and it looked like today’s weather was going to be nice. But by 2 pm it was sprinkling, and I was questioning my decision. Luckily, many other students also decided to commemorate spring by wearing shorts, so I didn’t look totally ridiculous walking around campus while it was nearly raining.

I went running this morning. I have ran everyday for the past week. But unfortunately I think I may have pulled a muscle in my leg again - or strained it at least. Either way, I had trouble walking to school today. I walked like a gimp up the hill, undoubtedly looking pretty ridiculous.

Last night I volunteered with SHAWCO. We went to a township called Joe Slovo. I worked in the paeds mobile, so I got to see a lot of small babies with many minor ailments. None of the children had anything seriously wrong with them, that we saw, which is always a good thing.

Tonight I will hopefully be hiking up Lion’s Head mountain for the full moon. It is the smallest of the mountains in Cape Town. It is a popular hike for people to do on a full moon because it is relatively easy and you get a view of the whole of Cape Town. So hopefully it won’t rain tonight, and we’ll get a good sunset.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, so I don’t have any class! I will be going to Hermanus with Kate, Kevin, and Liz for the Hermanus Whale Watching Festival. I want to go kayaking with the whales! We are renting a car and driving there on Friday and coming back on Saturday. We will be staying at the Hermanus backpackers hostel. I will let you all know how the weekend goes (hopefully I won’t get smushed by a jumping whale as I am kayaking :).

I drink Tea, Sept 20

I love the tea here. Everyone in South Africa drinks tea. Tea is served at church, at restaurants, for dinner, lunch and breakfast. There are three types of tea that I have become accustomed to drinking. There is the original black tea (like Earl Grey/Breakfast - similar to US tea), Chai tea, and my personal favorite Rooibos. Rooibos tea is an African tea blend, that doesn't have caffeine (thus perfect for drinking after dinner), and is sweeter than black tea. South Africa was once a British colony, which partially explains their "tea culture." Needless to say, I have fallen back into my tea drinking habits, and have even started to put milk in my tea.

Along with issues of tea is that of eating healthy. I have decided that I need to start eating healthier (aka, I must give up my Cadbury chocolate eating addictions, regardless of how amazing the chocolate here is). I am trying to eat healthy and go running/exercise everyday. It is hard to eat healthy though when you are cooking for yourself - but I can do it! As for today, I think I will go running. After I go running I plan on writing my dreaded History of African Dance Essay. I am taking this class for pass/no pass, so I'm going to see if I can produce a very mediocre essay in only one day. But seeing as I'm keen to go exercise before it starts raining, I might postpone the essay writing and go for a run. ("Keen" is my favorite South African lingo. I like to use it often in sentences, and it is one of many words that I will be taking home with me :)

Ditching Class on Fridays, September 18

Yesterday I decided to skip my class that was showing a video on perpetrator’s testimonies in order to go surfing. I went surfing with my friend George, who also ditched that class. He came to pick me up at 8 am and we drove to Muizenburg to get my board. Unfortunately when we got there, the shop that holds my board wasn’t open. So we got some coffee and waited until 9 am and chatted it up. Once we got my board we drove back to the other side of town to go surfing. We went surfing at a beach that is on the Atlantic side, and a lot closer to down town Cape Town. It was super fun, and I loved surfing somewhere besides Muizenburg. The waves were 2-4 and pretty steep in sections, but slow. It was really fun, and I don’t know if I will be going back to Muiz anytime soon (partly because my board is no longer at that shop, and I don’t know how I will get it back, haha). We surfed for about two hours. Because it was on the Atlantic side it was freezing, so after two hours I could no longer feel my feet. George had made hot chocolate, so after we surfed we drank some hot chocolate and ate cookies. Although it does not beat the standard burrito after surfing, it was definitely a very good substitute. Then George drove me back home and dropped me around 1 pm. It was a long and fun day of surfing, and now I have a nine foot, red longboard standing up in my room :)

After surfing I showered and took a nap. When I woke up I was hungry and ate a ton of random stuff from my refrigerator. I ate a banana, carrots, pasta, chips and salsa, and orange juice. Not a good idea. Haha, I need to go grocery shopping. My stomach hurt after eating the weird combination of foods. Later that evening I went to HUB. At HUB I played another piano piece, it was fun.

Today I hiked Table Mountain with Liz, Kate, and Julia. Liz and I woke up early and went to eat breakfast at Coco-Wahwahs (spelling?). We took a cab that drove us to the bottom of Table Mountain. From the trailhead we proceeded to climb straight up for two hours to the top of the mountain. It felt like I was on a stair-climber machine for two hours straight. It was strenuous, but really fun. Once we reached the top we could see all of Cape Town and both sides of the Cape Point. It was not flat like one would image the top of a table mountain to be. A cable car goes to the top, so there were a ton of people once we reached the top. You could tell who had hiked up. We had a bet going of how long it would take us, and the person who’s time was furthest away from the mark had to buy a piece of cake for us all to split at the top. There was a restaurant at the top where we ordered burgers, and Liz (who had lost the bet) ordered us a piece of chocolate cake. It is a great idea to have restaurants at the top of mountains, because burgers after hiking are amazing! After stuffing ourselves with delicious burgers and chocolate cake we took the cable car down the mountain instead of hiking. I am so glad we saved our knees by taking the cable car down. At the bottom we had to find a taxi to take us back. We wanted to only pay 80R (instead of the 140R we payed on the way up). A taxi driver approached us who accepted that price, and led us to his car. It was a mini-van, which was a surprise, since it was very off of its normal Cape Town/Whineburg route. We got into it, and were a little sketched out, since normally mini-buses don’t go off their routes. But the guy was really nice and he took us back to Rondebosch with no problems.

I just finished napping and showering, and am now going to see Inception with Liz, Ann, and Jen. It will be the first time I've seen a movie in South Africa! yay! Tomorrow I plan on going to church, and writing a Tut assignment (not looking forward to writing this Tut, but it must be done...)

And the schoolwork resumes, Sept. 16

School resumed this week in full force. I was hopelessly behind in my readings at the beginning of the week, but have miraculously been able to nearly catch up. By the end of this weekend I intend to be fully caught up. This week has been relatively uneventful.

On Monday I went to class and then spent the afternoon doing laundry and grocery shopping. I was excited when I arrived back from my trip to discover that I had two packages awaiting me at the post office. Upon pick-up I was informed that the customs charge on the package my mom sent me was 894R (roughly equivalent to $130). This was a total downer. The man at the post office told me that because my mom had put the values of the items (i.e. t-shirts, tights, etc.) on the package that customs was charging me thinking that I was going to sell the items in South Africa. Totally ridiculous! So after three days of relentlessly calling customs, and using up nearly all of my monthly airtime, I finally managed to receive orders to write a letter explaining the mistake and have the package sent back to customs. Hopefully when it returns I will not be paying an outrageous amount for my used clothes!

Later on Monday I went surfing. Monday was gorgeous and sunny, and the waves at Muizenburg were really fun. I saw more whales while I was surfing, which is always fun. The rest of the week the weather has not been so nice.

Tuesday through Thursday are really blurring together in my head. I think I spent these days going running, doing readings, and playing the piano. Some memorable things to note:

1. I have been going through another one of my banana eating obsession stages. I have eaten 14 small bananas in the last 2 days. Some may say this is not healthy, but I disagree.

2. I am also obsessed with picking pretty flowers off of neighbor’s bushes while I walk home from school. I make sure to only pick flowers that are hanging over the fences, in reach of the sidewalk….thats okay right? I have two vases of flowers in my room :)

3. Tonight I went out to dinner with the girls, Amanda’s mom, and a few other friends. There were eight of us in total. Amanda’s car that she just rented is a small 4/5 person car. (Mom and Dad: you might want to stop reading here) We thought it would be easier and cheaper to cram all eight of us into the car instead of calling a taxi. Not a good idea. Not only did the car sound like it’s breaks were going to give out due to the extreme weight load (equivalent to a small Jetta carrying 5 obese people) but we literally drove by eight Cape Town policemen. I did not know that that many policemen existed in Cape Town (haha, jk). There was an accident on the freeway so we literally had to drive past policemen that were standing 2 meters away. This constituted multiple people being smushed down out of view and cramped necks for a 2-mile period. After seeing the eighth policeman we decided to hire a cab, so as to not risk our luck any longer. So we reached the restaurant alive and without a ticket (thankfully!). The food was great and I ate a whole Margherita pizza by myself. My stomach hurts now.

Tomorrow I will go surfing early in the morning with George, instead of going to my class (they are just watching a documentary, thus I think going to the beach is more beneficial). I will hopefully be branching out and going to Long Beach. It will be a nice break from Muizenburg :)

Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, September 3-12

For spring break I went on the 2-way travel Botswana/Vic Falls camping trip. It was the most fun and legit experience I’ve ever had. It was a ten-day trip that entailed a lot of travelling, getting dirty, camping, and laughing with friends. I loved it :)

September 3: On the first day we flew from Cape Town to Joburg. I was in the Lions group - led by George. We were a very international group, made up of Germans, Norwegians, Canadians, a Mexican, a South African, and Americans. From the Joburg airport we were introduced to our truck, Peter Tosh. We were warned by the driver Bevin not to call it a bus or van - but that it was a truck because it was not high-class luxury. It was made for bumpy roads and off-roading. Peter Tosh was definitely by no means a luxurious ride - we drove a lot of days on super bumpy roads, and my head got smashed into the window multiple times due to my trying to sleep as we drove over potholes. On the drive out of Joburg I saw my first safari animal, a dirty zebra standing all by his lonesome. After driving for about 6 hours we made it to the South Africa/Botswana border. But due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. one of the German’s passport was not working) it took us about 3 hours to get across the border. We ended up reaching our first campsite, Camp Itumela late in the nighttime.

September 4: Day two also constituted a lot of driving. We drove for the day and arrived at the campsite in the early afternoon. We hung out by the pool and later ate dinner. George busted out some songs on his guitar, and we sang Wonderwall. It was a fun day.

September 5: Day three we drove from our campsite and arrived in the Okavango Delta. From the town we loaded into a safari truck that took us to the actual Okavango swamp. From there we all loaded our stuff and ourselves into mikaro boats. The mikaro boats are carved out of wood, and are the primary means of delta transportation. Lorenza and I got by far the sketchiest mikaro, but the driver, Rasta, was really nice and didn’t tip us over. Our boat was made of wood and the bottom covered with straw. There were so many spiders in the boat and on me due to hours of travelling through the reeds. Needless to say, I got very accustomed to having large spiders crawling on me, and am no longer afraid of spiders. After an hour we arrived at the island where we were to camp for the next three days. We set up our tents, along with the local mikaro drivers who were to spend the next three days with us. After setting up the tents we took the mikaro’s out and went swimming in a clearing close to our campsite. I paddled a mikaro…it is a lot harder than it looks.

September 6/7: Day four and five blended together. We spend these days in the Okavango delta at our campsite. We went on multiple “game walks” where we saw absolutely no living animals. We saw lots of animal prints and bones, but because the water levels were so high, there weren’t as many animals on our islands. It was rather disappointing, but beautiful nonetheless. We rode in mikaro’s so much I got tired of it. These three days I was dirtier than I have ever been. We didn’t shower or bathe. It was intense, but really fun.

Memorable Delta experiences:

- getting mobbed by huge Delta spiders. Spiders on my face, in my hair, on my body. So gross.

- paddling around the Delta in mikaros

- swimming in murky Delta water, trying to wash my clothes in the water. They came out dirtier than when they went in.

- Hanging with people in my group, and making new friends

- trying to nap in the intense heat….not very successful

- looking at the starlight while watching fireflies and listening to a symphony composed by crickets and delta frogs.

- Curtis and George playing the guitar as we rode along in the mikaros

- laying in the mikaro as it glided along the delta water

- long truck trips - bad for sleeping/reading - but good for conversations

On day five we left the Delta and travelled to our halfway point - Planet Baobab. Planet Baobab was the nicest campsite I have ever been to. It was really fancy, with a gorgeous pool, and a snazzy camp bar. We had a lot of fun that night. I also took a shower on this day. It was the best shower I have ever taken; I have never felt so clean! The Baobab trees at the campsite were really cool. Baobabs have mystical associations in African society due to their unusual appearance. They can live thousands of years and grow to be huge.

September 8: On the sixth day we arrived in Chobe. At Chobe we saw all of the safari animals (besides the lions) that we had missed out on in the Delta. We went on a Namibia/Botswana game cruise late in the evening. It was a lot of fun and we saw elephants, zebras, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and baboons. I laughed a lot, our group was so much fun :)

September 9: On the seventh day we woke up early for an overland safari game drive in the morning. I saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, baboons, buffalo, crocs, sable antelope, impala, roah antelope, hippos, waterbuck, and buffalos. Again we did not see any lions, but we did see tracks that they had left on the road. After the game drive we loaded Peter Tosh again and drove to Zambia. We crossed the Botswana/Zambia border via ferry. This entailed taking a barge across No Man’s Land. Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia all meet at the corner where the river flows, thus I can claim to being in four countries at once. Pretty cool. After crossing across No Man’s Land we drove to the Livingstone campsite in Vic Falls where we were to spend the remainder of our trip. The campsite was also really nice, with a great pool and bar. There were tons of monkeys at this campsite in the trees. In the evening we went to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I can see why it was one of the Seven Wonders. After walking around Vic Falls we went to the market where I bartered my way into getting a bracelet. I purchased it for 20R, which was a good deal. He wanted to trade me for other things though, and even asked for my hair. I told him that I would not trade my hair for a bracelet.

September 10: The eighth day was the most legit day of the trip. We went for a full day of river rafting down the Zambezi river. The Zambezi is the border line between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Our guide, Malvin, was pro status and explained to us about the river and the culture surrounding it. There were 25 rapids in total ranging from class three to class five. The class five rapids were so gnarly! We paddled into them, and the Malvin at the last second would yell down. At that point we would throw ourselves to the side of the raft, and cling onto the side rope with all of our might, to avoid being thrown out of the boat. The rapids were larger than me, and it was so freaking fun! I fell out of the raft on the first rapid, but after that I managed to stay in. Our raft didn’t tip over, because we were such superb rafters, but all of the other rafts did. The river was gorgeous as it wound through a large canyon. There were crocodiles that could be seen hanging out on the edge of the river. Malvin said that they ate fish, but nonetheless it was crazy to think that I could have been swimming with crocodiles. We jumped out of our raft a lot since it was so hot. One time we got out and jumped off a 20 ft rock - very fun! We wore life jackets and helmets while rafting. The life jackets were tighter than a corset to allow for us to be heaved into the raft via the jacket…not very comfortable. There was a lot of horsing around and pushing people off of rafts. It was by far the most fun experience of my trip, and I’m so glad I decided to do it!

September 11: On day nine I hung out at the pool in the morning with two other girls. We ordered cooked crocodile tail. It tasted like tough chicken fish. After the pool we went across the border to Zimbabwe to visit the markets. I bartered my way into a few touristy things. It was very hot and we had to rush back to the campsite for our dinner cruise. We were late so seven of us girls piled into a taxi to take us across No Man’s Land to reach the Zambia border. It was quite a feat piling all of us into the taxi. Zimbabwe was crazy because I used four different currencies in one day, haha. Needless to say, I was doing a lot of conversions in my head between the currencies. After coming back from the markets we went on our dinner cruise/booze cruise. It was super fun to cruise along the Zambezi river with friends that I had gotten to know so well over the past week. After the cruise we had a dance party and hung out at the bar until late in the night.

September 12: On the tenth day we travelled back to Cape Town. We drove to the international airport where we flew from Zambia to Joburg and then home. It was sad to have reached the end, but I was looking forward to showering and doing some laundry. This trip was by far the coolest thing that I have done yet in Africa and I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity to explore and meet some really rad people!

Botswana Here I Come!!! September 2

After a long week of paper writing, it is finally spring break. YAY!

Tomorrow I am leaving for my Botswana Safari trip. I fly into Joburg tomorrow, and am leaving here at 4:30 am (so sorry if this is short, but I have to wake up in less than four hours as it is.) From Joburg we take a safari bus and drive to Botswana. We will be spending 8 days going to the Okavango Delta, going on a lot of safari walks, driving through Botswana, driving to Zambia, spending time at Victoria Falls, and a day in Zimbabwe! I'm super excited and will have pictures up as soon as I get back!

Yay for three more stamps in my passport! Cheers!!!!

Surfing with… Whales (?) August 29

Today is Sunday. I went surfing with Bryce at Muizenberg. We missed the train, and had to wait 45 minutes for the next Sunday train to arrive. Luckily, I had my book with me, so I read while I waited. When we got to Muizenberg the waves looked very disappointing, but since it was sunny, and not too windy, we decided we would go out anyways. There weren’t too many surfers out because it was the middle of the day and pretty blown out. I caught a few super fun waves. We went in after about an hour though because it was so mushy and blown out. When we were waiting for a train I saw something huge jumping out in the ocean. I could not tell if it was a whale or a shark…it was probably a whale though, since it is whale-breeding season. It was so rad! I’ve never seen a whale jumping in the ocean before, and to think that I was surfing with it :)

Kate told me that September is whale-breeding season. She says that Hermanus is the best land whale-watching site in the world. You can hike along the cliffs and see the whales below the cliffs with their babies. There is the Hermanus Whale Festival in late September that I really want to go to. It would be super cool to go kayaking with the whales.

After surfing today I went to Common Ground Church. It made me miss Flood a lot! It is a very college oriented church, which made me miss my Upper Room friends, and the community I have back in SD. But I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness, as he has given me a new community to be a part of while I am here :)

Tomorrow I will be giving a presentation in class on the Rwandan Genocide (super depressing topic…) and then after that I will begin my last paper that is due before break. This paper is for my medical history class, and is about Sister Henrietta Stockdale and her contributions to South Africa nursing…kinda dry. I don’t know how I will write 7 pages on her. But after that is done, then I can start preparing for the Botswana safari! yay!!!

District Six Museum and The Old Biscuit Mill, August 28

Today was yet another rainy Saturday. We went to the District Six Museum, located in downtown Cape Town. District Six was one of the many communities that were affected by the forced removals of the apartheid government in the 1960’s. District Six was a diverse community consisting of colored, black, malay and white peoples. It was declared a white neighborhood during apartheid and the people were forced out of their homes. They had to move 25 miles out to the Cape Flats townships. All of the buildings in District Six were torn down to make room for white developments. These developments never came into being, and the land has remained a desolate site in Cape Town, where the memory of those affected by apartheid lives on. The museum was in an old Presbyterian church that remained standing in District Six. It was filled with everyday objects, pictures, and art of people that were forcibly removed. It served as a memory to those who lost their community and homes during apartheid. It was a very moving museum, and a tragic part of Cape Town’s history.

After the museum some of us went to The Old Biscuit Mill. The Old Biscuit Mill is a farmer’s market that looks like it came directly out of an Anthropologie magazine. It was the cutest market I have EVER been to. The food was absolutely amazing :) I got a delicious lamb pita. I also bought a loaf of sourdough bread! (the lack of sourdough bread is one of the many things that I miss about the States…they don’t have very good bread here). We went and looked around at the shops that were set up - all of them looked very Anthropology-esque mixed with Urban Outfitters, and were unfortunately in that price range as well. It was a very cute market, but it made me miss home a lot, I’m not quite sure why.

After going to The Old Biscuit Mill we took a mini-bus cab home. (I’m getting quite good at flagging down mini-buses :) And now I’m at home, procrastinating. I should be working on one of my two papers that are due next week. After I get these two papers done it is spring break! Botswana here I come!!!

Piano Playing Friday, August 27

This week has been relatively ordinary. I have spent it going to class, doing readings, writing papers (or trying to at least), hanging out at the Student Y, playing piano, and learning how to cook dinners for myself. I walk to class everyday, up the huge hill, arrive at class winded, and then after a few hours walk back home. On my way home I always stop at the Student Y office, and say hi to whoever is in there. On Tuesday my house was being fumigated. I hung out at the Y for 3 hours, then came home (earlier than I was supposed to) and immediately fell asleep. This was probably a bad idea since none of my windows were open. I had a bit of a headache when I woke up. I absolutely love being able to play the piano everyday on my way home. I have been learning new worship songs, new classical songs, and have been composing new creations. It makes me feel so happy to sit at that old piano and play and sing!

Today I went to the Student Y Large Group, HUB. They had asked me to play the piano with the band. I played worship music with a band for the first time tonight! We practiced a little bit prior to worship. I didn’t know some of the songs. It was intense to play worship with a band, but I really enjoyed it. I am not used to being directed by other people, I’m used to playing with my own direction. A few times I felt lost while playing the songs, but since the music was so loud, my mistakes didn’t really matter. But I really liked being able to add to worship, and will hopefully continue to play with them. Nick, one of the student leaders, had asked me prior to today if I wanted to play a solo to show my God given talents. So I also got the chance to play on my own, one of the songs I have made up. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and I got a ton of compliments on it. My favorite compliment was from a man who said it sounded like “George Winston.” Haha, I listed to a lot of him growing up, so it is quite possible that my song was influenced by his style of playing.

Now I am at home with my friend Dudu, and am preparing a presentation that I have to give on Monday. Tomorrow I am going to the District Six museum and a barbeque after. This weekend is going to be really busy with fun stuff and a lot of writing papers!

Rain and Wellington, August 24

Sorry that I have been slacking on the blogging (as my dad recently reprimanded me for). School has picked up and I find myself doing lots of schoolwork and not much else to blog about. But here is what I have been up to lately/thinking about:

1. This weekend I was very sick. Luckily I am feeling a lot better now due to the magical “Corenza C.” I think I will stockpile this Afrikaans drug, and make sure to bring some home. Hopefully customs won’t mind?

2. I went to Wellington this weekend to visit the Bliss’s. Deborah and David Bliss had me, and Jade (a visiting Harvard graduate student) over to their cabin. It was an “ex-slave quarter” located on a farm that is now used for organic farming. It was a very stormy weekend and did not stop raining the whole time. Deborah made us delicious Mexican Enchiladas (she grew up in San Diego also :). I think she knew how much I had been missing Mexican food. Needless to say, I probably gained five pounds from this weekend! We listened to records, talked about missions work, and ate by the fireplace as the rain pounded overhead. It was splendid. We stayed in the loft of their cabin, and could hear the rain pouring down onto the tin roof above our heads as we fell asleep. In the morning we attended Deborah’s Presbyterian church, toured the town of Wellington, and visited some friends on a Vineyard. I had a lot of fun this weekend, and would love to go back!

3. I have been getting better at cooking! It is a gradual process, but today I made some delicious chicken pasta and had some garlic potato wedges on the side. My meals are random, but nonetheless improving.

4. I have two papers and a presentation due next week, so this weekend promises to be slightly unbearable. Wish me luck!

5. I am slightly obsessed by “Iron & Wine” right now, definitely digging this music.

6. I hope to go surfing this weekend (given that I am feeling better), and will probably play piano for worship this Friday! Yay!

And those are some of the random things I have been up to. Cheers!

Rainy Day and Corenza C, August 18

Today I woke up sick. I felt achey and my throat hurt. I was going to go running, but decided to sleep in instead. As I was walking to class it started sprinkling. I did not wear my raincoat to classes today. After class got out it was absolutely pouring! (I think this is the kind of rain that so many people warned me about as the Cape Town “winter”) I was very much underdressed, and thus by the time I had walked half of the way my pants and shoes were totally soaked. I stopped by the Student Y anyways, and played the piano and talked with some friends. After that, I ran home and quickly put on warm clothes.

Once I had warmed up I decided to go down to Main Street to do some grocery shopping and buy more Corenza C. (Corenza C is the meds that helped me get better with impressive rapidity three weeks ago, hopefully it works again!) I purchased some much needed chocolate, milk, and banana bread (among other things), and hauled my heavy groceries up the hill to my house.

After putting away all of my laundry I did some reading and homework until 6 pm, which is when I left to go volunteer for a SHAWCO adult’s clinic. This was my first Adult Clinic, and I was seriously considering skipping it because I still didn’t feel that well. It is a good thing I didn’t skip it though, because it was another great SHAWCO experience. It is amazing the cases we see at these clinics. Among a lot of minor cases a man came in complaining of chest and back pains. He was extremely weak, dehydrated, and his skin lacked elasticity. We found out that he had already been treated for TB multiple times and that he had been diagnosed with HIV a year ago. He hadn’t been taking his medications, and was in a bad state. The doctor classified him as having State 4 HIV, which is the most developed form of AIDS, and he probably only had a week to live. We had our driver take him to the hospital ER where with help he might live for another year. It was a very sad situation. It was hard to see that someone would let HIV progress so long without being able to do something about it. So that is what I saw at SHAWCO today. It was definitely something I would never see in the US, but is a very common medical experience here in South Africa. I am thankful to be able to help out with the SHAWCO clinics, and look forward to learning more about what it means to be a doctor in poor urban township communities.

Oh, and hopefully I will get better soon so I can go surfing :)

Mzoli's, August 16

Yesterday I spent my day in the township of Guguletu. (I also volunteered in a township on Saturday…it feels like I spent my whole weekend in townships :) I took a minibus with some newly made friends to Mzoli’s. Mzoli’s is a crazy bbq party, that happens every Sunday. It is a time where township residents, other Capetonians, and lots of students go on Sundays to stuff themselves with meat and party. You order raw meat, pile it into a huge bowl, and send it off to the oven rooms. The rooms with the ovens are stockpiled with wood, and smoke is pouring out of them. Inside, the walls are lined with cooking meats, its crazy! The tables and the place (can’t really call it a restaurant) of Mzoli’s itself is super dirty. There are no utensils given or napkins. The experienced Mzoli’s goers bring picnic baskets with utensils and plates. I was with a group of ten people, we order 500R (about 70$) worth of meat. We got a huge bowl with chicken, steak, pork, lamb and sausage. After you purchase your meet you have to go and snag a table, and steal some chairs from neighboring tables. Most people don’t get to sit down, because it is so crazy crowded. Music is blaring and the whole place smells of delicious smoked meat :)

It took about 2 hours for our meat to come. Once it did, we all dug in (using our hands of course). It was extremely messy, and not for the germaphobic, but super delicious. The meat was barbequed in some sort of a sauce. I ate so much meat my stomach hurt, lol. After five hours of eating and hanging out, I left Mzoli’s, stuffed and in desperate need of a nap. It was a super fun experience, unlike any other I have yet experienced. Definitely not a habit to get into going to…not too healthy!

After Mzoli’s I came home, napped, and wrote a paper. I am finally having to start doing homework…not fun!

Today was relatively uneventful. I went to class. I also discovered that I have a really intense two weeks coming up due to multiple papers and presentations, time to buckle down! I was invited by Deborah Bliss to spend the weekend with her and her friend this upcoming Saturday and Sunday at her home. I’m excited, she is really nice :) After class, I went down and played the piano for about an hour. And after the piano I went and did my laundry/studied for my MCAT’s. And that is what I’ve been up to thus far.

Footlong Burrito, August 14

I haven’t been up to anything too exciting this week. I went to class, procrastinated on assignments, went surfing, grocery shopped, and eventually did some homework. On Friday night I went to the student Y HUB event, where I got to hang out with the friends I made last weekend. We worshipped and heard a talk on “Is Jesus the Only Way?” It was pretty rad. Oh, and I signed up to play piano on the worship band. I’m excited to get the opportunity to learn how to play in a worship band, and to get to know the others in the band better :)

Today I volunteered for SHAWCO for my second time. We went to the same township, but this time it was a lot more organized. I was given the task of weighing and measuring all of the kids that were to be seen (about 35 of them total). It was fun, and I got to interact with a lot of them through this. It was hard to weigh and measure the babies, though, seeing as we only had a “stand on top” scale, and a measuring stick. After weighing the patients, I went and observed what the other doctors/med students were doing. I got to see them diagnose and prescribe treatments for a lot of patients. Some of the stuff I saw today was infantile staff infection, fungal infections, boils, infant asthma, and the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome. (Mom, there were also OT’s working with the kids, it made me think of you :) It was hard to see the medical problems that some of these kids had due to their living environments. I really enjoyed the experience though, and cannot wait to become a doctor, so I can help kids like these.

Needless to say after SHAWCO I was exhausted. On the way home we stopped at this hole-in-the-wall Indian food place, called “Sunrise.” I ordered a chicken curry burrito thing. It was literally the size of Subway footlong, and made me miss Mexican food so much! (They don't have many ingredients for cooking Mexican food, its killing me). It will probably take me two days to eat, haha. After that I went home. I took a nap today for the first time since I’ve been here. (Shocking, I know!) Tonight I plan on going to my friend’s double birthday party. And that’s it for now!

Vuka Sizwe! August 10

This past weekend I took part in a Christian retreat put on by the Student Y. It was an awesome, tiring, and intense weekend of teaching and worship. The theme of this retreat was “Vuka Sizwe!” meaning, “arise nations.” The camp hosted 120 students, and was nestled into the hills outside of Simonstown. To the left of the camp was a towering mountain, and to the right was the ocean. It was gorgeous. The students, who went to UCT, were from different countries all over Africa. I made friends from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia….and the list goes on. It was great to get to know such awesome individuals from all over Africa.

The days were jam-packed with messages given by speakers, bible studies, worship, and seminars. My favorite speaker that we heard was David Bliss, an elderly man from Boston, who works as a minister in youth prisons. His speaking was enrapturing, as he told stories of his travels as a missionary throughout Africa, encouraging us to take on a missional attitude. His wife, Deborah Bliss, was really nice. She was from San Diego originally, and invited me to come visit them on a weekend. (they live about an hour away inland…I will definitely visit them soon :)

The worship this weekend was amazing! It was such an experience to worship with people from at least 15 nations. Not only did we worship in English, but we also sang worship songs in Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and a few other African languages. My friend Dudu (who I was roomed with, and loved getting to hang out with), translated the songs for me when we were singing. It was amazing to worship in so many languages. Dancing, clapping, and joyful shouting filled the worship sessions. I am so amazed to see how God’s message of love is global, and how he is worshipped all across Africa.

During free times we hiked around and explored the area of Simonstown. The first day we went on a small jaunt up the mountain. I was craving ice cream and desperately needed to go into town. On the second day, our newly made friend Grant, who had a car, offered to take us into town. We saw the penguins at Boulder’s beach, talked about shark attacks, drove up to the top of the mountain overlooking the town, and most importantly went downtown where we got ice cream and hung out at the harbor. There were tons of fish restaurants in Simonstown. I will definitely be taking the train back soon to experience South African Fish and Chips.

Overall, my weekend was amazing. I got to know some awesome girls. I made tons of friends, most of which go to UCT. I got to worship in crazy African languages. God taught me a lot over this weekend about what it means to be completely fulfilled through my relationship with him. I learned that I wasn’t putting enough trust in the plans that God has for me. I felt fulfillment and complete love, something that only He can give. I found so much joy in this weekend, and thank God for teaching me, and giving me the opportunity to make so many African friends.

Koi fish surfboard, August 5

Today I had class. Not too exciting. I did two things of interest today:

First, I played the piano at the student Y. I met a guy named Mark, (pronounced Mahk :) from Kenya. He pushed me off the piano, and played me some of his pieces. I was very jealous with his ability to memorize technical pieces. I have never been good at memorizing pieces all the way through, thus why I like to improvise so much. He had like ten classical pieces memorized, crazy!

Secondly, I had my inaugural surf session with my new board. My dad says it looks like a koi fish…hopefully sharks don’t eat koi. After class I met up with my friend Vinnie on the train. We went down to Muzberg only to find that the wind was like 30 knots. The surf wasn’t good, but we paddled out anyways. I caught reforming waves, because I was too lazy to paddle all the way to the outside. But I did manage to catch one fun little right, and get some walking in. This board is a better noserider than my one at home, yay! We only lasted 45 minutes in the water (the sun had already set). We showered, changed out of our wetsuits, and then caught the train back to Rondebosch. On the trains people sell snacks. We bought little hand-packaged peanut bags for 2R (which is like 25 cents). I wish that people on our trains in the US sold 25 cent packages of peanuts.

And those are the two interesting things that happened in my life today. I will be gone this weekend, so no blogs for like 4 days! I will be at a camp in Simon’s Town, put on by the Student Y. There are supposed to be 150 university students. I’m excited, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Missing the Train, August 4

I woke up this morning before the sun rose at 7am. I got ready and walked to meet some friends at the train station to go to Muizenberg. The plan was that I would buy my longboard today while Bryce and his friends surfed. The surf report said 0-1 feet though, which means at Muizenburg that anything but longboarding is nearly impossible. But nonetheless we headed out as the sun was rising over Cape Town. I am now pro at riding the train to Muizenburg. It costs 15R roundtrip, and takes approximately 39 minutes. (We timed it today and placed bets on how long it would take, I said 35-40 minutes. I won the bet.)

We got to Muiz, and as predicted, the waves were very small and super mushy. It looked fun for me, but the other guys were shortboarding. They decided to help me get my board. I ended up buying a red painted performance longboard that is around 9’0. It has a fatty fin, and is super thin and wide. I’m excited to take it out, and see how it rides (pics are on fb if you want to check it out :) After finishing up the dealing process with “Lifestyle Surf Shop” we went to get breakfast at a local café. We ate big breakfasts for 20R, food here is pretty cheap (which is less than $3…although with the way the exchange rate is going, it might be more soon.) After eating we went to the train station, arriving just as the 9:45 train was leaving.

I had a class at 11am, and unfortunately the next train did not arrive until 10:20. Once it arrived, we boarded and sat anxiously, knowing that we would be late for class today. The train is around a 40 minute ride. I arrived at the train station at 10:59 am. Upper Campus, which is where my class was at, was uphill about a mile away. Needless to say, I booked it up to campus (being the nerd that I am), and arrived 14 minutes late in class, sweaty and breathing heavily. Now I know that if I’m surfing, I need to be at the train station no later than 9:40 am.

This evening I went to a bible study. I got a ride from one of the leader’s, Matteo. The bible study is called “Vintage Jesus” and is exploring a novel about discovering the true Jesus. It is put on by Common Ground Church. There are 11 other South African’s in the group. The bible study was pretty cool, and I think I will be going back again. After the bible study we got a little lesson on how to roll start a car, due to a problem with Matteo’s battery. Yep, it was a pretty good day (Oh, and I forgot to say that the weather today was again in the 70’s. Perfect! I’m starting to doubt that Cape Town ever gets rain.)

Laundrytime, August 2

Today was a relatively uneventful Monday. I ran around doing errands. I did however get to sit down and play piano at the Student Y building. Although the piano is quite used (with a few important keys either missing/broken) it was great to sit down for a bit and play songs that I made up and worship songs. The hall was empty, so I sang and played for quite a while. I felt so happy after playing the piano and worshipping, and the joy lasted me the entirety of the day. It was great :)

After playing the piano I embarked upon my last errand, which was laundry. I have managed to go without doing my laundry for two and a half weeks (a personal record). I was down to my last pair of socks and underwear, and thus I knew that I could no longer hold out. I threw all of my laundry into one of my huge suitcases and headed down the road to the Laundromat. I felt a little silly because to get to the Laundromat called “wash and web”, a dual Internet café/Laundromat, I had to wheel my huge suitcase down my street and along Main Road. I eventually made it to my destination and put my laundry in for a wash. While my laundry was washing I went to go get some lunch. After lunch I returned, put my laundry into the drier, ran my wet clothes up to the house for hang drying, and ran back down to the Laundromat. I walked up the hill to get to my house too many times today.

Unfortunately my clothes didn’t dry in the first drying cycle, so I had to put them in for another cycle. In the end it took me approximately 3.45 hours to wash my clothes, and cost me 60R (which is approximately $8 - laundry here is a little more expensive). It was quite an ordeal. I think I will take my laundry to be washed at the cleaners next time.

Besides laundry and piano playing I didn’t do much else today. I am still feeling a bit sick, but definitely not as bad as Sunday. With the amount of sleep and vitamin C that my body is taking in, I should be healthy by Friday! (Oh, on Friday I am going on a retreat with the Student Y for the weekend. It should be really cool. It lasts for four days, and I’ll hopefully be able to get to know some of the students better. Thus I won’t be writing that weekend. We are staying in dorms, and it is kinda like a church camp thing…or so I gathered. There are about 150 students signed up for it.)

Mystery Drugs and Volunteering, Aug 1

Yesterday I fell victim to the dreaded South African studying abroad head cold. All of the abroad students seem to be sick, and I now am unfortunately joining in with them. Although I will admit that surfing on Friday probably didn’t help it out, it was still totally worth it. This cold was going to befall me no matter what. I have now spent the whole of the day sleeping and drinking vitamin water. (I’m so thankful they have that here!) I went to the pharmacist yesterday and he gave me a mild drug called “Corenza C,” to help my cold. He told me that it would help but that what I needed most was sleep, ordering me not to go out. I am obeying his orders to the full (although I will be attending church in 2 hours) and have slept for most of the day. It would be just my luck that today is absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm, and that my friends invited me to go surfing. I would rather recover though, than go out surfing today.

Yesterday I volunteered at SHAWCO. I woke up in the morning at 6:45 am . I arrived at the SHAWCO offices at 7:45 (I was told to be there by 8:00). Unfortunately I forgot to take into account that, due to what locals call “South African time”, 8 am really means 9 am. Thus the bus did not leave until 9:30 am. So I did a lot of waiting outside yesterday morning in the cold wind, probably not the best thing for my sickness.

We drove out in the SHAWCO van to the township where the pediatric medical clinic was supposed to be set up. The poverty in the townships is striking. Picture the worst shacks in Tijuana constructed side by side into a city. These townships are expansive and the conditions are the lowest concentration of poverty that I have ever seen in my life. It is hard to take in, because just a few miles away in Cape Town there exist nice neighborhoods. The shanty townships are a haunting reminder of South Africa’s past of apartheid, and there is currently little being done in order to change the cycle of poverty within them.

We arrived on the site to discover that the head of the clinic was not there this morning, so there were no patients waiting for us. Some of the students who were there were doing a project where they handed out soup. Once the soup was brought out, children came piling in. There were about 75 kids on the premises, playing and yelling, it was utter chaos. After soup was dispatched a few parents came in with their children for the medical students to see. I was not able to help out much with the medical side of the examinations yesterday, due to the small number of patients. But, I was told that when it gets more busy I will be able to assist by measuring and weighing the children, in order to chart their growth and ensure they aren’t suffering from malnutrition/nourishment - a problem among township children.

I did some menial work, and once I was finished, I played with the kids. They of course were very fascinated by my hair, and loved my ring on my finger. We played games similar to duck, duck, goose, and ring around the rosie, but of course they were played in Xhosa. I do not speak Xhosa thus I was a little lost as to how to play duck, duck, goose, when I was chosen. They thought that this was very funny. I lost once in one of the games, and next thing I knew, all of the children had surrounded me, hitting me and chanting something in Xhosa. It was crazy and I couldn’t escape. I later found out that this is what they do when someone loses the game, and normally the loser should run away to avoid being hassled. I did not know this, thus I was a little shocked when it happened. The other leaders of the clinic thought it was very amusing, and were laughing and taking pictures. I had a ton of fun playing with the kids and observing how a clinic is run. I will be volunteering for SHAWCO a lot more while I’m here.

After we returned from SHAWCO volunteering yesterday, we had a Brai with our landlady. It was very fun, and we all brought food to share. Hanli’s house is even more artsy and gorgeous in the inside. It was great talking with her about her views on how South Africa is doing in the post-apartheid period.

And that is all I have been up to over this weekend. As I said before, I have literally done nothing today but sleep. I’m excited to go check out this church called “Common Ground” this evening. It is supposed to be the church where a lot of UCT students go. Pray that I can get well soon, because its lame to be sick when you’re living by yourself!