Non Stop -- Friday, Saturday, Sunday

The last few days have been crazy! I have a lot to catch up on...

Friday:
In the morning we had class at UCT and had a lecture from a man named Steve. To go along with our last lecture, which gave a political outlook of Apartheid, Steve's lecture gave us a personal one. Steve was born in exile because his father was a wanted man in South Africa because of anti-Apartheid activities (I forgot exactly what he did). Steve and his family grew up having to change names and moving from country to country. They lived in a politically-charged environment and members of the ANC (African National Congress) became their extended family. Their house was even bombed twice. That's crazy, I can't even imagine what it would be like to live like that. It was really cool to hear his story.


After that, we went down to the harbor for some lunch before we went out to Robben Island. A bunch of us sat down at a Cape Malay restaurant because we hadn't tried that kind of food yet. Nate and I split this seafood platter that had mussels, calamari, line fish and prawns. I never had mussels before this, and I'm never going to eat them again! Apparently, you aren't supposed to chew them.. I didn't know this and it turned out to be an unpleasant culinary experience. And I didnt know what prawns were until the plate came out. It's crayfish! Crayfish as in they serve the entire crayfish-shell, antennas, eyes and legs!! I felt a little grossed out looking into the eyes of my food and I was afraid its little legs were gonna start kicking around when I grabbed it. But don't worry, I ate it anyway.


Then we got on a boat to go over to Robben Island and I slept the whole way, which was awesome because it's a 45 minute ride. Robben Island was where they kept black political prisoners during Apartheid. The tour was alright.. it was very interesting and our tour guide was a former prisoner who received a 7 year sentence for bombing a government building. What I didn't like was that most of the tour was focused on Nelson Mandela (who is the most famous prisoner of Robben Island). It was cool to hear about all that, but I wanted to hear stories from other prisoners too because as important as Mandela's work was, he wasn't the only prisoner there and he didn't end Apartheid by himself. I felt that the tour was geared more toward what visitors want to hear rather than telling an equally-balanced history of the prison.



Saturday:
Safari day! We got ourselves up before sunrise (quite possibly around 4:30ish or so) and walked down to the police station to meet our tour bus. This morning, it set in beyond any question that yes, Africa does get cold, cold+damp. It's winter here and it was definitely in the 40's that morning. I know we're all from Minnesota, but we weren't ready for this. So we hopped on the bus, wrapped up in blankets and slept for most of the 2.5 hour drive to Inverdoorn Game Reserve. When we got there, we looked around and it was absolutely gorgeous! They have a whole set up with little cabins, a pool, tables, a fire pit, all that kind of stuff. They served us coffee, tea and some bar/bread type of stuff. Eventually, we got onto the trucks with our guide, Grant, and went to see the animals! We went to see the cheetahs (who are kept in a separate area until they are quarantined) and driving up there, we were thinking "oh, we'll probably just drive along the edge of the fence and look in." Nope, we went in! With cheetahs. They were literally less than 15 feet away from our truck! It was so crazy. But they were pretty chill and got annoyed with us and kept walking away. Fun fact of the day: cheetahs' bones are almost completely hollow.




So then next were the lions. We went up to a lookout tower to see them. They are 'canned lions,' meaning they were raised in captivity and fed until they are fat and easy to hunt. It's illegal since there is no sport to is.. I guess it would be like baiting deer? I don't know hunting laws, so maybe not. They don't know how to hunt because of this so they associate humans with food, so we couldn't go up to the fence because they could break through and eat us. Lions. Amazing.

After the lions, we went into the main reserve and eventually, it started warming up! The sun came up and it was awesome. Even in winter the sun is really powerful here (when it is out).We drove around for a loooong time and had to be really careful not to stick our arms out too far because a ton of the trails had these plants lining them that would tear your arms off. Not really, but you know.

Here is the other animals we saw:

• Ostriches
• Springbok (the national animal of South Africa, and the cutest but most hilarious animal I've ever seen.. they spring up in the air when they run, kind of like a mix of tiny reindeer and rabbits on crack)
  
  
• Wildebeest
• Buffalo (the real kind..which happen to be the #2 killer in Africa, they are HUGE!!)



• Zebra and Rhinos!!


• Giraffes.. we got to walk with them! And see two of them fighting..intense! Here's a video of it.. its too bad you can't hear the noise it would make when they hit each other because it sounded really painful
  

Oh my lord it was great! I took about a million pictures and I'm keeping them all. After we got back from the safari, TJ, Nate, Aaron and I had a chance to go 4wheeling through the bush for about half an hour and it was absolutely one of the best times of my life (along with everything else on this trip)! They have a trail that leads out through a vast open bushland area going toward the mountains. It was so much fun- the trail curved all over and had sand and mud and little hills to jump off of, and the entire time there were the mountains in the background and a bright blue sky above us. It was incredible. On the way back, we went through a huuuuuuge puddle of muddy water way too fast and it splashed all over my pants and killed TJ's quad (thats what they call them here). This is the only picture I have of the 4wheelers.. TJ got some when we were out on the trail, so I'll put one of those up when I get them.

So then we slept on the way back home so we'd be ready to go out and celebrate Nate's birthday. We got reservations at an African cuisine restaurant called Marcos. It was so much fun! They had a great live band playing and singing and did an awesome cover of No Woman No Cry. I am proud to say that I tried some pap, ostrich, crocodile, warthog, springbok and sheep stomach! I liked aaaalll of it. The sheep stomach was weird, probably would have been better if I didn't know what it was. It tasted like sheep smell.. not like the dirty barn smell, but a general sheep smell? Make sense? Well, thats how it tasted. The springbok was delicious, it was like the most tender steak you've ever eaten in your life.

The best part of dinner, though, was the beer. Marcos has one specialty beer and it is brewed in Gugulethu (the township we will be in). They bring everyone's beer out together in this big wooden sphere jug. You swirl it around, drink it and pass it on to the next person. You will never taste a beer like this in your life! It wasn't even like beer except for a small little bite of flavor at the end. It was more like a liquid fruit yogurt drink mixed with beer.. but in the most delicious way! I love that beer. What I was told is that they brew it in the township early in the week, let it ferment throughout the week then bring it out to the restaurant and by saturday it is pretty potent. I'll post some pictures of this when I get them.

After dinner, everyone except for Aaron went out to the bars. Sawiwe, Ajidt and his friend Allen came with too which was awesome cuz those guys are a ton of fun. We stopped at the Dubliner for some over-priced drinks (where we got a shot called the Springbok...mint liqueur and Kahlua Amaretto. Amazing) and a live band with a very good looking lead singer. After admiring this man's talented singing for a while, a few of us wanted to go dance (I had been waiting for it since our plane touched down here) so we went across the street to the Joburg bar. It's some semi-hole-in-the-wall place with some great music to dance to. By 11 it was absolutely packed and about 1000 degrees in there! We made it out to one more club that I didn't like as much only because they played techno music nonstop once 1:00 rolled around. Not my bag of chips but it was fine, it was still a great time! Favorite part of the night: learning some African moves.. too much fun.

Sunday:

This wasn't originally part of our trip plan, but Aaron asked us if we would want to attend a church service in Gugulethu (as it came highly recommended by Kevin Winge), an we all ended up wanting to go. We were able to get both of our van drivers to come pick us up so around 8a.m. we piled in (a little/a lot tired from the night before) and drove to church.

The service was amazing. It was a Xhosa/English mix so I could only understand 25% of what was said, but that didn't matter at all. We got hymn books so we could sing along in Xhosa.. they don't use organs or instruments or anything, just a small drum and the most wonderful impromptu A Capella I've ever heard. The entire congregation knows all the words to the songs and don't need to look at the hymn book at all, they clap their hands and dance to the music. The sermon, even though I couldn't understand most of it, was so heartfelt, sincere and hopeful.

Everyone there is so friendly, too. A lot of people greeted us and were genuinely happy that we were there to worship with them. I wasn't sure how we would be received because I am never sure of how black or colored South Africans may view privileged white people. I don't know how they have been treated in the past by white people so I don't know if they think we are here to take advantage of their situation or treat them badly or impose our beliefs or judgements on them. A lot was said about learning how to be their brothers and sisters and that made me feel so welcome because in this country that has such a stark divide along racial lines, these people are willing to accept us beyond the color of our skin, and reversely, see that we want to do the same.

That is one of the greatest reasons I came on this trip, and why I will be going to India in the spring.. I want to know someone as a person. I dont want to know them by their nationality or the color of their skin, I don't want to know black, brown, green, red, poor, rich.. I want to know them as a human being, and I feel like I can do that here.

One of the best parts of the day is that we got to meet our host families! We are living in Gugulethu tuesday through thursday (as well as going to class and doing service projects during the day all week). Stella and I are staying with our momma, Noxie. She is so great, I already love this woman. She is so full of life and so kind. She teaches a first grade class and we get to go with her in the morning on wednesday (or thursday?) to meet them! Most of the host families have had students staying with them for a homestay experience and were willing to do it again for us, so they love what they do. Every night, we are all getting together with all the families to eat dinner together. Noxie is going to teach me and Stella how to cook like a South African, wrap our hair up like a South African woman.. anything that Stella and I want to learn how to do, she wants to teach us. I am excited to learn from her. She was born in Gugulethu and has lived there her whole life. I want to hear her story and I'm happy that she is willing to tell it.

I know that this next week will be difficult. Noxie had an 18 year old son that died a few years ago, I'm not sure how but I know she will tell us later. We are going to leave the rich part of Cape Town to spend countless hours in poverty-ridden areas; and we're going to face some hard truths, knowing full well that there is nothing we can do to give it a quick fix. Nothing. There will be so many people in need and such deep-rooted social issues that no amount of donated money can fix it-it will take a lot more than that, much more than we are capable of doing at this point. That will be tough because it hurts to feel as though you are turning your back on someone in need, especially when that person is in front of you, looking you in the eyes. That is what I've prepared myself for but I know that no matter what I do, I cant completely prepare for next week. But thats ok because I dont want any preconceived notions getting in my way of learning exactly what it is Gugulethu wants to teach me.