Safari Notes Courtesy of Scout

Safari: It was very green when we went because of recent rain. The natural watering holes disappear in the summer

1)      Ostrich

2)      Egyptian geese

3)      Kudu (you can eat it!)

4)      Angulite tortise (crossing the road in Addo)

5)      Dung beetle

6)      Elephants—because of inbreeding in Addo, the males have small to no tusks. They recently brought in males for Kruger to help remedy the problem. Walter M. was the elephant from Kruger we saw. He has the biggest tusks. Elephants eat cactus. Only 7 females in the park have tusks. Elephants sleep standing up.

7)      Stanley’s bastard—the heaviest flying bird. I thas to take off and land in the wind

8)      Zebra

9)      Yellow orb spiders

10)  Red heartabeast—2^nd fastest animal in South Africa. Black speed stripes on legs and bikini tan on bum.

11)   Imparla—black M on bum. Also live in Great Britain. Young males get kicked out as they get older and form a bachelor heard

12)   Candelabra lily

13)   Blue wildabeast—make very large holes because they are aggressive territory markers that use gland in face and hooves. The dominant male is always the largest in the herd. Also the black wildabeast. Communicate by sound of swishing tails. 26-27 million used to migrate between port Elizabeht and New London

14)  Warthogs—males have 4 warts and females 2. Are the chocolate for lions and jackels

15)  Burchell’s zebra—have a shadow stripe between the white and black

16)  Helmeted guinea fouls—are eaten by lynx so sleep the night in the trees. Mate for life

17)  Blue Monkeys

18)   Yellow Mongoose. Like rickyticky Tavi!

19)  Hippos. They have lots of spots that secrete a pink liquid that is like sunblock. Hippos kill more people each year than any other mammal. Its teeth are about 30 cm long and they can run up to 40 kn/hr. More than 90% of their diet is grass. Sometimes they will force lions to share their meat

20)  White rhinos—eat grass whereas black rhinos eat leaves. The section between their ears and eyes is longer because they need to reach to the ground more often. They cannot see well. Only 8 meters in front of them and its blurry. Last year 333 rhinos were killed for their horn. The skin is 4 cm thick. Named Bonnie and Clyde

21)  Spring bock—jump with all 4 legs and up to 4 meters high. Their main predator is the cheetah which hunts by tripping its prey

22)  Nyala—red and white vertical stripes. Males are dark gray

23)  Blaze bucks

24)  Termite farm

25)  Lions—the cubs were 6 months and the males 2 and ½ years old. Lions are sprinters. Hyenas and wild dogs are marathon runners!

26)  Giraffes—eat bones to get calcium. Have the same number of neck vertabrae as we do. Rely a lot on eyesight. White ears help them to see each other at night. Are pregnant for 14 ½ months. Sleep for 20 mins a day. Ruminate

Spring/Fall Break/Holiday 2011!!!

So spring/fall break started Saturday, March 26^th. I was traveling with three other people along the Garden Route, which is the coastal area in between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth: a major tourist attraction. In the morning we boarded the Baz Bus, which is a bus that travels the Garden Route everyday picking up and dropping off passengers at the doors of their hostels and backpackers. The first day we spent 8 hours traveling through farmland, scrub brush, mountains, and forests and finally ended up in our first stop, Wilderness. We stayed at the Fairy Knowe backpackers, which was nestled in the woods and so so so tranquil and relaxing, it was the exact atmosphere I was looking for this vacation. Then we walked down to the main town area to get some food and stopped at this restaurant called Pomodoro. The meal ended up being one of the best I have had in South Africa. My pizza was incredible, my salad did not consist of iceberg lettuce (very unusual for SA) and to top it off we had cheesecake that was voted the “Best in South Africa.” Later we found out it is made by this local guy and with goats’ milk. Yum! It was mind-blowing; I don’t think I can ever eat cheesecake again. We walked back to our hostel in the dark and it was quite refreshing to be in a safe area where we could walk about and every house wasn’t covered in razor wire and electric fences.

The next day, Sunday, we went on a nice hike to a waterfall and then rented bikes to ride down and have a picnic on the beach. This hike also brought about the nicknames for our group. Karina was to be referred to as “BOOTS” because she was the only one of us with hiking boots that she would casually wear with any outfit throughout the trip. Also, “Boots” was the only one to develop blisters from hiking. Megan was to be known as “Scout” because of her fearless attitude, and her experience guiding boy scouts through the Canadian wilderness during the summer. Nathan was called “Legs,” though his name soon changed, because he had to hike his shorts up really high to wade through these pools of water at the waterfall and ended up showing off half his bum to a number of foreign families. I was given the rather obvious name of “Freckles” for reasons I have no need to explain. We then headed back to our hostel in time to clean up and hop on the baz bus. Our next destination was Storm’s River, and it was definitely a highlight of our trip. The night when we got in we were the only guests in the entire hostel and our receptionist/bartender, Freddie, took it upon himself to show us a good time. First, he started pumping Nathan full of shots because he was going to bungee jump the following morning. Do not ask me why anyone would think drinking a ton the night before bungeeing is a good idea. Then Freddie’s friend came over and we casually drank and played pool. Then they invited us to go to the township pub just around the corner. Freddie’s friend was actually a police officer, so it seemed fairly safe and we decided to go. The township pub was definitely an experience I don’t know how else to say it. It was cool to be there and experience it but it was also sobering as well as damn entertaining. We didn’t stay too long because we had a long day ahead of us but nonetheless by the time we got back, Nathan had sufficiently gotten himself sick, spending most of his night in the bathroom. Thus, his true nickname came into existence: “Chunder Thunder” or “Chunder Wonder” depending on ones mood (to chunder means to throw up in SA, if you didn’t get that one through the context clues).

Early the next day on Monday we got Nate’s ‘hanging’ (SAs version of hung over) ass up and headed to the Bungee site. This Bungee jump is touted as the highest in the world standing at 216 m, however, after some independent research it was discovered that it is not in fact the highest bungee jump but rather the highest from a single arch bridge (funny they seemed to leave that detail out…) It was a pretty crazy thing to watch and Karina and I ended up screaming our heads off when Nate jumped, don’t ask me why. After that we went into the Tsitsikamma National Park and hiked the Otter Trail, which is this phenomenal hike along the coast with crazy surf and boulders on one side and steep forest mountainside on the other. The trail ends at a waterfall that collects in a freezing cold pool. This was by far the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, though, that afternoon we had to leave Storm’s River to go to Port Elizabeth for a daylong safari/game drive thing.

Our safari started at 10:00 Tuesday morning when we were picked up from our hostel. The tour started in Addo Elephant Park where were drove around and saw a bunch of elephants basically. It was incredible. Then we went to a private game reserve and saw a ton of different wildlife. To touch on a few, we saw impalas, wart hogs, lions, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests, springbok (SA’s rugby team is named after this antelope), and hippos. Scout’s detailed field notes will be in the next post. Our guide, Barbara was so incredibly knowledgeable, you could ask her about anything and she knew the animals’ behavior to great precision. We were feed twice and we did a night game drive where we saw a porcupine. It was a really great experience and I was a little skeptical of this whole safari thing going in.

On Wednesday, we headed back west to a touristy town off a chain of lagoons, Knysna. We were there two nights and spent most of our time eating and going out to eat since there were both delicious and easily accessible restaurants. On Thursday, we did a little canoe trip down the Goukamma River along farmlands and hills. The weather was overcast and a little drizzly but still quite enjoyable. We did go out to a local bar in Knysna but it was just tragic, more tragic than even the township pub so Im not going to go into much detail on that.

Finally, come Friday we headed to George. We stayed at a cute little hostel there and the next day went inland about an hour to Outdshoorn to go to the Cango Wildlife Ranch. The drive to Outdshoorn actually really reminded me of New Mexico in some parts with vistas and red clay so that was pretty fun for me. Really the only reason we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch was because we knew we could pet baby cheetahs and tigers there and besides that one attraction it was very underwhelming, especially after doing a safari in PE. And although I was reluctant to give that lame institution anymore of my money, I had to pet some cheetahs. The ones we petted were actually more like teenagers but still so amazing to be around. Plus cheetahs actually pur, like freaking house cats! So flipping cool. 

The whole George/Outdshoorn experience was interesting though because it was the most white Afrikaaner place I have been to of yet. Everyone around you speaks in Afrikaans. This was awkward because I am currently negotiating this problematic inclination I have of thinking every white Afrikaaner is racist. And the truth is many white Afrikaaners are racist. Finally, that afternoon we left for Cape Town and by the grace of God got into CT at a reasonable time that evening. And alas, the trip was over. 

I would love to attach pictures but there are just too many. If you want to see them, check out my facebook.

My lively and Eventful Three-Day Weekend

I’m writing a few weeks after the matter but I wanted to record the awesomeness that transpired in this period. The story begins the week of March 14^th. This was by all means an unenjoyable time where everyone in the house spent the entire week pouring over their laptops and staying up much later than usual writing a 20 page paper for our Poverty and Development class, which was due that Friday. Although I did have a leg up in the process because the subject of the paper is pretty much everything I have been engaging with these past three years at school, I did, nonetheless, devote a lot of time to this paper. But my hard work paid off and I managed to finish relatively early Thursday evening, which enabled me to partake in the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Mainly, I went with a few of my friends to Dubliner, an Irish bar on Long Street (Cape Town’s less sleazy Bourbon St.) downtown to have a beer and bounce. Honestly, I would have stayed longer but my comrades were naughty and hadn’t quite finished their papers yet. Going out, even for a bit, may have been a poor choice though because I had a 8am class the next day and thus spent the rest of my weekend in sleep deprivation but hell, Im still young!

Friday night I went to see this awesome, high-energy band, Goldfish, play at this trendy club called Trinity. Trinity has four floors and was packed with young and hip cats (especially young beautiful South Africa boys), which was actually surprising. Some clubs are definitely cool but sometimes you go to them and the crowd is rather geriatric. There was also a large group of Americans which was odd, most of them were from CIEE Arts and Science. Im pretty sure the Americans were the most shameless groupies as well. They all fought to the front, kicking and screaming, failing to maintain the cool composure characteristic of South Africans. Again we went home a little earlier than I would have liked but we had a wine tasting at 9 in the morning (WTF!! Who in the world schedules a wine tasting as 9 in the morning, SAs are total alcoholics!) so it was all for the better.

Our wine tasting was in Stellenbosch, the wine region to the North of CT. We rolled up to the swanky Neethlingshof estate, had a rather short cellar tour, I finally learned what tannins are (sort of), and tasted 3 white wines and 2 reds. One of the white wines tasted like litchi fruit and I actually really liked it and the winery’s signature red wine was fabulous. The best part was visiting the vineyard’s wine shop and realizing these wines were actually dirt-cheap. I picked up two whites for 40 Rand a pop, which is about 6 US dollars. I would have gotten that really good red which was R100 but I just didn’t have enough cash on me, that’s only 14 dollars! After that we went to the Stellenbosch market and had a picnic. Saturday was actually incredibly hot, about 90 degrees, so once we got back from Stellenbosch a few of us went to Clifton Beach to cool off in the cold Pacific waters. Then, that evening Cape Town was putting on a sort of Carnival parade celebration thing along Long Street so I also went to that. The parade was pretty entertaining (I believe the tequila shots I had taken and this really silly bar on Long St. called “Bobs” helped as well) and then when it was over there was a DJ club party thing on the street and vendors selling beer everywhere. 

So Im sorry to say this but the story keeps going. The following day, Sunday, we then went to Robben Island. As you could guess it was both fascinating and sobering. All the tour guides were actually former prisoner and we got to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, a beached whale (not part of the standard tour but definitely sad), and the limestone quarry where countless prisoners, including Mandela, slaved away in grueling physical labor while also engaging in the discourse that continued their struggle against apartheid. On a lighter note, Robben Island has the third largest population of Africa penguins and were often seen about the island huddling under bushes, waddling about, and doing other painfully adorable things. After Robben Island I took a much-needed break, which was lovely. But don’t worry my weekend was not about to come to an end, the next day was International Human Rights Day and a public holiday in SA!

So Monday I escaped Cape Town and went on a hike. I went with a South African friend so it was also a nice break from the Americans I am surrounded by day-in and day-out. The area is called Silvermine, and had a perfect mix of water (my fav) and sweeping views of Western Cape Town. We hiked to this cave called the elephants eye and chilled out looking at the incredible sight. After our hike we went to this Thai place and I got the first green curry that has ever lived up to Mudu Noodles in Santa Fe. I will definitely be going back to that place. 

Well the weekend had finally come to an end and I spent the remainder of my week in front of a computer making an Internet user manual for Yabonga. The next week was spring/fall break and Ill be blogging about that next. To bring it full circle though, when I got back from break Yabonga had printed off my manuals, so I am now a published author (not) and I got an A+ on my Poverty and Development paper. Pretty cool!

Hugging a cask that isnt even used for wine production

wine land

view from Elephant's Eye

Carnival

Me with some friends at the Goldfish concert

My Service Site and Project

So it has been quite a while since I have written. Yes, I know, I’m terrible. There are people here

 who actually update their blogs weekly I have no idea what is wrong with them. You are in South

 Africa; get the hell away from your computer. Sorry I’m being a little passionate, I have just spent 

two weeks straight on a computer and my eyes are shot and my carpel-tunnel syndrome is thoroughly

 flared.

Regardless, I realized I should update some of you on what exactly it is I’m doing here. The program

I’m on is a service-learning program, thus I take classes while working at a service site, developing a

service project. My service site is at Yabonga, a HIV/AIDS outreach and support NGO. They have a 

bunch of support centers out in the townships where they run adult support groups, youth groups, and a 

program for orphaned and vulnerable children. Yabonga only employs HIV positive people, and mainly

women. I, with another girl from my program, are helping Yabonga oversee and supervise this new

program for post-high school youth who did not move on to tertiary education and who have grown out 

of Yabonga youth groups. Each youth works part-time as an assistant in one of Yabonga’s programs for

a 9-month contract. Their stipend comes from a government fund. During all of this, they are also

supposed to be receiving skills building courses and career counseling. Myself and the other girl are 

supposed to be mentors to these youth, of which there are 7. We visit them at their sites in the townships 

and are tying to spearhead the personal development aspect of the program. We also have been writing 

teaching manuals for Internet and computer skills, which was why I was on a computer this whole past 

week. Overall a good mix of office work and out in the field stuff. Its definitely challenging, particularly 

working with someone else (I’m kinda a control freak, I bet you couldn’t have guessed) but I do feel 

pretty comfortable in that setting so I guess that’s a good sign.

My Birthday and First South African Soccer Game

So as ya’ll probably already know, it was my birthday this past weekend. For it I decided to go to the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, which is an area right by Rondebosch were I live. On Saturdays, there is an organic market I was told so I thought I would check it out since, you know, I LOVE food. Although I had been forewarned, when I got there I quickly saw this was one of the bourgiest, WASPiest, hipsteriest places I had been to of yet. It was also filled with probably the greatest amount of most white people I had seen. It was complete foodie heaven, but of course, as we all know, foodie things bring in the white privileged crowd and it was packed. In spite of the dramatic inequality this venue represents I wasn’t going to let myself get too down because I love good, inspired, quality food and I just can’t feel guilty about that. I should just be thankful.

 The market didn’t really have much in the way of produce but it had a ton of food stalls specializing in a bunch of things: sushi, Thai food, Paella, pizzas, Mediterranean food, curries, Belgium waffles (don’t compare to Cinci though), silly mini pancakes, crepes, there was local wine and beer, desserts, smoothies, I think there was Northern European stuff but I wasn’t familiar, basically it was sublime. I got this one dish that was a potato pancake with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on top. It was incredible. Of course the meat version looked even better because it had bacon and smoked salmon on top as well. Here is a tally of what I ate in the span of two hours:

-potato pancake thingy

-mushroom kebab (amazing and quite filling)

-bloody mary (yum)

-mini lemon meringue tart (I could have made it better)

-a lemon mint smoothie

-countless tasters

To be honest I thought I ate more because I practically waddled the rest of the day from being so rotund. Then at night I went to this club and it was ‘whatever’ as I would say. Alas, birthdays rarely reach ones expectations in the end. At least I didn’t spend my 21^st over the toilet, unlike most of my friends.

The next, Sunday, I got to see my first professional soccer game. Apparently, the game was going to be at the World Cup stadium but U2 had just had a concert and I guess they couldn’t clean up in time (fucking Bono playing shows, prancing around pretending to relieve poverty and preventing me from going to the Greenpoint stadium.) Either way the teams that were playing were the Santos and the Chiefs. The Chief are the most popular team in SA and the crowd was a sea of yellow and black, the team’s colors. Having absolutely no previous knowledge about the game of soccer it was quite an educational experience. With the help of one of the girls in our group, Ore, I actually began to pick it up. Unfortunately though the game ended in a tie, which is all-in-all rather anti-climactic.

High Africa

So this past weekend we went to a place out called "High Africa" in the Western Cape for an “Expectations Workshop.” Basically, it was meant for workshopping and team building exercises among the group and with most of the staff. Honestly there was a little too much workshopping and conferencing and not enough activities. I know ya’ll are sick of hearing this but it was absolutely gorgeous out in the bush. Now this isn’t like safari bush, like the savanna or something, the compound was right off the Breede River (if you care to look it up) and there were mountains in every direction you looked (and then mountains after those mountains). I would just like to make a small note right here: I have officially been swimming in a river in Africa. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT!?!?

            The first day we got there, Friday, we started on a nice low ropes course and it was fine, we did some team bonding and accomplished the task: etcetera, etcetera. Cool. However the next day, after hours of conferencing, in the worst afternoon heat, we went on to the high ropes course. I didn’t find out until after but I was only one of two people who had never done anything like that before. Great. The other girl was from Bangladesh and has extreme fears of heights and water. So at the end of the day I did 5 out of 6 of the elements but let me tell you I am not a heights person and I really don’t see how walking across beams 12 m off the ground makes you feel good about yourself. Like you really overcame some great fear: I was terrified the whole time and all I felt was anxiety and then relief when it was over: nothing else. I also don’t understand how such activities could be misconstrued with “fun.” I did however enjoy belaying down off the structure at the end. It took a lot of deep breaths to get to that point but I just have to actually do things instead of standing around thinking about what I have to do and getting freaked out. We also did the Leap of Faith where you jump off a beam trying to grab a trapeze. I, of course, grabbed the bar and then slipped instantly. I have weak, midget hands; I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Finally, I also thought I’d mention that I climbed a wall for the first time as well. I never realized how sheltered from normal childhood activities I was. All those years of art camp, dance intensives, and trips to museums didn’t really prepare me for these things. But hey, at least I am cultured right?

            Well enough about these silly artificial activities, I want to talk about the four things I enjoyed most at this retreat. The scenery was phenomenal and just the flora and fauna in general was magnificent. The landscape actually reminded me of New Mexico quite a bit. Second, the river, because I like water and swimming in bodies of water. It was a little murky and I definitely freaked myself out about leeches and other unknown river creatures but I still went running in every chance I got. Third, there was a deck that overlooked the river and I spent every spare chance I could sitting on it looking out and breathing deeply. Then finally, there were three cats on the premise, and the one who was the friendliest was called Misty. How perfect. We also had three great guides, one of which I befriended and who has invited me to tag along for some great hikes in Cape Town. All in all I would say it has been a wonderful weekend. I was pretty much this close to chaining myself to the deck so that I would never have to leave. Ha.

            Well tomorrow is our first day of classes. The honeymoon is over. I cant believe I will actually have to start doing work but maybe by now I am ready…….NOT. I have become exceptionally skilled at the art of nothingness. I’ll be holding classes when I get back for all who are interested.

Thatched Roofs

Hell

St. James Beach and Constantia

Yesterday, a small (more manageable) group of us went to St. James Beach and Constantia. The day was one of the hottest yet and escaping to the coast was the best idea. Though it took a while we also rode the train out there (there is a station right by our house), which was pretty cool. St James Beach is known for its colorful changing huts and I’m sure if you have ever looked in a Cape Town guidebook you have seen them.  The beach, to little surprise was gorgeous, but also secluded, and (thank god) not windy. The water is also relatively warmer because it’s in a big bay and not on the Atlantic side of the cape. Apparently that makes a difference in temperature, don’t ask my why. Last week we went to Camp’s Bay, which is on the other side of the cape and it was awful, the water was near freezing and it was so windy we were being pelted with sand the whole time. St. James also has tidal pools, which I was pretty excited about until I couldn’t find one thing other than seaweed. Other than that though it was sublime.

Constantia is a wine growing area in Cape Town. There is also a region north of Cape Town called Stellenbosch but that is its own deal. Like any wine producing area it was filled with large sweeping estates and way too many obscenely wealthy people. It is really amazing going back and forth between places like Constantia and the townships. They are two starkly different worlds: the haves and the have-nots. Cape Town is a first and third world city.

Well ignoring the apparent social issues of South Africa, the scenery was unbelievable. I’m not much of a cyclist but I would love spend a day biking through that area. We went to Groot Constantia, a large vineyard and winery in the area. We missed the last cellar tour of the day but gladly lounged around for a wine tasting. This was my first official wine tasting and as anyone who chatted to me right before I left knows, this was the only thing I wanted to do once I got to Cape Town. This one small activity, which I am still currently barred from doing in the US was what got me to let go of the anxiety of travel and get really excited about coming here. Odd I know, but hey, whatever is necessary. Lucky for me so far my time in Cape Town has been nothing but perfect. Cheers!

My pastie ass on the beach. There you go Mom, a pic of me

The Crew