MIA in SA

     Sorry for the infrequent blog posts. I guess since my life here is normal, I don't know why people want to here about it! But then, a combination of a Facebook post from my mother (parents and fb-who thought it was a good idea?) and listening to various internet/technology problems, I remember: "I'm in Africa! I get to work with kids all the time! This is actually kind of interesting to people." At least, to people who have decided to read my blog, I mean.
     So, since my last post, more kids have been discharged from Brooklyn Chest. My capstone is to introduce an NGO that works with adult patients and life skills (If anyone knows of one, I would love some help!). I went to another soccer game. And, I spent a weekend in a township. Also, my friends have officially spread out across the globe. I have one in China, one in Jordan, one in France, some in Argentina, two in the UK, and some back home!
     Anyways, one of my kind brothers told me to put more pictures up and less words. So, I'll follow his advice.

Me with a penguin. I refer to all penguins here as Sparky, in honor of Willy's adopted penguin.

Emily, myself, Joel, and "Bubbles" (Laura) at the Greenpoint Stadium.

The group on our way to Cape Point, Africa's most south-western point. 

We made it! Our driver, Mark, is on the left, and Angela, our director, is on the right.

Enjoying the spring weather at Hudson's Burger Joint in City Center.

I buried Elzino in the sand.

The kids enjoying a rare trip outside of the hospital. For some, it was their first trip to a beach!

The school age kids and their nurses/doctors with Table Mountain in the background.

A cool Vespa.

   

Garden Route!

     Hello! I survived my Spring Break. The fears of not surviving included: being run off the road (left side, that is) by crazy South Africans, being eaten alive on a safari, trampled by an elephant, pecked to death by an ostrich, or something drastic in the Indian Ocean. NONE OF THAT HAPPENED!!! I'll take you all on a brief, day-by-day description.
     Friday: Visit an AIDS clinic for class, but barely take it all in because I was too excited/nervous about renting the car and then driving said car. After a great trip to the clinic, we were on our way. We were supposed to have a Yaris and I was looking forward to getting a Flip video of a Yaris in South Africa to complement Thomson's video of a Yaris in Nica, but we ended up with a nice Honda Civic. Emily, the other 21 year old driver, and I drove around a parking garage for about 15 minutes before hitting Main Road.... We took off for the N2 towards George and arrived in Mossel Bay around 6, just in time for some dinner. Mexican, of course. The drive was beautiful and quite hilly and mountainy. Drivers turned out to be friendly once we got out of the city.
     Saturday: Our hostel man told us of a cheaper safari than the one we had originally planned, so in the morning, we went to Botlierskop Game Reserve for a day of safari-ing and elephant riding. The safari was great. It was only the four of us and the guide, Neil. He took us all around the reserve, which is owned by a private family. We could get out at the giraffes and were about 15 feet away from them. Neil told us that two died last year; one from drowning and the other was struck by lightning. A natural lightning rod, I suppose. The elephant ride was so cool. I had no idea how it would work and I decided not to overthink it too much. Details such as getting on and then steering were pushed to the back of my mind. I was on the dad/husband in the family of 3. Sam is 42 years old. Tsotsie, the mom/wife is 38 and her name means mischievous from her youth. Their son, Chima, means surprise because no one knew he was coming. He is 4 and still in "class" to become and elephant safe to ride. The two adults were saved from a culling program, where they kill elephants to reduce overpopulation.
     Sunday: This was a busy day. We started out at an ostrich farm. They farm ostrich here like we farm cattle. I stood on the egg and sat on the beast and fed it little pellets. I decided to not die of a heart attack by riding it. I can only handle so much bird. After that, we were driving to the Cango Caves, when we passed our other housemates on the side of the road riding camels. Only in Africa.. The caves were amazing. They were quite cavernous. Apparently, they used to hold concerts in the caves until 1994, when vandalism began to ruin the different rooms. Once we finished the caves, we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch. It was basically a zoo, but way cooler because..well, it just was.
     Monday: We went on a canoe safari in Knysna (pronounced nice-na). It ended up being kayaks, but still fun. I just can't get away from unstable boats on the water. I wore some of my rowing stuff in honor of the day's event.
     Tuesday: We were in Plettenberg by now, our last stop before heading home. Here, we went on a waterfall zipline. It was amazing. The owner of the grounds was great and talked two of the group into doing it. He made it sound all deep and life lesson-y. Of course, they loved it! After we finished, we ate lunch while watching crazy people jump off the highest bungee jump in the world. After watching it for so long, I could almost, kind of, a little bit, slightly, talk myself into it. It was cool to watch people go, but I remained comfortable in the cafe. I also went swimming in the Indian Ocean. Not quite as cool as my dad swimming in Antartica, but he can keep that one to himself..
     Wednesday: For some reason, we woke up very early on this trip. Since all of the towns we visited were summer towns, and therefore dead, nothing was open in the morning, so we began our long, 7 hour ride home. Magically, my camera died on the ride home!
     After we got home, we had the house to ourselves. It was amazing and we took full advantage of it. We basically just ate and slept. It was much needed after having such a busy 2 months. Wow, I have been here for 2 months. I can't believe it's half over!! I have so much to do still!!! Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip. Hope you all enjoy!

View from our safari. This reservoir provides all the water to Mossel Bay, our first stop. 

Two zebras, just loving each other.

Zebras. There is a baby one in there somewhere.

Chima, the surprise elephant. He would run backwards. So funny.

Sunset in Mossel Bay

Standing on actual ostrich eggs!!

My newest pair partner!

Ziplining. Maybe I can talk my mom into doing it in November?!

All of us at the end of ziplining.

   

Tot siens

     That's "good bye" in Afrikaans. The language I'm taking here. And also what I'll be saying to Cape Town until Thursday! See, while all my friends' statuses are about one of two things; going abroad or going back to school, my status will soon read "Garden Route." That's what I'm doing on my second spring break of 2011. My first one was, of course, last March and mostly consisted of wet spandex and van rides. This one will be quite different. No 5am wake up calls, unless we decide to do a morning safari. I'll get wet at the beach or ziplining down a waterfall. Instead of me running, I'll ride an ostrich. And instead of driving a big, white, sketchy van, I'll sit on an elephant. I don't have any substitutes for hours spent overtaking/overwhelming Panera though. Simply too unique to compare.
     This past week, I have really understood what it's like to live away from home. Everyone else is just starting up a new school year and I've almost completed half of mine. This was the first week I've really felt far, far away. My old summer house is being sold soon. My dad is on Gould's orientation, which I was doing this same weekend 6 years ago. My mom is becoming closer than ever to my childhood best friend's family in my absence. It's all just very strange. When I left, and since I've been here, nothing at home has changed much. Now, life is moving on and, for some reason, it's surprising to me. I guess it won't be July when I get home..
     Back over here, things are picking up rapidly. My capstone, the independent project I have to implement at my site, is about to be concrete. I'm thinking about bringing an NGO into the hospital to either help promote literacy through their new library or find one that caters to the needs of toddlers in order to make the nursery school a more sustainable idea. I'm excited to start researching organizations and get to know the people who run them. Can you say interesting and amazing?! I'm really growing attached to the kids at the school as well. They were all so sad to see us off today because they know we're not coming next week. I don't want to think about how hard it'll be in November. But, at least, one little boy can count to 30 now!!!

Here are some pictures from a high ropes course, "family dinners," avoiding homework, touring, and memory lane!

I'm assuming I'll make many faces similar to this one in the next week..

Elephants, ostriches, left side of the road driving, etc.

Emily and I at Marco's, traditional African restaurant. 

I have since tried caterpillar; tasted fishy, but also weirdly crunchy.

Using Social Research Methods books to help complete a Jillian Michael's workout.

Not quite like a 5 Alive workout..

Laura G, Emily, and me at the aquarium in the frog section.

SHS/HYA soccer days.

Me, Alexa, Taylor, Leah, and Lauren

   

It's that time of year

     First off, sorry for not posting in such a long time. It's just I have this funny thing called school and it gets in the way of everything else I want to do while I'm here, like blog about my current life! And school gets in the way of getting to do cool things while I'm here. Maybe, I should talk to my professors about it?
     Classes started about a month ago, which means that this week is the normal week to have papers and tests. When I'm at GW though, I can usually just buckle down for a day or two and git 'er done. Here, I would rather go to the aquarium and see divers feed sea turtles and stingrays, or go back to Old Biscuit Mill to have a nice Belgian waffle with bananas and chocolate sauce. I don't want to be stuck inside all day writing a paper about modernization and dependency theories. Especially when I can sum up a 4,000 word paper into 35: two theories, one thought up by the West during the Cold War (modernization) and the other thought up by developing countries in response (dependency). Neither work very well, typically because of poor implementation. The end. Luckily, this is what I write about at home, so I can look at two years of paper writing to fluff it up a bit!
     Since I had a lot of work to do last weekend, of course I decided to go to the aquarium. Like I said, it was mostly to watch the divers feed the animals. There are tons of fish, turtles, stingrays, and sharks in this one tank. I really wanted to see them feeding the sharks, but it was the wrong day. Instead, the divers fed the turtles and the stingrays. Stingrays' mouths are on the bottom of their body, so the divers literally place the food in their mouths. And the turtles get so hungry and aggressive, the divers hide their food behind a little board and quickly toss it into the turtle's mouth. I also got to see penguins, my best friend's and brother's favorite animal. I went home and youtubed penguins afterwards. So cute!
     A lot of kids are getting discharged from Brooklyn Chest in the next month. It's so exciting, but sad because a lot of new kids are coming. On Monday, one little girl, about 1-2 years old, would not stop crying so I walked her around the ward. It turns out, she could still see her mother signing all the papers she needs to admit her. It was heartbreaking. Of course, today when I saw the same little girl, she was perfectly happy. We got to sit in on a doctors' meeting this morning and learn about the new cases. It was interesting to learn about the kids' home lives and how they were infected and their past medical history. I didn't know that the stigma that comes with having TB can be just as bad, or worse, as the stigma of having HIV/AIDS. People here seriously don't talk about it.
     I don't have a lot of pictures to show you. I went to a soccer game in Green Point last week, so I'll get those up soon.

Sara and me at the aquarium, at the Nemo exhibit.

Western Province: Jou Lekker Ding

You cool thing

Women, Wine, and Picnics

     So, so much for updating you all on a more regular basis. I just get caught up in a lot of different things during the week. Sunday night blog writing is an excellent way to put off some homework though..

     I was actually pretty busy this week, considering I was only in class for 3 days. Since Tuesday was International Women's Day, classes were cancelled both Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, Sara and I went to service in the afternoon. Another girl in the program, Emily, tagged along because her site was closed for the day. It's so much fun bringing people to Brooklyn Chest. Who doesn't love playing with little babies?! Tuesday was actually Women's Day. People here treat it like the big deal it is. All the men wished us girls well. We celebrated by going to the Company's Gardens and having a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day, so I just wandered around outside and some of the others went and explored some museums. It was nice to be apart from everyone, if only for a few hours. It can get a bit hectic living, learning, and servicing together. For dinner, David and Joel, the two boys in the house, cooked us a lovely meal in honor of Women's Day. I'm definitely bringin the seriousness this holiday is celebrated with back home!
     Wednesday and Thursday brought normal classes. We had a guest lecturer talk to us about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that attempted to help heal a deeply split South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Basically, victims of apartheid were given an opportunity to publicly tell their story. At the same time, the perpetrators of apartheid were able to request amnesty in exchange for their honesty in telling their stories. There are many different views on the success of the TRC. This is a trend I'm noticing in SA; mixed reviews of the post-apartheid government and how successful they actually were at alleviating the massive amounts of inequality that was so evident during apartheid.
     Service was pretty exciting this week. One of the girls, Asive, was discharged on Friday. Sara and I brought in lollipops for celebration. It's a great thing when the kids are discharged, but I can't help but feel sad at the same time. In many situations, life at the hospital is much more stable than what the children face at home. Balanced meals, no violence, no drugs or alcohol, mandatory school, and friends around all the time are things that might not be so available at home. On a lighter note, all those years in elementary school learning how to type on those silly programs came into use when I caught a boy "hunting and pecking" instead of proper "asdf jkl;" finger placement. I began to teach him how to type properly and he loved it! I have never felt like such a proficient typer before last week!
     On Saturday, CIEE took us wine tasting. I am not the biggest wine lover. In fact, I usually take a sip of my mom's and make the same face I've made since I first tried wine at church. This changed yesterday. I actually found two kinds I like. One of them is called Cap Classique. It's champagne, just not from France. Typical French won't let other people use the same name! I learned that vintage basically just means the year it was made, not that it IS vintage. We also learned about the process of making wine. Apparently, some of the best oak to put the red wine in is from America! Woohoo! All I could think of when we were in the wine cellar, was the wine barrel lid my mom sells as a lazy susan.
     We also went to a rugby game. It was raining and the men's white shorts were completely disgusting before they even finished warming up. I loved it. Rugby players are actually just monsters. Their thighs, arms, and necks are just too big to be normal humans. I just don't believe them! Apparently, doping is totally taboo in rugby. I read in the paper last week that 19 university players had tested positive and the union is punishing them very severely.
     Here are some pictures from this week! Enjoy!

The ladies enjoying our home cooked meal!

Me at Simonsig, where we had our wine tasting

Getting excited to watch the rugby game!

At the Company's Gardens for our picnic. They have massive dinosaur-esque birds there. Not so relaxing for me..

James Lebron..

Sara out with the kids during their recess. Antique rollerblades=stressful, but fun, time for the two of us..

At the vineyard, part of the separation process. It was a little too science heavy for me. But, they do have a four year degree in wine-making here!

New lazy susan product, Mother?

My new drink of choice!

    

Time flies

     It's hard to believe I have been here for over a month. This is the longest I have ever been out of the country. It has really flown by. It seems like I've been here my whole life practically. It probably helps that I wasn't very busy before I left. This experience has been great so far. The group I'm with are a bunch of exciting people. No one wants to sit in the house and do nothing. We've done some exciting trip every free minute. It's funny because everything is still such an adventure that even taking a 10 minute bus ride to a big grocery store can be fun. Hopefully, the next 3 months don't go as quickly though. I don't want this adventure to end!
     I finished my first full week of service. It was amazing. I got to know the school age kids really well. They are a super diverse and lively bunch. It really does make an interesting dynamic having first graders in the same classroom as eighth graders. The teacher has me go work with the little kids learning to count, spell, etc. I had to explain division to a girl and I think I just confused her. I'm horrible at math and apparently, that includes third grade math. In my defense, the teacher lets them use calculators and I'm trying to explain it to them the way I vaguely remember being taught. I also couldn't understand a boy when he was saying his name and I was writing it in dot letters for him to learn how to spell. I think I may have given him a slight identity crisis..
     We have a long weekend right now. South Africa celebrates Women's Day, so no service or classes on Tuesday. South Africa is one of those countries that has a billion public holidays that everyone has off. It's strange though because the primary and high schools all have Monday off as well. A four day weekend rarely happens at home, I feel like. This is also coming from the girl who had the most snow days of her life once she got to college. Everyone here is planning their spring breaks. It's weird to think of spring break in general because at GW, that would mean more practice and some meal money. Here, it means "cheapest safaris in SA" or "all inclusive trip to Mozambique." Or for those of us on a stricter budget, googling "cheapest rental cars" to do the Garden Route, a coastal driving route that has a lot of cool activities to do. It's the first week of September, so for all the American teachers and students still studying at home, you'll just be starting. If my mom doesn't come during spring break, then I'll brave the open road and visit various beaches along the eastern coast of SA and, hopefully, swim in the Indian Ocean!
     This weekend, we went to a market in Bo-Kaap. It was exciting because one of our tour guides from a few weeks ago saw us and was so happy we could make it. Unfortunately, it was the least exciting markets I have been to since coming here. Afterwards, we took a train (first class...5 rand) to a beach town yesterday. I had fish and chips and it was amazing. I walked into some really great beachy stores and I got excited to think my summer is just starting again. Almost, it's still really chilly here. Today, we went to a market near the Green Point Stadium, where the World Cup was. The taxi driver said he was driving some Asians around and they said after their 2008 Games, a bunch of the stadiums were torn down and the materials and land were re-used. Cape Town spends millions of rand a year to maintain the structure while they are installing public bathrooms in the townships for people to use as their main toilet.  It seems like a lot of people wish the World Cup had helped them financially a lot more than it ending up doing. The market was amazing. It's been my favorite one thus far. I bought a beautiful painting and want to go back to buy some more.
     Here are some pictures from this week. Hope you enjoy

My new friend, Cole, and I sitting in the circle before class starts. The teacher tries to make light of the kids' illness in order to keep them happy. When they have to get their blood drawn, she says they're visiting the vampire.

Sara and the boy I gave the identity crisis to. His name is Ayubulela

Harry Potter appreciation is universal, naturally.

This girl, Asive, is going home this Friday. She can be a bit of a diva sometimes.

A picture of the beach we went to on Saturday, Kalk Bay. I can't wait to go back there when it's summer!

And here is a picture of one of our mini-bus adventures. They are always interesting

Hakuna Matata

     I know The Lion King takes place in Kenya, but I'm still on the same continent so I feel connected to it still! The running joke here is that all foreigners (aka Americans) expect to see lions as soon as they step off the plane. Anyways, I watched and realized that the theme for my past weekend was close to Timon and Pumbaa's life motto. It was our first free weekend since beginning the program and we managed to still pack it pretty full.
     On Friday, I somewhat finalized a service schedule. It's nice to finally have something concrete. I'm going 4 days a week from 2-5 hours a day, coming out to about 20 hours a week. As of now, I'll be working with the children who are too young to go to school, but still need to be stimulated in some way. Basically, I'm going to research engaging activities that small children do in preschools and pre-kindergartens. I'm also going to see if I can do an after school program with the older kids because they are free from 2PM until dinner. That may be too much though. We'll see! (see my use of hakuna matata there?)
     Saturday morning, we went to Old Biscuit Mill. For all you locavores, it is heaven! I have actually never seen so much good food in one place. It's not quite like a farmers' market because most of the food is already prepared, but it's like a farmers' market restaurant type of thing. They also have some really great and unique clothes, shoes, blankets. Those come with your typical farmers' market price though. But, my group and I decided we're going back there every Saturday because the food was amazing! I had an eggplant sandwich that the woman said would change my life, and it did. I finally found an eggplant product that I liked!
     Saturday afternoon, we went to the Waterfront. I don't think I will ever get sick of that place. We took a minibus, which is a super cheap taxi. It's cheap because they squeeze 30 people into about a 15 passenger van. They have a guy who sits behind the passenger seat and yells out the window to people on the sidewalk. It's mayhem. Here is a video of a relatively tame one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPeJkw8koZo&feature=related. I'll try to take a Flip one myself. Minibusses are super cheap. It's about a 15 minute drive from the Waterfront back to our house on the UCT campus. The 10 of us hired and it only cost me 7 rand, or about a dollar.
     Sunday, we decided to hike Table Mountain. This trip really put to test my hakuna matata-ness. For those of you who are lucky enough to be a Riley (or a rower), you know that we don't do anything that late in the morning. For those lucky to have my Dad as a father, you certainly know that starting a hike close to noon just won't go well. For those of you lucky enough to have a brain, you know that hiking without a map is just plain stupid. Well, we didn't start our hike until noon and our directions were written on a scrap piece of paper that included things like "turn at the square house." We also started the hike off by going down a path. I had given up finding Table Mountain long before any of this. However, our detours led us to some zebras and I got to see an exciting arrest over the illegal picking of Table Mountain National Park flowers. We didn't get to Table Mountain and some of us only got a little bit up Devil's Peak. Luckily, we still have a teensy bit longer here.
Here is a picture of the tables at Old Biscuit. They're old doors! And they had hay stacks with turf around tables for people to sit on outside!

The remnants of my crepe. And the ever present Exeter Cycles water bottle that doesn't leave my side.

Did I mention that while at the waterfront we saw The Real Houswives of Atlanta filming their vacation episode? I don't watch the show, but will keep an eye out for this episode

And here are the zebra we saw. I got too excited and forgot to zoom in all my pictures, but if you look in front of the second tree from the left you'll see one. *Note to self, don't wear tight white jeans..

I'm going to try to update this a little more often in order to stop this novel writing that I'm doing. For most of you it's summer and you should be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. At least when I'm writing this, it's in order to avoid some homework!