Again...More Photos

More Photos

Here are some photos!

The first photo is the sunset at Pringle Bay. The next photo is Mt. Stellenbosch. I woke up to this mountain just outside my window on my first morning in South Africa.

Back in the US

After about 30 hours of traveling, losing luggage in Minneapolis, missing a flight in Minneapolis, finding all of my luggage in GR I am back in Charlevoix! It was sad to leave everyone in SA, but it is great to be back in the states. I missed a lot of people and I was very happy that Janay and my parents were able to meet me at the airport. I had such a great time on my trip and I would like to thank all of you who read my blog over the past six weeks. I know that some of you may have freaked out because I was unable to post blogs a whole lot during my trip, but I am back and I am safe so....no worries! I survived 60 hours on a plane, bungee jumping, shark diving, zip lining, absailing, mountain climbing, being outnumbered by girls 5-1, and being in another hemisphere on a different contintent. I honestly have no regrets from the entire trip. I did everything that I wanted to do and then some. So it is great to be absolutely content in knowing that I took advantage of every opportunity I had. If anyone has a chance to travel to South Africa take advantage of all of your time there because there are millions of different things that you can do while you are in the most beautiful country in the world.

So Long, Farewell.....

Sunday, April 26......Pack! It was difficult to pack all of the stuff that I bought into a suitcase, because I bought soooooo much stuff. However, I found ways to fit everything in and I did not have leave anything in Africa. It was an absolute beautiful final day in SA, and after packing we had our final dinner with the Taylors and thanked them for everything they had done for us over the past six weeks. We got "fetched" at 8:00 pm to leave for the airport. I was very sad in the bus on the drive to Cape Town. I kept thinking about every individual person that I will miss and that I built a relationship with, and it is still hard to think about those people even now...a few days later. I hope to never forget the people that I met on the trip.

Farewell Brunch

This morning we had a farewell brunch where we all invited a couple of guests in order to thank them and make some "American" food for everyone. Every host family was there and a couple of teachers from Cloetesville were there as well. We made everyone some american pancakes with all sorts of toppings. We also made some scrambled eggs and bacon and whatever else sounds good for breakfast. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I helped make the pancakes....I made about 100 of those things so I don't need to bake or cook anything for a long time. I believe there were about 50 people there for the brunch, which was a very high number. After the brunch I hung out at the house for a bit and relaxed a bit. For dinner tonight we decided to go to Moyo for our last group activity of the trip. This was our last night in SA so we had as much fun as possible. Jeff and I actually went up on the stage and participated in a traditional Xhosa dance. The girls got a video of it and I actually did pretty well, maybe I am not as bad of a dancer as I thought I was!! ha.

April 23 and 24

Our final two days at Cloetesville..... For the first part of the day I talked with my students about the election and whether or not they thought that Zuma was good for the country. Their responses were very interesting and it was great to see how involved they all are in politics. For dinner tonight Jeff and I went to Mr. and Mrs. Siljeur's house to have dinner. They made soooo much food for us. It was absolutely delicious and it was great to see some of the teachers outside of the school. We were at their home for about 3 hours talking and drinking coffee/tea and it was one of my favorite nights of the entire trip.
On Friday we had our final day at Cloetesville Secondary School....this was a very sad day for everyone. The teachers gave us all a glass with the school logo on it and also a t-shirt with the school logo on it as well. Also, they bought a bunch of food so we had a little send off party as well. Jeff, Kate, and I all felt very glad to be a part of such a great school and amazing group of teachers at Cloetesville. It was very difficult to say goodbye to everyone and I believe that I got about 20 or so different email addresses from teachers and students so I will try to keep in touch with as many as possible.

Table Mountain!

On April 22 South Africa was voting for its next president. Everyone already knows that Jacob Zuma will win, but that is an entirely different conversation that I do not feel like typing about. Today we took the train in to Cape Town again. Jeff and I decided to leave the rest of the group and climb Table Mountain while everyone else decided to walk around and then take the cable car up the mountain. The path that we decided to take we were told takes about 1 - 3 hours depending on how fit you are. I sort of thought that it would take me a lot longer, but both of us made it up the mountain in just 55 minutes! I felt good about myself after the hike up the mountain, but my legs hated me! Once we got on top of the mountain we saw why it is called table mountain. The entire top is fairly flat with sort of a prarie and some boulders sitting on top. Jeff and I wandered around the mountain for a bit and did some bouldering and site seeing from every point we could find. We decided to head to the cable car and meet up with the rest of the group thinking that we would meet them once they were done absailing, but when we got there we were there in time to actually absail with them. This was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. We absailed from the highest absailing location in the world. On one side was a completely vertical cliff face and on ther other side was.....nothing! I made it down the cliff fairly quickly and once I got used to it I had a great time. After absailing we all took the cable car down where I ran in to a couple from Nebraska who noticed my cornhusker hat that I was wearing. So we talked about football for the entire ride down the mountain. This was a great talk and I really enjoyed talking about Big Red football!!!!

April 21

This morning at school Jeff, Kate, and I met with the acting principal Dr. Rogers and discussed similarities/differences between the school systems in the US and in South Africa. We had a long talk about the fact that in SA there is a lot of prayer and religious practices while in the States there is no way you can do the same thing in the public schools. After our talk Dr. Rogers took us for a drive in the township of Cloetesville so we could see where are students come from. This was a sobering moment because I could see that the only place where the students are safe and are taught social morals and values is while they are at school. Well over half of the students at the school do not have any home structure to speak of so it was important for us to see the role that school has for these students. In the afternoon we went on a tour of a completely different school than Cloetesville. We toured the "privileged" school called Rhenish. This school is located in Stellenbosch and is absolutely amazing. The majority of students are this school are white and every class is taught in English. This is much different than most schools in SA. It was great to see two completely different schools and situations during the same day and be able to compare that advantages of some compared with others. The most interesting thing is that Cloetesville and Rhenish are only about 5 minutes from each other but it feels like you are on the other side of the world in terms of facilities and resources.

Monday April 20th

On Sunday I just slept and went to a coffee house, so there is not much to talk about so I will skip ahead to Monday. Today at school I taught a lesson about the United States in the 1920s - The Roaring Twenties. We talked a little bit about prohibition and bootleggers/speak easies as well. Before school today I experienced my first South Africa blackout! We had no power for most of the morning so I did not get to shower and anything before school. I was surprised to see that the sandwich I made was actually a Peanut Butter sandwich because I had no idea what I was putting on the bread. At school I was approached by one of the teachers I have been working with and he invited me to join him and his family for dinner on Thursday night. Of course I accepted because this was quite an honor and it was great to feel so accepted by the teachers at the school!

Cape Town

Today we visited Cape Town....finally! We took the train from Stellenbosch into Cape Town very early in the morning. A lot of people say that the trains are not safe, but I did not notice anything that would make me feel the same. The first thing we did in Cape Town was head to the waterfront to board a ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island is an island located in the harbor at Cape Town and this was the place where non white political activists were held prisoner during the apartheid government. This was a very interesting and difficult day to get through because there was so much emotion and despair in the photos and stories. The man giving us the tour was a past prisoner of the facility and the stories that he told will never be forgotton. I could see the emotion in his face and hear in his voice how much being inprisoned on the island was a test of his character and emotional stability. After the tour of Robben Island we went to the District Six Museum. District Six is the place in Cape Town where the "coloured" people were forced out of their houses and then the white government demolished everything in the entire neighborhood accept for three churches. The museum had a mass collection of pictures that were donated by the residents of District Six, so the museum was extremely interesting because it was a collection of the people's history of the neighborhood. It was difficult to see photos taken before houses were demolished and then seeing the same street today where there is nothing but a slight resemblance of a road in a field of grass. Over the past couple of years I learned that some people are beginning to move back to the area if they can prove their residence before the forced departure. I believe that about 10,000 people are preparing to move back into the District over the next few years. This would be an amazing thing for the people who lost their houses and the family history and this would definitely help heal some wounds that still exist between the races in South Africa.

Wednesday April 15 - Friday April 17

Going back to school was definitely a change in pace. I went from being in a new place every single day to being back at the school and seeing the reality of most people's situation in South Africa. On Wednesday morning there was an assembly which lasted about 30 minutes. The soccer team at Cloetesville won a nationwide tournament over holiday and got recognized and congratulated by the staff and students. It was interesting because lining up for the assembly took longer than the actual assembly. Somehow they packed about 800 students into a room that should only have about 400. After school I walked around town and looked at some of the local shops and relaxed a bit because I needed to recover from holiday. Once dinner with the host family was over I laid in bed and watched a soccer game that was on TV - Manchester United v Porto. It was great seeing sports again, because I had not watched any game or anything on TV for about 4 weeks! Thursday was a fairly boring day at school. The class periods were only about 25 minutes each so there was not a whole lot of info that could be taught. Plus, the students were busy preparing the portfolios for their end of the term assessments. However, I talked with my students about the current economic crisis in comparison with the Great Depression in 1929 and into the 30s.
Friday was a very fun day at school. The school day is always shorter on Fridays - we get out at about 1:30 on Fridays compared to 2:30 every other day. I began to prepare a couple of lessons to teach about the Revolutionary War in the United States and also I prepared to teach a lesson about Prohibition and the New Deal program in the United States. After school the entire group went to a place called Moyo. This is a traditional Xhosa restaurant with dancing, music, and plenty of food. I danced quite a bit, which was fun because I am a horrible dancer. Overall it was a great couple of days back into the groove of things in Stellenbosch. I enjoyed holiday a tremendous amount, but it was nice to be back "home" and eating homemade food for a change.

Update

It is my last day in South Africa.... My plane is leaving in about 6 hours and I need to update my blog to let you all know what I have been up to over the past 2 weeks. I have been extremely busy over the past few days so I will post everything as soon as I get back to Charlevoix. I hope that all is well and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone! Take Care.

April 14----Last day of holiday

On our final day of holiday we woke up very early and went shark diving just off of a seal island in Gans Bay. This place is where they film all of the sharks that jump out of the water after seals and other animals. I was the first person to go into the tank......and I was the only person who did not listen to the instructions given, what a great combination. Within minutes of getting into the tack a great white shark head butted the cage and scared me half to death. After a few minutes I got out of the cage, but not after I saw about 5 different sharks within 5 feet of me. The people taking us on the tour told us this was the most they had seen all year - we saw 15 different sharks in the span of only 90 minutes. After shark diving we headed back to Stellenbosch and thus the end of our holiday. It was difficult saying Goodbye to Pierre and Antoinette and I hope that I will see them again!! I will have more about the days since holiday when I get more time next week, I hope that all is well back in the States, and GO TIGERS!

April 13

On this day we went to the point where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. This was a great place to visit because now I can say that I have been to the southernmost tip of Africa! Alex and I got a picture holding the Petoskey News Review because we are hoping there will put the pic in the paper after we get back....we will see. After this short trip we went on a boat ride on some jet boats in the harbor. The waves were massive on this day so the ride was very bumpy but very fun. After the boat ride and lunch at the sea side restaurant we left the Cape and headed for Gans Bay to shark dive the next day.

April 12 - Happy Easter

On Easter Sunday I went to the Anglican Church on Montague. The service was very nice and I enjoyed the sermon that was given. This was my first time being in an Anglican Church and it was nice experience. After church I joined the rest of the group to jump in the bus and head to Cape Agulhas (sp). The drive was fairly short and we arrived at our lodge around 3 pm. The lodge was only 1 block from the beach, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the ocean. After dinner at the lodge we played some euchre and had some fun at the outdoor bar connected to our lodge. This was probably the most fun we had on the entire trip mainly because the lodge consisted of things aimed at college age people.

April 11 - Tractor ride

We woke up very early on this day to take a tractor ride up a mountain. It does not sound very fun, but literally we went UP A MOUNTAIN. It wasn't like one of those tractor rides where you go around a corn field or up a hill, this was literally up a huge, rocky, steep mountain. The trip was a lot of fun, and we all had a great time. After we got back down from the mountain we went for a swim in one of the ponds on the base of the mountain. The water was very clean and refreshing because the mountain has a natural spring that empties into the pond. After swimming for a bit we went to the hot springs just outside of Montague. This place was like a large hot tub. Instead of a pool of cold water this was a pool of warm, steamy water. I got very suspicious though because I did not see any restrooms.....sooooo yeah. After the hot springs we went to dinner at a local restaurant called "Preston's". I discovered a very good micro beer from South Africa, which is interesting because SA is only known for wine. But overall it was a great, relaxing day for everyone in the group.

April 10 - Beach...again

We had another day at leisure in Mossel Bay....so I went to the beach again. It was nice and relaxing to sit and enjoy the warm weather and the white sand along with Ocean. At about 2 o'clock we left Mossel Bay for the town of Montague. We stayed in Montague for 2 nights and the place we stayed in was the nicest place of the entire trip. It reminded me of a Bed and Breakfast back in Charlevoix. After we arrived a few of us went out for a couple of drinks before eating dinner at a place called Monta Bella. The food was absolutely amazing. We had a great time at dinner - which took about 3 hours!

April 9 - Beach, Safari, etc.

This was a very relaxing day for everyone. In the early morning and afternoon we were given time to do whatever we wished to do in the town. I decided to go to the beach and swim in the Indian Ocean. The water was soooooo warm and I have grown to love the ocean (if there are no sharks). After the day at the beach we went on another Safari trip to a place called Botlierskop. This reserve was formed to provide sanctuary for animals who are being poached or mistreated. The animals were not "wild" and would not survive for a long time on their own. We saw 2 male and 2 female Lions ----they were quite intimidating and got very close to our vehicle, a Giraffe, some rhinos, wildebeasts, ect. The safari was pretty fun, but not as great as the safari at Addo the week before. After the safari we were all invited to Pierre and Antoinette's for dinner and drinks. THe dinner was absolutely amazing and it was nice to have a homemade meal for a change. Pierre taught Jeff and I the rules of cricket and we watched SOuth Africa beat Australia.

April 8 - Cango Caves

We arrived in Mossel Bay on the night of April 7th. On April 8th we went to an Ostrich Farm in the early morning and got to know a little bit about the farm and different products that are made from Ostrich. I actually got to sit on an Ostrich, it was very weird but fun. A couple of the people in the group got to race them around the area for a few seconds, which was absolutely hilarious. After the Ostrich Farm we went to the famous Cango Caves. One of my fears is not being able to see the sky, so caving was difficult for me, but I decided to join a few people in the Adventure Caving circuit where we had to contort our bodies into weird positions and crawl through spaces that were smaller than my body....it was stressful!! After caving we went to a local Afrikaans festival called "KKNK". Jeff and I ventured off on our own and found some great local music and some musicians who played a bunch of American music. The festival was a lot of fun and if I ever come back to South Africa I will definitely have to go to the festival again!

April 7 - BUNGEEEEEEEE

I actually bungee jumped!!!!! I do not think anyone will believe me so I got some great pictures of the entire thing. 11 of us jumped from the 4th highest bridge in the world, and the highest commercial bungee location in the world. The entire experience was absolutely amazing and I would love to do it again....sometime. The feeling right after jumping off the bridge was absolutely amazing, there is nothing but silence and the wind rushing against your face and the image of the ground getting closer and closer and closer..... The only tough part for me was hanging upside down for 60 seconds after the fall. But, it was a lot of fun and I can not wait to show people the pics. After the Bungee jumping we left TNP for Mossel Bay where we stayed for 3 nights in a backpackers lodge. I am sure there is much more I could write about this day but I can not remember much after the bungee jumping. I will write about the rest of the trip when I have more time, but until then I hope that everyone is doing well and I hope that everyone had a great Easter Holiday!

April 6 - Zip Line

During this day everyone in the group and our instructor, Sandy, went Zip Lining at two different places around the National Park. This was a lot of fun, and no one freaked out or got hurt so it was a very successful day for all involved. Other than zip lining we did not do a whole lot. It is hard to explain how much fun it was to be above the waterfalls and zip across the lines as fast as we were going.

April 5 - Waterfall Hike

On Sunday the group went on a hike along the coast towards the freshwater waterfall at TNP. The hike took about 2 hours because we stopped along the way to take a bunch of pics and explore around the caves/rocks/etc. Jeff, Jessica, Anna, and I all climbed up the rock face to get to a cliff to jump off of into the water. The cliff was about 30 feet above the water. The jump was a lot of fun and I would love to do it many more times! After we swam in the water Jeff and I went on a hike up the Otter Trail for about another hour and saw some snakes and other freaky animals. There were tons of evidence of Baboons in the area, but luckily we did not run in to any. Something very interesting happened on our hike back to our cabins. When I was hanging out by the pool I heard a faint thunder sound and then all of a sudden a lightening bolt was within screaming distance of me. It sort of freaked me out, but it makes for a fun story. On a side note from my fun trip, on this night I was taught how to make the bridge when you shuffle cards!!!! I was so happy to learn how to do this.

April 4 - another safari

In the morning we decided to go on another early morning safari hoping to see the same kind of action, but we did not.... We left Addo Elephant park later that morning and headed to Tsitsikamma National Park for three nights. The drive to TNP was about 3 hours. Most of the day consisted of driving so not a whole lot of fun stuff happened during the day. When we got to the park Jeff and I decided to do some climbing on the low tide rocks along the ocean. I was amazed at how high some of the rock faces got in the ocean and the fact that in just a couple of hours the rocks would be flooded with water. After we got back from our hike we could not find anyone who belonged to our group. So Jeff and I decided to make friends with some of the people living next door. We had some drinks and enjoyed a great meal with some local South Africans. Jeff and I learned a lot about the culture and the people of South Africa.

April 3 - LIONS!

at 6:30 AM 8 of us with Pierre and Antoinette went looking for some wild life in the park. Within 15 minutes of leaving our cabins we spotted 2 Male Lions! This was the first time that our tour guides had seen Lions in the park (they have been there over 25 times!). This was absolutely amazing because these we wild Lions that looked like they had just got done eating a fairly large meal. I have some amazing close up pictures of the lions because they got within 5 feet of our van. We followed the Lions around for a very long time and decided to head back to the cabins after a couple of hours. The place we were staying at had an outdoor pool that all of us spent time at in the early afternoon. The South African sun is very hot and I got a pretty nice burn that afternoon, but oh well! We decided to go on another safari later that day and ended up seeing more and more animals. We ran into the same Lions we had seen earlier in the day. We also saw warthogs, kudu, zebras, tourtoise(sp?), etc. After our second safari we ate dinner at the restaurant by the park and had some drinks as a group. It was a great/exciting day for everyone.

April 2

On Thursday we continued our drive towards Addo Elephant Park after we ate breakfast at a local museum/restaurant in Knysna. The drive was very long, but extremely beautiful because we spent the entire drive along the Indian Ocean. Our tour guides Pierre and Antoinette loved to joke with us about the fact that the Indian Ocean looks different than the Atlantic. We arrived at Addo early enough to have the chance to take a short safari into the wild life park. The park was full of wild animals who were placed into the secured area in order to avoid poachers. Within minutes of entering the park we saw a number of Kudu (huge deer) and a bunch of Elephants. We were lucky enough to see two elephants fighting, which was pretty amazing. It got very intense and I did not feel comfortable being so close to them. But, it was a great experience and I got some great pics of the entire thing. When we got back from our safari we had a brai (BBQ). Pierre, Jeff, and I had some fun conversations while we were braiing the food. He is a great guy to talk to, our conversation ranged from politics to American Idol to Baywatch.

April 1

I have just returned from my 2 week holiday vacation....what a great time! I kept a journal and took notes about everything our group did during the 2 weeks. We left on April 1 at 7:00 AM. At 5:00 AM I had a prank played on me by Anna and Alex. Apparently they placed our cell phone under my bed with an alarm set for 5 AM to fool me on Fool's Day. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what had happened, so I decided to get them back by setting the alarm for 520 AM and sneaking into their room and playing the same trick on them. My room is on the complete opposite part of the house we are staying at and I heard how loud the alarm was and it was absolutely hilarious. But anyway, we left at 7 AM for holiday and traveled from Stellenbosch to the town of Knysna. On our way to Knsyna we stopped at a couple of wine farms and tasted some of the local wine. The first place was Springfield, and the second place was Van Loveran. I bought a bottle of red wine from Van Loveran just so I did not feel guilty about drinking all of their wine. After wine tasting we continued on our 5 hour drive to Knysna where we stayed in a dormitory/hostel for the night. For dinner we went to a restaurant called 34 South. I had some of the best Hake I have had on the trip. Hake is like White Fish (if you are from Michigan you should know White Fish). The restaurant was located in the harbor at Knysna, which was absolutely beautiful. The night ended with some euchre and random conversations on the porch.