June 6th, 2016 Good Bye

And just like that...it's over. There it goes. Or there we go. In a couple of minutes we'll be hopping on a plane to home. A plane that's a little more delayed than we'd like it to be, but still. Homeward bound.

Except for me. I'll be going on another adventure to meet my professor in Sri Lanka, but still. No more Africa. No more Johannes, Nicole, roobis tea or elephants. It all went by in the blink of an eye.

But I think that's how most amazing journeys go, you can't really see how beautiful it all was until it's all over.

I can't speak for all of my classmates, but I would like to say personally that this experience is one that I will take with me for the rest of my life. When I think back on all the incredible things I've done, shark diving, safaris, home stays, and mountains, and jet lag oh my! It all doesn't seem real. Like some kind of awesome dream I had that I'm just now waking up from.

But it isn't only the bucket list items that I checked off. I learned a lot about myself in these three weeks. I learned that I can survive even when my body is jetlagged and sick. That I can learn to speak phrases in languages that I'd never even heard of. I learned that I get seasick. But most of all, I learned that I now have two amazing South African friends in addition to a group of amazing people to call my family back at home that I never would have connected with had it not been for this study abroad.

How lucky are all of us that we go to a school that can give us so much from an experience like this?

Safe travels back to the States to my beautiful little study abroad family. And good bye South Africa. We promise we'll be back one day.

June 5th, 2016 Table Mountain and Final Day Adventures

Guess who was on top of the world at the bottom of the world today? US!

So for as awful as the weather was yesterday, today turned out to be an unbelievably beautiful day to cable car up Table Mountain. One of South Africa's most amazing landmarks, we learned today that Table a mountain is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the Natural World. And dang does it deserve that title. 

See that tiny little stretch of white beach down there? That's Camps Bay. Where we watched the sunset yesterday. Crazy huh? Well that's what the views from Table Mountain are. Absolutely crazy. Today the skies were so clear you could see for miles in every direction. Even though we were lucky with the weather, we still all secretly were hoping that a cloud would blow in and cover all of us in what they call "The Tablecloth." Get it? The top of TABLE MOUNTAIN gets a TABLECLOTH of clouds? Hahaha, oh National Park Service of South Africa. How punny of you. Anyhow, we had an awesome two hours exploring all of the views we could from the top of Table Mountain. I personally didn't want to go back down. 

Us being all cute and artsy as a group. 

We're a great lookin' bunch aren't we? 

Table Mountain was incredible and lovely and the rest of our day was luckily pretty lax. A few of us went out, but mostly this day has been a lot of hanging out at the hostel, doublechecking our gear and footage,  and weirdest of all,  packing. 

Our last day in South Africa. It's a little impossible to believe. It seems like just yesterday we walked into the Beacon thinking that it really would have wifi. Like just yesterday that we actually believed the things Johannes says. It seems like just yesterday that this incredible adventure started. And tomorrow we go home. 

This entire experience has meant something special to each and every one of us. I know that for me I won't even be able to process everything this trip has taught me about this county and about myself until I get home. So right now, I choose to go out and enjoy South Africa. To get one more great meal and some gelato. We'll be home in a little less than 48 hours friends. But for now we have to say good bye. 

June 4th 2016 Shopping and Camps Bay

All right, so sadly no Table Mountain for us today. We unfortunately went on a day that was just a little too windy out. And the staff assured us that the last thing that we want is to be in a cable car on the side of the mountain with incredibly high winds. But fear not! We'll try to come back tomorrow if weather is better. Which it's supposed to be. 

And just because weather was bad on the mountain doesn't mean that it's ruining our day down here. Today we made a stop at the V&A Waterfront, a fabulous shopping center in Cape Town to pick up some last minute souvenirs and trinkets before we fly out. In two days. 

Which is crazy to think about. With all the we've done it still feels like we just landed in this amazing country yesterday. I think it will take all of us a few moments at home to really sit and process the experiences that we've had and all of the adventures we've been able to go on thanks to this amazing program. 

But for now, we still have one more day! So we will all watch this magical sunset at Camps Bay, drink our coffees, and be thankful for a more relaxed day before our packed last one tomorrow. We'll be home soon guys.

June 3rd 2016 Cape Town Home Stay

Hey loved ones! We are fresh back from our home stay and boy have we got some stories for you. 

NMMU arranged our home stay in a township just outside of Cape Town and it was an amazing experience for all of us. We arrived yesterday afternoon right after the District 6 Museum to Mama Knox's house, the woman spearheading the township aspect of our home stay.

Here's a quick breakdown of how the logistics. We were all to be split up into groups of three and each group had a "Mama" one of the women in the township who would take us into their home for the night. We would stay the night, eat some dinner, learn some Xhosa, and leave the next morning after a few interviews. 

Little did we know that we were in for some amazing hospitality. 

My roommates and I were housed with Mama Liza, who lived a few streets back in the township from Mama Knox. She was vibrant and kind, we could feel that immediately as talked about our program and laughed at our bad Xhosa. The entire night she was lovely, talking to us about our experience, helping us make tea, watching soap operas with us (which by the way if you've never heard of the South African soap Rhythm City, check it out, it's quality programming). She also made us an AMAZING traditional Xhosa meal made up of beans, corn, and potatoes with a big chicken leg on top. It was beyond delicious. 

But what was even more amazing than the food was the children in the township. As we turned down Mama Liza's street, dozens of kids camping rushing out to us, shouting and singing, excited beyond belief to have new friends to play with. Hen we weren't hanging out with Mama Liza, we spent hours outside running and singing and playing games with a mass of children. We think the woman next door and her daughter owned a day care. They spoke a little English and taught us the games the kids were playing. It was so much fun. 

And something that I found incredibly interesting was the similarities between both of our cultures. They sang the exact same songs we hear on the radio and for the most part they played a lot of games that my roommates and I played as kids, just with a few minor differences. They had a version of Little Sally Walker where the dance moves were inspired by clothes instead of what moves you wanted to do. They also had a Red Light Green Light-sequel game called Fire On The Mountain where you ran around and froze and if you moved you were out. My roommates and I were smiling the entire night.

I was reminded again of our lecture on social work on one of our very first days here. The township we were staying in has problems. We can't deny that. There were homes that had rocks holding down sheets of iron as a makeshift roof and we had to clear the street in the middle of one of our games because gangsters were walking by. The townships aren't the safest places in the world or the most developed. But everyone there was just like us. I think that in America we have a tendency to think that parts of the world are huge, depressed, impoverished nations filled with people who live so differently from us that they may as well be aliens. I didn't feel like that for a minute during this home stay. None of the kids were dirty or wearing rags. They weren't cheering for us as their white saviors. They were cheering because they were so excited to have someone new to play with. Mama Liza scolded the kids when they were too loud and drank tea with me while we watched soap operas. My grandma does that. It's so easy to write off people in these neighborhoods as poor and depressed, but honestly, they aren't. We should help them if they need or ask for it, but from what I saw in the township, people are doing just fine with their neighbors and friends and families with them. I think that's something that all of us need to see and know.

I can only speak from my own experience, but it seemed to me that several of my classmates felt similar to me. All around the home stay was a wild success. Now to rest up for Table Mountain tomorrow. :)

June 1st Welcome Cape Town and Welcome to Sharks

After a long and argues journey through South Africa we have arrived in Cape Town! It took about twelve hours, but we made it through with minimal stops and one of those stops were Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, so we really couldn't complain.

But we are now safe and sound at Atlantic Point Backpackers in Cape Town which is a lovely place with free breakfast and wifi. It's hard to think of better place to spend our last remaining days of the trip.

But did you think the last few days in Cape Town were all fun and games? Oh no. Because guess what six of us did today?

SHARK DIVING!

That's right! This morning, Nate, Kairi, Chris, Kelly, Vanessa, and I all braved the cold waters of the Atlantic to dive with great white sharks. There was some seasickness, but at the end all of us got in the cage and were able to see several of the sharks up close. Two even breached right in front of us. Can you say better than Shark Week? I can.

Those of us that thought it would be a better idea to keep all of our fingers and toes went to Boulder Beach today to hang out with the penguins that live there. They had a gorgeous day with loads of penguins and a lot of solid B-roll for the conservation group.

It never ceases to amaze me how full of incredible animals this country is. The conservation group got great footage today and the Apartheid group is excited to finally get some interviews in within the next few days. Tomorrow in particular will be an important day for them because we'll be starting out with the District 6 Museum and ending with a home stay in one of the townships in Cape Town. But for now, this girl got up early and she's goin' to bed. On to the next adventure!

May 30th Back From The Farmer's/Last Day in P.E.

Hello again friends! And just like that we're back from the weekend and wrapping up a few things during our last day in Port Elizabeth. It seems like everything flew by so quickly.

To give you a quick update, the Farm was an interesting experience where we got to do a lot of really interesting things. We were able to get up close and personal with the cultural differences between us and traditional Afrikaans farmers. We shore sheep, learned to shoot, and even got to climb one of the mountains on their property. That was pretty amazing.

That right there is a picture of the mountain we climbed. Pretty cool huh? We also got to go on a canoeing trip down to a waterfall. A few of us swam which was a bit of a bad idea considering the water was maybe two degrees colder than solid ice. But never the less, we did it! We lived! I'll try to see if we can get some pictures of that up, but the water was so cold that not many of us got great shots. That happens when you're shivering. 

As for today, we are hanging out and catching up on work and interviews while we can. Both the Apartheid group and Nycea's financial aid documentary are in interviews for their docs that seem to be going very well. I can say that because Nycea's interview is actually being conducted about ten feet away from me. They seem like they're nailing it. The conservation crew returned to SAMREC for some b-roll on the penguin feedings and to visit Tungie again. I myself sit here, typing as furiously as I can to catch everyone up on our amazing adventures. 

It has truly been a whirlwind. It's unbelievable to think that we're only a week away from home. And I haven't even told you about our morning yet. 

This morning before we came to NMMU to wrap up some work, we took a tour of the Walmer Township with Glinda, the woman who heads the Walmer Township Angels Project which works with a  multitude of organizations in attempts to revitalize and build up one of the poorest communities in Port Elizabeth. We went with her to several day cares, touring the facilities the children stayed in and getting to play with and interact with them. 

This has easily been one of the most eye-opening experiences of the trip so far. It was unbelievable to see the way that the people in these communities lived. Glinda told us about her projects most recent focus, bringing actual functioning toilets into the township, and showed us where the children in day care used to go to the bathroom. It was a shambly piece of wood over a bucket. The buildings in the township alone were barely held together, pieces of tin making up most of the walls, and houses with rocks on top of them to hold the roof on. It was unbelievable. 

But all of the children we met were amazing. They skipped rope, played soccer with us, hugged and climbed on us and our professors. They were so genuinely excited to see us and play with us that we couldn't help but love them. 

It reminded me of our social work lecture at the beginning of our trip from Ms. Natalie Mansvelt. She stressed the fact that even though these people in these townships are living under ridiculous conditions, they're still people. Their lives are of no less value. We should help in any way we can, but they aren't all walking around in misery. They were just happy to have someone new to play with.  It made all of us take a moment to think of just how lucky and grateful we are. And maybe that we can learn one day to be as happy as the adorable friends we made. 

But on to Cape Town tomorrow and to new adventures! We'll never forget what we learned in PE and we can't wait to see what's next!

May 27th On Our Way To Farmers!

This will be my last post for a few days because the next two nights will be spent about three hours outside of Port Elizabeth with Winnie and Marnus, two contacts from NMMU who own and run a farm in the mountains. We're all excited for a relaxing weekend to learn about farm life, but our drive isn't so busy that we couldn't make a stop at the International Library of African Music.

We had a little too much fun playing with the drums and the marimbas and listening to our guide at the museum explain how the other tribal instruments worked. Many of the instruments are played in large groups with each person playing a different part to create one enormous melody. Because of this some of them can only play a few notes out of the scale instead of a full range of notes. Luckily, this was not so with the marimba that Nycea used to create a musical masterpiece dedicated to our grocery story here. "Meet Me At The Pick 'N Pay" will be the next great new single, dropping soon. Be on the lookout.

But for now, lunch and then on to the farmers! Talk to you on Monday guys!

May 26th Cultural Lessons

Molweni! Kunjani?

That translates to "Hello everybody, how are you?" in isiXhosa, which is one of South Africa's ELEVEN official languages. isiXhosa is a tribal language dependent on the clicking sound of your tongue. There are three different click sounds in the language. Whenever you see an 'x' it translates to side click of your tongue, a 'g' is a palette click of your tongue, and the 'q' is a frontal click with your lips. I took a lot of notes.

It's been a very cultural day for us here in Port Elizabeth. After our fascinating lecture on the basics of the isiXhosa language, we took a cultural tour of our little town, led by a very retired teacher names Mike who told us all about the history of the area. Mike led us around to beaches, sculptures, and a beautiful park over looking Nelson Mandela Bay filled with different public art work. 

Two of the most powerful things that we saw on the tour were the public art pieces that spoke about Apartheid. The first one we saw was along a main stairway in Port Elizabeth, blanketing the entire wall. At the bottom of the staircase was a metal sculpture of a book with blowing pages. The idea of the sculpture was that the pages were blowing out of the book and along the wall showing the injustices and destruction caused by Apartheid. Each page showed a different scene whether it was a protest, a police vehicle, or a quote from Nelson Mandela. One in particular scene showed "necklacing" something that often happened in the townships when informers were caught. It's involved putting a tire around someone's neck and lighting it on fire. It was extremely powerful to see such a thing immortalized in sculpture. 

One of the most uplifting though was a sculpture dedicated to the first democratic elections held after Apartheid. At the center of the park we visited there is a long wire sculpture encircling the base of a South African flag. The wire sculpture shows people of all cultures standing in line, isiXhosa, Muslim, old, young, all creating an enormous line leading up to a triumphant metal sculpture of Nelson Mandela with his hand in the air and the words "Nelson Mandela Changed the World" emblazoned into the metal. Mike told us that they had to keep polls open for two days just to handle the enormous influx of people who turned out to vote on that historic day. 

Something that I personally love about Port Elizabeth is their devotion to the memory of Nelson Mandela. I've never seen a town so dedicated to one man. It's beautiful. We ended the day with a visit to Aya's Ceramic Studio in one of the townships in PE. A woman there makes pottery and sells it out of her house. Each piece is completely unique. She prides herself in that. 

But now we have to head home and pack for the weekend! We'll be on the road tomorrow! Updates to come!

May 25th First Day at SAMREC

Guess who got to hang out with more penguins today? US.

Today was our first visit to the South African Marine Rehabilitation and Education Center, our second penguin stop. Unlike SANCCOB which functions strictly as a rehabilitation center, SAMREC has an education component to it as well allowing us to navigate more freely around the building and interact more with their center here in Port Elizabeth.

We had met with Thomas, one of the workers who tends to the penguins and other birds housed by SAMREC. The conservation group got a very good interview with him at SAMREC about the wildlife they save and what it's like interacting with the birds. There are a lot of similarities with SANCCOB when you hear the workers at SAMREC talk about birds. Workers at both places have incredibly deep passion for the work that they are doing as well as birds with personalities as diverse as ours. Though SANCCOB did not have Tungie. 

Meet Tungie, SAMREC's accidentally mascot and pet. They saved this little guy from a nest that he fell out of and now him and Thomas are best friends. Tungie also seemed to make friends with all of us pretty quickly. Specifically Alec's hair. He even followed us around while we got more shots of the penguins.

Some of us will be back on Monday for even more penguin glory. Fabulous day here in South Africa. 

May 24th Rest Day

Nothing to report! Who deserves a break? Us. After a long and productive week of jet lag and animals and filming we are all passing out at the Beacon for some well deserved rest. We'll be back with you on Wednesday folks! We have books to read and wifi to search for :)

May 23rd First Day of SANCCOB

Another great day for the conservation doc and all of us in general, because you know what we did all day? HUNG OUT WITH PENGUINS!

We got up today and went straight to SANCCOB (South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds). There was little bit of confusion at the beginning, but we soon hopped right into the average day of the staff, learning about the work they do towards penguin conservation, getting to witness some of the feedings, and of course getting to meet the birds.

SANCCOB seemed to me to have a great mindset as far as their treatment of the birds. Their passion for what they do was also very apparent. One of our guides told us about the chicks that she is in charge of, how the chicks actually don't require as much protection as the adults. Most of the adult penguins living at SANCCOB are either permanent birds or long term rehabilitation birds, for example, many of the birds have sight problems and one bird we met has a neurological disorder where the staff had to reteach her to swim in their rehabilitation pool. There is also a bird there named Bones who was in a motorboat accident where he lost both of his feet. Thanks to SANCCOB he can still get around all right, but it's likely that he will never be returned to the wild.

We also had two more fantastic interviews for the conservation group with the staff of SANCCOB. One of the things that stuck out to me most was the idea that all of these penguins have their own personalities and ticks. They have lovey penguins, aggressive penguins, sassy penguins. Exactly like the ones at the Newport Aquarium back home. Penguins also date. Juanita (our main contact) even told us an adorable story about how even when they released a particular penguin into the wild, he came back seventy-five times for his girlfriend. 

SANCCOB was an incredibly productive filming day and we can't wait to meet even more penguins along the way.

May 22nd Second Day of Gorah

After a delicious breakfast and a little bit of tea in front of our tents, we had one more game drive today around Addo, which proved to be just as fulfilling and wonderful as last night's drive was. Today not only were there more elephant sightings, but we ran across fighting zebras and some monkeys.

The conservation doc also got some incredible interviews with our game drivers Mike and Riann, two men that perfectly embody the hospitality and wondrous air of Gorah. While it was difficult to get any solid footage of the black rhino sighting last night (it was too dark out) the conservation group got lots of incredible footage here and they're very, very happy with how their interviews turned out. While it was hard to bid good bye to Gorah and our lovely drivers, we are all incredibly grateful we got to experience the beauty of this place even for just a night. 

Good bye Gorah, we will see you again one day. Next stop penguins :)

May 21st First Day of Gorah

Guys. We are posting today from one of the coolest places I, and I'm sure some of my classmates, have ever been. 

We're currently staying on the wildlife reserve in Addo National Park. We're in Gorah, which is the elephant park. The accommodations here are outstanding, not to mention the food, and more importantly of all, the watering hole. 

While Kragga was a delightful introduction to game drives, the vastness of Addo has really given us a run for our money. The sweeping hills are constantly dotted with herds of zebras and buffalo and get this, elephants. One even walked right up to our car as we were driving to our accommodations.

During our first hour at Gorah group got to watch an entire herd of elephants come to the watering hole and drink, along with several zebra, wart hogs, ostriches, and various kinds of antelope. 

Tonight we went down on our first game drive around the reserve and got up close and personal with all of those aforementioned animals. We had several elephant sightings, one group saw an entire family of them and the other had an elephant cross right in front of their vehicle. It was a a truly amazing experience.

So was having our dinner interrupted to be told that we had the opportunity to see a black rhino just outside of the lodge where we were eating. We're mad that we didn't get any pictures of that, but it was still an incredible thing to witness. 

Gorah's hospitality and wonder are difficult to fit all into a single blog post without going on and on for days. With more in store tomorrow, the conservation group is filming like crazy and all of us are in awe of the wonders of Africa. Now to sleep in our lavish tents and see if we hear any lions :)

May 20th Kragga Kamma Game Park

The animals have arrived! Kragga Kamma Game Park did not disappoint in the slightest!

Before our first game drive, we began our day at NMMU with an incredibly fascinating lecture on social development in South Africa from Natalie Mansvelt. She spoke a lot about the work being done in the townships of South Africa and about new approaches to humanitarian work. Her talk was eye opening for a lot of us. Natalie spoke about what we would know as the Savior complex, the idea of higher class people going into lower income communities, doing one short term thing, such as giving away food or money or building something and then leaving. She told us about new approaches that counter this form of relief work. Her talk pushed for the idea that when entering underserved communities, we should first ask what the community needs and what skills they already have. The idea is that you foster newfound dignity in the community which carries over into creating actual sustainable relief. There was also a lot of talk comparing the poor of South Africa to the poor in the United States. It gave us a lot to think about.

Next was a lecture on the environmental impact of the South African coast which was brought to us by Karien Bezuidenhout who did a fabulous job with the time allotted and materials she had. This was the first time the conservation group began filming.

And they continued filming when we reached Kragga! Our first game drive of the trip began in an open vehicle around Kragga Kamma game park where we met cheetahs, rhinos, and some very photogenic giraffes.

One of the things that the conservation group is covering in their documentary is the African Rhino and the different conservation techniques that are used to protect the rhinos in places like the game reserves we'll be visiting. Something interesting about Kragga that we discovered is that they de-horn the white rhinos that they keep in their reserve. While it doesn't hurt the rhino, its controversial in the sense that rhinos need their horn for mating as well as just general survival if it is living in the wild. As one of the members of the conservation group put it, it's similar to the way declawing cats in controversial. Yes they need their claws in the wild, but what if they're being attended to in captivity> Is the need still there? I didn't get the best picture, but here is a shot of Kragga's family of white rhinos.

It was a perfect day for a game drive. We're excited to move on to even more safaris at Gorah tomorrow!

May 19th Welcome to NMMU

Despite  little bit of jet lag, we had a very productive introduction to NMMU today! Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University is our host university for our trip and they made us feel very welcome. We started the day off meeting the people who will be escorting us to our different activities, our friend Johannes, his intern Nicole, and Claire who is a lovely lady from the International Studies Office. This morning we toured the campus as well as the game reserve that surrounds the campus. We even had our first zebra sighting!

Afterwards we attended a lecture from Dr. J. Wozniak on the nuclear energy debate that is extremely present in South Africa. It was a very interesting experience to be able to discuss the way that things as simple to us like electricity are able to cause such social and political upset in South African communities. We are already learning a lot. Stay tuned for tomorrow where we'll have more interesting lectures and our first game drive!

We also saw this fabulous sign.

Welcome to Africa everyone.