Day 27

Day 27- the first day of my trip that I do not know exactly what I am going to with myself. I was supposed to go kloofing with Jonas today but decided a couple days ago not to (didn't want to pack my weekend TOO full or spend TOO much money in 3 days). As it turned out, though, the trip was cancelled anyways because there weren't enough people signed up to go. Then a bunch of us (Me, Georgina, Amanda, Jenn, and Shawna [new American girl that is staying at the house but will start Gary's Surf School tomorrow]) decided to spend the day at Camps Bay, but it is really windy today which is not good for the beach. So now I am thinking of doing a 3km walking tour of downtown Cape Town that I've been wanting to do- there are still so many things in the city to see (Castle of Good Hope, Company Gardens, Bo Kaap, etc). I can probably recruit someone to do this with me (though it is the type of thing I wouldn't mind doing alone).

This past shift at Bap was really, really good. Granted, this may be because I only slept there one of three nights- after our first day we came back for an AVIVA cookout and slept at Obs House, and after the third day Ida and I got a taxi back to Obs because we had to wake up really early on Saturday for shark cage diving. The cookout was pretty fun, it was at the Table View house which is SO nice (so many bedrooms, granite counter tops, pool and pool-side bar...) and all the staff was there so it was nice to hang out with them. Afterwards a bunch of us went out in Obs, first to Stones (the pool bar) and then to Roots, a beach themed bar that I had never been to- sand floors, tiki hut bars... gotta love it.

Didn't stay out too late since it was back to Bap the next morning. On the way we picked up 100 baby bottles and during our break labeled all of them with the kid's names on color coded labels (indicating whether the bottle is taken at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, or 10pm). With six of us working on it it didn't take that long but when we did bottles the next morning it made ALL the difference in the world- no more broken bottles/lids, no more missing bottles, no more labels that are completely impossible to read. This shift we also redid the out of date poster boards with the kid's pictures that hangs on the wall in the flat. We took all new pictures and put up new, labeled boards. It was nice to do something (as little as those things are) that will last beyond all of our time here. And it is amazing the difference that seemingly small things can make. Though really what Bap needs is on a larger scale- the baby house needs a complete makeover badly (we thought about writing to Ty Pennington). The kids need a cleaner, safer place to live and they need plenty of volunteers to play with them and love them... two things that are not so easy to come by.


The new bottles!

Another orphanage project just opened up through AVIVA (Amanda and Jenn are the first volunteers to work there) that was recently given a COMPLETE makeover- they brought in volunteers that worked non-stop for (I think) four days and now the place is BEAUTIFUL- I have only seen the outside but there is grass (something Bap lacks) and a great swing set. And inside it's clean, and the kids have their own individual beds and much more. Granted, I am glad to be working at Bap where they really, really need us, but I just wish the same thing could be done for our kids, who I guess are considered lucky to be at Bap but really have basically nothing. It is just amazing that there are people in the world with so much money they don't know what to do with it and then you come to a place like this and there is a world of good that could be done with just a little help, and it is amazing that these problems still exist at all. It's sad and makes me wish I could do a heck of a lot more.

Anyways... as I said the shift went really well, I love everyone on it and am so sad that it is Georgina and Ida's last shift!! Makes me realize how fast the end is coming for me because after they leave (and Sofia and Friederike- also leaving this week) I have been here longer than anyone else in the house, which is CRAZY. How did that happen?? I just got here! I don't even want to think about it.

Yesterday Ida and I were picked up at 5am for shark cage diving. It was about a two hour drive there, during which time one might think it would be a good idea to sleep, but I was awake the whole time and turns out I am glad because we were driving over mountains by the coast as the sun rose and it was GORGEOUS. I swear, if you blink here you will miss something worth seeing. It was very nice. We arrived at the cage diving headquarters (a house about 1/4 block from the water & boat) and had a very nice self-serve breakfast (and several cups of coffee). Then they gave us a quick debriefing and we were off! There were only 12 of us (plus the crew), so it was a small group compared to most apparently which was quite nice. We rode out about 15 minutes but were still in relatively shallow water (~10m). This is technically the off season for seeing Great Whites, which are the only species in the area due to the cold water temperatures. However, you generally can see them year round, and this is the most famous place in the world to see them (some people may have seen the famous picture of a man in a yellow kayak being followed by a huge great white- that was taken here). So they put down anchor and throw out a "chum line"- nasty fishy stuff that the shark will (hopefully) catch the scent of and follow back to the boat. Also, the whole time they are throwing nasty fish stuff out into the water and have 1/2 a fish on a buoy as bait.

So everything was super... until I started to feel a bit seasick. Man, I have been a puker my whole life. Threw up twice, which sucked, but then the first shark was spotted so I threw on my wetsuit (in actuality, "throwing on" a wetsuit is the exact opposite of how it works, those things are so incredibly hard to get on [and off]). Plus these wetsuits have hoods, like what scuba divers wear, and little shoes that zip on, and I had a mask on, and they put a weight over your shoulders to help you go under in the cage. All of this was quite uncomfortable after having just thrown up let me tell you, but there was a shark! So I had to get in the cage.


THE CAGE

Five people get in at a time (and only 7 of the 12 on board were getting in at all which in my opinion is not worth the $120 to only watch from the boat but whatever) and you have to hold on to the top of the cage, and then when a shark is coming around they say "Divers go under!" or "Divers, on your left!" so you take a big breath and pull yourself under and look for the shark. Unfortunately the visibility was really poor under the water but there were several very exciting moments when that didn't really matter because the sharks would actually ram into the cage, putting them at about half a meter or less from you and that was awesome. I got out of the cage after about 15 minutes though because you really could actually see the sharks better from the boat. And we saw sooo many. After waiting about 30 minutes to see the first one we would see one every 2-3 minutes, and they would swim right next to the boat and go for the bait and come out of the water- it was awesome. And they looked HUGE, though they were only about 3-4m long and can grow to be 7m long- hard/scary to imagine. It was really great though.


Ahhh!

After about three hours we packed up (there were other boats around not having any luck, and in the off season the different companies help each other out so we left to let another boat come into the area since we had already seen so much) and headed back. At the house they put on the video that a videographer on the boat had been taking the whole time, and it was quite funny- for one, to see yourself in the wetsuit getup, and also because whenever someone was on camera they seemed to either wave or give the thumbs up- it reminded me of stereotypical Asians always giving the peace sign. Anyways, we were driven back to the house and were home by 2pm (I slept the whole way). (NOTE- all of this sounds incredibly touristy, and I guess it is, but it didn't feel like it. And it was definitely worth the money. And the staff was super nice and included volunteers just like us. So it was completely worth it and I am very glad I did it!)

Last night, everyone (Me, Georgina, Ida, Amanda, Amy, Jenn, Amanda, Shawna, Reino, and Christiaan) went out to Mama Africa on Long Street for a kind of goodbye dinner for Georgina and Ida. It was such a nice evening (I shared a kabob appetizer and I have no idea what kind of meat was on it [I am thinking crocodile, ostrich, and springbok?] but really have no idea, and had some kind of fish for my meal- very good). The best part though was that our table was right next to this AMAZINGGGG live African band that was SO good. Like you couldn't help but sit there dancing in your seat. And we had the perfect table because everyone else from inside the restaurant kept coming up to stand and watch them but we were right there the whole time. And of course, Amanda and I were both picked out by the lead singer/drummer man to dance with him on separate occasions... of course I loved this. It was so much fun. We didn't go out afterwards because tonight is G&I's official last night so we had already planned to do it up tonight. Can't wait =)


Some of the band!