THANKS TO MOM & DAD for my AWESOME Christmas package!!! It is amazing... everyone sat around while I opened everything and kept saying "Wow you are very loved!". You guys are the best!
Now off to Bap~ back in 2 days!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Table Mountain and Winelands Tour
Yesterday I woke up at 8 am and was supposed to go on my Cultural Tour, but decided to opt out. For one, I wasn't feeling super when I woke up and didn't want to be stuck driving around with a schedule to keep all day if I was sick. Also, I had heard that the tour isn't that great, that you get to see a couple neat things but the highlight is visiting a township, and doing so in a touristy way doesn't interest me. I know the point is to get a glimpse of their culture and township life but to me it seems like most people would just end up gawking at their poverty which seems wrong- these are peoples LIVES. I don't know, that's just the way I feel about it.
Instead Georgina and I decided to finally get to the top of Table Mountain the easy way- Cable Car! We went around noon and had to wait about 20 minutes to catch a car up. The cars are really neat- hold about 60 people and have a rotating floor, so you get a 360 degree view going up and down. It ascends the mountain in probably two minutes For most of the time you are hanging not too far above the mountain, but at a certain point all of a sudden you are hanging over NOTHING and that was kind of scary, though the views were INCREDIBLE. On top you can see everything- Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles on one side, all of Cape Town, the Waterfront, Obs and beyond on another side, and then a huge expanse of mountains in another direction. We walked around on top for a while on nice trails and then we had lunch at the restaurant outside. We visited the gift shop (I bought a t-shirt) and then headed back down- were probably up there for about three hours. We are lucky that we just happened to chose this day to go because the weather was absolutely perfect up top, and a lot of the time this is not the case due to cloud coverage.
Today was all together an amazing day- WINELANDS TOUR! First and foremost, it was nice to have an outing with everyone (Georgina, Ida, Amy, Amanda, Jenn, Amanda, & Christiaan), an international bunch (3 Americans, 2 Canadians, 2 Norwegians, and an English girl). Everyone gets along great and really enjoys each other's company it seems. It is so nice to be forming friendships with these people and then to experience things with people that you genuinely like.
This morning I woke up at 6:30 am (seriously what is wrong with me?? My roommates will vouch for the fact that this is very unlike me... maybe I'm turning over a new leaf?). Unfortunately the first thing I did when I woke up was electrocute myself on an outlet- also I am rather accident-prone here. Anyways we left around 8:30 am I think and had about a 45 minute drive to the first winery (I will have to come back and fill in names- can't remember now). The drive became more and more scenic as we entered the winelands and passed dozens and dozens of estates. Finally we reached out destination- a beautiful estate with a driveway lined with orange trees up to an archway through which you could see the fountain the courtyard inside. We got a short tour throughout the buildings with huge vats to hold the wine and rooms filled with hundreds of wine barrels. We also got to go out and pick some grapes off the vine though they weren't quite ripe (they need another month or two). Then we sat down for the first tasting at a long table under an overhang overlooking the courtyard. All in all we probably tried nine or ten wines here I think- about 5 whites, 4 reds and one desert wine (approximately). With the last three we had chocolate to try with each- one piece of chai chocolate (I bought some of this- delicious), then a piece of salt chocolate (not my favorite, kind of strange but good) and then the last was the geranium chocolate which tasted like you were eating a flower. The whole experience was very informative, very relaxing, and very tasty. We probably sat there for two hours. (During which time it is important to note that I recruited THREE people (Amanda, Jenn, and Christiaan) to go skydiving!! Woohoo!)
At the first winery.
The whole group!
We left this estate and headed next to the cheetah conservation place to pet a cheetah! Of course you end up paying about $10 for 5 minutes with a cheetah but I don't care- it was worth it. We pet Joseph, a 6 year old male and he layed there and purred so loudly, he loved it. The place is for cheetahs that were abandoned by their mothers or whose mothers were killed, and they have 13 cheetahs. Sadly, after cheetahs have been raised in captivity they cannot be released back into the wild, but this seemed like an okay home for them. Joseph was big and beautiful and it was VERY neat to pet him and be so up close. Very cool experience.
After this we drove a while to our next destination- lunch, which was great because we were all STARVING (and a few of us tipsy as well). Lunch was on AVIVA at a cute restaurant called Essence- I had a chicken sandwhich, fries and a small salad. Next we drove to winery number two (along the way passing zebra, ostrich, etc along the road) where we had our second tasting. Tried probably 6 wines but this place was not quite as nice as the first, plus we were in a bit of a rush to get to our third winery. And the last one was, like the first, gorgeous! Beautiful gardens, fountains, and goats as well. At this place you could taste six wines for 20R- $2.00! Plus, you got to chose from a long list which ones you wanted to try. Everyone kind of rushed through and only tried about four, but Amy and I took our time and ended up trying seven (guess the people liked us), all of which were soooo good. I should have bought some. Granted, at the end of this Amy was tanked and I was pretty drunk but I guess that is what a day of wine tasting will do to you. It was fun. We also got to do a cheese tasting (delicious) and I bought two cheeses- one with cranberries in it and one goat cheese for $3.00 all together (probably would have cost at least $10.00 at home?). So those will be delicious to have at Bap this shift. We left this winery to head home but Amy suggested we head to the Waterfront instead for Harry's Pancakes, where everyone had to try the banana and cinnamon pancake dessert. We all agreed so drove straight to the Waterfront and ate outside by the water at sunset. I got a pancake with ground ostrich on it (my first taste of ostrich- good!) and then the banana pancake for desert (mmmmm!). I like the idea of pancakes with anything for any meal here, and it is very popular. Dinner was the perfect end to an amazing, beautiful, fun-filled day.
My ostrich pancake!
Now I am really tired and will probably head back and go pretty much straight to bed (need to call Mom and Dad first!). Tomorrow we are back to Bap, and on the way we are going to buy about 100 new bottles so that we can reorganize and relabel all of the babies bottles. Our shift is also working on making new poster boards with all the kids pictures on it (one currently hangs in the Bap flat but is very out of date). So these are our projects for this shift. We have decided to take a bit of action and do what we can to better the baby house since there are so many things there that need work.
Tomorrow night is an AVIVA braai at the Table View house, so we will come back from Bap after serving dinner and get to sleep at Obs tomorrow night (very nice!) and return to Bap on Thursday morning. I will spend Thursday night there, but Ida and I are coming home Friday night instead of staying until Saturday morning so that we can go Shark Cage Diving on Saturday (leaves around 5 am!). Sunday I am going kloofing, and now we are going to try to book skydiving for Monday (hopefully we will be able to do this though I have no idea how far in advance you need to book it and I guess often trips are canceled due to weather, so we will have to see about all that). In other words, my next break will be known as "Lauren's Adventure and Death-Defying Break" and I am SO excited.
After these past six days off all I can say is that I am incredibly happy here and with all that I have been seeing and doing. And now I get to go back to my babies... not a bad deal =)
Instead Georgina and I decided to finally get to the top of Table Mountain the easy way- Cable Car! We went around noon and had to wait about 20 minutes to catch a car up. The cars are really neat- hold about 60 people and have a rotating floor, so you get a 360 degree view going up and down. It ascends the mountain in probably two minutes For most of the time you are hanging not too far above the mountain, but at a certain point all of a sudden you are hanging over NOTHING and that was kind of scary, though the views were INCREDIBLE. On top you can see everything- Camps Bay and the Twelve Apostles on one side, all of Cape Town, the Waterfront, Obs and beyond on another side, and then a huge expanse of mountains in another direction. We walked around on top for a while on nice trails and then we had lunch at the restaurant outside. We visited the gift shop (I bought a t-shirt) and then headed back down- were probably up there for about three hours. We are lucky that we just happened to chose this day to go because the weather was absolutely perfect up top, and a lot of the time this is not the case due to cloud coverage.
Today was all together an amazing day- WINELANDS TOUR! First and foremost, it was nice to have an outing with everyone (Georgina, Ida, Amy, Amanda, Jenn, Amanda, & Christiaan), an international bunch (3 Americans, 2 Canadians, 2 Norwegians, and an English girl). Everyone gets along great and really enjoys each other's company it seems. It is so nice to be forming friendships with these people and then to experience things with people that you genuinely like.
This morning I woke up at 6:30 am (seriously what is wrong with me?? My roommates will vouch for the fact that this is very unlike me... maybe I'm turning over a new leaf?). Unfortunately the first thing I did when I woke up was electrocute myself on an outlet- also I am rather accident-prone here. Anyways we left around 8:30 am I think and had about a 45 minute drive to the first winery (I will have to come back and fill in names- can't remember now). The drive became more and more scenic as we entered the winelands and passed dozens and dozens of estates. Finally we reached out destination- a beautiful estate with a driveway lined with orange trees up to an archway through which you could see the fountain the courtyard inside. We got a short tour throughout the buildings with huge vats to hold the wine and rooms filled with hundreds of wine barrels. We also got to go out and pick some grapes off the vine though they weren't quite ripe (they need another month or two). Then we sat down for the first tasting at a long table under an overhang overlooking the courtyard. All in all we probably tried nine or ten wines here I think- about 5 whites, 4 reds and one desert wine (approximately). With the last three we had chocolate to try with each- one piece of chai chocolate (I bought some of this- delicious), then a piece of salt chocolate (not my favorite, kind of strange but good) and then the last was the geranium chocolate which tasted like you were eating a flower. The whole experience was very informative, very relaxing, and very tasty. We probably sat there for two hours. (During which time it is important to note that I recruited THREE people (Amanda, Jenn, and Christiaan) to go skydiving!! Woohoo!)
At the first winery.
The whole group!
We left this estate and headed next to the cheetah conservation place to pet a cheetah! Of course you end up paying about $10 for 5 minutes with a cheetah but I don't care- it was worth it. We pet Joseph, a 6 year old male and he layed there and purred so loudly, he loved it. The place is for cheetahs that were abandoned by their mothers or whose mothers were killed, and they have 13 cheetahs. Sadly, after cheetahs have been raised in captivity they cannot be released back into the wild, but this seemed like an okay home for them. Joseph was big and beautiful and it was VERY neat to pet him and be so up close. Very cool experience.
After this we drove a while to our next destination- lunch, which was great because we were all STARVING (and a few of us tipsy as well). Lunch was on AVIVA at a cute restaurant called Essence- I had a chicken sandwhich, fries and a small salad. Next we drove to winery number two (along the way passing zebra, ostrich, etc along the road) where we had our second tasting. Tried probably 6 wines but this place was not quite as nice as the first, plus we were in a bit of a rush to get to our third winery. And the last one was, like the first, gorgeous! Beautiful gardens, fountains, and goats as well. At this place you could taste six wines for 20R- $2.00! Plus, you got to chose from a long list which ones you wanted to try. Everyone kind of rushed through and only tried about four, but Amy and I took our time and ended up trying seven (guess the people liked us), all of which were soooo good. I should have bought some. Granted, at the end of this Amy was tanked and I was pretty drunk but I guess that is what a day of wine tasting will do to you. It was fun. We also got to do a cheese tasting (delicious) and I bought two cheeses- one with cranberries in it and one goat cheese for $3.00 all together (probably would have cost at least $10.00 at home?). So those will be delicious to have at Bap this shift. We left this winery to head home but Amy suggested we head to the Waterfront instead for Harry's Pancakes, where everyone had to try the banana and cinnamon pancake dessert. We all agreed so drove straight to the Waterfront and ate outside by the water at sunset. I got a pancake with ground ostrich on it (my first taste of ostrich- good!) and then the banana pancake for desert (mmmmm!). I like the idea of pancakes with anything for any meal here, and it is very popular. Dinner was the perfect end to an amazing, beautiful, fun-filled day.
My ostrich pancake!
Now I am really tired and will probably head back and go pretty much straight to bed (need to call Mom and Dad first!). Tomorrow we are back to Bap, and on the way we are going to buy about 100 new bottles so that we can reorganize and relabel all of the babies bottles. Our shift is also working on making new poster boards with all the kids pictures on it (one currently hangs in the Bap flat but is very out of date). So these are our projects for this shift. We have decided to take a bit of action and do what we can to better the baby house since there are so many things there that need work.
Tomorrow night is an AVIVA braai at the Table View house, so we will come back from Bap after serving dinner and get to sleep at Obs tomorrow night (very nice!) and return to Bap on Thursday morning. I will spend Thursday night there, but Ida and I are coming home Friday night instead of staying until Saturday morning so that we can go Shark Cage Diving on Saturday (leaves around 5 am!). Sunday I am going kloofing, and now we are going to try to book skydiving for Monday (hopefully we will be able to do this though I have no idea how far in advance you need to book it and I guess often trips are canceled due to weather, so we will have to see about all that). In other words, my next break will be known as "Lauren's Adventure and Death-Defying Break" and I am SO excited.
After these past six days off all I can say is that I am incredibly happy here and with all that I have been seeing and doing. And now I get to go back to my babies... not a bad deal =)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Catch Up!
I know I wrote yesterday but still I am several days behind! Let's see...
A couple nights ago after I was here in the internet cafe my plan was to get some sushi takeout and head back to the house, which I did, but when I went to the sushi place they were putting out platters of sushi for the bi-weekly $7 sushi buffet. Sadly I had already ordered my measly 8-piece spicy salmon california role, so I went back to the house a bit bummed. Lucky for me though Sofia is also a sushi lover and when I told her about the buffet she really wanted to go as well, so I put my dinner in the fridge for later and Sofia, Friedericke and I went to the Sushi Zone buffet (not to be confused with the competing Taste of Asia buffet directly across the street) which was an amazing spread of sushi plus lots of other Chinese and Thai food (did I mention for only $7?). It was just great. Plus we got a bottle of wine that we moved outside to the front patio to finish- sat around talking for quite a while. Then we went back to the house and got ready to go out- headed to Long Street where we started at The Dubliner, then went somewhere else for delicious mohitos and then to Zula for some dancing.
The next day (two days ago) Sofia, Friedericke and I went around 11am to a market about 5 minutes away. The focus of it was a HUGE food market- tons of vendors, all with free samples, with delicious looking bread, cheese, fruits & vegetables, sandwhiches, meat, cakes & sweets, etc etc etc. Additionally there was a tented area in which vendors were all around the perimiter making ready-to-eat food such as crepes, pizza, hot sandwhiches, stir fry, wraps, salads, and much more- everything looked AMAZING. In the middle of the tent were several long rows of picnic table-type tables (each with flower center pieces) packed with people eating and drinking beers and obviously completely enjoying themselves. It was a nice scene. I got an iced tea that came in a jar for 20R- when I returned the jar after I drank it I got back 1R.
The market also consisted of an area of shops, some open air some not. Things were not too cheap here but I bought a nice scarf and it was a really nice area to walk around.
The three of us had already planned to pack a picnic that night and watch the sunset from Signal Hill, so convenitenly we were able to buy everything for our picnic at the market (chicken sandwiches on fresh rolls, cherries, salad with artichokes, zuccinni, eggplant, tomato, olives and feta cheese). Definitely the best picnic of my 20 years.
For the rest of the afternoon we hung out around the house (i.e. layed out back on the patio reading) and around 6:30 pm we left for Signal Hill, which is right next to Table Mountain and closer to the ocean. There were a lot of people up there for the sunset picnicking and with good reason- I would do it weekly if I lived here (oh man I wish I lived here). Our food and bottle of wine were delicious and we sat in the grass until the sun was nearly set (around 8 pm) and then walked out to a point for the final few minutes of daylight. On one side of us was Table Mountain, with clouds rolling over the top of it like an avalanche, and on the other side is the Atlantic ocean, with the sun setting over it, and down below us is the coastline scattered with hotels and houses. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and we stood around admiring it until there was nothing left to see.
A little later on we headed out to Long Street (surprise, surprise!) and met up with some Gary's Surf School people and a few others. We spent most of the night at Marvel, which is a favorite bar of everyone but it was my first time there. Not many tourists go to Marvel- it is a lot more locals- and was SO much fun. Awesome music and not surprisingly such a fun crowd. Another night for the books.
Sadly, Sophia and Friedericke went back on shift the next morning which was so weird!! I will have very little time to see them again before they leave next week- as in like 30 minutes between shift changes. I really got to know them pretty well the past couple of days though and as I have said really like them. I guess that is just how it works here but still it is a shame.
Yesterday I didn't feel great (sore throat and runny nose finally catching up with me?) but I still refuse to waste a day (sorry Mom, can't do it!). I did take it somewhat easy though by going to Green Point Market, which is only open on Sundays & about 15 minutes away from Obs. I had a great time taking my time and haggling the prices down, and I bought a lot. I wish I had gotten more, but I have no clue how I am going to fit everything in my suitcases (will worry about that later). It was interesting because I have had an Obama pin on my bag this entire trip, and no where has it gotten more attention than in the market. So many people asked if I had any more that they could have, and one lady put it on and I took a picture of her- she happened to be wearing a shirt from Kenya as well, which is where Obama is from. She and her friends just loved me. So that was neat. Came home from the market and again layed out and read (who doesn't love to lay out and read? I do it a lot).
Last night we all stayed in, and most of us went to bed pretty early & really tired. Unfortunately, Obs House had some bad luck last night, and not for the first time. A little over a week ago Friedericke had her camera and Ipod stolen- someone hoped the wall & electric fence, reached in through the window, and took them off of her bed while other people were awake in the living room. I was at shift when this happened. Last night, everyone was asleep except for Amy, who had been out front on the phone and then went into the living room around 1 am. Turns out that while she was still awake in the living room, someone got in again and this time came in through the window in the other girls bedroom (not mine) and took Amanda's (new girl from Canada) camera and wallet. Around 2 am Amanda and the other girl in the room Jenn woke up and realized that something was wrong- the shade was up. Amanda coincidentally went to get something out of her purse and it was gone. So this morning (when I really, really had wanted to sleep in past 8:30 for once) I awaken to the police in the house- great. They ended up finding her credit cards on the other side of the wall, for some reason the person took them out of the wallet and left them (too bad she had already called her parents to have them cancelled by the time they found them). Of course there is really nothing the police can/will do, but it is really freaky that someone was IN the house- it didn't seem as bad when we knew they had just reached through the window. It's pretty scary, and we are all now always locking up everything of value (of course the lockers could probably be broken in to with minimal effort). It sucks because I know that this isn't a safe place, but I like to try and give it some credit, which is hard to do with this stuff happening.
Additionally, there has been talk at Bap that one of the gangs in Khayelitsha tried to pay one of the older kids at the orphanage to steal a key to our flat there & asked him if we had any weapons. They know that we are there and that we have cameras, phones, and laptops. Of course hearing this is scary, and the flat could be broken into so easily. But everything that I have heard is that townships are actually really safe because they know that when white people visit we are either volunteering or spending money on their goods- so if anyone were to break in at Bap they would literally be hunted down and killed by all the people in the township. This is a crazy, crazy place.
And speaking of which, it is getting dark and I don't really want to walk home alone in the dark, so I'll finish catching up later. I am fine though & definitely keeping my things locked up (though go figure- for a HORRIBLE 5 minutes on Table Mountain today I thought I lost my camera... it was in my pocket, duh). And, there are five of us girls sleeping in my bedroom and if someone tries to get in we have a plan of attack prepared... I won't go into detail.
Miss everyone!!!
A couple nights ago after I was here in the internet cafe my plan was to get some sushi takeout and head back to the house, which I did, but when I went to the sushi place they were putting out platters of sushi for the bi-weekly $7 sushi buffet. Sadly I had already ordered my measly 8-piece spicy salmon california role, so I went back to the house a bit bummed. Lucky for me though Sofia is also a sushi lover and when I told her about the buffet she really wanted to go as well, so I put my dinner in the fridge for later and Sofia, Friedericke and I went to the Sushi Zone buffet (not to be confused with the competing Taste of Asia buffet directly across the street) which was an amazing spread of sushi plus lots of other Chinese and Thai food (did I mention for only $7?). It was just great. Plus we got a bottle of wine that we moved outside to the front patio to finish- sat around talking for quite a while. Then we went back to the house and got ready to go out- headed to Long Street where we started at The Dubliner, then went somewhere else for delicious mohitos and then to Zula for some dancing.
The next day (two days ago) Sofia, Friedericke and I went around 11am to a market about 5 minutes away. The focus of it was a HUGE food market- tons of vendors, all with free samples, with delicious looking bread, cheese, fruits & vegetables, sandwhiches, meat, cakes & sweets, etc etc etc. Additionally there was a tented area in which vendors were all around the perimiter making ready-to-eat food such as crepes, pizza, hot sandwhiches, stir fry, wraps, salads, and much more- everything looked AMAZING. In the middle of the tent were several long rows of picnic table-type tables (each with flower center pieces) packed with people eating and drinking beers and obviously completely enjoying themselves. It was a nice scene. I got an iced tea that came in a jar for 20R- when I returned the jar after I drank it I got back 1R.
The market also consisted of an area of shops, some open air some not. Things were not too cheap here but I bought a nice scarf and it was a really nice area to walk around.
The three of us had already planned to pack a picnic that night and watch the sunset from Signal Hill, so convenitenly we were able to buy everything for our picnic at the market (chicken sandwiches on fresh rolls, cherries, salad with artichokes, zuccinni, eggplant, tomato, olives and feta cheese). Definitely the best picnic of my 20 years.
For the rest of the afternoon we hung out around the house (i.e. layed out back on the patio reading) and around 6:30 pm we left for Signal Hill, which is right next to Table Mountain and closer to the ocean. There were a lot of people up there for the sunset picnicking and with good reason- I would do it weekly if I lived here (oh man I wish I lived here). Our food and bottle of wine were delicious and we sat in the grass until the sun was nearly set (around 8 pm) and then walked out to a point for the final few minutes of daylight. On one side of us was Table Mountain, with clouds rolling over the top of it like an avalanche, and on the other side is the Atlantic ocean, with the sun setting over it, and down below us is the coastline scattered with hotels and houses. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and we stood around admiring it until there was nothing left to see.
A little later on we headed out to Long Street (surprise, surprise!) and met up with some Gary's Surf School people and a few others. We spent most of the night at Marvel, which is a favorite bar of everyone but it was my first time there. Not many tourists go to Marvel- it is a lot more locals- and was SO much fun. Awesome music and not surprisingly such a fun crowd. Another night for the books.
Sadly, Sophia and Friedericke went back on shift the next morning which was so weird!! I will have very little time to see them again before they leave next week- as in like 30 minutes between shift changes. I really got to know them pretty well the past couple of days though and as I have said really like them. I guess that is just how it works here but still it is a shame.
Yesterday I didn't feel great (sore throat and runny nose finally catching up with me?) but I still refuse to waste a day (sorry Mom, can't do it!). I did take it somewhat easy though by going to Green Point Market, which is only open on Sundays & about 15 minutes away from Obs. I had a great time taking my time and haggling the prices down, and I bought a lot. I wish I had gotten more, but I have no clue how I am going to fit everything in my suitcases (will worry about that later). It was interesting because I have had an Obama pin on my bag this entire trip, and no where has it gotten more attention than in the market. So many people asked if I had any more that they could have, and one lady put it on and I took a picture of her- she happened to be wearing a shirt from Kenya as well, which is where Obama is from. She and her friends just loved me. So that was neat. Came home from the market and again layed out and read (who doesn't love to lay out and read? I do it a lot).
Last night we all stayed in, and most of us went to bed pretty early & really tired. Unfortunately, Obs House had some bad luck last night, and not for the first time. A little over a week ago Friedericke had her camera and Ipod stolen- someone hoped the wall & electric fence, reached in through the window, and took them off of her bed while other people were awake in the living room. I was at shift when this happened. Last night, everyone was asleep except for Amy, who had been out front on the phone and then went into the living room around 1 am. Turns out that while she was still awake in the living room, someone got in again and this time came in through the window in the other girls bedroom (not mine) and took Amanda's (new girl from Canada) camera and wallet. Around 2 am Amanda and the other girl in the room Jenn woke up and realized that something was wrong- the shade was up. Amanda coincidentally went to get something out of her purse and it was gone. So this morning (when I really, really had wanted to sleep in past 8:30 for once) I awaken to the police in the house- great. They ended up finding her credit cards on the other side of the wall, for some reason the person took them out of the wallet and left them (too bad she had already called her parents to have them cancelled by the time they found them). Of course there is really nothing the police can/will do, but it is really freaky that someone was IN the house- it didn't seem as bad when we knew they had just reached through the window. It's pretty scary, and we are all now always locking up everything of value (of course the lockers could probably be broken in to with minimal effort). It sucks because I know that this isn't a safe place, but I like to try and give it some credit, which is hard to do with this stuff happening.
Additionally, there has been talk at Bap that one of the gangs in Khayelitsha tried to pay one of the older kids at the orphanage to steal a key to our flat there & asked him if we had any weapons. They know that we are there and that we have cameras, phones, and laptops. Of course hearing this is scary, and the flat could be broken into so easily. But everything that I have heard is that townships are actually really safe because they know that when white people visit we are either volunteering or spending money on their goods- so if anyone were to break in at Bap they would literally be hunted down and killed by all the people in the township. This is a crazy, crazy place.
And speaking of which, it is getting dark and I don't really want to walk home alone in the dark, so I'll finish catching up later. I am fine though & definitely keeping my things locked up (though go figure- for a HORRIBLE 5 minutes on Table Mountain today I thought I lost my camera... it was in my pocket, duh). And, there are five of us girls sleeping in my bedroom and if someone tries to get in we have a plan of attack prepared... I won't go into detail.
Miss everyone!!!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Halfway Through
I can't believe it! How have I already been here for 3 weeks? It is strange how the time here works. Three weeks seems like a lot because it is half of my whole trip. And though I feel like it has flown by so far, I also in a way feel like I've been here forever (comfort-wise I guess). I talked to Molly last night (a 21st birthday most definitely deserves a phone call home) and she asked me if I am sad at the idea of going home or if I'm ready or what, and I really didn't know how to answer. Obviously I will be incredibly sad to leave, this is shaping up to be the most incredible experience of my life. But I guess that since I have always known that it's only for 6 weeks and because I have no possible way to extend my trip (spring semester starts Feb 9) I will be okay with leaving- I don't have any other choice. Six weeks here definitely is not enough though; the large majority of people are here for a minimum of I'd say 2 months, most for 4-6. Plus, a lot of people have extended their stays to do more traveling after leaving AVIVA. So when I tell someone I am only here for 6 weeks the reaction is always "Wow, so short!".
I have also found that 6 weeks is a strange kind of "borderline" amount of time between calling this a vacation and saying that I am living here. I FEEL like I live here, and yet I still bring my camera out everywhere and plan the touristy things to do because I don't have the luxury of knowing that I can wait to do something another time or that I will see these places again and again- I have to take advantage of every day because I know how limited my days are here. In fact, I only have 9 more free days here when I am not on shift, at Kruger for my safari, or have a tour scheduled. And I still have such a long To Do list!! The past three days have been very productive though and my time has been very well spent (I will update more about yesterday later). Unfortunately, I have been feeling myself getting sick but have ignored it because it is pretty much inevitable so I figured I should stay busy and party hard until it really hits me, and then hope to not be too incapacitated. So I guess today I will take it easy and hope to feel better for my last two days off before shift.
Apparently I picked a good shift to miss these past three days because about 80% of the kids have diarrhea. My shift came back this morning and said it was messy and horrible so... woohoo! So glad I wasn't there. Hopefully it will be better by the time we go back on shift.
Here's to the next 3 weeks- I can only hope they are as good as the first three!
I have also found that 6 weeks is a strange kind of "borderline" amount of time between calling this a vacation and saying that I am living here. I FEEL like I live here, and yet I still bring my camera out everywhere and plan the touristy things to do because I don't have the luxury of knowing that I can wait to do something another time or that I will see these places again and again- I have to take advantage of every day because I know how limited my days are here. In fact, I only have 9 more free days here when I am not on shift, at Kruger for my safari, or have a tour scheduled. And I still have such a long To Do list!! The past three days have been very productive though and my time has been very well spent (I will update more about yesterday later). Unfortunately, I have been feeling myself getting sick but have ignored it because it is pretty much inevitable so I figured I should stay busy and party hard until it really hits me, and then hope to not be too incapacitated. So I guess today I will take it easy and hope to feel better for my last two days off before shift.
Apparently I picked a good shift to miss these past three days because about 80% of the kids have diarrhea. My shift came back this morning and said it was messy and horrible so... woohoo! So glad I wasn't there. Hopefully it will be better by the time we go back on shift.
Here's to the next 3 weeks- I can only hope they are as good as the first three!
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