Volunteering at Goedgedacht

Yeah I can't pronounce the name of the place either. Some weird Afrikaans thing. Anyways, this past Saturday 7 people from my program and I took a trek out to, Goedgedacht to do some volunteer work for the day. Our driver picked us up at around 7:30am and we started our journey to Afrikaans farm land. We drove for about an hour and a half and all of a sudden in the middle of no where, we stumbled upon the place we were going to be volunteering. We were shown inside where we got coffee and tea and sat around his huge coffee table chatting with the coordinator of the program, Annie. Annie was this super cute old lady who had been running the program on her farm for about 17 years. Her mission was to get kids out of their homes in the rural villages where they are exposed to a lot of alcohol and abuse from their parents and to get them into the real world so they will be able to succeed. Annie holds a pre-school program and a program for kids who are in high school. The younger kids are bused in from the rural villages and they go to school at the farm, because at that age in their villages they would not be going to school and would quickly fall behind. So the kids are fed and taught all day and then they are bussed back to their village. Some of the infants live at the farm permanently because of how bad the situation is at their home. Many of the kids have fetal alcohol syndrome so they are VERY small for their age and are unable to develop as quickly or at all as the kids who do not have it. The high school kids are brought in on Wednesdays and Fridays and they are taught life skills so they will be able to get out of the villages and go to university to get a degree and a job so they will not repeat the life they have lived.

So there's a little of the background information for ya.

Our day started with working with the younger kids. As many people probably know, babies weird me out so I went with the kids who were 4-6 years old. Tracey and I took them outside and played various games for a few hours and then did some puzzles and what not at the end. The kids were ADORABLE. It was quite sad though because you could definitely tell the difference between the kids whos mothers were heavy drinkers and which that weren't

These 2 boys were the same age, but the boy in the yellow was literally half the size as the other boy.

We took a class picture and off we went to get some lunch at the main house and figure out what our task was for the afternoon. Annie told us that we would be doing actual farm work for the afternoon on the climate change path? (whatever that meant) We found out that the farm was actually an olive farm where they produced their own olive oil and was sold in the grocery stores around South Africa. So before we started our farm work this women Ingred (she ran the highschool kids program) showed us around the olive groves and led us to where we would be doing our work.

Here's some pics of the olive groves themselves.

Our job for the afternoon was to weed this field that they were going to use to plant... something? Who knows. So anyways they literally just put us out into the field and were like here are 2 rakes and the rest you pull up with your hands. Now, this was no normal weeding. This field had been grown over for a VERY long time and there were literal plants with deep roots that needed to be pulled up. Not to mention that there were huge aloe plants everywhere. After about 2 and a half hours of weeding my hands were basically raw and I physically could not straighten them. We decided it was time for a break. Every one was in some serious physical pain and we couldn't imagine if that was really someones job they did everyday. I could never imagine something like that. There were workers that were working in the area next to us and they kept asking us what we were doing and then laughing.. um? Okay. Rude. We were like slaves. When we went back to see what time we were doing the weeding until they guy was gone and so was everyone else that was working on the path. Once again... um? We called up Annie and asked her what we should do, and all she said was when we were done we could head up to the building where we would be eating dinner and working with the high school kids. We decided that we were done and went up right after we got off the phone will her. Whoops haha. 

They had made a fire and it was getting pretty cold so we sat around the fire for a while waiting for the kids to get there. Once they started to arrive they made us come inside and dance with them. Let's take note of the fact that I cannot dance to save my life. Literally ZERO rhythm. I tried to explain this to the girls that were trying to teach us their African dances but they didn't understand the severity of my lack of rhythm. It also didn't help that the Africans all can DANCE, like really really dance. I feel like they are born with a natural rhythm or something. I was jealous and still currently am. Once Ingred showed up we got into a circle and sang for a while, dancing and circling around. Kind weird but whatever, they kids liked it. After we were done with that, we had planned an activity with the kids to get them to work together, and once they were done to present their answers to everyone. We did the activity where, im sure everyone has done this at some point in their life. But where you are given a list of people and things and it goes like "you are stuck on a deserted island and you can only take 5 out of the 10 people and 5 out of the 10 items on the list". One then proceeds to figure out why you would bring the people you said and why you chose to bring the things you did. The kids explanations were hilarious and the exercise went really well. It was so hard to imagine these kids at home being abused by their parents and being exposed to all the horrible things that exist in their village. They seemed so normal and happy! It was so sad, but thank god for this program because these kids were actually making something of themselves. All of them were saying how they wanted to go to college and get out of their towns and what not. They were awesome. I wish we had known about the project earlier in the semester so we could have gone more than once. We ate a traditional African dinner with the kids to end the night and all of a sudden it was 9pm and it was time to go. It was sad to think that we would never see the kids again, and there was no way we could keep in contact with them. :( I just hope that they actually follow through with what they said they were going to do with their lives and that they do not get sucked into the on going cycle of alcoholism.

 Here are the kids that Tracey and I worked with in the morning

 

These are the highschool kids

 

Ajax game in the World Cup Stadium

All semester I have been wanting to go to a soccer game in the world cup stadium and finallllllllllly we got a chance to go to one. Obviously, you buy your tickets at Shoprite (REAL classy grocery store, not) in the ghetto because we are in Africa. We thought that the seating was going to be general seating like it had been at the other stadium so we all went and bought our tickets at different times. Well, it wasn't general seating haha oops. So Mack sat alone, Elise, Sarah, and I sat together and then Kelsey, Tracey, and Dani sat together. I guess that was fine? Whatever. So in the morning we went to Biscuit Mill to get some great noms and then headed off the to the stadium. When we got there it was PACKED. There were all kinds of people everywhere trying to get tickets and sell tickets and whatever else they were trying to do. We didn't know where we were supposed to be going so we picked a crowd and followed it. There was a security check point, like all other public places, where they checked your bag and padded you down. I was the first one to go through so the woman looked in my bag and then looks at me and goes, "you are VERY lucky young lady". What? I had no idea what she meant by that so I just laughed and kept walking. Elise and Sarah had water in their bags and the women saw the water in the bag and just goes, "no water in the stadium" and then winked. TIA.

Little action shot of the entering of the stadium

So we finally get inside and are looking for our seats. Awk though because Kelsey was with us and she wasn't sitting with us while Tracey and Dani were on their way. So we got to our seats, second row! yay! but there were only 3 seats (the 3 we had bought) and not one for Kelsey. So she sat behind us until Tracey and Dani got there. Once again, awk. The guys in front of us hated us and they made it so obvious. Everytime we took a picture they would turn around and give us the dirtiest look. Rude. So of course I took more pictures than ever just to piss them off. Haha oops. It's not like I'm ever going to see those Africans ever again. 

The game was the championship game so the Ajax were pumppppppppped, as was the crowd. People were loving their vuvzellas (cannot spell) and face paint. The Ajax were down after the goalie literally just decided NOT to save the easiest goal in the history of soccer. Rude. In the last 3 minutes the Ajax scored and tied the game up. It seemed as if it was on the up and up and the Ajax might be able to pull off a win! Unfortunately, they did not. The ended it with a tie which gave the Pirates the winning title. Bummer. All the players were on the field crying and laying down, yelling at all of the camera men who kept trying to get all up in their faces. Sad day for the Ajax :( But epic day for me because I got to see the world cup stadium!

 Note: those are the RUDE Africans who didn't like us

Sunrise on Signal Hill

Yesterday was election day so of course we had the day off. Obv. Anyways, we decided that it would be a good day to go up to the top of Signal Hill and watch the sunset as we had been wanting to do it for a while. Of course the only day that I have to wake up at the crack of dawn I cannot for the life of me fall asleep the night before. The sun was supposed to be rising at 7:33 so we figured if we left at 6:30 we would have enough time to get up there to see the whole thing. I figured I would go to bed around midnight and that way I could get about 6 hrs of sleep. Well by the time I watched 8 episodes of Modern Family (Best show EVER, everyone needs to watch it) I looked at the clock and it was 2:50AM. I ended up falling asleep around 3 so by the time I had to wake up at 6 I had basically taken and nap and I wasn't even tired. Matt, Elise, Sarah, and I all got suited up and headed over to our local seven eleven to snatch a cab. Of course, the ONLY time we actually need a cab there are no cabs there. Matt realized he had a cab company in his phone and it seemed as if everything was going to be solved. Wrong, Matt's phone was dead. There was no way that we weren't going to see the sunrise so we walked back to the house where Matt could charge his phone and call the cab company. By this time it was 6:45 and we were cutting it REAL close with the time of the sunrise. The cab got there super quick and he drove like a madman to signal hill. The sun was starting to come up as we were driving up to the top and we were freaking out that we were going to miss it. We finally got to the top, I threw him some Rand and jumped out of the car to start taking pictures. The sunrise we saw ended up being the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Check this out...

 

Yes, it gets this cold in Africa

There was a man at the top, he's actually in one of the pictures, who was saying that he goes up to the top to watch the sunsets all the time and said that this was one of the best ones he had ever seen. So glad we got to see it. After it was totally risen we walked back down to the bottom and caught a cab home where we made some delicious breakfast and then I decided to watch some more Modern Family until I went to the gym except for the fact that I ended up falling asleep and waking up two hours later with my computer and my camera on my bed. Thank god I didn't move at all or everything would have ended up on the floor.

So yeah, beautiful sunrise, yay.

Lion's Head Hike

Cape Town is stocked with different places to take some risky and not so risky hikes. Lion's head is one of the easier ones in the area and has a great view the whole hike. To hike up Lion's head you literally like keep circling the mountain until you reach the top where it is flat and you can sit and... sit I guess? We were told the hike was very easy although that was not the case when we got up there. It starts off really nice with juts a dirt path, no crazy hiking or anything. When we saw this we were like oh yeah this is definitely going to be easy.

 Disregard the horrid picture, but as you can see the path seems like a breeze.

That path lead for some time and then the whole thing turned into rocks, still not very bad just hard to watch where you were stepping. Beautiful views the whole way up which was nice. This is the same place where I went paragliding so I had already seen most of what it had to offer, or so I thought. We only hiked about half way up, if that to get to the site for paragliding. I thought we had hiked further and figured I knew how hard the hike was going to be. Not soon after it turned into rocks instead of a path it turned into t minor rock-climbing adventure with places where the only way to keep going to climb a ladder and grab onto little divots in the rocks. I thought the hike was supposed to be easy? We came to the crossroad in-order to get to the top, there was either the "risky" route as it was called or the leisurely path to the top. We of course thought we were cool and took the "risky" path. A man also told us that his kids could do it so we definitely could. As soon as he said that we were definitely going for the risky business. It started off smooth until we realized that it was quite dangerous and at any moment if you took a wrong step or didn't grab onto the right part of the rock you were pretty much falling off the side of the mountain. Cool. Then we started thinking, we didn't even know what this guy's kids were like to base out decision to take the risky path. Right. So after about 5 ladders and 20 minutes of rock climbing we made it to the top! The view was awesome so worth the hike. We hung around at the top for a bit admiring the view and people watching everyone who was sitting at the top. There was quite the crowd because of how nice it was that day.

 "Risky route"

 

As you can see from the pictures that the hike was not as "leisurely" as I had expected with the ladders and chains that we had to hold on to. It was a quick hike down and it was also great people watching which made it go by much faster. Great start to the day.

AFRIKABURN

Okay so I have been trying to figure out how I would explain Afrikaburn in words but I have come to conclusion that it's actually impossible to put the experience into words. It is based off of burningman that happens in the states if anyone has heard of that. I know I hadn't so I had no idea what I was in for signing up to go to this thing.

We left in our great adventure vehicle (as seen below)

On Friday morning at 7:30 we embarked on our journey and drove for about 3 hrs and all of sudden the road just ended and we were in the desert. The next 2 and a half hours were VERY bumpy and not comfortable at all. We were literally driving into the middle of the desert, the dust was so bad that we couldn't even see the car in front of us. When I looked out the window there was literally nothing in sight for miles, literally as far as I could see. I guess we were really in the desert. At the end of the 2 and a half hours we all of a sudden stumbled upon this giant festival aka Afrikaburn. How did they pick that random spot in the middle of the desert?? It was actually the only close to civilization thing I had seen in I would say about 3 hours. I kept thinking what did I get myself into. The first thing I saw was a man in a long trench coat that was flashing every car that went by. Then I saw a man that had trashbags stuffed with paper all over his body riding a bike. Then we had an older woman who was dressed up as a sailor jump onto our truck and was telling us how we had to ring the "virgin" bell because we were all virgins to Afrikaburn. This was the "virgin" bell

So all of us on the two trucks we came with rang the bell and it was time to find our camp site. It was quite the process but we finally found a spot and set up our 28 tents. We literally looked like an army base. The rest of the trip is unable to be described into words so I figure I will just put up some pictures to kind of try to explain what the hell happened that weekend.

And I guess that's all I can really say about my experience there? Haha. The last day however we woke up at the crack of dawn to pack up the campsite and head home. This is the sunrise I woke up to when I emerged from my tent...

Literally unreal

Once we were all packed up, the driver realized that the battery was dead on the truck. I figured that we could just jump it and it would start back up but I guess that wasn't an option. The next thing I knew we were pushing the truck to try to get it started. Nothing like being stuck in the desert. The truck started and we were on the road until just as we were about to exit the area where Afrikaburn was it died again. So once again we were pushing the truck to try to get it started. After many failed attempts and some tinfoil? (not really sure what that did) the truck started and we were finally on our way home. After 4 days of living in the desert with no shower or real toilets the first thing I did when I got home was take the longest shower ever taken. It was magical. I had about 16 dreadlocks in my hair, like actually couldn't brush them out they were so matted. T.I.A

Homeless Encounter of the day

Trash Day:

Every Thursday is trash day in Mowbray. For the 1 trillion homeless people that live in Mowbray this is their favorite day of the week. This is the day they get a bunch of delicious food and maybe even a new outfit here or there. So just like every Thursday, when I walked out of the 8 gates it takes to get to the street to walk to class I all of a sudden emersed within this homeless population rummaging through the 10 garbage cans that are on my street. A little background on this, we have these 3-5 homeless people, mostly men, who have moved in behind the bushes on our street. They are not too much of a bother and never really ask me for anything so it's cool that they stay. Today seemed like a normal trash day until I continued down the street and found 3 of the homeless men standing in a circle around something on the ground. As I got closer I could hear them saying/chanting something that was definitely not in English. They began chanting louder and dancing around what to me looked like a piece of garbage on the ground, maybe it was food? I'm still not sure. They didn't even see me walk by and kept going on with their strange satanic chanting/dancing around this item. Not until I had completely passed did they realize I was there and stopped their chanting to all look up at me and just started going HI HI HI HI!! HOW ARE YOU HI! MISS MISS HI!! They have never acknowledged me before and being quite confused I just kept walking to class. Nothing like a great start to the day

Century City

We made a list of things we want to do and restaurants we want to eat at before we leave here. The list is a lot longer than I thought it would be so this should be interesting. One of the things on the list was century city. What is Century City? Not really sure. It's supposed to be the largest mall in the southern hemisphere or something like that? But not only was it a shopping mall, in the complex there was also a theme park, numerous hotels, a bunch of restaurants, car dealerships, amongst other establishments. T.I.A. Anyways, the mall I'm pretty sure was called the canal walk because of the fact that there is a canal running through the middle of it. It was a really nice mall and basically had anything you could possibly need in life (many of the things I never thought Africa had).

 

The food court? Hectic?

 Here is a little canal action

We walked around the mall a little and then headed straight for the amusement park! Yay! I felt like a little kid about to go to Disney land or something. Pathetic. We wandered around for a while trying to figure out how exactly to get to the amusement park and after about 15 minutes of trying to find it we had been right in front of the entrance the whole time. Typical. The park was... interesting? I don't really know how to describe it into words, but they had this one roller coaster that was a lot like the mind eraser (Darien Lake anyone?) Except for the fact that I swear I got a concussion riding on it. I literally had a headache after I got off the ride. It was a good time on it though, I cannot remember the last time I had been on a roller-coaster/ How much I LOVE roller-coasters. So after a few rides (aka the only rides they had for adults) we hit the roller-coaster one more time and then headed back to the mall. Naturally I went and got some coleslaw from KFC, for all the coleslaw lovers out there, not that there are very many, KFC is the best. Although, KFC in Africa is always a way better experience than those in the states. I was definitely the only white person in line and EVERYONE was starring at me. Literally, I could actually see them talking about me. So rude, I was just trying to get some slaw and get out of there. But yeah that pretty much sums up Century City. I wish I could actually go back and do some shopping but it's quite the hike to do alone. 

Oh, also forgot to mention that there was a petting zoo inside of the amusement park, but there seemed to have been a goat that escaped from this petting zoo and was wondering around the park just like he was a normal person trying to hop in the coaster. T.I.A.

Dad's Visit

The day after I got back from my trip my dad arrived in Cape Town and stayed for 2 weeks. I figure just giving you the play by play of what happened in the 2 weeks in 1 post is the best way to go:

While he was here we:
1. Went paragliding. It was was so cool, and so relaxing. Weird to think about something such as throwing your body off the side of a mountain as relaxing but it really was. As soon as you jump off, the parachute catches you and the rest of the time you literally sit back and enjoy the view. The whole trip only took about 7 minutes to get down to the bottom and once at the bottom, the landing was super smooth unlike the others who ended up falling. My guy I went tandem with was really cool too. He was saying how he has 2 kids, blah, blah, but how cool for your dad to be a paragliding instructor?! At least I thought it was cool

Weeeee paragliding

2. The Winelands!

My dad and I took a trip out to the winelands aka Franschoek and Stellenbosch to dabble into a few wineries. We stayed the nice at a smaller winery called Mont Rochelle. SO nice wow. The place was so relaxing. The 1st day we were there we didn't do much but drive through town and eat dinner at the hotel. The next day were took a tour of the winery and did a little wine tasting and the checked out. We did a little shopping around town and then went to another winery called La Mott. This winery was BEAUTIFUL, actually stunning. We did another tasting there and then had lunch outside in the coutyard where there were a bunch of nice seating areas with couches and tables. The sandwich I had was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I'd say top 10 best sandwiches I have ever had and that's saying a lot. There was a museum connected to the winery so we took a quick peek at that on our way out.

 The view from the porch of our winery, gorgeoussss

 Here is a small part of La Mott, the other winery were took a gander at

3. We took a look at a few museums downtown such as the district 6 museum. (Look district 6 up online for more information) and then we went to this other placed called the castle. The castle was an old fort that was used when the first settlers arrived in to Cape Town. We got to walk around the top where there were cannon holes and what not and it overlooked the entire city, it was prettyyyy legit.

4. Went out to eat, every. day. So I gained approximately 50 lbs when my dad was here because we ate out SO much, but it was good because I got to go to a lot of the places I probably wouldn't go on my own. We ate at this one place called the Codfather. SO good, you picked the fish you wanted them to cook right out of the case in front of you. SO fresh, SO good. Yum. Another interesting place we ate was a place called Gold, which also had a museum in it from way back. We walked in a did an interactive drumming session, great. And then it was already a set menu and there was SO much food wow. During dinner they had performers come up dressed up in these weird costumes (seen below) and one main girl who was singing some crazy African songs throughout dinner. Interesting. I finally had Greek food in a town near Chapman's peak and in the town I saw a man walking a pot belly pig? I think that's what it was at least. So random. The thing was huge and it was squeeling and everything. Why not just take the pig for a walk?

 Check out that weird thing

Casual stroll with the pig?

Those are pretty much the big things that we did while he was here, I think? I don't even remember at this point, did wayy to much. My apologies!