Rhonanai South Africa

Well, folks....the adventure of a lifetime had to come to an end eventually, and now the end is here. The past two days have been full of a ton of laughs and a lot of reminiscing. Being the big sap that I am, I shed a few tears. The biggest concern on many of our minds is how we're going to explain this experience to our students, our family, our friends, and our colleagues when we get home. It is so hard to put into words all that I saw, felt, and experienced over these past 6 weeks. It has been, without a doubt, some of the best 6 weeks of my life. It has changed me as a person; it's impossible to continue to live my life the way I did prior to this expereince. I can't keep the tunnel vision on any longer.

Ok, on to some fun. We had our final group dinner on Monday night at Africa Cafe. One word: gorgefest. It was a set menu of about 13 dishes from all over the continent. Some awesome eats and a lot of laughs. We presented gifts to our awesome driver, Richard, our favorite South African, Xolani, and Rich and Kay for guiding us on this magnificent journey.

Our last "full" day in Cape Town included a day trip to Paarl and Tulbaugh to visit the Afrikaans Language Monument and the 18-19c Colonial Town. The monument looked like a skate park, so we made our own fun by taking some goofy pictures.

This mound represents the influence of one of the African Language (Sotho, Xhosa or Zulu) on Afrikaans language. We decided it would be more fun just to stand atop the mound and link arms. :)

An added attraction after our lunch in Tulbaugh was a visit to a chocolate shop which include CHOCOLATE TASTING! I had a chili pinotage chocolate, amarula, and almond/pistacio nouget. It was DELISH. I stocked up on some for some special people :)

For our last night in Cape Town, a group of us decided to go to dinner at Mama Africa Cafe for a traditional South African meal of lots of meat: crocodile, kudu, springbok, and ostrich. It was delicious, and the company and friends were even better.

We ended the night by going to the 360 degree bar above the Ritz to get one last breathtaking view of Cape Town.

Today it is pouring rain and it's our last day to run around the city...Not sure what's on the agenda just yet...but I am looking forward to being home. The flight ahead is daunting, but I guess that's just a price I have to pay for this entire experience. So, on that note: Rhonanai South Africa. I hope to see you again one day.

"Cage goes in the water. You go in the water. Shark's in the water!"

"Cage goes in the water. You go in the water. Shark's in the water!" -JawsI am far too tired to blog after my AMAZING, EXHILARATING, AWESOME day. For once in my life, I am at a loss for words. There really are no words to explain the awesomeness and insanity of being in a cage an arm's length away from a 15 foot great white shark. Our day was perfect: 65 and sunny, clearest visibility the crew has seen in YEARS, warmish water, and LOTS OF SHARKS. We saw 8 great whites - ranging from a "baby" of 3 meters to the monster 4.5 meter shark.

Don't worry, I still have all my fingers and toes. :)


The fearless foursome from the NEH group...Me, Deb, Chris and Jake!

That's us in the cage!!! I was in the cage for about 30-45 minutes; it's kind of hard to keep track of time when our guides - Rosie and Brian - are yelling, SHARK ON THE RIGHT! DOWN DOWN!!! The highlight was seeing the 4.5 behemouth swimming right at me with his mouth open. Surprisingly, I really wasn't scared during the entire experience. There was a lot of nervous anticipation, but once I got in the cage, it was just so beautiful to watch a bunch of "volkswagon busses" float by!

HOLY MOLY THE SHARKS WERE CLOSE!! This is taken from the boat...crazy!!!

Close encounter with the shark, the chum, and the cage.The day was just...awesome. A great way to kick off Shark Week!!!Oh - and my tour operator - Brian Mcfarlane does stuff with NatGeo and Discovery all the time! He even ran a shark tour for Jude Law and Maroon 5. The best part of it: he's been doing it for 13 years and STILL gets giddy EVERYTIME he sees a shark!Definitely one of the best days of my 27 years of life...:) Not sure how to top this one...

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens!!

AFter last night's public transport taxi fiasco, I was more than excited to see Richard and our bus to chauffer us around the city! We spent the morning visiting the Green Point Market which is a pan-Africa market selling anything and everything one could ever want when it comes to African crafts. I swear I'm done shopping after today...but I think I've said that about 5490584903485 times already... Oh well, when will I ever be back in AFrica? Atleast I'm supporting the local economy. Just a hint at what I purchased: it's a really big animal and it requires me to carry it on to the plane. Can't wait!!!

After the market we headed to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. They are the largest botanical gardens in all of Africa and some of the top gardens in the world...I can't even begin to explain how beautiful it was. Now mind you, I'm here in the WINTER and it's some of the most beautiful fauna and flora I've ever seen. The best part about it is that it's set on a hill beside the mountains just out of Cape Town. At the top of the gardens, we got a view of Cape Town. Totally gorgeous...and I think I took 109080234023932948 pictures! I just couldn't get enough of the proteas!

It was a bit overcast today, so the pic doesn't even do it justice. We are at the very top of the gardens overlooking the greens (felt like I was on a golf course!) and Cape Town off in the distance.

The views were beautiful...just like the people on this trip: Heather from AZ, Chris from DC, me and Erika from Portland. I will miss these guys dearly in just 4 days!

Here are some of the flowers that were interdispersed everywhere!! These are in the protea family - which is the national flower of South Africa. Totally awesome!

And finally, a view of the mountains with the misty cloud cover. I just loved the bright flowers to offset the mountains.

After walking around the gardens and grabbing lunch (mmmmm spinach and feta quiche and small greek salad), and hitting the gift shop, of course, we headed off to the Groot Contstania Vineyards for a tour of the winery and an obilgatory taste or two.

It was a very relaxing, enjoyable day full of beauty and great moments with great people. The overall sentiment here is that we're all trying to suck in every moment we have here together. Our flights leave later Wednesday night, and by the magic of jet lag, I'll be stepping off the plane in Detroit on Thursday afternoon, despite being in the air for 20 hours....

South African Rugby Experience!

Whew...yesterday was our "endurance session" at UWC as Rich put it: 3 lectures and then a panel discussion with teachers. After all that sitting, we needed to get out on the town, so we bought some tickets to a Western Province vs the Leopards Rugby Match. Rugby is huge in South Africa, and I became really interested after I finished reading "Playing the Enemy" about the 1995 Rugby World Cup which united South Africa when the Springboks (SA National Team) beat the All Blacks (New Zealand). The books a great read if you interested in the end of the Apartheid negotiations between Botha and Mandela, as well as Mandela's presidency and his quest to unite the new South Africa... Speaking of the Springboks, our bus company is the same company that shuttles around the team, so yesterday we got to drive around in this sweet bus. Everywhere we stopped people tried to look through the windows to see if we were ACTUALLY the Springboks...



Prior to heading to the Newlands Stadium (Oldest Rugby Stadium in South Africa!), we went to a local sushi restaurant for all you can eat sushi for about $10...it was great. We took cabs to the stadium and had a great driver who even walked us to the entrance. On the way, we stopped at a stand to pick up some Western Province gear to fit in with the locals. I got a sweet beanie hat that is reminiscent of Where's Waldo?

We got into the stadium to find in practically empty because it was only a small province game, and the Leopards weren't a particularly good team...but it was really fun and cool to say that I've been to a rugby game in SA. The game of Rugby is a little confusing...and holy wow is it rough! I have no idea how these guys play without helmets or without sufficient padding! The constant scrumming and tackling is brutal...but I loved it! I really enjoyed that is a fast paced game: two, 40 minutes halves with no penalties or stopping the clock. We cheered a lot and had a great time.

Here is our group right next to the field: Kori, Heather, Matt, Me, Chris, Jake, and Jason (some of us in our awesome W.P. gear!)

On our way out of the game, we tried to get the big Rugby store to open for us...we played the "We're Americans...with money!" card, but alas, they didn't open. While walking to the taxi que, we ran into the Leopards bus, so we took some pictures with them....what a bunch of cuties...holy wow are they buff!

Things then got interesting when we got in a cab to head home. We didn't have access to a phone to call our favorite cab company, so we ended up hailing a cab on the street. We piled in and took off. Our driver was from Zimbabwe, so we instatly talked about Mugabe, of course. About 5 minutes into our cab ride, our driver looked in the rear view mirror and said "The cops are on me!" At that instant, our cab was pulled over by 3 cop cars. The driver got out and the 4 of us sat there: scared and confused. Then we heard the cops say, "You've been in my area too many times. We're going to search this cab inside and out...do you have any drugs or weapons?" They searched the trunk, and finally the police officer let us out and explained that we got into an illegal cab and that if anything were to happen we would not be insured etc. The driver's car would be impounded and auctioned off because this has happened multiple times. They were more than accomodating and nice and offered to call us another cab...but it was at that point that we were in the middle of an area of Cape Town that we did not know, and didn't want to wait 20 minutes on a random street corner for the cab to show up. The officer found us a registered cab on the street and we jumped in heading back to the Check Inn.

About 5 minutes away from our hotel, we got pulled over AGAIN...I swear, the cops must have been doing a cab sweep last night! We all groaned, "oh no, not again!" Our driver got out, opened his trunk, and then jumped right back in. We were all relieved we didn't have to go through that fiasco again! But hey, it was an interesting expereince, and a great story to tell for time to come!!!

And to end with a laugh...here's me and the boys in our AWESOME Western Province attire. I know you're all jealous! :)

I'm Goin' Back, Back to School!

Today was our much anticipated school visit in Cape Town. The group met this morning and we were distributed to 4 local schools: a middle school in the Guguletu township, a Math/Science High School, a middle class "ex model c school" (a white school during the Apartheid), and the school I went to: Thandokhoulu - a high school for Xhosa speaking learners. All of the students live in the townships: Guguletu, Khayalitsha, and Langa and commute 1 hr to 1.5 hours by bus each day to and from school which is in a middle class neighborhood in Cape Town. It is the only Xhosa school in the city of Cape Town.

The bus dropped the 7 of us off and we walked into their main offices to discover that they really weren't aware we were all coming. We made our way to the teacher's lounge/lunchroom where we heard the sweet sounds of the copy machine. We chatted with a few of the teachers and with a girl from Canada doing her student teaching. We finally met with Mr. Tsoli, the English Department Head. He gave us some background on the school. The building of the school was a former primary school which was vacant before the school took it over in 1992. At that time, there was no funds to build a sufficient secondary school in Khayalitsha, and since the building in Cape Town was vacant for 7 years due to levels of lead present in the building, the parents, teachers, and students essentially became school "squatters." They met with much police opposition, but eventually negotiated and possess the building today. I assume the "lead" issue still exists today.

Public schooling in South Africa is not free like it is in the United States. Each school maintains it own tuition fees, and in the case of Thandokhoulu (meaning Greater Love in Xhosa), the fees are R350-R400 per year. That equates to about $40-50 per year. The students and required to wear uniforms and must purchase their supplies. Textbooks, although outdated, are supplied through the equivalent of the Dept of Education in Cape Town.


Here are a group of Grade 9 students hamming it up on their break. The students wanted me to take their pictures so they could see themselves on the screen.

As I mentioned, the school was vacant for many years, so as you can probably guess, the school facilities are less than desirable. The school includes grade 8-12. The 8-9 classes are held in "portables" outside of the main building. These portables are falling apart, and in one of them, the floor boards are missing and broken.

Class size is approximately 50-60 students per class. The unique thing about this school is that the students do not travel from class to class as they do in a conventional school in the States. Instead, the students STAY in the same room ALL DAY and the teachers travel from room to room for instruction. I can't imagine how this can possibly be effective. The students would have to go crazy and the teachers do not have a room to keep all of their belongings. I just think about some of my colleagues having to do that....June McCallumore, I'm thinking of you. What would you do without your room to hold all of your posters and knick knacks? :)

The school day runs from 8-3, with a 15 minute morning break 10:15-10:30 where the disadvantaged students get a meal of lentils and rice so they do not go hungry all day long. Lunch is 40 minutes and isn't until 1pm.

The highlight of the day was visiting Ms. Bopi's English classroom. In her lesson plans, she planned to show "Slumdog Millionaire" to her students. While we followed her to where her class was held, she stopped in a conference room of sorts where the only DVD/TV in the school is located. She had a quiet interaction with another staff member who refused to move his meeting out of the room. So, there went her lesson plan to show the film. How we take so much for granted!

We arrived to meet her group of about 50 students. We spent the hour telling them about America and fielding their questions about what it's like to live in America and what school is like for our students. The got most of their information about America from Oprah and of course, they know Obama. Dixie passed out her Obama stickers...we NEHers are sure leaving our Obama imprint upon South Africa. Overall, the class was pretty respectful toward their teacher. It was easy to say that she is the kind of teacher who cares about her students and reaches out to them. They were definitely like any high school kid: chatty and seeking attention from their peers. The English 12 curriculum consisted of mostly poetry and short stories. The grade 12 instruction is equivalent to Grade 9 English at Dakota.

After our classroom visit, we had the chance to sit down with Ms. Bopi in our office. She told us that she teaches 5 classes a day, and sees 240 students per day. 240 STUDENTS!!! I complain about my 150 students... I can't even imagine grading 240 papers!!! Ms. Bopi is truly inspirational...she does all of this: reaching out to her students, giving her students an opportunity to succeed, assessing a whole lot of work (she keeps a writing portfolio for each and every one of them!), all for about $15,000 per year. We asked her when she sleeps...and she just laughed. I no longer have any reason to complain about US teachers being underpaid and overworked.

Here is our group who visited Ms. Bopi's classroom: Kori from Hawaii, Tadashi from NYC, Mr. Tsoli (English Department Head), Me, Chris from D.C., Dixie from MO, and Ms. Bopi.

After our school visit, we headed to the Cecil Rhodes Monument overlooking Cape Town and back to debrief our school experiences. It was fascinating to hear from each of the teachers about their experiences in the three other schools. As a teacher, this was one of the most beneficial moments of the trip. I honestly wish we had more time to visit another school to get another perspective, but I feel fortunate to get a brief glimpse of the life of a Xhosa student and teacher in Cape Town. I now have so much to share with my staff and students - we really do not realize how fortunate we are.

And, just to lighten the mood after our long day...a group of us headed out for Indian Food at this AMAZING restaurant, Bukhari. Instead of napkins, we had to wear bibs! Bring on the food!

Tomorrow we head back to UWC for another day of lectures (FUN FUN FUN!) and then this weekend is jammed packed. Rugby game tomorrow night, followed by a visit to South Africa Wine Country on Saturday! We're going into uber planning mode, trying to fit every last thing we want to do in Cape Town into the next 5 days. How quickly this is all coming to an end!

Matjiesfontein in Pictures

As I mentioned in my last post, we stayed in the tiny town (and by tiny, I mean one street) of Matjiesfontein about 3 hours outside of Cape Town. It was like walking back in time - the grounds were just gorgeous.



Here are some of our duck friends that we encountered on our walk around the grounds. They just marched up right to us!

The wildflowers are starting to bloom! I still can't believe it's winter here...oh wait, I can. It's cold!

Ah yes, the "throne room" Check out that collection of commodes and chamber pots!!! This was in the basement or "bowels" of the museum...muhahahha. I crack myself up!

And finally, here I am taking in the views on the ride back to Cape Town!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

We're finally back in Cape Town...after 3 LONG bus days (we covered 1000 miles in 3 days), everyone was more than excited to be at our "home" the Check-Inn for the next week. It's so nice to lay out my belongings and not have to constantly live out of my overcrowded suitcase. I'll miss my roomie, Elayna, though. Girl talks were the highlight of life on the road. The other thing I won't miss about life on the road: the rest stops. For lunch, it was always Steer's, Wimpy Burger, or the Pick and Pay. I've never eaten so many toasted cheese sandwiches, or smorgasborgd lunch of cheese and bread in my life. Cheese, dried fruit, almonds, digestive biscuits and Cadbury Bars (everything but Fruit and Nut, which some people disagree on...). The other thing I won't miss? The rest stops. I've never used so many nasty bathrooms in my life....But I digress. A small price to pay, I suppose, for my fully funded trip.

Here are some of the amazing things we find at rest stops and convience stores in South Africa. Hot Chutney...The PUFF that makes you TUFF! So good, I can't even make that up!


Ok, so after leaving Botswana, and heading into Mafeking, we made our way to Kimberly, the Diamond Capital of South Africa. It was there that we saw the BIG HOLE...yes, an entire museum dedicated to a giant mining hole - the biggest man made hole in the world, apparently. It was big...and a hole. Not much else to say about that. We also got to go into a "simulated mine" which included some fake explosions...we had a good time playing the game and screaming. Our group had reached the point where anything and everything was funny...

Look! I can hold up the big hole!!!

The highlight (after getting our coffee fix) was the walking around the Old Mine Town...another simulation, of course. We found our fun fix: the Skittle Alley bowling. It's basically old fashioned bowling meets Skee-ball. I managed to knock down 7 of 9 pins on one try, earning me a tie for 2nd place. My Polish bowling family should be proud. We also found the really cool replica bar.

Miner Bar

Dedication at a game of Skittles!!


We got to Kimberly and decided to take a taxi for dinner to head to a restaurant called "The Halfway House" In its hayday, people used to ride up in the horses and ring a bell and their meals/drinks would be delivered to them. Not quite the same today, but we did have a lot of fun. We met an interesting Afrikaaner lady who taught us how to swear. Always a good time.
Kimberly to Matjiesfontein was the longest haul of the trip...almost 500 miles in one day. Stir crazy doesn't even begin to explain it. I was doing everything I possibly could to make it through.... Kori came up with a great bus game which involved thinking of a word and then the first person who could sing a song with the word in it got a point. That kept us entertained for a while, although I'm not sure there rest of the bus enjoyed our outbursts of songs...including Christmas Carols.
We arrived at Matjiesfontein and checked into our hotel: the Lord Milner...which is basically a step back in time to a Colonial resort town. Awesome vibe and beautiful scenery. Dinner was served with silver untensils and I had the Bobotie which is a typical South African Malay dish of Mince meat a cheese over rice. Very interesting, and good. We finished off the night with some delish Malva Pudding...
After dinner the fun led us to the bar where we had an 80's dance party. I hit the hay early....so tired from sitting on the bus.
Today was our last bus ride, but we had some time this morning to explore the one-street town. Chris and I wandered about taking lots of pics (haven't uploaded them yet - will post later) and also visited the town museum which was essentially a house stuffed to the brim with anything and everything people were getting rid of in town. There was an entire room dedicated to chamber pots and toilets.
Our final drive was a short one, made more enjoyable by some ipod switching. Itunes is going to get a work out when I get home - got lots of great new stuff to download! We arrived back in Cape Town and were very very very excited to check in to the Check Inn. First thing on the agenda: turn in the laundry!!! Then we headed to the V&A for some shopping and to get our rugby tickets for Friday night. So EXCITED! We also went out for a nice dinner and celebrated the fact that Matt, a guy on my trip, finally got hired. The poor guy had to do a skype interview while in South Africa to secure his new job.
Tomorrow we head to the schools...it's going to be interesting! Look for a new post soon! One week from today I'll be flying over Africa.....