More pictures from my beautiful day

Me and my people at Danger's Point look out...next stop: ANARTICA!!

Yeah, that's a baboon.

Cape Point with the girls!!

Ostrich at Cape of Good Hope!!

Beautiful Pics...Beautiful Day!!

Picture from Cape Point on the Danger's Pass trail

African dancers performing at Boulder's Beach

PENGUINS!!

View from the end of Danger's Pass!

Ostriches, Penguins and Baboons, OH MY!! Scream laughing my butt off!!

Ostriches, Penguins and Baboons, OH MY!! Scream laughing my butt off!!
Well wow…what a day!! Just when I thought yesterday was the best day ever paired with some of the best scenery ever….today blew yesterday out of the water!!! Before I get to our grand day, I just wanted to sum up my 4th of July.

After I posted my blog, I headed to dinner with Kim, Elayna, Chris, and Mary. While we were there we met this local named Raymond who was fascinated with the fact that we were Americans. When we told him it was our independence day, he asked us what we liked most about being an American. This turned into one hilarious round robin list of things which include: Taco Bell, Tater Tots, Vegas, FREEDOM, Capitalism, animated movies with talking animals, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin’s resignation, laser tag, American tax payer for funding our trip, roller blades, water parks, indoor water parks, the fact that our country was founded by guys wearing powdered wigs, chilli cheese fries, Coney Island , white water rafting, eggo waffles, gas guzzlers…the list goes on and on….we also brought it back to our entire group when we got back to the lobby. We were not surprised to hear Kathy’s (from Alaska) favorite thing was the Palin resignation… Great times with some great people half way across the world on the 4th of July.

So this morning we were up bright and early again to head out on a day of sight seeing fun. Our first stop was a bay just outside of Cape Town. We were all blown away by the scenery, but it was nothing compared to what was to come: The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. On the way to the Cape of Good Hope, we stopped off at an Ostrich farm where we took lots of pictures of the strange, strange birds. Some people even witnessed some sort of Ostrich mating dance? Lots of laughs on that!

Our next stop was the Cape of Good Hope…the most South Western Point on the African Continent. Yep, that’s right, I was at the bottom of freaking AFRICA. I still can’t get over that. We took a ton of pictures, but my favorite has to got to be me, Elayna, Kim and Tadashi doing Kim’s signature “Scream laugh.” We’re scream laughing because you, the American taxpayers, have funded this opportunity for us. So we just laugh. In all seriousness, I am learning a lot….really I am. But I digress! We also saw two random ostriches roaming around the Cape, so we decided that they were the South Eastern Most Ostriches on the African Continent.



The best group ever!!


Here we are, scream laughing our butts off!


What did you do on your summer vacation?

After heading out from the Cape of Good Hope it was just a short drive to Cape Point. Here we had to hike up one really big hill ( we decided to walk it as opposed to taking the funicular). When we finally got to the top…and out of breath, we were treating to some kick-ass views. I really can’t describe it in any other way. We could see the Cape of Good Hope from there and the Atlantic as far as we could see… Definitely put a lot of things in perspective. I wish I could truly express all that I saw, felt and experienced. And did I mention that it was 75 and sunny with NO wind a the top…yeah I like this “winter”. After checking out the light house and taking a bazillion pictures, Matt, Chris, Mary and I went on a little adventure to Danger Pass. This was an off the beaten trail we hiked to get to another light house and to the very tip of the Cape. We got to see the sheer drop off of the cliffs (really reminded me of good ole Western Ireland). When we finally reached the end we could only stay a bit so we could make it back to our bus in time. The pretty brutal hike, switchbacks, and stairs were totally worth it for the views!


View from the top of the Cape Point

After walking down the HUGE hill, we grabbed a sandwich and sat outside for lunch. Here’s where Cape Point gets interesting. You see, there are a whole lot of baboons that run wild on the cape…and what to baboons like to eat? Well, human food, of course. Now we had been forewarned because some other people in our group and been chased by a baboon while eating their lunch. We made sure to sit facing the brush and far enough away so they couldn’t sneak up on us. Another guy in our group, Jake, was eating his sandwich with his back to the brush, and no joke, the baboon practically jumped out of the bush and grabbed his sandwich and ran off with it. I never ever thought it my life that I’d be telling stories about baboons running off with people’s food. It is amazing to me how they are so used to humans…I probably got 6 feet away from one of them during the afternoon. Crazy to think that, eh?!?!

Next was the penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach. Yes, that’s right, we’ve gone from South Eastern Ostriches, to hungry baboons, to lethargic African jackass penguins. I was super stoked about the penguins because well, I just think they are the most adorable thing ever. What’s not to love about a bird wearing a tuxedo? On the way to the beach, I could hardly contain myself…I just kept talking about the PINKWINKS (shout out to the Thueme fam!). When we arrived, however, the little darlings weren’t frolicking in the surf like I imagined…they were just lying there taking a siesta. I stood there for 45 minutes just begging them to run into the ocean and play, but alas, they would not. I got some cool pictures though, and hey, I can say that I saw penguins in the wild in Africa. What did you do today? J
Next was Simon’s town…yes, I know, the day is STILL not over. This was a little fishing village with a ton of great restaurants right on the docks. It really reminded me of Fish town (Leeland) up in Michigan. Very quaint and beautiful views. We sat facing the ocean while eating sushi. Tough life, I know. Thanks again, Americans!
So, these last two days…wow…just wow…. Saw some of the best scenery ever, viewed some crazy wild animals, and laughed a whole heck of a lot. Best two days ever!! And I still have another month here…who knows what the next 4 weeks will bring…
Speaking of which, I leave on Tuesday to hit the road around South Africa. We are covering the approximate mileage of driving from Maine to Florida and then on to Texas…yeah it’s going to be awesome. Quite a few places we are going is in the African bush…and by African bush I mean no ATMs, internet, grocery stores, phones…just me and the bush….now that’s pretty extreme. Blogs and overall contact will be few and far between, but I will try my best to keep updating as much as possible, since I know all of you just love reading this and being extremely jealous of me.
Alright, off to La Vie for some jazz…

Lots of Gold, a famous SA Rapper, and Pumpkin Goat Cheese Lasagna

Alright kids, as promised, this blog would contain the story about meeting the famous SA Rapper, HHP (double-H P). Before I get to that, I need to tell you all about the woman in the picture below.

This was a picture from the African Gold Museum which we visited after University on Friday. The museum itself was pretty small, but chock full of some sweet gold from all over Africa. I especially liked the section on gold "totems" like we study in Native American Lit. I'm definitely going to introduce that into my Native American Curriculum in the fall. Ok, so back to the Whoopi Goldberg lookalike...she's the Queen Mum of an African tribe. She is all blinged out, but is special becuase she is wearing gold glasses. The reason for this is because in tribal heirarcy, all those below her (everyone but the chief) is not allowed to look her in the eye. They used to wear beaded shades to cover their eyes, but after the missionaries came to Africa wearing glasses, the tribes started creating glasses instead. Pretty cool.

Ok, now to the rapper. We got tickets last week to attend the premier of the Cape Town Documentary Film Festival down at the waterfront. Our tickets were for two short films: Jitsvinger and HHP. Jitsvinger was about a rapper from outside the flats talking about poverty and his rise to fame. The song featured in the movie was called MAAK IT AAN which means "Make it happen." The second documentary was about HHP, who happens to be one of the most famous rappers in SA. He won many awards including best new artist and he was also featured on SA's version of Dancing with the Stars. His documentary was all about discovering his roots, as he was descended from four different tribes. He was at the screening and answered questions afterwards. The best part was getting our picture taken with him. He was very impressed that a group of Americans were interested in SA Documentaries. We tried to sneak into another movie after befriending the volunteers, but it didn't work...

Today we headed out of Cape Town to Stellenbosch and Frankenschoek for a treat of some gorgeous scenery. Our first stop was the Stellenbosch museum which was kind of like a small version of Greenfield Village. We were quite appalled by the amount of taxadermy cats on display in the bedrooms... I also learned that it takes about 20 minutes to get a cup of coffee and a scone to go from a coffee shop. A few of us were almost late to the bus! We made a quick stop at this country store with lots of "junktiques". I've never seen a more random collection of stuff for sale. The highlight was finding the picture gem of a Nelson Mandela mask next to a Freddie Kruger Mask...where else in the world does that exist?


Next stop was Frankenschoek for lunch. The place reminds me of someplace in France and has a lot of French inspiration, as the Hugenots settled there. Lunch was AWESOME...one of the best meals ever. We sat out on a street side cafe and I had Pumpkin Goat CHeese Lasagna. Now, I know you're thinking that sounds pretty gross, but boy oh boy it was absolutely amazing! Such an interesting combination of flavors. All 5 of us were blown away by our lunch...and the best part is that it only cost about $7! The food here is cheap, which is great because it counteracts all the rest of the spending I've been doing...

After lunch we went to the Hugenots museum. I was not excited at all, until I ventured out of the museum and on to the grounds to catch this tasty bit of scenery:

So yeah, needless to say, it is beyond beautiful and I don't think I can do it justice at all through pictures or words. I'm just all about taking in these experiences and attempting to capture them on film and in words via my journal.

And last, just so you know I'm alive and well...here's a picture of me at the gardens in Frankenshoeck

Tomorrow we are off to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope to see the penguins and more beautiful scenery.

Peace! :) and MAAK IT AAN

South African History 101

“History doesn't happen by spontaneous combustion” - Heather from my trip

Our lecture series is over until after we return from our trip around South Africa and Botswana. I thought I would treat you all with a little bit of what I've learned about South Africa that I didn't discuss in the previous blogs.

We finally ironed out the history of all the people in South Africa today...our program director, Rich, gave a short lecture on what we all were lacking in the readings(of those I did...) and in the lectures (which, you know, have been about as amazing as finding a bathroom with no toilet paper). He broke down the different ethic groups within the country and their history.

The first people to inhabit the Cape were the Khoisan. San is a word that is used to describe a native person, but according to one of our lecturers, it is a very derogatory word. Like many natives in many different cultures, surprise, surprise, they were kicked off their land by new settlers and treated badly. Their population today in South Africa is minute.

Next were the Bantu people or the traditional “Africans”. They make up 75% of the current population; the most dominant groups of Bantu are the Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho. There are nine different tribal languages. These are the languages with the 5 clicks...which I still need to learn how to do. The Bantu speakers arrived over 1000 yrs ago, and their tools and materials were superior to the Khoisan so naturally, the Khoisan were forced out and moved westward.

Next came the European population with the Dutch arriving in 1652. The Europeans make up 12% of the population and are Afrikaans (more about that later) and English speakers. Of the population, 2/3 of it is Afrikaans speakers, while the remaining 1/3 are English speakers. Many Afrikaner speakers also speak English. The Afrikaners became the dominant political group around 1948 and their Nationalist Party ushered in the Apartheid. The Afrikaans language is interesting – it started out as Dutch, as they were mainly Dutch immigrants. It then transitioned to the Afrikaans language over 150 years where it picked up African grammar, paired with Dutch words. Interesting linguistic history. Must learn more! There was, of course, conflict between the Afrikaners (Dutch immigrants) and English. Eventually, the Dutch left the cape and were pushed East and West.

The next group is the colored population. This group has a hold of about 10% of the total population and is a mix of African, South East Asian, and Dutch/English. This is the dominant group in the Cape area. Generally speaking, the mother tongue of the colored population is Afrikaans, however, many also speak English. The term “colored” does not have the negative connotation that it has in America.

Last is the Asian population making up about 3% of the population. Asian includes immigrants from India and Pakistan. This group is centered around the Durban area up the eastern coast. I'll be visiting there in a about a week and a half.

That's by no means exhaustive nor comprehensive, but it does give it a bit of a context...and I definitely needed it... So that's the interesting SA history that I finally sorted out....so now I want to leave you with some other startling facts/quotes I came upon...

South Africa has 40% of the GNP of Sub-Sahara Africa...

The literacy rate in South Africa is ONLY 36 %...yes, 36%..chew on that.

25% of South Africans are officially employed (in what you would consider a “normal” job or profession). 60% have an informal employment (selling crafts, etc).

As far as education is concerned: 2.8 of 6.8 million youth (aged 18-24) have left school or are unemployed/unenrolled.

Of the African (black) population, only 12% go to University, and of that 12%, only 5% graduate...

And for a teacher in South Africa...their monthly pay BEFORE deductions is about 10,000-12,000 Rand/month. That translates to about 1200 a month.... pretty meager, even for a a first year teacher. Teachers in SA do not get the same respect American teachers get (sometimes I feel that respect is lacking....), but the US situation is far superior to anything here in the Cape.

It's all just mind boggling....

And to end, our prof yesterday left us with this quote: “The monster of the Apartheid could come and go in a lifetime...” But what about the consequences.....?

More later...highlight of today was meeting a rapper. Yep...a South African rapper who starred on South Africa's version of Dancing with the Stars. More later!!

Peace!!

South Africa Religion 101

Greetings all. Another busy day in Cape Town. We had 3 lectures this morning...one was completely off topic (it's a trend around here), the second one was about Christianity in South Africa, and the third (after the prof showed up 40 minutes late..) was about Islam in South Africa. Very interesting stuff...but I don't have my notes to give you any tasty tidbits, sorry. Ask me about it later. After our lectures and lunch (at 2pm...so so hungry!), we headed out to two of the religious sites in Cape Town. Our first stop was Bo-Kapp, followed by St. George Anglican Cathedral. For some reason my pictures posted in the wrong order, so we're just going to pretend I went to the church first...

Ok, so St. George's. It's right in the museum district in the heart of Cape Town. We didn't really learn about the history of the church becuase we were only there for a short time. It was a nice cathedral - gothic style - but after seeing some more impressive ones in my other travels, I wasn't blown away. Not much can compare to Notre Dame or St. Peter's, but I digress. One of the more interesting things in the church was the sign that the church is HIV/AIDs friendly.


Prior to heading to St. George (we're going backwards, remember), we headed out to Bo-Kapp which is the Muslim neighborhood in Cape Town. It is one of the longest residential dwellings, as the Muslim community has been living there for over 400 years! The initially immigrated here and were considered "Cape Colored" and came from Indonesia, the Java Islands etc. It is a very unique community where all of the houses are painted in vibrant colors. The children were all so friendly and the neighborhood just had a great feel to it! We only had 45 minutes to walk around, and there were so many cute shops and awesome pictures to take.

This picture is from one of the shops we visited. The shop features beaded crafts - here are some Mandela and Obama magnets - along with beaded animals, dolls etc. All of the beaded crafts are made by women from the townships outside the city. The shop was also an HIV/AIDs outreach center, so all of the profits go to benefiting the cause and helping those in need. I bought an Obama magnet, because well, where else will I ever find an Obama magnet made by a township woman in a Muslim district in Cape Town? It's really nice to be traveling and have locals say good things about the President. I can't even tell you how many people have talked about Obama once I open my mouth and they realize I'm an American...a far cry from Europe '06, but I digress...

Here is a great shot of one of the colorful Bo-Kapp houses. I just loved this little girl...she was playing peek-a-boo with us on her stoop.

Here are some more adorable Bo-Kapp children playing in the streets. The kids were so friendly and just loved posing for pictures.

Tomorrow is our last day of lectures at UWC until after we return from our travels around the country. This weekend we are heading up to the wine country and then to the Cape Point on Sunday. Let me just tell you...I am SO excited to see the Penguins!! Monday we visit the Townships and then we get ready to embark on our 3 weeks traveling the country.

See, your tax dollars are really being used well! :)

District 6 and ANOTHER sunset to remember

District Six and ANOTHER sunset to remember
Haven't blogged in two days, mostly because things are becoming routine around here with class at least 4 hours everyday. Yesterday's lectures were supposed to be on Music, Literature, and Health. Sounds good, right? Well, instead we got: a rant on the lack of music education, a lecture about Dutch Architecture from a lit prof, and no health lecture because the doctors here are on strike. As a bonus treat we got a welcome from the Coordinator of International Relations office who welcomed us to the University (a week late) and proceeded to talk for an hour and a half in a monotone voice about the entire history of the university. Definitely the 10 minute welcome we expected. The South Africans sure do like to talk...about everything. The highlight of the lectures was the lit lecturer who was late because he got into a motorcycle wreck on the way to the university and then at the end of the lecture he proceeded to say, "alright then, time for a ciggy!"
After our long day at UWC we headed to the District Six museum. District 6 was an area in Cape Town that was initially inhabited by a wide variety of people – blacks, coloreds, Indians etc. Due to the passage of the Land Act during the Apartheid, the entire community was forced to relocate to the current area of the Cape Town Flats outside the airport. The only reason they were moved out of the area was because it was in a very desirable area near the harbor that was worth a lot of money. So the whites at the time, claimed their land, kicked them off, and then bulldozed all of their houses and property. This uprooting is just another one of the evils of the apartheid. The museum housed the orignal street signs, as well as pictures from the era of District 6. One of the most powerful aspects of the museum was the map of the entire district on the bottom floor of the museum. Here people who lived there prior to the take over wrote down their names and labeled where they used to live. I still cannot get over the fact that when the US was moving toward progression (a la the Civil Rights Movement era), the Apartheid and oppression was just beginning in South Africa.

Sign from the Apartheid

Langston Hughes quote from the Distict 6 Museum. Shout out to my 10th graders!

House foundation in the DIstrict 6 area. It is still uninhabited to this day.


With the weather being so beautiful again yesterday, we decided to do a picnic dinner down by the beach. A group of about 12 of us picked up some snacks at the grocery store and then headed back to our beach to enjoy the end of the day. After being treated to another, and possibly more beautiful sunset, we found this great outdoor coffee bar with an outdoor deck and Moroccan style seating with cushions on the floor. We hung out there for quite a while and met the owner and his wife who talked to us all about their experience during the Apartheid as white, Afrikaans speakers.

My friends Chris, Kim and Elayna at the beach for sunset


This morning began with a trip to the hospital where Dr. Christian Barnard successfully completed the first heart transplant in 1967. Initially, I kind of questioned why where were visiting the museum, but it turned out to be very informative and interesting. There were some creepy wax figurines, but there were also a collection of letters from people all over the world congratulating Dr. Barnard and also some calling him immoral and a murderer because many suspected that he killed potential donors. Needless to say, very interesting.
Our lecture today was on Poverty and Inequality. The lecturer focused on education inequality based on race (white, colored, black), and she also left us with some daunting statistics. In 2008, one out of three girls under the age of 19 were pregnant or had a child. Of those, 55 were girls in just fifth grade.
Tonight we are all laying low....about to head out and find some dinner and pick up some snacks from the grocery store. The rest of this week is more lectures, and then this weekend we are heading out to the beautiful winery country, and also to the Cape Point peninsula.

Oh – and shout out to my American Lit kids. We talked about TP-CASTT today and I thought of all of you! Don't you miss it?