Long day in Durban

July 14, 2009 - Long day in Durban

Whew….what a long day today was!!! Before I go into our long, but exciting day, I just have to mention that I had some of the best Indian food last night! Durban has the largest group of Indians outside of India. There was a casino just down the street from our hotel (Jackie - tell Bill I got him something!), so we headed over to this megaplex mall meet cinema meet restaurants meet tourist trap. The samosas were amazing…the roti was perfect…and Mary, Chris and I split some Chicken Breyane, Chicken Curry, and Veggie Curry. Yum! One of us couldn’t really handle the heat of the food too well, so there was a lot of sweating going on. But mmmm it was DELISH. After dinner we hit the Casino just to say we went in one and then picked up a few postcards and headed back home. In my last blog I talked about the danger of walking the streets in Durban. We had a two block walk and were approached by two shady people just on the way home…awesome. But we all stayed together and made it home in one piece.

This morning we were up early to head to another museum about the Apartheid…I have to say, I am getting a little museum fatigued, but we’ll be museum free for the next 6 days, so that will be a nice change of pace. The museum wasn’t anything compared to what I saw in Cape Town and will see in Jo’burg. After the museum we went on a Colored Township Tour. Now, remember, colored is a word that means a mixed race. Part African, part white, or Indian etc. Coloreds had more rights and privileges that Africans or Indians during the Apartheid, but they were not on the same scale as Whites. Coloreds faced some of the worst discrimination because they weren’t white enough to get white jobs, nor African to be a part of the ANC (African National Congress - political party). The townships were by no means as destitute as what I saw in Cape Town. The most terrible thing about the townships outside of Durban is that they are surrounded by Petrol Refineries. The smell when we were there was very strong, and I can’t even imagine living with that day after day.

Our first stop on our township tour was to Anstley Beach, which was a Whites Only Beach during the Apartheid. We had an excellent view of the Indian Ocean, but it was so darn cold and windy in Durban today we were literally blowing away. It’s kind of a bummer because Durban is one of the warmest areas of South Africa, and it was colder here than it has been in Cape Town before we left. After the beach we visited a Mosque and a Muslim Cemetery. The area was designated for immigrants from Zanzabarians. 43 Zanzibar slaves were brought into Durban in 1834 (after the abolition of slavery). The land was left to them in a trust, yet the were moved off of their land with the passage of the Group Areas Act (separate areas for blacks, whites, colored etc) during the 1930s. Their homes were bulldozed and the only thing that remained was the Mosque and the Cemetery. During the period of the Apartheid they were not able to visit the Mosque, but they were allowed to be buried in the cemetery.

After the Mosque, we drove through the Colored Township and stopped at the Blue Roof Clinic which is an HIV/AIDS clinic financed by the non-profit organization: Keep a Child Alive. The building that houses the clinic was actually purchased by R&B singer Alicia Keys who is a supporter of the charity. In the KwalaZulu Natal province, 40% of people are infected with HIV or AIDs. The clinic, which is totally free for all patients, offers voluntary HIV testing, medical services, community outreach, meals, and support groups. It truly is a shining gem in the fight against AIDs in South Africa. Despite the great conditions and the help the clinic is providing, there is still so much more that needs to be done. The clinic only has one doctor on staff and he sees up to sixty patients a day. Last year the South African government instituted legislation so that HIV/AIDs medication (ARV) is free of cost to all South Africans. The saddest thing about the status of HIV/AIDs is that many people infected do not get tested until they have full-blown AID due to the stigma surrounding the virus. As I mentioned in my earlier post from the townships, there is such a negative stigma surrounding anyone who has the virus because their morality is questioned by the community in which they live in. Many choose to keep it a secret instead of seeking treatment. That brings up the statistic of 40%…that is only the reported statistic. Who knows how many more people out there actually have the virus and it goes unreported and untreated. Just so sad.

We finally had our lunch stop off where we visited a woman’s home and she cooked a traditional KwalaZulu-Natal dish known as “bunny chow”. Bunny chow is essentially a half loaf of bread with part of it hollowed out and a mild vegetable curry is poured on the inside. It was so so so good. The name “bunny chow” has been Anglicized, as it originally started out as “Bhania Chow” because of a Bhania man who did not bring his lunch pail and used a loaf of bread to hold his curry. Bhania turned into Bunny, and hence the name it is called today. It was a very neat experience to eat at this woman’s township home. Definitely something that not many people get do .

After our tour of the township, we headed to Victoria Street Market which is an Indian spice market, as a bazaar type place full of curios knick-knacks and African products. It was really inexpensive, and well, I did a whole lot of damage…BUT the good news is that all my souvenir shopping is done…for the most part. I just repacked my suitcase, and it’s a lot heavier than it was when I left Cape Town a week ago…doh! Our last stop was a Hindu Temple. I had never been in a Hindu temple before so it was a pretty remarkable experience. The priest told us all about the temple, which has been in Durban for 111 years! Definitely fascinating and I need to learn more!

So that was my day…not too busy or anything! Tonight we are laying low and off to grab some Mediterranean food and then packing up to hit the road again. Tomorrow we head off to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park to see the animals! We’ll be there for two nights, and I plan on going on two game drives: an AM and a PM to get the best chance to see the Big 5. I am beyond excited! After that we’re headed to the Babalango Lodge for two nights which is another bush camp near the Zulu battle lands, and finally on to Didima Camp in the Drakensberg mountains where we get to hike and see some rock paintings! I am excited for these “into the bush and out of communication” days. So…I’ll blog about all of that and post it when I get to Jo’Burg on Tuesday, July 21. Peace!

Umtata to Durban...on the road, again!

July 13, 2009 On the road again…

Another day, another bus ride. This time, we are enrooted to Durban on the East Coast. It will be our last stop on the coast before we head into the interior to the animal park and onward to the Drakensberg Mountains. Durban has the reputation to being one of the most dangerous cities in the world…just behind Johannesburg where we will be headed next week. Pretty intimidating, but as long as we stay together, only carry with us what we’d be wiling to lose, and be smart, we’ll be alright. There are some pretty interesting things on the agenda for tomorrow, including a visit to a huge Indian Market, some townships, and an Hindu temple. Durban is the Indian capital of South Africa. Here’s looking forward to some good Indian food!

Last night in the compound turned out pretty fun, despite the fact that we were going stir crazy and got a little goofy. We decided around 4pm when we got there do have a picnic, so we headed to the grocery store. Which was an eye opening experience as there were security guards down every single aisle. There was a watch tower in the parking lot with an armed guard overlooking. Definitely not like any place I’ve ever been before. We grabbed some cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies, and dessert, of course for our picnic. When 6:30 came around, it was pretty darn cold. We bundled up in all the warm clothes we had, but since it was a one night stop, we only packed our one night bags with limited stuff…so we wrapped up on our blankets and sat out there for four hours just talking about life…and laughing a lot. The highlight of the night was when we were talking about our favorite places to travel, and when Mary mentioned Salzburg, Austria we all started singing Sound of Music. This turned into a half hour sing along of every song from Sound of Music, because let’s face it…we all know them. We then decided we were going to be our own band, the VonTrapped family because we were stuck in the Compound. We rewrote some of the lyrics to reflect our stay in the compound…pretty hilarious, but I guess you had to be there. We decided that our debut cd would be called, “The non-indigenous VonTrapped Family Ensemble: Live from the Compound in Umtata!”

This morning we stopped at the Nelson Mandela Museum, opened by Mandela himself in 2000. Oh random fact - Mandela’s 91st Birthday is on the 18th, so the entire country is already starting to celebrate his birthday week. The museum was an overview of Mandela’s life as told through “Long Walk to Freedom” which is the 600 pg behemoth that I am still working through. There were lots of artifacts including letters he received from his family while on Robben Island. Prisoners at Robben Island were only allowed to receive one letter every six months. The letters were read and scanned by the guards and large portions were cut out before the recipient received their letter. I can’t even imagine experiencing the feeling of loneliness and separation. It was just another way that the guards tried to dehumanize the prisoners. The other interesting thing I got from the museum was how the prisoners used to get news from the country. No newspapers were allowed because they didn’t want the political prisoners to get their hands on anything to bind them together. When any information was discovered or news was shared via outside sources, the men used to write it down on tiny slips of paper during their “study time” at night and then wrap it in plastic and stick it under the rim of the toilet seat for others to find. If they were discovered doing anything like that, they were punished by going into solitary confinement where they would only receive three glasses of rice water per day. No rice…just the starchy water it was cooked in. Truly sad. It was a great museum, but the general consensus was that we needed more time there ( we only had an hour).

So now I’m just sitting here on the bus…about 3 more hours to go, yet. The terrain is constantly changing: from hilly/mountainous, to arid grasslands, and finally to deciduous and coniferous forest. There are tons of Aloe ferax plants dotting the landscape which look alien like with their huge aloe leaves and strange bright red flowers sticking up. We’re passing through lots of poverty areas, paired with a large amount of rural establishments. There are plenty of women walking around with baskets and other items balanced on their heads. This definitely feels more like “Africa” than any other place has thus far. The bus has even had to stop multiple times to allow for the vagrant cows and goats to move out of the road. Every once and a while we will drive through a rudimentary town; there are often markets set up. For many of these places, it is small stands where people are selling produce, shoes, clothing, bags etc. The goods are laid out on tarps on the sidewalk and the shoppers rifle through the merchandise to find what they are looking for. It is a very interesting side of life that we Americans rarely, if ever, get to see. I consider myself lucky.

Well, I’m going to try to nap some more to help this ride pass a bit more quickly. Our hotel in Durban is supposed to have internet access, so hopefully these blogs will be posted soon!

For now, a few more random observations:

1. Yogurt in South Africa is really delicious - they even have mango, pineapple, and granadilla flavored yogurt.

2. I am so sick of “chips”. It seems like every meal comes with French fries…even breakfast. I simply cannot eat them any more and am totally repulsed at the sight of them. I guess that’s a good thing?

3. I’ve discovered some great new South African artists, thanks to some people on the trip. Some favorites include anything by Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Ladysmith Black Mambazo (they did a lot of the music for the Lion King…specifically the opening), Johnny legg, and Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika by Lungiswa. So, if you want to hear what I’m listening to, check some of it out!

4. There are electric fences everywhere…even wrapped around the KFC. KFC is, by the way, the only “American” fast food place I’ve seen often. Even South Africans love their KFC. Surprisingly, I’ve only seen one McDonalds, which was just built next to the new Green Point stadium for the World Cup next year. Instead, there are plenty of Wimpy’s and Steers - both SA fast food chains. Seems like every one of our lunch “on the road” stops is at one of these two places. I am really getting sick of “toasted cheese” sandwiches…

Life in the Compound

July 12, 2009 - Life in the Compound

After a day-long busride, we finally arrived in Umtata which is Nelson Mandela’s hometown. This blog is entitled “life in the compound” because that is exactly where I am…..in a lock down security….HOTEL. This area is very prone to theft, so we are under maximum security. The little town area has a super grocery store where we all decided to grab a picnic dinner for tonight to eat on the picnic tables in the compound. But for now, I am sitting on the “stoop” outside of my room watching all the guys kick the Hannah Montana soccer ball around. Hey - we do what we can to make our own fun!!

I should probably go back and recap my time in Grahamstown since my last blog focused mainly on my Indian Ocean experience. Grahamstown, home of the National Arts Festival, was a total blast. I just loved the vibe of the hippie college town full of everyone from Hare Krishnan (chanting included), tourists, and South Africans. I did a lot of shopping…probably a bit too much and definitely threw out too many Cheetahs (R200) and Water Buffalos (R100). As Kim says, we were “flippin’ the cheetahs and water buffalos in the sky makin’ it rand!” I found some great souvenirs for some very special people!! We saw three shows while we were there: Simphuwe Dana (a jazz artist), Threads (a Poetry/Dance fusion) and Disgrace (the film of the book I just finished a few days back). Dana had an amazing voice…but I’m not a huge jazz person, so I probably wasn’t as into it as I could have been. Disgrace was incredibly heavy and depressing, but I knew that going in. The best, however, was Threads. Through modern dance and some AMAZING performance poetry, the poet told the story of relationships and how we’re all connected in family relationships and in life. They used a lot of string for props to demonstrate the family ties. It was incredibly powerful and almost brought me to tears multiple times. I truly wish they were selling a DVD of the performance because it would be amazing example of performance poetry to show my students and to illustrate the raw emotion from just the spoken word.

Prior to seeing Disgrace, a group of about 10 of us decided to go out to an Italian restaurant for wood fired pizza…they were great, except for the fact that it took almost an hour and a half to get our meal. Gotta love South Africa service!! Because we were running so late, we asked the waitress if she could call us a cab. The waitress just laughed and said, “We don’t have taxis”. Yet another South Africa experience! We scarfed down our pizza and raced across town to get to the show. Sounds easy, right? Well, I didn’t mention that the walk included a 15 minute hoof up the hill…and by hill, I am talking about a freaking mountain. By the time I got to the top I was just so exhausted…not to mention we were pratically running up there. Guess I burned off some of that pizza!!

After the movie we headed back to pack up our things for our early morning departure. Heather and I decded to do one more load of laundry around 11pm. We went to the laundry room, threw in our stuff, poured in the powder, and tried to star the machine…..no water. So we had to dust the soap off all our clothes and do some hand washing in the sink….oh the perks of living out of a suitcase. I set my alarm for 2:30am to get my clothes out of the dorm dryer. Oh what I go through for clean clothes when there’s a free laundry service!

The best thing about the dorms happened this morning. Our dorm had communal bathrooms, so many of us had the foresight to take a shower in the evening anticipating the morning rush. Thank goodness I was one of those people…because guess what!! We woke up this morning and there was NO WATER in the building. It was definitely an interesting morning…followed by a 6 hour bus ride.

Alright, time for some Compound Kickball. If this soccer match is any indication, it’s going to be intense!! Peace from the compound!! J

Grahamstown and the Indian Ocean

African Puppet Family performance at the Grahamstown festival of Arts. So, so cool.

My new friend, the Rock Dassie(smallest member of the elephant family) at Tsitsikama

Yeah, that's the view from my balcony in Tsitsikama..not bad? Check out those huge sea sprays~~

Sunrise in Arniston on the Indian Ocean

And here I am, frolicking in the Indian Ocean...it was a bit chilly, but totally worth it!

Hope all is well - leaving Grahamstown tomorrow morning enroute to Umtata and onward to Durban. Still loving everything here. Grahamstown is this awesome, funky, college campus with everything you could possibly imagine...even the Hare Krishna chanting!!! Off to see a performance in a few minutes - last night saw a Jazz performer named Simpewe Dana who was excellent!

Will post again soon with more detail on Grahamstown, but for now, off to grab something to eat!

Peace! :)

Fun and Frolic on the Indian Ocean

Fun and Frolic on the Indian Ocean - July 7-9

After our heavy day visiting the townships, we got ready to hit the road bright and early on Tuesday morning. Our first stop was Arniston - a small fishing village about 6 hours from Cape Town. It made for a very long busride day, but we managed to keep ourselves entertained by reading, listing to music, and asking crazy questions like, “if you were going to morph your dna with an animal, which animal would you choose and why?” Needless to say, I have some very entertaining people on my trip. We are becoming this great little family - so many bonds are being created and I fell so fortunate that I now have friends all over the US to visit after sharing these 6 weeks together.

On our way to Arniston we stopped at Cape Agulas which is the southernmost point of the African continent. Next stop…ANTARTICA! It is also the point where the currents of the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. There were some pretty wicked waves blasting at the point. We took lots of “wow this is so cool” pictures and headed back to our bus on time so that Rich wouldn’t get mad at us and make more comments about how “keep you all together is like herding cats…” Yeah, he’s really funny.

When we finally got to Arniston we discovered we were put up in beach houses just a short walk from the beach….holy wow the views were amazing! The first thing we did once we got there was run to the beach (we’re on the Indian Ocean at this point). We bundled up in scarves, and fleeces and then proceeded to kick off our shoes and roll up our jeans and frolic in the Indian ocean. My pants kind of got soaked because of the strong waves, but wow…was it a cool moment. We stayed out there and watched the sun set and the moon rise. It was a totally awesome experience, but the best was yet to come.

When it started getting dark we headed back to our “house” and got ready for dinner which was going to be cooked by some fishing wives. Wow…what a cool experience! We were all packed in this tiny old house - very much like a rugged old Irish home (I know…stop comparing to Ireland…but it really is so much alike!). There the women sang us songs in Afrikaans, fed us the most delicious meal topped off with Malva Pudding which is a true South African dessert…man it is good! It was just a very cool cultural experience. At the end of the meal, they sang us one more song and it sounded like they were singing “We love Obama!” which then we all proceeded to sing when we got on the bus back to our houses.

The best part of the night was after we returned. It was pitch black and a few of us decided to walk down to the beach. There was a full moon, and no other lights to be seen, so the entire ocean and sky was lit up by the light of the moon. It was so bright, we didn’t even need flashlights!! We sat on the beach for a while until Mary suggested that we climb up the dunes just adjacent to the beach. Chris, Maile, Mary and I began our trek….holy wow those dunes were huge!!! But the view from the top, under the moonlight, was just wow…indescribable. The moonlight reflections made the sand look pure white and we each perched on our own dune and claimed the moment as our own. We could see for miles as the Southern Cross was illuminated above our heads. It was just one of those “wow, I feel so small” moments, and I know it will probably be one of the moments from the trip that I will always remember. After running down the dunes (much more fun than climbing up), we all made a pact to always remember the dunes…and no matter how bad a day gets in the future, we can always email each other to collectively remember that experience. It’s one of those things that I can’t ever truly explain to anyone else - just one of those memories that I will carry with me forever.

The next morning we headed out early on our way to Tsitsikama, a national park on the coast in the Eastern Cape. Another long busride ahead of us, with stops at an Aloe Factory (the woman who gave us the tour was named Vera…) and then to the Diaz museum where we all played “Goonies” on the replica ship. We finally got to Tsitsikama around 6. This time our accomodation was in oceanettes right on the coast overlooking the tide pools and some pretty awesome sea swells. When I walked out into my huge balcony, my jaw about dropped to the floor…some of the most beautiful scenery ever. I feel like I keep saying that every day! J Later that evening we had dinner and then went exploring in the tidepools. The waves were crashing over the rocks and spraying us with sea mist. The pool we found was huge and Tadashi decided to seize the moment, strip down to his boxers, and jump in. Despite freezing, he gave it a go and we all had a good laugh. That night I fell asleep to the waves crashing through my open door. Truly a great night.

The next morning we awoke to head out on a hike. I was enjoying some of our last minutes in the oceanettes when I looked out and saw a whale!! We got to see the fin and the mist from the blowhole. After staring in awe, we hit the road for our hike and on the way we saw a pod of about 50 dolphins playing in the surf! What luck!! We also stopped to take some pictures of rock dassies which are little rodent like creatures that look like muppets. They are also the smallest member of the elephant family...strange. We trekked on our hike to a swinging suspension bridge over the mouth of Storms river. Great views and a little bit of fun and vertigo while jumping on the bridge. Took some great pics and managed to ALMOST lose my glasses in the Indian ocean...thank god I didn't!!

I'm now sitting in an internet cafe in Grahamstown for the National Festival of the Arts. What an awesome place. So many performances, crafts, street performers, great food...ahh it's heaven. And we're just free to roam for two whole days, so I no longer feel like a hearded cat. :) The weather is great and I'm enjoying every second of this experience. I truly am very lucky. Not sure when I'll post again - probably when I get to Durban in a few days. Wifi and internet are sketchy on the road!! Wish I could post pictures, but I don't have access...

Peace from Africa!!

Township in Pictures

View of life in the Townships

One of the best moments ever.

We shall build and brighten this nation

“We shall build and brighten this nation” - Quote from a Khayelitsa Daycare Center

What a profound day. The last two days have focused on seeing the beauty of Cape Town and the surrounding areas, but it is impossible to ignore what exists just outside of Cape Town in the Cape Flats. Today was our township tour into Langa (the oldest African township) and Khayelitsa (the largest township). Every day on the way to UWC we pass the Cape Flats and can see all the shanty towns from the freeway, but there was something so powerful, so heartbreaking, and in a way, so inspiring to visit these places and see them in person, and not through a bus window.

Our first stop was in Langa where we first visited a tenement building where 60 black men lived during the Apartheid. Today it isn’t much better…there were 16 people living in a 6x8 room. The families each rent a twin-size bed from the government for 20 rand/month (about $2.50). When we walked into the bedroom, the most surprising thing was seeing that there were people in there. On one bed, for a family of seven, almost the entire bed was covered with stacks of clothes and all the possessions the family owned. I never expected to walk in and see two older women sitting on their beds - all of their family’s possessions in just one tiny area. The girl who lived in this apartment told us that she had been living there all her life (she was 22), and each and every night the children had to set up make shift beds in the living area (which was a room about 12x12) which included one sink basin and a small refrigerator that all the families had to share. I walked out of there in complete shock…I have never seen poverty like this, nor realized that South Africa could still be this way years after the end of the Apartheid. Outside of the tenement building, there were children dancing around and singing and just being so…happy. They were more than happy to have pictures taken of them, and loved looking to see what they looked like immediately after taking the picture. On the way out of Langa our guide pointed out the areas where many people are still living in corrugated tin shacks with no running water or toilets. The heart breaking thing was seeing small children carrying buckets of water on their heads and the toilets which are still operated by a bucket system. Truly heartbreaking….

The next stop was to Khayelitsa, which was the largest township in Cape Town. Khayelitsa means “our new home“ which was of course established during the Apartheid when blacks were forced out of “white areas“ due laws passed. In the 2001 census, there were almost two million people living in Khayelitsa. 2 million people…with a 61% unemployment rate. Khayelitsa has only 5 community clinics for 2 million people. There is no hospital, despite the desperate need for one. Our guide told us that people begin lining up at 4am for treatment.

While in Khayelitsa we stopped off and six places where people in the community were reaching out and helping to create a grassroots effort to improve the conditions in the townships. Our first stop was at Vicki’s B&B in the township. What a wonderful woman! A few years ago she decided to open her house to the tourists to get a true township experience by spending the night there. When she started, she only had the capacity to hold two people , but has since expended her business with a second floor and four more rooms. Vicki takes the profits to reach out to the community by providing gifts for the kids in the town to make their Christmases a little brighter. A typical gift for a township child at Christmas is a pen, colored paper, or a pack of crayons. Such small things that American children take for granted is a luxury and a rarity in the Flats. Sounds like a great idea for a Dakota Stugo Community Service project…. She also stressed about how the community enjoyed visits from tourists; we help support them, but more importantly, it is our duty to spread the word about Cape Town and the townships. The focus shouldn’t just be on “hey, look at all that poverty,” but rather, look for the glimmers of hope within the despair. And yes, there is plenty of hope.

Next we visited a woman named Beauty who runs a sewing school for girls in Khayelitsa. She also shared her story of being HIV positive solely because of her husband. Her story nearly brought me to tears. The saddest thing, I think, was when she said that so many people infected with HIV/AIDS do not admit to having it or seek treatment because they are viewed as someone with low morals. In Beauty’s case, it was not her fault that the terrible thing happened to her. Thankfully, she has been taking the cocktail of drugs which is provided for no cost from the government, and has been doing well since her diagnosis over two years ago.

Our next stop was a Daycare Center with the cutest group of students ever. Parents in the township can pay 50 rand/week (about 6.50) to have their children in school. The school provides instruction as well as two meals a day for these children. They raced up to us and all wanted to “high five” and hold our hands and get their pictures taken. Just like in Langa, the kids were so happy and even performed some songs for us. The one that was especially troubling was a nursery rhyme about how “It is my body, and I have the right to say no!” Students as young as 3 are taught this song because of the rampant sexual assault present. Just so, so sad. One of the quotes on the wall in the school was “We Shall Build and Brighten This Nation.” Hope still exists…

As we traveled to the other side of Khayelitsa we visited a woman named Rosie who runs a Community Kitchen where she feeds the children in the neighborhood to ensure that none of them go hungry. She has recently lost her government funding, and exists solely because of outside contributions from tourists and the like. She refuses to turn anyone away. Most give what they can…and in some cases it’s as little as 5c rand (less than a penny) for a meal of beans and cornmeal. She was like the pied piper - the children just flocked to her and I couldn’t help but notice that when she spoke to us, she always had her hands on the children to quiet them, calm them, and show her love for them. It was here that I had my most profound moment in the township. I asked the kids if I could take a picture with them..and it was then that I was completely covered in the kids climbing all over me. All smiles, they just loved the attention. It was a moment that I know I’ll never forget in my life. As we walked away from Rosie’s and back to our bus, the children continued to follow us and latched on to our hands. Pulling away they waved and jumped up and down. Kids will be kids no matter where in the world…

As we finally left the townships and headed back to Cape Town I was just full of so many emotions…seeing the drastic contrast between third world and first world is truly devastating. A half hour from the flats you’ll find Camps Bay, home to multi-million dollar homes… Cross the railroad tracks and you’re back into the poverty. Needless to say, it was a very difficult, heavy day. I will never EVER forget that experience, and I know that it is one that will undoubtedly shape me for the rest of my life. I feel like there is just so much more I need to do…to give back…

This will be my last blog for a few days. We leave tomorrow morning, bright and early, for our trek to Arniston. A small fishing village on the Indian coast. Before there, we will be visiting Cape Argulas which is the point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet (I foresee more scream laughing in the near future!). Wednesday we’re off to Tsitsikamma - a park on the Indian Ocean. After that, we’ll be in Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival. It is the second largest Arts festival in the WORLD. We’ll be there for three days, so I should be able to get some blogging in then. Time to hit the road tomorrow and see what the rest of South Africa and Botswana have to offer…

So on that note…Peace and HOPE!