Pictures!

The baboons on the side of the road in the Cape Point National Park
There are warnings about them all over the brochure. Apparently they'll jump in a car window if they see food!

The group at Cape Point

The penguins at Boulder Beach (south of Cape Town)

The view of Cape Town from (almost) the top of Table Mountain
After an intense 1.5 hour climb

The stream that my camera went swimming in.

The donkey sanctuary

The kids in Nkqubela (the township where the high school is)
They followed us around for an hour wanting us to take their picture, dancing for us, wrestling with the boys, etc.

I'm back

Sorry, folks, I know you've been anxiously awaiting my next update. The internet has been down for a week at the homebase so I'm using the computer at school. So much has happened in the last week... I'll do my best to recap.

1. Coolest thing(s) I've seen: The view from the top of Table Mountain, the penguins on Boulder Beach, the night sky in Robertson (we swear we can see the Milky Way, it's so clear), sunset in Cape Town, the baboons at Cape Point. I'm keeping a list of unique animal sightings -- it's up to over 20 already!

2. Most interesting thing I've done: Climbed Table Mountain, went horseback riding through a river bed with water up to the stirrups, taught many more 10th, 11th, and 12th graders random bits of knowledge and phys. ed.

3. Recent funny/embarrassing moment: Can't really think of any worth writing about... I'll do better next time.

4. Most frustrating/difficult/uncomfortable situation faced (or in corporate speak, "most valuable learning experience"): I had been subbing for a teacher for the past 3 days. She was supposed to return yesterday but when I got to school, she wasn't here and no one knew where she was. So, I was left to teach 4 periods, with nothing prepared nor a textbook to teach from. Thank God she showed up today. Oh, and the internet being down has been an annoyance.

5. Best food/drink I've had: Ironically enough, it was dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Cape Town -- we had a 3-course feast with cocktails and wine for <$30/person. Or maybe it's the fruit which is grown all over the place and is sooo good!

6. Plans for the upcoming weekend: Going on a Garden Route tour to the west of here. We're going to see caves, ostrichs, monkeys, elephants and beautiful scenery. Some people are going bungy jumping -- I'll watch. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain. It hasn't rained since we got here and it's supposedly rainy season so we're due.

7. Health: Pretty good, had a scratchy throat this morning but can't really complain.

8. What I miss most: The beach and my bed.

9. Other general commentary. I really wish I could post from the homebase because I have lots of awesome pictures I want to show you. Oh, and my camera made a full recovery from its dip in the stream - hooray! Other than that, the group is getting along pretty well, especially considering how different we all are.

Hope all of you had a great Memorial Day weekend - I miss you!!

Day 5

It's a beautiful day in Robertson - blue skies and in the low 70's! Today was Ascension Thursday so school was cancelled -- South Africans love their national holidays. We went on a beautiful hike with a guide up to this gorge with an amazing waterfall at the end. We saw baboon feces but no baboons. I did drop my camera in the stream so hopefully I didn't ruin it. Otherwise, I'll be borrowing others' pictures. This afternoon, a clinical psychologist came and talked to us about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa -- 11% of the population is infected, one of the worst rates in the world. Until recently, the health minister was in denial about the problem, which only made it worse. Under the new administration, they're hopeful that things will improve.

1. Coolest thing I've seen: This question is WAY too hard. I've been to a donkey sanctuary; I drive by beautiful vineyards everyday; I look out my window at the home base to totally uninhabited mountains; I've visited several quaint little towns filled with interesting people.

2. Most interesting thing I've done: Taught "business" to a class of 10th graders for whom English is their 2nd or 3rd language. We started a business to sell a broom. It actually went pretty well, I think!

3. Recent funny/embarrassing moment: During our Afrikaans (that local language) lessons, we had to go up to people to practice our greeting. The person I spoke to politely laughed at me and returned my greeing in English. Well done.

4. Most frustrating/difficult/uncomfortable situation faced (or in corporate speak, "most valuable learning experience"): One of two things -- the cold shower I took when I first got here b/c I didn't know how to use the faucet properly or the fact that I dropped my camera in a stream in the first week of a 6-week trip.

5. Best food/drink I've had: The meal on the river boat - traditional Afrikaaner fare including bean soup, homemade bread and butter, chicken pie, and pumpkin pie. Delicious!

6. Plans for the upcoming weekend: Cape Town! We're planning to go to Robben Island, hike up Table Mountain and go see the penguins at Cape Point.

7. Health: Perfect!

8. What I miss most: Missing the American Idol finale and the hockey play-offs... so really, not much!

9. Other general commentary I'm so happy here. The pace of life is much slower and the scenery is breathtaking. No one I've encountered has given any indication that he/she is too busy to talk or is in a hurry to go anywhere. The local people are more than willing to talk to us about anything we want to know, particularly their history and their culture. The issue of race is so top-of-mind here. Even though apartheid was abolished 15 years ago, the different races - the blacks, the coloreds (anyone who's not 100% black/white), and the whites - still live in separate parts of town and rarely mix. The high school where I'm volunteering is in the township, which is where the black people live. By American standards, it's the slums. The houses are mostly shacks, although the government is in the process of building new homes for those who are unemployed (58% in this particular township). The majority do have electricity and running water so it's not smelly or gross. The people take pride in the way they look despite being poor and truly seem happy. They are fascinated with Americans.
The high school, Masakheke, has grades 7-12. Of 800 kids in the school, they average 24 graduating seniors per year. The class size is large (40-45) in the lower grades but drops off significantly after grade 10 when they are no longer required to attend school. The "learners" (students) wear uniforms and the school is very disciplined. The teachers are a mix of black, white and colored and are glad to have our help. I'm assigned to help mostly with "Life Orientation" which includes business, phys ed, etc. Even though the classes are all taught in English, it's quite unnerving to not understand the students' native language -- you have no idea what they're saying about you! Tomorrow, I'm subbing for one of the teachers who will be out so THAT should be interesting - wish me luck!

Overall, it's been an incredible experience so far and I'm even more excited about what's to come. I'm keeping a list of all the different animals I see (and of course, all the different wines I taste :-))

I made it!

Hello from South Africa! There's so much to tell, I don't know where to start. Well first, the flight wasn't so bad. Even though I was in the plane for ~18 hours, I managed to sleep most of the way. We were met in Cape Town by the rest of the group and drove in to the home base about 2 hrs away in Robertson. The place is awesome -- just as beautiful as the pictures on the website, surrounded by mountains. Inside it's very cozy with a nice living area with a fireplace. We each share a room and a bathroom with one other person that has all the amenities one could want. There is a super friendly full-time staff that cooks and cleans for us -- they won't even let us take our dishes to the kitchen after meals! So no, we're not exactly "roughin' it." The food has been great, too. The Afrikaaners (most of the white South Africans) are of Dutch descent so they're big hearty people like myself and love to eat :-)

The group is getting along great so far... there are 3 college students, 2 Canadians, 1 senior citizen, 2 guys and me (not mutually exclusive obviousy b/c there are 7 of us in total). We've been super busy so far. We did orientation and tours the first 2 days and today was our first day of volunteering. It's going to be a crazy but rewarding experience... more on the high school and Nquebela township later.

With all the opportunities to see and do things here, I'm finding 5 weeks to be too short! We're going to make the most of it though, and are already planning out all our weekend adventures.
Ok ride is here! I'll post again soon.

The night before...

5 days of unemployment, 0 episodes of The Price Is Right, lots of better-eat-this-before-I-leave, and 46 trips to Target later, I think I'm finally packed and ready to go. I'm now calming myself with a glass of wine and some hockey -- Go Canes! My flight leaves tomorrow at 11:30AM so Dad's picking me up at 8:30 for breakfast and an inevitable last-minute trip to the store.

I'll be on the flight from JFK to Cape Town with two other members of my group. There are 7 of us total, all staying for different amounts of time. Several are college students, one girl is my age and works for the volunteer organization (Cross Cultural Solutions), another is an older woman and one is a mystery. Hopefully we'll get along because we'll be spending LOTS of time together at the home base :-)

To avoid writer's block... and because I'm type A... I'm going to attempt to add a little structure to my blog by answering similar questions on each post. The idea is for these to be updates from the last post:

1. Coolest thing I've seen:
2. Most interesting thing I've done:
3. Recent funny/embarrassing moment:
4. Most frustrating/difficult/uncomfortable situation faced (or in corporate speak, "most valuable learning experience"):
5. Best food/drink I've had:
6. Plans for the upcoming weekend:
7. Other general commentary

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for all the well wishes. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Africa!

First Post

So, 3 days from now, I'll be on the marathon flight from JFK to Cape Town. I found out that I'll be working at the Masakheke High School in the Nkqubela Township. Below is as much as I know about the assignment:


The aim of Masakheke High School is to provide public high school education to the youth (13-18yrs) in Nkqubela. Masakheke is a government high school and provides educational services for up to five hundred children. Has a 40+ one student / teacher ratio. It is an English medium, which is difficult as many of these learners are 3rd language English speakers.


Volunteer Activities /Duties
English Literacy
Maths
Teacher assistance
Sports and other extra mural support



The townships are the extremely poor communities outside of the cities that developed during apartheid when blacks were not allowed in the city after working hours. It should definitely be an eye-opening experience!



Right now, I'm more excited than anxious, but tomorrow I have to start packing so we'll see how that goes. Unemployment is not exactly as relaxing as I imagined. It's crazy how fast the days go by... I haven't slept past 8AM yet!

OK, back to American Idol :-)