Exploring Pretoria

After the PermaGarden training, I caught a ride to Pretoria with the PC kombi, which was nice as it saved me R200+. J I had an appointment with the eye doctor on Friday, as I had broken both pairs of glasses that I brought to the country-sigh. I’m gonna blame the crazy bumpy kombi rides to town. Anywho, riding with PC was awesome because the kombie was clean, safe, had functioning AC, and wasn’t even full-woah! Basically the opposite of every SA kombi.

Lorato and I were heading off to Durban on Sunday night, but we had a few days of downtime in Pretoria between my appointment and Durban. As we hadn’t really had the opportunity to spend free time in PTA prior to this, it was rather nice! PTA is a clean, beautiful city that is full of trees, parks, and all the conveniences of the First World…quite different from my site. The first night there, we were introduced to an AMAZING Chinese restaurant in the Hatfield area (near the 2 main PC backpackers-1322 and Khayalethu BP). Kung Fu Kitchen….yum! Lorato and I got dumpling, beef lo mein, and a chicken dish that was to die for. We gobbled it up shamelessly….our first real American style Chinese food in about 9 months.

We spent the next day chilling at PCSA HQ, awaiting my appointment. There is a library and computers with free internet at the office, so we were able to entertain ourselves. Due to being in Africa, transport to the eye doctor was messed up, so I missed my appointment and was rescheduled for later in the day. Lorato and I decided to head over to the eye doctor early anyways, as it was in a mall! So we shopped for a few hours, and we both bought some new jeans-a necessity as winter approaches. We had fun shopping, then I got to pick out new glasses-even more fun!

The following day we joined two other PCVs from SA21 for a trip to the bird sanctuary. Though it is fall and there wouldn’t be many birds there, we decided it would be a fun day to spend the morning. We saw a few interesting birds, then walked back to Hatfield for lunch and a movie. I ate my first Big Mac EVER-and it was GOOD! Again, I hadn’t had Micky D’s since August, so it was a nice culinary trip home, as the food and fries are nearly identical to the US versions…so bad for me, but soooo good! After stuffing ourselves with McDonald’s, we headed to the movie theatre to see the Lorax. I grabbed a small popcorn and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Haven’t had popcorn since America…

If you haven’t noticed, food is a big part of vacation. Life at site means a monotonous diet and few First World culinary experiences. So vacation is basically a huge eat-a-thon. 🙂

The following day we headed back to the Hatfield Square to a flea market!! I bought a few souvenirs and had fun looking at everything and haggling. I love flea markets. We were taking the overnight Intercape bus to Durban that night, so Lorato and I had a lazy day and prepared for sleepless night aboard the bus. Though our bus wasn’t until 7pm, we headed to the station around 5pm, as we didn’t have a whole lot to do. While sitting waiting for the bus, we met a few interesting people. One guy must have heard our accents, and came up to Lorato and I and started talking. He was from Michigan, I believe, and doing research on Zimbabwean immigration to SA. We had an interesting talks about our American takes on SA.

We also had an extremely interesting talk with a young Afrikaner woman about education in SA. We started talking about our work in the schools, and I mentioned my classes of 60+ learners. She was flabbergasted at the class size and could not believe that really existed! She was also stunned to learn that corporal punishment was common, as well as the low English levels, etc in the schools. This girl has lived in SA her whole life, but had no clue what rural schools we like. It was surprising to me, but then again it wasn’t. People from the cities do not know what rural life is like, but it was still intriguing to see how extremely surprised she was with our experiences.

Pretoria is a great place to stay for a few days, and I look forward to exploring it more over the next year and a half!
-Jen

Elephant Walks and Tricky Monkeys

An elephant begging for some pumpkin during the feeding session.

After Mossel Bay, we headed down the coast a bit more to a nice town called Wilderness. Upon entering the town, I said “This doesn’t look like wilderness…” which prompted the reply “Yes it does. See, there are trees!” It was a lot more urban that I expected, but we stayed at the Wilderness Beach House, which is near the beach and tucked into a wooded area-nice and secluded. Our second floor dorm room gave us a stunning view of the ocean, straight from my bed. I never actually went to the beach here though!

We decided to drive down the coast to Knysna (nice-na) the next morning, so we did not spend a whole lot of time in Wilderness. Knysna had a lot of neat places to shop and whatnot, so we spent a bit of time there checking out all the local crafts.

We went to the Elephant Sanctuary near Knysna, and then Monkeyland to eat. The Elephant Sanctuary was cool. We didn’t opt for the elephant back rides ($$$) but we did the normal tour. I got to walk hand-in-trunk through the woods with en elephant, pet one, see some tricks, and feed the. It was fun, and now I think elephants may be the coolest animals ever! One girl got splattered by some fresh elephant dung, so I’m not sure she was too happy with it all. 🙂

At Monkeyland, Genna and I just decided to stay in their restaurant and observation area, rather than pay for the tour. Sue and Katie went on the tour, so Genna and I grabbed some ice cream and went out onto the deck to enjoy it.

Now, the deck is not separated from the monkeys at all. Soon a little squirrel monkey came to sniff out our tables, as we were eating the ice cream. He came really close so we took some pictures. The monkey decided he wanted my ice cream, so right after Genna took a picture, he launched himself at my Magnum Bar and grabbed it with his monkey paws! I hollered and waved him off, then the guides who were waiting for the next tour chased him off by squirting him with water.

And yes, I at the rest of my ice cream, after wiping off his monkey paw prints. He later tried to steal my bag of souvenirs, and we had a literally tug of war over my bag, which I thankfully won. Monkeys are tricky!

It was about this time in the trip where we began to see “Don’t feed the baboon” signs on the side of the road, and we had a least two hordes of baboons run out in front of our car! They are the deer of SA.

-Jen

One of the elephants showing off its trick-shaking its head.

Me and a monkey, right before he attempts to steal my ice cream.

Ahhh Africa is so beautiful

Beach Laziness

The beautiful Indian Ocean

After Oudtshoorn we headed south and east, with the Indian Ocean as our destination. Mossel Bay was the next shop on our vacation, and we stayed at the Santos Express. It is a backpackers that is in an old train parked on the beach. Great location! We stayed in the dorm, which had 16 beds and sadly was a little gross. The private rooms looked nicer, which were old sleeper cars that had real beds installed in them. I was super excited to stay here, but it was a letdown. 😦

As soon as we got to Mossel Bay, we hopped into our swimsuits and made it down to the beach. The water was chilly, but very nice and incredibly clear.

The next day we spent shopping around in the downtown area. Mossel Bay is a harbor town with a pretty touristy area, but it’s not super touristy. We also checked out the Bartolomeu Dias Museum, which focused on the Southern African sea explorers and their impact on the area. In the museum complex is the old Post Tree, which had a postal drop that is still used. I mailed a few things from the oldest post office in Africa, and those postcards will get a special postmark…cool! 🙂 I wish I had more stamps though.

We returned to the backpackers and spent the rest of the day being beach bums. Oh how lovely vacation is! We found out that burying someone in sand is an American thing, and got too many crazy looks when Katie and I got buried. I also made a friend with a little African girl who was super interested in my sand castle building. She came to “help”…and my sand castle was destroyed. At least she was a cutie!

I enjoyed a few peaceful morning beach walks, and found some shells for the kids in my host family. It was really nice to relax for a few days!

-Jen

Mailing a postcard to my sister at the oldest post office in Africa!

Me wandering on the beach

The cute girl who “helped” me with my sand castle.

My shadow along the awesome Indian Ocean beach

Ostrich Adventures and a Crazy Cave

This is me, riding an ostrich. I am a bit terrified!

Did you know that SA has a huge Ostrich industry? I did not.

One of the main reasons we wanted to come to Oudtshoorn was to see one (of the MANY) ostrich farms that exist in the area.

Ostriches are just cool, and with the prospect of RIDING one, I couldn’t turn it down. We stopped off at the Cango Ostrich Farm, which was a blast! The first thing we see (after a nice lecture on the history of the ostrich industry and facts about these crazy birds) was baby ostriches! Sooo cute! I got to hold one.

We then go feed a dwarf ostrich, which just happens to be quite short. Then I hugged one, and interesting experience. Then we head towards the riding arena.

Yes, you CAN ride an ostrich! They first had the kids pose for pictures on the ostrich, then they ask for a volunteer to take the first ride. What are PCVs good at if not volunteering? I hop up and awkwardly mount my ostrich (with a little bit of nervousness).

As soon as I am on well, they tear the blindfold off my ostrich and back him out of the stall. He immediately RUNS towards the solid wood fence! I start to freak out until I realize the wranglers are steering him a bit. He runs in a circle and I almost make it to the starting point before I slide (gracefully, oddly enough) off. Oh my goodness! What a THRILL! I smelled like ostrich for the rest of the day and had feathers in odd places, but it was way worth it.

From there we headed to the Cango Caves. I had decided previously that I wanted to do the standard tour, not the adventure tour.

The standard tour is a normal, easy cave tour where you stop to take a ton of pictures. The adventure tour has you climbing through “love tunnels” where a woman got stuck for 11 hours, up a 3m long chimney where you have to pull yourself through slippery wormholes, and sliding down a 15cm wide hole….but I changed my mind at the last minute! I went spelunking. It was crazy, and I still have bruises days later. I was so sore the next few days, but it was a lot of fun. Not at all for the faint of heart or the claustrophobic, as you get really close to the rocks, and occasionally your tour buddies. But it was a really neat twist on a normal cave tour!

Oudtshoorn was a surprising pile of adventures.

-Jen

Mounting my ostrich-hard and very awkward to do.

We shimmied through a hole this size for about 5m. This was the largest of the 3 squeeze areas…

A stop off at a waterfall on the way to Oudtshoorn.

Lockdown Unlocked

A PCV’s first three months at site (worldwide) is called the Community Integration Period by PC staff.  We call it lockdown.  Why?  Well, during the first three months at site, you are not allowed to travel or even spend the night away from your site.  This is to help you make friends with community members, learn about your schools (for us education PCVs), learn the local dialect of language, and figure things out all on your own.

As you can imagine, this is a very trying time.  We were told you will hit your highest highs and lowest lows during lockdown.  It is also a bit maddening to be in a country for 5 months now without having done any traveling or sightseeing.

However, I realized yesterday that lockdown has really done its job well.  I embarking on a journey that will keep me away from sight for more than three weeks (10 days training and 10+ days of traveling and visiting PCVs).  I realized yesterday that I did not want to leave my little home and host family, I would miss my fellow teachers, and I wouldn’t get to see my semi-adopted dog for quite awhile.  And I was sad.  Integrated into the community?  I think so.  In love with my site?  Yup!

Lockdown has been particularly challenging because it is the end of the school year.  This means that teachers are frustrated and frantic to teach things they ignored all year, learners are not coming to school unless they have an exam, and everyone at the school is attempting to enter marks and wrap up the school year.  So there was either a massive amount of work for me to do in just a few hours, or nothing to do for days at a time.  I was also trying to complete my Phase 2 assignments for PC, which was composed of (sometimes silly) tasks to do each week to help me understand my schools and community.  I was not teaching regularly, which meant I didn’t ever know what I would be doing from one day to another.

Can you imagine why lockdown is a challenging time?  And I haven’t had a shower in three months (tomorrow….Praise the LORD!!)

But I have survived, and am prepared to take on the new school year and be a rockstar PCV.  And surprisingly, NOBODY in our SA24 has ET’d during this period-impressive!

-Jen

Camping

So, a week before I leave for South Africa, what do I do?  I go camping for 4 days.  A kind of nice escape from reality, but reality is fast approaching.  However, since I was a young child, my family has camped.  My first camping trip involved my grandparent’s farm, a tent, and a crazed wild turkey/pheasant visit in the wee hours of the morning.

As time has evolved, my family has moved from a tent, to a pop-up camper, to a 70s motorhome, back to a tent, and finally to a pretty sweet RV-all tricked out.  Now, camping with a flatscreen TV (although small), AC, and a full dining room table may seem a little removed from nature, but it is a nice escape from packing. 🙂 And I can easily escape to my hammock slung between two trees if I want to relax outdoors.

The 60-70 mph winds and severe thunderstorm last night were not fun.  Luckily, we had a TV and could keep an eye on things.  🙂  A tent would not work out in those weather conditions.

Anyways, since I am camping and thus on my last vacation before SA, I will not be giving daily facts.  I had to drive to town and chill at a coffeehouse for the WiFi.  But I love coffee, so it was worth the rather short trip.

I am also getting a bit used to being more exposed to the elements, critters, and lack of constant internet (which is kind of nice, actually).

So, adios for a few days, as I enjoy a few last relaxing days before I begin the “toughest job I’ll ever love.”

Oh boy, I leave in 8 day. EIGHT DAYS!

-Jen