The good thing about this trip, everyone is getting so close. The bad thing, everyone is so close. A cold seems to be making its way around and around our group. I’m on my second round, this time it is accompanied by an ear infection, I am not looking forward to the next couple of days. Besides being sick this week has been a pretty good one.
On Sunday we all went to Addo Elephant National Park and Scotia Game Reserve to finally see wild (or as wild as we are going to manage to see) African animals. We had to get up early to catch a bus that would take us to the parks. Our tour guide, Bradley, was absolutely amazing. He knew information about everything we were passing: townships, dinosaur fossils, plants, elephants, everything. Hands down, the best tour guide I’ve ever had. Anyway, at Addo we stayed in the bus and drove around keeping our eyes out for animals. The dung beetles are absolutely huge and illegal to run over with your car in the park. We did see an elephant. It was an exciting time. Everyone rushed over to the right side of the bus, hung out the windows, and tried to get a decent shot of the animal (considering its head was in a bush I don’t think anyone got a great shot.
After Addo we headed over to Scotia. By this point it had been raining off and on the entire day and I was expecting four hours of sitting in an open aired jeep being poured on by the rain, freezing cold and wet. Well, that is what happened but it turned out to be one of the best times I’ve had here. We were promised a lion sighting and did not have to wait long. Ten minutes after our tour got started we spotted a lion sitting under a bush attempting to get relief from the rain. The lion was no more than 10 meters from our jeep and I could get pretty good pictures of it. My favorite animal we saw that day was the giraffe. Right after break to thaw out, we spotted three giraffes and were able to drive right in the middle of them and later saw a couple more. We were able to get really close to them and they didn’t seem to mind our presence. Rhinos, zebras, wildebeest, impala, and hippos rounded out the other animals we saw.
After the actual safari part of our tour we got to eat a great dinner at extra large tiki hut like complex (I really can’t explain it very well). There were a couple of large fire pits that could easily fit 20 people around it. A cooking pit was situated in that general are as well. A bar and all the tables (at least 30) were surrounding all of this. We were able to warm up, dry off (we were absolutely soaking by this time in the day), and just have a great time sitting around and talking.
Monday was our first official day of volunteering. I decided on the House of Resurrection, an AIDS Haven. When we got there we went to the kid’s room and there they began jumping on us, screaming, begging to be picked up. The little boy that came to me first was Joseph. He is four years old, HIV positive, as are all but a few of the kids at the Haven, and have been at the Haven since he was a few months old. That first day I think I held Joseph for at least half the time (2 hours). I was expecting to be extremely sore the next day, but it wasn’t too bad. By the end of the volunteering I am going to have very toned arms. We went back on Tuesday and were all exhausted by the end.
For other random happenings this week I went to another Warriors cricket game, I dropped the political science class for the music class, and the entire group wore our NMMU International polo shirts to class on Tuesday. Tuesday was also the first potluck of the semester. The theme was Minnesota and tatertot hotdish and green bean casserole were served along with jello and buns. It reminded me of home.
We don’t have classes on Friday so the weekend starts whenever we are done on Thursday, for me that is 12:00 on Thursday. That meant an extra-long weekend and the weather looked perfect. On Friday the weather was perfect for the beach. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it was hot and zero wind, the water was refreshing and the waves were “gnarly.” I couldn’t have asked for a better day. That night we had a braai. Boris decided to cook Serbian dinner for all of us and grilled meat and made potato salad among other things. It was absolutely delicious. I do not ever have to worry about going hungry on this trip.
Last night was a blast. Simon is in the orchestra here and last night was the concert in the park. The music was pretty good. It alternated between classical and modern pieces. The soloists, a saxophonist and vocalist, were amazing, the saxophone player especially. We had promised Simon that we would get people dancing. We sort of failed at that but our group was jamming out, especially during the last few songs. When you hear “I Will Survive” you can’t just sit around. People started singing and somehow we all ended up line dancing to it. Just imagine 20 people standing in a grassy opening line dancing (if people had been wondering where we were from, that answered it). A little girl came and started dancing with us. The encore song “Walking on Sunshine” got the attention of a lot of people around us. People around us had been noticing our little dance party and by this song there were at least 4 people taking pictures and dozens more looking on at the crazy Americans. The ride back in the taxi was just about as fun. We were singing songs from our middle school years and I was surprised at how many songs we remembered. The driver loved it and was laughing the whole time. We are filling the role of the loud Americans quite well.
F.Y.I. Flickr won’t let me upload any pictures until the first of the month so if you want to see pictures I’ll be putting them on Facebook for a while.
Peace.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Taxi Strikes to J-Bay Bay
This week has been an interesting one to say the least. It begins with a taxi strike and ends with an amazing trip to Jeffrey’s Bay, includes a bit of internet drama and attacking monkeys.
On Monday morning we were suppose to head to Pendla Primary School, one of the places we are planned to volunteer at, for a welcoming ceremony. Unfortunately, that was the first day of a taxi strike and the private taxi’s we use wouldn’t run for safety concerns. From what I’ve heard, the taxi’s and combi’s are striking because the city plans to replace them with a bussing system in the next few years and people are obviously not happy about that. It has caused a lot of headaches. So after waking up at 6:30 to get ready to go to Pendla we all had to chill in the flats until 9:30 and then get shuttled to NMMU so we could get our cards activated so we could go to the computer labs on campus. However, the system was down and we couldn’t get them done. So then I had to wait until 11:45 to get picked up to head back to the flats. Monday was a very confusing day to say the least.
My first day of actual classes was on Tuesday with my Senior Seminar class only because the strike was still going on we held it in the church across the street. Wednesday the strike was continuing and yet again we had to be shuttled to NMMU for classes (I had Community Service Learning and South African Literature). This was also my first run-in with the dreaded monkeys that seem to haunt the campus. Everywhere you look are signs that say “Don’t Feed the Monkey’s” and “Beware of Biting Monkey’s” or something along those lines. Someone from our group was eating an apple when all of a sudden six monkeys began stalking her. Apparently all students are afraid of the monkeys; I saw a guy throw his bag at one and it still wouldn’t leave him alone. Thursday involved more monkeys and my favorite class, Marine Biology, and my most hated class that I have transferred out of, South African Politics.
So a big drama that is happening right now involves the internet. At the flats we get pretty good internet but we have to pay for it ($6/hr), or there is an internet café about a mile away ($2.50/hr), or the crappy school internet that is free but incredibly slow and all we can do on it is check our school e-mail (Facebook is completely out of the question). It is really frustrating because our director thinks the only means of communication we need with home is the e-mail. He doesn’t seem to understand that Facebook is the main means of communication for students these days. Also, attaching photos to email is incredibly annoying and takes up way too much time, using Facebook or another photo sharing site works perfectly; but he doesn’t seem to get that at the moment. The situation has gotten so out of hand that people are thinking of contacting CSB/SJU to discuss why internet is so difficult to get down here. Other study abroad programs don’t have this problem; China, for example, only had to pay $5/month for unlimited, serviceable internet access. What most of us are worried about is how we are going to be able to use the internet when we have to write papers and do research. It really has become a huge problem.
Most of the group took our first free weekend and had the most amazing time EVER!!! We headed out to Jeffrey’s Bay Friday morning (we don’t have classes on Fridays) and we got back Saturday evening. Jeffrey’s Bay is paradise. That is all I can say about it, do a Google image search on Jeffrey’s Bay and you will get an idea of what I’m talking about. The town itself has a ton of surf shops, and a lot of factory shops. Billabong, Quicksilver, Lizzard, Roxy, all had factory shops there and everything was super cheap. We stayed at a backpackers place called Island Vibe. Imagine a surfer’s hangout, hostel, tiki bar, tropical island all rolled into one and you have Island Vibe. The Bay is world famous for its surfing and this hostel caters to every surfer’s dream, cheap rooms right on the ocean, packed with awesome people who want to do nothing but eat, sleep, and surf. I didn’t get good pictures of the place but you can bet we will be going back there a few times. The room I stayed in had a patio that overlooked the ocean, as did pretty much all the other rooms we had. It looked more like a hotel than a hostel (and it only cost $12.50 a night!). Surprisingly, though, I didn’t go surfing. Surf lessons were in the morning, we got there too late and today the weather wasn’t cooperating (it rained all day). But I did go sand boarding. Sand boarding is basically like snowboarding on sand. I got sand everywhere but I had an amazing time. The dunes opened up to the ocean so the view was to die for. Some people I went with had some nasty wipeouts that they will be feeling for a while, but decided not to try anything to advanced. Definitely going to be doing that again.
On the way back from Jeffrey’s Bay those in the car I was in, Colleen, Nakita, Laura, Jenny, Simon, and I went to Sea View, a drive-thru place where you can see wild animals in their “natural” habitat. I don’t like going to zoos because seeing animals in cages pacing in circles is extremely sad to me, this was only marginally better. We also could pet lion cubs, which was fun to see. Simon and Nakita decided to pet the 11 month old cubs. These animals should not even be allowed to be called cubs, they were huge. They clawed and bit at Simon and Nakita, and they have flesh wounds to prove it. There are also medium sized cubs and baby cubs that we can play with. When we go back I plan on cuddling with the baby’s.
Tomorrow we are going on a safari, finally. I have spent over two weeks in Africa and the only wildlife I’ve seen are some birds and a few Kudu and semi tamed lions at Sea View. I want to get up close to the wild lions, elephants, giraffes, and zebra. You can bet there are going to be massive amounts of pictures from that.
Check out my updated flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/gearman22
Peace.
On Monday morning we were suppose to head to Pendla Primary School, one of the places we are planned to volunteer at, for a welcoming ceremony. Unfortunately, that was the first day of a taxi strike and the private taxi’s we use wouldn’t run for safety concerns. From what I’ve heard, the taxi’s and combi’s are striking because the city plans to replace them with a bussing system in the next few years and people are obviously not happy about that. It has caused a lot of headaches. So after waking up at 6:30 to get ready to go to Pendla we all had to chill in the flats until 9:30 and then get shuttled to NMMU so we could get our cards activated so we could go to the computer labs on campus. However, the system was down and we couldn’t get them done. So then I had to wait until 11:45 to get picked up to head back to the flats. Monday was a very confusing day to say the least.
My first day of actual classes was on Tuesday with my Senior Seminar class only because the strike was still going on we held it in the church across the street. Wednesday the strike was continuing and yet again we had to be shuttled to NMMU for classes (I had Community Service Learning and South African Literature). This was also my first run-in with the dreaded monkeys that seem to haunt the campus. Everywhere you look are signs that say “Don’t Feed the Monkey’s” and “Beware of Biting Monkey’s” or something along those lines. Someone from our group was eating an apple when all of a sudden six monkeys began stalking her. Apparently all students are afraid of the monkeys; I saw a guy throw his bag at one and it still wouldn’t leave him alone. Thursday involved more monkeys and my favorite class, Marine Biology, and my most hated class that I have transferred out of, South African Politics.
So a big drama that is happening right now involves the internet. At the flats we get pretty good internet but we have to pay for it ($6/hr), or there is an internet café about a mile away ($2.50/hr), or the crappy school internet that is free but incredibly slow and all we can do on it is check our school e-mail (Facebook is completely out of the question). It is really frustrating because our director thinks the only means of communication we need with home is the e-mail. He doesn’t seem to understand that Facebook is the main means of communication for students these days. Also, attaching photos to email is incredibly annoying and takes up way too much time, using Facebook or another photo sharing site works perfectly; but he doesn’t seem to get that at the moment. The situation has gotten so out of hand that people are thinking of contacting CSB/SJU to discuss why internet is so difficult to get down here. Other study abroad programs don’t have this problem; China, for example, only had to pay $5/month for unlimited, serviceable internet access. What most of us are worried about is how we are going to be able to use the internet when we have to write papers and do research. It really has become a huge problem.
Most of the group took our first free weekend and had the most amazing time EVER!!! We headed out to Jeffrey’s Bay Friday morning (we don’t have classes on Fridays) and we got back Saturday evening. Jeffrey’s Bay is paradise. That is all I can say about it, do a Google image search on Jeffrey’s Bay and you will get an idea of what I’m talking about. The town itself has a ton of surf shops, and a lot of factory shops. Billabong, Quicksilver, Lizzard, Roxy, all had factory shops there and everything was super cheap. We stayed at a backpackers place called Island Vibe. Imagine a surfer’s hangout, hostel, tiki bar, tropical island all rolled into one and you have Island Vibe. The Bay is world famous for its surfing and this hostel caters to every surfer’s dream, cheap rooms right on the ocean, packed with awesome people who want to do nothing but eat, sleep, and surf. I didn’t get good pictures of the place but you can bet we will be going back there a few times. The room I stayed in had a patio that overlooked the ocean, as did pretty much all the other rooms we had. It looked more like a hotel than a hostel (and it only cost $12.50 a night!). Surprisingly, though, I didn’t go surfing. Surf lessons were in the morning, we got there too late and today the weather wasn’t cooperating (it rained all day). But I did go sand boarding. Sand boarding is basically like snowboarding on sand. I got sand everywhere but I had an amazing time. The dunes opened up to the ocean so the view was to die for. Some people I went with had some nasty wipeouts that they will be feeling for a while, but decided not to try anything to advanced. Definitely going to be doing that again.
On the way back from Jeffrey’s Bay those in the car I was in, Colleen, Nakita, Laura, Jenny, Simon, and I went to Sea View, a drive-thru place where you can see wild animals in their “natural” habitat. I don’t like going to zoos because seeing animals in cages pacing in circles is extremely sad to me, this was only marginally better. We also could pet lion cubs, which was fun to see. Simon and Nakita decided to pet the 11 month old cubs. These animals should not even be allowed to be called cubs, they were huge. They clawed and bit at Simon and Nakita, and they have flesh wounds to prove it. There are also medium sized cubs and baby cubs that we can play with. When we go back I plan on cuddling with the baby’s.
Tomorrow we are going on a safari, finally. I have spent over two weeks in Africa and the only wildlife I’ve seen are some birds and a few Kudu and semi tamed lions at Sea View. I want to get up close to the wild lions, elephants, giraffes, and zebra. You can bet there are going to be massive amounts of pictures from that.
Check out my updated flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/gearman22
Peace.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Real PE
By the end of this trip I am going to have tried every type of boarding possible down here: surf boarding, boogie boarding, sand boarding. The other day it was skim boarding. I have some nice pictures up on flickr at my poor attempt skimming. I apparently don’t have good enough balance for it and it can be quite painful if you fall. Anyway, that was just one more fun thing I did at the beach this last week. I think that was also the last time I went to the beach (I’ve been avoiding the sun so my sunburn can heal before I burn again). My sunburn is pretty much gone but now it is peeling like none other. I will save you the gross description and just say that the peeling and itching are about as bad as the burning was.
There is this really cute place to eat called Tiffany’s and their slogan is Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Every time I go there I get the song stuck in my head (since I’ve only been there once it hasn’t been a huge problemJ). One thing I am really excited about here that I’m sure most people don’t care about but I am extremely excited about is running outside. I was under the impression that it would be too dangerous to run or it isn’t a common thing so people would give me a funny look running past but that isn’t the case. Right outside the flats is a beach front boardwalk that is a runner’s paradise. It curves along with the coast line; it has all the advantages of running on the beach minus the sand in the shoes. I’ll have to take some pictures of my route so you can see what I’m talking about.
Starting on Tuesday we began our orientation at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The first thing we did was check out the school and get registration sorted out so we could actually take classes. Then we had to listen to some academic lecture, most of which didn’t apply to my study abroad group so I basically zoned out the entire time. We also went to a mall, and it felt like I was back in St. Cloud. During this time I had what I have named the 24 hour cold (the best kind possible if you ask me). I had coughing and sneezing attacks, I couldn’t stay awake, and I felt like crawling in a corner and sleeping for days on end. But 12 hours of sleep later and I was perfectly fine. Can’t say I’ve ever gotten over a cold that fast in my life but I guess a warm tropical climate is the best place to have a cold.
Continuing with our orientation we got to see the real Port Elizabeth, not just the swanky tourist areas we have been experiencing. Thursday we went with other international students from NMMU on a tour around PE while on Friday just the CSB/SJU students went to the AIDS Haven where half of us will be volunteering.
The first stop on the tour was the Port Elizabeth harbor. We learned a bit of the importance the harbor has on the existence of PE (basically PE wouldn’t exist without it). After that we went to the Red Location museum. The Red Location is a township near PE and the museum was built recently in the township to commemorate those that fought apartheid. There was also an exhibit on the massacre in Uitenhage (I think) that took place on the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. If you have any interest in civil rights research these topics, they are very interesting.
What caught my attention, however, was not the beautiful museum but its position among the shacks of the township. The museum itself is built to look like a factory from the outside (to symbolize the workers of the township and their livelihoods or something along those lines). The inside has the feel of an open warehouse and corrugated tin enclosures rise to the ceiling and house more exhibits. However, 50 meters outside the doors, tiny shacks of scrap wood and plastic being held together by string and wire that look as if a sudden gust of wind could knock them to the ground spread over the vast landscape. Seeing the contradiction that is the museum and the shacks together is a bit difficult to understand.
We drove around the townships for a while after that. Some were in better working order than others with houses made of brick, stone, or concrete. These dwellings looked more permanent but not much more stable than the wood shacks. Hair salons popped up ever few hundred meters. They were housed in cargo containers (the ones found on cargo ships). Seeing the doctor and dentists’ offices made me wonder who uses them, who can afford to use them. Most of the people living in the area can’t afford enough food to eat, let alone medical expenses. And I did see a lot more sick people in the townships. Many people walked with heavy limps or had to be dragged from place to place. Malnutrition, I’m sure, is rampant in the townships as well. The amount of garbage in the townships is startling as well. We literally turned a corner and we must have crossed an invisible boarder. Plastic bags and all other types of garbage just sit there. It is not a life I can see anyone living.
After seeing that I had a bit of a culture shock. Driving out of the townships we took a round-about way to where we were going to eat (the mall, of course) and drove past the new soccer stadium being built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in SA (everyone in SA is excited about this in an obsessive way, it’s pretty cool. I can get more information on this if anyone wants it, just let me know). And our final stop on the tour was the city center surrounded by beautiful old buildings that looked more at home in Old World France or Italy and not in the middle of an African city.
This morning it was the AIDS Haven. It is larger than I thought it was housing at least 13 children and 5 infants, I think there’s more but I can’t be too sure I’m still getting used to the accents here. For those who will be volunteering here, we will get matched up one-on-one with a child and help them with their reading and get them ready to attend primary school in a year or two.
The matron of the Haven told us that 90% of the children they care for are HIV positive. The stories we were told about how the children came to be at the Haven are just heartbreaking. Some have lost both of their parents to AIDS and had no where else to go, I can understand that. But the stories that go me were the ones of abandonment. Some mothers can’t handle the fact that their child is HIV positive so they leave them at the hospital with a fake address. The hospital is forced to bring the child to a place like the Haven and the child never sees their mother or father again. Some mothers don’t even know if their child has HIV or not, they just assume they do and abandon them as well, only sometimes it turns out the child does not have HIV. One specific story I remember the matron telling us was about a set of twins. One twin was strong and healthy while the other was weak and sick. The mother decides to take the strong one and abandon the weak, believing it is going to die soon anyway.
I don’t understand how a mother can do this. How desperate or hopeless does the situation have to be for a mother to abandon the child she has carried for nine months? Are the bonds connecting the mother and child different here? I hope not. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand why people are able to do this regardless of how long I stay here.
Onto a more upbeat note I attended my first cricket match. I watched a few hours of cricket on TV to try to understand it but I was still semi lost for the first half. If you ask me about the finer points I won’t be able to tell you much but when it comes to the general information, I got it down. Cricket is much like baseball where it is slow moving with a few moments of excitement. The last half hour was really exciting to watch because the home team was not doing so hot but came back to win. They have now advanced to the semifinals. And the people here are crazy about cricket so you can just imagine how loud the stadium was.
There is this really cute place to eat called Tiffany’s and their slogan is Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Every time I go there I get the song stuck in my head (since I’ve only been there once it hasn’t been a huge problemJ). One thing I am really excited about here that I’m sure most people don’t care about but I am extremely excited about is running outside. I was under the impression that it would be too dangerous to run or it isn’t a common thing so people would give me a funny look running past but that isn’t the case. Right outside the flats is a beach front boardwalk that is a runner’s paradise. It curves along with the coast line; it has all the advantages of running on the beach minus the sand in the shoes. I’ll have to take some pictures of my route so you can see what I’m talking about.
Starting on Tuesday we began our orientation at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The first thing we did was check out the school and get registration sorted out so we could actually take classes. Then we had to listen to some academic lecture, most of which didn’t apply to my study abroad group so I basically zoned out the entire time. We also went to a mall, and it felt like I was back in St. Cloud. During this time I had what I have named the 24 hour cold (the best kind possible if you ask me). I had coughing and sneezing attacks, I couldn’t stay awake, and I felt like crawling in a corner and sleeping for days on end. But 12 hours of sleep later and I was perfectly fine. Can’t say I’ve ever gotten over a cold that fast in my life but I guess a warm tropical climate is the best place to have a cold.
Continuing with our orientation we got to see the real Port Elizabeth, not just the swanky tourist areas we have been experiencing. Thursday we went with other international students from NMMU on a tour around PE while on Friday just the CSB/SJU students went to the AIDS Haven where half of us will be volunteering.
The first stop on the tour was the Port Elizabeth harbor. We learned a bit of the importance the harbor has on the existence of PE (basically PE wouldn’t exist without it). After that we went to the Red Location museum. The Red Location is a township near PE and the museum was built recently in the township to commemorate those that fought apartheid. There was also an exhibit on the massacre in Uitenhage (I think) that took place on the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. If you have any interest in civil rights research these topics, they are very interesting.
What caught my attention, however, was not the beautiful museum but its position among the shacks of the township. The museum itself is built to look like a factory from the outside (to symbolize the workers of the township and their livelihoods or something along those lines). The inside has the feel of an open warehouse and corrugated tin enclosures rise to the ceiling and house more exhibits. However, 50 meters outside the doors, tiny shacks of scrap wood and plastic being held together by string and wire that look as if a sudden gust of wind could knock them to the ground spread over the vast landscape. Seeing the contradiction that is the museum and the shacks together is a bit difficult to understand.
We drove around the townships for a while after that. Some were in better working order than others with houses made of brick, stone, or concrete. These dwellings looked more permanent but not much more stable than the wood shacks. Hair salons popped up ever few hundred meters. They were housed in cargo containers (the ones found on cargo ships). Seeing the doctor and dentists’ offices made me wonder who uses them, who can afford to use them. Most of the people living in the area can’t afford enough food to eat, let alone medical expenses. And I did see a lot more sick people in the townships. Many people walked with heavy limps or had to be dragged from place to place. Malnutrition, I’m sure, is rampant in the townships as well. The amount of garbage in the townships is startling as well. We literally turned a corner and we must have crossed an invisible boarder. Plastic bags and all other types of garbage just sit there. It is not a life I can see anyone living.
After seeing that I had a bit of a culture shock. Driving out of the townships we took a round-about way to where we were going to eat (the mall, of course) and drove past the new soccer stadium being built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in SA (everyone in SA is excited about this in an obsessive way, it’s pretty cool. I can get more information on this if anyone wants it, just let me know). And our final stop on the tour was the city center surrounded by beautiful old buildings that looked more at home in Old World France or Italy and not in the middle of an African city.
This morning it was the AIDS Haven. It is larger than I thought it was housing at least 13 children and 5 infants, I think there’s more but I can’t be too sure I’m still getting used to the accents here. For those who will be volunteering here, we will get matched up one-on-one with a child and help them with their reading and get them ready to attend primary school in a year or two.
The matron of the Haven told us that 90% of the children they care for are HIV positive. The stories we were told about how the children came to be at the Haven are just heartbreaking. Some have lost both of their parents to AIDS and had no where else to go, I can understand that. But the stories that go me were the ones of abandonment. Some mothers can’t handle the fact that their child is HIV positive so they leave them at the hospital with a fake address. The hospital is forced to bring the child to a place like the Haven and the child never sees their mother or father again. Some mothers don’t even know if their child has HIV or not, they just assume they do and abandon them as well, only sometimes it turns out the child does not have HIV. One specific story I remember the matron telling us was about a set of twins. One twin was strong and healthy while the other was weak and sick. The mother decides to take the strong one and abandon the weak, believing it is going to die soon anyway.
I don’t understand how a mother can do this. How desperate or hopeless does the situation have to be for a mother to abandon the child she has carried for nine months? Are the bonds connecting the mother and child different here? I hope not. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand why people are able to do this regardless of how long I stay here.
Onto a more upbeat note I attended my first cricket match. I watched a few hours of cricket on TV to try to understand it but I was still semi lost for the first half. If you ask me about the finer points I won’t be able to tell you much but when it comes to the general information, I got it down. Cricket is much like baseball where it is slow moving with a few moments of excitement. The last half hour was really exciting to watch because the home team was not doing so hot but came back to win. They have now advanced to the semifinals. And the people here are crazy about cricket so you can just imagine how loud the stadium was.
Peace.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Minnesota Nice meets Port Elizabeth Friendly
Okay, so the only part of Port Elizabeth I have met with any regularity has been the ocean and the Friendly Seven Eleven (I have had to go there on a number of occasions because I keep remembering things I forgot). But, to my great relief, people here actually smile and say hi to you, instead of giving you the deathstare.
The ocean is amazing, cold at times, but amazing. Living across the street from the beach means I can go over and swim or just lounge around whenever I feel like, and so far I have taken advantage of that. The other day I learned how to body surf. I could not get the hang of it for hours and it started to drive me nuts. I caught maybe two waves in the first two hours I tried it. But to make up for the lack of wave action I met this one older lady named Shirley, who was also body surfing. I started talking to her and learned about her life (which was incredible). Later that day we went body surfing at another beach and it was much easier. The waves were bigger, they came faster. But I am feeling the price I have to pay for having so much fun outside. My back feels like someone held a blowtorch to it. I thought I put on enough sunscreen on but apparently not. Three days later and I’m still hurting really bad. I know I’ll be feeling this one for a while.
Yesterday, me and few others checked out the Boardwalk, the entertainment center in the tourist part of Port Elizabeth. A lot of crafts stores, cafes, a casion and movie theater. I had the best tasting pizza at a small café (so much for trying out the local cuisine, huh? ). So, the infamous Toby Joe’s, a club about a couple blocks from our flats, is closing. This club is extremely popular among past South Africa study abroad participants. It is not my scene whatsoever, but I had fun, for a while at least. I enjoyed the people watching more than anything else.
Today there was a markt that took up much of the beach boardwalk right across the street from the flat. Think of it as Art in the Park – African style. I was not much up for buying anything so I just looked around and saw a lot of intricate carvings, paintings, and some amazing beadwork. I am absolutely in love with the artwork here, I just hope I have enough room to bring everything home with me.
What I am finally beginning to realize is how luck I am to be here. It’s like living in paradise. All my family and friends are stuck in the middle of a Minnesota winter while I’m heading to the beach whenever I feel like it and eating supper on a patio overlooking the ocean as the sun is setting. It can’t get much better than this. I can already tell the time is going to go by too fast. I’m going to make the most of my time here.
Just uploaded some photos. Check them out on my flickr account.
The ocean is amazing, cold at times, but amazing. Living across the street from the beach means I can go over and swim or just lounge around whenever I feel like, and so far I have taken advantage of that. The other day I learned how to body surf. I could not get the hang of it for hours and it started to drive me nuts. I caught maybe two waves in the first two hours I tried it. But to make up for the lack of wave action I met this one older lady named Shirley, who was also body surfing. I started talking to her and learned about her life (which was incredible). Later that day we went body surfing at another beach and it was much easier. The waves were bigger, they came faster. But I am feeling the price I have to pay for having so much fun outside. My back feels like someone held a blowtorch to it. I thought I put on enough sunscreen on but apparently not. Three days later and I’m still hurting really bad. I know I’ll be feeling this one for a while.
Yesterday, me and few others checked out the Boardwalk, the entertainment center in the tourist part of Port Elizabeth. A lot of crafts stores, cafes, a casion and movie theater. I had the best tasting pizza at a small café (so much for trying out the local cuisine, huh? ). So, the infamous Toby Joe’s, a club about a couple blocks from our flats, is closing. This club is extremely popular among past South Africa study abroad participants. It is not my scene whatsoever, but I had fun, for a while at least. I enjoyed the people watching more than anything else.
Today there was a markt that took up much of the beach boardwalk right across the street from the flat. Think of it as Art in the Park – African style. I was not much up for buying anything so I just looked around and saw a lot of intricate carvings, paintings, and some amazing beadwork. I am absolutely in love with the artwork here, I just hope I have enough room to bring everything home with me.
What I am finally beginning to realize is how luck I am to be here. It’s like living in paradise. All my family and friends are stuck in the middle of a Minnesota winter while I’m heading to the beach whenever I feel like it and eating supper on a patio overlooking the ocean as the sun is setting. It can’t get much better than this. I can already tell the time is going to go by too fast. I’m going to make the most of my time here.
Just uploaded some photos. Check them out on my flickr account.
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