The Future Is No Place to Place Your Better Days

Just thought I'd title this entry with a quote from South Africa's very own Dave Matthews. It also aptly describes a lesson I'm learning every day here; to live in the moment and to take any opportunity that comes your way.


Last weekend I did something I thought I would NEVER do.. bungy jump! And not only bungy jump.. but jump off of the HIGHEST bungy jump bridge in the world. Theresa, Theresa, Lara, Silja and I drove the beautiful Garden Route again to the bridge where Lara, Silja and I had a 3:00 appointment on Saturday to jump off a bridge. (It's such a funny concept to me.) Bloukrans Bridge is located on the way to Plettenberg Bay. It overlooks beautiful rolling hills and cliffs covered in greenery and just through the hills is the sea. The scenery alone is something to marvel at from a distance, and then you fall from the bridge and have that whole view to yourself in absolute silence. Ahhh it was so great. Getting across the bridge to the jumping point on the other hand, was terrifying.. and I'm pretty sure that my mind stopped processing what was happening when I stepped to the edge of the bridge and looked down to see 216 meters of free space below. When I jumped, I was going so much faster than I imagined I would, so I just screamed and screamed and screamed, until I realized that everything around me was quiet. The bounces weren't bad, and my favorite part was the zero gravity at the start of each bounce. It was a really cool feeling to hang still in the air for that split second before falling again. Even though the whole ordeal probably lasted less than 5 minutes, it seemed like half a lifetime until the guy came down the rope to pull me up, and I think it took almost equally as long for my face to stop smiling when I was back on the bridge.

Before bungy jumping, the girls and I stopped at Monkeyland, a rehabilitative center for monkeys who have been in captivity or possessed by mean human owners. There were monkeys all over the place, and they got really close to you, too! There's a lot of different species of monkeys there, some are even from South America and Asia, not all are necessarily African species. My favorite little one was the only one from its species in Monkeyland. I don't remember what kind he was but he looked reeeal cute sitting up there in the tree, so naturally I climbed up there and snuck him into my knapsack. Kidding, but I really wanted to.

Besides that one day of absolute adrenaline, life here is pretty easy going. It’s still exciting, but in a different way.. sometimes I will be walking down the street and have to think, “Oh yeah, I’m in Africa!” I also have these moments every now and then when I can imagine what it’s going to feel like when I return home. I know that I’m going to think about the 5 months I was in Africa for the rest of my life, and I sometimes feel like I’m a walking memory, trying to brand how I am genuinely feeling in my mind so that I never forget what I was thinking, feeling, wondering, etc. as I walked down the streets of PE. There are also moments where everything seems really normal, but then I remember that there are things that happen here that I’ve just never experienced, and may never experience after this (like getting into a taxi that barely drives and just bucks down the street 20 miles an hour, or having my roommates from Kenya and Tanzania cook me a homemade dinner of vegetables and maize, a recipe they took from home, or listening to students all around me speak Xhosa and just loving the sounds of the clicks.)


There's been a lot of planning for the rest of the semester going on.. Just to give a little preview: In two weeks we have Easter Break, and I'll be going on a road trip to Cape Town with Lara and Silja! We'll stay in Kysna on the way there, visit Mossel Bay, and then on the way back we'll stay in Wilderness. During April I'll be taking a scuba diving course to get my license to dive (anywhere in the world for the rest of my life) and at the end of April we're heading to Mozambique!!! So very excited.


I hope all is well at home.. and a little shout out to my Lesley loves who spent Spring Break with Habitat for Humanity!! I've seen the photos and loved reading all the posts online. I'm so happy it was another successful week (although I'm not surprised at all!) Great work and welcome back!


Cheers!

Atomkraft? Nein Danke.

So to begin, I just want to acknowledge that the title of this blog entry really has no relevance to anything that has actually happened in the past two weeks or so, except that I am consistently learning German from my friends and this phrase is one of my favorites so far. "Nuclear Power? No, thank you." I read it on a button of my friend Theresa and she translated it for me.. and now it's the phrase of the week.

A lot has gone on, as usual, and now I have a lot to write about in one entry.. as usual. I'll start with the trip I took to Plettenberg Bay! It was a beauuutiful place, with shops and a market located on a steep hill and the beach at the bottom. We took the three hour drive along the Garden Route, winding through hills and mountains as we passed Jefferey's Bay and all of the pretty coastal towns. Lots of bush fires filled the road with heavy smoke though, and I saw a grand total of one firetruck racing to the rescue.

I stayed with two different groups over the weekend. The first hostel I was at was called Amakaya Backpackers and it was nestled in a little spot within the hills. It was really cute, with hammocks in the yard and a full braai on the top deck where the manager, Dan, made us this huge braai for dinner including cheesy bread, chicken, salad, sausages, and for dessert, bananas over the fire with melted chocolate inside. Super delicious meal! The next day, we wandered down the hill onto Main Street where there were vendors and little shops, and a really cool outdoor market that sold all sorts of beaded jewelery, second hand furniture and knick knacks, seafood, breakfast, coffee, etc. After grabbing some nutella filled crepes, we headed for the beach to lounge in the sun and play in the waves (not for too long though.. Plett Bay has had recent incidences of great white shark attacks.. yikes!).. and later on, we rented jetskis!!! I never in my life thought that jetskiing would appeal to me, and when I saw these guys zooming off into the waves, my stomach turned and I said, "yup, still doesn't really appeal to me." That was, until I was offered a free spin around the bay with the guy who was renting out the jetskis. For some reason, whenever an expense becomes free, it sounds ten times cooler to me.. not always a good thing. Anyways, I hopped on and at first, thought it was a really bad idea because we were flying up over the waves and I was sure I was going to fall right off. But luckily he knew what he was doing and it turned out to be so much fun! We went so fast and it was such an adrenaline rush. I would definitely go back and rent one of those out for longer!

There have been a couple of NMMU rugby games over the past 2 weeks also. I originally thought that they would be similar to the last rugby game I had been to, however these events are far more wild. There are two groups of singers in the stands who consistently fill the stadium with music throughout the game. They are clapping and dancing and cheering the entire time, and when everyone files out of the stadium, the cheer "NMMMM, NMMUUUUUUU" is echoing in the streets. I think the crowd has really motivated our team because the first game I was at, we won!! The second game we came really close, scoring 3 goals in the last 10 minutes! This is a good record for the NMMU team. Go Madibaz! :)

This week we went to Admirals Buffet for dinner on Thursday night, an all you can eat buffet that costs just R100-130. There were a lot of exquisite little dishes to choose from, including garlic snails, chicken feet, cow's tongue, deep fried calamari (my personal favorite!!), among other things. I stuck to the vegetables and calamari, because as much as I wanted to take a risk and try these other things.. I don't think I'd have been able to! The food I had was great though, and we finished off the meal with waffles and ice cream. Mmmmmm, I love food.

On the way to the buffet we had a little scare when we saw police lights tailing our car. In South Africa, it's not really out of the ordinary to overload cars, so we were casually driving down the road with 4 of us in the back seat, not thinking much of it. We also missed the restaurant, so we may have pulled a u-turn in the road.. but hey, since when are we following rules in Africa? Anyways, after our hearts jumped up a bit, the officer came to the window, obviously noticed we were not from around here, and gave us a very easy-going warning, "Don't do it again," and walked off.. I'm not really sure if it's the norm around here to handle violations this lightly, but I kind of have a feeling it is. All I know is that it wouldn't fly back home!

As usual, things are great over at Sinethemba. I love arriving without any clue as to what's going to happen or who I'll be helping with homework, what new games I'll learn or songs I'll hear. The kids are just so full of life and have more energy than I know how to handle! This week, we worked on both English words and math problems. Since a lot of the children are below their grade level, I often have to try to figure out what things they know and what they need to work on. This week, I worked with the same little boy as last week, so I knew that he was great with math, but needed work on his English vocabulary. We spent the first half matching words that ended in -ll with the pictures, and then as a reward, he could complete a math problem worksheet. It's really difficult for the kids to concentrate in the home; there are always other kids running around or stopping to talk and one worksheet probably takes 3 times longer than it would in a quiet classroom. It's amazing how long their attention span is given the environment they're working in. They could very easily get up and run around the room with others, or push their work aside and take a nap on the table. I've noticed that they really have a strong will to learn, and even when the boy I was working with looked exhausted from trying to sound out the English words in the book, he kept trying his best. I'm not sure what it is that keeps them going, but it works!

After the work was done, we took all of the kids out and let them run wild. I was taught a Xhosa hand game by one little girl, and then they all lined up to play "Double Double This This Double Double That That" with me.. remember that game?! The girl was amazed to learn that I knew this game in America when I was little, and I was equally surprised to hear that she knew this game in South Africa! It's strange how things like that travel around the world.

Sometimes it's really hard to go to Sinethemba because I know that when I leave, I have a nice room to return to with clothes and food and my own space. They have a minimal amount of comfort in their lives, and are constantly needing to share and be among their peers. They don't have a Mom or Dad to look after them alone; just the Mamas who care for all of the children. It seems like a small child could get very lost and lonely there without the comfort of having someone look after them as most children we imagine have. I just hope that they grow up to be strong and confident in their ability to care for themselves from this experience, and that having children around them in the same situation helps them to feel connected to their community. Perhaps as they live their lives, they learn that they are their own source of strength and it helps them when they encounter challenges as adults. It's tough to try to see anything positive coming out of the life of a "street child," but since it is their reality, I see no other choice but to be positive about it.

Tomorrow I am returning back to Plettenberg Bay for the weekend, and next week will consist of planning for my trip to Cape Town over Easter Break and Mozambique over the long holiday weekend in April!! I'm very excited for the things to come and can't imagine this getting any better.. but it is! :)

P.S. There are meerkats in the field behind my flat. Watching them run around together and poke their heads up as they stand on their hind legs is one of my favorites activities. It's like I'm on Meerkat Manor!