Kodak Moments in SA

Well, I don't have an update for you just yet, but here's some photo's to look at!

All marked up and ready for my race.
There's where we finish!

A painting on the wall at Pendla Primary School

The students who sang for us at the Welcoming Ceremony

This is the elephant we saw at Addo Elephant Park! There's a baby behind the mama.

A picture of the lion..so cool. It was a bit rainy out, that's why the photos blurry. :(

A Dung Beetle! Don't step on these babies!

At Cape Recife- sweetest rock formations ever!

A pretty little shell I found on the beach at the Cape

A blue bottle, watch out for these, they sting!

Patience Is A Virtue

So I said I would comment on my second day at Pendla, so here it goes.

We arrived the second day and Amy and I were hoping to meet our actual teacher. We hadn't really planned any lesson because we wanted to observe the actual teacher to see what level the kids were at and how she taught. Turns out our teacher was ill again. I just say ill, cuz that's what they say down here...British influence. We went back to the teacher we had the previous day. We kinda found out there was a time table so the teacher switches rooms about every 30 minutes and teaches different subjects. We moved to another classroom and two of our peers taught a english lesson to the students about adjectives. They did pretty well and it seemed like the students really caught on. They were 4th grade, I believe, I'm not sure how that compares in the U.S. They sure liked to copy each other and us though instead of coming up with new adjectives, I hope they understood it all.

Next we switched classrooms, but we weren't really informed on what class was coming next. The teacher said technology which was what Amy and I were teaching. We told the teacher we really hadn't prepared anything and we just wanted to sit back and watch her, but she said she hadn't prepared anything either! So basically we had to play it by hear and teach a lesson out of the book. We ended up teaching on Structures, which was really easy and I really wasn't mad about teaching, but I was quite frusterated that the teacher didn't have anything prepared. We didn't have much communication the previous day and I just couldn't believe she didn't have a back up plan. The lesson was fine though, I think the students got it. We started off by drawing picture of general structures on the chalkboard. Then we taught them about natural and mad-made structure and had them draw their own. It took them sooooooo long to begin drawing! They all have to get out their rulers and draw lines and then they write their name and the date and structures. Then they have to sharpen their pencils and then they talk for a while in Xhosa. Even after we brainstorms ideas for them to draw they still sit there a while. Man, that took a lot of patience! After this class they had their break and all went out into the yard. All of the little kids, mostly 1st and 2nd graders surround us and grab our hands. I just had a pack of little kids around me. They love to hold our hands and arms and look at our white skin. We can't really communicate with them though because they are just learning english and don't understand us yet. I hear that the little ones are really fasinated with the guy's arm hair and they'll rub their faces on it and pull it. I walked around with two little girls holding on to my hands and then ran into older girls who were talking to me and asking me to sing. They taught me some words in Xhosa and Afrikans and told me they liked to listen to Beyonce.

After recess, we went back to the classrooms and ended up teaching more technology lessons. I became really frusterated because the teacher would just sit in the back of the classroom. I don't even think she was preparing for class. I few classes too, if a kid was misbehaving she pulled out a switch and hit them on the hands with it. That made me real uncomfortable. The principle todl us they weren't supposed to do that, but she's a new teacher so I don't know if she got the memo. The car ride on the way home a lot of us expressed our frusteration. Some teachers just let hte students sit in the classroom and didn't teach for a whole hour. Many times the students were left unattended also. It's not all that bad though, some teachers did a really good job.

Nothing much else happened this week, we just had classes as normal. I'm learning a lot about SA politics.

I thought I'd share with you my grocery bill too. It's amazing how cheap stuff is! I'll tell you it in Rand but about 10 Rand equals 1 buck, so move the decimal over one.

Bag of apples-16.99
1 kg bag of carrots-7.99
Two chicken breasts-19.99
Can of tuna-8.99
3 bananas- 2.27
White grapes- 9.99

Pretty cheap!

That's all for now! Have a great weekend!

God Bless the Rains Down in Africa

After finishing my first four day week of classes down here in SA, I had my first really exciting three day weekend! Some of my classmates decided to go to Jeffery's Bay for the weekend, but my flat had plans to go up the coast about 20 minutes to Cape Recife on Friday. It was a pretty warm, muggy day and when we arrived there was kinda a haze on the horizon. It looked pretty cool, like we were right in the middle of Pirates of the Caribbean. The cape is extremely rocky and many ship wrecks were known to take place here. Supposedly, there was one we could have seen, go look it up on Google map, although we never figured out where it was. It might have just looked like a rock to us. Anyway, so there's a pretty lighthouse and we just explored on the beach and rocks for a good amount of time. We found some awesome seashells and some pretty huge ones! There were also sea coral that had washed up and snails everywhere! We walked up the beach for a while too and I took a short swim. The water was really cold! I guess the students in the Marine Biology class are learning that one of the capes has really cold water, which makes it possible for there to be South Africa penquins- which I saw at Bay world! Crazy! We stayed there till about 1pm, had a picnic lunch, headed home, and hung out the rest of the day.

Saturday was Valentines Day! There was nine of us who stayed back for Valentines Day, eight of which who were girls. The one boy, Nick, was so kind that he cooked all of us egg bake for breakfast! It was soo good! Later that night, after church, our flat made a nice dinner with steak, baked potatoes, green beans, dessert, and wine and we invited Nick and another girl back over to eat with us. I did miss Zach, but all in all it was a pretty good day.

Sunday was the day I had been waiting for! We were spending the whole day on Safari! We got picked up at 8am and hopped into a coach bus and headed to Addo Elephant Park. It's super nice because this park is only a hour away and doesn't require me to take any Malaria medication. Yay! On our way there our guide talked about our surroundings. We drove up the coast and passed what used to be the non-white beach during the Apartheid. The non-whites could swim up in front of the Whites Only beach, but they weren't allowed to be on it. Yea. We also passed one of the largest systems of moving sand dunes (in the world?). Then we drove through a lot of hilly lands where the San people used to live, whom our tour guide was a descendant of. Here tons of fossils can be found because water didn't come and lay down a layer of sediment on it, so they can all be found on the surface. All of the land is protected pretty well though, so tourists can't come and pick something up and walk off with it. They have found some dinosaur skeletons here! We got to Addo Elephant park which is just huge. I didn't get the actual kilometers of how big it is, but basically it's as far as the eye can see. When we got in right away we spotted our first wildlife! A flightless dung beetle! Actually, these are an endangered species, so the dung beetle has the right of way on the road. We weren't allowed to run over the dung beetle or piles of poop because that is where it lays it's eggs. Yep, that's right. We drove through for about 2 1/2 hours and saw all kinds of animals including five elephants! We also saw warthogs, spring buck, kudus, and a few other things I don't remember. After eating lunch, we headed over to a Schotia, a private game park. Brooke, Laura, Justin, and I decided we would try for an open truck, even though it had been sprinkling all day. We figured it couldn't get too bad. We're always told down here that it never rains and if it does it won't last all day. Boy, were we wrong! It poured the whole time! We got soaking wet pretty much from the beginning and the safari lasted for 4 hours. Oh well, they needed the rain and it was still beautiful. The very first thing we saw was a lion! So cool! We also saw ostrichs, zebra, horses (wild, I know), kudus, spring buck, rhino, crocodiles, giraffes, and hippo. We saw it all. We also got to taste authentic food. Halfway through we stopped for a tea break and had tea and biscuits. Then, at the end of the trip, we had a huge meal prepared for us consisting of kudu stew, rice, carrot, peas, mushrooms, fresh salad, and a special bread pudding for dessert. Our tour guide turned out to be the butcher that had provided all the meat and I got to talking to him about where he got his meat from. He runs a bit more of an organic service, where he gets meat from these games that are over-populated. He butchers a lot of spring buck, kudu, warthogs, and a few others. It was a pretty interesting conversation. It was a pretty exciting day, but I was exhausted, cold, and wet, so I was excited to get home, take a shower and go to bed.

Monday was our first day of volunteering. I decided to go to Pendla School because I thought it would be a bit more organized. Ha, nothing down here is that organized, but I seem to still be learning that. We arrived and a bunch of the students sang songs for us and then a few more came in and danced. It was very, very cool. I got a lot of it on videotape, so I'll try to share it when I can. They also opened the welcoming ceremony with a prayer and a lot of the songs have alleluia in them. Even though it's a public school, God is still a part of it, which surprized me a bit, cuz I'm so used to the schools in America not being that way. We got a quick tour of the school and then divided up into what teachers we would go with. I didn't really care, so I waited to see where others wanted to go. I ended up choosing "Technology" which was kinda what I wanted to do. It's supposed to be a bit more hands on. Our teacher was sick though, so we went with a teacher who taught it here and there. We got a book to use and teach from. Sadly, we really don't have any materials to work with except notebook paper and the chalkboard, so we're gonna have to get creative with supplies. After looking at the books we went around visited all the students. It was really odd because the teacher had left the room and I don't think the students really had any task to do. They would kinda practice writing, but a lot of them were just drawing at their desks. When we were done we met up with our other peers and it seems like this is a common occurance. The teachers will often just leave the room, when we are in there and not leave us with anything to do with the kids. Often even when the teacher is in the room, she isn't teaching. It made me really frusterated because this is valuable time the kids are wasting! I know the schools can't be compared to American schools, but they really are not as advanced as we are and I know they could be, if they were given the proper education. I think I just need to be patient and learn more about their culture. We'll see as I volunteer here more. Amy and I left and decided that when we went back on Tuesday we would tell the teacher we just wanted to be aids and not teach yet because we aren't pursuing an education major and we have yet to figure out what level these kids are at. I'll have to tell you more about how Tuesday went next time.

God Bless and please pray for me as I'm down here. I'm starting to feel a bit homesick! Thanks!

First Week of Classes

Well, my first week of classes went okay, considering I haven’t been in class for seven weeks. Unbelievable, right? I think so, but every moment of it was enjoyed. The first class I attended was South Africa Jazz/Music. This was a pretty awesome class. It’s taught by a woman named Lestie Hughes, an Afrikaner professor at NMMU. Our lesson Monday night (2:45-5:45) was on traditional Xhosa music. The Xhosa are a group of native Africans from the Thembo tribe, which, by the way, Nelson Mandela was a royal member of. Class was actually pretty fun! We did clapping to different beats, and did a round of a song in Xhosa. We also listened to some music and learned the elements of it. Their music is so complex ! I believe it's called Ngumi. It was so cool to learn about it and be able to hear all of the elements. To complete the class session, we watched a video on the different types of bows they use and saw a few videos of women singing. If you wanted to hear some of what I hear, see if you can find this type of music on youtube. Another really fun thing to learn was the different types of clicks the Xhosa language has. First is the “x” click, which is kinda on your front teeth. Next is the “q” click, which is from the roof of your mouth. Last is the “c” click, which is off the side of your cheek. I’m still working on prefecting this, but I’ll be sure to give you an example when I get home. J

The next day the kombi/taxi strike was still on, but luckily our only class was Senior Seminar, taught by our own professor, so we just walked up the street to the Church’s meeting hall and had class there. Our senior seminar is really focused on talking about the past history of South Africa and the Apartheid. We started reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Our professor is on of the top political science professors at our university and is an expert on South African politics, so we are in very good hands. Gary talked for a while, giving us really good background information and then we discussed the Nelson Mandela book in small groups. I’ll give you a brief overlook on the history of South Africa. The native African tribes were the first to live here, which had many different tribes in different areas. Nelson Mandela comes from the tribe of the Thembo and was royalty actually. His father was the counselor to the chief. Then around the 1400’s the Dutch came down. Today descendents of these people are called Afrikaners and they speak Afrikan, a variation of Dutch. At this time, Africa was only a stopping point for the British while they were on their way to India, but eventually in the 1800’s they settled here. This was the time when the phase “the sun never sets on the British” because they virtually controlled land all around the world. Like I said before, the city of Port Elizabeth was named after a higher-class British woman named Elizabeth who died earlier in life. The British wanted to set in a parliamentary democracy, but realized that they were not the majority, and eventually the Apartheid was established. The Apartheid not only took away the rights of the blacks/natives, but also coloureds, people of Asian descent. That’s enough of a history lesson for now.

Then Wednesday, surprise, surprise the kombi strike was still on! After being shuttled to school, we had our Community Service course. We only have this one every few week. This course is taught by a part time professor, Natalie Mansfield, who has a degree in social work. We really just talked about how if you see a community with a need, one can’t just “fix” it for them, instead we must go into the community, form personal relationships with the people, and ask what they think they need. If they do not need what you think they need, after you leave, your work will not survive. It was a really good session and we have goals from last year’s group of what work they want to keep doing at our volunteer sites. Originally, I though I wanted to work at the AIDS Haven, but I’ve actually changed my mind and decided I want to volunteer at Pendla School. I will be a teacher’s aid and occasionally on rotation, I will also work in the garden that supplies fruits and vegetables for the kid’s lunches. Both are terrific places to volunteer, but each have separate things to experience. I will be able to teach some kids their first words of English and they in turn can teach me words in their first language, Xhosa.

Wednesday afternoon/evening (2-5) we had our first South Africa Literature course. We’ve been reading short stories that all have the underlying theme of the concern about security and against crime in South Africa. There are fences and security systems around all the buildings down here. It’s bit different coming from home, where I can just leave my car doors unlocked and my keys in the car in the driveway. Sometimes it seems here we have to ask the question “Is the security to protect against the crime or does the crime happen because all the security measures seem to expect it?”

Then, today was my last class of the week, South Africa Politics. This class is different than my Senior Seminar class, because we will be focusing more on the present politics of South Africa. We talked a bit of the different elements and themes of politics and then we watched a video. The video was extremely interesting and shocking. Since the Apartheid was overthrown in 1994, 15 years ago, this country is still trying to recover and adjust to the new government. Nelson Mandela was a very charismatic leader and had a dream for this country and did a lot of good for his people. He freed them from the racism and oppression of the old government, but this country is far from perfect. Like I said before, there is still extreme poverty, 90 % of Port Elizabeth lives in Townships which have little shacks to live in. Whites still live in the wealthier parts of town and hold better jobs. We can see that in our own flats. The maids who clean our rooms everyday are all black, but all the people who work in the office are white. We heard today a story about students at separate college last year who, as a sort of “initiation,” made their housekeepers eat food that they had urinated on. They took video of it and it was circulated on youtube. Last year around this time, there were some riots against this action. We are also here in an election year. The election actually just got set for April 22nd, I believe. The concern with this is that, the may that is favored right now is named Jacob Zuma. Zuma was and last president, but he was fired because he was involved in a scandal where he raped a family friend, whom he knew was HIV positive, then said that we showered afterwards to reduce the risk of getting AIDS. Not only that, but at that time he was a top leader in the governments AIDS Prevention. Corrupted government, huh? It was all just very interesting and very shocking. I’m not even totally able to touch on all the stuff in the video, but I’m pretty excited to learn more about this country through all these classes, even though it sounds like I’m going to be writing quite a few papers and doing a lot of reading.

P.S. I uploaded pics on Facebook. Check them out!

Kombi Strike

Yikes! I was looking at my blog and man, do I write long entries. I hope you don't mind reading them since they're so long.

Last time I left off we were heading to a cricket game. That was a great night! We got there and really picked up how the game is played fast. I'd explain it to you, but you probably wouldn't get it unless you saw it. Thing about the game is that you can't tell who is going to win or who's close to winning until you're 3/4 of the way through the game. It was the most amazing game ever too! People who had seen the game before said it was the most exciting game they ever saw. Our director even gave a fist pump after our team sealed the win and we got it on video tape. Our group tends to be intimidated by our director, yet they love to imitate him and even though he's always serious, he says the funniest things. Like when we couldn't activate our computer lab cards he commented "there seems to be a stupidity glitch." Haha. Yes, that was a great game. He did bring along his British friends to explain the game to us. They were kinda an older couple. One of the guys on the trip was talking to the woman. She looked like a little old woman, maybe a grandma to someone, but Dave was telling us that she kept making all these racist comments. Just a little taste of the racism still in the country which we will probably experience a little bit of this semester. By the way- have I mentioned that I'm the minority here? Usually when our group travels anywhere we stick out because it's a whole group of white kids walking around together. It's different, but I like it.

Saturday was a pretty low key day. I just did all my reading for my classes that start this week. That night we went to church at a Catholic Church up the block. That is the only place you will find all white people. They all have their British accents too and they all know that we're from the US. Mass is the same, but they just changed a lot of the responses, so we have to follow along on this sheet. I'm not sure if the US has done that yet, but I heard it was in the making.

Sunday is what I'm most excited to tell you about. Some of the girls here found a swimming race that we can do. It's the Red River Mile. It's only cost 7 bucks and we get a free t-shirt, so we're totally doing it, but I also found out that the same people put on swimming races every other Sunday in the ocean on a beach right up from our flat. I decided that I'd try it, even though I haven't swam a real workout in about a year and a half. I headed down to the ocean at 7:30 and registered. It cost 50 Rand for registration and 20 Rand for a swim cap. It's about 10 Rand to an American dollar, so I got all this for about 7 bucks. It was really windy and I was talking to the head registration people. They said they usually get 400 people, but they were expecting 200 today. I told them I was from America too and I was studying abroad, so they asked they could interview me and I figured why not. I still had about a hour before the race started so I kinda wondered around. I found a woman to borrow a latex cap from, since they only gave me a cloth one for identification in the race. Then I saw all these people with wetsuits on and a man was standing by a bin of them. I knew having one would help a lot since it was so windy and kinda cold, so I went up and asked the guy what they were for. He said if I was registered for the race I could borrow one. He found one my size and I put it on. Now I've never really worn a wetsuit that really fits me before. I've always just borrowed my dad's, but this one was nice and tight and man did it take forever to get on! The race started about 9:15ish, there was a 1 km, which I signed up for and a 2km. Our course was straight out then a left turn around a bouy, two more left turns to make a square and then around the pier and up to the shore. I swallowed a lot of yicky, saltly, sea water! In all it wasn't too bad. I guess I finished more towards the back, but not last, which isn't too bad for crappy conditions, my first ocean water race, and not being in swimming shape. I didn't get an official time though since it was a really low key race. After I got out, they called me to be interviewed. They asked me questions like "How was your oppostion?" and "How did the race go for you?" I really didn't have much to elaborate on. After that I was walking past the head registration guy who was throwing out these sport tanks things and he threw one to me. Good souvenior! They had random prize drawings too. I was really surprized all the things you could get at this race for 7 bucks. Amazing!

Later that day, we went to a soccer game. That wasn't too exciting and the team really wasn't that great. Then, after dinner, a group of us headed over a couple of blocks to the Jazz Club. That was kinda fun, but we didn't stay too late.

This morning we woke up, got ready, and went to get picked up to go to Pendla Elementary School, where some of our group members are going to volunteer. I was really excited because the kids perform this whole opening ceremony for us. Turns out though that all the taxis and kombis are on strike today, as the city is trying to use more buses and they are losing business. Our company we were using was private, but they weren't operating today to honor the strike and for saftey reasons. We waited for a while and then about 10:00 all 30 of us students were shuttled over to campus with our two directors and another private taxi company we found. I'm happy to finally have internet for free! We definitely experienced some of the culture here when we were getting lunch. It took us 30-45 mintues to get food and that was at their "fast food" option. They just have a slow moving culture, which is taking some patience from us fast paced Americans. This afternoon I have my first class- South African Jazz/Music. I'm pretty excited. What an exciting first day of school. Take care at home!

Townships and the AIDS Haven

I don’t think anything too exciting has happened since I’ve been in SA for the past few days. Funny thing is it hasn’t even been a week yet! On Wednesday we had our academic orientation and really it was not that exciting. As our professor stated, ¾ of it did not pertain to us, but it’s okay I just sat there and let my mind wander. After academic orientation we went to a MALL! I’m really experiencing the South African culture down here, huh? Yea, I know, but it was part of orientation and I did need to get a few things, like a beach towel. I was able to get a few more groceries too, although our fridge is pretty tiny so we have to be careful with that. When we got back from the mall Brooke and I headed down to the beach just to chill and oh boy was it windy! We had sand blowing everywhere! I even got some in my mouth. The thing is too- the sand sticks to you…even when you’re dry (although it could be the sun screen), so when we got back to our flat I had sand all over my arms, but I couldn’t wipe it off. I was too lazy to shower right away, so I just sat on my bed and got sand all over. I think that’s the way it’s gonna be for the next three months. I went to bed early that night and woke up at about 6:30 to go running. Going to bed early and getting up around that time is going to be pretty normal too since the sun rises at 5:30 and wakes us up anyway. Running here is fabulous though. The temperature is just perfect in the morning. I almost forgot too, we had a power outage all night neighborhood wide. I guess they used to be pretty common, but they should have things under control now.

Yesterday, we took a bus tour of the city. Our first stop was the ports and we weren’t supposed to take pictures of them because of 9-11 the captain said. He didn’t really clarify exactly why though. They make Volkswagons here and those are shipped out. They also ship citrus fruits and manganese ore. I’m used to ports from Duluth and honestly the view looks a lot like Lake Superior, but the ships here are a lot bigger. After the ports we headed over to the townships. My flat is in the more resort part of town and then up our shore is Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, where I’ll go for class. Up the opposite shore is the business area and then the townships. The townships are really where majority of the people of Port Elizabeth live. Our tour guide was telling us that before elections, many newer, nicer houses will be built, since some people are living in run down houses, but then those people will just continue to live in their old houses and rent out the new ones they were given. The houses near the museum really did look like shacks. They were very small and made with wood and had tin roofs. They didn’t have any electricity or running water and were very close to each other. The nicer houses were nicer and painted a bunch of different pastel colors, but weren’t any bigger than the old ones. We went into the Red Location Museum, which was built to rememeber the culture of the townships and also honoring the men and women who fought for human rights, especially against the apartheid. We did get to look at a photographic memorial of an event that happened on March 21st 1985. I don’t really remember the whole story, but what basically happened is some twenty-something people were killed by police and a funeral was set to honor them. Yet the government was afraid of all the people gathering for the funeral, so they kept pushing the date back. Eventually it was set for March 21st, but the night before the government decided to postpone it again, although no one was really informed. The next morning many people gathered and the police ordered to open fire. Previously, the police had switched to hard ammunition and got rid of the teargas more used for crowd control. Therefore, when they opened fire another 60-something people were killed and 27 injured. The evidence was played with a bit too by the police, who said the stones were being thrown at them. Turns out the police had planted stones around in the bodies and in the dead peoples hands for when photos were taken of the scene. I don’t think I really gave the story justice the way I told it, but it really made me excited to start classes and really start to learn the history down here. They really have so much history and there was quite a bit of struggle too. When we came out of the museum there were a lot of kids from the neighborhood playing. They are so cute and so friendly! They chased after the bus and waved goodbye as we pulled off. Driving through the neighborhood a lot of the citizens waved at us too. So friendly! Oh and did I mention we were in a double decker bus? That might have gotten us a lot of attention too. We headed back to the shopping mall for lunch and I bought an ice cream cone for dessert. I ordered chocolate, but it turns out chocolate is really vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate. Sooooo good though! The ice cream is so much creamier down here!

After lunch, we went to the oldest part of town where the British settled when they arrived in the 1800’s. We town is named after a woman named Elizabeth, a British woman of higher class. We visited a hill with a lighthouse that overlooked the Indian Ocean and there was also a small pyramid built there by her husband. She died at the age 28 leaving her son and husband behind. From there, we went back to our flats and I head down to the beach again to play with the skim board and swim. The waves were just huge! I also ran down the beach to check out some kiteboarders. Their feet are attached to what looks like a wakeboard, but a little smaller and they hold on to this huge kite and go back and forth across the water pretty close to the beach. They can get some air too! One guy got air and then took off his board, spun it, and put it back on his feet. They probably can stay up there for a good ten seconds. I would love to try it, but it looks like you might need a lot of practice.

This morning we headed over to the House of Resurrection or AIDS Haven. When we got there we had a quick introduction by Matron Agnes. The Haven was started by sisters from the Angelican church, but now it sounds like most of the sisters are gone. They currently have 6 infants, 13 toddlers, and 15 kids who go to school. It might be less than that because I was a bit confused on how many went to school. When we volunteer there we can play with them, but it’d be really good for us to have some constructive playtime to really stimulate them and get them ready to go to school. We got to go look in the nursery and they were such cute babies. Then we wandered over to see the kids. They are also extremely adorable. Some were a bit shy and stubborn and wouldn’t tell us their names. Others just loved to be held and wanted to touch everything they were too short to touch by themselves. Tonight we’re going to head off to a cricket match and Gary is bringing along two British friends of his to explain the game. Then tomorrow we have a day off and Sunday we’re going to a soccer game. I’m pretty excited!

Mm, I know I haven’t uploaded pictures yet, but I have to pay for all of my internet. I should get free internet when school starts in their computer labs, so then I’ll probably use this to upload photos. Sorry it’s taking so long! Also, I apologize if my grammar is horrible, please forgive me, that has never been one of my strengths.

Free Tour

Alright, are you ready for me to tell you my next adventure? Well, I left my Athens hostel about 9am Saturday morning. I traveled with my three roommates throughout Europe, but I had booked a different flight down to Europe somehow, so this time I was on my own. I’ve never flow by myself before either, but I was kinda excited and I figured I could figure things out. Everything did go well too. I flew from Athens to Cairo, where I arrived at 3:30pm and wouldn’t leave until 1:40am the next morning. Cairo is very disorganized. They really don’t have many signs about what to do when you arrive, so I started to go through the passport line, but that guy told me to get a visa. The visa was like 15 bucks and I didn’t really want to pay, so I asked this guy if I really had to do that if I was just transferring. He said yes and pointed me to the desk where you buy them, but then 30 seconds later another guy directed me towards the transfer area. Then they took me on a bus to the actual terminals. When I got there a man checked my passport and asked if I wanted to go on a free tour of the pyramids or a hotel. I said tour. Duh, it’s free! So then he kept my passport (which I was a little wary of, but I figured it was the airport and they had better be responsible) and told me to go wait in this area. They really didn’t give me any details, so I ended up waiting for like two hours before I finally left, although that time passed so fast. I started talking to this older man who was a non-denominational minister who was born in Holland and lives in Chicago. He comes to train in other ministers in the Middle East and Africa areas. He was actually pretty fun to talk to. Finally, they took me out to catch my tour bus. Turns out, there were only two of us who had decided to take the free tour. The other one was this French lady who had to be back at the airport by ten, so they sent us in separate tour buses, even though we arrived at all the same places at the same time. Weird. They are so disorganized in Cairo. Anyway, back to the story. I got my own mini tour bus with my own driver, who spoke Arabic and very little English. I got to sit in the front passenger seat while we drove around in this empty bus. The drive was really interesting in itself! The city was really cool to look at and there was a ton of mosques everywhere! They also are all crazy drivers there too, yet good ones because even though they drive like crazy and don’t follow the lines on the road, they still never crash into each other. Huh. Really though, they drive all over the road, whether they are the only car on the highway or not, sometimes they drive right over the line, right down the middle. Even though we were on a four lane highway I’m pretty sure we had six cars across at one point. I really didn’t feel unsafe though, maybe it was just me. My driver was able to say a few things. He stopped and let me take a picture of some famous guy’s house; I’m guessing some top guy in their government. I have no idea what type of government they have in Egypt. He also pulled over and let me take pictures of the Nile. Sadly, though, cameras don’t work so hot at night, so none of my pictures really turned out. After about 45 minutes of driving we picked up my tour guide, who kicked me out of the front seat and into the back. He was talking to me about the pyramids, although I really couldn’t tell you what he said to me. He had a pretty thick accent and talked pretty fast. Then he was dropped off on the side of the street and jumped into the other car. I met him again outside the pyramids where he gave almost the same little talk again and once again I caught none of it. I did get to see the three pyramids though and the sphinx! There was a light show going on and they looked so awesome! I was just a little taste to kinda make me want to go back, which I’m sure was their whole plan. From there, they drove me another 45 minutes to eat a free dinner at this restaurant, which was pre-order for me. The French woman met me up there too, but she was kinda crabby and didn’t really talk to me. She kinda lived up to the reputation that the French are crabby cakes. Then they drove me back to the airport. And oh my, I saw the craziest thing ever driving back too. There was this huge hole in the middle of the highway, like the size of an exercise ball and this man had driven over it and was now stuck because if he drove anymore he would drive right in it! When I got back to the airport I had to pick up my passport, so I went to customer service. There wasn’t a guy there, so I waited right in front of the window. If the Egyptians were anything like the Greeks, they would be pushy. I was right. As soon as the guy came, all the other people crowded around me. One even stuck his piece of paper into the window right in front of me while I was talking to the guy. How rude! Then I had to go through security to get in again and those people were also very pushy again. Man. I finally made it into the airport and got on my flight. The wait wasn’t too terribly bad because I just journaled and then made some friends with this couple from New York, who were in the Peace Corps working in Botswana. The flight was okay, but I am incredibly sick of airplane food.

I arrived in Port Elizabeth at 2:40 that afternoon and could not stop smiling. It is so gorgeous here! My director picked me up and brought me to my flat. Our flats are right across the street from the Indian Ocean and the weather is around 70-80 degrees! My director took me grocery shopping and then I went on a run…in shorts and a tank. I’ve been waiting to be able to do that for months. Then I went to bed early since I had a bit of a sore throat. Monday I kinda hung around my flat for the morning. Sadly, we do not have free internet here in our flats, so I have to pay for it. It’s a bit of a struggle, but I try to just type e-mails and blog updates off line and then copy and paste. I’m not sure how I’m gonna work out Skype though. We have a maid, who makes our beds and does our dishes everyday. Yea, I feel pretty spoiled. They’re pretty decent flats. My favorite part is that we have a porch and I love to sit out there and read. The afternoon Monday we went to this dolphin show and saw some dolphins swimming and doing tricks. We also saw penguins and seals. It was a pretty good time. After that, we headed off to the beach. The ocean was absolutely fantastic! I even got to play on this thing called a skim board that two of my peers rented. Basically, you just use it in the shallow water on the shore and throw it in front of you when a wave comes in, run after it, and jump on. My first two times I totally biffed it on my butt, and then I was told it’s more of a step on and not a jump on. I only fell one more time, but I did have a bit of a battle wound on my knee from landing so hard in the sand. Today we had orientation and got to see the campus. It was pretty good, but I had no patience to sit in the class room and listen to my professor talk about stuff. Ekk, I hope I can focus more during class. One interesting thing he said was about the AIDS Haven, House of Resurrection. He was telling us that he had met with the people we will be working with and the students will be able to each have a kid to play with one on one. The woman was telling her that they had 14 kids, but then her assistant corrected her saying, “only 13, Madisa passed during the night.” That is the reality of the situation. We will be working with all HIV positive kids, some more sick than others. I would like to be at the House of Resurrection, but we’re going to look at both sites and then decide. He also gave us the list of planned activities he has for us and they are sooo awesome! I’ll just tell you about them as they come though. So that’s pretty much brings you up to date. Awesome!

A Show at the Vatican

Well, currently I’m in South Africa, but I’ll catch you up on the rest of my travels in Europe.

Our last full day in Rome was an early one. We woke up and got to St. Peter’s Basilica at 7ish to meet Jeremy and Fr. Ryan. Fr. Ryan brought us into the Basilica and celebrated Mass for us at the Sacred Heart side altar. There are many many side altars in this Basilica and during the morning many priests are celebrating Mass here. As we were walking through we must have past a couple priests celebrating at various parts of Mass. After Mass, Fr. Ryan had to get back to the college and Jeremy had to go take an exam (he was so kind to be visiting us during his study time), so they directed us off to the Wednesday Papal Audience. We got in at about 8:30 am and it didn’t start until 10:30. We thought Benedict might walk down the aisle again, so we got a seat right next to the aisle. It would have been perfect if he did walk down the aisle, but I guess he doesn’t do that much at Wednesday Audiences. Oh well. We had quite the entertainment while we waited for two hours though. In the front is where newly married people can sit and one married couple from Mexico brought the whole wedding party and their mariachi band, so they played for us a lot! There were also a few other musical groups there too. After the Holy Father came in, we actually saw some man jump the barrier. He wasn’t trying to do anything, he was just holding holy cards and knelt in the aisle, but the Swiss Guard ran up pretty fast and walked him away. Holy Father gave his address and then a cardinal or other priest would come up each one at a time in different languages and introduced people/countries that spoke that language. Usually one or two groups would sing or play when they were announced too. The last group had a little something special! They brought their juggling group in stage to perform. It was so great! Benedict was so great too, just watching them and smiling. The last thing they did was bring out a baby lion for Benedict to pet. It was so precious! I guess all that isn’t the norm though; Fr. Ryan said we got quite a show. After that Benedict closed with blessing any religious items and family members back home (so if you’re family you got a blessing!) From there we went to get lunch and I was starving! We found a little pizza place and I had two huge slices. Ohhhh, it was sooo good though. Then we went to this really good and cheap gelato place my friend Kalene recommend called Old Bridge (thanks Kalene). Yum, I love gelato. I got pistachio and chocolate. While eating it we meandered over to the Basilica to bask in the sun until we met up with Fr. Ryan and Jeremy again. Yes, it was sunny and it was fantastic! We met Fr. Ryan and Jeremy at 1:45 and they took us into the Basilica to give us a tour. The Basilica is huge, but it really is huger than it looks. When it was designed they wanted to make it a huge place to worship the Lord, but they also did not want the vastness of it to take away or distract from prayer or worship, so they used tricks to make things seem smaller than they seemed. An example is the two lines of script on the top of the Basilica. The lower one is six feet tall (we could stand inside of one of the O’s) and the higher one is eight feet tall, but they both look the same size. The coolest thing about this is that it comes back to our church too. The Catholic Church is huge, but we each have our own communities and parishes in which we can grow without being distracted by the vastness of our church. Fr. Ryan told us a bunch of stuff and I really could type for quite a while, but I’ll just tell you the good stuff. We did get to see the Pieta (the statue of Mary holding Jesus when he came down from the cross) carved by Michelangelo when he was 17. We also went to look at the main altar on which the Holy Father celebrates Mass. that St. Peter’s bones are actually right under the altar! They found and verified that they are St. Peter’s bones. The most interesting thing I learned is that they didn’t find any feet bones with the other ones. The reason is because St. Peter was crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy enough to be crucified right side up like Christ and when people are crucified upside down their ankles bones often dislocate. When they take them down from the cross they often have to cut off their feet. Right in the ceiling above the altar is a picture of God the Father looking down on His creation, then Christ the Son is present in the Eucharist on the altar, then the Holy Spirit which is the love between the Father and Son is a painting of a dove above the altar. They all form a line going straight down connecting all three of them, but then also in line with them are St. Peter’s bones, also symbolizing all of humanity and how we are also in line with God. That might have been my favorite part. Wait, one more thing! There are quite a few tombs in and under the Basilica, but two of the tombs we saw above in the Basilica were two tombs of previous Popes and you can actually see their bodies! They’re touched up very little because they are incorruptible. The Church believes that our bodies and souls are good and our bodies will someday be resurrected even after we die, but for these people, they were so holy that even in death their bodies remain intact. Crazy! K, so then after that we saw more tombs underneath, including John Paul II and then we headed over to the Vatican museums. We kinda rushed through them, but we got to see the Sistine Chapel and that was pretty awesome. So yea, that’s pretty much how we finished up our time in Rome!

The next day we caught a plane to Athens at 11ish? We landed about two and found our hostel without too much problems except an older Greek man yelling at us in Greek because our luggage was on the seat and he wanted to sit down. Whoops, our bad. Athens was a lot different than any of the other countries we visited. For one it’s warm! It also really a different landscape. There are a lot of mountains and a lot of olive trees. We got in and met my roommate Katie’s friend and checked out one of the Olympic Stadiums that was built for the first modern Olympics. I chose to jump the fence and take a picture in the track starting stance, but later found people aren’t really allowed to go in there. I know, I’m such a rebel. Ha. J We had Gyros for dinner, yum yum and then kinda pooped out at our hostel. The next day we took a walking tour and really learned about the city. We walked up to the Acropolis where the Parthenon is and saw other various ruins around the city. We saw the guards in front of the Parliament who wear skirts and do funny kicking ballet type movements when they do the changing of the guard. Seriously! Our tour group also attracted two stray dogs. That’s the thing about this city-there are a lot of stray dogs and cats. When the more recent Olympics were here they rounded all of them up, put collars on them, spayed and neutered them, gave them shots and then let them loose again. The people of the city take care of them and feed them and they are really nice dogs. What happens though is they’ll usually join you walking- especially if you’re in a group. They think that you’re their pack and they kinda even protect you. After the tour we were starving, so we got some spinakopita and then went to look at this little village. Now, contrary to what I was thinking, not all of Greece looks like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, that’s only found in the islands, but there is a tiny little village here in Athens that looks like that right next to Acropolis, so we went to check it out. Pretty cool! Then we went to the markets…very fun! Lastly, that night we got dinner for 10 Euro that was a bunch of food! It included cheese and meat wrapped in pastry dough, fried cheese, fries, fresh salad, bread, meatballs, fried zucchini, large beans in sauce, pork, and a sweet cake dessert. The next morning I flew out to South Africa and that concludes my Europe trip. I do have a story to tell about my flight and I’ll tell you all more about South Africa, but you probably have had enough reading to do for now. Ciao!