It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you...

Wow. How did this happen? How did 6 weeks in South Africa already go by? This is my last morning here in Stellenbosch. We are all getting together for a USA breakfast thank you dinner and taking off for Cape Town from there. Our flight leaves at 11 pm my time (5 pm MI time). I'm not sure how I will react to this leaving but as of right now, I don't think it will be a great one :(

On Friday night, the group celebrated by going to Moyo for dinner one last time. This was the restaurant we went to at the beginning of the trip with the massive African buffet, drumming music, and painting faces. Our professor, Sean, had never been here before and it is definitely a must! We had a lot of fun as a group. I will miss these people!

Yesterday, we all headed just outside of Franshhoeck to a Cheese Festival. It was really cool! You could try anything you wanted (basically) food and drink wise. There were soooo many people there. We even saw a guy we met over Holiday. He was our leader on a tour in Robertson. Crazy stuff!

Julie, Laura, and I spent our last night at the van Reenen's with a massive girl's night! We along with Raiatea, Genovesa, and Phoebe, made puppy-chow, ordered in 6 different pizzas, and introduced them to A Walk to Remember. SO much fun! I will miss this family an absolutely insane amount when we leave here! They are incredible girls!

During one of my classes this week where I wasn't teaching, I took the liberty of writing down things I will miss in both Stellenbosch and South Africa. Here are a few of them:

• The van Reenen Household—This includes the people living in it & the house itself
• Having a Guard Dog and a Lap Dog—Lutz & Gemma!
• My students at Kayamandi—Positive I learned more from them..that is not a blow to my teacher skills!!
• Nutella!—Yes, we have this in the states but I don't think I'll allow myself to buy it...soooo goood!
• Learning Xhosa from my students & Afrikaans from Raia and Gen
• Driving through Kayamandi Township
• Running through the Stellenbosch University Campus
• Pinotage
• Salt water
• Speeches/songs given by my students
• View of the mountains from my classroom window—and every window for that matter
• Screenless windows constantly opened
• Nights with my roommates :)
• Phoebe's cooking—I seriously love it! I even at tomatoes! Those of you that know me know that is never an option! So good!
• Vitasnacks & Cadbury bars
• Walking everywhere
• No phone or car
• Skeleton keys—for everything
• Giving school supplies to Kayamandi and seeing the reaction on faces
• Slang here—Hoping to bring some back!!
• Braais—bringing these back to the states fo sho!
• LAURA & JULIE—And all of the GVSU people here!

Those are just a few of them. There are about a million other things I will miss about this town, these people, and this country. I am so very glad and thankful that I was able to take this trip and to get a positive experience out of it. I learned so much from just being here that I strongly believe has helped me for the better.

Thanks for joining me on this trip! When I'm back in the states I will be uploading pictures and maybe some video to go along with this blog. Stay posted until then!

I will end with the words of Toto:

“It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you (South Africa),

there's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do.

I bless(ed) the rains down in Africa,

(I took) some time to do the things (I) never had.”

More Later!

AB

A Few More Sunsets Down in Africa...

Last week we were in the schools every single day. Each one of those days, my teacher was not there. At first, I was frustrated with this because I felt very used. As the days went on, however, I started realizing how much more I could do for these students by not yelling at them constantly and hurting them. I could use my own ways to actually teach them something!

Each day, I was able to figure out lessons to teach or small assessments to give. I didn't have many supplies to use but I was always able to figure something out. Throughout the week, I started finding out so many fun and interesting things about many of my students.

My grade 8's are crazy. They worried me a lot when I realized I was on my own. I did not see myself getting them to listen to me. Not the case, however. They love a challenge! Giving them tasks to do that put them in a race against each other made them get their work done. I also learned that playing “Head's Up 7 Up” is something you should NEVER play with them (they get a little out of hand in that one...). You can tell they've started to respect me not only as their teacher, but also as their friend. It's weird to see how differently the students (or 'learners' as they are called here) act around those from GVSU and the teachers that are typically there.

My grade 11's are fun, but we've had our ups & downs. During one class on the human skeletal system, one girl kept raising her hand and asking how easy a bone in your finger can break. She then held up her hand showing 2 very crooked fingers and explained to me that they became that way after a teacher she once had beat her hand 10 times. “I can't move my fingers back. Maybe they are broken. I hate looking at them” and then proceeded to start sobbing. I was able to take her out into the hallway, calm her down, talk to her and make sure that she was ok. It's times like that when I want to get a plane to fit all of Kayamandi High School and take them back to the states with me.

My I grade 12 class is incredible. They are the smallest class I have (26) compared to my 2 grade 8's (50 and 51), but I can see why. They are in high school still not because they are forced to, but because they want to. For this reason, they are constantly engaged in whatever discussion we're having. I never had to ask for them to quiet down at all. They are always asking questions and wanting to know more. I have a lot of hope for them and I really believe they can and will achieve anything they put their mind to! I even got a little concert from a few of the girls. They are ALWAYS singing in between classes. I asked anyone to sing a little for me. Two girls got up and sang a song in Xhosa. I recorded it and then had one of the girls tell me what they were singing about. It turns out that the song was all about apartheid. The chorus they were singing said, “What did we do to deserve this?”

After a long, but necessary school week, the weekend was finally here! We had a jam-packed Saturday in Cape Town. We arrived at the harbor before 9 am and took off on a boat towards Robben Island soon after that. It was a very foggy morning and we could hardly see around us. Despite this major fact, we still saw about 200 dolphin swimming by us on the boat. It was so amazing!

The tour of Robben Island was pretty interesting. It started off with a bus tour all around the island. I never knew that before housing political prisoners like Nelson Mandela, it was a place for those with leprosy! We got to see where the prisoners were able to talk about politics (in the lime quarry cave during lunch break—the guards would not go near there because it was also the quarry's restroom). After the bus tour, we headed to the prison itself. Our tour guide there had actually been a political prisoner himself. He told us all about his experience there and then gave us a tour, including Mandela's cell. It was a very informational tour and I'm really glad we took it.

Sunday was our first completely Free Day! Phoebe and the girls took us out for lunch at a restaurant called Bodega. It was absolutely delicious! I just love being with this family and I'm going to miss them so much when we're gone. They have been so great at helping Julie, Laura, and I feel welcome and comfortable. After lunch, my roommates, Raiatea, Genevesa, and I all headed downtown to explore more of the city and Botanical Gardens. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day!

Instead of Kayamandi High School, I spent my last Monday in South Africa at A. F. Louw Primary School. I watched Miss Lizzy in her 1^st grade classroom, Miss Katie in her 3^rd, Miss Laura in her 4^th grade and Miss Julie in her 5^th grade. As soon as I walked into Miss Laura's room, all the kids stopped and stared. I seriously thought I had something gross on me. Turns out, they had just learned about Pandora's box. There was a black and white picture in the back of the room of Pandora having pale skin and dark hair. They honestly believed that I was Pandora. I totally took on this role! After they finished their assignment they were able to ask me questions. They took this as a challenge to quiz me to see if I really was her. “Pandora, who is your father?” “Zeus, of course!” “Wow!” It was hysterical! One student actually came up to pinch me and see if I was made of clay. When his fingers pulled away and left a light patch of skin, he pointed and shouted, “That's the clay! She is Pandora!”

Both yesterday and today, my teacher has been here. She put me to work making her PowerPoints she can use after I'm gone. I told her that was fine with me as long as I'm able to be in the classroom tomorrow (Thursday), it being my last day. She seemed confused and a little taken aback by this. I don't think it makes sense to her that I care so much, especially only being with them for as little as I have been.

So, yes, tomorrow is my very last day at Kayamandi. After school, the faculty will be throwing a braai for us right there at the school. Should be an interesting time! I will definitely be sad to have to say goodbye to my students. I really do hope that they can see and believe in a better future for them. They have so much potential but so so many of them do not have a support system that will reinforce this fact. I hope that my time spent with them won't go past them too fast.

This last weekend in South Africa should be a good one! Besides laundry and packing, we'll be eating dinner at Moyo (again!) on Friday, a wine and cheese festival on Saturday, and Girl's Night!! on Saturday with my roommates and the rest of the Van Reenen household! :)

Hopefully, I'll be able to put up one more blog post before I leave. Hope all is well back in the states!! Rock those finals, college students!!

More Later!

AB

A Word of Advice: Baboons might seem fun but in reality, they are quite a fright!

Hopefully this post won't be as extremely long as the past two Holiday ones! Stick with me, folks! I've (sadly) only got a few weeks left!

On Tuesday, April 10, we started back in school. I was excited to see how my CT was without all the stress of final grades and what-not. Unfortunately, I have still yet to see a not stressed Mrs. Solomons. Over the break her husband had some health issues and isn't better yet. Lucky for her, I'm there to help her out A LOT in her classroom. By this I mean I'm the teacher. Not a problem at all; this is why I came here! However, it might be nice to get a little instruction here and there...maybe a textbook...a dry-erase marker? In all seriousness, yes, it has been a little stressful. In fact, during the beginning of the week, I was feeling very homesick and very much over my head. What's great about this is that all of us GV students are here doing the same thing and have been able to help each other out. I'm feeling much better about my situation. I've basically taken my classes and have begun steering them in the way I would like. My students, at first, took this opportunity to try and take advantage of my newness. Luckily we've begun working together to 1. better understand each other and 2. learn from each other. I've gained a lot of respect from these young adults and I'm learning so much more than I ever thought possible. It'll be sad leaving them in 2 weeks.

After this interesting school week was over (most of us had a difficult time in our classes for various reasons) we all headed to a beach house in Pringle Bay for a relaxing weekend with absolutely no plans. The house is right on the Atlantic Ocean. It's front yard looks straight out of a romantic movie or something with it's tall grasses, sand dunes, and ocean front. We spent most of our time reading, napping, talking, and just plain relaxing...that is, until the baboons attacked! The first attack happened when I was out exploring. A few people were in the main room talking and a massive daddy baboon opened up a window, climbed in, and sat on our coffee table. Lots of screaming started coming from some of my friends, so much so that a few people that were woken up by naps could only assume that people were being murdered by the monkeys! No one knew what to do. Luckily, Kayla H. woke up from a nap, heard the commotion, grabbed the nearest weapon (a 2 x 4?) and came barreling down the stairs hitting it against anything in front of her right up to the coffee table itself until the baboon got up quick and went out where he came from. Good news: Kayla saved the day!!! Bad news: a window was broken (shattered) in the process :S No worries, though!!

After that attack, we all thought we'd seen the last of the invaders. A few of us left early Sunday afternoon to walk the beach another time before we left. We watched as a family of 6 baboons came out of some trees ahead of us. Then we watched as more baboons emerged from the woods (15 total) and start coming towards us! We all slowly turned around and started walking back to the house. Unfortunately, the baboons continued to follow us, even walking in our exact footsteps! We got the porch of the house and turned to see all of the baboons coming up onto the top of the sand dunes and looking at us. Creepy! Finally, they left. Unfortunately for us, however, it wasn't forever.

Attack number 2 happened about 45 minutes later. A few girls were on the front balcony eating their lunches and reading. A baboon plopped down from the roof looking right at them, specifically at Laura's sandwich. Our hero Kayla H. joins us again in this scene by taking the sandwich and throwing it off the balcony. The baboon followed and the girls decided it was time to go back inside. They didn't actually make it in so quickly, however, because the daddy baboon and 2 others met them at the top of the stairs. The girls had no clue what to do since that was their only way out. They started screaming. Luckily some folks of ours came outside and started making a lot of noise trying to scare the monkeys away. They left finally and the girls ran inside and were slightly traumatized for a little bit. I was on the beach at this time but actually caught the very end of it by sitting on the top of the dune and just watching. It was a pretty helpless location at the time but we really had no other choice!

Despite all the baboon terrors of the weekend, everyone could safely say that this relaxing weekend away was much needed and much appreciated!

This week we are in the schools each and every day. Julie, Laura, and I plan on spending a lot more quality time with Phoebe, Raiatea, and Genevesa during our free time & I am very excited for that! This weekend we have a big day in Cape Town complete with a trip up Table Mountain, a visit to Robbin Island, and one last look at Green Market Square. Details of these adventures will come! 


More Later!


AB  

Week 2 of Holiday--The Week of the Dives

Alright, let me try to quickly pick up where I left off!

To start off our second week of Holiday, we took off from Tsitsikamma National Park and headed to Mossel Bay, a nice tourist town right on the Indian Ocean. On the way to, we stopped at the world's tallest bungee jumping bridge: Bloukrans Bridge! No, I did not partake in the jumping myself, however 4 of my classmates here did. A bunch of us paid to walk out on the bridge with them while they jumped for moral support. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the lack of basically anything underneath my feet (thin metal and completely able to see everything beneath me!) and the crazy length of the bridge itself. I had to turn around and head back not even half way down. Oops! Those who did jump absolutely loved it! When we got back from holiday, I even found out that one of my host sisters, Raiatea, did the same jump just after we left—and she's only 15!! Inspirational...

We stayed at another backpackers place in Mossel Bay. We were only about 2 blocks away from the ocean. Our first day there was jam-packed. We first headed to an ostrich farm! We took a tour around and learned all about them. Thankfully, after taking a class all about birds at GV, I was kind of a pro ;) I even impressed the tour guide with the ostrich mating call (ok, that is thanks to 'Dirty Jobs' and not school...but still). At the end of the tour, a few of us were able to take a ride around a pen ON an ostrich. Luckily, I was one of them :) It was crazy! You hardly have anything to hold on to, the run very fast and out of control, AND you are forced to lean back the entire time, therefore, the feeling of falling off is very apparent! After the farm, we headed to Canga Caves. We got to go spelunking! We were forced to climb, crawl, slide, and duck through the caves. It was very neat to see all the wonders done by water. Right after the caves, we all headed to the Oudtshorn Fine Arts Festival. It was fun for me to compare it with THE Monroe County Fair. Julie and I headed around looking for the most interesting foods to try. We decided to split a 'Pizza Cone', that it, a pizza rolled up into a cone like and ice cream cone. Delicious! Also, we had a 'Chocolate Pancake.' Picture a crepe with ice cream, chocolate sauce and kit-kat bars :) yum! It was fun to see all the crafts and people, as well as listen to the music everyone seemed to love all in Afrikaans. Fun night!

Our next day at Mossel Bay was a complete Free Day! Jody, Kayla, Kala, and I decided to make up for our lack of bungee jumping and (drum roll, please): SKY DIVE! I couldn't believe how incredibly pumped up for the whole thing I was. In fact, I volunteered to jump first! With that task, I was forced to sit on the floor of the tiny plane next to the open door for the entire trip. Very much unlike me but so worth it! After the jump, a few of us took the rest of the day to relax on the beach. For dinner, we headed to Pierre and Antoinette's house (our tour guides whose house is very close to the bay). We got to meet their 50 sheep and grandkids :)

On our way from Mossel Bay to Cape Agulhas we stopped in Gaansbai to go shark cage diving! At first, I don't think I knew what I was getting into. I was the first one to hop in the cage. Those first few moments by myself (5 people can go in at a time) went a little like this: “Ooo! This cage is deeper than I thought! I wonder what it really looks like under water. Wow, this water isn't as clear as I had hoped...and it is incredibly silent under here...too quiet actually...what is that dark shadow moving?...OMG I'M SHARK CAGE DIVING!! WHY AM I DOING THIS!?!?!?” Then, I popped up from the water and realized I was no longer in there alone. A few other classmates of mine had joined me and I could tell they were feeling the same fear I was :S Luckily, after the first time the guide told us to look under, everything changed. It was so incredible sweet to see these massive Great White Sharks swimming past! At one point, a shark's mouth opened up and exposed his teeth RIGHT by the cage! So scary, but I'm so glad I did it :)

Our first day at Cape Agulhas, we headed to the monument on the coast right where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. We all got to go up to the top of the lighthouse that's right there as well. On the long trip up to the top, there are pictures of lighthouses from around the world. Not even kidding you, Grand Haven's lighthouse is one of them. There's even a plaque saying it's true!

The next day we headed to Montagu where we legitimately slept in a barn. Julie and myself slept more specifically in the stall that once held a horse named Lilly. We felt honored. In all honesty though, I really liked this backpackers place. All of us were in one barn in stalls with walls that barely went up past my neck. It was fun having all of us together after spending the past few weeks really getting to know each other. We spent a day there at the natural springs where we relaxed and took advantage of them in the heat. We also took a tractor ride up to the top of a mountain. The day before at the springs had been incredibly hot so for this trip, we all had on shorts and tank tops and brought a light jacket, just in case of the mountain top being breezy. Unfortunately, that entire ride felt like Michigan winters! In fact, it started pouring on us on the way down! Luckily, the tour guide had some blankets to spare. Julie, Katie, Kayla and I never even looked around on the way down because we were hiding under the blankets! Even though we were basically miserable, we all could not stop laughing at how random it all was.

We got back to Stellenbosch on Sunday (4/8) and had a nice relaxing night at the house. The next day was another school holiday so we all took a trip back to Cape Town. We drove around the World Cup stadium and had a good look at that. Then we took a longer drive over to the Cape of Good Hope and Point Cape. There are absolutely beautiful views here. We had some great hiking opportunities and really took advantage of them! After here, we traveled over to Boulder Nation Park. The main thing about this park is the abundance of penguins living here. They are so cute! I could really not get over them. We saw some with eggs underneath them and even some babies not long after hatching. It was weird to see them in such a natural habitat!

Well, that concludes my 2 weeks of holiday. I'm going to post this and continue writing about my first week back to school and our weekend trip to Pringle Bay that just finished. I hope all is well back in the states! I miss you all!!


More Later!


AB

Week 1 of Holiday: Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls--but if you do, make sure it's in South Africa!

Hello, again! I am finally back from my 2 week vacation. It was incredibly busy but very much worth it! Because of all that we did, I'm going to summarize the first week of our holiday in this blog update. Week 2 will come at a later date ;)

We headed out of Stellenbosch in two big vans being driven by a wonderful couple, Pierre and Antoinette. About a half hour into our ride we had to pull over for pictures. We could not get over the incredible views of both mountains and the ocean! Unfortunately, over the past few weeks I've seen so many of these great scenic views that I have to keep reminding myself how awesome they really are. I'm afraid I'm getting too used to them to appreciate it!

We got to the Knysna backpackers place around dinner time and ate at a nice seafood restaurant on the harbor. For most of our trip, we stayed at backpackers. These places are a mix between a bed & breakfast and a hostile. In my opinion, I'd have to say they are cozy, fun, and sometimes lacking privacy :P

The next day in Knysna we ventured through the Feather Bed Nature Preserve/Estuary. None of us knew what to expect. We had really only heard about a hike and some rare sea horses. We didn't really get to see any of the sea horses, however, the hike was incredible! We took a ride up to the top of a cliff that overlooked where the ocean water comes into the estuary. From there, we hiked down through lush plant life and incredible views of the rocks, coves, and sea. We all took wayyy too many pictures, but it was worth it!

After one more night at the Knysna backpackers, we ventured onto Addo Elephant National Park. This Park holds over 600 elephants, 2,000 antelope of all kinds, 9 lions, and so much more. Sandy told us that there have been times in the past 10 years of her traveling here that she's hardly seen anything. Because of this, we weren't getting our hopes too high of seeing anything. The park is absolutely massive! Despite our seemingly low expectations, on the first drive alone, we saw over about a hundred elephants, 5 buffalo, kudu (a kind of antelope), zebra, dung beetles, jackals, caracal, warthogs, and 3 of the lions! Later that night some of us went on a night ride through the park with a tour guide. On it we had an elephant walk right passed us, saw a few different eagle owls, watched 2 creepy looking hyenas, AND spotted one of the very rare rhinos! Basically, in our first day at Addo, we saw 4 of the Big 5. The Big 5 are a major deal in South Africa alone. They include elephants, lions, buffalo, rhinos, and leopards. Everyone knows about and loves them here. They're pictures are even on all of the rand (dollars). The only one we missed out on was the leopard. Addo has about 8 total but they are nocturnal and extremely rare to see.

On our last night at Addo we experienced our first South African Braai (pronounced Bri). Braai's are a very big deal in this country. We have something very much like them in America—Barbeque's! Over this holiday we've tried all sorts of braai foods: chicken, pork, beef, lamb, potatoes, pumpkin, etc. They're also very into covering braai meats with chutney. Let me tell you, this is a very nice country to eat in :)

After 2 nights at Addo we headed back down the coast to Tsitsikamma National Park. We arrived there around dinner time and found our 2 person cabins right on the Indian Ocean with the incredible South African sun setting behind a cliff (“Another sunset down in Africa...”). Sigh :)

On our first full day at Tsitsikamma, we went on a Zip-line Canopy Tour. It was so much fun! I am not the biggest fan of heights but gliding through the trees was such a great feeling and experience. Our tour guides were hilarious and encouraged us to have a lot of fun during our trip (i.e. singing and calling through the trees). After the tour, a few of us hiked up to the suspension bridge that crossed over the Storms River mouth. Gorgeous! On the way back, however, it started to pour on us. It ended up raining the entire rest of the night. Not a problem, though! The next day (without rain), included an incredible hike across rocks and trails by the Indian Ocean that led to a completely gushing waterfall. So worth all of that rain!

Whew! As you can see, it was a pretty packed and adventurous first week of holiday! Stay tuned for Week 2 which is slightly more exciting. [It's where I'll let you know whether or not I survived Sky-Diving in Mossel Bay!! ;)]


More Later!


AB