ok so some of the wonderment is starting to wear off, and we don't all love each other anymore. it's kinda like camp where at first everyone is your best friend, and then you realize, hey, that chick is flaky as all crap and that guy is pretty freakin cocky. friday i registered for my classes. my dance class starts tuesday, the rest start friday. also on friday i visited the site where i'll be volunteering. The Baphumelele orphanage. it was so cool to play with all the kids. I was wearing jewelry so all the kids were enthralled by me. it was wild to be right in the middle of the townships. They are just sprawling flatlands with an endless expanse of rusting tin shacks. mixed in are lots of little fruit stands and cell phone shops.
i think i've said this before, but everyone is so soft spoken here, i can never hear them. also everyone moves sooo slowly. they all just kinda meander along, and i move with a purpose. locals are shocked that i plan to walk to campus instead of taking a shuttle.
friday night i went to a party past the other side of campus, which is far. getting home is such an ordeal. you can't walk unless you have a guy with you, and even then it can be iffy. then you have to call a cab, which is a pain because all the cab companies are just like one guy. for instance we called cecil, who was also taking home everyone else from the party. we had to wait like a half hour for our turn.
saturday we went on a tour of the peninsula. it was stunning. we went to cape point and saw the old lighthouse for ships hundreds of years ago. they stopped using it because there are hidden rocks off the cape and there were too many sunken ships. Then we hiked down from cape point to the cape of good hope. which is the southwesternmost point of africa. it's also where the atlantic and indian oceans meet. we saw baboons and wild ostrichs in the park. then we drove along the coast through all the little old british towns. we visited boulders beach where the jackass penguin colony is. They were soo cute! they mate for life and they were all laying around in pairs. we stopped for lunch on the beach in a town called Fish Hoek. after lunch when we were sitting along the beach and a baby came up and attacked jess with a plastic shovel! it was crazy that we survived the baboons and got attacked by a baby! when i got home i napped. then fixed dinner and went to bed. somewhere in there i managed to get about 25 spider bites. i itch like mad today.
today we went on a robben island tour. We saw seals in the harbor. the island was neat. the tour guides are all former political prisoners. ours was named Sparks. Nelson Mandela lived in Section B, which is the solitary confinement section for all the most influential political prisoners. These prisoners all worked in the limestone quarry, which was the worst and hottest one. They were never allowed to talk to other prisoners but they did by sending messages in tennis balls. we saw the quarry and we also saw his cell. We saw the group cell area of our tour guide as well. it was neat because they made it funny. They don't visitors to visit and leave angry and sad. They want you to laugh while you are there, and then leave with respect and love. It's a very african way of doing things. They always make a positive out of things.
After our tour we went to a sunday flea market for art and jewelry. i got a painting, a batik cloth, a crazy beaded pair of earrings and 2 necklaces. you really have to bargain or you will get ripped off. the artwork and crafts were beautiful though. as we were trying to leave and catch a minibus home these street boys were begging and showing us porn. it was so obnoxious, not like normal begging. then the taxi we got in was BLASTING the bass, as they sometimes are. and they were playing usher, who is very popular here. an el camino full of drunk guys flinging 40's around rear ended us and they drove up beside screaming at the passengers. since none of this was in english, i couldn't tell if they knew people on the taxi or if they were bargaining with the driver for possession of the american girls (us). but we made it safely home. just another african adventure.
i think i've said this before, but everyone is so soft spoken here, i can never hear them. also everyone moves sooo slowly. they all just kinda meander along, and i move with a purpose. locals are shocked that i plan to walk to campus instead of taking a shuttle.
friday night i went to a party past the other side of campus, which is far. getting home is such an ordeal. you can't walk unless you have a guy with you, and even then it can be iffy. then you have to call a cab, which is a pain because all the cab companies are just like one guy. for instance we called cecil, who was also taking home everyone else from the party. we had to wait like a half hour for our turn.
saturday we went on a tour of the peninsula. it was stunning. we went to cape point and saw the old lighthouse for ships hundreds of years ago. they stopped using it because there are hidden rocks off the cape and there were too many sunken ships. Then we hiked down from cape point to the cape of good hope. which is the southwesternmost point of africa. it's also where the atlantic and indian oceans meet. we saw baboons and wild ostrichs in the park. then we drove along the coast through all the little old british towns. we visited boulders beach where the jackass penguin colony is. They were soo cute! they mate for life and they were all laying around in pairs. we stopped for lunch on the beach in a town called Fish Hoek. after lunch when we were sitting along the beach and a baby came up and attacked jess with a plastic shovel! it was crazy that we survived the baboons and got attacked by a baby! when i got home i napped. then fixed dinner and went to bed. somewhere in there i managed to get about 25 spider bites. i itch like mad today.
today we went on a robben island tour. We saw seals in the harbor. the island was neat. the tour guides are all former political prisoners. ours was named Sparks. Nelson Mandela lived in Section B, which is the solitary confinement section for all the most influential political prisoners. These prisoners all worked in the limestone quarry, which was the worst and hottest one. They were never allowed to talk to other prisoners but they did by sending messages in tennis balls. we saw the quarry and we also saw his cell. We saw the group cell area of our tour guide as well. it was neat because they made it funny. They don't visitors to visit and leave angry and sad. They want you to laugh while you are there, and then leave with respect and love. It's a very african way of doing things. They always make a positive out of things.
After our tour we went to a sunday flea market for art and jewelry. i got a painting, a batik cloth, a crazy beaded pair of earrings and 2 necklaces. you really have to bargain or you will get ripped off. the artwork and crafts were beautiful though. as we were trying to leave and catch a minibus home these street boys were begging and showing us porn. it was so obnoxious, not like normal begging. then the taxi we got in was BLASTING the bass, as they sometimes are. and they were playing usher, who is very popular here. an el camino full of drunk guys flinging 40's around rear ended us and they drove up beside screaming at the passengers. since none of this was in english, i couldn't tell if they knew people on the taxi or if they were bargaining with the driver for possession of the american girls (us). but we made it safely home. just another african adventure.
posted by kerry at 8:06 AM
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