Bulungula! (a long post)

The first thing I have to say about this weekend is that if the stock market crashed tomorrow, Bulungula probably wouldn’t know for a few weeks. Let’s set the scene…

Friday morning we all got up at 6 (some at 6:25) to get a cab to pick up our rental cars at the airport. There were eight of us all set on an adventours weekend at a backapacker in a remote Xhosa village 200km away from the nearest city. We got two cars, a VW golf and a Nissa Altera (I had to drive an automatic). It took me a few k’s to remember to stay on the left hand side, but monkey see monkey do, I eventually got it. We travelled on the N2 (equivalent of a major highway) for about 6 hours. The scenery was gorgeous and it sort of reminded me of eastern Montana. There were hills and the vegitation was basically small bushes and trees. The road got a bit tricky at times, but it was heavenly compared to what we would be on later. We drove through a few small towns and it felt like…have you ever played the game Crazy Taxi? Basically you just go wherever a smash up stuff to get points, driving was a bit like that. There were kids, livestock , rouge combi taxis all doing whatever. My co-pilot Sean was on the lookout for rouge goats, while I tried to find the stoplights. I’ve learned that driving rules in Africa are more…suggestions.

After we turned off the N2 and travelled for about 35k down a pretty rural road we turned onto a dirt road. We weren’t quite sure where we were, but it’s what the map saw. We dealt with many more obstacles, including numerous bulls, donkeys, goats, and stray dogs. As well as lots of little kids whose English consisted of “Sweets!” to try and seduce unknowing tourists. We finally got to the original end of our destination at a store about 10k away from the actual lodge. We got in at about 4:00 with an hour to kill before the shuttle came and picked us up. Sean and I wandered down to the store and everybody and there mother was there. Have you ever felt completely out of your element? Walking into the store and seeing a few hundred pairs of eyes on you is a very odd sensation. We were definitely the only white people for miles and the only ones that spoke English. We decided to stay out of the way and soon the kids made there way over to us. Some of the elders came and tried to talk to us, but we couldn’t understand a word. (Mom, I’m beginning to have more respect for what you go through teaching). But one of them began to sing and started to dance. Pretty soon we had…that’s right…a dance off. Led by Amy and Sean, it was quite entertaining. Hopefully the electric side isn’t a cultural faux-pa.

We waited until about 5:30 and I called the lodge. The shuttle comes from the nearest town to pick people up and they were running about 1 ½ hours late. We were all hungry and tired, so we decided to drive the last 10k to the next store and then hike in. Let’s just say the last ten kilos were nothing compared to these 10. We had divots, potholes and a few hills that looked like mini grand canyons. But we made it. The sun was starting to go down, so we made our way to the trail in (which is only recommended for 4x4) and we walked. There were tons of these little huts, called roundevels, dotting the hilly, coastal landscape. It felt like we stumbled upon some sort of South African Shangri-La. As we walked The little kids of the village came out and asked us our names. It was quite surreal. We were walking extremely fast by the end because it was getting dark and we could definitely see the lodge, but it was just…out…of reach. At about 7:00pm we arrived tired, hungry, sweaty, dirty, cranky…but alive and in good spirits.

We got a quick tour of the lodge area. There is limited electricity, so there were candles everywhere. We stayed in roundavels that slept four. The main lodge was what you would expect in paradise. There were tons of comfy futons, hammocks, fire pits, a library and ocean views. They also had “rocket showers” which were paraffin fuelled showers that were awesome. After that we cracked into the refreshments and it’s definitely the best beer I have ever had in my life. The dinner was an amazing concotion of macaroni and bacon. We all sat around, very tired, but content just chatting into the night in our little coastal version of paradise.

I woke up the next morning around 7:30 and went to go get some coffee and watch the ocean. It was amazing. I still couldn’t believe the whole surrealistic vibe of the situation. I decided I want to take as much of it in, so I signed up to do the activities. Dave, Sean and I went fishing with a guide from the village. We took huge nine foot poles and hiked out down the beach. Our guide didn’t speak very much English, so that was even more entertaining Now most of you probably know that I am not a big fisherman, but that day I think my Uncle John’s genes came through and I was the only one who caught anything. The three I got were fairly small, but our guide kept them. And the sun was shining so I felt great. We came back for lunch and I ordered a BLT. It was as big as my head made with Xhosa solar bread (I think they make it in solar ovens) and it was delicious. I then decided to relax and get a massage. It felt great, but I definitely felt that I had forgot to put on sun screen on my arms. Sean, Kelsey and I then went on the village tour. Our guide spoke very limited, but formal English, so it was entertaining. We visited the home of the headman (son of the chief) the healer, the school, some farms and lastly…the shebeen (equivalent of a bar). However, this is the only bar I’ve ever been to that had kids and chickens running around. I think it was more of a village gathering place than a place to get wasted. We also tried some of the homemade beer and that stuff is the true definition of hooch. It was made in old paint cans and looked like rancid chocolate milk, but surprisingly it was pretty good. The shebeen owner said you can buy five liters for 10 Rand ($1). Maybe next time…

We then got back and we went for a dip to cool off. Let’s just say I probably have the best farmer tan ever. I looked like a candy cane. It was beginning to cloud over and we all looked at each other a bit nervously. We were a bit worried about getting out the next day, but we all decided to enjoy our time in paradise for one last night and not worry about it until tomorrow. Dinner was bobotie and it was superb. We sat around for a bit until the rain cleared up and we went to the beach to look at the stars. There were tons of shooting stars and it was nearly perfect dark. We all laid in silence for about a half an hour in the sand, before we decided to go a bit farther down. We seemed to not realize that the clouds rolled in and covered all of our stars. And it poured. We only had two headlamps, so we all sprinted to get back to the lodge. That was my last dry shirt as well, so I wore my rain coat for the rest of the night. I went to bed around 11, satisfied, but a little worried about the rain. (I genetically preconditioned to worry about any sort of driving conditions at all).

I woke up at about seven to check everything out. It was damp, cloudy, but not raining. I decided to make a few cups of coffee and read the paper (some routines are comfortable, no matter where you are). The shuttle left at nine thirty and most people wanted to hike back to the cars so they left an hour sooner, but I stayed back with Amina, who wasn’t able to traverse the rocky terrain. After saying goodbye to everyone we met, we took the shuttle with a young couple from Latvia with their toddler and two German goals. Definitley the scariest ride I have ever been on in my life. Period. We got stuck a few times we were definitely rocking back and fourth for a bit. But after an hour and a lot of nervous laughter we made it back to the cars. The group with the manual transmission left about 10 minutes prior and we hopped into our Nissan. Sean was talking with one of the guys at the store who had no idea how we made it there in dry weather… oh boy.

I said a few silent prayers as I got into the car, nervous as heck. We made it fine for about 10 minutes until we saw the other group waiting on top of the hill of death. We got out and strategized how to go about it (Dave had made it up with his car, so we thought we could do it as well). I had the first two goes, but I got it stuck both times. Dave took the wheel and even though there were a few nerve-wracking clunks, we made it. The rest of the terrain was pretty bad and I played dodge the potholes with a relative success. It began to rain about halfway down the road and I was just glad that we made the first two hills when it was relatively dry. After two hours we made it back to the paved road and it felt like we were somewhat back in civilization. It was about 1:30 and we floored it to get back to the N2.

The ride home was fairly uneventful other than a few moments with the sun setting over the hills. It was quite peaceful, except for the crazy@%!* SA drivers. South Africans walk extremely slow, but they make up for it with their driving. They pass on hills and really don’t care if you are already going 20k over the speed limit. I wasn’t too excited about that. We pulled into PE around 7:30 and I was happy to be alive. We nervously went to go return the cars, but everything checked out fine. I’m sure the people at the desk were wondering why we were laughing so hard…

This trip taught me that it really is the journey that matters and not the destination. But you also have to enjoy and take time for the moment and not worry about tomorrow. However, I do have an 8 page paper due tomorrow and a four pager due Wednesday. But hey, South Africa is all about getting out of your comfort zone, right?
All the best, Nick

life is good

Things are starting to heat up here, literally and figuratively. It was blazing hot here yesterday, but perfect beach weather.

Surprisingly, I am going to have a tougher semester here than I did last semester. We have a lot of papers to write for all of our classes on top of our excursions and the tropical weather. It’s not an atmosphere conducive to homework.

Last week we went on safari to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Private Game Reserve. It was extremely fun. Our guide Bradley was extremely knowledgeable and fun guy. In Addo we rode around in a bus and we saw quite a bit. We saw four elephants, cape buffalo, kudu (antelope like animal), springbok and warthogs. The private game reserve was really awesome. We split into groups of about ten and went out on covered Jeeps to explore. We immediately saw some lions. We also saw Giraffe, Rhinos, and a bunch of other awesome stuff. We saw four out of the “big five” South African game animals during the day (elephant, lion, cape buffalo, rhino, but no leopard).

We also started our volunteering at House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. The kids are absolutely wonderful. There are about 10 kids and we each have our own kid to provide one on one stimulation with. I am sort of paired with two kids, Thando and Denver who are six and eight. Denver is in a wheel chair and has the biggest smile of any kid I have ever met. He got a cut on his leg and the nurse had to come and clean him up. He didn’t even cry and as soon as she was done he went back on smiling. Wow, what do I have to complain about?

Otherwise, the sun is shining today and I will probably take my copy of Long Walk to Freedom to the beach….

Pictures!

Here are some pics of life here in SA...
My room for the next four months

Needless to say, I go hungry a lot due to this sign...

Enjoying a Martini at a jazz club downtown. I feel so grown up.

The campus of NMMU.

Hard to imagine people still live in winter climates with views like this...

More to come at some point.

Another warm day...

Another wonderful day…

A lot can happen in one week. We started classes on Monday and it will probably be an interesting semester.

First, the big news in the taxi strike here in PE. The taxi drivers (or combis as they are called here) are angry about the potential reform of the transportation system here for the 2010 world cup. The government promised FIFA an upgrade to the transportation infrastructure and the drivers are not to happy about it. Basically the city doesn’t want any of the combis around the stadium, so the vehicles would bring the passengers to a designated area and they would take a bus to the stadium to keep the roads clean. The drivers decided to strike in protest and everyone has been affected. Thousands of workers from the townships can’t get to work, so it’s been a hassle for us to get to school every day. Drivers are getting harassed and evidently three people were killed (we’re safe though). They also tore up the train tracks and so even more people can’t get to work. Our housekeeper Daphnie had to stay in another flat close by so she could get to work. Many people think the strike is totally unnecessary and it will probably end up backfiring.

On a lighter note, we’ve been doing some awesome stuff. We went to a cricket match last Friday. It took me a while to understand, but it’s actually a pretty exciting game. The PE Warriors had a come from behind victory over the Joburg Lions. Suprisingly though, I got to meet a player from the Joburg Lions. He is friends with a friend of someone on our trip. He’s also kind of a big deal. It was basically the equivalent of going to a bar with Joe Mauer. He was a real nice and down to earth guy. That seems to be the prevailing theme of everyone I have met here so far.

Our classes are going to be interesting. I am taking a SA music course, literature, political science as well as my senior seminar. I am most excited for the political science class because the political scene here is getting crazy. They are having elections in about two months. The ANC (African National Congress) which has been in power since 1994 (also the party of Mandela) is losing its support from many people. The new party COPE (Congress of the People) has attracted a lot of support from people angry with the ANC. The probable new president Jacob Zuma is a huge sleazebag (has 5 wives, on trial for rape and corruption charges). It will be an interesting time to be here.

I’m still getting used to the fact that we have a maid clean up after us. It’s in my nature to be a helpful person (the Scout Law), but I was sort of torn this morning when our housekeeper Daphnie needed someone to help carry our sheets up to the washer. Usually I would be more than happy to offer my services, but is that really my role here? This housekeeping job gives her work, which in turn gives money and a sense of dignity. In the end she got someone else to come help and I’m still pondering over it.

We also start volunteering on Monday. I decided to go to the House of Resurrection AIDS haven to work with the little kids. I figure Andrew and Melanie have given me great practice with my peek-a-boo skills and I could really put them to good use there. There are also adult patients at the haven and I had an idea come to me. I am going to try and do some oral histories of the patients. AIDS is still a stigmatized disease here, so I thought it would be interesting and possibly even therapeutic to have someone just listen to their story for a while. I asked Gary and Vilma about it and they both thought it was a good idea. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Otherwise, this weekend will be fun. Most of the crew is going to Jeffery’s bay, but I am going to stick around and hang out with the few people who aren’t going. We’re going to go to Seaview where you can pet Lion cubs. Again, my apologies for not posting pictures yet, but we have to pay for internet access at our flat and the school net is really slow.
Stay Warm.

Two South Africas

I’ve seen two very different South Africa’s in the past few days. The first one looks like any town on the coast of Florida. My flat is in a touristy area where I am a five minute walk away from a McDonalds. It’s beautiful, but I might as well be in America. Also, part of our orientation yesterday was at the Green Acres Mall. Nobody was too happy to spend four hours in a place that could very well have been the St. Cloud mall. I was not very happy about it.

Today we saw how most of South Africa really is. We took a tour of the Red Location town ship. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I might as well have been on another planet than where I was earlier today. I saw hundreds of people out on the street, kids waving to us, and numerous people trying to sell us everything and anything. It was dusty, dirty, and well, lively. Globalization had reached downtown Port Elizabeth, but it still hadn’t really touched anyone here. The basic living accommodations were a one room tin shack with a roof. The one consolation was that it was a vibrant community, poor, but lively.

We took a tour of the Red Location Museum. The building is a giant concrete structure in the middle of thousands of one room shacks. The museum opened up two years ago for the purpose of educating people of the horrors of Apartheid as well as to provide a gathering space for the community. In the US we like to think of our ugly racial history as thousands of years ago, but it confronts the citizens of SA daily. I didn’t know of the many bloody events of “The Struggle” as it is called here. I am so fortunate to have grown up in a place where I never have known hunger, much less institutionalized racism. As I walked out of the museum I saw those shacks again and I thought about what my duty is now that I have seen these things first hand. Do I forget and go about my business? Or remember how fortunate I am? We had a power outage last night and it didn’t come back until the middle of the day. People were complaining about this, but after seeing the townships I thought, why should I be complaining about the lack of power for less than 24 hours, when these people may never even have electricity? It was a humbling day indeed.

On some lighter notes, I am enjoying my group and the ocean view from my flat. Let me tell you it is a tough life drinking a Black Label Lager with dinner while watching the sunset. Life is Good.

I’ll post pictures soon, but the internet costs R60 (about $6) for 40 minutes and I am trying to conserve the minutes.

Let’s set the scene for you. It’s 85 degrees, sunny and a slight breeze. I can see the Indian Ocean from our front porch and I get woken up at 7:00am by the sound of honking cars. I’m in Port Elizabeth, Africa.

I made it here at about 9:30 on Sunday night. I was a little scared for the flight, but surprisingly everything went smoothly. All of my flights were on time and I got my luggage in PE. My flight from DC to Johanusburg was about 15 hours, but I was lucky enough to get my own personal TV set. (How did people every do these flights even five years ago?) I met a man from Joburg who was in the states with a chemical company, a woman who worked at the Joburg zoo and another woman who was doing a week long trip to PE. Everybody was super nice. I almost had a snafoo through customs when I forgot to pick up my suitcase at the luggage claim. A man stopped me and brought me back through because he said I needed to re-check it in. Suprisingly, he was right and there it was on the luggage claim. I think he was sort of implying that I give should him a tip, but I was fairly tired and gave him a nice American “Thank you very much.” I felt bad once I was walking away, so I gave the next guy who carried my luggage to the check in counter a $20 tip (it was all I had). Hopefully that brings good karma for the rest of the trip.

This week is orientation week with lots of fun activities planned. We hit the beach yesterday, I’m thinking of about some surfing lessons in the near future. With my pale Midwest complexion I think I would make a great surf bum (don’t worry mom, I’ve put on lots of sunscreen every day). We took a tour of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University campus today. It was huge, much larger than either SJU or CSB. My favorite part of the day was the “Do Not Feed the Monkey” signs. We’re going to have one class a day, so I’m going to be very, very busy....

Otherwise, life is good. Great company, wonderful food, and the city has a relaxed atmosphere that I could definitely get used to, the 85 degree weather doesn’t hurt either…
Till next time… I'll post pictures soon.

Before I go...

I found this quote today. It is from the book On the Loose It will be my governing philosophy for the trip.

"Adventure is not in the guidebook and beauty is not on the map. Seek and ye shall find"

On a side note, If anyone is wondering how I got the nickname "Tables", I got it from this year's election season. Basically duty called for me to recruit volunteers and I gave an impassioned speech upon a table to about 40 bright eyed and busy tailed (and probably very scared) CSB/SJU College Democrats.

Groovy.