Waterfall Hike

Saturday morning we joined the UWC hiking club for a waterfall hike through the beautiful mountains. It was an intermediate hike consisting of streams we had to cross, tree branches we had to dodge and large rocks we had to climb to get to the stop of the waterfall. At the base of one of the waterfalls was a water circle we swam in, the water was extremely cold but refreshing. We also climbed to the top a rock and jumped 60ft into the water pool; it was exhilarating! In total it was about 10 mile hike and it took us a six hours.

After the hike we raced home, showered and ate then joined the rest of the group at the Newland’s Rugby stadium. The professional Cape Town rugby team, the Stormers, were playing New Zealand’s team, the Hurricanes. It was fun watching the game and being part of the rugby crowd atmosphere

Braii

Friday evening we invited the Standford students over to our house for a Braii (a barbeque). The Standford house is only about a block away from us and they have 24 students in their program. Our house made all sorts of side dishes (tuna salad, green salad, brownies, cookies, etc) and they brought their own meat. We also invited locals from Obz (the town we live in) and people from our service sites and from school. It was a great night full of good conversation, great food and dancing.

Lotus Park

Friday morning, our program went to Lotus Park, an informal settlement in township of Guguletu. We split into groups of three and were taken around by residents of Lotus Park. My guide was a single mother with three children who has been living in the informal settlement for eight years. She showed us where the “grocery store” was which consisted of a room in someone’s shack with a few shelves of prepackaged foods. We were able to stop in the crèche (preschool/daycare) she started which was inside a train boxcar with no running water, no windows and no toys. There were 15 babies from the age of 0-2 years old lined up against the walk sleeping while the kids 3-5 were playing with 5 pieces of legos. Then we did some house visit; it was really challenging to see the conditions families are living in and poverty cycle they are stuck in. None of the families have running water and only some families have electricity. A man we met talked about the horrible conditions they must live in when it is rainy season in Cape Town. The shacks have holes in the ceiling and the floor is made of dirt so water fills the house and their furniture and wooden cupboards are damp for months at time. Children sleep in wet sheets and then get scabies from poor hygiene. When I asked members of the community what they like or a strength about Lotus Park they all said nothing. They do not enjoy living there, the crime is high and there is not enough food to feed their families. Overall, the experience was difficult to stomach but powerful and eye opening to see what the conditions in the townships are like.

Waterfall

Pronouns, Nouns & Verbs

On Tuesday I went to service at Hlengsia and met Mr. Gaji, the teacher I am suppose to be assisting for the semester. He teaches English and natural science to 5^th, 8^th and 9^th graders. I was so relieved he was there to help facilitate activities with the class and the children respected and listened to him (for the most part). Mr. Gaji has had trouble with his legs which made it difficult for him to stand up or walk, so I went around the classroom helping the students. While the students worked on their class activities Mr. Gaji and I talked about the flaws in the South African education system and the lack of structure, discipline and assistance provided to schools in townships. He explained that the government says when a student is a certain age they must be in a specific class; therefore regardless of students academic understanding they will be passed on to the next grade. This logic is extremely detrimental to the class because the majority of the students are academically at a 4^th grade level. Students have no incentive to learn because no matter how poorly they are doing academically they will make it to 12^th grade. Most teachers often feel defeated and helpless because the students have no desire to learn and the teachers are not equipped properly with supplies and man power to help the students succeed. Also the teachers are employed by the government so a bad teacher is extremely difficult to fire.

On Thursday I was excited to go back to my site and to help Mr. Gaji teach however; come first period Mr. Gaji was not at school. Luckily I had prepared a spelling bee and a game of hang man with words the 9^th graders should know from their reading. The spelling bee was great but it only killed so much time. The students had a grammar worksheet where they had to pick out pronouns, nouns and verbs.  In 9^th grade the majority of the class could not define or comprehend what these words meant. At lunch time Mr. Gaji showed up but he did not come to teach until the last period. At Hlengsia it is common for teachers not to show up to class and the students are left alone to discipline themselves.   

Waterfall Hike

Wine Tasting at Groot Constantia

Lion's Head Hike

Shark Diving!

Today a group of 18 of us were picked up at 4:15am and taken to Gansbaai to go Great White Shark cage diving! We were out on the wavy bumpy Atlantic Ocean around 7 am and suited up in our wet suits.  The boat crew threw the bait into the water and within 5 minutes there were two Great Whites circling our boat. 

The cage was thrown into the water and 7 people jumped in. We were all given snorkel goggles and when the crew member shouted “divers down” we pushed ourselves down in the cage and looked at the shark from either feet or centimeters away.

If we were not one of the divers in the cage, we could watch the sharks from the boat which was equally as neat. On several occasions we saw the shark reach its head out of the water to grab the fish heads we were using as bait. When I was in the cage, a shark just under 12ft swam right passed the cage and even hit his tail on the cage shaking the boat. It was so great to be within touching distance of this enormous animal but also a bit scary because if we tried our limbs could slip out of the cage. 

Arniston/ Cape Agulhas

This past weekend myself and 15  students from my program joined the UWC hiking club and drove to the southernmost tip of South Africa. We arrived in Ariston late Friday night where we spent the weekend at a local fisherman's house. There were only 10 beds and 19 people on the trip so we all doubled up on beds and the boys pitched a tent outside. Although sleeping quarters were tight, the Indian ocean was just down the hill from us and the view was breathtaking.

Saturday we did a 6 hour / 13 mile beach hike along the ocean. We climbed over rocks, dodged the tide,  saw a baby seal and dipped our feet in the water; it was a magnificent day. It was overcast and misting in the morning so most of us did not put on sunscreen. After we returned from the hike, we realized all of us had second degree burns on either our face, legs, arms or feet. We quickly got over the pain as we began to drink and Braii fish. The fisherman we stayed with bought us Cape salmon, which is reported to be the best fish in Cape Town. We ate, danced and enjoyed great conversation throughout the night.

Sunday morning we were woken up my blasting techno music being played by a participant on the hiking trip. We started the day early and drove to Cape Agulhas where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. It was neat dipping our toes in both oceans and learning about the different wild life that grows in the two bodies of water.

UWC Hiking Club

This weekend I will be joining the UWC's  (the University I am at) hiking club for an overnight camping trip. About twelve others in my program will be going on the trip too and we will be staying at a backpackers in an old fishing town. The faculty member said it will be an easy hike, mostly flat ground and beach hiking (whatever that entails). I am excited to meet students from UWC and get to know them other than just the short time I see people in class. I also am hoping to get involved with UWC's Best Buddies program which is a mentoring program for children with special needs. This is the first year the school has the program but hopefully I can get involved and help out while Im here.

Trains, Kombis, and Taxis

It is going on my second full week here and as each day passes I getting used to the transportation system here. Trains are different then the U.S. because there is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class. We rode in 3rd class which was not bad except it was in the 90s so it got to be pretty smelly and cramped with all the people sitting so close together.

Kombis are similar to taxis however it is a ten passenger fan that they cram 15 people into. They are really fun with loud music and you usually get to meet a lot of new people since you are such close contact with them. Kombis are safe during the day and if there are a lot of people in them but we do not take them at night and they only go to specific places. So at night or for more obscure places, we take taxis which typically turns out to be a pretty informative or interesting drive. Everyone is really friendly and the drivers open up and talk to us about South African history or ask us questions about the States.

A picture off the back of the boat on our way to Robben Island. On the left is Devil's Peak, in the middle is Table Mountain and on the right is Lion's Head.

 

Kevin and I on Robben's Island with Table Mountain in the background.

The group after finishing our strenuous hike up Table Mountain.

Updated

The blog I just posted is a bit outdated. We did not end up going for the hike this morning because it was extremely windy and cloudy so we called it off. Hopefully we will get to reschedule it soon. Instead a group of us went to Camps Bay, which was beautiful but extremely windy!

My internet is a bit unreliable so I will try to post pictures soon.

Table Mountain/ First day of school

This Sunday a group 14 of us woke up at 5:15 am to climb Table Mountain, one of the 7 wonders of the world. The sun comes out early here and once it is out it’s about 90 degrees. The path was all rock and the majority of the hike was straight up the mountain. It was the hardest hike I’ve done but my group made it to the top of the mountain in two hours and we felt so accomplished after. Going down took us the same amount of time because the rocks were so large and slippery that we had to be extra careful. Later in the day our landlord, David, come over and heard that we hiked Table Mountain so now he is taking us on another hike this Thursday. We are all a bit nervous because he is super in shape and we looked at the hike was talking about online and the description says only for experts and it entails rock climbing. Hopefully I make it through that one to blog about it.

Monday was my first day of class at University of Western Cape (UWC). I would have been nervous but I had 7 girls in the program in the same class as me. It was weird being the international student at the university and having people look at me because of my goofy accent. We got to campus early so we walked around and tried to get a feel for where things are. When it was time for class we all walked in with a huge crowd of people however, apparently the class started an hour earlier than what was listed in the book so my group and about 80% of the class were late!! It was a great start to my first day of class but eventually I will figure out the African school system.