Catching
up with David
Part
1
Hello
everyone! It’s been almost two months now since UConn in Cape Town 2014 ended.
Already I find it difficult to look back on the experiences I’ve had since that
time, because I feel like I’ve moved through so many phases of feeling and
thought. As I sit writing this in a café on Main Road in Sea Point, watching
people pass by on a early winter day in Cape Town, I feel so far removed from
the David who wandered in a surreal daze around the eerily quiet and empty
interior of the house, minutes after my peers had all packed into vans and left
for the airport. In that moment, I was overcome by these thoughts: It’s
over. UConn in Cape Town 2014 is over. Now something else begins. How am I
going to finish packing? I am not prepared. What am I doing? It’s so quiet.
Where do I start? I should jump in the pool! It’s too cold. And the house is
empty.
That
afternoon was so strange. As Ben and Liz went through the house with Diane and
Harry and did inventory and surveyed the damages, I called my sister and talked
to her on the phone for the first time since I left Connecticut. I packed away
almost all my belongings into two large suitcases and stored them in Liz’s
room, leaving behind only a tiny pile of supplies and clothing that filled my
traveling backpack. I wandered upstairs and was caught by the sight of a
gorgeous sunset, my last in Cape Town for now, but not ever. Sarah and Ben
joined me on the roof patio, and I took a moment to register the feeling of
change, of one thing ending and another beginning. And with that, I tossed my
things in the car and we left.
The
next morning I left on an open-ended backpacking trip across the vastness of
South Africa. I had never embarked on anything remotely like this before, and
my anxiety and nervousness in the days leading up to that first day were
testament to my inexperience. Did I have everything that I needed? Was I
adequately prepared with back-up plans and resources should I run into trouble?
How will I communicate? How will I arrange travel off the beaten path? How will
I manage to procure the necessary supplies and food for a multi-day hiking trip
when my bag was already stuffed beyond capacity? Will I meet people? Will I be
able to be outgoing enough? Every one of these questions resolved
themselves along the way, and I ended up having a phenomenal experience
traveling. Despite my passion for exploration and well-established pattern of
risk-disregarding decision-making that I practiced in Cape Town, I never found
myself in a situation where the challenges of the moment or the environment
exceeded my ability to handle them confidently, to a greater or lesser degree.
This is not to fail to mention that I (in most cases) judiciously took
decisions to not place myself in high-risk situations, or that in many cases I
was helped or saved by the kindness of strangers.
But
back to the meat of the action: my trip! I left Cape Town and traveled along
the Garden Route, visiting Wilderness, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, The Crags, and
Storm’s River. I found beautiful nature and verdant, rocky coastline in
Wilderness; high-class living and working-class hardscrabble on a placid lagoon
in Knysna; stunning views and cosmopolitan vibes in Plettenberg Bay; and
monkeys, hippies and vast lightning storms that stretched across the sky in The
Crags. From Tsitsitkamma National Park in Storm’s River I embarked on the 5-day
Otter Trail hike, one of the top backpacking trips in South Africa. I spent
days trekking along rugged coastline fringed with massive rocks and huge
crashing waves, across river mouths and through native forests and fields,
sighting baboons and birds and otters and more, passing waterfalls, caves, and
freezing mountain pools, and watching the sun rise over the vast and Indian
Ocean, here at the foot of Africa. I felt a powerful sense of accomplishment
for completing this hike, for reasons that extend far beyond the significance
of the physical accomplishment.
After
nearly two weeks on the Garden Route (despite my sense that the time sped by),
I felt the drive to move on to new things. 30 hours after completing the Otter
Trail, I arrived in Port Elizabeth. The best thing I can say about Port
Elizabeth is that there was a Nandos within walking distance of my backpackers,
and it was open when I arrived at 10:45pm. This is not an insignificant
compliment, as I was in withdrawal. Port Elizabeth also marked the first and
only time I did laundry on this 5+ week trip, and just at the two week mark as
well. Granted, I had just hiked for five days in those clothes, so they were
essentially toxic.
I left Port Elizabeth and began the journey into
the rural Eastern Cape, into the area of the country that used to be called the
Transkei. I had commented in a status update upon leaving the Garden Route that
I was ready to find something a little more “African”, but I had no idea how
right I was. This part of the country remains very rural and often very poor,
with little economic activity, poor services, and measly infrastructure. The
Transkei remains the homeland (used here not in the politically charged
Apartheid sense, if possible) of the Xhosa people, and it is here that they
live according to traditional cultural practices. It was in this part of the
country, while visiting the coastal communities of Cintsa, Nqileni (Bulungula),
and Coffee Bay, that I had my most rewarding and fulfilling experiences while
traveling. I could write an entire blog post on my experiences at Bulungula, a
community-owned lodge in one of the most rural, isolated, and impoverished
municipalities in the whole of South Africa. Suffice it to say, my experience
there was more than just a vacation- but rather an opportunity to gain insight
into traditional culture, to be the recipient of Xhosa hospitality, to meet and
interact with members of a tight-knit community, to marvel at the village’s
successes, to appreciate their challenges, and to go to bed each night feeling
challenged, humbled, uncertain, and grateful.
 |
| May 14th, 2014. Walking over hills in Nqileni Village, Eastern Cape |
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