Courtney's 5 days in Johannesburg

After a two hour flight from Cape Town, our spring break trip began in Johannesburg by checking into the Westford Hotel in Santon, a ritzy part of Johannesburg. We had pizza for lunch, and then headed to the Rosebank Mall and Market. There was a craft market in the basement of one of the buildings. I was hoping there would be different crafts from Cape Town, however, they were exactly the same. The people selling them were just much pushier. It was very overwhelming, and we quickly left without purchasing anything. We then walked around the actual mall, which was pretty similar to other South African malls we have been to, and comparable to U.S. malls. On Sunday night dinner at Trumps Grill in Nelson Mandela Square, which was delicious. Emily and I split a fried halloumi salad (South Africa’s version of mozzarella sticks).

On Monday, we woke up bright and early, and headed first to the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto, the largest township in South Africa, right outside of Johannesburg. We then headed to Nelson Mandela’s home he lived in before he went to prison and for 11 days after his release.

Courtney writing her name on the wall at Wandie's Place in Soweto.

Gift & I

On Tuesday, we volunteered at the Pimville Boys and Girls Club, my favourite experience in Johannesburg by far. We started the day by helping in their vegetable garden. We first weeded the garden, and then began creating rows and planting. A large group of children worked with us, and it was evident that they loved garden. I talked to a few young girls about gardening, and they said they wish they could have a garden at home, but they do not have a yard or any space to plant. After lunch we got to play with the children, and I fell in love with two young girls, Gift (10) and Thando (6). They taught me different South African clapping games, and I taught them some games from the U.S. After a sad goodbye, we went to Monte Casino that night, and had dinner at Billy G’s, a buffet restaurant. After dinner, I tried out a few slot machines. I spent 20R ($2), and ended up winning 30R ($3), so I quit while I was ahead.

On Wednesday we started the day off by visiting Constitution Hill where South Africa’s Constitution Court is located (this is their highest court, similar to our Supreme Court). The court was built in a former prison, and the other part of the prison was converted into a museum which we also toured. For lunch we visited another casino, and ate at a diner type restaurant, which took forever. We spent the afternoon touring the Apartheid Museum, which was extremely interesting, and had many great exhibits, but was very overwhelming in its size. They had an exhibit dedicated to Mandela’s life, as well as a new one on sports during Apartheid, which I particularly found interesting. That evening we ate at a restaurant called Poppy’s, and I had by far the worst meal I have had in South Africa. The entire meal took roughly four hours, and I had Thai Chicken Pasta, which caused me to throw up before even leaving the restaurant.

For our final day in Johannesburg we spent the day in Sharpville, where 69 people were killed by the police in an anti-pass law demonstration. We spent time in a museum, a visitor’s center, the old police station, a memorial and then visited the cemetery where they are buried. That evening we had another night off, so I ate at a delicious restaurant, Coobs with Val, Tina, Jessica, Emily, Manuela, Kiya and David.

On Friday we woke up bright and early to head to Kruger! On the way we stopped at a rest stop, and I saw one of the strangest things I have ever seen: They had a zoo behind the rest stop. There were rhinos, buffalo, and ostriches, with viewing windows in the bathroom above the sinks.

Courtney's fun filled week

My sister, Cassidy visited me this past week, and it felt like reliving orientation all over again. Since she was only here for a week, we had completely full days. Trying to fit Cape Town into seven days is pretty much impossible, but I’m confident I gave her an incredible Cape Town experience. It was perfect timing for her visit since I was just starting to feel better, so she didn’t have to watch me lay in bed all week/go to doctors’ appointments.

My boyfriend’s sister gave her a few Cape Town guide books she had from visiting here last year, so my sister’s spent a lot of time pouring through those figuring out what she wanted to do with her limited amount of time. After a 23 hour journey which took her to London and then finally Cape Town, we ate our first meal at The Fat Cactus, the mediocre Mexican/Texan restaurant just down the street from here. I’m not exactly proud the first place I took her for a meal in South Africa was a Mexican restaurant, but she was exhausted and hungry, and it was just down the road. After that her first real introduction was attending the Carnival parade in Greenpoint, followed by a late dinner at Neighborhood.

The next day was definitely my favorite day of her visit. We took the train to Simon’s Town, somewhere I haven’t been since orientation. I had seen signs on light poles (definitely the best form of advertising around here) for a South African Navy Festival at the Navy base there. I figured we could stop by there on the way to the popular destination, Boulders Beach. However, much to my surprise the navy fest was incredible. They had ships, submarines, and a tugboat to tour, as well as airplane/cannon demonstrations, and tons of incredible and super inexpensive food. We ended up staying there much longer than anticipated, but it was very interesting to compare the South African Navy to the United States’ Navy, which I definitely have a lot of exposure to. Following the festival, we headed over to Boulders Beach to see the famous African penguins. We went to the part of the beach where you can actually swim with the penguins. Cassidy and I were sitting on boulders in the middle of the cove, and penguins were just swimming all around us. At one point, Cassidy had to move her foot away or a penguin would have swam into her leg.

On Monday, for St. Patrick’s Day, we headed into the City of Cape Town to do some souvenir shopping at two very popular markets, St. George’s Mall and Greenmarket Square. Cassidy had fun bartering for lower prices for souvenirs, and definitely bought her fair share of giraffe items. After shopping, we took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, which gave us incredible views of the city. We then unfortunately did not eat corned beef and cabbage, but actually ate at Chai Yo, the Thai restaurant we had our first meal in Cape Town during orientation.

The following day I returned to my internship at Edith Stephens for the first time in a few weeks. It was very exciting for me to show Cassidy where I have been working, and the work I do there. We started out the day with me giving my first ever tour of Edith Stephens to Cassidy, with the highlight being a bird watching activity that we frequently do. We were also fortunate enough to be able to partake in a community visit of Mannenberg with a few German tourists. We visited a primary school where an after school program put on a play in Afrikaans for us, and then their instructor who has the most incredible voice sang a song for us.

On Wednesday we visited Aquila Game Reserve, about two hours away from Cape Town on the wine route. We saw zebras, lions, elephants, giraffes, antelope, springbok, hippos, rhinos, ostrich, and I’m sure I’m missing a few others. A big initiative currently going on in South Africa is to save the rhinos, since at one point a rhino was being killed every 20 hours for its horn. If just cut a rhino’s horn can grow back like our fingernails do. However, if it’s uprooted, the rhino is left defenseless and either dies from a lack of defenses, or some type of infection. At the reserve if you made a donation, we received puny shirts that said “Saving Private Rhino.” This initiative is definitely something I hope to do more with during my remaining time in Cape Town. On Wednesday night, we ate Nando’s, a popular fast food chain in South Africa (It’s also in the UK, and one recently opened in Washington D.C.).

On Thursday, we had a very busy day that began by jumping off of Signal Hill paragliding. After a few false starts, we made in to Seapoint after about ten minutes in the air. For lunch on Thursday, we ate at a traditional African restaurant, Moyo in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. We also spent a lot of time walking around the gardens, which are absolutely beautiful. It features 7000 different plant species, and is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Thursday evening, we headed to the V & A Waterfront, and ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Cape Town, Hildebrand, that has fantastic homemade spinach ravioli. We also saw a movie at the waterfront theatre, and then took a ride on the Ferris wheel.

Friday we spent the day at the Holi Day Color Festival at the Grand Parade in the City of Cape Town. This was originally a religious festival in India, but now it has spread throughout the world. Every hour there is a power throw, where everyone gathers and throws various different colors of powder into the air. It went from noon until midnight, but we only stayed until 6 p.m. There’s only so long you can get powder thrown all over you, in your nose and in your lungs until it gets exhausting. Last night we ate at Burrata with Emily, which is said to have the best pizza in Cape Town.

Today was unfortunately Cassidy’s last day in Cape Town, but her flight didn’t leave until 10:40 p.m. so we had another full day. We started off by eating breakfast at my teacher, Marita’s flat, and then headed to the University of Cape Town, so I could show her around. We then took the train to Muizenberg and spent the day at the beach before eating at Lyra’s in Rondebosch, and then heading to the airport.

Cassidy visiting her sister Courtney in Cape Town

Courtney learning more about human rights

This past weekend, we (UConn students) along with 30 other students from throughout the African continent, traveled to Malmesbury, South Africa (A drive that was supposed to take about an hour and a half, but we ended up taking around three. Still not entirely sure why, but scenic drive, none the less). Our destination was Goedgedatch Olive Farm. Going into the weekend, I did not know what to expect. I was unsure about what a “Human Rights Training Weekend” actually entailed, and I was confused as to why we were traveling so far away from Cape Town when we were all right around the city. However, once we arrived, it became abundantly clear why we made the trip to Malmesbury. The olive farm was absolutely beautiful. It was what I expected South Africa to look like prior to arriving, if that makes any sense. There were animals grazing, olives growing and the ever present mountains marking the boundary.

 

Courtney enjoy breakfast at  Goedgedatch Olive Farm

We began the weekend by introducing ourselves, and stating our primary objectives for the weekend. Mine was to learn more about the basic principles of human rights, as I had taken a course on human rights during the fall of my junior year, and ended the class pretty confused. I can confidently say that this objective was achieved. We also broke up into various countries in Africa for a Model U.N. type exercise where we had to convince the World Bank that our country needed anywhere from $1 billion to $500 billion (the amount kept changing). I was Rwanda, and although we did not win, I enjoyed learning more about the country of Rwanda than I ever thought I would.

Courtney and Brilliant as part of the Rwanda team

Other things I enjoyed during the weekend include: seeing the Milky Way/shooting stars, swimming at night, eating the most delicious food, walking around the olive farm, taking countless pictures, and the rooster’s wake-up call each morning.