Manuela can't believe it's over

Even as I am sitting on this plane I can’t believe my days in Cape Town are over; it is unbelievable how quickly three and a half months go.  My experience in Cape Town will be unforgettable. I have met great people, made some awesome friendships and experienced so many things that are unexplainable.

Some of the awesome things I did in Cape Town:

• ·      Shark cage diving
• ·      Hiked table mountain
• ·      Skydiving
• ·      Hiked Lions Head
• ·      Attended Color festival
• ·      Rode an elephant
• ·      Pet a cheetah
• ·      Went paragliding
• ·      SURFED
• ·      Ate amazing food
• ·      Bungee jumped off of the highest bridge of the world
• ·      Went on a bush walk in Kruger National Park
• ·      Saw the big five (elephant, rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo) at Kruger National Park
• ·      Participate in a Treatment Action Campaign march for parliament to change bad patent laws
• ·       Watched two musicals (Blood Brothers and The Sound of Music)
• ·      Watched a play (A Human Being that Died That Night)
• ·      Went to the Freshlygrounds concert
• ·      Went to two soccer games one of which was the African championship game
• ·      Took a road trip to Plettenberg 

Ma Frances & Manuela

I was also able to become part of the communities through my internships. I had two internships for the time I was in Cape Town. One of the placements being at Elonwabeni family and child center; this shelter first started for affected and infected children with HIV/ AIDS. Unfortunately, the need for shelters has increased drastically in Mitchells Plain so it has now become a shelter for children that have been physically and sexually abused or kids who have parents that are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately there was not much for me to do at the shelter but I was able to meet an incredible woman called Francis or as we all at the shelter say “ma”. Ma is the social worker at the shelter and her dedication to the children is inspiring. She is such a wise women who taught me so much through her experiences and I could not be more grateful for everything she did to welcome Melanie and I. Through ma I was able to shadow a social worker, Daphne, at the department of Social Development.  Being at DSD and seeing how everything worked open my eyes and made me re-think the kind of social work I want to go into. When I first walked in to Daphne’s office I saw at least 60 files later to find out that those were all of her open cases. It was crazy to think that one person is in charge of so many files because realistically she only has time to work on one or two a day. During my time there I got to witness the middle process of a case all up to the court hearing that finalized the case. My first day at DSD, Daphne was working on a case for a teenage girl who needed to be placed in foster care. The foster family that she was going to be placed with was already the caretakers of her two younger siblings. My second day their I attended children’s court for this same case. I was given permission to listen to the hearing which was a great opportunity for me because 1) I have never seen the process of children’s court 2) it allowed me to see how the SA court system works.

Melanie & Manuela with kides at Klipfontein Primary School

I was also very fortunate to be able to intern at Klipfontein primary school although it was only five days it was my most favorite days. This school is located in one of the poorest communities, Netreg. At this school I shadowed the community worker Deon. Deon was an amazing person and very dedicated to his job he would not stop until he got what his clients needed. Deon took Melanie and I around the community to make home visits. As we did these home visits it was so sad to see how little the students I was with had but yet so astonished as to how happy these kids are at school. It was incredible to see how dedicated the principle was to his students and he always made sure his school was an environment in which his students would want to come to school everyday to learn regardless of the communities circumstances. Whenever there were no more clients Melanie and I went upstairs to the fourth grade classroom to read to the students. It is crazy how attached these kids get to you and vice versa when ever it was time for there recess the kids would come looking for us in the office so we would play duck duck goose with them or sing the “peel the banana song”. I will truly miss Klipfontein.

Melanie & Manuela

I was able to learn so much by being in the communities even though I really wont know what most of it means until I am put to the test after a few weeks/ months of being back home. My journey in Cape Town has come to an end but a new one begins.

Tina's brand of adventure

With my time wrapping up in Cape Town, I can hands down say that many of my favorite activities occurred during a mini-excursion to Plattenburg. When looking at the itinerary: caving, cheetah exhibit, ostrich farm, tubing, elephant sanctuary, I was hesitant about not knowing exactly what to expect; however, in hindsight that was the best position to be in. Not knowing what to expect or having a set schedule made it truly feel like a vacation, and a much needed one after the hectic schedules that have not slowed down since we stepped off the plane 

Byron, one of our drivers, for Jessica, Morgan, Melanie, Courtney, Sarah and myself, was one of the best parts of the weekend. He was beyond lovely and had a dry, raging sense of humor that I adored. We listened to gospel musical, and once we all began to memorize the songs he was listening to (check out “Come and Let Us Sing”) we began to listen to Madonna and Kenny Rogers cd’s, he talked to us about Cape Town, sang and danced for pretty much every single car ride, took pictures of us and with us (which hopefully he will send to Jessica and me soon) and genuinely looked out for our well-being. Saying goodbye to him, strangely enough, was one of the bittersweet moments of this trip. I wish that I had the opportunity to make more genuine connections like that, and wish that I was able to meet Byron earlier on so we could have duetted more and created new dance routines. After exchanging numbers with him and going back and forth giving Jessica and me hugs and well-wishes, Byron became a guide for how I want to live my life: singing and dancing like no one is watching, having a wicked sense of humor, and being an all around great, compassionate individual.

           

That weekend, many unexpected things happened. For one, I sat on an ostrich! While a lot of people here are hiking Table Mountain, bungee jumping, paragliding, and skydiving, I do not have the need for an adrenaline rush nor do I consider myself to be an adventurous person, so sitting on the ostrich (and even tubing) was my version of these insurgent activities. 

Tubing was also another unexpected athletic role I was put in. After being dropped of on the top of a hill, wearing our wetsuits, lifejackets, helmets, flip flops, while carrying our tubes, we had to climb down this steep hill and then once in the water had to tread the water since there were no rapids.  I wish there was a camera filming me because I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked. Everyone who went on the trip should feel fortunate to have seen me in that dumbfounded able-bodied state, because let me tell you, it’s rare.

           

Perhaps the best thing I did all weekend though was going to the elephant sanctuary. One of my mother’s wishes and commands for me coming to Cape Town was to touch an elephant, so that was all in honor of her! Being able to feed the elephants, and having one mistaking my camera for an apple and sucking it up in its trunk, leaving its mucus or god-knows-what all over my camera, was definitely a highlight. Knowing that opportunity is so rare and could not happen in the states is what also made it even more special—it is not everyday one has to dodge elephant poop or gets hit with the powerful force of an elephants truck. For anyone reading this that has not been, Plattenberg needs to be checked off from their must-see places. 

Snigdha's excursions . . . to Jo'burg and hospital

Snigdha in Kruger

Oh boy.  So much has happened since my last blog post.  We went to Johannesburg and Kruger National Park on excursion and it was awesome. Johannesburg is definitely a very different place from Cape Town and I expected it to be more metropolitanesque of an area.  In Cape Town I’ve been hearing the saying that people often go to Johannesburg to work because that is where the money is.  The first night off when we were there I could tell because the minimum cab fare was R70 when it’s R30 in Cape Town.  Again, just a very different place from Cape Town.  We went to casinos and museums and a prison that housed Mandela and Ghandi and other political prisoners.  It was an amazing experience to be at the museums because for a brief moment I felt like I was standing in the middle of history itself.  The level of brutality people faced during apartheid was horrifying.  Visiting the Hector Pieterson Museum as well as the Sharpeville Memorial really opened my eyes to the struggle that people faced.  And it is not just any people, but students.  Kids my age and even younger were in the streets in Soweto protesting for a better education.  I myself have taken education for granted but being at the Hector Pieterson Museum I saw how students died for their right to learn.  I kept asking myself if I could ever have the courage to participate in a protest like that.  I have never in my life had to fight for the right to education and so I don’t think I’ve ever really appreciated just how lucky I am.  I was talking to a friend and she told me that her parents would never have let her go into such a protest no matter how noble the cause because ‘life threatening’ is just too much of a risk.  I was thinking about this and realized how my parents would have reacted the same exact way.  I wonder how all the parents whose children marched and died that day in Soweto felt.  Did they know that was the last time they would speak to their child?  Did they allow them to protest? Or did the child him/herself insist on marching? Student protests at this level of intensity are something just so foreign to me that I just can’t relate.  It is something so far from my mind that I can’t believe something like this is actually real.  The Soweto Uprising doesn’t seem real, yet the photos are as real as it gets. 

Johannesburg was just fun because I got to be around all my co educators again.  It felt like orientation. Except this time we all knew each other and it was a lot less awkward.  It was nice to be in each others’ company once again.

I wish the trip could have lasted for a bit longer because as soon as we got back I got sick.  Very sick. Like hospital sick.  That was not a fun experience at all.  However, the hospital I stayed at was very nice and my doctor as well as the nurses were just fantastic when it came to taking care of me.  The admitting nurse asked me what type of insurance I had and I didn’t have an answer for her. Clearly I was not educated about my own health insurance or the health insurance here in South Africa (it’s called Medical Aid by the way) and I just came off as an ignorant American: the one thing I feared the most. But I was also in a lot of pain so I didn’t really mind anything at that point except getting on an IV.  Hospitals here are very similar to those in America. Nothing’s really out of the ordinary.  Except the TV really only played Afrikaans soap operas.  All my nurses were student nurses.  I was in a room with four other beds but I had my own curtain for privacy.  It was a little bit scary spending the night alone in the hospital but I was knocked out after they gave me the drugs.  I only spent one night in the hospital and the throat infection cleared up over the next couple days.  Being sick in a different country is a lot different than being sick back home because everything is so much more dramatic than it needs to be.  I built up everything in my head (so did my parents) and it was just scary. But it was an experience.  I have come full circle with my trip so far!

Jessica's amazing weekend away

“COME AND LET US SING. COME AND LET US SING.”

Our first glimpse into the personality of Byron, our singing, praising, dancing, laughing, hugging, car driver was when he wished us all “sweet dreams” at four in the morning on our six hour drive to our weekend-long Plettenburg adventure.

           

The majority of the girls on the trip planned an extra weekend away from the Mother City. Manuela graciously organized the whole trip with minimual groans when we continuously asked her the same questions over and over again. As annoying as it must have been for her, and as confusing it was for us, I think we all agree that it was totally worth.

           

With very few days left in Cape Town, I think a lot of us were worried for another weekend away, thinking we would miss out on so much. However, for me, it was a welcome change. It was a chance to get away from routine and from our house and from the boys. Trust me, they were just as happy to have a weekend away from us.

           

During our Friday, Saturday, Sunday adventure we stayed in hostels. Something I have never done before. The first hostel was on the beach and the second provided a huge indoor bonfire. The hostel were clean and friendly, offered us dinner and breakfast, and a place to meet travellers from all over the world. Even though I was mostly too exhausted to make small talk with our swiss neighbors, it was the idea that I was sharing this room full of bunk beds with people from different countries that made it so exotic and cool.

           

Another first for me was being able to feed an elephant. I was very concerned by the idea of this activity in the beginning. I thought it would be similar to the time I rode some very sickly camels in Morocco on the side of a road. However, when we showed up at an elephant sanctuary I began to realize that this would be different. These elephants were able to roam free on the rolling savannah type hills. They would line up when they saw a truck coming because they knew a bunch of tourists in silly safari hats and buckets of apples and squash were there to feed them. We fed them and they slurped the fruits and veggies voraciously off of our willing hands. We snapped pictures, quickly and unsteadily, too excited by the gentle giants in front of us. While some people decided to ride the elephants at a different farm, we opted just for the feeding, but I was more than satisfied. I got to feed the babies and stroke their rough, crackled skin.

           

Manuela & Jessica preparing for their 

bungee jumps

Lastly, although we did so many more things than I have discussed, bungee jumping was another first that I indulged in this past weekend. It was definitely the best investment I have made this entire trip. I think what shocked me the most about jumping off of the highest bungee bridge in the world is the lack of physical effect it had on me. I felt no pull, even though I was dangling by me feet hundreds of meters in the air. I mostly focused on the sway. The mountains to the sky to the water below. I could see everything, but in a twisted upside version, yet it was still awe provoking. I also had a go pro camera taped to my hand so I got the whole thing on video, if anyone wants to see it!

           

So in-between all of these crazy activities I got to climb back into a little white car with Tina, Sarah, Melanie, Morgan and Courtney and our wonderful driver Byron. There is really no way to catch his essence with words. But I know that at the end of the weekend, he certainly found himself sad that we were leaving him. It even shocked us to realize how close we had come to this outrageous little man over a three day span. Probably one of the best weekends I have had so far.

Byron & Jessica

Emily W reflects on her time here . . . and plans to return

As I’m sure you all know, UConn basketball won both national championships and we were all really sad we weren’t on campus to experience it. With that being said, some of us did stay up to watch the games at 3 am and although it wasn't the same we had a blast streaming the game on my iPad while facetiming my parents who had their iPad facing the TV back at home. It wasn't the best setup, but we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Last weekend 15 of us went to Plettenberg Bay. It was really fun! The first day we were there we went to a nature conserve and saw a lot of cool animals. I got to pet an adorable little cheetah. Oddly enough my St. Bernard at home was bigger than the cheetah so it was a little weird to be petting an animal smaller than my dog that could eat me.  We also explored caves. After that we went to an ostrich farm where I was given the opportunity to ride one! It may have been the most awkward thing I have ever done in my life.... the workers catch the ostrich, put a bag over its head so it will calm down, you get on it, they take the bag off, the ostrich runs and 2 guys follow you so you won't fall off and get trampled. I'm definitely glad I did it, but it was a weird experience. That night we stayed at a cute little backpackers on the beach which allowed us to see the most beautiful sunset. I woke up early the next day to watch the sunrise and it was just as pretty. There aren't many places that you can see both sunrises and sunsets. As the sun rose I went for a run on the beach and it couldn't have been better. It was in that moment I decided that I wanted to stay here forever. With the sun rising over the mountain, the waves crashing on the beach, and the sand between my toes, this was my paradise. This is what I live for. I tried to go wakeboarding but sadly they weren't going out that day. Like how cool would it be to wakeboard on the ocean in South Africa? I've added that to my bucket list. Later that day I got to feed, play with, and ride an elephant! Although it didn't last that long, the ride was absolutely unreal.  It was very cool to interact with them as well. They are such gentle giants.

Sadly our time in Cape Town is coming to a close and I am incredibly sad. I am most definitely not ready to go home. There are so many future me problems that will become present me problems when I step off that plane in NY. I have absolutely loved my time here and I wouldn't do anything to change it. I have met so many amazing people that will become life long friends and I couldn't be happier for that. I will never forgot our hilarious experiences at the clinic with Sister Castle and the first time I drew blood.  From the first awkward experiences of orientation to the clinic to Langebaan adventures and of course my favorite, Camps Bay sunsets, I can officially say I have fallen in love with this city and the people here. I will most definitely be back, hopefully in the next year or so. But for now....bye Cape Town.