Side Note

Before I move on to The Real World: Southern Africa Pt 3, it has been brought to my attention that I have forgotten a very important detail about our trip up Table Mountain.

Our dear friend Samantha Montana Francesca Giglio suffered a grave injury. Yep, you guessed it. A dassie bit her. Now you may find yourself asking "How on earth did that happen? Dassies are the most wonderful creature to walk the planet! Sam must have provoked the poor dear." And that is exactly how it went down.

For shame, Sammy, for shame!

Luckily, the dassie and Sam made up and parted on good terms. As for Sam's lil' injury, we got her some Purell and a cold beer and all was well.

The Real World: Southern Africa Pt. 2

After Bulungula we flew from Mthatha to Johannesburg, where we stayed for about 3 days. And lucky for us, our good friend Dara was able to join us for this leg of the trip. We stayed in a backpackers in Soweto, which is an abbreviation for Southwestern Township. Soweto is home to about 5 million people, most notably Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu! The backpackers was right in the center of the township, which we loved. The owner, Lebo, was probably the coolest person ever. He started the backpackers when he was 19, after he got sick of selling arts and crafts outside of the Hector Peterson museum. He told us that he really just wanted to party with internationals, and opening a backpackers was a good way to do that and still make cash. Sounds like a solid business plan to me!

            On our first full day in Soweto, Annie, Corie, Dara, myself, and our new Norwegian friend Katrinne went exploring in the historic part of Soweto. First we went to the Hector Peterson museum, which commemorates the riots that were held in the 70’s, protesting the use of Afrikaans as the dominant language used in schools. We were all very moved by what we saw and read. The riots got so bad at one point that the United Nations had to intervene. Despite how big of a deal these riots were, this was the first time any of us had ever heard of them. It’s upsetting how little history of apartheid is taught in American schools. But enough of that! So much more awesome stuff happened that day! After the museum we meandered over to historic Vilakazi Street. This is where both Mandela and Tutu’s homes are located. The street is gorgeous and colorful and lined with restaurants and vendors. We had a great time. First, we went to Mandela’s old house. For those of you familiar with Mandela’s family history, you know that he and Winnie lived at 8115 Vilakazi, and how important 8115 was to Madiba. The house was very small, and the walls were lined with tons of awards and honorary degrees given to Madiba and Winnie. It was awesome. It was definitely one of my favorite things that we did. We also stopped by Bishop Tutu’s home, but we couldn’t go in. We think it’s because he still lives there when he isn’t in Cape Town.

            The next day, we planned on heading into Joburg to visit the Apartheid Museum, which is one of the things I was most looking forward to doing in South Africa. HOWEVER, we were unaware that literally NOTHING in Johannesburg is open on Mondays. NOTHING. So we didn’t get to go to the Apartheid Museum, which was a huge bummer, but we made it work. We were able to go to the Top of Africa, which is at the top floor of the highest building on, you guessed it, the continent of Africa. We got a pretty sick view of downtown Joburg, so I’d say it was worth it. Afterwards, we grabbed some melkterts (kind of like a buttermilk pie) and headed back to Soweto. After all, we needed to rest up before our trek up to Zambia!

See you in Livingstone!

-       G

The Real World: Southern Africa Pt. 1

After the semester ended, we had about 3 weeks to do whatever so Chris, Annie, Corie and myself went on a little adventure around Southern Africa!

First stop: The Wild Coast!

We boarded an overnight bus to Mthatha and we were off! This bus was ridiculous. First off it was a double decker, which was awesome. Also, it was about 85 degrees inside. It stayed 85 degrees the entire 14 hours. They also played a lot of Xhosa gospel music. It was great. When we finally got to Mthatha, we took a series of bakkies (weird pick-up trucks) to our little village of Bulungula. There are about 5000 people in Bulungula and it is the most picturesque little town ever. We stayed in a little backpackers and it ruled. It was so cute and there were tons of animals roaming around. Our other friends Maureen and Elyse also met us there! Each day the lodge provided us with some great activities to do within the village. The first day, Annie, Corie, Elyse, Maureen and I did the ‘Women in Power Day!’ We went into the village and sort of shadowed a local woman. She painted our faces from clay rocks, taught us how to balance water on our heads, and showed us how to make mud bricks. It was awesome. We also went canoeing another day. Chris and I decided it was more fun to just drift in our canoe than actually paddle.

Out of all the places we traveled, Bulungula was probably my favorite.

Next Stop: Johannesburg!

-       G

Table Mountain - That Shit Grey

Reasons why going into labor is better than climbing Table Mountain:

-       You have A/C or heating

-       You get to eat ice chips

-       You are in a stationary position

-       You don’t have to wear pants

Reasons why climbing Table Mountain was still super fun:

-       Creating new lyrics to ‘Ni**as in Paris’ so they fit our current circumstances

o   Example: “Fog so thick motherfuckers can’t find me…that shit grey”

o   To clarify, my comrades and I literally chose the worst day to climb this mountain. We had five months to do so, and we chose to do it when you can’t see the view of Cape Town because it’s the dead of winter and the mountain is covered with clouds, a ‘tablecloth’ if you will.

-       We saw lots of dassies, which are quite possibly the cutest and greatest animal to ever walk the planet

-       I was with my favorite people

o   Sam, Chris, Meg, James, Hallie, Shana, David, and Kelly

-       We took way too many snack breaks, which is the only way to climb a mountain as far as I’m concerned.

-       Once we got to the top, it was great! They had a great lil’ café place and we had a nice post-climb lunch.

All in all, I think I would do it again. Just kidding! I’m totally taking the cable car up next time I’m in Cape Town.

-       G

Langebaan Lovin'

This weekend, a handful of us Ad-Libbers (plus Sam) visited Liz’s beach house in Langebaan for the weekend! It was the most perfect weekend ever. When you throw a bunch of weirdos like us into a house for 48 hours, we’re bound to keep ourselves entertained. Honestly, we did nothing terribly special, we just sat around goofing off the whole time and it was AWESOME. A good bit of time was spent trying to teach the South Africans how to improve their American accent and vice versa. None of our efforts were very successful. Saturday night we made a potjie, which is a traditional South African dish, and had another fines night. And of course, the weekend just wouldn’t be complete unless we played a few improv games.

The weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had since I’ve been in South Africa. Spending lots of time with my favorite people in this country was so special and I honestly wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Words cannot describe how much I am going to miss these people. I’ve blogged about it before and I’ll blog about it again: I have literally found the most amazing group of people to be friends with at this university and in this country. I know that I have not simply found people that I can say I befriended for a semester, but I have found people that I will be friends with for the rest of my life. Thanks to y’all I will now constantly be in debt because of all the plane tickets I’ll be buying to come visit you! But, hey, be sure to head on over to my side of the world at some point so we can work on that accent J

- G 

Kalahari - Let's get granola, y'all!

We just recently had our very last all AIFS excursion. ‘Twas sad, but that trip was ridiculous, so that made up for it. We ventured into the wild unknown that is the Kalahari Desert. The part of the Kalahari where we were was right at the border between Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana. Here is a brief rundown of what all we did.

Day 1

- We left Stellenbosch at around 9pm on a huge safari truck. I’m not really sure what exactly it was, so I’m going to go with “safari truck.

- It took us about 14 hours to get there, so we all slept for the vast majority of the ride.

- Once we got there, we had a walking tour of part of the desert with a few of the San people, an indigenous people of Africa. They showed us some of the edible plants, and their meaning and such. It would have been more fun if it wasn’t so freaking hot outside, but I mean, I am in Africa.

Day 2

-       Game Drive Day!

-       We left our camp site bright and early (or rather, dark and early) the next morning to go on our game drive!

-       Pretty much our whole day consisted of driving around looking for animals, and I’d say we were pretty successful!

-       Here are some of the animals we saw:

o   Leopard! (apparently very rarely seen, so we were lucky)

o   Cheetahs! (we watched them kill a springbok and drag him under a tree and nom on him for a bit)

o   Giraffes! (They cam every close to us, which also apparently pretty rare)

o   Springbok!

o   Gemsbok!

o   Steenbok!

o   Red Hartebeest!

o   Blue Wildebeest!

-       We tried our very hardest to find a lion, but to no avail.

Day 3

-       We packed up out tents to head to our new campsite, but made a few stops on the way.

-       First stop: the weirdest boat ride ever

o   We hopped on what seemed to be a wannabe booze cruise. They played a combination of Afrikaans pop and things that one might hear on radio Disney. The “captain” kept spinning the boat around in circles despite the cries of despair from the passengers. The whole thing was super weird.

-       Next was the Augrabies Falls. We walked up to the falls and saw many a dassie on the way. For those of you who don’t know, the dassie is probably the greatest animal in the world. It is the closest living relative to the elephant, though you wouldn’t know by looking at it, and they are hella cute. We got to the falls right at sunset and it was perfect. We could even see the Namibian border! All was well until Corie dropped one of her crutches down the cliff and into the falls, then we figured it was time to head back to camp.

-       At night, we did a fun little activity called “Fines Night.” It was fantastic. Essentially, people write fines for you for saying something stupid, or doing something silly. All of our fines were read out loud, and then we funneled from a vuvuzela. A few of my fines included:

o   Taking motion sickness to a whole new level

o   Not knowing how to ride a bicycle

o   Telling an inappropriate story without realizing our guide was right behind me.

Day 4

-       White Water Rafting!

o   First thing in the morning we donned our swimsuits and headed down to the Orange River for some rafting!

o   Bernie was my partner and we were with Julie and Kristen in the guide’s boat, so we were the first to go down every rapid and we didn’t capsize once! The weather was perfect and the water was cool, it was perfect for a quick dip. It was my first time ever rafting and I loved it.

o   After we got back to camp, we backed up and got on the road back to Stellenbosch

Overall, I’d say it was a very successful safari. Dare I say we bonded even more? This trip was just one more reminder of how much I love the people I’m here with, and how much I’m going to miss them when we get home. Although it will be much easier to visit them than my South African friends since we’re in the same, y’know, hemisphere.

-       G 

Ek is snaaks!

About two weeks ago I had my very first improv show! It was great! I had so much fun! I channeled my inner Tina Fey and even managed to make the crowd laugh once or twice. I don’t really have much to say about it other than I wish you could have been there.

-       Ginny