Musical Week

Hey Everyone,

I was back in PE this week for classes and volunteering, so no jumping off bridges or climbing any mountains.  One thing that I did notice was how good it felt to be back in the flat after the trip from Cape Town.  The trip was amazing, and I was able to get some great experiences, many of which will be once in a lifetime.  It was comforting being back in PE and my flat, and I noticed how much I have gotten used to the area and my flat.  I have also talked with some others about this and they expressed a similar opinion. 

On Saturday, Matt and I went to campus to get a good lift in and do some running.  We used the kombis or taxis like we do every day for school and getting around town.  There is always some loud music blaring with a packed car that always makes for a great time.  I actually enjoy riding on the kombis because each ride is different and you can learn a lot just from listing and watching those riding.  We have gotten used to riding these large vans; however, and know the routes, prices, how to call for a stop, and just interact with the driver and caller.  On our way to campus there was a large group of white students walking down the street that looked foreign to South Africa.  The driver gave a couple of honks toward them to get their attention while the caller yelled in their direction as usual.  They looked excited that they were able to catch a kombi and waved for it to stop.  They were excited, but hesitated to get on and questioned where it was going. 

The driver answered their questions and they loaded up.  As they were getting on, one of the guys in the group told them all to get out seven Rand to pay for the ride.  Gas prices jumped up about two weeks ago, so the price of the ride was now eight Rand.  Matt and I both chimed in and told them of the change.  Eventually we talked and they were from New York, and getting here to do a few weeks of volunteering out on some farms.  After we got dropped off, Matt and I both laughed about the ride.  That is probably how our group must have looked early in the trip, and it was funny to see it from another perspective.  We have been able to assimilate into the culture fairly well in the past two and a half months.  In short conversations with people we can appear to be South Africa, and even trick a few Americans such as those on the kombi that we are from PE. 

We have become so accustom to many of the things that we see and do every day.  I notice things today that I wouldn’t have early in the semester because I am able to see it differently.  There are always eye-opening moments that I am shocked to see though.  Yesterday, on Monday, those of us that volunteer at Pendla Primary were able to look at a couple of the homes that the students live in from our school.  This was just an incredible experience.  The students live in shacks.  They have no running water, no toilets, no oven… nothing.  We have seen many townships since coming here, but this neighborhood was particularly tough to see.  I think it is because we know the students living in them.  It is just hard to believe that the happy faces and students that we work with live in those kinds of conditions.  This area is some of the poorest conditions. 

Before school, the students need to go to the well to get the families water for the day to wash up and use for cooking.  The area uses the bucket system for bathroom purposes.  That means they do their business in a bucket, and supposedly once a week the buckets are taken away because there is no plumbing.  The shacks are in terrible condition, and it is not uncommon to see trash on the roof to patch up a hole.  One of the teachers that was with us explained about the area to us.  She talked about how hard it is when they know the families have no money.  For myself, I envy the energy and passion my students are able to have each day.  They value their families and friends.  It is not uncommon to see a student in class without a lunch.  All of the other students share with that student to the point where that student usually has more than the rest.  The community which we were able to see while walking through the area also, is something that I think they are all passionate about, and it is a great opportunity for everyone to learn from.

Later in the day, we visited the house of Dudley Tito in the townships who is a jazz legend in the PE area.  He is the only living member left from his original band, but he has recruited new members and they play a handful of songs for us in their yard.  They were very talented and many of the neighbors stopped by once they realized the show going on.  The energy was amazing. 

Staying on the musical theme, today we went on a day trip to some parts of the Eastern Cape Province that we haven’t been to yet.  We started at Grahamstown where we stopped at Rhodes University which is the oldest university in South Africa.  We were given a lecture on a bit of story of Africa as a whole with attention paid to the musical aspects of the various regions.  After that, we travelled into a village near the coast.  Here we learned about some of the traditions of the Xhosa and Zulu people that make up the two major tribes in South Africa.  We had a traditional lunch of chicken with samp and beans.  The lunch gave us the energy to have enough energy to learn how to Zulu dance.  The Zulu culture was once a very strong tribe which had a militant approach to life.  Under the leader King Shaka the tribe advanced their area throughout most of the area pushing out many tribes and conquering many in the process.  Their fall came to be the British Empire in the 1800’s when Britain began to colonize the area.  The Zulu dancing has a manly aspect to it because of its war driven roots.  There are many powerful stomps and chants in the actions. 

Thanks for reading! 

Cheers,

Bobby

Greetings,

One last post here to finish up my adventures during my Cape Town Trip, there is still plenty to talk about though.  We took a wine tour as a group on Wednesday.  The land is so beautiful.  All you see when gazing across the landscape is the rolling valleys that are filled with vines of grapes, all enclosed by humbling mountains.  We were able to tour a couple estates and learn about the process it takes to make the wines.  I must admit that I had no idea it took so long to make wine.  Depending on the type, it can take over a year and a half to put out a finished product.  Also, a wine tour would not be complete without a tasting as well, so we were able to try some of the different varieties.  My tastes for wine are very young, so many of the differences that the leaders spoke of were lost on me. 

On Thursday, many of us went to an aquarium on the waterfront to check out what it had to offer.  A few from the group, Matt, Liz, and Emily, are certified in scuba diving, so they were able to dive at the aquarium.  The tank they dove in was full of all kinds of sea water fish.  It had everything from colorful schools to giant sea turtles to sharks.  Yeah, sharks.  They were not an aggressive breed of sharks, but they looked intimidating and I can tell you that I would not jump in that tank. Water sports just aren’t my thing.  The tank had glass on about 75% of it, so we were able to watch them scavenge around the bottom in search of lost teeth and swim around the giant rays.  After that, we walked around on the waterfront to check out all the vibrant life that goes on around that part of town.

On Friday I, along with a few others, decided to explore the city a little bit.  We walked all around to check out the various areas of the city.  We checked out the different markets and street sellers that are everywhere in the city because you can do some great people watching and check out some really cool paintings and sculptures.  On Saturday, some of the group had left to take a slow route back to PE and make a stop or two at different cities on the way.  I stayed with a group and we spent the day checking out various museums throughout the city.  There are all kinds of museums that are dedicated to Apartheid, but also some other cool things.  One of those things is a castle that was built by the Dutch East India Company that first settled on the Cape.  We toured the castle and were able to watch a loud and impressive cannon demonstration in the process.  On Sunday, we went to Easter Mass in one of the churches in the city.  We ended up walking around the city and looking around the city one last time.  We ended up spending most of the day at the SA Science Museum and Planetarium where we checked out the different exhibits and watched a movie on 2012 while it was raining. 

Cape Town has a life of its own.  If you ask anybody that has been to SA, they will tell you to check out Cape Town.  If they know the country, they will also tell you that the city is not a representative of Africa.  That means that the city showed a very different aspect to what I have already seen.  The city is very diverse with large amounts of all kinds of races which is great, and gives it a great culture.  Some things I noticed was that the crime is definitely a step up from PE.  Port Elizabeth is known as the ‘friendly city,’ and it is a small city despite its large population.  While down the street from our backpacker to get some food, we would be hounded by beggars and dealers of all sorts of stuff.  We have maybe become a bit lax in PE because we know everywhere that is safe and have gotten better at fitting in.  In Cape Town, we had to take extra precautions to make sure that girls did not walk alone and keep an eye on our belongings at all times. 

The last few days of the trip were somewhat rough.  On Thursday, one of the girls on the trip found out that her dad had past.  My heart and prayers go out to her along with everyone else on the trip, and we all have done what we can to rally around her.  Over the weekend, another girl lost her grandfather.  This was also a tough blow, and I will not comment more because those situations are personal.  I cannot even imagine being in their positions and I hope they can find support in our group which has really become close throughout the trip and last week especially. 

That should cap everything up.  I know I probably missed some things, but I think I got most of the trip well covered.  If you have any questions, feel free to try and get a hold of me to ask.  Thanks for reading as always!

Cheers,

Bobby

View of Cape Town 

Chapman Bay in route to Cape Point 

 

On Top Of the World

Hello Everyone,

Another post here about the trip to Cape Town over our spring/fall break.  Continuing my post from yesterday, we started off Saturday the March 31^st at the Slave Lodge in Cape Town.  This museum in the center of the city focused on the Trans-Indian Slave trade that was fundamental in the formation of Cape Town.  It was separate from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that was used in the Americas that most of you are familiar with.  The difference being that the slaves came from across the Indian Ocean, not the terrible conditions or treatment of the slaves themselves.  Also, some may think that because Africans were slaves in the Americas that it is the same in Africa.  This was not the case.  The majority of slaves in South Africa were not natives, but from India and other areas like Malaysia.  This is the root of SA’s large Indian population today. 

The company gardens outside the Slave Lodge.

Following that tour we hopped on our busses to head to the base of Table Mountain.  The hike was great.  There is a cable car that heads to the top, but everyone in our group decided to trek it up.  The group ended up splitting up because of the various paces that we took.  I ended up cruising to the top with the front group and it took us a hair under an hour to make it to the top.  The last of our group made it up in about an hour and a half, so not far behind.  The views just get better and better the further up the mountain you get.  At the top, the city, the surrounding mountains, the bay, and Robben Island are all visible.  It is rewarding seeing it after the hike itself.  Words, nor pictures, do the view or feeling justice of being at the top of the city or even world for that matter.  It is really an awe inspiring emotion that really makes somebody humbled and thankful for that moment.  I know it made me thankful for everything and everyone that was involved in me coming to South Africa thousands of miles from home.  We also brought sandwiches and ate them atop the city that we would be exploring the next week. 

Gazing over Cape Town.

After the mountain we grabbed our gear and headed over to Gugulethu, a large township of Cape Town.  The reason for this was home stays that we had planned.  We were broken up into pairs where we lived with different families in the Township.  Talking, eating, sleeping, and living with them for two days.  We arrived in the afternoon and were able to meet our new families.  The mothers are referred to as Mamas in respect, and my mama was Mama Pinky.  The family consisted of a father, mother, two teenage daughters, and five sons; but they were happy to house us as well in their two bedroom government built house.  They had actually built 3 rooms in their small backyard that the three older boys lived in for some more space.  I was paired up with Matt, and we were able to converse with the father Liter about things from his job to touching on how it used to be during Apartheid.  The older three boys, Liter, Kilo, Sobi, were about our age in their early 20’s and they took us around the townships showing us what it was like.  I was amazed to see some really nice cars driving around.  There was everything from old Toyotas to nice, new Mercedes. 

Lunch on Table Mountain.

Driving around was great because it was dusk and we were able to see everything getting going for the night.  There was one street that was one big braai that it took us about 20 minutes just to get down a few blocks because there were so many people in the streets and people hopping out of their car to say hi to a friend.  Like any other township that I have seen while here, there were a large amount of taverns and trash that covers the land.  The neighborhood that we lived in was called Tambo Village and the brothers took us around that and the adjacent Kuwaito.  The second night we spent time conversing with the family some more and talking and playing with the younger brothers Cea and Wamkelekile (which means welcome inn Xhosa).  Overall, the experience was amazing.  Hearing from the others, it seemed everyone had a different experience and did something different.  From my side, the family showed great hospitality and made me feel very welcome.  I definitely saw some things and was able to get a better feel for how people live. 

Cape Town from Robben Island.

Sunday morning we went to church in the townships.  It was a very lively mass that focused on prayer through music which made for a somewhat entertaining morning.  We then headed over as a group to the waterfront to catch the ferry over to Robben Island to take a tour around the jail that housed Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years.  The jail was used for both political and common prisoners in the early years, but the political minds like Mandela and Sisulu ‘infected’ the minds of the common prisoners.  The government decided to use the jail primarily as a political prisoner outpost in efforts to stall the freedom struggle.  The island itself has a very desolate feel to it because it has a lot of bush, but very little trees.  The jail was moving.  After reading everything about Mandela’s time in there, it was powerful to say the least walking through the areas where he did for so long.  The tour guide we had was a former inmate and he explained to us the conditions and routines of the day for them.  One of the Mamas came with us with her boyfriend.  We asked them if they had been to the island before.  Both said yes.  The man, whose name I did not catch unfortunately was very quite while we were loading onto the tour bus.  The Mama notified us that he had been imprisoned on the island for 10 years and that this was the first time he had been back.  Wow.  At the end of our tour, we ended up in a large room where a large amount of prisoners could be held at once.  The man with us stayed after everyone had left looking at a spot on a floor in the room.  He then took the mats they had for show and rolled them out as he had done for years.  I can’t even fathom the emotions that he was feeling, but I hope he was able to find some sort of resolution in the visit. 

Cell #466/64.  Home to Nelson Mandela for 18 years.

The following day we visited Parliament in the morning for a tour.  We have been learning about the government in politics obviously, so it was interesting to see some of the building where everything happens.  We then headed to a part of the city called Bo-Kaap which is situated on the upper part of the city.  This part of town is a coloured community which has a large Muslim population and a vibrant culture that was able to stand strong and not get moved throughout the forced removals.  The city is full of colorful houses that give the area a life of its own that is really a creation of all the different cultures that have been to Cape Town.  We later had a nice dinner at Mama Afrika where we at some more local food.  I had a nice kudu burger. 

View of Bo-Kaap with the colorful houses to the bottom left.

The next day Tuesday, April 3^rd, we took a couple busses to Cape Point, an absolutely beautiful spot at the edge of the African continent.  It is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  Situated next to False Bay that is outlined in mountain, it gives a view that seems like a painting.  A packed lunch at the edge of the world was delicious.  Later that evening, I climbed Lion’s Head in Cape Town (it is the point to the right of Table Mountain) with Isaak, Ryan, and Andrew.  The climb was great.  The peak is not nearly as high as Table Mountain, but the hike is more challenging where there are points where you need to climb straight up the side using chains and ladders on the trail.  It is also situated almost in the middle of the city which gives it a spectacular view.  We decided to climb it to watch the sunset as encouraged by one of our guides up Table Mountain.  The sun setting over Cape Town and South Africa was truly a sight to see that was a highlight of the trip for me. 

The Atlantic and Indian Oceans meeting.

Me atop Lion's Head.

I will try and finish the last part of my trip in my next post, so stay tuned for that.  It rained all day yesterday, and it has cooled down considerably from early in the semester.  It is technically Fall here being in the Southern Hemisphere, so things are cooling down instead of heating up like back in the States.    It is still nowhere near a Minnesota Fall, but I must admit I did not give SA credit for having cold.  I look forward to sleeping under the covers from here on out.  Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Bobby

Jumping Into It

Hey Everyone,

It has been a while since my last post because of my trip to Cape Town.  A lot happened to say the least.  The best plan is to just run through it chronologically, so that is what I will do.

Thursday morning March 29^th our group started out by waking up bright and early with the sun rise to get on the road by 6:30.  Our first stop was the Bloukrans River.  The mission, jump off the bridge over the river at Face Adrenalin which is the highest bungy in the world at 216 meters (709 feet), so it is kind of high.  I cannot tell you how much of a rush that was.  I was very excited to do this because people I knew from past groups have encouraged me, and I think it embodies the entire spirit of the trip, taking a leap of faith and just going for it.  I stayed calm for the entire bus ride while some others were getting nervous.  I decided to prepare like a football game, and put on the IPod to get in the zone.   Starring out over the valley was both intimidating and exciting.  The jumping station was under the road part itself, so to walk out to it we had to take a cat-walk.  That was when things set in a little.  Yeah, I looked down.  Once at the jump station, we found the crew was playing loud house music which we could hear the entire walk.  It helped for a lot of us and we were able to have some fun while waiting instead of spending every second questioning what we were thinking buying our ticket 30 minutes ago.  Once they start strapping you up, everything happens pretty fast.  After I was all strapped up, I was helped bounce to the edge where they gave me a countdown 5.4.3.2.1.  They did not pause between any of the numbers and it goes too fast for you to think.  The air flew through my face as I fell, and I did my best to enjoy the great scenery in front of me while my heart pounds faster than I fall.  The music fell quiet as I was hundreds of feet below and bouncing above the river with the ocean in my background.  I was eventually pulled up slowly, but I was calm by this point, almost in a state of shock.  In total, about 25 of our 30 members jumped, some of whom made the decision on the way over from peer pressure.  Only one girl in the group had a nervous breakdown, but did quite well none-the-less.  It was truly a once in a lifetime experience that cannot even be described in words.

Bloukrans Bridge (the jump spot is in the middle under the road)

After that rush, we hopped back into the busses and moved our way further across the land.  We stopped for lunch in a beautiful town called Knysna which is consistently voted the best vacation spot in South Africa.  The stop was not too long because we were taking a slight detour to Cape Town and stopping in a town called Oudtshoorn.  Here we visited an ostrich farm and some of our group got to ride the large birds.  I am too heavy to ride them, but I enjoyed watching the others struggle to balance on the weird birds.  Ostriches have very large eggs, about 30 chicken eggs worth in one.  Talk about a big Easter egg!  After that, we checked into our hotel and went to a restaurant where I was able to eat the national animal of South Africa the springbok for a late dinner. 

Knysna the vacation town.

Friday morning the 30^th we started our day out by heading over to the Cango Caves and do some spelunking.  These were some cool caves, and we were able to go through a section that was the opposite of spacious at points.  Some of the names of the various sections were Love Hugs because it is impossible to go through without being “hugged” by the walls and Devil’s Chimney which was a small chute we climbed and I have no idea how I and everyone else was able to fit through.  Although I was not sure why anybody would first explore those vast dark caves in the dark, I enjoyed being like a kid again and climbing through the dirty tunnels. 

Molly riding an ostrich.

Once we were able to find our way out of the caves, it was Cape Town or bust.  We were able to make it to Cape Town around 6 pm.  Just in time for some dinner and off to the International Jazz Festival.  The festival was very cool.  There were five different stages with a variety of artists and groups.  I walked around with a small group checking out the different stages before settling at a stage that was playing some jazzy hip-hop and R&B.  To cap off the night, I watched one of the few non-South African groups in the festival, and fellow Minnesotans Atmosphere play a set.  The group is from South Minneapolis, and I have been a big fan of them since high school.  A group of us stayed after and were able to meet the lead singer of the group. 

Cape Town 

Overall those first two days were full, but they were just the beginning.  Cape Town is a very cool city which has a life of its own, and some of the most notable spots in South Africa.  I am going to try and get multiple posts up this week because of all the action that went on.  Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Bobby