Well, it has been over a month since I last posted on my blog, so I guess that means that I lied to you all when I said that I would post something every week or two, and I apologize for that. I suppose I won't get that A on my blogging grade for the semester (if there was one!). I posted a month ago and tons of things have happened since then, and here I am with only have one
week left before I leave. That just sounds crazy.
Maybe I should have seen this coming though. With all that has happened since we went to Cape Town and how busy we've been I had to make some decisions, and in the grand scheme of things I put my experiences in South Africa over my blog. When faced with the decision between hanging out with my South African friends or writing a blog, I chose hanging out with my South African friends. When I had to decide whether to write a paper or a blog, I chose the paper (I heard that sigh of relief, mom and dad). If I had to choose between blogging and going to underwater hockey practice, yes underwater hockey - google it, I chose underwater hockey. So, rest assured that I am still alive, having a great time, staying busy, and that I will be ready to come home in a week and see everyone, but probably not much sooner. Most of the people on the trip have already started to get sentimental, saying how much they will miss everything here and how much they learned from this experience, but I'm trying to not focus on the fact that I leave in only one week. Instead, I'm trying to focus on the fact that I still have one week left to experience South Africa, so that's what I'll do!
With finals and everything I have been really busy this week and I will also be really busy next week, so any thoughts, prayers, and extra sleep you could lend me is really appreciated! I probably won't get to post anything until I get home, except of course the final goodbye from South Africa next Thursday, but when I get home I'll probably fill in all of the gaps. So until then:
Cheers,
Kirby
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Human Rights Day
Saturday March 21st was Human Rights Day, a holiday in South Africa to commemorate a number of the atrocities that took place during the struggle against Apartheid, including the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961 and the Soweto uprising in 1976. So, to celebrate this day, numerous public celebrations take place around South Africa and a few happened in PE. As a group, we attended the official celebration in PE put on by the government. Now, it was very different from something that might happen in the US, especially since it is an election year here. You would think that an official government celebration like this would be free of politics or else there would be a lot of anger from those who thought it would disturb the desired mood of the day, but it was not so with this celebration.
It took place at a park/cattle grazing pasture in the middle of Uitenhage, an extremely poverty ridden township outside of PE, about a half an hour drive from Langerry. We left around 8:00 am and after getting lost, arrived at 9:00 and found what, instead of a multi-partisan event, was basically and African National Congress (ANC, the ruling party) political rally of about 3,000 people. And with the racial divide that still exists in South Africa, we were the only white people there except for a reporter and a photographer, and the people seemed to love it that we were there. It seemed like everyone we walked by gave us a smile and a friendly hello, and a number of people approached us to talk to us. There were speakers scheduled to start around 11:00 including Winnie Mandela, the x-wife of Nelson Mandela, and Julius Malema, president of the ANC youth league. However, due to some last minute scheduling conflicts they were not able to come, so they arranged for some other speakers. Before the speakers were scheduled to start, though, was probably the most interesting part of the day. Smaller groups of people formed and everyone in these groups would chant ANC sayings, sing songs, and dance around. Most people were sporting their ANC t-shirts and a number of those who weren’t were in traditional Xhosa dress. So, of course we all got in there and sang and danced with them, which definitely made me feel connected with them. Something I will never forget was when Zach, with an ANC shirt that someone he met there gave him, was in the middle of a big circle of people singing, dancing, and doing the ANC fist pump, all while the media photographer was snapping pictures of him! We all predicted that he would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country the next morning! It was a cultural experience like no other!
We ended up taking off around 1:00 and came back to the flats, which seemed like an entirely different world after that experience. It definitely makes me grateful for all that I have. Until next time.
Kirby
It took place at a park/cattle grazing pasture in the middle of Uitenhage, an extremely poverty ridden township outside of PE, about a half an hour drive from Langerry. We left around 8:00 am and after getting lost, arrived at 9:00 and found what, instead of a multi-partisan event, was basically and African National Congress (ANC, the ruling party) political rally of about 3,000 people. And with the racial divide that still exists in South Africa, we were the only white people there except for a reporter and a photographer, and the people seemed to love it that we were there. It seemed like everyone we walked by gave us a smile and a friendly hello, and a number of people approached us to talk to us. There were speakers scheduled to start around 11:00 including Winnie Mandela, the x-wife of Nelson Mandela, and Julius Malema, president of the ANC youth league. However, due to some last minute scheduling conflicts they were not able to come, so they arranged for some other speakers. Before the speakers were scheduled to start, though, was probably the most interesting part of the day. Smaller groups of people formed and everyone in these groups would chant ANC sayings, sing songs, and dance around. Most people were sporting their ANC t-shirts and a number of those who weren’t were in traditional Xhosa dress. So, of course we all got in there and sang and danced with them, which definitely made me feel connected with them. Something I will never forget was when Zach, with an ANC shirt that someone he met there gave him, was in the middle of a big circle of people singing, dancing, and doing the ANC fist pump, all while the media photographer was snapping pictures of him! We all predicted that he would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country the next morning! It was a cultural experience like no other!
We ended up taking off around 1:00 and came back to the flats, which seemed like an entirely different world after that experience. It definitely makes me grateful for all that I have. Until next time.
Kirby
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Group Excursions
If you haven’t noticed yet from my writing so far, there are a lot of activities organized by our director that we participate in as a group. The biggest of these are our group excursions. So far, we have had two day trips, one to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserves and one to Grahamstown and King Williamstown, and one weekend trip to Durban. Along with those, we are currently in Cape Town until Sunday, having left on Tuesday, and then we have another weekend trip to the frontier to stay with some Afrikaner (of Dutch ancestry) farmers on April 17th-19th.
I would say that my favourite excursion so far was the one to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserves, both located about an hour outside of Port Elizabeth. As you can maybe tell from the names, the main attraction at these places was the animals. This was one of our earlier excursions, taking place on Sunday February 15th (the same weekend we went to Jeffrey’s Bay). It was a pretty cold morning, but believe it or not, that was the nicer part of the day. After lunch it started raining a little bit, and then the rain picked up in the afternoon, and by about 4:00 it was pouring and it didn’t stop until we left around 9:00 pm. That was probably the worst weather we have had in the whole two months that we’ve been here. Despite the weather, it was a ton of fun, and was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me.
We left Langerry around 7am and drove there in a bus, our first stop being Addo. The park is huge and is designed with small gravel roads that wind through it and a few different lookout stations scattered around the park. But visitors mainly stay in their vehicles and drive around spotting animals along the gravel roads, staying within the safety of their vehicles. There are, after all, three of Africa’s “Big Five” land animals within the park that would make a quick lunch out of you if they felt threatened. And wow did we see animals. We saw ostriches, springbok, kudu, warthogs, eland, and meerkats to name a few. The animals that were kind of the highlight were the flightless dung beetle (an endangered species that cars are required to stop for if they see one crossing the road), and cape buffalo and elephants, both members of the big five. Along with us, kind of acting as a tour guide, was a man named Bradley Levak, who has worked with our program in past years and has also done other things with our group. He grew up in the poorer townships during the 1980’s, the most intense years of unrest before the end of Apartheid. He is very knowledgeable and seems to have an infinite number of fascinating life stories about the struggle against Apartheid. Anyway, we drove around the park all morning and ate a quick lunch, then left Addo around 1:00pm for Schotia Game Reserves.
While Addo is a national park, Schotia is a private organization that owns maybe 600 – 1000 acres of African prairie land. On the land, they keep wild African animals that have been somewhat domesticated by all of the tours going through. If you were to imagine a “safari” from the movies I suppose that this would be pretty similar, only on private land. They have a handful of big Land Rovers that guides would drive through the park with tourists sitting on the open back. So, we split up into groups of about ten and spent the afternoon spotting animals from these huge Land Rovers. Keep in mind that this was the point in the day where the rain was coming down hardest and we were in a vehicle without any top, so we got soaking wet and a bit chilly. But the animals provided enough of a distraction, so we didn’t really notice the cold too much. Some of the highlights were wildebeest, crocodiles, hippos, impala, kudu, zebra (definitely white with black stripes, or was it black with white stripes?), giraffe, and rhinos. The climax of the day came when we saw the lions. Everyone else got to see a huge male, but just after we drove up and parked the vehicle, a lioness and four lion cubs approached him from opposite of us. Watching them was unbelievable, and I had to pinch myself a couple of times to make sure I was awake. Eventually they wandered off though, and we headed back for the park’s headquarters. We got there by the time it was dark and had a dinner that was included with the safari. We had kudu meat stew served over rice, my first bit of African game, and it was delicious! After eating, having a couple of drinks, and hanging out with our guides for a while, we left for PE. I would have to say that Addo and Schotia were probably my favourite part of my trip to Africa so far.
Our next group excursion was a weekend trip to Durban, a city in South Africa about an hour’s flight up the northeast coast of South Africa. It has a very large Indian population, so a number of things we did were to experience the Indian influence in the area. We left PE on Thursday March 5th and got back early on Monday the 9th. So, on Thursday we got there at around 4:00pm after a flight with some hilarious flight attendants. Our first stop was the Temple of Understanding, a temple for the Hare Krishna religion. The architecture and decoration of the temple was pretty cool and it was interesting hearing about their religion. Right after that was my favourite part of the day, a private performance by a pretty famous cultural dancing company. They do a number of different styles of dancing, including Xhosa, Zulu (both South African tribes), and Indian, and sometimes blend them with other dance styles. Afterwards we went out to eat at a buffet style Indian restaurant. The food was delicious of course, very spicy, and I ate way too much. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out at our backpacker.
On Friday we had a tour of the city center, which is best described as a mixture between the big buildings of downtown Minneapolis, the crowded streets of New York, and a the small shops and street vendors of a crowded marketplace. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Also as part of the tour we had a tour of one of the largest Muslim mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. We had a former Baptist minister turned Muslim explain some of the traditions, and basically highlight the similarities between Christianity and Islam. We also went to some of the open air markets in Durban where they had everything from toys to food to jewellery in a big open-air market. Included was one of the largest herb markets in Africa. It was a very interesting morning and we got a very good glimpse into life in Durban. We had some free time in the afternoon, which I spent out to eat with some friends, which ended up being a two and a half hour ordeal. That is one thing that was pretty tough for me to adjust to in South Africa, the slow service in restaurants, even fast food places. So to avoid this I cook almost all of my meals when we’re in PE at my flat and am basically working my way to becoming a five star chef! Anyway, for the evening we went to a small restaurant and cocktail bar by the harbour to listen to live jazz performance and afterwards went out to a dance club.
Saturday morning we went to an Apartheid museum, giving us a more fathomable look into the lives of the oppressed people of the Apartheid era. It was a pretty sombre experience to say the least. In the afternoon we had the option of going to an afternoon of a five day cricket test match between South Africa and Australia, which I passed on so that I could go scuba diving! We were hoping to go at a very famous sight south of Durban, but the sea conditions were bad all weekend, so we dove in a tank in their Marine World. It was really cool. We got to see a bunch of sting rays and devil rays, the biggest being six feet in diameter. Our evening entertainment was the Bolshoi Russian Ballet. I guess they are very famous, and the performance was stunning.
On Sunday we had mostly optional events. Myself and eight others got up early for a boat trip in the harbour and the beachfront of Durban. In the late morning and afternoon a number of us went on a hike in a nature reserve about half an hour from our backpacker. It was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a little bit and get some fresh air. They also had some pet snakes there, so they fed one for us, and then they took their huge python out of its cage to show everyone and I got to hold it! For the evening, we went to a one man, one act play. It was pretty much a stand-up comedy routine with a storyline, except almost all of the jokes played off of South African things, so they were beyond us.
On Monday we left the backpacker at 6:00am for our 8:00am flight back to PE. Lucky for us, we didn’t have class that day, so I spent a bunch of time hanging out on the beach and doing some reading.
Our third big group excursion was to Grahamstown and King Wiliamstown on Friday the 13th of March, focusing mainly on land redistribution (redistributing land to the owners who owned the land before it was taken by white people throughout the 1900’s). The cities aren’t more than a couple of hours from PE, so we took a charter bus up there. Also accompanying us was Bradley Levak, the same guy who went to Addo and Schotia with us. Our first stop was in Grahamstown where we basically had someone explain how colonialism started in the area with British settlers landing on the shores. We then stopped at a small, traditional Xhosa art shop and museum in Grahamstown. The next stop was in a small town called Paddie, where the mayor talked to us about the African National Congress (the ruling party in SA) and their plan for land redistribution. After his talk then lunch there, we continued on to King Williamstown. The stop there was to visit Steve Biko’s former house, a big figure that died during struggle against Apartheid. We then drove back to Grahamstown where myself and ten others left the rest of the group to do some travelling on our own for the rest of the weekend.
Well, I realize that this got extremely long, and I apologize for it. Also, the internet is extremely slow here, so I will be posting some pictures to go along with this blog after I get back to PE. I send my love from Cape Town.
Peace,
Kirby
I would say that my favourite excursion so far was the one to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserves, both located about an hour outside of Port Elizabeth. As you can maybe tell from the names, the main attraction at these places was the animals. This was one of our earlier excursions, taking place on Sunday February 15th (the same weekend we went to Jeffrey’s Bay). It was a pretty cold morning, but believe it or not, that was the nicer part of the day. After lunch it started raining a little bit, and then the rain picked up in the afternoon, and by about 4:00 it was pouring and it didn’t stop until we left around 9:00 pm. That was probably the worst weather we have had in the whole two months that we’ve been here. Despite the weather, it was a ton of fun, and was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me.
We left Langerry around 7am and drove there in a bus, our first stop being Addo. The park is huge and is designed with small gravel roads that wind through it and a few different lookout stations scattered around the park. But visitors mainly stay in their vehicles and drive around spotting animals along the gravel roads, staying within the safety of their vehicles. There are, after all, three of Africa’s “Big Five” land animals within the park that would make a quick lunch out of you if they felt threatened. And wow did we see animals. We saw ostriches, springbok, kudu, warthogs, eland, and meerkats to name a few. The animals that were kind of the highlight were the flightless dung beetle (an endangered species that cars are required to stop for if they see one crossing the road), and cape buffalo and elephants, both members of the big five. Along with us, kind of acting as a tour guide, was a man named Bradley Levak, who has worked with our program in past years and has also done other things with our group. He grew up in the poorer townships during the 1980’s, the most intense years of unrest before the end of Apartheid. He is very knowledgeable and seems to have an infinite number of fascinating life stories about the struggle against Apartheid. Anyway, we drove around the park all morning and ate a quick lunch, then left Addo around 1:00pm for Schotia Game Reserves.
While Addo is a national park, Schotia is a private organization that owns maybe 600 – 1000 acres of African prairie land. On the land, they keep wild African animals that have been somewhat domesticated by all of the tours going through. If you were to imagine a “safari” from the movies I suppose that this would be pretty similar, only on private land. They have a handful of big Land Rovers that guides would drive through the park with tourists sitting on the open back. So, we split up into groups of about ten and spent the afternoon spotting animals from these huge Land Rovers. Keep in mind that this was the point in the day where the rain was coming down hardest and we were in a vehicle without any top, so we got soaking wet and a bit chilly. But the animals provided enough of a distraction, so we didn’t really notice the cold too much. Some of the highlights were wildebeest, crocodiles, hippos, impala, kudu, zebra (definitely white with black stripes, or was it black with white stripes?), giraffe, and rhinos. The climax of the day came when we saw the lions. Everyone else got to see a huge male, but just after we drove up and parked the vehicle, a lioness and four lion cubs approached him from opposite of us. Watching them was unbelievable, and I had to pinch myself a couple of times to make sure I was awake. Eventually they wandered off though, and we headed back for the park’s headquarters. We got there by the time it was dark and had a dinner that was included with the safari. We had kudu meat stew served over rice, my first bit of African game, and it was delicious! After eating, having a couple of drinks, and hanging out with our guides for a while, we left for PE. I would have to say that Addo and Schotia were probably my favourite part of my trip to Africa so far.
Our next group excursion was a weekend trip to Durban, a city in South Africa about an hour’s flight up the northeast coast of South Africa. It has a very large Indian population, so a number of things we did were to experience the Indian influence in the area. We left PE on Thursday March 5th and got back early on Monday the 9th. So, on Thursday we got there at around 4:00pm after a flight with some hilarious flight attendants. Our first stop was the Temple of Understanding, a temple for the Hare Krishna religion. The architecture and decoration of the temple was pretty cool and it was interesting hearing about their religion. Right after that was my favourite part of the day, a private performance by a pretty famous cultural dancing company. They do a number of different styles of dancing, including Xhosa, Zulu (both South African tribes), and Indian, and sometimes blend them with other dance styles. Afterwards we went out to eat at a buffet style Indian restaurant. The food was delicious of course, very spicy, and I ate way too much. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out at our backpacker.
On Friday we had a tour of the city center, which is best described as a mixture between the big buildings of downtown Minneapolis, the crowded streets of New York, and a the small shops and street vendors of a crowded marketplace. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Also as part of the tour we had a tour of one of the largest Muslim mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. We had a former Baptist minister turned Muslim explain some of the traditions, and basically highlight the similarities between Christianity and Islam. We also went to some of the open air markets in Durban where they had everything from toys to food to jewellery in a big open-air market. Included was one of the largest herb markets in Africa. It was a very interesting morning and we got a very good glimpse into life in Durban. We had some free time in the afternoon, which I spent out to eat with some friends, which ended up being a two and a half hour ordeal. That is one thing that was pretty tough for me to adjust to in South Africa, the slow service in restaurants, even fast food places. So to avoid this I cook almost all of my meals when we’re in PE at my flat and am basically working my way to becoming a five star chef! Anyway, for the evening we went to a small restaurant and cocktail bar by the harbour to listen to live jazz performance and afterwards went out to a dance club.
Saturday morning we went to an Apartheid museum, giving us a more fathomable look into the lives of the oppressed people of the Apartheid era. It was a pretty sombre experience to say the least. In the afternoon we had the option of going to an afternoon of a five day cricket test match between South Africa and Australia, which I passed on so that I could go scuba diving! We were hoping to go at a very famous sight south of Durban, but the sea conditions were bad all weekend, so we dove in a tank in their Marine World. It was really cool. We got to see a bunch of sting rays and devil rays, the biggest being six feet in diameter. Our evening entertainment was the Bolshoi Russian Ballet. I guess they are very famous, and the performance was stunning.
On Sunday we had mostly optional events. Myself and eight others got up early for a boat trip in the harbour and the beachfront of Durban. In the late morning and afternoon a number of us went on a hike in a nature reserve about half an hour from our backpacker. It was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a little bit and get some fresh air. They also had some pet snakes there, so they fed one for us, and then they took their huge python out of its cage to show everyone and I got to hold it! For the evening, we went to a one man, one act play. It was pretty much a stand-up comedy routine with a storyline, except almost all of the jokes played off of South African things, so they were beyond us.
On Monday we left the backpacker at 6:00am for our 8:00am flight back to PE. Lucky for us, we didn’t have class that day, so I spent a bunch of time hanging out on the beach and doing some reading.
Our third big group excursion was to Grahamstown and King Wiliamstown on Friday the 13th of March, focusing mainly on land redistribution (redistributing land to the owners who owned the land before it was taken by white people throughout the 1900’s). The cities aren’t more than a couple of hours from PE, so we took a charter bus up there. Also accompanying us was Bradley Levak, the same guy who went to Addo and Schotia with us. Our first stop was in Grahamstown where we basically had someone explain how colonialism started in the area with British settlers landing on the shores. We then stopped at a small, traditional Xhosa art shop and museum in Grahamstown. The next stop was in a small town called Paddie, where the mayor talked to us about the African National Congress (the ruling party in SA) and their plan for land redistribution. After his talk then lunch there, we continued on to King Williamstown. The stop there was to visit Steve Biko’s former house, a big figure that died during struggle against Apartheid. We then drove back to Grahamstown where myself and ten others left the rest of the group to do some travelling on our own for the rest of the weekend.
Well, I realize that this got extremely long, and I apologize for it. Also, the internet is extremely slow here, so I will be posting some pictures to go along with this blog after I get back to PE. I send my love from Cape Town.
Peace,
Kirby
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Everyday Adventures…
Along with the travelling that I have been doing, there have been plenty of things going on in my day to day life. Of course I have had classes (which I am enjoying so far), my first round of papers due, a test, and a number of other activities.
One thing that I have always wanted to do is scuba diving, and what better place than South Africa? In order to dive, you need to become certified and it just so happens that classes are
about ½ the price in South Africa as at home. With the ocean so handy and the price incentive, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream. So myself and five others took a private class over the weekend of February 21st and 22nd and finished with a dive on February 28th. The class was pretty fun and I loved going on the dives. We saw a bunch of marine plants on the reef we were at, a lot of fish, a squid, and even a Ragged Tooth Shark that was about 6 feet long! Our instructor was also really cool and he agreed to guide us on some dives in the area, including night dive and a shark dive! I am really excited.
Another fun part of our trip has been the different sporting events that we have attended. The faculty director, Gary, is a pretty big sports fan, so he has arranged for us to go to a number of professional sporting events here. My favourite ones were probably the cricket matches that we attended. Cricket is a very popular sport in South Africa, so they have a well-followed professional league and one of the best national teams in the world. Since arriving I have attended three matches of Port Elizabeth’s professional team the Warriors, and they were a blast. They were earlier on in the trip, taking place on Friday
February 6th, Sunday February 15th, and Wednesday February 18th. At first I didn’t really think much of the game other than a hard to understand and slow paced game, but towards the end of that first match when I started to understand it, things started to get exciting and I got hooked. We also attended a professional soccer game in PE on Sunday February 8th. I didn’t enjoy that one as much, but it was definitely a cultural experience. It is difficult to describe, but I would say the most interesting part would have been right near the end of the game, as PE was losing 1-0. All of a sudden maybe half or more of the couple odd thousand crowd stood up and, out of nowhere, started singing in Xhosa (a tribal language) to rally the team. This wasn’t the rowdy crowd type of singing that you would expect, but actually really good. Everyone was on key and there were even people singing in harmony. It was better than a lot of choirs that I have heard and is a great reflection of the large role that music plays in everyday South African life. We also went to a Rugby Match between NMMU and the University of Johannesburg on Monday March 16th. I enjoyed it somewhat, despite the fact that it was a pretty cold, windy, and misty night. There wasn’t anything too unique about it and was similar to any other college sporting event.
Along with all of that, we have more recently done a couple of special field trips for classes. On Thursday morning March 12th, for marine bio we took a trip to the Sardinia Bay beach for a practical on sandy beach ecology. We spent all morning on the beach collecting samples of sand and sifting through them, collecting the marine life that we found. It definitely makes me envious of our professor who, before we started, welcomed us to her “office” that was the beautiful beach we were on. We also had a little field trip for our South African Music class this past Wednesday night the 18th. A band called Babu had a concert at NMMU in the little theatre, so those of us in the music class went to that. The band was all instrumental and kind of a mix between Indian
music and rock, with a guitarist, bass guitarist, a drummer, and another percussionist who played the bongos and the oboe. It was a pretty relaxed, the musicians were very talented, and I loved the music.
I am also enjoying the fellow students that are on my trip. All 30 of us have gotten to know each other pretty well and are having a good time. Being on a trip like this, we end up spending a lot of time together since we live in such close proximity and have all of the same classes, so I have really been getting to know everyone well. A favourite social activity is going to dance clubs in the area. Wednesday nights seem to be the popular night and we mostly go to a place about three blocks away called Toby Joe’s. We also have done a number of events put together by people in our group. One example is potlucks that we have in our flats. The 30 of us are split up into 6 different flats, so every other Tuesday one flat hosts a potluck. They choose a theme and assign the other flats dishes to bring and we spend maybe an hour or two just eating, hanging out, listening to music, and having a good time! My flat hosted the one on Tuesday March 3rd. Our theme was Bosnian food since one of my roommates, Boris, lived in Bosnia before coming to St. John’s.
Well, I think that’s about it for now. Life is still good down here, the weather is nice, and I am trying to experience “South Africa with no illusions” as Gary, our faculty director, would say. I am hoping to get a blog posted later this week on the various group excursions that we have done, so be sure and check back!
With Love,
Kirby
One thing that I have always wanted to do is scuba diving, and what better place than South Africa? In order to dive, you need to become certified and it just so happens that classes are
about ½ the price in South Africa as at home. With the ocean so handy and the price incentive, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream. So myself and five others took a private class over the weekend of February 21st and 22nd and finished with a dive on February 28th. The class was pretty fun and I loved going on the dives. We saw a bunch of marine plants on the reef we were at, a lot of fish, a squid, and even a Ragged Tooth Shark that was about 6 feet long! Our instructor was also really cool and he agreed to guide us on some dives in the area, including night dive and a shark dive! I am really excited.Another fun part of our trip has been the different sporting events that we have attended. The faculty director, Gary, is a pretty big sports fan, so he has arranged for us to go to a number of professional sporting events here. My favourite ones were probably the cricket matches that we attended. Cricket is a very popular sport in South Africa, so they have a well-followed professional league and one of the best national teams in the world. Since arriving I have attended three matches of Port Elizabeth’s professional team the Warriors, and they were a blast. They were earlier on in the trip, taking place on Friday
February 6th, Sunday February 15th, and Wednesday February 18th. At first I didn’t really think much of the game other than a hard to understand and slow paced game, but towards the end of that first match when I started to understand it, things started to get exciting and I got hooked. We also attended a professional soccer game in PE on Sunday February 8th. I didn’t enjoy that one as much, but it was definitely a cultural experience. It is difficult to describe, but I would say the most interesting part would have been right near the end of the game, as PE was losing 1-0. All of a sudden maybe half or more of the couple odd thousand crowd stood up and, out of nowhere, started singing in Xhosa (a tribal language) to rally the team. This wasn’t the rowdy crowd type of singing that you would expect, but actually really good. Everyone was on key and there were even people singing in harmony. It was better than a lot of choirs that I have heard and is a great reflection of the large role that music plays in everyday South African life. We also went to a Rugby Match between NMMU and the University of Johannesburg on Monday March 16th. I enjoyed it somewhat, despite the fact that it was a pretty cold, windy, and misty night. There wasn’t anything too unique about it and was similar to any other college sporting event.Along with all of that, we have more recently done a couple of special field trips for classes. On Thursday morning March 12th, for marine bio we took a trip to the Sardinia Bay beach for a practical on sandy beach ecology. We spent all morning on the beach collecting samples of sand and sifting through them, collecting the marine life that we found. It definitely makes me envious of our professor who, before we started, welcomed us to her “office” that was the beautiful beach we were on. We also had a little field trip for our South African Music class this past Wednesday night the 18th. A band called Babu had a concert at NMMU in the little theatre, so those of us in the music class went to that. The band was all instrumental and kind of a mix between Indian
music and rock, with a guitarist, bass guitarist, a drummer, and another percussionist who played the bongos and the oboe. It was a pretty relaxed, the musicians were very talented, and I loved the music.I am also enjoying the fellow students that are on my trip. All 30 of us have gotten to know each other pretty well and are having a good time. Being on a trip like this, we end up spending a lot of time together since we live in such close proximity and have all of the same classes, so I have really been getting to know everyone well. A favourite social activity is going to dance clubs in the area. Wednesday nights seem to be the popular night and we mostly go to a place about three blocks away called Toby Joe’s. We also have done a number of events put together by people in our group. One example is potlucks that we have in our flats. The 30 of us are split up into 6 different flats, so every other Tuesday one flat hosts a potluck. They choose a theme and assign the other flats dishes to bring and we spend maybe an hour or two just eating, hanging out, listening to music, and having a good time! My flat hosted the one on Tuesday March 3rd. Our theme was Bosnian food since one of my roommates, Boris, lived in Bosnia before coming to St. John’s.
Well, I think that’s about it for now. Life is still good down here, the weather is nice, and I am trying to experience “South Africa with no illusions” as Gary, our faculty director, would say. I am hoping to get a blog posted later this week on the various group excursions that we have done, so be sure and check back!
With Love,
Kirby
Picture Captions:
Top (Right): Three of us Scuba Divers getting ready for one of the training dives on Feb. 22nd.
Middle (Left): View from the stands at our first ever professional cricket match!
Bottom (right): Myself and five others on the trip, hanging out outside of the Library at NMMU! From the Left: Bree, Laura, Me, Jenny, Kelsey, and Nick.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Weekend trips!
Alright, get ready for some great adventures! First of all, the number of weekends available for travelling on our own is very limited due to the large number of group excursions on weekends, leaving us with only seven free weekends over the entire four months. Obviously there are a lot of sights to see, so we have been proactive as a group in planning and executing trip plans. The first weekend trip that I went on was on Friday and Saturday the 13th and 14th of February, a weekend where we had nothing planned as a group on Friday and Saturday, then a group excursion to Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Game Reserves on Sunday. A large number of us chose to visit Jeffrey’s Bay, or J-Bay as it is commonly called, which is a little more than an hour away from Port Elizabeth. Renting cars here is pretty easy to do and cheap, so that is the preferred method of transportation to our destinations.
So, we left for Jo-Bay on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. Here is a very brief description of it: a surfer’s paradise. It is considered one of the top four or five surfing destinations in the world and each July the Billabong Pro surfing competition takes place, attracting surfers from all over the world.We stayed at a backpacker called Island Vibe, a really cool place on the beach with a great view of the ocean and the city. It was pretty cheap and a lot of fun in general, both very important characteristics. While there, we of course gave surfing a shot, something I had relatively good success at. A few of us also tried sandboarding, which is basically snowboarding on sand dunes by a beach in 90 degree weather! It has its ups and was a fun experience, but I prefer snowboarding. One of my favourite parts of the trip, believe it or not, was dinner on Friday night. We ate at a place called Die Walskipper, an awesome seafood restaurant situated right on the beach only a few minutes from our backpacker. It is open air, with nothing but a large tent and one wall that serves as a wind block for shelter, and the coolest part, the floor is sand! It was really relaxing and the group had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the evening! Overall, Jeffrey’s Bay was a great weekend trip and a definite highlight!
The other weekend trip that I went on was to Knysna and Plettenburg bay on Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of February. For those of us in Marine Biology, our last day of class for the week is on Thursday afternoon, so five of us took advantage of this and left right after class. It was a pretty short trip, where we had to be back by Friday night so that those of us in the Scuba Diving class (something I will touch on in a later blog) could go diving on Saturday morning.
We got on the road by 12:30pm on Thursday afternoon and arrived around 3:30pm. The initial plan was to do an overnight hiking route along the coast. However, due to lack of information, we arrived too late in the day to make the hike out to the hut we were planning on staying at. It was a surprising turn of events, but each of us explored some different options, and we ended up making some great plans. On Thursday in the late afternoon, we went on a little cruise of the Lagoon that the city is built around. It was very relaxing and a good time chatting with those I was travelling with. Afterwards, we went to dinner at
a restaurant famous for its oysters, called the Oyster Catcher. We tried some of the oysters which were wonderfully prepared and something I wouldn’t mind having again. On Friday morning we got up relatively early and went on a hike about 20 minutes outside of Knysna. It wasn’t quite the ocean-side hike I was expecting, but it was pretty nice. It was actually surprisingly similar to those in Minnesota. Afterwards we 
stopped by Plettenberg Bay, stayed briefly, then continued on to our next destination, Monkeyland! As its name hints at, Monkeyland is basically a section of forest with a wall around it and a ton of monkeys inside then made into a tourist destination. We got really close to a bunch of the monkeys, and had a lot of fun learning about them. Afterwards, we checked out a bridge that spans a huge gorge, also home to the highest bungee jump in the world. We didn’t actually bungee jump that day, but took in the great view and mentally prepared for something that we will definitely do before leaving. Afterwards we headed back towards PE, which was itself an adventure I suppose. The driving is quite a bit different than in the US and the common practices have taken a little bit of getting used to. Besides driving on the left side of the 
road, it is common courtesy for slower moving vehicles to move partly or all the way onto the shoulder (without slowing down) so that faster moving vehicles can pass. You can imagine driving down the road with, for example, one oncoming truck passing another. Let me just say, I definitely gripped the steering wheel tighter in those moments! But it has gone well. On only a couple of occasions did instinct kick in and I accidentally drove on the right hand side, but luckily they were on remote roads.
So there is a little sample of what I have been up to since getting here. They were both great experiences and definitely make me excited for the ones to come!
I guess this blog did get a little bit long, so I apologize, but I will work on getting caught up. Sending my love from South Africa,
Kirby
So, we left for Jo-Bay on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. Here is a very brief description of it: a surfer’s paradise. It is considered one of the top four or five surfing destinations in the world and each July the Billabong Pro surfing competition takes place, attracting surfers from all over the world.We stayed at a backpacker called Island Vibe, a really cool place on the beach with a great view of the ocean and the city. It was pretty cheap and a lot of fun in general, both very important characteristics. While there, we of course gave surfing a shot, something I had relatively good success at. A few of us also tried sandboarding, which is basically snowboarding on sand dunes by a beach in 90 degree weather! It has its ups and was a fun experience, but I prefer snowboarding. One of my favourite parts of the trip, believe it or not, was dinner on Friday night. We ate at a place called Die Walskipper, an awesome seafood restaurant situated right on the beach only a few minutes from our backpacker. It is open air, with nothing but a large tent and one wall that serves as a wind block for shelter, and the coolest part, the floor is sand! It was really relaxing and the group had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the evening! Overall, Jeffrey’s Bay was a great weekend trip and a definite highlight!
The other weekend trip that I went on was to Knysna and Plettenburg bay on Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of February. For those of us in Marine Biology, our last day of class for the week is on Thursday afternoon, so five of us took advantage of this and left right after class. It was a pretty short trip, where we had to be back by Friday night so that those of us in the Scuba Diving class (something I will touch on in a later blog) could go diving on Saturday morning.
We got on the road by 12:30pm on Thursday afternoon and arrived around 3:30pm. The initial plan was to do an overnight hiking route along the coast. However, due to lack of information, we arrived too late in the day to make the hike out to the hut we were planning on staying at. It was a surprising turn of events, but each of us explored some different options, and we ended up making some great plans. On Thursday in the late afternoon, we went on a little cruise of the Lagoon that the city is built around. It was very relaxing and a good time chatting with those I was travelling with. Afterwards, we went to dinner at
a restaurant famous for its oysters, called the Oyster Catcher. We tried some of the oysters which were wonderfully prepared and something I wouldn’t mind having again. On Friday morning we got up relatively early and went on a hike about 20 minutes outside of Knysna. It wasn’t quite the ocean-side hike I was expecting, but it was pretty nice. It was actually surprisingly similar to those in Minnesota. Afterwards we 
stopped by Plettenberg Bay, stayed briefly, then continued on to our next destination, Monkeyland! As its name hints at, Monkeyland is basically a section of forest with a wall around it and a ton of monkeys inside then made into a tourist destination. We got really close to a bunch of the monkeys, and had a lot of fun learning about them. Afterwards, we checked out a bridge that spans a huge gorge, also home to the highest bungee jump in the world. We didn’t actually bungee jump that day, but took in the great view and mentally prepared for something that we will definitely do before leaving. Afterwards we headed back towards PE, which was itself an adventure I suppose. The driving is quite a bit different than in the US and the common practices have taken a little bit of getting used to. Besides driving on the left side of the 
road, it is common courtesy for slower moving vehicles to move partly or all the way onto the shoulder (without slowing down) so that faster moving vehicles can pass. You can imagine driving down the road with, for example, one oncoming truck passing another. Let me just say, I definitely gripped the steering wheel tighter in those moments! But it has gone well. On only a couple of occasions did instinct kick in and I accidentally drove on the right hand side, but luckily they were on remote roads.So there is a little sample of what I have been up to since getting here. They were both great experiences and definitely make me excited for the ones to come!
I guess this blog did get a little bit long, so I apologize, but I will work on getting caught up. Sending my love from South Africa,
Kirby
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Preview!
Well, I haven’t blogged in quite a while, which was completely unintended. I have been a lot busier than I foresaw, especially with my Senior Seminar and Lit papers that were due last week, then our group excursion to Durban this past weekend. I have been hearing some critiques of my blogging habits, and I will do my best to accommodate people’s wishes. So, to save you from having to read a novel, I am going to try and update it more frequently, and catch everyone up on the past few weeks. In order to help you (and probably myself) piece together what has been happening, here is a little outline of what I have been up to, mostly on weekends, outside of my normal routine.
Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th of February: Weekend trip to Jeffrey’s Bay
Sunday the 15th of February: Group excursion to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserves
Friday-Sunday the 20th - 22nd of February: In PE
Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of February: Weekend trip to Knysna and Plettenburg Bay
Tuesday the 3rd and Wedensday the 4th of March: 1st two papers due :(
Thursday the 5th – Monday the 9th of March: Group Excursion to Durban
I hope that this helps, and rest assured, I will blog about all of these activities very soon!
With Love,
Kirby
Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th of February: Weekend trip to Jeffrey’s Bay
Sunday the 15th of February: Group excursion to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Game Reserves
Friday-Sunday the 20th - 22nd of February: In PE
Thursday and Friday the 26th and 27th of February: Weekend trip to Knysna and Plettenburg Bay
Tuesday the 3rd and Wedensday the 4th of March: 1st two papers due :(
Thursday the 5th – Monday the 9th of March: Group Excursion to Durban
I hope that this helps, and rest assured, I will blog about all of these activities very soon!
With Love,
Kirby
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Daily Life
Wow. It has been about two weeks since I last blogged, but so much has happened that it seems like a month! There is definitely a lot to tell, so bear with me with this one. It might get a little bit long. I am going to outline a little bit about daily life first, then I will tell about some of the adventures that I have embarked on since I last blogged.
If you were at all worried that I would be on a four month straight vacation over here, you are quite wrong, as I have been finding out the past couple of weeks. I am taking five classes for 18 credits, so it will be a semester filled with academic work, and along with that volunteering, traveling, and learning the ins and outs of the culture.
Our class schedule is different than the normal one at both CSB/SJU and here at NMMU. The classes that we take are only for those in our study abroad group, so the schedule is set according to what works best for us. Each has anywhere from 12 to 30 students and there is one period in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning period is from 9:00am to 12:00pm and the afternoon period is from 2:00pm until 5:00pm. My first class of the week is on Monday afternoons. It is South African Music, a class that is interesting, but a little bit over my head since the last formal music education I had was piano lessons in 6th grade. But I’m sure that I’ll get the hang of it soon enough. On Tuesday afternoons I have Senior Seminar which is required to graduate and is done on almost all study abroad programs even though basically everyone on the trips are juniors. Then on every other Wednesday morning we have a two credit service learning class. It is an in-class discussion on the volunteering we do at Pendla Primary School and House of Resurrection. We discuss the immediate impact we have on those we serve, how we can have a lasting impact on the organizations, and things that we can learn from the experience. On Wednesday afternoons I have South African Literature and my last and favorite class of the week is on Thursday morning, Marine Biology. Yup, that is not a typo; my last class of the week is on Thursday morning! As part of the program we have every Friday off. This is to free up our schedule for the multiple group excursions throughout the semester. It also encourages smaller weekend trips on our own so that we can get a full experience of South Africa.
Along with classes, everyone in the group can choose to volunteer at either the House of Resurrection Aids Haven or Pendla Primary School, both institutions that mainly serve underprivileged children from the townships. I volunteer at Pendla where we work as teacher’s aids. I am working with Dave, my roommate and Europe travel partner, as an aid to a sixth and seventh grade math teacher. We have only been there twice, once for orientation and once volunteering, but I already know that it will be a life changing experience. These children have so little, but they seem to smile all the time!
It is definitely a learning experience. When we got there the teacher we were to work with must have thought that we were education majors. During our orientation he told us what each class was learning about and then when we got there the first day he attended to other business while Dave and I taught class. What a scary experience! That day alone gave me unbelievable respect for any teacher I have ever had, because it is hard work. By the second class, we composed ourselves, made a plan, and taught class in a fairly orderly way, but we still have a lot to learn.
Obviously it got a little bit hectic in the classroom, but outside during recess is a blast! The first day the bell rang, the children of course rushed out of the classroom, Dave and I collected our things, then stepped outside. Once outside it was like we were magnets for little kids, because almost instantaneously I was surrounded by about ten or fifteen kindergarten and first graders. Each of them wanted to come close and play with me or even just touch me. They kept feeling my hair, pinching my nose, and holding my hand. After this little get to know you, I just played simple games with them. Running around with them, chasing them, picking them up, and of course giving them horseback rides on my knee. By the end of it, I was pooped, and then had to teach another class!
Needless to say, after the first day I was completely worn out. I had two hours before class, so I plopped down on my bed, closed my eyes, and was out like a little baby. I expect this to be a trend that continues all the way through the semester. Even though I was worn out, I loved the experience and can’t wait to go back.
So, these past two weeks have been packed with myself and the rest of the group getting used to our new schedules, starting classes, and doing the relatively little amount of homework to be done. I love it, I can’t wait for what’s to come, and it will definitely be difficult to leave in three months. That’s about it for now, but I will probably be writing again soon about some of the adventures we have had, so stay tuned!
I also would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. Anything I hear back is encouraging and is a reminder about my loved ones back home. I would not be here without all of you, so THANK YOU!
With love,
Kirby
If you were at all worried that I would be on a four month straight vacation over here, you are quite wrong, as I have been finding out the past couple of weeks. I am taking five classes for 18 credits, so it will be a semester filled with academic work, and along with that volunteering, traveling, and learning the ins and outs of the culture.
Our class schedule is different than the normal one at both CSB/SJU and here at NMMU. The classes that we take are only for those in our study abroad group, so the schedule is set according to what works best for us. Each has anywhere from 12 to 30 students and there is one period in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning period is from 9:00am to 12:00pm and the afternoon period is from 2:00pm until 5:00pm. My first class of the week is on Monday afternoons. It is South African Music, a class that is interesting, but a little bit over my head since the last formal music education I had was piano lessons in 6th grade. But I’m sure that I’ll get the hang of it soon enough. On Tuesday afternoons I have Senior Seminar which is required to graduate and is done on almost all study abroad programs even though basically everyone on the trips are juniors. Then on every other Wednesday morning we have a two credit service learning class. It is an in-class discussion on the volunteering we do at Pendla Primary School and House of Resurrection. We discuss the immediate impact we have on those we serve, how we can have a lasting impact on the organizations, and things that we can learn from the experience. On Wednesday afternoons I have South African Literature and my last and favorite class of the week is on Thursday morning, Marine Biology. Yup, that is not a typo; my last class of the week is on Thursday morning! As part of the program we have every Friday off. This is to free up our schedule for the multiple group excursions throughout the semester. It also encourages smaller weekend trips on our own so that we can get a full experience of South Africa.
Along with classes, everyone in the group can choose to volunteer at either the House of Resurrection Aids Haven or Pendla Primary School, both institutions that mainly serve underprivileged children from the townships. I volunteer at Pendla where we work as teacher’s aids. I am working with Dave, my roommate and Europe travel partner, as an aid to a sixth and seventh grade math teacher. We have only been there twice, once for orientation and once volunteering, but I already know that it will be a life changing experience. These children have so little, but they seem to smile all the time!
It is definitely a learning experience. When we got there the teacher we were to work with must have thought that we were education majors. During our orientation he told us what each class was learning about and then when we got there the first day he attended to other business while Dave and I taught class. What a scary experience! That day alone gave me unbelievable respect for any teacher I have ever had, because it is hard work. By the second class, we composed ourselves, made a plan, and taught class in a fairly orderly way, but we still have a lot to learn.
Obviously it got a little bit hectic in the classroom, but outside during recess is a blast! The first day the bell rang, the children of course rushed out of the classroom, Dave and I collected our things, then stepped outside. Once outside it was like we were magnets for little kids, because almost instantaneously I was surrounded by about ten or fifteen kindergarten and first graders. Each of them wanted to come close and play with me or even just touch me. They kept feeling my hair, pinching my nose, and holding my hand. After this little get to know you, I just played simple games with them. Running around with them, chasing them, picking them up, and of course giving them horseback rides on my knee. By the end of it, I was pooped, and then had to teach another class!
Needless to say, after the first day I was completely worn out. I had two hours before class, so I plopped down on my bed, closed my eyes, and was out like a little baby. I expect this to be a trend that continues all the way through the semester. Even though I was worn out, I loved the experience and can’t wait to go back.
So, these past two weeks have been packed with myself and the rest of the group getting used to our new schedules, starting classes, and doing the relatively little amount of homework to be done. I love it, I can’t wait for what’s to come, and it will definitely be difficult to leave in three months. That’s about it for now, but I will probably be writing again soon about some of the adventures we have had, so stay tuned!
I also would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. Anything I hear back is encouraging and is a reminder about my loved ones back home. I would not be here without all of you, so THANK YOU!
With love,
Kirby
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)