Day 3 - Monkeys, Cheetahs, and Antler's Lodge

We were all sad to leave the beautiful Buffalo Bay on the morning of Day 3. But after breakfast we were packed and on our way to Monkeyland. We saw several different species of monkeys and lemurs that live in the park. The land is fenced in, but the monkeys are free to come and go as they please. Aside from a few platforms with fruit on them, the workers don’t supply the animals with food because they’re capable of finding their own. The monkeys usually choose to stay in the fenced in area because it keeps them safe from baboons. The park ranger told us that if a baboon were to get inside the fence, they would have to shoot it immediately because he would kill every single monkey and lemur in there. They’re scary foragers.

After getting up close to many monkeys and taking lots of pictures we drove a few minutes down the road to a cat rehabilitation center. A park ranger showed us a leopard and a couple cheetahs from behind a fence, then let us go inside some areas of the park to get up close to a few other kinds of big cats, and at the end of our tour we got to go inside and pet two 14 month old cheetahs. They had been very playful for the first group in the morning, but when we visited they were just laying in the shade. It was still really cool to feel their soft fur and take pictures with them though. Because they’ve been in captivity since birth they do not fear humans, but our ranger told us that if we were to approach a cheetah in the wild it would probably run away from us.

After lunch at the cat place we got back in the vans and headed to Antler’s Lodge in Plettenberg Bay. We all thought nothing could compare to Buffalo Bay, but this place was pretty awesome too. It wasn’t near the water, but the accommodations were very nice, we had a pool, a big field to play on, a barn to eat in, and a fire pit outside to cook on. I stayed in a room with Casey and Adrienne, and it was great to have a full bathroom for just the three of us. After exploring the grounds I played soccer with a bunch of people on our field until dinner time. We had a braai, ate together in the barn, and Hestea went over all the logistics for the next day because it was the first time we were all splitting up to do separate activities. I spent the rest of the night hanging out in my room with friends and getting some sleep because we had a 5:45 wake up call in the morning.

Day 2 - Rastas, Elephants, and Springboks

We woke up on Day 2 and had breakfast together before heading out to a nearby Rastafarian town called Judah Square. It’s the only legal, politically recognized Rasta community in South Africa and they offer tours in order to raise awareness about their lifestyle. Hestea has been bringing the AIFS group here for years so everyone knows her and was excited to see us and show us around. They taught us about their religion, introduced us to their two local pharmacists who make herbal remedies for illnesses, and spoke about the role that the elementary school plays in the community. I knew very little about Rasta life before so it was really interesting to learn how their religion has strong Christian roots and how they don’t allow alcohol, cigarettes, or weapons in their town. After playing some soccer with the kids and taking a big group picture with our new Rasta friends we reluctantly got back in the buses. I didn't take any pictures myself because I wasn't sure of the context of our visit beforehand and I didn't want to be too intrusive, so unfortunately I don't have any images of Judah Square to post here.

Our next stop was Knysna Elephant Park where we had lunch and then played with the world’s largest land mammal! We got to feed, pet, and take pictures with the 12 elephants that live in the park. I liked the little ones best, but it’s absolutely amazing to stand next to the big ones because they’re just so huge (check out the picture of my friend Beth with a big guy below). Because the owner knows Hestea well we were given the opportunity to take a peek at the new baby elephant born only 6 days before! Unfortunately, he was born premature (30kg underweight) and isn’t tall enough to breastfeed from his mother. In the wild he probably would have been abandoned, but the employees of the park are trying hard to keep him alive. His stomach keeps rejecting the different formulas that they’ve tried, but they’re still experimenting. Their next step is to feed him a drink with plasma in it that they’ve taken from the mother, so hopefully that will help him grow. After thanking the owner and wishing her the best of luck we left the park. Some people went directly back to the lodge, others returned to Judah Square to hang out with the Rastas, and the rest of us went to the Knysna waterfront. There were a bunch of little shops selling clothes, jewelry, and typical African souvenirs. I sat by the water with my friend Adrienne for a bit before heading back to Buffalo Bay.

Adrienne, Casey, and I sat on the beach until the sun set into the ocean and we went inside for our delicious fish dinner. As we finished eating some of the Rasta guys walked into the lodge with their instruments and speakers. It turns out Hestea, aka MamaH, had planned a little concert for us! It was so much fun to sit by the fireplace at listen to the band play. There was a convenient and cheap bar at the backpackers and everyone was doing Springbok shooters all night (half Amarula and half Crème de menthe). Some of the girls had a nice little dance party with MamaH and at one point she was doing the “ostrich dance” with me on her back. Afterwards I did some stargazing and swimming with some friends before taking a much needed shower and getting to bed. Another awesome day on the road.

Day 1 - Caves, Ostriches, and Buffalo Bay

I’M HOME! After an amazing 10 days on the road I’m back in Stellies… happy to be home but already missing the sound of waves crashing on the beach. There were so many fun things that happened in the last week and I don’t want to leave stuff out so I’m going to take it one day at a time. So here’s Day 1 on the Garden Route.

We left Stellenbosch at 5am on Saturday morning and began our five hour drive to Oudtshoorn. Our first stop was the Cango Caves, which were full of chambers, stalactites, and stalagmites. The rock formations are hundreds of thousands of years old and were incredible to look at. We went on an adventure climb through the caves (check out the picture below of my roommate Casey) before leaving for the ostrich farm. Oudtshoorn is known as the ostrich capital of South Africa – over 1,000 of them are slaughtered every day in this one town alone. We learned quite a bit about these crazy animals from our tour guide – their leather is the second strongest in the world behind kangaroos, their eyeball weighs twice as much as their brain, and their kick is powerful enough to break a human in half. We got to see a baby ostrich breaking through his shell before watching a few of our friends ride them around the farm (that's me feeding them and Pablo riding one in the pictures below).

After another 2 hours in the car we arrived at Buffalo Bay Backpackers. None of us were expecting to stay at a place as awesome as this. We all jumped out of the car and marveled at the views because the lodge was literally located on the beach. Check out the website and the pictures below for a little taste of this beautiful lodge. We spent the afternoon relaxing, enjoying the sun, and exploring the beach. Eventually we had a delicious dinner that was cooked and served by the owner. After dinner everyone was just hanging out when Hestea, our resident director, quietly asked all the girls to gather outside. We followed her down to the shoreline where she proceeded to give us a short speech on self-worth and self-respect that culminated with her saying, “as women we need to stay interesting… so I’m going skinny dipping!” She immediately threw her clothes into the sand and ran for the water. It didn’t take long for the rest of us to follow suit and within the next couple minutes there were 35 of us running into the ocean. The water was so refreshing and it felt like we were in a movie. It was a perfect way to end our first day on the road. We were all so tired and most of us were asleep before midnight.

SPRING BREAK IS HERE!

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to write a quick update before I leave for our big spring break adventure!

This past Monday at Lynedoch we taught our learners all about the ocean. We went over where they are in the world, the different layers, the ways in which they’re affected by global warming, and some different animals that live there. In the afternoon we should them a bunch of clips from the Ocean Deep segment of Planet Earth. They got to see underwater volcanoes, crazy looking bioluminescent creatures, dolphins, turtles, blue whales, and few other interesting things. I think they enjoyed the clips because they’d never been exposed to some of this information before. They even chose to stay inside and watch more animal videos instead of going outside for recess. Though this may have also been because of the heat. Rumor has it that the thermometer hit 113 on Monday. It was brutally hot and everyone at Lynedoch had sweat dripping from them. Our yoga instructor, Bryce, agreed with us that it was too hot for a workout so we took an early train home. It was nice to get home earlier than normal, but I’m beginning to feel like our time at Lynedoch is slipping away. Because of our break and then the public school break we’re not with our kids for the next 4 weeks, and then we only have 3 weeks of lessons left after that. It’s scary to think about how fast the time is flying by.

In other news, I had an Afrikaans test this week and I think I did pretty well on it. I also finally bought the South African World Cup soccer jersey that I’ve been eyeing since week one. I think I forgot to mention in my last post that a bunch of us went to see the Princess and the Frog at our local movie theater. I thought it was really good, and it was nice to only pay $3 for a movie ticket. This past Wednesday was the first time it really rained in the 7 weeks that I’ve been here. It was such a welcomed break from the heat and it made running actually enjoyable for the first time in a while.

Ok I need to start packing. It’s almost midnight at we’re leaving at 4:45am. It’s a 7 hour drive to our first stop where we will be trekking through caves and riding ostriches! We’re spending the first 6 days traveling up the Garden Route and then the next 4 hanging around Addo Elephant Park and the surrounding area. I’ll be sure to update you on my adventures when I return!

Tot siens!

Secret Garden and Basketball

Hello!

I just want to quickly share with you my Friday activities! I was preparing for a long day of lecture at Lynedoch but, as usual, Grant surprised us. We began the day by going around the circle and sharing with the group something we were grateful for at that moment. Then we went around again and each completed the sentence "the greatest gift I've received from this experience to date is..." Hearing the thoughts of my incredible classmates was an energizing and moving way to begin the morning. Afterwards we walked about a mile down the railroad tracks to a secret garden! It's actually a nursery and I suppose it's not that secret, but it was really neat. Grant told us we had an hour to explore and relax.

It was such a simple place, but there was so much to see. There were tons of plants and flowers with a walkway winding through all of them. There was a wooden playground tucked into the corner. There were tables, chairs, benches, and a comfy bed in the middle of the property. There were wind chimes and cool mobiles made out of recycled materials hanging everywhere. There was a small, unobtrusive cafe. There was a beautiful black lab and a small cat, who both loved our attention. There were cages with talking parrots and many other kinds of birds. There was a small pond with the cute bridge built over it. And all of this was in the shade, thanks to the huge trees that formed a canopy. Before we knew it an hour and fifteen minutes had passed so we headed back to Lynedoch.

After returning we had our lunch and Grant announced that we'd be doing our last activity at the train station so that we could take an earlier train home. While waiting for the 1:55 train we took turns standing in front of our classmates and listening to them compliment us. Grant wanted us to point out each person's positive attributes, and it often became emotional because we've grown so close in these six short weeks together. We weren't finished by the time the train came, so Grant boarded it with us so we could continue. Ten minutes later we arrived at Stellenbosch Station and still had two people to go, so Grant got off the train with us. When we finally finished we made him stand up while we shared how we felt about him. He wasn't expected this and was extremely humbled by everything we said. He let a few tears fall before thanking us and sending us on our way. So the day turned out to be the greatest 5 hour lecture I've been to.

But the excitement doesn't stop there. This evening I played in a basketball game against the University of Cape Town! Earlier this week I decided to join the Stellenbosch team because I miss playing basketball and I have ludicrous amounts of free time. It's technically a club team, but there are no varsity basketball teams in South Africa, so this is the real deal. Except it's not. The team's only slightly more organized than St. Mike's intramurals, and that's not saying much. The game was close for the first quarter, then in the second quarter 2 of our girls fouled out. We only had 6 players to begin with, so we played the entire second half with 4 on the court. The other team had at least 12 players and they played a full court press for nearly the entire game. We ended up losing by 44 points. Regardless, I had a good time, I'm finally meeting some South African students, and I'm really excited about playing basketball three days a week.

Ok the last thing I want to tell you all about is the Wish List that I've compiled on amazon.com. My friend Kate gave me the idea because she's looking for donations for a school in Ghana that she's working at next month. I'm not expecting anyone to make purchases, so don't feel like you have to, but I wanted to give people another way of becoming involved in my experience. Some people have been asking about ways to help and I figured this would be easy. Most things on the list are under $10, and then it's $4 for shipping. There's maps, art supplies, and puzzles on the list right now because I thought those were cheap but important things for the school. So if you want to make a purchase, you simply go to amazon.com, click the icon that says 'Gifts and Wish Lists,' type 'Sarah Regan' into the 'search for a wishlist' box, and click on my list. It works similar to a wedding gift registry, the bill gets mailed to you and the product gets mailed to me. And, as I mentioned before, sending raincoats over here is another great way to make a difference in the lives of these children. Thanks so much to everyone that wants to get involved and to ALL OF YOU that have been reading my blog!

Tot siens!

P.S. Here's my mailing address again for raincoats...

Sarah Regan
International Office
Wilcocks Building
Victoria Street
Stellenbosch, South Africa
7600

Rugby, Cape Town, and Prime Circle

Hello again!

Since my last few entries have really only been about Lynedoch I wanted to update you on my some of my other activities. Today was the third varsity rugby game, and again we demolished the other team, this time 72-17 I think. The game before was a real nail-bitter comparatively as we only edged out the Shimlas 31-16. There are some nasty injuries in today’s game but the biggest was a head on collision between two of the opposing players. They were on our side of the field so we had a good view, but it was painful to watch. The players collapsed immediately (while we ran the ball down for another 5 points) and by the time they left the field only two minutes later one of the players was soaked in blood. He had a huge gash above his right eye and was looking like he belonged in a horror film. Rugby is such a dangerous sport to play without any form of padding or protection. But because injuries happen so often there is rarely a time when the referees stop the game; instead the medics and trainers run out onto the field and tend to the player while play continues. It’s madness.

This past Saturday I went into Cape Town with three friends to explore a little bit. We walked around the outside of Green Point Stadium where eight of the World Cup games will be played in June and July. Then we continued on to the Waterfront which was full of shops and restaurants and cool places to hang out. We walked along the harbor for a while, got some lunch and delicious milkshakes, and spotted six huge seals sunbathing on a dock. This area of Cape Town has beautiful views everywhere you look... it seems as though that could be said about anywhere in the Western Cape though. We had the water on one side of us, with a view of Robben Island which is not far from the mainland. And if we looked the other way you could see Table Mountain perfectly, and sometimes Lion's Head was visible. While walking around we came across a guy standing next to his motorcycle pointing to a big map that was taped to the bike. We read the messages displayed and the route traced on the map and learned about this man's mission. He had been travelling since 2000 and is on a quest to become the first deaf and mute individual to ride a motorcycle around Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and the Americas. He's made quite a dent in the last 9 years and only has Africa and South America left to do. In 2008 he was in the U.S. as he made his way through all 50 states. And the most amazing thing is that he's 69 years old!

Yesterday we all went on another AIFS excursion, this time to a concert. We got to see Prime Circle, a well-known South African band, play at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town. It’s part of a Sunday afternoon series that takes place at the first botanical garden ever created. I really enjoyed the music; their sound was kind of like a mix between Third Eye Blind and Creed. The unfortunate part was that we had to sit in the almost unbearable heat for two hours before the show started. Because it’s on a lawn you have to get there early to get a spot to sit and there’s virtually no shade in the concert area. But right as the band went on at 5:30 the sun went behind the trees and it was a perfect temperature for the show. Check out the picture with the beautiful mountains as a backdrop behind the stage!

So other than going to class and training for the half marathon that’s about all I’ve been up to this past week. I still have a ludicrous amount of free time and am looking for ways to keep myself busy. I’ve had very little homework so far but I do have a presentation to give on Wednesday, an Afrikaans test next Thursday, and service learning paper due after break so I plan on doing some work this week. It’s nice to have life slow down a little but I don’t remember ever having this much free time. My only commitment here is academics, and that isn’t much of a commitment, so I find myself missing all my usually activities at SMC. But hopefully I’ll be joining a basketball or soccer team soon which will be a nice change of pace.

I’ll leave you with the view from my bedroom window! Thanks for reading!

Soccer, First Aid, and Human Rights

Hi Everyone!

Can you believe it’s March?! I’ve been here for 6 weeks already and there are only 12 days until spring break! For our break I’m going on a 6 day trip up the Garden Route with the other 46 students in my AIFS program. It will be full of adventures including bungee jumping, a canopy zipline, surfing, sea kayaking, spelunking, and a stop at Monkeyland! When that trip ends, 22 of us are continuing up the coast for another 4 days to visit the Addo Elephant Park. We’ll get to go on two guided tours through the park in an open air vehicle that will allow us to observe the Big Five, and spend a couple nights sleeping right by the Indian Ocean. But that’s still two weeks away.

Today was another crazy day at Lynedoch but, again, I think it went well. We played soccer in the morning, boys versus girls because that’s what they always insist on. I was especially happy to see that our student with a prosthetic leg was enjoying the game, as she usually sits out of our physical activity. My friend Jeff’s girlfriend is visiting this week and she was a great addition to our class. She jumped right into the game and a few of the girls stuck by her side the whole time. She told a couple students that she studied in Ghana last semester, but they had never heard of Ghana. She kindly explained that it’s another African country up north, but it reminded me of how little these kids know about the world beyond Lynedoch.

Back in the classroom we had to teach a lesson on first-aid. In order to make it interactive we drew a pretend cut or scrape on each learner’s arm and taught them the proper way to treat injuries like this. We had them wash it with soap and water, rub on some Neosporin, and then put a band-aid on the fake cut, while making sure not to touch anyone else’s blood. Since 25% of the South African population has HIV/AIDS the learner’s were taught at a young age to be careful around blood. We also went over how to treat a burn and a big gash on your own. Lastly we had the kids compile a list of reasons why you should call for help (i.e. someone stopped breathing, broken bones, glass under your skin, etc). What really surprised me during our lesson was that very few people knew the emergency numbers. If you asked a class of 6th graders in the United States what the emergency number is, they would all respond immediately. Even the teacher wasn’t sure which number to use in an emergency. Eventually they were able to come up with the police number and the ambulance number, but it definitely wasn’t automatic.

For our afternoon lesson we listed several of the rights from the South African Bill of Rights on the board and briefly explained each one. It was extremely beneficial to have Mrs. Adams, the 6th grade teacher, in the classroom because some of the rights are complex and it’s helpful to have her translate into Afrikaans. But it’s really great that she only does this for some things that we say, as she’s quite good at gauging how well her learner’s understand our English. I think she strikes a nice balance between explaining for comprehension and allowing them to figure things out in English. After this lesson we had the learners form groups and design their own skits modeling one of the rights discussed. They loved acting last week so we thought this was and effective teaching tool. We told them their scripts could be in Afrikaans if they wanted, but we were pleased to have a couple groups perform in English. For the second week in a row I was so impressed with Siziwe and her confidence when standing in front of the class. Her English is phenomenal and her group’s skit was definitely the most structured and well-rehearsed. I was saddened to see that four out the five skits were somewhat violent, but I suppose that comes with the territory.

I’m really happy with the relationships that Jeff, Andie, and I are forming with the learners and with Mrs. Adams. I think the learners pick up on how respectful we are towards them and, in turn, they show us respect. As Grant told us in the beginning, these kids have an innate ability to recognize when people are genuine, and I think they understand that we fall into that category. Grant informed us today that Mrs. Adams likes our lessons very much and has been incorporating them into her classroom lessons. I was especially happy to hear this because the last time Stellenbosch University had students volunteer at Lynedoch the teachers were not pleased with the way things went. The South African undergrads came into the classrooms and did things the way they wanted without showing the teachers respect. I think it made the teachers weary of us at first because we appear to be the same on the outside, a group of white college students invading the classrooms of a primary school. But Grant has been receiving nothing but positive feedback from the teachers thus far and they're very appreciative of our work.

On the train ride home I let one of the 4th grade girls borrow my camera so here are some of the pictures she took…