Afrika is nie vir sissisnie

Okay well here goes another post. First I want to apologize for this being a day late. I got back late from rafting and was exhausted so I didn’t do this. Okay well the title of this blog is Africa is not for sissies in Afrikaans. So here goes my week. On Monday a momentous occasion occurred. I put on a belt, I hadn't worn one in a while, and I had to put it on the next belt loop. So in Africa instead of losing weight I am gaining it. Oh boy I don’t think this is supposed to happen. It’s okay though; it means that I am eating well! Also on Monday in Jewelry Design class I soldered some copper together, which was pretty fun. That was my highlight. Tuesday I had lab or prac is what they say here and then another class. That was fine. Wednesday evening was the international food evening here. I went and got food from 4 different countries. It was neat the United States table made macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. I didn’t get any of that though. Instead I got something from Zimbabwe it was like this thick stew with I think chicken and this sauce that was kind of spicy but not to spicy. I think too spicy for my mom though ;). And then there was this very sticky rice with more round grains. I am not exactly sure what it was. I also got South African food, which was like a meat pie. I am not sure what kind of meat it was. It was encased in a fried thing that looked like a pita. It was delicious because it was fried is my guess. I then got this thing that was awful from Zulu. I later found out that it was ox tongue. It was like a sauce with mushrooms and ox over this thicker harder cornish rice. There was no line at the table and I didn’t think as to why so I was like "may I try what you have?" and they said of course. Oh man it was gross I didn’t get to the ox though thankfully. Ewww. For dessert I went to Finland. I had a raspberry tart with some Finnish chocolate. It was sooo good. But then again I think that anything would have been delicious after the ox. Thursday it decided to rain on me. I noticed this after I had left and ran up to get my umbrella. I made it to class all right but when I was trying to close my umbrella I broke it. Then I went to the international office to go see if I had gotten any mail. I saw a friend, Spencer, there and showed him my umbrella and broke the side. Then I found out that they had lost a package of mine, well not really just they couldn’t find it. I got it on Friday it was just one of the important people there put it in a safe place. So that was good. But here is a picture of the umbrella:


I was a little upset but it was pretty funny




My class later that night got cancelled so that we could work on our paper. I was very thankful for that. But I didn’t actually work on it. Instead Rita's parents are over visiting. So we went out to dinner with them at the Brazen head, which is a bar and a restaurant. It was really nice they bought us some wine to drink. I had some chicken avocado thing. It had mashed potatoes, not as good as mom's but still good, a salad and then the chicken. The plates and pottery they have here are so pretty. They have such cool patterns and colors. I took a picture of it and some of the people at dinner so here they are:



Okay around the table from the left: Eric, Kylie, Spencer, Emily and Trish


Again around the table from the left Rita, Joe (Rita's Dad) Tillie, Me, Mary Lou (Rita's mom)

my food

Friday I had class and then went to Kayamandi to volunteer. This was fun. It was kind of hectic because we play basketball on a court outside that is like a public court. So anyone can show up and there is no roster of who should be there and who should not. So the kids change each week. Also the language barrier can be quite difficult but it is a great experience. We played a game with so many violations. Some of the kids were double dribbling and traveling. So we tried to show them what not to do but this didn’t work out so well. One of the college students that was volunteering at the soccer field, it is at the other end of the field with the basketball court on it, brought his backpack, which you are not supposed to do. Inside it was his wallet, camera, expensive prescription glasses, cell phone and school stuff. He had out it on the side and began playing soccer. A group of about 4 kids came and stole it and one of the children playing told Luke, the boy whose stuff hits was, as they were running off so him and another volunteer ran off to follow them but they got away. After we told Mike, the coordinator of the program, and he got a name from one of the children who saw it and got an address. After we went with the police to the house but it was not the correct. So that was pretty adventurous. I have good news though. Today I found out that Mike got a call from the mother of one of the people who stole the bag saying that she found it, not everything was in it but it is still better than nothing. Luke is going to press charges if he doesn’t return everything to him by tomorrow, Mike's idea, because he has already been in trouble with the law and Mike wants to make sure that kids get the message that they cannot get away with this. That night I left for my white water rafting trip. It was on the Doring River through Wild Thing Adventures. It was organized through the international office so it was with all international students. It took us 5 and half hours to get there though. It should have been only 4. We got lost. We left around 7 and didn’t get there until 12:30 at night. It was pretty intense, the drive that is. The food was delicious. WE got dinner when were there. There was 39 people on the trip and 2 toilets, they didn’t flush very well it took to long for the tank to fill up with water, and a couple of showers. The rooms that we slept in the first night were for 4 people and there was no insulation it was literally just a shed almost. I bundled up with a bunch of clothes though and then tied my hood of my sweatshirt around my face so I was warm but other people got very cold because they didn’t have sleeping bags. Here is a picture of the room:



I slept on the bottom right

this is outside the room. That is Theresa (American) and Katharine (South African). They slept in the same room with me and then there was Katy.

This was a view from the camp. It doesn’t do it justice.

We didn't get to bed until kind of late because of briefings and just arriving so late. WE had to get up at 7 the next morning to pack and eat etc. Later that day we got to the river and I discovered that the rafts that they were talking about were 2 people rafts. They were more like kayaks but rafts if that makes any sense. So we paired up. I was with Katy. She decided to be in the back so I took the front. We did okay. We had trouble with steering. In one of the rapids the boat capsized. And so we feel into the water and I got caught under a rock briefly but I had a helmet and a life jacket so I popped up. That is when I got into the cocktail position, it is when you hold the paddle, if you still have it I did, and put your feet up to have your legs hit rocks instead of something else. The guides helped us into the raft after. I will admit I was pretty shaken up but that is okay. It was almost lunchtime after so we just had to paddle back. This was the part that we had a lot of trouble steering. We switched places and eventually got the hang of it. At lunch we had rafting Olympics that consisted of throwing a rock three different ways and making some chicken noises. It was pretty funny. After that we went on the most dangerous rapid. During this rapid when we were going down one moment Katy was in the boat and the next she was not. I didn’t know what to do if I should keep paddling or what. It was so weird. So of course, the mother instinct in me I find Katy and then paddle, in the middle of the rapid, to her and had her grab on to the boat. This was all very fast then I was telling like it is going to be all right and patted her on the head and rubbed her shoulders. She is still in the rapid at this point. You should have seen her face she looked so shocked when she fell in. The guide paddled towards us in the rapid and helped her get in the boat she almost got squished by a rock and then we finished it. This was the biggest rapid by the way. It was pretty intense. But she was all right so that was good. Then we paddled a little longer and there was the calm part. We were paddling next to a guide. He comes up to us and flips us over on purpose. It was awful but hilarious. The water was snowmelt water. SO it was chilly but the sun was out so that was okay because it wasn’t too cold. It was tolerable. I must say that the water did feel warmer when I was in the water during the rapid because of the adrenalin. When we got to camp I took some pictures and we have some free time. So here are the pictures:



Ximena, Emily, Andy at the water edge






the poop was huge! Yes I know I would take a picture of that.





The tents




katy



me drying out and enjoying the silence and sounds of nature

the moon is in this picture it is hard to see but it was gorgeous


There was no bathrooms. Oh I forgot to mention that I peed behind a bush at lunch and then had to drip dry. It was great. But the bathrooms at the camp were a tarp structure with no roof. There was a large barrel that was pretty high. On the top was a wooden plankish thing with a toilet seat placed on top. There wasn’t any toilet paper but luckily Katy brought some. When I was just walking around taking in everything I had to constantly remind myself that I was in Africa. It is sometimes still hard to believe. It is so amazing. If a year ago you would have told me this I wouldn’t have believed you. It is amazing how much life can change in a year. Crazy. Anyway, after hanging out on the rocks I went to the campfire and talked to people around there. We ate dinner, which was steak, potatoes, sweet potatoes and salad. It was so good. This was all cooked over a fire or gas stove. It was neat. So the whole night was spent at the campfire relaxing and looking at the stars. It was hard to take everything in. They put candles up on the rocks and it was so beautiful. The whole scene. I wish that you guys could have experienced it.

Katy, me, Stephen


Spencer, Luke, ximena, ashlee, charlotte, andy

some of the candles

people laying down and looking at the stars.


That night I slept fairly well. I wasn’t cold but the ground was kind of hard so that was my problem. I woke up and really had to pee but I didn’t want to get up. I eventually did it was like 6:20 and it was kind of light but the sun had not come up yet. I got up around 7 and watched the ending of the sunrise it was very pretty. It was a cold morning. I wore my bathing suit under a T-shirt and shorts because I thought the sun would come out but it didn’t. At lunch at one point I couldn’t stop shivering so I ended up getting my rain coat out which was a great choice. It warmed me up. After lunch the wind began to pick up and it was going against us. We would be paddling as hard as we could and barely go anywhere. That got frustrating. But all in all it was a good rafting trip. We rafted at total of 30km. Here are some pictures at the end:












The below are all on the truck ride back to base camp









I went in with a group of others and we are getting pictures that a professional photographer took. So there will be more later.

We said goodbye and then drove home. The stars and clouds were so amazing. There isn’t a lot of light pollution it was gorgeous. The area is really flat with just random hills. I can’t even describe it. If you get a chance to see it please do.

So that was basically my week. I hope you enjoyed.

Stay well.
Cheers!