Welcome to JULY! Can you even believe that it is already July? We are having a hard time realizing that our trip is almost over and that it is July and that it is... some day of the week? Not sure on that one. Today we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast at 8:00 (yummy cheeses, meuslie, an insanely large zillion egg omelet, fresh fruits, delicious teas, etc) and then all met up at 9:00 for today's agenda. Turns out that today we were meant to go out to the Holocaust Museum, but unfortunately it was closed on weekends and people didn't know that until too late. But, keeping with our upbeat nature, Linda was able to secure a visit to Orlando (no not FL) Children's Orphanage. To better understand where this orphanage was located, it's important to know a little about Johannesburg. Jo-Burg has a large area called the "SOWETO" - South Western Townships. A man by the name of James Mpanza led thousands of homeless men on his glorious horse named Brown Sugar and created a giant open area for them to settle in; this evolved into a 20,000 squatters township. While the government absolutely HATED this, by 1946 the government gave in and started a massive housing scheme now known as SOWETO, which was created as a black occupation area. It was the site of many violent riots in the 1950's and 1960's during apartheid. Some of the houses there have domed roofs, which are referred to as "elephant houses". The Orlando Children's Home and Creche blends in so well we went past it a few times before we were able to find the actual location we were meant to be at. The woman who greeted us, Miram Mazibuku (spelling?), had worked there for many decades and was a very warm, sweet, and eloquent person. Just spending a small amount of time with her showed that she so deeply cared for the children in her care that it could bring you to tears. It began in 1940 due to many unplanned pregnancies ending in babies just being abandoned on the streets or wherever. The children's house can only handle 60 kids at a time due to government regulation, mainly between the ages of 0 - 12. Their goal was to created self-supportive children who are adopted or in foster care in the communities. Interestingly, due to strong tribal cultures, there was a 100% adoption rate for girls and only a 45% adoption rate for the boys. This is due to girls being readily adopted into the family by the (dead) ancestors in their culture, whereas boys were not readily welcomed by the ancestors and were regarded as MUCH more difficult to raise. The children go to kindergarten (creche) on site with community children and then go to the regular community schools in order to help them not feel isolated. With our hearts full of beautiful, sweet children, we headed off to see Nelson Mandela's house "8115" (because of its address at 8115 Orlando West SOWETO). Now, this was a TINY LITTLE house - which in and of itself it fine - where tons of people crammed themselves into, making it a slightly uncomfortable place to be. This was the house where Nelson brought his first wife (he had two wives end in divorce and the last through his own death in 2013) and children to live. His second wife and children would also end up moving there too. In 2008 they restored the house and set it aside as a museum with a fence of dark metal bars to represent living in prison. Inside were replicas of letters he wrote, cards to him, photographs, and memorabilia. The entire time - not knowing much on this subject - I kept thinking about his second wife who stayed with him during his entire incarceration - and a quote on the wall caught my eye: "The wife of a freedom fighter is often like a widow, even when her husband is not in prison." From there we traveled to a local restaurant for lunch and then to the Apartheid Museum. Now. This museum. What to say. It was an absolutely STUNNING building with absolutely incredible artifacts and information. However, this said, it is the most freaking confusing museum in the world! If you wander around it in a normal fashion like a normal museum you will find information completely out of order; I have no idea, despite getting a map of the exhibits, who decided that walking down and reading one side and then going back to the front of the room to look at the other side was a great idea. This said it was a great reflection on history, the past the present the future... and I'd like to just sum it up into a little story: Once upon a time there was a country. This country had people who had been there for thousands of years and lived peacefully with the animals and the land with great respect and care. Another group of people comes into this land, and becomes (or was already) greedy for land and power and natural resources. This second group of people begins to take away chunks of land, then more land, then the language and the culture of the original peoples. These second people think they are superior to the original people; they begin pushing the original people into tinier and tinier and worse pieces of land within their own country. The original people revolt, there are wars and bloodshed on both sides, but the second people win out. There are now inequalities and laws pushing segregation ..... do you (if you're American) find this story very unsettlingly familiar? A couple of other quotes from around the museum that stuck with me: *"No physical barrier separates the black and white zones. What keeps blacks from spilling over into the while preserve is the unseen power of Apartheid." *(Picture of a black servant woman with a white child) "I love this child though she'll grow up to treat me just like her mother does. Now she is innocent." *"We must eradicate the psychological feeling [for blacks] of inferiority." *When the Europeans came they had the Bible and we had the land. Now we have the Bible and they have our land." When I sadly mentioned to P that this story was shockingly familiar to me she replied that with history it is the same story just replace the names of the characters. While I understand and acknowledge this short conversation was a gross simplification, it is reasonable to acknowledge that we are again seeing a cycle of the frustration of those oppressed, again looking through the lens of history from a younger perspective. With heavy hearts and minds we returned to the hotel for some free time (we spent it finally being able to pick up some things for friends and family) before doing our farewell dinner at "Moyo" - a very trendy restaurant downtown. Some of our group had to say goodbye here tonight since they will be going on another leg of their journeys. For the rest of us, this is just the last night of an incredible journey that I'll keep thinking of long after our planes have landed in the USA. Until tomorrow... xx
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You shall find some respite in this blog post, seeing as it will be significantly shorter due to all of our travelings, so enjoy. We got up for our last, 6:00 pre-bee breakfast before heading out for our last chance to see more elephants. Along the way we didn't see any elephants sadly, however we did see a lot of elephant DUNG! My students would have just found the next little story hilarious: Our guide picked up a handful of poop and said, "Do you know how to tell what kind of elephant it is based on the poop? You can actually do it based on the taste!" With that, he stuck his finger directly into the pile of dung. As we all sat there aghast, he said, "Well you know - if it is more sour it is from an older elephant, if it is a little denser it is from a male, and if it is sweeter it is from a female!" We still did not believe him so he did what any self-respecting guide who has not won over his guests would do - STICK HIS DUNG FINGER INTO HIS MOUTH TO TASTE IT! The gasps were audible - probably scaring away all of our actual elephants ;) - and he savors it for a second before looking off to the side, deep in thought. Then he bursts out laughing, explaining that he had stuck a different finger into his mouth like a magic trick. Unfortunately for him, one of his guests in the past believed him and after he did his "trick" she tried some!! After our game ride, we got our hand luggage, loaded into our tiny planes and took off for the airport. At the airport, we had to check in and go back through "customs". I put that in quotes because while one of the people behind the desk was careful about checking passports and IDs and fingerprints, etc, the other woman didn't care at all and neither did the people "checking" the luggage! The man literally was turned away from the screen, simultaneously on his phone and talking to another employee as my bags went through the scanner. (I was slightly relieved since I had just scored a SWEET glass coke bottle for my collection.) Now, if you remember my earlier blog about L not having her fingerprints work so the employee at the airport did her own in place of them? You can imagine the stir that set across our group when the one man working behind the desk was CAREFULLY analyzing all of the passports and checking fingerprints, etc. Imagine trying to explain that! Luckily for her, the second person (a woman) who came up did not care in the least. Whew! We met back up with Linda after our 1.5 hour flight in a plane that only had three seats across each aisle in the city of Johannesburg, or "Jo-Burg". She gave us a brief history overview of Johannesburg, very importantly reminding us of the gold rush in 1886 that was a huge indicator for people moving to the area, before arriving at our new (last) hotel. Our dinner was promptly (laughing out loud at the thought of our group being prompt to literally anything) at 6:30 to go to the Codfather! We all thought Linda had said "God Father" so were curious as to the name. Turns out when we met the owner, his son 27 years ago had been reading an American comic that featured an octopus carrying machine guns in the ocean. His son had jokingly referred to that octopus as the "Codfather". Clever kid! I was so unbelievably tired that the second we got back to our room I promptly fell into bed for the night. xx Another bright and early morning and we were told today is the day we are going to make it over to the village and CEC (Community Education Center). So after a quick breakfast we were off on our way to a five minute drive to the river. At the river, Rio Pungue, we were not warned about crocodiles, however several people in our group had heard stories - personal or otherwise - about people being hurt or killed by crocodiles at the river crossing we were going on. We had to pop onto this tiny metal boat (~8-10 of us sitting around the edges of the boat, 1 man using a large bamboo pole to guide us across. I am happy to inform you that after 4 boat rides across we were able to get everyone safely to the other side. The river crossing itself could not have taken more than 5 minutes. The water was the color of hot chocolate and half of the current was extremely fast. On the other side, we walked about a mile into the small community of Vinho. Vinho is interesting because it is an example of an agriculture project through the park. They grow corn, basil, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, palm wine, peppers, onions, and carrots, among other things. The woman who owned the farm, Bondita, was able to hire 5 men to help her with the "garden". The people in the village are able to eat what they grow and any excess they can sell. The farmers all get trained so that they can avoid ruining the soil. What was happening in the past was the people would find a section of land, cut down all the trees, farm and get a couple years out of the soil, then move on and repeat the process. This created a lot of devastation for the land since the soil was being completely devoid of nutrients. With this training, they are able to do more of rotations to keep the soil able to be farmed. Bondita only wished that she had easier (and more) access to clean water so they are working on funding for bore wells so the people don't have to go a couple miles round trip each time they went to get water. It was an interesting question when S asked what the different roles of men and women are. Vasco told us that unfortunately the culture was set up so that woman did many of the roles - they cooked, took care of the family, got and carried the water, etc. - while the men often drank a lot (palm wine), rode on motorbikes, and illegally poached in the park for meat. It is also important to note that it is deeply ingrained in the culture that the more land a man has, the more powerful he is. And the way to get more land? For every wife a man obtains, he receives a chunk of land (~1-2 hectares). So the important question comes up of, how do you change a culture to value women more equally while incentivizing men in a long standing culture to gain power through multiple wives? From Vinho we went down the road to the primary school where we were greeted by children grades 1-7. Due to the cold winter weather (for us it feels like summer!) it takes children longer to get to the school so we were only seeing a portion of them. The students go to school in two shifts; one is a morning shift and the second is the afternoon shift. It was incredible, as a teacher, for me to see how that children are no different all the way across the world than they are in my own classroom. You could see the shy student, the one who was brave and shared answers with the class, the ones who were so deeply curious about us, etc. It was a beautiful sight. The park is working hard to get girls to stay in schools, otherwise by 14 they are usually married and starting to have children. With programs, such as a Girl's Club, and employment opportunities for women in the park, it was great to see the connections between the local people and their benefits from the park. We got to listen to their songs (Kinds from Vinho, Kids are the Flowers that Never Dry, and Love and Peace in Mozambique), watch them dance, sit in on a classroom for a short lesson on learning numbers (very rote memorization style) before heading out. In 2006 the "school" was simply a tree that students came out to and now in 2017 it is several buildings with chalk boards, desks, etc. Re-energized by the youth, we walked just a short distance away to the Clinic. The clinic was opened in 2008 and was a major deal because it helps thousands of people living in extremely rural villages get access to healthcare, sometimes for the first time. This particular clinic did vaccinations, Maternity/Pediatrics, and Consulting/Treatment. It was a very recent development that they have been working with people on many different forms of family planning. The nurse we met (there are 3 total that work there to keep the clinic open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) told us that the top two issues they deal with are 1) Malaria and 2) HIV. With the hospital over 40 miles away, and many times birthing complications, they are working to educate and convince the local women to come to the clinic to have their babies there rather than in their own homes. On average, the clinic was seeing ~10 babies born there per week. The top vaccinations included Diphtheria, Hepatitis A & B, Tuberculous, and Mumps. We then walked back to the crocodile hunting grounds (the first time we saw our "Beware of Crocodiles" sign!), crossed back over river, did a short drive to the camp, and had a quick lunch. Due to our time crunch, our time was spent munching down on whatever we could in the time we had, then back to our Land Cruisers to head out to the Community Education Center (CEC). Once there, we met Domingos Mulua, the man in charge of the center. He told us that this was the main center of human development projects. The four areas they focus on are: 1) Environmental Education, 2) Agriculture, 3) Health, and 4) Community Relations. He also introduced us to a doctor there, Pedro, who was the head of health management. He told us that they work on several projects such as midwifery, mobile brigades (weekly; each day of the week is for each different district - 6 of them), WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Health), and working with the moms to help teach their community. It was very important that the work done through these services (through the park) are not directly to the people. Instead they go through and educate the younger generations, local leaders, and those important mommas (those strong women that everyone in the community listen to) in order to help out the future on the country. Another aspect that was very intriguing to me that Domingos explained to us was part of the entry free goes to these communities, but they have created a committee to help the communities decide how to use their money. In the past there were issues with the money being spent on the leaders getting new motorbikes, which is not beneficial to the whole community at large. Instead through this committee the community can run by ideas that will help the most people as possible, such as building schools, clinics, water pumps, etc. Additionally, students from each of the 93 schools in the Buffer Zone (~200,000 people live in this area directly around the park) come out to the CEC to learn about the environment and do projects. One that we witnessed earlier was the planting of trees; originally the school had just a few trees and mostly open area and today it was covered with glorious shade due to all of the trees the students had planted! These students also have to go out, found a deforested area, and replant that section. What an incredible way for the younger generation to connect with the land of their country. As we passed over in our puddle jumper we had seen several of these patches of newly planted trees. The main point which was driven home - in a good way! - was that the park needed to be for the people, with the people, and by the people. During the 1960's when Gorongosa had a huge tourism boom for hunting, many of the local people were forced out of their homes so that rich white foreigners could come to hunt game. This created a strong bitterness among the people that the park was NOT for them. Today, the park was working incredibly hard to show the benefits of being part of the park - educating the young, teachers, leaders, and policemen; doing tours of the parks to the local people; offering employment to as many people in the Buffer Zone as they can; providing schools, clean water, and clinics. Another example of how the times have changed was in the beginning when they started their after school program for girls to keep them in schools, the girls that were in the program wore bright pink shirts. When the park people came to do the programs, they said they were the pink park people coming to see their girls and had a slight stigma. Today, so many girls want to be part of the programs that they actually can't provide enough clubs to support the demand! Afterwards we went on our daily game safari and saw some more animals and a truly unbelievable sight. There is a team sponsored by the Endangered Wildlife Trust out of Boise, Idaho who is working at the park currently on a vulture project. We were able to be there as the vulture was tagged, blood samples were drawn, and measurements were taken. That vulture was even creepier up close, with it drooling gobs and trying to take a bite out of the researcher's arm. The researchers were very careful and gentle with the bird, and at the end we watched them release it back into the air! We found out later that the same vulture that they tagged came to eat again at the same spot which is a huge success. Today was different from the others because we went straight to our sundowner - just wine, beer, and soda this time without snacks because we were going to go to a bush dinner! As we were headed into the sunset (cue ending movie credit music) we spotted 8!!! lions playing in the field. So therefore, we were able to have our sunset with a side of super cute lions. It is amazing how close you are able to get! At the sundowner we all had our very exciting chance to "go check the tire pressure" - or "go see a man about a dog" - or "using the bush latrine" - AKA going the bathroom in the bushes! It was quite the experience to crouch down and pray that you wouldn't BECOME the prey. Kidding. Kind of. Afterwards we drove for 50 minutes - due to our 15 km/hr speed in the pitch black - to our absolutely SPECTACULAR!! bush dinner. We approached a grove where there were circular tables, dressed in white linens, with oil lanterns flickering against the black backdrop of night. We got to try different salads, meats, and fried fruits/vegetables including eggplant, pumpkin, onions, and bananas! It was really fun to eat by oil light, not really quite sure what you were consuming but it was delicious none-the-less. Our table was fortunate enough to be graced by the park warden, Mataos Mutumba. It was an honor to sit with a man who is so well recognized for his incredible work at the park; he was very sweet and modest. He has also been to Washington DC more than 10 times! Only 9 more times than me, the America. He had also been several times to Missoula, Montana. When he went the last time he took his daughter who was almost 3 at the time. She ran straight off the plane and into the snow banks which she absolutely adored. She now keeps telling him that they needed to go back to the snowy place. He was able to share some exciting new developments also for the park, including a Business Club which allowed for a great connection between the local businesses around Mozambique and Gorongosa National Park! The businesses donated $25,000 a year for a designated 5 year time frame, and in return they would be allowed to film in the park, do free TV/Radio advertising, and have 50 nights free to stay at the park. What an exciting concept that would allow for so many more wonderful projects to be started! With the clock ticking away past 10:00, we did our quick 10 minute drive back to the camp where we resorted luggage to be ready for the next day's journey back to South Africa! On the dot of 5:20, we woke up to get ready for our early morning game drive. By 6:00 we were at the restaurant drinking coffee/tea/juices and snacking on the foods before the scary amount of bees took over (it is an open air restaurant and boy-oh-boy do those bees LOVE our breakfast foods!). At around 6:30 we popped into our open air jeeps and began our adventures out in the park. We were very fortunate to see many different kinds of plants and animals, including (you can Google these yourself if you're interested in what they look like to match with my pictures): Fever trees, impala, vervet monkeys, baboons, kudus, boabob trees, grekbok, oribi, water bucks, bush bucks, guinea fowl, and tons of different times of birds. We had some trouble not scaring off the animals because anytime we would see something very exciting we would make excited noises which scared the animals off. One case of this was when we saw a momma hippo and baby hippo on the river's edge; we made the excited noises and off they splashed into the river! With marvelously wind-swept hair, we took back off to the camp where we were split into two groups to have a tour around the science facilities and to learn about the human development projects being done here. Our first guide was named Jason, and he was the coordinator of research. He broke down everything in Gorongosa into three different components: 1) collaboration, 2) biodiversity, and 3) education/educating. He also works with the programs that have research fellows and interns that are working on continuing their education and spend a year at the park working on specific research projects. Then we met Peter, who talked about - and showed us - their extensive work on biodiversity (comprehensive looks at the study of all flora and fauna in the park). He showed us the climate controlled rooms where they store plant and animal specimen and the incredible database they created. Just an example - one of our members of our group was bitten by a centipede and when we asked, Peter was able to find a centipede in their boxes that was similar. On the bottom of it (think dead animals pinned inside small boxes) was a barcode. He was able to scan it and bring up an incredibly beautiful picture of it on his screen. From there, he could show us all the information about it, the locations it had been spotted in the park, and even how many other animals/plants it had interacted with at those locations!! Their goal is to be able to figure out all of the food chains and processes that go on in the park so that when they try to reintroduce a plant or animal they can understand how it will effect the environment and also use their data to help farmers. For example, farmers were having plants eaten by pests, but in the past they do not use any chemicals. He was able to look into what animals eat those pests so they can put them out in the farms to protect their crops. Finally we met Mark, who showed us around the science foundation. While the building is completed, it was not yet open for the researchers. Gorongosa is quickly becoming a hot spot for scientists to conduct research so they wanted to create a lab where they can conduct experiments as well as look at the genes and DNA of plant and animal specimens directly in the park, instead of having to ship them elsewhere to be analyzed. It will be fascinating to see all the progress of this park over the next 5-10 years! Next, we headed back and had our buffet style lunch and 1.5 hours to ourselves to rest (I took this time to post for the blog that I'm definitely now behind on). J and I enjoyed the warn breeze under the covered, open air reception and took advantage of the less than ideal - but still grateful for! - bits of internet we were able to have. After this break, we went out again on a safari drive. This time we saw some crocodiles (some small, some huge), reed bucks, grey herons, vultures, and more! We were trying desperately to find elephants, seeing as one part of our group had been charged by some earlier that morning, but instead we tracked the vultures to find what they were eating. When our guide saw it, he was able to figure out that it was a carcass of an animal (small warthog) that had been killed by lions and so off we went in search of lions. We (our guide) spotted another group of people through a field so we drove out and were greeted by three spectacularly cute lion cubs - practicing their hunting skills. They had caught a tiny oribi and were batting it around. Despite the National Geographic nature of the event, it was slightly traumatic to hear the faint muffled screams of the oribi as the lions stepped with their large paws on its tiny little neck. We were SURE it was dead but when the cubs left to a bit further away to hang out in the shade, the oribi popped its little head up and opened its eyes. We also got the chance to see the butt of an elephant - we (one person in the back) spotted him in the trees and we got to watch him wander around. It's actually a little bit bizarre to see how slow they trundle about; it was almost like watching him move through a slow motion video. Afterwards we spotted a lion and lioness that were too lazy to pay attention to us. It was startling how close you could get to them without them caring about you. Lucky for us they were just lounging around in the sun, probably fed. I learned that lions spend 18-20 hours a day sleeping and can see 6 times better in the dark than during the day!! We sped away from this spot to get to our sundowner - which we were a little too late to so we barely saw the sun slipping behind the horizon. The air rapidly cooled down as we enjoyed our wine, gin and tonics, and/or soda. It truly felt like we had finally gotten a chance to see real "Africa" instead of Cape Town which felt more like just any other big city. From there we bundled up, drove back, and had our buffet style dinner. We got up super early (4:30) to get down to the airport. The funny part that was kind of difficult for us, trained Americans, was that since it was a domestic flight they did not care at all that we had bags of food and DRINKS with us! They didn't blink even once at our juice boxes and odd smelling chicken sandwiches and let us through! At the airport in Cape Town we took a 1.5 hour flight into Johannesburg, the city we will be spending time at after we come back from Mozambique. We were only there a short amount of time - enough time to get a Sparberry soda (not my fave) - and hop on our next plane to Beira, Mozambique. It was another 1.5 hours before we finally landed in Mozambique. Now, we had been lucky enough to have stunningly beautiful weather in Cape Town, so our first experience flying in was similar to Western Oregon weather - grey, raining just enough to get you wet but not a total downpour. As we got off the plane, we had a welcoming committee of airport employees doing local dances and singing beautiful local music. Here is the process to go through "customs" in Mozambique: 1) get into the two large room building 2) get paperwork to fill out 3) nervously give your passport over to an official who won't give it back to you until the visa process is done 4) get your suitcases and move them to another place to be looked after on your way to Gorongosa 5) get paperwork to fill out for your Visa 6) wait in long line to have them take your $70 USD, take your picture and fingerprints 7) wait for the officials to print off your visa, stick it in your passport, and give it back to you 8) Send thank yous to the wonderful Greg Carr for saving us the 4.5 hour van ride to Gorongosa and send us by puddle jumpers! Now before I go on I want to share a funny little anecdote about the visas. One of our group members, L, was working through the visa process. She got her picture taken, but when she had her fingerprints taken (where you put you index finger down on the scanner and the woman violently smashed them down with her own fingers) something just wasn't working. After trying it a couple of times, the official woman just pulled the fingerprint machine down to herself, put HER OWN FINNGERPRINTS on L's file, and then had it printed! Now I have to tell you as someone who had never gone on a puddle jumper plane before (ours had only 5 passenger seats and 1 seat for the pilot) that large planes give you the comfort of not feeling every single little bump. We flew our little tiny plane over the gorgeous plains of Mozambique in a rainstorm so there were times that I wasn't sure I was going to make it back!! But make it there we did and after checking in to the reception we were able to get to our rooms for a short bit. Our suitcases didn't make it back until later in the evening. We then got to go on a "sundowner", which was kind of a joke among our guide and us since it was so rainy and cloudy you couldn't see the sun go down anywhere. Since we were running a little late (we didn't know the schedule) our guide was BOOKING it - and if you've ever seen Indiana Jones or played the Uncharted series it was pretty much just like that! We were jostling and bumping and sliding around down these dirt paths through the park in an effort to catch up to the rest of the group when all of a sudden we found everyone else, and our driver (from now on known as Indiana Jones!) passed the other cars to get to our destination. Once there, we had our choice of wine, beer, or water - with us at this point being significantly water-logged - to enjoy in the rain. The air is thick and humid here, but when it isn't raining or you aren't getting wind whipped in your face it is great! It was started to get dark so we drove back and saw two porcupines, which are huge by the way if you didn't know, and then went off to "dry off" and get some buffet dinner. By 7:20 I was ready to sleep so I went off to take some notes (internet is only available minimally in the reception area) and head to bed! Greeting and big apologies for the delay in the posting of the blog; last night I was so exhausted that when I finally made it back to the room I promptly fell into the bed and didn't wake up until this morning! Which means tonight I have double duty to get through before our 4:30 wake up call tomorrow! Today was a pretty simple day to describe... in short, we spent all day over the country trying out different wines. If you are not a wine person, feel free to peace out on this blog entry knowing that and the food was super yummy! :) If you are a wine person, get out a map (probably GoogleMaps on your phone...) and look up the wine country area of South Africa. Which is most of it. I was going to provide some statistics from online but they are so numerous suffice to say if you really love good wines you should take a trip down here! Our first unofficial stop was at an information center in Stellenbosch dressed up as a rest stop but in reality turned into a disguised shopping stop (much to our guide's chagrin I am sure). On our entire way here, I should add that we were faced with Shanty Towns, of "Squatter Camps". It is an issue that is rampant in this country where people just go onto other's properties, set up a little shack, and it is almost impossible to get them off their land. The government tried to combat this by creating 5 million free homes to families who jointly make less than 5,000 Rand ($386.50) a month. Unfortunately, they were seeing that many people would say yes to the house, rent it out to others, and then go back to living in the shacks. What an interesting problem with a solution I am not sure can easily be solved... From there, we continued down the lovely streets of Stellenbosch, the second city established in the country by the Dutch settlers, to our first wine stop at the Tokara Vineyards. It had absolutely stunning views and some startling peacocks. There we had more than generous portions of far too many wines with no food (Uh Oh) including a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and some DIrector's Reserves (and many more). The Director's Reserves and the Chardonnay were some of the group's favorites for the day. We then walked, slightly less straight than before, to the bus to drive to the town of Franschhoek and the winery of Law Couronne. There we tasted some more delicious wines, including another Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah. Our lunch included some of the best food we have had on this trip so far - starters (Miko Salad, Squid, Asian Beef Tartar), mains (Orzo, Beef Fillet, Trout), and dessert (passionfruit and orange tart, elderflower panna cota, or Chocolate creme brulee). It was a perfect setting in an absolutely stunning location. Lastly we drove to Paarl, with most of us asleep for the drive with food and wine filling our bellies, to Delheim Wines. Unfortunately it took us far longer than anticipated so we arrived nearly 2 hours late. Fortunately, they were kind enough to take us in for three tastings - Pinotage Rose (their 40th vintage celebration), Chenin Blanc Wild Ferment, and the Vera Cruz Pinotage (named after the owner's wife). At this point most of us were done with tasting any more wines, but wrapped up in blankets watching the gorgeous sunset in a garden was still astounding. We slept the rest of the way back to Cape Town, arriving at the hotel for 15 minutes to put things away before being carted back down to the Water Front to the Quay Four. Many people chose to share the meal here due to the fact that all we had done all day was sit, drink, and eat. (AKA eat, drink, and definitely be merry!) We tried venison carpaccio, caprese salads, prawns, fish, Springbok, curry, and malva pudding or creme brulee. Overall it was the perfect way to end our day! Tomorrow morning we are getting a wake up call at 4:30, to be in the lobby by 5:00, to leave by 5:15 so we can catch our flight(s) and looooong drive into Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique! I am not sure how the internet will be so hopefully it will be able to accommodate me blogging, at least text if not photographs! Until then xx We began our day with our usual breakfast, munching away at our delicious food while sipping our amazing breakfast tea. Afterwards, we boarded up our bus to start our day! Our day began with a short little bus tour around the city, just to help orient us and to see the different types of areas we had been running around in over the last few days. This included sites such as the Castle and Fort of Good Hope, the Capitol building, the Grade Parade (home to many of the protests throughout the history of this country), the Green Market Square, several churches, and the Parliament building. After this, we drove to the Water Front to get dropped off at the peer for our trip to Robben Island. For those of you who have ever visited Alcatraz in San Fransisco, it had a similar eerie prison feel to it still today. In short, it was many things, but most famously it was a prison for political activists at the time such as Nelson Mandela. To get there, 11 km away, you have to go on a tiny little boat across crazy currents to get there. On our ride over, there were some swells (I had to go to the pharmacy in town to get their equivalent of Dramamine because I get incredibly sea sick!), but overall it was just a windy 45 minute boat trip. Once there, the tour was split into two parts. The first was a bus trip - which was crazy to begin with since we had to try to save 34 seats on a bus for our group but somehow (Thanks to L!) we were very successful - to do a little tour for 30 minutes around the Island to orient you. We learned that originally it was created as a Leper Colony, so those infected would be sent here to die. There is a cemetary of 1,112 people who died. By 1920 the cure was found so some were lucky enough to be given treatment and survive around that time frame. Next, we drove to the Limestone Quarry. At first it was created to keep the prisoners busy - they knew that if they allowed the prisoners too much free time they would be able to talk about political agendas which was strictly forbidden. Prisoners were promised they would only be working there for 6 months, but the quickly (or slowly..) changed into 13.5 years. They were supposed to be given protective gear when doing the work but they were not, stating that it was "not part of the prisoners' uniform". Because of this, many got lung cancer and/or severe eye problems. Nelson Mandela himself had to have surgery after his imprisonment because of these conditions. In there was a little cave, which was to be used as a place to quickly eat their lunch as well as to use as their bathroom. They set up a plan to only use it as a bathroom, seeing as it was unfit to have a toilet as a place to eat. The prisoners nicknamed it the "University of Life" with the motto of "Each one, Teach One" - meaning that many prisoners sent there were highly educated and they worked hard to educate the rest in those short times. We also spent some time on the history of Robert Subukwe, another activist but less well known that Mandela, but to include his story here would require more time; maybe a possibility with my notes after I get back due to time and exhaustion! :) Otherwise you should definitely take a minute or two if you get a chance to look up his story. This site served as a prison for convicts as well as political activists. But by 1991, the last political prisoner was released and by 1996 the last of the convicts were transferred elsewhere. By 1997, it became a tourist attraction with most of the tours being led by those who actually had served there. They wanted to be able to tell the story of the island and what happened there. Unfortunately, many of those prisoners are getting older and are now having to teach the younger generation the stories and the tours. We got lucky and had a former prisoner by the name Jama. Jama was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1977-1982 (5 years for those of you not the best at math). He was imprisoned because back in high school he organized and led several school protests against the dompass. He walked us through the empty chambers of the cells (both group and single cells were there) to see the bed mats, the small boxes for personal items, and the bathrooms. It wasn't until near the end of Robben Island that the Red Cross stepped in and had beds set up for all of the prisoners (~1978). Until that time they were only give 1-2 bed mats and a small pillow. There was an intercom by each prisoners area so they could call if they got sick in the night. IF this happened, the person receiving the information would turn on a red light above the cell or bed where the sick person was so they could easily find who they needed to, whenever. As I said before, it had that eerie, quiet and cold empty feeling that former prisons seem to have; something that makes your stomach curl and your hairs stick up a little bit on the back of your neck. It was also heartbreaking to think of all of the men who lost valuable years in their lives to sit in a cell for fighting for what they believed in. Would you go through with your protests and led revolutions in your country if it meant giving upwards of 27 years of your life? The daily schedule, Jama explained, was Monday througg Friday wake up at 5:00, eat breakfast, go to work a 7:00. The would come back around 3:00, eat a meal, and then be locked up for the rest of the day starting at 4:00. For the weekends, they had breakfast at 8:00, from 9:00-11:00 be allowed in the courtyard for sports, from 11:00-1:00 be locked back up, from 1:00 - 3:00 play sports, and from 3:00 onwards be locked up for the rest of the day. Punishment ranged from not being allowed out, to beatings, to taking away items and food; the duration and severity depended on what you had done. The type of meals and food given were dictated and decided upon by your race. He also left us with an interesting story - when the prison originally had political activists sent over, they purposefully mixed them with the convicts to break the political activists' spirits. However, it had the unintentional effect of actually educating and changing the convicts' lives and ideals so once that began the prison quickly separated them back out. We also got a quick tour of Nelson Mandela's cell where he was imprisoned 18 of his 27 years; he was transferred from Robben Island (which I didn't know!) due to health issues. Outside in the courtyard was a small garden that Nelson created. Because the prison could be raided and searched at any point by officials, and Nelson was writing his memoir at the time, he hid the manuscripts under the plants in the garden. These manuscripts, almost in full, were smuggled out at a later date which is pretty incredible. With all of this information bouncing around in our minds, we were transported back to the boat for the world's worst (okay not really but for us pretty horrendous) boat ride back. The swells were high, the wind was bone-chilling, and the rocking of the boat nearly did me in. 45 excruciating (and frigid) minutes later we were back on the shore for some free time before dinner. It took a while for me to get back to feeling okay, but eventually with the aid of a little snack and fresh air (and non-moving land) I got back up to speed. We took the time to look at more shops and listen to local musicians before all meeting up for dinner at Balthazars. It was tasty but was an incredibly late and long dinner and we were all pretty exhausted as we got back to the hotel to sleep before the next day! We began our day with extremely loud pounding on our door. In my 90% groggy state I opened the door only to find that J and I had slept through all of our alarms and we were significantly later to breakfast than we should have been. We got ready in Olympic Gold timing and powered through a breakfast with an incredible breakfast tea that would melt the heart of my tea connoisseur neighbor. We took a short bus ride down to Bo-Kaap, which is also known as the Cape Malay. Translated, Bo Kaap in Afrikaans means the "uptown area". To understand why it was called "Cape Malay" or the "Malay Quarter" it is important to understand a little background information. In the 1600's, the fastest way to travel long distances to other countries was by sea, hence the explosion of exploration. In 1652, the Dutch settled into the Cape Town area and by 1666 they had gained full rights to colonize Cape Town. Now, it was forbidden to use any of the local indigenous people as slaves, but the colonists were in need of help with the manual labor involved in building up a colony. So by 1669 slaves were bought from other countries in the east, such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia - hence it being shortened into "Malay". Like us, many of you may be wondering about why the locals were not allowed to be enslaved ... well unlike the altruistic answer you may have been seeking, it was because if the locals were enslaved there would not be a way to TRADE with the Dutch colonists for necessary supplies. On the bright side, if you're a wine drinker, a fun fact is that wine was incredibly popular for the colonists, seeing as it helped to cure scurvy. Now onto some interesting tidbits about the Bo Kaap area. Today Bo Kaap has been declared a national monument and is a distinct area due to its colorful old houses. People who are living in the houses today cannot change the facade at all, but are allowed to renovate the insides. It is an incredibly small area (~1.5 kilometers squared) where everyone knows everyone and it is relatively safe. Over 80% of residents in the area practice Islam, which is evident with the 8 mosques within this small area! Fishing is an incredibly important job in this area, everyone in all schools are taught with the same curriculum (if you're a teacher think about that for a second - this is true across ALL of South Africa!), and there are still parts of the original cobblestone roads pieced together from Table Mountain and Robben Island. Our tour guide took us along these streets while teaching us the history of the area. There is far too much to explain that what I can possibly reasonably (and for your own sanity as readers) add to this blog, so I will leave you with two very interesting ideas and see how they resonate with you... 1. There are six main different racial categories you can fall into. These are decided for you when you are born at a hospital, which is a governmental institution. Your racial identification is still listed on your identification card (like our licenses) as the last three digits so anyone who sees it knows "what" you are. Some examples are 084 = Indian, 077 = colored, 072 = other, 081 = Cape Colored. 2. My question relates directly to the last line I typed - what exactly is the differene between Colored and Cape Colored?? Simpled colored or just "colored" indicated not only your racial identity, but also that you were raised with your first language being "Kitchen Dutch", or Afrikaans. If you were Cape Colored, it meant that you were born from a British person and a local person and your first language was English. Fascinating, right? On to our next stop, the small Apartheid Museum. It was created inside a house built in 1791 and housed some old photographs, some brief information, and then we got to meet Owen. Owen was a spectacularly eloquent speaker who lived during the time of Apartheid. His stor was one that covered from the beginning to the end, and all the crazy in between. If you're like me, you might not have a strong background of knowledge about the history of Apartheid. Owen's journey through the history of South Africa began at a familiar time and place - Cape Town in 1652 with the arrival of the Dutch. After they arrived, about 9 months later, there was large influx of babies being born. This meant that the children being born were half Dutch and half black; a fact that created an intense bitterness in the indigenous people. The indigenous people went to fight for their families and their land, but equipped with only stones were easily defeated by the Dutch and their weapons. This, paired with the slaves being imported from other countries as time went on, created a strange division of people by the 1950's into three main categories: 1) white, 2) black, and 3) "non-whites". Apartheid can be described with the 10-5-2 system. Take a job being a car washer in the 1950's. There are three men, a white man, a "non-white" man, and a black man. All three of them wash the same number of cars, in the same amount of time, with the same high quality. A white man would be paid 10 rand a day, a non-white man would be paid 5 rand a day, and a black man would be paid 2 rand a day. It wasn't just with jobs; this 10-5-2 inequality spread from salaries to suburbs to schools, to hospitals, etc. Your racial identification (which is still seen today as with the identification cards!) decided your entire life. So while these racial inequalities had always existed, they became actual laws in 1950. An example of the times was one of the first laws passed. It stated that every black person had to go to the government to get a permission pass to go anywhere. This pass was colloquially called the dompass, which translates into "Dumb Pass". In the 1960's this would lead to 69 people being killed during a protest against the use of dompasses. From these pass laws, would later come the physical segregation - land was redivided up amongst the people, with the best pieces of land for the white, the okay to decent land to the non-whites, and the worst pieces of land for the blacks. In District 6, which was on top of wonderful land, there was still a population of 60,000 blacks and non-whites. The government sent eviction notices to all of those 60,000 because the land was to be for whites only. The people refused so the government responded by bringing in bulldozers and militia and not leaving until every single house of those people were destroyed so they had no other choice but to leave. Interestingly enough, the old addage of "my enemie's enemy is my friend" rang true as Nelson Mandella reached out to the international communities and countries such as the US and UK stayed silent. Instead, the supporters of South Africans rights ended up being China and Russia. Now in 1975-1976 it was the beginning of the end. There were several protest marches going on to reject the forced teaching of the language of Afrikaans to all children and at this protest a child named Hector Pieterson was shot and killed. This sparked a revolution that included the younger generations - all of the black students were pulled out of schools and went to the non-white schools to encourage them to join to fight against these rulings and regulations - to join together and not make the same mistakes that their parents did. This movement was successful and led into the 70's and 80's. In 1986 the international communities took serious notice and concerns and created sanctions on trade. By 1988 the Apartheid regime was bankrupt and pleaded with the West to drop the sanctions, but the western countries said they would only do so if they stopped the Apartheid movement and laws. The Apartheid regime refused but at that point it was too late. Nelson Mandela was released and pleaded with his people to forgive the oppressors, because despite the fact they were "murdered like flies", he said they will never be free unless they forgive their oppressors. At first people were furious because they had lost so many of their friends and family to murder and oppression, but Nelson Mandela told them Yes they killed your family, as they killed my son and 27 years of my life. But I have to close the prison doors of my life so I can truly be free again. This mentality of forgiveness over hatred was what ended up saving South Africa. Fascinating lesson on history, right?? That provided me with a lot of food for thought as to the history of the world, the impact of our actions, and what future holds for not only South Africa but all of us in the world. On a much lighter note, we then did a quick stop at Atlas Trading, which was an incredibly spice market. There they had teas, spices, candies, etc. I was a little hesitant to buy any spices, not really knowing how to properly use Cape Malay spices in my regular cooking, but I picked up a couple masalas and some teas. There our guide showed us the snarky "Mother-In-Law" masala - it is CRAZY spicy and is jokingly meant to be used to "Exterminate" your mother in law if she is a mean one. But never fear, there was also a Father-In-Law spicy masala as well! The food here is more mild, so they put the fear into people with the extra spicy spices! For lunch we went to a wonderful local woman's house to do a Cape Malay cooking class. We learned how to mix masala, create roti (flat bread), fold samosas, and the integral components to a traditional chicken Cape Malay curry (we even used a little Mother In Law spice!!). We also got treated to some fried potato pastries as a lucky surprise! Our chef was absolutely hysterical and made many ridiculous jokes, including a part of making the roti where you have to do the "jump rope" technique, or as she joked, the "Who's your daddy?" more whipping technique. All in all a fantastic meal that I could actually replicate at my own home! From there, with our bellies full and our eyes sleepy with food coma, we took a bus ride out to Table Mountain, where we were forced - I mean enjoyed - a terrifying trip up a 360degree rotating gondola to the top!! It was breathtaking views (almost literally as the change in altitude was great) with near death experiences (okay I was 10 feet away from the edge of the cliff but was sure I might fall off), and greetings by the local wonder rodent named the dassie. After the shockingly frigid winds, we took the gondola back a second time down before heading back for some free time. We spent our free time down at the Water Front going through the local artisan shops and craft market. We spent the rest of the time figuring out how we were going to deal with the luggage weight restrictions going to Mozambique :) Our dinner was one with incredibly views out onto the water with all the lights shimmering around us. It was a restaurant called Den Anker where we were treated to local fish, fried shrimps (no de-veining required this time - hooray!), and a Belgium waffle topped with fresh vanilla bean ice cream. We almost fell asleep during our meal so we promptly went home and all are asleep but me as I battle the internet and my jet lag to get some photos up so you can enjoy the trip along with us! Wish me luck! xx Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! Today marked our first "real" day in South Africa. We began the day with getting up extremely jet lagged and having a call from our tour guide Linda to see if we were even awake (we were...kind of...). We grabbed a breakfast of fresh fruits, savory unknown curries and meats, and some yummy pastries. I got to try some honey straight off the comb which I haven't done since going to Jordan and, spoiler, it was still absolutely delicious. At 8:30 we all loaded into our vehicle and took off. As we began, our tour guide Linda started of by saying, "Cape Town is like a baby; if it's not wet it is windy!" Which of course made me immediately like her and her sense of humor. To begin, a little background statistics. South Africa is a country at the southern most tip of the continent of Africa and currently has a population of ~55.9 million people in 9 different provinces. There are 11 official languages, but in Cape Town ~50% of people speak the language Afrikaans, ~20% speak English, and ~20% speak Xhosa (a really intriguing sounding language with click based consonants). If you do not speak English, you are not going to get a job in this area. There are many coastal areas lined with beautiful, high crashing waves and sandy beaches, but the water itself is only 50-59 degrees Fahrenheit. As we wound down the insanely curvy, thin roads, we saw the gorgeous Camps Bay, drove by the closed Hout Bay, through Noordhoek (discovering Sun Valley - for all you Idaho folks!), past Kommetjie, through Scarborough (yes it was Faire), and down to the Cape of Good Hope. We only had to make one pit stop at a local KFC - which out of 34 people I thought was pretty good! It was interesting to learn about the wildlife and plant life along our route. For example, we saw many Eucalyptus trees, which are not indigenous to the country. Instead, in 1886 when there was gold found in Johannesburg, people brought them over from Australia because they grew very quickly and their trunks could be used as poles! I also learned the little known fact that ostriches are indeed indigenous to South Africa. (Fun Fact: male ostriches have black bodies because they are the ones who sit on the eggs to protect them during the nighttime!) Once at the Cape of Good Hope we learned an alarming misconception. The Cape of Good Hope is actually NOT the southern most point of Africa; in fact the southern most point is actually Cape Agulhas! Nevertheless, we enjoyed taking a funicular up the cliff sides and hiking up to the lighthouse to enjoy the spectacular views! We also got some great views of baboon butts as they slowly walked away from us, not perturbed at all by the sight of tourists. When we arrived back at the bus, however, we found out that our bus batteries had been leaking chemicals so we had to have them replaced! It took relatively no time at all and I was able to procure a sticker for my suitcase with a baboon (face) on it. Our next stop was Simons Town, which was famous for two reasons. The first was the Penguin Colony (which I will get to in a second) and the other was a dog named "Just Nuisance." Now, Just Nuisance was a great dane dog who moved with his owner to this town and was allowed to roam freely - and this included getting off and on trains to help guide sailors to and from the town to their base or other destinations, sometimes as far away as Cape Town! (22 miles). It drove the conductors absolutely crazy, so they would kick the dog off, who would in turn just wait for the next train and go about his business! The conductors told his owner they were going to put him down, and create a law that only official enlisted Navy officers could ride the rails. Being quite savvy, Just Nuisance was literally enlisted into the Navy so he could ride the rails for free! We stopped at the Blue Marlin and ate some tasty seafood, chowder, and bread pudding. Some people were traumatized by having to de-vein/decapitate the prawns before nomming down... We then did our last official stop for the day which was the Penguin Colony! We parked our large bus, did a short walk past children singing songs for tips, and got to the Boulders Penguin Reserve. There was a crazy experience - you just walked along on these wooden footbridges and there were penguins ALL AROUND YOU! They would walk under, or sometimes on, the bridges, lounge around just off the path, and make terrifying braying noises (hence the African Penguin was once named the JackAss Penguin since it brays just like a donkey). Much to our disappointment, they would make a braying symphony until one of us got our cameras out to record then they would go completely silent. Still, it was fun to watch them frolic and play in the freezing waters! Only one tourist I saw was trying to poke and pet the penguins despite the "PENGUINS WILL BITE YOU" signs all over. Afterwards, we all sleepily drove back to Cape Town for our 1.5 hours of free time before meeting up again for dinner on the town. We spent our free time walking around Cape Town, realizing our area really only had things down at the WaterFront which took a while to walk to. We all loaded into our bus at 6:30 to head to The Vineyard for a fancy dinner of Waldorf Salads with Ostrich tartar, local fish, and a tantalizing cheesecake with sorbet. Although we were sure we were too stuffed to eat another bite before our meal, we still managed to get some more in us! :) It was a great day, meeting great people, eating great food, and getting to see a little bit about this incredible country. Now I am off to bed (if I can figure out how to load pictures without killing our internet) in an effort to ward off some of this heinous jet lag... Until Tomorrow! Quick greetings from very, very tired world travelers!
We embarked on our first leg of a 10 hour flight over to Amsterdam. Our trip started with a bang - or a bust -when we almost didn't leave the USA! We were able to board the plane, then after 20 minutes of waiting they announced that one of the plastic pieces that covers an interior Exit Sign was gone and it was a huge safety risk and we couldn't leave until someone found it or someone could give us another one. Fortunately, in the dusty, dank basement of our airport a tech found an extra piece so we ended up only being at a 40 minute delay and we were off to the races! We landed in Amsterdam, and due to the delay had only 15 minutes to get from one gate to the next. I somehow had forgotten the great adventure that awaits for those who travel through the Amsterdam Airport (Read: it is incredibly busy and always packed and smells sort of odd) so J and I sprinted to our next gate. When we got to the gate, gloriously sweaty, there was a delay there as well! Fortunately we were able to get onto our flight and arrive in Cape Town only 20 minutes late. Security at the airport was a breeze and there was a lovely gentleman who took us from the airport to the hotel where we met with others on our trip! We were the last two to arrive so it was nice to have people waiting for our arrival. This is more just an update to let you know that we survived our 20+ hours of flights and made it safely to South Africa! More to come with pictures and stories; can't wait to share! xx |