Two posts in one day!!

Hey everyone.  It’s Tuesday afternoon here, I am just writing a quick post before lunch, and I’ll hopefully be able to put it up this afternoon at Shabean (the local cafe we always go to that has free wireless).  This last week has been pretty crazy, there’s been a lot of crime going on.  Last week, one of the volunteers was mugged twice in three days, and one of our staff members was mugged as well.  That was scary to hear, so since that we have been trying to make sure that we walk in groups.  However, on Saturday we did have a scary run-in.  Me and about fifteen volunteers decided to go to Cape Town for Halloween.  Me and my four Blondies decided to go as Barbies, I was Super Gymnast Barbie, Lizzie was Hawaiian Barbie, Ditte was Cowgirl Barbie, Rachel was Referee Barbie, and Nancy was Pirate Barbie.  We also had a gay cowboy, a witch, an athlete, a few Greek Gods, and a few hipsters.  The night started off by us sprinting to the train station after supper to catch the last train.  Unfortunately, it left ten minutes before we thought, so we had to take two taxis into Cape Town.  We went and got some food, chilled at a Backpackers for a bit, then went to Joburg and Crew to dance for a few hours. A few people went home early, but at the end of the night there was still 11 of us.  Usually it costs about R250-R300 for a seven person taxi, and we would have to take two. But we were hanging outside the Pick and Pay Express gas station, and there was a taxi guy there who said he could take us all in the back of his taxi for R200.  So we all piled into the back of the truck.  He wanted the money up front, but we just gave him R50 to get some gas, and said we’d give him the rest at the end. 

So within two feet of moving, the back left tire was shot.  That was unfortunately right where me and Rachel were sitting, so we could really feel it.  I guess the load was too heavy, but he kept driving.  At that point, our biggest fear was if the car would make it all the way home!

Usually the ride from Cape Town to Muizenberg is about 20-25 minutes, but it felt a lot longer that night.  However, it was late, and we were really cold, so we figured it was just in our heads. 

The first warning sign was that we didn’t recognize the route he was taking.  But, there are a few routes you can take, and we thought that he was taking the back roads so that he wouldn’t get pulled over by the cops.

The second warning sign happened when he stopped the car in the middle of nowhere and got out.  We were like, “What’s going on man?” And he said, “Oh, pee break.” Two minutes later, he got back in the car and started driving again.  But we did notice that there were two other cars that stopped when we did.  At that point, Rachel put her memory card from her camera in her bra, just in case.  And I said at that point, “Why is this guy wrecking his tire for R200?” We thought about getting out of the truck when he stopped, but we had no idea where we were, and there was no one around, so if anything was going to happen, it just would have happened then.

The third warning sign was when I saw a sign that said Muizenberg and pointed straight, and we went left.  Again, there was nothing we could do at that point.

Five or ten minutes later, he stopped the car again, kind of at a dark dead end.  This time, we just got out of the truck, and said that we were just going to call a taxi, and that they kept stopping and we just wanted to go home. But, the two other cars that had been following us had stopped as well, and guys started getting out of those cars, as well as the two guys from our truck.  They had nightsticks, baseball bats, and knives.  They started yelling at us to give them our stuff.  Mainly people lost phones, cameras, IDs and credit cards, and some money.  I was very fortunate that I didn’t have my camera on me, I just lost my phone and my driver’s license.  After they got our stuff, they left us.  We had seen a sign that said Ottery, but other than that, we had no idea where we were.  Thankfully, Ross had managed to keep his cell phone (by shoving it down his pants and saying it was his cock when they searched him; a brave and risky move!!), so we called Tim and let him know what was going on, and then we found a security guard in a parking lot, and we got him to call the cops for us.  They came and took us all home in the back of their truck, stopping once to ask if a car looked like one of the ones from earlier.  

It was a scary incident, but I feel that we were lucky that everyone was safe, no one was injured, and they didn't try to do anything to the girls.

However, the same night, Tim’s car window got smashed and they stole his radio.  

Tim filed a case with the police station about our mugging, I think I have to go down there sometime in the next day or two to make a statement, because I remembered one of the license plates of the car that was following us.  I’m so mad for not looking at the license plate of the truck, but in the heat of the moment it’s hard to focus on things like that.  

This week is also quite scary as well.  Friday is a big gang holiday, Guy Fox, so the week leading up to it is dangerous as well.  There’s quite a bit of hearsay from different kids, teachers, and locals, but from what I understand, it’s initiation time for the gangs, so the new people have to go out and prove themselves to the gang.  Common things include: throwing rocks, filling socks with razor blades and throwing them, and putting razors between their fingers and cutting your face.  That’s all I’ve heard, but I think a lot of theft, mugging, and beating up is common as well.  So no one went to school yesterday, I went today, but I got Tim to drive me there.  No one is going on Friday though, some of the teachers aren’t even going!  And a lot of kids have said that they won’t leave their houses on Friday, and these kids are tough, so if they’re not leaving you know it’s legit. 

Regardless of everything that is going on, I am still loving it here.  I have moved into a new house, it’s me, Lizzie, Rachel, Ditte, Nancy, and Silvana.  It’s squishy, and not as nice as our old house, but it’s not bad.  Anyways, I have to go to lunch, but I’ll try and write again soon about all the good stuff going on here!

P.S. Going skydiving on Saturday with Lizzie, Rachel, Ditte, Nancy, and a few of Rachel’s friends from Cape Town. Can’t wait!!!

Safari Weekend!

All right, so the Safari Weekend! Ten of us went in total, it was me, Rachel, Ditte, Lizzie, Courtney, Jay, Sonia, Ryan, James, and Jamaal. We went with Somet and Zac, Christo’s parents (Christo is a local from Muizenberg, good friends with a few of the volunteers).  They gave us a really good deal for the weekend, they took both of their cars and drove us everywhere!  

So we left on Friday morning around 9 am, and drove for five hours, and went on a safari in the afternoon! It was really cool, we got to go in the classic safari jeeps, those things are tanks! There were a couple times that I thought  we were going to get stuck, but we made it through without a problem! The first animal we saw was the white rhino, we got really close to them, maybe 15 feet away? Then we saw a baby giraffe, she was only three months old! Some other animals we saw were the antelope, springbok, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, lions, and elephants! 

That night we stayed at Beach House Backpackers, it was a beautiful hostel! We were all pretty tired, so we just had an early night.  The next morning, we drove for a couple of hours, and went to an elephant sanctuary! This was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend, it was phenomenal!  Our guide was really funny.  We each got to walk an elephant, holding hands with its trunk! I walked Jabu, he was such a cutie. Then they taught us about the anatomy of the elephant, we got to go up to the elephant and touch his ears & tail & bum & heel, we even saw his molars and tongue! We also got to ride the elephants, which was really fun.  What I really appreciated about the sanctuary was that they aren’t in this to make money, their sole concern is for the elephants.  Someone asked what would they do if all the elephants died and they weren’t given any more (They only take in orphaned or abandoned ones), and they said they would turn the sanctuary into something else then!

After the sanctuary, we went ziplining, which was a nice warmup to what we knew was coming next: the bungy! Ziplining was really fun though, it wasn’t scary at all! The lines we did varied from 41m to 211 m, some went faster than others, I brought my little camera with me on all of them, so I took some pictures and videos of it, it was good fun!

THE BUNGY.

At 216 m, the Bloukrans Bungy is the highest in the world!! 

I’ve been thinking about the Bungy for months, and have been pretty nervous about it, but for some reason on Saturday I wasn’t nervous at all! Out of our group of 10, only 4 people did the bungy: me, Ryan, Courtney, and James.

*Interesting fact: Ryan and Courtney are the only other Canadians that came on the safari, so 3/3 Canadians did the Bungy, but only 1/7 non-Canadians did it!*

They put our harnesses on, and then we had about half an hour to kill so we just walked around, then we walked out to the bridge, that was actually pretty scary.  The walkway underneath the bridge was wire, and it was bouncy, and you could see straight down, but we made it to the area and then I was good again.  They were playing some good beats, so we just started having a dance party. 

(You can barely see me jumping, 

but I'm in this picture!!)

At first they told me I was going to go first, but then they changed the order and said that I would be going last. So I watched everyone else go, just kept dancing.  They strapped me up, and I was fine, until I stood up and started walking towards the edge.  You can tell in the video, it flips like a switch, he had been asking me, “Are you scared?”  and I was like, “No, no, man, I’m good.” but in the video I think you can hear me say, “Okay, I’m scared now!” I think looking down was a mistake, it’s hard to push your body off a bridge and just freefall, it’s really not natural! They yell, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGY!” and I jumped!!!! I wanted to get a good picture, so I tried to jump out as far as I could.  Once I started falling, it wasn’t that scary,  I remember thinking that I felt like Superman!! Once it catches, you go up and down a bunch of times, there’s this moment on your way up just before you start dropping again, it’s a moment of weightlessness, it’s very surreal! The only scary part was that I could feel the straps getting lower and lower on my leg, so I was flexing my legs as hard as I could, trying to keep them on (at that moment I had forgotten about the backup strap).  I started spinning pretty fast, it was cool to get a panoramic view! I can now say that I have jumped off the biggest bridge in Africa as well! When we got back to the hostel, I called my parents to tell them that: a) I had done the bungy and b) I had survived it!  

Sunday morning we went to a big cat rescue centre in the morning.  It’s similar to a zoo in that they have enclosures for each animal, but you can actually go into the enclosures! We saw the African wildcat (the animal I told you about before that me and Ditte saw), the serval (which came right up to me so I patted it!!) and cheetahs!! We were supposed to be able to pet the cheetahs, but the guide wasn’t feeling the right vibe, so we didn’t, but we did get about a foot away from them! They are such beautiful creatures, wow.  I did feel bad that they were in a small enclosure, being such fast animals, I didn't think that they had proper space to run around. 

After that we went to Monkeyland.  Monkeyland takes in orphaned monkeys, particularly ones that people have had as pets and then abandoned.  They have a huge forest, so they let the monkeys run around loose, but they take people on tours and point out the different species.  Some of you may have seen my Facebook picture with the monkey on my head.  I was a little bit behind my group, taking pictures of this little golden monkey.  Another gold monkey sauntered up, kept getting closer and closer, then he grabbed my leg, swung up onto my arm, and then jumped onto my head! Of course, my camera chose that moment to run out of memory space, so I quickly called Courtney, who took some great shots, then I took him off, as I knew my tour guide would get mad if he saw it! I was so excited, I have always wanted to play with a monkey, and that is the closest I’ve ever gotten! After the tour, we went for lunch in their restaurant, a monkey got in and was running around under the tables.  We went out onto the patio after and there were two monkeys sitting on the picnic tables, I took a lot of pictures there as you can imagine!

After Monkeyland, we drove a to Ooutshorrn, where we went to an ostrich farm.  I have very mixed feelings about this part of the trip.  On one hand, it was really fun.  Betsy the ostrich ate out of Ryan, James, and Jamaal’s mouths!  We fed ostrichs with our hands, and out of a pail (where 10 ostrichs are coming at your head!) I even rode an ostrich!!!!

That was really fun, my ostrich actually went pretty fast!! 

But on the other hand, I didn’t know it was going to be a slaughterhouse.  They showed us the incubator of ostriches that were only a couple of hours old; it was far too cramped.  They told us that most ostriches on their farm are slaughtered at 22-24 months old, such a short life!! And what I found out after that really got to me was that you can only ride an ostrich 10 times before it goes to the slaughterhouse.  That made me feel awful...even though it was going there regardless, I can’t help but feel partially responsible for it. :(

Sunday night we just drove home (5-6 hours), and then on Monday morning they picked us up again and took us out to Stellenbosch for the day! We went to four wine farms, which was cool.  The first place was really nice, it had a big fireplace and was really laidback.  The second place was called Graham Beck, which made me think of my Beamo (my brother Graham), it was good, but they brought out the wine way too fast! I’m not a big wine person, so I couldn’t keep up, I ended up giving some of the others some of my glasses.  The third place was a wine and cheese place, so me and DItte stocked up on the cheese, although I actually really liked one of the wines I had there, it was a dessert wine, called Summer Harvest, it was very tasty!  The fourth place we went was Spier, which is a very nice place, but me and some others had had enough wine, so we just went to the gift shop and looked around, got our faces painted etc.  

And that was my safari weekend!!!