Welcome 2011!

Hello! I know I begin each blog pretty much the same, talking about what a horrible blogger I am. My sister recently created a blog, and I think she already has more entries than me!! Her link is www.heartfeltyarnwreaths.blogspot.com , everyone should go and take a look at the beautiful things she has created! Anyways, it is now almost February, I can’t even believe it! I’ve been in South Africa for 18 weeks now, the time has gone by so fast, but in some ways it feels like I’ve been here forever! I’m now staying in Tableview, a suburb on the other side of Cape Town, from where I was staying before in Muizenberg. It was strange, a week or two ago I went back to Muizenberg and was surprised by how much it felt like I was returning home! I spent both Christmas and New Year’s here. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas, it was so hot and windy! But it was a good day. I went to Hillsong in the morning for a Christmas service, then I had lunch with my old volunteers in Muizenberg, then I had a lovely dinner with my new volunteers at our house. For New Year’s, me and my friend, Bar from Israel, got free VIP tickets (valued at R500 each! (approx $70?)) to a party at The Fez, a place that both Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio went to when the World Cup was here! 

I have started working on the penguin project at SANCCOB (South Africa Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds), what a crazy experience that has been!! When I first arrived, they had over 400 penguins! I was working 12 hour days, 5 days a week, which was a shock at first! There was a point where I would literally wake up, go to SANCCOB, come home, go to bed, dream of SANCCOB, and repeat. It was hard at first because since we were so busy, there wasn’t time to properly train me, so I got stuck doing a lot of the less fun jobs. At first I was shocked to think that I would be chopping up fish for them, but now it’s pretty normal, some of the birds can’t eat whole fish, so you chop off the head and tail, and then cut the rest into little pieces. But, two weeks ago, we started releasing some of the penguins back into the wild! We now have maybe 100 or 200 penguins, so it’s a lot less busy. As a result, I was properly taught how to feed and tube the penguins, and am now loving working there! It’s so funny how you begin to learn the different characteristics and tendencies of each penguin. For example, my favourite is currently 644! He’s the funniest little swimmer, he gets so excited whenever we put him in the water. 487 is a nightmare, such a wriggler, trying to feed him is quite the struggle! So in that way it is kind of similar to working with the children, you learn how to deal with each one of them. My favourite birds there are the cormorants, we have maybe 10-15 of them right now? They are so funny to observe. 

I have had some interesting experiences there! Trying to catch kelp gulls while they are flying in the aviary was quite the thing! However, the coolest thing I’ve done there is stuck my arm down a pelican’s throat! We got this pelican in a few weeks ago, he was in really rough shape, blinded in one eye, they almost euthanized him, but decided to give him a chance. He’s doing a lot better now, he can see fine, and he has a lot of colour back in his face! It’s so funny whenever you go near him, he’ll snap at you and it makes this really loud noise! Unfortunately, he still has to be force fed, so you have to take the fish one at a time, and push them down his throat and then massage it down his neck into his stomach. It feels so cool in there! So usually I’ll be the one sticking the fish down, but the other day my friend tried to teach me how to hold him for the feeder. It didn’t go so well! First, you grab his beak with one hand. Then you get his body (with his wings in) between your knees, but then you somehow have to hold that tight while getting your feet in front of his body as well. It was the whole feet thing that caught me, I ended up looking like I was riding him pretty much! Very funny. 

I also had the chance to go on one of the releases last week, which was amazing! We drove up to Betty’s Bay (about 2 hours from here), as there is a thriving colony up there already. We made a semicircle with the boxes on the beach, and then let them go! We put one adult in the back so that he could herd them in the right direction. They ended up splitting into two groups, one group heading straight out into the ocean, whereas the other group lingered near the shore by us, but they too eventually made their way out. It was very cool to see! I hope that they are able to find fish out there, although I was reassured that the adult would show them what to do, which is good. 

( i would put up more pictures, but I just looked at my internet amount left, and uploading that one picture took up so much!! so go to my facebook to look at pictures of the rest of the stuff!!) 

Other than that, I haven’t been up to too much. I’m trying to think what I’ve done over the last month, as it’s been at least that long since I last wrote!!

Hmmmm.

Well, I went to Hout Bay one day, and went on a cruise out to Duiker Island to see the seal colony there, it was phenomenal, hundreds of seals on this tiny island! There were tons in the water as well, it was really cool to see them swimming about, I now have about 50000000 pictures of seals haha. After the cruise, me and my friend met this guy in the harbour who was feeding a wild seal, he said he had been doing it for 26 years! The seal would respond to his voice as well, it was quite cool! It reminded me of one of me and Katie’s favourite childhood movies, Andre. Anyways, so we bought him a fish, and I got to feed the seal! You hold the fish out over the water and he jumps up and takes it out of your hand. Super cool! My friend actually did it with his mouth, which is even cooler! I passed, as I couldn’t bear the thought of putting raw fish in my mouth. No thank you!! 

A few weeks ago there was a Red Bull surfing competition at Camps Bay that I went to. Unfortunately, the waves were not very good that night, but it was still really cool to see! 

My friend Tim is starting up a new organization out here in South Africa (www.dreamstoreality.co.za) so I have been helping him take some pictures for his website and whatnot. Very excited to see it get off and running! The other day, me and him got 15 tickets sponsored, and were able to take 15 kids from the township to a big doubleheader at Green Point Stadium! That was lots of fun. The first game, Vestos vs. Supersport, was average, but the second game, Ajax vs. Kaiser Chiefs was insane!!! The game itself was very exciting, and the Kaiser fans are RIDICULOUS. I was cheering for Ajax, but it was still funny to watch them all get riled up!

I finally got to the District Six Museum, that was so interesting. For those of you who aren’t aware of what it is, it’s a museum that tells how all the coloured people were kicked out of District Six, and their houses demolished, when the Group Areas Act went into effect. So sad to read some of the stories. I am definitely going to read up more on the history of South Africa when I get home. It has such a fascinating story. The thing that hits me the hardest is how recent it is. Although I do find it very sad to read about things in the 1700’s, it resonates more to me for some reason when I think that all of this was happening 40-50 years ago. Especially since the effects are still here so strongly today. You look at the townships all over the place, and think of how the government just took them from their houses, from their communities, essentially their lives, and shipped them off to a remote area, separated by race, and put them up in these tiny shacks. Whereas before they could walk to work, they now either had to pay for transportation, or find a job closer to home. And they demolished their old houses that were perfectly usable, just because coloured people had been living in them. Such a waste of resources, but also, so demeaning! South Africa has so much potential, you can see it in the country’s pride, in the spirit of the people, but they have a long way to come.  It is rather discouraging when you go into the townships and see how they live, compared to the mansions at Camps Bay. I understand that every country has struggling areas mixed with wealthy areas, even in Winnipeg, the difference from Wellington Ave. to Higgins St. is astounding, but here, it’s different. There is such a great amount of poverty. If you go to the outskirts of Khayelitsha (a township about 10 minutes drive from Muizenberg), as far as you can see is shack after shack. I believe it’s the second largest township in South Africa, after Soweto, which is actually a group of townships. I would love to volunteer there, but it is definitely not a safe place to be at all, I’ve heard some pretty scary stories about Khayelitsha!  I would be interested to know what the wealth distribution is compared to the population. 

Anyways, now I just have to go to Robben Island, and then I’ve done pretty much everything I wanted to do!

Funny story about Nelson Mandela actually. So, I have a friend who knows someone who works at the hospital in Wynberg (about half an hour from me), and they texted her saying that Nelson Mandela had been hospitalized there. The press had no idea, and they really didn’t want it getting out, it was very hush hush. I decided that I wanted to write him a card, get him flowers, and try to sneak them in! I am so in awe of him, and everything he did for the human rights movement, and knew that I would never again get a chance to do this! So the next day, I walked to Pick N’ Pay on my lunch hour, and got him a card and everything. I was in the middle of writing it, when my friend called me and said that he was out of the hospital!!! I know I should have been happy to hear that, but I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to try and sneak him a card. Either way, I decided I will just send him the card in the mail. Not the same, but oh well!! 

As I mentioned before, I went back to Muizenberg a week or two ago, and just spent all morning on the beach with some of the kids from the township, it was so good to see them again! Hopefully I’ll be able to go back there one or two more times before I go. 

I have been spending as much time as possible in the sun, whether it’s at the beach or out by our pool (my new volunteer house is soooo nice, and yes it has a pool!!!). I know that in coming home soon I won’t be seeing the sun for 3 months, as I will be holed up in my room waiting for the cold weather to leave, so I figure I should make the most of it now! It’s about plus 30 here everyday, sometimes hotter. So I will definitely go crazy when I come back to Winnipeg!! 

Speaking of Winnipeg, I actually have a story about that!

I was at Hillsong Church the other week, walking around after the service, when I thought I saw a substitute teacher I had back in Grade 4. I chastised myself, thinking, “You’re in Africa, you don’t know people here silly.” A minute later, my friend was introducing me to this woman and her husband, saying that they were Canadians! We quickly compared stats, and l learned that they were from Winnipeg, and they live in Charleswood (the neighbourhood I lived in until I was 14)! So then I just decided to ask on a whim if their kids who were with them went to LCS (the school I went to for 13 years). Turns out yes, they go there, and they know my brother, who is in grade 10 there, and my mom, who teaches kindergarten there! Their son is best friends with my brother’s best friend’s younger brother! How crazy is that!!! So then I say how I thought I recognized her, turns out that her sister was the teacher that I was thinking about! They mention their last name is Guenther, and since LCS does have a big family tree, I decide to ask if they are related to the legendary subs, Mr. and Mrs. Guenther. That’s the husband’s parents!! I was so in shock, I didn’t know what to say! I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but being so far away from home, it was so strange to be discussing street names and people with someone who actually knew what I was talking about! At home, I am a pretty patriotic person, but I feel that my patriotism has been heightened by my stay away! 

The million dollar question is when am I coming home. To be honest, I’m still not 100% sure, but I think it will be sometime in late February. It’s funny, from before I left until now, at some point I have considered going to every continent (except Antarctica) after South Africa. My plans have changed about a million times, and they will probably change a few more times before I get home.

As of right now, my penguin project is scheduled to finish January 31st. After that, I have nothing booked, no plane tickets, nothing.  I don’t quite want to leave South Africa just yet, so I was thinking of staying here for a few extra weeks, celebrate my birthday out here. I am now thinking to work at SANCCOB a couple extra of weeks, just have to determine prices and budget and all of that. After that, I could stay at the volunteer house in Tableview, or stay at a hostel in Cape Town, haven’t quite decided yet. And then make my way home sometime soon after that! Whether I come straight home, or stop in New York, or elsewhere, hasn’t been fully determined yet, one step at a time! But from the looks of things, I should be home in late February! I can’t really believe that. South Africa really has a big place in my heart, I know that I will definitely be back here one day! However, I am getting very excited to see everyone again. I am so amazed at how well I have been able to keep in touch with some of my friends, I almost feel like I talk to some of them more out here than I do at home haha. I don’t know how people traveled before there was internet to keep in touch with. 

I miss my kiddies!!

So I have given up on the hopes of being a faithful blogger. But I figured it would be good to give an update of what I’ve been up to! Well I just finished my last week at my first project. My last official day was on Friday, but I went on Monday as well as they were having a Christmas party that day! It was very hard to say goodbye to the kids, I was trying really hard to be brave, but I almost lost it once. But other than that, I managed to keep it together until the kids left. I didn’t realize how attached I was going to get to them. One thing I should have done earlier is told you a bit about each kid.

Well, better late than never!

Michaela: the cutest girl ever. She has epilepsy, but is so good about taking her medicine, never makes a fuss. Often in her own little world. Loves to dance, and loves to have pictures taken. She’ll always say, “And me, teacher, and me!” when I pull out my camera. Whenever I flip the kids on the playground, she’ll always try, but only go halfway, then jump off, but she loves doing that!

Tarryn: also the cutest girl ever, very different from Michaela, Tarryn’s has a small defiant streak that comes out now and then, but she's still very sweet. She’s very observant, if I get a small new scab on my foot, she’ll notice, and say, “Teacher, why are you sore?” Loves to be picked up and carried around. 

Kaitlin: very energetic, she doesn’t understand English very well, most of the time we have no idea what she’s talking about!

Nobless: more on the quiet side, she is a very good drawer. She misses a lot of school unfortunately, but is still very smart despite that! (The one on the left)

Payton: future head cheerleader potential, she always has her hair braided differently, her mom has some mad skills! Likes to talk about her cat, Leo. She loves to chew gum in class, and hide it under her tongue haha. Also a very smart girl. 

Nicole: definitely one of the smartest kids in the class. She is a very sweet girl, she loves to do my hair more than anyone else in the class, if we’re inside she’ll use a block as a hairbrush, or if we’re on the playground, she’ll use a rock. “Teacher, I’m going to make your hair nice” is something I hear a lot!

Shameerah: was very shy at first, but opened up over time, also loves to chew gum in  class. For the first month of practicing our California Girls dance, she wouldn’t dance, she would just stand there. Refuses to eat apples! 

Mushfeeka: always always has something coming out of her nose. She is also a very good drawer as well, misses a fair amount of school. 

Nawaaz: such a sweetheart. He told Ditte he was my boyfriend after a week or two. Very competitive, always likes to be first in line, will always let me know if someone is doing something they shouldn’t be. Always runs to me the second we get on the playground to do some flips. Loves to sit on my lap. 

Kholisa: a very nice boy, who unfortunately stopped coming the last month or so. He loved to repeat the same thing over and over and over again. Such a sweetie. 

Torique: also stopped coming about a month in because his parents owed R20 (about $2.50 CA). I would have loved to just pay the fine and have him come back, but it doesn’t work like that unfortunately. He was a sweetie though, I miss him!

Sange: such a little mischief maker, but I love him. Has a lot of energy, loves to compete with Nawaaz. Would always try to sit on my lap whenever possible, loved to climb all over me. Has such a adorable face when he really smiles, or when he gets embarrassed for doing something good. He loves it when I pretend there’s something under his arm, then sneak up and tickle him. He’ll then go around the class, bringing me kids with their arms up, so I can do the same to them. 

Lungesani: Sange’s cousin, but they live together. At first he seems a lot darker, but if you give him attention, he lights up. The other day, when he got a present, he started chanting his name, it was adorable. 

Ashen: the tiniest little boy, he gets very attached, would start crying if he was sitting on my lap and someone else tried to sit with us. Loves bread, loves to ask for it. Also loves to hide under the table if things aren’t going his way. He's so cute!

Grigory: makes the funniest face ever, he kind of spaces out a lot! We always try to give him more food when we can. Has a very short attention span!

Banza: such a cute child, was shy at first, but not after a bit. I always pretend to shake his hand, and then we tickle each other’s wrists, he gets such a kick out of it. 

Mani: a tough kid, but very sweet. Very honest, if he’s been fighting, he’ll say he is, but if he hasn’t, he’ll say “Teacher, I didn’t fight.” Loves to wrestle with the other kids. 

Courage: the mischief maker of the class for sure. He doesn’t really listen to me. He can be sweet if he chooses, which he does now and then. He doesn’t smile as much as the other kids, but when he fully smiles, he has a huge big smile! 

Inam: he was shy at first, but now is one of my favourites. The other day he was telling me about how he’s going to the big school in January, and I’m going to go with him. Got really shy the other day and then he gave me a hug and told me loved me and gave me a kiss, then ran away. Just such a nice boy, a really good heart. 

Yve: the FUNNIEST randomest kid ever. He loves to pretend he’s Spider-Man. He would literally just start yelling something, then slap his knees, and raise his hands. I wish I had recorded him because I got such a kick out of him. He looks so cute sometimes in ridiculous outfits, with his rubber boots, or his hat that I think might be made from an old pair of boxers and a shoelace? 

Kwanele: also a big mischief maker, but he’s a sweetie too. I think he is such a beautiful child. Loves to drive his car (a frisbee) around the classroom. Loves to throw sand on the playground, which drives me bonkers!

Exoce: he missed a lot of school, but he is a really good kid. Has a beautiful smile, is a generally very happy kid. His dad would always pick him up before nap time. (He's the one in the middle)

Iqel: this is the kid that would sit there biting my pants during class, or picking at my feet, or something haha, loved to sit in front of me, got very possessive during the last week or two, and would just follow me around the whole time!

So that’s my class! I miss them so much thinking about them, but they’re on Christmas break now, so I couldn’t even go visit them if I wanted. 

There's a couple other kids that I've spent some time with on the playground who also have a special place in my heart!!!
Here's a few pics of them :)

I am now on my week off, housesitting at a GORGEOUS house with Tim, it’s definitely the nicest house I’ve ever stayed at. It’s crazy having a TV again! It worked out really well actually because I’ve been really sick the last week (tonsilitis & bronchitis), so on Saturday I went to the doctor’s and got some medicine, then moved into this house, and  watched TV for six hours straight! I watched the Lakers play the Bulls (Bulls won :) ), watched a bit of Scrubs and Will & Grace, then watched something on the World’s Deadliest Animals! I’m feeling a lot better now, I just have a cough that I can’t seem to kick! 

Yesterday I got to visit my mom’s World Vision sponsor child, Lehagen. That was a really cool experience! I went to the World Vision centre in Atlantis, and then a woman drove me into the community where he and his family live, I actually got to meet his parents, and his two brothers as well! The children were very shy, and didn’t speak English really, but the father spoke English, so I was able to talk to him and use him as a translator as well. I thought it was really awesome that I had the chance to meet him face to face! 

Next week I will be starting my penguin project for six weeks, interested to see what that’s like!

So that’s a bit of what I’ve been up to! It’s been hard saying goodbye to my children, but also to my friends, as most of them are going home now for Christmas. It’s going to be weird being away for Christmas, not really looking forward to it, and there’s no snow!!! But apparently at Canal Walk there is a fake snow hill or something, I’m not too sure, I have to further investigate, but I may have to head over there and check it out! 

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!!!