Tubular Waves, Wild Animals, and Mass Chaos

Well to start I am sorry that I have posted in a long time, but I do have good reason. The internet sucks in this country! So, I guess it’s not my fault. Since my last post I have done some incredible things, so this post may be a bit longer than that last few. Brace yourselves.

Jeffrey’s Bay

Today J’bay is the surf mecca of Africa and life is basically a Jack Johnson song. Life revolves around the waves, the beach, and the bar. We stayed at a place called the Island Vibe Backpacker that was just unreal. You basically walk into a giant beach bungalow with old surf boards covering the ceiling and photos of famous surfers from the billabong tournament that takes place there on the wall. The first day some of us went sandboarding, which is like snowboarding down sand dunes, while others did the beach and surfing thing. It was unbelievable how cool it was. When the day was winding down, the 20 of us that were there jumped in our cars and when to this really cool restaurant on the beach called Walskipper. It had the most beautiful view of the ocean since its outdoors and had thatched roofs and no walls and the floor was just sand. The seafood there was amazing. Right of the coast of where we were eating you could see the calamari fishermen out for a night troll (Jeffrey’s bay is where the most calamari is caught in the world). We went back to the backpacker only to find that the little tiki-esque bar inside was hopping. We had a few fishbowls and met people from all over the world, even Minnesota. Weird! The next morning was Valentine’s Day, and after not being able to sleep because of a hilarious nighttime incident with our sliding door, I decided to go out for a walk on the beach by myself at 6 a.m. It was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life. I was walking on the beach looking at seashell and walked into a flock of flamingoes. Then I looked out to sea and saw a school of dolphins jumping through the waves. With the waves crashing against the ocean rocks, sending up a giant sprays of mist, I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t.

Seaview

We left J’bay pretty early that day, but on our way home we decided to stop at a game farm called Seaview. Here you drive through a couple hundred hectares of open area where you can see brisbok, wildabeast, monkeys and other animals. Though these animals are pretty cool, Seaview is known for its lion dens. They don’t have free roaming lion there but have some areas fenced off for tigers and lions. The coolest part of the whole thing though, was that some of us got to go into the lion cages. For 5 bucks you could either go play with infant lions that were 9 weeks, or another group that was 4 months, or lastly the 10 month olds which are about the size of a full grown mountain lion. So of course we went in with the big guys. I was the first to go in and at first the lions were just laying on platform. After petting them for awhile they began to wake up a bit and started chewing on my arms or would swat me with their giant paws. The rest of the guys took their turn in the den and then I came back in with all of them. When I got in for the second time, the lions were wide awake, sprinting through the grass and jumping up trees. Before I knew it, I had a giant tooth sink into my butt and four paws with claws out grabbing different parts of my body. I braced myself and followed the instructions not to panic and just pushed the lion down. She was only trying to play with me. This happened probably 3 more times before we decided to leave.

Addo & Schotia

The day after getting back from J’bay and Seaview, we had our group excursion to Addo Elephant Park and to Schotia Game Reserve. These places were really cool, but to condense my post I am going to make this short. At Addo we drove around in a big bus, with our heads hang out the windows, looking for elephants and other animals. We had a really cool guide who seemed to know everything about everything. After a couple of hours there, we drove to Schotia Game Reserve, which is a game park that is privately owned. Here we broke up into small groups, covered ourselves with insulated ponchos because by this time the driest place in South Africa with experiencing torrential downpours and cold temps for even their winter months, and jumped into big 11 seater Jeeps. Though it was raining and cold, most of us agreed that we wouldn’t have had it any other way. And in the words of one of our favorite song writers, Toto, “God bless the rains down in Africa”. Between the two parks we saw: two adult elephants and two 2 calves, hippos, crocodiles, bushbok, zebra, rhinos, lions, giraffes, Cape Buffalo, tortoises, dung beetles, impala, springbok, brisbok, Wildabeast, and other antelope bovine type things that I can’t remember the name of right now. Check out my pictures that can be found on my Picasa web album

Pendla

Another new thing since my last post is that I have started my service work at Pendla school. It has been the most heartwarming/ heartbreaking, uncomfortable/welcoming experience so far. The moment we got there the school was going through a small crisis because the principal had a fainting spell right before we got there. Everything was a bit chaotic, but through it all the staff was able to continue with the planned welcoming ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful. The choir sang us wonderful African songs and some of them did traditional Xhosa dancing. Immediately after the ceremony we were place with our new teachers. I was assigned grade 3 with Ms. Ndumi (at least I think that is her name, its bit hard to understand her). My class is basically taught in Xhosa except for the lesson that Laura and I do together. The first day was really overwhelming because Ms. Ndumi had us sit in the back and just listen to them speak in Xhosa and every once in a while they would start to count in English. Sitting in the back of the room though, I was able to see that the conditions of the classroom are incredibly inadequate. The chairs are broken and some don’t have backs on them. The alphabet cards above the board only consist of six letters. Even the writing utensils are in bad shape. Though the conditions are bad, the teachers and kids seem happy. The first day I didn’t have much interaction with the kids, but that second day was a completely different story. I could get the kids off of me. We started the day with a lesson about good and bad foods that Laura and I planned the night before. Then it was time for to play for an hour. I would look around and each person from our group would have at least 20 kids surrounding them, grabbing on anywhere they could. I seem to be the pied-piper of all the younger boys. They would grab my arms and just rub them. They love arm hair. They would even rub it across their faces. It’s kind of weird, but adorable. Then we played soccer, well at least 20 kids on each team would run after a flat soccer ball on a field without grass, covered in rocks, and try to kick the ball between two big stones. My team won, 3-Nil, which is one of the only things that the kids could say to me. We walked back to the class room, my team grabbing on to me anywhere they could, singing some African soccer victory song. For the rest of the day, the boys in my class would turn around when the teacher was in the front of the class and stick of 3 fingers and a fist and say 3 –nil. I guess soccer transcends the language barrier and at least I speak that language.
That’s enough for now!

Peace and Love from Africa
Joe