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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Eastern Cape Day 7


April 3 2011 6PM
Journey to the Eastern Cape Day 7

Can you believe it’s already April 3rd??? I certainly can’t. I only have ONE MONTH left. I’m about 50/50 on how I feel about this. I’m still loving being here and enjoying every minute of it, but I’m also getting quite anxious to get home, see everyone, and be in my own comfortable space again.
Anyways, let me fill you in on the last few days’ happenings. I’m going to start with today and backtrack (mainly because I think it’s the only way I’m going to remember…it’s kinda all a blur).
I am currently at the Bulungula Lodge that is on the ocean in the Eastern Cape (this is as far as we’re going in the Eastern Cape). It’s this really awesome eco-friendly lodge where we use compost toilets and rocket showers (the water is warmed up with paraffin and lasts about 7 minutes). When we got here yesterday (after 6 hours in a VERY cramped van) we just hung out and ate dinner. We sat around the bon fine and when it got dark some people went and got their musical instruments. It was really sweet, we had a guitarist/singer, a few African drums, and a didgerydoo (spelling)? I even played the drums a little bit! It was one of the few times while being here that I’ve played music at all, and it made me miss my violin…
Today we got up and walked on the beach a bit. Then 5 of us Americans were led into the forest to learn what a traditional healer of the village uses when people get sick, get headaches, are “crazy” etc. Unfortunately, the healer couldn’t come because he had to heal somebody (funny how that works out) but we got lead around by another guy that knew quite a bit. It ended up being about a 4 hour walk, so I was exhausted. But when we got back we found out that our plans for tomorrow had to be moved to today…so we ate some lunch and headed out for a “women’s empowerment” outing. Basically, this consisted of us getting our faces painted with mud that helps block the sun, making mud bricks for houses (which…btw we had to dip our bare hands in cow poop… I threw up in my mouth a little bit…), carrying buckets of water on our heads, and carrying logs on our heads. This isn’t play…this is what the women of this village do every day. It was actually quite enjoyable.
As I mentioned before, yesterday was essentially traveling all day, so I’m going to jump to Friday. Friday we left our hostel to go to Addo Elephant National Park, which was a game reserve. We saw lots of animals, including elephants, lions, and buffalo (3 of Africa’s “Big Five”). It was cool, but we had to get up at 4:30 to get there for the “sunrise game drive” so we all slept all the way to our next hostel. Friday night’s hostel was pretty interesting, and many of our favorite stay so far. It had lots of cool little guest houses, and the couple that owned it had raised an impala and a zebra, both of which lived on the property. Some of the people even went on a walk with the zebra…not every day somebody gets to do that! They also had 5 or 6 dogs and 10 cats. It definitely had it’s own character.
Thursday we were at our least favorite hostel…. It was out in the middle of nowhere, it was raining, and we were the only ones there. And we got there earlier than expected, so we had A LOT of free time. Luckily, they had free internet so I was able to get on for a bit. But other than that, it was a lot of pool and card games.
It’s been a pretty incredible week. I have to think really hard to remember what I did each specific day, but I think that’s a good thing. We’re definitely having our issues with each other (some of us don’t know when to be quiet…), but that’s to be expected.
That’s about it. It’s time for me to go grab my book, sit out, read, and listen to the waves of the ocean! ;-)

Eastern Cape Day 3


March 30, 2011 5:10 PM
Journey to the Eastern Cape Day 3

Hello all. Currently, I am sitting in our room at the hostel enjoying some “alone time.”  It’s been a busy three days so far! Let me fill you in.

Monday we arrived at Cornerstone around 6:30 AM to begin our trip. We’re driving in a 13 passenger van…the 11 Americans, our “leader” Tami, the driver, and we were joined today by our mentor Kenneth who is coming because otherwise Asa would be the only male. Anyways, our driving time on Monday was about 6 hours ending at Oudtshoorn. We saw the Cango Caves where some of us (not including me) were brave enough to do the “adventure tour” climbing through cave holes as tall as a flashlight. No thanks. The rest of us wimps just did a standard tour that brought us inside the cave enough to make me clastrophobic and learn a little about them. That night we were stayed at the “Backpackers Paradise” hostel and played cards.

Tuesday I rode an ostrich. Seriously. This wasn’t something I expected to do while in South Africa, but it was pretty awesome! It was super short, like 10 seconds, but that was long enough. It was at an ostrich show farm in Oudsthoorn where they have all different kinds of ostriches and stuff. Did you know they even race these things? So after that little adventure we got in the bus for another 3 hours or so and (after waiting at a view point for a couple hours while our driver was sick) ended up in Buffalo Bay, which is near where I was with my host family two weeks ago. Our hostel wasn’t quite paradise, like the night before, but it was right on the beach. That’s enough of paradise for me. It was kind of..Oregon Beach-y, but still fun.

We didn’t travel far today, our hostel is less than an hour from last night’s. Our adventure today was bungy jumping and ziplining. I did the latter. But the 5 brave souls jumped off the highest bungy bridge in the world, one of them even did it twice. Krystle and I, trying to be at least a little brave, did a zip-lining tour over some waterfalls.  It was pretty cool too! Our hostel tonight is called Tubes N Axes…not really sure why…but alright. It’s really cool with hammocks all around and a very spacious, nice shower (hard to come by in these hostels).

I’m really enjoying it all so far. It’s nice because it’s much more relaxed than the other trips we have taken, and it’s all fun stuff instead of museum after museum (which is great, too…).  The group is an interesting one, which makes it all the more fun. We’ll see how I feel after spending 2 weeks with them all haha.

I can’t say enough how much I am blessed to be here. Who can say that in a span of four days they have seen a circus (that was Sunday, btw), gone in a cave, rode an ostrich, and zip-lined over waterfalls…all in South Africa?! Yup, I’m a lucky girl.