Potholes in Paradise?

Our final weekend of travel consisted of nearly 20 hours of driving, and two days of bliss in between. Myself, Ryan, Chethana, Liz and Tucker travelled to the Wild Coast of South Africa, the East side of the country, Northeast of Port Elizabeth. Per usual, we rented a car and took off early Friday morning. The first 7 hours of the 10 hour drive were uneventful; beautiful, but uneventful. The final 3 hours required incredible patience. The government dirt road only stretched 35 kilometers (not that far) but the condition of the road slowed our progress to a snail's pace. Turns out there are potholes in places other than Minnesota, who knew? Though the final portion of the drive was brutal, the reward was well worth the effort. We actually arrived at Bulungula Lodge after dark, but we ate a nice dinner and moved in before crawling into bed and calling it a night. 

The morning was absolutely spectacular. As you can see from the photo below, the ocean is right next to the lodge, and we could hear it clearly the night before, but we could not see it at all. 

I spent the first morning walking the beach and soaking up the sun. The relaxing atmosphere combined with the stunning hills and beaches created a tranquil setting. 

Above are the rondevals that we slept in each night. (Except me because I slept in my tent just behind them).

On Saturday morning we hired a guide to take us on a canoe tour of the Xhora river. We had to walk about a mile along the beach to get to the river, but the reward was worthwhile. The river was beautiful,  surrounded by more rolling green hills, and cliffs. Fruit trees and prawn fisherman dotted the shore.

Following the canoe trip we hiked to the top of one of the villages most prominent hills to the local restaurant (a standard rondeval with nothing but benches, a table for cooking, and a shelf. Two women cooked us chicken curry pancakes to die for. We walked back to the lodge along the top of the hills and were treated with Bulungula's consistently spectacular view.

In the afternoon we took a village tour, watched the local soccer game (this was awesome), went to the local bar (shebeen) saw a traditional healer's home (Sangoma) and napped on the beach. 

Sunday we left  pretty much wide open so that we would have more time to simply relax. The days are very short now, and we felt limited on Saturday. My mother would be proud, I sat on the beach reading a book for the vast majority of the day. There is nothing better. As a result I rewarded myself with a photo shoot of the sand dune semi-forest where I was reading, and was delighted to come away with a photo like the one below. I posted more on Facebook, feel free to take a look. 

Late in the afternoon we took a short horseback tour of the area, once again filled with gorgeous views, all from a slightly higher perspective. The people we met at Bulungula, both locals and other travelers dramatically enhanced the trip. Combined with the views, and the overall atmosphere, Bulungula was the second-best place I have visited in Africa, short of only Cape Town. 

I am now looking at my final week in South Africa. I have two exams, three papers, and a presentation next week. My final soccer game is this afternoon, and all of our various going away parties begin today with a braii. I'm grilling for 70 (We'll see how that goes). As hard as it is, I also have begun to say goodbyes. I have started to release myself from this place knowing full-well I may never come back. The transition will be bittersweet I'm sure, but I am so excited to get home and see family and friends, I think I will be just fine. Besides, I get to go to camp in less than two weeks :)

Love,

Andrew

Jo'Burg

Last weekend 13 of us decided to travel to Johannesburg. You can't travel to South Africa without visiting the big city right? Well, we had quite an adventure. We left Friday morning on the Shosholoza, South Africa's version of Amtrak. We were hoping to get tickets for a first class sleeper, but as you would expect we were too slow to get tickets and ended up sitting in the economy class. I had high hopes for the train, and in fact we did see some beautiful landscapes, but the train was dirty, slow, the toilets hardly functioned and smelled awful. In essence, we had the experience of an African train ride. I should be more grateful. We arrived in Jo'burg around lunchtime Saturday, and moved into our hostel in Rosebank, a luxurious suburb to the North of the city. We spent some time getting comfortable, walked around the area, and planned our tours for the next two days. Sunday we woke up and hopped in our minibus to tour the city and Soweto. 

One of our first stops was Nelson Mandela's current home pictured above. Pretty cool knowing he was most likely inside (he is in bad health and rarely leaves). He lives in the richest neighborhood in the country called houghton. Beautiful area. 

We drove downtown after seeing Mandela's house, and we saw the notorious Hillbrow neighborhood. Hillbrow has some of the highest violent crime rates in the world. The danger was evident but the fast paced culture was beautiful and unique nonetheless. We moved deeper into town and took some photos at the ANC headquarters (Above). The African National Congress is the current ruling party of South Africa, Nelson Mandela's party, and is also a complete mess at the moment. Ask me more if you are curious about the politics of South Africa. I have learned a LOT.

Following the tour of downtown we drove out to Soweto (South West Townships). Soweto is by far the most famous township in South Africa. We saw the world cup stadium (above with Ryan Fuchs), Nelson Mandela's old house (Pictured below), Desmond Tutu's house, the site of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and a museum recalling this crucial event in South African history. Soweto was inspiring to say the least.

On Monday we boarded the minibus for the last time and travelled to South Africa's capital Pretoria. Included on the tour was the Voertrekker museum which serves as a monument to the white farmers who crossed South Africa in search of land and wealth. The monument is beautiful and crucial to white Afrikaaner culture, however it also represents all the horrors and inequalities the white population in South Africa has bestowed upon the native black communities. The monument is often used as a rallying point for South Africa's equivalent of Neo-Nazis, the AWB.

Later we made it over to the Union Building, the home of South Africa's executive branch and current president Jacob Zuma of the ANC (Below). This is where Mandela was sworn in as the first president of Post-Apartheid South Africa. Remarkable. 

Our trip to Jo'burg ended with another excruciatingly long train ride back to PE. The only difference this time was perhaps the defining moment of the trip. As we were falling asleep on the train I was woken up by shouting. We all looked back and between the two trains in the transition section, a man and woman were physically fighting. A Mama (Any South African adult woman is called Mama) broke up the fight quickly but we were left on edge. As the night continued we learned more and more about the situation. The man was hammered drunk. The woman was his wife. They continued arguing all night over which of their two children should sit with whom. The children were literally taken back and forth three times. Finally a Mama took the baby boy and kept him for the rest of the night while the baby girl slept with the mother. The father pulled all sorts of stunts in his anger, including throwing a number of his wife's belongings out the moving train, and threatening to throw his daughter with them. Fortunately no physical violence erupted again. Not that the man didn't try. But the Mama's proved once again to be the moral compass of South Africa. We were all left shaken and even scared. But in all honesty. We were never really in danger, and this is what I came to Africa for. I got out of my comfort zone. I saw first hand the frustrations of living in poverty and the violence that is such a common result. I am perfectly fine and Mom please please please don't worry. I am better for witnessing this event. I am safe, and I have a better understanding of South Africa that I could only learn from experience. 

I am heading into my final three weeks here in Africa. We have too many papers. Too much work. But I will be taking one more excursion to the wild coast in addition to having as much fun as possible while here in PE. All is well. Quick shout out to my frisbee team for winning both conferences and regionals these last two weekends, we are expecting the number one seed at nationals! Go BAM. See you all soon!

Love,

Andrew

Spring Break!

I could easily write a ten page adventure log relating to everything that happened on this trip. For your sake, I will do my best to cover the most important things through photos and brief anecdotes. For starters, this trip covered the same amount of time that most public schools have for spring break. We left on a Thursday, and returned to PE Sunday, a week later. Our trip was a group excursion paid for with our tuition money from Thursday until Tuesday where we were set free into the wilds of Cape Town. We spent our first night in Outsdhoorn (oo-ts-hoorn), the next eight nights in Cape Town, and the final night in Knysna. Here goes nothing!  

We stopped on the first day to see the Knysna heads, a famous entrance to Knysna Bay where countless ships have wrecked over the years. My friend Bobby and I simply enjoyed climbing around. 

Mags and I had this adorable photo taken at the top of Otenequa pass between PE and Outsdhoorn. The whole group stopped and took photos, Mags was just lucky enough to be in this one with me! The scenery is gorgeous everywhere in SA, there are literally mountains everywhere I have been. In fact, these mountains created huge canyons on their way to the sea, called the crags, which have become home to quite a few miraculous bridges. One of those bridges, Bloukrans Bridge, happens to house the worlds highest bungy jump in the world! I jumped off that bridge, and I am alive to tell the tale. What a rush! Sorry, photos were too expensive to purchase, my parents have done well to teach me not to throw money at tourist destinations! Boom.

In Outsdhoorn the group went on a few exciting adventures. Pictured above are the Cango Caves, where we were invited to take the adventure route and squeeze through uncomfortably small crevasses and such... not as beautiful as other caves I have seen, but much more adventurous! In addition to caving in Outsdhoorn, we also visited an ostrich farm, where I was lucky enough to RIDE an ostrich! I obviously could not take any photos because I was on the bird, but please go on facebook and enjoy my friends photos on my wall. 

 Once we made it to Cape Town we visited the East India Trading Company's Slave Lodge which has since been turned into a great museum documenting the extensive slave trade in South Africa. In the company gardens next door (Kinda like Central Park) I found this huge tree, and felt obligated to take a photo. I love big trees!

The next day we woke up to sunshine, excited to finally climb Table Mountain. Everyone has seen photos of table mountain, but like always, photos don't do it justice. The three mountains (Lions Head, Table, and Devil's Peak) are simply spectacular and constantly loom over the city. While the photo above is a joke, the climb to the top was almost that hard. Think there is a back way up Table Mountain that isn't nearly vertical? Wrong. We climbed up the front face.

30 of us climbing up proved somewhat ridiculous. It took the fastest group an hour, and the slowest group an hour and a half. But the view kept getting better and everyone was able to make it!

The photo speaks for itself. The view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain is breathtaking.

Pat and I on Table Mountain (Looking South, opposite of Cape Town). If you look closely you can see the Cape of Good Hope 50 kilometers in the distance.

One of the best parts of the trip was a two night homestay in Tambo Village township. This program is relatively new, but basically we all paired off and were put into the hands of some of the Mama's around town. My Mama, Mama Mpumie and her granddaughter Owethu took me into their home as family. We cooked great food, told stories, played games, toured the township, and everything else that people do on a daily basis. This was my favorite part of the trip, I fell in love with 10 year old Owethu and I promised her letters, postcards, and birthday presents. Awesome.

We toured Robben Island on Sunday and saw where ANC leaders were imprisoned for much of the 60's 70's and 80's before apartheid ended in 1990. The Photo above was Nelson Mandela's cell for 18 years. Moving.

I just wanted to share this awesome photo. When clouds cover the top of Table Mountain like this, the locals call it the table cloth. It's beautiful, and I thought it was hilarious.

As soon as our group aspect of the trip ended, we took a lovely wine tasting tour of the world famous Cape Town winelands. Everyone had a wonderful time, the area is beautiful (more photos on fb) and yes Mom and Dad, you will get a bottle of my favorite wine when I get home :)

More winelands. This is where my camera ran out of battery and I stopped taking photos. In addition to what i have mentioned already, we went to the international jazz festival and saw a local minneapolis favorite Atmosphere perform. We also toured a neighborhood called the Bo-Kaap where a huge number of Malay immigrants and other Muslims from around the world make their homes. We toured the waterfront, went to camps beach, drove and hiked the Cape of Good Hope, went to the Cape Town Aquarium, shopped at an amazing market called green street market, went to a service at a Mosque with my friend Shaz, enjoyed the Cape Town night life, and went on a half day canoeing adventure in Knysna before returning to PE yesterday. I have way more stories I would love to share. But I'm afraid this is so long no one will read it anyways. Leave a comment, Facebook, or Email me if you want to know more! What a week! Miss you all.

Love,

 Andrew

Frontier Weekend

Farm hands houses

Sheering merino wool by hand

The incredible view from the top of the mountain

This past weekend we took our first full group excursion since our safari at Addo National Park a month ago. Turns out traveling with adults and guides makes vacation much less stressful. All thirty of us packed our bags and drove three and a half hours inland, to the highlands outside of Grahamstown. We were hosted by two extremely well off Afrikaaner farmers, known commonly as Boers (more a derogative term for farmers by non-whites). Manus and Winnie hosted our first evening at their lovely farm home, offering us each a few beers, a pleasant social environment, and an excellent late dinner, with traditional Boer food. We took a late night drive about 15 minutes to the Francois farm, and crashed for the evening. We wok ein the morning to coffee and tea, and an african version of the egg mcmuffin (The best things seem to cross cultures). We spent the day swimming in an epic FRESHWATER (I miss this even though the ocean is wonderful) waterfall, and driving to / climbing up the third highest peak in South Africa. The view was spectacular, and getting into a natural setting like the mountains helped quench my craving for the outdoors. This was definitely one of my favorite things we have done in Africa. We came down the mountain and spent some time learning about the actual workings of the farm (not terribly different from Minnesotan farms if you ask me) and eventually had some free time. We swam in their pool, played tennis on their court, got a tour of Francois' game trophy room (He has a mounted giraffe among 25 other species of big game) and again spent the evening socializing while waiting for the braai. Dinner was excellent and most of us passed out early after the long day. Sunday we packed up, and headed down to Manus' second farm, where we got to enjoy the coolest waterfall swimming hole I have ever been to. We had to swim inbetween cliffs just to get to the waterfall, and when we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find a deep and warm swimming hole. No pictures of the waterfall because of the whole swimming to get there thing, but trust me it was beautiful. We had a quick lunch and headed home after the waterfall. The weekend was incredibly fun and relaxing, I wish I could have shared it with so many people back home! The only challenge of the trip was trying to grasp the farmer, farm worker relationship. With the farmers so well off it was rather frustrating to see the poverty the farm hands suffer through. Many of the black farm hands live on the farm, and live in the same kind of informal housing as people in the townships of PE. Manus told me he has had the same farm hands for 25 years and has a very good working relationship with them, but almost no personal relationship with them. He even claims to pay them well compared to all of his neighbors. I don't understand how you can have the same workers for 25 years and have no personal relationship develop. This is another example of white South African's dehumanizing black South Africans, whether they do it consciously or not. The paradigm is frustrating, with no simple solution. It's just another challenge facing South Africa, and good food for thought. We leave for Cape Town and most likely the most epic spring break of all time. We have plans for seeing one of my favorite bands at the international jazz festival, shark cage diving, bungee jumping, wine touring, visiting Robben island, climbing table mountain, and so much more! Wish me luck.

Andrew

Skydiving? Too bad.

To those loyal followers I apologize, I have been having so much fun I forgot about everyone back home... Just kidding! I have simply been busy and took one weekend away from blogging. Anywho, last weekend my friends and I were anxious to take our first opportunity to travel away from the big group. We were planning all week on going to a nice hostel in Jeffrey's bay to go surfing; until we found out on Wednesday that everyone else on the trip was going, and we were on the outside looking in.  On the bright side, we have met lots of cool people here in PE who are from East London (3 hours in the other direction). One of them (Cuan) needed a lift back anyways, so we rented a car and drove him home in return from some good Eastern Cape hospitality and a few beds to crash on. The drive to East London was spectacular.

Not only was I with these three lovely people (roommates Ryan and Pat, and good friend Michelle) but the view was spectacular. The big rolling hills were very fun to drive, even with the added challenge of driving on the wrong side of the road (I was very safe I promise). We arrived in E.L. to Cuan's parents greeting us with bright smiles and big plans for a traditional South African Braai (bbq). We had lamb chops and rolls for supper, followed by a dip in the pool. Eventually Cuan's high school buds came over for a few drinks, and we were lucky enough to make new friends. In the morning we got up and drove home. Boring, but the car ride was fun again, and we had to return the car by 2:00 pm anyways.

This weekend I took a trip with my flat, and our neighbors flat 7. We once again rented cars and drove 2 hours to Plettenberg Bay. The drive took us right past where we had bush camp a month ago, and thus all the stunning mountains and pine forests previously mentioned.  

It really does look like Minnesota in some places!

The bridge that is home to the world's highest bungee jump, that I will be doing in a few weeks!

We arrived early on Friday afternoon and settled into our beautiful hostel. We left for lunch shortly after and stumbled upon the best cafe I have ever been to in my life. The sandwich below is a wonderful improvement on the standard chicken and mayo sandwich that is so popular here. The cafe adds spinach, avacado, a slice of parmesan cheese, and their homemade ciabatta bread. I would give an arm and a leg to have this at St. John's for lunch.

Saturday the women all woke up and went snorkeling with a seal colony. I thought it sounded cool, but it was very expensive and I guess I didn't want to do it if I wasn't all in. I spent the day shopping until our sea kayaking adventure in the afternoon. We hired (they call renting hiring here) tandem sea kayaks and two guides to take us out in the bay. I loved being out on the water once again, however, it's not the same as paddling a seliga (canoe), that's for sure. 

We paddled out a ways and were lucky enough to find a pod of dolphins fishing. Two dolphins swam in a tight circle holding the fish together, while the other dolphins jumped and flipped, catching fish midair right in front of us. Apparently this only happens once in every 100 or so trips (or so they say). I didn't catch any good photos, but you can see below that we had quite a view of the peninsula ahead of us. 

This is the yard of the Hostel we stayed in, plenty of hammocks--just the way I like it!

The only bummer of the weekend was that we were planning on skydiving on Sunday morning the whole time. In fact I wasn't even planning on it until everyone persuaded me it was worthwhile. But when we woke up on Sunday morning, alas, the wind had picked up and the company called and cancelled on us. We left this morning happy and healthy, got back to Langerry in time to blog and work on some homework. We have lots of papers due in the near future! Pray for us all :)

Love from dreamland,

Andrew

Safaris: Just how you would imagine them.

While this last week sort of defined what the next few months of school will look like, our trip to Addo Elephant National Park and Schotia Private Game Reserve certainly prevented any sense of normalcy from setting in. Classes Monday through Thursday were routine, we brushed up on South African history, musical instruments, popular short stories and the like. Good classes, learned plenty. Thursday evening Ryan Fuchs and I attended the NMMU soccer tryout. Well, 75 players showed up, most of whom had no intention of making the team. In 2.5 hours I played 15 minutes. I was not pulled aside because it's hard to prove that I am a player in 15 minutes after four months away from the game. Well, the coaches fortunately noticed Fuchs, and the fact that the varsity team needs a left back really helped him. Fortunately for me, I just hung around him once he got pulled aside and essentially willed myself into the final portion of the tryout. I got to play another five minutes playing a different position than I normally would. That said, at the end Fuchs was picked for the reserve team and an extended tryout and I was not. However, when we approached the coach after, he invited me to join the team and essentially Fuchs and I are in the same position now anyways. I am confident I can convince the coach I am one of the better players he picked in a training session that actually requires more than just flashy skills. My disappointment certainly didn't last long, considering that by 8:00 am the next morning we were on a tour bus on our way to Addo National Park. Addo is only an hour away and has one of the highest concentrations of African Elephants in the world. The park is huge, we only saw a small piece of it, but in about two hours, we saw over 150 elephants!

We ate a short lunch in the park, and drove about a half an hour to the nearby Schotia Private Game Reserve. Schotia is owned privately, so all the game we saw had been purchased and introduced artificially to the fenced off environment. That said, there were hundreds of animals living in very good conditions, and all of them live a completely wild lifestyle. The lions hunt for their food, the other animals graze, and most of the animals have had many cubs or calves since their initial purchase. The park has one pride of lions that apparently are tougher to find. Well, we found them in the first twenty minutes and spent a couple of hours photographing and simply enjoying their presence.

At around 4:00 pm we drove to a quaint farmhouse where tea was waiting for us. We took turns petting horses, and of course throwing a frisbee. After tea, we went back to the trails, saw more animals, more lions, and drove to the top of the largest hill for sunset. 

Dinner was held in an indigenous Koisan style lodge, with multiple fire pits, and beautiful modern features to make the experience feel incredibly luxurious. Dinner was ostrich stew, green beans, and rice.  Easily the best meal I have had since I got here. We left dinner and had a short drive back to the main lodge. We turned on the spotlight (it was dark) and were fortunate enough to see the park's hippos out of the water, and grazing in the field. What a way to end the night. The rest of the weekend we relaxed, read for class, and tried to keep up with our journaling. Quite the week! In addition, I've been here for four weeks now! I can't even believe it, but I have less than three months left here already. I better keep "living it up!" as all the locals say. 

Love from the wilds of Africa,

Andrew

School? How about lions.

Monday marked the beginning of routine living (whatever that means) here in PE. Our schedule is simple: Monday and Tuesday mornings we go to service learning from 8:30 until 11:30. We have class each afternoon Monday through Thursday from 2:00 until 5:00. Monday I am taking a South African Jazz course, Tuesday is our Semester Abroad Seminar, Wednesday is South African Literature, and the week culminates with South African Politics. Much to our chagrin, we realized this week (after receiving our class syllabus') that our work load is going to be rather demanding. Oh ya, we are here to go to school. Easy to forget with the sunny and 75 weather, the beach, the safaris.. Did I mention we went on our first safari? While classes this week went well, the highlight of the week in my opinion was our day trip to Seaview Lion Park. Essentially the park is a zoo, with all the big cats fenced in, and the herbivores allowed to roam the property freely. We saw many of the classic African animals, and most of my friends paid to have the opportunity to pet and play with lion and tiger cubs. In addition to class and the safari, one of my professors (Gary Prevost is an SJU professor on paid research leave here in PE) took me and three other guys to the professional soccer game Wednesday night between the Kaizer Chiefs and the Jomo Cosmos. The PE World Cup stadium is BEAUTIFUL. The game was entertaining, and eye opening as well. Apparently, white South Africans in general LOVE the premier leagues of Europe, but do not support South African soccer in any way. We were the only white people in the stadium. And according to Gary, who has spent a number of years attending these games, that is the norm. However, if the stadium hosted a Rugby match, the building would be full to the rim with people of all colors. Just an interesting observation in post-apartheid South Africa. It was a great week, and I look forward to getting done with my homework, because next Saturday we are going on a REAL safari at Addo Elephant National Park! Feel free to send me any questions.

Love from PE, Andrew

My friend Margaret petting a Siberian Tiger

A lazy lion.

Look ma, first day of school pic, with my name tag and everything!

Lion King anyone?

Ryan and I at the stadium before the game.