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