September 29, 2007

This morning we woke up and had breakfast at the main house and we were on our way in the rain back to PE. We were supposed to stop at an ostrich factory outlet, but it was closed for the morning. When we drove through Knysna we were going to stop to shop again and have a mid-morning snack but because of the rain and the crummy weather we just passed right on through to the Bloukrans bridge where everyone (but me) went bungy jumping! I was so disappointed that I couldn’t jump but because of my back I wasn’t able to do it…stupid scoliosis! Although I wasn’t able to jump, I went as a bungy buddy and walked on the bridge with everyone to watch and cheer and be there for moral support. I held jackets and cameras, wore jewelry and watches, and anything else that cluttered people’s pockets! I cheered for everyone when they were getting ready to jump and when they were brought back to the platform, and when people were scared and ready to cry I would hold their hand as they were being strapped into their harness! There was a camera and a TV on the bridge so we were able to watch the people as they jumped and went down! Even though I wasn’t able to do it, I still felt the thrill and my stomach do flip-flops as they jumped! I was a little bummed when it was all over, because I wanted to just take a harness and just jump anyway, since I was the only person who didn’t do it, but I didn’t want to risk anything with my back, especially since some people really got jostled around like a rag doll. I was still happy to be able to stand on the bridge of the world’s highest bungy jump at 216 meters and the largest bridge in Africa! After the jumping was done, we went for lunch at the Storm’s River and after lunch it was a straight shot back to PE! When we pulled into the city at 6:30 we were all excited to finally be back! I forced myself to unpack and then check emails and upload pictures! The happiest news was from an email from Jeff Storelee…I zoned in on the subject “Baby News” and it was the first picture that I checked and I learned that I am going to have a baby girl cousin born in February! The email right after Jeff’s was from Jane and she forwarded the 3D ultrasound and I got to see Baby Lola! I ran around the apartment telling everyone that it is going to be a girl because I kept talking about it all week saying that this was the week that we would find out! I called Jane to see how she was doing and to hear the news and how excited Chrissy is! I also told her about the shark diving and she was jealous since she is slightly obsessed with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel! I also called home to talk to mom and fill her in about my week and I skyped with Dad for a bit and told him about my week vacation! It was so nice talking to everyone! I tried calling Oxboroughs to talk to Sarah, but she was at her grandparent’s so Adam and I talked for a bit! I stayed up too late getting up to date with everything, but now I am finally all caught up with my blog, journals, pictures, and emails!

September 28, 2007

Today was a day that was spent in the bus leaving Cape Town for the Klein Karoo and Oudtshoorn. We drove for 8 hours and stopped for lunch at the Blue Crane Farmshop and had a light lunch of soup and a bran muffin. Then we continued the drive where I slept and read a Jodi Picoult book that Christy borrowed to me. We arrived at the Red Stone Hill Farm where we were staying for the next two nights and my roommate was Brenna and we shared the house with Christy and Leslie. We had 2 ½ hours to just relax before dinner so we all sat on our back porch with the mountain surrounding us, and the ostriches from the farm walking around in their cage only feet away from where we were sitting. We read and had a few snacks before walking to the main house for a braai. The farm that we are staying at has ostriches, sheep, horses and wild peacocks and it was neat seeing all of these animals, especially the baby ostriches! For dinner, I had the chicken with rice, butternut squash, potato salad, coleslaw, and salad. It was such a great meal, but I barely had room for everything! It was a relaxing and lazy day, with not much that happened other than driving!

September 27, 2007

Today was a day that was spent in the bus leaving Cape Town for the Klein Karoo and Oudtshoorn. We drove for 8 hours and stopped for lunch at the Blue Crane Farmshop and had a light lunch of soup and a bran muffin. Then we continued the drive where I slept and read a Jodi Picoult book that Christy borrowed to me. We arrived at the Red Stone Hill Farm where we were staying for the next two nights and my roommate was Brenna and we shared the house with Christy and Leslie. We had 2 ½ hours to just relax before dinner so we all sat on our back porch with the mountain surrounding us, and the ostriches from the farm walking around in their cage only feet away from where we were sitting. We read and had a few snacks before walking to the main house for a braai. The farm that we are staying at has ostriches, sheep, horses and wild peacocks and it was neat seeing all of these animals, especially the baby ostriches! For dinner, I had the chicken with rice, butternut squash, potato salad, coleslaw, and salad. It was such a great meal, but I barely had room for everything! It was a relaxing and lazy day, with not much that happened other than driving!

September 26, 2007

We woke up and a taxi was waiting to take us to Prins and Prins Jewelry store. They were having a 25% off sale, so of course I had to buy something! I bought a tanzanite pendant! It is a .8 carrat stone set in a white gold setting. It is so pretty! At first I wasn’t going to get anymore jewelry since I bought the ring, but I really wanted to buy tanzanite, because it is only mined in Mount Kilimanjaro and within 10-12 years there will be no more stone to mine, so it is a very rare and precious stone. I was very excited to find a necklace for a cheaper price, so I spoiled myself again! We came back to Dale Court right at 10:00am to be picked up by our driver to drive 3 hours to go…SHARK CAGE DIVING!!! Nine of us (Carrie, Ashley, Katherine, Alex, Kasy, Brenna, Laura, Tonya, and I) all piled into the van to go to Gansbaai to where the Sharklady is located. On the drive to Gansbaai, we stopped in Hermanus to pick up to more people and we were able to watch more whales and we saw a mom and baby right whale breaching along the shore line! They kept jumping and splashing along the shore. It was such an amazing thing to watch, I got goosebumps and every time they would jump we would point or grab the person next to you and just be excited to see something like that happening in nature! We continued to Gansbaai and had tea and biscuits while we watched a video on Great White Sharks. We met Lance our dive master and he did an educational bit about the anatomy of the sharks we would be seeing as well as went through information about the cages and safety while on the boat. We all climbed onto the Lady T1 and set sail in the Atlantic. We rode 15 minutes on the boat to where the cage was, through large crashing waves. We almost lost our videographer when we hit a big wave, he wasn’t holding on, and got jostled around at the end of the boat! When we got to our destination and were anchored, we changed into full wetsuits and I was in the second group to go into the cage. I was in there with Ashley, Laura, and Katherine, but Laura started having a panic attack because she is scared of water and she climbed out and Alex joined us in the cage. I also had a mini-panic attack because you can’t feel the bottom of the cage and it feels that you are just floating in the ocean and sharks are around you. But after putting my face underwater I could see how the cage looked and where your feet were supposed to go when you held your breath to go under to look at the shark and I relaxed. The openings in the cage are about 5x7” for you to look out and view the shark as it swims by. Lance would toss the bait out in front of the cage to lure it in and then the shark would swim right past the front of the cage, and sometimes if you were lucky it would come straight at you so you could see their open mouths! There were a few times when the shark came within an arms length away from the cage! In between shark sightings we would just hold onto the handle bar in he cage and float and when Lance or the crew saw a shark they would yell of us to go down and in what direction to look. We were on the water for 3 ½ hours, and we all had about an hour each in the cage! We had the opportunity see three different sharks a baby, and two others, one of which was quite large (over 15 feet!) and we got to see the sharks breach and come out of the water to grab the bait! After my second time in the cage, I came out and I wasn’t feeling very well from the rocking of the boat and not eating anything for a long time…so I joined Katherine and got a little seasick! Lets just say that I was extremely happy to be back on solid ground when we made is safely to shore! We changed and the crew had vegetable soup and bread ready for us to eat as we watched our video. It was fun watching us in the cage, but the video wasn’t the best quality, so I didn’t buy it. A few things that are really cool about the company that we dove with is 1.) Sharklady is the only company in the business run by a female and she is one o the pioneers of shark cage diving in South Africa and her company was founded in 1992, 2.) Brad Pitt has dove with this company and his picture is in the office, and 3.) Prince Harry also has dove with Sharklady and his picture is in the office as well as Prince William’s (although he never dove there) Prince Harry did buy Prince William a beanie hat and Prince William wore it and made the beanie famous! Diving with the sharks was such a thrill! My adrenalin was pumping and I would be so darn close to the sharks and the only thing separating me from them was a metal cage! Whenever we would go under and it would come up close we would all come up for air giddy with screams and we would look at each other and say, “Holy Cow! Did you see that?!?” I highly recommend this to anyone who ever has the opportunity to cage dive, especially those who are going in the spring! It was definitely worth the money that we paid to do it! After warming up we piled back in the van and drove the three hours home. By the time we got back to Dale Court it was 9:00 and we were ready to just fall asleep!

September 25, 2007

This morning we began the day with a drive to Hermanus to go whale watching. As soon as we pulled into the town we saw a few whales out a bit floating that the surface and occasionally flipping their tail out of the water. We watched for a half hour and then decided to walk around the trail to look for more whales along the coastline. We took a path down to a bridge and we stopped to take a picture of us girls and our shadows off of the bridge (Laura, Katherine, Ashley, Brenna, Carrie, Kasy, and I) and climbed some rocks and just sat and enjoyed the waves crashing and talking about life. There were boys below us swimming in a pool that was protected from the waves, and before we knew it, one of the boys was skinny dipping! We took that as our cue to leave and go find lunch! We ate lunch at the Zebra Crossing where for the first time no one ordered the same meal! It was nice because we all could sample each other’s food! After we finished lunch we made our way to the market where I bought bowls for myself, a giraffe hair bracelet, and a keychain, among other gifts for people. I actually found something for Marcus who I was nervous about finding a gift for as he is always difficult to shop for. I actually am a very good bargainer when it comes to purchasing things in the market! The two bowls that I wanted I got for R150 (about $22) and he originally wanted R150 for both, but I worked it out where two of us bought bowls so he made a bigger profit from both of us (and quite frankly, the story he was telling us was very fishy!) After shopping, we bought an ice cream cone and watched for more whales. On our drive back to Cape Town we planned our free day for tomorrow…it’s a surprise! When we were back in Cape Town we ate a bowl of cereal (cheap and quick dinner) then went back to the Waterfront for more shopping! I bought more gifts for friends as well as the Christmas present for Storelees (so all of my family reading this…I know this is illegal, but I call dibs on Jane for Secret Santa this year!) I also splurged and bought myself a diamond ring! It is not big by any means, but it is really neat because in the band there is two pieces of elephant tail, which makes it unique to South Africa! And as Mom said to me, it’s what I worked for all summer to have money to spend on this trip. We spent a few hours shopping and then it was time to go home and go to bed.

September 24, 2007

We were able to sleep in a bit today before meeting Jerry and the group to leave for Cape Point. On the drive, we took wrong turns quite a few times, but we finally made it on the right road! I finished the Sleeping Beauty Proposal and now I really want to read the Cinderella Pact and the Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives by the same author! We stopped at a few look out spots on the drive to take pretty pictures of the scenery (I don’t know how many pictures a person can take of the ocean and landscape, but I continue to click away for the “perfect picture”). We stopped at an ostrich farm for a quick bathroom break and then we arrived at the Table Mountain National Park where the Cape of Good Hope is located. We drove along False Bay of the Indian Ocean (on our left) and the Atlantic on our left. As we were rounding a corner and going down a hill I was looking in the Atlantic side and I spotted a whale swimming along the surface, so Jerry stopped and we took a few pictures. At first I thought that it was a rock but it was slowly drifting against the current and it’s tail came out of the water. It was a Southern Right Whale, named Right because they were the “right” whale to kill for the blubber for oil lamps and the would float when killed, so it was easier to harvest. We arrived at the Cape of Good Hope (the most South Western point in South Africa with Latitude of 18◦28’26” and Longitude of 34◦21’25”) and took pictures by the sign. Then we started on our hike from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Point. On the hike we stopped for a few pictures and walked down a hundred and something stairs to the beach to take pictures and draw things in the sand and take pictures. I took my shoes off and ran into the water for a picture…it was freezing cold and the waves were huge and would crash so big! We stood on the rocks to get pictures of the wave crashing behind us! Kasy got creamed by a wave but the rest of us all stayed dry! We hiked back up the steps after a half hour on the beach and never again will I complain about the steps of the Main Building to get to class. We made it to the end of the trail and had a light lunch of yogurt and granola and then we continued to walk to the lighthouse at Cape Point where we had a beautiful and sunny view of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meeting! Cape Point’s coordinates are Latitude of 34◦21’24” and Longitude of 18◦29’57” and it is the most Southeastern point in South Africa. I made a few videos of the point with my shadow in the background. No words can actually describe the beauty of the Point as well as the thoughts that fill your head as you try to imagine where you are standing on a map, I mean, I remember learning about Vasco de Gama sailing from Europe to India and being the first to pass the Cape, but it is strange to envision myself physically standing there! It is all so surreal to me still! There are times that I have to stop and think, “You are in South Africa!” We hiked down the trail and I bought a shirt in the gift shop, complete with an illustration of the Cape and a whale tail in the water (how perfect!). We continued our trip to the Boulders at Table Mountain National Park to see the South African penguins lounging on the beach! We would watch them hop from the rocks to the beach and waddle along in the sand! They were so funny! After spending time down by the water, we made our way to Cape to Cuba, the restaurant where we were eating dinner. I ordered a Tortilla Cubana and Cuban bread with a mango daiquiri! It was a very delicious meal! After dinner we drove home and went right to bed!

September 23, 2007

This morning we dressed in layers due to the chilly weather and the rain. We all climbed into the van and made our way to Table Mountain. We all rode in the cable car up to the top of the mountain (60 of us were crammed into the rotating cable car to have a view of Cape Town). The sky had cleared up on the way up, but of course as soon as we got to the top it clouded up again and we couldn’t see the city or the view from the top…just mist and clouds! We took pictures anyway sitting on the edge and walking around the top of the mountain. I bought pictures to show people what the view should have looked like. It started raining while we were up there, so Tonya, Ashley, Denise, and I went to the coffee shop at the top and ordered hot chocolate and three of us split a cheesecake! It was a delicious treat before the cable care ride back down the mountain. As soon as we were out of the clouds we did have the chance to see the awesome view of the city from up above! After getting to the bottom of the mountain, we went to the Dutch Castle, Casteel de Doede Hoop, built in 1666. It reminded me very much of the fort at Mackinaw Island. We walked around the castle and after an hour we went to the VA Waterfront for lunch. We ordered a meal and after we finished we went back for a small cup of ice cream! I ordered chococcino and spotty dog (which was caramel with chocolate cookie pieces in it). After a quick lunch we piled back into the van to go to wine country and wine tasting.

At the vineyard, Blaauwklippen, we had a tour of the farm and learned that the man who originally built the farm built his house and it was too small, so an additional house was built to accommodate his wife and 22 children! Can you believe that?!? Twenty-two children, all with the same wife! We saw the cellars and learned the process of fermentation and how different wines are made. I kept thinking of Mom and how much she would have loved being there (Note to Dad: This would be a lovely anniversary trip for the two of you one of these years)! We sampled five different wines, and my favorite was the semi-sweet, so I bought a bottle for R30. We drove back to Dale Court and ate a snack, then we were back to the waterfront for shopping! Carrie, Katherine, Ashley, and I went to the African Trading Post and I spent way too much money (R600 to be exact!) on gifts for myself and friends! After dropping lots of money we took a taxi home, ate some cereal for dinner, then went to bed!

September 22, 2007

We were up at 6:30 and down for breakfast served in the lounge of the hotel. We all walked to the bus tour company and rode a big red double decker bus for a tour of Cape Town. We all sat on top and the tour began at the two oceans aquarium, following the Red Route on the map, we saw the clocktower, the convention center, the SA museum, the SA Jewish Museum, the Dutch castle, the gold museum, the cableway of Table Mountain, Camps Bay, Sea Point, and then back to the waterfront. Along the drive to Camps Bay we say the Twelve Apostles Mountain as well as the neighborhoods of the rich and famous, including Elton John, David and Victoria Beckham, and Charlize Theron. The beaches are covered in white sand, and many Great White Sharks are spotted along the beach and surfers have to be aware of the shadows lurking underwater. We came back to the waterfront and had lunch. I was so excited to see a Subway in the food court, so of course I had to get it and take a picture posing under the sign and with my sandwich for my family, well especially for Marcus. It wasn’t quite the same because they didn’t have turkey, so I was a little bummed, and the mayo just wasn’t right, but still it was a yummy lunch! After lunch we rode the Sea Princess boat 11.6 kilometers out to Robben Island. Kasy, Alex, and I all sat together up top and it was a rocky and wet thirty minute ride to the island! We arrived on the island and climbed onto a tour bus and learned that our guide taking us around the island was a political prisoner on Robben Island. He showed us Sisulu’s isolation house where he spent much of his imprisonment on the island. We were able to stop and take pictures from the island of Cape Town and Table Mountain. We arrived at the prison gates and were handed off to another tour guide who also was a political prisoner. We guided us through the common criminal cells, the different blocks, the yard, and the political prison and walled-in yard. We went into cells that originally held single beds that housed 53 prisoners in the room, but then they added bunks to squeeze 106 men into a cell the size of my living room and family room at home. We saw the area of the yard where Mandela buried his manuscript for his book Long Walk to Freedom and that was such a powerful feeling. I read the book this summer, prior to coming to South Africa, and I had envisioned the prison a specific way, but seeing everything and recalling what Mandela wrote about it all fit into place, like the wall that was built and separated the political prisoners from the common criminals. It made me want to go back and read the book now that I know the layout of the prison and can picture exactly what he is describing. We ended the tour by seeing Mandela’s single jail cell where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. The cell was smaller than the dog kennels on the grounds, measuring 7 feet by 10 feet, just barely big enough for him to be able to lie down. It was so hard walking through the halls of the prison with a man who had lived through the struggle, and I had to keep reminding myself that this happened in my lifetime. I was born and lived through the last years of apartheid, and he was in that jail, separated from his family, fighting for his beliefs, as I was going to preschool and grade school. It was such a strange feeling, and very difficult to wrap your mind around. You can read about the Great Depression, Holocaust, and Vietnam War, but those all happened in a time before I was born. You can see all of the pictures you want but until something like that happens in your lifetime and you come face to face with it, it still seems like something further back in history. It was quite the experience to have been able go there and see that important part of history. For dinner we went to Mama Africa and I ordered springbok. It was a very tender meat and I have to say that it was one of the better meals that I have ordered while in South Africa! The restaurant had live African music, the ceiling was lined with sticks and straw to look like a hut, and animals and authentic decorations lined the walls. They had a man selling jewelry and other collectables, and Carrie and I bought elephant hair bracelets. By the time the cab dropped us off at Dale Court, we were tired and all crawled into bed!

September 21, 2007

Today is the first day of our Spring Break! We woke up and were ready to go in the van by 7:30am! Our van driver was Jerry and he was such a happy man so early in the morning! We all piled into the van and got ready for a long drive to Cape Town. I sat in the back corner (my favorite seat) with Brenna and Katherine! Last night I made chocolate muffins for everyone to have on the drive, so at our first stop at the Storm’s River, I brought the muffins out and we all had a treat! At one of the gift shops at Storm’s River I bought these fruit squares that were bits of fruit smashed thinly and cut into squares, they were fruit snacks, but made from actually fruit! We all ended up buying some of those for the drive. During the fifteen hour drive (flashbacks of the drive to Michigan with 13 people in a motor home…this time it was 14 people in a Kombi!) I slept and read the Sleeping Beauty Proposal (note to all of my cousins who love to read—this is such a good book and a must read!). We stopped in Knysna for lunch at a small café and I ordered a toasted chicken sandwich, and of course lunch took longer than planned and we were behind on schedule! We made it to Albertina a little late but we were still able to have a tour of the Aloe Ferox factory. We sampled different aloe lotions and products, as well as tasting aloe tea and juice which had a citrus-like flavor. I bought a few of the products because the lotion made your hands so smooth! On the drive in the afternoon everyone fell asleep except for Laura and me in the backseat. We started listening to Build Me Up Buttercup and we were singing and dancing very quietly, we then decided that it would be fun to make a music video of us singing and then video everyone sleeping…so I pulled out my camera and filmed us singing then panning over everyone fast asleep with their mouths hanging open, then back to us dancing and singing again! When we watched the video we could not stop laughing, it was the belly laughs that give your abs a workout and soon enough everyone woke up and were wondering what was going on. They watched the video and soon everyone was cracking up about how funny everyone looked and how oblivious they were to us in the back! After driving for what felt like days, we stopped at a random hole in the wall restaurant and had dinner, then made our way to Cape Town at 10:30pm! As we were driving through the city it felt just like Minneapolis, the tall buildings, the way the streets were arranged, and small parks scattered in neighborhoods. It was a strange feeling to see places that look familiar but are located in a city halfway around the world. We arrived at Dale Court, our hotel and were settled into our suits complete with two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Carrie and I shared a room with two beds pushed together, so we were nice and close at night and Katherine and Ashley took the other room.

September 20, 2007

Class was unbelievably boring today! Well that is a lie because the OCD video was very interesting but other than that I wanted to fall asleep! We were sitting in there watching our lecture DVD and Brenna leaned over and whispered, “If you could have anything right now, what would it be?” I responded with, “the ability to walk out of this room or Cold Stone ice cream!” She also agreed that she would want to leave! We lived through the class and after, Laura and I decided to walk to Pick ‘n Pay for groceries! We discovered amazing bakery items for dirt cheap! I bought cheesy bread and it was very yummy! I have a leftover piece for the drive to Cape Town tomorrow! Speaking of the drive to Cape Town, I made 2 ½ dozen chocolate muffins for everyone to have in the morning on the drive! I figure that people can’t be grumpy at 7:30 am when there are free chocolate muffins! All of my roommates were calling me Betty Crocker today! I sampled one of the muffins to test to make sure that they were eatable, and it was yummy! We went out to Gondwana for dinner and I had my first South African burger! It was an avocado and feta burger and it was quite delicious! We came home after a two hour dinner and I packed my bags for the morning and worked on a little homework! I talked to both Dad and Mom today and it was nice hearing their voices and to just catch up quick before I take off for the next week! Spring break…here I come!

September 19, 2007

Happy Birthday Jane! I hope that Jeff and Chrissy had a special day planned for you!

This morning was our last day of our Public Health Clinicals. We met the NMMU students and waited for the volunteers to come to the container. Sledge was asking if Laura and I had gotten his email that he sent us on Monday. We told him that we didn’t get it, and he was disappointed…but we rewrote the email addresses and hopefully it will be working for him now! We walked to our patient’s house and she was so happy to see us.

We left with a great feelings because she had achieved our outcomes and I really feel that I had a positive impact on her life and her health. I was very fortunate to have such an amazing group to work with, as well as being able to meet with the two families that I have been working with for the last month. Some groups were left with a feeling of helplessness or they felt like they didn’t develop a relationship with their patients, and what they taught was not welcomed by the patient. I feel that I did make a difference, even if it was a little step, whether it was going for a walk with a patient, listening to what they had to say, taking a blood pressure to someone who had never had it checked, or just being someone to talk to once a week. It was such a rewarding experience to have my patients show progress over the weeks. I wish that I could go there a month from now to see if they are continuing what we had taught them.

It was nice when we were leaving clinical all of the NMMU students came and gave us hugs and we all took pictures together! We exchanged email addresses and it was a nice farewell! When we came home from clinical we changed and made our way to the university to go to our Political Science class. I enjoy the information that we learn in the class, but two and a half hours of straight lecture can be very tiring! It is hard keeping your eyes open, and sometimes things are repeated over and over. I came home from class, made dinner, did a little homework, and watched a movie before going to bed, since I am ahead if all of my classes! What a great feeling!

September 18, 2007

Today was a wonderful morning…it started out a bit chilly, but by the time we were done with our public health class, the sun was warm and shining! We came back home, made a quick lunch, checked email, had a visit with Didi, and we went up to the roof to enjoy the afternoon! It felt so nice sitting out in the sun, I was outside for an hour and a half reading, and for a half hour I fell asleep, and it was such a glorious feeling! I am pleased to report that I finally have tanned arms and legs…no more pasty white for me! I’m not tan by any means, but it is a start and now I don’t have to feel embarrassed to wear a dress or capris! Laura, Katherine, and I went for a walk to the pier and stopped at the 7/11 for phone cards. It was a gorgeous afternoon to walk, a bit breezy, but it was so beautiful watching the deep blue waves crash the shoreline. I don’t know how I will ever go back to walking along cornfields and in neighborhoods when I have been walking along the ocean this last month! We came home from the walk and Ashley had a surprise for me…Heinz Ketchup! The “tomato sauce” here is rather sweet and has a cinnamon taste to it, and I have just wanted regular old ketchup, so Ashley went to the grocery store today and saw some and bought it for me! I made chicken nuggets for dinner just to try it out! It was just like at home! I worked ahead on lots of homework tonight because I don’t want to come home from Cape Town to loads of reading! After dinner, Christy, Tonya, and I went out for drinks with some friends, Bongi met us out at the martini bar and it was a relaxed atmosphere overlooking the port. I called it an early night though because I wanted to get to bed for clinical tomorrow! So here I am typing away before I turn out the lights! Sorry that this isn’t a little more eventful…it was a little boring but very relaxing day!

September 17, 2007

This morning was the big morning for clinical presentations! We had 10 volunteers attend our information session (the most we have had…we usually just have two!). The “sex” talk went well for Christy and I, and we went to see our patients after the education piece. Our patient wanted to go for a walk (which was a very pleasant surprise) so we walked for a half hour, which was so great for her! When we were done walking we told her it would be our last day with her and she grabbed our hands and kissed them, then hugged us and kissed our cheeks! She was such a sweet lady and it was sad saying goodbye to her! It was our last day at Kleinskool and only one more day at Emmanuel, then we are closing the door on public health and going onto mental health! We had music class today and of course it went longer that our class time…I think that we have stayed after long enough for it to equal a full two hour class period! When we were walking out to the Kombi there were monkeys everywhere! Two were sitting on garbage cans digging in there and one had a banana that was stolen from the garbage! It was so funny to see them so up close! I literally could have touched them! We came back home and I have been doing homework ever since! Christy and I wrote our paper and evaluation on our presentation today. I checked emails and got one from Caitlin and Alison! I was so excited to hear from them! Thanks girls for writing to me! I think that it’s time for bed now!

September 16, 2007

This morning I slept in and as soon as I woke up I began a day of homework! I did reading for class, took notes for Mental Health, proofread a paper, and organized my plans for the week. I also got caught up on emails and I talked to Dad for a bit…it was the first time we could talk for twenty minutes without getting cut off or frozen on Skype. I took a break from homework to write a thank you note, because I was awarded a scholarship last week! It was really exciting because I had replied to an email about being interested in a scholarship and within the hour I was notified that I was awarded it! I didn’t have to formally apply or anything…it was happy news and a great way to start last weekend! So the thank you is written and on the way to the donators! After lunch Christy and I got together to put our poster presentation together and it was such a great feeling to get that done early in the day. Brenna and I made a quick run to the market so I could pick up a quick gift! For dinner tonight we all had a group dinner…Carries specialty of spaghetti casserole SAS (South African Style). Carrie cooked the noodles, Katherine grated the cheese, I grilled the chicken and made the salad, while Laura, Brenna, and Kasy made the dessert and set the tables complete with flowers! We brought both of our tables into the other apartment and all sat like a family around all scrunched together while the food was placed on an ironing board so people could go through the line! What was really funny was that we don’t have any room in our kitchens, so we had noodles boiling in each apartment and kept running food back and forth! All in all it was a great dinner! All of us girls were there together: Katherine, Ashley, Carrie, Laura, Leslie, Christy, Brenna, Kasy, Tonya, Denise, me, and Tate also joined us and was pleasant company! It was a fun last minute meal! Now it’s time to do a little more homework and it’s to bed early tonight!

September 15, 2007

First of all happy Dozinky to everyone back in New Prague! I wish that I could have been there today!

It was nice being able to lazily get out of bed this morning without worrying about how many times I hit snooze, or how loud I played my music because I still had the apartment to myself! When I finally crawled out of bed, I started my day by cleaning my room and organizing my messy closet! I refolded clothes and made room for everything that I have stored away! When I was done, I began a long day of homework. I was very productive today in writing two papers, completed the reading and notes for class on Tuesday. I prepared a debate and by the time I was just about to be finished, the roomies came home…perfect distraction to listen about their night and mini-vacation. The rest of the afternoon was passed by blog posting, picture updating, and email answering.

Around 5:00 I started getting ready because we al dressed up to go to the PE opera house to see Soweto Gospel Choir. It was absolutely amazing! The choir raises money for AIDS patients and AIDS awareness and they were such a joy to watch! Their costumes were bright African colors with beading, head pieces, and beautiful designs. They played the drums and danced traditional dresses and their voices were so crisp and clean and so beautiful! At intermission I went to buy a CD and I have been listening to it since I have gotten home! Most of the songs were in Zulu, but they did perform a few in English. In either case it was still amazing experience and I had goosebumps the entire time. What was very cool was watching the people in the audience get up and dance and clap their hands and they would really get into the music. Plus our seats were great…fourth row! It was one of the best experiences yet in Africa!

September 14, 2007

This morning I got to sleep in…but as usual, I was awake at 6:30am, but I did fall back asleep until 9:15! It felt wonderful! After waking up and getting started, all of the girls went down to the beach to lie in the sun. It was nice for the first twenty minutes, but they I got really cold from the wind off of the ocean, so we all went up to the roof and tanned for a bit longer. Alex came back from running and joined us up there. Later one, Christy, Leslie, Tonya, and I went to Green Acres. Petrus drove us on his lunch break and then picked us up after he was done with work. We walked around Green Acres for five hours and we bought some great things! I was the big spender of the trip, but I bought so many great things, for dirt cheap! I ended up buy: three dress up/going out shirts, workout pants, socks, a black baby doll shirt, black linen pants, black tank top, blue tank top, and denim dressy jeans with a fun belt! All of this came to a total of R734 or a grand total of $104.85 US dollars! It was a successful trip! When we got home we tried on the clothes to model and I tried putting together different outfits with my new purchases! Of course I had to call Mom to tell her about my purchases so we talked for a bit, then Dad called and we were able to talk too! I had the apartment to myself for the night and Tonya, Christy, and Denise came over to watch Cold Mountain complete with popcorn and wine! We all enjoyed the movie, but if you think that watching sex scene is uncomfortable with your parents…try watching them with your professor! Haha, it made for a good laugh after the movie! After the movie, Tonya, Christy, and I talked for a bit and decided to cancel our plans to go out because it was getting later and later and we becoming more tired! So we agreed that bed was the best place for us to be!

September 13, 2007

Today was our mental health class and we watched a DVD lecture and had a guest speaker come speak to us. We learned about the commitment (or admittance) process for South African mentally ill patients. After class was done, we did a post conference and then Christy and I went to the computer lab to print our information for our STI presentation we are giving on Monday. It took forever, but we eventually made it out of the lab to come home and start our weekend!

We al got dressed up and went to Captains for trivia. Before we went out we had some wine and all hung out in my bedroom and played Never Have I Ever! Laura and I just ended up laughing the entire time on my bed, but it was a good time. We made it to Captains to meet up with people for trivia. Katherine, Kasy, Didi, and I all did the Springbuck shot, which we were told were traditional African shots, and you couldn’t come to South Africa and not take one of these shots! It was pepperminty and creamy, but very good and the best part was that it was only $1.00!!! After we were done with trivia we went to the Casino for Karoke. At first it wasn’t so much fun, but after we started dancing and singing (there was no dance floor mind you…we just set up camp in the back all by ourselves!) it was a great time! Kasy and I had so much fun! One of the guys there with us told me that I remind him of the girl from Hairspray, except I was, “I way skinnier and much prettier version.” He ensured me that it was a compliment! Around midnight we all went home and were able to sleep in for the first time in two weeks!

September 12, 2007

We had Emmanuel clinical today. We got to the container and waited for the NMMU students to arrive. It was a chilly day today and of course I didn’t bring a jacket! Our partners came and we all began to walk to our patient’s house to do our education intervention. It was very successful today because she was very receptive to what we were telling her and she seemed genuinely interested in what we were teaching her.

After clinical, Christy and I worked on our poster presentation that we have to give on Monday at Kleinskool on sex education in relation to condom use and the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases other than HIV/AIDS. We are focusing on Chlamydia, Herpes, and Syphilis because no one seems to know anything about STDs besides HIV/AIDS. We then had our political science class, and I was so tired. I felt so bad because I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the first hour of class. It wasn’t that the topic was boring, it was just that I haven’t been getting much sleep. But we began talking about the Freedom Charter, and I found that very interesting so I perked up the last two hours of class. When we got home Katherine, Kasy, Carrie, Ashley, Denise, and I ordered pizza. We tried new kinds including, club and sweet and sour chicken. I still think that pepperoni is my favorite but these were good as well! Didi came to visit and stayed for a long chat. Somehow we got started talking about pedophiles and the show, “To Catch a Predator” it was an interesting conversation, but a funny topic to get started on over dinner. I have spent the rest of my night sitting in front of my computer working on my presentation, and doing homework. I really miss having a desk in my apartment. I have to do everything on my bed or tiny bedside table. The little things that I usually take for granted!

September 11, 2007

This morning we had Global Health class at NMMU, I was up at 6:20 (although my alarm wasn’t set to go off until 7:15). I don’t know what is wrong with me lately, I seem to be waking up so darn early in the morning, and that does not usually happen! I am a snooze button person! Oh well, so I got up and started to get ready for my day. Class was a little heated today because we were debating about sex education and making resources available to young teens. Whenever I get on this topic it usually involves me becoming frustrated because everyone has their own opinions about how this subject should be handled. But we made it through class without anyone too angry with each other! After class, Katherine and I went to Pick ‘n Pay for groceries and some poster board for the presentations. We were hoping for an empty Kombi on the way home because we looked like packhorses with all of our things…our lucked worked out because there was an empty Kombi waiting for us when we walked out of the store! After coming home and unpacking the goods, we put our swimsuits on and went up to the roof to read and soak up some sun! It was absolutely beautiful weather! The sun was out but there was a light breeze, which is a change from the wind that we usually get! I stayed up there for a little over an hour and then Kasy, Brenna, Laura, Carrie, and I went to the Backpackers to get some information about our weekend and end of the trip travel plans. The guy was very helpful (after talking to him for a bit, at first he sent us away, but when he realized that we actually wanted to book trips through him, he started dishing out a bunch of information!) we have an appointment with him again on Thursday to start the planning process and getting info about how much the trips are going to cost. After our little visit, we were all craving ice cream, so we went to McDonalds. But while we were there, we decided to be daring and split two meals between the four of us! It actually wasn’t half bad, but we still like the U.S. better! We came home and then worked on homework for a bit, had a meeting with Denise about one of the weekend trips in October, and then got ready to go out for Karaoke at Captains. We met Didi, Garret, Kyle, Reese, and Warren (a bunch of Didi’s friends) at Captains for a drink and really bad singing! All of us girls (Christy, Ashley, Kasy, Laura, Brenna, Katherine, and I) sang “Build Me Up Buttercup” and we ended up just laughing the whole time, but it was fun! Then a little bit later Ashley, Laura, Kasy, and I went to sing, “Friends In Low Places.” It was the never-ending version, so after the song we came back home to go to bed!

September 10, 2007

Today was a clinical morning and I did not want to wake up when my alarm went off! Slowly but surely I made myself get ready for an intervention day at clinical! Christy and I had to plan and implement an intervention for our family that we were caring for. Our focus leg exercises and sex education! Overall the clinical was very successful and we feel that all of our short term goals were accomplished.

We had music class in the evening and began our lectures on African jazz music! This is much better than overtones! In the evening I worked on homework, baked some muffins (bran muffins have become my new favorite food) and then went to bed! Today was a very uneventful day!

September 9, 2007

We began our day bright and early to the smell of breakfast, bread (I don’t ever want to eat store-bought again after this trip!) with homemade jam, over-easy eggs, kudu sausage, and juice! We quickly packed our bags and filed into the Kombi where we had a day filled with driving. We drove to a remote village high in the mountains called Nieu-Bethesda where we drove on a gravel road for an hour and a half. So if that is indication as to how in the middle nowhere we were! We went to a house of Helen Martin, who is the person who made this little freckle on the map famous and a tourist spot to visit. Helen Martin (or Miss. Helen) is famous for her Owl House, that she created in the between from the 40s until the 70s. She was a woman who battle depression and caring for an alcoholic father. She was treated by the town as though she was a witch, and she slowly secluded herself in her house and yard, where she let her imagination and creativity flow through paint and sculpture. Her backyard is filled with sculptures of people, animals, churches, and owls. The yard is called “Camel Yard” for the many camels and nativity/religious scenes she has sculpted throughout the back of her house. Inside her house, she desperately hated the darkness, so she began to paint everything, walls, ceilings, and doors bright colors, and took crushed bits of glass and adhered the pieces to the wet paint to reflect candle light throughout the house. It truly was an amazing sight to see everything in the house bright with vivid color and all covered in glass. Miss Martin died in 1976, when she took her own life in her kitchen after battling crippling arthritis and failing eyesight. It was a very eerie experience walking through this woman’s house and looking at her sculptures, it makes you want to know what she was thinking and what thoughts were going through her head as she was working on all of these things.

After we completed the Owl House tour, we went on a Karoo Fossil Safari…if a fossil safari doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what possibly will! First we had a young man give us the tour of the exhibit and the riverbed where they have recovered fossils from 253 million years ago from the Permian Period, and he was passionate about his work…however it was difficult to understand his him through his thick accent, and quite frankly, I am not into fossils. It was interesting to see the fossils in the ground still in the wild, but I really have no interest in how the lines on the rocks were formed and petrified mud cracks! It was nothing against this man or his life’s work, but I believe I reacted in the same way as I did when my dad dragged us to see the petrified tree in Yellowstone last summer.

After scanning the dry riverbed for fossils, we went to a local café to grab a drink and back in the kombi we went to go to Ganora Farm for lunch and to see the caves with the rock art of the San People. The artwork was dated to have been painted 6000-8000 years ago and it was still well preserved on the rocks. There were animals, people, and stars and dots, indicating that the shaman who painted them was in a trance. We were told that there were three shamen in the groups, one that was responsible for prayers for rain, hunting, and danger and they only paint what they see when they are in a trance. It is not an indication as to what will happen in the future, rather visions that they see.

We ate lunch at the farm outside on tables, and then we were given a tour of how sheep are sheared and the process a farmer goes through to separate the wool. It was very interesting to watch him separate the wool into seven different sections, indicated by parts of the body it was from. We were able to feel the wool and the lanolin that the wool produces that is used in cosmetics and lotions.

After the farm tour, we piled into the kombi for a four hour ride back home to PE. We bought icecream and snacks on the drive and the time was passed by reading homework, trying to finish my Jodi Picoult book that I started on the plane and just hadn’t had time to read until this trip, and the girls giggling and signing Disney songs! We were hoping that Alex and Katherine would do a repeat rendition of Beauty and the Beast, but Alex was not to thrilled! When we got home we spent the night packing, catching up on emails, and exchanging pictures.

September 8, 2007: Sheena and Chad's Wedding!

“You could wrap the Milky Way of joy around your heart, let the moon paint a smile on your face, catch a star for good luck and have beautiful dreams.”

Today is Sheena and Chad’s wedding and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. Technically when I woke up at 5:45am it was still Friday in New Prague, so the night before their wedding day! As I’ve been getting ready this morning I keep thinking about Sheena and hope that she is sleeping well and is nice and relaxed. The sun is shining here, but it’s a little chilly, so I hope that the weather is equally as nice for pictures outside! I would give anything to have enough money to have been able to flown back to Minnesota for the day…or to be able to be in two places at once!

The reason why I was up so early is because we wanted to see the sun rise, but right between the two mountain peaks were the only clouds in the sky, blocking our view of the sun. That turned out to be a tad disappointing. So right now we are waiting to be picked up by our driver so we can go back to the B&B for breakfast. When we arrived at the B&B breakfast was ready to be served. We had scrambled eggs, homemade bread, cereal, oatmeal bars, and Kudu sausage. After breakfast we packed up and hit the road for our second B&B of the trip in Graaff-Reinet. On the drive we stopped in Jansenville at a gift shop and I bought some of the tomato jam to bring home for my family to sample! We arrived in Graaff-Reinet and we sent to the Reinet museum where we walked through the old home in the city and saw the history of the town. We did shopping in the little shops along the way. Parts of this town remind me of when I went to Mackinaw Island this summer, the quaint feeling of a small town with bed and breakfasts on every corner made me feel that I could be anywhere in the world! One of the stores that Carrie, Alex, and I went into had a ceiling made from the thornbushes that you see growing all over South Africa! We ate lunch on the veranda at Coldstream and were served chicken in a honeymustard glaze, potatoes, and a Greek salad. After lunch, we moved into our home for the night, and Carrie, Katherine, Ashley and I all stayed in one room together. We called our room “Under the Sea” because it felt like we were living at the bottom of the ocean with all of he blue that was in the room! After we unpacked, we went as a group to the only tequila distillery outside of Mexico. We walked through the distillery and were given a lecture on how tequila is made from the plants that they grown and harvest in South Africa! We even were able to sample the gold and silver tequila that they make! All of us sat in a circle and took the two shots! We then went and bought some things from the gift shop and we were on our way to a wild game reserve. We saw TONS of kudu, springbuck, grey duiker, gemsbuck, and wildebeest. We also have some up close pictures of monkeys that came right up to the Kombi! After going through the game reserve, we made our way up the mountain to hike and see the sunset over the Valley of Desolation. We hiked up part of the mountain for about twenty minutes to get to a flat overlook to view the Valley of Desolation. Everything up there was quiet and still. After taking pictures of everyone, we sat in silence on the rocks with our feet at the end of the cliff. Looking down you see different rock formations and Rupunzel-like rock towers. The sun was setting behind a mountain and the only sound that we heard came from the breeze rising across the valley below us. The name describes it valley perfectly…there are no lights, people, buildings, or cars to see as you are sitting up there. All you can see are mountains and the grasslands. Our guide described it as such, “It is so quiet, you can hear God think.”

After sitting at the top of the cliff we made our way down the hiking trail back to the Kombi to go back to town for dinner. We ate at Kliphuis where I ordered pasta served in a cheese sauce with bacon and mushrooms. Alan, our group guide had wine ready at our tables that were secluded into a study in the house with candles lit and a fire blazing. The meal was delicious and at 11:00pm we finally made it home to the B&B to get some rest. After a little girltalk, the four of us were out like a light!

September 7, 2007

I’m sitting in the sun where the only sounds out here in the Karoo are the goats whimpering and the water bubbling in the pool. No kombis honking with the constant stream of traffic and people yelling out the window, “Town! Town!”

We began our journey to the Great Karoo at 8:15 this morning where all 12 of us (plus our guide and driver) piled into a Kombi. It reminded me of our family motorhome trip to Michigan…except that came complete with beds, food, and a bathroom! I sat in the backseat, and what later became known as “business class” between Laura and Alex. Our first stop on the trip was the Cheetah Reserve where we fed kudu and the black wildebeest and saw springbuck grazing in the field. After feeding time, we crossed a rickety bridge that you could see the ground through the gaps in the planks, and directly below us was the cheetah cage. Under a large willow tree were four male cheetahs, all brothers. Our guide explained that brother cheetahs stay together for life and if separated from each other they can literally die of a broken heart. The guide also explained that cheetah males don’t stay and care for their young, they mate and go their separate ways, while the female has a three month gestation period and hunts and cares for the cubs once they are born. Female cheetahs generally have 2-6 cubs with each litter, but if she were to have 6, the chance of all surviving is very small, because the babies are very tiny when they are born and are prone to disease and are often attacked by predators. We walked around the reserve and would try to spot all fifteen cheetahs that are protected in different cages. Thirteen of the fifteen are wild, and two have been trained and have appeared in movies. We were able to go into the cage of the two tamed cheetahs, their names were Savannah Nakeeta. When we walked into the cage, they both walked up to us and found a spot to lie in the shade. I bent over and pet Savannah on the head and he just sat there and purred. Our guide told us that never in the history of South Africa has there been a human attacked by a cheetah. It was one of the neatest experiences to be so close and touching such a strong and powerful animal.

When we were done petting the cheetahs we went into another cage where there were two seven week old lion cubs. When I first walked into the cage I saw one of the cubs crouching behind a stump with a baby goat standing right next to it! It was so funny seeing the goat and the lion hanging out together! The cub ran into his house, while the goat ran happily toward us, it kind of reminded me of a happy puppy dog! Our guide went into the house to get the lions and brought them out for us to hold. We took tons of pictures and traded turns holding the baby lions. They were so soft and if felt like I was holding a heavy lion cub stuffed animal. They were so cuddly and playful (especially when the two lions were let free and could wrestle and play with each other! How amazing is that though…I got to hold a baby lion! Tonya and I took pictures to send to the NP Times! It was the highlight of my day to hold that little baby! The guide told us that these two cubs were taken from their mother because she was a young lion and inexperienced in mothering her cubs, and actually had laid down on one of the cubs and suffocated it, so these two cubs were rescued. After spending two hours at the reserve, we refueled with biscuits (cookies) and coffee and did a little shopping (I even bought a few gifts for a lucky few!) and we were back on the open road (literally the open road!) Our next stop was our final destination for the day, our bed and breakfast, Noorspoort. The home was built in the 1800’s and was absolutely beautiful! I think that it is a tie between the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw or this B&B for where I want to get married! The rooms were all so cozy with fluffy comforters and lace curtains. The furniture was Victorian but also looked modern like something you would find in a display room at Ikea. I took plenty of pictures because I know that Mom would love to see them. I also brought along a blown up picture of Sheena and Chad so I took pictures of them throughout the house for them! I hope that they like the album…it was fun making it and it made me think of them all weekend and I could be happy, rather than sad about not being at their wedding to celebrate with them! The staff at the B&B made lunch for us (there was pasta, sweet crusted pizza, homemade bread with sweet tomato jam, deviled eggs, and cookies!). We sat on the veranda and ate our lunch and then we went our separate ways on the grounds. I sat in the sun to journal while other roamed the farm looking for the goats, pigs, and other baby animals. The B&B was full so we actually were driven to the guest house which is 4 kilos away from the house. The house we stayed in was surrounded by mountains and was in the middle of nowhere. As we were pulling into the driveway a monkey dashed across the road and into the bushes! The house was quite large with twenty two beds, two of which were triple bunk beds! Six of us girls piled into a room with three sets of double bunks (Carrie, Brenna, Kasy, Laura, Katherine and I). After claiming our beds for the night we went back to the B&B and fed the baby goats then took the monster SUV into the town for a tour. We rode to town in the monster and explored the little shops (which were actually very small and didn’t have too much) then we made our way down to look at the large Church at the other end of town. The owner of the B&B then brought us to a township and we held the world’s longest worm (it was over 6 feet long!) It felt so disgusting and I actually thought that if a person could feel peristalsis of the intestines, that is what it would feel like! The man who “farms” the worms sells them for R10 a piece to local fisherman. As we rode out of the township in the monster, I felt that we were in a parade because all of the children from around there came running outside to wave and chase after us! We drove back past the B&B to a large cliff and rock formation where people climbed and we had a bonfire and braai. We began the meal with stick bread, which is basically what the name indicates, a piece of bread dough wrapped around a stick and roasted over the fire. When you pull the bread off of the stick it is hallow on the inside so you are able to fill it with jam or butter…it was delicious! We learned about the rock formations and that were we were sitting was once a sea bed. For dinner we had kudu, lamb, potato salad, mealie, vegetable salad, and wine. We sat around the fire and played drums. We stayed out there past dark and at 9:30 we went back to the B&B to listen to a lecture on star formations. The sky was a little cloudy, but we were still able to see Scorpio, the pointer star, the Milky Way, and Magellan’s cloud. We finally came back to our guest house and went to sleep for the night! We had our own personal watchman guarding the house for us! Although the house was a little creepy…it felt like a situation and the setting of a horror movie…ten college girls alone in the Karoo staying in a home all alone, with no phone, or car to escape…

September 6, 2007

This morning the group all rode together to class on the 9th floor in the Main building on campus. It was our first day of our Mental Health class, and we listened to a DVD lecture on different care models and mental examinations. All of it was interesting, but soon everyone began to fidget, because you can only watch a DVD lecture for so long without getting antsy! We were supposed to have class until 3:00, but we were finished by 12:30! We stopped at the computer lab to print a few things, and then a stop at Pick ‘n Pay for some groceries. Carrie, Ashley, and I took the Kombi back home and took a lunch break to watch some TV, and we really got into a golf movie that was on TV…so Carrie, Alex, and I sat on the chairs and watched the end of the movie before starting on homework for the rest of the afternoon! At 5:30 Didi and Q came over to see if anyone wanted to go to Happy Hour at Captains, so Carrie, Ashley, and I met Alex, Didi, and Q at the bar for a drink before going out for our group dinner at The Mediterranean. We met our group for dinner upstairs at the seafood restaurant…which was completely out of the box for me, because I don’t eat anything that is seafood! I ordered the vegetarian chowmein, but I did taste Carrie’s Crayfish and it was surprisingly good! As it should have been, because it was the most expensive item on the menu at R165 (which is about $24). After dinner we went back to Captains to meet Didi and Q and the rest of their friends for Trivia questions. We met Q’s girlfriend Tusie (I probably didn’t spell that right at all!) who is the sweetest girl ever! We played trivia and I got an “Oy!” question right, so I got a free pitcher of beer for the table! Carrie and I were pumped, as was Didi, I got a lot of high-fives from everyone! So by the end of the night, Carrie and I spent a total of R14/$2 on two drinks and a pitcher of beer! It can’t get any cheaper than that! Around 11:00pm we came back to our flat and we packed for our weekend in the Karoo! It should be a fun get away and an exciting trip! You’ll hear about in on Sunday!

September 5, 2007

We had our Emmanuel clinical today and when we got to the container it was closed and no volunteer was in sight! We congregated in the front yard and waited with the NMMU students. Sledge (one of the nursing students from Botswana) came up and did a little handshake with Laura and I, and we told him how he blew us off on campus last week when we waved to him, we told him that we though he didn’t want to associate with the “International Americans” but he just laughed and said that we should have gone over to him to yell at him for being rude! On the walk to our patient’s house he was asking Laura and I all about the U.S. He told us that he wanted to go to Mississippi to see the “big river” but when we told him that it started in Minnesota, and that I have been to the headwaters, he quickly changed his mind about where he wanted to visit! He kept asking us about fishing and if you could fish in the river or other places, and what types of fish there were. He couldn’t believe that people actually can fish on ice in the winter and that we bring houses onto the lakes to fish and that we are able to drive cars on the ice too! We finally made it to the house (we actually found it…who would have thought that we could find it all by ourselves!) but no one was home. So we walked to another house where our patient could have been, but she was not there either. We learned from a family member that she went to the clinic, which means that she would be gone for quite some time. So we made the hot walk back to the container and we sat in groups and talked about health concerns with the NMMU students and discussed different clinical experiences that we both have had.

We left the site early today and came back home for a quick shower, lunch, and then we were off to NMMU for our African Politics class. We met our professor and she was so nice! The class was very enjoyable and she made studying the history and politics of SA very interesting. Rather than lecturing about the development of the ANC, the NP, Freedom Charter, and Steve Biko, she told it as a story with the notes and details outlined for us. I think that I am going to like that class and despite it being three hours, I probably won’t dread it as much as I thought I was going to! By the time we came back home it was time for dinner and a quick run to the friendly liquor store across the street! You can’t beat $3.00 bottles of wine! I am my mother’s daughter! I worked on a little homework, and then later we are going out for drinks because it’s two for ones at Toby Joes! We learned our lesson last week so it will be a quieter night rather than a full out party!

September 4, 2007

\We had Global health class this morning at were at NMMU at 9:00 to start our learning. By noon, we were free for the day! It is absolutely gorgeous today, so when I came home from classes I changed into shorts and a tank top and we headed down to the beach to do homework! Carrie, Ashley, Katherine, and I all found a spot in the sun and we began reading while Alex tried surfing! The waves were perfect but the surfboard needed wax. We ended up lying in the sun for an hour, and after being tired of sand blowing everywhere we came back home to where we sat around and did homework. Now I’m sitting on the balcony, facing the ocean and trying to remind myself when I have to leave this beautiful view to go home to Minnesota! Not that I don’t want to come home to everyone because I miss so many people, but knowing that I have to come back to a Minnesota winter when the weather here is getting so nice, and the ocean and beach are so clean and pretty! No worries, I won’t move here permanently, but I probably will have to take many vacations to the ocean (or buy a vacation home) when I can afford one when I am a nurse!

This afternoon I had a bad craving for muffins, so I went and borrowed a muffin tin and I made a dozen bran muffins. The apartment smelled so good and when they came out of the oven I had one nice and warm with strawberry jam on it! Denise, my professor even made her way down to try one…she was impressed, but do I have her fooled, because muffins, quesadillas, grilled cheese, and spaghetti are the extent of my culinary skills! For dinner Carrie, Katherine, Denise, and I went to an Indian restaurant and I had the chicken curry. It was out of my comfort zone to order that, but I figured that Gen would be proud of me! I thought of you when I was eating it my IS! After dinner we came back home and it has been studying and checking emails and I was so excited to see a new book and chapter email from Grandma and Papa and after that email more followed from Erin and Suze! It was so nice to hear from everyone, but good to hear that Suze and her back are still on the mends but making progress!

September 3, 2007

This morning we were up and ready to go for clinical at our other township site. We were in the townships by ourselves (no NMMU students for Mondays) and we were paired up within our group. Christy and I were together and we had Devona (our Kombi driver) as our translator for the morning. The Kleinskool townships is much more rundown compared to the clinical site that we go to on Wednesdays. The houses are only four years old, but they look like that were constructed decades ago. All of the house have flush toilets, but they have never been hooked up to the plumbing. Quite upsetting considering the facilities are available, but no water to connect to. When we first arrived in the townships, we were told that Mondays are the most difficult mornings to do public health clinicals in a township, because many people are hung over or still drunk from the weekend. We soon learned this first had from a man who would follow us and repeatedly ask us to come to his house to assess his asthma. He would stumble up the road and would assure us that we were safe in his neighborhood and that we are always welcomed. Christy and I met with our client and we have a fairly good idea of what we want to do as our interventions and education for her next week.

After clinical, I went back home to change, and five minutes later we were on the road to NMMU to work in the computer lab and get ready for music class. Lestie had a guy who sings in the choir come and teach us the South African National Anthem, as well as attempting to teach us the click song. I did not to well with either! There are three different clicks, all of which have different sounds, and all of mine (if I can even do it) sound the same. It was frustrating because you are trying to read Afrikans, Xhosa, Zulu, and doing the clicks when singing the Xhosa parts of the song. I knew the English words that were the last two lines of the anthem. We (Ashley, Katherine, Laura, Kasy, Alex, and I) came back home and went to Primi’s for pizza. It was different pizza…not much sauce and very thin crust (almost like a tortilla shell) but we tried mozzarella cheese with feta and avocado, and a chicken and tomato pizza! Both were delicious, and later I learned that it is even better cold! I, was able to talk to Dad on Skype and I called Mom when she was at Kathy’s! I got to talk to lots of family when I called Kathy’s because they were having an end of summer party! Molly answered and we chatted at PE life, then it was passed to Grandma, Jane (and I was reminded that Chrissy starts Kindergarten tomorrow), Mary, Kathy, and finally Mom! It was so nice being able to hear all of them and to talk to all of them in one phone call! The rest of the night was spent doing homework, definitely not as much fun as they were having at Kathy’s house!

September 2, 2007

This morning I woke up and I was very sore…every muscle in my body just ached. I did a few stretches, after convincing myself that it wouldn’t get better if I just stayed in bed! I got dressed and it was a beautiful day, so I decided to go to the roof to do my homework! I was able to enjoy a half hour in the sun, and then it became cloudy and started to rain. So back down I came and I sat on the balcony with Katherine to do the reading for class. At noon things started to clear up, and we (Carrie, Ashley, Katherine, Alex, and I) went to the Pick ‘n Pay for groceries and to use the internet café. We stayed for an hour and made the half hour walk home to continue homework. We had to watch a very boring home DVD for class, and then the rest of the afternoon was spent reading for classes this week. For dinner, the five of us decided to have a family dinner, so we all pitched our food together. We grilled chicken (Alex made fish for himself) and had cooked veggies, and Alex made hashbrowns…well kind of! The hashbrowns didn’t quite turn out according to plan, so they were put in the oven to try to bake them. We never did eat the potatoes because they were not quite cooked, and the rest of our food was cold so we went ahead and ate. Despite the little hiccup in the meal, it was fun all sitting around on the beds in our room eating a homemade meal together! After dinner, we all sat around in the room and did homework together! The only noise in the room came from computer keys typing away and pages in books being turned. After a long while of quiet, we decided to pop some popcorn and finish homework. I only have to read two more reading for class this week and I am up to date and prepared for classes this week! Dad skyped me to let me know that he was safe and sound in Oklahoma City and it was nice to hear from him. Hopefully Mom got Marcus all settled in at Stout after a day of moving in! Hopefully all will go well for him at his first night of college life!

September 1, 2007

This morning we woke up and got ready to go to Green Acres (the mall). Petrus took six of us girls, and Alex in the Buckey to the mall. At first we all were going to pile into his tiny little compact car, but we decided that we wouldn’t be able to buy anything if we were packed to the roof without mall purchases! So he got the keys for the Langerry Buckey (which is a little pickup truck…I mean smaller than a Ford Ranger…with a cover on it) and the girls al piled into the back. We were crammed in with legs crossing on others, and arms up wherever they could hold onto! We were quite the site. When we got to Green Acres, we all unfolded out of the back and were on our way to do a little shopping. We soon learned that the mall is huge and has all of these different branches to it. It seems that they built one section of the mall, and just kept building additions wherever there was room to expand or connect different sections. Not only did I feel like I was a mouse trying to find the cheese in the maze, add State Fair sized crowds also trying to navigate the halls of the mall! I have never seen crowds like that unless at the State Fair, it was so overwhelming! We started the trip in Mr. Price where I found a nice over the shoulder bag for really cheap, a cute shirt, and a necklace. All of which came to a whopping $15.00! My mission for the trip was to get a new watch that could be durable for clinicals. After going into what seemed like every store that sold watches, I found one at a surfshop. And it was on sale! Plus it maden me happy because it looks just like my old watch that I lost the week before I left for South Africa! We went to the grocery store (there was a grocery store the size of a Cub Foods in the middle of the mall) and got a few groceries and went to meet Petrus and Alex to go home. I don’t think that I will ever go to Green Acres again, unless I was desperate and had a list of things that I needed to get!

On the Buckey ride home, my foot and leg fell asleep, and when it was time to get out, I couldn’t even feel my toes. My flip flop fell off of my foot and I couldn’t tell when it was back on. I ended up having to carry the sandal because it kept slipping off without me noticing. It was the creepiest sensation, because I couldn’t even lift my leg to get up the stairs. Laura was experiencing the same phenomenon with her legs, and we literally had to pick our legs up to go up the stairs! It felt that I was paralyzed from the waist down and the feeling didn’t go away for almost ten minutes!
When we got back to Langerry, Katherine, Laura, and I went to Nandos for lunch. Everyone who suggested it was right…their food was great! I had their chicken wrap with the lemon and herb sauce, and I have to say that it was one of the better wraps that I have tasted! After going to Nandos, we walked next door to the surf shop because we were going to have a lesson. Six of us (Katherine, Brenna, Kasy, Alex, Carrie, and I) all were squeezed into wet suits, given surfboards and we met our surf instructor Jamie who was quite good looking. Let’s just say that I felt the part better than I could act it, because I didn’t do so well with the actual lesson! We started on the beach and practiced getting up, which already proved to be a challenge. There are too many things to concentrate on. Like balance with your hands, jump up directly to your feet, twist your hips to stand sideways, and land with your feet wide (this is where my problem was, I wouldn’t twist and I never popped up with my feet wide enough). I drank more saltwater than I would have liked, but it was a great time! Kasy and I were just laughing the whole time at each other because you look so goofy when you are focusing so hard and bound and determined to do it, but you just end up on your butt on the bottom of the ocean, with water rushing up your nose! Carrie and Alex both did a great job because both had been able to stand on their board for longer than .2 seconds! The extent of my rides were either on my knees or one knee and one foot. However it was a fun two hours and I would probably go out and do it again! While we were surfing, Ashley and Laura stayed on the beach to take pictures and some of them are so cute! My favorite is all six of us walking down to the ocean carrying our boards and we all have our backs to the camera! I want to blow it up as a black and white! After surfing we came back to the apartment and were lazy! We sat around talking and didn’t get anything accomplished all day! I guess that is what Sunday is for! Didi stopped over for a while and we all sat around talking with him. The roomies and I all curled up in comfy places in my room and we had girl talk time, then it was early to bed.

August 31, 2007

This morning I woke up exactly at 8:00am, I don’t know why, considering I could sleep until 9:00, but in any case, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I went for a run down to the pier and back again. It was a gorgeous morning and by the time I was back home, a cool shower sounded refreshing. It was my first time out and about by myself, and I was surprised how comfortable I felt being out by myself. We don’t have class on Fridays, but we were invited by the private school Lestie (our music professor) also works for to attend a mass that was being hosted to celebrate 140 years of Dominican education in Port Elizabeth. The Cardinal of South Africa was there and it was a pretty big deal. So we all piled into a Kombi and went to the school to have an outdoor mass under a large white tent (it was the size of a circus tent!). The mass was very interesting, because there were songs done in Xhosa and it was cute watching the first grade students singing as well as listening to the music and instruments used by the orchestra. The Cardinal had a very funny sense of humor, as did the Bishop who also spoke. All in all, the service was a little over two hours long. Other than midnight mass at Christmas, it was the longest church service I have been to. By the time we came home to Langerry, we all were tired and just wanted to hang out in our rooms. The roommates and I went to the bakery to pick up a few groceries, and to go and get our laundry. I have never seen someone fold my laundry so nicely (sorry mom!) everything was fluffed and crisp! It was definitely worth paying someone to do it for me! The rest of the afternoon was spent on the internet, either uploading pictures, checking emails and overdue messages, and catching up on homework. It was so nice being about have internet access all day long, and I definitely got my fill of it! I was working on a website for uploading pictures, so a link to that site will be coming soon for you all to see my pictures! Dad and I finally were able to use our Skype today and it worked fairly well. There was a little bit of a delay, so we resorted to air traffic control lingo and when we were finished with our sentence or story we said, “over.” Then later Mom came on and she just laughed the whole time and would get very close to the microphone/webcam when she would talk! When I was talking to Mom and Dad I gave them the “tour” of my apartment. I walked around holding my computer up in the air for them to see all of the little spaces! I even brought them out to the balcony to see our amazing view of the ocean! Dad really liked it, from what he could see. He was laughing the whole time, because he would say, “I just saw a person walk by!” or “There goes a car!” Technology is quite incredible! Later in the day Marcus and Dane came on Skype and I got to see them for the first time in almost two weeks! Seeing them made me the happiest (not that I didn’t want to see Mom and Dad, but I talk to them every few days and I don’t with the boys) because they both were sitting next to each other and smiling and joking around like they would if I was at home! It made me miss them when I see both of my goofy little brothers smiling and waving at me…and then suddenly I changed my mind when they started bickering over the computer when it was acting up! Oh well, I guess some things never change!

The group all got ready and went out at 10:30ish to Toby Joe’s. Unfortunately it was not quite as fun as Wednesday night….I take that back, it wasn’t at all as fun as Wednesday! The music was crummy, the same techno stuff over and over and some of us just weren’t in the mood to be out doing the bar thing. After a drink and a few too many bad songs, Carrie, Katherine, and I came back home to go to bed! So I think that I am going to call it a night now. I wanted to post this, but the internet is a little touchy right now, hopefully it will be in ship-shape tomorrow! Goodnight!