So clearly I don’t have internet access at home or work and I’ve been pretty busy... so I apologize for the delay with any sort of update or communication at all, but here it goes...
South Africa, and specifically the western cape, is the jam, or Ayoba! as they would say here. There are mountains and oceans in every direction, beautiful people, it smells like camp, and the buzzing of vuvuzelas fills the air (for real).
I’m nearly four weeks into the trip now, and I feel very privileged and grateful to have had this opportunity. My world teach group is mainly college age and pretty fresh for the most part (they’re like any group... some quiet, loud, weird, too normal, sweet, funny, humorless, wild, awesome, lame, tall, short, rich, crazy rich... you get the idea) I get along with pretty much everyone, but have found my niche and some friends I imagine I will have a ways down the road. You’ll figure out who(m?) from the pictures I’m sure.
My housing is rad. I’m staying with a family that has a little farm with spare cottages, thatch roof stone wall style, along with a bar on the property, pigs, chicken, ducks, and four awesome guard dogs. The family, especially the mama (Jacqui) is wonderful, and they have two high-school aged sons who are fresh and a daughter in college who I hang out and joll (that means party in south africa) with on occasion.
My first week on the job I helped out in Ocean View, a colored community (what we would call mixed), with their holiday program. It was amazing, and I felt incredibly valuable to the kids and to the success of the week. Things were pretty unorganized when myself, Kelly and Tony (two other world teach volunteers) showed up, and a staff of 2 were trying to run a program for 50ish kids age 2 to 16 who were... I guess you could say rambunctious. We talked to them about respect, I taught them hands up (the whole sting tied to your wrist and lower lip Minikani thing), and we were eventually able to organized some pretty banging activites, which consisted of a scavenger hunt (for different types of garbage which really helped clean up the school) that ended in digging up foreign money from Dubai I still had from our layover. The last day of the week we planned World Cup Day, basically a boys unit day with face paint, flags, and Brazil, Argentina and England battling for the cup. It was basically your classic continual capture the flag, and my team (England) prevailed hard. The end of the week was rough. It was hard to leave those kids. They all wrote us the sweetest thank you cards and we had a hug fest for the last hour of the day.
That weekend we went into Cape town and ragged pretty hard. We had a joll. Or we went jolling... either way you want to say it. I’m definitely taking that term home. Along with “Robots” (stop lights) “Keen” (they say it all the time instead of interested - ex. are you keen to surf this weekend? or, if you’re keen we can go see penguins) “Hectic” (which they use like crazy or wild - ex. How was your night? It was hectic bru.) “Bru” (Bro, or brah, or brother, pronounced brew) I’ll try to add more terminology in the next installment...
All I know from the weekend is that we bonded, partied pretty hard, I wore my cut off american flag shirt most of the weekend, and I ended up on a pirate ship sunday morning and left the boat wearing authentic pirate pants (true.)
I’m also stealing jargon from my hillarious canadian friend, James. Strange canadian terms such as “moss” (which means to lay around like moss on a rock - ex. those seals are mossing hard on that island) and “horn” (man piece - ex. quit starring at my horn bru) “yah don’t say” (which he says all the time and is still funny every time)
The following week I joined the rest of our program at a careers Indaba at the Masi library in Masiphumelele, a very poor township. The week consisted of team builders, speakers, discussions on potential careers, and working on resumes and job interview skills. The highlight of the week was a talent show on friday where the kids showed off their incredible ability to sing, dance, rap, act, recite poetry, and tell jokes. I played an acoustic version of wavin’ flag (the world cup theme by k’naan) with a group of learners singing the chorus with me and dancing to the words in the background. It was really fun and we got a nice ovation. I felt like I did with the Popes at camp circa 03’.
Tuesday of that week I went into Cape town with 7 other folks from our group to go to the Spain vs. Portugal game. One of the best sporting events/nights I’ve ever experienced. The energy on the hour long fan walk to the game was like nothing I’ve ever been a part of.
Over the weekend the majority of our group took a guided hike up the back route of table mountain, “the peoples trail.” The hike was very scenic, mildly challenging, and incredibly fun. We made it to the top for sunset, which we didn’t actually see, and then stayed the night at a little cabin on the top of table mountain. We cooked some meat, drank some whiskey, and told some stories around the fire (the Big-D peeing in his suite case story went over well). The next day we walked to a large gorge in the morning and then hiked out in the afternoon. It was a great weekend and pretty wild that we felt so rustic and burley, considering that Table Mountain is right in the heart of Cape Town.
The following week we had more down time between the end of holiday programming and the start of the second semester, so our schedule was a little lighter. We took the kids from Masi to the aquarium, and aquariums are always sweet. We took them on a college visit to the U of the Western Cape. Nice school. On Thursday I went to a quant ocean side town, Kalk bay, with some friends and got a weird on some cheap wine earlier then is probably advised. Great time.
That weekend a group of five of us rented a car and just took off to go get lost and have an adventure in South Africa. We ended up driving east along the coast. We drank wine in a can (good for violent hand gestures) and stopped off at every scenic pull off. We got to the worlds most famous Whale watching city, Hermanus, and set up camp. Well not camp, we actually rented the penthouse of a four star guest complex. We haggled down the price (haggling is one of my new favorite things to do, and just part of the culture here) and got an amazing three bedroom, full kitchen, huge balcony on the ocean, pent house. We got good and weird and filthy the first night, and met some great locals at half the bars in town. Saturday we roamed the streets and I haggled for a ton of weird nik-naks (not the local snack food, which is delicious) and doo-dads. We watched the runner up game that night and got bojangeled (sp?) with some of the same locals late into the night. The next morning myself, my boy Andy, and Fairfax (a girl, and yes that’s her real name) went Great Whit shark cage diving.
Shark Cage diving gets it’s own paragraph. This was definitely one of the most ape shit craziest things I’ve ever done. We woke up early and drove to Gahgsbaai (sp?) about 45 minutes away, to the location of where those sharks jump out of the water and eat seals in planet earth. Yeah. I know. Hectic bru. We basically drank coffee and waited for the captain who briefed us and told us “It’s not if we’ll see sharks today, it’s how many and how huge.” We took his boat with 22 others about 30 minutes out to Seal Island, which was pretty amazing itself. The crew began to chum the water to bait the sharks in and all of a sudden a huge 20 plus foot shark comes to the side of the boat and attacks the fake seal that the captain has on a line. Ape Shit. Groups of 8 go down into the cage at a time. We put on our wetsuits and goggles and are told to get into this metal cage along the side of the boat. When your in the cage you have about a foot of air to breath in and to listen for the captain who shouts directions. Suspense builds then you hear the captain yell “divers down down down to the left” You pull yourself under and are looking to the left, and out of the distance comes a huge foot Great White following the bait that is being pulled in by the crew directly towards your cage. Yes, I know, it was ape shit. It was wild, hectic even, and still really exciting to think about. The sharks open their mouths literally less then a foot from your face. At one point a sharks fin was in the cage and Fairfax slapped it, so she basically high-five’d a great white, which is pretty rad.
I’m part way into the next week and beginning my school assignment at Klienberg Elementary in Ocean View. I had my first day today, and love the principal, love the rest of the staff I met, and love the kids I got to see. We are planning on building a rock labyrinth for Nelson Mandela Day this Friday, and I’m in charge of construction of the walking maze. I’m really excited about the next five weeks, and am really trying to pump the brakes on this whole experience because I already feel like it’s flying by.
It’s a slow rainy night here so I’m just mossing hard at gumstone, drinking some Roobioos (tea of choice here), and finally getting these thoughts down on electric ink. Hope everyone back in Wisco and everywhere else is doing well. I miss y’all. Life is Ayoba!
Travis
07/14/2010
