All is well in SA...except for Internet access

The Internet is on and off here, so I am going to try to write this update, and see what happens....

 

For the first time since arriving here, I am on my own.  Big time sucky! 

Well, technically, not alone.  I came to a hostel and met up with a girl who will be volunteering as well.  She is from Canada...seems real nice.  We head out early tomorrow morning for Magaliasburg, which is where we will be until the 20th.

 

So, this past week...

 

I arrived on Friday night, and was incredibly thankful to have a friend to pick me up at the airport in Cape Town.  He quickly took care to be sure that I was safe, teaching me about hiding things behind seats in the truck, locking doors, panic buttons, etc.  We arrived at the hostel and couldn't get in.  OF COURSE!  I mean, I always have trouble traveling and all had gone smoothly until that point!  It turned out to be pretty funny.  He had a code to get in, and the code didn't work.  It was like 11 at night, so nobody was at the desk...luckily, after a few minutes a guy came in and opened the gate.  Turned out that we had the wrong code...maybe from the last hostel that he was at?!  who knows... so, it was nice to go inside and relax a bit, talk a bit, and get to bed.  The other option would have been to sit in a bar until the sun came up and somebody let us into the hostel!  hah.

 

Saturday, I was pretty tired from traveling.  We walked around Cape Town and had a pretty mellow day. 

 

Sunday, we went to Muizenburg (a beach area).  I went for a quick swim in the ocean, which felt amazing.  Evidently, I brought the bad surf curse with me because the surf was great until I arrived, and continued to be crap the entire time that I was there.  Nonetheless, it was awesome to just sit on the beach for a bit and watch some kids run around in the water and dance.  Song and dance is everywhere here.  It seems that everybody just has this inate ability to sing.  It is amazing.

 

Monday we hiked Table Mountain...aweseome views of Cape Town!  It was FREEZING on top.  Not like cori-cold.  Actually cold.  It was super windy, so we spent about 20 minutes on the top of the mountain and then couldn't feel our hands...

 

Tuesday we did a wine tour in Stellenbosch.  We met two cool girls from Canada, and then there were three older people on the tour.  It was neat to drive through some towns and to see the wine country.  All beautiful.  Learned a bit about wine...tasted some good wines.  Overall, great day.  On the way back, we realized that one of the women on the tour was the owner of the hostel next to ours.  She invited us over for drinks.  Just what you want after a day of drinking wine, right?!  We went...

 

Wednesday we wandered around Cape Town...saw a little soccer match...the Botanical gardens...the Waterfront.  We weren't exactly moving quickly (see Tuesdays events).  That night, we tried to do a full moon hike that I had read about.  It is at an area called Lionshead.  The idea is that you hike up on the full moon night so that you watch the sun set and the moon rise.  Well, we drove up there and felt like we were driving to a concert.  There were thousands of people there!  So, we decided not to do.  Neither of us are huge fans of crowds.  We ended up driving up to Table Mountain, where we had hiked a few days before.  It was a great place to watch a beautiful sunset over a beautiful city.  Another great day....

 

Thursday...went for another swim at Muizenburg...tried Lionshead hike again..AWESOME!  This time, we went much earlier...it was a beautiful day...a beautiful sunset.  We hiked down before the sun was setting, and saw crowds of people coming up.  It turned out to be perfect since we got to watch the sun set as we hiked down...and we avoided the crowds!  This was probably one of the best moments since being here.

 

So, on Friday, we took of for Johannesburg.  (Note: I am safe, so don't flip out when I told you that we drove!).  We drove.  This is a long story to try to explain while typing, but the short version is that there is a school outside of Johannesburg that is run by a woman who is a family friend of my friend.  Last April, their computer lab was broken into and all of the computers were stolen.  Another school down in Cape Town had 30 computers to donate, but they had been sitting there because they had no way to transport them.  So, we took them.  The problem is that with a truck full of computers, it isn't safe to stop anywhere.  So, we drove straight...18 hours. WAHOO!  The idea of that many hours in a car sounded horrible to me, but it didn't turn out to be nearly as bad as I thought.  Actually, I kind of enjoyed it!  We literally drove across the country.  Some interesting moments along the way....stopped by customs...lots of road construction...sometimes you just get out of the car and sit for a while...Also, since there was so much weight in the back of the truck, the lights on the front looked like brights.  Driving through the night, you can only imagine how many people flashed their brights at us, thinking that our brights were on.  It became like a game of light flashing...

 

We arrived safely on Saturday morning....slept for a few hours and then walked around and got some lunch...

We were staying with an extremely kind and welcoming family.  She is the one who runs the school.

Yesterday, we walked around...I got to see where my friend grew up...saw the botanical gardens...heard some great live music...saw a wedding in the park...went to an African flea market. 

 

This morning, we went to the school to drop off the computers.  When we arrived, two girls were there to give us a tour.  It was really funny, and slightly uncomfortable, as they definitely thought that we were important people of some sort.  The tour was literally a tour of everything, including every classroom, teacher and bathroom in the school.  At the moment, it is for 10th and 11th graders, so there were about 80 students.  After the tour, they had the entire school waiting outside to welcome us.  Imagine the look on my face. And my love for being the center of attention.  Clearly, something was lost in translation, as the students definitely thought that we had something to do with the donation of the computers.  They didn't realize that we simply drove them up there for them.  So, after a welcome...they sang a welcome song, and some of them were dancing.  They all had these amazing smiles on their faces.  Then, we got a thank you song.  We were extremely awkward, not knowing how to respond.  Just imagine, the two white people standing up in front of the entire school.  OY! 

It was a pretty incredbile experience though.  And yes, I obviously now want to go back and teach at the school.  It is a maths and sciences school.  (Don't worry, I am still coming home!)

 

That is the short version of my week.  Lacking many of the funny moments, but I am typing about 200 words a minute and my hands hurt and I am just trying to get in as much as possible, while saving every few sentences as the Internet continues to cut out.

 

I will be in touch again in a few weeks.

I feel so luck to be here...this has been a truly incredible week.

 

Love,

Cori