South Africa

Recap 7: Baboons

2006-07-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

You may recall that I mentioned baboon research way back when...well I did another session before I left and took my camera this time. Since none of the trained assistants could go the day I went I took my biology, American friend Allison and we did a full day of baboon research (sunrise-sunset). Specifics of the study: it was in Tokai forest (a mixture of ecalyptus and pine trees) which is a popular park, especially for mountain biking. This troop which has recently broken into two groups, so we were monitoring the larger group of about 60-70 baboons. We recorded GPS readings every 30 minutes to monitor the troops movement. We also did observance surveys (just recording what a sample of the troop were doing at that time, ex: what they were foraging (aka eating), if they were grooming/playing/resting etc). It was a long day and a couple of times the dominant male approached us and made sure we'd submit (by looking down, walking away, etc) but finally left us alone near the end of the day.
Since coming back I've realized what a sweet opportunity it was. I mean, heck I got to hang out with BABOONS for a day, and in their natural habitat! who can say that?!? I really enjoyed hanging out with Allison and talking about nerdy things a large part of the day (such as hypothesizing why the baboons were acting a certain way, what type of plants we were sitting in, the ecology of the forest, etc--things I think are amazing).
The baboons were awesome. They sleep in very tall pine trees and come down in the late morning. In the early morning they forage on pine trees, and when they are done the pine cones come flying down at us (often I was more afraid of getting hit by a pine cone than a baboon attacking me). They then swing down or even play high up, it's incredible. you look up in a bunch of pine trees and barely see the baboons flying from tree to tree or just chilling 100 meteres up. it's simply amazing.
they mosy around the forest/roads/trails for the majority of the day, with the moms and babies hanging out in back and we try to stay with them or in the relative middle.
one time they started messing with the homes near by, usually chasing the horses or jumping over fences, eating from gardens/trees etc. the homeowners would look at us quizingly but we weren't supposed to do anything. it was semi-awkward.
all in all--a grand day. loved it. one of the baboons, one of the males was playing in a river fluff for awhile and then started following us over the bridge. i couldn't help but laugh at it and it's silly presence even though we were trapped between two male baboons (which had potential to add ugly). but everything turned out okay and i got a picture.

Recap 7: digmates

2006-07-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

CAPTIONS:
Matthias, Heather, Meghan, Jonathan at Robben Island

Hannah, what a sweet picture, perfectly describes Hannah, always on the go.

Alex being cool and collected as always...haha

Reidar with the weirdest looking drink i've ever seen. he finished it for the record. we were eating out as a family for his bday.

-Meghan (one on left) and Miki being beautiful as always.

Jonathan prepared to scare the life out of the rat that decided to make a home in our kitchen. (favorite Reidar quote during the rat ordeal: "I'm probably the scarediest one here, but im just here because of gender roles...")

the group eating dinner together--i think for Heather's bday.

I miss my friends. A lot. It’s a weird thing because if I was there I’d miss my friends here, but now that I’m here I miss my friends there. Five months gives you quite a long time to get really close to a lot of people. Especially if you are living, eating, cooking, singing, laughing, playing, running, learning, exploring, questioning, experiencing, loving, understanding, teasing, and encouraging each other every day. My housemates were probably my closest friends there, and I saw them every day. No matter how long and crappy my day was I knew Miki or Meghan would be home waiting with an ear to hear about my day, giving advice if needed but more importantly just caring. I could play the “did you know…” game and force them to listen to all my random biology facts I’d learn. During finals week more often than not I came home to a warm dinner provided by Miki. I knew Alex would make me laugh with one of his famous quotes or describing the world’s best! deal at Woolworths (the expensive, fancy grocery store), Reidar would begin a story with a fit of laughter and eventually get the whole tale out, Jonathan would make fun of me as any good brother would but would also ask about everyone’s day and would help if at all possible, Matthias was most likely gone with his girlfriend Lindsay, unless of course he had a paper due the next day at which case he would be playing spider on someone’s laptop procrastinating, Hannah would have spastic excitement but would always be ready to make the world’s best plans, Allison would most likely be MIA but might stop by with the pinkest cupcakes I’ve ever seen, Heather would have the most hilarious thing to say or would be taking a third shower of the day (if a paper was due)…I absolutely loved my housemates. I miss them like the dickens. I miss having Meghan screech when she sees a cockroach. I miss cooking with Miki. I miss Alex’s phrases and amazing insults. I miss running with Reidar, Alex, Jonathan, Hannah, and Colin. I miss always being able to hang out with someone. I miss always having someone to go exploring with or someone to distract me from work. I miss watching movies late into the night with a room full of friends. I miss having potlucks. I miss having such a tight knit community of people that I feel comfortable, safe, energized, challenged, and included. I love being able to spend time with my family and people in Eau Claire, but I wish that missing people didn’t hurt as much.
It's weird to think, but people tended to clump the Americans together so I almost tricked myself into believing that everyone from the states would be really close to me when i got home and it would be easy to stay in touch. what a lie. i now have close friends all over the show, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, Illinois...not to mention South Africa, Botswana, Malicia (spelled wrong i know), Germany, Norway, Canada...it’s awesome I have friends from different backgrounds and cultures but I wish with all my heart that I could transport myself to a million places in a blink of an eye (for free would be an additional bonus).

recap 6: random shots

2006-07-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Random Shots.

1. This one time I saw a huge group of adorable school age children, all in sweet uniforms walk by. I so happened to have a camera in my backpack so I was semi-creepy and took a picture while hiding my camera in my raincoat...but isn't it a cool shot?

2. overlooking the city at sunrise on the way up for one of my exams...stupid early tests...

3. We all walked down from varsity together--Jonathan celebrating because he was done. I still had three more to go. that's just sick.

4. night traffic one of the times i was up on campus late...in the library...you know the usual--partying it up.

5. the view out of my window. i woke up to that every morning. and you wonder why i miss it.

6. some of the coolest people around. Alicia, William, and One'. my human biology friends. One' and William were also in my microbiology class and were amazing. William was from a island off the coast of South Africa and One' was from Botswana. Both taught me a lot and I miss them a ton. One' was my lab partner which was completely random but was perfect. She brought over a cheesecake (the best i've ever had--it was absolutely fantastic) to say goodbye. i hate goodbyes. they suck. William, another guy from my human bio (HUB) class, and I went to this mexican restaurant as a final hooray and i had mexican! i hadn't had a burrito/taco/anything along those lines for the entire stay and it was wonderful. except it meant more goodbyes. Alicia was from the states and was in my HUB class as well and we had good times reviewing material and she was also involved with SAEP (south african education program) leading hikes. She was incredible too.

Recap 5: planting gardens

2006-07-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Megan's church was planting a garden and flowers at a school in Kaliescha (totttttally spelled that wrong). I dragged a couple housemates with me (Miki, Jonathan, Heather) and made a good time of it. We planted seeds which the students would take care of until big enough to plant in the garden. It was such a cool thing happenin' at this school. The neighborhood at which the school is in is extremely poor and a lot of the kids don't eat at home. The only food they get is the food they recieve at the school. Therefore the school has begun this garden project in order to feed the community. They make food packages of cabbage, carrots, beets, spinach, tomatoes, etc. and give them to the area families. The building is the school building where area school children can come and learn. sweet.

Recap 4: barn dance

2006-07-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have never gone to a barn dance even being from Wisconsin so it is ironic that I helped lead a barn dance in South Africa. My friend Megan was asked to be a caller for a jr. high group who was having a barn dance. She needed someone to help demonstrate the dances so I got the lucky position. It was incredible. I love middle schoolers and these guys were no different. My favorite part was when a 6th grader boy came up to me and voiced his concerns, "I can't do this whole dancing thing. I have no rhythm...ahhh" things are the same every where--middle schoolers self-conscious about their dancing...oh wait not just middle schoolers. It was very fun. Three dances, line dancing/circle dancing...and I got to wear a cowboy hat.

Recap 3: Beautiful Gate

2006-07-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Gate stole my heart the minute I walked into the cottages. A little background: While in the states I met a woman, Nora Krahn who, along with her husband Ken, is a missionary in Cape Town. They work at an orphange, Beautiful Gate, where all the children are HIV positive.
They invited me to spend the weekend with them, which was absolutely amazing, relaxing, and beautiful. On Saturday morning we went to the orphange, Ken working in the Chapel (he is the Chaplain) and Nora first cleaning up the head nurses station/organizing kids' medication and then going to the cottages to give the drugs to go with lunch. I went with her to the cottages (there are 9 cottages I believe with 8ish kids in each) to hang out with the kids and I cannot express the emotions I felt. One of the cottages I walked into a little girl, about the age of 4 I'd say ran up to me full speed and jumped into my arms. I was a bit shocked but obviously loved it, and immediately she started playing with my hat and hair, touching my face, and examining every nook and cranny. They were all eating dinner, but when they were done with lunch I helped a cottage go to bed (one of the "Mama"s (that's what they call the women that watch the children) was gone so a cottage was doubling up with another one and very overwhelming for the one Mama still there). I have to admit I was a distraction and didn't immediately put them to bed...I couldn't help it. The kids were so dang wonderful and I wanted to play with them. They all danced about, climbed on me (the jungle gym), figured out I had a camera and posed/took pictures to their heart's delight, and smiled beautiful smiles that captured my heart. One room, with three boys would not lie down and sleep until I took a picture of a stuffed bee. I didn't even bother trying to understand why and that picture will always remind me of the crazy boys who couldn't stay still for more than two minutes.

Which leads me to a realization. I hadn't really thought about it, but I think I have unconscious thoughts about the physical appearance of disease, specifically HIV and AIDS, and preconceived ideas of how a person with this disease acts and feels. I realized/am realizing that this is often true. True, these kids have HIV. True, lots of kids, and often even the kids in the orphange, are sick, vulnerable, weak and miserable. True it is life threatening and will most likely shorten these kids lifes. True the disease can prevent activity, hinder happiness, spur on misery and dispare. However it does not mean these kids uncapable of love, joy, humor, energy, excitement, spontanuity, craziness, mischief, and all the other characteristics you link with children. They are beautiful. In spirit and body. Cape Town, especially noticeable at the university, is attempting to remove the stigma and isolation that comes with AIDS and HIV. There is no reason to isolate and seclude those with this horrible, awful disease. It just doesn't make sense. Why remove them from support and love when that's what they need most? I certainly hope our society has grown enough to be different than the times where had separate communities for those with leprosy.

I actually just got a newsletter from them this week and I was thinking/praying for the Krahns and the children I metas I was driving today and started crying. They were emotionally mixed tears, both joyful and mournful. Joyful because these kids are getting the medication and love they so desperately need. Mournful because though their life expectancy is far higher than it would be without the medications, they will still lead averagely short lifes. And that tears me up inside. Why do we live in a world that children are born with a disease that will kill them? Why do these kids have no protection against the disease or say in the matter? Why do these beautiful, precious children have to take 3-4 pills a day just to stay alive? Why do other children, equally as precious and wonderful, not get the drugs and thus die before they can run, before they can build friendships, before they know what it feels like to swim in the ocean, before they learn their ABC's? I

Recap 2: Teach Out

2006-07-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

CAPTIONS: 1st: the room where we did most of the tutoring 2nd: the schoolyard 3rd: the school: Gugulatu
One of my favorite memories in Cape Town was my first teach out experience where I had to teach math to 20 plus students who only spoke English as a second language and laughed at me when I tried to say their names. To say the least I entertained them with my random noises/excited movements...I loved it. Anyway I never commented on it after my initial experience, or not at least that I remember. Unfortunately numbers dropped drastically after the first one and often it was more one on one interaction (which was very good for the student because in their classes the student to teacher ratio is about 50 to 1--and that's normal in the townships!) I never got to know any one student well, but I began to learn a little about their culture. By no means did I scratch the surface of the complexity of the politics, social dynamics, family traditions, or even basic living of the area, but I loved watching the students interact with each and react to us very different outsiders. I was the only American in the specific group so I stuck out even more than just being white. My accent shined through and created many laughing moments (mostly directed at my metaphors in attempting to explain mathematic concepts).
Though it was a fantastic experience and one which forced me to re-evaluate my teaching strategies and student interaction, it was very challenging in the respect that we saw little direct reward. No test scores before and after were given to see if we helped at all, little feedback from the students regarding our helpfulness (they all automatically said we were helping, but did they really mean it?), no teacher interaction/discussion, no week to week routine to depend on or compare to, and no commitment in attending in the student population. It seemed there was a lot of kids that had already given up on going to the university because it is so difficult to come from this background and have the money and marks (aka grades) to get there. I could go on and on about why this is and what needs to be changed, but basically there aren't enough teachers, textbooks, resources (no to few computers or other technology), support.

I would interact with these kids and want so badly for them to be able to dream like I was able to. Dream of what tomorrow could bring. Dream of what career they want to be when they grow up. Dream of the education they will recieve and the knowledge they will gain. Dream of a life different than the present. Dream of moving to new places, seeing new things.

On the other hand some of the kids that would come to these after school sessions were amazing. Simply amazing. Those of you who have hung out with me for more than 10 minutes know I use that word a lot, but these kids deserve it. Their motivation to succeed shines through. They will not accept answers unless they fully understood it (and to be honest sometimes I wanted so badly to just moooove on after working on a single problem for 30 plus minutes, especially when it was trig, but they would persevere). Their dedication to each other was pretty sweet, and become apparent when one wouldn't get an answer the others would encourage and explain in Xhosa (which would sometimes be frustrating when I had no idea what they were talking about/laughing about (most likely at me)).

Something else that surprised me (and this will show how naive I was/am): high schoolers have similar threads woven in their character/personalities/lives no matter where you are. By no means am I saying high schoolers in the US are the same or even are close, but there are still the funny, giggly interactions between girls and boys, the "tough" guys who have a hard time getting into school, leaders emerging and obviously putting 150% into their academics, the laughter and dodgy eye contact between each other when they are talking about someone...oh the list goes on. It was fun to be in such a different and unique environment yet see blurry similiarities between there and the US.

recap 1: Scarborough

2006-07-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks back in Cape Town were some of the most busy/fun/sad/challenging weeks of my life and I realize that y'all didn't get to hear about them. But more selfishly, I didn't get to talk about them (and i'll admit that is more of the driving reason than anything). So here is the beginning of a couple "recaps" from my last couple of weeks in the promise land of Cape Town.
Let's start with Scarborough. My housemates (aka family--i keep accidently referring to them as that, but we got to be pretty tight...) and other friends went to a ocean-side house type thing for a weekend as a final hooray. it was a good hooray. some highlights:
1. exploring tide pools with Alistair and Meghan--we saw sea stars (as you can see in the pictures, they are meghan's new favorite animal..we were both pretty excited about it)

2. after Jonathan (one of my housemates who was like my brother from the semester) was brutally making fun of me from the couch i decided to go run and jump over the couch and punch him, WWF style. well little did i know the couch had it out for me and the armrest grew seriously four feet in order to smash my knee and i crumbled on top of him with little harm to him. sad. i was further made fun of.

3. the decorations in this house were incredibly tacky. so much stuff was hanging from the ceiling it was amazing
4. slacklining by the ocean, what more needs to be said (besides the fact we may or may not have ruined a "whale watching" sign...)

5. the hardwood floors were so slippery that the lower ramp to the downstairs took me out twice on the way down...totally fell straight on my butt. it was great.

6. making meals together :) what a big happy family
7. the late night conversations and reading the book all about oranges
8. the stars were beautiful.
9. lots of friends all hanging out together
10. oh so i drove alistairs manual car to pick up miki and hannah at the trainstation and there was a police traffic stop (they block the road so you have to get checked off by them...) and i freaked out because i didn't have my license on me and stalled the car 10 ft. before the policeman and then when i ever so calmly started again, he grilled me why i didn't have a license on me...why did i have to be such an idiot is basically what he said. alistair cleared it all up by saying, "oh she's an american". thanks. at least there was no fine involved, just evil glares.
11. Jonathan almost melting (aka whining up a storm) because he didn' t have any milk intake for 24 hrs. wow he's addicted. that boy drinks more milk than anyone i know...
12. the car back home: four people in the back seat, luggage for 6 and a very small car= lots of laughing and lots of butts falling asleep.

oh you know...the usual

2006-06-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

Well with only one more final left and a couple of days to spare, some friends and I took a fantastic trip on the Garden Route. You may have already looked at the pictures and thought--gosh that's not a garden. but it's a big collection of places and things to do. we decided to make it a chill trip, you know like the usual...bungee jumping off the highest commercial bungee jump in the world--213 m off a bridge. it was a rush to say the least and very, very enjoyable. i have to admit my form was a bit sketchy but im proud to announce i didn't pee my pants nor did i have to be pushed off (though as you can tell by my curled toes i had my hesitations when they put my on the edge of the platform. it was into a huge canyon/ravine type thing. pretty sweet. and surprisingly a smooth ride. and yes i screamed. and mom, i think you would have liked it. more seriously i think jon would have puked walking on the metal catwalk to the place...you shoud see where you were going to jump and it wasn't a short fall...oh wow. highly recommended. i don't think the pictures need explanation but that's the bridge we jumped off of (right under the arch...)

broken brain

2006-06-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

My head has felt like it has been in vise (totally spelled that wrong) for pretty much the last week and a half. I feel like all I've done is gone to the library or any other location to study. studying is highly overrated i'm finding. Yesterday I had two finals, 6 hours of essay writing (essays on vertebrates and then religion, not very complimentary) and then studied for my human biology test today at 12. it didn't go so hot, but it didn't seem to sit well with anyone. nothing for a little brain whooping. I almost laughed out of my crazy state yesterday when someone asked me how to fill out their test registration, because by that time I had taken 5 exams...what an unfair world we live in.
but enough whining. only one more to go. Because my next exam isn't for a couple of days, I'm going to travel a bit with some housemates and friends. We're going on part of the Garden Route, I'm really excited. pictures coming I'm sure. Then come back for the test and then a couple of days to cruise around Cape Town trying to see the sights I've been ignoring while here. Hopefully some more climbing. hopefully more of everything until I head out on the 20. My house and a couple others are going to take an overnight trip to a nearby camping/chilling place to have one final woohooo.
I have a ton of pictures from recent but forgot to put them on my flash drive so they'll be coming.

boudering rain

2006-05-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of random photos. the two are at the bouldering wall at UCT that I try to hit up at least once a week. on the wall is Alex and Alistair. The other one of Alex and Meghan is one of the many times Meghan met me at the Jammie shuttle this last week late at night (i stayed up in the library until close most nights because i had a huge research project, a paper, and a test...let's just say it was not a stellar week). and the raincoat Alex is fashioning is Meghan's famous poncho which she loves promoting. it's rainy here. very rainy.

2006-05-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm a dork. I fully am aware and support the reality. I took my camera to lab. well actually it was in my bag and i decided to use it. so this is me and my lab partner One' who is amazing and is from Botswana. It's our microbiology lab to be specific, and i get to wear a labcoat. and yes i like it. not that anyone realllly cares but we're plating out an E. Coli dilution series.

2006-05-23T00:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but
I went on another hike/outing with the SAEP (South Africa Eduction Program) which works with high school students from area townships, most of who have never hiked/been on the mountains. There is generally some aspect of informal education (as one of the pictures shows Michaela doing...teaching about the plants in the area). We went to Kalk Bay, in Echo Valley and walked to some caves, at which we went caving (and after writing a 10 page paper on echolocation of bats i could give some insight to the bats we saw...). the kids loved it and i loved the kids so it all worked out. My hiking partner was there from before and when he saw me he just opened his arms really wide and i gave him a hug. it was cool (he's the one sitting on the rock). It has been interesting to work in this leadership role because it's the first time I've led a group of people so different than myself. More often than not I am in a group of students not speaking my language and talking about issues I know nothing about. The kids have lives and backgrounds that I can only pretend to understand. Their culture is something I'm still trying to grasp and learn about. Their language is something I can only dream about learning. The interesting thing is knowing all these differences and learning to appreciate them all while being a leader of the group. It is definately a new aspect for me. and i love it.

butt shots

2006-05-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

I just got some of these shots from a friend of our silvermine climbing day--and theymade me laugh. you can see how smooth i am on the cliff...or not so much. climbing pictures are funny because a lot of them are pictures of people's butts, whether it is intended or not. but still you can't help but take them because it's just so freackin' cool. anyway, one is me top roped and the other is me sport leading (the one of me in the distance is me leading). I'm pretty sure the four things I'm most glad I brought are my climbing shoes, my hiking backpack, my chacos and my slackline. i think i would be set if i forgot everything else...okay that's a lie, but exaggerations must often be used to get my point across :).

Camera

2006-05-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I have my camera I like to take pictures. Usually of random things that make me smile. It honestly think cameras are some of the coolest things around. With a single click of a button you see the world differently. I mean toes can look cool (well i think toes look cool most of the time...unless you have that strange fungus that my microbiology book does such a wonderful job illustrating). Not only do you get the initial, wow this is cool...but in a couple days, weeks, years you can look at it again and immediately the memory attached to it comes to mind. it's a beautiful thing. and i love it. oh and the flower, Bird in Paradise, is one of my new favorite flowers. they are beautiful. and you can't argue. and can you figure out what foot is mine?

Ocean walk

2006-05-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

I am torn inside in deciding to put all these pictures up because I know it paints such a easy, vacation of studying abroad, and I'm not saying I don't absolutely love it, but there is a great deal of work involved as well. I spent the last week writing two 10 page papers, and stayed up til 3 twice this weekend trying to finish them. With that said, I can't help but experience wonderful things here. I took a paper writing break on Sat. to take the dogs to a beach with my good friends Taryn and Megan from my microbiology class. It was incredibly splendid. There is nothing like the ocean to calm my stress and make me realize life is good. One of my favorite parts was discovering a dead jellyfish which we proceeded to dissect (gotta love biology students :)) it and it was absolutely amazing. My hands/arms got to be covered with a jelly/membrane/snotty like substance and I was loving it. The more I study here the more I love biology. Anyway, we had awesome conversations and great relaxing time to be completed with delicious ice cream. yumm.

Long street

2006-05-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

The hot night spot is on long street, so Colin, Allison, Heather and I went to a bar to listen to some a sweet jam session. There were a couple of bands, the second of which was fun to dance to. Captions. One is of Colin and Allison (Jones). Two are my attempts of taking a picture of Allison (Bailey) and I. the other is of the band, viewpoint from a balcony type thing.
It's so much fun to go with a small group of people and dance the night away to some sweet live music.

SAEP pictures

2006-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

These photos are from the SAEP hike that I helped lead. The trip was explained earlier, but again I'll just say how much I love bringing people into the wilderness on hikes...it gives such a fresh, renewing feel to life. it's simply wonderful. and i love hanging out with students which I'm being reminded everytime I do a trip like this or work with Teach Out. I simply love it and get such an energy being around students. Captions: the one of everyone sitting in a circle was at the end when we were talking about challenges/good things of the day. the action shot of people hiking, my hiking buddy is leadind the way. He's the guy with the white shirt and black pants. The picture of me was when I gave him my camera to mess around with. I can't seem to be normal when it's just me in a picture.

Invisible Camera

2006-05-04T04:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier this term I read a book on a transcriptionist who went around with the US government and tried to get different Native American tribes to sign the constitution as a way of showing their submissiveness to the government. Anyway, the part that was really interesting was that he had a camera that he had under his coat that he could take pictures without people realizing it. He'd capture the tradition, the emotions, the confusion, the condemnation, etc. with such a realyl honest and vulnerable way. I'm really wanting one of those cameras here.
I'm constantly wishing that cameras were less of a tourist identification but more of a mode of communication. I'd love to be able to illustrate the people and places I'm experiencing here without set poses or very pre-thought expressions. I'd love to be able to capture the faces of the girls who are entering the all girls jr. school I pass on the way to varsity every morning. I would depict the anticipation some of them show, maybe a bit fear of another goodbye to their mom or dad, or maybe excitement for their upcoming tennis match or visit with friends. I could capture the younger siblings in the car watching it all go down and often criticially analyzing the situation with their facial expression.
I'd show the joy of the niave little boy that plays on the street as his mother begs for money and food on the corner. I'd show the sorrow and disattachment of the mother, which is often hidden in her eyes.
I'd show the face of the concentrated student in the library, spending the majority of their time studying information that will soon fly out of their heads. I'd capture the mini bus yellers, as they are using their vocal systems more than the rest of us. I'd catch all of the passangers, individually reflecting on the day stimulatenously being packed so closely with other individuals.
I'd catch the tired face of the cab driver the other day who said he had been driving for 14 hours and still had 1o more left. I'd love to be able attempt to see past the poses, the masks, the superficial without being identified as a silly tourist with the single click of a button, so if any of who can make me an invisible camera that would be great.

Circus Performer

2006-05-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

I'm FREEEEE! I just finished a microbiology test that I have spent far too much time studying for but dang can I tell you about microbes, nutrient cycling, sterilization, radiation, organic substances...yea you get the idea. I feel so good until I think about the two 10 page papers due oh so soon. it's silly really. I just found out that someone forgot to mention to me when I was signing up for classes that usually 2nd year students only take 3 classes and 3rd year students usually take 2. Smart me is taking 3 2nd year courses and 1 3rd year course. I'm learning, or trying desperately hard to learn how to balance. I'm no circus performer, but I'm getting better. Take this weekend for example. It was a long weekend, with a public holiday on Monday (and yes, they have a lot more public holidays). I helped lead a hike on Saturday with a group SAEP that works with high schools from area townships and take kids on hiking trips, often with some educational value. It was the first hike I have done with them but absolutely loved it. I was paired up with a 10th grader, Sipwauntee (and i spelled that way wrong) and had a wonderful time getting to know him and his friends. We hiked the Constania Nik trail into Kirstenbosch and then had lunch there. It was definately a different thing to walk with non-hikers, but it was quite enjoyable, with great views and beautiful landscape. One time we rested and a guy and I informally talked about owl pellets (someone found one) and how you can find out what area birds are eating by dissecting their pellets, some were interested, some were disgusted. It was right next to a trickling waterfall down moss. beautiful. when i got back I diligently studied the remained of the day until I had Meg (a friend from class and we have her dog) and her friends over for a potluck and Princess Bride. It was a great way to end the day. Sunday was the other side of things--completely spent studying. studying outside, studying inside, studying morning/afternoon/evening/night. it was less than stellar. but monday made up for it. I went climbing with my friends Alistair and Andrew from Cape Town and Lindsey and Jonathan from the states. Lindsey and Andrew taught me how to sport climb and I had a blast doing it! I'm addicted. I sport led two climbs and than top roped two others. Two of which kicked my butt, but I am hopefully slowly getting stronger. We absailed down into the area we were climbing (another first for me!) and climbed out (with all our gear). It was such a wonderful day of laughing/playing/chatting/climbing...oh i loved it.
it made the return to the books far into the night a little more bearable. but i think the balancing act paid off, i finally felt good turning in a test yet have great memories. Now it's back to writing papers.

In the pictures: in the group shot: (L to R): Jonathan, Andrew, Alistair, and Lindsey
climbing: alistiar in the background, Jonathan in the forefront
looking down on the group: was after I climbed out of the area, alistair was just about to head up (and yes dad, we were all very safe, always attached to rope while climbing :))
view: was from the top, you can see muisenburg beach on the distance, and that's false bay...we were in the Silvermine, part of the Table Mountain National Park.
shot of the two people: Alistair and Lindsey after climbing out, you can see the border of Tokai forest in the background (that's where I do baboon research)

Baboons

2006-04-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

I may have told some of you, but for those I have not: I’m volunteering to assist a grad student with baboon research. It is actually quite cool, I had training yesterday. We got there with the sunrise and used a Bucky to get up to the nesting site in a pine plantation. The troop we are surveying/studying consists of about 120 baboons, males/females/babies. Tali, the grad student, wants to graph out their locations through the study, paying special attention to what they are feeding on. The research aims in giving a plan to the committee in charge of the forest in how best preserve the baboon population while they are trying to log a lot of the trees the baboons are using. If the committee knows what the baboons need and where they usually are located, it may be possible to formulate a logging plan that avoids them all together. Our job is to use a GPS recording system to monitor the troops whereabouts as we follow in roughly the center of them. We also observe what they are doing, what they are eating etc. in a structured way. Without getting into the methodology, basically I get to walk around the eucalyptus and pine trees watching baboons play/chill. They don’t really notice you, and if they do they just look at you for awhile and then when we turn and ignore them, they ignore us. Maybe I’ll bring my camera next time I am out in the field (I can use it as long as there is no flash) and try to capture the little ones swinging madly on the trees or hanging upside down. It’s all quite fantastic.

Benefit of the doubt

2006-04-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

The other day I was listening to a sermon by Rob Bell (who by the way is one of my favorite speakers, you should check him out…just ask Andrew or Mike for the hookup) and something struck me. No it wasn’t a falling coconut. It was in a series of why following Jesus is hard, but to be honest I don’t entirely remember the whole sermon. However at one point he was making resolutions and one was giving people the benefit of the doubt and not racing to put them in their place or in the wrong. Ever since it has been in the back of my mind in every day situations, whether it is when I meet people, working with classmates, talking about a situation with people, etc. I’m finding a couple of things. Firstly that it is not my first inclination to give people the benefit of the doubt, and it is very easy for me to fill in the blanks with my own ideas. Furthermore I’m realizing that when I do make the conscious effort not to make up my own storyline in my head or have secondary conversations in my head, I get the opportunity to see past the situation and get to know the person better. Before you think I’ve gone off the deep end let me give an example. There is this one guy in a class of mine who for most for semester has not been to class and every time he comes asks me what is going on, what he missed etc. I have to admit my first analysis was, “wow this guy is such a slacker, he’s probably just to lazy to come to class. Why should I always give him the lowdown? And why can’t he ever talk to me about anything besides what he’s missing?” However, at fieldcamp I was reminded of my new attempt to give the benefit of the doubt and started up a conversation with him, and it turned out to be awesome. He’s from the northern providence and gave me a long history of economies in Africa and how the U.S. is affecting a lot of the countries welfare. He drew out a rough map of Africa and gave me a play by play on several issues. It was incredible! I’m a slow learner but gradually I’m starting to realize there is far more to people than I see or encounter.

Dessert Desert

2006-04-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

In grade school, when I couldn't remember the difference between dessert and desert, I always thought, "well dessert is better than the desert so it gets 2 s instead of just 1". However that tactic may prove faulty because I'm thinking the desert is better than dessert. Most of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but the one of Dan in the back of the truck is when we got a ride out of Sossusviel and we were all incredibly excited about it. The one of Miki and Dan walking away from me (maybe it's because I hadn't showered in a couple of days) is in a canyon near the campsite.

Birthday Brunch

2006-04-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

As you probably have guessed by now birthdays are relatively a big deal in our house, and Miki and Alex had one in the same week so we decided to have a HUGE brunch in their honor. You should have seen the kitchen beforehand. Everyone seemed to be cooking something, Heather and I were using the recipe Mary sent for cinnamon rolls, Meghan was making pancakes, Miki was making a fruit salad, Alex was making everything under the sun, Hannah was making banana bread...it was hectic. so much fun though. Quite a few of friends came over and enjoyed a fun Saturday morning brunch.
It was a perfect day for it, drizzling outside and a good autumn temperature. I even got to use the candles Mary bought me!

Fabric Paint

2006-04-28T00:37:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were 5 and made things with your handprint on it for your mom or dad? Well it was Miki's birthday a little while ago and Meghan and I decided to go back to the good 'ld days and whip out the fabric paint. Since Miki loves cooking we came up with the grand idea
of decorating an apron with all our handprints. A stellar idea if I do say so myself. ha. so here's us trying to be 5 again. The one with Miki in it, on the bed, is us giving it to her at midnight as we stormed upstairs singing happy birthday. you don't have to tell us, we're cool. :)

Caving

2006-04-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

A while ago, maybe three weekends ago or so I went caving with mountain and ski club. We went near Kalk Bay, and the hike up was absolutely beautiful. I love the view of the world from a mountaintop. Miki went with too, and it was fun to hang out with her. We went in a total of two caves, wait maybe three. Either way in one there were a ton of bats it looked like the whole ceiling was moving. In one section of the cave someone had the GRAND idea to hike with all the lights turned off. Having sprained my ankle just a couple of weeks before I thought that game sounded ridiculous and Miki and I broke the rules. Miki and I ended up walking down to Muisenburg to meet some friends surfing, so we got an extra long walk on the boardwalk next to the ocean. I'm never going to get sick of watching the waves crash on the shoreline.

Laughter

2006-04-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

I like laughing at pictures and these make me laugh out loud. My housemate Jonathan got a motor scooter type thing, so Miki went out on a ride one afternoon. The esculator is the one previously mentioned that Joel and Shannon made for me, which is still sitting on my window sill.

2006-04-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

i don't think these need any explanation.

moooore pictures

2006-04-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

More pictures for your viewing pleasure. mostly me trying to catch a glimpse of how cool Namibia is.

pictures from Nimibia

2006-04-26T00:14:00.000-07:00

The huge canyon is Fish River Canyon. The rive is the Orange River, right on the border of Namibia and South Africa. The group is obviously who i went with (no i didn't just jump into a random group photo shoot).
The crazy tree in the background of that one picture is a quiver tree, my new favorite tree.

Fieldcamp Animals

2006-04-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

More pictures of field camp. The snake is a relative of the Puff Adder, and as it breathes the whole body rises and falls, it is amazing to watch. The rest are pretty self-explanatory.

Car Problems #2

2006-04-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

We were on cloud 9 after a great previous day and an early morning visiting the local canyon. We were on the road back to Cape Town earlier than expected, around 9. After about 40 min. of driving we smell something. Dang I thought we were over this is what we were all thinking. I was driving and waited to pull over at a picnic spot (thankfully this wasn’t far). We got out and tried to locate the smell. Well the gushing out oil was a good indication. We tried our old trick of patching with no luck and ended up putting a bowl to catch the oil. Before to long I checked the level to find out it had all drained out (I’m learning more about cars than I ever have before, I wished multiple times I had taken a mechanics class). We were all going over our options after none of our phones worked, keeping very level heads I must say, when we flagged down a car. I can’t say enough how much God was looking out for us over these car problems, because the car that stopped was other exchange students from UCT that had car problems the day before so were EXTREMELY understanding and gave a ride to Miki to the lodge (they were headed there…again WOW how details worked out). We picked Miki because everyone at the lodge loved her. So anyway, the rest of us chilled at this picnic area on the side of the road…for about 5 hours. We played cards, knitted, read, etc. For the beginning we were always looking up to see if a tow truck was coming, but after about 2 hours kinda gave up. Finally a tow trucked emerged from the distance and we rejoiced. We drove back in the back of the Bucky (that’s a truck) to the mechanics house. They determined they couldn’t fix it and told us we had to take all the stuff we needed out of the car for the night. We then got reunited to Miki, which was a super joyous experience, I’m sure the lodge staff thought we were all crazy hugging each other after only 5 hours of separation. Long story again, but Dan and Miki stayed at the lodge til about 8, trying over and over to get the car rental place to cooperate. The rest of us wandered pathetically around the campsite trying to figure out what to do, it was packed full. Again blessings. A man, I think who led safaris and stayed at this campsite lots approached us and said he talked to a staff member and said we could stay over in this patch of grass for free and if anyone questioned us, say JD told us we could. How sweet! It saved us 410 rand (do the math, 1 dollar equals 6 rand roughly). The next day the new rental car was supposed to pick us up at 12-12:30. Sadly more waiting was in order. We waited until 5, playing more cards than I have in my whole life and croqueting like mad. We were soooo excited to get going. I can sound pathetic when I say I spent my Easter in a mechanics garage waiting for a rental car, but in reality (though that part stunk) it was full of blessings. The phone bill we had racked up at the lodge magically “disappeared” thanks to the staff. The lodge receptionist gave us all Easter chocolate eggs and a whole thing of fruit (which by this point was like heaven since all our fresh food had been eaten a looong time ago). The rental car got us safely back in Cape Town. We slept at the campground for free. We made friends with the campground workers, learning a great deal about Namibia from perspective outside the tourist guidebooks. Each time we broke down relatively close to the lodge (I should point out the next nearest town was over an hour away). In this whole fiasco I’m so thankful for all the people that blessed us. As I’m sure my parents are thinking right now, it could have been a great deal worse. But oh my word, it made us all recognize Namibia had amazing people who went well out of their way to care for foreigners.

Car Trouble #1 (don't read before Namibia overview!)

2006-04-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Before I start I have to ruin the ending for those who are worry prone: everyone is safe, we’re back in Cape Town and it’s all good. With that said I have quite the story. As you’ve read by now, I went to Namibia for spring holiday and in the process became a mechanic. Okay not quite, but on the way to Sossusviel we started smelling gas. We pulled over and noticed a black canister leaking gas at a quick rate (which now I know was the fuel pump). I asked if anyone has duck tape for a temporary fix but the best we could do was athletic tape. I got down and started patching it up the best I could. While I was doing that two people stopped and assured us the town was only 6 K away and we wouldn’t explode. Colin was hestitant to drive the rest of the way so I drove and when we got there we were instructed to go to the lodge and find their mechanic. From that point on we tried to get everything done as quickly as possible before we ran out of fuel. A quick overview: I dropped off Meghan to figure out our reservation at the campsite, Colin and I dropped off all the stuff at the campsite, Miki tried to get a hold of the car rental people, Dan and I went to the mechanics house to explain the situation. I have to say, I could have been with a better group. We all kept it cool, got the job down and stayed relatively positive. I ended up going back to the lodge to find Miki, who had been on the phone on and off for about 4 hours trying to get results from the car rental people. They were some of the most frustrating people to work with. However the lodge staff made up for it. They were incredible. It must be pointed out that we were not staying there, and they had no gain in helping us. They let us use their phone, gave us free coffee and tea, called the rental place to confirm details repeatedly, and basically just looked after us. Long story short, the mechanic fixed the fuel pump AFTER HIS HOURS!, the lodge people didn’t make us pay for it and said, “enjoy your trip”, and the mechanic dropped the car off the next morning, earlier than expected. It was fantastic, we were blessed far beyond what we ever expected. Seriously everywhere we turned we were helped and cared for. I felt like I was saying thank you repeatedly to countless people.

Namibia overview

2006-04-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like I jumped into one of chimney sweepers chalk drawings in Mary Poppins. Or I walked into a picture in Aladdin (and that’s why I had “Arabian Nights” stuck in my head faaar too often). Enough with the movies, but Namibia was absolutely beautiful. Most of the car driving I was staring out at the amazing beauty (unless of course I was driving, in which case I was concentrating very hard on the roads). We left a couple of hours after getting back from my field trip and drove to the border of South Africa. We stayed at a cute little camping place, right along the Orange River (and unfortunately that doesn’t mean orange trees are growing along side of it, nor are there floating oranges much to my disappointment). The sunrise awoke us, as well as the very loud and numerous birds flying along the shore. In attempt to prevent writing a novel about the trip I’ll do my best to summarize.
The first day we went drove to Fish River Canyon. It’s the second biggest canyon in the world and simply left me speechless. Dan said it was different structurally than the Grand Canyon and he was more impressed with the Fish River Canyon. We hiked around for a bit, soaked up the warm Namibian sun (it was much warmer there than the ever decreasing temperatures of Cape Town).
We spent the night in another campground, again very nice and had cacti all over (but luckily I didn’t sleep on any of the spikes. We went into town and went to a restaurant, where we were the only customers besides another guy, to eat delicious pizza.
I am losing track of where we went in what order so I’ll just summarize in maybe the wrong order.
We visited Giants playground where it was tons of boulders piled up in fun, random formations that were great to play around on. A Quivertree (my new favorite tree) forest was nearby and great fun walking around in. We found countless lizards, HUGE (seriously the largest I’ve ever seen) crickets and other random big bugs, a Jackrabbit with HUGE (yes, like dumbo) ears, and Dassies.
The most time was spent in Sossusvlei and Sesriem. (to get a lot of detail about why read the Car Problems 1 and 2). The sand dunes there were fantastic. I can’t think of words to describe them, but they were perfect. The first one we climbed up on it and after being in awe of the crazy beetles digging in and out of the sand, we ran down it. I couldn’t help but laughing the majority of the way down. It was one of the most fun moments, you are so high up and running as fast as you can yet with no fear of falling. It was wonderful. Then we drove the rest of the way and walked about an hour in the middle of the desert to more dunes. It was an unreal thing to be surrounded by so much sand. We were dreading the hot walk back when a group of couples offered us a ride in the back of their bucky. Very happily we rode back to our car (the “roads” were too sandy so you needed a 4 x 4). I have a photograph album and a half of the dunes that I can share sometime. It was so beautiful and fabulous I couldn’t help but take lots of pictures.
Earlier that morning I went on a run with Miki and Colin to a nearby dune and saw a lot of wild life: springbok, gemsbok, hyena (that’s sort a guess we couldn’t tell but someone told us it was probably a hyena…Colin claims it was a lion ready to pounce on us).
Every morning we woke up with the sun, and there were beautiful sunrises. Little did I expect that there were also amazing moon rises. It was a full moon and a couple nights you could see it rising in all it’s glory. Pictures couldn’t do it justice, you’ll have to believe me it was wonderful.
There are many stories to tell, but since this is getting kind of long maybe I’ll write more at another time. But overall, I loved it. I loved the people I was with, the conversations, the jokes, the views, the people we met, the drive (okay maybe not all the time, but in general it was enjoyable), and the animals.

Rewind

2006-04-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

Go back a couple of weeks, before the break. I want to recap the weekend. On Friday I went to my first cricket game ever to watch my friend play, and it was confusing to say the least. However Meghan and I got it semi nailed down and it was fun. We just chilled on the grass and analyzed the daylights out of it. Later that night I went to a movie with some friends from Cape Town. The movie wasn’t great but the company was fantastic. The next day Miki and I went caving with the outing club in the morning and then hiked to Muisenburg to surf a little (I got to use a friend’s equipment which was super nice, but it was three sizes too tall for me and created a few problems). The next evening I went with a friend to her church and then went back to her house with a bunch of her friends to eat waffles. I can’t tell you how much fun I had to be in a house, interacting with a bunch of new people, hanging out with her family, playing ping pong etc.
At one point I was admiring her dog and saying how sweet it was and she said I should take it home. I thought she was joking but she went on to explain the other two dogs intimidated it a lot and it was getting beat up on and their family was looking for a temporary home for him (Picasso) to give him a break. Long story short my housemates were thrilled (and that’s an understatement in my case) to have a pet so we now have a dog. A perfect one at that. I have taken him running, but he gets real slow after about 30 min., still I like him a lot. He keeps us all company and gets along with everyone. Can you believe it? I had to come to South Africa to get the dog I always begged my parents for!

Flowers

2006-04-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

Some of the flowers that I stumbled upon while looking for traps or studying birds. There were a lot more than 5, but I had to limit the number I posted.

Field Camp

2006-04-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

The first 4 plus days of my vacation were spent in Grabouw or something like that with my zoology class. It was a camp with cabins in the middle of the mountains among lots of fields. There was a dam that fluctuated water levels very quickly.
We left Friday at 2 and returned Tuesday at 12ish. The first full day my group (we all broke up into three groups, my group had 7 people) did birds. We woke up with the sunrise (as we did every morning), drank tea and ate rusks (delicious but basically it’s hard bread). Then we set up bird nets (huge finely woven nets that are very hard to see if they are positioned right) and caught three birds. We were able to handle the birds (an amazing experience in itself, they are beautiful creatures) and weigh, tag, identify, and measure them. I got to hold the Cape Town Robin. The rest of the day was spent wandering through a field, trying to come up with an experimental design of monitoring the male’s tactics of territorial behavior. We got to do a lot of observation of the Orange breasted Sunbird. In the afternoon we surveyed an area, identifying the birds in three different vegetations. The next day we worked with reptiles, climbing up lots of rocks trying to find any lizards, snakes, etc. The group before us found a Buff Adder, one of the most poisonous snakes in the area and the expert caught it and put in a cage so the rest of us could see. I’m so thankful for this experience to see all this South African wildlife that I would otherwise not be able to learn about. I held on to countless lizards and played with a Chameleon for a long time. It was a miniature Chameleon, and it crawled up my face. Pretty sweet. The last day was mammals, and most of the time we went out into three fields and checked live traps for small mammals (e.g. mice, rats, shrews, etc.). Not gonna lie, rats and mice are not my favorite things in the world. I was not as excited to see how big of rats we could catch as others. But I did learn about quite a few and removed a couple from the cages into a mesh bag then weighed, tagged, sexed, and identified the species. That night was one of the best parts of camp, my group went and used bat nets to catch 10 bats. We each got to untangle the bats from the net and then have our own bat to identify, sex, weigh, measure wingspan and just be in awe of. They are amazing creatures, one of my new favorite animals. My bat’s mother never taught it not to bite, but they’re bite wasn’t bad and didn’t puncture skin. The wings are simply amazing, and if you hold them correctly they are usually okay being handled. One of my favorite parts of the camp was wandering outside in the fields, admiring the views, animals, and flowers in the area. I am learning how much better I learn when I interact with what I’m studying. I also got to know much more of my class in a nonacademic way. I was excited because when I went to class today lots of people to talk to and catch up with. Again my slackline came in handy, I made lots of friends by setting it up. My ankle did just fine, much to my delight. I figure it’s a good way to build up more balancing muscle. Gosh, I should just become a physical therapist with all my grand ideas of rehabilitating (ie surfing, slacklining, hiking, etc.). Anyway here are some pictures of the time.

quick update

2006-04-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

I have about 7 minutes before I am heading home to go to Namibia. But I wanted to let you know lots of blogs will be coming I promise, a lot has happened in the last week. In case any of you try to email me in the next week, know I don't hate you and don't want to respond; I am taking a trip to Namibia for about 5 days with four good friends: Colin, Dan, Miki, and Meghan. All who are amazing so I'm sure the trip will be a story to tell. It's our "spring break" which they refer to as their vac or holiday. It is a week plus a day long break. The first part I've been at a manatory (but I went very williningly) zoology field camp. I can't wait to post pictures from that. We got a tons of hand on experience with various animals, more info. to come.
oh and by the way, i got one of the best packages in world history before I left. My brother Joel sent me a lot of the things I had posted as wishing I had brought to South Africa. He even added the impossible--an esculator. He and Shannon made an esculator with cards and a lego man. so beautiful. picture to come for sure.

School

2006-03-26T23:16:00.000-08:00

Just to prove to you I am indeed working on schoolwork, here's a taste of what school looks like here:
Last week I had a test that was in short answer format in Human Biology (1.5 hr test) and Microbiology (45 min. test). They count for about 15% of my grade, but the majority of my grade depends on the final.
This week I have a ten page paper due on why the heart is an endocrine organ and a ten page paper on a topic of my choice focusing on woman's issues or sexuality in Buddhism or Hinduism. Every week I have at least one lab write-up and sometimes a tutorial.
I have class every morning at 8, then 9-10 off, then class until 1. Every day except Monday (when I go tutor for TeachOut) I have a lab (or they call them practicals) from 2-5 for one of my science classes.
I finally have all my books (a veeeery long process) so I can look up information but if it's not in there I'm out of luck because I can only use the internet up on campus (making studying at night a bit difficult at times).

Kirstenbosch Concert

2006-03-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

in picture(from bottom L): Alex, me (for those who have forgotten), Allison, and Heather

As a reward to myself for working all day I went with Alex, Heather, and another international house to a concert at Kirstenbosch. It was a very good idea I must say. It was a reggae/ska band with the audience mainly consisting of hippies with dreads. It was a fun crowd to say the least, a perfect place to people watch.
Allison met us there and we ended up going up to the front and pretending we could dance, luckily no one noticed we were just pretending. It is a beautiful, perfect spot to chill on the grass and listen to music, every now and again looking up at the mountains.

Surfing

2006-03-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

As part of my ankle therapy program I went surfing this weekend. I figured the water would massage it back to full health. Whether it worked or not is still up in the air, but I had an amazing time regardless. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I go back home, after getting addicted to all these activities that involve large bodies of water, specifically the ocean. I'm thinking I'll bottle it up and bring it back with me.
Anyway details:
A bunch of my housemates went to Muisenburg for the afternoon. Matthias, who bought a surfboard previously, got called for a model shoot (long story) so I used his board (and don't tell but I'm going to steal it when he's sleeping). My housemate Jonathan gave me a quick rundown of the basics: stand up after you feel the wave under you.
The next couple of hours was amazing, mostly it consisted of me trying to stand up and sometimes being successful. I only got knocked in the head once and didn't hurt anyone else (though I did almost run over Jonathan but he was smart enough to duck down under my board). Even if I wasn't wonderful at it, it was fun to be crashed around by the waves, that slowly increased in size as the day went on.
I highly recommend it--though it may not be the same in Lake Mendota.

spirally flowers

2006-03-26T22:46:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks have been crazy with school work (yes, i do have to work here too...) but I have been distracted and have had a few adventures as well. Last weekend I went hiking with a couple I met back in the states, who are originally from Minneapolis but live here now working at an orphange, Beautiful Gate. It was so much fun hanging out with an older couple (their youngest son is just a little younger than my dad). We went for a relaxed hike at Silver Mine, with well marked trails (that's a new thing for me) by a beautiful dam. Most of the way up you could see both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean--absoluetly stunning views. When we reached the top, there was a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. I really don't get sick of the views here.
All along the trail there were the most random, cool plants ever My favorite was a spirally plant that looked like grass in little curly cues.
After the hike we stopped by this very cool cafe/restaurant: the Barnyard. Chickens and roosters were walking free about, and we sat outside on a little picnic table--very picturesque. We had the best yogurt smoothy I've had ever (fresh peaches...yummmy), a delicious homemade scone, and a fantastic brownie. The conversation was fun, and I learned a lot about the ministry they are a part of. We're going to plan another date so I can go visit the orphanage and spend a weekend at their house. They were incredibly friendly and geniune and a great joy to spend the day with!
CAPTIONS: 1st: dorky i know, but i took a picture in the bathroom because it made me smile 2nd: us walking across the dam, Ken and Nora are walking in front----3rd: the dam on the lower part of our hike---4th: the view from the top of the Atlantic side---5th: half way up the hill, can see both oceans

random house shots

2006-03-26T01:56:00.001-08:00

Matthias's sunglasses have been floating around the house with various people wearing them--here Alex is trying to look cool with them. :)
We have a tree out in the back yard by Miki's garden and Alex and I were wondering what it was so he climbed up the tree to get one...we're still not sure. It looked like an avocado but huge and smelled horrible, but it wasn't ripe yet so we didn't try it. The sunflower in a can is one of my favorite things in the house. Amazing Sam gave it to me before I left and on the can it says "just add water and love"--and that's exactly what I'm doing. It actually grew three plants so I transplated two to other pots. The other flowers are the ones Lindsay gave me when I sprained my ankle and are now drying in my closet--we'll see how that turns out. Then there is Colin eating the apple cider syrup we (coiln, meghan and i) created one night to eat with our homemade apple pancakes. It was delicious!

update

2006-03-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

quick health update. I'm WALKING! I walked up to campus today without much of a limp. I hope to be running and climbing again by the end of the week, if my housemate Meghan allows it (and let's be honest, i might even if she disagrees). Last night I decided to give up on studying and went to a jazz concert at this restaurant/bar on the waterfront (it's a huge docking area/harbor). It has faaaaaaantastic. Much better than studying. I went with my friend Jackie, who is from Cape Town and I've climbed with a couple of times. It was fun to hang out with her and listen to good music in a very crowded venue. I got home and had much more energy to hit the books again, after a fun conversation with the parents. Let's just hope my test today doesn't suffer too much for it.

crutches

2006-03-18T04:15:00.000-08:00

I’m just becoming more immersed into another culture: I’m using their form of crutches. Instead of going under the arms they go around my biceps (loosely) and then have a bar to put my hands around. I haven’t really gotten down the technique, I’m hoping it’ll only last a day or two so I won’t have to become an expert. Meghan and Matthias took me to the hospital Alister recommended last night and it was really funny. There was only one doctor in the whole emergency room, which was only one room receiving patients. They wheelchaired me around and then after giving all my info. To the one receptionist, I got looked at by the doctor immediately—funny how they only had one doctor and they still saw me much sooner than I would have been seen in the US where there are tons of doctors. Anyway everyone was incredibly nice and it was determined I didn’t break it-- just a bad sprain. They wrapped it, and one of the attendees wheeled me out to the car. I joked with him, trying to convince him to do some tricks with the wheelchair, and he rolled me back, making the trip more exciting. The pharmacy was just down the road to rent crutches. Gooood times. Today it’s feeling much better and I can stand relatively normal and walk slowly with very controlled movements. Give me a couple of days, and I’ll be walking normally I think. The timing is not wonderful because I was planning on going on a very cool climbing trip this weekend, but I guess I’ll have more time to write papers and study this way

Good story part II

2006-03-18T04:13:00.000-08:00

both sides of my ankle--a little less swollen than the first day...

Before you read this you’ll have to read the blog “good story”. It’s a rule. Anyway, short recap on the day. I have to admit I had very low expectations on how it would go, and they were very exceeded thanks to the wonderful people around me.
Heroes of the day:
*all my housemates: before leaving they all ask if they can get me anything, do anything I ask, gave me a ride to my practical (microbiology lab), let me lean on them hardcore to hobble, get fruit for me, etc.
*Lindsey!! Oh she’s amazing too. She heard I got injured so she called to make sure I was okay, then came over unannounced with beautiful yellow/orangish flowers and ice cream!! It made my day.
*the people that were laughing at me as Meghan dragged me down the microbiology lab on her coat. I’m glad I could entertain them.
*Alister for getting a fourth year physio student to give me advice etc.
*my dormmates in Madison—I got a letter from them today!! And it made my day. Carmen and Tina—I don’t think I’ve ever read a funnier letter! I was laughing the whole way through. I’m sure I looked really cool laughing to myself, but it was just that amazing.

Best ways to transport yourself with the use of one leg:
--well I’m finding scooting on the ground works best, much easier to keep the other ankle steady, but also detrimental to your pants.
--getting carried—hard work for the other person, but it’s the easiest and least painful way to move.
--driving in a car—woooohooo for housemates getting a car, so I can get a ride up the hill.
---leaning on someone, it’s best with two people then you can just hang out their necks (again not so great for them)
--being pulled on a towel to the bathroom by Meghan
--getting a piggy back ride from Hannah

I’m incredibly thankful that the people I am surrounded with can make my day, that I had planned to be quite bad, simply wonderful…well for the most part at least.

good story

2006-03-18T04:12:00.001-08:00

I’m sure this will be a good story to tell in a couple of months. I’ll laugh and say, “yup it was an experience” but right now I am wishing I didn’t have the story to tell.
I was bouldering with two of my friends—Alister and Dan. Ironically I was thinking “gosh, this is so much fun” right before I fell. I was going for a high reach and missed it so I fell…nothing new. But this time I fell on my ankle sideways off on the ground (the mats were moved back further so I missed them completely) and heard a nice sound of some kind. I immediately fell to the ground and started rolling around while moaning, looking rather smooth I must say. Okay I lie. Either way it hurt. Alister helped me get out of the climbing area, and Dan tried to get ice from the athletic trainer (where they told him he couldn’t get any unless the injured came up and got it…funny rule I think). We stayed in the gym for awhile while I was trying to carry on a normal conversation but every once in awhile would wince and have to bite my lip to prevent screams from being released. I tried to hobble leaning on Alister’s shoulder, but it hurt even putting a little weight on it. So lucky him had to carry me out of the gym, which like every other building has stairs and uphills. By the time we were outside, he was sweating profusely. I felt bad making everyone carry my stuff and me, but there was little I could do. Long story short, Alister gave me a ride home, and had to carry me into my house, all the while my digmates where confused why some stranger was carrying me into the house. Again I’m thankful for my digmates, serving me on hand and foot. I can’t move from this couch without wobbling and wincing, so they have literally gotten me everything I need and more. Meghan even put me on a towel and dragged me to the bathroom. Pathetic? Yes. But it was much better than jolting my ankle around trying to get there myself. The night was a little brutal, waking up to painful throbs, but I was able to sleep a little more after taking some drugs.
I’m sitting here now, pretending to do work but am very unmotivated. To be honest, I have a very short patience level with injury and sickness and want very much to walk up the stairs to varsity. It is forcing me to be very dependent on people, something I’m not used to all that much. Thankfully I can’t say how much I love my digmates (actually I just wrote that because they read this…hehe) and how awesome/patient they are with dealing with a limp.

Food

2006-03-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

I keep asking Cape Townians what is authentic Cape Town food that I must try and have gotten mixed responses. Sometimes it takes people awhile to figure out what is unique to this part of the world. Unfortunately I have forgotten most of the names for things people have said. But I have tried:
-crocodile (it was exactly how i imagine it would taste...semi tough yet chewable, lots of texture)
-kudo (like a deer...)
-springbok (it's huge here, also like a deer)
-this triangular pastery type thing with mincemeet or something else in it...hard to describe
-Salty cracks (soooooooo good. a perfect mix of saltines and townhouse crackers)
-some of the best yogurt I've ever had
-Coucous--I know we have it back in the states, but my housemates make the coolest things with it--it's a wonderful thing

food i miss:
-graham crackers, can you believe they don't have those?!
-tacos, they don't sell tortias here...weird i know.

yacht club

2006-03-12T00:58:00.000-08:00

I try to call it sailing club because yacht club sounds so preppy and stuffy. buuut either way the club proved to be awesome this weekend. There was an instructional day on Saturday that I went to with a couple of friends. I got addicted to wind surfing. even the name sounds cool. It was hard in the beginning to get up because you have to pull the mast out of the water, then balance once it comes up. After I got that down I sped down wind. I'm sure I was going relatively slow, but it seems so much faster when you're on a surfboard on top of water. The tricky part was coming up wind. My friend Allison and I were trying a long time to figure out how to position the board/mast correctly because the "instruction" we got was: pull this way to go upwind, pull that way to go down wind. the end." a guy ended up paddling over and switched with Allison so she paddled back to shore. I finally was getting it figured out, when another guy paddled up and asked how I was doing. After giving me two pointers he said he'd come back in 30 min. to see if i was still stuck. The pointers were key and I got back to shore in a full out smile. I loved it. The after effects in the form of a sunburn are less than stellar, but it was worth it.
I also got to learn how to sail, which turned out to be a little less successful. I went out on a Rebel (a South African sailboat--it's made here), a two man boat. I handled the first part well, working with a small task. It went downhill when he told me to steer. We were switching sides, cutting up wind, and i over corrected about 4 times so had to keep switching sides of the boat in mad choas, almost tipping everytime. The instructer pretended it was all good, but I think he was secretely wishing he hadn't volunteered his expertise. oh well. gotta learn somehow. Glad to report we didn't tip and we made it back to shore in one piece.

CAPTIONS: 1/2 don't really need explanations...but the other two are Jonathan and Allison windsurfing (or at least attempting)

Playing Teacher

2006-03-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

I grin like a fool just thinking about this afternoon and don’t think I can explain how wonderful it was, but I’ll try. Today was my first day of tutoring at a high school in a nearby township. I was told I’d have 5-10, maybe even 15, students to tutor in maths (they call it maths not math). I was not sure what to expect, I just knew we worked through a worksheet that I had yet to see. Anyway some tutors didn’t show up, leaving 5 of us. We got to the high school, and when we got into the room where it was to be held, students kept pouring in. I was amazed, there were over 150 of them. We were all a bit shocked but I was getting more and more excited by the minute. Ended up I, along with one of a guy also tutoring, Satzo (spelt wrong I’m sure), took all of 10th grade, 40-50 students. We walked to a different classroom, and dove in. We introduced ourselves, and after they filled out a registration sheet we split into two groups and I took half. Not sure of the best method, I tried to get feedback but they were pretty quiet at first. I went through one of the problems as an example, with their interactive help. It turned out to be a blast. I loved working with them, and making them laugh at me when I tried to say all their names. I felt very much like a teacher, flying off the cuff of my sleeve, trying to make sense to the students. I loved interacting with them, watching them beginning to understand problems. They are such a fun age to work with, relatively easy going and most ready to learn. Luckily, I quickly remembered factoring and the foil method, even though it has been since high school since I’ve done any similar problems. Ahhh, I can’t say how much I enjoyed it. I am already looking forward to going back next Monday.

Carnival fun

2006-03-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

I got a call the other day from a girl about my age that I met at the first church I went to, saying she'd pick me up at 8. She said what we were going to do but I didn't catch it, again the whole I can't understand South African accents thing got in the way. Ended up we went to a carnival. It was so much fun! Her boyfriend Micheal, his mom, and three others about my age went along. We pretty much walked around looking at all the random stands/food/rides. Kim (the girl who invited me), Henry, and I went on this one ride that was a metal cage that spun around very fast, causing centripical force to push us to the walls as it spun almost vertically. Henry almost got sick, but I think he pretty much just pretended to put on a show and get attention, but who am I to judge :). I really liked talking to Micheal's mom, learning all about her grandkids and that sort of thing. It's fun to have contact with multiple generations. Good times for sure.

Ceres pictures

2006-03-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

A couple more for your viewing pleasure. It's the same Ceres trip as described before...

Ceres

2006-03-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

I almost became a thief this weekend. On the way to Ceres for a hiking trip this weekend we drove through farm after farm of fruit trees (Ceres is where all the fruit juice in Cape Town/surrounding areas comes from). I saw a huge wagon filled with watermelon and tree after tree overflowing with pears, oranges, grapes, the whole kit and caboodle. I wanted to steal it all. My only excuse would have been that I wish the food pyramid consisted mainly of pineapple, mango, oranges, apples, grapes, bananas, and that sort of thing.
Anyways I’m proud to say I ignored my temptation. I was rewarded by one of the most beautiful hikes of my short life. We hiked a short ways to a dam where we swam and jumped off the dam wall (don’t worry it was perfectly safe…) It was gorgeous with boulders bordering the water. After a relaxing lunch break there, we continued up the mountain for a couple of hours, all the while with mountains and fruit fields in the horizon. We ended up in the middle of a mountain range, among boulders and a small river. We swam in a water pool, surrounded by green moss, trickling water and ahhhhhhh beauty. I spent most of the day with Lindsey and Simon, exploring the boulders and water. However, on the trip in total where 60ish people, so I got to meet a lot of people on the way. I met some Norwegians, Americans, South Africans, Germany, and some other random places. Good group for sure.
We spent the night under the BRIGHT BRIGHT stars, seeing 5 plus shooting stars that were some of the best I’ve seen. I learned a couple of constellations, some different here than back home (they don’t see big/little dipper here).
Next day we hiked out, often going on an alternative route (because the trail was less than clearly marked…). On the way down I was reminded of how I love biology, learning from natives about the flowers/animals/the environment in general that were surrounded by. This is turning out to be one of the best places to interact (aka hike and camp among) what I’m studying. I love hiking and camping, sometimes I wish I could drop out of school and live in the mountains. Then I remember I love people and would go crazy by myself.

Did you say ___?

2006-03-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

My favorite dad (and yes I only have one, but he's still my favorite) has this semi bad tendency to say, “Did you say ____?” when he doesn’t hear something correctly. As you can imagine, he usually gets it wrong and has a comical replacement to what was actually said. “I had a wonderful day” could be “A wild turkey attacked me”…okay maybe it’s not that bad. Either way, laughter generally accompanies the person’s clarification.
This was all fun and good until I learned he had passed this great trait onto me. It never really dawned on me until I came here. Now all I can say is, “Thanks a lot Dad.” So here’s one of my shining moments:
(A little background, the day before this happened my roommate cut my hair and a lot of people were commenting on it.) Anyways, I was trying to find a swimsuit at the local mall and a shopkeeper came up and said something. I had no idea what came out of his mouth, convinced he wasn’t speaking English. He repeated it, and again no idea. A third time he repeated this blob he called a sentence. Then silly me said, (completely convinced this is what he said all three times…) “Did you just ask me if I got a haircut?!?” Now why I didn’t just pull out all my smooth moves and just pretend I was deaf I’m not sure. He reassured me that’s not what he said by the confused look on his face and then he said, “ummm, are you alright? If you need anything just give a holler.” Yea, I’m alright, I just have a father who passed down a very disadvantageous trait.

Potluck

2006-03-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

When I think potluck I think lots of casserole dishes with unknown ingredients, bags of chips, lots of people you don’t know, lots of dessert, and that sort of thing. But now it has much better connotations for me.
It started with my mom sending me a couple of recipes and deciding corn chowder sounded amazing. My house invited a couple of people over and everyone ended up cooking a random dish and sharing it. It was soooo fantastic. I felt part of a mixed, diverse family coming together to share a meal over laughter and fun. It’s fun how food can bring people together for an evening of joy. And yes for those wondering, I conquered the corn chowder and am now an expert cook.

Communities (warning, this is a small book of a blog)

2006-03-05T23:40:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of weeks I’ve had the chance, or in fact no choice, to observe and analyze various diverse communities. As being the outsider or stranger to most I have reflected a great deal on what makes up communities and what different kinds appear to outsiders. Couple of thoughts:
The Link (the college ministry I go to back in Madison) is always talking about the importance of building a community to reach a community, and I have to admit, it is meaning a lot more to me now than when I was back home. I think it takes being outside of a community, being the one desperately wanting in on the community, to understand what it takes to build a community. Let me explain my random thoughts. For instance I’ve gone to three different churches since being here. The first, which I’ve described in detail in an earlier blog, was one of the best examples of a community reaching a community I’ve ever seen. The next week I went to a polar opposite, a church where not a single person introduced themselves to me and everyone seemed a very “church” happy. A couple of key differences I noticed:
1. Community is only built on honesty which means being totally okay with the idea of being broken, weak, tired, beaten in front of your community. In the first church, struggles were not hidden in shame, but brought forth and the person was treasured regardless.
2. Realising every person in the community has a gift or purpose that needs to be fully embraced and encouraged. For example, in the first church (I wish they had a name…) they found out I liked kids and immediately put me with kids and seriously encouraged my every move. Some people’s compliments are obviously shallow, but these compliments and even challenges they gave me were given in ultimate genuine love.
3. Love. No matter how clique it sounds and how many times we’ve heard it, I’m realizing this is what draws me to people. If they selflessly love every person they come in contact with, they have a magnet around them. People flock to be loved. I’m experiencing it. I met Jackie climbing and ever since I have felt treasured by her. She invites me to events, gives rides, encourages me, asks questions, answers honestly, opens up her home, opens her life story to me, introduces me to her friends, comes to where I’m at, and gives great hugs. I’ve watched her with other people and it’s the same way, she loves not with an agenda or selfish motive, but because she wants to be more like Jesus. It’s incredible. Again with the first church, I saw love everywhere I turned and that’s why I want to go back so badly. I’m finding that love is the glue to a community, and if the foundation is anything different, I am not drawn to going back.

Cape Townian Slang

2006-03-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

A couple of words that I had no idea what they were talking about at first...

"torch"= flashlight (i have to give it to them, torch is WAY cooler)
"robots"= traffic lights (again much more creative)
"lift"= ride or elevator (this one i caught onto pretty fast)
"dig"=student housing
"boot"=car trunk
"garage"= gas station or place to put car
"tap"= facet
"ablout"= makeshift toilet while camping
"cheers"=good bye/have a good day
"pleasure"=you're welcome
"NB"= some latin thing, but means noteworthy or important
"cool drink"=coke, soda
"just now" = not immediately and not necessarily anytime soon
"now, now"= sometime in the next couple of hours
"jam" = jello
"toilet"=bathroom
"brilliant"= wonderful job, great
"mission"= a painful task/duty (ex: cleaning my room is such a mission!)

im sure there are more...will update later

Random Shots #2

2006-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

A couple more photos for those of you visually oriented:

The one in our living room has some of my digmates plus a couple international students:
(L to R starting w/ far L) Dan, Alex, Allison, Matthias, Riedar, and Heather.

When I asked my digmate Miki if she cut hair, she said no, but always had wanted to. She seems very much like a person that would be good at it so I let her hack off my hair how ever she wanted. this is the result.

Class continues...

2006-03-02T07:01:00.000-08:00

Classes are going much better, mostly due to the fact I'm making friends. My vertebrate zoology lab was key this week, it was much more group oriented so I met a couple of cool people while studying physiology of vertebrates. It was entertaining to say the least.
Today my microbiology lab was long, but dorkily enough I admit I liked it. Further along the road of being a nerd, can I just say I'm really excited to see what bacteria grows in the culture from the swabbing of my nose?
Plus, I have seen the people I went hiking with on campus and I get more than a little excited. Maybe it's sad and lame, but I couldn't stop smiling because I actually ran into people I knew in the science buildings! That's a big step for me. :)
It is probably around 70 here now, and people are wearing winter coats and sweaters. I favorite was when I saw a girl wearing Uggs, sad they followed me all the way to South Africa. A girl asked me if I was cold in a skirt and I laughed and said where I was from people would be lying out in the sun in swimsuits if it was this warm.

Blazing the trail

2006-03-02T06:41:00.001-08:00

One of the days right before school started a bunch of us hiked up behind the university. We decided to blaze our own trail (don't worry we were confident of how to get back) up this ravine right next to Devil's Lake. It was sooo awesome, lots of large rocks to scramble up. It was a gorgeous view of the city and ocean the whole time, but when we finally reached the top it was amazing. My camera ran out of batteries at the top, so you'll have to imagine it. We could see the two sides of town and the ocean on either side of us. The weather wasn't too windy, and we were climbing in the shade most of the time so I didn't get sunburned anymore (anytime we went in the sun I put on a hat so my forehead wouldn't get burned again). I went with a bunch of international students: Allison, Dan, Jonathan, Colin, and Lindsey. A party and a half for sure. The way down my shins were getting mauled by the spiky bushes that were overgrowing the path, so I ended up putting on the pant legs to my shorts. Sweating more was better than adding to my scratches and cuts on my legs. The trail disappeared a couple of times on the way down, added to the adventure, but eventually we got down in one piece.

CAPTIONS for the PICTURES:
The city view is about 1/4 of the way up the mountain and is part of Cape Town.
The people referring to the map from L to R are Allison, Dan, and Lindsey.
The group shot is (L to R) Allison, Lindsey, Dan, Jonathan, and Colin (Jonathan lives in the cottage attached to my house).
The other view shot is while we are climbing up the ravine looking back to where we started.

Simon's Town

2006-03-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Two of my friends, Colin and Lindsey, joined me on a weekend adventure to a nearby town, Simon's Town. We jumped on the train not knowing exactly our plans, but that was 1/2 the joy of it. We stayed at a backpackers hostel after having a picnic on the beach (where we saw dolphins swimming) while watching the sunset. The next morning we got an early start hiking up a nearby mountain. The trail wasn't all that clear, but we had fun scrambling up the occasional boulder. One part was incredibly windy, it made my eyes water (as you can see in one of the pictures). Colin was scared and plopped himself down and sat until the wind calmed down a little. After a full day of exploring and hiking we went back down to a secluded beach where penguins were chilling. There we relaxed, read, and searched for interesting shells and artifacts. Since there was a strike with the trains, we had to navigate our way back with mini buses (that is an adventure in itself, Colin ended up being smashed between two larger woman and had back cramps the rest of the day as a result).

Cape Penisula

2006-03-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from forever ago, when the study abroad orientation people took us on a tour of the Cape Penisula. It was pretty spectacular, with lots of great views as you can see. It was also supppper windy (hence the picture of me desperately trying to hold my skirt down). The penguins were all at this one beach just chilling. Later on that week I went back with some friends and chilled at a beach further down, more secluded and there were more penguins there swimming right next to the rocks we were playing on. We also saw baboons and ostrieches that day. In one of the pictures my friends Megan and Lindsey are on either side of me.

class thoughts

2006-03-01T04:07:00.000-08:00

It some ways it has been a rough transition going from no class to class from 8-5 daily. One particular day I got semi down when I realized I had said about 5-10 sentences from waking up to coming home after class at 5. My third year course is pretty uninviting and I don’t feel like I belong. Hopefully that will get better—but it seems most people know each other and are willing to leave it that way. My other two science classes I’ve started meshing with lab partners/classmates which has been fun. For my microbiology I even got to wear a sweet white labcoat so I looked like a mad-scientist. Secretly I loved it. (actually written Feb. 27 but couldn't put it on til now...)

climbing

2006-03-01T04:05:00.000-08:00

You know those days where you feel like you literally breathe in life, joy, and contentment? Today was one of those days, or more specifically this afternoon was one of those times. Through a random connection through my friend Lindsey, we went rock climbing with seven South Africans, four which know good routes and climbs all around Cape Town and have all the equipment. I was sooo excited to get back on the rock, and learn from people better than me. We hiked up a short uphill to Lakeside Pinnicle. A couple of people sport led three climbs and then I followed behind (hopefully I’ll lead the next time we go out). They weren’t very long, but it was a blast. The people I was climbing with were so friendly, encouraging, and interesting. It was a gorgeous cloudy day with little wind for once. We spent the afternoon on the rocks, I’m out of climbing shape but I’m going bouldering with one of the girls this week and hopefully I’ll start bouldering during my lunch hour. I was so utterly excited, I could stop smiling. Anyway, afterwards some of us went to an outdoor concert at Kirstenbosch (the botanical garden nearby). It was beautiful with the mountains in the horizon. After the concert I caught a ride with two of the guys we climbed with to a church where they all go, a Methodist one about a 5 minute drive from me. It was different than my last church experience, with all white, middle-class/upper-class attendees and mostly students. I met a lot of cool people that were very inviting and got me hooked up with future climbing trips/kloofing (water hiking)/Bible studies etc. I’m excited for it all. I’m finally getting a network of friends from here who know the place and aren’t from America! It’s pretty exciting.

random shots

2006-02-23T23:26:00.000-08:00

These are all random pictures. The first is my roomate Miki with a watermelon (she looooves fruit) All the people in the background are also my digmates. The middle two pictures are from downtown, the second being of a community on the outskirts that the city is putting a great deal of money in to revamp. Lastly is our living room where we often gather to catch up on the day.

UCT

2006-02-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

This is my university I hike up to every day. Isn't it beautiful? All the buildings are semi alike, with green vines crawling up the sides and around the windows. I think the mountain behind in the picture is Devil's Peak, but I can't remember for sure. The last picture is a view from the university, looking over the city.

the "dig"

2006-02-23T23:08:00.000-08:00

This is my house! The small part connected to the large house is the cottage, where four people live. Our courtyard is relatively big, a great place to stretch after a run so we've found. You can't really tell in the pictures, but the tree out front is a pomegranate tree and we have an avocado tree in the back.

room views

2006-02-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

These are a couple views from my room, one window
picture couldn't upload, but this while give you an idea of what I wake up seeing.

Dig mates

2006-02-23T03:06:00.000-08:00

My housemates are simply fantastic. I couldn’t ask for more fun, easy going, caring people. Take last night for example. The power was out yet again, and we decided to order pizza. Everyone from the house and cottage (a small house attached to the house) was home and in the living room chilling around a headlight. We made shadow puppets, ate pizza and caught up with each other. It is so fun to have a community that I love right where I’m living. In the house there is Reider (from Norway), Meghan (Indiana), Miki (Chicago), Heather (Canada), Matthias (Germany), and myself. In the cottage there is Hannah (California), Jonathan (Chicago), Alex (Germany), and Allison (Massachusetts). I could write a long time about them all and who they all are but will try hard to summarize them a little. Reidar one of the runners in the house tells great stories and always starts by laughing hard, so you know it will be funny. Meghan is the house mom, looking out for everyone and gives great hugs. She has a great laugh that is heard often, and loves to bake bread. Miki is an amazing, creative cook using tons of vegetables and fruit, loves gardening (planted a garden out back), and also has a beautiful laugh. Heather is a little more quiet than some of us, but has a wonderful sense of humor and watches out for everyone. Matthias is the social butteryfly, always knowing the hip places to be and the fashionable clothes to wear. He is hilarious and can always make the house laugh. Hannah another runner, as well as Miki, is a great planner and listener. She always checks up on people seeing how they are doing, and tries to get everyone feeling welcomed. Jonathan is a great people person, willing to try new things, and adds comedy to our bunch. Alex makes us laugh more often than not. He uses very proper English and his whole nature is relatively proper, but often says the funniest things. Tonight he had his first s’more and was very delighted with it. Allison is often off doing her own thing, but is extremely easy to talk to when she’s around. She joined the photo group that I’m thinking of joining as well. That’s the gang, I didn’t give them justice—they’re a splendid, diverse group of people. oh and dig is what they call a house full of students.

Freshman Take Two

2006-02-23T03:01:00.000-08:00

I thought I was done being a freshman for good. I found out today that’s not the case. Don’t get me wrong, I loved freshman year, but I could live without looking bewildered and lost. I could live without having to ask random people (multiple people, multiple times) where buildings are and then getting blank stares. I could live without walking up and down staircase after staircase trying to get my classes approved. I could live without getting on the wrong bus, going to the wrong location, and arriving to class at the wrong time. Today kept all my prideful thoughts that I was doing well, looking as if I fit in with the second and third year students, to a halt. A screaming halt. I had an afternoon lab and I left an hour early to make sure I got there on time. Turns out I went to the wrong campus (it was on a separate campus from the main one), so I stayed cool and took a bus back. Then asked around forever trying to find someone who knew where the anatomy building was. By this point my lab was starting. Long story short, I took another bus which took me to the right campus. Then I went in the wrong building, wrong floor. Fixed that and got to the 3 hour lab 45 min. late. You could say I was a bit distraught and discouraged. Fortunately my prof. is amazing and played it cool. She got me situated and taken care of. On the positive side of things it was a conversation starter and I ended up meeting two very sweet girls in my class who tried to make me feel better about being directionally challenged. Plus I have an awesome group of housemates that can make my day any day who quickly made me feel better when I got home. Double bonus was added when I got to run with my friend Lindsey. So maybe being a freshman isn’t so bad. I’m learning to be okay with being the person who turns around in the hall, turns back, and finally decides what direction to go and pretend they’re confident. I’m learning to shrug off the times I could get angry or discouraged when I feel like the place I’m trying to find is running away from me as fast as places can run. I’m learning that I need to laugh when I feel lost, someone will find me eventually. Today my friend and housemate Meghan said the getting lost experience would make me grow. I said I wish my height reflected all the growing I’m doing.

packing

2006-02-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

Things I wish I had brought:
-a candle (the electricity has gone out 5 times in the last two days for long periods of time)
-sunscreen (I’ve gotten some pretty sweet patterns burned on my skin…my favorite was when I had a bag slung diagonally across my chest that turned into a white line)
-recipes (my housemates are slowly teaching me how to cook, but my menu is pretty constant)
-an escalator (the short way to campus has 300 plus stairs, no joke)
-internet (I’m not sure how I’d pack that one but the luxury of easy access in Madison was wonderful)
-my bike (but hopefully I’ll be getting one soon)
-more pictures (my walls are blank, and I miss seeing all your beautiful faces)
-my orange Nalgene (they don’t have water fountains around and I run out of water really fast)
-a piano

Things I’m glad I left behind:
-Midwest winter (I thought it was the summer Olympics, and keep forgetting it’s February)
-my winter jacket
-biking in the frigid air
--I’m sensing a pattern

Things I’m sooo glad to have remembered:
-my Chacos (don’t remember life before them)
-slackline (automatic friends I’m telling you)
-sunglasses
-a couple of pictures
-music
-running shoes
-tea
-laptop
-camera
-skirts (shorts aren’t very popular here)

Penisula Tour

2006-02-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

This week I went on a tour of the peninsula, going on a bus for most of it with ½ the international students. The scenery was absolutely amazing, lots of mountains, ocean views, animals and such. We saw wild ostriches, a pack of baboons, a mass of penguins, a dassie (a furry animal in rocks), and lots of different birds. It was weird to look up the field and see a collection of ostriches chilling out.
We hiked up a hill/mountainish thing around Cape of Hope and saw where I think the two oceans meet, the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. I got to play on the rocks of Cape of Hope for awhile, and saw a bunch of tiny jellyfish and washed up kelp.
One of the stops was at this waterfront restaurant, where we were all served delicious fish, and had a perfect view of a sandy beach on the Atlantic. Another stop was where penguins were being conserved, so there were over 3,000 penguins in one area, a sight to see for sure.

Language

2006-02-15T11:12:00.001-08:00

I’ve never been so quite aware of the diverse languages in the world. I know I sound quite ignorant, but as I’m finding out in truth I often am indeed very ignorant. As I was eating with Charlene and Jerome’s extended family and friends, we started discussing language. One of the ladies was from Lesotho (which by the way took me far too long to pronounce) and was Zulu, speaking one tribal language and English. Another lady was from Malawi (I think) and spoke a different language. Someone spoke Xhosa (which is such a sweet language to listen to), all spoke English, and most spoke Afrikaans. When I say everyone speaks English, that is to say many don’t like speaking it, and often choose not to. Furthermore just because they speak it doesn’t mean I’ll understand it. I can’t tell you how many times I had to ask people to repeat, slow down, or spell out names and phrases. I feel quite stupid at times but I’m getting pretty good at laughing at myself and trying to learn the best I can. Today while helping out in Sunday School, two of the boys spoke Xhosa and I asked them to help me learn a little vocabulary. It is fun to try to get into their world, and not always force them to be uncomfortable with my language. One of the older fathers at the church today offered to teach me some Afrikaans and asked me to help with his English. I can say right now he gets the raw end of the deal. He speaks English very well and I struggle to say hello in Afrikaans. It’s so fun to see so many languages come together, representing a vast amount of cultures and backgrounds.

Robben Island

2006-02-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Along with a couple of other international students I took a tour of Robben Island, and it was a huge history lesson (though a very recent history) and very interesting. Prisoners of political “crimes” were kept there for many years at a time. In fact our tour guide was an ex-prisoner, giving us first hand descriptions of things that went on there. It was incredible to see him almost relive the horrible experience again. He said he lived on the island still (they have a tiny community) because he couldn’t get a job to make more money to live on Cape Town. But it was very cool to see how he was not bitter, and said the two things that kept him going was the community of men in the prison with him and his faith and hope in Jesus Christ. He said he took the job to tell people about the peace and joy you can find in following Jesus. It was encouraging and challenging a the same time to see someone sacrifice so much yet has a joyful heart.
In one part of the tour we went into the solitary cells, where men would be excluded to their cell, with little to no interaction with other prisoners. Each cell had a picture of an ex-prisoner, and snip-its of their experience or a letter or artifact that was significant in their stay. It was very moving, reading about all the tragedies these men went through for their freedom.

lunch

2006-02-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

It kinda felt like the movie “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding”. Family and friends, all bustling about speaking at 100 words per minute. Jerome and Charlene had invited me over for lunch, and there were many people for lunch. A couple of people live with them in their house, and most of the extended family was there. I was treated like royalty, but once Jerome said guests are often asked to wash the dishes in their culture, and I wasn’t quite sure if he was joking. Either way I washed the some of the dishes.
I also got to help Charlene’s brother cut watermelon and it was so fun to listen to his stories and wisdom. Sometimes I was intimidated by my lack of understanding of their accents, but I persevered. At times the whole gang would switch to Africans, leaving me to guess and infer what they were talking about, laughing at, or arguing about. Sometimes I didn’t even notice when they switched back to English.
I really enjoyed trying to get to know the kids. Some of them stared at me like I was an alien, but most likely they have never seen a white person, and I’m very white. I got most of them at least smiling at me, and one of the little boys even started having conversations with me, which I was very excited about.
It was very fun to watch the family interact, but it also made me miss my family. I was a treasured guest and very included, but it wasn’t my family and I won’t see my family for awhile. It is cool though to see the common themes between families of such different backgrounds.
After lunch everyone stayed and talked for a long time. Time moves much slower here, and is not as structured as I’m used to. Some of us went on a walk through the township. One side of the township is very run down and extremely poor. Lots of children live on the streets and can’t attend school (you have to pay around $100-150 for the school year, but often families have to choose between school and food, and food wins hands down). The other side is still poor, yet more houses instead of shacks and they have running water in the buildings. It is absolutely incredible to meet these people. In relation to most Americans, they are poor, yet they have much, much better attitudes than the rest of us. They were generous, friendly, and caring. I got to meet some of the neighbors, all who welcomed me and wished me a wonderful day and semester.
It was hard for me to see the conditions so many children live in. It is hard for me to imagine children don’t have the chance to go to school or to have simple toys to play with. Two boys I saw were playing with a kite creatively made out of a scrap piece of wood, garbage bag, rags, and string. The church works a lot with the surrounding youth, and three times a week make meals for the community, which hopefully I can help out with. I am still trying to sort through my emotions of the day, seeing this poverty while at the same time seeing individuals with great talent, big hearts, and contentment and not just poor people. I’m not even entirely sure all my feelings, or even what I should do about them, but I have time to let things sink in.
The day skipped away from me, and they did not take me home until 5:00, and the whole time family and friends stayed, talking and laughing joyously. It was a pleasure to be apart of it, and I felt like I was experiencing South Africa and not just an international student exploring a new place with other international students.

Church

2006-02-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

Today I visited Charlene and Jerome’s church. They are one of the couples I met in Minneapolis while they were visiting the states. It was probably the coolest experience I’ve had here, and certainly the most cultural. It was in a coloured community, meaning everyone was of mixed race, and I was the only white at the service. I’ve never been the minority to that degree, it was a new experience to say the least. Most of them grew up in the near by townships and had lived there their whole lives. The people were some of the most genuine and compassionate people I’ve ever met. The praise and worship was very fun, lots of energy and it did not appear fake or rehearsed. During the greeting time it was so fun to watch them greet one another. The interactions were so full of love and life, and you could tell they cared genuinely for each other. Every single person (30-40 people) came and greeted me, mostly with hugs and words of welcome. I felt entirely accepted and treasured in their tight knit community. Before the service Charlene asked if I wanted to help with Sunday School, and I agreed. So after greeting everyone, I went out back to a very small, unlit room with another lady (who I can’t pronounce her name, go figure). There were eight children, ranging from 4-13. I was thinking I was just going to help out, smile, that sort of thing. However, when I sat down and told the lady I did some children ministry stuff back home, she said I should do what I do for the kids right then and there. I was a bit shocked—and very unprepared. I tried to say she should just do it and I’ll help out but she insisted. I convinced her at least to tell the story, then I got them all up and moving with stretches and a game. Luckily they had paper and a couple of crayons so then they colored. She was soooo supportive of everything I did, I felt as if I could do no wrong to anybody at the church. They all treated me as a guest of honor, giving me compliments, inviting me over to their houses, and hugging me as if I was a treasured relative. It was amazing. One father, of two little boys, insisted they have me over to lunch soon so they can all get to know me, and I could teach them and they could teach me, about life/culture/language/etc. I’ve never been so welcomed into a group like that. It left me speechless (or maybe the lack of speech was the fact I could only say ½ of their names). After church I went to Jerome and Charlene’s house. That is another story for another blog.

ass u me

2006-02-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

I’m finding I assume a lot and you know what they say about assuming things. For one thing I assume that if a person speaks English we will understand each other. I’m finding out quickly that it is often untrue. I swear they are speaking a different language, but it is just different accents or different slang. I feel stupid asking someone to repeat themselves two, three or even four times. I assume everyone drives on the same side of the road as in the U.S.. But as I’m trying to cross the crazy streets here, I’m learning that it is just not correct. I have to look in about 80 different directions (so I exaggerate a little) before trying to race across the street, which reminds me of another assumption. I assume that pedestrians are the king of the world, as it is in Madison. Hopefully I’ll learn that it is not like that here, preferably before I get squished like a piece of gum under a foot. I assume that the drivers sit on the same side of the car, but I keep seeing very inattentive, unobservant people sitting in what I think is the drivers seat. Then it dawns on me that the driver is the other person. Silly me. In fact when I was getting a ride with someone, they said, “ooh yes, you’re an American” when I tried to get in on their drivers’ side. I assume that I’ll rarely be a minority, but I find myself in stores or streets as the only Caucasian. It is a new experience for me, and I would say a good thing. Right now I love the fact that many of my assumptions are being proven incorrect, and I’m on my way to seeing or perceiving a clearer picture of my surroundings.

slacklining

2006-02-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Those of you that have been around me much this summer or fall, you’ve heard me talk about slacklining and maybe even was forced to try it. I often used it to make friends, and brought it here with the same intentions, and I’ll have to know in both cases it has worked immensely well. In fact right now, I set it up over our pool and my housemates got addicted to it. I feel in the pool multiple times, but it felt very refreshing. I set up it the other night at a braai (US’s bar-b-que is the equivalent) and instantly made multiple friends. Now they might be conditional friends based on whether or not I have my slackline up and running, but regardless I’m excited for friends at this point. This is my promo—buy a slackline and make friends…guaranteed.

Mini Buses

2006-02-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

I feel that the craziest, most fun culture thing I’ve experienced here is the mini buses. I feel like entire books could be written on the dynamics of mini buses but I’ll sum up them in a paragraph or two. Physical description: mini vans, or Volkswagen type thing—all white. My first encounter was on a run down Main Rd.; at least 4 different types I was honked or yelled at. At first I just thought they were men rudely commenting on my drop dead gorgeous looks. I was semi disappointed that on mini buses there is one driver and one guy that is constantly yelling at pedestrians, trying to give them a ride to wherever they are going. I haven’t really understood what they are saying more than five times. When you actually do want a ride, you are surprised by what cars pull over, it looks like they are jammed packed. They are never full enough, as my first time on one they stacked stranger on stranger, I had one guy semi standing right in front of my face and three people crunched on the bench. No one seems to mind, but I could help but laugh out loud a couple of times. The drivers are the definition of crazy, weaving in and out of other vehicles and running up to the curb picking up people. At the main station in the downtown there is a gathering of all the buses leaving, all the people yelling for you to ride with them, and all the passengers choosing out the least rusty and most reliable ride home. Very chaotic, but it gives me a sense of excitement of a different way of living, just the thing I came here for in the first place.

Kischenbush

2006-02-04T00:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday one of my housemates, Heather, and I walked to Kischenbush Gardens. They were amazing. Table Mountain was in the background, and there were tons of crazy plants, mostly trees/ferns/palm trees. I never knew there were so many palm trees. There was even a natural spring we got to fill up our water bottles with. The walk there was a little longer than expected--about an hour and a half. It was well worth it though.
on the way we saw these two boys that were going to a private school, so they were wearing the coolest, cutest uniforms ever. very fashionable. tall socks, hats, ties. pretty steller.

email

2006-02-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

This is the same thing as the email i sent out, but i thought i'd post it here too:

So after 18+ hours in the plane, countless hours waiting for planes im here. so some highlights. it is not easy getting to internet, but i have 22 min. left. we'll see how far i get. So plane rides went relatively fast. The second one I sat next to a very friendly, pleasant gal a little older than myself originally from S. Africa, but is living in London. We had great conversations that helped time fly by. It was also enjoyable to watch the scenery underneath us (aka the Alps, the Mediterrean Sea etc.) We were late in arriving so we didn't get into Jo'burg until midnight. My hotel for the night was a lot farther away than anticipated, and it took a 45 min. taxi ride or so to get there (which i must say was not cheap). We went to the wrong hotel at first (note it wasn't my fault :)) so by the time I was where i needed to be, it was near one, their time and God knows what our time. My body was not responding well, but after a shower and a short night, I got on the plane to Cape Town. Luckily I slept most of the way, but got to see beautiful airviews of Cape Town. It is gorgeous. I was met by Chanelle, the lady I met in the cities, and was soooo excited to see a familiar face. She gave me a giant hug that felt incrediable. She pointed me to teh university officials/students meeting me. Then I, along with two other Madison folk and a girl from Norway, jumped on the sweetest bus ever. It is called the Boogie Bus, and has cds taped to teh ceiling, lights all over, records on the wall, painted, taped, hilarious. I took pictures and as soon as i get my internet figured out, I'll post them. We went to this one place, which he thought was where he should drop me off, long story short I had to go in and find the confused landowner--it was the wrong place. I headed up in the right place and it is sooo AMAZINg. I have a single room upstairs that overlooks our courtyard (which has a pomegranate tree in it). We have a pool on the side, with a bar-b-que grill by it. I met my very fun, very outgoing housemates (well I met all that were there, four other girls). They even had made us cookies as a welcome (they have been here for a month for a summer program of sorts). A girl that moved in about the same time adn I explored the campus (which is too beautiful for words). It is really hot here, quite a shock from Wisconsin. I just went grocery shopping, and a very cute family owned, cheap gorcery store. I'm enjoying myself, but lack sleep.

Connections

2006-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

I'm getting more and more ready for the upcoming trip, and things keep falling in place. For instance, a couple of weekends ago my seventh grade science teacher's friend who had been to Cape Town had friends visiting. Thinking it would be sweet to talk to someone from Cape Town, we went to the cities and met some of the most genuine, welcoming, friendly people I've met. They were incredible. Shelley, Mr. Long's friend, helped me with hotels/plane ticket information, as well as introducing me to a pastor and his wife from Cape Town, Charlene and Jerome. Charlene and Jerome were amazing, telling me a great deal about the town, and offering their house for me to crash at anytime. I also met an older lady who worked at an orphanage where all the kids are HIV positive. She was also very nice, offering me to come to her and her husband's house whenever I needed a family away from home. Hopefully I will be able to volunteer at the orphange, Beautiful Gate (named after a reference in Acts). AHHHHHH, it was just so cool to make connections with people before I even get on the plane!! I'm so excited for the trip, a little less excited about the whole traveling by myself for about 24 hours. Oh well, I'll try to make friends on the plane or something.

Madison

2005-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

The end of the semeter in Madison is coming quick (right now I'm wishing the time away until Christmas). I can't believe I will be moving back to Eau Claire next week until I go to Africa in February. If you told me I was going to Africa this summer I wouldn't have believed you, it's crazy how fast things have been worked out. Forms and applications have been a pain, but soon they will all be completed and sent. I'm excited to see where I end up living, as the pictures of the international housing there looked pretty appealing.
It is weird for me to talk about next semester with people. They ask what classes I am taking and I non-chantly tell them I'm going to Africa. Then I laugh, it seems so unreal. I'm going to be living across the ocean where there is no one I know. I'm pretty excited, but reality is hitting and I'm getting a little nervous. It'll be good. splendid in fact.