Last weekend! Finally! All caught up! Friday night, Laura got back into town and her and Wellyna and I went to Boudina’s for dinner. Another American drove us out to her farm. He is here doing a mission service trip and working at a Catholic school, while living in the monastery it is connected to. There are many houses on the farm. Boudina’s husband, Cameron, has his mom living on the farm in one of the houses and her house is where we had dinner. We had venison with sweet potatoes, rice, and other veggies with chocolate mousse for dessert! It was a very tasty meal! We didn’t stay too late because we had to get up early the next day.

Saturday morning we left for Addo! We were going to spend the night there Friday night, but it was too expensive, so we just decided to go for the day. We were also going to have a picnic, but it was raining all day, so we went to the restaurant in the park instead of taking food to picnic with. The first hour or so in the park we didn’t see much and we were afraid that the animals were hiding away from the rain. However, we did end up seeing animals albeit slowly at first, but then it snow balled into us seeing many, many elephants by the end of the day! We saw well over 100 elephants by the end of the day! We also saw water buffalo, warthogs (to which we all exclaimed Pumba!), black-backed jackals, an owl, many various types of birds, zebra, kudu, and another antelope like animal. This was the first time we’ve seen: elephants, jackals, warthogs, and kudu! The antlers on the kudu are the curly ones and they are as massive and beautiful in real life as they are in pictures. 

We spent a few hours driving around looking and then decided to make our way up to the cafe for lunch and shopping at the gift shop. After lunch while driving around is when all the excitement started. We stopped at one point to watch a group of elephants who were walking around right near the road. As we sat there waiting, one of them started walked directly towards us! Dr. Baxen, who was driving, started freaking out and Laura got it all on tape! She didn’t know if she should back up or just hold her ground and not move. We eventually convinced her to not move the car any and just stay where we were. I should mention that we are required to stay in our cars at all times. We can even get in trouble for leaning out of the windows (but we did that anyway). The elephant was just walking towards us to get to a different patch of grass and we really didn’t have anything to be frightened about. Later in the drive we stopped again for another group of elephants who were slowly crossing the road. We stopped again to watch them and noticed a large group of variously sized elephants. Amongst them was a tiny baby elephant! There were two adolescents and an adult protecting the baby by surrounding him (we only know it was a ‘he’ because he had just finished peeing). There were many cars in this area while this was happening and we could tell the elephants were agitated by all the cars. At this point we wanted to back up to give them space, but we looked behind us and there was another (quite large) elephant directly behind us too! We were trapped in between a mom and her kids and another elephant. This was a little scary, but it was still great to see the elephants so up close. I got many pictures of that baby with his mom. Hiding under his mom and taking advantage of this location to sneak a snack. Overall it was a super fun day and it was great to finally see some elephants! 

We decided to go to the monastery for church Sunday morning to see what it was like. We asked Dr. Baxen if she wanted to go also, since that was our only way to get there, so we were happy that she wanted to go. The monks are Catholic, so it was a proper Catholic service with incense and all. There were only 4 other people there besides us, a few monks, and Cameron (who drove us to Boudina’s Friday night). It was a very small service and when it came time for communion, we each gave the bread and wine and said the words to the person next to us before handing them the items to do it for the next person. It was very interesting to do it that way and the first time I’d seen that done. 

Over all I’ve had a pretty splendid time while being here even if I haven’t been keeping you all updated on what I’ve been up to. I have received many loved filled packages these last couple weeks and those have really been keeping me going. Thank you to those of you who have mailed me packages and letters! I am looking forward to Molly’s arrival in just 26 days! That leaves me less than a month to make it look like I haven’t been pigging out on Easter chocolate for the last three weeks ;) 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this 6,000 word novel of updates and have a great day!
Cheers!
-Anna

Every year the grade 12s (otherwise known as matrics, because they matriculate not graduate) get to dress up in their best attire, bring a date, and dance the night away. Basically, it is like our prom. However, the grade 11s arranged everything and acted as hostesses for the evening. The theme for this year was Moroccan! Everything was very colorful, there were belly dancers, the food was Moroccan themed, there was even a photo area set up in the foyer with a red tent filled with a couch, pillows, fruit, and candles! Before the dance actually started there was a display walk set up leading into the school from the area where the girls would be dropped off. There were big spotlights and people lined both sides of a path. As the girls arrived, everyone got to see their dresses (and their dates!) and they got applause as they headed into the building. I don’t have any pictures from the night because it was hard to take pictures while they were walking, but I can tell you that the dresses were absolutely beautiful, the heels were high, and the ladies looked fabulous! Once the dance started, the doors were locked and everyone who was there had to be there until 11 pm when the dance ended. The staff was allowed to leave though, so Wellyna and I left around 10:30. This all happened Saturday evening, but earlier that day we went to the market and watched hockey games here at the school. It was a full day, but very, very fun. 

I just recently ran across another girls blog who is staying here in South Africa. She is one of the other COST students who was placed in Port Elizabeth and actually goes to school with Wellyna. She just left to go home Sunday, but she recently posted a list of colloquialisms comparing South African language to American language. I copied and pasted it below. A big thank you to Katharine for compiling all of these words!


CLOTHING:
tennis shoes / sneakers = techies (technical trainers)
swim suit = costume

SCHOOL NECESSITIES:
students = learners
whiteout = Tippex
eraser = rubber
schedule = timetable
agenda = diary
grading = marking
matric = senior
matriculation = graduation

FOOD:
chicken sandwich = chicken burger
beef jerky = biltong (except biltong is dried raw instead of cooked. Still delicious!)
popsicle = ice lolly
chips = crisps
french fries = chips
candy = sweets
cookout / barbeque = braai

OUT AND ABOUT:
pharmacist = chemist
line = queue
traffic light = robot

HANDY PHRASES:
Farting = Shooting a bunny
Right away = Now now
Within the hour = Just now
Eventually = Now 
Howzit? = How are you doing?
When speaking, South Africans sometimes drop the article “the”.  For example, you would say, “He is in hospital” or "I go to University".

One more post to go before being caught up! 
Cheers!
-Anna

Thursday we got up early for…….Table Mountain! Kyle didn’t have his boating class that day, so he came with us and drove us to the base. We got there really early so we weren’t hiking in the heat of the day. There is one main entrance area where the cable car goes up and there are two roads that lead to it, one from each side. We had a route planned out that we wanted to hike up, but we came up the road that was on the other side of the entrance area. So our hike started by walking up to the very base of the mountain, then across the mountain to the beginning of our planned ascent trail. The first part of the hike up to the base was our first indication of how difficult the hike was going to be. It wasn’t an inclined path, it was straight up giant stairs! It was a nice break to walk across the base once we got up there, but it was still not a piece of cake. As we walked across Laura was marveling at the various types of rocks and how they had formed. As a geologist, she is very interested in how the mountain was created, but it didn’t take her long to figure it out. Turns out the whole of Cape Town was underwater at one point and the mountains and hills are remnants of sediment that settled in the water. The layers of various types of rocks are clearly visible as you hike up the mountain. The top of Table Mountain itself is made of quartz which is why it is so flat. The layers of sediment that were on top of it gradually wore off due to erosion. Quartz, however, is hard enough that it didn’t erode, so everything eroded around it, leaving the nice flat top. (Laura- feel free to correct me if I have made a mistake :) )

The trail that we decided to hike up the mountain was Platteklip Gorge. Directly translated it means “flat rock” or “flat stone.” Kyle is probably the most fit of all of us, but Laura and I both have experience hiking, Laura more so than me. Wellyna doesn’t have much experience hiking, so her gear was spread between the rest of our backpacks and she just focused on getting up the trail. If anyone reading this has ever hiked up the Monkey Face trail at Smith Rock, this trail was similar in difficulty, but at least twice as long. It just kept going up, and going up, and going up! The path was mostly big steps the whole way, so our upper legs got a really good workout. My goal was to not use my inhaler the whole way and I reached that goal! I had to really focus on my breathing at some points, but I didn’t need to use my inhaler at all! I was so happy about that because that means I have made progress in dealing with my asthma! 

One of the prettiest parts of the hike was seeing the natural spring water coming out of the rocks and trickling down or falling in droplets off ledges. With the sun going through them, the droplets looked like “little drops of heaven,” as Kyle called them. It was just too beautiful! We picked the perfect day to go up the mountain because it was the only day there wasn’t a blanket of clouds covering the top! Every other day “the blanket” was there and visibility from the top would have been nearly impossible. On Thursday it was so clear that we could see absolutely everything from the top! Once we were at the top, there were some nice lookout points, the gift shop, a food area, and then the cable car to get back down. This hike was definitely all about the journey and the destination was only just the icing on top. 

Because we were all really hungry from the hike, we decided to take the cable car down and head to Hout Bay for “some of the best fish and chips outside of the Wild Coast” according to Kyle. He lives in the Wild Coast area and says you can’t get any better fish and chips than when you’re there. He had been to this specific restaurant before, so we let him navigate there. Turns out he was on the wrong side of the peninsula, so we drove for 2 hours before we got there, but then he couldn’t find the restaurant! We did find fish and chips (it’s not too hard here to do that), but they were less than stellar. However, because we were all so starving because it took an extra 2 hours to get there, it was worth the wait :)

Friday morning we woke up early to walk to another museum. This one was called “The Slave Lodge” and was just that. It is now a museum about the history of slavery in South Africa, but it used to be a building where slaves were forcibly held and made to eat, sleep, and work. The conditions were horrendous. The British government at the time of enslavement (because they were the ones in charge then), told the settlers that they weren’t allowed to enslave the native Khoe (pronounced like coy) San people. So they didn’t. However, they spread disease through them and there are no Khoe San people left today because of that. The slaves were shipped down from western and eastern African countries. I’m not going to write anymore about it because it is depressing, but feel free to ask me if you want to know more information.

After the Slave Lodge, we went back to the V&A to board a ferry to go over to Robben Island. The island is home to the maximum security prison where many were held for their opposing political beliefs during apartheid.  The most internationally famous of those people was Nelson Mandela. He was held in the prison for 27 years, released in 1990. After his release he started his public political path and was then elected in the first democratic election in 1994. One of the other men detained at the prison was there only so he wouldn’t create public unrest. He had committed a crime at one point, but then upon his release, because the government didn’t want him in the public again, they created a special clause just for him saying that he could be detained without reason. As soon as he set foot on public soil, he was arrested and put into solitary confinement on Robben Island. It was a solemn story, but powerful as it made me realize the power the government can have and how grateful I am for our own government, despite some flaws it might have. After this solemn day, we went for our last dinner at a restaurant called Karibu. The word means “Welcome” in Swahili. Laura and I both got a dish from there that had ostrich capriccio on top! It was actually quite tasty! 

Our last morning, we spent a lazy morning at Vida e Caffe just talking. Kyle was supposed to pick us up late morning, but he didn’t end up showing up until 4 pm, so we had a nice long time to talk! Kyle then drove Wellyna and I back to Grahamstown and Laura started her adventure! You can read about her two week trip back to Grahamstown at her blog: rootedandbranching.blogspot.com.