South Africa Rowing Championships

This past weekend, I went to the South African Rowing Championships with the rowing team here at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University!  We left at 5am on Thursday and drove all day to the river, just north or Johannesburg.  It was a bright sunny day, but the smog and pollution in Joburg is so bad it basically looked overcast in the city.  Thank God we rowed just north of the city, so the pollution wasnt as bad!  When we arrived, we headed straight to the river for a short rowing session.  The part of the river that contains the racing course (2k in distance since it is sprint season here) has actually been dammed off, so the water is super calm but also super stagnant since there is little to no current flowing through it.  As a result of this, there was a think, green algae in the water and when we rowed we got covered in it!  Overall though, the river was really nice as well as the course, so the algae didnt bug me much.  After a short water session on Thursday, we headed for Spar (the grocery store) to pick up food for a Braii, and then headed to our backpackers.  The traffic in Joburg that it took us nearly an hour to make it 12k's to our backpacker!  Thursday night, we spent time just relaxing, enjoying the Braii food and I spent time getting to know the other members of the crew.
On Friday, while waiting for the trailer and the rest of the crew to arrive at the river, we went our for breakfast and to a shopping center to kill time.  Finally, after traveling all night, the rest of the crew arrived with our boats at about noon.  We spent the afternoon going out on the water and putting the riggers on the boats. (For those of you who are non-rowers, the riggers are the metal "V" shaped pieces that hold the oars onto the boat.)  Then, that night, we had another Braii and went to bed early in preparation of the races the next day.
Saturday morning, we left for the river at 4:30 (because of the horrible traffic) and arrived in time to get one of the first boats on the water for an 8am race.  My first race was at 12:15, and it was a doubles race (meaning two people in the boat, each sculling, meaning we each had two oars instead of one) with another girl on the team, Angie.  For never being in a boat together and hardly knowing each other, we rowed really well together!  We were both about the same height as well, so that was helpful.  We had kind of a sloppy start, but overall our race was pretty good!  We finished 5/8, so we didnt medal, but I still consider it a good, solid race. My next race was an interesting one.  It was a coxed 4, meaning there were four girls, including myself and the coxswain, making 5 total people in the boat.  Our team had not brought a coxswain, so we borrowed one from Rhodes University, out of Gramstown, South Africa, just an hour west of Port Elizabeth.  Borrowing coxswains from other teams is a typical thing, so this was nothing new, and I was excited for the race.  Our start was solid and we were immediately out in front of every one else, however, I began to notice that about 500m into the race, we were headed for another teams lane!  Sure enough, the Rhodes coxswain was steering us directly into not only another team's lane, but into another boat from her university!  The other coxswain, also from Rhodes, began yelling at our coxswain and our coxswain began yelling back.  The ENTIRE race instead of coxswaining us rowers, the coxswains were fighting the entire time, and not just yelling but screaming curse words and other inappropriate things.  All the rowers were so distracted and confused, since we were basically hitting one another and everyone was screaming that we could hardly row.  Never in my life have I been so upset about a race.  I know rowing is different here in South Africa, but I am beyond disappointed in the sportsmanship I experienced in that race.  It was clear the coxswain we borrowed threw the race for us and at the same time said extremely unsportsmen-like things.  If this scenario had happened at any regatta in the United States, both teams would have been disqualified from the regatta and told to pack their boats and leave.  It astounds me and makes me so angry that this went without punishment.
On Sunday we woke up early again and headed to the river for another day of the regatta.  My first race, I actually rowed with the University of Johannesburg, in a women's 8!  This was a lot of fun and super intense since it was such a big boat-this was probably the best race all weekend because I met so many new girls and being in a big boat was really fun.  My next race was a woment coxless 4 and this was the race I had been most excited for but one that we didnt quite do as well as we had hoped.  We placed 4/8, but had expected to do better.  Up until this race I had never been pushed to such exhaustion that I became physically sick, but lucky me because after this race I got sick over the side of the boat about 5 times before we could finally dock.  When we finally did get to the dock, I was informed that I had to hot seat directly into another boat for my women's quad four race.  The quad is one of my favorite boats to be in because they are so fast and so fun, but I felt so awful it was hard to even stand up.  A guy from the men's crew had to pick me up out of the boat and put me into the quad because I was so dizzy I couldnt stand.  Oofta.  By some miracle I make it through the quad race as well and we finished 3/5 so it was a pretty solid race.
Overall, the weekend was really fun.  I enjoyed meeting and getting to know the members of the NMMU crew team and, despite being sick, I enjoyed getting to race again, especially here in South Africa!

South African Television and Radio-More difference between The U.S & South Africa

Although I dont get to watch T.V here much, or listen to the radio for that matter, for the amount I have listened to, I have realized some major differences.  In the United States, all major Television and Radio companies are independently and privately owned (freedom of the press), thus making it so the government cannot too harshly regulate the press.  This however, as most Americans have surly realized, does NOT mean television or radio stations are without bias.
Here in South Africa, ALL television and radio stations are owned by the government, just as in The United Kingdom.  During the era of the Apartheid Government, this was a HUGE issue, because the government would use its ownership over these entities to push their agenda and simply continue with their corruption.  Now, however, this issue has died down since the apartheid era is over.  What I find so ironic about the government ownership over T.V and radio here, is how unregulated it is!  At any time of the day, you can find awkward, unpleasant, basically pornographic commercials on television, just, in between any show.  On the radio, I have heard all sorts of inappropriate language!  It has become very clear that there are little to no regulations on what content they are allowed to display here.

Something I find amusing and kind of funny about T.V and radio here, is the content.  South Africans love their Celion Dion and Cher love ballads.  I find a mini-bus, full of passengers, flying down the road, swerving all over, blasting Celion Dion pretty funny.  South Africans also love their soap-operas.  The Bold & the Beautiful and whatever other American soap-operas that aired in the last decade are HUGE here.  Its pretty much the only thing I ever see on T.V and my Media professor talks about them in almost every lecture.

The last thing I wanted to touch on, is how interesting it is to see how South Africans, and the rest of the world view America based on our television.  The other day someone asked me if I had seen Toby Keith's music video for "Red Solo Cup."  A few things about this shocked me.  One-where and how do you see country music in South Africa?  This is something I clearly searched for and was devastated when I found nothing.  Two, this basically made us best friends since SOMEHOW you know who Toby Keith is.  Three, of all music videos, you ask me about this one?  Haha strange.  However, I told him I had seen the music video, that Toby Keith was my favorite, and then proceeded to ask him where he was going with this.  He then asked me if Americans really party like that, with red solo cups all the time, and if our parties are really that crazy.  I sighed and admitted that, yes, often, especially at colleges, that is s typical American party.  He found this extremely funny.  The point of this story though, is it made me realize that when other countries hear or see our music videos, or any movie that portrays "America or Americans"  that is how they see us, literally!  I guess its not surprising  when you sit down and think about it, because we learn about other cultures in the same way, but I didnt realize we all took it so literal until I was outside of the United States!

Frontier Farms

This past weekend, a large group of 20 international students and myself went on a trip to two farms houses north east of Port Elizabeth about four hours.  The phrase: "we were in the middle of nowhere" defiantly applies here!  There was no internet, no cell phone service, just us students, the farm owners, a bunch of animals and the mountains!  It was great!  We left Friday morning, and arrived at the first farm house in the late afternoon.  That afternoon, we enjoyed tea, coffee, DELICIOUS desserts and a fantastic, home cooked dinner.  This meal in itself was reason enough to go on the trip!  Right before dinner, just as it was getting dusk outside, a few friends and I attempted to hike around a bit, until we ran into the largest, scariest, nastiest looking spider I have ever seen in my life.  The best part?  I WALKED INTO THE SPIDER WITH MY FACE.  Needless to say, the hike was over!

It was getting dark, so the lighting is bad, but this is the infamous spider!
I would say, about the size of the palm of my hand.

That night, the group split up, one group stayed at the first house, while the other stayed at a second farm house.  I chose to stay at the second house and although the first was great, the second was even better!  The second farm house was so welcoming, I realized just how long it had been since I had been in a real house- with a couch, tv, dining room, kitchen and normal commodities.  It was great!

Saturday morning, we woke up, had another amazing meal for breakfast, spent the morning playing cards, and then we headed out to milk cows and sheer sheep!  This was interesting, but since I had milked a cow before, it was not as interesting for me as other people.  It was an enjoyable time though, and it was interesting to get to know the farmer, how he made his money and how his farm worked.  Below are just a bunch of pictures of the animals on the farm and the place on the farm where they milked the cows!

Saturday evening, we spent more time playing card games in the farm house and of course, eating our weight in whatever amazing meal the farmers made us.  Then, on Sunday morning, we went to one of the waterfalls on the farmers land, spent some time there, and then headed for home.  Overall, it was a good weekend spent relaxing, laughing with friends and eating A LOT.

The South African School System & Volunteering Week 5

This morning, as part of our CSL 100 class, or our "volunteering class" while we're here in South Africa, we had a compulsory workshop, where were learned about the South African education system.  Just from being here and living in the South African society and especially from volunteering in the townships, we have seen first hand just how unequal and broken the education systems are here-yet-today, we learned about them in a more in-depth way.  Most wealthy families, naturally, send their kids to private schools and on the other end of the spectrum, those that cannot afford private education (usually those living in townships) go to government funded schools.  Just to give you an idea of the difference in these schools, I was told my one of my friends that lives here in South Africa, that for one of the nicest private schools in Port Elizabeth, an all boy's school called Grey Junior School, their parents pay R28,000 a year, so about $3,000 a year!  On the other hand, at a township school, parents would pay about R4000 a year, or about $500 a year IF they can find a way to afford it, which, unfortunately, most cannot.  Obviously, the gap there is enormous! Another thing that struck me, is that, according to the professor who gave the lecture, (which is a pretty good source of information, in my opinion) told us that there are no rules, regulations or set of criteria set for the ways in which government money are dispersed to all the different schools in South Africa.  So, for example, in the states, there are certain criteria set up for what schools qualify for certain level of funding, usually based on test scores and how many students one school carries.  Here however, there is nothing like that, absolutely nothing- which explains a HUGE part of the problem! At points, it was very frustrating to sit and listen to this lecture, because the cycle of poverty, here in South Africa, and all over the world is so hard to break out of and change.  For example, a nation that struggles with education also struggles with poverty.  A nation has poverty because of weak educational systems, people become uneducated and thus, cannot get a job.  People cannot change this cycle, because they cannot afford to send their children to school, thus, they too grow up uneducated and unemployed.  The cycle keeps going and going and its nearly impossible to break free of it.  So frustrating, hard to understand and hard to solve.

This week while volunteering at Sinethemba Homework Club/Children's Home, especially after the morning's lecture I felt extra helpless while trying to help the kids with their homework.  Two younger boys, in grade two came to me for help on their spelling.  They had ten words, such as "where," "what," "do," "their," "she," and "he."  I was very hopeful at first, because they had written these words down in their spelling notebooks in really neat, careful handwriting, so I thought maybe they were doing well with their spelling.  However, once I tested them on the words it became clear they honestly had no idea what any of the letters or words for that matter meant, despite how to spell them.  Neither of the boys knew any of the letters in any of the words except for the letter "e."  They honestly did not know the alphabet or how to depict one letter from another.  So, we spent over an hour, going through each word, letter by letter, sounding out the letters and saying the words.  I got the feeling that the boys never got one on one attention because when I asked them questions and gave them individual attention they seemed shocked by it.  You could almost tell they were starved for attention.  I had each of the boys write each word ten times.  I have no idea if this is the "right way" to learn how to spell, because Im not an education major, but I do know that muscle memory has a lot to do with it, and the more times they write the letters in that particular word, the more it might stick with them, right?  Thats how I learned to spell at least, and thats the best way I knew how to teach them.  By the end of the time at the homework club, both boys were beginning to start identifying certain words and they could both actually say the words aloud, which was a HUGE improvement.  It made me laugh at one point, because when I was trying to explain the words "she" and "he" in simple terms, I told them- "She would be the same as saying "sisi" (the Xhosa word for "she) and "he" would be the same as saying "bhuti" (the Xhosa word for boy).  They found it not only shocking that I knew Xhosa, but the fact that I had just related something to their language.  We all laughed about it, but overall, I hope it helped them understand.  

Each week when I leave Sinethemba, I try to stay positive, thinking that I really may have made a difference, and I honestly hope that I have...but then reality creeps in, and I find myself thinking-did I really make a difference?  Will it really matter if that boy or girl knows how to spell "their?"  Will it actually make a difference in the grand scheme of things?  Its depressing, but true.  From every thing I have learned about the South African education system, teaching one boy how to spell "their" probably wont have an impact.  Maybe I'm being too much of a realist, or maybe I've just realized that sometimes tiny acts of kindness really do get lost in the shuffle of things.  One thing is for certain: Sinethemba has really opened my eyes to see what education systems are really like in countries outside the United States and no matter what the outcome, I'm glad to have this experience 

Nelspruit, South Africa/God's Window/ Blyde River Canyon

After visiting Victoria Falls, Kruger National Park and traveling for so many days, we were kind of burnt out.  So, we decided to stay another day in Nelspruit at our backpacker, and visit a botanical garden and the Blyde River Canyon, which is about an hour north of Nelspruit and the third largest canyon in the world!  The botanical garden was, to my surprise, much larger than I anticipated and so beautiful!  There was a waterfall running through it and TONS of jungle vegetation to see! I thoroughly enjoyed just walking through the paths, finally having a full nights sleep and just being in nature.

After the botanical gardens in Nelspruit, we drove about an hour north, to a place known as God's Window.  The place gets its name, from the shape of the mountains forming a "window" and also being extremely beautiful, thus thinking it must be "God's Window."  It was just a short hike to the top of the ridge over looking the scenic view, and of course, it was breathtaking.

After sightseeing at God's Window, we proceeded a little bit further north, to the Blyde River Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world!  We actually had no idea it was so big or famous until we asked around!  It was right under our noses the entire time! What was most interesting to me, is that the Blyde River Canyon is a "green canyon," so there is a lot of green vegetation, waterfalls and trees where as, for example, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is a desert canyon, without any trees, grass, etc.  The Blyde River Canyon was, again, breathtaking!  It was, behind Victoria Falls, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  I felt so tiny, sitting down on the rocks, overlooking the huge canyon.  Everything was so quiet, peaceful and pristine.  It was nice just to sit and look out over the canyon and listen to the silence.

After the Blyde River Canyon, we took a short stop at a restaurant the was recommended to us by the owner of our hostel in Nelspruit.  It was called Harrie's Pancakes, and it was literally like a meal inside a pancake!  YUM!  One of the best meals I have EVER had!  

Hot Chocolate!

Homemade Swiss Caramels!  

Dessert Pancake with Bananas, ice cream, cinnamon, sugar and homemade caramel!

Mexican Pancake Dinner Meal with homemade sour cream!

Kruger National Park & The African Big 5!

After Victoria Falls, we headed back through Botswana, again, driving all through the night, back to South Africa and Kruger National Park.  Since we had so far to go, and could not check into our hostel near Kruger until Wednesday night, we spent one night, Tuesday night, in Johannesburg.  My first impression of the city was that yes, it was very smoggy and dirty, but I kind of liked the "big city feel" it gave me.  The buildings were very different than I had expected and it was just kind of cool to see the big city.  While in Joburg, we toured a famous township, called Soweto, and also an Apartheid museum.  Here in P.E, I have gotten used to spending time and being around the townships, but the townships in Joburg are even more eye opening.  I didnt think they could get "worse" but I was wrong.  People in soweto are beyond poor.  Most of the trademark tin metal shacks that people from the townships live in looked like they would fall apart at any second.  There was more garbage in the streets than I had ever seen.  The poverty level in the township surrounding Joburg is far worse than anything I had seen thus far in South Africa.
At the Apartheid museum, most of the museum was about a student riot that happened in the Soweto Township in the 1980's, when the apartheid were trying to enforce all classes to be taught in Afrikaans instead of the native languages the township citizens spoke, thus, again, trying to take away their native traditions and force the white regime on them even more.  Finally, in Soweto, students ranging from 7 years to 18 years held a peaceful protest, without weapons to voice their unhappiness with the regime.  Hundreds were killed by the white Afrikaans police force. A lot of place were the kids had been shot were marked in the street and the pictures were heartbreaking.  Yet another reminder and lesson I have been taught about South African history.
The next morning, we took off for Kruger at about 6am, and finally arrived in Nelspruit, South Africa, where our hostel was located.  We went to bed pretty early because we wanted to experience an entire day in Kruger National Park seeing the animals.  We woke up at 4am and left by 4:30 to make it to the gatesof Kruger by 5:30.  It was just getting light out when we entered the park, and at first, we were a little disappointed when we didn't see much for a few hours.  We saw Impana in the morning, a baby crocodile, and a few hippos and then stopped for lunch and a coffee break.  After lunch, we saw TONS of animals!  Not even fifteen minutes after lunch we spotted a lion and it walked directly past our car.  It was so close I could have reached out to pet it!  We also witnessed a Leopard kill an Impala and take it up into a tree to eat it!  VERY cool!  At this point, it was getting dark, and so we started to make our way back towards the gate but not before we spotted THREE Black Rhino's, which are some of the most endangered, rare animals on Earth!  Overall, we got to see all of the big 5! Elephant, Leopard, Water Buffalo, Rhino and Lion!

The 7th Natural Wonder of the World-Victoria Falls, Zambia((Spring Break '13))

This past week and a half, it was finally Spring Break here in South Africa!  Nine friends and myself rented cars and prepared ourselves to drive from Port Elizabeth, South Africa to Livingstone, Zambia where the 7th Natural Wonder of the World, Victoria Falls is located. The distance of this drive is equal to the distance of driving from the East to West coast of the continental United States.  No big deal or anything.  Just thirty six hours each way.  We left Thursday, March 28th at about 7pm, and drove straight through, all night to the boarder of Botswana and South Africa.  We immediately encountered one of the coolest thunderstorms I have ever seen, with huge lighting strikes that lit up the entire night sky for miles.  The un-cool part was hot heavy the rain was.  We were stuck going 40-60kph for hours on end.  Finally though, we made it to the boarder at about 8am on Friday morning.  The boarder crossing was not what I had imagine at all.  Literally, all it was is just this tiny little building, with a few immigration officers and boarder patrols checking and stamping our passports.  They didnt check our luggage, they didnt ask any questions but it was very clear we were not from Africa (haha).  We then drove about an hour and a half to the capital of Botswana, Gaborone  and had lunch and walked around some of the markets.  It didnt even seem like we had driven all night, but it was very clear we were all exhausted.  Botswana is a very unpopulated country (only about 2.5 million people, mostly all living in the Eastern part of the country) so there were very few places to stay and the places we did find, were kind of expensive, so we decided to drive through the night again.  Yes, we were determined, poor, wander-lusted college students haha.  So, again, we drove all day and all night through Botswana.  There were animals all over the road.  Cows, sheep, goats, elephants, water buffalo- everywhere.  The coolest thing was driving along at night, talking, trying to keep ourselves awake and all of a sudden being in the middle of an elephant heard.  We would just stop and sit there, in the middle of the road, at 3am and watch the elephants.  So amazing.  By Saturday morning at 7am we made it to the boarder of Botswana and Zambia.  We had finally made it!!  However, we were not allowed to take our rental cars into Zambia, so we found a resort that allowed us to park our cars there for two nights and then we hired a guide to take us across the Botswana/Zambia boarder.  The boarders are separated by the famous Zambezi river, so at the time we were crossing the boarder on a ferry, we were actually sitting in four different countries at once- Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana- the Zambezi is the boarder of them all.  Once we crossed into Zambia, at the immigration office, Victoria Falls was about an hour away.  The guide took us the rest of the way, to Livingstone, Zambia, where we stayed in the Bushfront Lodge, in thatched-roof huts with huge mosquito nets!

Our hut!

The pool and the place where we ate

We spent the first night here, finally sleeping, taking a shower and swimming in the pool.  It was so great to finally be at Victoria Falls, and sleep in a bed instead of a car!  Early the next morning, we woke up and headed to Victoria Falls National Park, about 5k from our hut.  From watching youtube videos and looking at pictures I was already aware that there would be baboons, but nothing prepared me for what it would really be like.  Overpopulated is the understatement of the century.  There were baboons EVERYWHERE.  In the stores, in cars, on top of cars, in trees, underneath trucks, walking down the sidewalks and my least favorite TRYING TO TAKE EVERYONE'S POSSESSIONS, ESPECIALLY FOOD.  Their not nice about it either   Yow give them what you want or they WILL take it.  They dont care if they hurt you in the process and trust me, if you see a baboon coming for something that is yours, drop it and run. Scary-thats all I can say.  My roommate, Heidi, made the mistake of keeping an apple and some crackers in her camera bag.  She had opened her bag to get her camera and a baboon pounced immediatly.  Heidi is about 4'9", and when the baboon lept to get in her bag, it was literally as big as her when it stood up.  It gnashed it teeth, and Heidi basically let it take what it wanted and ran away with the rest.  The baboon proceeded to follow her around, trying to intimidate her into giving up the rest of her food.  At one point, the boboon attemped to take her entire camera bag, which contained about $800 worth of camera equipiment and I honestly thought when Heidi pulled her bag away the baboon was going to physically harm her.  I had all I could do to run away and GET away as fast as possible because I wanted nothing to do with that suitution.

Heidi's used to be apple

After our little run in with the baboons, we made our way, thankfully, toward the falls.  We could hear the roar of the waterfall before we could actually see it.  When the waterfall first came into sight, it took your breath away.  It is absolutely stunning and enormous!  The waterfall was so fast and so full of water that the roar was so loud and the mist from the fall created a rain storm where ever you went.  Although I basically was taking a shower while looking at the falls, I didnt care.  I stood in the middle of the viewing bridge, in the middle of the torrential rain, gawking at Victoria Falls while everyone else was running across the bridge, trying to get dry.  At some points, the mist lifted long enough to get a glimpse of the entire waterfall and it was honestly the most breathtaking, amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It didnt feel like real life. It was so big, and so powerful and I was so tiny compared to it.  Just an amazing, crazy experience!

Touching the Zambezi River!

Elizabeth, Mark, Johanna, Joey and myself at Victoria Falls!

After spending time above the falls, we walked about a fifteen minute hike down through the jungle and MORE baboons to the boiling pot of Victoria Falls, which is where the water ends up once its gone over the falls.  The hike down through the jungle was gorgeous and the view at the end was the icing on the cake!

After spending all day at the falls, although we didnt want to leave the amazing scenery, we had booked a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River, above the falls so we headed back to our hut to get ready for the evening.
On the dinner cruise, everything was very hospitable and there was so much GREAT food!  We were on a giant river boat, with tons of other tourists..and the best part?  All inclusive food and drinks :)

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Our boat!

We spent time talking to the bar tenders, and other people on the boat, most of whom were in the Peace Corps, so, needless to say, there was no shortage of things to talk about.  We all had a great time on the cruise, and we even got to see a glimpse of a hippo in one of the shallow pools near the banks of the river!  It opened its mouth to yawn and it was unbelievable how large its mouth was!  I could have easily fit inside!




The next morning, we unfortunately left Livingstone, after an amazing time to head back to South Africa and Kruger National Park.  There are no words to describe how beautiful and amazing the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls were.  It is defiantly an experience and a trip I will never forget!