Holiday Update

I’m finally back from my very long vacation, and it was just what I needed. What follows is a summary of the trip.

MOM & TOM TRIP
My mother and uncle Tom arrived late to Windhoek. We then traveled to D-town to visit the school and community. I think M&T enjoyed it. Then we drove a long way to Etosha National Park. In Etosha we saw the usual assortment of antelope, giraffe, and zebra but we were especially lucky to see lions and a small leopard. I read somewhere later you are not supposed to make eye contact with leopards, but forgot that at the time. Mom made me put up the window cuz she thought it would eat me! We stayed at the higher end lodges throughout Namibia which was such a treat after a year of cutting corners.
After Etosha we drove on though Caprivi. In Mahangu park we saw different kinds of antelope, the Sable antelope now being my favorite. We also stayed at a house boat on the Chobe River near Impalila Island. From there, we took a transfer to Zambia and saw the Victoria Falls at very low water levels.
We then flew to Cape Town where we went up to the top of Table Mountain, drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, saw the jackass penguins (yes, that’s their real name), and petted a cheetah (yes, you read that right.) One of the wineries hosts “cheetah encounters” where you pay to pet a suspiciously sleepy cheetah. We ended up petting the “cubs” which were bigger than me.
From there, M&T flew back to America. I stayed on to meet my PCV friends in Cape Town. Overall this leg of the trip was all about luxury, long drives, seeing a lot of animals, and spending time with family once more.

SOUTH AFRICA: CAPE TOWN CONTINUED
Julia, Danielle, and Megan joined me in Cape Town on Dec 11. Our major accomplishment: eating. We ate out at a place for Tapas, a Kurdish restaurant, McDonalds!, Chinese food, a smoothie and wrap place—all types of food I have not eaten in the last year. It was a treat. It may explain why I gained weight on the vacation as well.
As for the sights, we saw Robben Island, which did not live up to my expectations. It was worth going to say I went, but was unmemorable really and far, far too rushed. We also saw quite a few museums, which were fun to go to but not as impressive as I would have liked. The National Museum of Art was bizarre; The Slave Lodge was good except for construction; District Six was way too much information.
Also, I was attempted-mugged again. I didn’t even carry a purse! I put my jacket around my waist which had my camera and cell phone in the inner pocket. A street kid tried to pickpocket me but realized he couldn’t get to the expensive stuff through that pocket, so he tried to take the jacket. I was assessing whether he had a weapon or not. It didn’t look like it. Then, a large black man ran across the road, grabbed the kid by the neck and threw him on the ground, cursing him in English the whole time. We like to call him BBS: Big Black Savior. Thanks to him, I still have my camera and cell phone. This was the only safety issue we encountered in South Africa, which is pretty damn good considering it has some of the worst crime records in the world. Then again in Windhoek they just watch me get robbed. Great to see some civic duty in action there.
At night, Danielle and I went salsa dancing twice. I was quite impressed. The crowd was quite similar to its counterpart in America: diverse crowd in occupation and race, middle class, 20s-40s mostly, international community, varying levels of skills, salsa clique of really great dancers, etc. It was also a great way to meet locals, which also makes me totally understand why Namibia felt like a separate entity from South Africa. Namibia is all rural and un-cosmopolitan. In Urban South Africa you can get anything you could ever want. Both Danielle and I had a great time.

SOUTH AFRICA: STELLENBOSCH & GARDEN ROUTE
Really a beautiful city, Stellenbosch is in the middle of the wine lands. So, we went on a wine tour where we each drank about a bottle of wine. Can’t say I could accurately judge which wines I liked better, but I learned that I prefer red wines, and sweet wines suck. We also walked around the University which made us wish we had studied abroad there.
From there, we headed onto Mossel Bay on the fabulous Baz Bus. Mossel Bay was especially overrun by Afrikaaners seeking respite from the heat up North. It’s claim to fame? Bartholomeu Diaz landed there while traveling around the Cape. There’s a museum with a replica of his ship.
The next day we were on the bus the whole day going through the Garden Route, which I think is overrated. It is really developed, and the beaches looked nice, but it wasn’t somewhere I wish we had spent more time.

SOUTH AFRICA: CINTSA & DURBAN
We all did enjoy the beaches in Cinsta on the Wild Coast. A bizarre place, there really was no town at all. We stayed in backpackers close to the beach. There was only one restaurant we found in the whole place. The first day was rainy, so we were miserable sleeping three to a two-person tent. The second day was beautiful, so we spent the whole day at the beach. That night we had sundowners (boxed wine) on a huge dune that overlooks the ocean. A storm was blowing in, so we walked back along the beach. It was bizarre because the wind was blowing so hard it made the sand fly along in patterns. Or I was just tipsy.
From Cintsa we drove through the Transkei which used to be a separate country. I LOVE it—from the bus of course. It’s supposedly one of the poorest places in South Africa, but from the looks of it people were doing pretty good. If I were black, I might have stayed there forever. Since I didn't see a single white person there, although they might be there, I feel it might make me a target for crime. It was really mountainous, green with villages dotting the hillsides. We passed Mandela’s house along the road. According to our driver, he built it as an exact replica of the house where he was kept on house arrest his last days in jail. Funny. Anyhow, the flags were up, which means he was at this home for Christmas.
Our next stop was Durban. It has a totally different feel than Cape Town. CT is very international with the beautiful Table Mountain in the middle of it, and the port below. In Cape Town, on certain streets you might see mostly white people, a few streets over, only black people, and a few streets over, a good mix. Cape Town is diverse in terms of having a lot of white people, black people from many tribes, and having a lot of international tourists, students, and businesspeople. Durban feels more like a city people live in, not just visit. Its city center is huge and filled with sprawling stores. The mix of people was interesting. There were very few white people, and the ones we did see looked like they were homeless. The rest of the population was mostly Zulu, Indian, or Chinese.
In Durban, we went to the Indian market where I bought some jewelry. Had this been at the end of the trip, I would’ve bought some spices that they sell in big baskets, but I didn’t really want to smell like “fruit spice” for the rest of the trip. We also went to the Old Fort and walked around the city center where everything but the shops was closed because it was Christmas Eve.
On Christmas, we made a big brunch of french toast, eggs, bacon, and green beans. It was great. Then, we went to Ushaka Marine World to go to the beach and lay out. Apparently everyone else in Durban and outlying villages had the same idea. I don’t think I could have fit in the water if I tried. We later went for a walk down the beach promenade where there was a police officer literally every 20 feet. Because of this, the girls were not worried. My thought was if there were that many police officers, there must be at least that many criminals too. We didn’t have any problems though.
At our hostel we met South African and Swaziland Peace Corps Volunteers. It appears their programs are far stricter than PC Nam and a large portion of both groups has gone home either because they were sent home for stupid reasons, or they opted to leave. I was really grateful I’m a volunteer in Namibia after hearing about the harassment the SA volunteers encounter and the strictness of the vacation policy for Swazi volunteers!

SWAZILAND
Swaziland is a very small country populated almost entirely by the Swazi tribe. It only takes a few hours by car to cross the country, so villages seem to run into each other along the road. Combis provide the major transport, although we managed to hitch a few times. Basically, we went to a Museum, Parliament, craft shops, and the capital Mbabane. The racial tension of Namibia and South Africa does not exist there. People greeted us all the time in the local language, and apparently whites get along just fine with blacks in this small country. It is also interesting to note that it is still ruled by the traditional king and queen mother.

MOZAMBIQUE
Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese and unlike the German-colonized Namibia and British-colonized South Africa, it has an Iberian feel. Besides the fact that everyone was speaking Portuguese, it had the requisite trash in the street, shoddy roads and side walks, side shops instead of grocery stores, and big churches—all of which made me miss Latin America.
We traveled to Maputo on a local combi with two Brazilian girls. After only taking one semester of Portuguese, I could understand quite a bit of what people were saying. In Maputo, we traveled to the backpackers and went out for Chinese food. We walked around the mall which seemed just a little bizarre being all fancy and new with top-end stores like Gucci while everywhere else looks run down, like maybe a bomb hit it at some point. Then again, maybe one did. It hasn’t been long since the war in Moz stopped anyway.
On New Years Eve, we walked around a bit, visited the small art museum, used the CHEAP internet, and ate out. That night we walked to Dolce Vita bar, which was strangely unpopulated. We arrived at 11, but apparently that was too early. Or everyone was at Coconut where an expensive party was going on. Anyhow, we nursed our drinks (a vodka martini for me) for a LOOONG time. And just to remind us that we were still in Africa, the countdown for New Years started late! An older Italian man shared his champagne and sangria with us and practically the rest of the bar. What was crazy was the amount of interracial couples! In Namibia I’ve seen maybe 2 interracial couples this entire year. In South Africa, I can’t remember a single case. In Moz, there were 5 or 6 at the same bar!
The next day we slept in and went out to eat at an Indian restaurant with maybe 5 billion choices of dinner on the menu. On January 2nd we went to Costa do Sol, the beach area. The beach was littered with trash, but the water was super-warm and calm like a huge bath for all of Maputo. This means the Indian Ocean is by far my favorite Ocean (the Caribbean Sea is my favorite body of water). In the night we traveled to Pretoria. It was a shame to not see more of Moz, but we were all tired of traveling by that point. We plan to go back after service is over.

SOUTH AFRICA: PRETORIA
In Pretoria we stayed at a hostel that was pretty much empty. The owner was out, so his friend or something was running it in his absence. Our first order of business was to eat because we were starving. We went out to the News café and had a big American style salad. Later, we just slept in at the hostel.
The next day we went to the Transvaal Museum which was a decent Natural History museum, but as I’ve seen several, wasn’t really that interested. We also visited the beautiful Union buildings, and walked around the town a bit. Upon arrival back at the hostel we were challenged by a British-descended South African and a Dutch man who was traveling around the world by car to name the 50 states in 22 minutes or less. I thought this was stupid as it was clear we could do that, so I suggested they make it a bet. I would’ve been happy with 10 rand, but they said two bottles of wine. So, we wrote down the fifty US states in about 5 minutes and won. Sad to say this is all we had to do to shock them—they fully expected we’d take hours to come up with all fifty. Well, 2 bottles of wine turned into 5, which was not a great idea when we were traveling at 5 am the next morning. Talk about a hangover.

SOUTH AFRICA: NORTHWEST PROVINCE
We actually missed the bus that morning because we were looking for a taxi or a combi and arrived at the station a half-hour late. Luckily we could take the bus to Jo-burg and catch our Intercape leaving for Upington. I spent most of the drive dozing. When we arrived to Upington it suddenly felt a lot more like home—dry, hot, veld with white Afrikaners giving us a ride to our hostel. The hostel was probably one of the more bizarre I’ve been to. It was basically a hick Afrikaner’s backyard they decided to turn into backpackers. It was also evident no one had been there lately. Turned out to be very cheap as well.
From Upington we managed to get a hike back to Mariental with a trucker. He was South African and had been in Baghdad for 2 years working as a security officer. Apparently, Iraqi guys also working as security officers hate Americans (big surprise there) and love South Africans (also big surprise there-I didn’t know till now that Iraq was attracting labor from all over the world because of contract work).

MARIENTAL
In Mariental we just read all day and adjusted to the HOT country that Namibia is. Later, we headed up to Windhoek to go to the Mid-service Peace Corps Conference. The same old stuff, nothing new, except more motivation. This will be another year of trial and error, hopefully less errors though.

THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR
School got off in the usual way for D-town primary: more teacher drama, more kids running wild. This year there are only 20 seventh graders and I hope it stays that way because that would be great. However, there are 42 sixth graders! Eek. I still have to train them to adjust to my ways too. Another eek.
This year I’m going to try to get a girl’s club going. It’s worked at other places, maybe it will work here. I do feel more motivated than I did last year. Plus, there are 3 upper primary classes and 5 teachers, so there will be less periods over all considering there were 2 grade 5’s last year. I’m trying to get out of teaching math now. We’ll see how it goes.

A BIG THANK YOU
I’d like to give thanks to everyone who sent packages to me over the last year. Whether they contained school supplies or fun stuff for me, you can be assured they were put to good use. I’ve been known to dance around my room holding a package of M&Ms, and the kids can use all the supplies you’ve sent. Thanks entirely to your kind donations, I now have enough construction paper, glue, scissors, markers, certificates, crayons, colored pencils, pipe cleaners, and stickers to last the year.

If you’d like to send a package with school supplies, I could still use prizes for the kids. I’m dividing the kids into teams, and the team that behaves the best for each week gets a prize. Teams will be 5-7 kids. I have quite a few things I can give away still, but not a lot of the same item for all the kids on the team. For this reason, I still could use prizes like: pencils, pens, sharpeners, toys, bookmarks, candy, old clothes—really they enjoy anything. As for myself, I would enjoy any kind of chocolate sweet, but especially M&Ms and Reeses Cups. Also, reading material can be scarce here. As such, I can guarantee you I will read any book you send to me!
Thanks a lot!

Here I come, Year 2!