Hello all,
I am currently writing from a township near Plettenberg Bay in South Africa. This is the first time I have had enough time to fully sit down and start my first blog post! Hope you enjoy it and sorry if it is a bit jumbled.
First, below is a picture of our entire group:
I am currently writing from a township near Plettenberg Bay in South Africa. This is the first time I have had enough time to fully sit down and start my first blog post! Hope you enjoy it and sorry if it is a bit jumbled.
First, below is a picture of our entire group:
TB Beast (our official name) is on its 14th full day of our 7-month trip. It almost 4 pm here, and Lily and I just returned to the Plett Aid office where we have been staying over the past couple of days. However, we are leaving tomorrow for our homestay, which will be very exciting, but also kind of nerve racking. We are living in Craggs, which is a small township about 15-20 minutes from downtown Plett. We have met our host mom, Lien, and she seems very friendly. She has a 26-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, which I am very excited about because I have never had a “brother” before. Since all the other students have already moved into their homestays, Lily, the program leaders, and I decided to go visit them all the other day after our seminar. I was fairly surprised on how nice and modern some of the houses were. It was very interesting to see how different some of the houses were though. For example, in one house it was super quiet and not much was going on, while in another house there were kids running all over and the TV was blaring. We then decided to walk from one house to another house in the township Kwano, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea. The neighbor who was leading us was very protective of us and essentially moved everyone out of the streets so we could walk by. He cleared the paths and made the little kids who were playing jump rope move out of the road. Throughout the walk people would yell names at us like “white foreigner,” which made us stick out even more. It was comforting when we finally made it to the house and where no longer out in public.
Since Lily and I have spent the last few days without a host family we have spent a lot of time With Noah and Nelson’s host family. On Thursday night we went over to their house for a Braai, which is the African name for a barbecue. Throughout the night we spent a lot of time just hanging out with our little group of 4, which made it pretty secluded between the us and the family. However, the little sister Jayde was very eager to talk to all of us and she even gave us a lesson on Afrikaans. The following night we met up with them again and went fishing at a little pole out on the side of the freeway. Although we didn’t catch anything over the four hours it was an adventure. Then last night they came over to our “house” with a bunch of people from their family and we all cooked dinner together outside. We played cards with the host brother Jesse and spent more talking and interacting with Nelson and Noah’s host family. Talking to their family made me a lot more excited to move into our host family’s house tomorrow.
Now to back track – when we first arrived in South Africa we headed to Ingwe where we stayed for 10 days. Staying there was kind of like camp; we all slept in cabins, ate together at the lodge, and were together essentially 24/7. Although we had a lot of seminars and had to go over a bunch of logistics for the trip, we also spent a lot of time outdoors and getting to know each other. One day we went on the Salt River Hike to a beach (the picture is above), which was amazing. Its crazy how much Plettenberg Bay and the area where we hiked remind me of home. The ocean, mountains, and vast openness surround us, which is very similar to the Marin Headlands hike I do all the time at home. Another day we spent with an organization called Africanyon. We basically spent all day rappelling down waterfalls, jumping off rocks, and swimming and ziplining through a deep canyon. It was awesome, however, it got very cold by the end and I was ready to finish and warm up.
Since Lily and I have spent the last few days without a host family we have spent a lot of time With Noah and Nelson’s host family. On Thursday night we went over to their house for a Braai, which is the African name for a barbecue. Throughout the night we spent a lot of time just hanging out with our little group of 4, which made it pretty secluded between the us and the family. However, the little sister Jayde was very eager to talk to all of us and she even gave us a lesson on Afrikaans. The following night we met up with them again and went fishing at a little pole out on the side of the freeway. Although we didn’t catch anything over the four hours it was an adventure. Then last night they came over to our “house” with a bunch of people from their family and we all cooked dinner together outside. We played cards with the host brother Jesse and spent more talking and interacting with Nelson and Noah’s host family. Talking to their family made me a lot more excited to move into our host family’s house tomorrow.
Now to back track – when we first arrived in South Africa we headed to Ingwe where we stayed for 10 days. Staying there was kind of like camp; we all slept in cabins, ate together at the lodge, and were together essentially 24/7. Although we had a lot of seminars and had to go over a bunch of logistics for the trip, we also spent a lot of time outdoors and getting to know each other. One day we went on the Salt River Hike to a beach (the picture is above), which was amazing. Its crazy how much Plettenberg Bay and the area where we hiked remind me of home. The ocean, mountains, and vast openness surround us, which is very similar to the Marin Headlands hike I do all the time at home. Another day we spent with an organization called Africanyon. We basically spent all day rappelling down waterfalls, jumping off rocks, and swimming and ziplining through a deep canyon. It was awesome, however, it got very cold by the end and I was ready to finish and warm up.
We also went to MonkeyLand and Birds of Eden. Birds of Eden was a little bit of a let down just because there were not that many birds and most of them were just ducks. However, MonkeyLand was very different. We saw a bunch of different types of monkey’s up-close. They jumped and swung from branch to branch over us and some ran through our legs. Below is a picture of one of the mom monkeys protecting her baby.
Along with these three adventures we were also assigned to our mentor groups. Each group has five students and one leader. Sophie, Nelson, Mandy, and Alea are in my group and our mentor is Patrick. So far we have had three mentor meetings and for the first one we went into town and all had dinner together which was a nice change of pace. Today we had our third mentor meeting. We first went on the Robberg Hike as a big group. We were essentially hiking at the side of the mountain with a cliff on one side, which was a little scary but very exciting. Even though it was cold, rainy, and windy we all had a great time. After the hike we then split into our mentor groups and had our first didly-do (aka our first drinks together.) However, since I was so cold I decided to just go for a chai tea instead, and skip out on the wine or beer. It warmed me up and was very tasty.
Well time is running out so I need to wrap it up. I will post soon about the homestay and how work goes! Patty and I are working together and start shadowing our caregiver tomorrow morning.
Well time is running out so I need to wrap it up. I will post soon about the homestay and how work goes! Patty and I are working together and start shadowing our caregiver tomorrow morning.