Namibia

Orange and blue, sand and sky. Namibia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. Being in the car and driving to our destinations was half of the adventure! The group that I traveled with was Conor, two of his housemates Ali and Lis, and their friend Matt. It was really a great group to travel with, we got along really well and I think the majority of our trip we spent laughing and having fun. In a six day trip, we started in Cape Town, drove up to Swakopmund via Windhoek, down to Sossusvlei, and back to Cape Town. This meant a lot of driving, but was well worth it. After a flat tire and running out of gas, we arrived in Swakopmund, our first real stop. Swakopmund is kind of an eerie little town, with a lot of adventure activities and German influence. It reminded me a little bit of a college town, with long streets filled with all kinds of shops, cafés, and restaurants. The eerie part was that it was pretty deserted and quiet at night, but at least we felt very safe. We definitely made the most of our time in Swakop. In one day, I went both sandboarding and skydiving! SO MUCH FUN. I have never been snowboarding before, but I tried sandboarding on the dunes, which was really exciting. You are equipped with all of the gear that you would need for snowboarding including snowboard and snowboarding boots (and a very attractive black helmet). My main problem was not knowing how to stop, which wasn’t as bad as you might think it would be because falling on the sand doesn’t hurt at all. Gliding (and continuously falling) down the dunes was a lot of fun, but the trek back up to the top was a little rough, and by the end we were all quite exhausted. Good thing that only minutes after our 9AM-1PM sandboarding adventure, Conor, Matt and I were dropped off at Swakopmund Skydivers! Skydiving was both terrifying and exhilarating, and was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I was scared out of my mind being in the little rickety plane and driving to 1,000 feet above ground level. Because I was the most scared, I had to jump first. The worst part was when they opened up the door and you could feel the air and realize that you are actually jumping out of a plane…terrifying (I think I cried a little bit). The first 5 seconds are the hardest; your body is actually just free falling out of an airplane. Soon the sensation changes a bit and although you are still free-falling, you feel a little different, perhaps little more calm, and all you can do is smile. Halfway down the parachute opens and you glide down to the ground. I got to steer the parachute and glide around and it was extremely fun. Underneath me was the contrast of the orange dunes of the Namib Desert against the blue of the ocean and the city of Swakopmund tucked in a little section. Beautiful. After our time in Swakop, we made our way down to Sossusvlei, where the highest sand dunes in the world are. The drive was incredible, with all kinds of strange hill and mountain formations that I had never seen before. Parts of it felt like we were inside a Dr. Seuss book. Sossusvlei was stunning. We camped and woke up early to be on the dunes for sunrise. The dunes in Sossusvlei are much larger than those in Swakop, and also they are much more orange. We climbed one of the dunes and watched the sunrise, which was stunning. We also go to see Dead Vlei, which is an area of Sossusvlei with trees that have been dead for over 900 years. Even though they are dead, they stand upright in an area of clay, surrounded by the orange dunes. It was a very interesting area to see, and quite beautiful. Namibia was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and the best way to describe it is through what I said earlier…orange and blue, sand and sky.

Orange Inspiration

travel, explore
have drinks with friends
have drinks with strangers
listen to music that moves you
...move
take in your surroundings, collect these images in your memory
be interested
let your experiences make you interesting
share
appreciate
open your mind
and your heart
live a life that loves to be lived

Last Day of Lectures

Today was my last day of school at UCT. I still have exams, but they are spread over a three week period of time. It went by so fast! I would say my classes at UCT were comparable to my UW classes, but I definitely had much more work load at Wisconsin. The thing I disliked to most about UCT was the grading scale. When I first read the conversions, I couldn't believe that a 75% was an A. Then I started getting used to receiving a 65% on a paper that would have earned me at least a 90% at Wisconsin. It is very strange here, it is unheard of to get a 90% or even grades in the upper 80's. Students are pleased with 60%'s. Also, for the majority of my UCT classes, we had very few assignments. For example, in my Sacred Art course, we had one 1,000 word essay, one 2,500 word essay, one 750 word in class essay, and a weekly reading. We haven't had a single test in that class, and the final will be worth 50% of my grade. That is how the majority of the classes are set up, where you have sparse course work and then the final is worth 50-60% of your grade. I'm not complaining, it was very nice only having to write a few essays and do readings for my classes each week but it puts a lot of stress on finals. With that said, I probably should be studying this week, but instead I am going to Namibia! I'm (hopefully) leaving tomorrow morning and as long as the border crossing goes smoothly, we will be in Namibia tomorrow afternoon!

World of Birds

I know, I know, the name sounds somewhat lame, but World of Birds is actually a really cool thing to check out in Cape Town! I had been begging my roommate Ryan to come with me for about a month, so he finally gave in and we decided to give it a go. Situated in Hout Bay, World of Birds is a strange little place located on a semi-eerie street with dog breeders, farms, and horse stables.

What it is, is essentially a zoo, but one where many of the animals aren’t enclosed in a cage. There are all kinds of birds wandering around in the open, including peacocks, swans, ducks, etc. You also go through sanctuaries where vultures, owls, and other more dangerous birds are free to fly around. We came during the “Birds of Prey” feeding time which meant we got to watch the vultures rip apart dead chicken heads from less than 3 feet away, delightful. There are also some very strange things at World of Birds, including a big open area where guinea pigs run around and one with rabbits. The coolest thing by far was an area where you could interact with squirrel monkeys. It was so fun! The minute we got in there one of the monkeys jumped on my shoulder and, without my knowledge, took out one of my earrings and ran away. (No worries, I ended up retrieving the earring!) The monkeys are so cute! They run up your arm, peak in all of your pockets, touch your hand, grab your hair, jump on your back, and sit on your head. Never thought I would get to play with monkeys but I did and I would definitely do it again!

Marimba Festival

On Saturday night, Joe, Nira, Andy, Ryan and I went to Baxter Theater (which is on the UCT campus) for a Marimba Festival. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but I think we all left feeling happy that we had gone. Several local high schools and colleges performed a couple songs each, as well as a few professional marimba bands. There were performers of all ages, from about eight years old to at least sixty. Marimba is sort of like a xylophone, but bigger and made out of wood. They played some traditional African songs as well as contemporary songs such as Akon and Coldplay. The audience really got into it and everyone was clapping along and cheering. It was interesting to compare this organized, professional event with the performances at SHAWCO’s Open Day, which had gone on earlier in the day. It was fun to go to an event on UCT’s campus, and I’m really glad I went.

SHAWCO Open Day

Yesterday we had SHAWCO Open Day, a celebration and showcase of all that this semester’s Manenberg SHAWCO Arts project had done. It was a really great day, it felt really good to be there and enjoy it with the kids. They had worked hard all semester and it was a fun way to show off what we had done! Conor came with, and we arrived at Manenberg around 11:30AM. Rainy and cold, the weather was not what we were hoping for, so we had to move everything indoors. We started by putting a lot of the semester’s artworks up for display: paintings, drawings, and collages. The main focuses were display of artwork, a fashion show, and dance battles. The fashion show was a great success-the girls were so cute! They had outfits made of construction paper, macaroni and straw necklaces, taped on tissue paper, etc. They did cute little model walks across the stage and giggled the whole time. Between models, pairs of boys did dance offs. Let me tell you, some of these kids know how to dance! It was so amusing watching them battle off in dance, and they were all really getting into it. After the fashion/dance show, some older groups performed dances and sang songs. Everyone was clapping along and cheering, it was a really good experience. In a second room, they set up a large bouncy jumping castle for the little kids to play on, and they absolutely loved that! In the back of the room, we had a face painting station, where I painted faces for about an hour. I now know exactly how to draw and color the South African flag, as I painted it on at least 20 kid’s faces. There were small stands with food for sale, (doughnuts, drinks, sweets, and samoosas- one of my favorite South African foods, a filo dough wrapped pastry with meat/veggies on the inside). I was definitely expecting more parents to come, there were very few. Although a lot of the kids brought their cousins, sisters, brothers, neighbors, etc. which was fun because they were so excited to have me meet them! I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. It is hard to believe that I only have one afternoon left with these kids. I’ve really gotten to know a lot of them, and I’m so sad to leave them. I hope I have made some small difference in their lives, and I do think that I have. I wish you could see the way their faces brighten up when our bus arrives, and how they all run to the gates to wait for us to step off the bus. They all want to hold your hand and be picked up and tell you about their day. I really hope that they benefited from this experience as much as I did, it really meant a lot to me and is something I will never forget.

Addis in Cape

Last night Brad, Alex, Ryan and I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant called Addis in Cape. ( http://www.addisincape.co.za )The food was great, things I have never tried before! The best part was the experience and the setting. We sat at a small round table with only enough room for the main plate. Side tables sat between each of us as a place to set down our beverage. Before our meal, the waiter came around and poured water from a silver kettle on our hands so we could wash them before our meal. This reminded me of my mom and dad always washing their hands before every meal! Our appetizer was a huge piece of crispy flat rice bread with a homemade spicy butter on it and two dipping sauces, one out of olives and one out of chickpeas. No utensils were necessary at this restaurant, as you just break off portions of the bread, which is served on a large central plate, and dip into the sauces. It was very, very good. Secondly, our main meals came out which were served, again, on a massive piece of bread which was the unbaked version of our appetizer. It wasn’t really bread, Alex and I thought it kind of resembled gauze and was spongy in texture. Again, no utensils, but rather you would rip off pieces of the rice pancake and dip it or grab the food (which was dumped on top of the pancake). There were prawns in a spicy red sauce, seasoned fish, cabbage, spinach, lamb, lentils, and chicken. An extra serving of pancakes was necessary to scoop up all of the food. It was a pretty strange experience to be scooping up prawns with your fingers and having spicy red sauce dripping down your hands. Afterwards, our plate looked…well, I won’t describe. After dinner, our waiter brought around warm wash cloths to wipe our hands with. We also got to have a delicious dessert of baklava and berries with vanilla ice cream, paired with really great Ethiopian coffee served in tiny little espresso cups. The food was different and delicious, but the dining experience was unlike anything I’d ever done before.