Africa!!

February 19, 2008
We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa around 5:30 this morning. We woke up to watch the sunrise as we pulled in to port, it was beautiful! After an early breakfast and our last briefing we hit the town. As soon as I got off of the ship I was blown away by the beauty of the city. After walking one block we found a store where African women sit on these wooden shelves and work away at these huge weavings. It was unreal. There were about 15 women all on their own looms weaving yarn into rugs with amazing pictures and scenes.
It feels so clean and everyone is so nice here. The buildings are beautiful and the trees and all the plants are magnificent. We walked to "Long Street" where all the venders, shops, bars and outdoor markets are. One store was like an African "Z Gallery" and I wanted to buy everything to redo my room, but didn't buy anything. We walked through an African Market for a good 45 minutes just being shocked by the artwork and masks, there were so many amazing things to buy and the people were so nice that I felt bad buying from one and not all. There was an African woman there with her 6-month-old son on her lap and I bent down to just smile at him and he immediately reached for me to hold him. His mother was shocked because she said he doesn't let anyone hold him and she couldn't believe he just jumped at me like that. I held him for a while and he was teething and chewing my finger, which is now very bruised. We shopped around and bought a few things then went back to the ship because we all had "field trips" to attend.
I went on a bus with the SAS (Semester at Sea) people to the District Six Museum. District Six is where the colored and black people used to live before the apartheid. They were displaced by the government and forced to move to outlying squatter camps which are now "townships." The museum was dedicated to all of the residents who were displaced. After the museum we were brought to three separate townships: 1)Langa 2)Bonteheuwel 3)Khayelitsha. As we showed up to the first two (1&2) the kids from all over ran out of their houses and ran up to us to hold our hands and get on our backs. They wanted to take pictures and play and absolutely loved being with us. These two townships are some of the better ones. People have one-room houses (made out of adobe, concrete, etc.) for their 3-5 person families. The kids don't have shoes to wear and are some of the happiest children I have ever seen.
Then we went to Khayelitsha. This is the largest township in South Africa with over 1 million people. They live in one-room shacks whose walls are made of old street signs, wood, tin-basically any material they can find. Calling them shacks is a huge overstatement. I met an amazing woman named Vicky who opened a bed and breakfast for people to come and really get a feel for a township. She said people coming here gives the children and their families hope of better days. Vicky works with the government to do things to improve her community. For instance she got sewing machines for the women and children to learn to make clothes, etc. This will give them opportunities for real jobs when they grow up rather than working in hard labor for little pay like their parents. The people have to pay for their land which their shacks are on, they pay 20 Rands (around $3.00 US) per month. We pay this much for a smoothie/coffee daily and they struggle to pay each month. After five years of paying the family owns the land.
I was fine going through everything until Vicky brought us to the "nursery" for both HIV infected babies and babies who do not have the virus. As soon as we walked in they all started screaming and crying; they were covered in flies laying on blankets because they don't have any matresses. This is where I broke down. The babies would not stop crying so we had to give them all blow-pops to calm them. They said it was possible that our white skin scared them because it is the color of their doctors. Even typing about this makes me cry. I asked Vicky what I can do to help and she said send money so she can buy blankets and things for the children, or send coloring books and fun things for the kids. Every year she tries to get gifts for Christmas. I will never forget these people and will do something to help them as soon as I can.

February 24, 2008
SAFARI! For the past few days I have been at Kruger National Park staying in a bungalow going on game drives! The park is the size of West Virginia (200 million hectors). Everyday was quite an adventure but I don't want to bore everyone so I will make it short. Basically I got to see so many great things. The bushes and trees all had stories to them and meant something to the natives. There were hundreds of different types of birds and our guides could spot anything and everything while driving. The animals I saw:
-Elephants
-Monkeys
-Antelope
-Impala
-Crocodiles
-Snakes
-Rhinos
-Warthogs
-Wildebeest
-Eagles
-Leopard
-Family of lions
-Giraffes
-Zebras
-Buffalo
-Leopard Turtle
Basically it was AMAZING! The 4:30 AM wake ups were the best because we got to see the sunrise and the most animals are out before it gets too hot. I made a lot of new friends because I went with an independent group of 10 kids. We were fed great food three times a day and I definitely gained ten pounds on one trip!! Our guide was great, his name is Edwin and he is only 22 years old. During our safari we learned that Siyabona (the company we booked through) was going out of business and we were the very last safari. It turns out that there are country clubs right outside of the park which are drawing in all of the tourists and taking away from the actual safari companies. All of the guides (our cooks, guides, etc.) were very sad so we decided to do what we knew makes us happy-drink! (Well we got them really drunk, I didn't drink much of course). Our last night we had so much fun singing and dancing under the stars with genuinely beautiful people. It was hard to say goodbye, but I promised to return and that will not be an empty promise.
Since I have been back in Cape Town I went and visited Liz (a friend from CSU who is studying abroad here for the semester). It was great to see a familiar face since it has officially been one month since I have been gone. This morning I woke up and hiked Table Mountain which was quite strenuous, but beautiful and a great achievement. Then we went to the winelands (yes I went to drink wine). My roommate and our friend Will and I had a private driver take us to two different winelands: Neethlingshof and Spier. I found out I am definitely a white wine person, not red. Some were good and I actually enjoyed them. Will and Lindsay got more testers than me, but we were all pretty good and drunk by the end. At Spier they had a place where you could go in a caged area and pet cheetahs! So I did it!!! It wasn't as soft as I expected, but still pretty cool.
As a goodbye treat to us a local high school choir came on our ship and sang for us tonight. They are the national champions and have just been invited to the UK to compete. I have never heard such beautiful voices in my life. The kids were so happy and excited and of course had never even seen a cruise ship. Their school does not have a piano or any instruments. The kids do not read notes, simply work together and listen to recordings. They sung and danced and of course I cried from the beauty of it all. I am so sad to leave here. I have absolutely fallen in love with South Africa and cannot wait to come back (I'm thinking my honeymoon:))!!
A few fun facts:
-exchange rate: $1 = 7.5 rands
-there are 11 national languages
-the culture is very laid back, they are never on time because they know things will get done
-they think Bush is an asshole
-Racism is still a huge problem here and it is a very open topic to talk about

So now I am on the ship and we were supposed to take off however the fog is too bad so who knows when we will start on our way to Mauritius. I am so grateful for everything I have experienced I wish I could give more details and share everything better. I guess we will have to wait though. The internet is too slow for me to put up pictures but I am taking TONS!
Peace and blessings to all!