Spring [or according to the UCT schedule Fall…] Break:
I went through a student travel agency to Botswana. Zambia and Zimbabwe and basically drove through every corner of Botswana in a safari bus and then went to Victoria Falls with a group of 20 or so other students. Instead of writing every single thing in detail I’d rather just breeze through my trip in a sort of stream-of-conscience like fashion, enjoy!
I woke up super early to catch a flight to Joburg, got to Joburg airport and found our safari jeep, was shocked at how huge our bus was for the trip, met all the people I’d be spending the next ten days with, drove countless hours to get to Botswana, learned how to pitch a tent so I could camped out at Palapye, thought it was cool to have outdoor showers and bathrooms, took a shower the next morning at 5AM under the stars, drove forever to get to Maun, did a scenic flight over the Okavango delta…saw lots of animals along with the layout of the land (it was absolutely beautiful yet terrifying because we were in a 5 person plain and our driver was no older than 17?) stayed at camp there for another night, drove to the Okavango delta, took a mkoro with Suzanne to an island in the delta (most relaxing thing I’ve experienced in my life), chatted with our driver Galaxy throughout the ride and also took a nice long nap while sunbathing…bush camped in the delta for two nights (didn’t shower for 3 days, used a hole in the ground as a toilet, got attacked by countless mosquitoes, shared a tent with 3 other people so it was basically a sauna) went swimming in the delta and made a headband out of reeds…wore my headband as a crown and pretended to be an African princess, ate “delta sushi” (basically I swallowed a small fish live from the delta) went on countless walks throughout the bush and saw lots of animals, got really dehydrated on one of these bush walks and couldn’t walk in a straight line and started to hallucinate, saw countless shooting stars in the clearest of skies…fell asleep the last night somehow not sweating a ton because our tent was somehow cool, woke up to pouring rain (this is why it was cool) and packed up my tent in the mud, took the mkoro back to camp (about a 90 minute ride in the rain) everything was soaked within 10 minutes including all my clothes and my sleeping bag, got back to mainland and after a few minutes realized two of the mkoro boats were missing…found out one of the women drivers thought the rain meant evil spirits were coming and decided not to sail home, instead she left her boat in the delta and ran away to another island, waited an hour in the rain for her boat and the missing group members to be found, drove back to camp and took the most incredible hot shower in my life (after 3 days of bush camping and then hours in the mud and rain and cold). Drove to Nata…saw giraffes and elephants on the road (much like deer) on our drive, got to Nata unpacked everything and helped cook dinner while most of my group went to the bar and swam, sulked with my cooking group about spending 3 hours preparing dinner while everyone relaxed…then killed that mood with a bottle of red wine split between our crew-we recruited our group leader to cook with us and even shared wine with our amazing chef, basically our group bonded a lot over this dinner and I learned some interesting stuff about or Zimbabwean chef. After dinner had a little more wine so I would be buzzed to fall asleep in my tent on a muddy sleeping mat with no sleeping bag (still soaked) passed out for 4 hours, woke up in the dark to shower under the stars (this was becoming a tradition) packed up camp and drove to Chobe. Got to Chobe and camp was flooded, set up tents anyway, went on a night cruise along a river through Chobe national park (drank delicious wine and enjoyed a great dinner with my group while spotting countless animals) went back to camp and passed out early. Woke up the next morning at 4:30 to go on a game drive of the national park, saw lots of animals, got stung by a random huge/gross insect (I still have a scar from this sting!) came back to find camp already packed up (thank you bus driver) and left for the Zambian Border…
Crossed over to Zambia via wading into the Zambezi river to catch a ride on a gigantic/old fishing boat [convinced this was really shady and is probably why lots of people smuggle themselves into the country] also stood at the intersection of 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, made it safely across to Zambia, drove to our camp in Livingston [outside Victoria Falls] got soaked at the falls and danced on a bridge that we turned into a super long slip-and-slide, decided if I ever get married I want my honey moon in Victoria Falls because it’s the most beautiful place in the world, never wanted to leave Zambia’s side of the falls, wandered into the Zambian market-decided it would be better to speak Spanish while trading so people don’t try to talk to me so much, the next morning woke up to abseil and do other crazy extreme sports over a gorge in the falls, got a crazy adrenaline rush free falling 155 meters solo off a cliff then did it again tandem with a partner and got even more of a rush…traded at a market in Zambia, returned to camp and realized my shorts that were drying outside my tent were stolen by baboons and were now really high up in a tree (wanted to cry they’re my favorite running shorts) sucked it up and went to sleep, woke up to the loudest thunderstorm of my life and realized camp was completely flooded but somehow my tent was one of the only ones to stay dry (my sleeping bag just couldn’t get wet twice) roughed it in the rain and tried to clean up a little so we could all go to Zimbabwe, crossed the border of Zambia/Zim to see Vic falls from the Zim side, decided its 100 times more beautiful from Zim, made a pact with my friends that we’d return in 70 years to go river rafting down the falls and if we died so be it…walked to the markets in Zimbabwe, traded countless old t-shirts, dirty socks, empty water bottles, pens and hair ties, and a wet towel for some great African souvenirs, hiked back across the border and returned to camp, did a “booze cruise” with my entire group (in which I did not actually consume a ton of alcohol, boxed wine no thank you) but saw some animals, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed my last night with my group, stayed up late dancing with friends at the camp and running around being crazy, woke up the next morning super early to pack up camp, realized I got about a million bug bites from ants the night before, said good bye to our gross and muddy safari truck, and our amazing chef and driver, went to Livingston airport which was incredibly small and had a few shops and a bar, sat in the airport for 5 hours while our flight was continually delayed, finally boarded the flight, got to Joburg and had to run to catch our next flight, finally landed in Cape Town and was able to eat a meal for the first time since 6:30 AM (it was now 8:30 PM) said goodbye to all my new friends and came home to enjoy an incredibly long, hot shower and clean room that I had all to myself.
In conclusion, there was no way to make that short; it was a ten day trip and I traveled all around Botswana and to Victoria Falls, my favorite part by far was running around the falls getting soaked and laughing and dancing with friends in the water…it was the most liberating experience of my life and words can’t describe how beautiful it was. The ride to the delta in the mkoro’s was also incredible because it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was really interesting chatting with our mkoro paddler. Although the trip was really busy and I woke up most days before the sun rose I also had a lot of time to relax during the hottest hours of the day and really enjoyed getting to know the people I was traveling with. I now have twenty-some new friends who are all pretty incredible people. There were some not-so-great parts to the trip (like getting rained on in the Delta, bug bites, constantly being dirty…sleeping in muddy tents and not being able to run for 10 days) and the trip was definitely a very high or very low type of deal but it was so much fun and definitely worth it.
Sorry this post is so long but seriously best experience of my life. Oh and new goal to see the rest of 7 natural world wonders now that I’ve crossed two of them off the list ☺
Now I have Easter weekend in Cape Town (finally a weekend at home) and a half-marathon to run on Saturday to look forward to…wish me luck!
Cheers,
Haleigh Duggan
Oh and ill be posting a very much overdue post about joburg belowe this sooon…
March 30, 2010
March 17, 2010
this would mean a lot...
Molweni! (that means hello in Xhosa)
As you guys know I'm volunteering at an organisation this semester called CHOSA (Children of South Africa). I work with high school students to help them with their homework, or teach english and maths...but most of the time I usually just talk with the kids and provide various leadership activities and initiate good conversations. It doesn't sound like much but the children that I work with aren't required to attend this after-school program, they come on a voluntary basis and seem to value hanging out with some American students. There are about fifteen other students who volunteer with me but they work with younger students, who are required to attend their program, and provide structured lesson plans to help educate these kids.
CHOSA works as an umbrella organisation for various projects, Bahumelele is just one of the many places that are influenced by the group's work. Bahumelele is a children's home that takes in orphaned or abandoned children and gives them a wonderful and loving home. The orphanage is located in Khayelitsha, which is a slum-like township located in the Cape Flats (just outside of Cape Town).
CHOSA was started by American study-abroad students five years ago who were volunteering with these same kids, and now provides support to over 10 community-based children's projects in South Africa.
Here's where you come in! We are taking part in an online fundraising competition to try to win a $4,000 grant for CHOSA. The goal is not to see how much money we can raise, but rather to see how many different people we can get to donate $10. It is super easy and only costs $10. The competition runs from now until March 30th, so PLEASE go make a small donation to help this great cause that I have become so deeply involved in.
I know most of you are students but really what's 10$ besides a drink on the weekend? So please consider donating, and if not at least click on the link to read about this organisation that's become so important to me!
Thank you!
and Cheers :)
As you guys know I'm volunteering at an organisation this semester called CHOSA (Children of South Africa). I work with high school students to help them with their homework, or teach english and maths...but most of the time I usually just talk with the kids and provide various leadership activities and initiate good conversations. It doesn't sound like much but the children that I work with aren't required to attend this after-school program, they come on a voluntary basis and seem to value hanging out with some American students. There are about fifteen other students who volunteer with me but they work with younger students, who are required to attend their program, and provide structured lesson plans to help educate these kids.
CHOSA works as an umbrella organisation for various projects, Bahumelele is just one of the many places that are influenced by the group's work. Bahumelele is a children's home that takes in orphaned or abandoned children and gives them a wonderful and loving home. The orphanage is located in Khayelitsha, which is a slum-like township located in the Cape Flats (just outside of Cape Town).
CHOSA was started by American study-abroad students five years ago who were volunteering with these same kids, and now provides support to over 10 community-based children's projects in South Africa.
Here's where you come in! We are taking part in an online fundraising competition to try to win a $4,000 grant for CHOSA. The goal is not to see how much money we can raise, but rather to see how many different people we can get to donate $10. It is super easy and only costs $10. The competition runs from now until March 30th, so PLEASE go make a small donation to help this great cause that I have become so deeply involved in.
I know most of you are students but really what's 10$ besides a drink on the weekend? So please consider donating, and if not at least click on the link to read about this organisation that's become so important to me!
Thank you!
and Cheers :)
March 8, 2010
another update :)
Let’s see, last week was quite hectic; on Monday, high court passed a resolution to close all the refugee camps in South Africa, so basically my week started out really crappy. No one in the volunteer office knew what was really going to happen, it could take months or even years for the law to be put into place but some camps in Joburg were already shut down and there was rioting at Youngsfield so we weren’t able to go to teach. Luckily, I found out yesterday that we are going back this week and will resume volunteering until further notice. It really scares me to think about what might happen to Abdi and his family if they are forcibly removed anytime soon. They’ve been living at the camp for almost 3 years, they don’t have a home to return to or jobs, and with xenophobia it would be very difficult to attain either. I’m sure many people at the camp don’t even have proper papers even though they were living legally in South Africa before the attacks…
Enough of the depressing stuff (although it is important!) Two weekends ago I went to Spier’s wine festival, which was really fun. We went through CIEE, so there were about 160 Americans at this wine harvest festival, which was quite small, but it was still really cool. We went for the afternoon, and got to try lots of delicious wines, ate some really good food, and got our faces painted like little kids… and then we came back in the afternoon. That night my friends and I went to Zula, a club in town, and this “famous” DJ was playing so it was really crowded and a ton of fun. Then Sunday, it was ridiculously hot out; around 95 degrees with absolutely no breeze. Still there was a full moon that night so my friends and I planned to hike up lion’s head (a mountain in CT) in the afternoon, and then watch the sunset from the top, and then hike down in the dark via the moonlight. A lot of people in CT do this on full moon’s, so although we got to the top of the mountain a few hours before sunset, it quickly filled up and was quite crowded. The hike down was pretty easy too because there were a lot of people, we were literally crawling down at some points though because the mountain is really steep. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend, and none of the pictures I took really show how beautiful it was on the top!
Nothing too exciting last week besides the Youngsfield scare. On Thursday, my friends and I went to hemisphere, which is a club downtown that was actually in our guidebooks? It’s on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in town, and one of our Orientation Leader’s knew people there so we got in for free and also got VIP status, it was a ton of fun. The walls were all glass windows too so the view was phenomenal.
This past weekend was really busy. I had my home stay with a family in Ocean View Township and it was so great! I stayed with one other CIEE student, and together we stayed with a family for Friday and Saturday night. The family was great, they had two sons, one who was younger and hung out with us a lot, and then another who was in high school but was pretty busy over the weekend. We went to the Navy festival with them on Saturday, and stopped at a lot of cool places along the way, including an ostrich farm (where my host mom used to live!) and boulder beach to see the penguins. The navy festival was really cool too, we went onto some ships but the neatest part was just listening to my host dad tell stories about the navy base from his days when he served there. Saturday night we stayed in and hung out with the family, watching TV and telling stories about America and South Africa, it was really nice and relaxing. Sunday I got to sleep in and then we went to the beach for the afternoon and walked around collecting shells and playing with the family’s niece. Finally, in the afternoon, it was time to go home. It really was an awesome weekend; I got to relax a ton, and still learned a lot about the culture in Ocean View. I met a lot of my host family's family too, it was neat because almost their entire family lived in Ocean View, so I kept meeting people all weekend and they were all so friendly. It was also refreshing to be able to just ask questions about the community, including its problems but mostly its history, and I was able to start to understand how issues today grew out of the past…I could ramble forever but it really was a great weekend. I’m planning to visit my host family at least once before I go home, maybe I’ll even be able to cook some American food for them (since they were so generous and cooked lots of great vegetarian food for me!)
As soon as I got home Sunday my friends and I literally threw our bags in our rooms and then left for Kirstenboch for the goldfish concert. Goldfish is a really popular band in South Africa; they play a mix of house, hip-hop and jazz music, and their concert was a blast. We basically passed around some wine from the festival last weekend and danced like crazy until sunset when the concert was over. Then last night when I came home I finally unpacked from the weekend and cleaned my room a little, did some homework and then passed out. It was a really hectic weekend but also completely worth it!
This week is also pretty crazy, I’m making up for not doing much work this weekend (although I did do some reading yesterday while my host family watched TV)…but I have two papers to start and finish by Thursday, and then I’m off to Johannesburg for the weekend! I’m going to Joburg with my CIEE seminar class, and we’re staying in Soweto for the weekend to go to a few museums and learn about the townships in that area. Saying I’m excited would definitely be an understatement, although my professor warned this trip is going to be “mentally draining” because it’s basically going to be an overload of facts about apartheid…which isn’t exactly the most positive thing to talk about, but still I can’t wait!
Okay I think I took enough of a break from writing paper number 1 so I better get back to it…cheers!
Oh and we got our world cup tickets so I’m staying here until mid-June!!! Too bad it’s not forever right? :)
Ughh and also I'm pretty sure there is a huge bug somewhere in my room because i can hear it shuffling around behind my dresser or desk. It's been so hot here lately so I've had my windows open (which has never been an issue before) but apparently today, the bugs decided my room would be fun...so yea, I'm freaking out, if it's a cockroach all my flatmates are asleep so I don't know what I'd do, trap it under a bowl or something? it's making any concentration completely impossible!
Enough of the depressing stuff (although it is important!) Two weekends ago I went to Spier’s wine festival, which was really fun. We went through CIEE, so there were about 160 Americans at this wine harvest festival, which was quite small, but it was still really cool. We went for the afternoon, and got to try lots of delicious wines, ate some really good food, and got our faces painted like little kids… and then we came back in the afternoon. That night my friends and I went to Zula, a club in town, and this “famous” DJ was playing so it was really crowded and a ton of fun. Then Sunday, it was ridiculously hot out; around 95 degrees with absolutely no breeze. Still there was a full moon that night so my friends and I planned to hike up lion’s head (a mountain in CT) in the afternoon, and then watch the sunset from the top, and then hike down in the dark via the moonlight. A lot of people in CT do this on full moon’s, so although we got to the top of the mountain a few hours before sunset, it quickly filled up and was quite crowded. The hike down was pretty easy too because there were a lot of people, we were literally crawling down at some points though because the mountain is really steep. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend, and none of the pictures I took really show how beautiful it was on the top!
Nothing too exciting last week besides the Youngsfield scare. On Thursday, my friends and I went to hemisphere, which is a club downtown that was actually in our guidebooks? It’s on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in town, and one of our Orientation Leader’s knew people there so we got in for free and also got VIP status, it was a ton of fun. The walls were all glass windows too so the view was phenomenal.
This past weekend was really busy. I had my home stay with a family in Ocean View Township and it was so great! I stayed with one other CIEE student, and together we stayed with a family for Friday and Saturday night. The family was great, they had two sons, one who was younger and hung out with us a lot, and then another who was in high school but was pretty busy over the weekend. We went to the Navy festival with them on Saturday, and stopped at a lot of cool places along the way, including an ostrich farm (where my host mom used to live!) and boulder beach to see the penguins. The navy festival was really cool too, we went onto some ships but the neatest part was just listening to my host dad tell stories about the navy base from his days when he served there. Saturday night we stayed in and hung out with the family, watching TV and telling stories about America and South Africa, it was really nice and relaxing. Sunday I got to sleep in and then we went to the beach for the afternoon and walked around collecting shells and playing with the family’s niece. Finally, in the afternoon, it was time to go home. It really was an awesome weekend; I got to relax a ton, and still learned a lot about the culture in Ocean View. I met a lot of my host family's family too, it was neat because almost their entire family lived in Ocean View, so I kept meeting people all weekend and they were all so friendly. It was also refreshing to be able to just ask questions about the community, including its problems but mostly its history, and I was able to start to understand how issues today grew out of the past…I could ramble forever but it really was a great weekend. I’m planning to visit my host family at least once before I go home, maybe I’ll even be able to cook some American food for them (since they were so generous and cooked lots of great vegetarian food for me!)
As soon as I got home Sunday my friends and I literally threw our bags in our rooms and then left for Kirstenboch for the goldfish concert. Goldfish is a really popular band in South Africa; they play a mix of house, hip-hop and jazz music, and their concert was a blast. We basically passed around some wine from the festival last weekend and danced like crazy until sunset when the concert was over. Then last night when I came home I finally unpacked from the weekend and cleaned my room a little, did some homework and then passed out. It was a really hectic weekend but also completely worth it!
This week is also pretty crazy, I’m making up for not doing much work this weekend (although I did do some reading yesterday while my host family watched TV)…but I have two papers to start and finish by Thursday, and then I’m off to Johannesburg for the weekend! I’m going to Joburg with my CIEE seminar class, and we’re staying in Soweto for the weekend to go to a few museums and learn about the townships in that area. Saying I’m excited would definitely be an understatement, although my professor warned this trip is going to be “mentally draining” because it’s basically going to be an overload of facts about apartheid…which isn’t exactly the most positive thing to talk about, but still I can’t wait!
Okay I think I took enough of a break from writing paper number 1 so I better get back to it…cheers!
Oh and we got our world cup tickets so I’m staying here until mid-June!!! Too bad it’s not forever right? :)
Ughh and also I'm pretty sure there is a huge bug somewhere in my room because i can hear it shuffling around behind my dresser or desk. It's been so hot here lately so I've had my windows open (which has never been an issue before) but apparently today, the bugs decided my room would be fun...so yea, I'm freaking out, if it's a cockroach all my flatmates are asleep so I don't know what I'd do, trap it under a bowl or something? it's making any concentration completely impossible!
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