South Africa!

Molweni Nonke (Hello Everyone)

I can definitely say that South Africa has reached the top countries I have traveled to! There is so much beauty, culture, life, and diversity into this one area. I only had the opportunity to stay in Cape Town but it was a great experience.

The first day I went with my interpersonal communications class to a township of Khayelitsha where we had the opportunity to visit a pre-school. As we entered the school the children were singing and dancing for us and then we all played games. The kids loved cameras and having their pictures taken and even taking the camera and taking pictures of others. Their teachers were so passionate about the children and had such high spirits and outlooks for their futures. It was sad to leave the kids but definitely one of my highlights of the trip. While driving around the local township you see where these people live. They live in these small tin houses, one right next to the other, miles upon miles long. It was so interesting to see such a vast range of wealth and extreme poverty just within Cape Town. During my class trip we also had the opportunity to try some local food called Babotie, which is a meat dish with almost like a scrambled egg crust on the outside. It is hard to explain but it served with rice and chutney sauce and was quite delicious! After lunch we then had the opportunity to learn Xhosa, which is one of the languages spoken in South Africa. We had a wonderful teacher and learned various greetings, attempted to learn the clicks. Some interesting things about the Xhosa culture is that when you greet a person, you rarely ask the their name, to them your name is not important. To them, knowing how your health is and how you are doing is much more important than your name. They also refer all people as mother, father, brother and sister, even though they are not their actual family because they see all people as family.

            On the second day I embarked on a very strenuous challenge of hiking Table Mountain, which is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. That was the hardest thing I have ever done. I have never been so tired and worked in my life! But thing about it was once you started there was no turning back, you had to keep going, which is what I had to keep telling myself. Hiking up was a straight hike up, it was not gradual, and it was like taking huge steps all of the way up! I was with 3 other girls and they were able to keep up with each other but I kept lagging behind and slowly but surely making it to the top. It took us around 2 ½ - 3 hrs to make it to the top. You could see pretty much all of Cape Town from the top, which was a beautiful site to see. At the top there was a café where we rushed to refuel with some much needed PowerAde. When we decided to head back, we made the decision to take the cable cars back down the mountain which took us less than a minute to get from the top to the bottom of the mountain. Funny how it took us 3 hours to go up and 1 minute to go down.

            Even though Table Mountain was an amazing experience, it then mentally gave me an excuse to eat my way through South Africa… which I definitely did. The food here was so delicious and actually safe to eat for once. My friends and I went to an area called Camps Bay, which had some little shops and restaurants. We found a little seafood place where I had a delicious seafood platter that had fresh calamari, prawn, muscles and line fish. During dinner I also had my very first Long Island Ice tea, don't worry I only had one.

            On the third day in Cape Town my friend Melissa had a connection with someone who lives in Cape Town. He offered to take us all over Cape Town, being our personal tour guide for the day. Without Ken, we definitely would not have been able to see all that Cape Town really had to offer. We drove through a little town, which had many bohemian shops. Then we went to Boulders Beach where there were so many penguins! We were able to get close to the penguins and see some babies as well. It was a beautiful view and so cute to see the penguins. We then drove around the National Park where we saw some crazy baboons. They owned that park and would just go as they pleased and make cars wait for them as they just roamed around the roads. We always had to roll up our windows because the baboons can be very dangerous and sneaky and try anything they could to get some snacks from cars.

            On the fourth day we were suppose to do the one thing I had been looking forward to doing ever since I found out I was going to Cape Town, which was to go Shark Cage Diving and see a Great White Shark! Unfortunately due to bad weather and strong winds all of the companies kept cancelling due to safety reasons. That was the biggest disappointment I had in South Africa because it was always a dream of mine to do. But instead I got the opportunity to see Vara, my sorority sister who is also my Little! She is currently studying in Cape Town and we spent the day walking around the city, doing a little shopping at the markets. She took me to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, which was awesome! I have never had Ethiopian food and it was so good and such a cool experience. You sit at these little round tables and once you order your food it is brought out on this large round plate with a white "bread" covering the plate and then the food on top. You eat with your hand with the white "bread" and it was fun to get your hands a little dirty and try something new. We then did some more walking around and our way to another town to do some more walking and shopping around before we went to dinner. I had another seafood platter for dinner but this time it was HUGE! It was enough food to feed a whole family, not kidding. It had 2 fillets of fish, one of a salmon, which was white and the other that was line fish. There was then a bowl of calamari, muscles, prawn and a huge crawfish that looked like a lobster. It was some of the best seafood I have ever had! And yes, I did finish it all…this girl pretty much never gets full. Oh and during dinner there were seals right outside our restaurant eating some fish that the fishermen gave them.

            On our way back to Varas house we took the train, which has never given Vara problems before, but unfortunately this time it was a bit of an awakening on how dangerous a place South Africa really is. We were sitting on the train, minding our own business and this young man comes over and tries to sit with us. Thankfully Vara has a very strong personality and told him to sit somewhere else. But then his stop came, he opened the train door and lunged back to our seat and grabbed my purse! Vara was sitting on the outside as a barrier and my bag was right against the wall of the train and I will always be thankful that he didn't get away with my bag because the strap broke. Funny thing is that my bag was a fake bag I bought in China and I believe that the reason I still have it is because the leather was not real and easily broke. I am also thankful that he did not use a knife or other dangerous ways to try and get my bag. After finally calming down about what had happened, a few stops later a group of about 10 large men got on the train and sat right on the opposite side of us, so we got up and sat with a local woman who was kind to talk to us. It was definitely an eye opening experience going through that and I was the happiest person to get back to Vara's house where I knew I was safe.

            Safety is always a big concern in every country I am in and it is very hard being a female traveler because we are always looked at as an easy target.

            But once we got to the house we made a batch of cupcakes and just enjoyed the time we had together. It was so wonderful to get a piece of home in South Africa.

            The next day my friends and I decided to go to the wine lands of South Africa. I have never had wine before so I thought what better place to try wine for the first time than at the vineyards of South Africa! When we got to our first winery we had no idea the proper way to taste wines and once we told our guide they were bother shocked and even more shocked in how I had never had wine before! He said he had never had to teach someone how to taste wine. So that was a fun experience. I also found out that I am definitely a white wine drinker, not red. I fell in love with the winery that made the white Zinfandel, which was the only winery to make zinfandel in South Africa. After our first winery we made our way to a second winery trying 2 more white wines and 1 red. Then we went to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the wine lands where I had one of the best meals I have ever had…OSTRICH! You would expect ostrich to be a white meat like chicken but actually looks like steak! I would have to explain the taste and texture to be like a mix between steak and venison and it was definitely one of the best meals I have ever had!!! We were supposed to then go to a third winery but since it was Good Friday the winery was closed so we went to a brewery instead. It was a cool experience but I definitely realized I am not much of a beer drinker.

            The last day in Cape Town, all of the tours to Robin Island were canceled due to high winds so my friends and I just hung out around an area called the Waterfront and did some more shopping and eating!

            I definitely have to say I would love to return to South Africa and to go on a Safari as well as live my life long dream of going Cage Diving! Now I am off to Ghana!! I can't believe I only have 24 days left on this amazing journey; it is so bittersweet to think about. But until next time!