schneial

So, this is my last week in Durban. It has gone by so fast; I can hardly believe it. This week is going to be crazy because of school and trying to fit in as much stuff as possible before I have to leave. Unfortunately I actually have homework and exams to do...who would have thought! I have a lot of papers to write and even have to do a research paper. Kind of sucks, but I will be done with (almost) everything on Tuesday (tomorrow already...wow). So, basically, I decided to update my blog instead of doing my homework.

My Zulu language class has been awesome. We had both and oral and a written exam. The oral part was pretty fun, and easy. We got to pick a partner and we basically got to write out a script and then had to 'perform' it in front of the class and our teacher, Thokozani. The class was pretty fun in general. Zulu is a cool language, and from what we learned, not incredibly hard to learn.

My other class, Culture and Diversity in the Rainbow Nation, is a bit more intense. There were several modules including sections on film, politics, human rights, and multilingualism. The exam and homework is pretty intense. For this class I have 2 papers, and an essay exam with one essay from each section. This class was pretty interesting, but some of the stuff overlapped between the sections. We pretty much got a history lesson in each class, except film. For the film section, we only got to watch 2 films, but they were both very good. The first one we watched was called Mapantsula and the second one was called Forgiveness. I really enjoyed Forgiveness and would recommend it very much if anyone is interested. Mapantsula was a little bit slow and dry. Both of them deal with Apartheid (naturally).

So, I think I can probably find a million things to write about to procrastinate doing my homework a little bit longer. One great thing about South Africa is that things tend to be pretty cheap (compared to the US). I have been doing a lot of stuff, yet have not spent as much money as I had thought. It is going to be hard to come back to the states and not be able to order wine, a starter, a meal, and sometimes dessert at a meal. I don't usually do that, but it is a possibility to do that and only spend just over R100 (depending on the restaurant). The alcohol here is also pretty cheap. At some bars, shooters are only R3 and the other day I got a bottle of wine for R14,95 (they don't use a '.' here between numbers, they use a comma instead...not sure why). I'm sure a bottle of wine for R14,95 isn't the best of quality, but thats ok. This is good for me, but also good for many of you because it means you will be getting gifts! (FYI, the exchange rate is about R7.6 to $1). At all the little markets, it is pretty much expected that you will try to bargain for a lower price. Sometimes if you don't say anything they will just keep lowering the price. Basically what I mean by market is that people lay out all of their goods and there is one right after another. They have them all over South Africa. They have them down at the beach and they have a big market called the Victoria Street Market which is actually in building, and in pretty much all the little towns. They all pretty much have the same things. There is tons of beading, especially in KZN. Beaded necklaces and bracelets and earings. It is actually pretty intense and elaborate. They also have lots of carvings of animals, and masks, and tons of paintings. The paintings are pretty cool and are all done on canvas and can be rolled up.

This weekend a group of us went on a trip to St. Lucia which is about 3 hours from Durban. On Saturday, we went on a few safaris-pretty much all day.

First we went on a boat trip for about an hour and got to see hippos and crocs. After a while the crocs actually started to get kind of boring. They don't move much (or at all) and I have now seen them at least 3 different times on this trip. One thing I do find interesting about them is that they leave their mouths open to cool themselves off. the don't sweat and this is their only way to stay cool.

Then we went on a horseback safari. That was actually pretty cool. My butt started to hurt from sitting on the horse, but it was totally worth it. We got pretty close to the animals and it was nice on the horse instead of in a vehicle. We got to see zebras, wildebeast, and impalas. It is cool how they all just hang out in the same area together. We got to see several baby zebras which were pretty cute. We moved at a pretty slow pace and the horses didn't do much beyond a slow walk. When we would come up to or pass some zebras many of them would just stare at us. It was kind of funny.

Then we went on a 3 hour night safari. We got to see two types of chameleon, zebras, kudu, impalas, and white rhinos. I wasn't really able to get any good pictures though. Our guide was pretty cool. A couple of times we would be driving along and he would stop and reverse and pull up next to a tree and pull off this tiny, little chameleon. It was pretty crazy how he was able to spot them. We got to hold onto them which was pretty cool. At one point we stopped and had a hot chocolate. It was so nice to be out in the wilderness at night with the stars. It has been a really long time since I have gotten to enjoy the outdoors at night.

St. Lucia is a small town but extremely touristy. Pretty much every other place was a restaurant or an agency to plan activities. We stayed in hostel overnight which was awesome, even though this was the worst hostel I have stayed in so far. It was just nice to get out of the city and be busy doing stuff like at the beginning of my trip. I loved travelling and moving from place to place and finding cool and fun stuff to do.

Whoa. Sorry I haven't written for so long. I have just been so busy. I figured I better try to give you guys an update before my time is up. I have been having an awesome time here. Just wanted to tell you about some of the trips I have been taking. I don't think I am going to go into as much detail as I have before. I will try to fill in the blanks for you guys when I get back.

So, today we went on a tour of one of the rural high schools. The school had grades 8-12. We got a very warm welcome from everybody there. We got to meet all of the teachers, of which there were about 15. The students there were amazing. We went through all of the classrooms but didn't really get to spend that much time with the students. However, all of the students we were able to hear from said they were very happy for us to be there. It is not very often that white people come to their schools. They really liked that we were interested in them and wanted to see their school. They told us that they loved us and felt proud to know us. That is pretty much exactly how I felt about them. The school, like most other rural schools, did not have enough resources. They didn't have text books and only had 3 computers. The teachers wanted us to spend more time with the 12th grade students to try to encourage them to stay in school and study hard. They thought we would be a good influence on them because we are all in college.
After that, we had a little closing engagement thing because it is our last Friday here. I can't believe the time has gone so fast. We got some entertainment which was a small dance group that did Fushion dancing. It incorporated both Indian dancing and Zulu dancing with Zulu men and Indian women. They incorporate both Indian dancing and Zulu dancing because those are the largest groups in kwaZulu Natal. Durban (and the surrounding area) has the largest population of Indians outside of India. It was pretty cool.

Some other trips we have taken were to the Drakensberg Mountains for a hike and to see some cave paintings. We also went on a safari and got to see some of the Big 5. Another trip we took was to Land of 1000 Hills. This was a pretty awesome day because we got to see some Zulu dancing and went on a small safari.
We also went on a township tour which was really interesting. Along with the township tour, we stopped in one and did tae bo with some of the locals. They apparently have a class 4 times a week and our professor was actually the person who implemented that. He grew up in a township and still lives in one of the townships. He does a lot of work within the communities and with the youth. He does tae bo and karate. After the tae bo we got an authentic African braai (basically a barbeque). The food was delicious and this was one of the only real African meals I have actually gotten. We also got time to talk to the local people. It was a very fun and intersting day.
We also got to go to an orphanage called Adams Mission. Pretty much all we did was hang out with the kids and play games with them. The orphanage has 4 different complexes that are separate homes basically. Each home has 6 children living in them and a house mother. They are set up this way so it is like the kids are living in a family setting. The kids there were amazing.
It feels like such a privilege to go to the places (like the rural school and the townships) in Africa that most people probably would not see if they came here on their own.

I guess I haven't really been doing a lot of big stuff like I did at the beginning of the trip. I still manage to keep busy though. Probably one of the coolest experiences so far in Durban (and definitely up there for the entire trip) was to play the drums with some of the locals. We went to this bar called Cool Runnings and they were having drum night. There were about four guys that had drums and then a big circle that had extra drums for anyone to join in. These guys were just amazing. I love the sound of the drums and to actually play them in Africa with some local guys was almost surreal. I just loved it.

Ok, so I think I have a lot of random and miscellaneous stuff to tell you guys. (I may start to ramble a little) So, I am working on getting my pictures online. It is hard to find enough time to put them up and label them and everything so you guys know what you are looking at. There are so many small, kind of every day occurances that I can't tell you them all. I do want to make reference to somethings that I find interesting though. I may ramble on a little bit, so if you get bored or don't want to read it thats ok. I just want to share it all with you-especially so I don't forget by the time I get home. If you guys have any questions or anything send them my way. I would love to hear some feedback from you guys.
Language:
There are 11 official languages in South Africa with about 72 different dialects. Pretty crazy. Pretty much every person I have come into contact with knows at least 2 languages. Most of the people I have met speak English, Afrikaans, or now Zulu (which is the main language in KwaZulu Natal). I love how my name sounds with the accents. One of the classes I am taking is on the Zulu language. They speak with clicks in some of their words which is really hard to do. There are three clicks for the q, x, and c. The click is different by how you use your tongue.
A few common sayings here are: Yebo, Yes (yebo is yes in Zulu). Is It-they say this at the most random times though, not like when we would say it; like if I were to say "I had fun" they would say "is it?". Seems kind of weird and it throws me off sometimes. They also say now now or just now. Neither of which really mean now.
Food:
The food here is amazing. I am trying so many new things and loving just about everything. (I know Sheri and Keri-hard to believe huh?) There are still a lot of things I need to try though. Even the KFC has different stuff-not that I care that much about trying stuff at KFC though. And apparently, there are only 2 or 3 McDonalds in Durban. Everything here is really sweet-the drinks and sauces and other stuff. They have a lot of sweet chili sauces here, tomato sauce (which is a thinner, sweeter version of ketchup), peri peri sauce and tikka sauce. The bakery kind of stuff is different than ours too. There are no sweet pies-they are all savory and pretty much meat pies. They have these everywhere and can get them even at gas stations/convienence stores. The scones seem more like our biscuits, and the cakes are huge. Also, they like their muffins and one of the most common types is bran. They have these awesome things called rusks, which could be compared to a biscotti in that it is twice baked and crunchy, but aren't a cookie. They have lots of kinds but my favorite is the bran. They have awesome flavored waters. My favorite is the litchi. They really like their chips (fries) here and even have chip sandwiches, which is basically fries in a loaf of bread with sauce. Nobody really drinks tap water here, even though it is safe to drink. If you go to a restaurant and order water, they will give you a bottle unless you ask for tap water-and then they sometimes give you funny looks. There is this awesome little stand on campus that sells really good and really cheap curry and bunny chow (which is curry in a hollowed out loaf of bread)-yum! (I could go on forever about the food here-you know how I love food! Sorry if it bores you guys.)
It is also different going out to a restaurant. They never ask you if you want separate checks and they pretty much don't do it. The servers don't usually come back to ask you how your meal is or to refill drinks. They don't have soda on tap and only give you cans. They are very good at clearing you plates right away, but will never give you the check unless you ask for it.

So I am now in Durban and staying in the dorms. We each get our own rooms which have little sinks in the corner. They are actually quite convienent. We have had classes now for about a week. I am taking the one on Zulu and then one called Culture and Diversity. We are learning about film and politics. Kind of a drag that we actually will have some homework to do.
There are about 20 people from EC and maybe 5 from various other schools. We definitely outnumber every other school. And, there are only 3 guys in the program. There aren't too many other students here on campus because they are on winter break.

The campus here is gorgeous. There are trees and other vegetation EVERYWHERE. Apparently, there are also monkeys on campus. I have not been graced with seeing any yet, but one girl said a monkey came up and stole her burrito. Kind of funny. I have seen a couple of cats though. This is a huge campus and we are only on one small part of it called Howard College. There are many hills in Durban and the campus is very hilly. There is this one building on campus that is at the highest point in Durban. At some spots on campus you can get a really nice view of the city.

Because it is winter here the sun sets really early. It always feels really late when it is only like 6:00. It can be hard to do stuff here when we are in class all day and then it gets dark early. Pretty much everything shuts down when it gets dark except restaurants or bars. The bars here don't have a closing time and can/will stay open all night as long as they are making enough money. Durban is a pretty big city (about 3.2 million). The downtown area is always packed with people but seems a little sketchy. Would probably never walk around there. You pretty much have to take a taxi everywhere (and I'm not used to that). That has been one of the hardest things to adjust to. We do a lot of waiting around here. They don't have they same standards for being on time as we do.

So far in Durban we have gone to the beach, to a rugby game (to see the Sharks), to the malls (unfortunately not how I wanted to spend my time in Africa), and on a tour of a HIV/Aids clinic called the Dream Centre.
This weekend at the beach they were holding the Mr. Price surfing competition, which was cool. They have a pretty nice beach area here. It is really long and you can walk up and down it and there is plenty to see. There are people and stands one after another selling their stuff. Most of the stuff is exactly the same and we have seen it all along our travels as well. In pretty much every town they had little markets and they sell things like animals carved out of wood, masks, beading (beading is everywhere here), and paintings.

They have 3 malls here and they have everything you could possibly want in the mall. These are pretty much the only places to shop and they even have the grocery stores in them. They don't have separate grocery stores like we do. The Gateway mall is massive and has a big rock climbing wall and even a wave pool in it. Its actually a bit ridiculous and seems unnecessary.
The rugby game was kind of cool even though I really had no idea of what was going on.
The Aids clinic was pretty interesting. Everyone there was in stages 3 or 4 and all because of unsafe sex practices. It is kind of taboo here to talk about sex but sex is everywhere and they have condoms in pretty much every bathroom. They have boxes of them and they come in packages of like at least 6.

After Storms River we made a pit stop in Port Elizabeth (PE as the locals call it) to meet up with two other people and catch the bus. We got there kind of late though and didn't really spend time to see the town. We went on a short walk down by the ocean which was nice. Other than that we were up at 6:30 the next morning to ride on the bus all day.

After PE we went to Coffee Bay. First we spent about 7 hours on our bus and got dropped off at Mthatha. From there we caught a shuttle to go to our hostel (Coffee Shack) which took about 2 hours. The scenery on this trip was much different than anything we had really seen so far. There were a few small towns along the way which were super busy. There were people all over just hanging out and trying to sell stuff. The towns were kind of dirty (although much of South Africa is). Along the way there were many animals that were just roaming free. Sometimes they were in groups or just a few. There were cows and sheep and cute little goats. They were all over. The landscape was just big rolling hills. The community of and around Coffee Bay is traditional Xhosa. There were huts spread out over miles and miles. Some were more concentrated, but some seemed kind of isolated and very far from anything. The huts were awesome. I actually found this experience to be one of the most interesting because we got to learn a little about the culture. At the hostel we actually got to stay in a traditional hut. The huts are made of mud bricks with they make themselves out of cow dung, dirt and water. It takes about a week for them to dry. People build in the winter because it is the dry season. The roofs are made of bunches of grass tightly wound together and it is the woman's job to go get all the grass. Looking at them, it didn't seem like they would really protect against the wind and rain, but they work amazing well. They have to redo the roofs every 7 years. Most of the huts were a bright green color and some were pink. They explained that traditionally they used limestone and some kind of green plant (that I can not remember right now) to use as paint. They don't really do that anymore, because they now use green paint that they get from the store. They were really cool.

The hostel provided meals because there wasn't really too much else around as it was a very small town that didn't even have paved roads. They had awesome food! They gave you huge portions and with every meal we got Xhosa bread which was delicious. Our first night we just ate (we got a pound of meat which they liked to call lasagna). Our hut was away from the main part of the hostel so we had to walk across a stream to get to it. It was a little more private. The next day we had a beautiful day and went for a hike to Hole in the Wall. Just about the whole thing was up hill-and not just a small hill either. Three hours up hill will give you quite the work out! But it was worth it. We walked along the edge of the hills with the ocean right next to us. Sometimes it was just nice to stop and take in the view and the sheer beauty of it and think how cool it was to be there. Once we got to Hole in the Wall we got toasties on the beach. The Hole in the Wall was pretty cool. There is like a large rock island with a hole in the middle. It was cool to see the waves crash through it. Our tour guide said they do cliff jumps off of it, but we couldn't do it because the waves were too dangerous. There was a storm approaching, which made things interesting.

On our ride back (yes we got a ride because we might have died trying to hike back ) it started raining. That night we just hung out with the others at the hostel. When we tried returning to our side we found a raging (and I mean raging) river separating the main part from our hut. Since we didn't know how else to get across, we just crossed it. It was a little difficult as it was like pitch black out. It was also full of rocks. Some of us had some difficulties, but we eventually made it. Then the next morning we woke up to find our hut flooded. It wasn't horrible though. The water was coming in through the door somehow. The whole next day it poured like mad and we had to catch rides to even go to the hostel. The hostel is only about 100m away from our hut, but we ended up having to go through town and around to get there. That day we didn't do much because there was nothing much to do. We went to the local hotel for lunch and just chilled the rest of the day. The staff there was awesome and super fun and made it all right to just sit around all day.

The next day we had to leave, but we spent some time shopping in the town. We heard of this little place called Afritude (African Attitude) that sold clothes and the money went to the local community. We had also found some beaded jewelry at the hostel made by the local women. After that we had another long 7 hour bus trip to get to Durban.