Hey Guys We Just Broke Every Study Abroad Rule Tonight Besides Getting AIDS

On Saturday evening four of us decided that we wanted to go to a South African soccer game. I mean this just adds to the South African experience.  In order for us to get to the game we had a few adventures in the making.  The game was in Johannesburg, which is about an hour away, and our only transport there was the taxi bus.  Let me back up a few steps.  To really immerse in the culture I wanted to paint my face the South African Flag.  After my face was painted and we were ready to go, I realized I would have to spend in hour in the taxi bus with my face painted.  We already stood out enough because we were white, but now we stood out even more.  We were told that in order to get a taxi headed towards Johannesburg we needed to find the Bosman taxi stop.  This sounds easy right?  We didn’t know exactly where the stop was so we had to start asking people on the street.  The first guy we asked said “go to the left then turn right at the robot (stoplight) and then go down the alley.  At this point I started to have a flash back of all the things we were told not to do while studying abroad.  I’m pretty sure going down a dark alley at night was one of them.  But concentrate Caitlin we have to make the game.  To double check we asked a few more people and the directions were all the same.   We headed down the narrow alley that had high walls and was full of trash; if we wanted to escape there was no way of climbing the walls.  There were many puddles we had to cross,  and we kept hoping that they were only puddles of water.  Then BANG right in front of our eyes were a group of about 15 or 20 men.  They were standing in the middle of the alley drinking and blocking the walkway, and to add to the scene one of them was holding a lantern (about the only lighting in the alley.)  At this point we all kind of went cold but had to continue walking. We then saw that we could turn right, so right we went.  There was the taxi station.  We then were told we needed to take a taxi to Johannesburg and get off at the Park Station.  The cab ride there was hilarious.  The driver was blasting Celine Deion and we were going at a nice fast pace, which made us think that making the game on time was possible.  As we entered Johannesburg it was now completely dark outside.  Nathan the only guy with us saw a sign Hillbrow and said “guys I remembering reading that this is one of the most dangerous blocks in South Africa.”  Our driver pulled over and told us that this was our stop and we needed to get out and walk a few blocks.  Perfect! Everyone watch your bags.  Explaining this neighborhood is almost impossible, to explain it simply, shady characters crowded the street.  We then had to catch a train to the stadium, but once we got the station the last train had already left.  The only way to get there now, was by walking back through the neighborhood about 15 minutes to the stadium. Just remember two of us had our faces pained.  We didn’t stand out or anything.  Finally we made it to the stadium.  All we could do was laugh.  We had survived the trip.   The game was great and people kept asking to have their pictures taken with us because of our faces.  We were kind of a big deal.  The score was 0-0 and then in the third minute of extra time Bafana Bafana scored! The stadium went nuts.  You could feel the stadium vibrate, which was incredible!

International Day, March 26

On Saturday the International students at the University of Pretoria went to Mamelodi to host an International Day for the students.  I was the team leader for the Country France.  Throughout the day we took our teams to different stations.  The first station that France attended was music.  In music we learned a song that two children for the UK wrote for Mamelodi.  After music, we went to the reading station.  I read books to the children, and then I let one of the girls read a book to the group.  Before lunch we had a little bit of time so I taught my group the game duck duck goose.  They enjoyed the game especially catching one another on the run around the circle. The children then had lunch and after that we went to art.  In the art session we painted their faces with any flag they wanted, and while some were getting their faces painted, others were painting a mural for the school.  After art we had sports, where some of the children played soccer and others played Frisbee.  There was also a group that played hair dresser on my hair.  Many of them have never felt a white person’s hair, so they could not get over my hair.  I didn’t mind them playing with my hair because a head massage always feels good!  After sports, all the countries came together and performed the song they had learned in music.  All of the children seemed to have a great time throughout the day, and many of us could not of had enough hugs by the end of the day.

They Call it Hiking, but We Call it Rock Climbing

 

On Sunday, we then went on a spectacular hike in the berg.  We hiked the amphitheatre summit to the Tugela Falls, which is the second tallest waterfall in the world.  They drove us halfway up the mountain, because they said if we did the entire hike it would take 32 days.  Even though they took us somewhat up we still hiked 6.5 miles.  The scenery was breath taking.  At one point during the hike, we had to go off trail and climb up rocks for over 200 meters.  This was one of my favorite parts.  At times it was quite tricky.  You had to make sure the rocks you were climbing up were not loose rocks. If the rocks were loose you didn’t want to dare try and climb them.  Once we got to the top, we were on a peak of 1000 meters in the air.

  We then had lunch at the peak as we dangled our feet over the edge.  After lunch we had to keep on our journey to the world’s tallest waterfall.  We eventually made it, and boy was it ever worth the hike!  On the way back down we could not take the rock route, so we got to go down two ladders on the mountain.  This was also another highlight of my day.  The last highlight was once we were back to the van.  Most everyone passed out on the ride back to the hostel.  This was a great way to end our trip.  On Monday we spent the day traveling back to Pretoria. 

Lesotho

On Saturday morning we had to wake up early to go on a day trip to Lesotho.  Lesotho is its own country that is inside South Africa.  It is the third poorest country in the world.  Once we got to Lesotho, we all had to get out of the car at border control.  We all got another stamp in our passport.  We went on a tour through one of the villages there.  It was incredible.  In the village they have different color flags. When there are flags up, anyone in the community can come to the gathering. The red flag means there is meat, green: vegetables, white: beer, and yellow: pineapple beer.  During our tour we found a white flag.  We were then invited into their hut for some of their beer.  The beer was quite unique.  It tasted almost like soggy bread.  Let’s just say one sip was enough. 

While we were there we also tried a dish of maize and spinach, it was pretty tasty.  We also played and danced with some of the children there.  We ended up having to go, because we had to get out of their country by 4pm. 

Drakensberg

This past weekend we had a three-day weekend due to a public holiday.  We decided to take a trip to Drakensberg.  We had not tried the greyhound bus system yet, so we decided we would try it for our trip.  The bus trip was interesting to say the least, but finally we arrived to our location.  The hostel we were staying in had overbooked the dormitory, so our group ended up sleeping in tents for the weekend.  Since we were in the mountains, it got pretty cold at night, but this just added a little spice to our vacation.  Even though we were staying in tents, our hostel was pretty awesome.  They had a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, sauna, climbing wall and bar.  Since we arrived late, most of us went to bed for the night.

A Wee Bit O’ Green

Top of the mornin’ to ya.  Everyone should know my love for St. Patrick’s Day.  This year I brought some of my love for St. Patrick’s Day to Africa.  Most of the exchange students in our program did not even know what this day was, what a shame! Since Leah and I both love this holiday, we decided to make it a big deal for everyone.  Throughout our stay here, we have been known as the chocolate chip cookie girls.  What’s better than chocolate chip cookies? Green chocolate chip cookies!  All afternoon we were busy making green cookies to celebrate, however we did change the name to Leprechaun treats.  For dinner I made some of my roommates add food coloring to their meals. This was still nothing.  Later that night, I shared my green for many to try the traditional green beer (a have to have on St. Patrick’s Day.)  Overall it was a great day, but I still missed the huge parade back home!

Goldfish Concert

Since the beginning of our stay in South Africa, our group has become familiar with a South African band Goldfish.  After our long trip to Durban with only a Goldfish cd, most of us became fans of the group.  Soon after our trip we found out that they were going to be performing in Hatfield the town we live in.  The concert was at the Square the place we usually party at, which is only a few blocks from our housing development. Better yet, the concert was only 40 rand, which is less than 7 dollars.  (I’ll pay that any day for a concert.)  The concert was full, and ended up being amazing! 

Our Blood is Blue

A popular sport here in South Africa is Rugby.  No matter what day of the week, you can always almost find a rugby game.  The Bulls are Pretoria’s professional team.  One of the girls in our group is dating one of the players so we have gotten to know him pretty well.  A few weekends ago they had a home game, and he got us all tickets for the match.  The team color is blue, so it covered the stadium. I do not know much about rugby, but I still enjoyed the game.  During the game, a section of the stadium started the wave.  Round after round the wave continued around the stadium.  They ended up losing the match but it was still interesting to watch.  It was definitely nothing like American football. 

Mamelodi Primary School

I do have some new News for everyone. As most of you knew I was volunteering weekly at Mamelodi a township school, but now I am doing an internship there this semester.  I am working with twelve fourth grade boys.  Their teacher told me these boys have had some behavioral issues in class and are currently behind.  I was told that up to two years ago teachers were able to hit students that misbehaved. Now that it is against the law, teachers are struggling with classroom behavior and management. The teachers want me to work with and teach these boys English.  At Mamelodi, the children are taught in the language Zulu.  The students do not start to learn English until the fourth grade.  In South Africa their semesters are different from ours, so their first semester just started in January.  This means that my students hardly know any English if any at all.  My first day was quite interesting to say the least.  I did not know they didn’t know English, until I had so many clueless faces.  We had ourselves a bit of a language barrier, but one of the boys helped me translate.   This Tuesday I taught my first lesson.  One of my friends that lives in my residence speaks Zulu, so he had to teach me some words.  Since I do not know my students very well yet, I wanted to do a lesson that would help them get to know me and let me get to know them.  I did a family tree activity.  I translated all of the different family members in Zulu and then in English.  I then had them make a tree with all of their family members and then share to the rest of us their family in English.  The activity went very well.  The boys seemed to really enjoy getting to use markers, colored paper etc.  Normally in their classrooms they just listen to the teacher.  This is mainly because they are limited with the supplies they have.  When I was leaving for the day their teacher came up to me and asked me what the students and I had done for the day.  I explained to her and then with a big smile on her face she said “I have never seen that much excitement on their faces”.  This motivated me a little bit more.  In the weeks ahead, I have many more lessons to come.  I am trying to plan activities for them to learn in a way that they have never learned before.  

Sunday February, 27 -Horse Back Riding in the Mountains

Everyone knows my fear for horses.  Let me just say I had a traumatizing event happen when I was younger.  No matter what, I have always refused to get back on a horse.  I would rather go sky diving, or bungee jumping than get on a horse.  Well this weekend was a different story.  I decided I needed to get over this long time fear and sign up for a horseback riding adventure in the mountains.  I mean why not I am in South Africa, BRING IT!  We showed up in the mountains and I was pumped up and ready to go.  The head lady was assigning horses and I asked her to give me the calmest horse they have.  She said follow me and brought me to George.  While saddling up she informed me that George is almost dead so he would treat me well.  As riders were getting on their horses, I had a little pep talk with George.  I was treating him like a human.  The journey started and to say the least it actually wasn’t that bad.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  Not to long into the ride the instructor asked if we wanted to gallop.  Hesitantly, I said lets do it!  I gave George a nice kick and there we went.  Everyone in the group knew when I was galloping because I could not control my laughter.  Forget the rule of being quiet on a horse, George and I were bonding and getting along great! 

Once our ride was over I told the rest of the group to forget that as my fear, when I get home I am buying a horse and competing at the Iowa State Fair!  J

Saturday February, 26- LETS RAFT

Rafting was a freezing yet exhilarating experience.  They measure the rapids on a scale 1-6 and we did rapids 1-4.  We started out with training and then we hit the water.  Throughout the day there were numerous water fights and even jumping from raft to raft for secret attacks.  We also had a back flip competition of our boats.  We are supposed to get a video soon, which should be fun to watch.  Later that afternoon there was a beer festival going on so we attended that for a bit. Afterwards we all had a Braai and Bonfire.

Clarens

This past weekend our house parents took us on a trip to Clarens.  Clarens is a beautiful little village in South Africa.  When we arrived Friday evening they did not have enough girl bedrooms so they asked if Leah and I would mind having the honeymoon suite.  Of course I did not have a problem with the honeymoon suite.  In our suite we had our own kitchen, bathroom, and gathering area.  Our room became the after hour party spot.  After moving into our room we went out for dinner and then to about the only bar in the town.  It was a nice environment.  They had a live band, and as long as we continued to buy drinks they continued to play.  Eventually the bar closed so we headed back to the honeymoon suite to continue the party.  At about four or so in the morning we decided we should go to bed because we had to wake up in just a few hours for a day of white water rafting. 
  

Karaoke Thursday

All week I had been looking forward to Karaoke night by recruiting others to join Karaoke night.  I promised our group that I would sing a song.  After looking through the songbook, some of us girls decided on singing Wanna Be by Spice Girls.  As other people at the bar were performing their songs, there was a t.v. screen showing who was up next and how many other people were to perform in front of you.  I saw on the screen the name Caitlin.  Everyone in our group went along saying “that is weird there must be another Caitlin here.”  I agreed and kept scanning the crowd trying to figure out who looked like a Caitlin, yet alone, even spelled their name the same.  When it was time for Caitlin to perform everyone started chanting Caitlin and pulling me up to the stage. Wow had I been fooled. It was me that was supposed to be singing.  Some of my friends went and registered me for the song Barbie Girl when I was not paying any attention.  Yes, I said it Barbie Girl.  I knew I would look like a fool if I didn’t go up on stage when the announcer kept calling me up to perform.  What did Caitlin do? I got up on stage and rocked Barbie Girl.  I might say that it was somewhat embarrassing because I had no one to sing Kens part, so the announcer helped me out.  It was also humiliating because I did not even get ready for the night picture this; I had my hair pulled back and glasses on.  I am sure everyone at the bar was judging me as the girl who wants to be Barbie however she is in glasses and not rocking the Barbie life.  My friends did tell me that everyone in the audience was getting into the song.  However, I beg to differ that’s what friends are suppose to say!

How to Catch a Predator

You have all seen the show how to catch a predator.  For a few weeks lets just say our household got to play a little version of how to catch a predator.  We had a peeping Tom hanging around our house at night.  We started witnessing him at unexpected times, mainly late at night.  Our house is right next to the boys house, so we use our windows as  convenient communication.  One night my roommate Lay and I were going to creep on the boys.  All of a sudden I noticed a guy outside our house and pointed him out to Lay. He was dressed in all black, which made it difficult to see.  The minute she saw him she started laughing and he started acting somewhat suspicious.  Whatever, we continued to chill and then about 30 to 40 minutes later I went to bed.  We have no air conditioning in our house so sleeping with the windows open is a must.  I have a tree outside my window so I can always hear when people are walking in between the houses because of the leaves on the ground.  I kept hearing people walking by my window, but blew it off because people always walk in between the houses.  About ten minutes later I kept hearing walking, so I peaked out my window to see the same guy pacing back and forth outside my window. I snuck out of my room to go and get Lay.  I am guessing he heard me open my door because then he was gone.  Weird occasions like these kept occurring.  My friend Canada who lives in the boys’ house can see our house from his window.  He was warned if he were to see this man to go and get security.  A few nights later our peeping Tom was caught but then let go.  The head of our housing finally caught him again at six in the morning.  I thought everything was over but oh no.  When I got home from class the next day a man from criminal investigation was at our house waiting to question.  He then took me into the office for more questioning.  Everyone was taking it a little out of proportion, but lets just say I haven’t seen any peepers for a while...  Another predator caught my friends!

Update

Sorry it has been a few weeks since the last blog.  I have done many things since then but have not written everything down.  In a nutshell I will explain some of the stuff I have been up to: House 21 Family Dinner, birthdays, learning how to cook, volunteering at the township school, wild nights of going out, working out at the gym, a weekend in Johannesburg, wait! Did I mention going out? Oh and one other thing I almost forgot, classes finally started.  I am loving the South African lifestyle and cannot believe I have already been here over a month.  We are starting to get a set schedule for each week.  Monday night some of us attend Trivia at a bar near by.  Trivia has become a huge competition between the houses.  We are so close to beating the boys!  Tuesday and Wednesday we do whatever.  Us girls have started taking turns with cooking dinner.  This is really nice because you do not have to worry about cooking every night.  One of the exchange students from Canada tried out for the varsity basketball team at our University and made the team.  This past week we went and watched him play.  Actually let me say we were his support team.  Every time he would go in for some playing time we would go nuts with cheering; I felt like a proud parent.  Thursday nights are hopping at the square so we cannot seem to pass up the fun. Fridays have become Braai-day Friday and Saturday is our clubbing night.