Rugby Fest

On April 23, we headed to Johannesburg to spend the night at our friend Jacks house.  He let us stay with him because on Sunday we had to be at the airport at five in the morning.  Picture this we had to take the taxi bus to Johannesburg with all of our bags for our trip! There is hardly enough room for just people yet alone our bags!  The taxi driver ended up letting us out in the middle of an intersection for our friend Jack to find us.  Only in South Africa would this happen.  Jack eventually found us and then we hit up the Rugby Festival that was going on AKA Beer fest! The day was loads of fun, but getting on the airplane the next morning wasn’t so much.  I had to ask Jack if I could shower at four in the morning, because I was afraid security would not let me on the plane smelling like beer!

We spent a few days in Capetown but then we rented our car(Carmen)and GPS (Daniel) to travel the Garden Route. On the Garden Route we did:

For The Kids

Before I left for my latest trip to Cape Town, I decided that I wanted to apply to be a Morale Captain for next years Dance Marathon at Loras College.  For those of you who do not know what Dance Marathon is, it is an organization that raises money for the University of Iowa Hospital.  Dance Marathon is busy all year long hosting play dates with children in the hospital, room of magic’s on Friday nights, events throughout the year, family visits, mini marathons hosted at schools and much more.  Throughout the year you raise money for Dance Marathon and then one day out of the year you attend the marathon.  The marathon lasts for twelve hours, and you may not sit down or have caffeine for those twelve hours.  I had a disadvantage for not being in Dubuque for the tryouts, but I didn’t want that to get in the way for me applying.  I decided to make a video to send in but the problem was I only had 5 and a half hours to make the video and send it in before I left for my travels.  The video turned out pretty good for being in a developing country whose Internet only works half of the time!  To watch my video the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NwW_iiWdzY

The great news is I just found out I got the position!

Wow it has been awhile since I have blogged!  No worries, everything is still going great  in South Africa.  I am still teaching at Mamelodi, and my kiddos are picking up on a lot!  Other than that I am still somewhat attending classes and much more.  I will blog about some of my journeys but to keep you updated on other things I will just list.  I have been out a few more nights in Johannesburg, participated in One Day Without Shoes for the TOMS shoes organization, attended more Braais, dressed up for an 80’s themed party bus, kicked ass in the drinking Olympics, watched Loras College’s Dance Marathon live and recently I just got back from traveling.

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.