In the Field!

So far South Africa has been pretty amazing. I really loved Cape Town, it was such a gorgeous place. I am glad we could spend a few days there seeing the sights, before we headed down to East London. Anyone going there with a limited budget (both money and time) should check out the City Sightseeing Bus. You buy a ticket for the day and can ride it all over, getting off and on. It took us to some great places, like the Botanical Gardens right on the side of Table Mountain. So gorgeous and peaceful. And it goes to World of Birds, a park with hundreds of birds and some other animals too. They had one enclosure with several little monkeys running around and you could go inside and they would jump on your shoulder and try to steal things from your pockets! And of course driving along Chapman’s Drive and down to the Cape of Good Hope was incredible. I could go on and on.

We did have to leave Cape Town though and get on to the next adventure. And to do that we had to ride a Greyhound Bus for 16 hours! We drove all night, so we unfortunately did not get to see as much of the South African country side as we hoped to. But we did have several hours of light in the morning with which to admire the hills and vegetation and towns. East London is quite green and there are lots of plants and trees, thick vegetation. But it is harder to see that where we are staying, surrounded by neighborhoods, malls, etc. Our host family has been absolutely spectacular. The Thomases are great and we love them already! Our little flat is very nice, with lots of sunlight and white curtains. We are all starting to get used to life here, but at first it was a little daunting. Venturing out onto the street or into the mall was nerve wracking. It still is, a little, but we are finding our way around and meeting new people, so things are slowly becoming less alien. I spent the day at the Zimani Daycare. I was stuck into a classroom of 30ish four to five year olds. It was a blast! The daycare is in Duncan Village, one of the townships of East London. The classroom is an old shipping crate or train box car, I am not sure which. The kids were super funny and quick to grin. They taught me clapping games and had a great time playing with my hair and generally using me as a jungle gym.

One of my favorite things so far has been getting used to the taxis. That is our main mode of transportation – taxis are crazy!!! I wish I could do a field study just on them and the drivers. There is a whole system, that we have not quite figured out yet, but I find it fascinating. Yesterday I was in a taxi van with 16 other people! The person sitting next to the driver gets to sort out the money, although the passengers are pretty good at sorting it out themselves. I had a R10 bill and went to pass that forward with the rest of my row – they made sure that I got the correct change out of our collective money pile before passing it all forward.

We have noticed that people who work in the shops and grocery stores are not overly friendly – I feel like it is not unusual in an American store for the cashier to make small talk with you. I do not know if people just don’t do that here, or if because we are white they figure we won’t speak the language…but cashiers here do not do that kind of thing. But that is not to say that people are not kind or friendly. Some of the taxi guys are super friendly, but then they have to be outgoing to track down prospective passengers. People at church have been very friendly, the YSA group is awesome. We have already done one activity with them and institute and a fireside. Tonight we are going to play miniature golf, or put-put with them. I am hoping to get a game of ultimate Frisbee going one of these days – that would be a blast!

As for my project…well I went to the zoo and spoke with the curator. I am still waiting to hear back from her a positive “Yes, you can come do your project.” It sounded promising though. There was the minor setback that the zoo does not actually have zookeepers, it has general workers who have not been trained in animal care or biology or zoology. But it sounds like some of them have been there for years, so I am sure they have developed relationships with the animals in their care. Alison told me of several other animal places. So far I have visited the SPCA, an animal shelter. I got one interview there, but was not allowed to get more. That is fine, because in the SPCA creating bonds with the animals can actually be detrimental to both parties. I really want to check out the Lion Park. It sounds like the Promised Land for my project. Unfortunately it is a bit out of town, so I have to wait until the Thomases or someone could give me a lift there. I am still trying to track down other places that I can volunteer. One group sounds promising, but they do not have anything for me to do right now.

To conclude this blog post – South Africa has really been amazing so far. It is different and eye-opening. Things have been at times uncomfortable but I think that is the point. We are meant to grow and be stretched and that is going to hurt a bit. But it will be worth it in the end, I hope. I have discovered the joys of rooibos tea and rusks and I can never go back!