Blogs from Umzumbe, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa
June 29th 2010
Today we slept in and relaxed all day pretty much. We woke up to a beautiful day, but didn’t have the energy to take full advantage of the nice weather. We got ready and drove to Port Shapleton to do some grocery shopping. After we ate, we just relaxed, and eventually walked down to the beach to check it out. When we got there, I found most of the guys from the hostel playing beach soccer. Just as I was getting ready to join them, they wrapped it up and headed back. That sucked, I was really looking forward to running around for a bit. Oh well... We hung out at the beach for a bit watching the waves crash on the rocks. We took some pictures and headed back to the hostel to watch the ... read more
I know this is a bit late... hope it lives up to the hype!
Published: December 8th 2008Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Umzumbe
December 4th 2008
hey!!!!! so, i finally make it to a computer hat has a half decent connecion speed! but the T doesn't work, so bare with me! and now that i've FINALLY uploaded some pics, (on here and facebook, don' ask) it seems i am hungry and i must make this brief so i can eat! travelling makes you v hungry by the way! So.... whas happened! i arrived in Jozi on a sunny sunday morning, at 6:30 in the am. quick call to Guy, a call to the taxi driver and i was on my way back to his (via every back street known to man due to a mamouth bike race that day! a lil snooze, then off to have some lunch. one of first things you notice here, is that every house has electric fences, ... read more
Mantis Moon - Hope you don't mind big dogs!
Published: December 28th 2008Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Umzumbe
December 4th 2008
The start of the Baz Bus journey..... Sean kindly took us to Tekweni Backpackers at 6:00am so that we could get the Baz Bus to Umzumbe. After a 2 hour journey we arrived at the Mantis & Moon backpackers (only an hour from Durban in a car- which my mom found hilerious). On arrival we were upgraded to a private Wendy House on suite. Mantis & Moon has a jungle/fairy glen atmosphere. There were cats, chickens, dogs, monkeys and lots of gogo's (crab as roadkill). The local Spar is over the train tracks.....not a slow walk. Craig taught me how to play darts, what a great teacher because by the end of the night I beat him!!!! We stayed in Umzumbe for 2 days (no surf) and we were looking forward to our next destination.... read more
November 18th 2008
We arrived here after an awesome 7 hours of driving. Ryan drove all of the way. We basically drove along the entre lenght of the Wild coast. Very remote villages but lots of school children in smart clean uniforms hitching a ride. The land is very green here and almost reminded us of wales expect for the 30 degree heat. The further we drove the worse the weather became and it hasnt stop raining since! There were no tree houses availibale but instead we were offered a huge teepee - quite cool. Luckily the hostel is really friendly and had losts to entertain us in the miserable weather. We played snooker, dart, table football, ping pong and refined our chess playing skills which Ry was annoyingly good at. So the gods much of heard you as ... read more
November 17th 2008
Today is a big road trip day and we are heading for the land of the cannibals! We hope to stay in a tree house but I will update you later when we get there!... read more
November 12th 2008
Just as I had predicted in my last entry, it was SO hard to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people that I have met in my month in KwaZulu-Natal. I've hardly even written about the kids at THANDA and how utterly amazing they are. The basketball kids that I worked with for the past month are incredible. There are three boys that stick out, and the ones that brought the tears to my eyes on my last day. Emmanuel, Nduduzo, and Ayanda. They are just some of the happiest kids I have ever met. So easy going and wonderful to talk to. Ayanda is a senior (grade 12) and should be matriculating soon. He wants to be a science teacher someday. I got ayanda on my side on the first day of class when ... read more
November 2nd 2008
Too bad I didn't realize this before I left the states...I really HATE saying Goodbye to people! Unfortunately for me, I just planned an entire year's trip around the fact that I would inevitably be saying goodbye to literally everyone I meet! (Not to say that I will never see them again, but I will have to say goodbye to everyone) I realized this when we were hanging out by our pool one night and Chappy, this cool South African friend was ranting about how much it sucks that I have to leave, and that it's the only thing about being friends with all of the American volunteers, is that they will have to leave eventually. I may never see some of these friends I've made in South Africa again. I would like to hope that ... read more
October 2nd 2008
Here are some pictures from Thanda Basketball's first ever game against a 'real' opponent! Below is a short review of the game I wrote for Thanda: ***** Thanda Afterschool vs. Genesis Afterschool!! Our First Game!! Saturday, August 17th will be a day etched in the minds of Thanda Basketball students for a long time. After weeks and weeks of practices, of teaching the kids about dribbling and passing, about working together as a team, about taking care of the ball, about being aggressive and about rebounding, our players finally got to play their first game. The students were all excited, many of them nervous as well. Our opponent was the Genesis Afterschool Program from the town of Margate, which is about an hour down the coast from Thanda. This was the inaugural match of what we ... read more
October 1st 2008
The final week before the beginning of the school holiday at Thanda, the last of the long-awaited baseball gear arrived. Up until this point, the extent of the baseball program at Thanda involved me making several baseballs a day out of plastic bread bags, and cleaning out several 5-gallon peanut butter buckets to use as ball buckets. So the day the equipment arrived was a BIG DAY for Thanda baseball. I have several folks to thank for the baseball gear. Kevin Slowey, my good friend who pitches for the Minnesota Twins, donated baseballs and some baseball gear. The Bois-Guillaume Woodchucks, my team in France (thanks to Jean-Luc and Tony) sent a care package full of youth baseball uniforms, hats, gloves, and bats. And finally John Olivier and the Kwazulu-Natal Baseball for providing us with gloves, helmets, ... read more
June 14th 2008
That last day in Coffee Bay was raining, so the hostel, The Coffee Shack, organized everyone to go to the hotel and have a nice lunch. Then, they took us to the shebeen, which is kind of a local bar. Mostly it's a liquor store where everything (including the lady working) is in a metal cage and she hands you big bottles of beer or mickeys of liquor. Then, you either stand around outside in the rain and drink the alcohol, or you go next door to the "dance floor" which is another plain concrete room that maybe had a disco ball. It was awesome. That night... was a very early one for me. I went to take a nap at about 7pm, and I slept the night away. Which was good, because the next day ... read more
