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Published: November 18th 2006
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Alright! This is gonna be a good posting :o)
So what have i been up to the last couple days? (god it feels like WEEKS!!) Well the first day was just to settle into the hostel and meet all the other volunteers. There are about 15 of us in total, some Germans, Canadians (3 of us from Ontario, 1 from Montreal, 1 from BC), one Norwegian girl, and some dutch people! Everybody is super nice and we're all getting along fairly well. Although spending 24/7 together has definitely starting to take a toll, we are all spending more alone time and trying not to be grumpy with each other because we're tired!
Speaking of which, SOOO many people are stressing out about not being able to keep in good contact with home. That really kinda annoys me! I dont know why they have to keep in constant communication with friends/family/significant others.... how are they going to miss you if you never really leave??? So i guess i'm just not really feeling as homesick as the rest of them, but as my mom knows i think i learned how to deal with that kind of thing when i spent 3
months in France when i was 16. I intend to live every day to the max because i've got less than 90 more days here!!!!
Ok and so on the second day, we walked around downtown a bit and made our way over to the SASTS office, which is our host company here (the equivalant of SWAP - student work abroad program- who i enrolled through in Canada). The people there are great and i had a chance to talk with the head guy about my worries about working in a muslim run reserve. I was a little worried because the info said that dress should be conservative, and i was worried that meant no tank tops or shorts. Not to mention that i have a couple tattoos that are fairly visible! Rashid, the boss guy, just happened to be Muslim, so i asked him about all this and he said DONT WORRY! He said that to be a good muslim is to respect all others and their choices (which is what i figured, but you never know!) So now i'm pretty excited about getting to the reserve this Tuesday!
The day after, we did our Cape Peninsula
tour which was so beautiful there are no words to describe. I'll try to get some more pictures up after i type this. Also, i made a video of the penguins on my camera!! I'll try to get it on this site too :o)
So ya, we saw all kinds of wildlife driving around and we got to hike up and around the Cape of Good Hope (which is the most southwestern point of Africa) and the long story short is that a LOT of people got burnt and we were all very sore the next day. OH and the tour group that took us along the cape also gave us bikes to ride! So at one point we got out and strapped on helmuts and biked (mostly downhill THANK GOD) along the coast. (Personal note - Thierry: the bikes were those rapid fire ones - i get what you mean now, they are AMAZINGLY easy to use!!)
The day after that, was yesterday, and we went to Robben Island. This is the prision island/army base where Nelson Mandela and many other (black) political prisioners were kept up until the early 90's. Not really that exciting to see,
Seals
They let us get sooo close! No fear! but the ideas behind it all were very thought provoking. I have pictures of the very cell Mandela spent 18 years of his life in.
Robben Island was about a 40 min ferry ride, and going out was alright, but coming back.... oh man.... it was ROUGH!!!! I seriously almost go sick... there was a point, we were all sitting on the ground at the back of the boat, and i was like "this is it, i'm gonna puke!" and a guy gave me a baggie.... but luckily it passed and i didnt have to use it :o) The girl sitting next to me (German girl from our group) was not so lucky, if you catch my drift!
After our horrible ferry ride, we spend the rest of the day wandering around not really doing much. I did some laundry! Then.... we went out! To "Cool Runnings" a hip-hop club downtown! It was great, although i didnt get home until 4am and i'm pretty tired today.
We were all being very safe last night though.... the bar was only 6 blocks away but we cabbed it there and back and we definitely all looked after each other while we were there. Some of the people in the group are a little too.... whats the word.... flippant? about the dangers of Capetown, and it annoys me a bit. There are too many scary stories about muggings and stuff for me to ignore. Some of them seem to be subscribing to the "ya, but it wont happen to me" club.
So then today we went to the townships. Which is basically just a nice term for the slums that exist all around the city. Kinda like the burbs of Toronto but without water or electricity! It was actually kind of depressing. Okay, not depressing..... but definitely emotional. Seeing how people live, talking with some of them, seeing the kids and waving at them and stuff.... it was all very emotional. I found out at lunch that i wasn't the only one fighting back tears a couple times! This experience today has made me (almost) regret doing the wildlife volunteer. I would love to bring just a touch of joy to these kids lives.... they deserve it. I worry about them.... it aches inside to think about their futures....
I'm going to see SASTS on Monday about maybe taking a week off at the reserve to help out with school programs over the holidays.
Okay! So that's just about everything! Minus a lot of details of course, like it would take me forever to get into all the new friends i've made and the relationships we have with each other and jokes and fun times we've had.
Tomorrow is the Winelands Tour (hee hee!) and then Monday is a free day to do whatever we want. Some of us are talking about climbing Table Mountain here in town (it's about 1km up and i'd really like to do it so i can see if i really CAN physically do Kilimanjaro or if it's going to be a waste of my time and money, you know?)
I will try to post again before we leave for Kuwantu Tuesday morning, because it will probably be a couple weeks before i can post again. Sorry that this is such a long post but i wanted to try and please all those people who love little details! Thanks to everybody who's left notes on the blog, it makes my day to hear from you guys and to know that you enjoy hearing about my trip!
Personal note:
Erin and Thierry - hope the petsitting is going well! I miss all my puppies and kitties :'o(
Bye for now,
Janine
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Lima
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GO JANINE GO!!
Sounds like an amazing, EMOTIONAL ride---but that will make it all the more unforgettable! I hope you can add Kilimanjaro to your adventure, but I've heard it is a climb and a half...my friend says he enjoyed the hike more than being at the top, as he remembers very little (altitude sickness) I'm sure the next 90 days will fly---and I'll be sure to check out your blogs (NOSY)---but hey, that's what they're here for, right? ;) good luck, have fun---and ignore the '2 day HOMESICKies'----they always get on my nervers---hahaha---(hey homesickies STAY HOME!) cheers me.