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Published: March 2nd 2006
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Funny stories about Meg in Africa!
Chapter 1: My first sailing lesson, February 25
After a short afternoon out on a lake 30 minutes from campus it became obvious that I either lack the McNeill sailing ability or will soon join the success of sailing which is known within my family. Here is a short list in which describes why I think I show potential within the McNeill sailing clan. (this list may not be true for all sailors in my family)
1. I helped sail one of our Hobbie Cats for speedy trip about the lake
2. I capsized twice in the middle of the lake --it adds excitement!—
3. Despite the fact the freshwater lake does not allow me to make it to Bimini, I still have a strong desire to strive sail there. Although, it may be a bit trickier then if we set sail from Florida…
4. Unlike my family I really do know little about sailing but like my family I sail as if I know everything. (Until I overcorrect my steering and almost capsized the little two person boat many times!)
One story from my first lesson: Doni and I decide to go for
a sail. He just got back from a round with another girl and asked if I wanted to come next… so I thought he was one of the experienced sailors. So we take this little boat out, real simple with just one sail, so it should be easy enough. Then the wind really came and I knew we were going to capsize. Thankfully this lake is real shallow and you can stand practically anywhere in it so we were not afraid (and I assumed he knew what he was doing, since I clearly did not!) We successfully capsize, swim under the boat and get it right-side up again. Now all we had to do was climb back in. Sadly we could not stand and the sail still had a mighty grip on the wind. Doni who is obviously taller then myself tries to steer to boat to a stop so we can climb back in, meanwhile my grip slowly moves towards the back of the boat. Doni climbs in while I am near the rudder, and still can not stand. The boat moves faster and I grow weaker. I told him I couldn’t hold on any longer and he (dramatically
says No!) and I let go. There I was in the middle of the lake which now has 3 windsurfers on it, 5 sail boats, and 1 speed boat, and a Meg in the middle. Doni is sailing away… and I asked if he could turn around (Jib or whatnot…) and he asked me how! I knew then that I was in trouble. After about 20 minutes of me trying to swim after the boat, Doni getting some good steering lessons in, and me somehow avoiding the speed boat was finally able to sail again. It was then that I found out that this was Doni’s 3rd time every sailing. The sad thing is after all my years in Florida he was still better then me! Thankfully we made it back to the dock safely without another capsize!
Oh, and yes I did try windsurfing. Not a success. The wind was quite strong and the only board available was the 6meter board! The guy teaching me said is incredibly difficult to surf and perhaps impossible to learn on. So I decided to no longer let the sail win that battle and hopefully I will have better luck with a
4meter sail!
Chapter 2: My trip to Camps Bay on March 1
The day of elections and no classes to go to, what else are two girls to do? Go to the beach! Actually Jess heard of an amazing icecream place called Sinful which is at Camps Bay so we decided to go to the beach in the morning, get some icecream, and then go for a hike in the afternoon. The perfect and productive day off of school! Negative… the rain has been on and off these past few days and the man next to me in the minibus taxi told me it was an 80% chance for today. Oh well, I told him we’d atleast get some icream out of the trip! Looking around many people were in jackets, sweatshirts, and definitely not just swim suits. Since we came all that way we weren’t going to let the dark ocean and gray sky keep us from searing our suits and attempting to get some sun. This obviously made us look like tourists.
While laying there a girl comes up to me and asks if I can help her with her school work. I was quite confused because the paper she was holding had a bunch of 50cent pieces on it but it didn’t look like math. Meanwhile two other smaller girls, who were licking their fingers from potato chips, asked me if I had some small change. I told them I did not (which is true since I spent it on the minibus). Then, she jumped on me; did a straight up belly flop onto my belly, giggling the entire time. Her friend thought it was hilarious and jumped on her! Jess started cracking up while I had to girls laying on me (and elbowing me) while spreading chips all over me. After a few more exchanged laughs they ran off. It was completely random but they were quite adorable!
--Like any big city there are adults and kids everywhere asking for money. Last week we had another fun interaction at Greenmarket Square Last with some children trying to earn some change. Green Market is one of the biggest tourist places in the City Bowl. It’s a relatively small patch of ground where vendors from all over (mostly the townships) sell their goods. Of course tourists get ripped off but you just have talk prices down, which isn’t hard since everyone sells the same thing so they are quite competitive.
Anyway, after school was out there were quite a few children asking for money or telling us to buy from their stand. Before we left we talked with a few of the boys for about 15 minutes. They were so down to earth. The two younger brothers were telling us about their enjoyment with soccer while the older one said he hopes to go to varsity (what Universities are referred to as) and how he hates math. It’s so easy just to turn down people begging for money but it’s so enlightening understanding where they come from, their passions, and laughing with them. One of my friends ended up giving them a few Rand as long as they promised to share it evenly. Hopefully their aspirations will not be replaced by constant street begging, although it is unlikely.
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Wide eyed traveller
Daniel Carter
Message for you
Hi. See your TravelBlog messages wrt your panoramic photo. Cheers