Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 575

We opened the day in Satara camp with some bird spotting, where we found a pearl spotted owl, a african hoopoe (supposedly the stinkiest bird of all), and a crested barbet. We are not bird people, but there is something about seeing such colorful birds in such proximity that makes you appreciate the variety and abundance out there. The morning drive from Satara out of the park was a little slow (please note how seeing a herd of impala on your first day can be the most exciting day of your life, but by a few days later it just becomes routine. Stupid Americans...). We spotted a very large herd of buffalo, some zebras, and a few giraffes. However, just 3.5 hours after leaving Satara, we fell straight into a little piece of heaven. We ... read more

I spent the afternoon looking around the lab for chemicals I needed for a specific test...and failed miserably...they are in the process of remodeling the building and everything is scattered everywhere. I enlisted the help of a UNIVEN grad student, and the two of us set out on a campus wide hunt for the chemicals....after an hour or two of rummaging through store rooms and boxes and the occasional bright red "Biohazard bag" ("Don't worry Jim...its not REAL biohazard"....I have no idea what "real biohazard" means but even the fake stiff makes me nervous...I decided that the chemicals probably weren't in the bag and set it aside uninspected). We eventually concluded that the chemicals were not in the microbiology department and moved on to the chemistry department. The student led me outside to a solid ... read more

Bring it on. After an early morning breakfast we said goodbye to the hippos and headed out to Kruger Park, only 5 minutes down the road. We entered Kruger via the Paul Kruger enterance and before we even entered the park we spotted animal tracks in the river. It is winter in South Africa and all of the rivers in the park are completely dry. Needless to say we made a bathroom stop at the enterance for fear of what would be awaiting us outside if nature called before we reached our camp. Needless to say nature was waiting for us at the bathrooms where a few warthogs were happily awaiting our arrival. On to the park - with our feet barely through the gate we encountered our first herd of Impalas crossing the road. ... read more

Well, my trip thus far has been interesting to say the least. Right now, at 4:15 in the morning, I find myself trying to fix a paper (my very last undergrad essay) that I turned in a couple days before I left for South Africa. The problem started on Tuesday when I check my final grade for the 2 credit indepent study class that I was taking spring quarter. The only requirement for two credits was that I had to write an 8-10 page essay by the end of the quarter. Unfortunately, the teacher suspected that I was guilty of plagarism and gave me an incomplete grade for the two credits... Because of this, I am two credits short of graduatin in the spring and have until July 20th to fix the problem or else ... read more

On Friday, our class took a field trip to the District Six Museum in downtown Cape Town. District Six was a neighborhood in Cape Town during the 1940s-60s that was comprised mostly of immigrants, blacks and coloreds. In 1966, the Nationalist government (who was responsible for apartheid policies) passed the Group Areas Act, which allowed them to relocate blacks and coloreds so that whites could have prime real estate in the country. By the end of the act, blacks and coloreds (90% of the population), were only permitted to live in 13% of the geographical area of the country. District Six was one of the areas that everybody was ousted from, with bulldozers and forced relocations to a place called Cape Flats, about 15 miles away from the center of town, and all the shanties ... read more