Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 580

Refilwe has changed so much since last year, in fact everything everywhere appears to have changed. Jo’burg airport is different, lots of the shanty towns on the way to Refilwe have been replaced by what looks like cheap, affordable houses similar in size to the shacks they replace but built from proper materials. I guess the government have got to do something before 2010 although the few people I’ve spoken to here about the World Cup are doubtful the stadia will be ready for it but we can but hope. I’m hoping to get some photos of Refilwe up tomorrow so people can see how much it’s changed. Anyways, I’m just settling in today so not much to inform you of without photos…….... read more

Business: First, I noticed that the dates of the pictues do no match the dates on the journal entry. This is because my camera is on US Eastern time and I am in South Africa. So my camera is 6 hours behind the events (strange but hilarious). Second, I have been spending too much rand on the internet cafe typing these blogs and fighting to convert and load 8 megapixel images on computers from 2 years ago. So I have loaded the majority of my phots on facebook. If you don't have a facebook account I'm sorry and you will have to wait until I develop them or until I get back to the states. Okay, Robben Island, my diamon in the rough, the place I have been waiting for. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on this ... read more

Wanting to get a taste of the South African way of life, Gene and I opted to take a private tour of the Dixie and Utah villages. To our amazement, the villages were first supplied with electricity just three days prior to our visit. Our Djuma guide, Abel, a local villager, informed us that he would be visiting his home for the first time since the electricity was turned on. According to what he had been told by friends and family, the people were celebrating around the clock, blasting music from the windows of their homes. Gene and I were dumbfounded by the notion of life without electricity in today’s day in age. As we pulled into the village past roaming livestock, it became immediately apparent to us that the housing community is undergoing major developmental ... read more

Today is the first of two days I have been waiting for since I found out I was going to South Africa-The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. Today is my professors birthday so a few of us got up early and decorated the dining area of the guest room to surprise her when she came down. We had a "random" birthday party at breakfast and then we got on our way to the place where two waters meet. On the way we stopped in Kalk Bay a fishing and tourist area. We walked around shopped and ate. I am enjoying being a tourist after spending the majority of my trip so far being a student and a volunteer. We arrived at Cape Point and were welcomed by baboons sitting in the middle of ... read more

Today a day in the life of Tommy and Eileen woke up, this morning at Whale song lodge to go Shark diving. We were booked through our Inn, and arrived at the diving site around 8:00am. We were with people from Australia (Tanzania) and Africa to name a few. Once we took off on our 42 ft shark cage fishing boat called Barracuda, we realized it was a little shadier operation than we anticipated. I don’t discourage anyone from ever trying this experience but, I guess the regulations are very different for tourism/boating in Africa. Anyway, we were barely given instruction except to put on this wet suit, and me, Tommy and 3 others were instructed to jump into the ocean, in a cage that was submerged into the ocean. The cage had to be like ... read more