May is Busy! Bela Bela and more...

A couple of weeks ago, Aminah (fellow Fulbrighter in KZN) visited me and we went to Limpopo province. My favorite spot really, Bela Bela Warmbaths. Aminah, like me, loves swimming, and who can resist swimming in hot spring pools when it is Autumn. The Hydro pool is huge, half indoor half outdoor, and people swim all night. At night the steam was rising from the water the moon was full; it was very cool!

Since that weekend, I have been busy with work. Lots of marking and invigilating time too.
This weekend I hope to go to a wedding and a graduation party. Next weekend, I leave for 2 week expedition in the rainforests of Madagascar on an Earthwatch expedition to study Lemurs. I have my hiking boots, camp gear, etc all ready. I am psyched! (though a little concerned about the leeches, uggh! They told me wool socks help keep them away, I bought quite a few pair let me tell ya.) More later...

Autumn in South Africa and The Berg

Well, I am slowly catching up on my blogging. It has been a busy few weeks.
Autumn is here. The weather is a bit cooler, but still sunny and 70F most days, at night it goes down to 40-50s. In KwaMhlanga you can hardly tell that it is autumn, except for the occasional crisp feeling in the air. A few weeks ago I visited a fellow Fulbrighter, Aminah, in KZN (Kwa Zulu Natal) in the town/city of NewCastle. It was the town's annual Winter Festival which reminded me a lot of County or State Fairs in the US. There were booths, food, games, some rides, farm animals, etc. It was my birthday, and we had a really nice time. I bought some Zulu beads and celebrated with champagne!

While on the subject on my birthday, it was kind of never-ending-- in fact, it's still not done yet.
I celebrated with teachers and learners at work the day before ( my b-day is May 1, a public holiday here , Worker's Day, so no school). They sang Happy Birthday, it is the same song here, even the how old are you now? part. Though since I am a woman over 29 let's say, I was told to sing back in reply A woman's age is a secret. Lots of fun. Also, a couple of weeks later I got my birthday package from my Mom which was a lot of fun to get and open. And still one more package to go (thanks! Linda and Aunt Shag), so my never-ending b-day continues.

O.K. back to KZN Aminah and I also went on a trip to the Berg, the Drakensberg Mountains. We bought African batiks and candles, ate minced meat waffles (sounds gross, but really yummy), heard the Drakensberg boys Choir sing, and hiked. Stayed in a great little guest house; we had to stay in the "desperate room", reserved for use when everything else is full and booked solid. It was her guest room in her house, but it was lovely and the views were amazing. It was beautiful, and it finally looked and felt like Fall to me. (see pics above)

Astronomers, Parenting Practice, and Me

This has been a crazy week back to school. After 3 weeks of holiday, I was rested, but not ready to work exactly. However, I did have a lot to look forward to this week. Lucy with the embassy arranged for a visiting astronomer from the University of Wisconsin to talk to my learners. He works in coordination with South African Large Telescope in Sutherland (Karoo). This is indeed a large telescope, 11 meters (approx. 11 yards) across. I was able to attend a teacher’s workshop and hear him speak and meet with him afterwards. The next day, he came with Lucy and Mary Ellen (also from embassy) to speak to my grade 11 learners (all 71! of them). He was great. He really got them interested in science, and he and the class had a quite lively discussion about telescopes, planets, stars, galaxies, and the Earth, Moon, and Sun. My, normally subdued students, asked great questions and did not want him to leave; as he walked the school yard, students asked for his autograph and email address to ask more questions. Afterwards, Lucy and Mary Ellen made a very nice donation of science books to begin our school’s library. All in all, it was a great day. The week kept getting better, as I went to a braii Thursday night after work and met some graduate students here on Fulbright exchange. The down side of the week came on Friday, my car started making bad noises, and eventually refused to go faster than 20kph; it was like it was stuck in first gear or something, the way the engine kept revving. It went back to Honda for work, which meant no car for the weekend. The good news was Abram (my principal) gave me a lift home and had no problem taking me to work and back to Honda to pick my car up. The interesting news awaited me Friday night when I got home from dropping my car off.

Here comes the parenting part…

I get home and am greeted by Karabo, Poughie’s son who is usually at boarding school. I figure he is home for a visit, and he and his mom, Poughie, will be spending the weekend home. Not quite. As we are eating dinner, Poughie says that I will be getting some parenting practice for the weekend. I sometimes have difficulty with accents here (like they do with mine) and asked what she meant. Well, it turned out that Karabo was home for the weekend, but Poughie was going to her sister’s for the Saturday and would return Sunday night. I would indeed be getting some parenting practice in. It also turned out that Karabo had a big science project due on Monday which in typical teenager fashion, he had not even started. In addition, I had already promised Lally, a teacher at school, that I would come to her house to work on the 10^th grade composite scores (kind of like report cards).

Karabo is 15 , but looks 12; he was very polite and helped his mom clean before she left to her sister’s. Now, I had heard some things about Karabo not liking school very much and getting into some trouble, but I figured that I would just see how things went. Saturday after his mom left, Karabo went to hang out with his friends and I went to Lally’s to work. That evening Karabo did not come home till after 8:30 pm, which may not seem late, but it was after dark and that is late here. Also, he had done none of his project yet. When he came in, I directed him to the table to show me his project, and he worked until 10:30 pm., but there was still the majority of the project left to do. When he went to sleep, I noticed that his keys were left out. Now, here is probably where I get the Sneaky Parenting Practice Award, I figured that he would try to leave the house to hang out with his friends again, so I took his keys. In SA, keys lock people out and people in, so with no keys he would be literally locked in to do his work in the morning. The next morning I made pancakes, and when he woke up I nicely offered breakfast at the table with his books. We worked for a couple of hours then he started getting distracted and began looking around. I asked if he had lost something and if I could help. He said he couldn’t find his keys, so I let him know that he shouldn’t worry—I found them and had them in my pocket, and would keep them safe until the project was done. So without any fuss, we spent the rest of the morning working – him on his project and me marking my papers. When he was finished, he began packing up his stuff to go out; when I announced that it was now time to see what he learned – I began to ask questions quizzing him on the material he was supposed to not just complete, but learn. All in all, he was a pretty good sport about it, he never said a thing, but I am guessing I will not be doing any more parenting practice in soon.

Along the Garden Route

The Garden Route runs along the southern coast from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, and it is known for its amazing views and landscapes. We traveled the Garden Route for about a week, and it was beautiful. As you drive along the Route, you go from dramatic mountains covered in clouds, to brilliant greens hills and farms (think bucolic), to seashore bays with waves crashing against the rocks, to lakes surrounded by evergreen forests, to flatland plains, to fynbos! So much to see. If you are wondering what fynbos is, it’s a special type of floral kingdom, and the only place on Earth you find it is along the southern coast of South Africa.

Well, we did a road trip along the Route. Day one, we traveled past Langa in Cape Town, a very poor township. In Langa, tin shacks are practically on top of one another, and they seem to go on for kilometers. These homes do have electricity, but you should see the wires connected everywhere, and with the power outages in SA right now, electricity is not dependable. Langa is in sharp contrast to the casinos and malls and boutiques you also find in Cape Town. South Africa is definitely a place of contrasts. As we left Cape Town, we headed over the Overburg mountains, said goodbye to Table Mountain. We stopped for lunch at the lovely town of Swellendam, where we saw part of the Cape Epic Mountain Bike Race and had a lovely lunch by the river. Here, I tried Lamb Bobotie, a Cape Malay dish that is popular in the region, and it was delicious, kind of sweet with subtle spices. Next, stop Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay is a beach place, but the water was too cold for swimming (at least for me), but I did have a nice walk along the shore. Also, Mossel Bay is home to a large Milkwood Tree that was the first “post office” in the area. Back in the 1500s, sailors used to leave messages and posts in a boot tied to the tree and messages could be shared this way. Today, you can still post letters there from the tree. I sent some post cards, but I am told it will take 6-8 weeks for you to get them!

Day two, we drove along the coast to Wilderness, where we tried to find a boat to rent, but ended up taking a rest and catching some rays by the river instead. Then, we headed to Knysna (Nyz na), another coastal town and had lunch in the harbor. Along the route, imagine sparkling deep blue lakes and green forests. We also, stopped at Victoria Bay, a beach and camping spot which seemed popular. It was foggy along the beach, but people were still splashing in the ocean (Indian Ocean), so I thought, finally some beach time. I put one foot in the water and have a new respect for the people here; freezing is the word, I felt the cold travel from my feet to my spine. Do you know how diet soda has an after taste? Well, this cold water had an after shock For those who know me, I can and will get in fairly cool water for a swim, but this was ridiculous. No beach today.

Day three, we headed along the road to Plettenburg (Plett) for some seafood and the sea views of waves crashing against the rocks. We also hoped for a bit of luxury and a heated pool, but the pool was the size of a large Jacuzzi and it was “solar heated”, so unless the sun was directly on the pool and weather was 100 degrees, the pool is cold. No luck, so we headed along the Garden for better prospects, and good thing we did; we ended up in Storms River by the indigenous forests of Tsitsikamma Park. We passed over the bridge with the largest bungi jump in the world; I looked, but no bungi jumping for me. We ended up at a lovely cottage inn for a good night’s rest.

Day four was a bit damp and cool, but we went on to the Tsitsikamma forest for the canopy tree tour where you harness up and zipline through the trees. SO MUCH FUN!!! I thought it would be scary, but it was like the best swing/ride ever. Traveling through the forest 30 meters off the ground was so cool. Afterwards, we headed to Monkeyland, a reserve area for monkeys. Very fun! I saw all sorts of monkeys and lemurs, and had a great time. The animals roam free on the reserve, so monkeys are literally hanging on the trees around you. That night we had dinner at the inn which was fantastic, some lovely South African wine, a warm fire, and very nice guests. I tried Thai Pumpkin soup which was so good I got the recipe, and Cape Malay Curry, a popular regional dish that differs from the curry found on the eastern part of SA in Durban.

Day five, we headed to Little Karoo and Outdshorn and its famous ostrich farms. We took a tour of an ostrich farm, and learned that ostrich eggs can withstand a lot of weight. You can stand on them, jump on them, and they won’t break. We also saw a feather palace, one of the grand homes built by ostrich farm owners in the early 1900s during the feather boom. The feather boom happened when ostrich feathers were in great demand largely because of ladies fashion, particularly ostrich feathers were needed for hats. However, the popularity of automobiles brought about a change in fashion ( no ostrich feathers flying about as you drive down the road) and also wartime caused a change, and ostrich feathers dropped drastic ally in value. In the last couple of decades, ostrich farms have found a new market. Ostrich meat is very lean, low in fat and cholesterol and delicious; also, eggs are sold for omelets etc, and the shells are painted or carved. I bought a pretty egg carved with a scene of lions under the trees. Later on, I took a bike ride and watched a beautiful sunset with mountains to one side, farmland and plains on the other.

Day Six, I woke up 5 am. Why? Meerkats, of course. We drove out and met a small tour (just 6 of us and the scientist/expert on meerkats). We went to a private reserve that has been saved for the meerkats. Meerkats do not migrate or re-habituate very well, so it is very important that there habitat be saved. We walked out before sunrise and waited for them to wake up. The first peeked out of the burrow, “the weather forecaster”, and it goes back to the burrow to let the others know everything’s ok. After sitting very still, the weather forecaster must of given the others the ok, because 19 meerkats popped up to greet the sun. When they emerge from the burrow they face the sun and bask, this is thermoregulation. Once they are all warmed up , the leader, a female meerkat leads the way to food. We followed along, and because of the work of the scientists here, they were unconcerned about us, and played all around us. We followed them for a couple of hours watching them play-fight and feed, as we learned a lot about meerkat behaviors and myths. For example, there is not just 1 meerkat on guard at a time, all of the meerkats would be on guard every few minutes or so. If a meerkat gets more food or is more full, it will often be on guard more than others, but all participate and help out. It was a great morning! Meerkats are very cool. After a bit of breakfast, we were on the road again, heading back towards the Cape. We ended stopping at Caledon, home to a Casino/Spa/Hotel with hot springs. Swimming for me at last! (OK on this day I should note, that the inevitable road trip tensions came about and the car ride was decidedly un-fun, thankfully a swim and room service relieved the tensions of the day for me). We decided to spend the next day relaxing and swimming at the spa, before heading back to Cape Town.

Our last day in Cape Town, we took our towels and books and went for a day of sunbathing (water still too cold) at the beach, and that night headed back to the Waterfront Harbor for some excellent seafood.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I hope to get back here in the winter for a weekend of whale-watching and more seafood.

More Garden Route Fun

First is Oudtshoorn, famous ostrich farm town with its feather palaces. (sorry for sideways pic) I am standing on real ostrich eggs -they are that strong. Next, Dan, fellow Fulbrighter rides an ostrich (I did too, thankfully no pics of my silly ride-- unfortunately, there is a video clip, maybe I will try posting at later date.)
Elephant Sanctuary was a nice stop - we even got to hand feed the ellies (elephants).
Tsitsikamma Canopy tours were a blast! Flying through the indigenous forest was definitely the way to go.

The SCENIC Garden Route

The Garden Route is certainly scenic -- so beautiful!! One day, near end of the trip, we even saw a rainbow; a perfect ending to a pretty perfect trip.






Meerkat Magic! Monkeyland! (did I mention we almost were locked inside monkeyland for the night?)

More Cape Town pics

More Penguins and me at Boulders Beach. And Aminah and I at the Nelson Mandela statue in Cape Town. Then, A picture (sorry, sideways) of Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island. He spent 18 years here for fighting apartheid.

Cape Town Pics, finally!

Table Mountain and Cape Town:
At the top are some of my fellow Fulbrighters and family. The clouds are called the "table cloth" coming over the mountain. I saw this my first day in the Cape. Next to Table Mountain is Lion's Head; you can see the lion lying down in profile, his head is at the left. I hiked this to the very top!! That's me standing at the top of Lion's Head with Table Mountain in the background.
I also went to Cape Point the southern most point of Africa; also, where the 2 oceans meet (Atlantic and Indian). Last, I saw penguins at Boulders Beach.