Cape Town!

Cape Town!  What an amazing place.. Wow!

Before getting to the winlands we drove for around 14 hours through the Karroo.  The picture above is pretty much what all of the Karroo looks like.  You can't see it in this picture, but on the mountains/hills you can see lines in them.  The Karroo used to be a huge lake!

After the Karroo, we passed through the Hex river valley (Winelands).  Beautiful mountains and vineyards.

Entering the Winelands.. It is amazing, especially after driving through the Karroo.

This is still in the Winelands, but this is where the people that work the vineyards live.  All of these homes were shacks, but when the Fifa world cup World Cup came, the government quickly built a bunch of block houses.  If you look closely you can see that mainly the houses closest to the road were built with blocks.  It was all merely for looks.  

These grape vines were all burned during protests a year or so back.

More of the beauty of the valley.

Hiking Table Mountain!!  We hiked up the Platteklip Gorge.

This is what the trail looked like toward the beginning. 

This is a picture of the city from about half way up Table Mountain!  You can see Robben Island in the distance.

A nice RJ photo on top of Table Mountain =)

Lizzy climbed all the way up Table Mountain BAREFOOT! 

So this is looking off of the top of Table Mountain (the side opposite of the city bowl).  The little guy you can see to the right is a Dassie.. somehow their closest relative is the elephant!

This is one of the first (maybe the first) Dutch Reformed churches in South Africa!  We visited it while in Stellenbosch. 

This is the inside of the church looking away from what would be the pulpit.  What an amazing building.

The City Bowl!  I took this picture from the Water Front.  The big building is the FNB bank.  The 4 tallest buildings (they looked like they were the tallest) were all banks...

Robben Island!  This is a picture of the quarry that Mandela and other political prisoners were forced to work in.  The limestone wasn't used for much of anything.  They would make the prisoners move it from point A to point B one day, then back to A the next.  Working in the mine was a time that the prisoners could talk to and support each other, though many of the prisoners suffered from eye problems from the dust and sun reflecting from the stone.

Looking from Robben Island to Cape Town.

A nice team photo with Table Mountain somewhat in the background.

This is the cell that Nelson Mandela stayed in.

The beautiful view from the balcony of the backpacker we stayed in while in Cape Town.  We stayed on the False Bay side in Muizenberg.  There was some amazing surfing =D 

Back in KZN!  When the rain comes in the summer, everything will be green again!  Unfortunately I won't be here to see that =/  My time here is coming to an end very quickly.  I only have 2 more weekends.... Soon I'll post pictures from our trip in St. Lucia!  Be prepared to see some African animals!  Oh and I thought I might add a picture of the sunset that welcomed us back from Cape Town =)

What has been on my mind?

When I make posts on here I usually don't say a whole lot and I hardly say anything about what has been on my mind.  Today I read an article that I really enjoyed and it really fits with what has been on my mind.  So, this post still isn't in my own words as to what is on my mind, but the article below really resonates with what has been on my mind.  As my time here comes to an end, I find myself really looking forward to conversations that I will have when I get back.  I would love to hear other's thoughts and questions, please leave a comment or message me or add to the list of questions you have for me when I get back =)

http://www.europazapatista.org/index.php?post_id=6671

Moving Homes and Mpophomeni

As some of you know, I moved homes here in South Africa at the beginning of March.  This is a picture of a brunch that I made while in the process of moving.

My new home!  I now live with Allen and Joyann Goddard and their two sons, Gabriel and Simeon.  Yes, there is a garden and lots of recycling =).  I don't have any pictures, but I've been teaching Simeon how to wrestle, it's been a blast.

This is a random photo of a moped with a side cart that I took while at Pavilion (maybe Gateway) mall.  I found it pretty awesome, so I had to add it in here. 

Mpophomeni!!!  So this is a picture that I took while we were climbing the mountain/hill next to Mpophomeni.  The city is Mpophomeni and the furthest mountains are actually the Drakensburg mountains.  It was a beautiful day.

Once we got on top I saw this!!!  It is a little bit strange, but it looks something like a dirt bike track! 

Looking over mid mar dam and a driving range.  It took us a few hours to climb, it was a lot further than it looked!  

While we were in Mpophomeni we worked at Ethembeni family center (it's where Lizzy always works) and these are the other volunteers that were there.  The people in the green are APU students and everyone else is part of the Tearfund group.  We had a great time working together and playing with the kids that would come to the family center after school.

So this is the lively group that Garrett and I spent our evening with.  In the orange is Nathi, then Hector, Sane, Garrett, and the back of Sanele.  We stayed at Sanele's house and Nathi, Hector, and Sane would almost always come over and we would have a great time laughing and learning isiZulu.  Banele isn't in the picture, but he would usually be there and I would run with him in the mornings. 

The clash... So I left Mpophomeni and went to Hilton... It was Easter, so there was a church service that Thurdsay/Friday.  This is a picture looking at the sanctuary.

Andd inside.  It's a very normal church for North America.  Nice seats, a nice projector, a North American accent while singing... Yep.. haha It's fascinating how everyone's accent changes when we start singing.  Apparently everyone learned to worship through North American CDs...

Anyhow, I went with the Goddard's to Durban for Easter weekend.  We had a great time!  We stayed with some friends and had some fabulous food.  

 On Easter Sunday we went to a sunrise service on Durban beach.   Looking to the right from where we were sitting, we could watch the massive ships go into the harbor.

 Looking the other way. there was a beautiful view of the city.

3 weeks later I finally get this posted... in the meantime we went to Cape Town and back!  I'll be posting pictures and things from that over the next week or so! 

Late post from around February.

It has been a really really long time since I have posted!  Here are some older pictures that and events that I am just now getting up.

 I found this paper posted on an elevator at UKZN!  One the dates and times listed are time that there will be no power!  Now it has been awhile since I've experienced load-shedding, but I hear it will start again when winter comes around!

 So this little big guy scared me one night... I was at a hotel and he ran across the floor right next to me and up the curtain behind me.. Probably one of the scariest things because it ran with it's wings up, as if he was preparing to fly up onto me! And then the fact that he went up the curtain ride behind me gave me the heebie jeebies.  As you can see, he didn't make it very far after he went up the curtain.

The weather... the weather can be quite crazy here.  As you can see, it was 37C one day and then 19C the next day. 

This is one of the CLP flats where I would spend my Monday nights, after class.  Always a very nice relaxing time.

 It was very difficult to get a picture of the fire. I thought it was a house fire, but I was told that this was someone burning the coating off of some copper wire to scrap it.

 I actually took this picture this morning!  It scared me as I was walking out to the road!  In isiZulu its an Icimbi (caterpillar).  The person I talked to, said they had never seen a black one before, they are usually green.  It's spikes were scary and it's skin was a lot harder/tougher than the sort of caterpillar I'm used to.  

Traveling with Zodwa and Skumbuzo

So I've done a lot of traveling all around the province with Zodwa and Skumbuzo and I've seen some pretty amazing things.

The picture above is of a sugar cane field that we saw while driving down the road.

In some areas we could see for miles and miles, lots of tree plantations and sugar cane.

Factories... While driving we passed some huge factories, which I found quite fascinating.

We never know when we will eat!  We would frequently eat at 3 or 4 pm because we would be in meetings for hours and hours.

So I was in the back of the Subaru sliding down a mountain in the rain when I looked out of the window and saw this....

Yeah.. it's a tornado!  It was pretty far away, but it was still scary!

And there was a beautiful rainbow :)

Here is a picture of one of the tree plantations.

And a nice picture of endless sugar cane.

This is a view I have seen quite a few times and it always makes me think, Ireland.  Sorry it was a foggy/misty day when I took the picture.