November 29, 2010

Nature's Vibrant Colors

"My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God's lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature." Henry David Thoreau

Picture taken on St. James beach, on Cape Town's False Bay. This picture was a team effort: Jeff, knowing my love of taking macro pictures of animals, spotted this bug and pointed it out to me as we were walking on the beach.

November 27, 2010

Goodbye, Cape Town

Cape Town's weather the last few days we were in the city was the worst it had been the entire six weeks we spent there, with Table Mountain constantly wrapped in thick, low-lying clouds.  On our last day, just as we were about to leave for our township tour, the clouds lifted just long enough for us to get one last glimpse of the mountain.

November 25, 2010

Township Tour, or Human Safari?

Walking through one of the poorer parts of Langa
If you've been reading our posts since we've been in South Africa, you know that we have been volunteering in the township of Khayelitsha.  However, due to safety concerns, we had to stay within the Baphumelele complex for the duration of our three day shifts, so we were not able to see much of Khayelitsha.  We signed up for a township tour to get closer, even though I was somewhat apprehensive about taking a tour that whisks tourists around to see how the less fortunate live.  That uneasy feeling didn't abate throughout the tour and I left with mixed emotions.

November 23, 2010

"Try Not To Get Too Attached" . . . Easier Said Than Done

Leaving a volunteer project is never easy for me. Perhaps it is the masochist in me, but I rarely leave with a feeling of upliftment or satisfaction in "a job well done". Instead, I generally leave in a state of frustration, knowing that there is so much more to be done. This project has been no exception. Only this time I am leaving with a huge hole in my heart as well.

After six weeks at the Baphamulele Children's Home, we have become very close to many of the children with whom we have been working. After days spent feeding, bathing, singing, dancing, and playing, you would have to have a heart of stone not to fall in love with all our kids. Yes, there were days when we were all ready to retreat up to our flat after listening to Nikita and Zam whine all day (all day) or after struggling with Lithemba to feed him his food, but most of the time I had a hard time leaving at the end of a shift.

While each child has earned a special place in my heart (even Nikita and Zam), one child has completely stolen it. His name is Litha, and even as I sit here typing his name my eyes are welling up with tears. I could go on and on for pages describing how special Litha is: how much I love his curiosity, his love of singing, his original dance moves, his intelligence (he is so bright), his kisses, and just the feeling of snuggling with him in my lap as we watched Barney at night, but I don't think that's necessary, and to be honest, I can't write too much about him without totally breaking down in tears.

Though both Jeff and I have agreed for some time (much to my mother's chagrin) that children are still a few years off for us, I would take Litha home with us in a heartbeat if I could. Unfortunately, South Africa's misguided adoption laws make it next to impossible for people from other countries to adopt any of the many, many children here that need homes. To even be considered, a person must be a resident of South Africa for at least two years. From what I have been told, this law was created with a desire to keep South African children "South African". While I have no problem with the spirit of this law, I find it to be incredibly unrealistic and downright irresponsible given the number of children that are parentless in this country. I wonder what these children would say if given a choice.

We are not permitted to publish pictures of the children in a public forum, such as a blog. We are, however, permitted to put them up in private areas, such as Facebook, so I am putting up a few of the many pictures that I have taken on Facebook, in case anyone is interested in seeing them.

November 21, 2010

False Bay

Here are some pictures from our recent day trip to the False Bay side (east side) of the Cape Peninsula.  We took the commuter train, which hugs the water's edge once it reaches the bay, down to Kalk Bay.  After I indulged Magge in browsing a few of the small town's boutiques, we walked two miles up the coast to Muizenberg to catch the train back to our house.  Just another beautiful side of Cape Town.
Views from the train
False Bay
The colorful changing houses of St. James beach

November 18, 2010

Boring Game, Great Time

I don't like soccer - it ranks somewhere between curling and the lumberjack games on my list of favorite sports to watch.  Every four years, I try to get into the World Cup, but my interest is spurred by patriotism rather than the game itself.  Given how much effort it takes to watch games that actually matter, I never thought I'd care to go to a game that doesn't matter, called "friendlies" by soccer fans.  However, when we found out that the USA squad was coming to Cape Town to face South Africa, we couldn't turn it down.  How many chances are we going to get to support our country (yeah, I'm actually Canadian, whatever) in a sporting event nearly 8,000 miles from home?

Nearly all the volunteers we live with also got tickets to the game, and we got into the mood by painting our faces.  Most of the other volunteers (who are from Canada, the UK or Norway) painted their faces with the South African flag, but the 3.5 Americans plus an Australian painted their faces with stars and stripes.  There would be no hiding from opposing fans.  We immediately mixed it up with the South Africans, chanting "USA! USA!" and getting booed off the shuttle bus to the stadium for singing the "Star-Spangled Banner".  Their fans were great, taking everything in stride and throwing it right back at us.  Many of them took our picture and we even got interviewed by the press (if you happen to see a clip of a late 20s male with the American flag painted on his face saying he thinks the US will win by one or two touchdowns, that's me).  Just outside the stadium, I heard everyone around us laughing, and I turned to see Magge engaged in a bizarre dance with a South African fan, where the two ladies were bumping butts.  I turned to the person next to me and said, "Yeah, that's my wife".
Yeah, that's my wife

Us with Will, one of the two other Americans, prior to the game
As usual in this sport, nothing happened for most of the game.  Once in a while the crowd would break out in huge cheers just because the ball entered the general vicinity of the American net, but other than that it was a long, real life game of Pong with a vuvuzela soundtrack.  When the US finally scored late in the game, I was more relieved that something had actually happened than excited that we took the lead.  The Americans hung on to win 1-0 (also known as the "standard soccer result"), but the South African fans were still great to us afterwards.  The game itself was boring, but the experience was fantastic and it was one of the most fun nights we've had over the past year.
Surrounded by the enemy
The ubiquitous and terrible vuvuzelas
Action (or inaction?) on the field

November 17, 2010

South African Roadtrip

We finished up our work at Baphumelele Children's Home this morning (with lots of tears from Magge) and have a few more days in Cape Town before we tackle more of this country.  We will rent a car and drive roughly 4,000km over twenty days.  As opposed to our blitzkrieg style roadtrips in New Zealand and Australia, where we slept in a new location every other night, we decided to stay in fewer spots for longer periods of time.  Here's our tentative schedule, mostly for the benefit of our mothers since we'll often be without internet over the next three weeks.

November 22: Leave Cape Town, drive to Stormsriver in Tsitsikamma National Park.  We're stopping here mainly to break up a long drive, but there should be some nice hikes.
November 24: Nqileni village, Wild Coast.  A very rural area off the beaten trail.
November 29: Coffee Bay, Wild Coast.  More spectacular South African coastline.
December 2: Somewhere in the Drakensberg Mountains.  We haven't decided where we'll stay yet, but we know that we want to spend a few days in the mountains.
December 5: Graskop.  A small town that will make for a convenient base for a quick trip to the Blyde River Canyon before we head to Kruger.
December 6: Kruger National Park.  South Africa's best known game reserve.
December 11: Pretoria.  Probably just a bed for the night before our flight - I doubt we'll explore this city at all.
December 12: Fly to London.

November 15, 2010

Spain and London Wrap-Up

We are way behind on this wrap-up - as I wrote earlier, Spain didn't really inspire us.  Due to that and the length of time that has passed since we left Spain, we won't be doing rankings.  Just the facts.

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 15 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 515 by plane from Paris to Barcelona
Miles Traveled: 950 by train + 790 by plane =  1,740 (41,870 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, Madrid, Toledo, London
Intercity Trains Taken: 5
Flights Taken: 1 (Madrid to London)
Major Strikes Encountered: 2 (a national strike in Spain that ruined our plans to visit the Alhambra, and an underground/subway strike in London that didn't affect us)

November 13, 2010

Lunch at the Saturday Market

One of the great parts about our volunteer schedule (three days at Bapaphumele, three days in Obs) is that we really get a chance to experience Cape Town. This includes getting to visit the chic Neighbourgoods Markets at the Old Biscuit Mill, held every Saturday and a popular day out for the locals (or the white locals, anyway).  This morning we went with some of our friends and had lunch. I enjoyed a gyro while Jeff, the meat-eating adventurer that he is, tried a kudu burger. For those wondering what in the world a kudu is, it's a close relative to the antelope... delicious! (or at least that's what Jeff would say.) We bought some double chocolate cookies for dessert with the intention of having some for lunch and then the rest for dinner, but of course none of them made it out of the market.
One of the best things about Cape Town, is that no matter where you go, there will always be a beautiful mountain view

It probably goes without saying that the entire time we were there I was thinking about how much fun it would be to bring Litha. I think I'm going to need counseling when we get home.

November 7, 2010

Touring the Cape Peninsula

On the Cape of Good Hope with Cape Point behind us
Another post, more Cape scenery.  We took a tour of the Cape Peninsula yesterday, from Cape Town all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope, and we liked it even more than the Winelands tour.  The weather did not cooperate at first, obscuring the mountains but by lunch it had cleared up and was a gorgeous day.

November 5, 2010

The Not-So-Beautiful Side of Cape Town

The last few posts focused on the visually stunning setting of the Cape Town area.  However, the city is not without its blemishes, and at least one book has stated that it is perhaps the most economically unequal city in the world.  We see this first hand every time we go on shift at the orphanage.  Our drive from the comfortable Cape Town suburb of Observatory to the Baphumelele Children's home takes us past miles and miles of the ramshackle shanties of the township of Khayelitsha.  The main road we take into the township is completely littered with trash; we've been told that this is the residents' way of protesting their living conditions to the government.  If you think this cutting-off-one's-nose behavior is drastic, you should see the road on its worst days.  In a more extreme form of protest, some Khalyelitsha residents will take to burning vehicles.  On our last shift, we drove past a city bus that had been stormed by protesters and then destroyed.
Driving through Khayelitsha

November 3, 2010

More Table Mountain

Here's the view of Table Mountain driving into Cape Town from the northern suburbs.  Magge took this on our way back from the Winelands tour.  Don't be surprised if pictures of Table Mountain become recurring feature here for the next few weeks.

November 1, 2010

Wine, Chocolate, Cheese and Cheetahs

I just tweeted that I wouldn't be writing a post on our tour of the Cape Winelands today due to an early-onset hangover, but if I don't do it now it may not get done, and the area is just too beautiful to not show off.  So here is a quick post with some pictures.

We took the tour thanks to an anniversary gift from Marcia and Lee.  South Africa has the world's oldest wine industry outside of Europe, but what I loved about the tour was the scenery.  That's not to say I didn't drink any wine - we went to three different tastings and had a total of fourteen glasses.  Each tasting had a spittoon at the table, but after a year backpacking on a budget, we're conditioned to not waste, which explains my current headache.  One tasting had pairings with chocolate, while another included cheeses.  I'm not a cheese person, but I can throw down some chocolate.  The tour even squeezed in visit to a cheetah sanctuary, which made Magge giddy.

Enjoy the pictures and see why Magge and I are falling in love with the Cape Town area.

The first wine estate on the tour
Chocolate pairings
Give Magge an animal and she can't be happier
New Zealand, you have competition