Safari..

Today we went to the Safari. It was great! It was what anyone would typically think of a safari except it was VERY cold! It was easy to get my mind off of this because of the scenery. I didn't see any elephants, apparently there are not any on the Cape. We saw ostriches, springbok, rhinos, cheetahs, lions, wildebeest, zebras, and giraffes. Seeing these animals was extraordinary. They almost seemed fake. On the contrary, it was so real because they were in their natural habit. We got to experience them reacting to nature. Additionally, we got to see them react to what we were doing. The giraffes did not seem to have any reaction to us. We even got out of the vehicle to go look at the giraffes. For the lions, we had to stay 50 meters away. They didn't react to us at all. We waited until they looked our way.

In middle of the safari, we stopped to eat lunch. Lunch was served in a small building. The building was decorated very much like my grandparents log home. There were colorful blankets, fur skins, and a fireplace. We had pea and mint soup and then a buffet style meal. It was good!

Tomorrow we are going to go to the townships until Friday. I will not be able to post anything until then!

Today we had a discussion about our experience so far. We talked about the history lesson that we had a couple days ago. We learned a lot about the Apartheid, as I have already mentioned. A lot of us were surprised that the initial intentions were justified. There was a moral reason why there was a seperation between classes. The whites thought that the lower class would want to go back to the way they lived. Ben, another student, mentioned that this was especially interesting because this way of living is unacceptable now, just fifty years later. Moreover, I find WWII to have an interesting spin on the situation. When many people went to fight for the war, the lower class filled the working positions of these people. When the war was over, it was apparent they wanted to push the lower class out of these positions. They basically used the lower class only when they needed them. I guess the communication between the classes, the leadership, and who is in control has a lot to do with this.

Presently, the South African government is trying to do a lot to fight its social problems. For instance, HIV/AIDs is a huge problem here. To encourage the citizens to stay healthy, they have free memberships to gyms. Moreover, everyone gets a discount on fruits and vegetables. We talked about how America has not even done this yet. It seems interesting that a third world contry can make better advances before the United States. I think this portrays that countries and people in general should share ideas and work with each other. Many people work towards are working towards common goals but do not collaborate. By no way am I saying that everything needs to be unified, but we need to remember to be open minded and that we can look everywhere for new ideas, even third world countries.

We also talked about the townships we will be going to next week. Christen mentioned that the community center just took a group of thirteen to fourteen year olds to the ocean. They have never been there before, yet it is a ten minute drive. This amazes me. There is all this beauty in this country that we have been experiencing, yet the townships don't see any of it. That is very unfortunate. There is such a divide between the townships and the cities. If I were to leave today, I would have thought that South Africa is much like Maryland or Miami. Yes, there are beggers and it is scary to walk outside at night. This is similar to any other big city. Much beyond that, there are no traces of a 3rd world country in the city. This is a true example of how sheltered tourists are. I never thought about this when I have gone anywhere else. As a tourist, I only see what the city wants me to see, the good side. I have always thought this to be accurate. Now, I might evaluate this a little more. I might not always be getting the fully story of the place.

After our discussion, we were supposed to go to Robbin Island. They canceled because of the rain. Tomorrow we are going on a Safari, I am excited to see the elephants!!!

Tourists..

After a night of getting only a few hours of sleep, we left for a tour around the Cape. We were in a coach bus with a tour guide giving us information about the area. We got off the bus at certain stops. First, we went to a glass bottom boat tour. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard. Most of us tried to squeeze in the boat. We couldn't really see much and we were losing our balance from the rockiness of the boat. When we got close to an island of Seals, we went outside. It stopped raining and the view was amazing. I got some pictures.



Next we drove through the mountains to get to our next stop. We passed areas of houses that seemed to be fully functioning. Most of these houses had gates on the outside of them. I wonder if this is necessary. Some gates and fences even have spikes on them. I wonder if this became a social norm during the Apartheid, or maybe this security is needed. The windows have bars in front of them as well. I wonder if this does stop a lot of people from committing crimes. I can't help but compare this to America. Many suburb neighborhoods take pride in their lawns and the appearance of their house. Here, all you see is a gate. The for sale signs are on the gate for houses on the market. This has to make looking for a house much more difficult. You would not be able to just drive around and scope out the houses. Additionally, many of us do not have gates or spikes outside of our house. The most we do is put a sign up saying that the house has an alarm system. This is the most we have to do to be protected from crime, or the most we have to do to feel protected from crime.

Right next to one neighborhood, there was a township. This township looked like little boxes with metal roofs. It looked overcrowded and unbearable. I was amazed to see this right next to a neighborhood of houses with sturdy foundation.

In less than week, we will be living in these townships. I wonder what the people of South Africa not living in the townships think about us doing this. I talked to Christen about this at dinner. She explained how intimidating it is to drive into a township. I never really thought about this. A lot of people might not know the best way to go into a township. This would come down to a communication problem. It is just crazy to me that the townships are so secluded from the cities, even they are so close to each other physically.

The rest of the day, we went to a national park and garden. We saw an ostrich and penguins! After we took a trail up to a lighthouse, I saw a sign that had a cobra on it with a poison sign. I am really glad I didn't see a snake! The view from the lighthouse was incredible.

So I have been here for a couple days now. I am not quite sure exactly how I feel about everything. So far, I am very impressed by the cohesiveness of our group. We have been comfortable with each other from the beginning (at least from my viewpoint). It didn't take long to "break the ice." Moreover, we just automatically reflect on EVERYTHING we do. I think this is something that the leadership minor has taught us. Everyone of us analyzes everything we do and everyone. This is a great life skill to have. I am glad I am able to do this with other students, especially on a trip like this.

Yesterday, we went to the waterfront. This is a nice part of town. It was really interesting to see a mall by the ocean. The ocean was beautiful and we got to watch the sunset. We went on a boat ride. It was a pirate ship. The "pirates" did a little play during the boat ride. Afterwards, we told Christen about this. She said that she saw some performers and compared to performers at Epcot in Disney World. I liked that she brought this up. I felt the same way when I was on the boat, it felt like I was in Disney. The performers she saw are obviously from Africa, so it is different from Epcot, but it still performed for tourists. It boggles my mind. I am in Africa, with performers for tourists that are from Africa. This is different from Epcot, but almost the same thing in this nice part of town.

I enjoyed going to waterfront, it was similar to what I would do on a vacation with my parents. On the other hand, I was not expecting any of this trip to be like that. We were told by the students from last year, that this trip was going to be really emotional, that after we see the living conditions of the people that live here, we will change. Since we have been told this, we know that at some point, we are going to evaluate and compare the way we live at home. Because of these expectations, I think it was difficult for us to accept that it is ok for us to eat at a nice place and enjoy the waterfront area. I almost wish we were not told about the emotional impact of last year's trip. There is no way to prepare for it anyway, so it just leaves us all wondering what is about to come.

History Lesson..

Today we had a history lesson taught by a teacher from Capetown University. It was so different to learn about a nation's history that is so recent. I saw one general trend throughout the whole lesson: when groups exhibited activism and leadership, they were often repressed. Leadership was a catalyst for the opposite group to realize that they have a problem that they want to control.

.. I was just distracted by a debate in living room, and now it is four a.m. so I am going to go to bed.

Getting to South Africa

First of all, I want to say I didn't think about this trip much beforehand. I knew that it was going to be an emotional and life changing experience. Besides that, I didn't think about much else. I wanted to focus on finals and the MCAT. I knew that if I did think about the trip, I would not be able to focus on my studies. With that being said, all of this came up really fast. I had no time to have feelings of excitement or fear, until the plane took off. This is when I thought about what I was getting myself into. I suddenly felt apprehensive and unsure that going on this trip was something that I wanted to do. I assured myself that this would be good for me. No matter what I felt, I knew I would take a lot away from this trip.

Day One
We arrived in Capetown and got picked up from the airport. I felt like it was late at night, but it was 11 a.m. We were taken to our house. We were given cell phones and keys. After we settled in, we walked down the street and got something to eat. There were many different kinds of food, the same kind of food that is around campus at U of M: pizza, pasta, chicken, and Chinese. We decided to eat at a pizza place. They didn't have any plain cheese, so I got Margaretta. It was pretty good, but the sauce was sticky and was dark like barbeque sauce. This kind of grossed me out and I lost my appetite. I realized that even if a place looks American, that doesn't mean it is. I tried to tell myself that just because it is sticky, it doesn't mean it is bad. It is just different from the pizza I am used to. It was interesting that there was not any food that was "South African." I wonder what the students at the Capetown University eat. I would be very suprised if this is what they eat- the same food around U of M, except with a South African twist.

We came back to the house and hung out for a bit. Later, we went to a different restaurant with Christen, the instructor for the class, and her husband. It was great to talk about the trip and what we had already experienced. We went back to the house and the rest of the group arrived from the airport. It was exciting to see everyone here. We were all really tired. We unpacked, talked about our flights, and went to sleep (well some people went out).