On Saturday we drove for ten hours, stopping in East London for the night. Unfortunately we'd arrived two hours later than expected due to some issues on the road, but the dinner awaiting us made up for it; there's nothing like a delicious meal after being on the road all day. That night we walked down to the beach, hanging out and playing games. We played a game called "lap tag", which involved a lot of tackling and running around. Needless to say it was a great end to a long day.
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| Watching the sun rise in East London |
We only drove for a few hours on Sunday, arriving and staying in Port Elizabeth around 1pm or so. We again spent most of the day at the beach, swimming in the (now freezing) Indian Ocean and checking out the surrounding area. There was a skate park, playground, a small market, and a myriad of restaurants. That night I had fish and chips for dinner, which I hadn't had in a long time. After that we walked around, checking out a water and lights show and all the surrounding shops.
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| Bungy-jumping at the Bloukrans Bridge, the world's highest bungy bridge |
Monday was the day that we'd all been waiting for; it was the cause of much dread and anxiety, yet excitement and anticipation: it was bungy-jumping day. It took us a couple hours to get there, which didn't help the anticipation. When we arrived there were about 15 of our peers that had already bungy-jumped as they'd arrived earlier and wanted to get everyone out there to jump in a decent amount of time. I was in the second group to go out to the bridge and ended up being fifth to jump (out of about 20 of us in that group). To explain what it was like, there was pump-it-up music blasting, everyone was dancing, and one by one they called us up to get harnessed (or bungied, I should say) and ready for the jump. Although you wore a harness on your upper body, there were cuffs around your ankles that were tied together tightly, which was then attached to the bungy cord. It probably isn't comforting to tell you that the bungy cord is nothing more than a bunch of rubber bands strung together. Hah. When it came time to jump, two workers lifted you to the edge of bridge, since your feet were tied together and you could only hop to get around (which you probably don't want to do at the edge of a bridge). They counted: "5...4...3...2...1...BUNGY!" and all I remember thinking was, "I'm going to jump off this bridge." Sure enough I did, and I endured the craziest few seconds of my entire life. Although there was a total of four seconds of free fall, the initial jump and first second or two of falling were the most terrifying. After that I couldn't really feel anything, except an unexplainable calm and peace. It was quiet, God's amazing creation surrounded me, and I couldn't help but feel incredibly close to my humanity. Needless to say it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and the adrenalin rush was insane. Definitely glad I did it!
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| Climbing through the Cango Caves |
After everyone had bungied, eaten lunch, and bought any souvenirs they'd wanted, we traveled to Carmel, a Christian conference center that would become our temporary home for the next couple of days. It also found itself on the beach, and before dinner many of us hiked down to the beach to explore and check everything out. The next morning we went to the Cango Caves, where most of us went on an "adventure tour" and climbed about a kilometer into the depths of these caves. Some spaces were incredibly small and it got pretty hot in there; we had a good time though. In the afternoon we went to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, where many of us pet cheetahs, lemurs, tigers, and other African creatures. I myself got to pet a cheetah, which was pretty cool as I'll probably never get to do it again.
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| Petting a cheetah |
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| The coast of Fish Hoek |
The next day, Wednesday, we drove the rest of the way to Cape Town. We actually arrived in a small town called Fish Hoek, which finds itself a little ways outside of the Cape Town inner-city. We arrived at Wellwood, a bed and breakfast that we'd be staying at for the rest of the semester. We spent the rest of the day exploring, and for many of us we touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The following day we were split into five teams and sent into the heart of Cape Town on a sort of scavenger hunt, finding places such as the Slave Lodge and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We discovered that Cape Town is in the top ten best-run cities in the entire world; what's even crazier is that the Queen Mary 2, a massive cruise ship that goes on a 102-day tour around the world, stops in Cape Town for three days--that's the longest she stays anywhere! If that doesn't testify to how well-run Cape Town is, I'm not sure what would. When the hunt was over we prayed for and said goodbye to our program director, Reg, as he was heading back to Pietermaritzburg where he works for most of the year.
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| Devil's Peak (left) and Table Mountain (right), from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront |
On Friday we had our History & Culture class from 9-12 and chapel after that. We basically hung out the rest of the day. That night we went to a small town called Ocean View to meet our host families; half of our group (including myself) began home stays that night. Home stays were five days long, and while half of us were staying at home stays, the other half would stay at Wellwood. My family was Thelma, the mom, Lantor, the dad, and Xavier, their 11-year-old son. Although we'd return to Fish Hoek for class or excursions while we were staying at home stays, during the weekend of our home stay you would stay with them the entire time. On Saturday we slept in, went to another home stay's house for lunch and to hang out all day, then went to another home stay that evening as my host brother had worship practice as his pastor's house. A bunch of us APU students ended up hanging out, which was pretty cool. It was nice seeing familiar faces. On Sunday we went to church with our host family, went to the farm (where we tasted cheeses and visited a snake park) in the afternoon, and hung out back at "home" that night.
On Monday we had class again in the morning, during which we presented what we'd found and learned during the scavenger hunt the previous Thursday. Yesterday we spent the day in a township, touring it and learning about it as it's a part of a huge renovation project that Cape Town is undertaking. We had lunch at a meat market called Mlozi's Meat Market (I believe it's called; it's famously known for its meat), then headed back to Wellwood where we hung out and did whatever we wanted before we headed back to our home stays around 5pm. Although my roommate had to leave our home stay early (he left after dinner last night due to an early doctor's appointment), we enjoyed our last night with our home stay family. They'd been extremely hospitable and took good care of us; we were blessed to have gotten to stay with them. I forgot to mention that all of the home stay families were Afrikaans-speaking Coloureds. They did speak English though, which broke down the language barrier that could've been one.
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| Driving through the township |
Today we went to the Cape of Good Hope, exploring and hiking around. Me and two others ended up hiking through dense brush for a ways in order to get to the lighthouse at the Cape. Although there was an actual path laid out and a road that could've taken you there, we decided to go for the adventurous and more exciting route. Unfortunately the weather was less than pleasant; it was cold, windy, and rainy, which especially didn't benefit me as I've been sick for the last few weeks.
And that's been the last two weeks. Although I had a great time at my home stay, it's nice to be back at Wellwood where I'll hopefully be able to sleep more and kick this sickness to the curb!
Two weeks from today our program officially ends and the majority of our group will fly home to the United States. Around 15 of us are staying late, however, and will be doing who knows what during that extra time. Me and one other guy are staying (in Cape Town) the latest, four days after most of everyone that's left will leave. We're still not sure what we'll be doing, but I guess that's the fun part of it all. I'm sure it'll all work out somehow; now, if I can just get over this sickness, that'd make everything much better.
Two weeks left of the program. Four weeks left in Africa.
Let's go!
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