Week 9 - Personal Blog (3-04-2012)

It finally became official that I have been spending too much time with Americans when I started talking about how excited I was for ‘Spring Break’, despite it being autumn here. With differences of language put aside, we were all very excited for the upcoming holidays as we all had a lot of travelling planned. Having an Easter with no family plans was a new experience for me as this was my first year missing our Easter trip to Donegal. However, this is just another part of my new lifestyle and despite it being a shame that I missed it, I was very excited at the prospect of making my own Easter plans and having the independence to decide what to do with my break. After much discussion (arguments!), we eventually decided that the girls and boys would split. The girls heading to Plettenberg Bay which is a four hour drive along the west coast from Port Elizabeth and the home of some of my South African friends, and the boys would go further along to Sedgefield! As my school friends at home know, I generally end up organising any trips we take as everyone else is too indecisive to make a plan, and so travelling with Americans has been a new experience for me as they often know exactly what they want to do. It has taken a while to get used to taking a back seat in organising our trips, but surprisingly it has been a nice change for me to have the small details arranged for me.

I had no expectations of what Plettenberg Bay (known as Plett to the locals, I am told) was going to be like, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed! It is a town of cobbled streets, nice restaurants, friendly locals, plenty of activities and most importantly a stunning beach that stretches for miles. Before I left for South Africa I worried that I would begin to take the coast for granted if I saw it every day. In actual fact I feel lie it has only made me love it more, and so the three of us spent our first afternoon exploring the beaches. Albergo backpackers, our hostel for the weekend, provide a braii every night if we provide the food. Living here has definitely made me more adventurous in the food I eat, and I have been trying meals that I would never consider trying at home, and so after some gentle persuasion, we decided it was time to be adventurous and try some ostrich burgers rather than our standard choice of chicken. Thankfully we were all pleased and despite almost eating them only half cooked, it was a successful meal.

On Sunday, some of my local friends took us on a hike on Robberg island, and we saw some of the most beautiful scenery and beaches that quickly made ‘Plett’ my favourite place in South Africa so far. The Americans were absolutely blown away by the scenery and the coastlines, saying that they have never seen anything so beautiful. Although I agreed that it was beautiful,  realised that if you took away the heat and added cloud and rain it could almost pass as Ireland. Seeing the stunning coastlines here has made me realise just how beautiful Ireland also is, and although the weather may not be just as pleasant at home, I’d love to see more of Ireland’s coast lines when I get home as I feel like it’s so easy to take them for granted.

On the Monday morning we decided to go swimming with seals as a group from Annie’s cove had highly recommended it. I think I went along with this plan without much thought, as suddenly I was fifteen minutes away from the beach in a wetsuit, snorkel and flippers and was somehow surprised that these people expected me to jump in with at least 100 of these strange creatures! Despite a nervous first five minutes of seals swimming towards me with their mouths open (I swear they looked vicious!), I soon realised that they were just inquisitive animals that wanted to play, and we spent half an hour swimming amongst them, only occasionally screaming in terror as they brushed against me. All was going swimmingly (excuse the pun!) until I swallowed two mouthfuls of salt water which I was quickly informed definitely had seal poo in it. Thankfully it was nothing a good puke over the side of the boat couldn’t fix! Embarrassing. After our busy morning we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and eating in a seafood restaurant. With it being April fools day this weekend, on Sunday we managed to convince the boys that we had all been food poisoned, and they both surprised us with kind, sympathetic responses which soon transformed into a response typical of two angry, huffy children, which brought us great entertainment!

We got home on Monday early evening to give Glenn and I time to get some work done before we head off to Cape Town on the overnight bus this Tuesday night to meet Emily, Ian and John who are visiting us for two and a half weeks. We plan to spend time in Cape town and travel the garden route back with them. SO excited.

Until next time

Lynsey

Week 8 - Cultural Blog (25-03-2012)

Long weekends have taken on a new meaning for me living in Africa. At home a long weekend normally means an extra few days to chill out, see friends and not do very much at all. Here, a long weekend sees Annie’s Cove deserted as almost every international student packs up and travels to somewhere new to do something ridiculous. This weekend was no exception!

Having spent Monday and Tuesday trying to get a week’s work done in two days, Wednesday morning saw four of us head off to travel along the ‘Wild Coast’, which is along the East Coast of South Africa. I can’t forget to mention our experience of typical South African time keeping before we even left! We were borrowing a car from a South African friend and planned to leave at 9am. However, he said that he needed to borrow the car for half an hour before we left. We waited for two and a half hours before he returned, and he seemed surprised that we were getting extremely impatient. From what I have experienced, this is typical of the South African culture that I am slowly growing to love, and find myself checking the time less and less, and becoming less and less punctual as a result, which I am sure will not improve my already poor time-keeping skills at home. However, I am constantly reminded of how refreshing it is to live in an environment in which punctuality is not the be all and end all in our day.

When we finally got on the road we were not disappointed with the stunning views and scenery on our drive. South Africa is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen with such diversity, as it has stunning coastlines yet also has incredible mountains, quirky beach towns and rural villages yet has beautiful, well developed cities. Despite the MANY differences we have discovered between ourselves and the Americans, we are all blown away by the amazing scenery in South Africa and are agreed on how there is no comparison to our home countries.

 After a five hour drive, many stops, stupid games and photos taken, we eventually arrived at the destination our SATNAV was taking us to, following the co-ordinates our hostel had given us. I don’t know why we were surprised to find that we appeared to be in the middle of a housing development with no hostel in sight. After a phonecall and over-complicated directions, we eventually arrived at the hostel with no explanation as to why the co-ordinates were wrong – we just put it down to ‘This is Africa, what else do we expect?’! Just another example of the laid back lifestyle out here which has given me a new found appreciation for the efficiency and organisation of simple things in Northern Ireland.

The hostel, in a town named Chintsa, was exactly what I expected South African hostels to be like, with stunning views, basic bunk rooms, beautiful homemade breakfasts  made by the ‘mamas’ that work there and temperamental freezing showers that literally took your breath away!  The atmosphere of the breakfast room reminded me somewhat of my granny’s kitchen, as the Mamas are typically caring, respectful and most importantly, cook remarkably good food. All of these are attributes that are seemingly engrained into the lifestyle of these Xhosa South African ladies. The four of us spent two days here canoeing (and sinking) up the river, exploring the beaches and talking to other tourists who are also travelling South Africa. I loved meeting these people and found it so interesting chatting to people and hearing their plans. Many people I have met here seem completely content with a life of travel, most of which travel alone. It has been so refreshing to meet people who simply decide what they want to do and go and do it, and many of the people I have met seem to have learnt so much about themselves as a result. However, as much as they seem to have enjoyed it, I feel like travelling is something I would rather do with company!

On Friday four more friends joined us and we travelled on to a place called Bulungula, futher along the coast. If I wasn’t convinced that I was experiencing ‘real Africa’, this weekend convinced me. The journey was one to remember, as the further we drove, the worse the roads became until soon we were swerving around the biggest potholes I have ever seen at 10mph. Bulungula is like nowhere I have ever seen before. The hostel took ‘the middle of nowhere’ to a new extreme. The hostel went right back to basics; no electricity within the mud huts that we slept in, compost toilets that required two spoonfuls of soil after use, paraffin showers in which the water is heated through a piece of paraffin-soaked toilet roll thrown into the system, a large campfire area and traditional Xhosa meals served each night. The one night that we spent there quickly made me aware of how much we rely on technology as all of the girls had a panic when we realised we had no internet, no phone signal and no way of charging our phones.

                                                                                                     

Having a break from it was so refreshing as it allowed us to enjoy the hostel and go out without bringing anything with us, something I hope to do more often now as it is so easy to become reliant on these things. We woke up the next morning to a goat trying to get into our room and a cow blocking our path to the shower! Definitely a weekend spent within nature.  Staying in Bulungula and driving home allowed us to see a completely different part of Africa, and it is always a shock to realise that people live in this culture with such a basic lifestyle. I was surprised to find that every child we met along the road ran after our car waving and shouting ‘happy’ at us. We had a packet of biscuits that we handed out to some of the children as we passed, and to see their faces light up as they received them made it so real to us how little these families have here.  To see this area of South Africa was a surprise to me as it is so different to the areas of poverty I have seen before within Uganda, giving an idea of just how different areas within Africa are to each other, and the difference in levels of poverty.

 Sadly due to terrible weather and terrible dirt roads, we had to leave Bulungula a day early to make sure we got home, and despite a few hills that took more than a few attempts to get up, and pushing the car in torrential rain, we eventually made it home after a nine hour drive!

We now only have one week left until Easter break, and I’m getting very excited to greet our friends in Capetown and show them around our new home. I also hope to travel to Plettenberg Bay this weekend with some of the American girls to explore and begin our Easter break as we plan to continue – with plenty of travel!

Hope all is well at home!

Lynsey