Day 4-7

ok, so internet is not as easy as I thought it'd be over here. I'm using up my internet allowance fast, and i make it go faster by uploading pictures, so I've come to find out.

So here's a brief summary of my last few days:

Day 4- Soweto
We took a day long tour of a city outside of Johannesburg called Soweto. It's definitely not the nicest part of Africa. We toured the slums and shanties, but we learned how they were affected by Apartheid. We went to a museum about the Soweto Massacre of 1975, which occurred after the government during Apartheid tried to impose Afrikaans, the White language, on all public schools. Poor schools, such as in Soweto, did not understand Afrikaans and thought that having to be taught in an unfamiliar language was unfair, so the young students began to riot. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty moving.

My favorite part of the day was when we went to a Talk program at a local residence in town. They put us into groups of 4 students and 3 locals, and we talked about their culture. Then they asked us about ourselves and from there, they gave us an african name. My name was Thando, which means Love, since i want to work with people and help them and was smiling and laughing the whole time, I was radiating love. (sorry for the grammar mistakes, I'm on a time constraint). Then they told us how to say hello and my name is in Zulu, which is Sanibonani, igami lami ngu Thando. 

Day 5 and 6
Sunday, day 5, we had a free day where we went to a local outdoor market and started to work on new friendships.
Monday, day 6, we had our first classes. We had history of South Africa in the Morning and HIV and Crime rate in the afternoon. Then some of my new friends and I went to get a nice steak dinner.

Day 7- Class and Lesedi
Today, we had our history class, and she gave us Rooibos Tea, which is cultivated from a local red plant. It smelled gross, but tasted good. 
Later, we went to the Lesedi Cultural village where we learned about the different villages of South Africa, the Zulu, the Xhosa, the Pedi, and the Sotho. Nelson Mandela is from the Xhosa tribe, who have a clicking language. While I was at the Zulu village, they tried teaching us how to shake hands as a greeting. So I had 2 pictures taken with these girls and I tried do it, but i kept messing up. but they liked me and nicknamed me zandi? sansi? they said it fast. and I think it might mean many. but they might have said funny. they're accents are a little hard to understand. 
But it was still fascinating! they showed us their dancing rituals, brought us up to dance, we saw how they lived, i learned that if a man wanted to marry a woman he could buy her for 11 cows, and I ate ostrich, crocodile, and lamb. and One of the village men gave me a kiss on my hand. it was cute. 


And that's been a quick wrap up of my time here so far. Hopefully, I can get to a local restaurant with free Wi-Fi and can upload more pictures soon!

Day 3- Intro Class and De Wildt Centre

Today started off as a typical college class filled day. From 9-12, we had the first class, which was more of an orientation of my Crime and HIV Rate class and my ecotourism entrepreneurship class. In addition to studying the syllabus, we watched two films, one about apartheid and one about the world's dwindling animal resources. 

After class, we went straight to the De Wildt Cheetah and Wild Dog Reserve. Let me just start off by saying:

I PET A CHEETAH

And that's only the beginning. 

I saw Wild Dogs

Ostriches

Impala

and a lot of other animals. 

For example, the wild dogs at one point started treating our jeep as if it were an antelope, and we got to see first hand how it feels to be in the antelope's position when they're in the hunt. Even though there were 6 of them, they used a technique where they circled around and made their pack look a lot larger than it was, hence making it harder to escape.

I was riding in a jeep in the passenger seat up front, so I was close enough to almost touch some of these animals. It was absolutely amazing. It was a day that will probably only be topped by seeing the animals in their natural habitat in Madikwe, but for right now, i'm still positively in awe of nature. 

day 2- Tour of Pretoria

Right now, it's 5:30 in the morning here and for some strange reason, I am wide awake. 

But anyway, yesterday was a lot of fun. We took our giant bus and toured the city of Pretoria, or as the Africans call it, Tshwane, which means "we are the same." The bus was all fine well in good, except that there were some parts where a bus really shouldn't have been, but we managed NOT to hit any cars or people. Yet. 

However, we did manage to take a scenic route of the hillside, which overlooked the city and the country, and it was stunning:

The people here are very friendly. Almost every time the bus passed one of the locals, they would stop and wave. Granted, when we were shopping at their local market, they boosted the price a little bit, but whatever. 

After our tour, we went to the guest house where our tour guide, Patrick was staying, where Louis and Libby Biccard generously provided food and entertainment for us for the night. Later that night, Sarah, my new friends, and I hit the town of Hatfield for Andy's 21st birthday. To say that it was an awesome day would simply be an understatement. 

Day 1- Arrival in South Africa

Here it is.

it's not much, but it's South Africa.

After a 16 hour flight, 15 straight episodes of bones, 2 attempted hours of sleep, 154 brushings from people getting to the bathroom, 2 gross airplane meals, 5 awkward moments when accidently witnessing a woman breastfeeding her baby out in the open for all to see, and realization that I jumped ahead 7 hours and lost those hours to the world, I have finally arrived.

So far, I have only seen the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, parts of the capital, Pretoria, and parts of Hatfield. Honestly, when I arrived in Africa, I did not know what quite to expect, but I wasn't expecting this. While the landscape is gorgeous, it actually reminds me a lot of Florida so far.  There are the rich sections (such as what was shown above), and the not so rich sections with people sleeping in the middle of parks and vendors on every street corner selling what they can to pay rent.

So far, I have experienced a few culture shocks. The biggest change, however, is the use of the Rand.  For those unfamiliar with the currency of South Africa, the locals use the Rand, a type of currency currently valued at about R6,50 for every US Dollar. That being said, the average price of an item is about R100. When Sarah and two of my new friends, Ryan and Ryan (and no, that's not a typo) went out to lunch, our total came out to R253. My job dropped when I got the bill, but actually, my lunch was actually worth about $35 US Dollars, which is actually a really good deal. But still, it's not fun to see a really big number like that. 

The other thing that is going to be hard to get used to are things that many tourists from America experience when traveling abroad: driving on the opposite side of the road and the use of the meter. I've been thrown off quite a bit when I see signs for Pretoria in 30 km and having to look right to left when crossing the street. 

Also, the dialect spoken here is a little difficult to understand. For example, water is not water, but rather pronounced watt ter, and any pronunciation otherwise is completely beyond them. I actually felt embarrassed a few times when I had to ask the locals a few times to repeat something. 

But when Sarah and I were walking around the Hatfield strip mall, I realized something: her and I were on our own in country where English is not necessarily the norm. And somehow, something about that feeling of independence felt liberating and even exhilarating. For the first time, we have had to rely on our intellect and instinct to get us through. That to me was part of what made today so special. 

The combination of a newfound independence, new friends, and a marvelous and diverse new country has made for a fabulous start to a new adventure. I can't wait to see what else is in store!