What to say, as usual the last month has flown by and many new memories have been stored in the box labeled ‘South Africa’ in my brain. First of all after my last letter me along with my other exchange friends headed off to Mpumalanga and Limpopo for a fun filled ten day safari. Our first two days was spent getting totally covered from head to toe in mud at an adventure camp called Skurwekoppie near Piet Retief, run by Afrikaans farmers and their families. I marveled at the freedom the children possessed running free and wild, not wearing any shoes, riding horses bareback, and having a childhood that to most does not exist anymore. In addition to meeting up with the exchange students from the Cape Tour, we welcomed the new short-term students and hopefully were able to give them a taste of what South Africa is like. I absolutely loved interacting with the new people, all from South America, and possessing that Latin flare, so boisterous, passionate, and not afraid to say how they feel. I got to practice my rudimentary Spanish with the beautiful Flora from Argentina, and the Brazilians fixed us all a chocolate treat from their country. Like the Cape Tour, the magic of being isolated and foreign in South Africa took hold of us and our bus became a musical and spiritual experience as we journeyed.
In the Skurwekoppie camp we did team building exercises through streams, crossing in and over them, (the stream water was so dirty, it took us all at least four showers to feel clean again!)and all took a turn on a zip line flying high above the landscape. I can’t tell you how high up I was because if I had known how high it was, I might not have gone on, even so Amalie had to hold my hand. But it was exhilarating, flying free above a dried river bed, deep in the bush of Southern Africa, an experience I’ll never forget. In the evenings sitting with a huge fire, we made a traditional Afrikaans dish called potkjie and drank fresh farm milk and rain water. After two days of bonding ended we took off to the Provence of Mpumalanga to view God’s Window, the Blyde River Canyon, and impressive water falls. I can not tell you enough times how absolutely stunning South Africa is. It takes my breath away, the expanse of land and animals and the people living in the rural areas all creating this country’s fabric. I am so in awe, I think the scenery will forever be etched in my brain’s eye perhaps I will see it from time to time in my dreams after I return home. Anyways the next day we spent at our farm house accommodations, playing games, talking, singing, and being crazy exchange students. Isabelle from Sweden entertained us with her voice, I wrote more poetry, and together we started to create a song. I wrote the lyrics while she composed music on her guitar and together we sang about the changes occurring in us during our exchange. Perhaps the most beautiful part of this exchange besides the countryside is building friendships with the other students and having deep conversations against the backdrop of a country we are trying to understand.
The next day we took off for Tshukudo Game Reserve to see Africa’s animals up close. And boy did we see everything there is to see, Giraffe, Elephants, Zebra, Rhino, buffalo, LIONS, and so much more. We got to play with baby lions and walk beside a half-grown female lioness. I think I needed to pinch myself constantly, I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. Let me tell you, Africa is so bloody hot during the summer. The heat in the bush was like something I’d never experienced, a dry heat that breaks you down, and when you finally see water or food, you become some sort of a violent bird of prey. Being in the game reserve on game drives reminded me of some adventure film, the car jolting and going over terrain that surely a normal vehicle couldn’t manage—it was a very bumpy ride. The scenery must have been something from Out of Africa—vast savannahs and acacia trees—again I thought I was dreaming.
Letter #7
As most of you who read this are adults I think you can see how much this experience has TRANSFORMED me. I see it when I breeze through earlier letters, poems, and papers I wrote this year. I astound myself when talking to people now, I seem to be talking and thinking from a completely different place than before I came. It is at once so exciting and thrilling to be different yet so scary because I do not recognize the person I’ve become. I guess I got what I wished for before I came to South Africa. As many of you may or may not know, I was came to South Africa because I wanted to prove myself better than the girl many knew in high school. I felt so trapped during those three years and did many things that weren’t to my benefit. I think I’m correct in evaluating that I wanted to go to college when my freshman year came around and that getting through the last few years has been very tough for me. I so desperately wanted to change who I became in high school, for she was not very nice, nor did she realize her self-worth. And to my surprise and hope I’ve become what I wanted to be and gotten what I wanted out of my time away. I think that I needed this year (I must also admit that I don’t think I could have done this sooner, I think I needed to live through those three years to want it as badly as I did!), so while now sometimes I feel behind my friends who are going away to college or doing college auditions and getting into drama school I feel I have something so special to treasure for the rest of my life. I also, just to complicate matters, feel a very gapping divide between people my own age past what I had felt before. So hopefully I’ll have friends when I get home LOL or make news ones, I’ve learned to do that very well this year. As Betty Davis said in All About Eve, “Fasten your seat belts it’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Well bring it on!!
On the 6th of March I became a weekly boarder at Clarendon’s hostel meaning I boarded at school Monday through Friday and went home Fridays to spend the weekends at my host family’s house. My first night in hostel was surreal as I watched the sunset among the white Dutch Colonial buildings that make up my school here. I go to a very beautiful school white and orange and so tropical, an open school where one feels one if outside even when one is inside, it is very breezy. Plus the surrealism of all these fairly quiet girls swarming about in our green and white uniforms with a strange accent; I definitely felt I was on a different planet when I entered Clarendon back in July when I arrived. Anyway on to hostel, I think it takes more courage than I have to be a permanent boarder at hostel. I mean to be separated from your family for long stretches of time—during a time in one’s life when you need them the most. I don’t think I could have ever done it. The hostel is home to girls of all ages from the Primary and Preparatory schools (grades K-7) and of course the high school (grades 8-12) whose families mainly live in rural areas and on farms or some who come from other neighboring countries like Zimbabwe or Botswana. The hostel is located on the high school grounds, a hop skip and a jump from the school buildings for the high school students while it is a fair hike for the primary and prep kids.
Within my first week at hostel I realized that 1) I have very bad ‘only child syndrome’ meaning I love my own space and to be quite honest my own company and privacy; and 2) I could get very sick, very fast of hostel routines and life, not to mention get very chubby eating the food. That being said I was welcomed with open arms by the girls there, of all ages. And I learned to love their company and got to know some of the hostel staff whom I miss and especially a young art teacher called Miss Birch, who was always up for a long chat. Again almost all of the girls, who didn’t know me from the high school, asked me the same questions I’ve gotten all year. Example: Are there movie stars where you live? And loads of other sometimes ridiculous questions, it got me to thinking that many of these girls were equally as clueless about the USA as I was about South Africa before I came. Most of them had never seen a map of the USA and certainly didn’t know what Ohio was and were like “wow, it that near Hawaii?” or “is that in Canada?” also I got “had you ever seen black people before?” and “Did you think there were lions roaming the streets?”
My roommate Yanga and I in our room at Connaught House (Clarendon)
Letter # 8
On Good Friday I met up with my new host family, a isXosa speaking African family. The Jafta’s consisted of Zuki Jafta (my host mom) and her husband Gcina and their three little girls: Yeyethu (YeYe), Aliziwe (Allie), and Lilitha (the baby who everyone calls Baaba). It was a very interesting experience being with the Jafta’s as they for the most part only spoke isXosa and for a vast majority of the time I had no idea what was being said, no clue. I kept asking “What’s going on?” in addition to “What????” and “Wait, what’s going on?” ha-ha I sounded like a broken record after a while. IsXosa is the African language spoken in the Eastern Cape and consists of lots of clicking sounds. Just for your information, Nelson Mandela is from the Eastern Cape and he is isXosa royalty.
My Host Mom Zuki and her children at their farm in the Eastern Cape
That evening we got back quite late to our chalets which were (and I’m not joking) on top of a big mountain which we had to attempt to get up in our car, thankfully we had a four by four. Anyway by the time we had gotten the car past the big boulders we were freezing as we were up quite high and it’s often colder in the rural areas. I (smart person that I am) had forgotten by long pants so I had to sleep in my nice warm pj shorts, hugging the duvet, hmmm not so much fun. So I went to sleep and eagerly awaiting the next day and more adventures at the farm.
2011: I've rather underestimated how long these letters are. There will be one final post about my exchange year in South Africa.
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