Born Again in the Cederburg Mountains!!

Feb. 15 - 17

This weekend, I went with my fellow AIFSers (the study abroad organization I came to South Africa with) to the Cederberg mountains to a nature reserve nestled in a valley.  There are some vineyards in this valley, but most of the area is uninhabited and just beautiful.  There terrain, the rocks, everything really, was just lovely.  Everywhere I go here, I am struck with how beautiful and diverse the landscape is.  We drove about 5 hours north (2 hours of that being on a dirt road) and ended up in a very nice camp ground.  When we go as a whole group, there are about 25+ of us, it takes 4 big vans to transport us all.  The vans are fun because we get to interact with our program director and her assistant more as well as some South Africans who drive the other 2 vans.  We also get to listen to an eclectic mix of music depending on who’s van you sit in.  I was under the impression that we were going to be camping-link in tents, but we stayed in these apartment type houses that had two or three bed rooms each and slept 8-10 people.  We had a nice bathroom (with a jacuzzi tub) and a huge kitchen - not quite the camping I thought is was going to be!

The first night, we had a braai and just hung out in our little area.  We roasted marshmallows, sang songs and just had a good time.  The most amazing thing about the Cederburg area is the stars.  I’m pretty sure it is the second best place in all of South Africa in terms of star visibility.  They were amazing - some of the best I’ve ever seen.  Because we were in a campground and there were lights on in buildings and on the bathrooms, two of my friends and I decided to climb on the rocks behind the buildings we were staying in and find a place with a lot less light.  One of my friends stayed below to take pictures of the stars (she has a fancy camera that can do stuff like that) and myself and my friend Daniel partially hiked up a mountain and found some rocks to sit on.  We had just been to Cape Town the week before and went to the planetarium so we brought up my star chart and headlamp and looked for all the constellations.  We found almost all of them and I’m pretty sure we saw Jupiter (it may have been a different planet, but I think it was Jupiter).  We also saw a bunch of shooting stars.  I had never seen a shooting star until last year, but here, every time I go star gazing, I see at least two or three.

On Saturday, we got up pretty early and went hiking.  We went up a trail called the Wolfburg Cracks and it was one of the most fun hikes I’ve ever done.  The first hour or so was pretty average, just walking up, but once we got up closer to the top, we actually got to climb through cracks and crevasses.  It was like walking through the inside of the mountain.  We had to do a minor chimney climb (see the the photo) and had to crawl, on your backs, under a rock that our program director lovingly calls the birthing canal (hence the title of the post).  When we got to the top, Daniel and I hiked and climbed around, probably a little bit further than we should have gone, but the climbing was really fun and we had to make it to the tallest rock on the top of the huge, flat summit.  That afternoon, we went swimming in a river (I took a shower with my Dr. Bonner's and LL Bean bio-degradable shampoo I got for Christmas from Grandmom), did a wine tasting at one of the vineyards in the valley and then just played frisbee, hung out, and I helped braai lamb and chicken for dinner.  At the wine tasting, I learned that the color of the wine (red, white, pink...) has to do with how long the skin of the grape is in contact with the liquid.  Also, it is the soil and the amount of sunlight that the grapes get that determines its flavors.  When I first saw that there were vineyards in the valley, I was very surprised.  The people who live there would have to drive very far to get supplies or go anywhere.  But I learned that because the vineyards are literally surrounded by mountains, they have no problems with pests so they don’t have to use pesticides and can grow really rare grape varieties.  We tried one wine that the grapes were only grown in Cederburg and I think one or two other places in South Africa and possible the world.  That night, we went star gazing again, but this time, we hopped a fence to get into the nature reserve and walked along a path until we found some other rocks to lay on.  The stars were so beautiful.  There were bazillions and I don’t think I have ever seen the milky way so clear.

On Sunday, before we drove home, we went to see San (Bushman/early native population in South Africa) rock art that was over 5,000 years old.  One of the sites, we had to stand behind a fence to look at the paintings, but at the second sight, we walked right under it.  I could have touched/licked the drawings if I wanted.  These paintings were very cool, one because they are so old (5,000 years is a really long time) and they are still so vivid also because we could actually get really close and really look and observe the paintings.  I think they may have been touched up once or twice, but other than that, they have been left to themselves.  The second site also had some great climbing rocks.  Daniel and I (we’re the only two from our AIFS group willing to do something a little risky, like climb rocks and jump around, so we end up doing a lot of things together as the rest of our groups shakes their heads and warns us to be careful) found a fun face to climb and some interesting cave-type holes to sit in.  The second site was also used to hold secret meetings during the apartheid era and the names of prominent apartheid leaders can still be seen on the walls of one of the caves.

The pictures are way better at showing what we did.  I had great weekend.  It was fun to be outside for almost the whole time and the weather was wonderful, the climbing was cool and the stars were spectacular (enjoy the alliteration - I did that on purpose).  Hope you like the pictures!!

So you know kind of where we went.  I'm not sure how accurate this map is because I just used Mapquest and I'm not sure if I put in the actual location of where we stayed.

Landscape of the area!

My group.  We're mostly from the East Coast, but we have one girl from California, two girls from Wisconsin and someone from Ohio.  We also only have 3 guys in our group.  So we're a lot of girls!

An example of one of the climbs we had to do to get up the mountain.

The path!

The lines that are running all over this face were really fun to climb.

The top!

The view!

On top of the world!

Daniel and I at the top.  Every time we go somewhere with our group, we end up going off and doing all the things everyone else is too scared to do and we take a picture.  So here's the one we took at the top the mountain.

The vineyard we went wine tasting on.  In general, I don't drink anything, but because I'm in the wine capital of South Africa, I felt like I needed to try at least some of what everyone was saying was so good.  To be honest, the 5 or 6 wines we tried were all pretty gross, but it was fun to listen to the guy telling us about each wine and trying to taste the asparagus, the peach, the citrus or whatever other flavor we were supposed to taste.  I didn't taste any of what he was talking about.

Rock art!

5,000 year old hand prints.  These were of grown men, but my hand was still much bigger than these prints.

These were some of the names written on the walls.  DF Malan, in the lower right corner, was prime minister of South Africa starting in 1948 and it was under him and the government of that time that apartheid became much more formal and when racist laws were actually put into place.

Welcome to First Grade!!

So I have officially survived my first week of South African school and it was a great week!  University here works pretty much the same as it does back home, but there are a few differences.  For example, most of the classes that I am taking only meet once a week for three hours instead of three times a week for an hour.  Although three hours is a long time to sit through, professors give us lots of breaks, (one of my professors stops us before the last half hour so he can smoke a cigarette outside), and one of my other professors says that we will be let out around half an hour early each week.  Another difference is the amount of work that is required for each class.  In many cases, I only have a research paper and maybe one other test or assignment in addition to the final exam.  Although there are some courses like this back at St. A’s, I had one class last semester in which we wrote an essay almost once a week.  Also, I’m taking a class that the readings are optional!?  Everything on the tests comes from what we talk about in class.  The readings are just there to further your understanding.  Although it is kind of strange that I don’t have to spend all my time doing homework, (I read a book for pleasure today - something I NEVER do back home), I’m glad that I will be able to spend some of my weekends traveling instead of sitting in the library all day.

My Final Schedule:

Monday:  Learning, Sustainability and Community Engagement Practical 9:00 - 1:30ish

Tuesday:  From Destructive Conflict to Sustainable Peacebuilding 1:00 - 4:00

Overview of South African History 5:00 - 6:30

Wednesday:  Nothing!!

Ultimate Frisbee Pick-up game 5:20

Thursdays:  Public Theology 2:00 - 5:00

Overview of South African History 5:00 - 6:30

Fridays:  Learning, Sustainability and Community Engagement Lecture 9:00 - 4:00

Ultimate Frisbee Skills/Technique Practice 5:20

Although each class is going to be very interesting and I’m going to learn a lot, the class that I’m most looking forward to is Learning, Sustainability and Community Engagement (LSCE).  I told you readers a little bit about what we did on Monday, but let me fill you in about Friday.  For most of the day we talked a lot about the logistics, (or admin - that’s what they call it here), of the course, organized the presentation schedule and went over the course outline and schedule.  But, during our break, we got to go outside and meet the kids.  Immediately, we were swarmed by kids wanting to know what grade we were going to be teaching in.  I’m teaching 1^st grade with two other American girls and I’m so excited!  We found some of the younger looking kids and we started to play hand-clapping games with them.  Within two minutes, I had a kid on my back and four others wanting to hold my hand.  I have noticed this with the refugee kids I work with back at St. A’s - kids are super trusting of strangers and will be your best friend in one minute whether they can understand you or not.  As long as you’ll play with them, it seems they could care less who you are, what you look like, your skin color or if they know what you’re saying, they’ll grab right on to you.  After a little more admin, we had lunch.  Lunch is one of the best parts of the day!  Our professor’s mother cooks all our meals for us and the food is delicious.  We are going to be having an eclectic mix of dishes throughout the semester.  We had curry today, but have had some other stew-type dishes and really fresh salads.  I have come to understand why I haven’t really been able to find a lot of “South African” food.  It’s because “South Africans” are a very large mixture of people.  There is an enormous amount of variety in people’s ancestry and the food reflects that.  There are hints of Indian, Asian, European, American and of course of other African cuisines all mixed together.  It has been really nice to have someone else do the cooking and to have food that is more “traditional” than the burgers and other almost-American food that I can get in restaurants or the basic egg or pasta that I’ve been cooking for myself.  After lunch was the best part of the day.  We got to sit in a room with the 12 or so teachers and faculty members of Lynedoch Primary School and just ask them questions about anything we wanted.  I took a little over 10 pages of notes in under an hour!!  Here’s some of what I learned about the school:

• The school itself is actually over 100 years old
• Started as a missionary school, but around 30 years ago became a state school
• The building/land itself is owned by the Sustainability Institute of Stellenbosch University and the only way for them to gain access to the land was to build a school for Lynedoch
• This was how the new school building (around 10 years old) came to be
• It replaced a one room school
• The children come from 26 of the surrounding vineyards
• Their parents are workers on the vineyards
• Many live in one-bedroom homes with the rest of their family
• Many of the houses have indoor fires which cause major health problems (in children and in adults) such as carbon monoxide poisoning, TB, pneumonia, and respiratory infections
• Parents are not usually involved in their child’s education - mostly because they lack a formal education and can’t keep up with their child
• Parents work long hours and may leave the house before their child is awake and return home after their child is asleep
• Teen pregnancy is a huge problem
• Some girls are 14 when their have their first child
• Some are 20 years old and already have a child in school
• There was one women, at 32, who was a grandmother
• Alcoholism and violence are huge problems the children must deal with
• Teachers can see differences in behavior on Mondays - after they return from “evil stuff” that happens on the weekends.  On Fridays students show anxiety over what may happen over the weekend
• There are 266 “learners” attending the school
• It is a state school - state determines curriculum and provides funding for rent, electricity, some books, maintenance and the bus comes from these funds
• There are no funds for extras
• The school lacks basic necessities like projectors, books, water fountains, swings, a bigger playground that can accommodate more children, a kitchen/cafeteria (food is prepared in a corridor on gas stoves and then kids sit on the floor or outside to eat) and a lot of supplies that are common at schools back home are not to be found here
• There is a voluntary payment of 70 Rand (under $10) from the parents
• About 90% of the students from Lynedoch Primary School attend high school and about 70% of these children complete it
• My professor says that "teachers are the noblest of professions" and that teachers "groom everybody in society and thus should hold a high place in our esteem and respect"
• The students were referred to as “my children” by the faculty
• The faculty compared their roles to that of a mother or father and stressed the importance of treating these kids as you would your own - strict but kind and supportive…

Today, Monday February 11^th, was our first day in the classroom.  There are 42 first graders in Mrs. Jephthe’s class!!  She is usually in there by herself, or with one other person who deals with a handful of kids who need extra-special attention.  When we asked our questions to the teachers, we asked about special education and we were told that almost all of the kids are considered special ed because they have some social, emotional, cognitive or other problem that impairs their learning.  Today, there were around 35 kids.  South Africa is on a totally different schedule than the USA and these kids just started 1^st grade a few weeks ago so many of them are about 6 years old.  These kids speak Afrikaans although many of them are black or considered colored, (of mixed race), and would typically speak something like isiXhosa.  This is because their parents/ancestors work(ed) on farms for white, Afrikaans-speaking farmers and thus their parents had to speak Afrikaans.  However, according to our professor, many of these kids struggle with Afrikaans let alone speak any English, so communicating with our children is going to be very hard.  It’s a strange sensation to have 35 pairs of eyes staring at you and not really have a single one understand what you are saying.  But between a mixture of translating by our teacher and instructions using hand motions and demonstrations, we were able to communicate okay.  We started the day doing the hokey-pokey and then moved into some drawing.  We had each learner write their name, (that was a struggle for some), and then draw a picture of something they liked.  We got a lot of pictures of apples, dogs and swimming, (which is what I drew for the example and I think some of them just copied my picture - but that’s alright).  We had each kid go up in front, say their name and what they drew.  This worked for about 5 minutes, but after the 10^th kid went, it was very hard to get the rest of them to listen and sit still.  We had a break, and then played outside teaching them Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light.  It was very necessary to have them run around for a while before bringing them back inside.  This kids have so much energy and literally can’t sit still - ever.  We had them teach us a song about right v. left - although we just learned the dance, because we had no idea what they were saying in Afrikaans.  Then we asked to observe the teacher for a while.  She read them a story about the Gingerbread boy/man and then worked on phonics with them.  This was very interesting to listen to, because we, as 20+ year olds, are at an even more basic level than they are at 6.  Afrikaans, which is very similar to Dutch, is very interesting to listen to and the sounds some of the letters make are very interesting and almost guttural.  Then we entertained the 6 kids who usually get taken out of the classroom while Mrs. Jephthe worked with the rest of the class.  I “read” some books with two of the kids.  This basically consisted of me pointing at a picture and having them tell me what is was.  I couldn’t really read the word of what the picture was because there is a very interesting way of pronouncing certain sounds, but I learned that sun = son and socks = sockies (questionable spelling though).  Mrs. Jephthe is an amazing woman.  The kids listened to her so well and she was able to control them while we were definitely struggling with the listening when we were teaching them games.  Her patience was incredible and it was easy to see that she really loves the kids she works with.  After that, we had lunch (mmmmm) and then went to a show with the rest of the school in their “auditorium.”  It was in Afrikaans so I had no clue what was happening, but I figured out just enough to know that it is important to wash your hands.

All in all, it was a great day.  It was very tiring, and I realized that we needed to come up with about 20+ things to do with the kids because we went through our planned activities in about half the time we thought they were going to take.  I also learned that first graders have a very (very) short attention span!  But, I had fun, the kids had fun and hopefully they learned something.  It was a little strange to be called “teacher” by all the kids and to have little voices call “teacher, teacher” and have them hold out a picture to you, but I guess I’ll get used to it.  We’re meeting with Mrs. Jephthe on Wednesday to get a better idea about what we should be doing.  I think that’s going to be super helpful and make the rest of the semester a little less scary - because as of right now, I have no idea if we can come up with 20 different games to play every week.  Although today didn’t really go as planned, it was really fun and I can already tell that we’re going to learn a lot and hopefully the kids will too.

Challenge:

If you know any fun games, arts and crafts or other activities that can be done with basic supplies (really only crayons, scissors and paper), send me an email or post a comment!!  The 1^st graders of Lynedoch Primary School, as well as myself and my two fellow teachers would really appreciate it.

Coming Soon - Cape Town overnight

A Long, Long Time Ago - Katie Went to Cape Town

Saturday Feb. 9 - Sunday Feb 10

A little over a month ago, I went to Cape Town with a tour guide and some of the people that traveled here with the same study abroad program I did.  We saw some of the city, but we mostly saw attractions from the outside.  We only went into one museum, everything else we just walked by and made a mental list of places we wanted to come back to.  After that trip, 4 of my friends decided that we should go back and actually go into the places we saw and learn more about the city and South Africa in general.  We made a reservation at one of the hostels on Long Street, which is the main street in Cape Town and took the train to Cape Town early Saturday morning, February 9^th.  Unfortunately, it rained, (for the second time since I got here), almost the whole day.  After our hour train ride, we got off and headed towards the Castle of Good Hope.  This was the fort that Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company built after their landing in the Cape area in 1652.  The fort is pentagonal and now contains several museums.  There is an art museum, military museum and one that was full of antique furniture.  We walked around these for maybe two hours and then headed out to walk around town.  We ate lunch at a cafe, (everyone was really cranky and food was very much necessary).  We walked around some markets that sell African knickknacks like bracelets, paintings, clothes and wood carvings.  We passed by City Hall where Mandela gave a famous speech when he was released from prison in the early 1990s.  Then we went to the National Gallery.  This was an art museum that had some older paintings, mostly of horses and some interesting more modern art and sculpture.  They also had a room of prints of Apartheid Era protest art.  These were really interesting to look at.  The pain, suffering and frustration of the oppressed people was evident in all of the prints.

Because the day was so rainy, we decided it would be fun to see a movie.  There is a famous movie theater in Cape Town called the Labia, (awkward name for a movie theater), that we thought would play more artsy movies but we ended up seeing Life of Pi.  If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend it.  After watching the movie, I decided that I need to read the book at some point.  It was such an interesting plot line, with avery surprise ending.  We had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, where we got to eat with our hands and ate a bunch of different dishes that were the consistency of baby food.  It was a little strange, but there was a good atmosphere and it was such an interesting cultural experience that the slightly strange taste was looked over.

We spent the night in a hostel on Long Street which is the main street in Cape Town that has all the bars and night clubs.  We had had a really long day, so we just watched the action from our shared balcony and then went to sleep listening to the soothing lullaby of about 4 different pounding bass lines from various bars close by.

In the morning, we dined at a cafe, and started our day with a walk though the Company Gardens which originally were the gardens planted by Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company that supplied the colony with produce and other goods.  Today, they are just beautiful gardens, with very tame “wildlife.”  I thought the squirrels at St. A’s would let you get pretty close to them, but I actually got to touch a squirrel's tail - they were not as soft as I thought they were going to be.

For the rest of the afternoon, I wandered the Jewish Museum that described the story of the Jewish people in South Africa and their immigration from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 19^th century.  We were going to go to the Holocaust Museum, but we didn’t have time.  I have heard several people tell me that this was a great museum and it is definitely on my list of things to do when I make my way back to Cape Town at some point.  We went to the planetarium at the South African Museum, (basically a natural history museum), and got our star charts - which came in very handy the following weekend, but that’s another post.  One of my friends here is studying photography and there was a temporary exhibit of the best wildlife photos taken last year so we wandered through that for over an hour.  The photos were beautiful!  I’m not sure what was in the rest of the museum, but it too is on my list to do when I visit the city again.

After that, we took the train back home.  The weekend was really fun.  It was nice to actually go to some museums and learn a little more about the history.  South Africa has such a long and complex history, and although I’m taking a South African History course, reading the material in a different setting was still really helpful.  We also had a really good mix of activities which kept the weekend fun and exciting.

Anyway, enjoy the following pictures!! 

The Castle.  I though that this castle was a little strange looking.  For one thing, the walls were relatively short - maybe 12 feet tall.  That seemed like pretty poor construction to me.

Dinner!  The food we ordered was served on a giant platter that was covered in some type of bread product.  I don't remember the name.  You also got a bowl of the same bread that had been rolled into tubes.  The idea was that you take a piece of the bread and use that as the vehicle to move the chicken or chickpea mush from the platter into your mouth.  The bread was kind of sour, (but not like sourdough), but it was a fun idea using bread as a replacement for utensils.

Yay!!  A jump of joy for the opportunities I've been fortunate enough to have!! Long Street is in the background.  We shared this balcony with the other rooms in the hostel.  This was the first time I have ever stayed in hostel, but it worked out really well.  It was super cheap, the beds were comfortable and we only saw one cockroach!  Some hostels are just giant bunk rooms where everyone is in one room, but we ended up getting a room with 3 bunk beds which was really nice.

This was a playground outside of the Jewish and Holocaust museums.  Obviously I couldn't just pass by without climbing it and taking two minutes on the swing.

The backside of the National  Gallery.

Some friends.  I took some crumbs from the peanut butter sandwich I had packed and we fed the pigeons.  They really liked Danny.

I'm sending some spring your way!!!

This was the inside of the newer synagogue in Cape Town.  I got to go into the oldest synagogue in Cape Town which was converted into the first room in the Jewish Museum, but this was one built a few years ago.  There was a man in the synagogue that talked to us about the history of the Jews in South Africa.  He was very well educated and quite the character   He could have talked for days and loved every minute. 

Happy First Day of School (Finally)!!!

So today was my first day of school - thank goodness.  I feel like I haven't done school in forever.  I had around a month and half off between the end of last semester at St. A's and today - and I was so ready to get back into the swing of things.  All my friends here were sad that our free time was going to be gone - but I was so excited to start school.  After all, that's why I'm here.

First Day of School Photo!!

I will be taking 3 classes while I'm here.  I am taking a course called "An Overview of South African History" and "Public Theology in South Africa."  These are courses that I am taking through the International Office and I will only be in class with other international students.  I had the option of taking a mainstream history course which would have been with South African students, but the courses offered were on topics I have already studied and they also didn't fit in with my schedule.  I'm excited for both of these courses.  I had the first history class on Tuesday, and except for the fact that the room was a million degrees, it should be very interesting.  I have my first Public Theology class tomorrow (Thursday) and it should be very fascinating.

But the course I'm most excited about is Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement.  This course is the reason I came to South Africa and to Stellenbosch!!  Every Monday and Friday I travel to the village of Lyndoch, which is about a 10 minute train ride from campus.  The University has a close partnership with the village and has been doing a lot of work on sustainability, the environment and the development of the village.  I'm not exactly sure what they have been doing, but I'm going to find out!!  We go to the school that is in this "eco-village."  The children that attend the school come from the surrounding Townships and are very poor.  Most of their parents work on the nearby vineyards or are farmers.  There are 25 international students taking the course.

Here's how it works.  Every Monday we have what is called our practical.  I am working in a first grade class with 2 other girls from America.  We spend about three hours (with some breaks) teaching the students different things depending on the grade level.  Because I'm working with first graders, we're going to be doing a lot of arts and crafts and teaching content like colors, sharing and educational basics.  On Fridays, we have our actual lesson.  We listen to a lecture and have presentations each week. We have class from 9am - 5pm!!!

This Monday was just an orientation.  Grant Demas (our professor) had us up and shouting "Singing in the Rain" and dancing around within the first 15 minutes of arriving at the school.  The school itself is beautiful   It's relatively small, but is filled with natural light and the walls are a lovely shade of periwinkle.  It's surrounded by trees and vineyards and there mountains and the ocean visible in the distance.  It's definitely not as fancy as our schools back home, but it's simple and serves its purpose and is beautiful in its own way.  After our dance party, we had check in.  We're going to be doing this each morning.  Grant gives us a topic and we have to draw a picture and then talk about it in front of the class.  Monday's theme was our favorite childhood memory.  After each presentation, Grant would comment on our picture, thank us for sharing such an deep part of us and either sing a song that fit with our theme, tell a story of his childhood or say something very deep and profound.  For the rest of the day, we talked about some of the logistics of the course and other initial set up concerns.  Everything he said was so profound and insirpational.  It seemed to touch my heart more than my brain (how's that for deep!!).  All I know is that the course is going to be great.  It's going to be hard, a lot of work, emotionally draining, but super rewarding.  We get to meet our class on Friday and I can't wait!!!

All our pictures on the "board."

After class, we went to the first rugby game of the season.  I've never watched rugby before, nor do I know anything about the game itself.  But it was fun to watch the crowd and guess with my friends what was happening.  I have never been to a sports game with so many people before, so the whole atmosphere was very thrilling.  After the game, at our nightly braai, one of the guys from France who plays explained some of the rules to me.

The only other exciting thing I've done this week is rent a bike!!  Everyone here rides bikes, and all my friends have one, so I gave into peer-pressure and rented one.  I went for a short ride after I got it with one of my friends.  We got into the more residential part of Stellenbosch which was kind of fun to see.  I only had one near-wipe out, but didn't get hit by any cars - so the ride was a success.  The cars are on the other side of the road and drive like crazy people.  I know one girl that was hit by a car (she's fine), but crossing the streets is kind of terrifying.  Pedestrians do NOT get the right of way at all!!

My Matie bike!!!

But now, I'm off to the library to do some homework (some of which requires coloring!!!)

 The library is totally underground!!  It is the second or third largest underground library in the world I believe!

Happy Wednesday!

Love,

Katie

Parades, Markets and Concerts - oh my!

The orientation program that the first year students are put through here is super intense.  For almost two weeks, they spend seemingly every waking moment together with the other people who live in their area.  They all wear the same t-shirts/outfit everyday and they march around led by orientation leaders singing and chatting.  There was one day I was walking through campus with two of my friends when we were mistaken for some of the first years.  We were yelled at to run by one of the leaders and given dirty looks when we didn't start to run immediately.   The weekend before classes start, there is a kind of festival with music by the first years, braai(s), concerts, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  On Saturday morning, I got up pretty early with a group of my friends to attend a parade.  The first years marched though the streets of Stellenbosch all dressed up and shaking cans of coins in the faces of the crowd asking for money for a charity.  We had no idea that we were supposed to come with money, but one of the guys in our group was wearing a shirt similar to one of the shirts worn by the first years and a random lady gave him a bag full of coins and said to distribute them because she couldn't find her daughter to give them to her.  So we got to give away a whole bunch of money (that wasn't even ours).  I even got a free bracelet out of all of it.  After that, some of the group rode their bikes, and myself and one other girl walked for almost an hour to a farmers market at one of the local vineyards.  I thought that this was going to be a small market with some stalls selling fruit and vegetables and some other stuff, but this market was huge.  There were stalls selling really good looking bread, sandwiches, wine, beer, fudge, cakes, nuts, dried meat that is really popular here (biltong) and a whole bunch of other really good food.  In addition to this, there were stalls selling clothing, paintings and other crafts.  We walked around for a while, tasted a lot of free samples, bought food and then made our way to a grassy area behind the market.  A local band playing some of the Bob Marley's songs played for a while and we just sat on the grass and enjoyed our surroundings.  Then I had to walk another hour back home.  It was this journey that made me decide to get one of the bikes that the University offers to its students.  Although I love to walk, it was kind of a bummer to see everyone else whizz off and leave you behind.

After the market, we headed to the area of town where there was supposed to be a concert.  There were a handful of local bands that were playing throughout the afternoon.  One of my friends and I watched for a while and then we found the rest of our group and when out for dinner at a tai place.  Then we went back to watch the main band that was playing.  They were a group called Goldfish.  It was kind of hard to hear what they were saying because the sound wasn't up very loud, but one of the dudes played flute in one of the songs and rocked out on the saxophone in some others.  I spent the rest of the night hanging out in front of my apartment building with a bunch of other international kids.  One of them was playing the guitar and we had a few sing-a-longs!

Some pictures!

  Marching band!!  They sounded spectacular.

Begging for money!!

  Each residence area had some theme and one of them was Madagascar the Movie and they made costumes for people.  They were pretty fun.

 Pac Man

The market.  Some of the stalls were inside a building.  The cake in the foreground was really, really good.  We went back for seconds of the free samples and I probably would have gone back for thirds, but I restrained myself.

This is a photo of the grassy area where the band played.  We were surrounded by trees, mountains and vineyards.  It was so beautiful.

  The first band we saw was called Plush.  They were actually pretty good!

  My friends Danny from Maryland and Sam from Chicago.

Once it got dark (around 8:30) the final band - Goldfish - had some bright lights going.  I'm pretty sure I've never been to a concert like this and it is was just a fun atmosphere (and really good people watching) even if the music wasn't that great and it was really hot.

I went to another concert on Sunday.  This was was WAY better than Saturday's concert.  For one thing the music was actually good.  Freshlyground is a famous South African group, but internationally, they are more well known as the group that sang behind Shakira in Waka Waka - the song used for the Soccer World Cup held in South Africa a few years ago.  They were great!!  I'm sure if you Googled or YouTubed them, you would find a video since I can't figure out how to post videos and even if I did, the one that I have is bad it's hard to hear the music over the crowd.  After the concert though, I really want to listen to more of their music.  I spent the morning grocery shopping for the week and for our picnic dinner.  I made guacamole with two of my friends - and it turned out fantastic.  We, by far, had the best food.  Other people just brought peanut butter and jelly, but we had guacamole, vegetables, humus, cheese, good bread and gingerbread for dessert.  We drove for an hour to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens in Kirstenbosch, South Africa.  The gardens were beautiful and they were situated at the base of a mountain range.  The whole venue was just lovely.  We found a place on the hill to set up our towels and waited for the show to start.  While we were waiting, we got our faces painted in a traditional style.  I'm not sure if they designs mean anything or have any significance, but I love getting my face painted (especially for free) so I didn't want to give up the opportunity.  While we were waiting in line for our faces to be painted, we got to listen to two men wearing traditional tribal garb playing these instruments.  I'm not sure what they were called, but they were made out of a big gourd that had metal strips attached to something on the inside.  The metal was plucked and the sound reverberated into the hollowed gourd.  The sound had a really neat vibration to it.  

We were sitting behind another big group that came together and let me tell you - they were a hoot!  Once the concert started, they were singing and dancing and just having a ball.  It was so funny to watch them - and very tempting to join in their fun.

The music was really good.  The lead singer had a really good, kind of interesting voice.  And they had other instruments besides drums, bass guitar and lead guitar.  They had a violin, a flute and a saxophone and it was really fun to hear something a little different.  By the last song, almost everyone on the hill was up and dancing and the whole atmosphere of the concert was awesome.

  The view!!

 Face paint!!

Up close - please excuse the photo bomb!

  We were pretty far back and couldn't really see what was happening on stage - but luckily my camera has a good zoom!

Dinner is served - on a frisbee!  We had bought bread at the market on Saturday and made veggie sandwiches with humus, cheese, tomato, lettuce and cucumber.  They were so good and refreshing and the bread was delicious.  I'm not sure why I thought to bring a frisbee considering there was no room to run around.  But it came in very handy as a cutting board and plate!

 YUM!!  Homemade guacamole!

The mountains that the gardens are situated in.

Tomorrow is my first day of school (finally)!!  I can't wait.  I get to go to the school that I will be teaching at and figure out more about the course I'm enrolled in called Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement.