Pictures!

View a slideshow of all the pictures from my trip.

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There's no place like it! That's pretty much all I can think after all of the traveling!

Last Sunset in Africa

Although I am excited to go home tomorrow, so many parts of me are sad. Meeting all of the people on my trip that made me feel so at home even though I was so impossibly far from home makes it hard to say goodbye. Though I leave Africa tomorrow, I feel that Africa will never fully leave me. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and experience and I hope someday I can return.

Gifts Galore

I forgot to mention that yesterday was Nelson Mandela’s birthday (he’s 92), and on the drive to Katse Dam we found ourselves on Nelson Mandela drive. I tell everyone that he is very respected in the US and that makes them so happy and proud. In fact on Friday I heard the students sing a song dedicated to him that translates to “Nelson Mandela, there is no one like him.” I see that every student can sing, and I am told by the staff that they harmonize on their own, that they are not taught how to do so. This morning walking from the guest house to the staff room I am mobbed by a group of kids who want to take my picture, I tell them I feel like a celebrity and they tell me I am one here, ha! who knew. Today I spend most of the day in the computer lab showing classes the video and doing a question and answer period along with distributing little things I brought from the US. When the kids receive the gift they do so with two hands cupped and some clap once or twice first. Once student got so excited about the pencils I was giving out that he yelled “these pencils came all the way from America!” The most interesting group are the ninth graders who, along from wanting to know how old I am and if I know any celebrities, ask how we deal with racism in the US and if things have changed since Obama has become president. I talk about the need for open communication between all different types of people and explain that all people want the same basic things in life and that all races put value on family, friends, education and their health. After all of the classes I do a workshop on designing web pages using HTML code and I help teachers experiment making their pages. They all were able to start pages and I think of how much I will miss teaching the course next year. By now it is time for dinner and I mention to Angela, the principal’s wife, that pizza is one of the main foods in the US (not to mention my favorite), and she knocks on the door later to bring me two slices. I almost don’t want to mention anything I like, because someone here will find a way to get it to me. Soon after Victor and his whole family visit me and bring the most beautiful present, a hand-woven grass mat from Lesotho, that has all of the different items from the tours we have taken over the weekend attached to it. I put two and two together and figure out the two ladies from Lesotho (my roommate and Victor’s wife) bought it for me while I was getting my passport stamped at the border and then hid it in the trunk of the car. I understand more and more that South Africans are a people that delight in surprises. They have taken the time to label everything and I feel it is the perfect gift to remember my time here.

Katse Dam

Today we traveled to another country, one that is completely surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. When handing my passport to the man at the border, he just looks at all the pages, reading each one before stamping with a smile. We head toward the mountains and Victor’s wife keeps telling me that we are going to go to the very top but I do not believe her until we start to climb the long and winding road. Each view keeps getting more and more magnificent and we laugh at the signs that say “slow traffic keep left” because we are the only ones on the road. Our goal is the Katse Dam, 8600 feet above sea level. I learn along the way that South Africa buys much of its water from Lesotho and in particular this dam. Along the way we see so many people living in the mountains in traditional huts and as we wave to them they wave back and I think of how content they are with so little, but they are rich because they are surrounded by the beautiful mountains. At last we reach the dam and we are crestfallen when the man at the gate will not let us in because we did not know we needed an appointment. We are told to wait for the manager’s car and we might be let in. After 20 minutes we convince the manger to let us drive and look out over the dam and I am so happy that we waited and made our case. The view is breathtaking and not for anyone afraid of heights. Happy that we reached our destination, we drive back down the mountain, slowly making our way back to South Africa and Unicom High School for school again on Monday.

Basotho Cultural Village

Today Victor, his wife, and my roommate traveled to visit the Basotho Cultural Village located in Golden Gate National Park. On the way we stopped to take pictures of some spectacular views and then a few minutes down the road stopped to take more pictures when Victor noticed that his camera was missing! We then all remembered that we had heard a very loud boom on the roof of the car, but didn’t realize what the sound was until just that moment. We retraced our steps and were walking up and down the road looking in the bushes to no avail when a boy passed on a bike and asked Thamae in Sesotho if we were looking for a camera. We then yelled down the road to Victor and his wife to come back to the car and we started up a rocky path following the boy on the bike. We came to a small farming settlement at the top of the hill and met the boy’s brother who had the camera in hand. After giving us back the camera, we all took pictures with the children of the town. I am going to have to post all the pictures of my trip to the blog when I get back because the connection is too slow here, so please check back to see them because I have the cutest picture of a small boy we saw in the town. Everyone waved goodbye as we started down the hill, but then we heard a clanging noise coming from the back tire. Victor got out to investigate and found a long wire stuck in the hubcap, and after we removed it we had no further incidents! Arriving at Golden Gate National Park reminded me of the Southwest or the terrain of the Grand Canyon. We had already seen antelopes while driving to the park, so when we stopped the car again I thought it was to see more antelope, but then I heard Victor say zebra! I scrambled out of the car, and luckily Brad had given me binoculars before leaving and I had thrown them in my bag at the last minute. I looked through them amazed. There were three and they were lazily grazing and whipping their tails and we heard their high pitched brays even from the distance we were standing. After tearing myself away from looking at the zebra (best wildlife I have seen so far), we headed to the Cultural Village. We took a guided tour with some other tourists from Johannesburg that explained the evolution of the Basotho tribe from the 16th century to the 19thcentury; they no longer live in this way, so it is akin to visiting Colonial Williamsburg in the US. We first met the chief and his advisor and we tasted a fermented cider that was a traditional drink. We then saw a traditional healer who used bones to diagnose aliments. Next we saw the different homes for the first, second, and third wives of the chief and the huts were amazing – they used a grass roof that is waterproof, so it also stays cool when it is warm and warm when it is cool. The walls are made of a mixture of cow dung and mud and just at the next hut we see a woman laying the floor with the mixture. As we travel through the village we see that the huts became more colorful through the centuries, adding windows and eventually installing tin roofs. As we leave the Cultural Village, we are on a quest to see the elusive baboons that Victor has said are in the park. Victor’s wife has the best eye for finding any of the wildlife, and she spots them first. As we get out of the car they all start to run away, but not before I get a picture. Then we see them crossing the road further down and see a mother carrying a baby on her back! Is there any doubt that this was the best day yet!

Intro Video

Watch the introduction video Brad made me to show the kids! It was a big hit with the grade 11 class!