Battling Dragons in South Africa

In October, Margie and I had the brilliant idea to go hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains. In about a month, we (ahem, she) had everything planned and we were on our merry way down south to Kestell for a weekend of hiking.

I drove along with Margie, Rosemary and Sadia and met Trevor, Nadia, Dave and Ben down there for dinner at this super sweet Afrikaans bar, where we clearly didn’t fit in and where I looked like an idiot trying to play pool. I guess all those afternoons training to be a pool shark with Mariah in college didn’t work out so well. Okay, but to be honest, I really only remember “training” for a semester, so what could I expect?

After displaying my poor pool skills, we went back to the B&B, and headed to bed to rest up for the big hike the next day.

Here’s a  little background on the Drakensberg Mountains: Also known as the Dragon Mountains, this range runs for nearly 1,000 km from south-west to the north-east and covers the border between the KwaZulu-Natal Province and Lesotho. The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to 3,482 meters in height – and it’s this height that helps them make an appearance in the disaster movie 2012!

We decided to take the Sentinel Peak hike, located in the Northern Drakensberg, which allows you to climb to the top of the Ampitheatre and survey the Royal Natal National Park below.

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The hike took us about 6.5 hours round-trip, including an ample amount of time hanging out at the top and terrifying climbs up and down a chain ladder that had a tendency to flail around in the wind.

I won’t get into details about what happened later that night, but let’s just say it involved a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches (hey, Kori – they put tomatoes in theirs, too! I told you I wasn’t weird), a child sleeping on the floor of a bar, star-gazing, a guy bypassing the women on the trip for Ben’s number, vegetables and a dirty jacket.

It was SO fun.

Banyana Banyana Comes Up Short

When I get older, I will be stronger...

Over the course of two weeks, South Africa hosted the 2010 African Women’s Football Championship, where sixteen matches were played and 58 goals (3.63 per match) were scored. This tournament was especially important as it influenced with teams would qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Germany. For South Africa, it was do or die. In order to advance to the World Cup, they had to win this tournament. A loss? No chance for the World Cup.

Prior to the semi-final match between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea, a team of Show Me Your Number ambassadors, including myself, engaged with game-goers about safe sex. Handing out material is always an interesting experience. Unlike Americans, who do pretty much anything to avoid handouts on the street, South Africans take everything with pleasure – and come back for more.

Banyana Banyana warming up

Condoms tend to be a little bit more difficult to get rid of. People tend to be shy about taking them – well, the women anyway. The men, they’d take 50 if they could. In the end we handed out over 1000 condoms in under 20 minutes.

Once we ran out of materials, we went to watch the game, where South Africa dominated in the first half (without being able to score a goal) and fell apart in the second half, even accidentally scoring on themselves within the last few minutes of the game. It was pretty disappointing, especially since we are friendly with the captain of the team (who scored the accidental goal)

In the end it was Nigeria that beat out Equatorial Guinea for the title.

Vuvuzelas making an appearance

I get by with a little help from my friends

Ever since the World Cup, we’ve lovingly referred to my apartment as a hostel, where all my friends from all over the country (and world) come to stay while they are in town.

In this case, it was my pals up in Acorhoek who came down for a visit. Sophie and Crab were on their way to East London for another internship – so Shira and Ilona joined them and came down for a weekend of sushi-eating, movie going, hiking, dancing, car fixing and singing along to musicals.

The highlight of their visit was pretty much the entire day on Sunday. We got up early to hike at Rietvlei Dam along with a bunch of other people from my ex-pat meetup group. Did I mention joining this group? My friend Margie runs it and being a oui (see what I did there??) bit introverted, she pretty much forced me to join 🙂

Our guide holding female rhino dung. Males kick it around (marking their territory)whereas women leave it in a neat pile.

Anyway, hiking at the Reitvlei Dam we went – it was great to get outside and nice enough, but for some reason the hike took us through several feeding grounds. The stench was…let’s just put it this way: It’s been about 10 days since then and every time I think about it I get nauseous. I also got a hilarious sunburn – my legs haven’t seen the light of day since about August 2009 and I stupidly wore shorts but also my hiking socks up to my mid calf. Just picture it. Yeah, it’s awesome, especially given the fact that I am going to a Gala Dinnertonight and have to wear a dress (updates forthcoming).

Next on the list? Shira, Ilona and I went to see Mamma Mia! For some reason Crab didn’t want to go, so he and Sophie went out for dinner while I tried not to embarrass anyone too much by singing along (take a chance on me!). Then again, Shira was really too distracted by the guy playing Sky to really be bothered with my crooning. To top it off, after the show, we picked up Sophie and Crab and went to Greenside for some dancing until 1am. Needless to say, I felt a bit tired at work the next day. Shira and Ilona left the next day and Sophie and Crab the day after that.

I realize this blog is sort of a laundry list of what I did one weekend with my friends. But the reason I share this with you is that I’m leaving South Africa in less than 2 months. I’m starting to get a bit nostalgic about the time I’ve spent here and the people I’ve met.  We’re a rag-tag team of Americans, French, South Africans, Nigerians, Germans, Dutch…you get the point. Most of us are far away from our home and our families and our friends – and it’s because of these circumstances that we get to create our own families and make new memories. Every time I hear ABBA, I’ll think of Shira and Ilona. Every time I look at this sunburn, I’ll think of our hike and Margie and how she encouraged me to join the meet-up group. Sappy, sappy, I know. But it just so turns out that one of the hardest things about living far away from home brings you some of the greatest things – new adventures with new friends who will always be a part of you because of the memories you share.

Unfortunately, the reason I’m not posting is not due to my hectic schedule

So during my skype date with my Mom last week (did I tell you guys I taught her how to use skype during an awesomely hilarious afternoon where I was upstairs in the house and she was downstairs and we practiced calling each other??), my Mom suggested that while I didn’t have anything to write about that maybe I could write about my work.

But the work I’m doing right now isn’t very interesting – I’m putting together some monitoring & evaluation tools for my organization. I’m also working on our next newsletter. And developing a database. And writing HR policies. Bleh. We have a bunch of community engagements coming up the next few weeks, but honestly, we’re having a bit of a lull over here. On top of that, we’re currently moving our office, so I’ve been told to work from home all week. This limits my interaction with people to my friend, Nick, who works at the movie store across the street and the people who blatantly stare at me while I’m running through my neighborhood in the afternoon. I have no idea why they stare at me – I’d like to think it’s due to the fact that I am incredibly stunning, but ummm…I’m not one of those pretty runners. I get red-faced and sweaty after about 5 minutes regardless of what shape I’m in, not to mention the halo of frizz that appears as soon as I step outside. Anyway…

It’s getting a little…lonely over here.

In the meantime, I’m spending a lot of time watching inspirational movies, to get myself in the right state of mind to apply for jobs. Like Bring it On! And Legally Blond. And every few days, I have a glass of Coke, which I never do. Since I don’t drink caffeine, a glass of Coke can work wonders on someone like me – sending  me into a job searching rage where I am incredibly focused and effective. I’m considering trying out caffeine in the am to see if it has a similar effect on my work outputs, especially given this “work at home” thing.

Until next time…

Trees make running better

One of the best things about living in South Africa is the fact that I have time to live a normal life – one full of evenings in front of the TV, out with friends, or reading a book – as opposed to working the restaurant scene. I go to bed early, I wake up early, I get to leave work at 4pm because I get in so early, you get the point. This free time also allows me the opportunity to exercise regularly, something I had been missing in my life while in DC. Since I’m too poor to sign up for a gym, I do a lot of running. I’m not what you would call a long distance runner – I get really bored and often stop in the middle of a run to do sprints because I like that better.

One thing I do like about running is checking out the neighborhood, especially now that it is spring and all the flowers and trees are blooming. Currently, my favorite is the Jacaranda tree.

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The streets in my neighborhood are lined with these purple trees, and while they are only in bloom for about a month, they make me really happy I decided to stick around a bit longer in South Africa.

Blyde River Braai

As stated in my previous post, I booked a ticket up to Kruger to visit

View from the shore - apparently crocs and hippos live in the river. I didn't want to go swimming to find out.

Shira for the second time in a month. It was so fun the last time, I just couldn’t help it!

This time, we hiked in Blyde River Canyon and watched a dung beetle gather…well, dung. A dung beetle is a beetle that feeds partly or entirely on feces. Some dung beetles are tunnelers, and bury the dung wherever they find it. Others are dwellers, and live in the manure. And finally, most are known as rollers, and roll the dung into spherical balls which are then used as a food source.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I would think any of this would interest you, but if you listen to the commentary on the video below, you can tell that I’m not the only one fascinated by their behavior.

After the hike/dung beetle show, Shira, Sophie, Ilona and I went over to Swadeni for my first ever South African braai with Shira’s Afrikaner friends. The word, braai, is Afrikaans for barbecue, and is a big social event in South Africa, especially during the spring and summer seasons. It’s much like barbecue in the States, where meat is cooked on a grill (also known as a braai) outside. The one main difference is that braais are always done with either wood or charcoal – no gas! The meat is the main event at a braai, so being a vegetarian, I am often asked what I’m going to eat if I go to one. You don’t eat meat?? What do you eat?

Everything that isn’t.

Sophie, Shira and Ilona - post swim, pre-chips.

The braai was great fun. Can’t wait for the girls to head this way in a few weeks for some fun in Jozi and a trip up to Montecasino to see Mamma Mia!

“Dung Beetles” redirects here. For the computer game, see Dung Beetles (computer game).

dung beetles
A dung beetle, with a shovel-like head, rolling a dung ball with its hind legs
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Superfamily:	Scarabaeoidea

Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on feces. All of these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae. This beetle can also be referred to as the scarab beetle. As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Geotrupidae (the earth-boring dung beetle). The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species.^[1]

Many dung beetles, known as rollers, are noted for rolling dung into spherical balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure. They are usually attracted by the dung burrowing owls collect.

Sooo, big news. I may have made out with a hippo…

 

Shira and Kate - kicking butt, taking names, causing trouble. All in a day's work.

 

Over the long weekend in September (24-26), Andrea and I made the journey up to Kruger National Park with Shira to check out her digs. We’ve been trying to make it up to Kruger since May, but things like the World Cup and weddings to attend to back in the States kept trumping our plans. Finally, FINALLY, we were able to carve out some time to go.

Andrea flew in late Thursday night, and I picked her up while Shira lay soundly sleeping in her bed at my place. We decided we would leave at 4:30am, so while it was my role to stay up late and get Andrea, it was Shira who was to get up early and drive while we (ahem, I) slept.

We took the long way up to Kruger, stopping at various waterfalls and land formations along the Blyde River Canyon.

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Shira also forced me to go and visit Jessica the Hippo, the most famous animal in the world (apparently) – she’s even been featured on Oprah! I’m a big animal lover, but hippos terrify me – they are big and vicious and I. don’t. like. them. Shira has been to see Jessica several times (????) and assured me that she was very friendly. During the floods 10 years ago, Jessica washed up on the doorstep and from that moment on, she was cared for by Toni and Shirley Joubert. This explains why Jessica, who has never been gone from the property for more than 6 hours, is so accustomed to people.

Basically, I didn’t really have a choice.

So we went to visit Jessica – fed her, KISSED her (they MADE me do it), and rubbed her back. I’m pretty sure if I were Jessica, that I would also like people.

 

Getting to know Jessica the Hippo

 

We were up early again the next day and out the door at 6am so we could get over and into Kruger before it got too hot and the animals went to go hide out. Our goal was to see the Big 5 (elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards and buffalo) –but we didn’t. We saw a lot of giraffes and elephants though, which are two of my most favorite animals. I LOVE elephants. They are especially cute when they are small. Baby animals! Squeeeee!

 

Elephant herd! With babies!

 

 

Mom and baby. Or Dad and baby? I have no idea. But there is a baby involved, so who cares?

 

Getting out to Kruger was pretty awesome – not only because I finally got to see where Shira lives and hang out with animals but also because I find the city life in Johannesburg to be a bit jarring. Kruger reminds me of when I go to Pepperell (minus the animals) – it’s the only place I can sleep through the night. It’s rural and it’s quiet and needless to say, I booked a flight to go back to Kruger this weekend – I really want to go and sleep there again…and see Shira…and sleep…and hang out with Shira…and did I mention sleep?

I know what I’ll be doing January 7th, do you?

Instead of flying back the States today, as was originally planned, I’ll be staying in South Africa for an additional three months to continue work on the Show Me Your Number HIV Prevention Project.

Inside the halls of Soccer City in Johannesburg at the World Cup final

See you all on January 7th, when I return to the States. Well, actually, I’m assuming I’ll likely just be seeing my Mom that day, which is fine by me because I’ll get lots of HUGS and probably get to eat COOKIES!!!!

Third Time’s the Charm???

Given my last post about Cape Town, I can imagine you’re all wondering why I went back.

Half-way up Table Mountain - my poor Irish skin loved the shade

There are a number of reasons, but mainly two. First, my old roommate, Andrea, now works and lives in Cape Town, and Shira and I decided it was time to visit her. She has her own place now, appropriately nicknamed “The Penthouse”, with a view of the ocean and a dreamboat surfer who lives in the apartment beneath her. Secondly, I’m the sort of person who doesn’t give up on anything until the bitter end. I am currently re-thinking this

Kate, Andrea, Shira and Elise at the top of Table Mountain.

approach to life, but nonetheless, whether it’s good or bad, I have a hard time giving up on something/someone/anything. So, why not give Cape Town another shot?

And, what do you know? I think Cape Town must have read my last post because it really stepped up this time around. By that I mean that the weather cooperated. I was finally able to climb Table Mountain, which is on the short list for being one of the seven new wonders of the world. Andrea, Shira and Elise and I made it up in under two hours, and back down in about an hour. It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning, even if the hike did result in my first (and final???) sunburn of the spring/summer season.

My tour guide, a former inmate, at Robben Island

That night, we went to see a friend’s band play – the lead singer is this sort of Janis Joplin-like singer. The last time I was in Cape Town, I was lucky enough to see these guys practice in their studio, so it was even better to see them out in a club interacting with the crowd.

The ocean was also calm enough for me to visit Robben Island on Sunday morning, which was obviously fascinating for several reasons, but for me, the most interesting thing was the ability for prisoners to pursue education while on Robben Island. When finally released, many of the political prisoners had more than one degree.

Pre-partying with Shira - we made her drink beer that night, so she got pretty tuckered out.

Later that afternoon, we took a drive out to Hermanus to go whale watching. Shira and I tried this in early August, but the weather didn’t cooperate. This time, the sun was shining and the whales were jumping.

In case you don’t know, it’s mating season, so they were pretty busy showing off in the harbor.

I always love spending time at the ocean – it reminds me of home, our summers in Scituate as a kid and at the Cape as we got older. It makes me miss the summers when I lived with Mama (my grandma) when we used to go boating with my uncles and cousins on Sunday mornings/afternoons. It’s like taking a deep breath of fresh air and feeling the calm wash over me. I feel centered. Happy. Content. Just plain old good.

A view of the Hermanus harbor - it's like a frat house for whales.

So new life quest: Find a way to live by the ocean.

First step? Get a job set up for my return to the States in January.

Saturday Morning Haven

Dance class with Vera!

After a few weeks of sitting in the office every day, writing proposals, going to meetings, and running trainings, we finally got out of the office and into the community on 11 September. In partnership with the ANC Youth League Mzala Branch, SMYN participated in a day of volunteerism at Nkosi’s Haven in Johannesburg.

Nkosi’s Haven is an NGO offering holistic care and support for HIV/AIDS infected mothers, her children, and AIDS orphans (not necessarily infected, but certainly affected).

Nkosi’s Haven is named after Nkosi Johnson, who was born HIV-positive in 1989 and was subsequently separated from his mother when she was no longer able to care for him. He was adopted by Gail Johnson, and first came to public attention when his primary school refused to accept him as a pupil due to his HIV-positive status. It was this incident that catapulted Nkosi into the limelight as it caused action at the highest political level. The South African Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of medical status, and the school later reversed its decision, paving the way for HIV positive children around South Africa to attend school. Together with Gail, Nkosi began to actively fight against stigma and discrimination, and was ultimately a keynote speaker at the 13^th International AIDS Conference, where he encouraged people with HIV/AIDS to be open about the disease, to seek equal treatment, and to support the introduction of the mother-to-child transmission prevention program (PMTCT).

He died on International Children’s Day, June 1, 2001, at the age of 12.

For Nkosi, it was important for children to be able to stay with their mothers, and with Gail, he opened Nkosi’s Haven, a place where HIV/AIDS infected mothers and children could live freely together, receive care, pursue education, and build their capacity through various activities.

Our involvement with Nkosi’s Haven came at the request of the local ANC Youth League, which asked us to provide soccer coaching clinics to the children who lived at the Haven. Thus, on Saturday, a team of 15 SYMN staff members and ambassadors spent the day at the Haven, preparing meals, doing laundry, conducting soccer clinics and dance classes, and doing yard work.

Somebody needed a break from dancing and came over for a hug instead

Luckily (and hilariously), I helped to conduct the dance clinics with my friend, Vera, who is an award-winning dancer. I take her afro-fusion dance class on Tuesday evenings, and she was gracious enough to volunteer her time on Saturday. Additionally, I allowed the girls to do my hair, which, well, thank goodness I experienced my fair share of tangles when I was a kid because I don’t know how else I could have withstood what happened to my scalp that day.

The volunteer event was a total success, and we’ll be conducting soccer and ball-juggling clinics and dance classes once a month from now on.

On that note, I want to leave you with the final words of Nkosi’s keynote address at the 13^th International AIDS Conference, hosted in Durban:

Care for us and accept us- we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else- don’t be afraid of us- we are all the same!

You can read the rest of the address (which he wrote himself) here:

Nkosi’s Keynote Address