Langa

During our stay here in South Africa we have been seeing this country from a one point perspective. We have been seeing South Africa from its pretty side: Gardenroute, Elandspad, Bishops, Table Mountain and so on. However, South Africa is a developing country which struggles to take care of all the people. On February the 21st and 22nd, 2012, the four exchange boys experienced the other life that many people in South Africa live everyday.

During small break I was brought to LEAP. LEAP is a school that runs on donations and scholars children from the townships. The school building is separated into LEAP 1 and LEAP 2. LEAP 1 are children from the township Langa and LEAP 2 are children from Khayelitsha and a couple of others. The school is actually quite a good school and all the people who go there are eager to learn and happy they get the opportunity to do so. I followed a couple of classes and went swimming with grade eleven. School will always be school but it was a good experience to go to LEAP.

When school finishes buses take everybody back home. The four of us all stayed in Langa. When we stepped out of the bus we all were shocked to see the conditions these people live in, and yet still manage to live a happy life. I’m not saying that these people wouldn’t want better but they are happy with what they have. After dropping our bags off, my host girl took me around. She told me Langa is relatively small, but I got the impression it was immense. The conditions are very bad. The streets are the sewer system and on every conner a huge amount of rubbish is dumped. Rats are everywhere and a lot of neglected dogs just walk around. Most people live in shacks or a small brick house. There are a couple of old flats where people live but you can’t imagine the condition they are in. After walking around I went back to the shack I was going to sleep in for the night. It was not more than four meter by four meter and two people lived in it. When I was walking around that afternoon I saw sheep brain, cow’s head and intestine so I was curious about what I was going to eat that evening. In the end we had pork with rice and vegetables, so nothing out of the ordinary. That evening we talked and watched television. We talked about the future and ambitions. My host girl wanted to do something in the medical world but she wasn’t sure yet. We went for another walk that evening and all the people said hello and wanted to shake our hand. Langa is a dangerous place so I was happy that my host girl knew the way because at night I felt that all the eyes were settled on me. We went to sleep early because the days are long. Wake up is at six o’clock, school starts at 8:15 and ends at 17:15 and when they are home they have homework and chores to do. 

The next day we took had to rush to make the bus, which took us to school. We were picked up at ten and taken back to Bishops.

The experience was eyeopening and makes you realize how much you should appreciate the life you have. To see how these people live makes me respect these people a lot. They struggle with everyday life but still appreciate it. They are happy with what they have and fight for a better life everyday. I think LEAP is doing a great job in giving these people bigger opportunities and I really wish these people all the best and hope that one day things will change.

I didn't take any pictures because I thought it would be disrespectful.  

Bloukrans Bridge 

Bloukrans Bungee 

False Bay

African Penguin

Read the Sign

Rhino Family

Elephant at the Game Lodge

Ostridge

Cango Caves

Me at the Beach/Ocean

Beach

Garden Route

The fifth week of exchange was the moment many of us have had in the back of our minds since coming to South Africa. The Garden Route was at the doorstep. I was talking to an ex-exchange student the weekend before and he said he enjoyed this trip the most, so expectations were high. On the Monday morning, February the 13th, 2012, our bus arrived and we were on our way!

The first day we did quite some driving, because the Garden Route is Western Cape going into Eastern Cape and Cape Town is deep inside the Western Cape. A guide from the Bokbus company had picked us up that morning and he briefly informed us about the day plan. Our first stop of the day was False Bay. It gets its name from long ago, when the Portuguese used Cape Town as the last stop and then sailed straight to Indonesia in search for spices. When the Portuguese and others would come back they would see a very similar bay to Cape Town and think they had arrived only to discover it was False Bay.  After more driving we stopped at a penguin beach where we saw many African Penguins. After relaxing there a bit we headed to our accommodation for the evening. We were told that it would be our most luxurious hotel but I hadn’t expected a safari lodge. It was amazing! Loic and I stayed in a luxurious hut, and in the evening we relaxed at the pool, after having a very tasty dinner. However, I didn’t care about any of this, the best, by far, was that we actually went on safari and saw lions, elephants, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras and many more animals. My first day of the Garden Route was a great success. 

After a great night sleep, we went on safari again, but this time early in the morning.  We also went to the reptile center where we were allowed to hold snakes, and visited a couple of cheetahs. After breakfast and a load of happy valentines, we left my favorite hotel of the week. We headed for an ostrich farm where we got to feed, ride and pet the animals. It’s probably the most awkward animal to ride, but I felt sorry for the animals because they were extremely stressed out. The last stop of the day was the Cango Caves. These caves were discovered a long time ago by a local farmer, who was brave enough to let himself in and explore. The cave is covered with stalactites and stalagmites and huge formations of them. After seeing the main cave we went on an “adventure”. A guide took us through narrow tunnels, up(down) to 30 cm wide and 40cm in height, through the caves and eventually back out. We al enjoyed it, and that evening we stayed at the Backpackers Paradise where we played some football and had ostridge kebab. That evening we all went to bed with one thing on our mind: Bloukrans Bungee.

Wednesday was the big day that everybody had been talking about. We were going to bungee the highest bridge bungee in the world(216m). This was however later on in the day. We first went canoeing and after that we had pizza. The big moment had arrived and there we were, staring at the Bloukrans Bridge not able to believe we were about to jump off that massive structure. After being strapped into a harness and been given some simple instructions, we walked to the center to the bridge which seemed to take ages. Once we were on the bridge the music was pumping and everybody was in the zone. One by one we jumped and all came back up with a huge smile on their face. It was definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Next stop: skydiving! After the bungee we went off to the beach to relax and let the adrenalin flow out of us. That evening we stayed in another youth hostel where we met the same guys who jumped of the bridge with us. We watched the videos of us jumping and we all had a good laugh.

Thursday was our last proper day of the Garden Route. In the morning we did a zipline through the tree canopy. The money we paid for it went to charity. It helped poor people getting educated and improving their facilities. After having done the bungee this wasn’t very adrenalin pumping but I still enjoyed hanging out with the group and viewing nature at its finest. After doing ten ziplines we had lunch and went off the beach where we could swim and have something to eat. We were already on the way back and after the beach we made progress heading towards Cape Town. After a long drive we arrived at a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was a very calming place and we all sat down and enjoyed the sunset and talked about the trip.

Friday we drove back to Cape Town. We made a stop in Hermanus where we had lunch and sat on the cliffs enjoying the view. We arrived at Bishops around five and all of us said goodbye to the girls from Hong Kong because they were leaving the next day. I had a great trip with moments I will never forget and I hope to go back to that part of the world one day!

 Robben Island

Robben Island Entrance

Leper Graveyard

Robben Island Penguin

View of Table Mountain from Robben Island

Lime Quarry

Mandela's Prison Cell

Mandela's Garden

Cable Car Station

Just Another Picture of Table Mountain

Cape Town

Green Point Stadium

Cape Town

Our Route

Robben Island

Robben Island and Table Mountain Hike

On Thursday the 9th of February the exchange coordinator had arranged a trip to Robben Island. After gathering early in the morning, we were taken to the Waterfront where the ferry would take us to Robben Island. The ferry departed from the Nelson Mandela Gateway, and after thirty minutes we arrived at the island.

Robben Island is a World Heritage site. Therefore we were't allowed to walk around the island alone. A bus took us around,and a guide informed us about the history of the islands and what countries influenced it. After a while the Dutch were mentioned, and as our guide had been to the Netherlands before, he started to talk about how terrible the cheese was (I agree) and that when the Dutch came to Robben Island they started eating the penguin population with cheese. After the bus had taken us past the major sites: Leper Graveyard, Lime Quarry, prisons of important people and a couple more, we were dropped off at the section where once Nelson Mandela had been kept prisoner. It was here that an ex-inmate joined us and told us his shocking experiences he had on the island. He took us past 46664's prison cell (Nelson Mandela was given a number) and showed us the garden that Nelson Mandela used to maintain. He told us about how he had been beaten by the guards, and that today he sits next to these men in parliament. After the ex-inmate had shown us around it was time to go back to mainland where we had lunch with the exchange group.

The next day, it was time to climb up Table Mountain. After gathering extremely early, to avoid traffic, a small bus took us to our starting point. The climb started off with rock stairs which continued for a while. After everybody had completed that, we climbed a bit and followed a path. The next stop provided us with some spectacular views of Cape Town. The path eventually took us to a part that we had to scramble up, using chains and metal bars sticking out of the rocks. After completing this it was then that Mr. Court (Bishops coordinator) told us this was the most dangerous hike in South Africa (5-6 people dying annually), which obviously gave us a lot of confidence. From now on it was pretty straight forward, a path took us around the mountain from where we could easily level ourselves with the top of Table Mountain. It was an amazing experience which we all enjoyed. It was quite chilly at the top, but the view was great and all of us sat down and relaxed. It took us around three hours to get up, and five minutes to get down. The new cable cars which spin around took us down in no time. It was cool because you could see the exact route which we had just climbed. After dropping the girls off at Herschels we went back to Bishops, and finished our memorable day off with a bit of pool.

Bus Tour

Creativity at the Market

Painting at the Market

Company's Garden

Dutch Flag with Table Mountain

Camps Bay

Week Number Three

Time is flying here in South Africa! I just completed my third week, in which I did two major activities. On Wednesday the 1st of February the entire exchange group went sightseeing and today, Sunday the 5th of February, the Dutch exchange students went to Cape Point.

Wednesday morning we gathered outside of the chapel at eight o'clock to go sightseeing. The tour started at the Waterfront and after a few stops we got of to walk through a small market. The market was interesting to see, all the people were kind and the objects they sold were very creative. After the market we went to St. George's Cathedral and had a quick look before going of to the Company's Garden. Before jumping back onto the bus we popped into the South African Museum. The bus ride was very nice because it was a very hot day and it was nice to have a breeze in your face. Our next stop was the District Six Museum. It told the story of the 60000+ people who were forced to leave their houses in the sixties. There were many more stops but the best of the day was the view that we had half way up Table Mountain and Camps Bay. In Camps Bay we were allowed to hop off the bus and have lunch. Lotte and I ran into the Pick'n Pay (local supermarket) grabbed a baguette and salami and had lunch on the beach. After Camps Bay we went back to Bishops, where everybody was picked up!

Today the Dutch exchange students and their partners went to Cape Point which is supposably the point where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet. We walked up to a peak which had an amazing view over the ocean. Too bad that my camera battery ran out! After having seen Cape Point we went to have a picnic on the beach. All of us had a good time. To end the day we went on the Chapman's Peak Drive, which gave us some spectacular views. I really enjoyed the day, even though it was terribly hot.