After an incredible 2 1/2 weeks, we are leaving Africa tonight. It's a
bittersweet farewell as we set sail and cross the Atlantic Ocean for the
second time on our journey. Over half of our trip is complete and we
head back west for the last 6 1/2 weeks of our trip. It will be a rough
10 days at sea but will be well worth the wait as we arrive in Argentina
on November 2nd.
Our first pass across the Atlantic seemed to drag on forever and we hope
as we set sail on our long trek back across that it will not seem as
long. We have much to look forward to over this pass such as my 21st
birthday, Halloween, and the Sea Olympics. These activities and homework
will keep us busy on the ship and time will fly by (we hope).
Miss you all back home and cannot wait to see you in December!
Today was nothing short of incredible. We began our day with a visit to the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust and watched a video about the Amy Biehl Foundation.
For those of you who have never heard of Amy Biehl, she was an American who graduated from Stanford in 1989 and received a scholarship in 1992 to travel to South Africa to work for the future of a multiracial democracy. While doing this, she assisted in registering voters for the first democratic election and worked for the inclusion of women’s and children’s rights in the constitution. In August of 1993, Amy was killed during an act of political mob violence by four young men. She was stabbed and stoned to death after being pulled from her car while driving home through the township of Guguletu. She was killed by the very people whose rights she was diligently working for. The four men were sentenced to 18 years in prison but were released after just 4 years after applying for amnesty through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Amy’s parents supported their release and launched the Amy Biehl Foundation in 1997. Two of Amy’s killers currently work for the foundation.
To me it is absolutely amazing that Amy’s parents could have fully forgiven her killers and even employ them today when it is difficult for us to forgive a friend after a small wrongdoing. It was nothing short of incredible to meet all the workers of the foundation and to see how invested they all are in the program. The trust works in the township schools of South Africa and has organized programs that reduce the levels of crime, violence, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sex, gangsterism, and idleness. The programs provide alternative s to these such as sports, arts, environmental programs, music, and youth reading and role models where 7th graders read out loud to 1st graders.
Today we got to see just a glimpse into these programs at the schools. We witnessed the reading program, listened to those involved in the music programs, and watched many students showcase their dancing abilities that they have learned through the creative arts programs. We had the chance to interact with the students and even joined in on the games and dances. It was probably one of the most life-changing days I have had on the trip. I hope to one day be able to come back here and educate students in HIV/AIDS prevention and the prevention of teenage pregnancy. Whether or not this actually happens, I will one day come back to South Africa.
The girls and I headed out early to go shopping on the Waterfront. We visited two marketplaces called the Red Shed and the Blue Shed. These places are extremely unique. South Africa has a system where public and private come together to help men and women form their own businesses. One must submit a proposal to the board in order to be considered. If you have worked hard and submit a unique, satisfactory proposal and are accepted, they set you up with a place in the blue shed where you are able to sell your product. Once in the blue shed, you must work hard to make your product and find consumers willing to purchase it. If you reach a certain quota, you are allowed to move to the red shed which is located inside the mall. If the same thing happens you then continue on to become a vendor in the mall and eventually may become a shop owner in the area. However, if you do not put in the effort and do not receive enough sales, your funding from the public/private sector will be cut and you are no longer able to sell your product in the sheds.
South Africa does not have a welfare program for their poor, so they have to work to be able to earn a living. This program enables hardworking South Africans to start their own businesses. One woman we met traveled for almost a year from the township she was living to Cape Town in order to submit her proposal just to be denied. She worked hard and received help putting together a new proposal and was accepted. We met her while she was working in the red shed. She has come a long way from where she was almost 5 years ago.
In the afternoon we traveled to Robben’s Island, the location of the prison where many political prisoners were held from the 60s to the early 90s. Nelson Mandela was held here for 18 years out of his 27 year sentence before he was released. On the island we saw the maximum security prison where he and all other political prisoners were held and also the medium and minimum security prisons where convicts were held. In 1991, all political prisoners were released from Robben Island prison and all other prisons in South Africa. This marked a turning point in the South African history of apartheid.
This day was a day filled with understanding and realization of what many black South Africans went through in apartheid and still continue to go through today trying to work their ways out of poverty.
On our return to Cape Town, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant on the waterfront. With our meal we enjoyed a couple glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, a South African white wine, and talked about our days with the group. For dessert we had the most amazing homemade ice cream with a chocolate fondue cake. It was quite the night on the waterfront.
We started our morning off early waking up around 5:30am to get ready for the bus departure at 6:30am to Aquila Private Game Reserve. There were 60 of us shoved onto a double decker bus with some of the nicest tour guides I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They pulled out movies that they had brought for us to watch and whoever was sitting in front decided on a burned copy of old MTV music videos from the 90s.
We made our way through the most beautiful scenery traveling up and around and through mountains. When we arrived at the game reserve, we were treated with a glass of champagne when we stepped off the bus and we were off to begin our open jeep safari with blankets provided.
Traveling through the gates we were immediately greeted by an elephant and some black rhinos. Our tour guide, Alvin, was very informative along the way. Throughout our safari on the game reserve we saw zebras, black rhinos, white rhinos, elephants, ostriches, steenbok, lions, crocodiles, hippos, and a cheetah. They stopped half way through where they fed us more champagne and everyone took pictures.
We traveled back to the lodge where we were treated to the best lunch I have had in a long time. We took our time enjoying the atmosphere before climbing back on the bus to drive back to the ship.
I wish I could explain to you all how beautiful South Africa is, but no amount of words I use could even begin to describe it. I’ve only been here for 14 hours and I’m in love. This is probably the one place we’ve been to so far that I’d consider moving back to….even despite the AIDS epidemic that is occurring within this country right now.
We began our morning spending time getting checked by customs and immigration officials and people’s parents from back home began to board the ship for the parent trip. Seeing all the parent’s greet their children made me slightly homesick but I didn’t have long to dwell on it as we were quickly beginning our drive to the Southernmost point of Africa to go cage diving with Great White Sharks!
We were running late because our van was pulled over, the other van got stuck in traffic, and we made a pit stop to use an ATM. So instead of heading to their office for a briefing first we hopped on the boat right away and had a quick 2 minute life jacket instruction. Then we headed out to where they dropped their bait earlier.
It was a 10 minute boat drive out to the cage where we immediately began seeing Great White Sharks. This alone was an amazing experience considering there are only about 1,000 of them left in the entire world. To make the occasion better, cage diving can only be done in South Africa or in California. Here we paid $120 versus the roughly $2,000 they charge in the states.
We were issued wetsuits which were probably the hardest things possible to get into…especially since they were already damp. Once the struggle was over, we took our turns in the water while continuously baiting the sharks. Under water in the cage we saw hundreds of fish and the BIGGEST sharks I have ever seen in my life. The smallest were probably 8 feet where the largest was nearly 15 feet!!
We headed back to shore where we were treated to hot vegetable soup and biscuits. We then bought souvenirs and headed back to Cape Town…stopping on the way to whale watch at the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
