Traversing the Bots

I know it’s been a while since I last posted, so here goes. After all of my international travelling, I decided it was time to explore within the country I’ve been living for three months now (I can’t believe it’s been so long!). The weekend before last, my fellow CIEE students and I went camping at Mokolodi, the game reserve where we had earlier seen our first rhinos. It was delightful; the nighttime weather here is perfect, and the stars looked incredibly beautiful. We even got to see some giraffes on our way to the campsite! Here are pictures of one of the giraffes and of us, the happy campers.

This past Thursday, we travelled to Orapa, which houses some of Botswana’s most important diamond mines, managed by the Debswana Mining Company. The town itself is closed, so we had to carry permits wherever we went. After a two-hour safety lecture and video, we got dressed up and headed over to see the mines—from a distance. We were taken to a balcony overlooking the mine, where we could stare deep into the Earth without really being able to see anything. The sun was blazing, our gear was hot…in short, we were all pretty cranky by the time we left the Debswana facilities. Because of confidentiality restrictions, we were forbidden from taking pictures, so you’ll have to imagine the experience (not that you’d really want to).
That night, however, we travelled to Serowe, where we went on our first nighttime game drive at Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Once again, the weather was perfect, and we got to watch a whole herd of zebras galloping past our vehicle! We also saw a lot of rhinos, as I tried to show below. I wish the pictures had come out better, but part of the magic was knowing that everything we saw would only remain in our memories.

The next morning, we went to Serowe’s cultural museum, where we learned about the history of the area. Central to this history is the love story of interracial couple Sir Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana, and his wife, Ruth Williams. In fact, this story is about to become a movie (“A United Kingdom”) starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, along with the always-incredible Tom Felton. We couldn’t finish part of our tour because of the filming, but we were able to take pictures on the set before we left!

We returned to Gabs on Saturday night, and I went with a friend to watch a street dance performance at a local school. The first act was a “dance-play” about a chemistry class gone awry, and it was told through classic hip-hop, as well as animation, crump, and b-boying. I was blown away by the talent (shout-out to TNT Dance Crew Bots!). The crump was better than I’ve ever seen, even on TV. The second act was a retelling of the Passover story (Moses and the Israelites leave Egypt). This act called into question a lot of how I’ve imagined the story. When Moses’ mom carried her baby to the river, she carried him on her back wrapped in a bright pink blanket, the way Batswana often do here. The image seemed so incongruous to me, and I realized that a lot of my perception of the story is colored by where I come from. Still, seeing Moses kill an Egyptian using capoeira was awesome.
This weekend, I’m travelling internationally for the last time. I’m heading to Johannesburg, where I’ll be visiting the Cradle of Humanity to see some of humanity’s ancestors, including the newly discovered Homo naledi! So proud to be a nerd right now Until next time, sala sentle!

P.S. Photo credits to Leah and Jake for the Mokolodi pictures and the shots of the film set!

Travelling Broke

Hi all! For those of you who don't know, I've spent the last two weeks travelling in Cape Town, South Africa, Swakopmund, Namibia, and (impromptu) Windhoek, Namibia. Here's a brief account of my adventures:

I headed out to Cape Town on September 19 with a few of my friends from the group. First, we took a bus from Gabs to Johannesburg (Jo-burg), and then we were supposed to fly from Jo-burg to Cape Town. However, due to airline policy, you must be carrying all documents used to purchase your ticket to the flight. Because I didn't bring my credit card, which wasn't approved to work in South Africa, they wouldn't let me board the plane! They couldn't verify that I was who I said I was, despite the fact that I had all of the card's information memorized. Instead, I had to repurchase my plane tickets on the spot, a move which cost me a decent amount of money. (Word to the wise: do not fly Mango Airlines. I'm still seething.) Because of this, I have been travelling on an extreme budget ever since.

For anyone planning to travel to Cape Town on a budget, here are some of the activities we did over the week, with pictures. All prices are approximate.

• Climbing Table Mountain (free, although the cable car down cost $10) 
• Afternoon Tea at Mount Nelson Hotel ($25, but feeds you enough to last for lunch and dinner)
   
• Botanical Gardens ($5)
  
• Climbing Lion's Head Peak (free)
• Going to the beach ($5)
  
• Robben Island Tour ($20)
  

Instead of taxis, we used Uber, which was a much cheaper alternative. We also stayed in an amazing backpacker's hostel (Once in Cape Town), which was very reasonably priced and where we met some really incredible people. Most of the nightspots didn't charge cover fees, and drinks were cheap, although I was able to save as a non-drinker. :)

Tuesday night/Wednesday was Yom Kippur, so I headed out to the Gardens Shul in Cape Town, the oldest synagogue in South Africa. A lovely family hosted me for break-fast, and I learned a lot about Jewish life in South Africa. The Cape Town Jewish community is extremely insular; almost every Jewish child attends Jewish day-school, and many live in the same neighborhoods, creating unofficial Jewish quarters scattered throughout the city. Interestingly, although the synagogue was similar to an Ashkenazic Modern Orthodox one in the States, many of the congregants live very secular lives outside of shul, despite interacting almost exclusively with other Jews.

We returned to Gabs on Sunday, September 27. On the 29th, the eve of Botswana's Independence Day, I went to the national Independence Day evening celebration. The national stadium was packed; there must have been thousands of people in attendance. Most of the ceremony consisted of marching band performances (sans color guard, unfortunately), followed by fireworks at the end. The entire stadium went wild at every opportunity. People were cheering and whistling for every new marching band and at every burst of a firework. Although I didn't understand what we were applauding most of the time, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement.

Very early on the 30th (4:30 am), we headed out to Namibia in a combi driven by our local taxi driver and his friend. The whole drive to Swakopmund lasted over 18 hours, and we finally arrived at our hostel around midnight very tired and cranky. Unfortunately, this hostel was rather unpleasant. The beds were damp, and we found mouse droppings on the floor. Breakfast was not complimentary (approx. $6), unlike at most hostels I've stayed in the past. Thankfully, I had packed food from home to last me through the trip, so I saved money by eating muesli, fruit, peanut butter crackers, and microwavable soup for breakfast and lunch every day.

While in Swakop, we went to the beach, and we went sandboarding, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was a lie-down boarder (as opposed to stand-up boarding, which is essentially snowboarding on sand.) Basically, you hop on a thin sheet of waxed particle board and cruise down huge sand dunes. The fastest I went was 67 km/hr (approx. 42 mph), although speeds in our group ranged from 30-68 km/hr. The best part about it was that there was pretty much no way to get hurt. Even when I wiped out completely, I would just roll through the soft sand, dig my board out of the dune, and start walking back up to the top (no lifts, since it's not really possible to build a lift into a sand dune).

On Friday night, we went out to a club in Swakopmund. I left early with a friend, but the rest of my group came back at about 2 am, blaring music from our combi. The manager was angry, and at 9:30 the next morning she marched into our room and announced that we had until 10 am to be out of the hostel. After our unplanned exit, we headed from Swakop to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. We had a few hours to explore the city, and then we crashed at a backpacker's hostel. Instead of getting a room, one of my friends and I slept in a two-person hammock in the camping area, which proved to be a cheaper, but far less comfortable, option. Fortunately, the Namibian night sky is beautiful. At 3:00 that morning, we began the long drive back to Gabs.

Now, I'm back at my house in Tlokweng, and life is pretty much back to normal. It's hard to resume my life as a student, when my heart is so full of adventure. The next trip we have planned is an excursion to Serowe, a local village, as part of my public health program the weekend after next. Until then, it's just classes, weight-lifting, and dealing with this unbelievably oppressive heat (upwards of 90F every day!). 'Till next time, sala sentle!