What's a Volunteer?

This week we have been working with the 4 to 11 year olds who are on school holiday for the next 2 weeks. There are 7-8 kids that we work with, 2 of them go to the public school while the rest of them attend the special needs school that Home of Hope created. Since all of the teachers are on holiday as well, it is just Amy, Laura and I in charge of everyone. While a couple of the children are required to do some school work each day, our only other job is to keep them entertained and occupied. I promise you that this is much more difficult than it sounds.

When the sun comes out, we've been able to pass the time playing at the park. The rainy days when we are all crowded in the house can be a little more difficult since everybody has way too much energy to sit in one room all morning. There isn’t an overabundance of art supplies or games at the house, so it takes a little bit of creativity to entertain these kids. We’ve been doing a lot of drawing, and some of these children are very gifted artists so it is fun to see what they come up with. The best news of the week – we got a space heater for the house. And while it doesn’t get warm enough to heat up an entire room, if you sit right in front of it, you just might get warm enough to take off your jacket.

The children refer to us as “the volunteers,” and only a few have learned our individual names. But, with so many people casually passing through their lives, I cannot blame them. If one of us is missing they will ask, “Where is the other volunteer?” I don’t think that I knew what a volunteer was when I was 5 years old, but I suppose it’s good to be introduced to the philanthropic world at such a young age. And afterall, that's exactly what we are...volunteers.

We were told by the director of the program that the main objective for these children is to develop them enough that they will be able to attain jobs at grocery stores or gas stations when they’re older. Hearing this information enraged all of us, and we wanted to yell “That’s it?! That’s what you’re shooting for? Aim higher!” But I guess that’s the reality here. Eventually the schooling will subside and the focus will switch to vocational training as they will be placed in stores or shops and learn how to work to support themselves. It is sad because all of these children have the potential to be so much more given the proper attention and opportunity to explore their talents and desires. Today I asked one of the boys what he wants to be when he grows up, a question it seems none of them are asked a lot. After a little encouragement, he replied, “An artist, because then I can be rich and drive a Lamborghini.”  I’m glad that he’s still dreaming big!

Tomorrow we are heading out of town for the weekend to visit a few places along the coast, including the southwestern most tip of Africa. We are renting a car, and with the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle and traffic driving in the opposite direction, things should get interesting. With a little driving experience in Australia, it looks like I have been designated as the driver here, but I think it will be a 3 person job to make sure the car stays on the left side of the road. Hopefully we'll have some good stories and pictures to share when we get back next week. Look out, South Africa!

Playing at the house

More play time

Amy playing board games with the girls

The heater!

The kids trying to stay warm, drawing by the heater

Bible time

Laura leading the kids to the park

The 3 of us supervising at the park

Amy and Laura on the teeter-totter

Playing soccer

Amy and I at the park

Lunch time - usually consisting of butter sandwhiches and tea

Lion's Head

Mother Nature has been awfully kind to us this week and decided to bless us with some sunshine. So, after finishing work yesterday, we went into the city to hike up Lion’s Head, a mountain located directly beside Table Mountain with an elevation of 2,195 feet.

This hike was much less intense and much more enjoyable than our Table Mountain experience. It wasn’t quite as steep, and since we didn’t have a guide we could go at our own speed and explore the mountain as we desired. The trail spirals around the mountain taking you to its peak, giving you views of the entire city of Cape Town, the Atlantic Ocean and Table Mountain. To say that the views are breathtaking would be an understatement, and we all kept repeating how fortunate we are to be here and how none of us have ever seen anything so beautiful.

While most of the trail itself is a fairly steep incline, once you get to the top, you are basically rock climbing. Near the very top of the mountain there are ladders and chains to assist you since it is extremely steep, and it was fun trying to maneuver our way to the top. Once we got to the summit, clouds had pretty much engulfed the entire top of the mountain and so we could barely see the city below us. We took our time enjoying the scenery and resting at the top and still completed this hike in about two and a half hours. Compared to our Table Mountain adventure – it was a breeze.

When the weather decides to cooperate this city has a plethora of outdoor activities to offer. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we see some more sunshine soon so that we can get back out on the hiking trails!

The beginning of the trail

A view of Camps Bay from the trail

Amy and I with a view of Camps Bay in the background

Views from the trail

Amy and Laura taking in the views

Climbing on some rocks

The trail

Some boulders we found to play on

Laura and I playing on the boulders

Checking out the Atlantic Ocean

Amy and Laura with the ocean in the background

I'm not sure what I'm doing. Hiding?

More views of the trail

Amy and Laura scaling the wall. The city below them

Me climbing to the top

Camps Bay and Table Mountain covered in clouds

The view from the peak, the city covered in clouds

The sun beginning to set over the Atlantic

Shark Cage Diving

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am infinitely intrigued by sharks and that Shark Week on the Discovery Channel is always my favorite week of the entire summer. I find sharks both fascinating and terrifying, so obviously I would never miss an opportunity to jump into the ocean for an up close and personal experience with them.

We had a 4am wake up call to meet the tour company in Cape Town at 5am. From there we had a two hour bus ride to Gansbaii, which is known as the Great White Shark Capital of the world. We then hopped on a boat for a 15 minute ride to a channel referred to as “Shark Alley,” lying between Dyer Island and Geyer Rock, home to nearly 60,000 Cape Fur Seals. Before departing, we all loaded up on Dramamine to avoid getting seasick and got a false sense of confidence on our drive out to the channel while we were all excited and bragging about not feeling sick. We know now that this excitement was premature.

Once we got out to the channel our guide started chumming the water and describing how the cage diving was going to work. He explained where to put your hands and feet while you were in the cage so as not to lose any extremities by a shark passing by and what to do if a shark started ramming the cage Surprisingly this wasn’t enough to make any of us nervous, but rather our impending sea sickness was making all of us eager to get off the boat and into the water!

As everybody headed to change into their wetsuits, the first shark appeared and so it was a race to see who could get ready first to jump into the cage. The cage holds up to 5 people at a time and there were about 20 people on board. I ended up being the last person to join the first group of people in the cage, jumping in and promptly putting my hands and feet in the exact position they had advised us against. Oops! I’m sorry, but when you get into water that cold and there are sharks swarming around you, all logic goes out the window. The water temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which wasn't too terrible, but it also wasn't bath water.

While you’re in the cage, you sit at the top of the water until you hear the guide yell “Down! Down! Down!” which means that there is a shark approaching and you’re supposed to hold your breath and go as far as you can under the water to view the shark. You are so close to these sharks it’s unreal to think you’re seeing it in person rather than on the TV in an episode of Shark Week. We had an underwater camera that turned out to be mostly a failure since we found it quite hard to capture a decent photo of anything except the cage. It proved to be impossibly difficult to take a good picture while trying to hold your breath, find the shark, keep all limbs inside the cage, stop your body from shaking violently and snap a nice photo all at the same time. We managed to get a couple, but unfortunately nothing you’re going to see on the cover of National Geographic anytime soon.  Amy and Laura got to join me in the cage after I had been in for about 10 minutes, and as soon as they got in, a shark came shooting out of the water attacking its “prey” from beneath. It wasn’t exactly like the “Air Jaws” episode from Shark Week, but it was close enough for me (picture below, sort of.) It was one of the the best experiences ever, and we were literally 2 feet from the shark’s wide open mouth. Every person’s dream!

After swallowing way too much salt water, we all got back onboard in time to see Amy make it to the other side of the boat to lose her lunch. In an effort to not get sick ourselves, Laura and I went to the top of the boat where you can see the sharks coming from all different directions. It’s a pretty incredible experience getting to view them in their natural habitat, and since the tour company can’t guarantee that you will see any sharks while diving, we felt very fortunate that we got to see so many. All of the sharks that we saw were Great Whites, and while they were all juveniles, they were all still really big. Sea sickness and all, this was by far the best excursion that we’ve done thus far!

Getting ready to board the boat

Our boat

A bird flying with us on the ride out to the channel

Our skipper

Amy and I on the boat before getting into our wetsuits

The cage

The first shark!

Another shark circling the boat

The picture that I am the most proud of- it's harder than you think to get an action shot of a shark!

Me after I just got into the cage.

Laura in the cage. Nice and warm!

Amy in the cage. For some reason Amy and I were the only people to get wetsuits that didn't have hoods attached. We certainly got the short end of that deal!

 

The shark that jumped from the water as soon as Amy and Laura got in the cage. Ok, it's not perfect, but I'm still proud of it.

More shark shots

All of us on the boat after our dive

Gansbaii

The Road to Stellenbosch

Well, we’ve had a busy few days. Here is quick update.

Thursday night we went into Cape Town to go to a fundraiser to benefit the children of the township of Khayelitsha, one of the places we went on our cultural tour. The event was at a nightclub on Long Street in downtown Cape Town. While this wouldn’t usually be a place where you would find me, we decided to make a sacrifice for the kids and stay out past our usual bedtime of 8:00 pm. The benefit ended up being successful and we had fun observing and participating in South African nightlife. If there was ever a place to make you feel inadequate about your dancing abilities, a night club in South Africa would be it. We were home and in bed by midnight, but it was still a struggle to make it to work on time Friday morning. Our age really started to show when we all climbed into bed at 7:30 pm Friday evening – no more going out on work nights, we are 25 now and not as young as we used to be.

I woke up feeling a little under the weather on Saturday, but I guess that’s to be expected when you work with kids who stick their whole hand in their mouth and then rub it all over your face. I decided that the best way to cure my ailment was to spend all day Saturday drinking on a wine tour and Sunday morning jumping in the ice-cold Atlantic Ocean to play with the sharks. I'm not sure, but I think that's how one gets Pneumonia.

Saturday morning we embarked on a wine tour to a variety of different “wine farms” in Stellenbosch and various surrounding towns. We got to see a whole different side of South Africa and with the mountains painted in the background and greenery covering the countryside, we all felt like we were somewhere in Europe for most of the day. South Africa’s beauty is surprising and never-ending.

I’ve learned that I don’t have much of a taste for the finer things in life, and this includes wine. After one glass it all seems to taste the same to me and I’d prefer an ice cold beer over a glass of wine just about any day. Amy, on the other hand, has completed her second level Sommelier and is much more interested in all aspects of wine-making, including the history, process and technique of making the wine. She probably knew more about wine than most people leading the tours, so she was our own personal Sommelier for the day.

Saturday night we were in bed early so that we could get up at 4am to go on our shark dive today. I will post an update on this soon, but first we have to get our underwater camera developed, which could contain multitudes of up-close Great White pictures - or none at all. I guess we’ll find out soon! But, for now I will leave you with the comforting fact that we all survived with all of our limbs intact.

Amy and I before the fundraiser

We met some entertaining fellows from the Royal Navy whose ship was stopping in Cape Town for a week

At the fundraiser with Tineke, our housemate from the Netherlands

Our very first stop on the wine tour

Checking out the scenery on the first wine farm

Stellenbosch

Posing with one of our guides

We stopped to pet the cheetah after our first wine tasting. Nothing like drinking a little wine and playing with dangerous animals. Safe!

More Cheetah time

One of the Vineyards

Amy, our little Sommelier who was also celebrating a job offer from back home that morning!

More wine tasting

The sun came out, which is a rare occurrence here, so we had to capture it.

More scenery from the wine farms

More scenery

Yes, that is a goat outside the last wine farm we went to. And inside they had goat cheese to taste. No thank you.