The True Meaning of Football

Before coming here, I had prepared myself for a new world of sports by watching Invictus and following most of the World Cup. Rugby and soccer; two sports Hunter and dad had never been particularly interested in watching, and thus two sports that I myself never got into. I have been a football, baseball, and basketball girl my whole life. I had no idea that sports would play such a huge part of my life here.

To begin, it seems that every game the Springboks or Bafana Bafana play elicits crowds larger than any team in the States. The Springboks are the country’s national rugby team, and Bafana Bafana, the national soccer team. While we haven’t been able to see either team in the flesh, we have gone to popular sports bars around town to watch the games. We went to watch a friendly match between Bafana and Ghana, which we ended up winning, and the bar we went to was absolutely packed; we had to wait until half time to get a table. The Springboks are in a tournament currently, but not doing as well as hoped. They did just beat the Australian Wallabys today, though.

Partying at Forester's (lovingly called Four-y's by the locals) for the Bafana Bafana friendly match with Ghana (we won 1-0)

The games we have gone to see, though, have been amazing as well. Western Providence is the rugby team for the area that we live in. InterStudy paid for us to go see one of those games, which was really fun. Last night, Judy, Paul, and I went to see the first Friday soccer game since apartheid in the new World Cup Stadium. We made friends with a local in the beer queue (what a great place to meet someone!) who told us that since apartheid was instated, the country stopped Friday soccer matches, which had always been extremely popular. This was the first Friday game since then, so it was huge. It was a double header with the first game between Vasco de Gama (Cape Town), and the Pirates (Johannesburg). The second game was between Ajax (Cape Town), and a team in Blumfontaine. Walking up to the stadium, the sound of vuvuzelas is absolutely unmistakable. We had of course brought our own, and on the walk toward the stadium were taking lessons from the locals. By the second game, I had perfected my skills so much that a local sitting in the row in front of me was impressed and cheering me on! The game was so much fun. I can tell that I will quickly become as much of an enthusiast about soccer as I am about basketball.

Judy and I outside the World Cup Stadium in Green Point, vuvuzelas in hand.

Inside the beautiful Green Point Stadium!

Part of my interest in sports comes from one of my classes, though, too. In my gender and development class, we are learning about different ways of ensuring gender equality. It is clear that in South Africa, women have much different societal roles than men. Most of the kids in my class think its weird when girls play football, rugby, or really any sport other than netball (of which I have yet to learn). We are learning about the ways that sport can increase society’s knowledge of the role that women can and should play in the world. Over the course of this class, it has become clear to me that gender roles in South Africa are much different than in the States. What I have come to appreciate is the role that sport can play in uniting a people, whether it be a country that was once divided by race, or that of lessening the divide between genders.  

Whales, Paintballs, Gelato, Oh My!

The program that I am in South Africa with, InterStudy, planned a weekend getaway for our group to a town called Hermanus. Not knowing much about this town, I was excited about the fun times that the group would provide us. We left Friday afternoon, and drove for about an hour and a half to get to the backpacker we would stay at for 2 nights. Upon our arrival, the backpacker made us a traditional braai with a salad. The night was pretty mellow other than the crazy Dutch guy that pretended to be the DJ of the night, playing songs that he “wanted us to dance to”.

Friends at the Hermanus Backpacker!

The next morning we woke up to go sea kayaking. To do this, either 1 or 2 people get in a kayak and paddle out to sea. The fact that I tend to get a bit seasick on anything that rocks didn’t damper my mood. Charlotte and I hopped into our kayak and played the game of teamwork. Our guide (who would later in the month make a stop to Helena 5 for a casual date with Elizabeth) took us all along the coast to marvel at the beauty of Hermanus from the ocean. Here, we learned that the white foam that dots the ocean is not from pollution or a dirty ocean, but rather a result of kelp cleaning itself. The white foam took me back home, as I decided that an appropriate name would be “The Ocean's Snow”.

Here enters the gelato. Gelato Mania was a little shop right on the water that served the most amazing gelato at an advertised 93 calories a scoop. Needless to say, gelato enters the picture more often than I’d like to admit to.

Next, we had the opportunity to go whale watching. The boat ride to find the whales lasted about 30 minutes. Once we found the sweet spot, though, we really hit the whale lottery. There were a total of 7 whales all in one spot, all playing around the boat. At one point, 2 whales swam under the boat, and reappeared literally 10 feet from us. It was an absolutely amazing sight.

The whales were SO close to us

A whale breeching-- quite a rare sight, but this morning we saw about 15 whale breeches!!

That night, after another wonderful meal from the Hermanus Backpackers, we headed out for a night on the town. We went to a little restaurant we had heard of that had a Bob Marley cover band. After a bottle of wine and of course a round of Malva Pudding, Grace and I were feeling brave enough to dance our little hearts out. The best part of the night was when the guy who had been watching us dance came over to me to ask me for a dance. At this point, One Love was making its second appearance of the night, and he and I went for a spin. What a dance that was.

My own living Bob Marley

The next morning, a few brave souls went shark cage diving, but a few others and I decided to stay back. Niko, one of the backpacker employees, took us on a little hike up to a waterfall, and then to the beach. It was a relaxing morning, which we had to of course follow up with another round of gelato.

For the last part of the trip, we became true warriors. We had the opportunity to go ATVing and paintballing. My group went ATVing first, which turned into one of the funniest moments on the trip. This is when Judy, the resident New York hipster of the trip, had her proudest moment. Before getting on the ATVs, Judy had warned us all that despite having her driver’s license, she hadn’t driven in about 3 years and didn’t really know how to drive. We all shook it off deciding that if a 7 year old can play Mario Kart, a 20 year old should be able to turn the handles enough to stay on a road. Oh, were we mistaken. Within 30 seconds of putting her foot on the gas, Judy had been unable to steer (straight), and ended up on the side of the path in the bushes.

The amazing landscape of Hermanus

The waves were getting a bit hectic...

Now the pain starts. Upon gearing up in some of the least attractive brown suits, we were handed guns filled with hard paint bullets. The marshall told us that because we had come at the end of the day, some of the professionals wanted to play, and that luckily, they would be our opponents. After 2 loooooooong games of paintball, I had about 4 huge bruises, but an awesome story to go along with them.

Here, we left Hermanus behind and headed back to the real world of school and work.

African Word of the Day: “swak”, a slang term meaning “weak” or not cool. In America, we might use the term to describe a bad play in football- “That play was swak.”

The Marvels of the Garden Route

I'd like to claim that the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've been supremely busy with nothing other than school work. While this is partially true, I've also just been busy being in South Africa in general.
The first thing I need to catch the world up on was my trip up the Garden Route. This is the eastern coast of South Africa, and all in all we travelled a total of about 10 hours up to reach Port Elizabeth. South Africa celebrates its women once a year with a holiday called Women's Day, which meant that UCT had a 3 day weekend. With about 14 other InterStudy kids, we rented 3 cars and decided to get outta' Cape Town.

The view on the drive there.

The first day we travelled to Mossel Bay, which is about a 6 hour drive. Here, we stayed at the Park Lodge House Backpackers. It was absolutely marvelous, with an outdoor "tribal circle" where we were all able to hang out. This night consisted of banging bongo drums, and meeting some fellow European travelers. The hilarity of this trip came out of our friend, and resident Dad, Ross Caton. As the main planner of the trip, we were all reliant on him for just about everything. In sharing a dorm room with him that night, we all found out about the infamous Sleep Sack. This is a thin sheet that Ross slides his body into before bed, so that he may sleep on the backpacker beds with, free from athlete's foot and STD's as he would explain to us.

Carolyn, Ross Daddy, and Grace in the tribal circle.

Ross in the sleep sack. Ross, we promise they wash the sheets!

The next day we traveled to Bloukrans, also known as the highest bungee jumping bridge in the world. I, along with 11 other adventurous souls, suited up to jump off. This is the most thrilling thing I've ever done in my life. The walk to the jump is probably the most scared I've ever been. The bridge runs over this 213 meter (700 feet) drop, and there is a rickety little cage set up under the bridge that walks you out to your doom. The whole walk I was trying to look down to prepare myself for what I would be looking at as I jumped straight down. A group of about 20 people goes up at one time, and one by one you jump off the bridge, then hang upside down for about 1 minute until a man comes to rescue you. I won't even try to describe the feeling of jumping off that bridge. I was completely calm and collected (with adrenaline pumping through my veins) up until that last couple seconds when the men are counting you down with your toes hanging over the edge. Then you jump.

About to take the plunge...

That's me!!!!

After Bloukrans, we went to Jeffery's Bay for another stop on the Route. This night we went to a lovely dinner right on the beach, where we all discovered Malva Pudding. Absolutely life changing. The soft, spongy, chocolate-y dessert, paired with the white chocolate warm syrup that flows over top of it will make any person melt. Wow. After what I loving refer to as "The Best Meal Since Africa", we went back to our backpacker called Ubuntu. The guy who ran Ubuntu was almost as wonderful as the malva pudding I had enjoyed earlier in the night. Of course I couldn't resist the tall, blonde, surfer dude who toured us around the backpackers, who also had the most adorable dogs. Then of course, in order to fully capitalize on being in South Africa and on the beach, Paul, Grace, Ben, Lill and I decided to take a late night trip to sleep on the beach. Because I was scared of getting kidnapped, though, I decided it would be smart to sleep with my drivers license in my sock so that the police would be able to positively I.D. me. Luckily, the worst thing that happened to me was a head full of sand.

My girls! We either share appetizer and dinner or malva pudding. Both good choices. 

The next day, 2 cars of friends decided to go to an animal reserve. There were tons of lions of all ages. We payed R60 (about $9) to play with baby lions which was absolutely amazing. Driving through the reserve se saw Springboks (the South African rugby team is named after these guys), zebras (pronounced zeh-bra), water buffalo, and giraffes. In one day I got 2 of the Big Five checked off my list of animals to see.

Just some new best friends. 

Then we drove to Port Elizabeth, which because we hadn't planned to do anything here was less than eventful. We backtracked this day to go to the Tube'N'Ax Backpackers in Storm's River. The Tube'N'Ax was the most amazing place. They had a bartender working, and our group stayed up all night playing drinking games, with Thumper being the main game of choice. The drive back home the next day was a long one, but our car decided to take a couple detours to adventure through a cheese house, great ocean look-out, and an illegal trip through some beautiful yellow flowers.

Devin and I at Port Elizabeth

The beautiful ocean view and the wonders of a self-timing camera.

Ah, the joy of life. And the illegality of this picture...

African Word of the Day: "hectic", which locals use to describe just about anything that is hard, crazy, or slightly faster-paced than normal. I have also had a professor use this term to describe the process of photosynthesis.

More to Love

I keep thinking about all of the wonderful things in this country that I love and would never want to change, but the more thinking I do about these things, the more I also start to think about how different things are here than at home. While these things in no way change my feelings toward my experience so far here, there are some differences that I feel are worth noting.

In America: We rarely worry about leaving the doors unlocked, and for the most part feel safe in an un-gated neighborhood.

In Africa: We must go through a gate to get into our apartment complex, then open two different doors in order to get into our flat, then may sometimes lock our bedroom doors, for a total of 4 different points of entry.

In America: We get internet, energy, airtime, etc. all in a packaged deal. We pay once a month and it’s usually unlimited.

In Africa: We pay for each megabyte used on the internet. We are allotted a certain amount of energy and if we go beyond that, we have no lights until we can go to a store and buy more. We pay for airtime by the minute. For each of these things, you buy them at certain stores. For example, I know that Pick ‘N’ Pay sells airtime, I can buy more internet online, and I can go to the hardware store for more energy.

In America: We go to a grocery store and wastefully use new plastic or paper bags each time.

In Africa: We get charged to use a plastic bag from the store. Each bag has its own cost.

In America: Our hot water heaters are conveniently kept out of sight so that we shower in peace, not thinking about how much we use.

In Africa: Our hot water heater is literally in the shower with us. We are thus forced to think about how much we use.

In America: Ketchup

In Africa: Tomato sauce, which is simply not the same.

In America: Cheetos, Cheez-its, etc.

In Africa: Nik Naks- that’s it.

In America: We register for classes electronically, and it takes a total of maybe 10 minutes.

In Africa: We must wait in about 5 different lines, each of which takes at least 15 minutes, then we end up just entering our classes online anyways.

In America: A snowboard rental with the boots is around $50, and the extra one hour less would cost another $50, rounding out to about $100 for the day.

In Africa: A surf lesson for an hour and a half, including the surfboard and wetsuit cost R220, which is about $30.

In America: When we set a lunch date for 12:30, it is rude to show up at 12:35.

In Africa: When we set a lunch date for 12:30, it is acceptable to show up anytime between 12:30-1:30.

In America: When it happens to still be winter, but the temperature is anywhere above 60˚F, we wear shorts (or just pretend its summer).

In Africa: If the season is winter, no matter how warm it is outside, girls wear layers. I mean winter coats, cotton tights, and Uggs.

In America: Taxis are cars that have insurance, pick you up for a certain price, and then get paid based on the distance you traveled.

In Africa: Taxis can mean one of two things. The normal cabs that we are used to- although the price is negotiable. There are also mini buses, that drive the main roads with one guy hanging out the window yelling out the final destination of his mini bus. If you step into one of these, you are probably one of about 15 other people, the price is usually less than $1 US no matter where you want to go, and there is no insurance ensuring your safety in case of an accident. 

All of this is something I am becoming more and more accustomed to, the things I am slowly beginning to love about this country.

African Word of the Day: “Lekker”, which means tasty or delicious when referring to food, but can also be substituted into almost any sentence that would have used a word such as “good”, or “great”. Example: “The waves today were fully lekker, bru.”

Here are some new pictures that I definitely think give a good glimpse at all the new things to love about Africa...

Some graffiti I thought was really beautiful in the cute little town of Obs. (Observatory).

HUGE pots of paella at the Old Biscuit Mill on Saturday mornings. So delicious! As was the sangria that I had along with my paella... I was missing my Mexican food.

A typical ride in my new version of a 'taxi'. They're mini buses with usually about 15 people stuffed inside. There's a whole row of people behind us that aren't really visible in this picture!

Greenmarket Square. A great place to find traditional African souvenirs, and a great place to simply walk around and spend the day.

A view of Long Street- one of the main streets that young adults go out on. This is the view from a bar called The Waiting Room.

Muizenberg Beach! I think thats me out there somewhere showing off my rad new surfer skills.