Lions galore!

Monday:

·         Bridget’s mom came to town, so we went to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting!

·         It was like another world over there, a lot more European looking and gorgeous.

·         The wine was fabulous, we went to three different wineries and I ended up buying a Chenin Blanc (which surprised me; normally I’m more of a red drinker).

We then ended our day out with a trip to the lion sanctuary! We got there right at feeding time!!! So they were all prowling around the fences near us, munching on their chickens.

   

·         As we were leaving, these three little kids were talking to these big black birds in a cage. They were teaching them to say “Hello, lion food!” to people as they enter the park. They were my heroes.

Tuesday:

·         Psych class is getting increasingly more boring and by the textbook. It is a good opportunity to practice my drawing.

Wednesday:

·         In Ethics, the drama continues! There is this one guy who is on a personal crusade to prove the entire class (the students, professor, and curriculum) is ignorant and un-academic. It is getting really ridiculous. The other group of us Americans presented today and he spent the entire time telling them that their moral question (part of the ethics requirement for the project) was insufficient as a question. And that all the other groups didn’t even have a moral question (debatable). The professor then defended us all (she rocked it, serious props to her) and asked if we were going to stick up for ourselves. At that point, I started asking him questions to get him to defend his bigotry, but shortly into his explanation, he insulted the entire class by referring to us as “empty vessels” that did not realize our ignorance. At this point, the whole class walked out. Although, truth be told, I think that ‘empty vessel’ is now one of my favorite insults. I found out later that he then wrote a letter to the head of the department, claiming that the class should not count for credit and that the professor was not doing her job. So the department came in on that Thursday (for which I was at service) and asked about the class’ opinion on that matter. We promptly told the head that he is crazy.

Thursday:

·         Work site, I am putting together resources for the students. This mostly includes a list of social work/mental health resources for the township of Nyanga, one of the poorest and most dangerous areas around Cape Town http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyanga,_Cape_Town

·         The main reason that I am doing this is that the teachers constantly deal with students who need help dealing with stress, depression, and sometimes trauma, and they are very well-meaning, but not licensed social workers and certainly do not have enough time for every student. So I am working on a referral system for them to get further help for their kids.

Saturday:

·         We all went to Cape Point for the day! Which is the South-Western most point of Africa! The drive to get there was so freaking beautiful, it is known as one of the world’s most scenic drives.  A lot of really famous people have houses along this stretch (Will Smith and more).

·         Along the way, we stopped at several places to take pictures and sight-see. These stops included watching some baboons and visiting an ostrich farm. Ostriches are so weird, but so great. Seriously, look at their feet, they have one giant toe. We also stopped at a small shop that was dedicated to selling the work of local artists and helping them out (I bought three paintings and a bracelet, I just could not help myself).

·         The park of Cape Point was so beautiful. The wind was whistling and the waves were crashing all over. I climbed up on the rock face with a couple other people, and we got yelled at when we got down (I suppose they aren’t too fond of tourists being reckless).

·         We then climbed up to the lighthouse that overlooks all of False Bay and the point. We could see clear to Table Mountain!

·         Our last stop of the day was to have dinner in Simonstown. It was great because there were penguins just chilling on the patio right outside our window!

Sunday:

·         We had a family brunch instead of a dinner, courtesy of Meribeth and Sophie. Dear lord, how I have missed pancakes.

·         After brunch, we all trekked over to Lion’s Head (the final of the three peaks that I have needed to climb). I guess that it is a really big thing around here to hike up to watch the sunset and tonight was the full moon!!

·         It was so beautiful! The hike only took us around 45 minutes to an hour. The first part was a nice, gentle slope, and then the top part was more rock climbing with ladders and handles and chains bolted into the rocks. The view was perfect, you could see out over the ocean for miles, all of downtown, Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak, Signal Hill, and even further down the coast and places along the peninsula like Camps Bay.

·         We go there an hour before sunset so we picnicked at the top, I brought some apple pie (Pick N Pay makes wonderful pie for a dollar twenty-five) and some wine.

·         As we were sitting there, the clouds started to roll in from the ocean over the town around us. As the sun went down, it made everything look like it was in heaven and we felt like we were sitting on top of the world!

·         The stars were pretty dim because of the light from the city and the brilliant full moon. It was wolf-howling bright. Thankfully, it was light enough to help us climb down. There is an easier path that does not require chains and ladders, but we couldn’t find the turn off for it, so Mary Claire, Sam, and I blazed down fearlessly. I have many years of climbing the mountain at Bigfoot in the dark to thank for my success.