Only in Cape Town

1.    When passing on the highway in a car (I only state this because there are more human Frogger contestants on the FREEWAY than any other place I’ve ever visited), you flash your hazards as a sign of “thank you” and/or “you’re welcome”

2.    You can order a “Game of the Day Skewer,” and no, this is not a fun activity, it is multiple animals dead and cooked on one skewer. My brother got one while out to dinner last week (thank goodness I was not there) the waiter told him it was W.I.S.K.  Wildebeest, Impala, Springbok, Kudu. No words.

3.    Everything has thorns in Africa. We spent the weekend in Bontebak National Park where the acacia was full of EVIL thorns, the grass had crazy thistles, the aloe had huge spikes…I’d say this flora does not work together, it’s every plant for itself.

4.    It is spring right now!!! (I guess this goes against my title, please substitute “southern hemisphere” for “Cape Town”) There were baby everything we saw: Bontebak (a beautiful white-faced antelope), Cape zebras (!!!), baboons (!!!) ok those are the only babies I saw, but we saw more stuff, tortoise, beetles, Blue cranes, tons of other birds, ostrich, cows and sheep.

5.    I am a specie-ist! Our South African friend, Sam, accused me of being specieist after I objected to the fact that people eat elephants. I mean, elephants are possibly the THE CUTEST ANIMAL in the kingdom. Should we be eating animals? Probably not. But if we are already eating them, shouldn’t we avoid the cute ones like elephants? OF COURSE:)

6.    Baboons are not as cute as I previously believed. I am good at judging and maybe I just prefer a baboon with a protective barrier between it and me. But we encountered about 30 baboons in the middle of the freeway and almost hit a baby:( Kind of like deer in America. Only like cute monkeys with GIANT teeth, little to no fear of cars/people, and red behinds.

7.    No alcohol on Sundays. We tried to wine taste on our way home. Winery closed. Also, liquor cannot be sold at grocery stores or liquor stores on Sundays. Ironically, the one near Mike and Em with a license to sell on Sundays is in the Muslim district.

8.    No Daylight Savings Time. Currently we are 9 hours ahead of California. As of November 6, we will be 10.

9.    Blankets are provided at outdoor venues. Have no fear. I had dinner on the Waterfront on Wednesday night and while there are heat lamps, a fleece blanket is also on the back of each chair for warmth during dining. Necessary? No. Awesome? Yes.

10. There are a zillion languages. It’s remarkable. Literally, that’s why I’m remarking here now. Signs are in a four languages and I’d venture to guess that almost 100% of the native South Africans speak 2+ languages. Good thing Spanish is useful here…(that’s sarcasm, I know it’s hard to gauge electronically).

Luxury to Poverty.

On Monday, Emily and I headed to a meeting with some local women to discuss entrepreneurship in their community of Bo-Kaap. The women were very warm, inviting and inspirational. Their call to action came a few years ago when male unemployment in their community due to the recession trickled to women helping one another put food on the table. These are women that have cooking, sewing and other skills that are marketable. The two women that we met with took it upon themselves to facilitate a monthly cultural fair where the women can sell their goods and simply be around one another for support. Emily and I will go to the market Saturday and hopefully enjoy a feast of delicious local foods and crafts. Pictures to follow:)

Tuesday we went into the townships (even went into a cresh daycare) then to Stellenbosch, the Western Cape’s wine country. We drove into town and had a delicious lunch, complete with an American waitress! She recommended the “golden circle” of wineries. So we took her advice and visited three wineries. I hate to sell-out my home, but this is a whole different level of beauty compared to Napa. There are HUGE mountains, an endless sky (the Montana sky of S. Africa), significantly cheaper everything…a tasting was less than $3 and then if you bought a bottle, the tasting fee was waived…so for $5, you got lovely ambiance, tasting and delicious BOTTLE of wine to take home. Mmm!

Yesterday we headed to Gugulethu, a township east of the city. We helped a community farm with weeding in the hot African sun. It has been there for about 20 years as part of this project: http://harvestofhope.co.za/ We weeded a bed of “spinach” which is what they call chard here. I enjoyed the first hour or so of stoop labor—found it meditative and glorious, however, the nettle got to me and I was ready to be done after the second hour;)

Emily has also connected with an after school program called Beyond Experience Environmental Program (BEEP), so after farming, we met up with the two staff, Lindela and Khanyiswa, that are from the township and have been leading the program for a few years. They work in four primary schools with grade 5-6 students, providing workshops to teach children about the environment and then they go on overnight camping trips throughout Cape Town. This was my first real township experience and Emily and I were separated at different schools. Lindela thought that it’d be a good ice-breaker to allow the students to ask me (aka LaurRRRRRen) whatever they wanted (without telling me this). I learned that I look 21-22 yrs old to Lolonga, an 11 year old studentJ (Clearly I had to reciprocate the question) We did some extreme nominating and cutthroat voting to see which students were going to get to go camping on the next trip. The students all speak Xhosa, the language that involves lots of clicks, and English. The students had to write an exam for the voluntary afterschool program (I was highly impressed with their behavior and respect). Lindela and I made sandwiches for the students: bologna + ketchup + white bread and hot dog + mayo + brown bread and as they completed their exams we distributed sandwiches. The children were VERY polite, patient and waited until food arrived. No one complained and everyone was appreciative. It was clear these students were hungry and it was difficult for me to see. I am so grateful to be here healthy and happy, being granted the opportunity to meet beautiful people and re-evaluate my worldview.

Ostriches and penguins! Oh my!

We took a scenic drive to Cape Point, the southern most tip of Africa* and protected habitat, on Saturday. Emily met a wonderful German girl, Dorothy, who is here doing an internship for a climate change NGO, that joined us. We headed south along the coast, stopping at an ostrich farm along the way. They were very cute and we learned way more than I ever knew about them.

Ostriches…

a) have leather

b) have the second strongest leather (to kangaroos) with 14 layers of skin

c) ingest sandstone to help them digest food

d) can run 70km per hr for 30 minutes

We continued south and the weather could not seem to decide what it wanted to be and resulted in crazy wind and occasional drizzle, followed by clouds, sunshine, rinse, repeat. The views were awesome and all I could really think about was where we were on the map. So far south! Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to return to spring and the southern hemisphere? The days are getting longer again. My body is very confused as to why I’m eating strawberries and corn again…

We returned home on a different path, stopping at Boulder Beach for penguins!!! They were molting and actually much more ugly than their zoo cronies (but I presume much happier…except for the predators maybe). We saw African Penguins, formally known as Jacka** Penguins !!! They were very cute and smelled bad. We had a Tibetan meal for lunch in Simon’s Town.

Sunday we got up early, as we’d made a “booking” at 9:30 AM to watch the Rugby World Cup Final-France v. New Zealand. Our bar was for NZ all the way and after a great match the All Blacks won!! Rugby might genuinely be the most savage professional sport; no timeouts, no padding, no helmet…though these things also make me question anyone who would play a full contact sport without pads..?

We had a great walk along the beach of Seapoint and rounded the day out with delicious white wine in Camps Bay. It was a lovely weekend:)

*not actually the southern most point, but close and where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean are meet.

We ♥ Real Beer = Lies!!!

Greetings from Cape Town! I have started my adventure after a rather stressful transitional life of working for 6.5 weeks after being laid off. It is such a relief to be done and SO exciting to be traveling (aka in my happy place)!!!

My 33.25 hour journey from SF-->CPT took me through Amsterdam and Johannesburg on KLM. I will say, KLM is an airline I recommend flying. While the food was not the best, they made up for this with multiple feedings per flight. COPIOUS food. You will never go hungry on KLM. Both long flights offered snack areas in the back with crackers, cookies, mini Mentos and tea/water and they each had ice cream distributed between the 3 main meals. THREE!

I had a 9 hour layover in Jburg and stayed at a hotel for a quick shower and cat nap. I left a sunny Jburg spring morning to fly to a "wintery" (per our pilot) Cape Town, complete with light rain. Michael and Emily greeted me at the airport (weeeeee!) and immediately interrogated me about homemade brownies from my mom. We hopped in their new-to-them 1993 BMW, which seriously is a HUGE leap nicer than our shared black Altima at home...not complaining, I'm just saying...took Michael to school and then Emily and I came to their beautiful home. We have a view of Table Mountain, that is incredible! My guest room has a view of the police horse grazing land, I find this funny.

Apologies for boring you with details. The title of this post has to do with the fact that so far the wine has been AMAZING, but the beer is awful. If you know me, you recognize my love of that golden, hoppy, refreshingly magical beverage known as beer...here, the "beer" fails. Emily and I were at a wine shop and saw this sticker claiming that South Africans love real beer and I just wanted to let the world know, this is not real beer.

I'll share real news in my next post, but please feel free to email and comment early and often. (It is such luxury to travel in a country with readily available internet!!)