Back to South Africa

After Christmas spent in the village, the four of us that slept in huts made our way down to enjoy some time in a very developed city, Cape Town. It took 9 hours of hitch hiking plus a 20 hour bus ride, but finally we arrived. First stop? McDonald's! (Well ,real first stop—shower).

I didn’t think anything could top my 2012 New Years in Zanzibar, but sure enough Cape Town lived up to the hype. Eight of us all stayed in one room at the well-rated backpackers. It was almost all of my group that I entered the country with. As our time quickly dwindles down, this was a great opportunity to spend an ample amount of time together. Every other place in Southern Africa we have visited has always been a constant reminder that we are the group of foreigners and we stand out. Cape Town had so many ethnicities that there was barely any of that, it was incredibly refreshing. Also in Cape Town, for the first time in 2 years we went shopping, I felt like I was in America. On New Years Day one shop offered us complementary champagne. At another shop we became such immediate friends with the employee that we had a group hug after he rang up our items. He actually leered us into his shop by jumping up and down yelling, “Come stop in my shop! Come in my shop!” when we walked by.

Table Mountain (Cape Town, South Africa)

Arrow points to the only guy left in our group!

The whole week we were able to eat tons of different types of food-Ethiopian, Indian, some great street meat, and then of course...lots of McDonald’s. We all climbed Table Mountain as well. This was harder then expected considering none of us have climbed stairs to work our quads in the last two years (Namibia as a country just does not have stairs!). New Years Eve consisted of lots 
of dancing, dressing up like we were in America and toasting to the last 3 months of our service in Namibia. My New Years resolution last year was to empty my pee bucket more regularly (I did well on that one, until I eventually just burned the thing altogether). This year it is to be less forgetful, more responsible.

 

Christina needed her inhaler after vineyard #3

biking through the beautiful vineyards

After Cape Town we were able to take 3 extra days to visit Stellenbosch, wine country. It was great to be back in Stellenbosch, where I studied abroad 4 years ago, but I quickly learned that I was unable to recreate the memories that I had during my study abroad trip. So we made some new memories, like taking a wine tour...on bikes. Our friend, Janice, convinced us to do it. She is a triathlete and probably had not consumed as much McDonald’s as we had that week, so she led far ahead the whole way. It was so much fun. So much fun that 4 of us had to beg a taxi driver to take us and our bikes back to avoid the hills back to town.

As usual, I will recount my first impressions of returning from such a high class, crazy fun vacation back to the village life. I actually had a conversation the other day about returning back home after a long vacation with an American. In America you come home late from traveling, there are too many missed emails plus just none of the essentials in the fridge. For village life, however, it is common for my mice to start a collection of their poop...all over my sheets. There is dirt and straw everywhere due to wind blowing it through the cracks. The weeds have grown waist high in my bathing station because of all the rain. And lastly, I seem to have at least 3 more chickens in my flock then I left the vacation with. All this still doesn’t compare to the maggot infestation and termite infestation I came back to last year (two separate occasions, thank God).

Even with my complaining I will miss this life. My village and hut just have so much character! Happy 2013 Everyone!!