Sardinia Bay Reserve

On Tuesday I went horse backing across a nature reserve to the beautiful Sardinia Bay this was about 45 minutes away from Summerstrand. What an amazing adventure that lasted about 2.5 hours. The scenery was beautiful. We actually got to ride along side the Indian Ocean and let me tell you this water looked like it had been died bluishgreen. I went alone but ended up being able to join a group that was going also. I'm glad have ridden horses before because that ride was not for beginners.

Tried to take a picture of me riding in the water but I was afraid I would drop my camera.





riding on a hill above the ocean

Yea it gets Cold in AFRICA!

This is what I wear some nights!! Thats two thermal tops a shirt and a sweater and two thermal bottoms and tights!! No HEAT! But it is getting better as Spring comes.

Children asked me for water..not money..not sweets..water!

There favorite pose!

I was sitting outside waiting for a bus to come through and these cute kids come up to me and ask me for water in Xhosa. It took me twenty minutes for me to explain to them that I couldnt speak Xhosa. It was so strange to them to see a black person with no hair that wasn't African. Wow...I can't imagine the day a kid in American only wants water. It hurt my heart soo bad. But after they figured out I was American they thought i was so cool and then they asked me could they take pictures. I didn't have water so it was the least I could do. They had a complete photo shoot! lol

neighborhood we were in. Newbrighton

ELITE BLACK AFRICANS

 

This is the neighborhood the Wine tasting was in where the Elite African Woman says she dare not go anymore..

I say black Africans here because we mustn't disregard the fact that their are white africans. However the people who I was discussing in the Wine and Dine post are black Africans from Xhosa or Zulu tribes who have managed to make it out of the townships (poor areas). I am telling you, you would think that being so aware of where they CAME from that maybe possibly they wouldn't have their noses stuck in the air. I was attempting to have a conversation with one of the elite and I asked her about a restaurant I had recently went to (black owned)..."Oh heavens no...that place is awfully dirty. I just don't go to places like that I don't hang around places like this."...(a black African sounding almost more American than me) How sad is this...once you make it out you take on this persona of superiority? I'm going to stop here.  I just expected different. This is the neighborhood the wine tasting was in. and this was the very nice building smack dab in the middle of it...something is not right about this picture!

This very nice building right in the middle of shacks

Wine and Dine

The second day of spring break I went to a "wine festival." The ticket said that it would start at 1. So after two mini buses and a short walk I get their and they say that it doesnt start until six! So I am all alone and wondering how this would turn out. Fortunately I meet this group of girls from Sweden and from South Africa. The guys that were with them happen to have been exchange students at OLE MISS!!! How great is God? Because this was a sketch part of town and I was alone until they came by and asked me if I wanted to hang with them. So after a long.....long...four hours of waiting...we finally went got back to the Wine Festival. Yea...it wasn't a wine festival...more like a couple bottles of wine being passed around with people in fancy clothes. But what can I say it turned out to be a great day and a great experience. Oh and this was my first experience of the "ELITE BLACK AFRICANS"...hmmm interesting crowd...more to say about that later.

I have never been to a wine tasting and honestly hate wine...but it was interesting to see how wine could enhance a meal and which wines went with certain dishes! 

Bayworld

So all day Friday I went to a exhibition called BAYWORLD. It was a cute little place with marine life. They had dolphins and penquins and also seals that were extremely intelligent. They were completely trained...even stood on their back flippers and clapped after they performed a trick. Here is an African Seal...yes it is clapping!!

Penguins getting fed!
Ok. so apparently penguins can be gay and actually can have eggs...they just wont be fetuses in them. This is a group of them. I know wierd but the keepers showed us and told us all about it.

This is so amazing!

This is the most Beautiful bird I have ever seen. So regal...and didnt care that I was that close to it!

Just an interesting thing....

This is interesting to me and thought I would share it….ok so on break from work usually, what do you do?  You go somewhere to relax and eat lunch right? Well it happens to be a big thing to lay in the nearest patch of grass. Just stretch out there and each your lunch or chill with your counterparts….in your uniform, whether you work for construction, electrical systems, or even the cafeteria ( I actually saw a lady take off her apron and spread it on the ground to sit on). However unsanitary, I find this too be kinda cool!

Have Questions?? POST THEM!

SPRING BREAK!!

It’s officially Spring Break here. From September 23rd to October 4th. I have a lot planned this week so be sure to check it out, I will blog daily.

So this is also the second semester of this school year. Where in America we only have two semesters a year. Here, at NMMU, we have four. So I am  into my second and only have a few more weeks to go before I complete my the first half of my senior year. We are completely finished with school at the end of October and only have exams during the month of Novemeber…actually only two days out of the whole month for me! I am totally loving this school schedule. I am actually learning a lot here in the lectures, I suppose the structure of the classes better fits my personality and way of learning. Nevertheless!!! IT'S SPRING BREAK IN  SOUTH AFRICA!!!

African AmONKEYS

Apparently this is how Africans see us (African Americans).

Yea the only perspective they view us from, is from the perspective they get from media, our media. TV shows like New York Finds Love and Flava Flav…those happen to be the kind of shows that trinkle over to Africa! Why? Who gets to choose that? Why don’t they get shows that show us in a more eloquent, behaved fashion instead of “wild animals”... which are the exact words used by an Africa a friend and I met in class recently. Apparently people in my class had never met an African American; they have met white Americans but just not an African American. After a few minutes of touching me and shaking my hand they asked me this question….”Why is it that we have never met an African American? Do you not want to know us?” Obviously I am not the talking spokes person for African Americans but that is a good question….why don’t we come to Africa??

Nobel:Great Warrior:Unger

SO I WAS IN CLASS AND MY TEACHER CALLS ME OUT TO ASK ME WHAT MY NAME MEANS…..I HAD NO ANSWER…I DON’T KNOW…ETHELYN. And she looked so concerned and then she said "no, maybe you don’t understand the question…what does your name mean…what is the significant meaning? You don’t know?"
 The entire class was quiet right…ugh I looked like an idiot. So this particular professor is apart of the Xhosa tribe so I researched a little more into it.

 Apparently when a child is born it is not up to the parents but up to the whole community, well the wise ancestral members, to name this child. The name is suppose to be almost a prophecy of what the child will grow up to contribute to the culture or society. So for example, one may name their child a name that means healer…meaning that they would have a spiritual gift of some sort.  This got me to thinking…Could this really be? So I looked up my name and Ethelyn means noble. Gertrude (however embarrassing) means great warrior, superior woman!! Wow I would like to think that maybe what your name means really does say something about your personality and future…what do you think?

African Cultures slipping away

Ok. Why is it that most of the literature, newspapers, magazines, education, radio stations, and TV shows are all in English or Afrikaans (the language of the oppressors).  When English is the fourth most spoken language here? This is sad…and personally a mini foretelling of what the culture has come too…completely overtaken by English dynamics. It has to be awful not having the ability to hear news or read important information in your own language. There are 11 official languages of South Africa...where can these people find literature in their own respective languages???  Whats wrong with the indigenous African languages?? I can’t imagine. I thought colonization was over…no to me, it’s still happening.  The government gives you the “right” to speak whatever language you want, however limits you to only the language of the British and Dutch languages ...if you want to be apart of modern society. So isn’t this a way of taking away that right? However so discreetly…

NOW NOW< JUST NOW???!?

So Time…Time here is a bit laxed! You’ve heard of Africa time I’m sure but this is something different. They have these expressions Now, Just NOW, and NOW NOW. So JUST NOW could mean anything from this week to this month to this semester. NOW could mean anything from in a few hours to sometime today! And NOW NOW means what it usually means…like now.
This is so confusing right! How weird is it. I have spent many times standing in someone’s face because they told me they would do something for me now. I mean they tell me, "ok I will give you the paperwork now," and ofcourse what I do is sit there and wait…expecting some action...now. Nope they just stare at me and ask me if they could help me with anything else. ..lol WOW!

Electricity!!

Electricity!

Ok, so we don’t have air or heat…but contrary to popular belief they have electricity here. However it is quite different. They have a system they called Pre-paid electricity. This means that you pay for electricity before you use it. Just like you buy minutes for a pre-paid phone you buy “watts”. So you go to the petro station (gas station) and buy R100 worth of electricity and give them your box number. Then they give you a code to dial into your box at home. You dial it in and wala! Electricity. Cool huh?

Since we are on electricity I thought I would let you guys look at the outlets here. I know that’s not something you think about but did you know you can’t use American appliances everywhere? So you have to buy a converter to convert your American appliance to South African appropriate wattage. They don’t have the same outlets in all countries of Africa either; below you will see two separate countries. You see this little switch on the side of it? You can cut this switch on and off which lessens the amount of electricity you use. Although you aren’t using something it is still using electricity if it is plugged in. So this is a good way to help be eco-friendly and not waste electricity!

I know you are... but what am I?

Ok so this is a bit different from most of my post which are more informational than…well this post. So I wanted to touch on the girls here in South Africa. The African Women…my God, I have never seen such catty women in my life. These girls here will stare you down with the look of the devil and will not even think to turn away just because you caught them. Omg…please don’t wear anything remotely cute to school or you will be the target of ridicule the whole day. I mean it’s the weirdest thing. These are two instances that stick out in my head.

Ok I was walking down the side walk to school one day and there were three girls coming the opposite way (so we were walking toward one another). So I can already see that we are going to encounter a problem because when they see me they all spread out across the side walk. So once they do that there is still enough side walk left for me to pass…but no…one of the girls actually puts her arms out like straight out to cover the rest of the side walk….can you believe it? And they all thought It was hilarious.

Another instance. I went to the library…(which is not a place you go to study by the way) but anyway I went there to use the internet and I also needed to plug up my computer. So they only have a few outlets so I had to join these girls at a table if I wanted to be close enough to an outlet. So I asked if anyone was sitting there and they didn’t even say a word to me… just looked. So I sit down and they start laughing and pointing to something and being rude but they were doing it in XHOSA…so I let them continue until I could catch them up. So as soon as it looked like they were making fun of me again…I said “why would you say that” insinuating that I spoke XHOSA..and guess what? They were like oh we were just kidding…we didn’t mean it. AH I knew they were talking about me in their language because they didn’t think I would understand, I didn’t. But they thought I could now and I bet they sat quiet the rest of the time. Ahh funny. I don’t know many languages but being rude is an internationally known thing girls…lol I can spot that in any culture.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

So Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University is the biggest campus in the WORLD! The campus sits on a nature reserve, which could explain the monkeys being able to roam and still your lunch freely. And also you can’t pick flowers and things like that. But apart from it being the biggest it’s actually pretty beautiful. Not beautiful like OLE MISS beautiful where the lawns are perfectly manicured and detailed. But beautiful that nothing is man made everything that is growing is growing because Mother Nature put it there. So that makes it that much more beautiful you know. Its all types of plants and wildlife and even the buildings are pretty awesome. Take a look for yourself.