The End

Now that we are all home and Real Life has slapped me in the face and I'm pretty adjusted to the time change and we are blowing up facebook like nobody's business, I've been thinking about this trip and realizing that what made it so incredibly awesome is FRIENDS. I really did not think I was going to make friends on this trip. It wasn't a negative thought; I just didn't consider that it might happen. I was caught up in the geography and packing and photography and culture and didn't think about the actual people that I would be traveling with.

I spent the day at work, my first day at school with a new group of students, and I gave each class a little presentation on my world map. I told them about the long plane flight and the southern tip of the continent and visiting township kids and singing in a choir. I sighed to all of my colleagues about how wonderful it was and the sightseeing was fantastic and how jetlagged I am and my brain is scattered in a million directions. I couldn't convey to either group, though, that the best surprise of this trip was making friends with all of you.

We bussed, we slept, we drank, we dance, we sang, we posed, we snapped photos, we screamed, we hugged, we dressed up, we climbed, we cried, we laughed, we ate, we shared, we saw, we loved.

I know it wasn't all perfect and there were real moments of hurt. But as I've been thinking back on our trip today, I have not been remembering the history or the culture or the scenery. I've been thinking about the Robes and Slippers evening, dancing at the Irish pub, sharing the front seats of the orange bus, hugging on Latifa, idolizing Ben's camera, collecting shells during whale watching, sleeping twelve inches from your roommate, trying on clothes, mugging for the Go Pro, playing in flight trivia, jumping on the beach, laughing laughing and laughing.

Thank you for making this trip so wonderful. You know who you are.

Dubai pt 2

The burka is really creepy.

Dubai is a pretty horrible city.

Now that we have these generalizations out of the way, I can describe my amazing Dubai day with Sean and Julie. We landed at the tender temperature of 105 degrees, and by the time our bus comes and we check in, it is a full blown 115! Breakfast in the hotel cafe was uninspiring.

After several misadventures with the ATM, maps, taxi, and a change of pants, Sean and I set out for the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. But first, we had to walk through the biggest mall in the world, Dubai Mall. Both are incredibly large and incredibly empty. (Ramadan!) Sean shows off his clumsy side by somehow dropping his sunglasses and simultaneously spilling his water bottle all over the floor when I handed him a single Mento.

Burj Khalifa's infographic displays are quite masturbatory. "The best, the best, the best, we are the best, please!!!" they seem to scream. The Burj Khalifa employs at least fifty Asian men and women, each of whom is assigned a very specific duty. For example, there is the woman whose job it is to point to the elevator, where we are met by a fellow whose job it is to press the elevator button, introducing us to the elevator operator himself. Upon reaching the 124th floor, we pass by the revolving-door window-wiper. A lady forcefully directs us in posing for some very awkward photos. (Are we allowed to touch in photographs in Dubai? It's funnier if we just stand side-by-side.) We are two of five people on the top deck today, so all this cleaning and hosting seems a bit superfluous.

The view from the top is dusty and hazy and rather limited. Besides the pool directly below us, (124 floors below us,) everything looks tan. Grayish, yellowish, tan. We can just barely make out the "Antarctica" sand bar at the base of the "World Islands." The skyscrapers to our north look empty. The barren desert to our west looks sad. We are high up in the sky but there is nothing to see.

So then the next rational thing to do is eat. We find a candy stand and then a grocery store in the mall and head back to the hotel to eat (can't eat in public! Ramadan!) and pick up Julie. It is fucking hot.

Julie is waiting in our hotel room, watching the sports channel because it displays the time on the bottom left corner of the screen and our hotel room DOES NOT HAVE A CLOCK. We are seriously slumming. After we gorge, we go downstairs to the cafe and have a "light refreshment." Sean gets in trouble for walking across the room to the lunch display because we have only paid for light refreshments.

Spice souk! I buy some aquarium rock chocolate candies, mint crystals, and cinnamon. Julie and Sean buy a lot of real spices that I cannot personally handle, like pepper and cumin. One merchant lets me be his "assistant" and handle his "money" for his "sales" with "Americans" who are not very good at "bargaining." I take some pictures of the bright blue indigo, which I very much want to purchase, only I cannot think of a single use.

After the best hour-long nap of my life, we reconvene in the hotel lobby donning our "What Would Sue Do" tshirts. Everybody loves them, including Sue herself. We take ourselves and our tshirts on a dinner cruise on an old spice boat on the Dubai Creek. Our tour guide tells us proudly that it is "the only natural thing in Dubai." I am not alone when I think that is depressing. Dubai is like Las Vegas without the people and the fun and the electricity.

We have three hours at the airport before our plane boards and I spend it all with Sean. We do some races on the moving walkways (running the wrong way, of course), stretching, buying water for everyone and their mother, visiting the pharmacy twice, changing over our money, and otherwise being ridiculous. It is crazy fun.

On the plane, I pop a Dramamine and sleep for eleven hours. I am out from before take-off until Seattle. Even I am impressed. I have just enough time to walk a few laps and watch a crappy movie before we land. Passport, baggage, customs, and we're through!

Goodbye South Africa

Sad day, we are leaving this beautiful country. It is good we are going home, because everyone is on edge and about to snap at each other. I am sad because it means an end to summer vacation.

I spend some quality time with Leena at the airport. I find the exact things I need in order to call this trip a success: playing cards (each card a different wild animal) and Mentos (strawberry yogurt and COLA! flavor). We pick out engagement rings. It is a fantastic hour away from the group. We board the plane and I am sitting next to Bria and Ben! Unfortch, this flight is full and we are too close for comfort. But! I am still next to the window and I get to gaze out as we lift off and turn to the north.

South African is stunning. The region is marked by tall, rocky mountains pushed up out of the earth. Around the mountains are soft, green areas, some in criss-crossed farming patches. The ocean curves around the cape, white waves lapping at the sandy shores, white waves hitting the rocky tip. These mountains have good posture and stnd straight up in a row. You can almost see the techtonic actions that took place to create such proud, straight peaks. Southern Africa is not savana or sand sea or jungle or dirt. South Africa is lush and healthy and molded into many shapes. As the plane turns, the sun is setting and the cabin is filled with a pink light. Goodbye Africa!

KO SAN and CLICKS and TABLE MOUNTAIN BEACH

...Or is it KoiSan? (Lonely Planet spells it "Khoe-San")

This was our "cultural" day, which did not live up to my expectations. The !Khwa ttu reserve and museum was nice enough, it just wasn't ENOUGH. Like, it felt fake. When I saw the Aboriginal groups in Australia, I knew it was fake and put on for the tourists, but there were a lot of artifacts and there was face painting and music and enthusiasm. The KoiSan place resembled a painting in that it wasn't alive.

BUT! I did learn some things. For example, the KoiSan people hold the Eland and Praying Mantis sacred. I don't know why, I was preoccupied by our tour guide Ivan's beautiful smile. And dimples. According to Casey, the praying mantis plays a part in their creation myth. Sean says he watched a video of two praying manti getting it on and then she ripped his head off. (He had to leave the building afterwards to cool off.) I learned that the KoiSan people encompass thirteen language groups, which include 5 different clicks, one of which is a kissing sound. I also learned that the KoiSan people have tee-pee shaped huts made out of sticks that are tall enough to stand in but not quite wide enough to lie down in.

We took a tractor ride in the cold mist and it was so effing cold that they had fleece blankets waiting for us. Mine had a hole in the middle and so I wore it like a burka. It was very calm and peaceful. Also slightly eerie - a giant beast could have jumped out of the mist. We tried to make fire in the KhoiSan way which is the same as the Chumash Indian way -- rub a stick so hard that it sparks. (We failed.) If a KhoiSan man couldn't start a fire, he couldn't get married. He could, however, wear a spectacular leather loincloth while running around the bush.

I bought a cool necklace made out of ostrich shells that was actually meant to be a belt. It took me so long to pick it out that I missed the incredibly boring lecture about the KhoiSan people going on upstairs. After a lunch of couscous and roasted vegies, we walked around a bit as the sun burned away the fog. James pulled me and a few others over to a pond and we watched these bright yellow birds flit in and out of their cone-shaped nests.

Then we peaced out of there! Back to the hotel! With a stop at an incredibly scenic beach looking out across the bay at Table Mountain. Smiles! Jumping pictures! Cartwheels! Pictures, pictures, pictures! Sunshine! We are in South Africa!

Township Kids

Fabulous, fabulous day. I think this was a highlight for everybody. Thanks to friends who posted pictures on facebook so that I can remember what actually happened here.

After finishing the Amy Biehl Memorial Concert at the university, we boarded the bus to visit the kiddies in the Amy Biehl Foundation after school programs in the township schools. If you want to know what a township is like, watch the movie Tsotsi.

First, we stopped at a bench dedication. The bench was all mosaic-ed up and bore the message, "Hit a woman, hit a rock." A group of young girls in the AB program had felt like they did not have a safe space at school. They worked with the counselors to build self-empowerment skills and co-opted a bench in their school to be for girls only. They then moved on to create this bench for the whole community. A speaker reported that many women from the community had visited this new bench today to show their support. My aunt Naomi was here in South Africa a week before me with her play on domestic violence. She would really like this.

Next, we walked across the street to the school. It looked like a pretty typical one-floor rural school, except unlike LAUSD, nothing was paved with asphalt. The grounds were covered with dirt or cement or grass or car-tire gardens. The buildings were arranged in a giant square pattern with a huge courtyard in the middle and smaller courtyards and gardens in the corners. The classrooms had chalkboards and some chart paper on the walls but were otherwise bare. In many rooms, the tables and chairs had been pushed to the side because the children were dancing.

Dancing, dancing, dancing! There was a lot of activity here! I don't know if they were all doing performances for us if this was their usual thing, but we did get to see a lot!

• Drumming and dancing in a classroom. I was peeking through the window at these talented kids. This rhythm and dancing thing is so enviable. You don't see it like this in America. It's an African thing.
  
• Marimba and dance performance in the main courtyard. This was really incredible. Tall skinny boys pounding on those marimbas, kids in pairs twirling and hopping and shaking and rockin all in unison. Man, can they dance! Bending the knees, bouncing up and down, shaking the butt, clapping and skipping. I could watch them all day. ACC dutifully stood in amazement, cameras help high to record.
  
• School choir. We practiced some of our songs with them, like "Lean on Me" and "Akheko." They will be singing with us at the Youth Spirit Awards. Then they sang their African songs on their own and it was awesome! Though not quite all on key, they had powerful voices and certain songs were accompanied but interesting dance moves. We did "Train" and they LOVED it. The boys in the back were echoing our "chuga chuga" as soon as we finished. Someone handed out all of our sheet music which seemed like the most generous gift in the world.
  
• Passing out friendship bracelets. What a hit!
• I got bored of the choir room, so I walked outside and joined a group of little girls doing chants and dances in the dirt courtyard. They did a version of "How Funky is Your Chicken" which also included the lines, "Hit your caboose" (that's where you slap your ass), "Turn your caboose" (that's where you twirl your ass around in a slow circle), and "Shake your caboose" (that's where you pump your ass in and out as you get closer and closer to the ground). None of this was sexual in any way, just fun dancing. The girls were delighted that I could shake my butt along with them. Then we did a name chant in which you spell your name and the group shouts out something in Xhosa. I love these girls and wish I could spend the whole afternoon with them. Maybe I need to go back to teaching elementary school?

I think everybody was really sad when it was time to get back on the bus.

Amy Biehl Spirit Awards concert

This concert was weird. On the one hand, we were in the Cape Town Convention Center. Official!!! We were even listed on their scrolling announcement ticker in the lobby. On the other hand, the seats were not nearly filled and it felt like yet another concert that was poorly publicized.

Whatever, whatever. The crowd cheered out when we started in on "Asikatali" and continued cheering and dancing as we sang "Singabahumba" and "Akheko." They loved it when the Amy Biehl kids choir came out to sing with us. They loved it when the Amy Biehl kids sang on their own. Appreciative audience.

I guess this is what we came here for, but the previous concert at the university really seemed like the pinnacle of meaningful and inspiring. This was just icing.

rehearsal and Gerhard

Our first choir fail!!!!!

This rehearsal took place at SACS high school, an unfortunate name to be sure. Us girls were in full make-up and sweats in preparation for our night out. Thank goodness, because it was the first time we were to meet GERHARD, the cute, pixie, accented, demigod, brass band conductor. Everyone has a crush on Gerhard.

Rehearsal was long and brutal. We cannot click to save our lives. It was awkward singing with the brass band. Bradley knocked a microphone off the stage. The boys had to move rows of seats on and off the stage. The lighting was horrible. Everyone was hungry. The only upsides were meeting Gerhard and meeting the jail bait bass player who stood right next to me during "Africa." And watching everyone fall in love with Julie and Carmen during "Pie Jesu."

One more upside is that we discovered that the hallway floors are hideously slippery. Slip n' Slide, y'all.

Nature Day

The Cape of Good Hope! We spent a long time in the bus this morning meandering down the left coast of the cape. Latifa narrated the whole way. We passed by several small bays, a road on the tippy-tip edge of the mountain, and townships after townships. We stopped at a few points and took pictures against the backdrop of ocean and green mountain. This area is lush and beautiful. I taught Dan how to do a planking picture and the group of us took our first jumping picture. I think? This day is somewhat of a blur since there was so much green and blue and ocean and mountain and beauty. I cannot do the pictures justice. Stunning.

Then we saw the famous South African penguins. They are cute, waddling around on the sand. Some of them still had their baby fluff around the neck.

Last, we visited the Botanical Gardens. Sadly, we only had about twenty minutes here, which was a real shame. I'd say we got to walk through 2% of the actual park. Saw some Proteas, the Golden Bird of Paradise, several ficuses (my favorite tree), and a lot of grass.

wineries

A LOT of drinking goes on on this day. Besides the winery samples, there is also wine and champagne on the bus and wine during lunch and wine at dinner. Some other things that happen include:

• Hanging with Philip, Ben, and Sean amidst the bizzaro and disturbing sculptures around the sampling building, including a life sized headless torso, a body half submerged in a puddle, and a doll holding a cage. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it's that kind of weirdness. I wish I had pictures so you, too, could feel uncomfortable. Oh yes, and we made up raps.
  
• Overcast sky and on-and-off drizzling.
• Champagne video featuring a gold leather vest be-suited Ms. South Africa host. There are audible giggles in the theater when she walks on screen. Also a champagne cork popping and foam shooting out in the manner of MAN ORGAN EJACULATE. The choir cannot contain itself and we dissolve into full on laughing and shouting. We are visiting this place due to a recommendation of their intro video. WE ARE HERE WHOLLY BECAUSE THE VIDEO IS SO AWESOMELY BAD.
• Is it today that we completely fall in love with Latifa, our bus tour guide?
• Tommy buys a calfskin messenger bag.
• There are many, many group pictures. They are all terrible.