roadtripping

Hello friends! Sorry this update comes so late-- internet is so spotty and is quite the hot commodity in SA. Luckily our favorite internet place has theirs working again just in time for another post! 

So since the last post, we've been able to almost finish surveying all of our patients. Although there were some problems with getting the right patients, everyone (nurses, doctors, patients) have been so friendly and helpful to us. There definitely have been some scary times while waiting in the TB clinic. Becky and I felt our chests tightening up, but who knows if that was psychosomatic or not. Susie and I even got to go on location in the townships with a mobile VCT clinic. VCT = voluntary counseling and testing for HIV. 

As for surfing, it was quite fun being pushed onto an oncoming wave. Susie was great as predicted, but I could barely manage popping up onto the board. My biggest accomplishment was standing up for 1 second! Annie watched/looked cute on the beach while being chased by South African men. Becky decided against being a pro surfer, we still have faith in her.

Two weekends ago, two big BIG bundles of fun (Max and Brian) came to visit! We all piled into our tiny little car and showed them around to our favorite eating spots (read: we took them to eat tea, scones, salads, bakeries, etc.). Luckily, Max loves eating chocolate and has a big sweet tooth :) The funny thing is the girls would out eat Brian during breakfast, but then he would hate eating his fruit and veg. 

South Africans love to braai (rhymes with "dry"), so it was fitting that Brian came to man the grill. He even wore boxers with grills and bbq tools on them, but luckily none of us saw that part of his festive outfit...

Teaching the braai-master how to do fobby poses. I think he's getting it.

Excited to eat ostrich sausage, kudu steak, and... lamb. They did have armadillo on a stick at the market though :)

Kruger National Park // In a few days, we were off to Kruger National Park! It is featured in awesome documentaries like Planet Earth and even better YouTube's Battle at Kruger. Thankfully, we were able to get a slightly larger, but still super cute, minivan! Brian was our lovely driver, Max the navigator (with Annie's help from the backseat), and the rest of us were in the back. 

Driving to Kruger was a bit of an adventure, since we were lost and had to find our way around (in the middle of nowhere) in the darkness. But we were doubly lucky once we got there: 1. We were given a huge family cottage that slept all of us!! (At first two of us wouldn't have been able to get beds), 2. We were able to sneak onto a sunrise safari (yeah puppy dog eye skills :P)! The most fun part was driving around in our car by ourselves. We saw 4/5 of the Big Five (lion, buffalo, leopard, and elephant)!! Brian has crazy peripheral vision and animal spotting skills, while Max is now our official stump spotter ("Guys! Back up it's an elephant!!" We stare at a big black thing that's not moving. "Oops, never mind.")

Driving, driving, driving... whoa. Giraffe!! This happened twice!

Mama elephant protecting baby elephant from paparazzi. I really wanted some YouTube footage because she was thisclose to charging at the car, but luckily for the tourists, she let them go. But then she began moonwalking/sliding back at us (we were blocked by all the cars behind us), which was pretty scary! Brian frantically tried to do a three point turn in front of the cars, and we turned around to all of the other cars laughing at us... then we all proceeded to laugh at Brian :)

Annie had to sit next to Brian. He smells.

Watching the never ending stream of baboons cross the road was really fun! But where do they all come from??

Soweto/Johannesburg // Our next stop was Soweto, but we first had to cross through Joburg, which is pretty dangerous, especially when it gets dark. With the sun quickly setting, maps that didn’t make sense, and streets that made Boston seem like a grid system (no signs at all!), tensions were high in the minivan. Luckily we made it out of Joburg and into Soweto with time to spare. We stayed a Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers, which was the first black run hostel in South Africa. Lebo designed and started up this business from scratch and has gained success and even celebrity (he was on SABC, national news a few days later!). We had a fun Soweto-en fist-pump-dancing, djembe-drumming party with some of the locals that night by the campfire. One of them, VK, even gave me a new nickname “Vivica” that stuck for the rest of the trip. Apparently, VK and Vivica A. Fox will be starting in a movie sometime soon!

View of the Soweto from a hill

Starting off the morning right with Joburg beer, a homemade concoction of bread and other fermeted things. It looked pink, but tasted like yogurt.

Other fun things we ate were cow head. Becky's was mostly fat and had little hairs. Yum.

One of the coolest things was visiting Nelson Mandela's old house on the very first Mandela Day!

Cape Town // We spent the last four days of our trip in Cape Town, which has got to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The oceans, the water, the cliffs… everything is just amazing!! Some of the awesome things we did were:     

   -Table Mountain: Hiking up the top was no easy feat, and Susie and I ended up walking like pregnant women for three days afterwards! The view was totally worth it though.  Pictures can’t even do it justice. Here we are once we reached the top!

Oddly enough, I this is the only photo of Table Mountain I have from the car-- all of my photos are on it!!

         -Boulder’s Beach: Jackass penguins make their home on the beach and are the only land-based colony of penguins! They are SO cute. The best were the silly-looking teenage penguins with their half-shed coats of fur. Guess even penguins have to go through an awkward stage.

Adolescent penguins... keke

Bringing neuro to the penguins!

         -Bo-kaap: The little area of candy-colored houses is home to Cape Town’s Muslim population, as well as the most delicious Cape Malay food! My mouth is watering right now thinking about it.

         -Speaking of food… Annie had the best meal of Cape Town here, lentils, garbanzo beans, mushrooms, rocket, tomato… salad. She can’t quite remember, but it was good. I don’t know if it was being famished after hiking Table Mountain, but I had the best cupcake/muffin of my life! Well, consider it a muffin with frosting :) The best salad I’ve ever had was actually from Port Elizabeth. All of us girls were there once, and we all ordered the same salad! Unfortunately, the sushi isn’t nearly as good as it is in the states. 

Brie and roasted veg salad from Olympia Cafe

Chili bites, Half moons, and Samosas from Beismellah! SO GOOD.