Cape Town

This is Michaelle again, here are some more of our antics in SA.

Cape Town has been wonderful. We are staying at this house that caters to foreign volunteers through an organization called Aviva. We have made some awesome friends that I am going to be sad about leaving. One group of friends that have been positively amazing in their South African hospitality are Monique (the wonderful ring leader and personal guide) her
husband Steff and Aaron and Shelly (with baby Griffin). We actually met them in Cape St. Francis while they were all there on holiday. The whole two weeks has just been packed full of good experiences. One was the Whacky Wine Festival centered on a town that is surrounded by vineyards. Monique and Steff picked Claire and I up the first Saturday we were here and drove out about an hour and half where we bought wine “passports” for 70R which is just shy of $10 and then proceeded to drive all around to all these wonderful vineyards where this passport got us free wine tastings of all the wines the vineyards had to offer. Monique and Steff have some local wine knowledge so we hit the best wine-makers and had some amazing wines. I ended up bringing home 5 bottles of really great wine for dirt cheap. Along with wine they also grow olives here and the girls enjoyed trying and I tried some awesome olive oils, ending up bringing home this
great lemon olive oil. It is great on just bread but we have also been using it for cooking. Yum! At the end of the day we went back to their favorite vineyard which we watched the sunset on the mountains over good conversation.

That night Monique took us out to dinner at café ERTE named after the famous designer and then she showed us all the fun places to go in downtown cape town. It was our first night out in the city and we had so much fun. And we danced. Oh how I love dancing! So cool to vibe and groove in a different city.

We have also made many other fabulous friends. It is kind of hard not too living in a house with over 20 people!

We also got to work for two weeks at SANCCOB (South African National Conservation ) with their vet Dr. Nola Parsons, as well as the other veterinary student from Canada Liz. I really liked both of them and the work that we did there. We got to do some vet stuff like bleeding the 66 Gannets that came in our first week there, collecting guano samples, doing necropsies on all animals that died or had to euthanized, as well as getting a lot of experience handling all different kinds of sea birds. Totally cool.

We also got to have several amazing adventures while in Cape Town. One that I got to do with Judy and Jenny (two new great friends from AVIVA house) was paragliding. We wanted to jump off of Lion’s Head Mountain (the smaller mountain right next to Table Mountain, right by the bay) but the officials closed off all air space around Cape Town for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. So instead we head out just outside of town and jump off a large hill Merendal’s Valley. So our flights consisted of a gorgeous view of Cape Town, the bay, Table Moutnian, and beautiful vineyards. It was so gorgeous up there and increadibly peaceful, though probably not for the guy who took us up as he had to put up with my squeals of delight both trips. We actually lucked out by getting two flights. We first tried with just the paraglider but the wind wasn’t being so cooperative so all our flights were kind f short. So they were sweet and strapped a motor on their back (which we kept calling a fan much to their chagrin) and they took us up again for a second longer view of this beautiful country we are in. Sigh.

A couple of times we ventured out to Long Street, which is where Cape Town’s night life thrives. Long street reminds me so much of the French Quarter in New Orleans with the clubs having balconies facing the street and so many people partying and having a great time. One night in particular it was resembling a little of Mardi Gra when the crowds shut down traffic in long street celebrating the opening games of the World Cup. So even though I am not big into sports, I went to the waterfront with Zach, Jenny, and Judy to watch the first match between SA and Mexico at a sports bar. Thankfully we got a table outside so that Judy and I didn’t have to be in the chaos and Zach and Jenny could still see the game in the screen. The energy in Cape Town that day was crazy and you knew exactly when the game started as the air practically crackled with the spike in energy. It was so much fun to experience that and people watch. The South Africans where just so stoked and happy and supportive of their team, it was really cool to experience. After that game we ventured down to Long Street to find a place to watch the next game that was hosted in Cape Town, after that game Long Street was crazy. People were all dressed up in crazy South African flag inspired outfits, singing, dancing, drinking and walking up and down the middle of Long Street turning it into a huge city party. So many vuvuzelas (sp?) were blown creating a constant noise the whole night. To be honest it was kind of annoying but by the end of the night I even got into it as my friends bought one. Turns out I can play it pretty well. But I am still annoyed at them being played first thing in the morning and it should be illegal for kids to own one. J

Well we had many other adventures in cape town including hiking Table Mountain (but I am going to let Claire talk about that) and going to a Braai at our friends Shelly and Erin’s house where Monique gave me a fabulous hair cut for my birthday. It’s lekker (Afrikans for sweet)! Don’t’ worry it is still long, it just looks amazing. It is nice to have new friends that are hair and makeup artists in the film industry. Also even gave the girls at Aviva house a belly dance lesson which they loved and continued to practice with me in the clubs. I love it when people have such enthusiasm for learning something new. Makes me fall in love with teaching all over again.

Okay that is all from me right now. Bright Blessings from the Mother City. - Michaelle

Quieres bailar?

This is our view from where we're working in Cape Town (Sanccob)- Table Mountain. It's amazing on cloudy days because you can't see it at all- the whole mountain is swallowed by the clouds. So far Michaelle and I have been loving it here. Haven't experienced much of Cape Town yet since we've been busy with our penguin work, but it's been so great! After the TEN HOUR bus ride from Humansdorp to Cape Town, we got to the house where we're staying with a bunch of other people from all over the world doing various volunteer work here. Some of them are volunteering at Sanccob, others at this kids' home. It's really cool to have such a mix of young people to hang out with and get to know. Since Monday Michaelle and I have been going in to work from 8-5, helping Nola (the vet) by going through penguin and gannet blood smears, screening for Babesia, Borrelia, etc. On Wednesday we had 66 new gannets come in and that was a lot of fun. We were on poop detail, collecting guano samples for my coccidia portion of the project. It was a pretty entertaining sight... the two of us diving for guano... we got everyone really into it. Fun times. So then we spent the next day looking at those samples. This morning we bled 60 of the gannets- Michaelle, Liz (a Canadian vet student), and myself rocked it out- getting blood for smears and to do pack cell volumes, etc. Then in the afternoon Michaelle and I did two necropsies- a gannet and a penguin. Both of us are really excited about getting to do more vet stuff and even though it's not gonna work out for us to get onto the islands, Nola has been great about rallying all of her contacts to collect ticks for us when they go on the island. So hopefully we'll have a good amount of those samples coming in. Even some from the Eastern Cape islands which is great!!



Above- gannet invasion! Guano success! Long hours staring into the microscope. Liz with one of the gannets. My new friend Rocky :)

This past week Sanccob has been taken over by the French. Liz is from Quebec, so she counts as a Frenchie and then there are 7 other French volunteers that arrived recently. It's great fun to be surrounded by that beautiful language. And the guys are great and trying to work on their English, so it's been fun having conversations with them. We all went out last night to a great cocktail place followed by karaoke. Loads of fun. This one woman, Judy, who lives at our house is from Northern England and she's a freaking hoot! Love her to death, I basically roll on the floor laughing at her all the time.



Above- Judy and I goofing off at the house before going out. Making friends with the Frenchies (left to right- Jildaz, (me), Cyril, Guillame).

Tomorrow we are planning on going to a wine festival an hour or so outside of Cape Town with the friends that we made over in Cape St. Francis and Sunday we're braaing at one of their houses. Also, we're hoping to get into downtown Cape Town to see what this city is about soon. Oh and definitely have to climb Table Mountain. Looks like we're probably gonna stay for another week, so that's great!

Leaving you with some pictures back from Cape St. Francis. Michaelle and I being extra mature, sophisticated vet students.

Entendamonos (so we understand each other)

“This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.” - Ernesto “Che” Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries.

Borrowing the introductory lines from one of my favorite books of all time, which I am currently re-reading. The story of two young, spunky adventurers hopping on a motorbike and traversing the South American continent- following their dreams and opening their eyes to the realities of the world. I’m inspired and re-inspired every time I read this book. Also a very fitting follow-up to Into the Wild, which I just finished.

One of my new favorite games to play in the late afternoons (if we’re not over in the lab) is to go over to The Wild Side and perch myself on a rock just out of reach of the waves… inevitably there is always that one wave that is juuuuust a little bit bigger than the rest and so I get soaked. It’s a fun game- seeing how long I can stay dry. And I sit there either reading or just contemplating various life mysteries and communing with the ocean. It was there that I started reading The Motorcycle Diaries yesterday and came across a passage that I wanted to share because it expresses exactly how I feel about the ocean but through the much more eloquent words of Che who was really a very entertaining and engaging writer.

El descubrimiento del oceano (the discovery of the ocean)- “Sitting on a dune, we watch the continuous ebb and flow, each with our own thoughts. For me, the sea has always been a confidant, a friend absorbing all it is told and never revealing these secrets; always giving the best advice- its meaningful noises can be interpreted any way you choose.”

The ocean has always been a good friend to me.

I’ve also taken to working on my bouldering skills over on The Wild Side. I got rock-climbing certified at the wall at UGA but haven’t really had time to exercise those skills and I’ve never actually been on the bouldering wall there. So I choose a big rock formation every time I’m over there and don’t give up until I’ve conquered it.

Since it’s been kinda slow over at the rehab center- no new arrivals- Michaelle and I have been alternating mornings to go help with feeding the penguins, then going over to the lab to do necropsies (I’ll spare y’all from the pictures). We’ve done a few oiled penguins that were dead upon arrival at the lighthouse and that Liz has been saving in her freezer for us and then we did a gannet that came from Bayworld (in Port Elizabeth) last week because he had aspirated, but he died the next day. Poor guy. He was in pretty bad condition though- his kidneys were terrible (gritty and full of urates like bags of sand) and there were weird plaques all on the abdominal and thoracic serosa- so he wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway. We’ve also started a sort of “herd health panel” project with the lighthouse penguins to get more samples to work with.

However, we will be much busier next week because… we’re going to CAPE TOWN!!! There’s another penguin rehab facility over there on the Western Cape called Sancob that does a lot more research than this Eastern Cape one does and they have permits to get on the islands off their coast. So we might actually get to get on one of the breeding islands- which would rock so much. Anyway, we’re catching the Sunday morning bus from Humansdorp to Cape Town (700 km) so it’ll be an all-day bus ride and then we’re gonna stay at the house where the Sancob volunteers stay, apparently including some guy from the Georgia Aquarium who is doing a stint here… small world! So we’ll have a lot more work to do over at Sancob and then explore Cape Town while we’re at it all before World Cup craziness begins, at which point we’re gonna wanna come back and hide in this peaceful little town of ours J But we’ve heard so much great stuff about Cape Town that we’re both really excited to check it out. South Africa’s San Diego apparently. So we’re gonna be there indefinitely- probably at least one week but maybe two. And hopefully by the time we get back the lighthouse will be busy with chick season!!

By the way, for more pictures, check out the photo album I made on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2706707&id=4922002&l=d44b320c2f

And I leave you all with two pictures- one of Pants who’s name reminds me of my own little black and white fluff-ball Britches and the other of the maiden full moon from South Africa. The same one you all are seeing from all over the world (this is a nod to you, Granny… love you!!)

"the lighthouse just bitch-slapped my retina!"

(Picture if of one of the night-time beach walks that Michaelle and I have gone on).

Alright, so some impressions of South Africa so far:
1. Still can’t get used to them driving on the other side of the road. Always go for the wrong side of the car. Pretty sure if I had to drive here I would crash.
2. I apologize ahead of time if I come back to the States ending every sentence in “eh?” “Beautiful day, eh?” “Yeah, we had a great time, eh?” “Pass the salt, eh?” I’m very impressionable when it comes to picking up the way people talk. This one’s inevitable. Eh?
3. Trying to pick up a bit of Afrikaans. So far I can say “how are you?” which I’m not even going to attempt to spell. Then “good” or “cool” or “sweet” is “lekker”- got that one down. Then “thank you very much” sounds very much like “buy a donkey.” Slowly but surely. It’s harder for me to pick up a language without full emersion which is impossible here with all the English around me. Granted sometimes I can’t even understand when people are speaking English… sounds like a foreign language at times.
4. Veggie bombs are amazing. Last night Michaelle and I went to a braai that Sam (our downstairs musician neighbor) had invited us to and kept talking about all week. He ended up not making an appearance… passed out in his living room around 7pm. Classy dude that one. He’s also been paying Michaelle a whole lot of attention since we moved in. I’m highly amused by this. She is not. Regardless, last night we had a blast getting to know these two couples from Cape Town. They all work in the film industry and are down on vacation for a few weeks. So we braaied with them and they introduced us to veggies bombs- just a bunch of cut up veggies mixed together with olive oil and spices and wrapped in foil and put on the fire. Delish. I hadn’t actually expected to be able to eat anything since from what I understand typical braai fare is not very vegetarian friendly. Good surprise. Good people. Good fun. I ended up staying up and hanging out with them until early morning and then laid out on our balcony to watch the stars and then catch the first few rays of sunlight starting the day. Love this place. (Luckily I was not supposed to go into work this morning. Michaelle and I have been alternating mornings and it was her turn).
5. It kills me that the sun sets at about 5:30-6pm. Makes the day seem so short. And the days are just gonna keep getting shorter until the Solstice. Sigh. We have plans to celebrate the longest night of the year though. It’s gonna be rad.
6. Hummus is outrageously priced. Very sad times. However, they do have peanut butter here which made me very happy. The brand that we bought has a black cat on the label which for some reason tickles Michaelle beyond reason. Strange that one.
7. Instant coffee is very popular here. We’ve had to settle for it since we don’t have a coffee maker in our flat, but whenever we go over to other people’s houses and they offer us coffee it’s always the same instant Nescafe. I have many good memories of camping trips when I was younger and my mum always had instant Nescafe. Also on the Trans-Siberian Express I specifically remember drinking instant Nescafe all the time. So it’s kinda nostalgic. But I want some real coffee. Regardless, the big jar we bought when we first got here a little over a week ago is now half-empty. Very telling of my addiction (or maybe just adjusting to the time change. Yeah, that’s it.) And that I’m a bad influence on Michaelle who was all gung-ho about being off coffee for the summer. Heh.
8. Public transportation here sucks. No buses run between St. Francis Bay and Cape St. Francis. Or from Cape St. Francis to Jeffrey’s Bay or Port Elizabeth. We’d have to go all the way over to Humansdorp to catch a bus to anywhere. No bus to get us there though. This is one of our major frustrations right now since we have to rely on rides from people to get into town to do grocery shopping, laundry, etc. Still keeping my fingers crossed that someone will lend us a couple of bikes.
9. People don’t recycle here. Can’t tell you how many people Michaelle and I had to talk to about how to recycle… there aren’t any recycling bins anywhere around here, then there was some rumor of special bags that we could get at the grocery store (still have not located these mysterious bags), then about there being a center in St. Francis Bay that no one could tell us the location of, then finally we spoke with the woman who runs the small shop on the opposite side of our building and apparently she’s the one to go to. So we just bring our recycling down to her. Problem solved. Whew.
10. It was 13 degrees (Celsius) here the other evening and everyone was wrapped up in sweatshirts and talking about how cold it was. Yeah. This is winter. I’ve been enjoying it. Though I don’t think I could live here year-round. I love my cold weather too much. Happy with this weather for my summer though :)

P.S. I'm leaving you with a picture of Nip. One of the three Rock-hoppers at the lighthouse right now. His brother's name is Tuck.

Shell's First Post

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Hello! I am guess blogging today on Claire’s blog. Today marks a week that we have been here in South Africa and a much needed week it has been. Time, movement, activities happen at their own, slower, pace here in South Africa, and I for one have been grateful for it. I have not had a proper vacation in close to 2 years and all this week, I have felt all the stresses that have built up in between, slowly melt away. It is so nice to wake up every morning and take our breakfast on our balcony, hearing the roar of the ocean and catching bits of the waves. Our flat faces east and we welcome the sun every morning over coffee, with shades on.

It is so nice to be able to walk where we are volunteering, setting out each morning to be greeted by hungry penguins. They are the darlings of our day for sure. After we help out there where we can we have frequently went and hung out on the beach, daring to play in the cold blue-green waves, or just lying on the almost deserted beach to let the sun warm our skin. I love it here. For one, I can lie out on the beach for an hour and not get blistered by the sun. Never have we been on such friendly terms and indeed my skin shows it’s appreciation by sporting tons of freckles. I love to be spotted!

The little village here is incredibly dog friendly, in fact sometimes there are more dogs at the pub downstairs than people. The dogs are well cared for here and love to play on the beach with their owners. There is one cute little white dog that has taken a fancy to lying around the beach with us when we are there. Twice now it has just come over and then proceeds to lie on whatever body or towel it takes its mind to. I am a bit stricter about it getting me all sandy so it snuggles up to Claire more. So cute and sweet though. I love that we have our own beach dog. It makes me long for my own to be here with me.

As it happens in all small villages, everyone here knows everyone else and they are a tight knit community and they help each other and even Claire and I out whenever we have need. It feels really nice to be in such a place and there is not a lot of drama that we have observed so far. This place really is relaxing and idyllic. Especially the amazing sunsets!

We have been slowly getting everything in place, our lab is set up and we are slowly familiarizing ourselves with protocols there, as well as slowly learning how to care for the penguins that are at the center. This slowness is a good thing as it has taken almost all of this week for us to adapt to this time change. I have had trouble falling asleep at night and both of us would sleep longer in the morning if we could, me in particular, having a time of it to get out of bed. But today was much easier and I think my body is finally getting into the rhythm of being six hours ahead. Next week, when I know I can get up in time, I am going to start my yoga practice again in the mornings. I can’t wait to greet the sun each day in sun-salutation! In the meantime I am enjoying my long soothing walks down the beach. Today I am going to try and time my walk with high-tide.

Our downstairs neighbor, Sam, who makes his living as a guitarist and singer (as well as local handy man) is hosting some lesser known American musician tonight and he has invited Claire and I. It will be or first Braai (we know it as a Bar-B-Q) here and promises to be a fun night with musical jamming and good food. I am excited to go as it seems Sam is a bit of a local legend when it comes to guitar.

Oh and if you had any doubt that Claire can sleep anywhere. Here she is collecting impressed looks from everyone that saw her at the Amsterdam Airport.

Okay well that is all from me for now. Until then, cheers! Michaelle

"alright now, you can go wild but don't go destroying [stuff]."

In Cape St. Francis there are two main beaches. What we call Long Beach is the sandy, chill beach where a certain duo of vet students can be found diving into the waves and sunning on the sand during periods of down time. Then there is The Wild Side. (Cue an unnecessary amount of cheesy jokes streaming out of my mouth having something to do with “walking on the wild side,” “going wild” and so on. Sometimes I wonder why I have friends. Michaelle is good enough to tolerate me though.) So yesterday with Andrew Bird providing my soundtrack and with the excitement of a child, I went to explore The Wild Side. It’s basically a rocky, cliffy beach with waves pounding on the boulders- the power of the waves is just indescribable though. As I rock-hopped along the cliffs, I couldn’t help but be filled with utter wonder of the power and majesty of Nature. And my soul was just sooooo HAPPY. I decided that the next day I would have to come back with Michaelle so that we could be like little rock-hoppers together. So we went back today and oh, it was a WILD time!! Waves crashing, ocean water spraying, souls soaring… incredible. Definitely one of our favorite spots. I feel like we could go back every day and explore new areas. There are so many nooks and crannies and little canals carved out by the water- it’s like an unending mystery. We both love being close with Nature, and Nature is definitely making her presence known over on The Wild Side.

Below: Michaelle and I feeling at the top of the world. Me getting pummeled by a wave. And just a shot of the awesomeness... :)