Carnival

Cape Town's Carnival

Very similar to Brazil's Carnival or America's Mardi Gras

Consists of a Huge parade with lots of Cultural Floats

who are all competing to be in Brazil's Carnival next year.

The streets are packed with people. 

Due to the masses it's nearly impossible to see the parade.

This problem is easily solved when Clayton talks you into climbing a 15 foot wall.

In a dress. 

This is made possibly by a boost and two people pulling you up from the top.

Sounded like a good idea till I realized I'd have to get down at some point. 

Still in a dress. 

(I truly wish this had been documented on film)

Face painting is a must seeing as how it is carnival. Feathers are also highly encouraged. 

Such a fun night. So glad I didn't miss it. 

Weeks 6 & 7

Goodness, I suppose I’d better combine Week 6 and Week 7 together in one blog post seeing as how Week 7 just ended and I haven’t posted about Week 6 yet. My bad my bad. So let me think back a bit.

            Week 6 was a really good week. We moved on to our last and final sense which was touch. I was most excited about this sense because I really wanted to buy the kids shaving cream and let them just put their hands in it and get it all over the place. When I put the shaving cream on their desks though they just looked at me like “what is this crazy lady doing?!?” Then when I told them to put their hands in it I only confirmed to them that I was in fact crazy. None of the kids wanted to touch it!! So I had to go around to each of them individually and force them to get their hands in it. That’s when they realized how fun it really was and chaos erupted in the classroom. Kids were wiping it on each other, clapping their hands together making it splatter all over the place, and spreading it from the tips of their heads clear down to their ankles. Needless to say it took more time to clean up then it took to make the mess. I think they loved it though. Week 6 was a short week for me at the crèche because Thursday I went to Christian David’s track meet and then Friday I left to go on my Safari.

            Week 7 was also a bit of a short week for two different reasons. The first being that I missed Monday because we were still traveling back from Joburg, but then second is that Wednesday was a public holiday. Not exactly sure what holiday it was but it was obviously important enough that even crèches were closed. On Tuesday when I walked back into class after being gone for a couple of days I was greeted by a loud outburst of “TEACHER KAMEN TEACHER KAMEN!” It seems that while I was gone they all mastered my name!! Well kinda we’re still working on that ever important “R” sound.  WAHOO. Such a proud moment. Then I was informed that while I was gone all the kids kept peeking their heads out the door looking for me and then when I obviously wasn’t there they’d sigh and say “Teacher Kamen is still gone” haha. It’s always good to know the kids miss you when you’re away. If only they knew how much I am going to miss them when I have to really be gone forever. This week was kind of a gap week. Since we’ve finished all of our senses we didn’t really learn about anything in particular this week and because I thought the kids might want to do something other than sit and color like they do all the time I decided we were going to learn to kick a ball!! Brilliant Idea right?! Yeah.. haha So I got the very beat up soccer ball that we have in our classroom and made them all stand in a circle holding hands. The reason they had to hold hands is because in Soccer/Futball you don’t get to use your hands. Then the goal was that we would take turns kicking the ball across the circle to one another in a very friendly fashion. Well this lasted about two minutes until the ball went in between two kids and out of the circle. Then it was literally a mad dash between about 8 boys to see who could get to the ball the fastest. Well jokes on the fastest kid cause turns out when you get the ball first you also get elbowed in the ribs, punched in the eye and your t-shirt ripped in half. That was the end of our Soccer/Futball game playing. Maybe we’ll try again next week. :-0  I’ve also noticed that this week my kids’ vocabularies have exploded!! At the beginning of my time with them they only spoke in Coosa or Afrikaans unless they were saying “teacher” or “pee” but it seems that now they are speaking more and more English everyday. I’m not sure if it’s because in the beginning they were just being shy or if it’s because I only talk to them in English. Either way I’m quite proud of them and am planning to continue to force them to use their words. Which means they have to ask for everything they want or they just don’t get it. I think it’s a plan that will only have success at the end of it!

 This little one is named LeAnn and her mom may have handed her to me and said "keep her". I do believe that's permission to take this one home with me!!

            Next week is the start of Easter Break which last about 10 days, so we are anticipating a few less kiddos at the crèche seeing as how they might be on Holiday with their families visiting other family members. I can’t believe Easter is just around the corner. This will be Easter number dos away from my family. I think next year I am going to make it a point to be home for everything. Well that’s all for now! More next week J

Lions are Amazing

Warning: This video is not for those who have a weak stomach...

This is a Lion feeding on a baby giraffe, still inside the sac.. the mama is behind it. As I was watching this from 4 feet away it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. I wasn't grossed out at all and I even found myself wanting to pet the lion.... it's just life for these animals.. Simple as that. Enjoy :-)

I love Elephants!!

Elephants are my most favorite animal ever. To me they are just the most fascinating creatures not only because of how insanely large they are but they are like really really smart too!! And they move so incredibly steady for being sooooo huge. I mean literally they are the earths largest creature. So when I decided to come to South Africa to volunteer I also decided that I clearly needed to meet an Elephant. It was one of those things I knew I couldn’t leave without doing. Well this weekend my hopes and dreams came true because I got to spend some time all by myself (except for the elephant men who were there to insure that Mr. Tambo didn’t smash me) playing with, feeding and touching an elephant.

Basically this is how it went down. I got to meet two elephants. The mama matriarch who wasn’t so sure about me and was a bit territorial and then Tambo who loved me and all the attention I was giving him. Mama Matriarch was 24 years old and just beautiful.. I could have starred at her all day but she kept stamping her feet so they took her away to eat some leaves. Tambo was equally as handsome but a bit younger he was only 20 years old. Now when they told me he was young I thought 20 isn’t that young. So then I asked “Exactly how long do elephants live?” The answer to that question ladies and gents is 65 to 80 years!! Yet another reason why elephants are so awesome..

So basically here’s the gist of my Elephant Interaction and what I thought was so insanely cool:

·         Elephants never stop growing!! They just keep getting bigger. Kinda crazy to think about. Especially when you are standing next to one who is the same age as you and he is towering over you by at least 4 feet.

·         Elephants continue to loose and grow new teeth throughout their life. But when they stop growing new ones they die because they no longer have a way to eat. L

·         They communicate to one another through stomach rumblings which vibrate through their legs and feet and then other elephants pick up those vibrations through their own feet. Incredible right.

·         They are extremely smart… for example the elephant men had me hide my bag and shoes along with two other shoes and a cap that belonged to the other elephant men around the elephant camp. All while Tambo was looking away. Then within two minutes Tambo found all of our belongings and matched them to the correct owner. I was impressed.

·         There skin is hard like cement yet it’s more sensitive than our own skin.

·         Tambo understands English, Swahili and some Cossa. That’s a Tri-langual elephant for you right there. I told him that will look good on any application.

Needless to say I adore elephants and I kinda want one to keep forever. I mean only if I could find a beautiful backyard large enough. Oh also.. when Tambo greeted me he suction cupped his trunk onto my arm.. I won’t lie it frightened me at first but then he just knelt a bit and I realized he was just getting to know me.. Oh man I love elephants. Next goal in life: Make it to Thailand so I can ride one!!

Real Life LION KING

This weekend I went on a Safari and it was AMAZING! I knew when I came to Africa that if there was anything “extra circular” that I wanted to do it was going to be a Safari! So before I left I worked and worked to have the money to do this. I even scrubbed a Meth house top to bottom. Our Safari was 4 days long and we went to Kruger National Park!! So basically I’m gonna break up our trip day by and day and go over the highlights!

DAY ONE: FRIDAY

• We (Brooke, Mallory, Kelsey, Molly and I) woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch our taxi to get to Cape Town International Airport by 5:00 for our 6:15 flight to Joburg.
• Got to the airport in plenty of time and went through the most UNSECURE security I’ve ever been through. For example I walked through the scanner thing with a full water bottle in my hand, shoes on, jacket on, and a ball of aluminum foil from my muffins in my hand. Nor did they ask me to take my liquids out of my bag. It was bizarre.
• 2 hours later we landed in Joburg and were picked up by a really little man named “BIG BOY” who was politely holding a sign for us. This is when we met our other Safari friends who were going to be in our group. They were another group of volunteers here in South Africa and their names were Lisa(Manchester), Kara(Ireland) and Alex(Spain).
• After a very long 6 hours mini bus drive and one stop at Steers for lunch we finally arrived at our Game Reserve!! IT was beautiful. We checked in to our rooms at the “Gazebo” got settled had dinner and headed off to bed. We were exhausted.

DAY TWO: SATURDAY

• Friday night was ROUGH. Turns out the tap water isn’t safe to drink at our Game Reserve and in Joburg  which made for a really long night for Molly and I. Thankfully though my prayers were answered and we both woke up feeling fine!
• TODAY IS KRUGER DAY! We woke up at 4:00 a.m. once again to be on the road by 5:00 and in Kruger National Park by 5:30. Why so early? Because that’s when the animals wake up!!
• For the first 3 hours we didn’t see anything except A LOT of poop and animal tracks. I was starting to think that the whole KRUGER Park being awesome thing was just a made up Myth and that really no animals lived there.
• After we stopped for breakfast though things really started picking up. Throughout the day we saw everything!! We were lucky enough to see all 5 of the BIG FIVE which is almost unheard of. The BIG FIVE includes: Elephants (my favorite animal ever), Rhino’s, Water Buffalo, Lions and Leopards (which are the hardest to spot).
• On top of the big five we also saw Monkeys, Baboons, Crocodiles, Zebra, Giraffes, Impala, Kudu etc. etc. basically everything.
• Basically we were at Kruger from Sun Up to Sun Down and it was incredible. If you ever have the opportunity to go there I highly suggest you do it!!

 5 AM might be a bit to early for pictures

 Here all all the footprints...but where are the elephants!!

 Dear Animals, please show yourselves!

DAY THREE: SUNDAY

• By far out busiest day yet.
• We were awoken at 4:00 a.m. again because we had our Sunrise Safari at 5:00 a.m. This is the first time we got to see Lions, Giraffes and Rhinos up close and personal. It was incredible. We also stumbled upon a dead Mama Giraffe that was in the process of giving birth when the lions took advantage of her and killed her. L But that’s what we call the Circle of Life.
• We also had our BUSH WALK which was about an hour and we walked around and looked at different types of plants, footprints and dunge (which is a fancy word for poop). We also saw some wart hogs aka Pumba’s and we were able to get pretty close to them before they ran off. “are you achin… for some bacon…”
• Then I got to go have my ELEPHANT INTERACTION. Which I’ve only been dreaming about since like … Forever. It’s going to get a blog post of it’s own because it was kinda the highlight of everything for me.
• After dinner we then had our Sunset Safari. They are supposed to be really good to see Lions in because that’s when Lions hunt. Well remember that Giraffe that had been killed earlier that morning… We went back to it knowing the Lions would be around guarding it from other animals, but we never expected to see what we saw.  Which was 2 lions eating the Giraffe and the baby Giraffe that was still partially inside the SAC.
• This may sound intensely gross, and now that I’m writing about it I even kind of think that it’s gross. But in the moment it was literally the most incredible thing to watch. It was 100% natural. It’s life for these animals. And oh boy were we super close.. so close we could hear the bones crunching and we could smell it. EW.
• On our Sunset Safari we were also able to see Hippos out of the water. Holy Shizzzz they are the most giant thing in the world, other than Elephants of course which are the largest animal on this planet.

 Dead Giraffe... baby coming out of it..

 Thats poop in his mouth.. He's having a spitting contest. Gross

DAY FOUR: MONDAY

• Traveling day!!
• Started our day off with breakfast and then packed up our rooms, got picked up and headed back to the airport.
• We got to the airport about 4 hours early, so we found a good spot to sit and played some nice card games while we waited. We really looked like true back packers.
• Then of course because we had only been sitting for 4 hours of flight was delayed.
• At last we made it on the plane, 2 hours in the sky and we landed safely but exhausted in Cape Town.
• A quick cab ride home and we were in bed, our safari weekend over L

 Overall I must say that it was amazing and worth every cent that I spent. I loved every second and I don’t think there would be one thing that I would change. Seeing the animals was amazing. The food was delicious. The service was fantastic and our guides were hilarious. And I even made it threw the weekend with only getting 6 mosquito bites! Such a success.

 Our favorite guide Luxon. Quote "Giraffe's are BORRRING"

 Yea, you can go to the bathroom with that view