Saturday
Whew! We have finally met with all of our teachers and with the Aids Haven Director. We still have not met with the Pendla School Principal although we have tried. Today is Saturday and the classes begin Monday! This week we have gone through a full day orientation, an afternoon of getting ID cards and most of a day touring Port Elizabeth, a township and the Red Location Museum. The latter is a museum dedicated to the history of apartheid and the struggle against it. It was quite a heavy trip. Bradley Laveck, our colored tour leader, who helped set up the museum, could talk with experience and passion. The pre-apartheid the world was divided into whites, coloreds and blacks. We will talk more about the field trips and what we saw on our blog.
On part of our touring around we went to the Kragga Kama game reserve. We were divided up into 3 groups got up on flatbed trucks with benches. We started out and saw warthogs, a giraffe family unit, various antelopes (spring bucks, nyala, bontebuck and impala), zebras, and storks, who migrate between Europe and Africa. We went into a special enclosure and saw 8 cheetahs; three young males approached the truck very readily after the guide whistled. The people on the flatbed were told not to stand up as the animals perceive the whole truck as a unit therefore much larger prey than they could handle. We were advised that cheetahs only ate fresh meat, groom each other and had no noticeable smell. This makes them different than lions who eat fetid carcasses and actually stink. But the crowning moment came when we were observing the white rhinos who all blackish but with a square lip (This is the distinction not that they are white.). The male, all ton and ½ of him, came over and rubbed his horn on the side of the truck. The truck jostled a perceptual amount and travellers’ heart rates raised. It was a real thrill! ND
Sunday morning
It is another delightful morning but with one of those surprising happenings that occur when you stay in one place for some time. This morning the city is having bike races/tour along the Beach Road. I do not have a map of the route but the start was some place not far back down the road (maybe at Hobie Beach) and they come by here as part of the route. The first starting group was couples on tandem bicycles; second group must be the racers since they were in a tight, tense group with one brave soul willing to get out in the lead early. They are going in a circuit that takes them past us about every five minutes. There are some hills just up from the beach so they must go up and around the hill and back down to Beach Road for how many kilometers I do not know. I can tell when they are going by because it is like a swarm of soft sounding bees whirling past. With the street blocked off the area is quiet save for the waves breaking on the beach and some bird sounds. It was low tide this morning and the waves were dumping so you would hear the sudden crash as it tumbles over itself.
Port Elizabeth is a very windy city. One hears that Cape Town is windy but so is P.E. and we can confirm it. It was quiet this morning at the start of the race but as I sit at our dining table in the living room looking out on to the Indian Ocean, I can see the wind coming up. It is blowing the spray from the waves back out to sea. I would imagine the racers are not happy for it but those who live here must expect it. The swarm is getting more and more spread out so the angry buzz is getting softer but more prolonged as they go by. As I write this some time has passed and I looked out and saw a small band of bikers on the wrong side of the road peddling along leisurely so the race must be over, at least for them.
The sounds are changing more people are running and walking by for their exercise. I can hear the sounds of their conversations but not the words. Of course they are in Afrikaans so wouldn’t understand any way. There are some vehicles going by now. The clank of the aluminum poles is indicating that the venders are starting to put up their awning for their booths. Sunday morning is the day for the flea/craft market in King’s Park which is just across the street from us. They are beginning to setup early Sunday morning and tear it down by 4:00 in the afternoon. It has the unusual items such as the native carvings made with the woods of Africa, beaded work, interesting foods and stuff. Some of it would be like a flea market back in the states.
The sun is streaming in the open door off the veranda and it is hot. It was very pleasant this morning but it will get hot as the day rolls along. We visited the friends of the Saupes last evening, who live in P.E., and as we came home at ten thirty the temperature was 21o C (72o F). They had us over for a braai (Bar-B-Q) of unusual meats such kudu, ostrich, and warthog. They were all very good. The kudu was very tender. The piece of wart hog looked like a pork loin and it was very tender. Their braai uses wood. They have short split sticks that they start a fire with to build up a bed of coals. It is very dense wood more like oak but obviously not growing as large as oaks. They add charcoal to help keep the bed of coals going through the cooking process. How much wood versus charcoal has varied over the three braai that I have watched being done. It seemed to vary depending upon how much wood they had. The flavor was indeed enhanced by the use of wood. Some of the meat may have been marinated but most was not and it was excellent. I say good because the meat we had last night was the best that we have had. The meat that we can get in the grocery stores near us is not particularly good. It is tough and a little stringy but last night’s was great.
Classes start with South African music Monday afternoon for most of the students. Since not all of them are taking music class so for them Wednesday will the start. Their service learning times will be on Monday mornings and all day Tuesday but that will start the next week. I have met with nearly all of the instructors that we work with and they appear to be an excellent group. BD
