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8th/9th Week - Can you eat ostrich eggs?
Ebimisami: 08.11.2017
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5am..., the alarm clock rings..., a hectic morning begins..., and on top of that, it's vacation...
We were in Gansbaai, had to return the rented oversize house, and drive to the next town, Hermanus. The boat for whale watching left the harbor at 6.30am, and we almost missed it. While the sun was rising, fog covered the mountains, and we were just getting more awake, the first whales appeared. We saw many female whales with calves and at the end of the tour, we had about 20 whales around our boat, rolling and sticking their pectoral fins (flippers) out of the water.
Back on land, our journey continued on Route 62, a road that leads through the 'Little Karoo', a semi-desert. Apart from the beautiful landscape and an almost empty road, we also saw a large group of monkeys. After a long drive, we finally arrived in Oudtshoorn, a town known for its ostrich farming. We had dinner at a game reserve called 'Bufflesdrift', where I took the opportunity to try ostrich meat. Right below the restaurant, there is a lake where hippos came out in the evening as the sun was setting and it was getting cooler.
The next morning, we had half an ostrich egg for breakfast at the hostel - it is almost impossible to eat a whole ostrich egg as it quickly fills you up. When prepared as scrambled eggs, it looks like a chicken egg, just slightly grayer and without the yolk. After breakfast, we went to a game reserve. Here, the focus was also on ostriches, on which Clemens and I rode.
Here, the rule applies that women are held on and men have to help themselves, which I was glad about with my still broken toe, as otherwise I would have ended up on the ground as well. Afterwards, we fed baby giraffes and visited the 'Cango Caves', a limestone cave, which wasn't particularly special if you've seen others before, but the entertaining tour in German made it even better. Unfortunately, we had to continue driving and didn't make it to a waterfall for swimming, but on the way towards Jeffrey's Bay, we saw a snake and a turtle.
On Wednesday, we visited the 'Addo Elephant National Park'. We entered through the main gate and took a tour with our own car. Since there were many cars at the main entrance, we had to wait a while for elephants. After encountering several warthogs (which look like Pumbaa from 'The Lion King'), huge dung beetles on the road, and fighting kudus, we finally spotted our first elephant hidden in the bushes. During the rest of the drive, we saw a huge herd of zebras, kudus, and springboks on a large grassland, as well as a few monkeys observing their surroundings from the bushes.
At a waterhole, another elephant suddenly appeared and relaxedly sucked water from a pipe with its trunk. A few meters away, its herd was also present with several baby elephants that clumsily tried to imitate the older ones.
This morning we woke up in a familiar environment, we were back in our house in Alexandria, had time to sleep in, and took advantage of the car to drive to Port Alfred in the mall. Later, we searched in vain for a car wash and were sent from one gas station to another, but we couldn't even find a vacuum cleaner. In the evening, we tried to clean the car at home as best as possible with a sponge and a borrowed vacuum cleaner.
For me, October 6th started early in the morning. I packed my backpack again and drove to PE (Port Elizabeth) by car. Luckily, I found a car wash there and returned the car right after. From the airport, I went to the beach near 'Shark Rock Pier', and from there, I walked to a small mall, then to Walmer Park, and finally drove to my hostel.
I was the only guest at the hostel and had a good conversation with the receptionist in the evening. Since I myself am not sure about guided township tours, as it seems more like going to a zoo to see people there, I asked her what she thinks about it. She has a dark complexion (even though I don't differentiate between skin colors myself, ethnic origin still plays a very big role here, especially in society and it is also divided in the passport) and hinted that she herself lives in a township, and she finds it nice when others are interested in their culture and the people there also benefit if you buy something there.
The next day, I had to get up early again, a quick breakfast and then we went to a farm for a horseback ride to Sardinia Bay. Since my foot still doesn't fit into closed shoes, I had to ride with socks. The ride went through a recently burned forest and over dunes. Three hours later, we arrived back at the farm, covered in dirt and dust, and I took a taxi to Baywest Center because there is one of the few piercers in PE and I had to get rid of an ingrown piercing in my ear. In the evening, an important rugby game took place in Cape Town, and since rugby here is a national sport like soccer in Germany, everyone wanted to watch the match. Nearly every visitor in the shopping center stood in front of a screen in the food court, and you could hear the cheering throughout the mall.
The last day of the vacation and my last day in PE. In the afternoon, before my departure, I visited a museum about forced removals to the townships. The theme of the 'South End Museum' is very interesting, unfortunately, it mostly consists of text, but there are many texts from eyewitnesses, which taught me that the different ethnic groups lived peacefully together before apartheid and different cultures were accepted.
The first week of school after the vacation was very normal. The last of the 4 terms in the school year began, we were assigned to our classes, and everyone greeted each other happily after the 2 weeks we hadn't seen each other.
On Sundays, we went to church again, but this time, a guest pastor preached and gave a kind of lecture. In the end, he condemned everything and claimed to have the gift of healing the sick and raising the dead with just a prayer. This time, we were glad that the service, which otherwise brings us joy, was over. We were also invited to have dinner with our mentors and at the same time, we met a new volunteer from Holland who arrived the day before and will stay in South Africa for 2 months.
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