LESOTHO

This past weekend, Ben, Eli, Andy, and I decided to road-trip to Lesotho, a country completely enclaved by South Africa. Lesotho--on average--is the highest nation in the world. It completely stunned us with its beautiful, hilly landscapes.

We left Thursday evening from Cape Town. Next, a fourteen hour bus ride brought us to the South African city of Bluefontain. From here, the fun began. We rented a lil, navy VW Citisport. As a result of my ability to drive stick, I was the driver for the trip. It was my first time ever driving on the left side of the road, and was slightly confusing at first. But before a while, I felt like a master of the road. Throughout the trip, we blasted out to the Beach Boys, Fela, Sublime, Tribe Called Quest, along with some Lesotho radio. The air was fresh and the horizon was constantly lush green and hilly.

I'd say the highlight of the trip was going deep into rural Lesotho to a remote town, called Semenkong. It was here that we camped Friday and Saturday night. The roads to Semenkong were the craziest roads on which I've ever driven. They were narrow, winding and constantly going up and down with the mountains. The guys had to get out and push me up one of the steeper hills. The worst part was that they were mostly composed of rocks. These rocks only had to be five or six inches from the ground to scrape the sole of our VW. Also, there were deep, sharp potholes everywhere. I slammed these potholes on countless occasions. I largely had to keep the car in first gear, and definitely wasn't able to get out of second. 'It's like you're always stuck in second gear....' And to top things off, donkeys, sheep, horses, and goats were scattered everywhere.

...Anyways, the highly-elevated Lesotho kept us pretty cold at night, especially with the limited camping gear we had. We survived though. We went on a pony trek Saturday morning. It was about three hours round-trip. They took us over the rocky hills to this beautiful waterfall that jetted off a cliff into a deep gorge. We soaked in the view for quite some time.

The remainder of the weekend was mostly spent hiking and exploring. We walked through the town. We seemed to be quite the spectacles to most of the locals here. The biggest thing that stood out to me was their simple way of living. Everything just seemed so peaceful. There were many herders who trailed their animals through the hills during the day. Most families had very cool huts of stone. I just got a happy and relaxed vibe from Semenkong. Huge change of pace from Cape Town.

Atop a tall hill, we watched the sun go down with a bottle of Vat 69. It was a good ending to our last night. On the Sunday drive home, we stopped in Roma to see some underwhelming dinosaur footprints. Then we went to the Mohale Dam, which is a huge project that's funded by the government of South Africa with the intention of getting clean water to South Africans, to stimulate the Lesotho economy, and to generate electricity. It's been quite successful supposedly, and was quite the spectacle, too. I drove about 700 km in total, and now feel totally prepared for our spring break road trip, which begins tomorrow. We left Bluefontain Sunday night, and fourteen hours later we were back in our home away from home...Cape Town.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone. I'm of course wearing my green, Scottish jacket, which I wore for last year's Patty's day. Just bought some Guinness. Headin' to an Irish place on Long Street later tonight.

What Would I Want? Sky

First thing's first. The latter-half of "What Would I Want? Sky" by Animal Collective is so damn good! Also, on the topic of entertainment, I just watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" again, and loved it again.

Sitting here, sweating to myself. Just another Sunday night. Had a fairly uneventful weekend. I'd say that the climax was probably the magical turning-on of my computer, who had been hibernating for the majority of this trip. I tried pulling an all-nighter Friday night so that I could skype with the 444. I ended up dozing off around 4 am, but a phone call came at about 7:30 am from Cameron, telling me to get my ass on skype! It was great to see a lot of my bros (Liesl, you are included in the bro category), despite my microphone leading to borderline incomprehensibility. Aside from this, the weekend was mainly just us spending too much time and money at Rascal's Pub. Watched soccer, conversed.

We did go down to Simon's Town for the day today. Phil, Andy, Johannas, Charlotte & I, that is. Took the train there, enjoyed the beach, then ate at a seafood restaurant that overlooks the water. The adventure came on our return trip. By the time we had gotten to the station, the train had stopped running, so we had to find some other way of getting back home. Taxi would've been far too expensive since we were probably 45 minutes out of town. We negotiated with a minibus driver to take us back, even though they typically don't drive all the way into Cape Town. This vehicle resembled our 15 passenger van from Pakistan, except that it was in far worse condition. The sliding door opened on the highway, so somebody had to permanently hold it shut. This van was very noisy, constantly rattling, and unable to absorb even the slightest of bumps. Personally, I had to go number 1 and 2, so that just magnified the discomfort for me. But things would only get worse... Halfway home, there was a loud bang and we could see tire shreds fly up. The driver swerved uncontrollably, then magically managed to pull to the side of the highway. We were lucky to pull over safely. Got out and driver tells us that he lent out his only spare tire earlier in the day. Great. At least I got to pee in a bush, which relieved half of my bodily discomfort. Thankfully, shortly after, another bus came, picked us up, and took us home where I would relieve the other half of discomfort. Here I am now. That, folks, sums up my weekend.

Lovely

Hey, my laptop turned on today for the first time in 3 weeks. I'm on cloud 9. Friday evening. Starting the evening with chardonnay and poker. I know the combination of those two seems kind of oxymoronic, but I'm fine with it. Catching up on all the bros' blogs, and just happy to have a computer in front of me.

This just in: There's a tentative plan to skype the 444 in the next 24 hours!

Paid for our rental cars for our spring break road trip today. 2 more weeks till it's upon us. We are trippin to Krueger National Park, and then heading into Mozambique for the latter half of it. There's 8 of us in all. It should be a blast.

Heading downtown later this evening. I'm not really sure what's up. I'm off.

Already March

It's Monday, the first day of March. It really is quite incredible--borderline scary--to already be in March. Before I know it, my time here will be winding down. It's constantly scorching here in Cape Town. Yesterday was probably the hottest day yet, reaching as high as 40 C (about 104 F).

Phil, Andy, Johannas, Charlotte, and I took this hot opportunity to spend the whole day climbing. We set out early to conquer Table Mountain, the range that overlooks the Atlantic. We started at 9:00 am thinking that we'd beat the heat, but we largely underestimated the trek on which we had set...We began in Kirstenbosch gardens (beautiful place that I'll have to take my mom to) on the southeast part of the mountains and navigated our own trail from there. By the time we actually began ascending, it was close to 10:00. Minimal shade on the rocky mountain. Penetrating sun and no cloudage. There were a few tricky passes, but for the most part it was gradual, yet very tiring. By the time we got to what we thought was close to the top, we reached a map that said we were still 3hrs away from the cable car that would take us down. We were exhausted at this point but just kept trekking; it's what we came to do. Overall, we got a fantastic few of the city, suburbs, ocean, and mountains. The total expedition lasted over 5 hours and covered over 10 km of climbing, all in 100+ F heat. Call me a wuss now, Chris, ok? At one point we ran into 'more-experienced-looking' climbers who asked us if we needed them to call an evacuation crew for us. I think they were actually pretty serious about it, too. Whenever we thought we were at the final peak, there was always a dishearteningly taller peak beyond. But alas, we made it to the cable car that would take us back down to the city, where we'd catch a cab back to our house. Nothing has ever felt so rewarding than the water, vitamin water, and frozen yogurt that i inhaled at the finish line. Upon arriving home, we watched the Tottenham game (they're 'my team' now thanks to a fanatic named Max), then the Carling Cup game, and we topped it off my going to see the movie, 'the Book of Eli'. Good way of finishing off an exhausting day.


Mondays (today) are the busiest day of the week for me. I begin with three classes, usually. Today, however, I am not beginning with 3 classes; instead, i'm at home writing this blog. And then, at 2:00, I always have SHAWCO volunteering which is a really great experience. I travel to the township of Khayalitsha, where I tutor 4th graders in maths, literature, and 'life orientation'. The kids are sometimes a little wild and hard to communicate with, but it's still something i'm glad i'm doing. This township is the saddest and one of the most impoverished places i have ever seen. It shares many characteristics with the 'shanty towns' you see in 'District 9'. But, both the kids and I enjoy the sessions, and hopefully they can get something out of it. I sure am.

After, SHAWCO, it's all play. Typically, I will then go to 'Scrumpy Jacks' with another SHAWCOer, Eli, and we'll shoot some pool and drink some litres. Then, at 8:00 we head across the street for our weekly reservation at Panchos Mexican Grill. About 15 of us consistently eat and drink margaritas here every Monday. We all look forward to it. After this, we will top off our night by traveling to Wynberg, and going to a jazz club called 'Swingers'. Here, we listen to some amazing local musicians play at open mic while we shoot pool with shady locals. All in all, Mondays are the best (and most expensive) days of the week!

Signing off from Cape Town. May each one of you have a very good opening week of March.

I will end with a fun video of spirited and drunk fans singing at the Stormers game.