Driving on the Other Side of the Road and Zip-lining Over Waterfalls: Just another Thursday in ZA

Wow! Our two week break from school flew by! Tomorrow we go back to school to start a new term at Herbert Hurd. I will be in Mrs. G's third grade classroom for the next three weeks-- learning their ways, teaching some of my own, and getting to know this particular ZA school a little bit better.

This past week, our last week of break, we did some souvenir shopping at a flea market several miles from home, made new friends at a local cafe and rented a car to do a bit of traveling. I have GOT to tell you all about our travels!

In ZA, like most of the world, drivers are seated on the right-hand side of the vehicle and drive on the left-hand side of the road. Also, a majority of the cars in ZA are standard transmission (they have a stick) which requires one to shift with his or her left hand. Renting automatic cars in ZA is mucho expensivo! These differences change the road rules quite a bit for a driver used to hugging the right side of the road, shifting with his or her right hand, and passing on the left. It was QUITE the adventure!

I have made a list of ZA "road rules" that I learned during our trip:

• When driving on the highway, slower vehicles must stay on the left side of the road and any passing vehicle (highway or not) must pass on the right. Complete opposite of home.
  
• There are large shoulders on either side of the road. These are used for passing purposes. On one lane roads and highways, it is courteous to move over onto the shoulder (dangerous too!) to let speedier traffic through. I am not sure of the legality... no one told me it was illegal....
  
• Once a car has passed they will turn on their hazards (if they are thankful) as a 'thank-you.' You must either turn on your hazards to "say" 'you're welcome' OR flash your lights at them.
  
• The speed limit seems to be optional... at least to a majority of traffic.
  
• Speed is calculated in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour. 1 kph is slower than 1 mph since miles are shorter than kilometers. The typical highway speed in northeast Ohio is 65mph. In ZA, on the Eastern Cape, it is 120kph. 
• Here is some math for you kids back home: If 1 kilometer = .62 miles, how many miles is 10 kilometers?
  
• The paved roads are very nice. I didn't come across any potholes or large bumps (except on the dirt road-- more on that later). I was surprised by the conditions of the roads. I wasn't expecting them to be so great.
  
• The McDonald's drive thru is backwards. Yes. Backwards. Think about going in the out and out the in... that is how you do it ZA style. (photo below)
  
• There are random road blocks set up intermittently on the highway. Whether or not you have committed a traffic violation you must stop and show your driver's license. Murray (our friend from Freewalker) told us a few weeks ago that road blocks are pretty routine-- to check for unpaid traffic violation fines and/or expired driver's licenses.
  
• When a sign says "Do not feed the baboons," you should stay in your car and NOT feed the baboons. You should do some research on baboons and figure out why feeding them would be a bad idea!
  
• The Chrysler Sparklite is NOT a 4x4... it does NOT have off-roading capabilities. In fact, it is probably the smallest car in the world.
  

Away we go! 

A bit nervous to start...

It was so difficult to remember to stay on the left side. And so strange.

120kph = 74.6mph

We had to go through the McDonald's drive thru!

There were some seriously huge mountains along highway N2-- what the locals call "The Garden Route"

On our first trip in the Sparklite we drove to Tsitsikamma National Park-- about two hours southeast of Port Elizabeth. Why were we driving to Tsitsikamma you ask? To zip-line!

Gearing up!

Britt and I are ready to rock!

The waterfalls that we crossed.
  

It went so fast! There wasn't enough time to be scared...

We had an awesome day driving through ZA, flying through her trees and over her waterfalls.

On Friday we took the good 'ole Sparklite off-roading to Kwantu-- a wildlife reserve on the other side of PE. What an adventure that was! I will post more on that tomorrow. Until then... drive safely!!

Peace,

Sarah

Waterproof Camera

Before I left, my marvelous husband, Bronson, bought me a Kodak Water Sport waterproof (up to 3m) video/still camera. I have used it to shoot short videos and such, but really haven't had an authentic opportunity to test it's waterproofness (It is, by the way, fantastic for the little handheld camera that it is. I highly recommend it). Today I went to the beach to see just how waterproof it is. As it turns out, the Water Sport is waterproof indeed. It also takes fabulous stills, as you'll see below.

I have some really great underwater shots that I want to share with you-- and some above water shots as well! These were taken off the Nelson Mandela Bay beach down the block from my apartment. There are some rough, rocky areas down the beach where I like to search for sea creatures and shells. When the tide is low there are numerous shallow tide pools amidst the rocks. In the shallow pools there can be found a variety of sea creatures: fish, anemones, crabs, and starfish to name a few.

*All creature photos were taken with the camera under water! What?! Yes. You read correctly. This is new technology for me, if you can't tell...

A bit of a crab's exoskeleton. 

Do you see what I see?

I saw dolphins today! There were probably 20 of them in a pod moving along the shore. They were too far off to take a clear photo, but I was able to watch them for several minutes before they disappeared from view.

An ornately decorated oyster.

Red and purple anemones!

Beautiful habitat

Purple in nature cannot be beat. Can not.

Even algae is beautiful under water... 

Sea weeds. Green.

While I was taking underwater photos I gave a boy a bit of a scare. I put my camera under the water and he shouted, "WHAA!" I made eye contact with him and smiled. His face was priceless. I think he was a bit confused. I took a couple more photos and he was absolutely intrigued. I heard him telling his buddies, "She has a waterproof phone! A waterproof phone!" I told him that it was just a camera and I could only put it in shallow water. It didn't matter to him. Phone or camera, he was just as enamored by the waterproofness as I.

On Saturday I was walking along the shore and I came across a small (baby?) hammerhead shark, washed up on the beach. It was about three feet long. Herta, and old woman that I met on the beach and walked/talked with for quite a while, told me that the seagulls don't like hammerhead meat-- which is why it was in one piece. I took a picture of it, not to be morbid, but to show all of you this amazing creature.

I hope you enjoyed the photos! My next post will be a bit more about the culture here. I realize I haven't posted a whole lot on that...

Take care, people!

Peace,
Sarah

Soccer Match Photos

Here are the photos from the soccer match: Freewalker Volunteers vs. Kwa-Ford Boys!

Meet the Freewalker team (from left to right): Amaris, me, Rosalie, Sandra, Britt, Leo

Team Kwa-Ford!

This kid was impressive... Leo wasn't too shabby either. 

We lined up to congratulate the winners...

**All of the photos were taken by Murray Luscombe of Freewalker.
Check out the Freewalker FB page or website by clicking the links!

Volunteering with Freewalker

This week has been quite an adventure! Beginning on Monday the roommates (Amaris and Britt) and I teamed up with a local non-profit organization, Freewalker: Volunteer & Adventures for Charity, in their pursuit to improve and develop Kwa-Ford Primary School in New Brighton. 

The organization is really cool. It is run by a couple  that my roommates (former and current) met through a teacher at Pearson High School-- where several of the roommates have taught.  The couple, Jordi and Murray, live in this house in the middle of PE. They have volunteers from all over the world come to their house and stay with them for weeks and months at a time. While the volunteers are with Freewalker they help out with various service projects around the PE area. On the weekends they have the opportunity to participate in discounted adventures with the proceeds going directly back to the non-profit work that Freewalker does with the township schools and other places around PE. They have people coming and going all of the time. People from all over the world are able to serve the schools and other groups in PE through the connections that Freewalker makes. It is a very cool thing that they are doing. Through Jordi and Murray we have met some really cool people from all over the place. It seems like everyone is coming to PE, ZA for something... 

So we connected with Freewalker this week to help out at Kwa-Ford Primary. We were able to finish some of the painting that we started several weeks ago as well as paint the walls of Miss Dlanga's classroom. We met Miss Dlanga on our first visit to Kwa-Ford. She is a teacher at the school-- an extremely kind lady who loves kids and seems to really enjoy life. Each time I have seen her she has been quick to let me know she is 60 years old, all while jumping around and running in place-- a very spunky 60! Miss D wanted her classroom bright red with sky blue trim... her wish was Freewalker's command!

All week we worked on her classroom and various other projects around the school including weeding the school garden and getting it ready for Miss D to plant winter crops (Remember: winter here is not very cold). A handful of boys from around the neighborhood came each day to help out. And with each passing day their numbers seemed to grow.

Yesterday, at the end of our work day we were standing around with the boys (about 10 of them) and a soccer match sprang up. Freewalker volunteers vs. Kwa-Ford boys. It was such a blast! Some of those boys are amazing soccer players... their foot work is brilliant. The boys won with 10 seconds on the "clock" making their victory over the adult volunteers all the more sweet. Along with ref-ing the game, Murray took quite a few photos of the event. If I get access to them I will be sure to post for you to see! 

One more interesting thing: on Tuesday and Wednesday Murray built a campfire and made everyone roostili, "roosties"-- a sandwich baked over an open fired. He baked bread dough over the fire and we used the biscuit-like bread to make sandwiches. The popular roostie fillings over here are butter, cheese and jam. It sounds like a seriously wrong combo but I tell you, it is seriously delicious. 

I have posted photos from the week. Some of the photos were taken by Freewalker. They are captioned. Enjoy!

We pushed everything to the middle of the room before we painted.
The walls had already been primed when this photo was taken.

Getting ready to paint!

Amaris and me-- being weirdos

Photo by Freewalker

Photo by Freewalker

Finished

Miss D!

Photo by Freewalker

Baking roosties

Photo by Freewalker

Finishing Claire's alphabet

Photo by Freewalker

Hope everything is fine where you are. Take care of yourself and the people around you.

Peace!

Sarah