Heya!! I should be studying but I am updating ya’ll instead! There is something wrong with the satellite and the internet has been painfully slow…as if it wasn’t slow already!! Ok ok, so let me start with South Africa!! It has been a few weeks so everything is going to be pretty random. Well, I did lots of shopping. Opps. I spent just a little too much in South Africa haha. I love it there!!! I love their art work and paintings and everything else I saw (and bought) at the market. Amazing. We were there for a week so I did lots!! I also got to see Robben Island. It was very interesting and I am so glad I went. For those of you who don’t know what Robben Island is (I didn’t until we learned about it), it is where the political prisoners were placed during the South African Apartheid. It would be where Nelson Mandela was held for 18years!! We got to see Nelson’s cell and our tour guides were all former prisoners with incredible stories to tell. I also went to Table Mountain, which is exactly as it sounds. It is a large mountain, flat on top like a table that overlooks Cape Town. What a spectacular view!!
I was feeling pretty adventurous in Cape Town so I went Skydiving and cage diving with sharks!! Skydiving was AWESOME!!! I want to do it again! (Sorry Mom). The scariest part was the tiny little airplane we went up 9,000ft in!!! Holy cow!! The wind was blowing the plane around and it BARELY fit 6ppl. There were no seats we had to (LITERALLY) sit on top of our guides. I went with two of my good friends and we were actually really calm. I was going to be the first one out so I was shoved up against the “door.” It wasn’t a real door! It was a peace of clear PLASTIC that pulled down so that we could easily jump. I was leaning against it the whole way up and I could see straight down. So freaky. I held on to my friend Lauren the whole time. When it was time to go my instructor pretty much just pushed me out. Oh, he apparently is a world-renowned skydiver!!! A lady who was there told us if they ranked the top 5 jumpers in the world, he would probably be one of them. And he was cute too!! I actually picked him because he was cute and I found that out later. Haha. When I finally jumped, I did a free-fall for about 30seconds. It seemed so much longer!! After that, the fall was about 5mins. I got a great view of Table Mountain, Robben Island, and all of Cape Town!!!
Now for the Shark Diving…omg!! It wasn’t as scary as Skydiving but it was still intense!! We saw lots of Great Whites. Some of them are HUUGGEEE. You actually get a better view from the boat, but I got to go in the cage too. Yep, I went in the nasty fish water!! Fish swam in and out of the cage with me and not to mention the bloody nasty fish guts that were in the water with me to attract the sharks. YUCK!! But sharks did get up close and personal with us!! Fun times!!
What else did I do in South Africa?? Hmmm. Well, I am saving the best for last!! But I will get there in a second. I shopped a lot like I already said. I bought a really cute moonstone necklace and ring. They had some nice gems there. We also went out to eat at some really cool restaurants. Our ship was docked at the waterfront with lots of nice places to eat and shop!! We also went out a few times at night. Cape Town has nice night life too!
OOhh and I forgot my market story. Silly me!! It is getting late. (P.S. I am now 12.5hrs ahead of the west coast and 9.5 hrs ahead of the east coast. Yeah—we had to advance a half hour for India’s time zone…how weird is that???) Ok, my story!! Well, the market was amazing. I think I already said how much I love African art. Well, I got to talking to some of the people who work there. It is so interesting to converse with locals. We also have to ask locals questions for classes, but I ask them other questions too! It was interesting how much some of them knew about the U.S. and our president. Ok, but I will skip all the political talks. Very intriguing though!! It was just interesting to hear where everyone was from. Most people working in the market weren’t from South Africa. I had a great convo with a guy from Zimbabwe. But, my most interesting finding was that so many of them were refugees from Sudan. Whoa. It was surreal. Standing in front of me where victims of genocide. Friends, family murdered. They were fleeing their country and now here they are talking to me. One was even a doctor in Sudan…now working in the market. It just put so much into perspective. It just didn’t seem real. It almost made me feel bad to bargain with them!! But, they would sell me anything unless they were making a profit off of it. I just have to remember that.
So as we were leaving the market we got hit up by so many children begging for coins. Of course we say sorry we don’t have any. But one child kept following us saying “are you from the big blue and white student ship??” and we told him yes but he kept begging for money and asking us questions. We just kept saying sorry but he wouldn’t stop!! To make a long story short, we just started asking him questions too. All about his family and school, etc. It was interesting to us. He and his sister lived with his aunt in a township. He was in 8th grade. Eventually he started begging us for food. At this point I started to feel really bad. After he walked 15mins with us back to the ship, my friend Walter and I decided to buy him food. It is one thing to beg for money, but food? How sad. I mean, what was I doing in 8th grade?? Chasing boys, playing sports, etc. NOT begging for food. We took him to KFC, but he was too ashamed to even go in. It was so sad. Then, he wouldn’t even eat with us. He said thank you, shook our hands, and left.
Ok so I left the best for last—Operation Hunger. On the last day I did a service visit. First, we went to a daycare center. The kids were soooo cute. They were fixated on our cameras!! They didn’t really speak English but they kept grabbing our cameras (they were from like 2-5years old). We would take pics of them and show them afterwards. They thought it was the most amazing thing ever!! I mean, it kind of is!! If you took out your camera, you had like 5983543 kids diving on each other to be in the picture. So cute. I also took stickers and toys for the kids. I couldn’t give out toys because I didn’t have enough for everyone. There were about 200kids!! But I did give out stickers. They were mobbing me to get one!! Other people also had stickers so we were able to give them lots of stickers!! They wanted them all over their faces haha. We got to play with the children and eat a snack with them. They had cake!! They only get cake about four times a year. They had so much cake and the workers wanted us to have some. We were in a township and on operation hunger so everyone was obviously poor. So we all said no thanks, but they insisted!! It was like an insult to them if we didn’t eat any cake. I love cake!! Anyways, they sang to us and played with us and we had a great time!! Next—we went to a school. The students ranged from kindergarten up to high school. This was an interesting experience. We walked in like the lobby area to find AIDS prevention stuff all over the wall, which was a good thing!! They had poems written, little stories, pictures and even condoms hanging up on the wall. I wasn’t surprised, and it is a good thing they are learning these things! Buuttt I was kind of at a loss for words. I mean what are we teaching our children at this age?? Definitely not AIDS prevention!! I mean, once you get to middle school/high school you have health class and we may learn a little bit about STDs and AIDS and prevention, but we don’t have condoms hanging on the walls!! There always was a huge poster on the wall that they had drawn. It had condoms drawn all over it saying “SAFE SEX” and “ALWAYS BE SAFE.” Stuff like that. Annndd there was also a condom man!! It was kind of funny. It was a condom with feet and a face saying protect yourself from AIDS! What do you say about that?? AIDS is a problem (I have heard everything from 1/5 to 1/9 people have AIDS in South Africa…holy cow!) and it is a good thing they are teaching prevention young! But it was just weird to see condoms hanging on the walls. In fact, a lot of places in South Africa had free condoms in the bathrooms!! Not even single condoms…whole packs!! You just take a pack!! It is a great thing, but at the same time it is so sad that it has to be like that. Anyways!! At the school they sang for us and played drums and did chants and dances…so cool!! We loved it!!! They also loved our cameras!!! Good experience.
Lastly, we visited a Rastafarian township. If you know anything about this type of community you know they smoke a lot of marijuana!! That’s about all I knew. Bob Marley and marijuana is what would come to my mind. This is true, but there is more to it. When we arrived, a guy in the township greeted us and gave us some of their history. First off, let me explain the townships to you!! They are the poor areas of South Africa. The houses there are one room and made out of cardboard, tin, anything they can get. No joke. Some are waterproofed with garbage bags. It is so sad. They look like they would just blow over!!! So anyways, MANY MANY people live in these areas. I know that one of the biggest townships has over a million people living in it!! They are so sad. I can’t even describe. So we went into the Rastafarian township with Operation Hunger. You can probably figure out why we were there. Many of their children are malnourished. So back to the history of the township!! This speaker, one of the community leaders, was awesome. He explained to us that they follow the Bible…whhattt? They smoke weed all day long!! But really, they do!! According to their interpretation of the Bible it is OK to smoke marijuana (it’s a natural plant!) and it is wrong to eat meat. He then told us how they believe in peace and love and happiness. He told us he was happy. They were happy there. He said he would rather be poor but happy than have many material things and be sad. So true. Then, I didn’t feel so bad. It is true. They were all so happy and proud!! It was touching. Their situation is unfortunate, but they do make the best of it. Heck, they were reluctant to have Operation Hunger in their community. I guess it was kind of a pride issue…but they realized that some of their children were suffering from malnutrition so they accepted.
So as we started touring the community, the kids were all over us. They wanted to hold our hands and play with us. One girl walked up to me and said “Can I be your friend?” and of course I accepted. She grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go!! I started talking to her and she spoke perfect English. I was impressed. Her name is Diana and she is 10yrs old. She speaks Afrikaans (the most common? lang in S.Africa), Xhosa (a clicking language) and English all fluently. Impressive!! Other kids there only spoke Xhosa. She actually helped us translate. She told me that she was next starting to learn Portuguese!! Wow! She and I talked for like an hour…she is soooo freakin smart!! I couldn’t get over her. She took me to see her house. She was so excited to show me but she first said “it is not a pretty house.” So sad. After that we were walking on stones and glass and I asked her about her shoes. I already knew the answer. She didn’t have any. Most of the children didn’t. I wanted to cry. Her feet were smaller than mine but she could definitely wear a pair of my flip flops!! Too bad I had on my sneakers. I was tempted to give them to her!! If I had on flip flops I definitely would have went back to the ship in bare feet. At the end I have her some special toys I had. She was the sweetest thing ever. At the end the little girls did a dance for us that they had been working on. Diana was one of the dancers. I definitely teared up. I was so proud of her. I just wish she had all of the opportunities I have. When she found out I was from America her face lit up and she didn’t wanna let me go. She said to me “they promised me I can go there one day.” I didn’t even ask who..her parents?? Her school?? I don’t know. All I know is she is such a smart girl, but will never even get 1/100 of the opportunities I do. She didn’t even get to go to school that day. It is too far and they don’t get to go everyday. That little girl seriously inspired me so much!! I can’t even explain.
What also puzzled me about South Africa is the distribution of wealth. It definitely is not what I expected. Racism and discrimination still exists. It was so crazy seeing a township then across the street seeing big fancy houses. Or seeing a township so close to a well established area. How can you have amazing shopping malls and restaurants, but yet right around the corner is a township of 1million poor starving people?? What???
That is about it for South Africa. I am posting a few pics…only a few. I didn’t upload mine yet but I stole a few from my friend who had them up online. Hehe

Mauritius!!! Ok I don’t have much to say about it. It was a beautiful place…once you found the beach!! There was NOTHING to do in the area we ported. We had to travel 30mins either north of south to find nice beaches or clubs or anything. We didn’t do much. Ummmm shopped a little, ate a little, drank a lot and slept a little. The first night we stayed in villas along with about 250 other semester at sea students. No lie. We took over flic en flac. Things were kind of out of control…don’t know if I should be saying this but whatever. Just speaking the truth!! Don’t be scared mommy!! We didn’t go back there the second night…too crazy. That first night in flic en flac was rough. Too many drunken college students in one place…and that place also happened to be a foreign country…not a good situation. We were annoyed/embarrassed/etc. Too much drama, which is why we didn’t go back the next night!! I did have fun that night though!! The next day, some students there had their stuff stolen by some locals or people who worked there or something. In another villa right around the corner where some of the students stayed a SAS student got raped. My roomie was actually going to stay there that night but I went back with her to get her stuff and thank god she didn’t. Pretty scary situation. They caught the guy and it was on the news there and stuff. I probably shouldn’t even be saying all this cause I know I only worry my mommy…and probably everyone else for that matter. My friends and I are smart and stick together—with big strong guys!! But things happen. Bad things happens in the US too. Remember, there are over 700students!! Bad stuff is going to happen to some of us. So far it has been 1 or 2 bad incidents in every port. There are soo many of us though so don’t be alarmed. 1 or 2 bad things would probably happen in the US too!! But Mauritius was the worst. I had a great time, but it is not somewhere I want to re-visit!! Now South Africa is another story. I love that place and can’t wait to go back!! I would seriously live there. I love Cape Town!!