Monday, April 30, 2012

A New Place to Call Home


I have now been in South Africa 98 days and it is now hitting me, at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday that I am going to have to leave this place and go back home. For the first time being here and thinking about going home, I am really scared and nervous. I have experienced so much and have learned an incredible amount about myself that going back home cant help but make me feel as though I am moving backwards. I now understand what all the “adjusting to being back home” seminars were for.

 I am leaving Thursday for AFRIKABURN and I cant even begin to explain the excitement I feel. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to attend Burning Man in Arizona, and the fact that I get to go to it in Africa is wild. I will be celebrating my 21st birthday there and I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful way to celebrate me coming into myself and finally finding out who I am, then go to a festival that is all about self expression and accepting everyone for who they are. I can honestly say that before I came to Africa, I was completely lost. I had no idea who I really was or where I was going. Being here and facing so many challenges has finally made me realize not only who I am but also who I want to be. This last month and a half I have here I plan to take full advantage of. I am soaking everything up and taking in all that I can. Stellenbosch has really become a home to me. I see familiar faces followed by friendly smiles everywhere I go. Even going away on the garden route I found myself homesick; not for Spokane, but for Stellenbosch (sorry mom and dad).  5 months is a odd amount of time to be away because once you overcome the initial fear of being somewhere different, everything becomes normal and you grow used to it, and it becomes your home just as quickly as you have to leave. I cant imagine never seeing all the incredible people I have met, not only those from the states but also from South Africa, Germany, Austria and France ever again. I have never been good at goodbyes and this goodbye is going to be especially hard.  As lame and as over used it probably is, I have never felt so at ease and more like I fit in anywhere in my life. Stellenbosch will always have a huge part of my heart and I know this will not be the last time I see it. We will meet again.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Cliffs, Elephants, Cheetahs


I will first start off by apologizing for how long it has been since my last blog. But a lot has happened since my last birthday wish post.

I had my first experience at Kirstenbosch, which is a venue where bands come to play music outside in one of the most gorgeous settings I have ever seen. The band was Freshly Ground which is the band who played with Shakira at the World Cup. Most people are familiar with the wakka wakka Africa song they sang. Much to my disappointment Shakira did not make an appearance and sing shewolf, but otherwise it was absolutely amazing and a great experience!

School has been going very well. Wrote my first paper here not too long ago and am feeling good about it. Surprisingly jewelry class is the most difficult class for me. What I thought was going to be a simple sit down and string some beads for a necklace turned out to me saudering metal and using blow torches. Needless to say I am awful at it and many people will be receiving some of the ugliest jewelry when I return home.

I have just got back from a weeklong trip on the Garden Route and I have never had so much fun! The first two nights we stayed at a back packers owned by a man who I am pretty sure took one too many drugs in his younger years. We had multiple conversations about the “fairies” that lived around the area, then he proceeded to encourage me to go catch them and bring them for dinner. No idea what kind of life lesson or metaphor he might have been trying to get at, but it’s always fun to talk to crazy sometimes.

The first night we visited the Congo caves as well as some ostriches. The adventure through the caves was unreal. I have never been in such tight areas or contorted my body in ways no one should ever have to. It was a blast all the while though. All I can say about the ostriches is that they are creepy and freak me out. When you meet an ostrich you will understand.

The second day I was up early to go kloofing. Kloofing is pretty much cliff jumping along with rock climbing and river rafting with your body. It was insane. And me being used to never having to wear shoes in Stellenbosch I had to do all the climbing and hiking barefoot but the aching feet was well worth it all. I came into the whole trip thinking it was going to be nothing to be scared about, I jumped off the bridge at home during the summer into the river and I figured couldn’t be any worse.  We would hike and then swim (rather float) down the current to where we would then climb and jump off the cliffs back into the water. The highest jump we did was 12 meters high and I was shaking like a god damn leaf. I never really knew I was afraid of heights but turns out I am. But once I finally sucked it up I was jumping off everything. It was so much fun and such an adrenaline rush.

After two days at the first back packers we drove to a farm that we stayed at for the rest of the trip. It was gorgeous there and such a nice break from the city area. While we were there we visited some incredible elephants, the big cat sanctuary as well as monkey land. Being able to touch and be around elephants (my favorite animal) was incredible. They are heartbreakingly adorable yet so terrifying. There were only three rules that the instructors gave which were don’t get in between two elephants, don’t walk behind them, and don’t run. I managed to break all three within the first few minutes of being there. As I tried to take a picture with one elephant, two others came on each side of me making me not in the middle of just two elephants but three. So as I tried to get out of there I had to walk behind all three of them which resulted in me running and my friend getting a less then attractive picture of me in complete panic.

 I found it hilarious how in Africa, instead of looking at animals through cages or glass walls, you actually just go in the cage with them. It was our luck that they had not been fed yet and they get “restless” when the weather starts to cool down. But still there were no objections to putting 25 delicious human beings in a fenced in area full of cheetahs. It was an unreal thing to be that close to wild animals like that. We also visited the monkeys at monkey land which was hilarious. It is just this gated community full of trees and forest and they just have the monkeys run around and do what they want. As I mentioned before in a blog about the monkey apocalypse, I felt like I was right in the middle of it. They would run right next to you and above you and just watch as you walked by, plotting. A few of the people in my group had the honor of getting peed on by the monkeys but I guess not a lot of people can say a monkey peed on them.

It was an amazing trip and I had a blast. I have a lot to look forward to these last few months I get here. I am going on a safari in a few weeks and then I am going to Afrika Burn to celebrate my 21st birthday. Being able to celebrate my birthday at a festival that has always been my dream to ever go to is completely surreal to me. I am so excited for the next adventures I will be going on but the reality that I will have to go home has started to settle in and it is getting harder and harder for me to have to let this place go. I am very much determined to come back here again in my life and because of that I will never officially say goodbye to South Africa. It has become a place I consider home for the last months and will always have a big part of my heart.

Miss you all.









Saturday, February 25, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOOZLE HEAD!!



Just wanted to say happy birthday to my beautiful mom! I hope you have an incredible day and dad showers you with gifts and treats you like a princess because you deserve it! I love you so much and I miss you everyday! You are my rock and my best friend. I love you and will see and talk to you on sunday! Have a great day! Love you marmy!

Monday, February 20, 2012

"A crazy, beautiful, tortured place"


I am sitting in my room as I write in this blog, while I ice my ankle waiting for my appointment to the doctor with mama H… needless to say, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote in (don’t worry mom its nothing serious!!).

The first few entries I have on this blog have been nothing but positive experiences during my time in Africa, and since then, I have finally seen some of the ugly parts of this country.

Firstly AIFS whom I came here with has experienced our first loss of a family member within our group. Brooke, one of my closer friends within the group, found out almost three weeks in to the program that her brother had committed suicide. She immediately flew home for the funeral and to be with her family, and came back only a week later. She is truly an inspiration and one of the strongest people I am so grateful to have ever met. I honestly do not think I could have come back here if I were to have experienced something as similar. One thing she said that stuck out to me when I talked to her about her coming back and how strong she is for doing so is, “it was never a matter of whether or not I would come back, but when”. I can only imagine going through something like that and I have become even more incredibly grateful for my family and friends in my life and so much more aware of how short life is.

As I have mentioned before, I am taking a Cultural differences and Peacemaking class with an instructor who inspires me everyday to be a better person. I can only wish I had him with me when I experienced my first taste of racism in my life.  One of me and Hannah’s friends who we met here was having his last night in Stellenbosch before he moved to New York to go get his doctorate in hopes of becoming a surgeon. We planned on taking him out for some drinks and to celebrate this new chapter he was about to embark on in his life. (I must mention, in order to understand this experience, that this friend of ours is African American and from Cape Town) I left our group of people to go get some drinks for all of us when a young guy sitting next to me asked if he could buy me a drink. I am a baller on a budget and if anyone is going to offer to pay for anything, I can’t say I am going to turn it down. While I talked to him for a little while he asked me what I was doing talking to “that guy” over there. Me being the clueless American, I explain that it’s his last night in Stellenbosch and is going to become a doctor. He proceeded to make a number of statements about how it is wrong to associate with black people, that interracial relationships are looked down upon and that it plain and simply was not right. I explained to him that indeed I used to date someone who was black and that I couldn’t believe what he was saying. After getting a number of rude comments from him because I did not have the same beliefs and how disgusted he was to have bought me that drink, I had to leave. The next day in my peacemaking class Terry (my instructor) spoke about how we are all on this “Africa high” and soon enough we are all going to have that moment where we experience the ugly and messed up part of this country. He spoke about how to handle people like the man I met, and how to stay calm, don’t get upset, don’t get worked up, don’t swear, don’t raise your voice and don’t resort to violence. Just take yourself out of the situation, and politely leave. In other words, don’t do at all what I did. If I could I would go back and handle it in a completely different way and not get so offended, but I can’t so all I can do is handle it better next time. On the positive, at least I got a free drink and he lost money.

Although that was probably the most negative experience I have had since I have been here, in some ways I am happy that it did happen. It has made me much more aware that I really am in a different country with different views and a history that is still so prevalent and how grateful I really am to live in a country where race is not an issue. One thing Terry said in class that has stuck in my head is that “Africa is a crazy, beautiful, tortured place and one needs to experience every aspect of it good or bad.”





On a much lighter note, my classes are amazing. I am making a pair of swanky earrings in jewelry and am getting back in to drawing. I obviously love my peacemaking class and always look forward to it (minus the 9 in the morning part). I had my first HIV and AIDS: a South African Perspective class last Thursday and it was eye opening. We took a trip to Kayamandi where we broke into groups along with kids who are from Kayamandi in order to come up with ideas to help their community. Khanysi ( our member from Kayamandi) talked to us about the prevalence of AIDS in the community as well as how uninformed people are about simple tasks like cooking, cleaning and especially things like using tools in order to fix up things in their houses. She took us on a tour around her community and for the first time I felt like the minority. I couldn’t help but feel like I wish I wasn’t white when we were walking through people’s houses that housed up to 8 people in two rooms, had roofs that needed mending and neighborhoods with trash scattered everywhere. It was hard to ask Khanysi questions about her community because I didn’t want to offend her or make her feel uncomfortable, but she was open about all that we were seeing and let us know that the Kayamandi community needs help not only for the children, but also for the adults. I am really eager to start on my groups’ project for the community and will keep updating about it on the blog.

Last night I just got back from the Cederberg trip and it was incredible. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been and one of the most memorable weekends I have had yet. We went on an incredible hike where we climbed through these caves that led us to the top of the mountain just outside of where we were housed. I can’t really even explain the beauty of the trip and the pictures don’t even give it justice.

Last week I had rolled my ankle pretty badly and like the stubborn person I am, I denied the fact that it was bad at all and just explained to people I had kankles. After the hike mama H noticed it and the jig was up. She has put me on bed rest with ice strapped to me and is bringing me to the doctor later this evening to make sure everything is fine. Don’t know what I would do without her.

Otherwise I feel great, I am having the time of my life and have never felt as happy as I am here.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Settling In


Day 15 in South Africa and still having the time of my life. I have never felt so happy and excited and just an overall thrill for life.

Since the last time I blogged, I have made another trip into Cape Town as well as making a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and visited the most southern tip of Africa.

Our beach day in Cape Town ended up being a windy disaster. Found sand in places I never knew existed and we all seemed to forget that clouds can still burn you. The next day we all soaked ourselves in aloe vera and wrapped up in wet towels. None the less it was a great time. Went around and saw all the venders and I am excited to bring home some incredible gifts for my friends and family.

Yesterday we drove to boulder beach where we saw penguins and got to spend some time near the ocean, and then we drove to Cape of Good Hope. If anyone has seen the Planet of the Apes movie; it’s happening. Baboons were everywhere and have come to find they’re the ass holes of the monkeys. Example one, while I was walking back to the bus a baboon stole my muffin and I am pretty positive I saw it give one of its friends a high five afterwards. And example two, apparently a poor kid got his wallet pick pocketed by one only an hour before our group had arrived. What monkeys are doing with currency is beyond me but all I have to say is the monkey apocalypse is here.  

I am still meeting some great people here and having lots of fun. Me and my friend Hannah met some locals and got to go watch the sun rise then hiked up and swam in a river a little bit outside of Stellenbosch. It was an amazing experience and it was nice to hear what this country has to offer from actual locals and not from reading a pamphlet.

Friday I had my first meetings for a couple of the classes I am interested in and they both seem like a lot of fun. I also had my meeting for a volunteer group called LCE. It’s a volunteer opportunity where we get to go visit a school Kayamandi and help kids with their school work and get to do activities like dancing, art, sports and music. The instructor for the class is absolutely amazing. He was incredibly inspirational and just the meeting alone was very moving. He does amazing work for these kids and he has an amazing outlook on the circumstance that these children are in. They even refer to him as the ghandi of Africa. Because of my schedule for school, the timing for the volunteer group happens to conflict with my schedule, but I have been talking to the instructor and am trying to arrange a different opportunity to volunteer and see a different side to South Africa.

I have my very first class today in drawing and I am incredibly excited! I need structure and routine back in my life because I was starting to feel like everyone is just on vacation here. It also doesn’t help with a handful of people turning 21 that it has made the idea of sleep a completely new concept to me. But I am finally somewhat well rested and ready for my first class as a student at Stellenbosch University. I also am finally starting to understand my way around here with the occasional walking the exact opposite direction of where I was intending to go. So I am hoping that I don’t look too foreign on campus.

Although it has only been a little bit over two weeks here, I can already tell how much this experience is going to change me as a person. I already feel like I have grown so much. I feel like time is going by too fast and before I know it, I will be on the plane back home. As much as I miss all of my friends and family, I can’t help but feel nervous about going back home to my usual way of life as a person who has grown so rapidly and has developed a completely different perspective on life then when she came here. But I can’t wait to come home and share my experience with all of you besides having to read it.

I still feel like I am living in a fantasy land and I am not really sure if it will ever register in my mind that I am in Africa. I still can’t wait for more memories to make and more things to share.

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Eagle has Landed


After over 20 hours on planes that were completely full, being crunched into tiny seats and never sleeping a wink on any of the flights, I am finally in Africa! I am incredibly grateful to be settled in and experiencing this amazing country.

 I took a solid beating from Africa the first night due to the overwhelming temperature change. Ended up feeling slightly light headed and nauseous; than once I opened my bag and inhaled the aroma of the mouth wash that leaked over all my clothes I got violently sick and realized one needs to be prepared and drink water when going from 30 degrees or below to 90. Africa-1, Lindsey-0.





But none the less, these past 6 days have been absolutely amazing. Had my first night out experience Tuesday and have already made friends I can tell I will keep in touch with after all of this. I couldn’t have been luckier with the people I have ended up living with, and I know I am guaranteed to have a good time with them while I am here. I am surrounded by different languages and cultures that I can’t help but feel like I am visiting a handful of other countries as well.  I am eager to sign up for classes and start to really learn my way around Stellenbosch. I am completely infatuated with the culture and easy going, “I’ll get it done when I want to get it done”, walk around bare foot way of life here.

We have just finished up orientation and I have to try and decide what classes I want to take. There are so many that sound interesting that I am finding it very difficult to decide, but I am anxious for school to start up. I have also signed up in scuba club and will be getting my scuba certification while I am here! I also have joined an outdoors group and will be spending my time traveling around Africa going hiking, rock climbing, water rafting and they even offer sky diving. I am so anxious to get going with everything that I am finding I need to relax and remind myself I have 5 months here, I don’t need to do everything I would like to do as soon as possible.  Me and two of my new friends (Hannah and Dara) have been taking full advantage of the capability to legally go to bars, and have met some incredible people there who are a lot of fun and really helpful with all of our questions. I do have to say South Africans are a different breed of people. Everyone is ridiculously good looking and no matter where you go or what day of the week it is, a bar will be packed. It’s impressive. But I am having so much fun here and am looking forward to school and many more adventures.

I am trying to get better at writing in my journal so I am able to have more to share, so I will try and do better at that. But I am safe, alive and slightly burnt; So happy to be here and so happy to create more memories while I am here.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

And now we play the waiting game...


I started this blog as a way for my close friends and family to get a glimpse of my time in South Africa. I have to start off by saying that this is my first time ever keeping a journal like this, so bare with me.

During my time in South Africa, I will be attending Stellenbosch University and living in student apartment living with 3 or 4 other people. I have already met one of my roommates, Emily Davies. She had asked me to be roommates with her through our facebook page and so now she will reap the benefits that are Lindsey Tracy. I am flying down a night before my departure and staying with my mom in Seattle.  Although it has come down to only a day till I leave, I am surprisingly calm while still being fully aware that once I land in Amsterdam and am alone I will be (for lack of a better term) scared shitless. I know things may and probably will, go wrong and I am okay with that. It’s all a part of the experience. I have to thank my dad for being as adventurous as he is to rub that outlook on me. I have always relied on my parents when it came to any of this traveling stuff, and the farthest I have ever flown alone was to Vegas; so I can’t help but be excited to learn how independent I actually can be. I am incredibly grateful that I am able to experience something like this in my life, and to my parents I am truly thankful. So Africa, here I come to kick ass and take names.