Jack's South African Journal

Day 1
We arrived in Johannesburg after a 16 hour flight which was surprisingly manageable. It wasn’t that bad. Once we arrived in joberg we had to take another flight to PE. This flight was short, -only about an hour. We got to PE and we had to change all of our money over to rands (R). This was much more complicated than you might think. Once we finished we headed outside to the bus and Roland, the bus driver who was awesome, took us to the Tamapa lodge. We stayed there for the night. 

Day 2- We woke up and we had a very american meal, eggs and bacon. We all packed a bag for a four day hike. We were told that we were taking a 3 hour bus ride to the tsitsikama national park. But instead we were going to the game reserve! We drove about an hour out of PE and we arrived at the reverse and we got in big land rovers and headed out. It was amazing! We saw lions rhinos giraffes and zebras from under 50 feet! When we were done for the night we stayed at a lodge in the middle of the reserve.

Day 3- 

When we woke up, there was a rhino about 100 yards away from our lodge. It was fine, we got in our land rovers and headed out and today we were doing the elephant park! We got in a van for the road and drove to Addo elephant park. There we saw elephants walk 10 feet in front of our van. It was unbelievable, what was more amazing was that it was the dominate male. We finished up at the elephant park and....now we were on the way we were going to do the bungee jump!!! We had heard a lot about it, but once you see it....it's a totally different story. It's 709 feet!!! Which is over 2 football fields! Everyone but 2 people did it. I was the 3rd to go which means I didn't get to hear how it went or what it felt like and the 2 who went before me were teachers who had already gone once. It was scary, when I jumped it felt like....nothing there was nothing you were gonna hit and there was nothing you were gonna land on....it was just nothing. It ended up being nice going towards the beginning(I didn't have to worry the whole time everyone else was going!) We finished up and we headed to the head of the dolphin trail. The resort there was awesome. We were staying in cabins that were right on the water and the foot was great! Would I do the bungee jump again? Probably not but maybe...I'm definitely glad I did it.

Day 4- our first day on the dolphin trail. We were all ready to go and our guides, Stan Marius and Henry were awesome. They were very helpful and friendly. We saw some amazing sights. We were hiking along the coast the whole time. The waves were HUGE! And the views we're beautiful. We hiked up to a cluster of cabins overlooking the ocean. This is where we were gonna stay. The rooms were great, baths and showers. We were also able to build a fire which was fun. 

Day 5- We woke up and it was time to hike. We were all very sore, and some of us even did workouts and sprints after the hike. We were hiking and it was just as great as yesterday. Today we were really hiding ON the coast. We were traversing along the rocks on the coast most of the time. The views were just as amazing. We were so close we felt the mist of the waves occasionally. When we finished that Hike we arrived at the next resort. This resort was unbelievable, we were told it was a 5 star. I would believe it, we played a game of nuecum when we got there. When we were done with that we went to the hot tub that was overhanging a river that was about 400 feet down. After a very fancy dinner we all hung out and played darts ad watched tv.

Day 6- When we woke up and packed up to go back. A couple of us got in a land rover like the game reserve and the others got in a bigger version. I was in the smaller and we were in front but the bigger vehicle broke down so we had to wait a while for them. They also had all of the bags in a trailer but the new car that they took didn't have a trailer. So they were stuck with all the bags. It wasn't a long ride back to the head of the trail. When we got back, Roland was there to take us to the airport. We then went back to tamapa to switch out our bags, we were headed to the Cape Town for the weekend. We flew out and arrived in cape town in time for dinner. We went to 'mama africa,' it was amazing. That night we stayed at daddy long legs. It was....very interesting. Every room had it's own theme, it was fun.

Day 7- 

 We were in the city and we headed over to the waterfront. We had planned to go up table mountain today but it was way too foggy. Instead we stayed there for about 3 hours and shopped and ate, it was fun. The mall was huge!! After we had to wait for McAdoo to buy his bowls we went to amandala edufootball. It was so much fun! The kids were awesome. And it felt so good to help them out. When we were done we went back to daddy long legs and we went to dinner at Alberts and it was good. We went to bed. We liked daddy king legs because they had computers with wifi!!

 

Day 8- We woke up early and went to robben island, the maximum security prison that nelson Mandela was assigned to. It was a great experience. It was very interesting. The boat ride back to cape town was beautiful, we had a great view of table mountain and the whole city. When we got back we decided to go up table mountain. The trip up was breathtaking, at some points it felt like we were ascending vertically in our cable car. The view was awesome when we got to the top, we were really in the clouds. When we finished we went to the airport to fly back to PE. And we stayed at tamapa for the night. 

Day 9- we woke up and went to the Ubuntu center in the center of the township. The first day at ubuntu was mostly learning what they are all about. We talked to a lot of the workers. And we talked to Betts who was one of the founders cofounders of ubuntu. He explained the story to us. We went to talk to a woman who lived in the township and it was amazing how happy everyone was despite the setbacks they were faced with from birth. We also met with students who were all a part of Ubuntu's after school program. One girl was going to west Virginia on a full scholarship for graduate school. It was very interesting to talk to them.

Day 10- We woke up and again went to the Ubuntu center. Today we were going to do a little more stuff out in the community. We met Felix, he had been a part of the after school program at ubuntu. He was now in college. He told us how the whole system worked and he brought us to his school. His school was the exact same as it was when he was there. 

Ubuntu had built a computer lab for them and had supported them in other ways. The school was still struggling but everyone there was happy and the teachers all truly enjoyed what they were doing and it was what they wanted to do. They still faced many obstacles. They could not send their girls sports team to their game because they didn't have a bus and it would be too dangerous for them to walk. And when it was raining they had even more issues. When its raining they sometimes have to start late just because kids can't get there quickly enough safley. Despite all of this, the kids were still kids and they were still smiling the whole time.

 

Day 11- We woke up at 530 for an 8:00 flight to joberg so we could go to the Apartheid museum. It was amazing and it was a great experience. We finished up, ate and headed to the airport. We took off at 8:20 and we landed at 6 30AM

 

Port Elizabeth

View of the townships

Ubuntu Education Fund is based on the African philosophy of “ubuntu,” a person is a person through other people. Pace Academy’s Journey to South Africa focus on lessons in common humanity, mutual responsibility and interdependence.

Our first stop was in Port Elizabeth to visit The Ubuntu Education Fund. Ubuntu began its mission in the Eastern Cape to help improve the resident’s lives by fostering self-empowered, community-based health and education initiatives. Ubuntu has been featured on CNN, Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative, and his book, GIVING, How Each of Us Can Change The World (Giving was part of our reading requirement for the trip).

We visited one of the highest points of the city that overlooks the townships. Rows and rows of houses that can easily be described as shacks, lined the narrow streets that represent the limitations of Apartheid and the restrictions placed on black South Africans under its leadership.

Preparing the smilie.

From there, we were taken by foot on a guided tour were Brandon stopped traffic and caused a scene when local school girls screamed “Justin Beber” and pointed in his direction. We got a first hand look at the local shops, a lesson in local herbs and ventured to eat a “smilie.” Similes are sheep heads and eaten by locals. The heads are prepared over fires on the side of the road and when cocked to perfection, a smile appears on the face of the sheep.


Soon after, we found ourselves at Schotia, one of South Africa's premiere game reserves, just minutes from Port Elizabeth.  There, we got a view of South Africa's animals, including a late night encounter with the king of the jungle.