Thursday, January 14, 2010
Adventure Comes to an End...
It has been almost two years since I blogged. I can't believe how quickly that time has gone. The reason being is that Edyn's African Adventure came to an end on March 3, 2008. I was on a work assignment and due to the politics and changing priorities of the team I was on, my assignment was cut short. So much I could say about that, but there is really no point. Suffice to say, I enjoyed my time in South Africa VERY MUCH and was VERY sad to leave. I thought very seriously about staying and if I could have found a job, on par with my current job or not, I would have stayed. It didn't turn out though, and there is a lot of water under the bridge in the past two years.
Below, they are loading my house stuff to ship back to Canada. Very sad day and left me feeling a little adrift.
And of course, being March in Canada when I arrived back, I experienced the joys of late Winter weather...
After many challenges trying to find a job that was well suited to me at my current employer, I ended up taking a job that was offered but that wasn't well suited to my skills or interests. It is still really disappointing that the company I work for, which is fantastic in many many ways, is too short sighted on the HR front to appreciate the talent and investment costs spent on people. After spending a lot of money to have me on an international assignment, the company really didn't care if I left due to lack of opportunity they could offer - when it is a seriously growing company with tons of opportunity. I guess maybe it's okay that I know I bring value, even if they don't.
Things worked out okay though. My sister and her daughter moved back to Canada 3 months after after I did, they live with me, and we have had a great time the last couple of years. Here is Sahara on her first Canada Day...she'd been in Canada a couple of weeks and is 15 months old.
So now, work is work, life is life. South Africa sometimes seems like someone else's life and in less than stellar positive moments, I think about that Jack Nicholson movie and think, "What if that was as good as it gets?" I have a lot of life left if it was. I guess it's up to me to make sure it was a great part of my life but that I continue to have great stuff if life.
After a year in the wrong job, and resigning myself to tolerating work for the next several years because it pays well and I had a lot of time freedom (opportunity to leave early to golf a lot was a big win), a work friend was promoted to start a new team and asked me to come work for her. So, I still get to stay at the company I've been at for 9 years, and the work is much more well suited to me. What's more...I like it and I'm good at it.
By the way...I went back to South Africa a few weeks ago. It was changed but the same. There is a lot of contruction and energy due to World Cup preprations, but the weather is good, food is good, and the people are friendly. For me, it is still the ideal. I look forward to trying to find a way to spend part of my year there every year. I can always dream...stay tuned for an update and pictures on the latest trip.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
5-4-3-2-1...BUNGY!!!
This weekend I drove down to Port Elizabeth to do something one can only do in South Africa. Bloukrans Bridge, about 2 hours from Port Elizabeth on the Sunshine Coast of South Africa, is the site of the highest bungy jump in the world, duly certified by the Guinness Book of World Records at 216 metres (that's about 709 feet). Click to enlarge and read the text. Just above the text, at the centre of the span below the road is the launch area.
I was going to just do the "Flying Fox" which is like a zip line glide across to the bungy launching area, then was going to go over to another bridge, Gourits, and do the smaller (65 metres) bridge swing rather than bungy as I didn't think I was up for even the regular 65metre bungy.
So I got all set up with the harness and we walked over to the zip line launch area. And off I went. I had done the zip line thing, at Magaliesburg back in May last year, so it wasn't really a huge deal. it was still really really high...216 metres since it goes to the centre of the driving bridge, but it was so fast it wasn't really that scary.
It turns out that Gourits Bridge was another 3 hours away and I had been giving it some thought and decided to just go ahead and do the big bungy. I figured there had never been an injury or death so...As the shirt says, Fear is temporary...Regret is forever. And I hate that feeling of wishing I had done something two seconds after I miss the opportunity. So, as part of my transformation to not being a passenger in my own life, I decided to go ahead. And it was absolutely AMAZING!! I would totally do it again. I had bungy'd before, in Sarnia at only 125 feet, and oddly, that caused more pressure in my eyes than this one did. It was pure adrenaline and such a rush. It seemed to go really really slow as I jumped off until reaching the lowest point and springing back up. The first scariest part of it was the ten seconds standing on the edge looking down. It's seriously far down, man.
I felt a little sick at that point but then they tell you to look at the camera which is above the jumper which sort of distracts you, then they yell 5-4-3-2-1 Bungy! and sort of "help" you off.
The spring back up and down is absolutely unreal. I LOVED it and it wasn't scary at all. You can see the ground below me there. It's a bit deceiving though...I don't think I was actually that close to the ground.
The other sort of tense moments were when I was just hanging there upside down waiting for the crew guy to come down and ferry me back up to the bridge span. It's probably less than 5 minutes but it's long enough that I started thinking about the rope shredding or my leg slipping or a caribeaner slipping and me falling the rest of the way down and smashing into the rocks and water below. It was a pretty long 5 minutes and I'm sure I was jabbering like an idiot the entire way up.
But all was fine, as promised. Up we went and it was great to be back on the bridge safe and sound. I would totally recommend doing it do anyone who has the chance to do it. As the shirt says...fear is temporary, regret is forever.
I was going to just do the "Flying Fox" which is like a zip line glide across to the bungy launching area, then was going to go over to another bridge, Gourits, and do the smaller (65 metres) bridge swing rather than bungy as I didn't think I was up for even the regular 65metre bungy.
So I got all set up with the harness and we walked over to the zip line launch area. And off I went. I had done the zip line thing, at Magaliesburg back in May last year, so it wasn't really a huge deal. it was still really really high...216 metres since it goes to the centre of the driving bridge, but it was so fast it wasn't really that scary.
It turns out that Gourits Bridge was another 3 hours away and I had been giving it some thought and decided to just go ahead and do the big bungy. I figured there had never been an injury or death so...As the shirt says, Fear is temporary...Regret is forever. And I hate that feeling of wishing I had done something two seconds after I miss the opportunity. So, as part of my transformation to not being a passenger in my own life, I decided to go ahead. And it was absolutely AMAZING!! I would totally do it again. I had bungy'd before, in Sarnia at only 125 feet, and oddly, that caused more pressure in my eyes than this one did. It was pure adrenaline and such a rush. It seemed to go really really slow as I jumped off until reaching the lowest point and springing back up. The first scariest part of it was the ten seconds standing on the edge looking down. It's seriously far down, man.
I felt a little sick at that point but then they tell you to look at the camera which is above the jumper which sort of distracts you, then they yell 5-4-3-2-1 Bungy! and sort of "help" you off.
The spring back up and down is absolutely unreal. I LOVED it and it wasn't scary at all. You can see the ground below me there. It's a bit deceiving though...I don't think I was actually that close to the ground.
The other sort of tense moments were when I was just hanging there upside down waiting for the crew guy to come down and ferry me back up to the bridge span. It's probably less than 5 minutes but it's long enough that I started thinking about the rope shredding or my leg slipping or a caribeaner slipping and me falling the rest of the way down and smashing into the rocks and water below. It was a pretty long 5 minutes and I'm sure I was jabbering like an idiot the entire way up.
But all was fine, as promised. Up we went and it was great to be back on the bridge safe and sound. I would totally recommend doing it do anyone who has the chance to do it. As the shirt says...fear is temporary, regret is forever.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Lesotho...finally!
On Sunday, the day dawned bright and sunny and I finally got on the tour into Lesotho. Lesotho is the tiny country that is geographically surrounded by South Africa. Lesotho is the little red dot on the map below.
The majority of households survive on farming or migrant labor--many of them miners who live in South Africa most of the year and send money back. The country over 80% rural, though very very different from south western Ontario rural, lol. Being Summer now, it is very very green and lush. Corn, or more correctly, mielies, grows seemingly everywhere.
We went into the Northern part and it is very very rugged. It is a very mountainous region, and it is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in elevation. Its lowest point is 1,400 metres (4,593 ft), and over 80% of the country lies above 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). Being so high, it is also very very cold in the winter, including snow. Back in the day, the Queen (of England) gave blankets to the country, and wearing these blankets has become tradtion, even in the heat of summer...it was odd to us...it is very hot there yet no one had shorts or short sleeves on...and many of the people had sweaters on. In the picture below, both men are wearing hats, the man on the left has a jacket over his shoulders, and the man on the right has the blanket wrapped around him. Seriously, it was probably 27 C or 85 F that day.
The roads are mostly dirt roads and are strewn with large rocks. There are almost 6000 kilometres of unpaved dirt roads. Going is very very slow and rough. We didn't see very many other motor vehicles and many people ride horses. This man also is wearing a knit hat and blanket.
Our first stop was a school. There are three buildings there--two schools and one cookhouse. One of the buildings was the first community school, built in 1976. There are other gov't schools but they are more than 2 hour walk one way. The second of the three buildings is a new school that is being paid for by the Irish. There are three classes in the one building, and four in the other, all going on simultaneously, with no walls or barriers or the like.
The second activity was a walk up the mountain to have lunch and to see the cave paintings. It was a bit arduous as it was hot and with the elevation, but absolutely beautiful.
Lesotho does not have any protection laws for the cave/wall drawings so they are fading due to weather and some have been scratched off by children who don't know the historical, cultural value of them. Here, the guide, Zim, is pointing out a painting, and there is a closeup of one.
One of our guides was a teacher at the school and the community children flocked to our group. They were very comfortable with us and were great about having their pictures taken. And they knew what to expect...groups from our BackPacker's lodge come by regularly, mostly with those folks you tend find in these kinds of things...young students or health care workers or other travelers and such, from the US, Germany, England, Australia and Canada among other places. They followed us on the hike and shared our lunch.
Fantastic trip. I learned a lot, and am really glad I was able to finally get there.
The majority of households survive on farming or migrant labor--many of them miners who live in South Africa most of the year and send money back. The country over 80% rural, though very very different from south western Ontario rural, lol. Being Summer now, it is very very green and lush. Corn, or more correctly, mielies, grows seemingly everywhere.
We went into the Northern part and it is very very rugged. It is a very mountainous region, and it is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in elevation. Its lowest point is 1,400 metres (4,593 ft), and over 80% of the country lies above 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). Being so high, it is also very very cold in the winter, including snow. Back in the day, the Queen (of England) gave blankets to the country, and wearing these blankets has become tradtion, even in the heat of summer...it was odd to us...it is very hot there yet no one had shorts or short sleeves on...and many of the people had sweaters on. In the picture below, both men are wearing hats, the man on the left has a jacket over his shoulders, and the man on the right has the blanket wrapped around him. Seriously, it was probably 27 C or 85 F that day.
The roads are mostly dirt roads and are strewn with large rocks. There are almost 6000 kilometres of unpaved dirt roads. Going is very very slow and rough. We didn't see very many other motor vehicles and many people ride horses. This man also is wearing a knit hat and blanket.
Our first stop was a school. There are three buildings there--two schools and one cookhouse. One of the buildings was the first community school, built in 1976. There are other gov't schools but they are more than 2 hour walk one way. The second of the three buildings is a new school that is being paid for by the Irish. There are three classes in the one building, and four in the other, all going on simultaneously, with no walls or barriers or the like.
The second activity was a walk up the mountain to have lunch and to see the cave paintings. It was a bit arduous as it was hot and with the elevation, but absolutely beautiful.
Lesotho does not have any protection laws for the cave/wall drawings so they are fading due to weather and some have been scratched off by children who don't know the historical, cultural value of them. Here, the guide, Zim, is pointing out a painting, and there is a closeup of one.
From there, we went to see a sangoma. Sangomas are the traditional healers in many tribes in southern Africa. They perform a holistic and symbolic form of healing, embedded in the beliefs of their culture that ancestors in the afterlife guide and protect the living. Sangomas are called to heal (using herbs primarily), and through them ancestors from the spirit world can give instruction and advice to heal illness, social disharmony and spiritual difficulties. Sangomas have many different social and political roles in the community: herbal healing, divination, rituals, finding lost cattle, protecting warriors, and narrating the history, cosmology, and myths of their tradition. They are highly revered and respected in their society, where illness is thought to be caused by witchcraft, pollution (contact with impure objects or occurrences) or by the ancestors themselves, either malevolently, or through neglect if they are not respected, or to show an individual her calling to be a Sangoma.
One of our guides was a teacher at the school and the community children flocked to our group. They were very comfortable with us and were great about having their pictures taken. And they knew what to expect...groups from our BackPacker's lodge come by regularly, mostly with those folks you tend find in these kinds of things...young students or health care workers or other travelers and such, from the US, Germany, England, Australia and Canada among other places. They followed us on the hike and shared our lunch.
Fantastic trip. I learned a lot, and am really glad I was able to finally get there.
Back to Drakensberg
So this past weekend I went to Drakensberg again, which is a mountain region about 4 hours south of Johannesburg, on the border of Lesotho. Lesotho is the tiny little country in the east of South Africa...it's entirely surrounded by South Africa. Jackie and I went a few weeks ago to try to go on a tour into Lesotho but it rained and we couldn't go. So I decided to go again to see if I could get better weather and get to see Lesotho. I arrived Friday planning to go on the tour on Saturday. Unfortunately there was a bit of a scheduling problem so I decided to go on a bit of a photography tour around the area on Saturday and then Lesotho on Sunday.
On Saturday I went on a hike at Cathkin Peak park and went over to Sterkspruit Falls. It isn't a really big waterfall but it was off in the middle of nowhere and I was the only one there. (click to enlarge photo)
Then I went back on a drive up to Cathedral Peak. The neat thing about that drive is that it gets very very "authentic" as you go. It is a bit rural and it is very very interesting to see how folks live in this area. The houses are in "kraals" which are groupings of housing buildings, for usually extended family, and most if not all have the traditional round huts for cooking and or traditional activities.
On Saturday I went on a hike at Cathkin Peak park and went over to Sterkspruit Falls. It isn't a really big waterfall but it was off in the middle of nowhere and I was the only one there. (click to enlarge photo)
Then I went back on a drive up to Cathedral Peak. The neat thing about that drive is that it gets very very "authentic" as you go. It is a bit rural and it is very very interesting to see how folks live in this area. The houses are in "kraals" which are groupings of housing buildings, for usually extended family, and most if not all have the traditional round huts for cooking and or traditional activities.
Silver Art Clay Jewelry
Okay, so I always feel like I could make many of the crafts in various stores or shows or whatever. I usually never get around to actually trying to make the thing, and I imagine that it would never ever be as good or easy as I think it is. Well, I'm now all about seizing opportunities of late, and grabbing life with both hands so...Anyway, since I've been here, I have a new interest in beading, so Jac and I went to a bead trade show in September and saw something else that piqued our craft imagination...chain maille jewelry and clay art silver. Chain maille is what you think it is...like the stuff the knights or whoever wore...except one uses the patterns to make necklaces, bracelets and the like (though some people do make bras (!?) and club clothes out of it.) Jac grabbed a flyer for lessons and we finally got around to going in mid January. I took a class in chain maille and jac took a class in making a clay art silver pendant. I loved the jewelry I saw so we went back a week later and made rings. I have to say...I AM HOOKED!!! I didn't realize it would actually be so easy and turn out so well.
Clay art silver is basically like working with regular clay..it's gray/brown and handles like that. The difference is that it is actually reclaimed silver and it is mixed with an organic material like ground rice or whatever to make it like clay. It looks like regular clay and one would have no idea it's going to be silver. One makes the item, dry it, fire it, then brush the organic material off with a wire brush and voila, and get a beautiful piece made of 100% silver. Amazing.
Here it is in progress...
Clay art silver is basically like working with regular clay..it's gray/brown and handles like that. The difference is that it is actually reclaimed silver and it is mixed with an organic material like ground rice or whatever to make it like clay. It looks like regular clay and one would have no idea it's going to be silver. One makes the item, dry it, fire it, then brush the organic material off with a wire brush and voila, and get a beautiful piece made of 100% silver. Amazing.
Here it is in progress...
Crawling...
Okay...this is just a quick detour from my travel stories. Sahara has become very mobile of late. She was rolling around like a mad thing to get places but has now started crawling and sitting herself up. It all sort of happened in the space of a week or two. She ends up in the funniest places...here we looked down and she had managed to push herself backward half under the chair. She's so cute, if I do say so. I don't know where she thought she was going.
Birthday!
My birthday is December 30th and I came back from Zanzibar in so I could spend it with my sister and my niece Sahara. Because everyone had been busy traveling (me from Zanzibar, Jac and Sahara from Cape Town) or meeting Girlie's daddy's family, we vegged a little bit in the morning. (Really I just wanted to show off the baby.) (Click to enlarge)
Of course it's summer in South Africa and the day was stunning. Hot! (seriously HOT!) and sunny. We spent part of the day hitting golf balls at World of Golf, since I'm all about the golfing of late. Here is my sister lining one up on the chipping range:
And here we are having a little break...again, really just showing off the baby (click to enlarge):
And finally, we went to one of our favourite restaurants, Gabianno's, in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton Centre. It was great to be able to spend my birthday with Jac and my girlie, Sahara. OMG, I can't believe how cute she is!!!!
Of course it's summer in South Africa and the day was stunning. Hot! (seriously HOT!) and sunny. We spent part of the day hitting golf balls at World of Golf, since I'm all about the golfing of late. Here is my sister lining one up on the chipping range:
And here we are having a little break...again, really just showing off the baby (click to enlarge):
And finally, we went to one of our favourite restaurants, Gabianno's, in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton Centre. It was great to be able to spend my birthday with Jac and my girlie, Sahara. OMG, I can't believe how cute she is!!!!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Zanzibar pt II - Swahili Beach Resort
Okay, so I have to say...being a Canadian who really doesn't like snow and cold weather, a trip to Zanzibar is definitely a great way to spend Christmas. I stayed at the Swahili Beach Resort. The resort is more a lodge set up as it's too small to really be a resort. it's run by two young Americans, Anna and Ted, who's brother in law, a Zanzibarian, own the resort.
The place is less than a year old and it was fantastic. It has a main building, a restaurant and pool area and the actual accomodation are beautiful bungalows. Here is the resort from the beach from the beach and the bungalow I stayed in.
The resort is on the southeast of the island right next to Kizimkaze, a fishing village, about an hour from Stone Town. This picture is pretty representative of the surroundings on the way to the resort. The houses are very similar to the houses we saw in Drakensburg in South Africa...a wooden frame wall, filled with rocks then mudded over.
The place is less than a year old and it was fantastic. It has a main building, a restaurant and pool area and the actual accomodation are beautiful bungalows. Here is the resort from the beach from the beach and the bungalow I stayed in.
And here are some stunning pictures of the beach...it's a fishing village and the tide goes in and out twice a day. The fishermen leave their boats anchored and they rise in the water or beach at low tide. Really one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.
A big reason people go to Zanzibar is to snorkel with the dolphins. I decided to go and had a great time. I got off to a rough start though--I got stung by a jelly fish the first time in the water. I didn't see it at all and only felt it when it was stinging me like crazy on my right forearm and thigh. I had no idea and tried not to panic, and the boat captain, Suliman, said it was no biggie, they were white rather than blue so I'd be alright. I had a row of maybe 6 stings and welts that look sort of like giant mosquito bites the size of a quarter across my thigh. Two weeks later, the welts are gone but the sting marks are still there. I was hesitant to get back in the water but the dolphins are really beautiful and I figured I'd be careful and try to keep an eye out for them. There was this couple from Norway on the trip and I figured I'd just follow after him and he would have cleared the way. Plus the jelly fish sometimes have visible electric blue eyes and I kept my eye out for them. I didn't get stung again luckily and we swam with up to 15 dolphins another 3 or 4 times. It was amazing and probably something I will never get the chance to do again. I didn't take my camera with me as I didn't have a rugged/water one and I didn't want my good digital to get wrecked in a motor boat--but here are pics that are pretty representative of what it looks like. The ones we saw were probably about 25 feet from us. Truly stunning.
Zanzibar - Part I - Stone Town
For Christmas this year, I decided to do a trip. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go and I was chatting with someone at work and she had just returned from Zanzibar. I'd heard of it but didn't actually even know what country it was part of or really where it was. North Americans are all about the Caribbean and unfortuantely are pretty ignorant about much of the rest of the world.
And here is the view from the hotel roof restaurant/bar balcony.
I spent the morning walk about along the water then over to an unofficial market. Here is the view from the park on the waterfront:
Stone Town is incredible and very very different from anywhere I had ever been. It was really settled by the Sultan of Oman in the mid 1800s and has a lot of Indian and Muslim influences.
Unlike South Africa that has a lot of black tribal cultural influences, Stone Town isn't and really has the flavour of the cultures that inhabitated it in the 17th C.
I also decided to live on the edge and try something new, so drank coconut juice out of a coconut. It actually tasted nothing like I thought it would. It didn't have a flavour really, and certainly not like coconut. I tasted the coconut itself and it was actually gross. The coconut one buys in the store is dried and raw it is really soft and rubbery...it looks like calamari sort of. Slimy.
Anyway, she raved and gave me the name of a guy who helped her with getting good pricing so off I went. Turns out Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania. The flight goes from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, then a quick 20 minutes to Zanzibar.
The main town is called Stone Town and I spent two nights there in the hotel Chavda. The city is laid out with regular roads where cars drive, but the main way many people get around town is walking thorugh the many many alleys. These aren't alleys like at home that run behind a row of houses, but rather a network of narrow paved paths. Here is the view of my hotel from the alley to the side of it:
And here is the view from the hotel roof restaurant/bar balcony.
I spent the morning walk about along the water then over to an unofficial market. Here is the view from the park on the waterfront:
And I saw this man with a huge wooden cart piled with fruit. These carts are very very common around Stone Town. There are tons of vendors in the streets and they all seem to use these carts.
One thing I saw that was particularly funny was the Trade Ministry. One would think that maybe a government agency would have an official sounding email address, but in Zanzibar, nope. Cick on the picture to enlarge it and you will see...they use a hotmail address!!!
And here is the building itself:
Something else funny is the way the locals use Freddie Mercury from the band Queen to pull one over on the tourists. Mercury was born on Zanzibar and spent some of his childhood there. On my walk about, I had lunch at a beach front restaurant called Mercury's. Inside there are various pictures of Freddie and the band and inside the menu is his biography. Funny thing...his name on Zanizar wasn't Freddie Mercury...that's a stage name. There was also an art gallery that is called Mercury House, leading one to maybe think that was his house...according to my guide Jackson, it wasn't.
Stone Town is incredible and very very different from anywhere I had ever been. It was really settled by the Sultan of Oman in the mid 1800s and has a lot of Indian and Muslim influences.
Unlike South Africa that has a lot of black tribal cultural influences, Stone Town isn't and really has the flavour of the cultures that inhabitated it in the 17th C.
I did a tour in the afternoon and saw the town up close. Zanzibar was part of the stop on the spice islands/slave route back in the mid-1800s. On the tour we stopped at a church that was built over the slave market. The market is where Africans from central and eastern Africa were brought to be sold to other areas in the east. The first picture is the church and the second is the basement holding area underneath. Up to 80 people were held here at a time before being brought up for auctioning. The centre slot was the waste dump and when the tide came in, the water came in and washed it away. That water doesn't come in any more...it's a main street called "Creek Street".
The other area that every tourist sees is the market. It's huge and absolutely nothing like the St. Jacob's market in Waterloo I can tell you. Zanzibar is incredibly hot and humid. The market is all open air and there is no electricity so everyting is just laid out on tables. There were flies like you wouldn't believe, in that heat, the smell was pungent and it was less than clean. All I could think of when we went through the fish market was food poisoning. I could smell the meat market and we opted to just skip it...I didn't think I really could do it without losing lunch. But, it was interesting to see how other peopel do things. (Click to enlarge)
I also decided to live on the edge and try something new, so drank coconut juice out of a coconut. It actually tasted nothing like I thought it would. It didn't have a flavour really, and certainly not like coconut. I tasted the coconut itself and it was actually gross. The coconut one buys in the store is dried and raw it is really soft and rubbery...it looks like calamari sort of. Slimy.
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