Out of my comfort zone

Written Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The reason we're in South Africa is because Elizabeth is involved in a project trying to encourage kids to choose healthier after school activities. So not drugs, sex and alcohol.

Today, we took a tour of several of the schools she's working with, along with the surrounding neighborhoods. I've seen poverty in the U.S., but my god this is on a new level for me.

Khayelitsha area outside Cape Town

We got the opportunity to walk into a few schools and talk to a few teachers. Well, Elizabeth and her co-worker talked. I just stood there hoping not to not get them in trouble. But I paid more attention to the students, all dressed in uniform, anyway. Mostly, it was that there is no cafeteria in any school, so either they bring lunch or they visit local vendors that set up just outside the school gates and sell cheap favorites. Like the lady with an huge pot full of cooked chicken feet. I felt bad for all the complaining I did about cafeteria food growing up.

Throughout our tour we saw thousands of homes in the township of Khayelitsha built out of sheet metal or corrugated metal, many leaning against each other. There are electrical poles spread all over and apparently people climb up them and just attach their own connection to a pole.

Standard house in the township

The subsections in the township were mostly divided by race, with most being black and some being "coloured". To explain, blacks are, well, black. And coloured are people of mixed backgrounds. In the days of apartheid, coloured people ranked below whites but above blacks. And since that was not really that long ago, the echoes can still be felt. God knows the U.S. is far from the ideal in race relations, but it seems SA still has some major issues to deal with. After seeing the place we're staying compared with shacks just a few miles away, it's tough to reconcile.

Stop lights are robots and swim suits are cosi's

Which is short for costume, not that that makes any more sense.

So we're back traveling again, this time in Cape Town, South Africa. It's much harder to do a big trip like this since we've got the kiddo at home now. Luckily we've both got great parents, so Caitlin is getting lots of grandparent time.

This is my second full day here, while Elizabeth has been here for almost 10 days. The flights took over 24 hours total and I got to experience 4 consecutive meals on a plane.

I just spent about 4 hours walking, about half an hour each way to the nearest train station to get into the city and about 3 hours wandering the city and waterfront areas, minus a fish and chips lunch near the ocean. Holy crap I'm tired. I'm used to freezing temps and its in the 80s here.

I need to write something about safety and security that I've noticed here. I have never felt unsafe at all, But there is clearly a high level of crime here. We're staying in a predominantly white and affluent suburb. And I haven't seen one house without a high wall at the very least.

Security fence topped with electric wire

We're staying in a cottage attached to a house and it is surrounded by a fence with electrical wires running along the top. Many fences have barbed wire or sharp points along the top. Many also have signs saying they're protected by ADT Armed Response teams. So yeah, crime is an issue. But we were told it's almost all opportunity crimes. Leave a phone, computer, wallet or whatever in view and its likely to get "pinched". It's not fun being on alert at all times, but it keeps things safe.

I pick up a rental car tomorrow so we can do some site seeing in the area. That includes a road trip to an animal park (lions!) and seeing the Cape of Good Hope. I'll try to update again and upload a few pics when I can. 

Scott

Pictures

Click here for a few pictures from our trip.

The long return

A few thoughts about Alaska and our trip:

• Perhaps I'm the only person fascinated by maps, but I never quite get over how far we go on trips in such a relatively short time. It's around 3,200 miles from Anchorage to State College and we made that in 14 hours or so total. Sure, it was a fairly miserable 14 hours (sitting by fat old grumpy men sucks), but it's a fair trade to see such a beautiful natural area.
• Holy crap, I could never live in Alaska. The weather was pretty great while we were there. Highs in the 60s or 70s, regular rain and lots of day light. But as our boat captain said, they have four seasons there. June, July, August and winter. Considering I hate the cold of central PA, I want nothing to do with regular temps 10 to 20 below zero. As HIGHS. Plus, they get 4 hours or so of daylight, and the sun never goes very high in the sky. How people don't commit suicide, I'll never understand.
• I only saw true darkness once the entire trip. My mother-in-law accidentaly set her alarm to go off at 2:45 am one morning. My first thought, after 'what the hell is going on?' was 'Holy crap, darkness outside. Weird.' With enough curtains and blinds, I thought it was great.
  
• I'd never seen a fjord before. Wanted to in New Zealand, but it was a long detour. So we missed them. And according to our boat captain/guide, there are only a few places in the world where they occur. After seeing them, I gotta say that anybody who enjoys traveling and especially enjoys natural beauty has to search them out. Just striking how these mountains just rise strait up out of the water. And our boat got within 20 feet of some of them.
• I think our ship's captain may have been a little bold, but it was really worth it. I figured we'd stop at least a quarter mile back from the face of the glacier once I saw the ice field in front of it. As he said (paraphrasing) "Smarter, safer captains would probably stop here. But I always find that boring." So off we went. And thank goodness we did. Hearing those boulder-sized chunks of ice break off, then crash into the water was something I'll never forget. I'd guess we were no more than 100 yards from the face, but it was impossible to wrap my head around the scale. We could have been 50 yards, it could have been a several hundred. Nobody volunteered to stand next to it to provide any scale.
• Not to get all preachy, but we had really strange mixed feelings watching the glacial calving. It was awe inspiring to watch and we all kept hoping to see more while we were there. (We did see several small breaks, a few mini-avalanches and one big chunk crack.) But at the same time, we knew why it was happening. Temperatures are higher and many of the glaciers in Alaska are receding at a scary pace. Adding to it, we knew that flying all the way up there, then watching as the back of the boat spit out massive amounts of diesel exhaust the entire 9 hour boat ride wasn't exactly helping matters. In fact, it seemed really bad. So our trip was absolutely amazing and we saw things we never expected. But I couldn't really escape the nagging guilt that I was playing a role in what I saw just by being there. I don't regret going, but I will try to keep in mind that my actions impact the world more than I realize. Hopefully that will be a good lesson going forward.

Going, going, gone...

As promised...










While this was amazing to watch (and I have about 10 more photos of the whole process)... for me, this serves as a visual reminder of why we try to be aware of how our actions affect what's around us.

We've all made it home safe and sound. Time changes always seem to be more difficult when you come back home as compared to when you start your trip. While some of us are having trouble getting to sleep, others went to bed at 9:30. I'll try to sort through the 1,000+ pictures later and post a few more.

Iceburg, straight ahead!

Yesterday we took a 9 hour boat ride to see the Northwestern Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. This definitely wasn't a boat ride for those with a weak stomach but we all managed to avoid feeding the fish and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife.

There were multiple glaciers but the biggest was the Northwestern. The boat got really close and as we approached we were going through what looked like a sheet of ice. I didn't want to say the 'T' word but I did have a sudden urge to stand at the bow of the boat with my arms open wide and say 'I'm flying Scott, I'm flying.' It turned out to be chuncks of ice, not a sheet of it. The highlight of the trip by far was watching huge chunks of ice fall from the glacier into the water. I guess this is called calving. I managed to take lots of pictures and we'll post some tomorrow.

For now, we have a long trip back and I'm sure sleeping on the plane won't be a problem.

A day for sights

I may be wrong, but I think we figured out where mapmakers came up with the term "scenic byway." Good lord, the entire drive from Anchorage to Seward was just one panorama after another. Mountains, bays, reflecting lakes, glaciers. Pretty much everything. Two and a half hours of awesome.

The highlight was Exit Glacier in Kennai Fjords National Park. Not that it's a huge glacier (pretty tiny, relatively) but we could get so close. Turns out, the area surrounding glaciers is several degrees cooler than everywhere else nearby. Who knew?

Tomorrow we're spending the day on the water with a 9 hour tour of the fjords. That word never gets old to type. Bummed we only have 2 more days, but it's been great. Now, I need more fresh seafood.