Cape Town: CLIIIIIIMB EVVVVVVVV'RY MOUNTAAAAAAIN

Before I get into the meat of this post, I just want to say that one of our reporters at the Cape Times was stabbed over the weekend. Gang violence is getting worse here and it's becoming increasingly apparent that when reporters are involved, the police are unlikely to intervene. Please keep him in your thoughts, as well as the Cape Argus reporters who were recently robbed at gunpoint.

On a more cheerful note, this weekend, four of the Northwestern interns from Johannesburg came to visit us and do various things in Cape Town. They stayed with us and we finagled the room in our apartments for them to sleep. (Dan is still living with us, so basically everyone in the world was staying in our apartments, especially the one across the hall.) Abby, Lauren and two of the Joburgers jumped out of a perfectly good plane on Saturday after three of the Joburg kids had spent the previous day getting drunk out in wine country.

But none of that's important, and you know why? You know what I did this weekend? I climbed Table Mountain. I climbed THIS:

"Dear Diary, mountains are high as fuck."

I climbed with Anna, another of the Joburg kids, up through Platteklip Gorge. It made Lionshead look like a hill. I felt bad because I had to keep stopping--Anna is a triathlete, and I am not that. I'm not even out of shape, because I've never been in shape. It was very, very steep though, and eventually we got high enough that the altitude took a toll on both of us.

It was a cloudy day, and there were clouds settled on the mountain, making it only possible to see for short distances most of the way. It was incredibly cool--as Anna said, it was like being in a movie. It made the whole mountain look primordial and wild, and it helped that almost no one else was stupid enough to hike that day due to the cold, the wet and the cloud cover. It was quiet on the path--there were parts where all you could hear was the trickling water and your own breathing. The rock was full of small waterfalls, as was the path, and the green, bushy fynbos grew all the way up the mountain. (Fynbos is the native fauna of the Western Cape; it grows low to the ground and much of the plants have beautiful flowers.)

Anna was the perfect companion because of her positivity and her interest in the formation of the mountains and the plants. Finally, someone appreciates everything I learned from Danny last weekend...no, seriously though, I don't actually know anything about the natural wonders of the land here. We're both interested in it and appreciate it, and it was nice to have someone to wander in nature with who wondered at it as much as I did.

I thought I was going to die due to the toughness of the hike, but when we made it to the top, it was amazing. It was a beautiful view--Cape Town is on one side, and the sea is on the other. I also felt invincible, and I'm always going to remember that hike when things get tough (or seem tough) in my life.

Cape Town: Jackwagon

It's been a long week, kids. On the bright side, I got a piece published about a cyclist who is riding his bike from Grahamstown, South Africa all the way over here to Cape Town. That's more than 11 hours driving (if you didn't stop anywhere). He's doing it to raise money for the grandson of his childhood domestic worker. The grandson, Dumela, just lost his mother to illness, and his father is irrelevant in his life. He is now in the care of his grandmother and aunt. Sesiwe, Dumela's grandmother and the domestic worker who essentially raised this cyclist, asked him to help her grandson--they are a poor family. So he's taking this bike trip to make sure all the funds necessary for Dumela's education are taken care of. It's a sweet story, because it's clear that he really considers Sesiwe as family. She still works for his parents (she's now in her 60s) and has been with them since he was a baby. He was telling me about how he rode around on her back before he could walk.

Anyway, here's a link to the story: http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/cyclist-hits-road-for-orphan-1.1301874
And here is Gunther's (the cyclist's) blog: http://gunthermarx.blogspot.com/

Moving on, I spent yesterday writing about a flower show (woo hoo! Plants and shit!) and today about some almost-smuggled snakes and geckos. So yeah, chugging along over here.

If anyone follows South African news, you'll know about the Zuma painting that has recently raised so much controversy lately. If not, here's the story: a white satirical artist, who was notoriously anti-apartheid back in the 1980s and early 1990s, painted a picture of Zuma in the same pose as Lenin in a notorious propaganda poster. The kicker is that Zuma was, essentially, rocking out with his cock out in this painting.

"Well, Ingrid, I think that the shading highlights the conflict between the abstract and reality...good God, is that a penis?!"

This painting was not very well-known until Zuma decided to bring the gallery to court for displaying this, after they refused his request to take it down. His case is that this painting "violates his constitutional right to dignity." 

There is no constitutional basis for his claim. He's just angry that someone was so disrespectful towards him, or whatever you want to call this painting. The African National Congress (ANC) is also furious; many officials have said that it should be burned, but who writes the checks that buy their seaside villas? Zuma does. 

This is a clear case of censorship--the painter is exercising freedom of expression, and the painting is not hurting anyone. This artist has also been painting things like this for years. Based on what I know about his work, he likes to use sexual imagery to represent power and patriarchy, and Zuma is...well, he hasn't exactly been a white knight to SA in terms of the way he's used his power. Of course, the ANC has also pulled out the "DAT'S RACIST" card, as it often does. If it can't be legally removed, it's labeled as racist or in line with old apartheid policies. The funny thing is that there is a black artist who also painted a picture of Zuma with genitalia, and nobody said anything about that. 

Anyway, the big news here is that yesterday, two men defaced the painting as it hung in the gallery. We watched in horror on our TV in the newsroom as it was painted on. E News, the main news channel other than the public station, SABC, happened to be there for another story (I still think they were tipped off--that's too much of a coincidence, and it was hugely sensational footage) and caught it all on film. The first man painted red Xs over Zuma's face and penis, and the other man dipped his hands in black oil paint and just smeared the whole canvas. This is what it looks like now: 

The security guard, of course, didn't arrive until the painting was already ruined (again, suspicious. This whole thing looked staged to me.) The case is still going to court, presumably because there are still millions of pictures of this painting online.

I just found this to be an incredibly interesting example of political dynamics here. But it does make me worry that when the day comes that another party can compete with the ANC on a national level, that the ANC won't let power go. It seems that it's only a democracy as long as everyone votes ANC. 

Garden Route: And then we never saw her again.

So, I spent the last three days with my fellow interns driving part of the Garden Route, which is a long stretch of South Africa that starts in the Western Cape and goes through into the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, two other provinces. We started out from Cape Town and stayed in a town called Oudtshoorn on Friday night and stayed in another town called Sedgfield on Saturday, then came back today. Here's a map:

We actually made it all the way out to Tsitsikamma National Park and also stopped in Plettenberg Bay.

On Friday, we headed out at about 8:30 with our rental car (Avis gave us a white VW Polo, because for some reason they trust a bunch of 20/21-year-olds with nice cars. Weird.) We made it out to Oudtshoorn and stopped in at our hostel by 2 pm, then hit up the Cango Wildlife Ranch.

We had to go through a guided tour of the ranch, which includes cheetahs, lions, tigers, antelopes, snakes and crocodiles. It's essentially about conservation, because a lot of the exotic animals (like tigers) are in danger of going extinct because of habitat destruction and poaching. Public Service Announcement: Help these animals! At least don't hunt them. Or burn the forests where they live.

Anyway, the real point is, WE GOT TO PET SOME WHITE TIGER CUBS. We paid extra for that, but how can you pass up that opportunity? They weren't as thrilled with us as we were with them, but they allowed us into their enclosure and sat down for a while to let us pat them. THEY WERE ADORABLE. For everyone who knows how much I love baby animals, you can understand how excited I was about this.

The others petted the cheetahs, but I had something else in mind: giant snakes. I got to hold a roughly 100-pound albino python named J.J. and I was so happy. He didn't even feel alive; he just felt like a heavy plastic weight over my shoulders. He tried to wrap his tail around my neck once (for perspective on how big he was, I could barely put both hands around him) and I was like, "J.J. stop trying to kill me." He also wrapped his tail around my leg as I was leaving, and he is strong, so it took me a minute to shake him off.

After our animal encounters, we got dinner at an incredibly Afrikaaner restaurant--Oudtshoorn, from what I can tell, is an Afrikaaner stronghold--and headed back to our hostel, Karoo Soul. It was the nicest hostel I've ever been in, and I kind of wish I could live there.

We headed out early on Saturday morning, because we needed to get out to Tsitsikamma National Park because Abby, Lauren and Nina had planned to bungy jump off of the world's highest bungy bridge, which is out there. Zach decided he wanted to go ziplining in the Tsitsikamma Forest, which left me with nothing to do. I checked out the Park's information center and found a brochure for a hiking guide named Danny. I called him up and asked if he was doing anything that day, and he was like,

"I didn't have anything planned for today, but we can go hiking! I'll pick you up in ten minutes."

While it may seem like a terrible idea to go off into the woods alone with a man you've never met, I did it anyway, because I am the master of doing potentially dangerous things. As it turned out, Danny is a really nice guy. He's actually Swiss but met his wife in South Africa and moved down here for her about 12 years ago. He became a tour guide because his European education didn't apply here, so he had to find a job he was qualified for. And damn, does that guy know about trees. I learned so much about trees in two and half hours, you guys don't even know. Ironwoods, yellow woods, Black Witch Hazel...I also learned about the soil and sediment of South Africa, i.e. why plants grow the way they do. The second part of our hike was on the old National Road built in the 1800s, which is now just a dirt road. Danny told me about the elephants that had found their way around the gorges before humans--all herds of elephants in the area migrated the same path for thousands of years, which is how humans were able to navigate Tsitsikamma. It was a really fun hike and I learned a lot. When my friends came to get me, they told me that when they had left me at the Info Center for Danny to pick me up, they were like, "And we never saw her again." Thanks guys. I love you too.

We headed back through Plettenberg Bay and to the Afrovibe hostel, which is basically the best party hostel in South Africa. There were shenanigans, but for once, I wasn't involved. I went to bed early because I was tired. Today, we headed back through Cape Agulhas, which is the southernmost point on the African continent. So now I've actually been to the southernmost tip of Africa! Woo hoo! It was a beautiful drive through the backroads of SA--there's so much open land, but it's also really mountainous. It's just a beautiful, beautiful country.

The road trip was amazing, all in all. Not just the cool stuff I did at Cango and Tsitsikamma, but just roadtripping around SA with my friends was really fun. Thanks guys (especially Abby, who did most of the planning)!

Cape Town: And then, on the seventh day, God made metaphors

This week was rough. It was my midterm evaluation and just a long week in general. There's not a whole lot to speak of on the journalism front, in terms of interesting things.

Yesterday (Friday) we walked down to the Waterfront with Dan, which is one of the more touristy areas of Cape Town and is where a lot of the classy boats and seafood shops are located. It was a long but nice walk and just perching on the dock and eating ice cream, we saw multiple seals and some jellyfish in the water.

In the late afternoon, we committed to climbing Lionshead, which is one of the main peaks in the Table Mountain chain. Five minutes in, we were already tired, but as I said, we were committed, and kept going. I pushed forward at the head of the pack, less from fitness or determination than an unwillingness to let anything or anyone stop me from getting what I want (barring malaria, my father and any math that involves anything more difficult than division). This may seem like a good quality, but when your adversary is a million-year old mountain, it's a stupid way to look at your life.

When I say "climb" I mean that there is actual rock-climbing involved in this ascent. The first stage is just walking uphill, but eventually you do reach rocks that you have to climb up. The way can be treacherous if you're an asshole who has no real rock-climbing experience, like me, but I still led the way, puzzling out difficult stretches of rock and hoisting myself up. At some point, we reached a fork in the path with a sign that said, "You can either walk this way up or you can actually climb, but if you die, it isn't our fault." Naturally, I looked at the metal rungs and chains embedded in the rock on the climbing way up and was like, "I'm doing that." The others took a look and disapproved of my plan. I went anyway.

It was really fun, but it was somewhat dangerous. I essentially pulled myself up a sheer rock wall by some metal climbing aids and by being able to find footholds/handholds. I made it up and a while later the others decided to follow after watching me. Soldiering on alone, I climbed the rest of the way up and made it to the top just as the sun was setting. I perched on an outcropping and watched it sink below the sea.

Not that I want to get too poetic here, but  it was definitely one of those moments of peace that you don't find often in life. I was sweaty and exhausted, and I had almost thrown up a couple of times on the way up from pushing myself so hard, but I made it to the top of Lionshead all by myself, and the views of the ocean and the city were beautiful. I feel like it was a metaphor for my internship--I climbed Lionshead, so I can climb the proverbial mountain of this job. Or whatever. Something like that.

The other three (Zach did not come to Lionshead with us) made it up a few minutes after me and were not pleased with the difficulty of the climb. We started down soon after that because it was getting dark. Abby and I ended up ahead of Lauren and Nina because Lauren wanted to take the easier way down the mountain due to her perfectly legitimate fear of slipping and falling in the dark. The two of us hauled ourselves down the mountain and actually had a really good time getting down, talking and making friends with a man from Salt Lake City. Eventually we got back home to Daddy Long Legs, and I was entirely satisfied with my day.

Today we went with Dan out to Bellville, which is a 45-minute train ride out of the city, and had a braai with his friend Jade. A braai is like a barbeque on steroids. You have tons of different meats, mainly braewors (South African equivalent of bratwurst), chicken and beef. It was delicious and we got to play with Jade's dogs! They are both pitbull mixes; Tequila is older and is one of the most well-behaved dogs I've ever seen and Pancho is a hyperactive puppy. All in all, it was a nice day, especially since it's so rare for us to get a complete home-cooked meal here. Now I'm chilling at home...I need a night off.

Cape Town: Heavy Days with Dan the Bartender (feat. Stephan)

So work aside, we've met some pretty cool people over here in Cape Town. We've also met some pretty not cool people who follow us around and ask for money, but we don't spend much time with them, so whatever. Except for this one homeless guy that grabbed Abby's face with both hands when he was asking for money; luckily for her, there was a valiant backpacker on hand who shoved the guy while screaming, "NO!!!" Just part of living in Cape Town when you walk everywhere.

Dan is the bartender at Zach's favorite bar who we met last Wednesday on Zach's birthday. Abby picked him up after paying for drinks and he's sort of moved in with us since then. He's been sleeping on the couch in the other apartment (our little building is basically two apartments across the hall from each other, so all five of us essentially live together). Anyway, I walked in on Saturday morning after he'd stayed with us a few times, not expecting to see him, and there he was on the couch. I did one of these:

back to my side of the floor.

But yeah, he's pretty cool. After I ran away from him like a crazy person, Abby told him I was afraid of him and he said, "Heavy days." which I guess means "That sucks." He's also an underwear model, fun fact.

On a related note, people in South Africa definitely have different ways of saying things in English, and it's taken me a while to figure out what some expressions mean. First of all, to greet someone, you say, "How's it?" And the equivalent of "Oh really?" as a response to anything is, "Is it?" When you want to get someone's attention, you say, "sorry." And at the office, whenever anything goes wrong, people often say "Shitballs!" My personal favorite is the word for "pickup truck", which is "bucky". Some guy will just say, "My bucky got towed the other day" and I can't take it seriously. Say it. It sounds hilarious. 

Last but not least, Zach's dating this guy named Stephan, who took him cable surfing yesterday, which I guess is surfing  on a cable track? Anyway, Zach stays over with him a lot, and Stephan's supposed to take him to his game farm soon (like a game reserve, with rhinos and stuff). Stephan's a pretty together human being, so I approve of this relationship. 

Anyway, that's just a little slice of life from Cape Town. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, as I'm sure you guys know, and I ended up face down on our futon full of tequila and regret. Other than that, life's good. 

Cape Town: A Very Boring Post

Well everybody, I'm more than halfway done with my journalism residency. I fly back to the US a month from Thursday. Crazy stuff.

This past week was work, work, work. I had stories run on three out of five days that I was working though, which was fantastic. The Ultimate Frisbee story ran on Monday, and I did a story on rising petrol prices that required a lot of math. And I was very proud of the end result--it ran with five pictures and a graph on page 3!! I even got a condescending email from a reader who was unhappy with it, so that means people are reading my work! I'll take what I can get.

Zach's birthday was on Wednesday and we celebrated that at his favorite bar in Cape Town. No impressive shenanigans ensued, so sorry for the lack of funny stories. Happy 21st Zach!

The last story I did this week was on a restaurant called The Test Kitchen that just won a spot on the list of 100 Best Restaurants in the world, so that was a cool little story. It's a very experimental kitchen--the owner is opening up a new premises that is just a lab for him to experiment with food--and I want to go eat at the restaurant before I leave.

More or less, that's it--not a whole lot to report (no pun intended). Just a lot of story-writing and hanging out with my fellow interns. Sorry that my life was so boring, doesn't make for a very good blog post...