Train Ride

Train

We seem to be having extreme difficulty arriving on time to our travels. We nearly missed our flight out of Knoxville first and then we did not account for traffic in Joburg when planning when we would leave our safari. We did get to our train in time, but there was great stress in our taxi as we were stuck in traffic in Joburg due to the soccer match. Our train was purple, which made us feel as though we were on the Hogwarts Express (although that is scarlet), and although we did not arrive at Hogwarts, we did make it to a magical land called Cape Town.

Our train ride was supposed to last about twenty-five hours. Around dinner time, we stopped at what we assumed was a train station. When we had still not moved at our bedtime, we wondered if maybe the train driver had to sleep… but that was very strange because somebody else could have stepped in! In the morning, we were told that we were running about NINE hours late, which put us in to Cape Town at 1:00 AM. We made up a tiny bit of time and made it a little after midnight, but by that point we definitely had cabin fever.

Our train ride continued the expansion of our stomachs as they fed us five courses for dinner and four for lunch. As we were so late, they had to serve us a second dinner, which was unplanned. They attempted to disguise the meat from the previous night by frying it, but we were not fooled. However, they were extremely accommodating as they clearly tried to make us feel at home by feeding us chicken fried steak. Perhaps South African and southern cooking is the same (or maybe not!)

We should certainly not complain about our lovely train ride, but those extra nine hours were just very tiring and frustrating. However, I, at least, counted my blessings that I had a door rather than a curtain and no mice ran across my feet! There was a definite step up from the train in India!

Mary Emily and I are thrilled to now be in Robertson and to have seen some beautiful country side in South Africa. We cannot wait to get started on our volunteer work and immersing ourselves in South African culture.

Love,

Mary Emily and Martha

Ants Hill

Ant’s Hill

After nearly missing our flight out of Knoxville due to miscommunication about delays, sitting on the runway in Atlanta for two hours, and being blocked into our seats by the crazy dentist seatmate for twelve hours, we finally made it to South Africa. We then traveled to Waterburg for our equestrian safari. We were extremely spoiled by these accommodations, and we got to ride twice a day….let me tell you, there’s nothing like cantering with kudus! On horseback, we were able to get much closer to the animals than we could either on foot or in Land Rovers. We saw impala, zebra, blesbok, warthogs, oryx, sables, buffalos, giraffe, kudu, antelope, and leopard tracks.

At the safari lodge, we were waited on hand and foot. We ate fantastically and are now trying to shrink our stomachs back from the gargantuan size they became. We have realized that the addition of afternoon tea is essential to one’s humanity…without it, people are completely uncivilized. Also, dessert became a staple at least three times a day. After our afternoon ride, we would canter up to sundowners where everyone would gather for pre-dinner snacks and drinks. We were treated to kudu jerky as we watched the sun go down.

Our favorite guest, was a four year old who impressed us with his spectacular manners and his cultured South African accent. Our favorite quote from him occurred after the bush lunch (a barbecue- in S.A. called a brai): “That was a lovely lunch!” We have decided to incorporate as many of his fun phrases into our vocabulary as possible.

Mary Emily has embraced her mother’s photography skills and has taken about a bazillion pictures. Unfortunately it will cost us lots of money to upload them, so you’ll have to wait until we get home.
Love,
Mary Emily and Martha

Our Adventure to South Africa Begins

Our adventure began before Christmas break when Martha and I were looking for internships and study abroad opportunities for the coming summer. Martha stumbled across the website for a volunteer abroad program called Cross Cultural Solutions, a program that offers a wide variety of volunteer opportunities around the world. After telling me about this program it seemed to fit with what I was looking for in a summer abroad experience. It combined volunteering with the culture emersion for each of the different countries that CCS is linked with. We discussed the program together and briefly told our parents about the idea. They seemed to think that it was a plausible idea, so began the preparation for the reveal night, including a home cooked meal by us (food usually softens the parents) well thought out plans and preparation with consideration for the what country we would like to travel to with pros and cons list, pricing list which were all organized in a power point presentation with photo shopped pictures of Martha and I on a horseback safari. Once the parents had agreed to our plans we started to plan the details of the trip, train rides, safari, dates flights all of the so called important things. The mothers booked flights and train tickets and hotel reservations.

School ended and thus Martha and I started our rigorous task of packing and preparations for our trip. It was necessary for us to ride as much as possible to practice for the horseback safari, we did all except the practice run which would have included letting Polar and Moe loose in the ring and allowing us to watch Martha’s dogs while we were on our horses. Since we never got to this level I hope all of our riding lessons will be sufficient for the safari.

Typhoid shots hurt!!! Enough said…

Packing became another issue, you see it is really hard to pack for winter when its 95 degrees outside. Also when you are only allowed to take a suit case that weighs 50lbs for 7 weeks in the winter it becomes difficult! Plus you have your five lbs supply of emergency medicine complementary of my mother which includes everything type of medicine under the sun literally staying under the weight limit is really hard. However despite this traumatic hurdle, Martha and I were both able to successful pack our backs which both are under the weight limit.

Now after five and a half months of planning, at least three family dinners , a folder of all our necessary information and Google Earthing every destination we are ready to make our journey to South Africa for 7 weeks! Most people would dread a 17 hour plane ride but I have a feeling that Martha and I are going to have a blast!!! I fear that it will be the people around us that will be wishing that they were not sitting next to two squirmy, loud and hyper college students, but o well hope they have their sleeping meds.

So today we leave for SA and will be back in 7 weeks email us and we will update you all on our experiences and adventures at least twice a week depending on our internet situations. We begin our adventure by going on a horse back safari so come Monday morning while y’all are still asleep we will be riding with the zebras and giraffes before you even get out of your cozy beds.

Lastly we would like to thank our parents for allowing us to have this opportunity to go to SA thanks love you all.

Love,

Martha and Mary Emily