After a few weeks with no internet, a week without electricity, and a 3 night homestay- we are finally in Cape Town for our midsemester break!! As a quick recap, here is what I've been doing for the past few weeks:
-Wits Rural was a small camp for researchers and we were able to go to the pool a few days, but mostly it was a bit chilly. The camp was run by the vervet monkeys and they would constantly hang around during meal time, try to break into the kitchens, and they kept sneaking into the classroom and pooping everywhere. We also saw some beautiful sunsets from the top of a watertower, but for the most part we were working on our conservation course and each student presented a short seminar on different topics involving conservation. I spoke about conservation genetics and captive breeding programs (especially concerning cheetahs and African wild dogs).
-After Wits, we departed for Hamakuya which is a very rural village north of Kruger. We stayed in platform tents overlooking a river. This was where we didn't have electricity, but they were able to turn a generator on for a few hours some days. This was one of my favorite places (well, everywhere here has been my favorite place...) but it was extremely beautiful and during our time there we also had our homestays with the Venda people in a small village- which I will never be able to describe in full detail here because it was such an incredible experience. Along with 4 other students and our translator, I stayed at a sangoma's home- meaning she was a traditional healer/witch doctor. It was really cool so see some of the traditional medicine and I think it really added to my knowledge of the Venda culture, but it was also really inspiring to meet her and get to know her family and the community. Hamakuya is a really interesting place because there is an odd mix of modern technology and traditional lifestyle. A lot of people have cellphones and laptops, but food is all cooked in firepits and there is no running water- they have to walk sometimes up to two hours to a waterpump with potentially unsafe drinking water, fill cans, and then hike all the way back to their homes. We were conducting water availability and quality surveys while we were there so it was interesting to learn about this aspect of their lives. Besides that, we also learned how to make some traditional meals- we ate mopane worms, a lot of
pap, we killed and ate 2 chickens, and on our last night they slaughtered a goat for us (this may be unsettling for some to hear, but I just kept telling myself that these animals are able to roam around the village for their entire lives and this is one of the most sustainable ways for the people to eat meat). Also on our last day, a few women came from the village to teach us traditional dances and they ended up just making it a party all day because they were singing and dancing for so long. We were very sad to leave the next day.
-We then returned to Kruger National Park, this time in a tourist camp in the north called Shingwedzi. We were working on collecting data for two field projects on herpetology (looking at geckos and thermoregulation) and riparian ecology (looking at post-flood vegetation recovery). The tourist camp here was very nice and had just been completely rebuilt after a massive flood in January.
-Next, we spent two nights in Johannesburg and saw the Origins Center at Wits University, the apartheid museum, and a play called Hayani. Afterwards, we finally boarded the plane and heading to Cape Town- arriving yesterday. We immediately put our bags down in the hostel we are living in (called Backpackers- it's really awesome), had yet another safety talk, and then went to a bar called the Fat Cactus for margaritas. We were tired from traveling, but that didn't stop us from singing karaoke and dancing later on! Today we went to a market and walked around Cape Town and tonight we plan to head to the top of a mountain (not Table Mountain, yet) to watch the sun go down and moon rise because I think it's a full moon. Can't wait!
I'll try to post some photos from the homestay later because it's not working right now....
