Money money money

Since I arrived in africa, the worlds economy has been falling about apart and yet I seem to be getting wealthier and wealthier. For the past two days the exchange rate has been around a 11 rand to one dollar.  (exactly $1 = R11.4794747)When a beer is 14 rand and I can by a weeks worth of food for 150 rand one starts to have second thoughts about buying that new pair of pants.  

Well not to much has happened since last weeks post. Jenny and I had to restart our experiment, and soccer practice has now started every tuesday and thursday. To answer many peoples questions - yes I am growing my hair out... whether it will turn into dreads or not, I do not know. Perhaps I am merely reminiscing the elongation of my hair. 

Here is another beautiful picture of Cape Town in the morning.

 

Delicious - Something that makes you feel beautiful inside.

Simy

Good News Everyone

Another Blog Post from our friend from South Africa!
So this week I got my stitches taken out, went caving on table mountain, Africa Burn Happened (and I couldn’t go), I made sea urchins do it, and now I’m on a 35 day experimentation process that requires working 7 days of the week. At least 5 hours out of the day is dedicated to counting urchin larvae about the size of a flake of skin. They are pretty cool little dudes and I’m fathering about a half million of them. Here is a photo of what they look like under a microscope at 20 times magnification.

It would make a pretty gnarly tattoo. I document them every day and monitor their growth as well as their numbers. It is all very exciting work. So besides work, I’ve been sleeping eating, keeping myself fairly clean, and adjusting to the new culture. I just learned the other day that South Africa recycling has a higher recycling rate than any where in the united states because the homeless go through all the trash. And I don’t even have a recycling bin. Well that’s all for now gotta go start counting Urchins.

~Urchman

Public Transportation: Getting Africa to Work

I have to say that the morning cab rides are pretty much the only reason I get up in the morning. The thrill and excitement I get waiting for a cab at the corner of Station Rd. and main literally makes me sweat. My cab’s theme this morning was Mariah Carey. I shit you not, this thing even had a bright pink and gold glitter Mariah Carey sticker right above the grill. My friend Jenny pointed it out to me as we got out to walk to work. I also got to ride shotgun, which is always a kick dodging in an out of traffic. You are always the one who is the first to know if something is about to go wrong. The great thing about this cab was that every door was handless on the inside. This made closing the door difficult, as I am sure you can imagine. With Mariah Carey blasting on the stereo and hanging on for dear life as the cab was tossed mercilessly to and fro on the wet road, I just new today was going to be a great day.

And in the end, I even went to the hospital! It was exciting.

Here is The Carvery. It is a restaurant near where I work. Is it just me or does it look like they serve kids here? Like, they will serve you kids. You will eat children. Would you like the flank steak? More like the Frank steak.

Scooby Doo any one?

Also the aquarium in which I work is taking care of a puppy arctic seal. It is pretty much the cutest thing in this entire universe and its real. Unlike any of the crap puppies Kim shows on his Blog! Unfortunately they recovered him dehydrated and hungry so now they force feed him fish filled with life saving drugs and inject fluids under his skin. It’s a gross procedure and leaves the pup looking like he has tumors all over his body. 

All of the MCM employees at 10 o-clock sit down and enjoys a cup of tea during tea club. Here is a candid picture I took so nobody would notice and get mad. They noticed…
So your all wondering why I went to hospital. Well I cut my thumb open really deep, deep enough to get 5 stitches. All i'll say is baby alligator. They have sharp teeth. 

My room has empty walls so I am asking everyone to send me a post card of where you live or something cool looking so i can put them on my wall. It is a little art project i'm doing. 

You can send to this address. 

Volunteer Adventure Corps

102H, Building 20

Waverley Business Park

Kotzee Rd., Mowbray 7700

Cape Town, South Africa

And what about all of this I'm not updating my blog enough?! You guys are just to needy. 

Simone

Wow! the Toilets Really Do Flush the Other Direction!

Dear World,
I am now in Africa! Though many complain that this isn’t. I am currently residing in Cape Town, South Africa. I live in a house with three others in a part of town called Observatory. It is where all the students and interns live, basically a party 24/7. Here is a picture of my house:


I live with two older dudes. One is from Iran and is studying to get his P.H.D. in mechanical engineering. (When he was describing it to me it sounded like his study had a lot of explosive parts to it) He is 29 and has a wife and 2 year old son, who fortunately live in Iran. Justus, my other roommate, is, I’d guess, 50ish years old and is from Uganda. He is a pediatrician and is expanding his knowledge on new technology to study brain wave patterns. He also has a daughter studying Law at the University near by. There is one other roommate who I hear is studying to be an architect, but none of us have seen him. So basically I live with two old farts that claim they have ‘seen it all.’ This is much different compared to all the other interns. They live in houses that hold 10-12 students/interns of similar ages. I honestly don’t know whether to consider my self lucky or what.

So I have a job here too while I am in Cape Town. I work at a local research aquarium where I will be doing various studies on sea urchins. Exciting stuff! The best part about working here is getting to work.



These are the mini buses or taxis that Jenny and I, jenny is another intern I am working with, take to work. You don’t need to worry about missing one because they come very frequently like one every second. It is uncommon not to see one. So this is how the process works. You stand on a corner and wait for one of these bus things, which are most often old VW vans. There is a driver and a caller and the caller whistles and yells out where that particular mini bus/taxi is going. All you have to do is lift a finger and it comes screeching to a halt. You are then crammed into a small vehicle with 15 other people. You start to get real comfortable sitting next to some one you don’t know.

 The caller in the back and the driver in the far right. 
Right after I got in we stopped and waited 20 minuets for the bus to fill up.
The min bus is the best way to get around, though they are very unreliable. The drivers are the most talented people I have witnessed. I was riding in one of these vans the other day when it passed in between two semi truck while driving in the middle of the two lanes. Quite freaky.


The community here is great. They want to get you involved in as much as possible. Which is great because there are lots of things to do. I am already signed up on the VAC Soccer Team and am currently studying to get my diving certification.

Here is a pictures of a southern right whale that I saw on Friday. (Total of 6 where spotted) We also saw baboons, but I didn’t get a picture.

Mountains also surround Cape Town, but I’m just too lazy to upload another picture. Until next time,

Sir Simealot.