Back to work

Amazing how time flies! We have completed our trips to South Africa and Italy. Three months have passed and it's time for us both to return to our lives in Stockholm.
Thanks everybody for reading the blog and sending cheerful messages throughout the trip!

Sara & David

Powder!

Some pics of Mattias and David enjoying the snow.

Guests of honour

We were fortunate enough to get a week-long visit from Veronica and Mattias Fras! It was a blast to have them here and we really experienced many things such as “polenta induced coma”, skiing with zero visibility and skiing in 5 dm fresh snow. We really miss Veronica’s Jägermeister shots and Mattias’ dish-washing capabilities.

The (weather) gods must be crazy

During our stay, we have experience a multitude of weather conditions. Some of them far from the sunny bliss you would expect from the Italian alps in March. Just to name a few of the meteorological states we have endured so far: intense three day non-stop snowfall, sunny with storm winds, sunny with temperatures as low as -23 C (on the top of the mountain) and – the most bizarre combo - alternating sun, fog and storm gusts.
Each day has thus been a new adventure since it is virtually impossible to know, just from looking out the window, what the weather will be like.

Skiing high and low

Sara is making dramatic progress in her skiing each day and David keeps getting exhausted from tightening his boots at high altitude. It is indeed a humbling experience to ski at 3900 m – the highest slopes in Cervinia / Zermatt – since every move makes you gasp for air.
Generally the pistes are excellent – some of the best “carving areas” we have seen – and the difference in altitude is breathtaking. The longest run we’ve tried so far is almost 2000 m from top to bottom (in altitude difference!). Admittedly we had to stop and rest a couple of times on the way down.

Cervinia

Wouldn’t you agree that ski resorts are always fascinating? A slightly bizarre combination of old local mountain tradition and mass tourism. Cervinia – our choice for this ski trip – is fairly genuine with a small church and a pedestrian high street with a decent selection of shops and bars. The town is located in a stunningly beautiful valley surrounded by dramatic alps all around. Tallest of them all is Matterhorn with an imposing 4478 m.

Italia!

The South African part of the trip is officially over. We have now spent a few hectic days in Stockholm, repacking and meeting friends, and are now on our way to Cervinia via our friends Marianne and Gianmarco in Milano.

Talking to Terrence, advice from Maureen

We have been thinking a bit about how our 6 weeks in South Africa has changed us. One difference is simply that we have slowed down a bit - and actually started to take time to listen to people. Not just hurrying past as usual in our everyday life in busy Stockholm.

The other night we spent some time with the humble and kind night guard Terrence at our hotel. Terrence lives in Khayelitsha (one of the townships outside Cape Town) together with his brother’s family. He works from 7 pm to 7 am and wanders around the facilities making sure that no intruders disturb the guests of the hotel. Every day he has to travel for 1.5 hours to get to work – train into Cape Town, then the dangerous but efficient white mini-buses to Camps Bay and finally a walk up the hills to the hotel. Here starts his 12-hour shift. Finally 1.5 hours to get back to home. Considering that in most of the townships only around 25-40% of the citizens are employed, Terrence is one of the lucky ones.

In Johannesburg, we enjoyed our daily chat with our very animated cleaning lady Maureen. Maureen lives in a township outside of Soweto (South Africa’s most well-known township, home of Nelson Mandela, etc.) with her seven children. Maureen was troubled by the fact that she could not afford to send all her children to school (schools are free for the younger children, but you still have to provide funding for school uniforms, food and books, etc.), so one of her boys had to stay at home. At least she anticipated that she would have enough money in March, so hopefully the poor kid would not have to miss out that much.

Maureen liked that Sara had been to Soweto, but claimed that Soweto was now so nice and “upgraded” that it was not longer the real township experience. (Sara could not really relate to this, since she thought visiting some of the poor families in the miserable shacks of Soweto was one of the most painful moments she had ever experienced). Interesting perspectives. After Sara and Maureen’s discussion regarding poverty and townships, they naturally (!?) came into the topic of health and beauty. Maureen complimented Sara for being very pretty, but gave the advice that she really needed to loose some weight. She then pointed out exactly where this excess weight was located and suggested some time in the hotel’s little gym. Fortunately enough, Sara was in a good mood and could appreciate the advice with no offence taken. :-)

We left a large tip when we left, and hoped that this would help to get Maureen’s boy back to school. When discussing this kind of problems, then all our daily issues and concerns at home suddenly seem so utterly insignificant and silly…

Perspectives

We have now spent a week at the CIDA school in Johannesburg. Sara, who visited the school in March last year, was deeply touched by the visit and wanted to return.

The many years of apartheid and oppression have denied the large majority of the black people education, leaving them doomed to a life in poverty. With an average monthly salary of around R1000 (SEK 1300), and university costs amounting to several times that amount, it is still impossible for most black families to send their children to any form of higher education.

This is where CIDA comes into the picture. The CIDA school’s philosophy is simple: Take the smartest kids from each village, and give them an excellent education that they can afford. Or rather, the village can afford. The monthly cost for food and housing of R500 (SEK 650) is gathered through contributions; an auntie giving R10, the school teacher R15 etc. Finally let those kids go back to their village, and spread what they have learned. In Africa an old proverb says that “it takes a village to raise a child”. At CIDA, they say: “it takes a child to raise a village”.

The school gets funds exclusively from donors, and has been very successful in getting support both in South Africa and abroad. Donors include Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, and many large companies in SA.

We participated in one of the first lectures that was given by Dr. Melanie Brown from New York for the first year students. The topic was “greatness”, how we all can find the greatness within us, and that it is not only a few persons that can be “great”, but all of us. Throughout these session it was moving and encouraging to listen to these young guys and girls in various exercises talking in front of the group about who they admire most, their life goals etc. It’s hard to describe the feeling of hearing a boy from a poor and troubled background express admiration of his mother and boldly state that his goal is to become happy and to share this happiness with his community!

Our main task during our week has been to explore how volunteers could be put to better use. The interest in working with CIDA is high, but it is difficult to accept visitors without a clear purpose and process. This work was done together with philanthropy power-woman Christine Downton and in the end presented to parts of the CIDA management.

In addition, we had a large number of one-to-one discussions with students, who wanted to ask questions about everything from how they can succeed in their mathematics studies to how they could start a micro-bank. We have been impressed and moved by the students at CIDA and we’ll be back for sure!

Ps. A special hello to any student from CIDA reading this!! Good luck with your studies and with achieving your goals.

Entabeni Private Game Reserve

Visiting Entabeni is quite an experience! It’s a privately own 13,000 hectare wonder world where thousands of animals roam freely. Lakeside lodge, where we stayed for two days, is a peaceful lodge just by a small lake inhabited by huge hippos. The terrain in the game reserve is a dramatic mix of plains, bush land, mountains, gorges and forest. Among a multitude of species, all of the sought after “big 5” are present: elephant, leopard, rhino, lion and water buffalo.
Fortunately for us we ended up with our own private ranger/guide which was a blessing. During our stay, the day normally started early with our trusted ranger Craig knocking on our door at 5:30. After a quick cup of coffee we would head off in the large open jeep for an early morning drive.
Entabeni is definitely something we will remember! We’ve seen lions hunting(!), giraffes close-up, rhinos, hippos, hundreds of cool warthogs, jackals, monkeys, a chameleon, baby zebras and lots more. One thing is certain - seeing documentaries is not the same as the real experience.
http://www.entabeni.co.za/index.asp?pgid=31

Visiting the townships outside of Cape Town

We went to the predominately black areas outside Cape Town, called townships, with a local guide called Pahks. He gave us the feeling that we were actually sharing instead of just taking pictures.
The all time high was when we attended a gospel ceremony. We thought we would be able to just sit quietly in the back seats, but were suddenly drawn up to the stage and had to say a few words to the congregation who all cheered and applauded... At first extremely embarrassing, but then a warm and uplifting experience!

Use Phaks if you are going to Cape Town!
http://www.babistours.com/

Swimming with sharks!

I can tell you straight away that you are very careful and humble when you are in freezing Atlantic ocean in a small cage with a live shark just outside!

Flexible feeding

Anything seem to be possible when it comes to brining or taking home food. As highly regulated Swedes, we were chocked to learn that it is perfectly alright in most restaurants to bring your own wine! It is also perfectly normal to take home uneaten food in a doggy-bag and the waiters are happy to re-cork your wine bottles so you can bring the last slurp with you home. Nice, but unthinkable back home.

For us Swedes with a strict "alcohol will dammage your health"-message upbringing, we are still enjoying the wine conversations that we have each day. The waitresses just cannot understand how anybody can eat a proper meal without sharing a bottle of wine.

Usually the conversation goes like this:
Sara: -Could I have a glass of chardonnay please?
Waiter: -Only a glass? (looking really surprised)
David: -I'll have a glass of the same.
Waiter: -But in that case, why don't you have a bottle?
Sara: -David is the designated driver, so I think that would be it.
Waiter: -But it is so much better value for money to take a bottle, and I'd be happy to re-cork it in case there would be anything left! Having two glasses of wine would really not make any sense!
Sara: -Well ok then...

And then we leave the restaurant with half a bottle of wine, straaaange...

The photo has nothing to do with the text above, but is only inserted as a reponse to comments regarding a certain lack of photos of us two at this blog!

A tribute to Dom Pedro

Thanks to a tip from one of Sara's colleagues we have discovered and taken the drink-dessert hybrid Dom Pedro to our hearts. It can best be described as a thick milkshake with a twist of liquor in it, usually the choice is between Kahlua and whiskey, served on a glass with a straw. This cold delight usually costs around 10-20 SEK and is a perfect companion to a cup of steaming espresso.

Should you plan a trip to South Africa, make sure you don't miss enjoying a Dom Pedro!

(The photos show David enjoying not a Dom Pedro but well a lovely fresh carrot&orange juice and our friend Miss Marie Bruce with the real stuff!)

Kirstenbosch

Once a week during summer (Swedish winter) Kirstenbosch hosts an open air concert. Kirstenbosch itself is one of South Africa’s biggest botanical gardens.
The concert we went to, with popular South African vocalist Arno Carstens, was completely sold out. Thousands and thousands of people were enjoying the sun on the huge lawns of the gardens.
http://www.nbi.ac.za/frames/kirstfram.htm

Where are the dolphins?

All tourist literature is filled with descriptions of the ocean waves being filled with happy dolphins jumping around in plain sight. Despite this we haven’t seen a single dolphin so far! Wild seals, yes, but no dolphins. :-(

Gentle Giants

It took us a few weeks, but finally we managed to go on a safari. Just North-East of Port Elizabeth is the elephant sanctuary Addo National Park, home not only some 400 elephants, but also warthogs, hyenas, lions, ostriches, different types of antelope and, notably, the rare dung beetle*. Upon entering the area by car, a huge Cape Cobra crossed the road!

The area is open to explore by car, which was better than expected. We did get a couple of extraordinary sightings of elephant herds. The feeling of sitting still and quiet with the window rolled down just 10 meter from a giant wild elephant cannot be described in words.
http://www.addoelephantpark.com/




* - The dung beetle is a beautiful insect that forms dung into tennis ball sized ball that it rather clumsily rolls back to its nest. Its relative, the scarab, was a holy animal in ancient Egypt.
For all you dung beetle lovers: http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/beetles/scarab/

Cool Architecture in Cape Town