The adventures of the cycling muzungu

Wow, time is really flying. Two weeks have gone, since I went back to my African life and work. To be honest, I have to admit that the first days weren’t that easy. I really had to get used to everything again and the heavy rain didn’t make it easier. It’s not that I don’t like the rain… Everything just gets a bit more complicated :D No taxi wants to drive me home to the compound, since the roads are too bad, my roof is leaking (we are about to fix that :)) and worst of all, nothing gets dry. However, the thunderstorms are amazing!!! I’ve never seen so incredible lightning and heard so crazy loud thunders! Although it's a bit exhausting that the heavy rain and thunders are quite good at keeping me awake during the nights :D And yeah, those who know me know that I’m more a sun person than a rain person :D However, I’ve fully adapted again and enjoy being back :)

One thing I really enjoy at the moment is my bike!!! It’s soooo nice to cycle again :) However, every single ride is quite an adventure as well :D The roads are so bad – full of mud and crazy bumps – children are running after you and are trying to jump on your porter, and a lot of people call so many things after you :D However, I really enjoy starting my day with a 7km ride to work (despite all the sand and mud :D). I feel more free and am happy that I don’t have to spend so much time walking and taking shared taxis. However, when I want to go home and it's dark already, the adventure starts again :D (I’m not allowed to cycle when it's dark). Just have a look below, how I managed to bring my bike home one evening :)

Initially, the driver tried to get my bike to fit on top of the backseats :D Well, I told him it wouldn't fit. Then we put it into the boot instead ;)

The government placed the stones and sand to reform the bad roads. However, no one feels responsible to actually spread the stones and sand :D

This is one of the better roads on my way home 

However, the rain season has also its good things. I really enjoy the “new” Livingstone and its surroundings. Everything is so green and there is maize everywhere!!! And you should see the huge avocados!!! They taste amazing :)

So what have I been doing in the last two weeks apart from cycling and getting used to the rain?

The first week, I spent my days with working at the office from 8-16 hours, evaluating the activities from 2012 and developing the new work plans for 2013. It’s quite nice to have an influence on, which activities we are going to do and develop a strategy for how we can improve the sports department. Besides this, I’ve spend some time with working on my exam paper and with some nice workouts at the gym :) After my first workouts, I really could feel that I had enjoyed my holidays :D 

In addition to that, I’ve had two surprises during my first week. One really good one and one, maybe not so good one :D

Just have a look at the two pictures below and guess, which is the good and bad surprise :D

Yep, it's a rat!

Nice parcel from Germany :)

Yep, you are right! The rat in my water hole Tuesday morning, when I wanted to get water for my shower, wasn’t the nice surprise :D

No, it definitely was the parcel I received Thursday!!! A big thanks to Janna, Hannah and Eva for providing me with rye bread and sweets :) juhhhuuuu!!!!

Saturday the 19^th of January the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 finally started and since Zambia is the defending champion, people are quite excited about the cup! Unfortunately, they haven’t played that good so far (only 1:1 against Ethopia and 1:1 against Nigeria). Hence, the big match is going to be on Tuesday the 29th, where they have to win against Burkina Faso.

But let me go back to Friday, where they played against Nigeria. The match was quite equal and no team played particularly good. When Nigeria scored in the beginning of the second half, Zambia kind of had lost their faith. However, when they got a penalty in the last  few minutes of the match, the belief was back again! However, one thing no one expected was that they wouldn't see the goal! The power went in the whole town, just right before the goalkeeper was about to shoot the equalizer :D It was crazy!!! The power didn’t come back right away, so everybody ran to the few places in town, where they had generators to see the last two minutes of the match :D T.I.A!!!

Before the match started

After the match

Besides watching a lot of football, working and writing my exam paper (it has to be finished on the 10^th of February), I’ve spend two evenings with going to salsa classes (I LOVE it!!!) and two evenings with playing volleyball :) Since, the sun finally was shining last Sunday, there had to be some time for enjoying it at the pool and also for enjoying some sunset drinks at rapid 7 :) It was the perfect ending of a nice week!

Playing volleyball

Enjoying the sun and an ice coffee :)

Lovely sunset 

What is going on this week?

Work wise, I’m going to have several meetings with the community volunteers and the sport captains in Kwenuha, do some more specific planning on the activities in 2013 and on Friday we are going to have the first club competition of the year. I really look forward to getting all the activities started again and working in the field :)

Besides work and finishing the exam paper, I’m going to dance salsa, play volleyball, watch football and hopefully I'm also going to have the opportunity to enjoy the sun a bit :)

(muzungu = white person)

Hello again :)

Wow, one and half months have passed and I’m now back in Livingstone and to my African life. I’ve had an AMAZING time in South Africa enjoying life both with friends, family and a lot of nice people I’ve met on my way :) Before I go on, I quickly want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you all have had a good start in the new year ;)

Right, let me go back to Knysna, where I left you last time. However, instead of going through every single activity and thing I’ve done in the last weeks, I’ll try to keep it short and just give you the highlights ;)

In Knysna we spent two really nice days with good food, beer tasting, jumping from cliffs (the highest was about 8 metres) and trying to feel Christmassy :) On the 13^th of December we had a lovely evening with homemade mulled wine and Lucia bread, and with singing the traditional Lucia song :) Even though we still weren’t in the biggest Christmas mood, we enjoyed the evening a lot.

Beer tasting

Lucia bread

More pictures are coming :)

On our way to the surfer town Jeffry’s bay Johanne, Vegard and I had to prove ourselves that we had the courage to jump from the Bloukrans Bridge, which is the world’s highest bungy bridge (216 metres)! It was AMAZING!!! I’ve to admit that I was quite terrified before my first jump in Livingstone and that I didn’t enjoy it that much :D However, this time I still was quite scared and asked myself why I’m doing this BUT from the moment on, where I was standing at the edge, listening to the count down, I enjoyed it a LOT! It was such a great feeling  :) Nevertheless, I think you don’t have to worry anymore that I’m doing more jumps, since there are no higher bungy bridges :D No, I’m kidding, I think I’m done with jumping ;)

Here some impressions

The Bloukrans Bridge

Johanne and I before the jump

on my way to the edge

on my way down

on my way up

Safely back on the bridge

Happy faces after the jump :)

As I already mentioned, our last stop was Jeffry’s Bay. What did we do? Since, it’s a quite good spot for surfing, we spent some hours with surfing and enjoying the heavy rain, while being in the water :) The 15^th of December was our last evening all together, so we went out for a really nice dinner, followed by some good partying and celebration of my birthday! We had a lot of fun and it was the perfect ending of a nice road trip :)

Those who know me can probably imagine that I, while surfing in the heavy rain, got a bit “worried” about, how the weather would be on my birthday :D Well, luckily the sun was shining from a blue sky when I woke up in the morning = perfect birthday weather and for lying at the beach = I was happy and had a lovely day :) Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to Arnt, Vegard, Lina and Johanne at the airport in the afternoon. 

warm up for my birthday evening

Thanks for a nice road trip

The rest of my birthday I spent together with Janita and Ingrid having a nice dinner, while enjoying fireworks in Port Elizabeth :)

Janita, Ingrid and me

delicious desert

The following two days Ingrid, Janita and I spent with driving back to Cape Town, where it was time for me to meet Pascal and start my holiday with my family :)

It was really nice seeing him and being back in Cape Town again. Pascal and I spent some really nice days with relaxing, exploring the city, enjoying the sunset from Lion’s Head, going surfing, eating nice food and enjoying good wine :)

Here some impressions:

At the beach in Camps Bay

Surfing in Muizenberg

"surfing" :D

Nice houses

Pascal and me

Daniel and me on our way up to the top of Lion's Head

The view from the top

Picnic at the top

Lovely sunset

Nice view

On the 23^rd Patrick arrived in Cape Town. You can’t imagine, how glad I was to have both my brothers around me and to celebrate Christmas with them :) How did we celebrate the Christmas days? All in all, we had a really good time with exploring the city during day and night, and with a lot of good food and wine :)

On the 24^th we drove down to see the penguins in Simon’s Town and to the Cape Point. It was a really good trip, followed by a lovely Christmas dinner :) A hike up to the top of Table Mountain and a nice Christmas BBQ were on the programme for the 25^th and boxing day (the 26^th), we spent at the beach and on Robben Island.

On the 27^th it finally was time for me being together with my whole family :) I was sooooo happy to see my mum and to be together with my whole family!!!

Christmas breakfast

Penguins

The three of us with the penguins

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to go closer 

Cape Point

the three of us

Nice view

At the cape point

Pascal and me on our way to the top of Table Mountain

The three of us on our way up

On robben Island

enjoying the Christmas BBQ

nice Christmas dinner

Our road trip started and the first stop was in the wine area Franschhoek. Uhhh, you can’t imagine how tasty the wine was!!! We spent a whole day going from winery to winery, doing wine and also some cheese tasting :) It was sooo good!

Swellendam was the next town on the programme and on the way to it, we visited Cape Agulhas (the southernmost tip of Africa) and Hermanus.

In Franschhoek

The four of us

Dolphins in Hermanus :)

Have a look at the next picture. Do you see the smoke? Well, what we didn't know at that time was that we one hour later were driving directly through the fire! I doubt that it would have been possible to do in other places in the world :D

Driving through the smoke of the fires next to us

Safely arrived at Cape Agulhas

After a night in Swellendam, we drove further to Outshorn, where I, at the ostrich farm, had the crazy experience to ride on an ostrich :D It was really funny! Just look:

Later the same day we did an adventure tour in the Cango Caves. Before I go on, I have to say that during our entire road trip we never felt like being in Africa (Cape Town and the Garden Route are  more like Europe and USA). Well, when we did our adventure tour in the caves, we felt it :D We knew it was the adventure trip we had booked but that it would be that adventurous, we didn’t expect at all (it didn't say in the programme) :D However, I could maybe have guessed that aspects like communication and safety, are aspects which you don’t have that much focus on in Africa :D Nevertheless, the tour was great fun!!!

Plettenberg Bay was the last destination, before we headed to Port Elizabeth for flying home (Pascal) and to Livingstone (my mum, Patrick and me). We had a lovely new years eve with good food, nice wine and some dancing in Plettenberg Bay :) However, the best thing was still that we all were together! We kick-started the new year with a good hike in both sun and heavy rain. Have look at the picture:

New Years Eve

Before the rain caught us

Funny animal

The black dots are seals

Nice colours

The rain on its way

In the Cango caves

In the Cango caves

Pascal climbing up in "the chimney"(we all had to to it)

On the 2^nd of January we made our way to Jeffry’s Bay to spend some time at the beach. It was really nice to have a proper day at the beach again after all the rain :D

Well, then the day had come, where the holiday with Pascal was over and my mum, Patrick and I were flying to Livingstone. 

Last dinner with the whole family

Nice sushi :) (and for me, last fish for the next 5 months)

Livingstone welcomed us with a nice heat and sun :) However, also with difficulties to get money from the ATMs (Zambia has got new notes and coins – basically they have removed the last three zero’s = chaos in the banks. In addition to that, the Zambian "chip-system" (the chip on the credit card) is too old for some of the new credit cards from Europe = no money) and a LOT of rain (yep, the rain season has started)! 

I was back to T.I.A. :D Even though the rain had chosen to accompany us the first three days, we had an amazing time at the Victoria Falls in both Zambia and Zimbabwe, and with rafting :) When we went on a two days safari in Botswana, the sun luckily was back and we had an amazing time with watching all the animals! Even for the sunset cruise on the 10^th, the sun was with us :) Those who know me and also my mum can maybe imagine, how happy we were to have the sun back :D 

Besides enjoying all the tourist things in and around Livingstone, I showed them my African life in for instance the compound and at my work. It was really nice to show them everything down here and introduce them to my African family and friends. I think, they now have a much better understanding of what I’m doing and experiencing here in Livingstone :)

Lovely sunset at the sunset cruise

at the Victoria Falls in Zambia

On the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Well, one has to turn around :D

At the Vic Falls in Zimbabwe

At the Vic Falls in Zimbabwe

Vic Falls in Zimbabwe (the spray made it almost impossible to see the falls)

Just a few pictures from the safari

Rain in the compound

My two families

Way too fast the 12^th and 13^th had arrived, where it was time to say goodbye :( After saying goodbye to my mum, Patrick and I watched the friendly game Zambia vs. Norway. It was great fun, even though it ended 0:0 and wasn’t the best football :D However, I’m really looking forward to the 19^th of January, where the Africa Cup of Nations starts!!! I just love, how Zambians go crazy, when the national team is playing :)

Good, I think I’ve come to the end. Patrick left yesterday, I’m back in the compound and Wednesday it’s back to work. The next two weeks are going to be quite busy with writing my exam paper, making work plans for Kwenuha and getting used to the African life again. However, I’m already looking forward to all the new experiences and things I’m going to learn :)