Nicole's Very Africa Spring Break

My Very African Spring Break

It would make sense to go in chronological order, but I am too excited that I saw elephants. In case you didn’t know before, I am obsessed with elephants. I think they are beautiful and I know they are incredibly smart. Kind of like me (kidding). It turns out that the first stuffed animal I got when I was a child was an elephant, and I found that out after my recent obsession surface. I also love that you can go near them and not have the potential to hurt them. Little animals scare me sometimes because I am a very klutzy person and worry I will drop them or step on them or something. But elephants; they"re massive and awesome.  I guess in order to explain how I came across these elephants, I have to explain how we got to them in the first place. On Saturday, 17 March, we left for Johannesburg very early in the morning. Of course I started packing at 1 am, but that is the usual for me. Johannesburg is a major city in South Africa, and also a place with significant historical value. The first day, however, they let us rest in the hotel and took us to dinner. I always love hotels, and I think it is because we used to go to them all the time when I had gymnastics competitions. The idea of cart wheeling down a hallway and jumping on the bed still excites me no matter how old I am. We relaxed in our fluffy white bed and went to dinner. I have a new favorite food here; tramezzinis. I probably completely spelled that wrong but you get the idea. It is like fluffy pita bread and mine had spinach and feta cheese and avo spread and I think I am in heaven. I got that and we had an extremely enjoyable dinner conversation. Remember, dinners in South Africa are much slower, which gives us much more time together to talk about whatever we like, which normally means debating life and all there is to it.

            

The next couple days were filled with different museums that recognize the massacres and wrongdoings of Apartheid. I must say, museums do not always keep hold of my short attention span, but I was moved by what I saw. I could take hours and explain all of the thoughts inside my heads, but I really want to focus on what stood out to me the most. We went to the Hector Pietersen Museum, which is symbolic of the Soweto Uprising of 1976. Students stood together to peacefully protest against the government forcing them to learn in a language that they did not fully understand. Hector Peterson was thirteen years old and the first to be shot by the police during the protest. He has remained a symbol of the wrong doings in Apartheid. This is obviously so awful and wrong of the police to fire on a peaceful protest. And then again, a similar incident occurred previously during the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. This was again a peaceful protest by those who were classified African during Apartheid and forced to carry passes everywhere they went. If they did not, they would be arrested. They were not treated like people. However, when they protested, 69 people were killed, and these were just those that were documented. It was also representative of how bad the crisis was in Africa and was also a time when everyone around the world saw how much needed to change. One victim was as young as twelve years old. This breaks my heart, but I also felt really angry. I saw the letters sent by other countries that they were ready to support South Africa, and I kept wondering why it took brutal murders to get people's attentions. I want to know why it takes massacres and young children dying to make the world see that something is wrong. It made me wonder what awful things could be happening at this very moment that I am unaware of or not paying attention to. 

On a more positive note, it was inspiring to see people my age taking a stand for what they believed in. They had every right to be scared, but still fought for equality. It makes me feel like I have more power as a young adult than I think that I do. The Apartheid Museum was not as heavy for me because I love Nelson Mandela and we spend a lot of time following his life and what made him who he is. These museums make what we learn about seem more real, and make me feel more for the victims.

            

With all the heaviness, we did light, fun things too. We went to a flea market and went crazy. At first bargaining intimidated me, especially since it was their job to get you to spend money, but I loved it this time. I am not going to share exactly what I got because then I would be giving away the presents I got for people, but let's just say I did good. Its fun to walk through the market with people calling for you and showing them you are not just a stupid American who can get ripped off (at least not all of the time.) It gives you a rush.

We also went to the Boys and Girls Club, the first one started in South Africa just recently. I knew even before I went that I would love it there. We played games, helped serve lunch, cleaned, and I taught gymnastics as usual because I just can’t help being a gymnastics coach wherever I go. It felt so good to give back to the people who work there because there were only a few staff members and a ton of kids. It is definitely a hectic job, but the kids are full of energy and I can see how rewarding it is to provide them with a place they can do work and have fun. I did not even mean to teach any gymnastics, but I saw a few little boys doing handstand and couldn’t resist doing one myself. I wanted them to learn the right way so they would not hurt themselves and before I knew it I had a big circle of kids around me and we were all doing handstands. My two little ones that started the handstand from the beginning stayed with me the rest of the time and were big fans of giving hugs. It was great, but made me miss all my gymnasts at home a lot. I was really proud to help at such a great place.

Nicole teaching gymnastics to an eager group of learners!

            

You may be wondering how this led to elephants, but I promise I’m getting there. On Thursday we woke up before the sun rose and drove eight hours to Kruger National Park.. The ride was not bad at all because we had a comfy coach bus. When we got there it was about a million degrees, but I as quickly distracted by the place we stayed in. They were large huts, but really classy ones with air conditioning and big beds. That night we went on a game drive where you drive in an open truck with no windows and look out for animals. We had not been seeing much when all of a sudden we saw a white rhino! And then, a few minutes later, bam, a giraffe was right next to the road eating from a tree. We also saw impalas that night, which are beautiful beautiful creatures.  They look kind of like deer but I swear they could come straight out of a Disney movie. They have huge, almost cartoon like eyes and look incredibly pure. The next day though, was when we really got lucky. We woke up at 430am, after going to bed at 2 (it happens when you live with two other girls and decide to have deep conversations) and I was exhausted. I almost fell asleep, but then all of a sudden I saw an elephant as the sun was rising. Some plants covered it, but I felt lucky to see it from far away. I thought I could cry but I was so happy I just stared at it in shock. I thought I was lucky enough to see it from far away when a couple minutes later a huge one was to my left. At this point I was so excited to see it so clearly that I waved to it and gestured it to come over here. I realize it was an elephant, but happiness can make a person hopeful. Sure enough, the elephant walked out of the bush and right onto the road in front of our truck. I stood on the side clutching onto the top, staring at the elephant in wonder. It was huge and powerful but I was not scared, just in awe. 

Elephant strolling right by us.

We proceeded to see seven more in total that day and I was in elephant heaven. We also saw zebras, impalas and a female lion from far away. Later that day we saw hippos in the water right wear we were ordering lunch. We also saw warthogs and monkeys as we were walking from our huts to the restaurant, and they were just chilling like it was no big deal. I thought it was probably one of the coolest things ever. At the end of the day we actually went on a game walk and walked through the bush where the animals live. All we had to protect us were two guards who carried guns, solely for the purpose to make noise and scare the animals away. I cannot even describe how awesome it was to be in a part of untouched nature. We were walking on a trail made by a rhino. Natural, beautiful places like that are so hard to come by. I felt scared for a second, but after just peaceful. It felt like the way life should be, without big buildings and with openness and freedom. We did not get to see an animal up close, but did follow a rhino for a while based on its poop. That’s right, poop. There are huge dumpings everywhere. It really was not gross because if it smelled it meant the rhino was recently there, and some were used for homes for other insects. And, it was really, really funny. We also got to see a crazy looking spider that was the size of my index finger and luckily not poisonous to humans. We saw a lot of the birds that look like Zazu from the Lion King, and I even took a feather. We saw a snake that if you get to close it can poison you and if not taken care of, you could be dead in an hour. But we had smart guides and made it out just fine. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a second. The next day when we had to leave, we saw a ton of animals on the drive out. We spotted a water buffalo, which meant we saw 4 of the 5 Big 5 animals of South Africa (rhinos, water buffalos, leopard, elephant, and lions). I probably could have seen just the elephant and been excited, the rest was a bonus. It definitely hit me that I was truly in Africa on Friday when I watched around ten zebras walk across the street to the other side of the bush as the sun was rising.

The eight-hour ride back to the airport was a piece of cake because I slept and read the Hunger Games. I read it on the airplane and through the airport and in the car ride home. I read the whole book in a day because it was that great. All in all, it was the most interesting spring break I have ever had. I continued to learn everywhere I went, and I hope become better for it. What I also realized is that my only real knowledge of these animals came from the Lion King. We kept comparing everything we saw to the movie. There is so much out there with the ability to make us incredibly happy, and I hope everyone searches to find these creatures and aspects of life we never even knew existed outside of a movie.