Yesterday we left Cane Cutters and drove to Twinstreams. This is also in the middle of nowhere, or “middle of forest” as our host said. It’s probably a good thing we only stayed one night. Four people in one room, 2 bunk beds, and minimal space to move/breathe/store our stuff. I’m guessing the room was 6x6? 7x7? It was small! Our bus also had a little trouble because of the roads and such; we couldn’t drive right up to the place so we all rolled/dragged our bags to the place. I think Africa is beating my suitcase up a little bit, hopefully it does not break in the next week (knock on wood). The path to our rooms was all sand and dirt and my suitcase kept getting stuck because of rocks or I would be dragging a pile of sand along with my 57 pound bag…definitely worked up a sweat.
Anyways, we had lunch at this café/restaurant/bar down the road (had a grilled cheese for the first time in forever—yum!) and then dinner at Twinstreams. After dinner, we were offered the choice to go back to the place we had lunch at to watch the rugby game because our tour guide & bus driver were planning on it. So most of us went, had a drink while watching the game. Not going to lie, rugby is complicated and I did not try that hard to follow along. But I do know that Karel’s team won—woohoo! Lol It was hilarious though walking into the place, the other people already there for dinner or for the game looked horrified as our 20+ group piled in. I was sitting next to Jackie though and this girl who seemed to be a little older than us started asking Jackie questions about who we were, what we were doing, etc. So I was listening in, curious what she was asking. She seemed impressed that we were visiting a good number of hospitals and clinics. But, not so impressed that none of us knew any of the South African languages besides English. I think she expected us to know Afrikaans because she kept throwing out phrases and stuff and then giving us this look when we told her we only knew a few words. I wish Americans were forced to know more languages than just English. It is so crazy how South Africans usually know at least 2 or 3 languages and are fluent in them. Then here I am, English-speaking and after taking 4 and ½ years of Italian I’m still hardly even close to being fluent. (I wish!) I guess what I got from my eavesdropping is that other cultures think it’s weird that we don’t know more than one language. And I wish we were more like other cultures. If anyone wants to buy me a Rosetta Stone program for my birthday, you are more than welcome to ;)
Now we’re at Isinkwe Backpackers Bushcamp and we’re in bunk beds again, this time in a room with 10 girls (we’re calling this room our brothel!) We’re here for 2 nights and I hear the showers are warm. I think that’s what the rumor is. This place is pretty cool though…has a pool that we all laid out by (where I finished listening to Harry Potter 7 on my iPod—can’t believe I actually finished it!) and they also have hammocks. Right now I’m in the reception office where they have TWO outlets (score!) and I was writing my paper until I hit a little road block and decided to journal instead. Guess I should get back to writing… :P
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