South Africa, Spring Break, and Spending Time with Friends

**NOTE- wrote this and then forgot to post it...it was really like 5 weeks ago**

Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to get out of Kenya for a week as I headed to South Africa to be in the wedding of one of my roommates. While I was there I was so excited that I also got to travel to Cape Town to see one of my best friends who is doing missions work there for a few months. For the week I was in South Africa I experienced an entirely different economy and culture than I was used to seeing in Nairobi. I have described to others that South Africa is almost a mixture of Kenya and America. There was a lot of technology, American food (we ate McDonalds 6 times in a week...I'm not proud of that...) and just an overall "easier" way of living. We did have quite a few "we are still in Africa" moments, however, which I will describe in more detail later.

Other than my participation in Jenn's wedding, the main reason for our journey to South Africa was to avoid Nairobi during the Kenyan presidential elections. During the last election, 5 years ago, there was a lot of violence between Kenyans of different tribes and many people died as a result. Although many precautions have been taken in the last year to avoid this happening again, we were still urged to "shelter in place" or leave the country during the week surrounding the election. Thankfully, after almost a month of no final decisions being made, a president was selected on March 31st, and there was very minimal violence.

View from Table Mountain...could it be any more beautiful?!

So back to South Africa. We flew by Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then down to Johannesburg, South Africa where we met Jenn's fiance, Symps, and her mom and sisters for the first time. Jenn and my other roommate, Pam, went with them, and myself and three others checked into another gate to head to Cape Town. After 3 flights, renting a car, and finding our way to the backpackers lodge we were staying, I got to give one of my best friends from Lancaster, Tina, a HUGE hug! There may have been a few tears in our eyes, but mostly just joy and disbelief that we were in the same town after almost 7 months of not seeing each other. The best part was that I was not only going to spend the next 2 days travelling around Cape Town with her, but also that we were staying only 3 houses away from her, so I could hang out at her place each night and not have to drive a long way home.

On day one we decided to drive to Cape Point, AKA Cape of Good Hope. As we drove along the coast I could not believe how incredibly beautiful Cape Town was. The water was a dark blue and the sky didn't have a single cloud in it! The colors of the flowers, the plants, the white sands, and the ocean were all just so incredible when combined. When we finally got to the point we just stood and looked at the ocean. The wind was blowing incredibly hard, so much so that we could barely hold the camera still. I just stood and took in all that I was seeing. After snapping a few pictures, we decided to head up to the Visitor's Center, which is where the TIA moments started.

Just before the baboon attacked

We were driving to the visitor's center when we saw a beautiful area that we wanted to take a picture of. We stopped the car and rolled the windows down to snap pictures. Tara (who was riding shotgun) decided to take a picture of all of us in the car with her iPhone. She was trying to push the button when all of a sudden Kristin (who was sitting next to me and behind Tara) screamed! We look over to see what she is screaming at, and come face to face with a baboon sitting on her open window. In a matter of seconds the baboon was with us in the car and sitting on the back of Tara's headrest. Jessica screamed and the baboon turned and hissed at her. At that moment we all knew we had to get out of the car. The problem was that I was in the middle, buckled in, and Tara was also buckled in. As soon as Jessica got out, the baboon jumped into her seat which gave Tara and I the chance to escape. As soon as we were out of the car, we all turn to see Kristin scream and run back at the vehicle! She had seen the baboon grab her purse and ran for it. After a very short game of tug-a-war, the baboon won and took off with Kristin's bag. We chased him, threw rocks at him, I may have clapped and stomped at him a few times, and still he kept running. Kristin finally said to just stop and let him look through the bag, so we did. He pulled out her iPod and tossed it to the side, checked how her wallet tasted and tossed that to the side, found a bottle of hand sanitizer which was apple pie scented and tried that (the look on his face was priceless), and finally ended up taking a box of tic-tacs and running away. After gathering all of Kristin's things, including her passport and money, we finally got back in the car and headed to the Visitor's Center. When we arrived, a man says to us  "Hey! You are the girls who were just down there screaming at that baboon! I took pictures!" Too bad we weren't in the right state of mind to ask him to email them to us. It was definitely a TIA moment!

Later that day we went to see the penguins at Simon's Town. There were so many of them! They were awfully cute, but you definitely didn't want to get too close to them or try to pet them. We headed from there to drop Tina at home and then went to Table Mountain. Other than the terrifying gondola ride to the top, it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was incredibly breathtaking, and I could have just sat there and looked at all that God had created for days.

The next day we went to Robben Island. For those of you that don't know, this island has a prison on it that held inmates during the aparteid in SA. This is where former SA president, Nelson Mandela, was held at one time. We were able to visit the prison, see Nelson's cell, and even get a tour from a former prisoner who gave us a first hand perspective of life in SA during that time. It was really a neat experience!

Wedding Day! I am all the way to the right.

After our few days in Cape Town I said a sad goodbye to Tina and we headed over to Johannesburg for the wedding. At the rehearsal I finally got to meet Pierre, and friend of Symps' who was going to be the groomsman I walked with at the wedding. We had a great time just laughing and trying to cause problems for everyone, especially with our awesome (or non-existent) dancing skills. We had to dance into the reception hall and this dance was just not our thing, so we had a good time doing our own dance and doing their dance backwards.  At the actual wedding we had a good time just hanging out with everyone and getting to know Jenn and Symps' friends. The wedding was neat because it incorporated American and Xhosa (Symps' tribe pronounced KOsa) traditions. Jenn got to dress in traditional Xhosa garb and went through a naming ceremony where there was a lot of dancing a chanting and fun stuff. She got named Nozuko which meant "With Glory." The wedding was beautiful and we loved everything about SA. We thought about staying forever, but the next day we had to head back to Kenya and normal life.