So my first post is a little late - we've been here for about two and a half weeks. Nonetheless, my tardiness is due to the fact that we've been going non-stop, so I don't feel bad at all.
South Africa is AMAZING! We started out flying into Johannesburg after being on a plane for almost 20 hours. We stayed the night in Joburg at a backpacker's lodge and did a lot of tourist activities for the day that we spent there including going to Soweto, a museum of the Soweto massacre, the Mandela house (that sadly, was under reconstruction) and then grabbed some authentic South African grub before flying down to Cape Town in the evening.
Cape Town was everything one could imagine it to be - and more. I still can't believe we went to the Cape of Good Hope. It was amazing just to stand on the top of this mountain, bordering a mountain range and the ocean and it was simply breathtaking. We were in Cape Town for a few days and managed to get out a bit on our own, which was a nice change of pace.
*Also important to note: the group of kids that I am here with is phenomenal. Period. The funny thing is that we are all VERY different and you probably would not guess that we get along as well as we do, but we make it work easily. Our great group dynamics is a huge part of our trip's success, at least in my opinion.
So flash forward from a few days in Cape Town and we landed in Durban, where we will spend the next 5-6 weeks of our trip. Our first two weeks were spent in the Windemere Beachside Apartments, which were beyond amazing. Right on the beach of the Indian Ocean. Every morning I would wake up and either go for a run (often with Jacky) or simply sit out on the balcony of the apartment and look out onto the ocean and watch all of the early-morning surfers catch their waves. It was like a dream. One weekend Jacky, Bernard, Winn, Andrew Z. and I went surfing, too! I must say, I've never been in waves like that; very intense, but so much fun.
As for my job placement at eTV (eNews) in Durban, I really can't begin to describe how crazy it's been. Every day is really a new adventure and while I'm sure there is a lot of paperwork that I am not seeing, I enjoy it immensely. My first day I got to the office and within 30 minutes I got to "shadow" the senior news reporter when we went to cover the xenophobic attacks that have been taking place throughout the country as of late. Sadly, we were covering Mozambicans and Zimbabweans being shipped back to their respective countries, trying to cram their life's belongings on a little bus seat with them. Some situations were more complicated, with parents being natives of other countries but their children having South African citizenship and so many parents decided to stay in the country with their children and risk persecution. The ANC government really hasn't been stepping up to the plate.
To lighten the mood a bit, I didn't exactly bring a lot of professional clothes with me to South Africa so I wore the nicest outfit I had brought to my first day of work. Unfortunately, my pants were too long for me (even with heels) and as a result, my heels kept getting caught in the cuff of my pants and I had been stumbling over myself before I had even gotten to work. Then, when we were at the refugee camp covering the story, Morgan (the senior reporter and I) were running after the camerman to get a shot and before I realized what was happening, my heel got caught in my pant cuff and I landed face first on the cement platform. Not only that, but I literally flipped out of my shoes and landed barefoot with the huge camerabag still strapped on my back. Talk about embarrassing! I quickly got up, realized I had ripped my pants even further so much that there was no longer even a hem to them, and I just laughed. I've always been a clumsy person/accident prone, so I figured my first broadcast internship would be no different. :)
