pictures from fish

me, Anna, and Jess in front of the farm stall


me, Jess, Carmen, and Anna at the campsite


me and Anna on the river


Carmen, Anna, me, Jess, and Shelley

fish

I finally left Grahamstown for a weekend! It's a very small town to be in for four straight months, so it was nice to have some new surroundings for a few days. We went to Cradock, a town that is about a three hour drive into the interior of the country in a region called the Karoo. It was so different from a road trip in the States! Monkeys are the ubiquitous roadside animal, rather than squirrels. We even saw giraffes at one point! It doesn't matter how long I'm here, I still have those "Wow! I'm in Africa!" moments.

The Karoo is a very Afrikaans region - something I didn't know before I went. I'm used to seeing signs in both English and Afrikaans, and hearing it occasionally, but once we hit the Karoo it was so different! Afrikaans was so dominant! When we stopped at a farm stall on the side of the road, the proprietors greeted us in Afrikaans. In Cradock, we met people who didn't even speak English - only Afrikaans! Definitely a different world for me.

Every year Cradock hosts "Fish," a national 'canoe' race down the Great Fish River. (South Africans call them canoes, but they look like kayaks to me.) We camped at a campsite near the river and had such a good time! Friday was consumed by a neverending feeling of smugness after us four girls put up our tent very quickly and easily. Saturday was the big race and we all went down to the river to watch and cheer the kayakers on. We got a spot near the "wier" (man-made waterfall) and more often than not, people would fall out of their boats and we'd have to help them. The weather could not have been more perfect - we had sunshine all weekend long. It's finally turning into summer here and I'm loving it.