Cape Town, South Africa - Days 3 and 4 and Stacey makes her first film!

Tricia and I started our day with another delicious breakfast and then headed out to meet some of my SAS friends in the Winelands. Our first stop was the Spier Wine Estate which houses a Cheetah Outreach program that rehabilitates Cheetahs. So though these animals were not in their natural habitat I still got to see a wild animal and one of the African big 5 that is.

I opted out of paying to pet the cheetahs and proceeded to sample some of the wine here. It was great to spend some time in beautiful Winelands of South Africa and with some great friends. We stayed for a while at Spier and decided that hunger was upon us so proceeded to Boschendal Wine Estate where we had heard a rumor they made these awesome picnic baskets. The rumors were correct and we had cheese, bread, curried chicken salad, different meats and salads. It was delicious and we spent a couple of hours here enjoying the ambiance eating and sampling some of the wine here.
Here I am with my friends:

The last stop of our wine tour was at the Tokara Winery and we chose this one because they also sampled olives and olive oil and I loved the olive tapenade so had to pick some up to eat as a snack on the ship. This was a very chill day and needed after yesterday’s outdoor adventure. We also met up with some of Tricia’s friends who drove down from Zimbabwe to meet up with us.

Just as to not forget the reality of a good portion of this country I took this on the way back to Cape Town from the wineries:

After the time in the wineries Laura, Tricia, her friends and I headed to dinner…pizza again.

Then it was the time we were very excited for…smores making. I bought marshmallows (white and pink ones), a variety of Cadbury chocolate bars (because that’s what they had), biscuits (their cookie equivalent and I could not find graham crackers) and fire wood. There was grill/fire pit at the Guest House and we invited some friends back to partake in a little smore making. It was a little challenging for them to find where we were staying but when they finally did we all enjoyed the evening and it was nice to spend a social evening off of the ship.

The next morning would be my final day in Cape Town. We ate our final breakfast, said an emotional goodbye to Fatima who treated us amazing our entire stay and then Tricia and I headed to the Waterfront so she could do some final shopping. Tricia and I parted ways – me to the ship and she to the airport. It was so great to be able to have someone from home to see a little bit of what my world at sea looks like. I know that it is always difficult to explain to people what I am doing and how this is so much more than a cruise around the world and I think she was able to gain that perspective. After I unloaded my belongings on the ship I knew that before I left all I really wanted was fish and chips to end my time in Cape Town. I met up with Midhun (another LLC) and his cousin who was studying in Cape Town for a final meal of fish and chips. After lunch we walked to Nobel Square- this is life-sized statues of four Nobel peace prize winners (Luthuli, Tutu, de Klerk and Mandela).

I walked around a bit more and tried to soak in my last little bit of Cape Town. This was a hard country to leave (for many of us); there was so much to see and I feel like I only scratched the surface. I do feel that I had a fairly well rounded experience given that I was only here for 5 days. I learned about history, met and spoke with some South African people, explored nature, spent quality time with friends and truly tried to take in all that was around me. I am excited to return here one day because I am sure that I will.

The days between South Africa and Ghana flew by pretty quickly but there is one thing that I want to share about. Before arriving to South Africa there was an announcement that there would be a one, two or three minute film festival and anyone could participate. One day Jenny (the LLC who does spiritual dance) and I were sitting watching an advertisement for the film festival and talked about the talent we had on the ship and how we wish we could do something like make a film. Then someone mentioned since Jenny had a Mac she could use something called imovie, so we played around with that for a little bit in shear amazement that we just may be able to make a movie too!! Anyone who saw us would have thought we were two little old ladies looking at a computer for the first time; it was pretty hysterical. So at that point we said we would make a movie and submit it to the film festival, though I was not convinced I would actually do it. When I was in South Africa I took a few video clips of some things that I saw, not really thinking about making a video, and lots of pictures. The first night back on the ship after South Africa I discovered I had something called Windows Movie Maker on my computer (who knew!) and proceeded to make my first movie entitled “A Little Piece of Cape Town” and enter it into the Film Festival. It was a combination of video of people singing, pictures from the townships, a quote and African music. I know that there are a lot of things that I am good at and I also know that there are a lot of things that others are better at then me. Making films is definitely a strength of a handful of people on this ship and some of the videos they have produced (like this one; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS4oz8XJme8&NR=1) are amazing so it took a lot of stepping out of my comfort zone to submit my slideshowesque film. But I did, I pushed myself to do something different (as did Jenny I might add!) and it brought me great joy. It happened to be the first film aired and was received with an overwhelmingly positive reaction (remember I have said that this is a super supportive community). I was very proud of myself for doing this and now when people ask me what I do for fun I will say snorkel (read Mauritius!) and make documentary films. I now do both of these things!!! 

(I am not quite sure how to upload a movie so I may need to wait until I get home to do this)