Ezemvelo - The Beginning

Now that we are finally in a place with internet (Skukuza), I can write about my first two weeks in South Africa. After one short flight, two really long flights and my first experience with extreme jetlag, I arrived in Johannesburg where I met up with the rest of my group. There are 25 of us all together. Most people are from small colleges in the US, similar to Colby, but we also have three students in the program that go to University here in South Africa. From the airport it was about a two hour drive to the first place that we stayed at – Ezemvelo. It was definitely a different experience to be driving on the left side of the road, and in addition, many of the roads were not paved so it was a bumpy ride. Ezemvelo is a nature reserve that is pretty isolated. Although it also functions as a campground, we rarely saw any other people. We stayed in a large building with two large bedrooms and two bathrooms. There was also a separate building that functioned as a classroom and dining room, a swimming pool and a lake to swim in. So here are the highlights from the 4 days we spent there:

Classes: It’s weird to think that this is actually a study abroad program that I am getting credit for – it feels too much like a vacation. The first few days were mainly filled with introductory lectures. We have four main professors, although other lecturers will be visiting throughout the semester. Although there are four classes, there is so much overlap between them that all of the professors kind of teach everything. Most of them have been with this program since it started about 7 years ago, and one of the lecturers participated in the program a few years ago, so they are all very knowledgeable. It’s also nice to have a group of professors that knows the students really well and can coordinate when all of the major assignments are due, so we aren’t swamped by work.  It’s definitely a different experience from Colby. There were frequently Vervet monkeys that ran by the classroom window, and we are all encouraged to walk barefoot everywhere, including to class (our professors never wear shoes themselves). It’s also been different to be in class for such long periods of time. The schedule changes every day, but we usually start classes by 8 and are busy until about 3 or 4, occasionally with early morning game drives or night lectures. Although we get breaks throughout the day, there is not a lot of free time for ourselves, so it’s hard to imagine how we are going to actually do homework and reading once they assign it. A large part of the first few days focused on the history of South Africa which was really interesting. One of the professors, David was involved in many governmental organizations and resistance groups during the time of the apartheid so we got a lot of first-hand accounts. We also started one of our semester-long projects which is an insect collection (It’s biologically-incorrect to refer to them simply as “bugs” but it’s a hard habit to break).

Animals: The wildlife here is amazing. There aren’t any large predators here so many animals have free reign of the area. Driving in on the first day, we got to see wildebeests and ostriches. We also had the chance to go on a morning game drive where I was able to see lots of zebras, warthogs, a black-backed jackal, springbuck, waterbuck, impala, and lots of birds. There was also a snake hanging around our rooms one night. Because there are no real predators, we were free to walk around whenever we wanted. It was quite the experience to be able to go running and see wildebeests and zebras running in the next field over.    

Weather: It’s definitely warmer than home, but it’s not as hot as I expected. It’s hard to get used to everything being in Celsius, but I think it’s been in the high seventies maybe? It’s definitely nice to be out of the snow, but it’s just going to get hotter as the semester goes on.

Pictures are taking forever to upload because the internet is so slow, but I posted them on facebook, so this link might work:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=628003&id=870290077&l=836459f48b