St. Lucia, South Africa

This past weekend we rented a car and drove about 4 1/2 hours to St. Lucia, South Africa. The only cars available to rent were manual drive and luckily, Emily knew how to drive them. Rachel and I felt bad that she had to do all the driving, but there was nothing we could do about it. Down here they drive on the left side of the road and everything is in kilometers instead of miles, so that was quite an experience! The speed limits are really odd, changing from 100 km/hr to 60 km/hr quite rapidly and its not always clear what speed limit you should be going. In the states, alot of these roads would have been 55 mph. So guess what? We got a speeding ticket, haha! As we were coming down a hill, following a truck who was also speeding, there were a couple police cars stationed at the bottom. One officer was watching through video the speed at which cars were coming down the hill, then one of the others would step out in the middle of the road and flag us to pull over. They stopped us, the truck in front of us and about 2 more cars at the same time. Emily had to step out with her license and go to another officer that showed what they clocked and then wrote out a ticket. We were going 79 km/hr in a 60 km/hr zone. Rough conversion, 60 km/hr is about 37 mph. Which seemed like crawling on that road. And just after where the police had stationed the speed limit changed to 80. It was kind of crappy, but the fine for the ticket was 60 Rand (which is roughly $7) so we just split the cost and went on our way. It was kind of a joke really! Even the ticket was written on old fashioned carbon copy paper.

The rest of the way we made sure to watch the speed limit closer and we followed the directions we had written down from google maps. We didn't get lost at all either. Although, crossing the boarder into South Africa was kind of sketchy. The road to get to the boarder station was a dirt road with few signs telling you where you are going. The facilities didn't look all that impressive either and directions of what to do were confusing. But we made it through just fine.

Once we arrived we booked into a hostel called Stokkiedraai for $15 per person. I guess its the off season because no one else was there. It was like we rented a whole flat to ourselves. The ladies at the front desk were nice, but pretty interesting. One of them, with the worst smokers voice I've ever heard, was very proud of her pet pig named Bacon, which was HUGE and apparently sleeps in bed with her. She was even recieving presents in the mail for its first birthday and showed us how she gives it kisses. It was strange, but they were still nice. After getting our things inside, we quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed to the beach! To get there we had to drive a couple miles to beach access. These beaches are "untouched," meaning there are no hotels, restaurants, homes or bars on the beach. The only building of any sort was a small bath house next to the parking area. The beach wasn't crowded like popular beaches are either. It didn't really feel like we were still in Africa.

It was a perfect day for the beach. Clear, blue sky, and nice warm weather. The water was actually quite cold, and the waves were very large so we didn't do any swimming. The waves were strong enough to knock you down if the water was up to your knees (it happened to Emily!), so we mostly just waded in the waves that washed up onto the sand. We stayed out there for about 2 hours or so then decided to head back in. I guess in our excitement to get to the beach we did a poor job of applying our sunscreen. I completely forgot my legs until I got there and was sandy, and thought "ah, they probably don't need it." I couldn't have been more wrong, they got FRIED!!! Even areas that I did apply sunscreen to got slightly burnt! I was pretty mad at myself because I know better, but it was too late. I'm still hurting!

That evening we grabbed dinner at a seafood restaurant across the road from our hostel. It was pretty good and it was nice to eat something different for a change. The hospital we are staying at provides us meals, which at least once a day is the same Chicken and rice dish. Its not too bad, and I love Chicken and Rice, but still, change is welcome after eating it almost 20 days straight! We ate fish and "prawn" which is what they call shrimp. They also cook it VERY differently. They just slice down the back, without shelling it, cook it and serve it to you. Head, legs and all still attached. It was really good, but difficult to get the meat out of. And it was extremely buttery so it was kind of messy. I also enjoyed a couple glasses of wine for less than $2 each (which is an awesome price!). After we ate we walked around the town and looked at little shops and markets. They sold fresh pineapple on the street so we bought some. It was very good! Better than any I've bought in store, and it was 10 rand, which is about $1.20. Once it got dark, we went back to our room, watched a little TV for the first time since we've been here and then called it a night.

The next morning we woke up about 6am and decided to swim in their pool around 7. It sounds crazy, but the sun had been up for more than 2 hours at that point and it was already quite warm. Assessing our sunburns, we decided to wear our clothes to the beach, just to go look at it and enjoy it a little more before leaving. This time we drove down to the Estuary (where the river meets the ocean) and walked around for a bit. After we had our fill of the beach, we ate an early lunch and headed back to Swaziland since the rental car was due back by 5pm. We made our way back without any problems and ate some chinese food at the mall. The internet wasn't working very well last night, if at all, so we didn't get to talk to our families and loved ones to update them on our weekend. But its back in full strength today so I'm thankful for that.

This week we are working in the Antiretroviral clinic, where individuals with HIV receive their medications and treatments. The doctor we were with today was very nice and tought us alot. Even after he finished all the patients he sat and answered many questions that we had. Anyway, I need to get to some assignments that are due at the end of this week that I've been putting off. I honestly kind of feel like I'm on vacation instead of rotations!