Day Five
~ Today we left the touristy,
sight-seeing scene in the Cape Town region and traveled to Stellenbosch, where
we began the orchard tour aspect of our trip. Our first stop was at the
Stellenbosch University. We listened to a few professors describe the school’s
horticulture program. The speakers were articulate and passionate about their
subject, but I hope, for their sake, that the rest of our group was more alert
than Ken and I were during the session.
~ It was easier to stay awake in
the afternoon when we toured a plum farm operation. First, we went out into the
orchard and heard from a field director about that side of the farm workings. Since
it is summer here in the southern hemisphere, the fruit harvest is just
beginning. It was especially interesting
to Ken and me to watch the workers picking the plums. Inside the packing plant,
(which the owner described as “a top of the notch facility”) we saw equipment
that is like ours back home, but we also enjoyed hearing about the different
techniques used for packing fruit other than apples. In their operation they
handle all the plums they raise, of course, but they also pack citrus fruit and
table grapes raised by farmers in surrounding orchards.
~ At one point, when the orchard
manager was giving us some history of the farm, he described a discouraging
time when their packing plant was destroyed by fire. I understood him to say that
some disgruntled workers had started the fire, and someone else in our group
understood that it happened during a time of rioting due to protests against
government policies and this plum farm happened to be targeted. In any case,
the fire was deliberately set. My heart went out to these orchard people,
remembering how devastating it was for us to experience our apple storage fire
twelve years ago. I tried to imagine how much more difficult it would have been
to process the loss, if we had known that our fire was intentional.
~ In the afternoon, our group
went to a botanical gardens spot in Stellenbosch for a wine-tasting event. It
was held outdoors, among beautiful trees and plants. I don’t think anyone
noticed that Ken and I didn’t pick up wine glasses. I nibbled on a few tiny hors
d’oeuvres, very lovely-tasting indeed, and wandered over to the gardens. Let
the others sip their wine, I thought, while I am quite happily intoxicated with
photo-taking among the flowers and watching a mother duck and her only child
paddling in the lily pond.
~ I loved my walk with Ken in the
evening. We left our hotel and walked along a rocky stream with a beautiful backdrop
including a mountain that reminded me of Table Mountain. I kept spotting my
favorite trees in the town. Jacarandas boast a multitude of purple flower
clusters that look so stunning among the white buildings of the Stellenbosch
University Campus. The blooms give off a lovely fragrance, too.
~ We ended our walk by having a
bite to eat at a streetside pizzeria. Our ham-mozzarella-basil pesto pizza was
perfect for two. Eating our supper at a patio table in the warm summer evening
somehow gave me Niagara-on-the-Lake vibes. We went back to our hotel and played
a game of Boggle. In our scoring system, Ken ended up winning a 4-pointer for
our yearly tournament, by having at least 100 points more than I had at the end
of ten rounds. Oh, dear! Just wait till I’m out of this jet lag fog. Then he’d
better watch out!
Day Six
~ On our way to visit a huge
orchard in the Ceres area, we passed by numerous vineyards, groves, and produce
patches. Some of them had electric fences on the side that bordered the road.
These fences are designed to deter thieves from stealing and stockpiling
produce during the night. Our guide told us that the fruit and vegetable vendors
we see weaving among the traffic at intersections are likely selling goods that
were stolen from nearby farms.
~ Here in South Africa, traffic
lights are called robots. They have even changed the name on GPS voice
instructions in this country. At the second robot, turn left…
~ We were impressed with the
mission statement of the large company whose farm we visited. In an
introductory presentation, a farm manager described the company and told us
their mission statement. Their goal is to “Cultivate wellness one harvest at a
time.” Four core values are dedication, reliability, orderliness, and dignity
of humanity. Ken and I thought it sounded very similar to the aim of our
orchard business, too.
Nice housing for the workers' families
~ Before lunch we toured an
apple-growing section and a pear section of the farm, and in the afternoon, we
saw part of the cherry orchards. Managers of these different areas gave talks
and presentations, and answered questions from our group. For lunch, we had
poke bowls, with options for the meat and starch, and some of the vegetables.
There were boxes of fresh cherries to dip into for dessert. As I was eating my
delicious lunch, I looked at the way it was packaged and thought about all the
work it takes to make a trip like this happen. So many individuals are
involved, most of them behind the scenes, and I am truly grateful to all!
~ I never tire of hearing the
accent of South Africans. I mean the ones with the British bent. Or is it
Australian? I clearly heard it when the main speaker talked to us in the
orchards. He used the phrase “on a daily basis” quite a bit. Only it was
dah-eye-lee bah-eye-sis. Love it! I want to remember a phrase that he used when
he didn’t want to elaborate on a certain issue: “I won’t fall into detail on
that.” With my propensity to detail something to death, I could use a good
reminder to simplify things.
~ In a crowd of strangers, I have
always enjoyed seeing facial features and expressions of individuals that are
similar to those of someone that I do know. My sister Annette and I used to
play this game quite a bit, and we often agreed on the answer to the question
“Who does that person remind you of?” On this trip, as I interact with a group
of 100 people whom I didn’t previously know, there have been plenty of times that
I’ve asked myself which family member, friend, or neighbor this or that tour
member makes me think of. Sometimes Ken and I do it together and it’s fun when
we agree. Other times, both of us know that the stranger reminds us of someone
familiar but we can’t quite think of who. Does anyone else do this kind of
strange activity?
~ I decided last night at supper
that I can handle only so much noise and persons crammed into a small space for
so long until I am so ready to get out of there. On the way home from visiting
the orchards, our group stopped at a restaurant for a late supper. Our two
busloads of people pretty much maxed out the space. Ken and I were at a table
of ten and we had to practically shout to be heard by the ones across the table
from us. Everyone else in the room must have been in the same predicament,
which only added to the volume in general. Back in our hotel room, the quiet
was a gift. So was my night of sleep that was not fraught with any bouts of
insomnia.
The noise was high level at the restaurant, but so was the deliciousness of its sorbet dessert.
Day Seven
~ We had another day of touring orchard country. The farm we visited raises apples, pears, and blueberries. It was situated in a beautiful valley. The workers there could never say the background scenery of their workplace is boring! On this tour, we walked a lot to get from plot to plot, which was a nice change from the two previous days.
~ It was fascinating to observe the different ways this business tries to improve their production yields. One block we walked through had apple trees with all their branches grafted on. The owners didn’t like the strain of apples that the trees produced, so they cut off all the branches (brahnches 😊) and grafted onto each tree as many as 15 twigs from a variety they did like. Many of these new branches “took”, and in only two years, the farmers were getting up to 80% of full production yields from them. Amazing! But that method is far too labor-intensive, says my orchardist husband.
~ Another method this farm uses
is the two-leader style of growing the apple trees. (When I first heard them
talking about this system, I thought I was hearing “two-liter trees”, you know,
like 2L bottles of pop) The trunks of these trees look like a Y, because they
come up from the ground as a single trunk and soon they angle off into two.
This formation is accomplished by allowing two main branches, or leaders, to
grow when the tree is young. The idea is to essentially grow two trees out of
one, thus producing more apples as a result.
~ In this region of Africa, they
don’t have a recycling program like we do in much of North America. Everyone
throws their garbage on a huge pile somewhere, in places known as the dump, and
elsewhere. People create their own jobs by picking through the garbage and
salvaging useful items, and scrap items that can be used for parts or to make
something creative. Needy people also scavenge for food scraps at the dump. Our
guide said that a community will help each other out by way of food, though. If
the more well-to-do have excess produce or other kinds of food, they will bag
it up and put it at the dump with their other garbage, and the garbage-sorters
who really need it can easily access it.
~ We also learned that just
because someone lives in a shantytown doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is living
in poverty. For many of those living there, the shanty is not their permanent
home. A high percentage of them leave their tribal community to work in the
city for only part of a year. They may choose to live in a shack temporarily
and focus on making money to send back home to their multi-generational families
who are living in the real home (which may be a nice, two-story house with
modern conveniences) and maintaining the work of the village.
~ A common phrase here is “plus-minus.”
It is used where we would likely choose the word “approximately.”
~ We ate supper in a building
that was formerly a railway station. The owner has used his ingenuity and
creativity to make a beautiful, unique food court and mini shopping mall. We
sat on benches and chairs at long tables to eat the various dishes that the
surrounding food booth workers set out on a main serving table. Overhead there
were several huge fans made from old airplane propeller blades that were
operated by a motor and a series of belts and pulleys. They and the metalwork
details of the place were quite intriguing.
~ Shortly before we left the
venue, an older gentleman who manned one of the food booths came up to me and
said that he had this unmistakable sense that he should tell me how blessed he
was to see Jesus in me and my husband. He talked about the Spirit’s ability to
work in the lives of people all over the world, and how that makes us family.
Tears welled in my eyes as he spoke words of encouragement. It was such an
unexpected gift of grace to talk with him.
Day Eight
~ It was a perfectly sunny and
summer-y day to go on a safari. For our choose-your-own-adventure day, we opted
to visit the Aquila Private Game Reserve. It did not disappoint.
~ On the way there, we drove
through a mountain by way of the Huguenot Tunnel, which is 4 kilometers long. I
tried not to think about how many tons of rock and dirt were above us as our
bus motored along. I think it must be the longest tunnel I’ve ever gone through.
It’s a good thing we didn’t encounter it on the trip when our children were
playing a silly game of seeing if they could hold their breath from the
beginning of the tunnel until the end!
~ At the reserve, we were able to
see four of the Big Five of African animals: water buffalo, rhinos, elephants,
and lions. (We didn’t see the fifth, leopards, because their hunting range is
beyond the borders of the reserve, and because they hunt/are active at night.)
We learned some interesting facts about these four, and about the other animals
we got to see.
Our knowledgeable guide, Max
~ Elephants are born with five
sets of reserve molars. Every ten years or so, they lose their teeth from all
that chomping, I guess, and they grow out the next set of molars. When they go
through their final set, they pass away of old age/starvation. They go to a
private place to die, and after their carcasses are decomposed, their elephant
community will give them a decent burial by covering up their bones with dirt. Elephants
are emotional too; when an elephant family member dies, they mourn the loss
with crying, much like humans do.
~ We finally got to see baboons,
for real. There were several we could see on a mountainside in the distance,
but one baboon came right up close to our safari vehicle and put on a show of picking
something off a bush and eating it, scratching itself, and looking at us as if
deciding whether to climb aboard or not.
~ Later, up at the visitors’
center where our group had their buffet lunch, we saw another baboon,
definitely in an area where it was not welcome. We were carrying our plates of
food to a table on the patio when suddenly a baboon seemed to come out of nowhere.
It leapt up on a table next to ours and started grabbing fistfuls of food, with
both hands, right off a young lady’s plate. Immediately, some busboys and a
manager drove the baboon away. The girl sat there looking a little bewildered
but chuckling some, too. She was so chill about it all. She actually was going
to keep eating the food, but the manager took her plate and told her to go fill
another one. Ken asked her later if she got a video of the episode and she
laughed and said no, but indicated that she doesn’t need one, she has clear
enough pictures in her mind!
~ Now I know how to tell whether
an ostrich is male or female. The male has dark brown or black feathers and the
female ostrich has lighter, grey feathers. She’s a little smaller than he, as
well.
~ Zebras are black, with white
stripes, rather than the other way around. Apparently, if you shave a zebra, it
will be all black. That’s how you know.
~ A group of giraffes that are
standing is called a tower. If they are moving, they are called a journey.
~ Rhinos don’t wait for the 1, 2,
3; they just charge. If you’re ever charged by a rhino, you can escape by
running away in a zigzag pattern, because they can’t turn themselves very fast.
The kick of a zebra is four times as powerful as a horse’s kick, and a
giraffe’s kick is ten times as hard as a zebra’s. A giraffe can kick all four
legs, just not at the same time. 😊 An ostrich can kick hard enough to kill a
human. If an ostrich comes after you, it is best if you lie down flat on the
ground. You could probably survive an ostrich stepping on you – although it
would really hurt – easier than one kicking you. All of these were pleasant
facts indeed to absorb while sitting in the desert jeep out in the natural
habitat of these animals…
~ It didn’t seem like a Sunday today. But we heard some lovely Laudate Choir music on our phones, and listened to the message that our pastor preached at our church this morning. That was refreshing. Isn’t it quite something what we’re able to do with our modern technology?
A bookish man we met in the park
So interesting. I so enjoyed the info on all the animals!
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