Forest Fires Blazing

On Wednesday, I got up and did a bit of scheduling to try to sort out my classes, then packed a lunch and met up with the ISU gals for a hike up Stellenbosch mountain. Hannah, Liz, Shelly (William & Mary in DC), and I made the 30 min trek across town to the base of the mountain, then hiked up for another 30 min or so before taking a break. We intended to hike further up to find a picnic spot, but all ended up sitting on tree trunks, enjoying the view and chatting away as we let the sun turn our hair lighter and skin darker (a paradox that Hannah brought to our attention). Before we knew it, we had to get back down so two of the girls could get to class on time.

I did not have a class to get to, so took advantage of the fact that the gym was at the base of the mountain to try out the equipment. After a quick work out, I met Kathrin and Carly at the pool for sunbathing and swimming laps.

Not too long after we arrived, we saw smoke rising from somewhere beyond the gym. Later, a helicopter flew over towing what appeared to be a container of water. We stayed at the pool for a while, enjoying the last real day of freedom before classes got into full swing. Then Carly headed home and Kathrin and I headed to the Adventure Center to plan for our upcoming visitors: Mom, Dad, Jim, Gina, and Susan for me (YAY!) and two friends from Germany for her. After spending an hour or so with our travel agent, Kathrin introduced me to THE place to get smoothies in Stellenbosch. The smoke had gotten thicker while we were at the travel agency and by the time we finished our drinks, the sun was blocked out by the black smoke originating from the mountain, so all we could see was a pink dot of the sun. It was eerie. We put on sunglasses for the walk home to keep the ash in the air from blowing into our eyes in the wind.

We had a braai (South African bbq) that evening in the courtyard of my residence, but the main attraction was not the fire on which we were grilling, but the one on the mountain. My roommate returned from volleyball practice to tell me that the flames were only feet away from the gym and she had a sore throat from breathing in all the ash. From the third floor walkway of our building (about a mile from the base of the mountain), the mountain looked like lava flowing from a volcano. For the girls from Arizona it wasn’t anything new, but I had never seen a forest fire in person and was amazed at the sheer power of the wind to spread the flames, and the human inability to contain it.

The fire blazed on throughout Thursday, Friday, and today. We watched as the wind carried it from one mountain to the next. On Thursday night, it was mainly burning on the far side of the mountain which created an amazing silhouette of red around the peak in the darkness of night. My camera wouldn’t focus right, but I’ll get pictures from Leena to share.

I got up today for a 10am class. Yes, I am writing on Saturday. “Negotiating Transitions” looks like such a fantastic course that I thought I would try it out, and I can probably manage at 10.00 – 13.00 class on a Saturday morning while most of my friends are still in bed. As much as I would love to take “Transitional Justice,” though, I will not take the course from 14.00 – 17.00 on a Saturday. I was back and forth on the class during the lecture. On the one hand, it’s a course with fascinating topics and it goes in depth on the topics and I think I would learn a lot that I can use in my future. On the other hand, it is a Saturday and the two professors were clearly incapable of saying in 10 words what could be said in 10 minutes. The question: could I handle such complete answers, knowing that I could hear what they said, go off in a tangent about a related thought in my head, realize I wasn’t paying attention three minutes later and start again and not miss anything? Not on a Saturday. But at the same time, I still felt so inspired by the end of the class that it was tempting. Until we went 20 minutes overtime and I lost patience.

At the end of class, a number of students address the professors about the fact that class was on Saturday (they seemed to be oblivious to the fact that study abroad students might be phased by this). After a long negotiation, we agreed that Fridays from 16.30 – 19.30 in Cape Town would be a much better meeting time for all involved (pending agreement by the International Office to find a venue and transportation), and I was happy again, despite just having agreed to take a course on Friday nights.

I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around. It was really too hot to do anything and the whole town felt dead. We had a surprise party for Ethan in the evening (he turns 20 on Monday), and then the most amazing thing happened: it rained.

Logically, we changed into our swimsuits, set up the slip ‘n’ slide into the inflatable pool, and played in the rain and sprinklers.

We all had dinner at Carly’s, then Kathrin came over and we watched Scrubs on my bed. It made me miss my Leiden roommates. In December it became habit that several nights a week we would watch a movie in Annamieke’s room if we got started early or an episode of Scrubs in my room if we didn’t finish up reading and papers until later in the night.

As I go to sleep, I don’t see any more flames in the distance.