Weekly Schedule

A while ago an awesome guy named Val English came out to visit from Northern Ireland. Apparently he's from Portstewart. He stayed in George for 2 weeks and while he was here he got involved in loads of the stuff OAM is doing. He's a recently retired pastor so he knows his stuff and we had the privilidge of having some lectures with him over the 2 weeks. He also spoke at the local youth fellowship a couple of times and gave devotions in the morning. He was a top class guy and it was a pleasure to get to know him. Before he left he even went out and bought us all bibles, in his favourite translation - the English Standard Version, which is a pretty solid version.

This is more of a typical week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually the same, with Thursday being open for different lecturers each week. Friday, the blue square is for a recreational activity. This week we headed up to the nearby Strawberry Farm, and played golf afterwards.

Jeff is an American. One of my favourite books is The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne; and much to my joy when Jeff takes the lectures we actually go though that book, and the lectures become even more discussion based than usual. He asks us to read a certain few chapters in advance, and then come with questions, and we debate stuff. Its awesome. Vicky is Jono's wife. Jono is the main guy in charge of Life Academy. Thus 'Vicky's Place' is the same as 'Jono's Place'. As of recent she has begun to teach us to cook. This has been fantastic as I haven't a clue. This week was Easter, so Sports Academy on Monday, and Blanco on Tuesday were cancelled because apparently the kids don't come on holidays. Kidstop continued however, in fact much stronger than usual, so we used our free time to help out a bit extra there.

Joy is Vicky's Mother. Marthinus is a hardcore adventurer who takes us kayaking and rock climbing and abseiling etc. Monday morning is super chill. We have devotions in the morning, and then while the staff are having a meeting we give their office a once over. 'Chores' are just general housekeeping- Cleaning toilets, raking leaves etc.

As you can see, activities often switch about. But there are set slots which things fit in to. You kinda know what the week will be, but you never know how it will play out. Its good like that.

The House

Left: Admin Office | Right: House (and communal banter area)

By the side of the house. My room is the left window.

Kitchen

The dining section of the main lounge area

This room is used mainly for meetings by the staff guys, or for lectures with us.

There is a little 'bonus house' called a flatlet out the back of the main house

There are also 3 bathrooms: 2 with toilets. And 4 bedrooms, with enough beds to sleep 16. Since there are not 16 of us, or anywhere near it, I have a room all to myself. Although recently the door handle broke, leaving me locking inside for a grueling 5 minutes. Since my rescue, I’ve had to put a door stop in so i can leave it ajar, lest I become once more trapped within. Ive also discovered that its much easier to simply leave my clothes and belongings strewn across the room, rather than in any particular arrangement. Well, easier once I’m done with them, not easier when I need to find something.

We’ve got a tv too. But South African TV is horrendous. 60% soaps, 30% WWE, 10% Oprah. Adverts every 1o minutes, with 70% of the adverts being those crazy frog-esque “text this number and get a ringtone” adverts. The rest are about insurance. It hurts to watch tv. Hurts my soul. Food is cheap here though, you can buy a full apple pie for a quid, so I often spend my free time just munching on stuff instead.

Calitzdorp Spa

Our hike ended at Calitzdorp Spa. Where we would spend the night, and the following two days. Our campsite was awesome. Henry’s family came up on the evening of Hike Day 10. His wife, and three kids. Henry owned a very cool caravan. It had loads of ‘bits’ that slid out and fitted together and stuff. After taking these out and putting up a tarpaulin roof, we had a nice little living area with tables, a stove, a fridge, a freezer and sink, (probably other stuff too) that all slid or folded out from the side of the caravan.

Mitch and Henry assembling the living quarters

After we had showered and changed clothes, we went to explore the resort. The first thing we found was a swimming area. There were three pools here, each filled with water pumped directly from underground springs. The largest pool was as one would expect from a swimming pool. Big, filled with warm water. Nothing too special there. Well, the water wasn’t actually heated at all. In fact it was cooled, quite a lot. The water from under the Earth is roasting hot, so it had to be cooled to make it bearable for swimming.

The aforementioned 'large pool'

The second pool was quite different. It wasn’t cooled all that much, in fact in may not have been cooled at all. It was ridiculously hot, to the extent that never was a person found in it. It hurt to even touch a toe into the water. I can’t think of why it was such as it was, but such as it was, it was. We left that one alone.

Check the steam coming off the warm pool, imagine how hot the hot pool is.

The third pool was larger than the super hot pool (which was about 2m by 4m) but smaller than the larger, normal pool. Temperate wise it was also between the two, with a leaning towards the hotter. This pool took a bit of getting used to, and sometimes it was a bit too hot to be comfortable in. It wasn’t so much a swimming pool as a floating pool. You were just meant to soak and relax in the hot water.

I didn’t dry myself after swimming, I simply walked the 100 or so metres back up to the caravan and I was dry by the time I arrived, such was the heat of the day.

We then discovered a set of cement tennis courts. When we played here later I decided to play barefoot, since I had completely written off everything I wore during the hike, including my boots, and I thought it impractical to play in sandals. Turns out I should have gone the sandals route- within about 2 minutes of playing I discovered a large blister on each foot. Large may be an understatment, they were each about 2.5- 3 inches in diameter. Pretty much the whole ball of my foot was a massive blister. Still, I played for about 2 hours. Contrary to my first assumption, it didn’t really hurt that much and I was able to get around pretty fine.

While sitting relaxing in the evening, having a Braai (delicious barbecue food makes a very welcome change from the meals on the hike) and chatting, we noticed some Springbok (the South African national animal) just walk on by. They were seemingly just allowed to roam on through, along with peacocks and all kinds of crazy cool birds.

After dinner we discovered the roman bath. The roman bath is a bit hotter than the warm pool. At first I found it hard to bear and had to keep getting out, but walking up after I felt awesome, apparently the spring water has cleansing properties and for the next half hour I felt all tingly and cool. Over the next few days I would often go to the roman bath sporadically throughout the day, since it was just 100% free time.

I had a great time staying at Calitzdorp Spa, and it was great end to the gruelling hike. It was also very nice to be able to interact with other actual people. Thus ended our trip. Time to go back and get on with the gap year program.