Shark cage diving etc.

Yesterday, I went shark cage diving!! At 4:45 am my alarm went off, and I met 4 friends downstairs. At 5 we were picked up by a large van, that was to take us to meet the sharks. Unfortunately, we were the first group to be picked up, so we had to pick up 5 or so more groups before even heading in the right direction. We arrived at our destination around 8 am. I downed like 2 cups of coffee and 8 croissants before getting onto our boat. We were warned that the water would be rough because of the intense winds, but nobody expected THAT much roughness. A boy that lives in my house was signed up to go through a different program, but his trip had been cancelled due to the wind. Literally, half the people on the boat threw up before the end of our journey. We were also given pills before boarding to reduce sea sickness. I was fine, no sickness for me. Although, I was wearing about 10 layers and was still shivering the whole time.

We saw the first great white shark after about an hour of sitting and waiting. The first group of divers, 7, were getting into wet suits, ready to get in the water when the captain starts telling everyone to sit down. There was a huge commotion and we all returned to our seats and tried our best not to get into anyones way. It turns out another boat, similar to ours, was in trouble. A big wave came and knocked out both their engines and 3 passengers had gotten head injuries!! We had to rescue them!!!!! We took off in the opposite direction at a very speedy pace. For a while, the crew on our boat was tossing the other boat a rope while they were caught in some rapids between two islands, and some rocks. The water was rough. Finally, our boats were able to connect with a piece of rope so we could tow the other boat. As we towed, the rope broke and snapped back, hitting a crew member on the other boat in the eye!! It was wild. Eventually, another boat came and helped. In the end, I guess they were the heroes.

Everyone was a little bit curious about whether or not we were even going to get to cage dive after all this, I heard someone ask a crew member about it, and his response was. "THIS IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES HERE!!!!!!" Pretty intense. We did get to cage dive after all...and it was awesome. Some of my friends weren't feeling too well on the boat , but we were the second group to get in the water. We put on full body wetsuits and we all got in a cage that was attached to our boat. The man throwing the bait would tell us when to go down and which direction to go to. We didn't use oxygen because the bubbles scare the sharks away. I was on the end of the cage and the shark was trying really hard to be my friend. We made eye contact and at one point he was about a foot from my face. The trip was very much worth it; I had a great time.

On Saturday, CIEE took us to a vineyard called the Nelson Estate in Stellenbosch. It was beautiful and we got a small tour and then got to taste 5 or 6 wines. The owner also came out and talked to us about a project that he has been working on to redistribute land to colored people in South Africa, since the majority of it is owned by white people. We also got a delicious lunch. After that we went to this other place in Stellenbosch where there was a rehabilitation center for cheetahs. I saw lotsa cheetahs they were cute and cuddly. We also got face paintings!!

This afternoon I am hopefully going to this township that I might volunteer at. It's pretty intense and time consuming, which is the only reason I might not do it. You also have to teach a class of 30 kids all by yourself...I'm not sure how good I'd be at that.

Tomorrow is my friend Danni's birthday, it's gonna be real fun, and we're having a huge party at our house on Friday night.

On this past Friday night, my friend Stephen had made a South African friend on campus and invited us to his friend's party that night. We went, and it was a blast. I met a ton of new people and they had multiple bon fires and an ice luge. I might even go rock climbing at a climbing gym with one peep that I met at the party tonight. We'll see!

Bye friends