GABBY - We woke up feeling anxious and excited to meet the
mysterious John and Cheryl from Orange Elephant Backpackers at the Port
Elizabeth (PE) airport. I have been
communicating with Cheryl since February after discovering the volunteer
opportunity on an internet site called workaway.info. We departed from our 99 mile backpackers and drove
to the PE airport to say goodbye to trusty, ole’ Maria. Our agreed upon plan was to meet someone
outside of the Budget car rental at 10:00 in the morning. 11:00 quickly rolled around when Ben and I
decided to phone Orange Elephant. The
Budget employees were getting a bit peeved after these two people with bags of
luggage took up their whole row of seating and then proceeded to ask to use their
telephone. Ben worked his charm and
heard Cheryl’s voice for the first time on the phone. They had gotten the dates mixed up, but were
able to pick us up anyway. She reported
that John would be there in an hour from now (11:00). Instead of pissing off Budget more, we waited
in a coffee shop inside the airport for an hour before returning to our post
outside. At around 12:15, a white truck
pulled up next to us with an Orange Elephant Backpacker logo stuck on the side
door. A burly, bald, white South African
named John greeted us and helped us get our luggage in the truck. John speaks so quickly and incomprehensibly,
that I swear he switches mid-sentence from English to Afrikaans. We drove “home”, stopping at a Spar and
hardware store, while making small talk.
We talked about everything but what Ben and I really wanted to know – what
we would be expected to do at the backpackers.
On our way, he explained that Addo received a third of its total
rainfall in the past week and that there was lots of flooding in the area. We pulled into a squishy, muddy driveway,
which made the truck slide. Orange
Elephant Backpackers is located right outside of the Addo Elephant National
Park. We were greeted with 3 barking
babies named Ninja, Dopey, and Lucky. Walking
in, we met Cheryl, Corrine, and Kate.
Cheryl is the mamma of the house and seemed a bit shy, but sweet. She also was really sick with the flu, so I’m
assuming she wasn’t as bubbly as she usually is. Kate is their daughter who looks and seems a
lot like her mom. She sneaks in some
witty comments here and there, which make me chuckle. Corrine is a volunteer, like ourselves who is
from Germany and has been volunteering for 2 months already and plans to leave
in early December when her boyfriend gets here.
She has beautiful red hair and piercingly blue eyes. Corrine showed us around the place,
explaining policies and answering our questions we were too afraid to ask John in
the car. We share our flat with Sarel
(who isn’t here yet), which used to be a barn for horses. Our room has two twin beds pushed together, a
dresser, mirror, desk and supported by white, concrete walls. We walked over to the restaurant and organic
vegetable garden and met Hazel and Randy.
Ben and I were pleasantly surprised by their welcoming attitudes. Randy is a Canadian and extremely passionate
about permaculture He immediately took
Ben aside and started preaching to him about the state of the world,
government, and of course, organic farming.
Hazel took me into the kitchen and introduced me to her two smiling
Xhosa speaking sous chefs. She clearly
knows what she likes and will not let anyone or anything get in the way of her
cooking. She cooks with all vegetables
directly from her garden, which is strategically planted with vegetables
ranging from arugula to tomatoes to green beans. I really enjoyed spending time with them,
because they were both so passionate, energetic, and friendly. We relaxed for the rest of the day, reading,
writing, and internet surfing before eating a dinner cooked by the man of the
house. John put together a slow roast
with potatoes and butternut squash. We ate
in front of the TV watching Pawn Stars and Storage Wars (my favorite). Ben and I debriefed about the day and fell asleep
wondering what tomorrow would have in store.
No comments:
Post a Comment