Broadway in South Africa 2010: Day 14 - Travel Day

Blog series chronicling the experience of 'Broadway in South Africa' during their 2010 trip to South Africa.

Day 14 - Travel Day
Sunday, January 24, 2010

Today was the last day of the project for most of the group. Courtney and Paris left after we got to Johannesburg since they only had one week vacation from their Broadway shows. (Courtney is Carla in In the Heights and Paris is in the Tribe at Hair.) Tracy, Lisa, Lilli, Jared, and Jon-Erik left today to fly back to JFK via Atlanta. Adam, Frankie, Chris, and I are staying another week--we're driving to Vaalwater today and then teaching at a school in Waterburg on Monday and Tuesday.

We have been working so hard that every minute has flown by. Even though most of the gang will be back in New York after today, we'll still be posting on the blog. We've had a very hard time getting internet access throughout the trip so there will be a lot of posts once everyone gets back to New York, so they can tell you all about the trip from a sensible American wireless.

After we got into aiport, we had a van come to pick Adam, Frankie, Chris, and me up and drive us to Vaalwater, which is three hours north of Johannesburg. We all fell asleep the minute we got in the van. Luckily, our drivers were two teachers from Waterburg Academy where we were teaching and not the driver from Vanderbilj Park who drove us an hour in the wrong direction, so we could sleep and know we were going to end up in the right place.

We did wake up for the last hour and the countryside is definitely different from anything we had seen so far. t's VERY rural so there are basically no buildings, and just a few people walking along the side of the road (Where are they going?! They are walking down a single lane street in the middle of Africa!) We pulled into the driveway of the home where we were staying for the next two nights. It's the home of Jan (that's YAHN) and Kathy Montgomery--Kathy founded the school where we were teaching to we were staying that their home as their guests. When we drove through the gate we saw a giraffe! Just hanging out next to the driveway, munching on some leaves. Then another giraffe, then another giraffe! Then my favorite, a kudu (Adam and I made up a song about them. No, you don't get to hear it. But I must say, it's brilliant.) A kudu looks like a large deer--a very large deer--but is more of a dark taupe and has white zebra-type markings on the side. By the way, that is pronounced "ZEBB-RAH." They made fun of us for saying it with a "ZEE."

We also saw some impala, which looks like a gazelle, but with curvy horns. (P.S. Turns out they don't have gazelles in this part of Africa. I'm sad to say it was the first of many "just because it happens in The Lion King doesn't mean it really happens" moments for me. Also, cheetahs don't eat giraffes. And you'll never find a meerkat in the jungle. Don't tell Julie Taymor. I'm sure she already knows because she is a genius, but let's not tell her, just to be safe.)

Kathy and Jan introduced us to their three daughters, each of whom is more beautiful than the next. Just realized we don't have any pictures of them, but trust me, they are three beautiful, incredible articulate blonde girls. They cooked us a fantastic dinner on their gorgeous outside patio overlooking the savannah. After that we were all beat so we went to bed at...10pm. Which for a bunch of New York actors is like normal people going to be at 4pm. And we stayed here:

Yep. That would be a thatched roof hut. When I walked in, there was a frog on my bed. And a big spider on the net (there is a giant tent inside the hut that you zip up like a camping tent). Luckily I'm from Ohio and I love camping so I was loving it. The boys from Boca Raton and Long Island were less excited, to say the least. Fell asleep listening to the sound of frogs and bugs and bats and who knows what else.

Next up, teaching at Waterburg Academy...

-Jen

Needless to say, there was no internet in said hut so I am actually writing this on January 31st, sitting on the beach in Cape Town on my last day before we fly to Johannesburg in three hours. So forgive me if my tenses are inconsistent and I try to back-write these entires. (Those who know me are not at all surprised that I just preemptively apologized for inconsistent tenses. Now the rest of you know me a little bit better.)

Broadway in South Africa is a cooperative nonprofit venture created by professional working actors, dancers, signers, directors, musicians and producers from New York City - all brought together by the desire to affect change in the world through art, and learn from the potential of bridging two different cultures artistically.

For more information on Broadway in South Africa, please click here.

 

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