Student Post from Emma Esposito

Today we had a splendid time contemplating the origins of humanity and the mind-blowing scope of evolution taking us from cavemen to the slaying, watermelon travelers we are today (thank David for our nickname). This morning we were awoken at the crack of dawn for an 8 am breakfast (quite disgruntling for those of us who are unaccustomed to rising at such a ripe time). I personally excused myself a little early from breakfast to sneak in a 25 min snooze before we met for some morning discussions about life in our host country. Following our discussion (lots of tea was spilled, quite literally), we hopped in the slaymobile and set off to revert to our primitive ape-like instincts frolicking in a nearby cave. So, we ventured to the Sterkfontein Caves to see the “umbilical cord of civilization” or “cradle of humanity”. Along the way, I saw ostriches!! Arriving, we donned our hairnets and hard caps in preparation for the underground exploration. After a few minutes of browsing the museum, we finally hiked to the sinkhole entry. Spending an hour and a half down in the belly button of humanity, we explored the stalagmites, stalactites, rock formations, and archaeological sites of early fossil findings. Contrary to common thought, the skeletons were not from cavemen but perhaps rather an ancient burial site. Luckily we have adapted to load shedding (besides the mall incident…) and were well accustomed to the (almost) total darkness inside humanity’s stomach! Naia befriended some locals and Matt so kindly scared us as we crawled through a dark tunnel and he popped out at the end. We only bonked a few heads, some more than others (David…) but had a jolly good time frolicking in the rocks. We got our daily taste of hydration slurping from the cave water pool, before ascending to the surface to take some selfies with statues of archaeologists who so kindly discovered the bowels of humanity for us to explore.

Next, we had a glorious lunch of chicken wraps and Twist, along with a few rounds of 20 questions. Then, for my rose (highlight) of the day, we went to the Maropeng Visitor Centre for a time travel extraordinaire. Entering the museum, we were loaded on little boats and then floated down a water path. Sort of like Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride except instead of singing children it is eerie caves and thundering noises as we float under a tunnel of fake snow. After this adventure, I personally had a marvelous time meandering through the interactive exhibits, exploring the birth of the universe and the creation of life to the emergence of modern-day humans. While I was living it up satisfying my craving for human origins knowledge, the rest of the group decided to have some sort of dance battle and then leave me behind wandering the ancient past. No worries, our leader of the day eventually realized I had come out of the museum and was wandering the savannah, and then we all enjoyed a breathtaking view (did not enjoy the stairs to get there, however). It was amazing to see the changes of not only the world but our own species, like our phalanges purpose adapting from climbing trees to now texting and writing blog posts…

After, we begged to return to the mall, since our mall adventure the day before had been rudely cut short to load shedding. Apparently, stores do not give you notice when they are closing due to the lack of power/lights and happily leave you changing in the fitting room in the complete darkness while locking up the store! Anyways, a few pairs of jeans later we returned back for a scrumptious meal of dumplings and mystery meat, followed by a sufficient and heartfelt reflection, lots of which I echo here and also in our journals. Afterward, we had a slayhive meeting in Suzy’s room, crashing her quarters to use up David’s face masks and attempt to earn some side hustle money by performing tik toks for @cieeglobalnavigators. They followed me, so that basically means we are going viral. We hastily cleaned up our clay fidgets and skin care center and scurried back to our own rooms after the threat of load shedding was imminent. For a solid 3 minutes, we thought we were safe and would remain with light, but were just full of false hope as the power soon cut off at 10:03. Guess I’ll have to pack in the morning as we head off to CAPE TOWN!!! Everyone is looking forward to traveling, from the beaches to souvenirs to wildlife! Catch up with us later as we surf the cape:)
-emma