Things to do in South Africa

Things to do in South Africa - Daniela Peguero

The currency in South Africa is called the South African Rand. On each denomination exists a different animal. The animals on the rand banknotes are called the Big Five and were coined under this term due to the difficulty in hunting them. The Big Five consists of the rhino, elephant, leopard, lion and african buffalo. These can be seen at a game reserve. I was fortunate enough to go to Umfolozi Game Reserve and see the animals in the Big Five. I’ve been told by many that it’s very rare to see a leopard.

The landscape in South Africa is one for the books. Durban, South Africa is a coastal city on the eastern side of the country. It’s beautifully located between the beach and the mountains. On my trip, I was able to go to the Drakensberg mountains, where I saw ancient old cave paintings. I was informed that these paintings could be as old as 5,000 years.

I was truly in awe with all the beauty that surrounds Durban. It was an amazing experience to be able to visit a beautiful country as well as research at the Pollution Research Group. I met students who come from all over the world, all wanting to work on improving sanitation. To meet people from different backgrounds but with a common purpose, gave me a global perspective on the sanitation challenge. This was truly a great experience and I hope to continue to partner on other sanitation related projects.

Photo 8. A family of rhinos

Photo 9. Cave paintings at Drakensberg

Photo 10. Me hiking a trail in Drakensberg Mountains

Comments

Welcome to the UC Davis Blum Center Blog!

Here you will find updates on our organization, and blog posts written by each of our Blum Fellows about their experiences abroad. Make sure to check out our website at blumcenter.ucdavis.edu, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCDavisBlumCenter to get regular updates and see our upcoming events.

Manufacturing in Phnom Penh by Purva Juvekar

During winter and spring quarter 2017, my teammates and I (Team WASHOut) designed a sanitation station using a Biosand Filter. This was our effort towards providing clean water to students in floating schools on the Tonle Sap lake. We were provided with the opportunity to go to Cambodia and implement our project in person through the Blum grant, and we worked with Wetlands Work!, our clients for the senior design class. Figure 1 Rendering of Sanitation Station We spent our time at UC Davis designing the station – sketches, CAD models, renderings, dimensions, engineering analysis and testing. We made a prototype in Davis, which we showed during the Senior Design Showcase in June, to test flow rates and water quality standards. The next step was to take the design to Phnom Penh and manufacture it there. We got to work as soon as we got there. My teammate and I were introduced to people on the WW! team who could help with translation, and we began scouting the city to fin...

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing, By Abe McKay

Pedaling for Water in Kisumu: Closing (3 of 3) 2017.09.12 In my second week in Kenya, I was back to visiting farmers, both with Vibrant Village and through other connections. However, I receive my biggest surprize in between site visits. I was walking with Ernest Kulali, a field officer and farmer from Vibrant Village, and he was telling me about the effectiveness of farming techniques. Using traditional methods, Ernest was getting 20kg of maize (corn) in a season from his shamba , his farm . When he switched to using purchased seeds and fertilizer, the same land produced 360 to 540kg of maize. What!? I had him run the numbers by me again, 20kgs → the range of 400kgs. I still didn’t believe it, but Nick the Vibrant Village director later agreed that farmers were seeing that magnitude of increase. Not just doubling their income/food supply, but a twenty-fold return! Further farming modifications will not yield as large a jump, but that sort of scale encouraged me that changing te...

UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Search This Blog