SKYDIVING!

Before I talk about jumping from 9000 feet. I want to talk about the safari posts. The pictures are a little out of order  and for every one picture you see, I probably took about 5 others. With no one sitting next to me I went a little camera happy taking over 500 pictures! Also, I wrote almost 6000 words and there are probably more typos than there should be - my apologies! I figured the posts were already 3 days late because of the uploading pics, I wanted to get them up as soon as possible. Other than that, enjoy!

I scheduled my skydiving session the day before I left for safari. I have been thinking about it my entire time here and I figured once I had the nerve to call, I would be too busy at the lodge to go through the trouble of canceling.

I used Skydive Cape Town, the same company  the other volunteers used before I got there. It was an hour and a half away with out traffic and I was scheduled to to jump at 9:30 so once again I had a really early start to my day.

I got there and I was immediately instructed to fill out the waiver form. I then paid. You pay before so that if you chicken out or something happens they still have your money. I decided to pay for the guy to where a camera on his wrist so that I have a video if the experience.

Once all that was taken care of, I met the guy that I would jump with. His name was Paul. He was a  white guy, in his mid-40's, with long grey hair. He looked as though he had been doing this for a long time, but he was really nice and energetic. He gave me some facts about what I would be doing:

20 minutes plane ride to 9000 feet
Jump at 9000 feet
Free fall for 30 seconds (covers 4000 feet) (120 mph)
Parachute opens and we glide down for 4 and half minutes at 35 mph
He does the landing

All of this time I wasn't that freaked out. It still didn't compute what I would be doing. It finally registered when I saw the people that were scheduled to jump at 9 o'clock go through with it. I saw how high the plane was and how fast the people were falling out of the sky.

When the plane landed, it didn't stop. It simply landed turned around and we jumped on to it while it was still moving a little bit. There were no seats in the plane except for the pilot and we were pretty squished in there with me, Paul behind me, and another tandem that was going to jump first.

The fist 2 minutes of the plane ride, I was still pretty rattled from seeing the other people jump. After that, I began to calm down. As the ground became more and like a landscape and less like individual trees and cars it actually was easier to deal with. For a good ten minutes, I was legitamately enjoying the fantastic view of Table Mountain and Cape Town. The only evidence that I was nervous was that my mouth got very dry.

The last 5 minutes of the climb I started to feel my heart rate increase, especially when my Paul signaled to the pilot "TWO MINUTES." I know it sounds a little cheesy but the last two minutes I tried to think about the fall and if I could deal with what I dealt with then, I could jump out of this plane haha.

That all went out the window, literally, when the other tandem opened the door. They put their left foot outside on to a step under the wing, then moved their right foot to the ledge and jumped. I'm starring out the window in astonished amazement at how fast they were falling out of the sky.

20 seconds later it was my turn.Paul made the same motions, gave the thumbs up to the pilot and he pushed off.

The first 5 seconds of free fall I was in absolute sensory overload. I could feel the wind pick up (understatement) as we came closer and closer to terminal velocity. Once I got my barrings, or became aware of what was going on as much as I could, Paul put my arms out and I was skydiving. I tried to enjoy it as much as I could. I was smiling, looking at the spectacular view as well as the camera. I said something to the camera at one point, as you'll see on the video when I get back, but I don't know what I said.

With no warning, I felt a massive deceleration. It wasn't a jerking feeling. It was like if someone pushed (not slammed) on the breaks really hard. We shortly got our new speed at a "calm" 35 mph.

He let me steer the parachute for a while. It was pretty cool but when you turn you accelerate very fast because your cutting through the wind. The last two minutes I was getting a little nauseous and just wanted to be on the ground. He explained to me later that the adrenaline at the beginning of the jump depleted my sugar reserves. I had a chocolate bar when I got on the ground and felt a lot better. 

All in all I'm glad I did it  Coming from the kid that is scared to go on some of the smallest roller coasters I am still unsure how I managed to build up the nerve to do it. I think it definitely has something to do with what I went through in the fall.Will I do it again? probably not, but I went through with it.

There is only one new volunteer that is joining the program for next term and she arrives tomorrow. It continues to be one of the most eventful and interesting weeks of my life.