Monday, August 23, 2010

Development



An Austrian (Cash) from Long Street Saturday night…
“Only two things matter in life: sharing and love”
the guy standing next to him:
“and trust man, you can’t forget about trust.”


I think I was scared when I first got here because I felt like I was being thrown into independence. Not that I have the occupational responsibilities of someone fully independent, but being so far from anyone and everyone that I know was an experience that I could not have imagined before. The more I think about it though, the more capable and independent I feel. Knowing that I am hurdling the cultural obstacles here all on my own is more fulfilling than I originally realized. A couple of days ago I was walking to pick up my laundry and I saw a man…relieving himself…on the side of a building and when we made awkward eye contact he screamed profanity at me. I was so shaken up and so afraid that he was going to chase after me, I put my keys through my fingers in about a half second, but he didn’t come after me and I was fine. I know that I need to be aware of the homeless here, but I am also realizing that the vast majority of them are pretty harmless.
I hit another obstacle Friday when I was getting ready to go volunteer for lawco. I received a text message from our group leader announcing that all sessions would be canceled because the teachers in the township are on strike. At first I was so upset, those kids need to be in school more than anyone, it’s probably the closest thing to a safe place that they have. I wonder what they did instead of going to school that day. It sounded to me like this happens pretty often with the schools there. I also wonder if those teachers are being exploited, it must be one of the most challenging teaching jobs on Earth to expect kids to learn when it is perfectly obvious that their home conditions are hardly fit for living in let alone being academically productive. I was thinking about exploitation because I just learned that my house’s security guard, Farikai who is undoubtedly the kindest and happiest person I have ever met, is paid 8.3 rand an hour…that’s barely more than a dollar America. A dollar an hour! He has two kids and a wife and I just can’t imagine how he is supporting them on that, but nevertheless he is always smiling. As easy as it is to marvel at the mountains and sunsets here, the real reason why I came is for people like Farikai…he is the true inspiring element of this country. People that can find so much joy out of just living are rare and they are who I will learn from while I am here.
There are so many things that I miss about America, but already I am noticing things that I will be so sad to part from here. Definitely the campus, it is incomparable in beauty. Some of the weekly things too though, for instance the Old Biscuit Mill. This place is about ten minutes away and is described as a farmer’s market, but it is actually like a food extravaganza. I went there this Saturday with two of my housemates. They have local chefs serving everything imaginable and it is all incredible. The fresh baked pastries and breads, homemade granola (mine has cranberries added in), pesto sauces (olive and aubergine), smoothies, sandwiches, and foods of every nationality as well. I bought two muffins from this one really cute lady who sells the most beautiful baked good, she had these huge chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate…it took a lot of will power to not cave into those. There was also organic dark chocolate that tasted like pure heaven; I will definitely be purchasing that before I go home. I could go on and on about the food, it feels like a cultural experience just eating there. I met one man from Colorado at the market who is working here and he seemed so happy to meet a few fellow Americans. Even though we are all here to experience something different, it’s kind of cute how all the Americans feel a bond towards one another, like we are all each others' little reminder of home.
One thing that I instantly noticed about the environment though was that the crowd was probably 90% white. Some places here still have such a racial division. I could say that about things at home as well, but at home whites are the majority; it makes more sense when there are more white people around, but here that is not the case. I was talking to a South African today and his thoughts on the current state of affairs here was not unlike other South Africans I have talked with, the radical change in society is not taking place at the necessary speed. They call the majority of the population the masses here and that is unfortunately the poor blacks. It is very different for me to grasp that I am living in a country that does not have the kind of social and governmental stability that the United States does. One South African put it me this way: “The greatest thing about the states is that you guys always have a positive attitude, like there is nothing you can’t do. When an innovative idea comes about here, some people run with it, but there are always doubters.” I think with time the South Africans will develop more strength in the faith of their people. Trust takes time, historically social revolution seems to take an evolution in humanity before results are truly seen. The South Africans are a good-natured people though, they avoided civil war in the 90's by bonding together despite all of the violence in their past and I think that if they could do that...the can accomplish much more than even they realize.

It's kind of incredible to me that while South Africa is developing into a modernized nation, it is helping me to develop into a more culturally aware person.

<3

Sunday, August 8, 2010

...week three :]

“We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.”

-Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Lawco wasn’t exactly what I expected this Friday. I was working with a small group of about five sixteen year-olds and explaining xenophobia to them. They didn’t know what the word refugee meant so one of the South African volunteers came over and instantly knew the word for it in their native language. I couldn’t even pronounce the kids names because most of them have clicks in them. I think they were having a really difficult time understanding my accent because I was getting a lot of blank stares. When I was finally able to ask them “if a refugee is in South Africa do you think they should receive the same basic human rights that you receive?” they answered no! By the time we got that far group time was over. I have never felt so inefficient. I know that it’s going to take time and that I will get a lot out of this program, but it’s obvious the first few weeks are going to be a struggle. As a class our group leader asked the kids to close their eyes and think about a time that they were scared for their safety and one girl was so upset by it she ran out of the room. I can’t even imagine what she was remembering, but it broke my heart just to know that she and, most likely, all of those kids have been through multiple life-threatening situations. Despite all of that though when it came to putting a play on at the end, those kids lit up! You could definitely tell which ones loved attention and they were hilarious.

Saturday was much lighter. It’s a long weekend for National Women’s Day on Monday so half of my house is gone on trips to the Garden Route and Cedarburg, but the rest of us want to save those trips for the Spring time. We left for the train yesterday around noon and took it to Simon’s Town. It was once a naval harbor for the Dutch and is now a precious beach town. I bought some vintage post cards from an antique shop of what the area looked like in the 1800’s; I love old photography. The girls and I ate at a restaurant called Bertha’s, which was right on the water. It reminded me of a place I ate at with my mom and Julie in Washington or Oregon on the water. I had the best calamari I have ever had; it was so fresh! While we were eating the seals were doing flips in the water right in front of us, it was really cute. It was the perfect day trip. The train station in Simon’s Town was destroyed by a storm so we had to take a bus from Fish Hoek to the actual town. On the way there some guy stood up on the bus and preached for about ten minutes about being a born-again Christian, he then proceeded to come down every row of seats and try to “bring us to Jesus.” I tried to be friendly and explain to him that I am Catholic, but he told me I am going to Hell if I don’t change haha so that was the end of that discussion. On the way back these obnoxious drunk guys were really hassling us about being American, but they were harmless. The train ride was really great! This African woman was helping us and told me that I need to take her back to America with me because everyone is rich there. She made me promise that in 2015 I will come back and start a huge business to employ her, I told her she could run the business with me. It was a pretty entertaining conversation; it was refreshing to meet someone so friendly.

Today, Sunday, was wonderful. We were supposed to go to the District 6 museum (apartheid) downtown, but it ended up being closed on Sunday. We took a mini bus down to Green Point, which could not have been more of an adventure. These buses (large white vans) drive up and down Main Street with one man driving and another hanging half his body out the window screaming “Cape Town, Cape Town” while hassling pedestrians to get in. It’s really nice though because they only charge 5 Rand (50 cents) to go any where along Main. They fill these vans until people are totally sardined in that van, it is crazy! Luckily ours was full, but not over-crowded. It had a disco ball and was blasting Lady Gaga remixes haha! So once we got there we had breakfast at this little cafĂ© and it was sooooo good! Best omelet I have ever had! I also had a tea latte with white chocolate and it was beyond words. Afterwards we walked along the coast for a while and the ocean was raging. The waves were huge and it looked straight out of a photograph. We ended up meeting up with one of our housemates, Sam, and her parents because they are here visiting. We went to the V&A waterfront mall and I finally got a new camera! It was a little more expensive than I was hoping, but it was so worth it. I have hated not being able to capture this trip. I also bought knee high leather boots so I am no longer the only white girl here without them. Walking around in flip flops was making me stick out like a sore thumb, the South Africans act like it’s 40 degrees here. My only other purchase was a cute ring; Kasey and I bought found some really cool ones for half out, such an exciting moment.

We all ended up going back to the house Sam’s parents are staying in and it was beautiful! It was just up on the mountain looking out on the waterfront, the artwork, architecture, view, and everything about it was incredible. So refreshing after living in this 100 year-old house haha. We had hamburgers and just a lovely little American meal:] It felt so homey to be with parents and it was really nice to hear their perspective on the area. I really liking it here more and more. I still miss home a lot, but I just feel so blessed to have this opportunity, it truly is a once in a lifetime experience. Anyway, I guess I’m rambling now. Just having a T.V. night with my housemates and doing lots of homework tomorrow! Exploring the world is becoming a lot less scary and a lot more exciting :]

P.S. Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, and Drake are awesome deterrents of homesickness :]

<3>

Monday, August 2, 2010

Happy Shark Week :]

It's strange how things can be so foreign and so familiar all at once. Most of the time everything feels different here...but then there are moments where I can't believe I am half way around the world. My bus rides home from school are more incredible than any other drive I have ever been on. The view of Table Mountain and the surrounding landscape is unreal, I feel like I am in a movie. I can't get over the way the clouds move around the mountain and make it look completely different almost every day. I'm sure this is boring to read about, but seriously...it is the most incredible thing I have ever seen, and to see it every day makes me feel so spoiled.

On a more interesting note...I have done a few fun things in the last week. On Friday afternoon I had lawco training for my upcoming volunteer work. I am going to be teaching 10-12th graders about equality and xenophobia this week. When I first heard the word "xenophobia" it was a vocab word in the 8th grade; the fear of foreigners. I didn't really realize how real the word was until coming here. In the townships many South Africans reject foreigners who come into this country as poor people looking for work. Hate crimes (as extensive as burning people alive) have been committed against refugees here and so that will be one of the issues addressed when I visit the township this week. I am so interested to see how the topic is received.

On top of my readings for lawco I have about a million pages of reading to do for my classes. It is pretty extensive here, and a lot of it in on the internet, which is really annoying considering I have to pay for the internet when I'm not in a computer lab on campus. We also have tutorials here, which are small groups that we have for each class that we are. They meet once a week and are mandatory to attend. If you miss more than two you're not allowed to take the final exam for the class. Most of my classes here are huge, one has 600 people! It makes me miss Albion so much. Sometimes it's nice because I don't feel like I always have to participate, but most of the time it is kind of overwhelming. The classes here are only 45 minutes and every time the kids in my class start packing up their things when there is still like 10 minutes left! It's so weird, the professors don't even seem to mind though. Things are definitely more relaxed here, I never felt high-strung at home, but sometimes I catch myself getting so frustrated with how laid back everyone is academically here. It is definitely a learning experience.

Ok, now...the house. There are 16 of us in our house and we somehow decided to have a house party Saturday night. It was insane, there were at least 100 people in our house. We all had door duty and I was basically standing there with my mouth hung open during my shift because I could not believe how many people were coming in. My shift was with Kasey, and since we are both girls we had Herman help us. It was so funny he kept telling all the ugly guys he saw "no ugly people allowed" and in a German accent it was soooo hilarious! The people looked so confused, it was kind of mean, but I just couldn't stop laughing. The DG I met, Betsy, was there as well. It seemed like every person studying abroad was at our house along with UCT's rugby team. Al and Kurtis (two of the guys in my house) are on the team and invited them all over...apparently mullets are in here amongst the rugby crowd because a lot of them were rocking them haha. I basically felt like I was living in a frat this weekend.

So the party ended at like 3am, the cops came multiple times (I was in bed thank God), and at 4am the bus came to pick up the 5 of us in the house that were going shark diving. So Kasey and I ran around waking up Herman, Kurtis, and Alicen while the bus driver waited. The guys actually got up pretty quickly, but Alicen couldn't get out of her room! The bus driver ended up having to kick the door down! It was sooo ridiculous lol her entire door frame is busted...I didn't even know people could really break doors down! It took about 2 hours to get to the bay where we went out on the boat. Once we got on the water I wasn't so exhausted though. On our way out to the sharks we hit a whale! It was so cool haha we saw a couple of them out there. Once we got to Shark Alley we got into our wet suits and got into the cage 5 at a time. The water was about 52 degrees and I thought my hands were going to fall off. The great whites were the coolest thing I have ever seen though. They got so close and every time one would swim up it just came out of no where! Their size was just massive, but while I was underwater with them I wasn't scared at all. The way they moved was so beautiful, I just felt at awe of how they moved. One caught a seal near us and jumped out of the water while tossing it around. I basically felt like I was on the Discovery Channel. I loved every second of it!

So now that I have written a novel...I suppose all that I have left to tell you about is that today is one of my housemate's birthday so we are going out to dinner for that. Kind of a boring Monday, but it is so welcomed after that weekend. I'm glad that it's August now, I want all my Albion people back at school so I can feel like this semester is moving along! I am really loving it here, but I just can't wait to be reunited with everyone. I'm already missing everything Albion wayyy too much. I'm kind of happy about that though, I think I'd be more worried if I wasn't missing my friends and family :]

Sorry for spelling mistakes, no time to edit, off to international politics!

<3 Carly