kruger national park & the colors of mpumalanga

We had a week off of school in April and IES took us on a nice little vacation. We left on the first Saturday and flew to Joburg and then drove 4 hours to Nelspruit. Joburg is in the Gautang Province in the north and Nelspruit is in the Mpumalanga province to the west of Gautang, about a 4 hour drive from Joburg and near the Swaziland and Mozambique borders. That first night we stayed at a backpackers in Nelspruit and then left for Kruger at the crack of dawn the next morning -- literally, we had to be up at 4 am. We arrived at Kruger just as the sun was coming up and right at the gates was already a herd of elephants grazing! It was really amazing.

Disclaimer: I will likely say "amazing" about pretty much everything I describe in the coming entry -- it was arguably one of the best weeks of my life.

Going into the park I wasn't sure what to expect, but already the scenery was beautiful. Rolling hills, only bush for miles and miles - Kruger is the size of Israel! We saw so many elephants on that first day. At one point, we were driving along a road next to one of the rivers and a herd of 20 + elephants crossed the road in front of us and went into the water!

To be out in the wild like that is an exhilarating feeling that I have never experienced before. We, the humans, had to stay in a caged area, whereas the animals are roaming in the open. I think its great.. the way it should be. They were here long before we were.

At the end of the first day we saw 2 lions right on the road -- apparently this is really rare to see them so late in the day. You have to be really quiet when you are near animals, especially predators. Lions are huge! Mostly, I will never forget the look in that one lioness's eye. We drove slowly toward them to get a better look and it looked right into my eye. Our guide told us that especially with predators, you can't make any sudden movements or put any parts of your body outside the frame of the car because it could cause it to attack. And the look in that lion's eye -- I did NOT want to mess with it! It's different from seeing them in the zoo because there they are relatively domesticated, but not in Kruger.

The second day was really exciting, especially in the early morning. We saw a cheetah and her cub and they were tracking some impala! (Impala are a type of antelope). You could tell the impala knew the cheetahs were there, and thus it was unlikely that the cheetah was going to get it. Cheetahs are fast but only over short distances. While it didn't catch the impala, watching it prick up its senses and survey the area like that was unreal. Cheetahs are endangered so seeing that was really lucky and our guide said it was in his top 10 cheetah sitings -- and he has been a Kruger guide for 8 years! We ended up seeing 3 cheetahs total that day, which is really lucky because there are only 200-250 cheetahs in Kruger, and over a large expanse of land.

On our third day we left Kruger and I was for sure sad to go. You see pictures of animals in the wild, but seeing them with your own eyes is something completely different. It gives you a new sense of your minute place in this world, a new sense of personal safety, but most importantly a new sense of the beauty of nature as it was meant to be, as it was for so long before humans took over a ruined so much.

One thing I have really appreciated, from all over South Africa, are the skies. When I went on that overnight hike in the Hex Mountains, I remember my friend John talking about the stars at night, unfettered by pollution and how it reminds you why they sky was so important to people in the premodern world. That last night in Kruger, me and Lull laid down in the ground and looked up at the sky for a long time. The moon was full and clouds were moving in scattered formations across the sky and it was breathtaking. It felt simultaneously like I was looking at the sky and like I was under water.

On the day we left Kruger we drove back towards Gauteng through Mpumalanga Province and stopped at a number of places along the way. Firstly, I'm really glad that we got to see a bunch of countryside outside of the Western Cape, which is the richest province in South Africa. I want to see a diverse array of the other communities in South Africa. There were lots of shacks scattered throughout the mountains. It was so beautiful though. We stopped at some waterfalls and Bourke's Potholes, which is a canyon with these pothole like crevasses in them. My favorite stop along the way, however, was Blyde Canyon. This is the third largest canyon in the world and it was breathtaking. Surreal, completely.

homestay weekend

March 22, 2009

Right now I’m going to skip straight to talking about my homestay in Langa this past weekend. It was really quite an experience. Langa is one of the black townships in the Cape Flats, east of the city centre and north east of Mowbray where I live. Townships are the areas that the blacks were moved to during apartheids when the white government rezoned the city to separate all the different races. They are traditionally very slummy places, because that’s the only option the white government gave to the blacks. They were only given electricity and running water after the liberation struggle in 1994 and there are still a lot of makeshift shacks that make up most of the townships. Langa has shacks, which they call the squatters, but there are also lots of areas with small houses, some even somewhat larger ones, but still all very close together. Anyway there are about 1 million people who live in Langa and the majority are Xhosa, which generally denotes that they speak the Xhosa language (which has clicks in it) and have specific traditional rites of passage, etc.

Anywho I was staying with this woman named Ncediwe (of course her name has a click in it, so I can barely say it). She is 51 and was born in Langa and has been living there most of her life. She speaks Xhosa and she lives by herself, but her family lives all around her. She has 3 children who are all grown up (her oldest daughter lives in the UK, and her two sons still live in Langa). She had her first child when she was 17. Her youngest son, who is 27, has a daughter named Nandelo who is 4 and lives with her mother and grandmother (not with Ncediwe’s son, Nandelo’s father… more about that later). Nandelo spent a lot of time with us and it was awesome to be able to hang out with her. On Friday when we got to Langa we had a small meal with all of my other IESers and their host families and then went our separate ways. Me and Julie were together staying with Ncediwe and we headed back to her house, and had another HUGE meal that Ncediwe’s mother made for us. I’m telling you I ate more food this past weekend than I ever have in a weekend before. They love their meat and they love their massive portions. Then we just kinda chilled and went to bed early because we had to be up early on Saturday.

On Saturday we got up at like 6 am and went to pick up Nandelo as well as Ncediwe’s friend Tiny from work and Tiny’s son. Then we all went to the preschool, that they call a krush (I have no idea if I’m spelling that or even saying that correctly), and the entire krush and their families took an hour long bus ride to Gordon’s Bay, which is south of here, and had an all day braai (barbeque) at this small water park right on the beach (it only had like one water slide and a pool, nothing huge). We just lounged around all day but it was actually really fun. Our group sat with a few other women and their young children and the kids just ran around jumping in the water and stuff and we sat there and talked and ate and napped on and off. It was really relaxing. The other kids were soooo effing cute. The other two families we were sitting with, aside from Tiny and her son, were this one Xhosa woman from the Eastern Cape and her daughter, and this Tswana woman and her 7 year old son and 4 year old daughter. There were tons of other coloured kids and families as well as other Xhosa, etc families too. It was cool to hear so many languages being spoken. Me and Julie were also the only white people there which was also quite interesting… people always look at you. Not necessarily in a rude way, but still.

Some of the parents and even the teachers got sooo drunk. It was kind of funny actually. They were just yelling and being ridiculous. At one point one of the teachers just completely ate shit and fell over when she was playing with some of the children. It was hilarious. I kept thinking about what it would be like in the States if someone did that.. if one of the teachers got drunk at a function with the parents of their preschool kids. And it would NOT go over well. One of the cultural differences I suppose.

On the bus ride home, a lot of the parents were still drunk, and they ended up getting into a yelling match with some of the teachers because when the bus was dropping people off, it dropped the teacher off pretty much at her house in one of the other townships when the parents had been told that they could only be dropped off in specific places. That was quite something to see everyone yelling about it, especially because I thought that some of the women were a bit too drunk to be formulating a coherent argument.. but at the same time I don’t know the situation quite as well and my host mom seemed to be agreeing with them.

I also had a really interesting conversation with some of the women about marriage and men and relationships. The Tswana woman that we were sitting with (I never caught her name unfortunately) was talking about her father and how he has two wives. Her mother was the first wife, and they had 5 children together (including her) and then only in 1995 the father took a second wife and has had 3 children with her. He also has 2 other children with 2 other women. Apparently it has caused a lot of tension in the family and between the two wives and their respective children. She said she is not happy with the situation and that her mother says the only reason that she stays with her father is for the children. When I asked her if she had spoken to her father about it she said she did not want to “hurt his feelings”! I know it is a cultural difference but it is so hard for me not to feel strongly about this because of my feminist ideals. Overall though they were saying that no matter what, men will not be faithful and there will always be another woman on the side somewhere. You just have to decide how you deal with it. Also, no matter what, if the man gets sick he always gets sent back to his first wife and she is expected to take care of him, whereas is the wife gets sick she is sent back to her original family.

I also noticed in general, when surveying all of the different families that my fellow IESers stayed with, the families were generally consisting of all women and children; grandmothers, mothers, children, aunts. There certainly were men, just much less and often they were sons rather than husbands or fathers. Nandelo is the daughter of Ncedwie’s youngest son, who is 27. Nandelo’s mother and father are not together though and Nandelo lives with her mother and her maternal grandmother. On Saturday night we were getting together to watch a movie in the living room and the speakers were not working so Ncedwie called her son to have him come by and help out. He gave Nandelo a hug when he came in but otherwise there was not very much interaction. I didn’t realize until after that that was actually her father! I am trying not to make judgments, but in my world it is so much more customary for the father to be involved, even if he does not live with his child. Obviously this is ideal and doesn’t happen all the time, but it just seems that the family networks are certainly more distinct here.

There was an obvious communal nature to everything that I really admired. When we were at the braai we were sharing everything with the different women and children around us and half of them Ncedwie had just met that morning. We were all lounging around and the women were braiding each other’s hair and lying on each other. It was really nice. We all talked freely, for me at least as much as I could when they were not speaking Xhosa. Overall it was a really mind opening, great experience that I am really glad I had the opportunity to take part in!

Crime-ing, Bike-ing, Wine-ing

I'll start this entry talking about some of the crime stuff that has been going on lately. We have had stuff stolen from our two houses on Church St on two different occasions now (ipods, wallets, cell phones) and then Jeremy got his laptop jacked from his room. A lot of this took place this past Saturday when everyone was out of the houses because they were getting fumigated (yes, a lot of people had fleas in their beds and there was an ant infestation in Phil and Pat's room. It was disgusting. Luckily I wasn't one of the people to have any issues in my room, but nevertheless I still got my room done just in case). IES and our security company have been looking into it, but it is clear that having one security guard at the house isn't enough to keep our shit safe if we are all gone for the night, or multiple nights which is how its going to be in a few weeks when we do our homestay, and then when we go to Joburg and Kruger for April break. There have been suggestions that maybe one of the security guard either stole the shit or helped facilitate it, but some of them have also been known to get drunk on the job or fall asleep so that's a possible explanation too. Heine, who was my boy, got fired for smelling like alcohol on the job, and Roy also got fired for being drunk on the job. Its sad because those were two of the guards I talked to the most, but I actually never had any idea that either of them were drunk whenever I was talking to them.
Either way, theft here is really common and it is becoming more apparent to me as I have now been here for almost 2 months. The other day I went to go get pizza with Moses in Rondebosch, and as I was walking towards the pizza shop I saw a car parked kind of half way up on the sidewalk. Someone was dumb enough to leave their car window open and right there in the middle of the afternoon some guy was just reaching into the car and stealing the person's wallet and cell phone. Its sad but at the same time, how can you be stupid enough to leave your car window open with your cell phone and wallet in there? Either way, we have started to become really anal about locking all our doors. I've been putting my laptop in my closet a lot of the times when I leave the house and I am generally too scared to sleep with my windows open and my door unlocked no matter how hot it is.
On to more happy things... this past weekend a group of us went to Stellenbosch, which is a generally white, Afrikaner community about 30 or 40 minutes east of here that has a ton of vineyards in and surrounding it. It kind of reminded me of Cape Cod actually. We got there on Saturday morning via the backpacker bus, and checked into our hostel, which was really cool. It was kind of half outside, half inside, with a ton of awesome communal space with couches and a pool table and kitchen and a pool. We ended up hanging out there for awhile later on in the day after we walked around downtown. It's a pretty quaint little town but there were some cool shops and stuff. I've come to realize that a lot of the white culture here makes me somewhat uncomfortable, and I noticed it a lot in Stellenbosch because of its white population and Afrikaner history. The white Afrikaners were the party in control during apartheid and you can kind of tell how elitist they were/are. When I was in the hostel me and Suzy met this American girl who was visiting South Africa for a few days after spending a few months in Tanzania. We talked for awhile about the differences between Tanzania and South Africa, and how racism is so much more of an issue here whereas it isn't really present in Tanzania (she said that you certainly stand out if you are white but that's about as far as it goes). She was saying that the night before, her and her boyfriend went to a bar in downtown Stellenbosch and it was all white blondes playing heavy metal and she kept having to do double takes to make sure she wasn't in Nazi Germany or something like that. Obviously that's an extreme comparison, but I see where she is coming from. Of course it is not that extreme at all anymore, but many of the local whites I have met here have been snobby and I have certainly heard my far share of racist comments. However, I don't want to generalize about the entire white population, because I have certainly met plenty of non-snobby, un-arrogant whites here as well. I suppose its just more than I expected and it kind of took me off guard initially.
That night in Stellenbosch we went to this restaurant called Moyo, which is based at one of the vineyards that we visited the following day. It is entirely outdoors and there are treehouses everywhere. It was an all you can eat buffet of traditional South African foods and there were dancers and drumming going on everywhere. It was really cool but at the same time (of course I can never turn off my anthropological approach lol) all of the workers were black and most of the customers (although certainly not all) were white. It just made me feel like, to an extent, people come to Moyo, an overpriced although definitely an experience of a restaurant, in order to feel like they are getting a "traditional African experience." While I may not know exactly what that is given that I am in South Africa, which has the highest level of development on the entire continent essentially, I know that you are not getting such an experience by simply going to a fancy, unique restaurant.
The next day we woke up early to go on a biking tour of 4 Stellenbosch wineries and vineyards. It was completely awesome! There was one relatively intense uphill part, but other than that (and the irony of going wine tasting, getting somewhat of a buzz, and then hoping on a bike? Although it is legal to do so in SA) it was a pretty easy ride and it was a lot of fun! I now know some more things about wine that I didn't know before, like how to smell it and then drink and search for the aromas in the taste of the wine. I really loved the end of the tour when we got to absolutely tear it up going downhill through the windy vineyards. We also stopped right before our last stop at a dam and went swimming in it. It was pretty gross water but either way it was refreshing as hell.
I'm finally starting to ACTUALLY feel like I live here and its pretty amazing. I'm so glad I still have about 3 months left and don't have to think about what its going to be like to go back yet. Of course there are ups and downs to both, but at the very least right now I'm glad that I will be able to enjoy the rest of my time here and continue to further my experience.

backpacking in the hex mountains

March 5, 2009

This past weekend I went on a backpacking trip to the Hex mountains, which are about 2 hours north east of here. It was a trip with the Mountain and Ski Club so it was all UCT students. There were about 30 of us and it was awesome! We had to leave on Saturday morning really early. Me and Bubba got in a car with 3 Capetonians, Daniel, Emma and John. They were all really nice. I ended up hanging out with John a good amount later on when we got to our spot in the mountains and he was really cool and pretty into trance so hopefully we are going to hang out again sometime. Anyway, I managed to fit everything I needed into my LL Bean backpack, although I found out that its actually really cheap to get good backpackers backpacks around here (only like 300 rand which is under 30 US dollars!) so I think I'm gonna go get one of those pretty soon. The land we were on in the Hex Mountains is actually owned by UCT. We drove to this big field and then hiked about 30 minutes to a dam. You can jump off the dam into the water. Its about an 11 meter drop which is around 40 feet! I did it but it was definitely pretty scary. I've done jumps off of quarries in New Hampshire before that was about as high but for some reason this scared me more. It REALLY hurt my ass when I landed, haha, I guess I didn't land very well. Anyway that was really sweet. Then we took about a 4 hour hike up the mountains until we reached this valley type area. There was a raised portion in the middle of the valley (this whole valley area, by the way, was completely surrounded by mountains, it was ridiculously beautiful) that we slept on, and at the food of the mound there was a stream and a gorge that the water drops down into and creates a waterfall and a swimming pool. It was so ridiculously beautiful I felt like I was in a movie, especially when everyone was swimming in it and the sun was setting. Watching the sunset that night was unreal. The stars were like nothing I've ever seen, even in more rural areas of the States. Here you can't see the big dipper, but you can see orion's belt really well as well as the southern cross. That was cool actually because Bubba has that tattooed on her leg cause her dad is Australian and its on their flag. Anyway, we slept on the ground overnight, and a bunch of the South Africans brought a bar up (which, by the way, I can't believe they carried. It was kind of an intense hike with huge backpacks on our back!) which was really funny. Everyone was walking around with their head lamps on. I got to chill with a lot of locals, which was pretty cool. I have noticed though that the mountain club is majority white, which is interesting.
About the terrain - going up was actually pretty hard. Evidently we took the harder route there, going straight up and over the mountain to get there as opposed to around. We were literally climbing upwards on huge rocks and through massive fynbos bushes. Let me tell you something about fynbos, which is the local brush in a lot of areas around here - they are spikey as shit. My legs are really cut up right now. The combination of that and a minor sunburn was not pleasant. I made it though and it was totally worth it.
I also started SHAWCO this week. SHAWCO is the largest student run organization on campus and they organize a tutoring/mentoring program with underprivileged kids in the area. A lot of programs go to the townships, and mine goes to an orphanage. Its all girls and we are tutoring them in math. Firstly, I like it because I am the only American in my group of UCT students, and I am going every week so I will definitely be able to make some friends in my group. Also, the girl that I tutored on Monday was named Zinzi, and she was sooo sweet and good. She is 14 and in grade 8 and I really enjoyed working with her. I know some of the girls are more difficult (they have all suffered some form of abuse and/or neglect) but overall I got a really good feeling from the place. Some of the girls are older and they all seem to have good spirits and we had fun playing and hanging out with them towards the end. I can tell they love it when we come, and they love the boys especially which is pretty fun. I am really glad I'm doing it and I look forward to doing it every week for the rest of the semester.
It has been kind of hard to motivate myself to do work here, although I do enjoy most of my classes. My religion class is really cool, and Afrikaans is pretty awesome. I'm hoping to be able to have a conversation pretty well by the time I leave here. Two thirds of the Western Cape province population speaks Afrikaans so I can definitely practice it here. We have had two social-economic development classes so far and I can tell that I'm going to like that class too. We are actually doing a volunteer placement for that class where we will be volunteering once a week for 6 weeks a social welfare/development agency. That should be really interesting so I'm excited for that.

L-I-V-I-N-G

Things here have really been picking up, I don't know if I'll even be able to get everything in this entry! Last week I went on my first outing with UCT's Mountain Club. We went to Lion's Head, which is this peak that is right on the coast and, when its clear, you can see for miles all around you once you get to the top. We went up around 5 so that we could see the sunsut from the top. It was a cloudy day, so at first I was a little disappointed because as we hiked up the mountain, we could see that we were literally walking into a cloud. It ended up being really cool though, even though I definitely want to go back on a clear day so that I can see the views. You could see the cut off as you climbed from where you would be able to see the beaches below us and where the cloud began. As we got higher we were totally enveloped in the cloud. It was soo cool once the sun started setting because you could see the outline of the sun through the clouds, but the color of the sunset shaded the entire cloud. It started off pretty subtle and then got really colorful and beautiful. I got some awesome pictures which I will be uploading onto facebook soon, so be sure to check them out.
My friend Kayla, who I grew up with, was here on semester at sea last weekend and a bunch of my housemates and I met up with her on Long Street for dinner. We went to this place called Khaya Nyama, which means "house of meat" in Zulu. I tried crocodile, kudu & springbok (which are types of antelope) and ostrich. I actually had an ostrich fillet for dinner. It was pretty good, but I had been told that it was amazing and I liked it, but wasn't crazy about it. The crocodile was surprisingly good actually, which surprised me because I was under the impression beforehand that it was going to be the toughest meat out of all of them. After that we went to Hemisphere, a club downtown that I have been to before. Its on the 31st floor of this building so there is an awesome view of the city. The dancing that night was awesome. Me and Mel actually started dancing with a bunch of local black girls. At first I think they might have been a little weirded out by our "strange, American" dance moves, but after a few minutes we were all just having a great time together. Overall it was a great night.
There have been a lot of good nights out here so far. I think the best two nights I've had by far are this past Saturday at this bar called the Waiting Room, where they were playing really awesome funk music and there was a place to chill on the roof, and this past Wednesday at this local bar called Roots. Their Wednesday nights feature trance... and many of my friends know how much I LOVE trance music. For those of you who don't know, trance is a type of electronic music with really strong, heavy beats that come in and out. It was AMAZING. I met the DJ that played the first set and he was really cool and is performing at Vortex, this trance festival that is happening in April that my friends and I are DEFINITELY going to. Everyone else had a great time too so I'm glad that I appear to be spreadin' the good word in that realm.
Other random tidbits from recently... we had stuff stolen from our house. Yes, we have a gate around the house and yes, we have a security guard. But my housemates have had a tendency in the past of leaving the front door WIDE open because they thought it was "ok" because we have a security guard. Unfortunately, the security guards aren't always there, and at 4 or 5 am they have been known to fall asleep, so as a result people who left their stuff in the living room got it taken last weekend. I think it was two purses and an Ipod. Luckily I didn't leave anything in the living room, but its still kind of freaky. We are definitely being more careful about locking the door now.
I also have been spending a lot of time at UCT's pool this week... which is, of course, awesome. It's only a 5 minute walk from my house and there is an awesome view of Table Mountain from the pool. I'm really starting to feel like I live here. It hits me especially when I'm walking around by myself (which really only happens during the day). It also hits me when I realize the little subtleties about this country that aren't present in the States.... Like hearing multiple languages every ten feet as you're walking through town; seeing flocks of locals at KFC (which is the biggest franchise here, haha); getting used to local slang like "dodgey" instead of "sketchy"... in fact a lot of the vernacular here is very different from the US. Being here really makes you realize the things you love about your country that you would never have even thought of before (just basic comforts of being local and not perceived as foreign), but it also makes you realize was is great about this country as well. I'm having such a great time I'm so excited that I still have 4 months left!
Soon to come: Gay Pride-Cape Town, concert on Sunday, bike and wine next weekend, skydiving the weekend after that... and soon, my 21st birthday! Yay!

Travels and Classes

February 27, 2009

Today was the first day of classes and it was pretty exciting, despite the fact that it means I'll have to start doing something academic more regularly now. I got to walk around campus by myself a good amount and it often leaves me wondering if people are aware that I am American just by looking at me. I feel like it is often easier to tell if people are in groups, but when I am by myself I wonder if I'm still obvious (as long as I'm not talking and displaying my accent I suppose). My first professor for my religion course is actually American but I could tell that he has been living in South Africa for some time now by the way he spoke (not accent but otherwise) and the topics he brought up. At first I was kind of annoyed because I wanted a South African professor so that I can get a better feel for that, but he actually seems really smart and funny as well and I think the class will be really interesting. It will be nice to get an American expatriate South African resident perspective. I also started Afrikaans today which seems like its going to be somewhat challenging but I am excited to learn it.
We started our IES program history course last week and actually went on a west coast excursion up the coast to the north of here with our professor for that class. On the first few days of the week last week we had intensive history for 3 hours everyday, blah, but we also registered for clubs. I'm doing SHAWCO, which is a volunteer organization, so I will be going to an orphanage in a township at least once a week all semester starting next week. I'm also doing Habitat for Humanity and the Mountain Club. The Mountain Club seems like its going to be awesome, they do hikes at least once a week and the first one is this Wednesday and I can't wait!
Anywho, on Thursday morning we left really early and went up the coast to a prehistoric excavation site and got to see the remnants of some extinct species... it was sooo hot out but interesting I suppose. We stopped at this amazing place right on the water for lunch. The back porch of the restaurant was 30 yards from the water and there was a beautiful view with a jedi, and clear water and people swimming. We ate some really good fish there. Normally I don't like seafood but the seafood in this part of the world is soooooo good!
That night we stayed at this resort in the mountains with hotsprings. It was one of the most amazing getaways I've ever had. There are two pools, one hot one cold, on the main part of the resort area. The resort actually wasn't that big, which made it a bit cozier. There was a smallish restaurant, those two pools and then a few houses with suites in them that we and some other people were staying in. Behind the houses was a walkway up and then a bunch of hotsprings embedded in the mountain. The place we hung out at that night had two hot tube type hot springs higher up on the incline, and a bigger, cooler pool with a small waterfall right at the bottom. A bunch of us hung out there for a few hours and not only was the swimming amazing but you could see the most beautiful stars. You can't see the big and little dipper here like you can at home but orion's belt, or the three ladies as some people here call it, and the southern cross (although I couldn't distinguish that one that well). It was truly paradise, one of the best nights I've ever had.
Next day we went on a hike on the Sevilla Rock Painting trail to see a bunch of prehistoric rock paintings from the San people, who were the original settlers of South African land waaaay back in the day. It was soo hot out but there were really cool rock formations everywhere and it was sweet to see some of the paintings.
Friday night we got back late from the trip and were planning on going to the Big Bash, which is kind of like this homecoming party that UCT throws at the beginning of every 1st semester, but we didn't make it in time to get tickets so we just went to this bar in Observatory called Roots, which was really sweet. It was partially indoors, partially out and had sand everywhere, as well as couches and foosball.
That same night me Bubba and Mel met up with these guys we met at the UCT Springbok party the week before and went to Res, the UCT dorms, to hang out. The dorms are cool cause you can play guitar and stuff really loud until late at night. We smoked hookah and then went outside and smoked in this little dug out that keeps the wind away. We had a really good time with them, they are cool guys and we have good conversations. They are both white and from South Africa, and its cool to get a more local perspective and company.
Saturday I went to Camps Bay which is one of the beaches on the other side of the Mountain from the city and Mowbray. It is right at the peninsula with the 12 Apostles, one of the mountain areas, and its amazingly beautiful, as is typical around here. It was a good, relaxing time with me, Suzy - who I really like, Bubba, Sam, Louise, Lyle and Ruby.
Late Saturday and then on Sunday I actually felt a little down and out. I think I actually may have experienced a little culture shock that I definitely wasn't expecting. I was just really tired and feeling somewhat pessimistic. I didn't go out on Saturday night even though I wasn't too tired in terms of the amount of sleep I had gotten recently. I also didn't do anything on Sunday - I actually went over to the Alma house and hung out with Ryan. It helped actually - its nice to have someone here who shares friends with you back at school and who you can exchange comforting memories and experiences with. I went home and watched some Friends and took a nap and I am starting to feel better. I suppose I felt kind of lost, not being fully comfortable with my American friends/housemates, but also not feeling at home in my more general environment. But now that things are starting to pick up with class, and mountain club, and SHAWCO... well I'm damn excited for things to keep on-keepin on!!

beaches, boys and botanicals

February 9, 2009

So it has been a few days since my last entry and I've been really busy. Friday morning we had to wake up early to register for classes, which needless to say was not fun. Back home we just have to sign online and it takes 5 minutes, but here you have to wait in line for a really long time so that they can register you online. And then you have to wait in line for a really long time to get your ID card. Blah.
Other than that though we havn't had any more orientation or school stuff so a bunch of us went to the beach Friday and Saturday. Friday we took the train to Fish Hook, about a 40 min train ride. I'm sure that I will continue to say these repeatedly about everything, but it was so beautiful I felt like I was in a movie about paradise for the first hour or so. It has been so hot out (February is the dead of summer here so it's the hottest month) and I was completely covered in sweat when we finally arrived at the beach. Its cool because the train runs up and down the coast so you literally walk out of the train station and then walk 50 feet and you're on the beach. All the locals will warn you that the water is really cold but it really wasn't that bad, it was so refreshing. Cape Town has some of the best surfing in the world and I can see why because the waves are really intense. I tried to body surf with some of the boys but wasn't getting it that well. On Saturday we went to Muizenburg, which is also on the Atlantic coast but is just a few stops before Fish Hook on the train. I didn't enjoy the scenery quite as much there but there were a ton more people there (partially because it was a Saturday) but there was also a youth surfing competition going on. It was pretty cool to watch. The waves there were much more intense that the ones at Fish Hook.
The craziest part about our afternoon at Muizenberg was that about 40 minutes or so after we got there an alarm started sounding that I initially thought was ambulances or something, but then it turned out that it was a shark alarm! I wasn't in the water at that point but everyone started clearing out really quickly, although there were still some surfers that were pretty far out. I'm not sure how often they have sharks in the area but it was crazy because they sound the alarm and make announcements over a huge loudspeaker and there were hundreds of people there so it was intense to be there. I had forgotten at that point that Heine had told us that you can't swim very far out at Muizenberg compared to some of the other beaches because sharks are closer there than the average. Craziness. Its so amazing to be able to go to a beach that so different from any of the ones I've ever been to before.
I have been frustrated by the dynamics with guys that are present here in comparison with home. Back home I have a ton of guy friends, and arguably more guy friends than girl friends in some places, so when I go out at home I am naturally friendly and outgoing with guys and I generally don't have to worry about them thinking that because I am being nice that I want to get with them. But here, especially because I am American, but also because the culture is simply different, I really have to be careful to who I talk to when I'm out and how I talk to them. Local guys will often readily assume that if you dance with them or maintain a friendly conversation with them at a bar that you want to go home with them. It has been frustrating for me because I want to get to know locals but I don't want to give the wrong impression. It is easier at all student parties though.
On Friday after the beach the idea was that Ruby and Lyle were going to take us on a crawl of Long st, which is the main strip of bars and clubs in downtown Cape Town. We were all really excited about it, and as a result I chose to do that instead of going to another club that Moses invited me to, but it ended up being pretty lame. All of the clubs on Long St require cover and there are other bars but it didn't seem like Lyle and Ruby were really sure of where they should be taking us. At the end of the night a lot of the group had gone home and it was me and this girl Suzy and a few others left at this bar called Stones. We were all dancing and annoyingly this creepy local kept trying to dance really close to Suzy and it was making both of us really uncomfortable. I stepped in between them and it made the guy back off a little but it was frustrating because one of the guys we were with was right there and easily could have made some sort of gesture to keep the guy away from us but he didn't. Its frustrating because it seems like our American boys don't always pick up on the creepiness the way that other girls do. Other of my American guy friends here are often very helpful and supportive in situations like that because they understand that the experience here is different for girls than it is for guys and that they can and should play a part in making it a safer, more comfortable environment for us. Overall though it is all under control, and nothing that me and my friends can't handle by being smart and aware.
Last night we went to somewhat of a homecoming party for UCT students at this huge venue called Springbok in Newlands, about 10 minutes away from here in the southern suburbs. It was packed and I actually got completely separated from all my friends for about an hour. It was the first time I have been alone for a prolonged period of time since I have arrived here. It wasn't really nervewracking or anything because the party was for students only but I met a few people that I may not have met had I been in a huge group of Americans. I like it better that way, I feel like it is a more authentic experience.
Today I slept in a bit and then woke up and me and Mel went grocery shopping in Rondebosch center, a big town center right next to the UCT campus about a 10 min walk from here. It was honestly one of the first times since I have been here that I felt kind of like I was at home. Soooo many people were out walking around, you could tell many of them were going to church. This place is seriously so diverse. You see people of so many different colors and creeds walking around. Its so much more interesting than home, I love it.
Mom and dad will be happy to know, and my friends will likely be surprised to know that I am indeed buying all my own groceries and cooking real meals of food. You should be proud.
This afternoon we went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on the base of Table Mountain about 15 min from here. Completely ridiculoudly beautiful view of the mountain with gardens and different kinds of plants everywhere. I could get lost in there. I never thought I would do shrooms again but this place is so fucking beautiful that it makes me want to. We are definitely going back. People were picnicking all over the place. They throw concerts there every Sunday afternoon in the summertime and we went to the one today. The venue is sick... its on a downsloping hill right in the middle of the gardens with an incredible view of the mountain on the left and the city on the right. Everything here is so beautiful that pictures do not capture it at all!
One of my IES classes starts tomorrow. We have intensive class from 2-5 Monday through Wednesday this week and then on Thursday we are leaving for the Western Cape for the night, although I am not yet sure what we will be doing there. Our UCT classes start on Monday, a week from tomorrow. This week I am hoping to do a hike of Table Mountain, maybe abseil off of it, and also I think a group of us are going skydiving on Wednesday morning. Sick!

Local nightlife... finally!

So last night was extremely eventful. I broke off from the IES group and me and my friend Lull went out with this kid Yaron, a local who I connected with through Ella, a friend from Rochester who met Yaron in Israel a year or so ago. Yaron is from Zimbabwe but has been living in Cape Town for 6 years or so. Anyway, he has a lot of connections in the city and he took Lull and I to this club called Bang Bang downtown. He and his friend Jared both DJ and know the owner of the club so we didn't have to wait in line or pay cover or anything. We got to hang out in the VIP section and at one point we were even hanging out in the DJ booth! They were playing really good house and trance music, which I love, so I had a great time. It was nice to finally hang out with some locals, even if it was a more upscale local scene, local is local.
I am starting to feel slightly more comfortable here. Its weird because it feels like time is going so slowly but so fast at the same time. These next few days are jam packed. Tonight we are going to this club called Tiger Tiger in Claremont, which is in the southern suburbs so its pretty close to Mowbray, the town I live in. Jared is actually DJing at Tiger Tiger tonight so that will be cool. Friday we are doing a pub crawl on Long St (that's the bar scene downtown, a block or so away from where I was last night) and on Saturday there is a house party for students. We are also going to go to the beach and to an outdoor concert on Sunday. Can't wait!

Waterfront

February 5, 2009

The past few days have mostly just been orientation stuff so we have had to get up early every morning which can make nights a little less exciting or mornings a little more painful. Last night we went out to the Waterfront and got dinner at this really nice Italian place. It was probably one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to. The woman actually put my napkin on my lap for me. I ordered a bottle of wine from Durban and I had to do the wine tasting to "make sure I liked it" (when really I was just ordering the cheapest Chardonnay on the menu) and it was kind of awkward haha. I just don't really know how to act when I'm being waited on I guess haha.
Afterwards we went to the bar called Mitchell's. They have karaoke every Tuesday and let me tell you, these people are serious about their karaoke. Every singer that went up was actually really really good... except for us. They had these beers called Old Wobbly's that are 11% alcohol so I think our group may have been slightly over the top. Needless to say I was glad we were at the Waterfront, which is kind of a more touristy area, and that we were in a large group because otherwise we may have been asking for trouble.
Recently we have all been going out in huge droves and it kind of makes me uncomfortable. I feel like we are more obvious in general because we are white Americans and then when we travel in a pack of 20 or 30 of us it causes even more attention to be brought to us. Not that I dislike anyone in my program, but I am hoping things will start to calm down a bit and we will all find our individual places so as to not call so much attention to ourselves and our foreignness.
I am getting antsy to get started with everything. I have spent the past few days moreso getting to know the Americans in my program. I like all of them and we get along really well, but I also want to make friends with more South Africans as soon as possible. I have been able to make friends with a few through orientation and of course there is our RAs, but I am looking forward to meeting more and I hope this weekend that will happen. We are going to Long St (the biggest bar/club scene) on Friday with the RAs and on Saturday there is a house party that we are going to so hopefully I will have the opportunity to make friends with more South Africans there.
A lot of the speakers that we have heard at orientation have spoken about the importance of the international student population at UCT and their reasoning is very interesting, not something I suppose that I had directly thought about up until now. While in the US, we internationalize ourselves by studying abroad for a semester, this is not generally the case in South Africa because of the relative weakness of the rand (their currency) in comparison to the dollar/euro/pound, etc. and because a lot of the students simply don't have the means to travel either way. So their internationalization comes from the international students who come here. It makes me happy to be able to be a part of that, even though ideally it would be great if more South Africans would be able to travel outside of this area of the world.
We still have over a week until classes start but tomorrow is registration. Next week I will finally be able to sign up for some volunteer opportunities. I really want to do some work in a township at least once a week so I'm excited for that to get started. I am taking Afrikaans and most likely this class called Religion, Gender and Sexuality. It should be good.
So far the things that have been the most different for me in terms of comparison to how I normally function in the U.S. is always traveling in large groups (so far just because we have all had the same schedule with orientation, but in general because you really can't go out alone, specifically at night) and not taking things out with me like my credit card or all of the cash I have. I keep small amounts of money scattered in different pockets so that its not all condensed in the same place and I don't bring my camera out with me at night. Its also not good to talk on your cell phone on the streets.
I am continually amazed by the social development that is going on in South Africa. It is something that really makes me think that I am meant to be here again because of my interest in that field. This country has a really battered past of segregation with apartheid but they are making open and honest efforts to equalize their society. They openly recognize what they did and as a result racism is less prevalent than I thought it would be (although it is definitely still present) and this country has the most progressive, liberal constitution of any country in the world. Its really cool to be able to see this firsthand.

adjusting and cultural differences

Jan 31, 2009

Friday night we went out to Claremont, which is an area in the southern suburbs (aka one of the nicer, safer parts of town where lots of UCT kids go). The first bar we went to was called Cubana, they were playing cool African music and there was a deck outside and people were smoking hooka. We stayed there for a bit and then went to another bar called Tin Roof. It was an interesting distinction between the two bars because Cubana was mostly black and coloured South Africans (which is more the norm because they account for the majority of the population) whereas Tin Roof was almost completely full of white people. Personally I didn't like Tin Roof because the music sucked. It was a good night overall though.
Saturday was slightly painful because we had all been up so late and had to get up early
to go do a walking tour of the city with our RAs (Ruby and Lyle, they are dating and they're awesome). We came back after and Ruby cooked curry and we hung out at the house cause we were all exhausted and had to get up early this morning to go to Cape Point. We went all around Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (they are really just right next to each other, the southernwest most point of the African continent, and there is an entire national park surrounding it). We also got to go past the Waterfront on the way and a bunch of the beaches. The Cape Point was the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. Pictures do not capture its beauty. We were able to climb to the highest point around the Cape Point at a lighthouse and
get a 360 degree view of the Cape Point area and then the Cape of Good Hope etc and the surrounding Atlantic ocean which points mostly south from that point (as it is the southernwest most point of the African continent).
The past few nights we have hung out in the backyard with a bunch of the Church st kids and Heine, one of the security guards who works at our house and the other houses, has been hanging out with us. He is a colored man from Cape Town, I think he lives like 40 minutes away from here. He has been awesome to hang out with and we have talked with him about a lot of the cultural differences that are present, specifically between us as Americans and him, etc as the
South Africans. He said something about how the SAs think of our accent as a deeper roll of the Rs, and it came up how accents are so relative, i.e. when I think of Americans, I think that we don't have an accent, whereas everyone else does... and according to Heine, we have the accent, and everything sounds flat and straight to him. I thought that was so interesting.
The racial differences here are so interesting, and it is also interesting to think of them as analogous to the US. For example, Heine was asking us what the race classification would be for him in the US... he is colored here, but he would be considered black in the States. But the
interesting thing that we were discussing was how, because his accent is South African and thus somewhat British/Dutch ie quite European, people would like him more for it in the States. But if he were a Spanish speaker (Hispanic/Latino), or if he had a more Asian accent, he would be looked at in a less positive light, although hopefully/most likely that would be unconscious
for those who felt that way.
Overall, Heine said that our group on Church st is much more polite, honest, good, etc
foreigners than the majority here, specifically in relation to how we are viewed here by the locals around here. Basically, especially for those who do not think as open mindedly as the younger crowds I guess, when they see foreigners they essentially just think of them as rich, someone that could potentially be taken advantage of especially because they have so much wealth.
The other recent thing is that Ruby, the female RA on Church St sat all of the girls down last night to talk to us about the sexual harassment and standards around here. I guess that the more traditional culture here finds anything that is short on the legs to be extremely sexually promiscuous and taboo. The more interesting part is that it doesn't matter at all what you wear on top; this won't cause inappropriate attention. However, if you wear shorts or short skirts in certain areas, I guess it is almost like asking to be harassed. We have been traveling in groups entirely and many of us have agreed that we will walk with each other everywhere even if it means waiting around on campus/at the house for class and such. It is certainly a change from home where I am so independent, but this is a reality here. The fact is that there is crime here,
and while it is not that much worse than the majority of big cities in "developing countries", because I/we are American it puts us in the spotlight to be victims of such crimes because they think/know that they cant take advantage of us because we don't know what we are doing. According to Ruby and Lyle, all of the orientation that we have been doing thus far is in order to
take off the 'tourist polish' that is present on us thus far, making us more susceptible to such things.
Overall its so great here, everyone in my program gets along so well and we all also want to make friends with more South Africans, although we already have been hanging out with our RAs and their friends as well as some of our security guards. Classes don't start for two weeks but I'm sure I'll get a chance to meet more South Africans then as well.

Day 2- Langa Township

Second day here, this place is completely amazing. We have had orientation stuff where they talk to us about different cultural stuff, logistics and HIV/AIDS but the best part of today by far was the visit to Langa, the biggest township in South Africa that is about 10 or 20 minutes from where we are living, in Mowbray (a southern suburb right by UCT). We walked all around the township and saw so many amazing things. It is definitely very poverty stricken but it has such a rich culture. The townships were created for the black population as migrant laborers and were a major part of the segregation that was present in the apartheid regime. Thus the people did not choose to live in such states of poverty, but it was put upon them by the apartheid government which only ended 15 years ago. There is development going on but poverty is obviously still present, although about 85% of people now have sanitation and electricity.
There are the cutest little children running around everywhere and they will often come up to you and hold your hand (although they may also steal from you and/or ask you for money, although none of us were mugged because we were in a large group with local tour guides). There is a large Catholic presence in Langa and they run a lot of the schools. We went to one of the preschools and the kids were the cutest things I have ever seen, we were all melting from how adorable they were. They were all getting so excited by all of us taking pictures of them and so on. They seemed really happy and laughed a lot and were smiling and waving and extremely friendly. Most of theme speak Xhosa and may not speak English yet but that didn't stop us from interacting with them.
As we were coming out of the preschool, Meli, our tour guide, who is awesome and is actually a famous South African poet/hip hop artist who is Xhosa and grew up in Langa, was talking about the male rite of passage into manhood in Xhosa culture where, at the age of 18 or 21 boys isolate themselves for 4 weeks in a hut in this field across from the township and afterwards and initiated into manhood. Just as he was talking about it there was a man being led out of the field across the way because he had just finished his 4 weeks. A large group of men were leading him out and singing (I guess you are often very weak after the 4 weeks, im pretty sure it involves forms of fasting and a circumcision), and you could see the smoke in the distance because they burn the hut that the man was staying in during his time there. It was really cool to be able to see that up close and personal.
We also got to go and see a witch doctor briefly, as well as this bar that is evidently pretty famous and it was really fun to go there for a few minutes. Gotta love having a drink with the tour guides and my program advisor (her name is Naomi and she is the shit).
It has been so ridiculously exhausting, from all the activities, the jetlag, the sun, etc. but it is so amazing here I am so excited to continue the rest of my trip. Most of the people in my program are totally amazing and I'm really excited to get to know all of them better. I have already had the chance to meet a good amount of South Africans too. We went to a barbeque last night with other UCT students who are South African and they are all so friendly, so outgoing, funny, and love to hang out and party. I got a few of their numbers and they going to take us out soon. We also have RAs who are South African that live in each house. There are 10 people in my house, 8 people next door, and then people in 2 other houses a few blocks away. There are 28 or so people in my program.
Overall I am having an amazing time and it hasn't even been 2 full days. I can't wait to get more comfortable and to be able to experience so much more. Tomorrow we are going downtown in the morning and on Sunday we are going to the Cape Point for our UCT orientation.
I am definitely more aware of my race than I ever have been before, although I did expect that given that whites are a minority in South Africa, even though they are generally the richer minority (although that is changing) due to the repressive segregation of the apartheid regime in which the government made policies to essentially make the rich whites richer and the poor blacks poorer. But people are extremely friendly and its easy to maintain conversations with
them. You definitely have to be aware of your surroundings and I have already noticed that it is not uncommon for people to try to get you to buy things and/or give them money because you are white and it seems like they assume you are rich. At the bar we went to earlier today this one woman started talking to a few of us about how she wrote a book about her life and wanted to publish it and was asking us to help her. I'm like, I'm sorry but I have no more connections than you do! Haha.