"PowerPoint won't work and Rhodes Mem is on fire...so, class dismissed"

This is pretty much all my lecturer said to us this morning. I’ll get into it more later but I had an hour of extra time so I get to write here.

Well, Lion’s Head Friday night. We were told it was about an hour hike to the top. It was not. At least not for us. We took a taxi to Cape Town and then grabbed a cab to take us up to the beginning of the trail. The beginning of the hike up wasn’t too strenuous; it was a simple path although it was kind of steep. The side we started on was the side where the sun was setting so it was also really hot but it gave us an absolutely amazing view of Clifton, Camps Bay, and obviously Table Mountain, some of the 12 Apostles, and the ocean. The trail took us around the mountain so we eventually ended up on the side where there was shade and we took our time there as it was getting rockier. We even stopped to climb into a small cave-like area to take a little break.

Eventually we reached a point where the trail sign indicated the recommended route and then a route that you should take at your own risk with ladders, chains, and manmade footholds that made it feel like rock climbing. Quinn and I decided to be adventurous while Alison and Brie decided to do the recommended route. We reached the top first and got to see the sun just hitting the low rising clouds at the horizon. The view was absolutely incredible. While waiting for the others we set up our little picnic complete with snacks like cheese and crackers and obviously some sangria. We had started up the mountain a little after 6pm and were at the top by 7:45ish. Although we did stop to take a 15 minute break or so, I’d say it took us around an hour and a half to get up.

We didn’t start going back down until the moon was pretty high in the sky. The full moon had been Wednesday night which is one of the reasons we had wanted to go soon after, it was very bright and beautiful as it rose just past Table Mountain. It got a little chilly since we didn’t have that hot African sun to keep us warm but we had all thought ahead and brought sweatshirts with us. Around 9pm we began to make our way down which was actually a lot trickier and took a bit long than it did to get up but it wasn’t as strenuous. Quinn and I didn’t know the other path and since we were walking in front, we ended up just taking the same route we’d gone up. Which meant we had to take the ladders and chains back down to the easier part of the path. Not everyone was thrilled at that prospect, but we all made it down without incident and luckily that was on the side of the moon so it was well lit. We probably got down the mountain shortly after 11pm but again we had stopped for a quick break. It was definitely an extremely rewarding experience and I’m so glad we got to go.

These are just for you mommy...

Lion's Head

finally at the top =)

Cape Town

I was pretty wiped the next day and spent it in the house taking care of some homework and such but that night I got to go out to dinner in Obs with Brian, Mel, and Valery. We went to a sushi place where Valery tried sushi and I got to make fun of Mel since he used the chopsticks better than her since it was his first time trying it. After dinner we figured that since we were already in Obs we might as well stick around and hang out a bit more. We tried to go to Stones but since I was first and I clearly don’t look my age, they carded me and then Mel didn’t have ID so they wouldn’t let her in. We went instead to Panchos where we had the best margaritas, I skimmed through the menu which looks good so we’ll have to go back, obviously.

Mel and I had arranged on Sunday to meet with Susan Norling from the study abroad office as she is in Cape Town for a site visit through CIEE. We went into Cape Town and I got to finally pop Mel’s Nando’s cherry as that’s where we went for lunch. We talked for over 2 hours about our experience so far; it was very pleasant and nice to see a familiar face. And lunch on the berg, fabulous haha. By the time we got back it was already early evening so I caught up with people back home and abroad before going to Baxter for church with Faith. I went because it was the end of a series they’ve been holding for 3 weeks and this was the 4th and last talk. The name of the series was “Bringing Sexy Back” and talked about relationships, male/female dynamics in the Bible, etc. This talk was called “A Walk to Remember” and was a couple who talked about how they found each other and how they trust God to lead their lives. It was very interesting hearing what they had to say; they were pretty adamant about having to marry someone who is a "believer" like they consider themselves at the church.

In terms of this week, the work is definitely beginning to wave its hands and yell “look at me!!” Brooklyn Chest on Monday was a lot of fun; it was cold so we had to keep all the kids inside which meant that we could play with more kids since it was a smaller space and they could just go running away. I had my first exam Tuesday which wasn’t anything like what I expected but hopefully that went well. It was about editing and writing so they gave us sentences and paragraphs and we had to rewrite them changing either grammar or verb tenses or whatever. I just think it's weird that that's a test that is 10% of my final grade in a second year course. I have Think Twice today and we’re finally going to be trained and start getting into helping with the organization.

Now about the title of this post. Last night, Mel texted me “holy shit Rhodes memorial is on fire” so I immediately ran into the common room to tell everyone which had Allie and Faith running to get their shoes so we could go look. It wasn’t the actual memorial but there was a huge fire around that area, which is pretty close to campus. Now part of the reason this caused such a reaction is because Rhodes is a pretty controversial topic. He owned all the land that Upper Campus is built on and more that became Kirstenbosch Gardens and significant landmarks so he’s kind of a big deal. However he was also extremely racist and, as Faith said, is probably rolling in his grave that she goes to UCT. For more info, look up more about Cecil John Rhodes.

Well, the fire still wasn’t out when I was going up to campus for my 9am lecture, only class of the day. There were helicopters going to the dam by Upper Campus to get water and then flying over the areas where the fire was. Somehow, it had even gotten up the mountain on to Devil’s Peak so it was crazy to watch. I watched for a minute before going to class which was very close to that side of campus. The lecturer was having technical difficulties so we were all just sitting talking for about 5 minutes. Then he stepped to the front of the classroom and told us that he couldn’t load the PowerPoint with his lecture and Rhodes Mem is on fire so, essentially, see you all next week and the lecture will be put online.

So now I had extra time to do stuff and I’m going to Think Twice soon. Most importantly though, today is MELISSA’S 21ST BIRTHDAY!!! So here’s a little shout out! Love you travel buddy/brotha.

That’s all for now,
Sarah

Oceanview (not the one on the Jersey shore) and more

Wow. This past weekend was so incredible, such an experience. I probably won’t do it justice but I’ll do my best to recall everything. The week was fun but busy too so I only finally finished writing up everything. It’s safe to assume that this will be a typically long post. Sorryyyyy.

So we left for Oceanview, the colored township where we stayed for the weekend, on Friday afternoon. It’s not too far from here, only about 45 minutes on the other side of the mountain. And you really can see the ocean from parts of the township which we found out Saturday morning just walking down the road but I’ll get there in a bit. Our first stop was the high school where we met our host families and had dinner with entertainment provided by students there, many of whom have represented Oceanview and/or South Africa in singing and dancing events around the world. Most of us were split into pairs for the homestays and we sat together with our host families. I was with Shamir which was nice because I had met her before but we got to really know each other this weekend. Dinner was good, they had a separate meal for vegetarians which I got to have also. They were so accommodating which was so nice considering that food culture here is basically meat with a side of meat. Veggies and such are not very common but they made it just for us.

After dinner and the last of the dancers, we walked to our house which was (I thought) surprisingly far from the high school. I didn’t have a concept of just how big the community was when we first got there. We passed by the flats and then got to the houses but there were tons of streets leading off to different areas in Oceanview. It was late when we got there so their kids were asleep but we stayed up to talk to our host parents for a while.

Our host mom’s name was Esrobyda but she goes by Byda and our host dad’s name was Justin. Their kids are named – and they totally had too much fun with this – Cleon (5 years old), Chloe (3 years old), and Cleo (1 year and 2 months). Byda recently opened her own daycare in January but she has also taught art and Afrikaans at the local school and Justin is a musician. Byda is originally from Worchester (pronounced the Mass-hole way) which is about 2 hours away from Oceanview. She met Justin through youth church events held with her home church and the church his family went to. They were married in Worchester but ended up deciding to live in Oceanview where a lot of his family also lives.

They also asked Shamir and I about our lives back in the states so we had a lot of sharing of stories going on. One thing that was really interesting was how cars kept driving and people kept walking past the house but on the other side of the street. I was surprised to see so much activity on what seemed like it would be a quiet block, at least at that hour of the evening. They responded casually that a drug dealer operates out of the house across the street so there’s always traffic going up and down the street. I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear about the drugs, CIEE insisted that we would be offered dagga (pot) while we were there (I wasn’t) but that aside I know there are many drug issues in the townships. Still, I guess I just wasn’t encouraged when they were so nonchalant about it, I want to think that people are fighting it.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday to the kids playing in the living room which was only a few feet from the door to their room (where we were staying) next to their parents’ room (where they were for the weekend). They were watching cartoons and eating breakfast but got really quiet when I first walked into the living room. Byda made us breakfast – and refused my help which would be a pretty standard theme all weekend – and served us – also a standard all weekend – even though we told her we didn’t want to just be guests. As we were in the living room with the kids Byda warned us that the Chloe is really shy around people but the other two kids would be really friendly once they warmed up to us.

We first went to the mall to get some stuff and I got to see the kids way more active than they had been when they were simply observing us on the couch in the morning from the floor where they were playing. This encouraged me since I really wanted to get through to Chloe, she seemed like such an energetic and fun little girl, just shy around new people. Luckily, we stopped by a movie store where there were tons of posters for HSM3 which she got really excited about. I think that’s the moment I knew I’d be able to help her out of her shell. Once we returned to the house I was very persistent in trying to talk to her and finally once I got my camera out and asked if I could take a picture of her, she started getting friendlier and was playing with me, Shamir, and her brother.

Now that all the kids were having fun playing with us, we were able to go with almost the entire family to the basketball and soccer games going on. The basketball game was in the multi-purpose room we’d been to during UCT orientation and the soccer game was at, what they call, central park. It’s a dusty field with a small net ball court and one tree in the middle. Still, just saying that I went to central park was funny. I was playing with Cleon with a frisbee I brought from berg except it was really windy and the rest of the time I was playing around with Chloe who was starting to get very very talkative.

We went back to the house for a braai and a lot of their friends came over, some had young kids around the same age as our “siblings” and Shamir and I essentially became their play toys for the night. By the end, I was so tired I didn’t think I could even stand up or I’d just collapse back onto the chair. But when Byda told me that she didn’t even recognize Chloe because she was being so friendly and playing with us, it was totally worth my exhaustion. After they finally went to bed, the adults were hanging around talking, mostly in Afrikaans. Byda had told us that she and Justin only speak English to the kids since they have to learn Afrikaans in school anyway but they only speak Afrikaans to each other. So I couldn’t follow a lot of the conversation but every once in a while they would ask us questions about ourselves. I was perfectly happy just listening to them speak Afrikaans though, I was getting tired anyway.

The next morning Byda had asked us if we wanted to go to church with them so that’s what we did first thing in the morning. Byda was singing for the service too so Shamir and I got to listen to her and helped watch the kids. After church we took the long route back to the house and rather than rush to get to the cycle tour, we just hung around the house with the kids more and talked with Byda. Justin was working at the cycle tour so it was just Byda and the kids who came to see us off when it was time to go. Byda had made us some cake to bring back with us which was so sweet and we exchanged information so Shamir and I can work out a day or weekend to go back and visit again.

Since the weekend there’s been so many random things going on and school work is starting to pick up so I didn’t get to write about the weekend right after like I’d meant to. But I definitely won’t forget the experience, it was such a fun weekend and I can’t wait to go back and visit. I woke up on Monday morning for class and got a text from Byda saying thanks for a great weekend and to have a great day. That was such a nice little gesture to wake up to. I took so many pictures and will have to print some out before Shamir and I go back to visit.

The highlight of Monday wasn’t until after class when I went to Brooklyn Chest, a tuberculosis clinic about 20 minutes away, for 2 hours to volunteer. We got to sit outside and play with the kids and feed them before we left. They were so cute and really sweet, they just enjoyed having someone there to play with them and give them love and attention. Leaving was the only sad part because they got upset and some even cried when we made our way out the door. It was heart breaking hearing their cries but I’m just glad I’ll be going back every week while we’re here.

Tuesday is my busiest day for classes but after that the rest of the week is downhill so when my house decided to go out to dinner and a movie that night I caved and went with. Before that though, I found out that the Jewish cafeteria (which I hadn’t been to yet since no one I talked to knew where it was) was giving out free hamantashen so I was adamant about finding it. The hamantashen wasn’t quite the same as in the states, much less cookie-like and with a sweet chunked apple and raisin filling but it still made me really happy. Then instead of taking my lunch break to sit around, I went to a talk about Obama. There were two speakers, one man was from a township and a big activist with some local organizations and the other was a Ph.D. student who is also a lecturer on campus for political analysis. It was so interesting hearing their perspective and even though politically the latter man said that Obama probably isn't gonna be any better for Africa than Bush, all the audience members were like, whatever I love Obama.

On Wednesday I was supposed to start my other 2 hours of weekly volunteering at Think Twice, an organization that teaching about HIV/AIDS. I got to the office we were going to leave from 5 minutes before we're supposed to be there but no one else was there. I hung around for a while and only one other girl showed up. We went outside to wait since our driver had forgot and was gonna be late. But by the time he picked us up and got us there we would've had to leave about 15 minutes later so we agreed to cancel and just wait until next week. Another guy showed up just after we called to cancel but still it was only 3 of us and we wouldn't have had a lot of time there. So next week I’ll finally get to start that. Wednesday night I had African choir before some fun house bonding involving a gold shoe and peanut butter but we won’t even go there.

I finally had lunch (chicken salad) at the Jewish cafeteria yesterday, Thursday, which was great since I haven’t had meat in over 6 weeks. After I got back from I was doing homework in my room when Muriel came over to me saying that the cops were here and wanted to talk to whoever was in the house. They came because they got a noise complaint from our neighbor about us playing loud music last night. Which we were but not past 10pm. The thing is, our neighbor is crazy. He hates all Americans and acts like he's been having issues with us for years but doesn't consider that the turn over of students is every few months. Our residential director said they have issues with him every year. Well the cops where here for a half hour and I think they like us. Hopefully that'll work in our favor because if they have to give us even a warning it's like R20,000 or something which is a lot of money.

So last night our house went out to the Fat Cactus for Alison’s birthday. A couple people went first to order everything and I hung back with others on the pretense of being busy but we instead decorated the house. We came back to the house after to have cake and have some drinks including some of the sangria I helped make which didn’t come out too bad considering that we just threw things into it hoping it would taste good. Now, I’m friends with a guy who's in charge of the list at Hemisphere, a really nice club in Cape Town that we went to the first week we were here. I called him so he put us on the list and once we got there and I told him it was Alison's 21st he made sure we got into the VIP section. Who knew I would have connections.

Today I had class and then went to watch an indoor soccer game that some CIEE and SOLmates were in. It was a lot of fun and they won the game, yay! After that I went with Mel to STA travel for advise on our plans for mid-semester break. The woman we talked to was amazingly helpful and we might have figured out what we're generally doing for break. I'm going to do serious planning this weekend so hopefully we'll finalize that soon, I’m very excited. Now I finally finished writing this and I’m going to get going because I think we're going to hike up lion's head to watch the sunset. It's only about an hour hike to the top and we’re going to bring some food and wine. I’ve wanted to do this for a while so I’m really excited.

For now, that’s it. But first (don’t judge me Liz), since Revelation was last night I have to give a shout out to my APO fam! Love you all.

Since no one else writes such obnoxious blog posts it's obviously me,
Sarah

wow. this week flew by.

Hey hey hey! I figured I should give a weekly recap, especially since I won’t be here this weekend. We’re doing a homestay but I’ll get into that later.

Last Thursday night I went to a comedy club with a group of people. One of the guy who had told us about the place knew the comedian which made the show even more entertaining. He was really funny and had lots of jokes about him as well as some American jokes. My two favorites were when he talked about how excited Americans are about Obama becoming the first black president, meanwhile, South Africans are like, black? He could barely pass for colored he's so white. If he was from the Cape Flats, his nickname would be “whitey”. His other joke was that he’s only excited for Obama being president because he can’t wait to see the headline “Obama catches Osama”. We all laughed a lot although I think that was the turning point for my voice going hoarse although it’s finally been going back to normal after a week. After the show, some people went out but I went back to one of the CIEE houses with some of my friends. It was someone’s 21st birthday so there were a lot of people hanging out, singing and dancing and just being silly.

Even though I woke up on Friday with almost no voice, I hung around most of the day and went that night to one of the houses, different one from the night before, for a birthday. We didn’t stay out too late though before Saturday we were going to Stellenbosch for wine tasting with CIEE.

The winery we went to was Neethlingshof, a beautiful place only about half an hour away. We got to try five different wines, two whites and three reds. One of the reds, the pinotage, was my favorite so I got a bottle. I think they said something about the grapes being unique to South Africa which is so cool. I guess it would be bad to say that we began the wine tasting at 10:30 in the morning but we only got a taste of each. We got a short tour of the barrels inside but not a full out tour of the winery because they were doing a lot of work. As we drove away, some people might have fun out to the fields and grabbed some grapes…

We went to Spier, another winery, for lunch where some people have been already. It was a really fancy place with lots to do but we picnicked on the lawn where it was shaded. After eating we walked around a bit and ended up finding a woman who was doing a lot of cool face painting. It wasn’t face painting like drawing a unicorn or spiderman on your cheek. It was a cool white paint which she put in rows of dots around our foreheads, cheeks, and noses. She would glance at our face and then just pick up the paint so each person had a slightly different design. It was really neat and I’ve seen some girls around campus with designs like that so it was definitely not just some sort of touristy thing.

We had another CIEE sponsored event going to Kirstenbosch Gardens on Sunday for a concert leaving a little early so we would have time to look around. The gardens were beautiful with so many different sections for different kinds of flowers. I ended up just wandering around taking tons of pictures. One area I thought was so interesting was the garden of extinction; all the plants there are endangered and on the verge of extinction. The signs explained why they were going extinct and so many of them simply had to do with their natural habitats being destroyed which frustrated me.

Then we headed up to the lawn where there was plenty of space to spread out on the grass for the concert. Malaika was the name of the group and they performed along with a guest performer named Wendy Oldfield. The music was fantastic and the guest performer was selling her CD so I got it. All the people I was with got really into it and were dancing around on the grass. It was funny, most of the Americans from our trip were sitting behind us and they were just watching the concert. Meanwhile, the people I was with and most of the South Africans there were up and dancing. We’re so cultured haha.

For the most part this week has been about going to class and being a student which I guess is the purpose of study abroad. Highlights include my first time having dinner and sangria at Café Sophia on Tuesday night with Allie, chilling with Mel Wednesday afternoon after I got mail from berg including a copy of the Weekly with a page of campus safety notes making me everyone back home a ton, a bed bug scare that turned out to not be a bed bug but our house was fumigated anyway just in case, our house meeting Thursday night where we worked out many of the craziness of sticking nine strangers in a house together for six months, and afterwards going to an absolutely phenomenal one woman play called “Red Winter in Gugs” about a woman living in apartheid South Africa in the late 80’s. Hmmm, maybe this week was fairly uneventful because I lost my voice and felt not so great but now since yesterday I’ve been feeling a lot better so this weekend will be enjoyable. And then since I’m not sickly anymore, I can start my volunteering next week!

As for this weekend, CIEE is taking us to a township called Oceanview for a short homestay experience. Most of us will be living in pairs of students from the program with families in the community. On Wednesday we heard a bit about the area and what the weekend will be like. Here’s what I think I understood from the talk. The residents of Oceanview used to be from Simonstown which is just past Muizenburg and Boulder Beach (where the penguins are). They were kicked out of the area so that whites could move in during apartheid. The community is mostly colored (as opposed to black) and very well developed for a township, it’s like middle class. Understand that this kind of middle class is not how we define it in the states, but this is not to say that these families aren’t doing extremely well for themselves considering where we are. I’m trying not to make any assumptions about what it will be like so I’d rather just come back Sunday and write about it.

Last night I also caved and signed up for Muhlenberg's Relay For Life. I'm trying to put together a study abroad team so even though we won't be there, we'll be represented somehow showing that we're still fighting cancer from half way around the world (http://main.acsevents.org/goto/irelayforhope). Sorry about that, but you know I had to include that for my own personal agenda's sake. Anyway, we’re leaving in less than 2 hours for Oceanview so I’m going to finish packing and then go pick up some flowers or something for my homestay family. Have a great weekend and I’ll be back Sunday hopefully with some fun stories.

Much love,
Sarah