I know I just wrote but I figured I’d leave you all with a little something before I leave again.
So talking about trying to go somewhere in between finals were mentioned many times as the end of the semester neared, but with all the work we had piling up, making actual plans took a backseat. Luckily, we had enough of an idea that once I handed in that last paper, I was able to look at what there was and plans somehow worked themselves out the past two days.
We are going to Lesotho (le-soo-too). Yes, I know. What’s that? The best way I can figure out to describe it is that it’s like an island, but it’s not surrounded by water, it’s within South Africa. We will leave tomorrow in the late afternoon, busing overnight so hopefully we’ll make it there by early afternoon on Sunday. We’ll be staying at Malealea Lodge (feel free to look it up) for a few nights and then should be back by Wednesday afternoon giving me a full day of studying before my first final (haha). The lodge is one of the most well known places for pony-trekking which is one of those “must do’s” for Lesotho. Hopefully we'll get to trek to either the waterfalls, bushman paintings, or the gorge. There are also tours of the local towns and schools so that would be cool too. It’s supposed to be really beautiful there and some of the best times to visit is in the fall which it still kind of is here. The weather is supposed to be in the 60s every day we’re there although it gets colder, down to the 30s, at night. Decent enough.
Um, I guess that’s about all I have to say about that. It was just funny because I had another performance today with Choir for Africa at an event for Africa Day, which was today. It was a lot of fun and I think our last performance of the semester so we’re celebrating the end with a braai tomorrow, luckily before I have to leave. That’ll be fun. Although kinda sad because I did, at the end, have a lot of fun with choir. OH! And we found out that they’re possibly/probably (I’m not sure) going to China next semester. I mean, come on! They had to go the semester after we leave? Not fair. But anyway, when I finally got back from that I was on the phone with Rachael and Nina (my traveling companions) and we just bought the tickets, discussed some technicalities, and then just said, “ok, so, I guess…see you tomorrow”.
Throwing plans together so quickly in this country seems so strange but I guess it’s possible. I just haven’t had enough time to comprehend that we’re going somewhere...and tomorrow! Technically today I guess. I need to pack. But that can wait til later, I need sleep. Have a great week-ish. I’ll def have stories to share once I get back but not til after I (hopefully) survive my first final. Oy.
<3
Sarah
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
let's play a little catch up
Well, it’s been a week and a half now that I’ve been trying to blog. The reasons this just wasn’t happening are:
1. I have been insanely busy with work.
2. I write these blogs in Word and then copy and paste them so as not to waste a lot of internet. But I don’t save them, just leave them open and hibernate my computer when I don’t need it. However, a few times, it would get weird or restart and not come up as a recovered document so the blogs I’ve attempted to write have been lost to cyberland.
3. I have been insanely busy with work.
Allow me to try and sum up the past (almost) 3 weeks…you might want to get some coffee or a snack first…
Since I last wrote the week went by uneventfully, all I had was homework and choir beyond my classes. Saturday the 9th though, we went to Robben Island. Getting there was a trick but suffice it to say that we made it to the boat on time. There is only way to get to the Robben Island and that was via this boat so it’s a good thing we made it. We left on the boat, called Sikhululekile, left from the Nelson Mandela Gateway (of course). The half hour boat ride there was nice; we had a great view of Table Mountain as we left it behind and they had a 20 minute or so documentary to show us that talked about some of the history of the island.
There were 3 buses of people but I (luckily I think) was on one that was only half full. We were able to jump from side to side to get pictures and such as we drove around. Our guide was really informative and knew a lot about the island. I did my best to remember things including taking notes and videos so let’s see how much info I can give you. We first drove past the maximum security prison where political prisoners were kept during Apartheid but we wouldn’t go through there until the end of the tour. One of the places we stopped at was a graveyard where all the lepers who died on the island were buried. Robben Island has been used as a prison (wayyy before Apartheid) for various colonizers but also as a leper colony, thus the graveyard.
Next we drove by the Robert Sobukwe House. On our way to the house we saw a bunch of jackass penguins hiding out under the bushes; Robben Island has the third largest population of jackass penguins btdubs. Anyway, at the house we stopped so they could tell us more about Robert Sobukwe and the significance of the house. Sobukwe founded the Pan African Congress (PAC) which was opposed to the apartheid government. PAC organized a peaceful march in protest to the pass books that blacks were required by law to carry for identification and the books also explicitly stated where they were “allowed” to go. Any person at any time could stop a black person on the street and demand to see their pass book and if they didn’t have it I think they could just be arrested on the spot or something absurd like that. Well, they (understandably) didn’t like this law and Sobukwe marched without the book along with other supporters to a police station in Soweto. There was another protest that day where the police opened fire on the protesters and killed 69 people. Sobukwe was arrested for inciting the “riot” and sentenced to 3 years in jail but even after he’d served his time, the government was afraid to let him out so he was moved to Robben Island and kept in solitary confinement in that house. He eventually was released but forced to live under house arrest the rest of his life.
The next place we stopped was the lime quarry. During apartheid, many political prisoners were sent to the quarry to work every single day, regardless of weather. The sunlight shining off the rock was so strong that after all those years, it did a good deal of damage to their eyes. Originally, they were working at the quarry because the lime was needed to fix up the island but even after they didn’t need anymore, they kept sending people there just for busy work. In a path leading to the quarry there was a huge pile of stones. After the apartheid government ended, many former prisoners returned on the anniversary of their release from prison and met at the quarry talking about their time there. Mandela walked away from the group at one point, picked up a rock and threw it down in the path. Slowly, all the others moved away from the group, picked up a rock and added it to the pile. Since then, the pile has not been touched.
After the quarry we drove through the town. Currently, the only people who live on the island are people who work there, whether it’s as a tour guide or groundskeeper. And just past the end of the town was stopped for a photo shoot with a great view of Table Mountain. Driving around from there we saw some antelope, rabbits, and other animals as well as lots of cool plants and such. Robben Island is well known for having a significant number of species of flora and fauna so we got to see a lot of that. We also saw the remnants of buildings and tanks that had been built on the island during World War II to protect Cape Town if necessary. She said the guns there were accurate for up to something like 30 kilometers…but they were never used. There is a lighthouse on the highest point of the island but it uses a flashing light instead of a revolving one which I thought was cool.
There’s a lot more I could say and I’ve probably already said too much but let’s move on. At the end of the tour we were dropped off in front of the maximum security prison where we were greeted by an ex-prisoner named Kgotso who showed us around. After a quick intro, he took us into section F. In here, he told us about the prison under the apartheid government. Robben Island was used for only male political prisoners who were black, coloured, or Asian. He showed us the food that was given to various prisoners according to their letter. Whites were A, even though there were no whites at the prisoner. Coloureds and Asians were B. And then blacks or as he put it, “indigenous Africans”, were C. We also saw what a typical profile for a prisoner would look like. It included information such as name, “race”, religion, crime, sentence, and date of sentence. They were also given numbers on their profiles; the first number was what number prisoner they were for the year and the second number was the year they were imprisoned. In section F there were just huge rooms that would have 30 bunk beds, 15 on each side, so there were 60 men in this one room. Each man was given 2 mats and 4 blankets. The sections were significant too. Section A was for men who were sentenced to 20 or more years. Section B was for political leaders. Section E was for students. Stuff like that. There were 7 sections in total, A-G.
From here we moved on to Section B. As we walked, Kgotso told us about letters and visits. Prisoners were only allowed 12 letters a year and the same number of visits. There was a word limit on letters and they could not write about politics or anything. Visits were similarly monitored. There was also no contact allowed. They could only speak Afrikaans I think and they could only talk about the family and things like that. No politics. So if they didn’t speak Afrikaans they would just sit and look at each other. He also mentioned that there were 469 deaths total in the prison during Apartheid.
In section B we saw the courtyard area where prisoners who weren’t sent to the lime quarry sat and broke up stones. And after that we went on to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, where he was imprisoned for 18 years. The only problem I had with seeing this block was that it had been painted over and looked pretty nice, it wasn’t exactly like what it had been while the prisoners were kept there. Luckily though, we went on to section A to end the tour which had been left the way it had been during Apartheid and where Kgotso had been kept.
Kgotso’s story. He is from Soweto and was a member of the ANC when he was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the state by armed means and so bring in an alternative government. On the November 20, 1984 he went to court and was sentenced the following day to 25 years. He was driven from prison to prison to prison before finally arriving in Cape Town where the infamous boat, the Susan Kruger, brought him to Robben Island. He told us this whole story while standing in front of the cell where he was imprisoned for 6 years and 5 months, he was released on April 27, 1991 along with 119 other prisoners. Since June 2003 he has been back on the island as a guide. And in case you didn’t notice, he was sentenced to 25 years in 1984. That means that if the apartheid government was still in control, he would only be getting released November of this year.
So Robben Island, I thought, was incredible. I know some people didn’t like it that much but I learned so much and it was simply amazing to be shown around the prison by someone who had actually been there so we got to hear his story. I guess you could’ve just gone and googled Robben Island for all this info but I figured I’d save you the trouble and share with you what I thought was legit interesting.
Moving on. The next week was my last full week of classes at UCT, crazy I know. Not just that, but it actually was insane because I had so much work to do and I also had rehearsal almost every night because Choir for Africa and the UCT Choir had a joint concert Thursday night! The concert was in Jameson Hall which is right in the middle of Upper Campus. The high domed ceiling meant insane acoustics, not necessarily in a good way. It was super echo-y and I don’t know how it sounded to the audience but we had fun with the whole thing. For our choir, we got shirts to wear for when we were performing with the UCT Choir but when we were performing with just us, the girls had these traditional African costumes to wear and we also painted our faces.
I’m going to leave out how I got there late (long story) but the intro acts were still going on so it wasn’t a big deal. The UCT Choir performed 2 songs first and then we got up and sang “Adam” and “Uyeza Umgwebi” which are both traditional Xhosa songs. The UCT Choir got up again and sang 3 songs, one of which was the same exact arrangement of “And so it Goes” that I sang in Select way back in high school (awww memories). Then it was our turn again. We sang “Ukuthula” which is a traditional Zulu song, “Theledi”, and “Sekirilekel” which is a traditional Sotho song. After a short break, the two choirs sang together. We sang “Marabi”, “Bawo Thixo Somandla”, “Masibuyel’ Ekhaya” which is a traditional Xhosa song, and ended with the South African National Anthem. One thing I love about the anthem is that it is in 4 languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. I think it’s beautiful that they include all of those languages. Granted, it’s a new anthem coming out of Apartheid, but they have it now which is what really matters. So yeah, the concert was a lot of fun and I’m so glad I stuck it out even though it frustrated me at times. I’ve met a lot of really cool people there and we make it fun. A bunch of my housemates and other people I know came to watch and they said it was great! Yay!
The weekend was pretty relaxing; even though I had two presentations and a paper due this week I wanted to take some time for myself since that week was crazy with work and choir. On Sunday I went into Cape Town to Greenmarket Square. Because of the 2010 World Cup coming, they’re re-doing the cobblestones of the square and it was the last day the market would actually be at Greenmarket Square. I heard that it’s now by the Company Gardens so I guess if I ever feel the need to go back I’ll go find it there. We got a bunch of cool stuff; I hadn’t meant to buy too much but they kept giving us such great deals, I couldn’t refuse.
Now the past three days were a bit crazy. All my lectures were based around them telling us what we should do to prepare for the final. I’m kind of terrified but my first one isn’t for a week and then I have another week before the next one and yet another week before the last one which is also the day before I leave. It’s all spread out and such so that’ll be good for helping me have time to study. Not so good for wanting to travel but I think I’m still possibly going somewhere this weekend into the beginning of next week. More on that when things are definite.
Yesterday after my last lecture and handing in my last paper, I went to the tb clinic for possibly the last time. I think they’re going again tomorrow but I don’t know if I can say goodbye to all the kids again. It was really sad leaving. And after all that, CIEE hosted our “final dinner”, basically the last time they’ll pay for 150 Americans to eat together. It was at a winery in Stellenbosch called Spiers and the restaurant was called Moyo. Really nice place with a buffet separated by food, so there was a section for salads, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, etc. There was also a stage in the middle where they had people dancing and playing the drums and such. Eventually when people had pretty much finished eating we went to the side area where there was room and danced to the music.
So now it’s Thursday. I have no classes, no papers, no presentations, no projects, just 3 finals left. Which obviously means I’ll just have to find things around Cape Town to do, the last things I need to check off my list before leaving. Sorry for being as long-winded as usual. Don’t lie, it’s been 2.5 weeks since my last post and you’ve totally missed my stories. Funny, I won’t have any stories for once I get home because they’ll all be here pretty much.
Later,
Sarah
1. I have been insanely busy with work.
2. I write these blogs in Word and then copy and paste them so as not to waste a lot of internet. But I don’t save them, just leave them open and hibernate my computer when I don’t need it. However, a few times, it would get weird or restart and not come up as a recovered document so the blogs I’ve attempted to write have been lost to cyberland.
3. I have been insanely busy with work.
Allow me to try and sum up the past (almost) 3 weeks…you might want to get some coffee or a snack first…
Since I last wrote the week went by uneventfully, all I had was homework and choir beyond my classes. Saturday the 9th though, we went to Robben Island. Getting there was a trick but suffice it to say that we made it to the boat on time. There is only way to get to the Robben Island and that was via this boat so it’s a good thing we made it. We left on the boat, called Sikhululekile, left from the Nelson Mandela Gateway (of course). The half hour boat ride there was nice; we had a great view of Table Mountain as we left it behind and they had a 20 minute or so documentary to show us that talked about some of the history of the island.
There were 3 buses of people but I (luckily I think) was on one that was only half full. We were able to jump from side to side to get pictures and such as we drove around. Our guide was really informative and knew a lot about the island. I did my best to remember things including taking notes and videos so let’s see how much info I can give you. We first drove past the maximum security prison where political prisoners were kept during Apartheid but we wouldn’t go through there until the end of the tour. One of the places we stopped at was a graveyard where all the lepers who died on the island were buried. Robben Island has been used as a prison (wayyy before Apartheid) for various colonizers but also as a leper colony, thus the graveyard.
Next we drove by the Robert Sobukwe House. On our way to the house we saw a bunch of jackass penguins hiding out under the bushes; Robben Island has the third largest population of jackass penguins btdubs. Anyway, at the house we stopped so they could tell us more about Robert Sobukwe and the significance of the house. Sobukwe founded the Pan African Congress (PAC) which was opposed to the apartheid government. PAC organized a peaceful march in protest to the pass books that blacks were required by law to carry for identification and the books also explicitly stated where they were “allowed” to go. Any person at any time could stop a black person on the street and demand to see their pass book and if they didn’t have it I think they could just be arrested on the spot or something absurd like that. Well, they (understandably) didn’t like this law and Sobukwe marched without the book along with other supporters to a police station in Soweto. There was another protest that day where the police opened fire on the protesters and killed 69 people. Sobukwe was arrested for inciting the “riot” and sentenced to 3 years in jail but even after he’d served his time, the government was afraid to let him out so he was moved to Robben Island and kept in solitary confinement in that house. He eventually was released but forced to live under house arrest the rest of his life.
The next place we stopped was the lime quarry. During apartheid, many political prisoners were sent to the quarry to work every single day, regardless of weather. The sunlight shining off the rock was so strong that after all those years, it did a good deal of damage to their eyes. Originally, they were working at the quarry because the lime was needed to fix up the island but even after they didn’t need anymore, they kept sending people there just for busy work. In a path leading to the quarry there was a huge pile of stones. After the apartheid government ended, many former prisoners returned on the anniversary of their release from prison and met at the quarry talking about their time there. Mandela walked away from the group at one point, picked up a rock and threw it down in the path. Slowly, all the others moved away from the group, picked up a rock and added it to the pile. Since then, the pile has not been touched.
After the quarry we drove through the town. Currently, the only people who live on the island are people who work there, whether it’s as a tour guide or groundskeeper. And just past the end of the town was stopped for a photo shoot with a great view of Table Mountain. Driving around from there we saw some antelope, rabbits, and other animals as well as lots of cool plants and such. Robben Island is well known for having a significant number of species of flora and fauna so we got to see a lot of that. We also saw the remnants of buildings and tanks that had been built on the island during World War II to protect Cape Town if necessary. She said the guns there were accurate for up to something like 30 kilometers…but they were never used. There is a lighthouse on the highest point of the island but it uses a flashing light instead of a revolving one which I thought was cool.
There’s a lot more I could say and I’ve probably already said too much but let’s move on. At the end of the tour we were dropped off in front of the maximum security prison where we were greeted by an ex-prisoner named Kgotso who showed us around. After a quick intro, he took us into section F. In here, he told us about the prison under the apartheid government. Robben Island was used for only male political prisoners who were black, coloured, or Asian. He showed us the food that was given to various prisoners according to their letter. Whites were A, even though there were no whites at the prisoner. Coloureds and Asians were B. And then blacks or as he put it, “indigenous Africans”, were C. We also saw what a typical profile for a prisoner would look like. It included information such as name, “race”, religion, crime, sentence, and date of sentence. They were also given numbers on their profiles; the first number was what number prisoner they were for the year and the second number was the year they were imprisoned. In section F there were just huge rooms that would have 30 bunk beds, 15 on each side, so there were 60 men in this one room. Each man was given 2 mats and 4 blankets. The sections were significant too. Section A was for men who were sentenced to 20 or more years. Section B was for political leaders. Section E was for students. Stuff like that. There were 7 sections in total, A-G.
From here we moved on to Section B. As we walked, Kgotso told us about letters and visits. Prisoners were only allowed 12 letters a year and the same number of visits. There was a word limit on letters and they could not write about politics or anything. Visits were similarly monitored. There was also no contact allowed. They could only speak Afrikaans I think and they could only talk about the family and things like that. No politics. So if they didn’t speak Afrikaans they would just sit and look at each other. He also mentioned that there were 469 deaths total in the prison during Apartheid.
In section B we saw the courtyard area where prisoners who weren’t sent to the lime quarry sat and broke up stones. And after that we went on to see Nelson Mandela’s cell, where he was imprisoned for 18 years. The only problem I had with seeing this block was that it had been painted over and looked pretty nice, it wasn’t exactly like what it had been while the prisoners were kept there. Luckily though, we went on to section A to end the tour which had been left the way it had been during Apartheid and where Kgotso had been kept.
Kgotso’s story. He is from Soweto and was a member of the ANC when he was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the state by armed means and so bring in an alternative government. On the November 20, 1984 he went to court and was sentenced the following day to 25 years. He was driven from prison to prison to prison before finally arriving in Cape Town where the infamous boat, the Susan Kruger, brought him to Robben Island. He told us this whole story while standing in front of the cell where he was imprisoned for 6 years and 5 months, he was released on April 27, 1991 along with 119 other prisoners. Since June 2003 he has been back on the island as a guide. And in case you didn’t notice, he was sentenced to 25 years in 1984. That means that if the apartheid government was still in control, he would only be getting released November of this year.
So Robben Island, I thought, was incredible. I know some people didn’t like it that much but I learned so much and it was simply amazing to be shown around the prison by someone who had actually been there so we got to hear his story. I guess you could’ve just gone and googled Robben Island for all this info but I figured I’d save you the trouble and share with you what I thought was legit interesting.
Moving on. The next week was my last full week of classes at UCT, crazy I know. Not just that, but it actually was insane because I had so much work to do and I also had rehearsal almost every night because Choir for Africa and the UCT Choir had a joint concert Thursday night! The concert was in Jameson Hall which is right in the middle of Upper Campus. The high domed ceiling meant insane acoustics, not necessarily in a good way. It was super echo-y and I don’t know how it sounded to the audience but we had fun with the whole thing. For our choir, we got shirts to wear for when we were performing with the UCT Choir but when we were performing with just us, the girls had these traditional African costumes to wear and we also painted our faces.
I’m going to leave out how I got there late (long story) but the intro acts were still going on so it wasn’t a big deal. The UCT Choir performed 2 songs first and then we got up and sang “Adam” and “Uyeza Umgwebi” which are both traditional Xhosa songs. The UCT Choir got up again and sang 3 songs, one of which was the same exact arrangement of “And so it Goes” that I sang in Select way back in high school (awww memories). Then it was our turn again. We sang “Ukuthula” which is a traditional Zulu song, “Theledi”, and “Sekirilekel” which is a traditional Sotho song. After a short break, the two choirs sang together. We sang “Marabi”, “Bawo Thixo Somandla”, “Masibuyel’ Ekhaya” which is a traditional Xhosa song, and ended with the South African National Anthem. One thing I love about the anthem is that it is in 4 languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. I think it’s beautiful that they include all of those languages. Granted, it’s a new anthem coming out of Apartheid, but they have it now which is what really matters. So yeah, the concert was a lot of fun and I’m so glad I stuck it out even though it frustrated me at times. I’ve met a lot of really cool people there and we make it fun. A bunch of my housemates and other people I know came to watch and they said it was great! Yay!
The weekend was pretty relaxing; even though I had two presentations and a paper due this week I wanted to take some time for myself since that week was crazy with work and choir. On Sunday I went into Cape Town to Greenmarket Square. Because of the 2010 World Cup coming, they’re re-doing the cobblestones of the square and it was the last day the market would actually be at Greenmarket Square. I heard that it’s now by the Company Gardens so I guess if I ever feel the need to go back I’ll go find it there. We got a bunch of cool stuff; I hadn’t meant to buy too much but they kept giving us such great deals, I couldn’t refuse.
Now the past three days were a bit crazy. All my lectures were based around them telling us what we should do to prepare for the final. I’m kind of terrified but my first one isn’t for a week and then I have another week before the next one and yet another week before the last one which is also the day before I leave. It’s all spread out and such so that’ll be good for helping me have time to study. Not so good for wanting to travel but I think I’m still possibly going somewhere this weekend into the beginning of next week. More on that when things are definite.
Yesterday after my last lecture and handing in my last paper, I went to the tb clinic for possibly the last time. I think they’re going again tomorrow but I don’t know if I can say goodbye to all the kids again. It was really sad leaving. And after all that, CIEE hosted our “final dinner”, basically the last time they’ll pay for 150 Americans to eat together. It was at a winery in Stellenbosch called Spiers and the restaurant was called Moyo. Really nice place with a buffet separated by food, so there was a section for salads, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, etc. There was also a stage in the middle where they had people dancing and playing the drums and such. Eventually when people had pretty much finished eating we went to the side area where there was room and danced to the music.
So now it’s Thursday. I have no classes, no papers, no presentations, no projects, just 3 finals left. Which obviously means I’ll just have to find things around Cape Town to do, the last things I need to check off my list before leaving. Sorry for being as long-winded as usual. Don’t lie, it’s been 2.5 weeks since my last post and you’ve totally missed my stories. Funny, I won’t have any stories for once I get home because they’ll all be here pretty much.
Later,
Sarah
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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