Holy crap August is about to begin. How the hell did that happen? So in terms of Arcadia I feel relieved. We met Will today, our new resident director. He has great credientals though the fact that he’s never been to South Africa or Africa at all makes me a little uneasy but whatever uneasiness I feel towards him, they are relieved by Tony our new professor for the core class. So the core class like they’ve been saying in those emails that I haven’t quite believed is still happening, so no need to add another class that I really don’t need….relief. So yeah, it should be good. I feel a lot better after meeting the guys and hearing what they had to say though it did get a bit awkward when Will started talking about Andrea and Kevin but I guess, that’s to be expected.
The day besides the meeting with the guys was good. I went swimming again. This time I was armed with a lock for my stuff so I didn’t have to worry every ten seconds to make sure my stuff was still there though really if they had been or even if I looked up just to see my stuff get taken, what could I do? Damn well nothing swimming in a pool…I could just see that not going so well. But that’s irrevelant what is importanct is the fact that I totally improved my back stroke today. I had to remember what back when I took lessons. That was at y and that was a while ago. But I definitely improved and I think I’ll do some reading on swimming so I can get even better. Plus I learned about a place where I can get goggles so I won’t have to worry about the whole water in my eyes thing which gets old pretty quickly…..there were a lot more people at the pool today probably because it was one instead of in the morning like it was last time (side note: its raining hard outside. It sounds awesome but I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. Cape town is no fun in the rain!)
Hmm, I honestly don’t have the much to say. I went to sociology of health. It was interesting. It’s weird because some of the stuff I’m learning is exactly what I need right now. Like for example we talked today (I say “we” but really it was us listening to professor) about how social networks can be helpful in terms of health. For instance, people are less likely to commit suicide if they have a strong support system through church, friends, family, etc. It makes perfect sense but still hearing it just crystallizes things for me. I need to find a good support system so I can survive here. It is immensing helpful to be able to talk Loren. Trust me, I don’t know what I’d do without being able to talk to him but it’s also just a benefical if not more so to talk to people here because they’re going through similar things. It just takes me a while to get that comfortable around people where I feel I can talk about things like that….idk. just random thoughts I guess
One thing that was productive and exciting today was the fact that Amanda, Adam and I went to 2way Travel. It’s a student travel place. They have some great trips for spring break which is coming up soon. It’s the end of August for UWC kids. So I have to figure out what I’m doing quick. Right now, I’m looking at a 4 day trip to Kruger National Park. The big 5 are supposed to be there which are lions, elephants, and honestly I can’t remember the rest but you get the idea. It’s relatively inexpensive considering its all inclusive. The only thing I have to worry about is getting to Johannesburg and malaria pills, which can be expensive. Jamie has some pills that are $7/pill. The flight to Joburg (as they call Johannesburg here) is not too bad either. I found a flight today for $130. So we’re looking at about a $600 trip including the flight, the pills and the actual expense for the trip, which I mean sounds bad from a purely financial look. I hate the fact that I’m just spending money here not making it but when else will I be in Africa? Though I’m not going as big as Amanda is thinking about going, there is this great 10 day trip to Botswana and Victoria Falls which would amazing but its about $1800. That’s a bit out of my price range. I need money when I get back.
Another trip I’m looking at is much simpler but it’ll allow me to do other things. It’s an overnight safari. It doesn’t require malaria pills or a flight to Joburg and the price is sweet: $125. Then I could do other things like spend a day or two at a township and/or a canopy trip which I know is about $50. So yeah, I’m open to suggestions if any readers have any but I need to decide soon because if I need to book a flight it needs to be soon to keep the price down. Yup that’s about all here in Cape Town. I’m really glad the drama with Arcadia has at least died down a lot. Hopefully it’ll continue to be that way. Peace out
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
When will this madness end?
Another stressful day. I’m not sure what it is about being a different country but everything even the simplest things before complicated. But actually maybe most of it should be blamed on Arcadia. All of us received an email saying that the core course is still on and that they literally just hired someone for the job which came as a complete surprise and relief to me. But then I got a txt from Andrea asking us to still look for a class just in case the core class fell through. Most kids decided not to borrow but I would much rather be safe than sorry so I set out to find the Xhosa department and the history department. The campus isn’t that big right? Yeah it took me a while and even when I found the Xhosa department they didn’t seem to have the classes I wanted so fail on that end. History turned out much better though it did take me a while to find the class. If I have to add a class which is still up in the air even though I just got another email reassuring us that the core class was still on, I will take “gender and African history.” It just sounds interesting. Let’s hope I’m right. Plus I still can have Fridays off though really I’m planning on using Fridays to volunteer at Hillcrest Primary school once I get my schedule down pat. So yeah, hopefully it’ll all work out find. I really do hope that the core class is still going to happen but if I’ve learned anything in my time in South Africa so far it’s that things often don’t go through as you planned. But hopefully I’m wrong and the core class will continue and it’ll be great. I’m just not sure how they’re going to replace Kevin who has all these great contacts.
So besides the whole class problem today was alright. I got to sleep in which was like heaven. I did have three classes in a row though which was not fun. The first class was fine: sociology of health. Learned some interesting stuff like 7 ways to stay healthy
1. sleep seven hours
2. don’t smoke cigrattees
3. drink moderately
4. eat breakfast
5. don’t snack between meals
6. exercise daily
7. keep weight down by advoiding fatty foods
I have most of this list down. But it’s #5 I have a problem. I always eat between meals. I’m not sure I could survive not eating between meals. Plus I’ve heard that it’s better to eat several small meals than a few big meals but who knows?
So first class good. Second class was a tutorial and amazingly boring. It was the sociology of health tut and since we have a paper due in a couple weeks, we went to library and learned how to use the database, the electronic journals, the catalogues which was a real waste of time. I already know that stuff. But I made the most of it and was able to find a couple of the class readings at the library and learned how to use the databases off-campus which is definitely useful and I made a friend kinda. Her name is Crystal and she sat next to me in the computer basically we shared my computer and I let her make a copy of our assignment since she haven’t gotten it yet and I learned I wasn’t the only one not being able to get the assignment and readings online which was comforting.
Third class was another gigantic waste of my time but more so because we met for five minutes because we were supposed to watch a short movie or something but we were in a classroom with a chalk board and an overhead projector. Not exactly the things necessary for watching a dvd so the tutor postponed the dvd watching and its paper about it (one paged summary no biggie) until next week. But of course next week we’re supposed to watch another dvd and have a multiple choice test on that the following week. Basically everything: the one page summary, the test and an essay fall on the same day. Oh joy. And all the other classes seem to have things due during that week too. So I’m trying to be proactive like I found out I have an assignment due during that week but it’s for a class that I have all the readings too so I can pretty much do it this weekend. That’s my goal. We’ll see if it actually happens. But one thing I’m not sure of is if it’s double spaced or not. Crystal said they usually aren’t which means four pages is really our eight which is a lot. But I’ll be double checking with the professor just to make sure.
Oh and I should mention that I got to know the campus very well today because I didn’t know where my last tut was. Took me forever. What I learned: I’m really bad with maps and directions. I had a map and it still didn’t help me. But in my defence, the classroom was upstairs and there was no way I could have known that with the little information I had though I walked through the building where it was several times. Finally I asked for help and unlike yesterday and being sent all over campus, I found it easily. Another things I learned: ask the students they damn well should know what they’re talking about. I could write more but I’m spent. Good night all or actually it’s good afternoon back home…
So besides the whole class problem today was alright. I got to sleep in which was like heaven. I did have three classes in a row though which was not fun. The first class was fine: sociology of health. Learned some interesting stuff like 7 ways to stay healthy
1. sleep seven hours
2. don’t smoke cigrattees
3. drink moderately
4. eat breakfast
5. don’t snack between meals
6. exercise daily
7. keep weight down by advoiding fatty foods
I have most of this list down. But it’s #5 I have a problem. I always eat between meals. I’m not sure I could survive not eating between meals. Plus I’ve heard that it’s better to eat several small meals than a few big meals but who knows?
So first class good. Second class was a tutorial and amazingly boring. It was the sociology of health tut and since we have a paper due in a couple weeks, we went to library and learned how to use the database, the electronic journals, the catalogues which was a real waste of time. I already know that stuff. But I made the most of it and was able to find a couple of the class readings at the library and learned how to use the databases off-campus which is definitely useful and I made a friend kinda. Her name is Crystal and she sat next to me in the computer basically we shared my computer and I let her make a copy of our assignment since she haven’t gotten it yet and I learned I wasn’t the only one not being able to get the assignment and readings online which was comforting.
Third class was another gigantic waste of my time but more so because we met for five minutes because we were supposed to watch a short movie or something but we were in a classroom with a chalk board and an overhead projector. Not exactly the things necessary for watching a dvd so the tutor postponed the dvd watching and its paper about it (one paged summary no biggie) until next week. But of course next week we’re supposed to watch another dvd and have a multiple choice test on that the following week. Basically everything: the one page summary, the test and an essay fall on the same day. Oh joy. And all the other classes seem to have things due during that week too. So I’m trying to be proactive like I found out I have an assignment due during that week but it’s for a class that I have all the readings too so I can pretty much do it this weekend. That’s my goal. We’ll see if it actually happens. But one thing I’m not sure of is if it’s double spaced or not. Crystal said they usually aren’t which means four pages is really our eight which is a lot. But I’ll be double checking with the professor just to make sure.
Oh and I should mention that I got to know the campus very well today because I didn’t know where my last tut was. Took me forever. What I learned: I’m really bad with maps and directions. I had a map and it still didn’t help me. But in my defence, the classroom was upstairs and there was no way I could have known that with the little information I had though I walked through the building where it was several times. Finally I asked for help and unlike yesterday and being sent all over campus, I found it easily. Another things I learned: ask the students they damn well should know what they’re talking about. I could write more but I’m spent. Good night all or actually it’s good afternoon back home…
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Stressed
7/26
Another lazy day is South Africa. It’s ok though. I’m sure I’m going to get crazy busy once school picks up and I start volunteering at the primary school on our street. Today I woke up at noon again and made myself the usual granola with a banana. I did some reading but not too much because honestly the reading was dull. It was about getting people to participate in their government, which is frankly still a problem in the US. I just found it uninteresting and could easily summarize it in a couple sentences, yet the reading was over twenty pages. I went on a run which was good. Really today was uneventful. We did have a group dinner though with both houses. Emily made pasta salad and grilled burgers which was really good. It was nice to get everyone together. The highlight was making cookies which were kinda strange because all that was required were water and oil. They were really crumbly but once we added an egg they looked more like cookie dough. They turned out pretty well. Yeah, dull day. That’s all.
7/28
Before I talk about today, I’ll go over yesterday. It wasn’t too exciting just stressful. First off there are strikes in South Africa. The sanitation workers and the train workers all went on strike. So traffic was awful. Ivan, our driver, woke up at 6:30 and still didn’t get to our house until after 8. Consequently, Jamie was a little late to her 8:30 class. But the rest of us were fine because we didn’t have class until 9:40. I spent the hour before class attempting to upload a video for Loren but of course it didn’t work at least doing that didn’t waste my money like it does back home. After that didn’t work, I decided to look for my classes on this thing called eLearning. Its basically the same as our Blackboard, but for some reason none of my classes showed up. So I looked on the public site to find my classes and none of them were there either. All of my classes but one claimed to have the readings online but I couldn’t find some and others I found but were last years so little use to me. That pretty much summed up my hour before class. I had my social change class which was not very exciting but I did learn some of bird flu and other manufactured risks like mad cow disease, swine flu, things of that nature.
After class, I decided to try again to look for my readings. This time I went to the short loan section of the library where the readings for some of my classes were supposed to be. Of course, they weren’t. So I tried again looking on eLearning and then even looked at eTeaching. No luck with either. But I did stop by one of my professors offices to tell her that I couldn’t find an assignment online. She told me: “don’t tell me you can’t find it” in a very rude manner. She helped nonetheless. I signed on using her computer and we ran into the same problem: slow internet and the course didn’t show up. She was busy trying to do several things at once, so she just handed me a hard copy of it. The assignment is basically a short paper on donors. I have to interview 8 people about it and do a little research. But apparently they can’t be from the same place like all the American students I live with but a variety. Poop, that means I have to talk to people. Who comes to South Africa to talk to people? I’m being sarcastic of course but I really don’t like talking to strangers. Luckily, I know some other people that will probably be willing to help like Andrea and Ivan, at least that’s a start.
After remembering or being reminded that my Monday class only met every other Monday, I decided to see if I could talk to someone about this whole eLearning issue. I went to the faculty of arts enquires because the sign underneath the paper that said “faculty of arts enquires” said eLearning. But of course, that was not where I supposed to go. I was sent somewhere else that wasn’t right and then sent another place that wasn’t right. Finally that person who was confused why I was sent there in the first place (so was I) called and figured out where I was supposed to be. I found it no problem but still when I got there they really didn’t help. They pretty much told me what I already knew: that some of classes were from last year and the others didn’t exist. Thanks, but that doesn’t really help me. I guess I need to just talk to the teachers about this but after the attitude I got from the first professor (I was told they were nice to exchange students), I’m not so keen on being told off again. But that time after walking all around campus, it was time for my last class and finally to go home.
I went on a run almost immediately after getting home. I ate a little something because I haven’t eaten much (trying to save money), then watched a episode of Scrubs to let the food digest before running. I ran to the UCT track where there were tons of people playing Frisbee or rugby or just warming up for soccer. I was intimidated at first but then decided to hell with it, I needed to run after a very stressful and seemingly unproductive day. So I ran a mile. Yes, just a mile but I decided to see how fast I could do it. Let’s just say I’m no where near the shape I was in after my half marathon. I need to fix that and I should. There’s no reason why I can’t. But running a mile semi-fast (it felt fast to me) felt good and put on that runner’s high that keeps me running in the first place. After returning home, I did some sit ups and called it a day. Showered, ate dinner, and then just did some reading before going to bed. The internet again was being screwy not letting me simply check my email. Plus the mic was acting up again so when I tried to call Jonathan he couldn’t here me half the time and so finally we gave up. It was just one of those days that almost everything seemed to fall apart. Thankfully when the internet was working I was able to txt Loren and he could send me audio since he’s out of minutes so we can’t talk on the phone L but we managed.
On to today, thankfully (or not thankfully, I haven’t decided yet) the strikes were postponed, so we were able to get to school in plenty of time. Class was good not very exciting though we finally got a hard copy of the syllabus which of course made me happy (yeah, readings!). But after class was even better, I decided to go for a swim in what I learned is the only Olympic sized pool in the Western Cape. It’s huge. I love it. I’m going to be an amazing swimmer before the semester is through. Ok, probably not, but I plan on swimming there as much as I can. I have to take advantage of having my own pool. Belmont doesn’t have one. But then I realized Jonathan’s going to Vandy next year so I probably figure out a way to use it. I’ve heard Belmont’s supposed to be able to use it anyway.
Moving on, I should have planned ahead. But I needed a lock for my stuff. Of course I didn’t have one, so I just left my stuff poolside so I could keep an eye on it. basically I swam so I was always facing it or could easily see it. I just goofed off for a half hour. I didn’t have goggles so actually swimming laps would be hard while at the same time keeping an eye on my stuff. So I just kept my head above water and just enjoyed being a pool. It was wonderful. A good workout too. Definitely got the heart rate going.
After swimming, I tried again to find readings online. Still no luck so I went to one of professors who was supposed to have office hours. I checked twice and both times he wasn’t there. I honestly don’t know how I killed time because I didn’t do much. I read the syllabus I got, tried to get on a computer, was successful for a little bit but not in finding anything. I don’t really know. Time somehow passed and it was time for class again.
My kinship and gender class again. I don’t know what it is about that class. But it always seems to put me asleep or semi-sleep. Its no good. Probably a major factor is my lack of sleep. I can’t really go to bed at 11 when the last couple nights its been 3 or later. Yeah, I need to fix that. But I should say that my kinship and gender class is the one class that all the readings are at the library and I have them unlike my other classes. So that’s that.
Once I got home, I went to Shoprite, looking especially for a lock which I found. Now I don’t have to worry about my stuff. I think I’ll go swimming again on Thursday. I’m trying to decide if swimming every day of the week is too much. I want to run as well but I guess I might as well take advantage of a pool. Moving on, went to Shoprite got some food. Made a tuna melt that was outta sight. And then it was time for our class.
Alright here’s where it gets interesting. So we walk to UCT’s campus, find where we’re going to be and sit not really looking forward to this “special” meeting. We were supposed to be having class at UWC but for whatever reason plans change. Honestly here you get used to it. Andrea comes in and looks so stress. I made the mistake of telling her “at least your vacation is almost here.” She immediately bursts into tears. Most kids after the fact thought someone died. I didn’t think that. I was just confused that I made her so upset.
Here’s what happened. Basically Arcadia wouldn’t let Kevin and Andrea who have been working their asses off since January take a 10 day vacation. Well, it wasn’t just that. I think that was just the last straw. Last week we learned that the core class which was supposed to end by September has to be all semester long. The idea was to front load the class so we’d have the pretty good understanding of South Africa before we were leaving, enabling us to enjoy the experience a lot more. Apparently that wasn’t acceptable for Arcadia, which is weird since it has been the way Kevin’s done it for the last three years. But there’s a new director in town and he didn’t like that idea at all. Plus Arcadia didn’t like the idea of vacation even though it is well deserved. So both Kevin and Andrea resigned. I was in complete shock. These people have quickly become like family to me. I’ve been to their house. I’ve eaten with them. I’ve hung out with their adorable son, Benjamin and now it’s all over though Andrea assured us that they’re still staying here.
So how this plays out as of now is that the core class which I was really looking forward to is no longer happening and since Arcadia requires a minimum of 14 hours, I have to sign up for another one. And now a new guy is flying here to sub for Andrea until a replacement is found.
I honestly don’t understand the logic. What is the big deal with a vacation and a class that’s front-loaded? It seems absolutely to put your employees under so much pressure and allow for no breaks. I really don’t get why this couldn’t have waited until after this semester so both parties could work it out instead pretty much throwing us out on a limb. Not cool. So yeah, I’m not happy about this and it just adds to the stress I’m already experiencing with being away from home and especially all the drama with classes.
So right now I’m trying to figure out another class that’ll work and that I’ll be able to get credit for. It shouldn’t be hard expect for Andrea will be done organizing us as of this Friday so we have to decide quickly and with UCW it’s not like I can simply look up a class online find the times and be done. Nope I have to do to the department where my class is and find the times that way and hope that I haven’t missed to much in the last two weeks. Well actually it’ll basically be three weeks. So yeah, not cool. But I’m hoping this’ll all work out. I have to. What other choice do I have? I’m just really disappointed that I can’t take the core class. Yes it was a lot of reading and writing but we’re learning about things that affect all South Africans and would be able to interact with them on a deeper more meaningful level because of that. Andrea has suggested looking at a poli sci class or African studies class to substitute. I might try that. Alright that’s my update. Hope all is well in the States.
Another lazy day is South Africa. It’s ok though. I’m sure I’m going to get crazy busy once school picks up and I start volunteering at the primary school on our street. Today I woke up at noon again and made myself the usual granola with a banana. I did some reading but not too much because honestly the reading was dull. It was about getting people to participate in their government, which is frankly still a problem in the US. I just found it uninteresting and could easily summarize it in a couple sentences, yet the reading was over twenty pages. I went on a run which was good. Really today was uneventful. We did have a group dinner though with both houses. Emily made pasta salad and grilled burgers which was really good. It was nice to get everyone together. The highlight was making cookies which were kinda strange because all that was required were water and oil. They were really crumbly but once we added an egg they looked more like cookie dough. They turned out pretty well. Yeah, dull day. That’s all.
7/28
Before I talk about today, I’ll go over yesterday. It wasn’t too exciting just stressful. First off there are strikes in South Africa. The sanitation workers and the train workers all went on strike. So traffic was awful. Ivan, our driver, woke up at 6:30 and still didn’t get to our house until after 8. Consequently, Jamie was a little late to her 8:30 class. But the rest of us were fine because we didn’t have class until 9:40. I spent the hour before class attempting to upload a video for Loren but of course it didn’t work at least doing that didn’t waste my money like it does back home. After that didn’t work, I decided to look for my classes on this thing called eLearning. Its basically the same as our Blackboard, but for some reason none of my classes showed up. So I looked on the public site to find my classes and none of them were there either. All of my classes but one claimed to have the readings online but I couldn’t find some and others I found but were last years so little use to me. That pretty much summed up my hour before class. I had my social change class which was not very exciting but I did learn some of bird flu and other manufactured risks like mad cow disease, swine flu, things of that nature.
After class, I decided to try again to look for my readings. This time I went to the short loan section of the library where the readings for some of my classes were supposed to be. Of course, they weren’t. So I tried again looking on eLearning and then even looked at eTeaching. No luck with either. But I did stop by one of my professors offices to tell her that I couldn’t find an assignment online. She told me: “don’t tell me you can’t find it” in a very rude manner. She helped nonetheless. I signed on using her computer and we ran into the same problem: slow internet and the course didn’t show up. She was busy trying to do several things at once, so she just handed me a hard copy of it. The assignment is basically a short paper on donors. I have to interview 8 people about it and do a little research. But apparently they can’t be from the same place like all the American students I live with but a variety. Poop, that means I have to talk to people. Who comes to South Africa to talk to people? I’m being sarcastic of course but I really don’t like talking to strangers. Luckily, I know some other people that will probably be willing to help like Andrea and Ivan, at least that’s a start.
After remembering or being reminded that my Monday class only met every other Monday, I decided to see if I could talk to someone about this whole eLearning issue. I went to the faculty of arts enquires because the sign underneath the paper that said “faculty of arts enquires” said eLearning. But of course, that was not where I supposed to go. I was sent somewhere else that wasn’t right and then sent another place that wasn’t right. Finally that person who was confused why I was sent there in the first place (so was I) called and figured out where I was supposed to be. I found it no problem but still when I got there they really didn’t help. They pretty much told me what I already knew: that some of classes were from last year and the others didn’t exist. Thanks, but that doesn’t really help me. I guess I need to just talk to the teachers about this but after the attitude I got from the first professor (I was told they were nice to exchange students), I’m not so keen on being told off again. But that time after walking all around campus, it was time for my last class and finally to go home.
I went on a run almost immediately after getting home. I ate a little something because I haven’t eaten much (trying to save money), then watched a episode of Scrubs to let the food digest before running. I ran to the UCT track where there were tons of people playing Frisbee or rugby or just warming up for soccer. I was intimidated at first but then decided to hell with it, I needed to run after a very stressful and seemingly unproductive day. So I ran a mile. Yes, just a mile but I decided to see how fast I could do it. Let’s just say I’m no where near the shape I was in after my half marathon. I need to fix that and I should. There’s no reason why I can’t. But running a mile semi-fast (it felt fast to me) felt good and put on that runner’s high that keeps me running in the first place. After returning home, I did some sit ups and called it a day. Showered, ate dinner, and then just did some reading before going to bed. The internet again was being screwy not letting me simply check my email. Plus the mic was acting up again so when I tried to call Jonathan he couldn’t here me half the time and so finally we gave up. It was just one of those days that almost everything seemed to fall apart. Thankfully when the internet was working I was able to txt Loren and he could send me audio since he’s out of minutes so we can’t talk on the phone L but we managed.
On to today, thankfully (or not thankfully, I haven’t decided yet) the strikes were postponed, so we were able to get to school in plenty of time. Class was good not very exciting though we finally got a hard copy of the syllabus which of course made me happy (yeah, readings!). But after class was even better, I decided to go for a swim in what I learned is the only Olympic sized pool in the Western Cape. It’s huge. I love it. I’m going to be an amazing swimmer before the semester is through. Ok, probably not, but I plan on swimming there as much as I can. I have to take advantage of having my own pool. Belmont doesn’t have one. But then I realized Jonathan’s going to Vandy next year so I probably figure out a way to use it. I’ve heard Belmont’s supposed to be able to use it anyway.
Moving on, I should have planned ahead. But I needed a lock for my stuff. Of course I didn’t have one, so I just left my stuff poolside so I could keep an eye on it. basically I swam so I was always facing it or could easily see it. I just goofed off for a half hour. I didn’t have goggles so actually swimming laps would be hard while at the same time keeping an eye on my stuff. So I just kept my head above water and just enjoyed being a pool. It was wonderful. A good workout too. Definitely got the heart rate going.
After swimming, I tried again to find readings online. Still no luck so I went to one of professors who was supposed to have office hours. I checked twice and both times he wasn’t there. I honestly don’t know how I killed time because I didn’t do much. I read the syllabus I got, tried to get on a computer, was successful for a little bit but not in finding anything. I don’t really know. Time somehow passed and it was time for class again.
My kinship and gender class again. I don’t know what it is about that class. But it always seems to put me asleep or semi-sleep. Its no good. Probably a major factor is my lack of sleep. I can’t really go to bed at 11 when the last couple nights its been 3 or later. Yeah, I need to fix that. But I should say that my kinship and gender class is the one class that all the readings are at the library and I have them unlike my other classes. So that’s that.
Once I got home, I went to Shoprite, looking especially for a lock which I found. Now I don’t have to worry about my stuff. I think I’ll go swimming again on Thursday. I’m trying to decide if swimming every day of the week is too much. I want to run as well but I guess I might as well take advantage of a pool. Moving on, went to Shoprite got some food. Made a tuna melt that was outta sight. And then it was time for our class.
Alright here’s where it gets interesting. So we walk to UCT’s campus, find where we’re going to be and sit not really looking forward to this “special” meeting. We were supposed to be having class at UWC but for whatever reason plans change. Honestly here you get used to it. Andrea comes in and looks so stress. I made the mistake of telling her “at least your vacation is almost here.” She immediately bursts into tears. Most kids after the fact thought someone died. I didn’t think that. I was just confused that I made her so upset.
Here’s what happened. Basically Arcadia wouldn’t let Kevin and Andrea who have been working their asses off since January take a 10 day vacation. Well, it wasn’t just that. I think that was just the last straw. Last week we learned that the core class which was supposed to end by September has to be all semester long. The idea was to front load the class so we’d have the pretty good understanding of South Africa before we were leaving, enabling us to enjoy the experience a lot more. Apparently that wasn’t acceptable for Arcadia, which is weird since it has been the way Kevin’s done it for the last three years. But there’s a new director in town and he didn’t like that idea at all. Plus Arcadia didn’t like the idea of vacation even though it is well deserved. So both Kevin and Andrea resigned. I was in complete shock. These people have quickly become like family to me. I’ve been to their house. I’ve eaten with them. I’ve hung out with their adorable son, Benjamin and now it’s all over though Andrea assured us that they’re still staying here.
So how this plays out as of now is that the core class which I was really looking forward to is no longer happening and since Arcadia requires a minimum of 14 hours, I have to sign up for another one. And now a new guy is flying here to sub for Andrea until a replacement is found.
I honestly don’t understand the logic. What is the big deal with a vacation and a class that’s front-loaded? It seems absolutely to put your employees under so much pressure and allow for no breaks. I really don’t get why this couldn’t have waited until after this semester so both parties could work it out instead pretty much throwing us out on a limb. Not cool. So yeah, I’m not happy about this and it just adds to the stress I’m already experiencing with being away from home and especially all the drama with classes.
So right now I’m trying to figure out another class that’ll work and that I’ll be able to get credit for. It shouldn’t be hard expect for Andrea will be done organizing us as of this Friday so we have to decide quickly and with UCW it’s not like I can simply look up a class online find the times and be done. Nope I have to do to the department where my class is and find the times that way and hope that I haven’t missed to much in the last two weeks. Well actually it’ll basically be three weeks. So yeah, not cool. But I’m hoping this’ll all work out. I have to. What other choice do I have? I’m just really disappointed that I can’t take the core class. Yes it was a lot of reading and writing but we’re learning about things that affect all South Africans and would be able to interact with them on a deeper more meaningful level because of that. Andrea has suggested looking at a poli sci class or African studies class to substitute. I might try that. Alright that’s my update. Hope all is well in the States.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Boring Day, Interesting Night
Today was a really lazy day. I woke up at 12:30. It still throws me off. I never know what time it is until I check the time. I never think its as late as it actually is. But anyways, I woke up to a surprisingly quiet house. That’s probably why I didn’t think it was late because the house was quiet. I got up and got myself some cereal and yogurt and to see to my dismay all of the plates piled high in the sink uncleaned. I like my morning to be slow so as most of my roommates were getting ready to leave I was still deciding on whether or not I wanted to go running or just get dressed. I know if I don’t go running first thing after I have breakfast or after I get home from school, I don’t do. I told myself I might run later today but of course that didn’t happen. Instead I took a nice hot shower and got dressed. I still don’t have a key to the house so once my roommates are gone and I want to leave I’m pretty much have to stay out until one of them returns. So I went to the front house and Adam and I brainstormed on things to do for the day. We didn’t make much progress. I had called Joe earlier in the day and after finally getting a hold of him, I find out that he walked all the way to this mall that is probably 3-4 miles away just because he was bored by himself mind you. All I can say is only Joe because he does that sort of thing all the time which always keeps me laughing. So we decide to wait for Joe to get back to the house before we leave not that we’ve decided on anything to do but still. I try to get a hold of Dominique because I haven’t seen her in a while but it ends up being hard as usual with crappy signal when I do get her on the phone or someone else answering the phone that I don’t want to talk to. She was pretty much going to Babo where Jerome works to hang out, which I didn’t really want to do. I wanted to do something fun something different.
Adam and I end up walking to the Rondebosch “mall.” It’s not really a mall at all. It’s more like a bunch of banks, a grocery store and some restaurants, which was frustrating for me because I was thinking that I would finally be able to get a new mic because my mic right now is very moody. It has good days and bad days. Actually it’s more like sometimes it’ll work perfectly fine and other times it doesn’t. But we go into the Pick ‘n’ Pay which neither of us have ever been to and browse the aisle looking to see if it’s cheaper than the Shoprite. For the most part, we concluded that it was overprized. But I ended up getting some more pasta and vanilla so in case I wanted to make cake again, I could. I also got a great mango smoothie before we walked back to house. After that we didn’t really do much. I believe I made Adam watch an episode of Boondocks, the usher episode. It still cracks me up even though I’ve seen it dozens of times. Then Amanda came over and we decided to make French toast. It was delicious. I love how simple it is, just eggs, cinnamon, and bread. Adam also made some strawberry flavoured oatmeal which both Amanda and Adam found disgusting but I found tolerable so I mostly had that.
After that, we decide to go to the Baxter Theatre which is a theatre on UCT’s campus. It’s a beautiful building and it really is hard to believe that you’re in South Africa when you’re in it, especially since the clientel are mostly white and the servers are black. I kept on thinking “South Africa’s elite” and I’m pretty sure they were or at least well off compared to the rest of the population. Tickets were only 85 rand but there were only a couple of black people I saw not including Adam and myself which I found interesting. The musical was the first a cappella play in South Africa and the music was fantastic. If for nothing else, I would have seen it for the singing. All the singers were excellent and all the sound effects were made by them like rain was snapping and the helicopters were made by them too. It was really neat. I still haven’t decided on the plot. Right now, I’m thinking not so good on the plot. I don’t know I guess I’m just thinking internationally because lots of the jokes made would be only understood by South Africans. There was of course the universal subplot of love and the main theme on not destroying the planet. But I definitely would have found it more enjoyable had I understood all the jokes.
The play’s name was “Noah of Cape Town” and it was set in the year 2020. Most of world is covered in water and the people recount the story of this guy whom they called Noah and how he warned against the coming flood even though the world was experiencing massive water shortages. I guess because the plot was so familiar and not really done in an interesting way. I kinda found it flat. Like of course I always enjoy a good love story but that wasn’t even the main part of the play. But as I said before the music was phenomenal and at times it gave me chills.
When we got back, Zuri finally arrived. Zuri is another UCT who just arrived because her visa was delayed because she forgot to pay fees and the consulate never told her and then it just took forever for he to get it. On top of that, her flight was delayed and she had to change her flight several times because of the problem with the visa. I felt so bad for her but I’m happy she’s finally here. She’s also a soc major and goes to Spellman which is cool. It’s interesting because all of us all come from small schools and each of our schools UWC with 15,000 students and UCT with probably also twice that is definitely a culture shock. The UCT kids probably have it worse because their campus is huge and spread out over at least three different campuses. Ok that’s all on today. Good night all.
Adam and I end up walking to the Rondebosch “mall.” It’s not really a mall at all. It’s more like a bunch of banks, a grocery store and some restaurants, which was frustrating for me because I was thinking that I would finally be able to get a new mic because my mic right now is very moody. It has good days and bad days. Actually it’s more like sometimes it’ll work perfectly fine and other times it doesn’t. But we go into the Pick ‘n’ Pay which neither of us have ever been to and browse the aisle looking to see if it’s cheaper than the Shoprite. For the most part, we concluded that it was overprized. But I ended up getting some more pasta and vanilla so in case I wanted to make cake again, I could. I also got a great mango smoothie before we walked back to house. After that we didn’t really do much. I believe I made Adam watch an episode of Boondocks, the usher episode. It still cracks me up even though I’ve seen it dozens of times. Then Amanda came over and we decided to make French toast. It was delicious. I love how simple it is, just eggs, cinnamon, and bread. Adam also made some strawberry flavoured oatmeal which both Amanda and Adam found disgusting but I found tolerable so I mostly had that.
After that, we decide to go to the Baxter Theatre which is a theatre on UCT’s campus. It’s a beautiful building and it really is hard to believe that you’re in South Africa when you’re in it, especially since the clientel are mostly white and the servers are black. I kept on thinking “South Africa’s elite” and I’m pretty sure they were or at least well off compared to the rest of the population. Tickets were only 85 rand but there were only a couple of black people I saw not including Adam and myself which I found interesting. The musical was the first a cappella play in South Africa and the music was fantastic. If for nothing else, I would have seen it for the singing. All the singers were excellent and all the sound effects were made by them like rain was snapping and the helicopters were made by them too. It was really neat. I still haven’t decided on the plot. Right now, I’m thinking not so good on the plot. I don’t know I guess I’m just thinking internationally because lots of the jokes made would be only understood by South Africans. There was of course the universal subplot of love and the main theme on not destroying the planet. But I definitely would have found it more enjoyable had I understood all the jokes.
The play’s name was “Noah of Cape Town” and it was set in the year 2020. Most of world is covered in water and the people recount the story of this guy whom they called Noah and how he warned against the coming flood even though the world was experiencing massive water shortages. I guess because the plot was so familiar and not really done in an interesting way. I kinda found it flat. Like of course I always enjoy a good love story but that wasn’t even the main part of the play. But as I said before the music was phenomenal and at times it gave me chills.
When we got back, Zuri finally arrived. Zuri is another UCT who just arrived because her visa was delayed because she forgot to pay fees and the consulate never told her and then it just took forever for he to get it. On top of that, her flight was delayed and she had to change her flight several times because of the problem with the visa. I felt so bad for her but I’m happy she’s finally here. She’s also a soc major and goes to Spellman which is cool. It’s interesting because all of us all come from small schools and each of our schools UWC with 15,000 students and UCT with probably also twice that is definitely a culture shock. The UCT kids probably have it worse because their campus is huge and spread out over at least three different campuses. Ok that’s all on today. Good night all.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Bday- South Africa style
Today’s my birthday which means I’m as Holly said “old as fuck” which is true. I’m no longer a teenager. How did that happen? But whatever, I refuse to become one of those women who doesn’t tell her age. I’m 20, so what? I don’t feel any different. I’m just apparently a year older. Being in a different country doesn’t really change anything either besides the fact that I can drink, if I so choose and I’m with people who haven’t known me for very long, which is a little weird. But today has been fun. Joe, Adam and I went surfing, which for me was my second time. I improved about 150%, which made surfing a lot more enjoyable. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable before, but it was just a great feeling to get up on the board after trying many times and for me, after my first lesson wasn’t too successful.
We ended up getting lessons at the place which was more expensive because the first place, the lifestyle store had all its trainers busy. That pretty much sucked because I ended up paying a lot more for lessons than I wanted to. But the guy, Elfonzo was really nice. It was definitely interesting seeing the differences between the two trainers. I liked Clint because he broke it down in several steps but it was also harder that way because I had to think about each step and by the time I did the wave would be gone. But actually both trainers told me that I need to slow and I guess the second time around I just did. Also Elfonozo made us run a little and stretch which I didn’t have to do the first time. Not that I have anything against running, obviously I love it but it was just kinda weird running in tight wetsuits. Also Elfonzo pushed us on almost every wave and didn’t really talk about paddling, which for a first timer like Joe is very important. I just felt like Clint allowed us a lot more freedom to try it on our own. Either way both experiences were great and I definitely want to continue though probably not with the store we went to today, too expensive.
After surfing, we hopped the train back home where Joe changed since he forgot a change of clothes. So we went back to house and then walked to Rondebosch and had Chinese. It was delicious. I had spring rolls, vegetables and rice and beef in a black bean sauce. It was great and of course cheap. And I had wanted to go see Harry Potter tonight but honestly I spent way more than I wanted to today so I decided against it, plus I was exhausted from surfing so it was just another excuse to stay home and I’m really glad I did because I had a great time with Amanda and Joe.
First we decide that we want to watch a movie and rather than go and spend money we look through our roommates collections which I have to say have a great variety. We kinda picked a movie but not quite because we decided we wanted to make a cake because hello, its my birthday. What’s a birthday without cake? So we go to 7-11 because the Shoprite closes at six and by this time its around 8pm. So we go and of course, we immediantly find it difficult to find all the ingrediants for a cake. We managed to find a great recipe in the store on the back label of a thing of cocoa mix, which we found by tearing off the label (don’t worry we bought it). So we used that recipe to find whatever else we need for a cake and the store actually had every thing we needed except for one thing: vanilla. We decide to make the cake anyway, because what’s the joy in cooking without expertmenting? We walk back to our house and immedinatly have to figure how to covert the metric system into cup/teaspoons which is very annoying. For whatever reason our house only has cups/teaspoons nothing that tells you mL or grams like the recipe calls for. Thank God for internet because the cake would have probably been a complete disaster without us being able to convert everything.
Another problem we run into is the eggs for some reason the recipe calls for separting the whites and the yolk, which turns out to be a major pain. We actually have an egg separter in the house but really we probably would have better without because the yolk ended up falling in with the whites anyway. So at first we think we only need the whites so we throw the yolks away (I know, wasteful Nana would be so disappointed) but then we realized we need both, which cracks me because I’m like why in the world did we go through all that trouble of separating them if we’re using them both? So now we have a bunch of whites (plus a little yolk, not on purpose) and no yolks. I hate wasting and after wasting some yolk unnecessarily we decide to keep the whites and make French toast not tonight mind you tomorrow morning for breakfast (duh). We’ll see how that goes. So we basically just threw two whole eggs in the mix and call it a day. The whole process took way to long but you have understand. We’re dealing with lots of familiar things but in unfamiliar ways like the caramel frosting then really didn’t taste like carmel (it was still good). We just made a major mess and all the while, Joe is sitting on the couch watching the Office, not really helping and when I yell at him to help really he just gets in the way. But it was all in good fun and the cake, I might add, ended up tasting delicious, not really chocolately (Joe thought it tasted like carrot cake…) but it was good.
After finally sitting down to eat cake, we pick a movie called Lords of Dogtown which our roommate, Sam suggested. The beginning was good but it just got progressively weirder and more worthless and it was two hours longest two hours of my life. If you want to watch fine go for it but I’m really glad we didn’t pay for it because it isn’t worth your movie. So yeah that pretty much sums my night. At some point between deciding on a movie and going to 7-11 we did watch a couple episodes of the Office, which were hilarious so all in all, it was a good birthday. Now I need to get into my room before my roommate come home making extra noise. peace
We ended up getting lessons at the place which was more expensive because the first place, the lifestyle store had all its trainers busy. That pretty much sucked because I ended up paying a lot more for lessons than I wanted to. But the guy, Elfonzo was really nice. It was definitely interesting seeing the differences between the two trainers. I liked Clint because he broke it down in several steps but it was also harder that way because I had to think about each step and by the time I did the wave would be gone. But actually both trainers told me that I need to slow and I guess the second time around I just did. Also Elfonozo made us run a little and stretch which I didn’t have to do the first time. Not that I have anything against running, obviously I love it but it was just kinda weird running in tight wetsuits. Also Elfonzo pushed us on almost every wave and didn’t really talk about paddling, which for a first timer like Joe is very important. I just felt like Clint allowed us a lot more freedom to try it on our own. Either way both experiences were great and I definitely want to continue though probably not with the store we went to today, too expensive.
After surfing, we hopped the train back home where Joe changed since he forgot a change of clothes. So we went back to house and then walked to Rondebosch and had Chinese. It was delicious. I had spring rolls, vegetables and rice and beef in a black bean sauce. It was great and of course cheap. And I had wanted to go see Harry Potter tonight but honestly I spent way more than I wanted to today so I decided against it, plus I was exhausted from surfing so it was just another excuse to stay home and I’m really glad I did because I had a great time with Amanda and Joe.
First we decide that we want to watch a movie and rather than go and spend money we look through our roommates collections which I have to say have a great variety. We kinda picked a movie but not quite because we decided we wanted to make a cake because hello, its my birthday. What’s a birthday without cake? So we go to 7-11 because the Shoprite closes at six and by this time its around 8pm. So we go and of course, we immediantly find it difficult to find all the ingrediants for a cake. We managed to find a great recipe in the store on the back label of a thing of cocoa mix, which we found by tearing off the label (don’t worry we bought it). So we used that recipe to find whatever else we need for a cake and the store actually had every thing we needed except for one thing: vanilla. We decide to make the cake anyway, because what’s the joy in cooking without expertmenting? We walk back to our house and immedinatly have to figure how to covert the metric system into cup/teaspoons which is very annoying. For whatever reason our house only has cups/teaspoons nothing that tells you mL or grams like the recipe calls for. Thank God for internet because the cake would have probably been a complete disaster without us being able to convert everything.
Another problem we run into is the eggs for some reason the recipe calls for separting the whites and the yolk, which turns out to be a major pain. We actually have an egg separter in the house but really we probably would have better without because the yolk ended up falling in with the whites anyway. So at first we think we only need the whites so we throw the yolks away (I know, wasteful Nana would be so disappointed) but then we realized we need both, which cracks me because I’m like why in the world did we go through all that trouble of separating them if we’re using them both? So now we have a bunch of whites (plus a little yolk, not on purpose) and no yolks. I hate wasting and after wasting some yolk unnecessarily we decide to keep the whites and make French toast not tonight mind you tomorrow morning for breakfast (duh). We’ll see how that goes. So we basically just threw two whole eggs in the mix and call it a day. The whole process took way to long but you have understand. We’re dealing with lots of familiar things but in unfamiliar ways like the caramel frosting then really didn’t taste like carmel (it was still good). We just made a major mess and all the while, Joe is sitting on the couch watching the Office, not really helping and when I yell at him to help really he just gets in the way. But it was all in good fun and the cake, I might add, ended up tasting delicious, not really chocolately (Joe thought it tasted like carrot cake…) but it was good.
After finally sitting down to eat cake, we pick a movie called Lords of Dogtown which our roommate, Sam suggested. The beginning was good but it just got progressively weirder and more worthless and it was two hours longest two hours of my life. If you want to watch fine go for it but I’m really glad we didn’t pay for it because it isn’t worth your movie. So yeah that pretty much sums my night. At some point between deciding on a movie and going to 7-11 we did watch a couple episodes of the Office, which were hilarious so all in all, it was a good birthday. Now I need to get into my room before my roommate come home making extra noise. peace
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Khayelitsha= our new home
Khayelitsha was today and it hit a little too close for home for my liking. I was fine for most of the talk. We listened to Mandle who works for the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). He talked about the issues of HIV as it applies to Khayelitsha. The problems are huge. Out of the 700,000 residents 80,000 are estimated to have HIV and only 12,000 are being treated with antiretrovirals (ARVs). This is because of the lack of resources TAC suffers from such as inadequate doctors and nurses and those doctors and nurses they have often not educated on the latest AIDS treatment.
I should also quickly note that Khayelistha is the largest township in the province of the Western Cape.
The issue with government and HIV is huge. Mbeki, South Africa’s former president, was and perhaps still is an HIV denier, believing the cause of HIV to be poverty instead of sex. His statements as well as his former deputy president and current president, Jacob Zuma has caused massive confusion over HIV and its spread. Mbeki believed that the often life saving ARVs were toxic though many in his cabinet were taking this same drugs. In addition, Zuma was charged and later acquitted of a rape charge, were he knowingly had sex with a former comrade’s daughter who he knew was HIV positive. To protect himself from contracting the disease, Zuma took a cold shower. When top officials like Zuma and Mbeki tell lies about HIV, it causes countless unnecessary death just because people are confused about the treatment and the prevention of HIV.
Today, in Khayelitsha there are 12 public clinics which provide free services such as testing for HIV and another problem in South Africa, TB. TAC also has 14 branches in Khayelitsha were people talk about AIDS and are educated about it. In addition, TAC has a weekly time slot where people are given a safe place to talk about AIDS. All this is done not through the government’s money nor drug companies, but through organizations such as Bread for the world, Ford Foundation and the South African Development Council.
I was good for most of the talk but when he started talking about gender-based crimes, which btw I think is a strange phrase but it’s being used a lot lately, I lost it. He talked about guys who target girls, basically babies as young as 2. Bianca, one of the UCT students, was like I’m sorry did you 2 and he said yes, 2. Any where form 2 to 24 and it just got progressively more disturbing and heart breaking from there. He told us these two stories about these women who were raped and murdered. One of the stories involved a man who raped a woman without a condom and then when he found out she was HIV positive went back and killed her. The trial which convicted him of rape and murder lasted over two years. Can you imagine waiting that long for your daughter or your sister to get justice? Two years! He also just talked about how most rapes occur between people who know each other and when it happens in the family often there isn’t a desire to get the police involved so that the rape can foil the family name. So they do this thing called “paying of blood” which means the rapist pays the victim around 2,000 to 3,000 rand to rectify the situation. I’m sorry but how can money ever fix the emotional damage that rape can cause. And even if a woman does go to the police, she has to report it in front of 10-15 people and often the police are unsympathetic. Somewhere during this point, I just lost it. His words just brought back awful memories and hit way too close to home for me. At that point, I couldn’t even listen or take notes. I wanted so bad to ask what if anything do you do for the younger victims, the ones who probably don’t even know what happened to them. What can you do? Even if I would have been able to ask, I fear his answer wouldn’t have brought any comfort and that’s what really got me. The fact that little girls who have little if any understanding may be going something as horrifying as rape and only later be able to understand when the rapist is long gone and probably hurting another girls.
He also went on to talk about why these men rape in the first place and most of it has to do with the image of a man being the protector and provided being destroyed by the fact that some many people are unable to get jobs. The unemployment in Khayelitsha is 60% and most men are competing with women who often land the better jobs. Add that to men coming out of prisons were the often raped more than once and there is a lot of anger taken out on women because of it.
Unfornately, I really didn’t get to ask any of the questions I wanted answered because the lecture had a strict time limit. But it was very interesting. I don’t think I should use that word. It was emotional, hard-hitting and truthful. I’m really glad I got to experience it, but it just leaves me with more questions. What can I do?
I should also quickly note that Khayelistha is the largest township in the province of the Western Cape.
The issue with government and HIV is huge. Mbeki, South Africa’s former president, was and perhaps still is an HIV denier, believing the cause of HIV to be poverty instead of sex. His statements as well as his former deputy president and current president, Jacob Zuma has caused massive confusion over HIV and its spread. Mbeki believed that the often life saving ARVs were toxic though many in his cabinet were taking this same drugs. In addition, Zuma was charged and later acquitted of a rape charge, were he knowingly had sex with a former comrade’s daughter who he knew was HIV positive. To protect himself from contracting the disease, Zuma took a cold shower. When top officials like Zuma and Mbeki tell lies about HIV, it causes countless unnecessary death just because people are confused about the treatment and the prevention of HIV.
Today, in Khayelitsha there are 12 public clinics which provide free services such as testing for HIV and another problem in South Africa, TB. TAC also has 14 branches in Khayelitsha were people talk about AIDS and are educated about it. In addition, TAC has a weekly time slot where people are given a safe place to talk about AIDS. All this is done not through the government’s money nor drug companies, but through organizations such as Bread for the world, Ford Foundation and the South African Development Council.
I was good for most of the talk but when he started talking about gender-based crimes, which btw I think is a strange phrase but it’s being used a lot lately, I lost it. He talked about guys who target girls, basically babies as young as 2. Bianca, one of the UCT students, was like I’m sorry did you 2 and he said yes, 2. Any where form 2 to 24 and it just got progressively more disturbing and heart breaking from there. He told us these two stories about these women who were raped and murdered. One of the stories involved a man who raped a woman without a condom and then when he found out she was HIV positive went back and killed her. The trial which convicted him of rape and murder lasted over two years. Can you imagine waiting that long for your daughter or your sister to get justice? Two years! He also just talked about how most rapes occur between people who know each other and when it happens in the family often there isn’t a desire to get the police involved so that the rape can foil the family name. So they do this thing called “paying of blood” which means the rapist pays the victim around 2,000 to 3,000 rand to rectify the situation. I’m sorry but how can money ever fix the emotional damage that rape can cause. And even if a woman does go to the police, she has to report it in front of 10-15 people and often the police are unsympathetic. Somewhere during this point, I just lost it. His words just brought back awful memories and hit way too close to home for me. At that point, I couldn’t even listen or take notes. I wanted so bad to ask what if anything do you do for the younger victims, the ones who probably don’t even know what happened to them. What can you do? Even if I would have been able to ask, I fear his answer wouldn’t have brought any comfort and that’s what really got me. The fact that little girls who have little if any understanding may be going something as horrifying as rape and only later be able to understand when the rapist is long gone and probably hurting another girls.
He also went on to talk about why these men rape in the first place and most of it has to do with the image of a man being the protector and provided being destroyed by the fact that some many people are unable to get jobs. The unemployment in Khayelitsha is 60% and most men are competing with women who often land the better jobs. Add that to men coming out of prisons were the often raped more than once and there is a lot of anger taken out on women because of it.
Unfornately, I really didn’t get to ask any of the questions I wanted answered because the lecture had a strict time limit. But it was very interesting. I don’t think I should use that word. It was emotional, hard-hitting and truthful. I’m really glad I got to experience it, but it just leaves me with more questions. What can I do?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
no class=lazy day
Shout out to my dad for his birthday. Happy birthday dad! So today was interesting. It was a rather lazy day since I had no classes. I woke up around noon (yeah, don’t hate). In my defence, I was up until two talking to Loren so it’s a little more acceptable, but only just a little. So I got up, made some breakfast which consisted of strawberry yogurt which I haven’t completely decided if I like yet and raisin mueslai which is basically granola with raisins in it. it’s like crack. I’m so addicted. I eat some of it then go reluctantly to the yogurt and back again to my drug of choice. I don’t know what it is. It’s just tasty.
After breakfast, I did my usual check my e-mail, Facebook, etc. and then I decided to see how it is outside. Bad idea. The door slams shut behind me leaving me standing outside in pjs with no keys. Luckily, I had stuck with phone in my pocket so I just called Andrea who of course is thirty minutes away and can’t help me, but she calls our maid, Uphonia (I have no idea it that’s how its spelled but that’s what it sounds like) and she lets me in. I felt pretty dumb but no real harm done, just time wasted.
Soon after I’m let back into the house, Amanda one of the UCT students returns. So really I could have just waited for her but there was no way I could have known that she would be back so quickly. I finally get dressed and decide to go running. Jamie had pointed out the UCT track and decided to go find it myself. It took a little longer than I would have hoped because it was farther away then I thought. I did eventually find it and did a mini speed workout. It was basically two 400s with a little jogging in between. I could have done more but since I only have the key to the gate and Amanda needed to be back on campus at 2, my workout had to short, which is really fine because I’m just now getting to run on a regular basis and I don’t want to overdo it. The run was good. I definitely got that feeling of ecstasy after a good run, which is a main reason why I run, that and the fact that I feel if I run enough I don’t have to worry about what I eat.
After my run, I relaxed and took a shower and then prepared lunch which was hamburgers on sweet rolls. Also tasty. I have to say I think I’m getting pretty good at this whole cooking thing. After eating, I read for my core class. Tomorrow we’re supposed to going to a township called Khayelitsha and talk about AIDS. Is it weird that I’m excited? Because I am, I think it’s going to be really interesting, though I have been warned that it’s really intense and my program director always cries when she goes, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m sorry today was really boring but I feel like I should write anyway.
Today I decided that my hair needed to get braided. It was supposed to get done on Sunday by Dominoque but that never happened. I did wash it though and basically rocked the mini fro (I feel like I said this already…). But anyways, I wanted to get it braided so I could go swimming. I still haven’t gotten to use UWC’s pool and its driving me crazy. I am planning to use it tomorrow though if and only if I finish the core class reading tonight. So the problem was I’m in a new country and I was really nervous about getting my hair done. It’s probably because the same woman has been doing my hair from like middle school on. She even did it before I left so yeah, the whole newness of having someone I don’t know do my hair made me nervous. Plus I didn’t know if they would for whatever reason take advantage of me because I obviously don’t know what I’m doing. So I did the whole thinking about in my head trying to convince myself that it’s no big deal, I can do this. But really I wanted someone to go with me just in case. I wasn’t going to make them stay the entire time mind you but still just so I felt better. That didn’t work out because Dominoque was as usually ignoring my txts and Adam was in transit and let’s face it, I’m impatient so I finally went got some money to make sure I had enough and went to the nearest hair salon, which was called Hair Bar, which I thought was pretty funny.
It wasn’t bad at all. The people at the front desk were really nice and I got in a chair almost as soon as I walked in. One thing that did make me nervous was the fact that the hair dresser kept on speaking a different language. I don’t think it was Xhosa because there weren’t any clicks but it just made me nervous because they could be making fun of me and of course, I’m helpless. I did relax a lot though when one of the women started singing Bob Marley. I couldn’t help but smile at that. I love Bob. So that eased me but then of course all the lights decided to randomly go off which freaked me out. The first thing I thought was omg, I’m going to die here or thinking someone might come up and grab me because it was completely dark outside so I couldn’t see a thing. But it was fine, the lights went on fairly quickly after they went off but it really got my adrenaline going because I had no idea what was going on. But no harm done. I got my hair done in under three hours, which was pretty good and you couldn’t beat the price. About twenty bucks whereas at home I usually pay 30. Right now, I’m alternating between writing a little and reading because for some reason I can’t get through it but the thought of swimming definitely helps so I guess I should get back to that. Peace y’all
After breakfast, I did my usual check my e-mail, Facebook, etc. and then I decided to see how it is outside. Bad idea. The door slams shut behind me leaving me standing outside in pjs with no keys. Luckily, I had stuck with phone in my pocket so I just called Andrea who of course is thirty minutes away and can’t help me, but she calls our maid, Uphonia (I have no idea it that’s how its spelled but that’s what it sounds like) and she lets me in. I felt pretty dumb but no real harm done, just time wasted.
Soon after I’m let back into the house, Amanda one of the UCT students returns. So really I could have just waited for her but there was no way I could have known that she would be back so quickly. I finally get dressed and decide to go running. Jamie had pointed out the UCT track and decided to go find it myself. It took a little longer than I would have hoped because it was farther away then I thought. I did eventually find it and did a mini speed workout. It was basically two 400s with a little jogging in between. I could have done more but since I only have the key to the gate and Amanda needed to be back on campus at 2, my workout had to short, which is really fine because I’m just now getting to run on a regular basis and I don’t want to overdo it. The run was good. I definitely got that feeling of ecstasy after a good run, which is a main reason why I run, that and the fact that I feel if I run enough I don’t have to worry about what I eat.
After my run, I relaxed and took a shower and then prepared lunch which was hamburgers on sweet rolls. Also tasty. I have to say I think I’m getting pretty good at this whole cooking thing. After eating, I read for my core class. Tomorrow we’re supposed to going to a township called Khayelitsha and talk about AIDS. Is it weird that I’m excited? Because I am, I think it’s going to be really interesting, though I have been warned that it’s really intense and my program director always cries when she goes, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m sorry today was really boring but I feel like I should write anyway.
Today I decided that my hair needed to get braided. It was supposed to get done on Sunday by Dominoque but that never happened. I did wash it though and basically rocked the mini fro (I feel like I said this already…). But anyways, I wanted to get it braided so I could go swimming. I still haven’t gotten to use UWC’s pool and its driving me crazy. I am planning to use it tomorrow though if and only if I finish the core class reading tonight. So the problem was I’m in a new country and I was really nervous about getting my hair done. It’s probably because the same woman has been doing my hair from like middle school on. She even did it before I left so yeah, the whole newness of having someone I don’t know do my hair made me nervous. Plus I didn’t know if they would for whatever reason take advantage of me because I obviously don’t know what I’m doing. So I did the whole thinking about in my head trying to convince myself that it’s no big deal, I can do this. But really I wanted someone to go with me just in case. I wasn’t going to make them stay the entire time mind you but still just so I felt better. That didn’t work out because Dominoque was as usually ignoring my txts and Adam was in transit and let’s face it, I’m impatient so I finally went got some money to make sure I had enough and went to the nearest hair salon, which was called Hair Bar, which I thought was pretty funny.
It wasn’t bad at all. The people at the front desk were really nice and I got in a chair almost as soon as I walked in. One thing that did make me nervous was the fact that the hair dresser kept on speaking a different language. I don’t think it was Xhosa because there weren’t any clicks but it just made me nervous because they could be making fun of me and of course, I’m helpless. I did relax a lot though when one of the women started singing Bob Marley. I couldn’t help but smile at that. I love Bob. So that eased me but then of course all the lights decided to randomly go off which freaked me out. The first thing I thought was omg, I’m going to die here or thinking someone might come up and grab me because it was completely dark outside so I couldn’t see a thing. But it was fine, the lights went on fairly quickly after they went off but it really got my adrenaline going because I had no idea what was going on. But no harm done. I got my hair done in under three hours, which was pretty good and you couldn’t beat the price. About twenty bucks whereas at home I usually pay 30. Right now, I’m alternating between writing a little and reading because for some reason I can’t get through it but the thought of swimming definitely helps so I guess I should get back to that. Peace y’all
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