traveling beyond Kaapstad

My original holiday plans fell through last minute, two of the girls decided they weren’t up for it anymore and expenses ran too high without them. We had planned to drive up into Namibia and drive far enough north to see the Namib Desert and a bit of the coast. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and the news landed me in a bit of a rut. I had three weeks until finals and not only was it was too late to plan a new trip, but everyone else already had finalized plans. Most of my roommates had already left and the house was quiet, and boring, for the first time all semester. Luckily my friend Kate was still willing to plan something last minute and we were able to salvage a shortened version of our original itinerary. The two of us rented a car and drove about 8 or so hours to the Namibian border and a few more to the town of Grünau. We spent two nights and one full day in Namibia getting a chance to go to Fish River Canyon National Park and hike around the second largest canyon in the world. Day three we woke up early and drove about 3-4 hours, crossing back into South Africa, to a city called Uppington in the Northern Cape province. Uppington is on the Orange River and is a really nice town with a well-developed tourism sector – it was a nice change from the long stretches of desert road that had defined our previous few days. We even managed to get a wine tasting in before dinner! Thursday we got an early start and headed back in the direction of Cape Town, stopping at Augrabies National Park on the way back to see the gorgeous water falls.

I would say that my trip certainly led me to rethink my idea of the term ‘rural’. There is only one main road heading directly north from Cape Town and most others branching off are not paved. Once we left the city all we saw was farms for hours with the occasional group of houses. Eventually the lush green gave way to desolate arid expanses of uninhabited land. We knew we were headed for the desert, so I don’t know what we expected. Every so often we would come across a small settlement that somewhat resembled a town, but each one was extremely isolated and from a distance looked completely abandoned. The number of other cars on the road grew slimmer and slimmer until we no longer pondered the threat of oncoming traffic when swerving onto the other side of the road to pass the occasional truck. Once the sun set and the sliver of the moon rose to just above the horizon line it was impossible to differentiate the sky from the land. We joked that we didn’t actually see Namibia until the morning since the landscape could have been rolling sand dunes or NYC high rises for all we could see. Surprisingly there was a fair amount of individuals walking along the side of the road at various points; I was tempted to pull over, just once, and ask how long the person had been walking and where he or she was headed. Closer to the towns we passed a lot of hitchhikers but otherwise it seemed that these people must be accustomed to measuring distance in terms of days on foot. My friend is a public health major and she commented on how SA’s policy is that all citizens should be within some degree of walking distance from a clinic that administers HIV/AIDS and TB treatment. Sometimes it seemed as if there were not even dirt roads leading from the main road to some of the houses that were barely visible rising out of the barren land. I cannot imagine these people had access to any sort of health clinics.

Kate and I had a great trip overall, a lot of driving but we got to see a great deal. Some of my friends are still traveling but most of the crew is back in Cape Town making the most of our last week here. One of my housemates and two of my other friends left today because they were all done with finals and have to get back home. Last night we all went out to celebrate and although we all had a good time, the night had a somber feel. We all feel as though this is our life now and it is hard to comprehend that when we leave, that will be it. I know in a week I will be going ‘home,’ but for 6 months I have had a new home, one that I have grown to love more that I ever thought I could. My friends here have become best friends and I can’t imagine not seeing them all everyday. They know me better than anyone; I have been able to be honest about everything in my life for the first time in a long time. Okay, I am going to save a long sentimental post for another day because I really need to be studying before our house potluck – I made what has come to be known as my famous apple crisp! I have two finals, Monday and Wednesday, and then I’m d-o-n-e done. That, I am definitely looking forward to.

a little reflection on a Tuesday morning

This time a month from now I will be back in America. In attempt to make up for 5 months without bagels or iced coffee, I probably will have already been to Dunkin Donuts at least five times. My phone will most likely be next to me, however I will be terrified by the touchscreen technology and how often it buzzes and rings. I might even miss my R200 1999 Nokia. There will be no mountains to gaze at, no more watching the sun set over African trees from my window. I will probably look the wrong way as I cross the street for at least a week. Not having to walk 15 minutes to purchase good food will be amazing, but paying triple for what I purchase will most likely cause me to avoid supermarkets for a while. My legs are going to miss hiking up 1000 stairs to get from one class to another, and my stomach is going to miss $2 'Mexicana' sandwiches from Souper Sandwich on campus. I have not stepped onto a scale, or into a gym, since January. I can now cook Chicken Tikka Masala from scratch and, believe it or not, have acquired a taste for Hake and Mussels. I put hot sauce on most of my food now. My hair has grown at least three inches, I am convinced. I have several new scars on my knees from hiking, and one from tripping on a side walk downtown.

Living in South Africa has provided me with a chance to experience a lifestyle very different from the one I have grown accustomed to. Over the past several months I have been living with Americans from all over the U.S and made friends from all over the world. The state of this country post-apartheid breaks my heart, but the people that call this country home have at the same time renewed my faith in humanity. I have attended a party in the most beautiful house I have ever seen and then returned home walking past the seven or so people that sleep on cardboard on my street. Walking from bar to bar there are little children pulling at your dress for money and then on campus kids spend R100 printing out articles. The buses charge R4 for a distance that a taxi would charge R40, and the patronage of each is divided purely by race. The disparities of wealth are alarming. Everyday my experiences sharpen my understanding of the social dynamics that make this country so unique. One afternoon, my friend got mugged and a homeless man that lives next to our house chased the culprit down and got her wallet back for her. A week prior the security guards responsible for securing our houses were found guilty of breaking and stealing everything of value from one of the residences while we were all gone on semester break. Things are much more complicated here than they appear.

Once realization I have come to is that here I am not as ashamed to be American as I am ashamed to be white. The Dutch Afrikaaner population is unbelievably racist and they assume we share their sentiments just because we share the color of their skin. Our colored friends even question us for taking interest in the culture of the black population - they wonder why we make traditional black dishes at our barbecues when we can afford more sophisticated meals. My host sister in Langa Township had never really had a white friend before, and cried when I left because she assumed I would never want to see her again.

It is true, in a month I will leave and return to a place where the problems of African nations are reduced to the occasional news article or report on channel 5. However, all of these things I speak of, all of this has become part of who I am. True, I can choose not to think about how the past five months have changed my life, but I cannot forget. I have grown considerably as an individual since boarding my British Airways flight out of Logan, but I feel more lost than ever. There are so many wrongs that need to be made right in this world and my inability to change much of anything has been made glaringly apparent. At the same time, it is so easy to make a big difference in the lives of people here. What we would consider an insignificant donation could supply shoes and blankets to children in an entire community. The money an American family spends on a weeks worth of groceries could feed my home stay family for at least a month. My time here has given me a lot to think about; including how I want to live the rest of my life and what my priorities are as a privileged individual.

Please, if anyone feels moved to make a donation to help improve the lives of people I have met here in any way, all you have to do is ask me how. Whether it be to support the organization I intern for, the community of Langa, the various social development projects I have been involved with etc., really, just let me know.

I plan to spend my last few weeks here traveling around and spending time with the people here that I will miss an unquantifiable amount. Most of you probably know I am an embarrassingly sentimental person and this is the biggest thing I have ever had to leave and will ever have to miss. I cannot wait to hug everyone at home and enjoy everything I have been without this semester, don't get me wrong, but I know it will be a very hard transition. I have one more day of classes, a week of driving around Namibia, two finals and a few days in the UK left before I return home. Dunkin Donuts here I come?

another day at Cocoa wah wah

It is a beautiful, warm day and I am sitting at my favorite little cafe restaurant in Rondebosch. They have the most delicious food here - the omelettes, sandwiches, salads, and their carrot cake is to die for. They also give out free internet vouchers for dining patrons! So that brings me to where I am now, full from carrot cake, sitting on the patio, blogging away for free.

Last Saturday I went to a professional rugby game, it was Cape Town against New Zealand. We lost horribly, but hey, it wasn't like we knew the rules of the game anyway. We went to a braai at a friend's house before hand and he had a balcony that overlooked the city; you could see the mountains, downtown and the ocean from his backyard pool. Watching rugby was fun, I've definitely been missing my spectator sports. On Sunday five of us were extras in a music video being produced by UCT students. It was an experience to say the least...a long, long unorganized day but overall an entertaining way to spend a Sunday. This past week was rather uneventful, school work is dying down as we are all supposed to be preparing for finals. We did all go to see one of our friends play in the UCT symphony orchestra, she plays the trumpet and has been taking intensive lessons here at the music school. We all got dressed up for our night at Baxter Theater to support our friend and it was quite the enjoyable evening.

I am loving my internship here, I can't remember if I've mentioned it previously. I am interning at Global Development for Peace and Leadership (GDPL), an NGO in Cape Town . I go to their office twice a week and it has proved to be a really great job. I am doing research for some cool projects working with different schools and organizations; GDPL has some great networking connections and is well established in the Western Cape. I might even be able to spend a morning in church and then get breakfast with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (kind of like getting to meet MLK Jr. back in the day)! It is a small organization and they are located in an old, unrestored church that used to be home to a community arts program - there are old murals all over the walls in the courtyard depicting scenes from South Africa during the apartheid. I am learning a great deal about the organization, the workings of NGOs in South Africa, human rights efforts in South Africa, and the different initiatives working to reform a relatively broken social structure.

Last night my friends and I went to a concert that was a fund raiser for Africa Burns- the African version of Burning Man. It exceeded our expectations in every way, it was such a fun night! The first artist was a one-man show, creating his own background music and then singing and playing the harmonica over the track. He has never recorded and thus had no CDs to give us, a huge disappointment but refreshing at the same time; he was one of the more talented individuals I have seen in a while with a voice that rivaled many of the classic male singers in the States and was just all about playing live for people to dance to. The second was a band called the Rudimentals playing reggae and African dance music. Then a crazy DJ took the stage and everyone danced to the early hours of the morning...don't worry, we got tired eventually and went home. Seeing live music here is great, it reveals a part of South African culture that we do not get to see everyday.

Time is ticking away! I really can't imagine being back in the States in less than 2 months, everything is so different here...I really think the culture shock is going to be much harder going back than it was coming. My friend was studying abroad in Mexico and had to evacuate because of the swine flu. Having to go home early, she said her feelings were bittersweet- she was excited to go home but leaving was rough. It really got me thinking about how much I have learned and how I have grown here- what I will leave behind and what I will bring back. The next few weeks are going to be interesting as we all come to terms with the fact that we will all be back in America soon and this whole term will become a fading memory. I just keep telling myself that I will make it back here sometime. And yes, I will be dragging all of you with me when it happens. Oh, and if you want a postcard, email me your address!

April showers bring...May showers

Today I went on a 5-6 hour hike up Table Mountain with the SIT Cape Town abroad program. A friend from Lafayette is on the program and currently living downtown, it has been fun getting to know all of her friends and having a new social network here. We left at 7:30am and hiked up a path called Skeleton Gorge to the top, stopping to take pictures and admire the view. From the top you can see all Cape Town and every coast, spinning around 360 degrees allows you to see all of the Western Cape and beyond. It was a clear day out as well, which was great. I took some panoramic style photos from bay to bay…I plan on printing them when I get home and recreating Cape Town in my room next year, albeit a birds eye view of it. I don’t think I mentioned it, but a few of us went sea kayaking one afternoon a few weeks ago and went all around a few of the beaches. It is cool seeing Cape Town from different perspectives. On Wednesday I think I am going skydiving! I am also trying to coordinate a trip to go sand boarding. Now that we are well past the halfway point we are beginning the scramble to fit everything in that we have been talking about all semester.

It has been a few weeks since semester break and the second term is underway. There have been several public holidays lately making for short school weeks, which has been nice. Unfortunately summer is basically over and our 3 month streak of warm, sunny days appears to have come to an end as well. It has been raining more often and getting cooler, but the rain generally passes in and out and there have been some nice days in between. Apparently winter here is just nonstop cold rain, luckily it is technically not winter until June so at least we leave towards the beginning of it. I am looking forward to getting summer all over again when I get home!

Speaking of home, most of my friends on study abroad programs are heading back to the States within the next few weeks. It is exciting and a little strange to think I still have around 2 months left. Time has flown by; 2 months seems so short, yet when I think of everyone else making it back in time to watch seniors graduate I feel like I am going to be gone forever. The weather also doesn’t help…I miss when everyday was a beach day! The good part is, classes end May 20^th and my first final isn’t until June 8^th. Most people are trying to get one last big trip in during the time period before finals, and I have a decent amount of time to work with. A few of my housemates have already planned a trip to the Wild Coast, backpacking and hiking along the coast of South Africa for a week or so. Personally, I would love to travel out of the country and see more of southern Africa. A lot of people used the time period after our group semester break trip to travel – friends of mine went to Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland. Traveling gets really expensive with flights, accommodations, activities, ground travel etc. and it makes planning big trips hard. I am going to try and plan a trip either to Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe or to Namibia/Botswana. It is so difficult to plan trips when most countries do not have the degree of infrastructure needed to organize long distance travel to multiple places. The countries in Africa are so large and yet it is challenging and dangerous to travel across them, which limits our ability to get from place to plan on a limited budget. On the other hand, there is so much untouched beautiful land in these countries that it is hard to complain. I don’t think I would trade it in. If anyone has any friends in any of the aforementioned places, let me know!

I’ve also heard that the US media is reporting on a lot of tensions in South Africa right now because of the elections that took place on April 22^nd. I mean, obviously there were and are tensions, but overall the day was a huge success. We all had school off, which was a plus, and there was a voting station at UCT. The Western Cape, where I live, is the only area where the ANC was seriously challenged – woo political activism! Here are two articles on the election that I found that may be of interests (much better than CNN):

• http://www.southafrica.info/about/democracy/election-winner.htm
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/25/south-africa-election-anc-result

It is really interesting to learn about proportional voting systems and the workings of a parliamentary government in a country that not only uses such a system, but also is in the midst of electing a new president. My friends and I went to a few educational voter workshops to better understand how elections in SA work and the different parties vying for power. Getting to hear Zuma and a leader of the PAC speak in Langa was exciting as well – political action is such a huge part of this country given the fact that democracy is so young and the country is so eager to break free of the legacy left by the National Party. The election was less about the main national issues and more about the different parties ability to convince the black majority that they will continue the fight for equality and nondiscrimination. Many feel that the ANC has dropped the ball, so to speak, on many of the promises they made upon gaining power in 1994. Here age is a huge dividing factor within the black population; the older generations that lived through apartheid have lost faith in the ANC and politicians in general after the lack of progress and unfulfilled promises. The younger generations, however, still see the ANC as the liberation party. It is very interesting to hear different South Africans speak of the political situation. All I know is that South Africa is a very complicated place.

Tomorrow morning I am waking up super early and taking a practice LSAT, my first one. I realize I should probably take the test this fall, and should probably start studying this summer…taking a diagnostic before I start studying will help me figure out what I need to spend time on. I’m hoping I do okay and can relax a little, as doing horribly would definitely make me wish I waited until I was home to even touch a LSAT book. Especially since job prospects for this summer are looking slim. Getting back to the States late June definitely limits options; all of us here realized we are essentially screwed and a lot of people are just staying in Africa doing various things. At least I will have lots of time to study, and keep your eyes open for catering jobs in the Boston area!

a lot of things

I have always been criticized for being unable to summarize, most of you that know me have most likely discovered any story I tell is going to be a long one. I have struggled to keep these blog posts as short as I can, but so much of what I experience is new - the recent history of this country has impacted every aspect of current society and it is hard to understand to what extent this is true unless you live here. I have been trying to give a bit of a context to bridge this gap, and hopefully I have succeeded to some extent. Over the past few weeks I have been traveling all over South Africa, and despite the risk of failing miserably, I am going to try and summarize the different stops along the way with just the right amount of context:
(1) Durban- My friend Kate and I took an extended weekend trip to Durban, a city about a 2 hour flight down the east coast from Cape Town. Unlike Cape Town, the black population is Zulu and not Xhosa and the majority of the population is actually Indian. Durban has a warmer, more humid climate and we were excited for the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. We stayed with Kate's friends that had an apartment on the beach, it was a perfect location. Durban is much more industrial than Cape Town, and the city life is much more bustling. We had a beach day, and aquarium day, a perusing day and got a decent taste of the night life. I even managed to learn how to stand up on a surf board! Overall, we both decided that Cape Town was a much more beautiful city and we were happy to return home.
(2) Spring Break- After returning from Durban I had less than a week to finish an overwhelming amount of work before spring break. I got it done, and on Saturday morning at 6am all 30 IES Abroad students headed for the Cape Town airport. We spent one night at a backpackers lodge about an hour away from the park and then had a 2 day long Safari spending 2 nights in little huts at a camp on the grounds. We then traveled to Soweto, the largest black township in all of South Africa and the home to the famous 1976 Soweto Uprising. We stayed 2 nights in a backpackers in the township, taking a 4 hour biking tour one day and having time to explore nearby Johannesburg the next. The trip was absolutely amazing. Waking up to begin our Safari at 5am each day and spending all day searching the bush for animals was awesome; I saw cheetahs, a leopard, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, hippos, lions, impalas, monkeys, mongooses, crocodiles etc. etc. As soon as I get pictures online I will make sure to post a link to the album - I got some great shots that I can't wait to decorate my room with next year. The animals were beautiful, the weather was great and it was a blast. On the way to Soweto we stopped at several different points in the Drakensburg Mountain range and saw grand waterfalls, mountains and the largest growing canyon. Staying in Soweto was quite the moving experience and we learned a lot to add to our growing understanding of South African history. Everything from our accommodations, the bike riding, playing soccer with children all afternoon, venturing to Jo-burg...everything was perfect.
Check out the story behind Lebo's Backpackers here: http://www.sowetobackpackers.com/

Now I am back home and ready to slow down my pace a little. Since IES planned the entire spring break trip, we had very limited responsibility the whole time but we were definitely kept busy. Spring break does not end for another 4 days, however, and we plan on making the most of it. Tomorrow I am going to an amusement park about 25 minutes away for the day, and this weekend a few of us are road-tripping to a music festival! I am still loving it here, spring break was a much needed break from school work and I feel like I will go into second term with a much lighter mind than how I ended the first. We have all also discussed how happy we are to be living in Cape Town of all cities, nothing compares to the diverse array of awesomeness that is Cape Town.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, I had an amazing 21st in Kruger Park with all my friends; we had an extremely lucky animal siting day, had a fun lunch and celebrated that night as well. I got to see a cheetah sprint across a road, jump in a tree, snatch a monkey, and run off! Much better than a night on the town in Easton, PA.
Pictures soon, miss you all.