Standard Work Day Schedule (Mon 07/13, Tues 07/14, Wed 07/15)

The past two days have been standard work days for me here in Cape Town, so there isn't much to report. Instead, I'll outline for you what a day like that is…

1)    Wake-up

a.     Set alarm at 7:20 AM for Lauren to shower

b.     Set alarm for me at 7:40 AM

c.     Actually get out of bed at 8:00 AM

2)    Breakfast

a.     Eat cereal/toast/eggs/all of the above

b.     Wait for everyone else to be ready

3)    Walk to work

a.     About 25 minutes

b.     Coffee from Vida, where the people are waaaay to shot up with expresso

4)    Work

a.     Check email

b.     Check facebook

c.     Blog

d.     Read CNN

e.     Check email

f.      Look for work to do

g.     Lunch with the girls

h.     Check email

i.      Work/gchat

j.      Leave by 4 PM

5)    Walk home

6)    Work out

7)    Shower

a.     Fight off worms in shower

b.     Try not to get electrocuted

8)    Dinner

a.     Either out, or eat in Tues/Thurs

9)    Hang out with everyone/watch movies/skype/laundry

a.     Tues/Thurs include reflection and/or discussion time

10) Sleeeeeep

11) Repeat as necessary.

a.     Applicable Mon-Fri only.

b.     Slight modifications are permitted.

                                               i.     Example a: helped Naomi with cheer dance in the evening that will be  taught to children in the township of Langa this weekend! 

                      ii. Example b: HARRY POTTER MOVIE! You would not believe how obsessed our group is with Harry Potter. Wednesday evening was the highlight of our last couple weeks, and we basically spent the entire week (before and after) discussing our love for the Chosen One. Not lame, so don't judge!

Reasons this weekend was SO African (Fri 07/10, Sat 07/11, Sun 07/12)

1) Hip-hop concert

One of the first things we learned about our graduate coordinate Karlyn is that she break-dances. But she has yet so show us some serious break-dancing moves. Instead, she organized a trip to a hip-hop concert Friday night so we could finally see some real break-dancing. I’ve definitely seen hip-hop and break-dancing before, seeing as how dancing took over my life for, oh I don’t know, around 14 years. It was still pretty sick. Kind of like me through the whole show. I wasn’t feeling too well, but the production and the passion of the people performing made me want to spin on my head with them. Even though I probably, ok definitely, would have vomited afterward.

2) Aquila Safari

Yes, it happened on Saturday. An African Safari. And everything was SO African. You have to say that phrase in a valley-girl voice by the way. Danielle said it mockingly at one point during the safari and it was absolutely hysterical. We woke up at 5:15 this morning to have Chris drive us the 2 hours it takes to get to the Aquila game reserve for our safari tour. The breakfast was amazing and an excellent start to the day. But of course, the highlights all came from our game drive. Aquila is a pretty small reserve, nothing like Kruger Park which is so well-known in South Africa. That’s where we really wanted to go, but it was too far, too expensive, and too time-involved for us to be able to. So Aquila it was, and it was totally worth it. The four of us who went (Anthony, Danielle, Lauren, and I) had such a great time together being American tourists. We saw teenage elephants play fighting, rhinos and baby rhinos, an annoying water buffalo who wouldn’t go away, zerbras, springbok, fat-ass hippos, lions and cheetahs, oh my. But of course, the best part of the entire safari were the giraffes. I have developed this association with them while here, courtesy of Danielle. It’s ok, I totally appreciate and accept the comparison. It makes sense and I recognize that. Besides, they are my favorite animals. Bottom line, the game drive ended up being everything I wanted and more. The landscape was breath-taking throughout the entire excursion, the animals were what you want to see when you go to Africa, and my company was spectacular.

3) Shark-diving, fail. Jade, fail

Reason 3 for this weekend being SO African is that our Sunday ending up being a series of fails that luckily turned out to be fine. Our first fail came with the crappy weather that kept us from being able to go shark-diving. I got a text at 4:15 AM saying that the trip had been cancelled. Dang it. We can go next weekend, but still, I got my hopes all built up and then SPLAT. Squashed. No, it wasn’t that serious. Our second fail of the day happened a good number of hours later when after we had all planned to go out to Jade to listen to some live music, we go to the door to find that the event is taking place at a different venue, far, far away at the waterfront. The other car decided to go home, but Victoria, Anthony, Julian and I went to one of Julian’s recommendations, Cubana Loungae. It was a fusion place of Latin and Middle Eastern ish. Pretty cool. They had sheshas, which made me reminisce about evenings in Cairo.

Clearly the day wasn’t that horrible, but I figured three reasons of things being SO African were better than only two.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Can you be down-to-earth while you’re on top-of-the-world? (Thurs 07/09)

I feel like Thursday is such a tease in a week. It feels like Friday so many times, but it never is, but you don’t remember that until Friday actually comes, so you still do things like it’s a Friday, only to wake on an the actual day of Friday feeling like garbage after you forgot on Thursday that Thursday wasn’t actually Friday and you still had more day of work before Friday actually became Friday. Bah.

My down-to-earth side: Today was one of those days, but totally in a great way. I took a few hours away from work this morning to go to a protest which was partially organized by the NGO that Danielle and Rose are working at. I know what you’re thinking… How on earth did TAC function without me there for 2 hours. I’m sure it was very difficult for them, but it looks like they survived, if only barely. The protest was about a statement made by the head of the African National Council Youth League about the raping of a girl by South Africa’s current president, Jacob Xuma. He basically said that because the victim had stayed at Xuma’s for breakfast the next morning and asked for money for the cab ride home, she clearly had enjoyed the night so it wasn’t rape. Bull****. It is statements like this that are keeping the country from moving away from gender-based violence and the general acceptance of rape. It is horrific. The head of the ANC Youth League was going to the Equality Courts in Johannesburg, but women’s rights group all over South Africa were protesting today. There were four of us there from Duke, and Naomi was asked by the elader of the protest to speak to the crowd about the American perspective. She did such a great job. I would have been wicked nervous, but she held herself together! We were very proud and had an email chain going on about it for the rest of the day. J

My on-top-of-the-world/Cape Town side: After a pretty standard day at work, a couple of us stopped into this adorable boutique Mememe that we walk past everyday on the way home from work. We’d gone in there before, and I hadn’t bought anything. Nice self-control on my part, that lasted about 3 days. I bought a little skirt and dress. They’re my birthday presents ok! And they’re designed in South Africa by various local designers, including the girls who are working the store. So it’s legit. At least in my eyes.

The night was so much fun, too. We all had been planning on going to one of the most posh clubs in Cape Town, Hemisphere. It’s on top of a skyscraper downtown, so you can see so much of the city from up there. On top of Cape Town. It’s also just fun to get dressed up sometimes, especially here. Ok, here comes my superficial side. Yes I like clothes, and nice clubs, and make-up, and getting dressed up, and fixing my hair, and shiny objects, and diamonds. But whatever. I also want to save the world. Who says I can’t do both? At least for a little while…Anyway, now that I’ve unnecessarily defended myself, the club was really cool with good music and AWESOME company, as usual. I don’t expect anything less from this group. Cause we’re the best. Ok, that's enough. I'm coming back down now...

Ukuthula,

Lynn

18 days with DukeEngage- 14 days of work= 4 days of my self-made time in Cape Town (Tues 07/07, Wed 07/08)

It is so crazy to me how fast our time here has been going. I know that it seems like 18 days is a really long time to have left somewhere, but it’s really not at all. I mean, we spend 5 days out of the week working until 4, which means that by the time we work out, get home, shower, eat, it’s already 9 or 10. Our only days to really be able to do anything in Cape Town are the weekends, and everything in this country closes early on Saturdays and doesn’t even open on Sundays. Basically, of the million things I still feel like I want to do before leaving, there are barely four days to get them done before we go home…

So today and yesterday were days of proactive measures. We sat down as a group and listed things that we want to do and how we plan on doing them. I feel like it’s taken this long for us to get comfortable enough in South Africa and with our group dynamic to be able to go out and do things on our own. The same thing kind of happened in Cairo. It took almost 2 months for me to trust myself in the city to go out and do things on my own. But at least in that circumstance I still had over 2 months to do the things I wanted. Not so here. That’s one thing I definitely think should be considered in the design of DukeEngage. 8 weeks isn’t enough time to establish a routine that you have to become comfortable breaking. Does that make sense? Building a routine before you’re comfortable breaking it? It does to me. I need more time in Cape Town.

Top of my list of things to do: safari and shark-diving. Everything else can be worked in, but those are both whole-day, involved activities that I refuse to leave Cape Town without doing. We booked both events for this weekend. That way if the weather sucks on one day we still have next weekend to make-up for it. Good plan, yeah? It felt SO GOOD to plan something on our own, that wasn’t structured through Duke. Don’t get me wrong, I am more than appreciative of all the opportunities that DukeEngage has organized for us that I otherwise would have never experienced. But it just felt good to take some of our own initiative to turn our time in Cape Town into a more personal experience. And to me, that means adventures. Fighting off sharks and bonding with the giraffes. Maybe some of you understand…

Other than our initiatives, the past two days have been relatively uneventful. Minus the accident on Bob’s last night with us when he spilled red wine all over my Citizens jeans and Lacoste sweater. That sucked pretty bad. But life could be worse. Way worse. Besides, now I can buy a new clothes! Sorry mommy. Anyway…

Let’s hope my last weeks here are what I want them to be. I’m making that my number one priority for the next 18 days.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

 

You ain't never had friends like these (Sun 07/05, Mon 07/06)

Sunday morning started out with us hiking up Table Mountain, which was INCREDIBLE. I had never hiked any sort of real mountain before. It was so killer. Everyone in the group went. The original plan was to have a fast group and a slower group. What ended up happening was that Rose is an expert hiker (from what I can tell) so I hiked up with her, while Lauren and Anthony were shortly behind (clearly Anthony would have beat all of us but he’s a nice guy), and Naomi, Danielle, and Victoria were a little behind them. By the way, when I say I hiked up with Rose I actually mean that she set the pace and I kept up with her. She’s a quick one. It was such a work-out. We were told it would take us about 3 hours to get to the top, but we made it up in about an hour and a half. Nice. It is breath-taking all the way up the mountain and is totally worth the climbing and slipping (if you’re like me, I have a battle scar on my palm) and sweating that it takes to get to the top. CABLE CARS ARE FOR WEAKLINGS! Or those with injured limbs. We spent quite a bit of time just enjoying the top of the mountain, taking pictures and having a snack at the café, before deciding to hike back down. Going down was more difficult and less enjoyable than going up. You’re so worried about losing your footing that you can’t even look around at the scenery. Lame. But it was such a great experience and I feel like I had conquered the world by the time I reached the top with Rose. The air was clear and the view awesome beyond belief. Totally worth it.

The evening was the beginning of my birthday festivities. The group all went to dinner at Café Paradiso, a really yummy restaurant that has amazing desserts. It was a little bit of an ordeal to try to coordinate something for everyone. The original plan had been to go out Sunday night, but nothing was really open so instead we settled on dinner. But I was having difficulty choosing somewhere because you know how you don’t want anyone to feel obligated to spend money or do something for you? That’s how I was feeling. There were 10 people waiting for ME to make a decision. That’s a lot of pressure! They were so funny though, being sneaky with a cake for me. First clue I got was when Julian called our room and asked to speak to Lauren, and she told him “I sent someone else to get it.” (The cake by the way was ammmmmazingly delicious! Chocolate layers with whipped icing stuff and some fruit. Mmmmm I love Lauren for knowing me so well.) Second clue was Karlyn trying to sneak down the stairs with a huge box in her arms. Third clue was the reflection of candles I saw in the glass after dinner at the restaurant. It was so nice though, everything and everyone. They’ve all been so nice to me and treating me like a princess, literally even calling me princess. And we all know how much I love being a princess haha. It was more than I could have asked for.

The rest of our evening was pretty relaxing, just hanging out for a bit before bed and work in the morning. Work was decent on the day of my actual birthday. Catherine (the girl who took me around the first day and has become one of my favorites in the office) wished me a happy birthday in front of everyone, so of course the rest chime in as well. The highlight of my day though was easily my present from Hasnain that I downloaded in the morning. Here’s the link if you haven’t seen it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkvlDlhvfEY I cried so hard when I saw it the first time this morning, and have since watched it every hour or so. I love it to no end. We went out to dinner again, and that was basically the end of my 21^st celebration.

If you had asked me before what I expected my 21^st birthday to be like, I would have probably told you something along the lines of “VEGASSSSSSSSSSSSS.” I was so convinced for the longest time that is where I was going to be spending it. I don’t know what part of my birthday being in the summer during people’s internships and travels made it seem plausible that I would spend the weekend of July 6 partying it up in Vegas with all my best friends, but it seemed very logical to me. If you would have asked me post-acceptance to DukeEngage South Africa what I expected by 21^st birthday to be like, I could not have even begun to imagine how great it would be. Everyone here has made these past two days beyond incredible for me, and I never would have been able to predict how great of friends these people have become to me.

It was fantastic. Nothing less. Thank you everyone, no matter where you are in the world, for making me feel so special.

I love you all and ukuthula,

Lynn

A Muslim's How-to-Guide to Wine-Tasting (Sat 07/04)

Another early Saturday in Cape Town. It’s hard to wake-up every day of the week knowing that there is only a slight chance that you’ll get to sleep in on Sunday. Our Saturdays have all been great, but they just start waaaay too early for college kids. We headed to Stellenbausch today for a wine tour. I’m sure you all can know exactly what I was doing today. I mean what else do you do at a vineyard besides…

Play with the owner’s grandson, DUH.

Clearly that’s not all the tour was about, but that’s what was the most interesting to me. The owners of the vineyard are the only black owners of any vineyard in South Africa. I can’t remember how many vineyards they are, but South Africa is one of the biggest producers of wine in the world. So there are A LOT. The history of the family and the vineyard were narrated to us by the owner, who was hilarious. He definitely rambled a bit, but he had some priceless quotes during his talk. My favorites was “Ferment please!” as he described the process of wine-making. After we learned how to taste and smell and whatever whatever with wine we had the opportunity to explore the vineyard a bit, including the guava orchard. We picked out different guavas and ate them as we walked around. They were pretty good I guess, minus the 59394579385 seeds in each one.

While the family was grilling lunch, I managed to make friends (or so I thought) with the owner’s grandson. Our adventures started out well. We went to China, America, Stellenbausch, Johanessburg, and the grocery store on our motorbikes. And he bought me ice cream and juice. We were becoming buddies. This kid is hilarious. He has these crazy dreadlocks and really, really enjoys semi-violent playing. As in he’d purposely crash into my bike, or into the wall. We had some adventures for a bit before I got tired and decided I wanted to sit inside to hide from the flies at the vineyard. My little buddy did not like that too much. He actually got pretty upset with me, so our friendship ended when he decided it was funny to attempt to smack my eye out. So my overall conclusion from this experience is don’t piss off the violent children and expect to get away with it.

After our absolutely delicious lunch at the vineyard, we were off to downtown Stellenbausch to spend some time there. The area was very wealthy, very Afrikaaner, and very closed. Everything except a few over-priced souvenir shops and cafes were closed for the weekend. I swear I don’t know how things stay in business in this country. They close at 5 during weekdays and don’t open on weekends. We basically just wandered through the town for a bit before everyone exhaustedly got back into the bus to head home.

The remainder of the day was a mixture of fails and tiredness. Gym fail as Lauren and I walked down there, only to find it closed. Internet café fail, as I always manage to pick a computer that doesn’t have a working mike and/or video camera, or decides to freeze. The only other events of the evening included an ostrich burger for dinner and out for the evening on Long Street. Pretty standard.

Tomorrow we’re planning on hiking Table Mountain which should be intense. I’ve never done something like that so it should be awesome. And painful.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICAAAAAAA!

Home in Cape Town is where I want it to be (Wed 07/01, Thurs 07/02, Fri 07/03)

Who knew that after only a little over a month in Cape Town that it would feel like we were coming home to MedVilla after four days in Pietermaritzburg. But that’s how it’s felt! I guess in a way you almost have to establish a routine before you can be ready to break it, and that routine is all it takes to make you feel comfortable somewhere. That being said, it is unfortunate to say that the last three days have not been my favorite in Cape Town. Work has been horrendous. And not due to me having too much work or work that’s too hard, no. It’s because I have had NOTHING TO DO. Despite having internet access, I can’t even manage to entertain myself during the day. One of the other interns put it an interesting way, he said sometimes he “finishes the internet.” That’s such a good explanation. There are only so many times I can check my email or read cnn.com before I start to go crazy. The most excititng event of my past three work days didn’t even come from TAC but from the District 6 Museum where two other interns are working. The museum was giving a small presentation on the Civil Rights movement in the States versus in South Africa. A group of us left our individual work sites for a short bit during the day to go listen to our professor speak to some students. I only got to see the brief film that they showed and not the actual discussion segment, but the movie was, well, strangely inaccurate. They chose to show a movie about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott, and while the story seemed straight to me (for the most part) it very much made it seem as though Rose Parks was the primary reason that blacks finally began their quest for human rights in the US. They even made MLK seem like a minor player in the whole ordeal. It was kind of comical to me in a way, but really off-setting if someone isn’t even relatively familiar with the civil rights movement. You know what else is funny? Apparently (according to Julian) they teach this story in Germany! Clearly it’s not in a lot of detail, but I thought it was neat how widespread Rosa Parks’s story has spread.

The past three evenings have been pretty relaxing. I’ve been going the gym, no change. I’ve watched Will Ferrell SNL shows and rugby, which may be the most confusing game ever, nothing exciting. I’ve been emailing a lot, no difference.

Friday Evening

Definitely the highlight of my past three days, hence it’s own section. Bob drove us out to Camp’s Bay to watch the sunset and have dinner at one of the many charming restaurants near the water. The first group (that I was in) went out to spend some time walking around before the other group was ready. The waves were huuuuuuge. The weather was quite windy and the swells were crashing back on each other. It would have been amazing to swim in, but I probably would have drowned. So maybe not so amazing. The funniest things happened though. We were admiring the scenery all around us, the volatile ocean, the majestic mountains. All of it. I was also admiring all this with my back to the waves, which of course decided to take advantage of my obliviousness. Despite the fact that someone yelled “Surf!” I still wasn’t paying attention and found myself calf-deep in saltwater and sand. My feet were so effing cold. Luckily I was wearing waterproof shoes, but they were flats, so no socks. I 

spent the rest of the evening with sand in my shoes and freezing feet until I had the chance to go back and change before going out that night.

As we all know, the world lost its King of Pop in the past week. Like there has been all over the world, one of the clubs here was having a Michael Jackson tribute party that we all decided to go out to. The night was pretty fun overall. We started out a bar called Neighbourhood, which looks like an old house. I’d been there once before and it had been straight filled with white people, but this time it was a better mix. When people were ready to head out after a brief stay there, we went to the MJ party. The venue was pretty sweet, but the music was kind of off. They didn’t start playing the good MJ songs until later in the evening. Sad story. They also had these really cool posters hanging on the wall that most of us decided we were going to take with us. I was a dummy and didn’t take one, but I think Victoria might give me one of the two she took.

You will be missed, Michael Jackson.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Quality Time in Pietermaritzburg (Sat 06/27-Tues 06/30)

Saturday 06/27

Our experience here in Pietermaritzburg has been an interesting mix of intellectual/ cultural/social stimulation. Actually not what I expected it to be at all! Honestly, when I learned that the majority of our time in Pietermaritzburg was going to spent in lectures and discussion dinners, I was really not ridiculously excited. Luckily, the lecturers were for the most part extremely interesting and the discussion dinners turned into some of my favorite evenings in South Africa! Surprise!

Our Saturday morning began with a mini-tour around Pietermaritzburg with us trying to get a feel for the history and area. Pretty typical educational tour with the group. The highlights of that for me are in a tie between the wildfire that almost engulfed our parked cars, or the random man who came in to contribute to our little lecture. Ok, clearly the second part was more reflective, but the fire was crazy! The man provided an interesting perspective and input to Jumbalani’s (our guide) story and knowledge. It is still so beyond comprehendible to me how recent all of this history is to South Africa. To have a random stranger walk up to our group and listen and comment was not something I would have expected else where, but I wasn’t really surprised by it here. The afternoon involved listening to Jumbalani’s own story of his involvement in the ANC and how his life had been shaped by the volatile politics around him. I always prefer the personal reflections and experiences to wandering around a museum or listening to generic history. Oops on my part, but I just find personal accounts much more valuable since they are more relatable and almost tangible. And so I appreciate them more.

The evening was most definitely one of the best evenings I’ve had in South Africa. Jumbalani’s wonderful family had invited the group to their home for dinner and an eve

ning of bonding. It was FANTASTIC. For one, there was this adorable little baby who didn’t let anyone hold or entertain him except for me. I don’t know where some of these maternal instincts are coming up from in me, but a part of me is definitely changing when it comes to children. So I spent a significant amount of time with the baby. This family is one of the warmest I’ve ever come in contact with. The experience reminded me a lot of the one that Deandra, Ella, and I had in Luxor when we went home with a random family for Eid dinner. Except this night was centered around a Michael Jackson tribute dance party that everyone was participating in, even the baby! We also had a really great dish cleaning party to help out the family after they’d cooked us a delicious dinner. They had bought halaal meat to be sure that everyone (aka me!) could eat. How nice is that??? All in all, the day was good, but the evening is GREAT GREAT GREAT. Such an experience.

Sunday 06/28

I love Sunday mornings in South Africa. Would you like to know why? Because they usually equal SLEEP, but for some God-forsaken reason, our B&B has a very strange concept of what customer service should be, as in they feel like it’s ok to come into our room where there are five girls sleeping, clearly sleeping, and laugh and talk and clean so freaking loudly. Sorry, I understand that not everyone has the same schedule, but it was really ridiculous and really rude. Anyway though, so our morning basically involved sleeping, waking u for breakfast, and then going back to sleep before waking up to listen to another former of the ANC give an interview to our group and Jumbalani. His discussion was interesting as well, but honestly the majority of it was lost as we were FREEZING our butts off on the porch in the cold and rainy weather. Victoria, Danielle, and I all cuddled under the blanket and our hoodies the entire time. Not comfortable.

Our evening was just as good as last night, but very different. We were invited to dinner at the lovely home of Rod and Fiona, two white South Africans who had played an extremely proactive role during apartheid. Their story is quite fascinating, especially the perspective of their almost-30 year old daughter who was quite young when her parents were so active. It was definitely a perspective I had been waiting to hear. We’ve heard so much from older people, both black and white, but I didn’t feel like I had really any insight into what was going on with the younger generations until tonight. It was great to get the memories of a young white girl who had grown up with the majority of black friends, who then moved to an elite high school and was frustrated with the narrow-mindedness of the students there. Fiona and Rod were so dynamic, with Fiona being one of the strongest women I have ever come across, and Rod having this dead pan humor that I absolutely love. The entire evening held my attention, which says quite a lot actually. Especially when if comes to long discussions.

Oh and in the evening, GOOOOOO BRAZIL!!! J

Monday 06/29

We finally had a chance to explore Pietermaritzburg on our own this morning. All in all, there is nothing particularly enthralling that we found about the city. It’s pretty small, and apparently kind of dangerous, but those aren’t unusual characteristics for a South African city. Victoria, Anthony, and I just walked up and down some streets looking in random stores, the like 5 Rand shop, which is worse than a $1 store/better than any other store, depending on how you look at it.

We went back and took naps before our second part of the interview with Jumbalani, and then it was getting ready for cook-out this evening. I made the salad. Sweet. I didn’t chop any of my fingers or drop too

much lettuce, only a little bit. It was beautifullll. Not really, but I was ok with it. The cook-out was spectacular. (Yes, I just used the word spectacular.) There were soooo many people there, including Jumbalini’s family again which I was very excited about. The baby was asleep so I didn’t get to spend too much quality time with him, but I spent a while talking to the other youngsters in the group. We discussed everything from safety in South Africa and how comfortable/uncomfortable they are most of the time, driving and driving in the States versus here, how our names sound so weird to them and how I could probably do four backhandsprings before pronounce most people’s names here. They were all great conversations. These kids are so cool, really. And so curious about life in America. We’re trying to convince the oldest boy to apply to Duke next year, so we’ll see how that works out. Hopefully well.

The highlight of the evening outside of my time with the kids was our farewell song to Bill. He’s leaving for home tomorrow morning, so we decided that he needed a go

od-bye present. Which equaled a parody of Build Be Up Buttercup, DukeEngage South Africa style. It was filled with inside jokes of our time so far, but he loved it! And we loved singing it. Sort of. I totally recorded it so if anyone wants to watch it later, let me knooow.

Tuesday 06/30

How about we keep this short and simple…

Things I did today:

1) Woke up

2) Ate Breakfast

3) Bought a rugby hoodie

4) Said good-bye to Bill L

5) Slept on the airplane

6) Back home to the Med Villa in Cape Town

Ukuthula,

Lynn

BLOG UPDATE

GREAT NEWS! I figured out how to post pictures today on my blog, so now you can see whatever it is I've been writing about! I'll go back and add in pictures to old posts, too. Apparently I can post videos as well, but that might be too intense for me just yet.

EXAMPLE: This is where I am :) Ok, maybe it's a lame first picture but they'll get way better, I promise.

p.s. Thank you everyone who's been commenting. I just found those today, too! 

Bye bye Cape Town for the next four days (Fri 06/26)

I’m having mixed feelings about leaving at this point. Part of me is definitely excited for a change and anxious to see more parts of SA, but another part of me is getting pretty attached to the area. I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Just thought it was interesting that I’m finally developing some sort of bond to the town.

So of course, because we’re traveling as a group, for some reason that requires us waking up waaaaaaay earlier than necessary to get around. I don’t even want to talk about what time we woke up, but it was early as hell. Especially for me since for some stupid reason I didn’t think it was a good idea to pack last night and so had to wake up extra early this morning to manage to stuff my things into my backpack and longchamp for the weekend. Success!

The airport was so ridiculous. It was filled with rugby fans traveling around with their team for the rugby equivalent of the World Cup. These people are die hard. I mean, there are hundreds, probably thousands of fans, traveling with their team! One gentleman said that he had heard that over 30,000 people were moving around SA today. Out of control. Is it really that horrible to maybe watch the game at home with a group of other die hard fans? Apparently it is.

I was feeling pretty good when we first arrived to the Durban area. That’s where we were flying to by the way. Fly from Cape Town to Durban, spend the afternoon there, and then drive to Pietermaritzburg in the evening which is about an hour away. I say I was feeling pretty good because I definitely slept on Anthony the whole plane ride over. The poor kid has turned into my nap-on buddy.

Our time in Durban involved museums and the beach. I’m sure you’ll never be able to guess which part I enjoyed more. Funny story though, we definitely went to the wrong museum at first, courtesy of our bus driver. We were all walking around looking for some stories on apartheid, and were getting nothing. It was really random, and I’m not sure who figured out that we were in the wrong location but we eventually made it to the right museum for a quick walk-through before lunch on the beach. Lunch sucked, but I’ve also not really been enjoying any of my food lately so I’m probably a biased source. After lunch was awesome though because we got to go in the ocean! I wasn’t planning on it since my hair was straight and the water was cold, but that was a huge fail. I have a lot of trouble resisting the ocean, and this big Indian one was calling my name. Minor problem that I didn’t have a towel. At least it was minor until I got out and almost froze my butt off. Really though, that was the coldest part of my body. TMI maybe? Sorry…

Our drive to Pietermaritzburg was maybe about an hour long, I’m not sure. Victoria and I listened to Disney music on my iPod for the majority of it before I finally slept for the last little bit of the trip. Our B&B here is awesome, but really isolated. There are five of us staying in the biggest cottage (Lauren, Rose, Victoria, Naomi, and I). The others are paired up in other cottages. I didn’t’ really notice much to do around our B&B, so I think the group is going to provide ourselves with the majority of our entertainment while we’re here. Case in point: Dinner tonight, cooked by our very own Professor Bill Chafe. It was really good, and even better that it wasn’t from a restaurant for the first time in forever! And get this, the B&B gives you cake every night and chocolate every morning. Uh oh, bad news for my body, good news for the satisfaction of my tummy.

Tomorrow is a day in Pietermaritzburg, so we’ll see how it differs from Cape Town.

Ukuthula and good night,
Lynn

Pardon me while I shamelessly watch you (Thurs 06/25)

Anthony, Lauren, and I had the opportunity to go to on a tour of a couple townships today rather than to go to our respective internships. (Sidenote: My original internship was supposed to be working in one of these clinics, shadowing the priest who owns our B&B in his social work for HIV/AIDS patients. The internship/shadowing fell through because it was too inconvenient for me to get to those worksites every day since they’re pretty far away. It’s perfectly fine though since I’m now getting to work with one of the most incredible health advocacy and action programs in the world. Everything happens for a reason!)

The excursion began with Bill and Karlyn driving us out to a hospital in an area called Tygerburg (I think?). The hospital building was soooo old. I guess something that I’ve come to take for granted, especially going to Duke, is how up to date medical facilities and equipment is in most of the US. I’m not the biggest fan of hospitals to begin with, they easily depress me and I have to fight to stay positive (hence me never wanting to be a doctor), but this hospital was especially difficult for me. The ward we were in keeps I think about to 30 children who are HIV positive. We saw children ranging from babies to probably age 5 or so. I think I’ve said this before, but kids always stir up emotions for me much more quickly than other victims of anything else do. If anything, if further inspires me to help in the way that I want to even more than before. If they’re willing to fight, then why shouldn’t we help them as much as we can, whether it be against disease, poverty, racism, whatever.

One thing that made the group extremely uncomfortable throughout the entire day was the lack of confidentiality that the nurses and coordinators express while taking around visitors. Maybe in the States we take it to a completely different level, but it seems to me that the idea of confidentiality and patient respect is not valued nearly as highly here. The lady taking us around at the hospital had no problem taking us to private rooms, nor was she hesitant to tell us how one of the mothers with HIV positive twins had abused her children and that’s why they were here and she was surprised to see their father etc etc. At the clinics we subsequently toured, our guide at one of them would knock on closed examination room doors and just waltz right into them with the group of us, despite the fact that their was a patient on the other side being given his ARV shot or whatever. It didn’t seem to matter. I was SO uncomfortable, as were the others. I couldn’t believe that right after this woman had told us how many people were ashamed of their HIV status and because of that wouldn’t take the drugs that would save their lives in fear that someone would find out and make them victims of the social stigma against the disease. And here she was, clearly exposing these patients to a group of obvious and privileged outsiders. We did stick out pretty badly as a group. Not only were we the only white people the majority of the time, but I also felt bad that someone who could be helping the people waiting in line was instead spending time showing us all around. There were so many people waiting in line to have a check up or get medication or talk to a nurse. I think there were 8 doctors for who knows how many patients. Thousands are served every month in these overcrowded clinics by these overworked doctors. Literally thousands. On top of that, the doctors and nurses are extremely underpaid despite their exhausting work hours and commitment. It’s really discouraging to experience something like that, especially since my whole life I’ve been treated like a princess when it comes to medical care. (Thank you Daddy.) The idea of people not receiving even the most basic health treatment when they did it is unacceptable to me. Hence my determination to do something about it. I guess I’m at the right NGO too, since one of TAC’s stances is that healthcare is a human right.

The evening at Med Villa was a pretty standard one except for the extra face at the dinner table tonight! Bob finally arrived in Cape Town this evening so we spent some time with him, too. I’m interested to see how time with him differs from before. I’m sure it’ll be awesome. After that, Lauren, Julian, and I watched some of the soccer game and talked about different cultural perspectives on people from other countries. Like what do Germans think about so-and-so country versus what Americans think. I think one of my favorite things about Europe is how different each country is despite their close vicinities to one another. I can’t wait to travel around there. Maybe Christmas is a good time to start with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland? That’s my newest goal. I’ll let you know how that convincing goes.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

I need a master's degree or PhD. Can you loan me one for the summer? (Tues 06/23-Wed 06/24)

Some days as an intern are clearly going to be better than others. There are days at TAC where I feel so involved, like when I get to see a story I wrote/edited on the website or when I get to march the Toytoy protest dance in front of the Convention Center in downtown Cape Town. And then there are days like today and yesterday where I feel like an actual intern, at the bottom of the food chain. We don’t need to talk about it too much because I’m almost over it, but basically I just printed allllll day yesterday. A thousand pages of printing. Not even exaggerating. You know how I know I’m not exaggerating? Because then today, I had to count the thousand pages after I’d printed and organized them into a packet. I get it, it’s helpful, I’m doing work that will make more important people’s lives easier. But really? Days like this make me determined to do something exciting with my life, and I’m also going to need a job where someone else can do the busy work because God knows that if I had to do something like that for the rest of my life it would be bad news. So I guess I learned something these past two days, I need serious credentials. Great, so I guess between an mph and a phd in public health, I’m looking at getting out of school at the age of 30, at which time I will be too old to get married and too old to have kids. Ok, over-the-top. But given how bored work like this can make me, it’d totally be worth it. And I could always adopt.

Ok back on track for SA… I finished printing the packet, counting the pages, organizing it for mass printing, called 3 different printers 30 different times because apparently there is a 50 step process to printing out packets. Did you know that you need to specify not only page number, but double sided or single sided? Spiral or flat binding? Color or black and white? When do you need it by? How many copies? Colored paper inserts? Will you provide those, or else it’ll be extra. GOOD GOD. It’s not that difficult. But everything here seems to take way longer than it should. It’s over, I’m over it. The packet has been put together, printer ready. I did my job. Hopefully I did it well. Otherwise I’m an idiot.

In other news…

Our group is a little ill. And by a little I mean that 4 out of 8 of us have some sort of illness or another. I think three of us have already made it to a doctor in the three weeks we’ve been here and another one has had to miss work for couple days. That may be a DukeEngage record. No worries, I’m doing fine. I’ve got a bit of a head cold but I bought these drugs here (like medical drugs) from a pharmacy (yes it was a real pharmacy) that are miracle drugs, I swear. They’re probably way stronger than the cold medicines in the States, but they worked! I’m feeling better already! Hopefully we’ll all be healthy soon enough because otherwise this is just going to turn into a vicious circle of us being so close we share everything, including our sicknesses. I guess the weather doesn’t really help either. It is so rainy and windy here, which translates into cold. Each night I feel like the roof of our B&B is going to fly off. I sit up in bed a little scared, I’m not gonna lie. I don’t like the sound of a tsunami on the other side of the door to my room. A nice thunderstorm is ok, but I’d rather not feel like a tree is going to fall through the window at any given moment. Good think Lauren is there to take care of me at night J. I do hope the weather becomes nice again though, it’s much easier to do things when you’re not worried about blowing away in the wind. 

Ukuthula,

Lynn  

What can I learn from you? Teach me something (Mon 06/22)

Monday Funday. Not quite. Today was a pretty slow day at work. How many times have I had these days? I feel like it’s been a lot more lately. Sorry to complain, but I want something to do other than obsessively check my email at work. I guess I write my blog at work which is also helpful. But I want work!

Anyway, I basically just sat in on two meetings today, one for the PCR department that I normally work in and one for the Women’s Rights department that I’m starting to do more work in now. The first meeting was sucky for me, I didn’t really have anything to report nor anything I “hoped to accomplish” for the week other than getting in touch with my boss from the Women’s Right department whose been MIA for the past three days. The second meeting was more productive. I listened to Phil, my reappeared boss, talk about what the problems were for last month, how to take care of them this month, and what needed to be done by the end of July. Apparently this department is really far behind, hence the need for me! (I like to tell myself that I’m going to be able to help out a lot. Not likely, but I can hope.) I was given a massive assignment of putting together a packet for a training program that’s being held in July, which basically means the kind of intern work of printing, organizing, and making phone calls. Hey, I guess it happens to the best of us. I didn’t really think I’d be protesting and transporting around inflatable eyeballs every week. The problem was that I didn’t get sent the papers until late in the afternoon before I was about to leave, so the work will have to wait for tomorrow.

The B&B evening was a pretty standard one of dinner and hanging out. We talked about watching Baby Mama (that discussion happens just about every evening) but we ended up watching this incredibly strange movie that I can’t really begin to describe because I didn’t really understand what was going on. It was pretty hilarious though that despite the fact that we were hating on how horrible the quality of the filming was and how bad the acting was, we were all staring at the TV for the minimum amount of time we were watching it. Funny how that happens, the bad movies are the ones that you sometimes watch the most intensely.

The highlight of my evening was finally beginning language lessons with Julian. I’ve agreed to teach him Arabic if he teaches me German. Don’t worry, I will be completely fluent in the three weeks that we’ve got to learn the language. For sure. But really though, when else am I going to learn any German? We have a little notebook where I transliterate Arabic into English print and he writes the German beside it. Except I can’t remember anything I’ve learned right now since we only have one notebook and he keeps it. I’ll get my own. The sounds really corny, but I like having international friends. Actually that sounds really corny, I’m sorry. I guess what I mean is that I feel like I learn a lot from them, whether they’re from Germany, Egypt, Pakistan, India, or even different parts of the States. And it’s really fulfilling to be around people who are interested in that, too. It’s something that I’ve really come to value, and I hope it becomes a regular facet of my interactions with people. Plus, it helps to have people you know living in random countries so when you want to go visit them you have a place to stay. Just joking, I’ll be excited to see them again!

Ukuthula,

Lynn

p.s. Danke means thank you in German. I just remembered that!

Unlikely discoverers on the rooftops of Cape Town (Sun 06/21)

Free daaaaaaay! Hopefully they won’t equal lame days. We were definitely better about that today. After much motivation to get out of bed at a reasonable hour this morning, a couple of us decided to walk around town for the morning to explore Cape Town. Unfortunately, most things are CLOSED in Cape Town in Sundays which is garbage. But it was still nice to get out of the B&B on our own, in an unstructured way. Even if all we did was basically just walk around.

We did discover something pretty cool around lunchtime though. I’m not quite sure how it happened. All I know is that when people started getting kind of hungry, we spotted a cute little café that looked like a suitable place to satisfy our hungry desires. Next thing I know, we’re following this lady into an old school elevator (which we then had to empty because there were too many of us) that took us up to the top floor above the café. When we got out, we walked up the stairs to the roof outside. There was this little sitting area up there, with a bar and lounge section, and all these little trailers. Random right? They had mini-mailboxes in front of them, and each one was decorated with a theme inside. You can sleep up there! They have a full size bed, a little couch, shower, kitchenette, TV, everything you would need for a night, plus some really sweet decorations. It was like a nice trailer park that happened to be on a roof in Cape Town. We thought about maybe renting one out for my birthday, but the problem for me would be that not everyone would be able to stay up there with me. And the weather here isn’t consistent enough for a rooftop party. Sad L We’ll see what we decide later. The lady also took us down to the ballroom area of the hotel. It was such a random find! Oh, and the lunch we had there was good, too.

So the majority of the day ended up being pretty relaxing, but not all that exciting. In the evening, Victoria and Naomi had been invited to a lounge/bar where a friend of a friend’s band was playing for the night. Anthony, Julian, and I decided to come along just to do something for the evening. It ended up being really cool. Everyone was just sitting around, on the floor, in big arm chairs, on couches, standing. It was a very eclectic group of people, and so was the music. There was a jazz band, a man rapping in Afrikaans, and a more mellow artist whose music we only caught at the end. Sitting around, with a diverse group of people that we didn’t really know was oddly refreshing. And the music was good, too.

I guess today was a strangely fun day. We didn’t really do all that much, and we didn’t really do anything super involved, but it was nice to spend a relaxed day in different parts of Cape Town. I’m not sure if that makes any sense, but I really learned today that it is much more about the company you keep and less so about the things that you do. But not gonna lie, I can’t wait to go shark-diving.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Daylight Robbery at the Waterfront should mean you get shipped off to Robben Island (Sat 06/20)

         

The weekend has finally arrived! The work week did take a nice turn in the end, but it’s always nice to have a change. On the schedule for today was Robben Island, the prison island which held Nelson Mandela and other political threats to the apartheid government during its active time. Getting to the prison involves a drive down to the waterfront of Cape Town. It was my first time down there, so I was excited to have time to get to explore what I had heard to be a beautiful area after our tour. Once the whole group arrived via Bill’s carpooling and shuffling, we hopped on to a short fairy ride out to the island. Had the island not been a former present, it could have been oddly appealing. When the ferry pulls into the mini-harbor on the island, you can see all these black birds sitting on the rocks, outlined in the horizon.

Touring the island involves riding a bus around the different holding facilities of the island. Come to find out that the island was not only used to hold political prisoners, but also convicts, felons, and diseased people who were basically isolated from their communities because they were sick. It’s crazy how humane treatment changes in so few years. The most interesting part of the island tour was the description of a cave in the area where the prisoners used to mine limestone as part of their labor. The prisoners were forbidden from talking during their work. The sun was shining so hard onto the limestone that its reflection back onto the men’s eyes caused their eyes permanent damage. What was interesting about the cave was that while the guards only allowed the men to eat and relieve themselves in it (yeah, disgusting that both those things happened in the same place), the prisoners were actually teaching one another literacy. The cave became known as The University. Some illiterate guards who discovered what was happening in the cave began to partake in the teachings, as well. There is now a pile of rocks, the first laid by Nelson Mandela himself, in front of the cave in the limestone quarry to serve as memories for their time there.

On the bus part of the island tour, we also saw some of the wildlife such as penguins, springbok, rabbits, and one of the three ostriches on the island.  Just thought I’d throw in that little tid bit of excitement. At least I found it exciting…

 

The second part of the tour involved walking around the main prison complex. I think one of the most amazing aspects of this prison was the community that was formed among the inmates. Sometimes, the community would even involve relationships between the inmates and the prison guards. The smuggling of documents and other forms of information in places like shoes is so cool to me! (Please, don’t judge my lack of intellectual writing right now.) Not that I’d ever want to end up in a position like these men were in, but if I ever do, I hope that I’m as creative as they were in keeping up communication with the outside world’s activities. I mean, some of the prisoners were only allowed a visit by their families once every six months. Can you imagine? I feel horrible when I haven’t talked to my mommy and daddy for a day. We also saw Mandela’s cell, and took some pretty awesome group pictures in another one. Again, not that I’d ever actually want or expect to end up in one.

After the island tour, we rode the ferry back to the waterfront to grab some lunch and maybe do some shopping before heading back to the B&B. Fail, on both accounts. On the first account: I am really sick of eating at restaurants. Like really sick. I can’t look at menus anymore. The pub that we chose to eat at had birds crapping all over the tables outside, but even when we moved inside the menu wasn’t too appealing, probably something to do with the fact that the pages were sticking together. I ordered a hot chocolate and then went off to explore while the rest of the group finished their food. That was also a fail. Everything was extremely overpriced at the waterfront. The area is super nice and chill to hang out in, but I’m not trying to pay full price for a souvenir that I can bargain down to half-price for at the market down the street from work. Tourist traps to the max. It was neat to see almost everyone dressed up in the rugby attire though. Springboks vs. Lions. We decided to support Springboks since they are the main animal of SA, despite the fact that I know zero about rugby.

Today I decided I like being a traveling student better than a traveling American tourist. It’s a lot cheaper, and more fulfilling to buy something you’ve argued down to a reasonable price in a fun but intentional way.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Finally Feeling Far (Fri 06/19)

I thought today was going to be another lame day at work. I was only right for about half the day, thank God. The morning was incredible slow again, especially since my boss has been in Joburg for the past couple days and is thus “unreachable.” Unfortunate when you’re trying to get assignments from him. So great, I was expecting another dilly-dally day. Rebecca saved me. She took me and two other interns to Khayletsha for the afternoon to sit in on a briefing in the township. Getting there was a little bit of an adventure. I hadn’t taken the mini-buses here in Cape Town until this afternoon. They are wicked cheap if you’re trying to get out to the townships, but also probably wicked sketchy if you’re on your own. It was such an experience too see the mini-bus station (which was surprisingly organized) and to ride out in a crowded vans to the townships. The five of us crowded into the very back of the bus, which served for some good TAC bonding. The office here is so ridiculously young. Rebecca, the head of the PCR department in our National Office, is probably the spunkiest/most intense person I’ve ever met, is only 27. 

From what I could see, Khayletsha is a township worse off than Langa (the one we visited as a group). The majority of it is very dirty, filled with crowded shacks and weak looking buildings. Our first stop was the TAC office in Khayletsha where we spent some quality time talking as interns about relationships, traveling, and the massive stack of boxes filled with condoms in the room. After a cup of tea and an hour or so of waiting, we discovered that the meeting was being held elsewhere, so we packed back into a minibus to drive over to a local library.

The meeting consisted of informing the people present on TAC’s Resources for Health Campaign that is being launched this July. The purpose of the campaign is to push the government to meet the health system promises that were made to South Africa despite the global economic crisis. These promises include having 80% of all HIV positive people on treatment and reducing the infection rate by 50% by the year 2011. Frankly, I don’t see these promises being met, but I fully support the optimism and belief that they can be fulfilled if the government focuses it’s money in the appropriate areas of this society. It was moving to see how these people, who are mere community members of Khayletsha, are so motivated to mobilize their community in this fight against HIV/AIDS. I’m thankful that Rebecca took me today, I feel like I learn so much from sitting in on these briefings and from seeing the actual communities that are being impacted by the decisions and actions being taken in the National Office. It always helps to have a face in your mind while doing service work.

I didn’t get back from Khayletsha until almost five which meant that I had to walk home alone from work, which I HATE doing. I ended up being fine except for a man who decided to follow me until another man told him to lay off and stop bothering me. I powerwalked in the heat wearing my NorthFace fleece and carrying my probably 40lb backpack uphill, at least 1.5 miles all the way back to the B&B. And then I collapsed on my bed before starting to skype.

Today is the first day I’ve really started to miss home. I guess there’s just been a lot going on in my head and I want to be right beside the people who always help me deal with them. I feel very separate from everyone right now. It was bound to happen, and it happened while I was abroad, too. It even happens at Duke sometimes. I'll get over it soon, but I need to snap out of this funk asap, hopefully by tomorrow. Between spending time in the township, feeling like I have to sprint home from work to avoid getting followed, missing my family and friends who I can't constantly talk to, and dealing with life, for the first time I feel like the thousands of miles from home.

Just know that I’m missing you all very much, but don’t worry, I’m still having an awesome time here while I save the world. Joke. But I am trying though, one little step at a time.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Warning: My first ranting blog (Thurs 06/18)

Ok, weird realization: I actually like having work to do at work. Who would have thought? Today was soooooooo boooooooring in the office. I would much rather be scrambling to finish an assignment then peddling around on my computer for 6/7 hours of my work day. I think you can guess that’s what happened today yes? After I finished up the women’s report for Phillip, I emailed him the draft and told him that I’d take another assignment. No response all day. He hasn’t been in the office lately so the only form of communication I have with him is via email, so if I don’t have that, I’m stuck. That happened today. Of course there are some perks to not having an assignment. I can blog, read ESPN and CNN, find out what’s going on around the world, facebook stalk some people, skype whoever is online. But really though, I have a lot of trouble keeping myself entertained on a computer for extensive periods of time. Also, if anyone would like to email me some new songs, I’m dying on my itunes right now and youtube is blocked at work. Lame South Africa for having the most expensive internet on the planet. The only semi-interesting thing that happened to me today was getting hit on by a little man who was at least two feet shorter than me.

After the gym today, we headed back to the B&B for an in-house dinner and speaker. The speaker, whose name is Dr. Mohammed Something-or-Another teaches at the University of Cape Town. I hated him. I actually loathed every phrase that came out of the man’s mouth. He’s this little Indian guy, except he doesn’t acknowledge that about himself at all. I don’t even know if I can relay my feelings about him with going on a blogging rampage, but the man was completely regressive in his thoughts and actions regarding racial views. Note: this is clearly my opinion, but remember I did say in my first entry that I was not going to be poltically correct at times. Case in point.

I should explain why I disliked this man so much. Let me begin by saying that I most definitely gave him a chance. I was excited to hear about the Coloured experience in South Africa because I feel like that is a side that gets left out in a lot of history lessons. I was interested to see how the Coloured community of South Africa had progressed post-apartheid. Yes, for once, I was actively interested in a speaker. I sat across from him at the dinner table before the formal discussion began. He, Naomi, Anthony and I were having a discussion the differences in the way that people are classified around the world. Seems to be a pretty common conversation topic during this trip which I’m frankly almost- only almost-tired of focusing on. At first the man was still on my good side, having a legitimate discussion about the word Coloured vs. Black, whatever whatever. Oh, also, he has these horrible shifty eyes and doesn’t make eye-contact with you whether it’s at a dinnertime conversation or during the group discussion. But moving on to what he said to heat me up for the remainder of the evening...

Our dicussion came around to the topic of how Americans from immigrant families choose their identities in the US. Well golly gee, I wonder who would be able to contribute to that discussion from firsthand experience. Oh, I don’t know, maybe me? Duh. I said my polite piece concerning my opinion that one’s identity changes according to their surroundings and the context in which that person find’s themselves. Like I said, my polite piece. This man, who very clearly said that his parents were Indian immigrants who “grew up on rice patties” (his quote), somehow felt that he could deny his culture and religion by instead looking at the world as containing humanity. While that sounds like a nice theory being written out here, the way man said it was so irrational and almost mocking that I wanted to smack him over the head. He was clearly ashamed of his ancestry, and stated that he didn’t hold any value to neither his Indian nor Muslim background. Bull****. P.s. this has nothing to do with him being Muslim because I think some people in the group definitely thought that was what was annoying me about him. No, this had much more to do with the fact that this bastard (pardon the language, but again not PC here). Then I got rude. I basically told him that I thought his argument was completely bogus because I did not think that it was in any way appropriate for someone of a different background to choose to disassociate themselves from that in order to stop racism because all that was doing was encouraging that person (or society) to maintain there racist standards seeing as how those who were being undermined were conforming to their “humanity.” Bull****. I told him that I thought his approach was doing nothing more than reinforcing racism and that the more active approach should be to instead show those who are undermining you that despite your differences from them and despite those characteristics that they consider to make  you worse than them, you should show them that you are their equivalent. Or just by virtue of the fact that they let their racism define their lifestyles, that oyu are their superior. End of story. Do not try to ever argue with me on this point because I will not bend. I understand the concept of “humanity” being all the same. Trust me, I’m a BAA major. I know that there is more genetic variation within a “race” than between “races,” that humans have all evolved from the same bipedal hominid, that race has no genetic basis and is defined differently according to context, I know all that. But I also FULLY recognize that there are differences among different groups of people, and these differences have been exploited so that one group considers themselves better than others, often at that “lower group’s” detriment. To make an argument by disassociating yourself from your differences in a society that has condemned you for them is nothing but regressive in my eyes.

Anyway, the group discussion went on for way too long and all the professor did was manage to disgust me more than educate me. At the end of his lecture, we were given the opportunity to ask questions. I asked him the following: “Not as an academic, not as an intellectual, not as a scholar, but as a Coloured person, what strides do you think that Coloured population has taken since apartheid, and what do you hope to still see in your lifetime?” I wanted him to answer that he didn’t consider himself Coloured and that he didn’t see the Coloured population as having made any progression. And he did. I wanted the entire group to hear him say, despite the fact that he had been telling us for his ENTIRE lecture that everyone who wasn’t White or African Black had been seen as Coloured, that he himself as the son of Indian immigrants parents was not Coloured. Bull****. I got what I wanted out of him, and I can’t wait to have a group discussion about it.

After our sit-in with Dr. Crackhead, a couple of us went to Rafiki’s (a restaurant close to our B&B) to watch the soccer game before going out for a little bit in the evening. Highlight: Egypt wonnnnnn! Yaaaaaay! We went to Dubliner’s afterwards for afterwards where I had my yummy hot chocolate again. I was feeling calm and content by the end of the evening, but the thought of that man still makes me want to smack him. Figurately speaking, of course.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

Avenue Q-Everyone's a little bit racist (Wed 06/17)

You know how they say all good things come to an end? Well unfortunately that also applies to relaxing four day weekends as well. Boo.

It’s back to work after a splendid four day weekend with my lovely group. I’ve been working on a report for the TAC employee I’m working under, Phillip. It basically involves me summarizing all the TAC stories and campaigns for 2008 regarding women’s rights and gender issues. I definitely have been learning a lot. Between condom shortages, over-priced HPV vaccines, and male circumcision, it feels like I could spend years only begin to learn all the layers of the complex HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The report is loooooong. It’s taken me all day to get through the stories on the TAC website, and I still have three documents to get through for tomorrow afternoon. In all honesty, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, but I haven’t been done I’m doing a really crappy job yet so I guess that’s a good sign…
One of my daily routines at work is going through my emails every morning. It’s been so great to hear from some of you that you’re actually reading this, so I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you. A second of my routines is to g-chat with Anthony throughout the day. Everyone except him and me have another intern working with them at their site, so we keep each other as much company as possible throughout the day. Third routine- muffins. Random I know. But I some reason find a way to eat a muffin every day, and by muffin I actually just mean muffin top because I don’t care much for the bottom half. So my work days usually progress as follows: emails to g-chatting to working/blogging to muffins to working/blogging to getting bored to leaving to gym to dinner to whatever we do in the evening. It’s so odd to be in a work routine. I’m not going to lie though, I LOVE not having work in the evenings when I get home from the office.

Oh, for those of you who know even a little about my wardrobe capacity, you will find the following incredibly comical. I currently have no pants to wear. Literally. I gave EVERY pair of my pants to the laundry Monday morning, forgetting the Tuesday was a holiday which would probably mean no laundry again until Wednesday. I have been wearing Naomi’s leggings for the past three days. I think it is the first (and hopefully last) time in my life I have ever run out of clothing. Hopefully I’ll get them back by tomorrow, otherwise I might have to wear a sheet around my waist. Kidding, Anthony offered to give me his pants already, but I do look like a straight fool wearing them.

We also had a group reflection session this evening which always keeps me thinking for the rest of the day. I usually go into them not thinking I have something to say, but somehow always end up wanting to talk through things with the others. Very deep, I know. Really though, they’ve been amazing and I’m completely comfortable stating my opinions and concerns to this group.

After the reflection session, Julian, Naomi, Lauren and I hung out in our room to watch South Africa play in the Confederation Cup. Throughout the game, we were having a discussion about race in SA vs. in Germany vs. in the States. The one message that really hit home for me during the conversation came from Julian, when he said, “I didn’t know what racism was until I came here, to South Africa.” It was an interesting dynamic we had going, with German, African American, Arab/Muslim, and Southern US sides all playing in. Unfortunately, I have come to include that racism, in some form or another, exists globally. The difference comes in how the issue is dealt with among other countries, societies, and even individuals. Everyone is a little racist, let’s be real. I mean listen to the Avenue Q song (shoutout to Ella Lipin.) It’s human nature to associate characteristics according to appearance, whether you’re looking at skin color, body physique, accent, dress, style, smile, whatever. Racism is always an issue, but what I’m still trying to figure out is how we should be dealing with it since these differences are never, ever going to disappear.

Ukuthula,
Lynn

A Touristly Authentic Day (Tues 06/16)

This morning started up bright and early as it usually does here in Cape Town with DukeEngage. The past couple days have been obvious exceptions, and I don’t expect to have another morning where all I stare at is the back of my eyelids for a while now. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The only thing that truly motivated me to be happy this morning was that our favorite tour guide, Calvin, came back into our lives today to take us to a couple townships around Cape Town. We all love Calvin dearly. He was the first person we spent an extensive amount of time with in South Africa as he was our tour guide all through Johannesburg. He is basically a huge teddy bear of a man, but he definitely has some bad ass history. He spent some time in jail while he was actively fighting apartheid, and his stories are all unmatched. Calvin is also very good at making history interesting to me, which is something that very few people are capable of doing.

Our tour of the townships ended up being a fairly trying day. We started in the Cape Malay area of Cape Town where the majority of the population is Muslim. It was neat for me to see Arabic on some of the walls in this part of town, not to mention that the town houses were all painted different colors of bright blue, green, orange, pink, purple, yellow, etc. We didn’t spend too much time here but basically listened to a little historical spiel

from Calvin before hopping back into the mini-van to go onto another township. Because I am me and I don’t pay attention to details, the only township name is Langa and so I won’t specify experiences according to where they were. Sorryyyy.

The day involved seeing a lot of things that are kept well hidden in the touristy part of Cape Town. Aka slums, extensive poverty, unsanitary and over-crowded living conditions, etc. The first stop we made was to a community center where members there make different crafts to sell to support the organization. We went into a little pottery making area where we saw how the pieces were made before being scurried off to go buy items outside. Mommy, I bought I pretty little plate that was probably way over-priced but at least supports a cause.

We moved on from the community center to see different aspects of the townships. We went into a couple local taverns and restaurants just to get a feel for what the local people live like. At least I guess that’s what it was for. Honestly, a lot of the day was very touristy despite the fact that it was supposed to be showing us the authenticity of the townships. The tour was a paradox in itself. Let our TOUR group show you through the “REAL Cape Town.” Nice. Anyway, we saw a couple things that were intriguing. One was a very open (and dirty) meat market where one of the things being sold/grilled were whole lamb heads. Mmmm yummy. Slash horribly disgusting to even think about eating. Calvin also took us into one of the slummy areas

to show us a routine beer brewing and sharing process that the local people partake in for just about every celebratory event and then plus some. We also all drank from the nasty bucket, and while I’m trying to be culturally sensitive, it was not the tastiest nor most culturally satisfying experience. One thing that really threw me off today though was the fact that alcohol is EVERYWHERE in these areas. It is actually quite ridiculous and obnoxious in my opinion. It seems in a lot of ways that while these people can’t afford to eat properly, they somehow manage to buy large bottles of Smirnoff and every other alcoholic product in large quantities. Maybe that is a harsh criticism on my part, but the fact that the man explaining the beer ceremony to us confidently stated that the drink eases hypertension, high blood

pressure, and diabetes makes me very skeptical about lifestyle choices here. On top that, the touristy witch doctor man that we went to go see and listen too also had rows of alcohol, along with his dead animals hanging from the ceiling and all around the wall. Rose and I did NOT enjoy that place, especially after I got smacked in the face with a squirrel skin and then looked up only to see a dead baboon hand right above my head. Nice. Again, while the tour was interesting and I appreciate getting to see another side of Cape Town, I do feel like the process was still especially touristy and exploitative.

The whole tour lasted until only about 1:30. When we got back to the B&B, most of us laid down to take a nap. Lauren and I passed out for almost two hours before I got up for a quick run to the gym before heading off to listen to a speaker on the Save Darfur organization at the District Six Museum. The speaker raised some interesting points on how Save Darfur markets the crisis in Sudan in a way that leaves out historical context and etc. Good news is that I stayed awake the whole time. Bad news is that I was starving so about halfway through the speech I started to think about how good dinner was going to be. Karlyn, Victoria, Naomi, Anthony, and I left the discussion portion early to go get some foodage where Julian joined us. The rest of the evening was fairly chill with the group having random discussions, including giving everyone an animal identity. Apparently I ooze giraffe. Go figure.

Ukuthula,

Lynn