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

Maybe you could watch and learn (Mon 06/15)

Aaaaaaah another day of sleep. (I should probably add that the TAC office was closed today for a four day weekend before a public holiday tomorrow, so I was not skipping out on work.) Not quite as much but still a decent amount. Also a day of working out. Not only did I go on what I considered an almost-intense with Anthony, but I also went to the gym. I’m an exercise fiend, let me tell you. Not quite but I can pretend. Anthony goes running every day, and almost every day he asks if any one wants to go with him. Today, I said yes. Running up the hilly streets of Cape Town didn’t kick my butt quite as much as I expected it to, but it was not a walk in the park either. I’m sure Anthony wouldn’t agree with me, especially since he went running again after we came back. Lame on my part. Running here is an experience though. Between gasping breaths (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration) you can just look around and see how beautiful everything is around you. Anthony took me up the road and on this path over part of the mountain, and at the end of the run (aka when I didn’t think I’d make it back if we went any further) you can stop and see Cape Town below you, with the ocean off to the left and the mountains framing it all. Breathtaking. And not because I had been running but because it was pretty thank you very much. Anthony and I also had a good conversation during our time together. Actually, our entire group is so good about striking the perfect balance of deep, reflective conversations along with the goofiest comments and moments. These people I’m with here are truly incredible.

After the run and a short gym session with the Lauren, the two of us plus Anthony went to a travel agent office to check out what adventurous things we can do in Cape Town. So far, we have decided that we will be going cage diving with great whites and on a mini-safari. Please, try to control your jealousy J I am so so SO excited about it all. It’ll require a little bit of planning and cash investment, but I’m sure it’ll totally be worth it.

The major excitement of the whole day started around 5:00 when we all started getting ready for the alumni dinner that Duke coordinated for alums in the area. Between the 10 of us plus three other Duke students who joined us, we made up more than half of the people at the event. While the food at the even was definitely sub-par, the conversations were good and the open bar was definitely a plus. Of course, after everyone was feeling good about themselves post-event, we decided that the perfect thing to do was go out. Of course! Please note that this included Bill and Karlyn as well (our professor and grad student coordinators). It was epic. We our massive group made our way down to Long Street singing and dancing like the loud Americans that we are dubbed to be. We decided to meet up with Julian and a friend of his at a place called Fiction. Highlight of the night for me: getting to dance with Bill. I wish someone would have recorded it because I would love to be able to watch it over and over and over and over. Second biggest highlight: Karlyn FINALLY pulled out some of her break-dancing moves for us. Despite the fact that tomorrow is a public holiday (aka no work again!) there was hardly any one at the bar other than our group. When Bill and Karlyn decided to go back to the B&B, the rest of us decided to relocate to a place with more mainstream music. (Much more my scene by the way). We headed over to a place called Chrome, where again, we were basically the only people there besides a group of younger kids there who kept having dance offs with Anthony. I don’t know what it was about the evening, but it was definitely what I would consider our most fun night out together so far. Sometimes I wonder if our group of “black,” “white,” and “coloured” people throws off the South Africans that see us together. They could probably learn a thing or two about truly getting along. Or maybe they just watch and admire how great of friends we all are becoming right before their eyes.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

And on the seventh day in Cape Town, we rested (Sun 06/14)

This glorious Sunday morning on the 14^th of June, I finally was allowed to sleep in for as looooooong as I wanted. Probably the first time since before finals started at Duke. It was amazing. The only reason I even woke up by 12 is because Anthony came in to ask if Lauren or I wanted to go running. The answer, not today. Not because I don’t love Anthony because I do, but because the only thing I love more than a cozy bed is God. And my parents and my brother, for good measure.

Honestly, today was not exciting. And I loved that. I do not want every Sunday to be a lame day of sleeping in and then gyming it, but today it was well needed. The only semi-interesting thing that I did was go to Green Market with Rose, Victoria, and Lauren, before meeting up with Danielle and Naomi at a late lunch.

The night out tonight was also pretty chill with drinks at an Irish bar here called Dubliners that is usually packed with foreigners. Rose and Victoria started up a little dance sess in front of the band that attracted a number of over-weight men to us, but other than that nothing too exciting. The hot chocolate I had is worth raving about however, it was goooood.

Hopefully I’ll have something exciting for tomorrow because I’m already over the relaxed times. At least for now.

Ukuthula,

Lynn

"Storey" time in the Cape of Good Hope (Sat 06/13)

After what I would like to think has been a successful and productive (for about 85% of the time) week, it’s finally Saturday. But of course, because our lovely group coordinators do not seem to understand that some of us need to sleep extensive hours in the morning, we had to wake up at the crack of dawn to go on an adventure today. Ok maybe not the crack of dawn, but it was still way to early.

Our first stop of the day was to the lovely home of Reverend Peter Storey. Reverend Storey and his wife Elizabeth may actually be the NICEST couple in South Africa. They happily welcomed all 11 of us into their adorable home, and served the yummiest buttered scones I’ve ever had in my life. After we spent a few minutes admiring their beautiful house, we sat down to listen to Reverend Storey discuss various aspects of his life, ranging from his roles in fighting apartheid to what he knows in life to be absolutely true (courtesy of Lauren’s random but enticing question). Embarrassingly enough, I did nod off during some of Rev. Storey’s talk. I could kick myself in the face for it, but I honestly can’t help it when I start falling asleep at the most unfortunate times. He called me out on it at our lunch later, but in the nicest way possible. He also proceeded to tell me that he had been falling asleep at the World Economic Forum, so now I am even more fond of this man. (Note: He was falling asleep at the global meeting I protested last week, how great is that?) Our time with the Storeys was more reflective than anything. As lazy as this sounds, there are only so many academic conversations about history and policy that I can handle before I definitely start zoning out. But Rev. Storey conveys to others his missions (in a non-religious sense) with such a deep understanding of what it means to be truly passionate about something that you can’t help but admire him. It makes me wonder (and hope) if I’ll ever consider something so important to me that I’ll choose to dedicate my life to it.

The rest of our day is where the active adventures took place. After we said good-bye to the Storeys at lunch, we walked to…wait for it…a penguin colony! It was so exciting. Except I was shocked about something. As dumb as this sounds, I completely expected these little guys to be in snow or at least in the distance on snow. Of course that makes zero to none sense. There is no snow on the beaches of South Africa, I do realize that. But I just immediately associated

penguins with snow and was so thrown off to see them in muddy bushes. We were all so excited and took way too many pictures of them. The little boardwalk and park area are made so that you can walk right up to the penguins to take pictures. I wouldn’t recommend trying to catch or pet one because those critters can bite your finger off with their beaks. Pictures definitely sufficed. In the area with the penguins, you can climb over these massive rocks to be standing above the ocean. Our entire group climbed up there, in our rainboots and raincoats, and started singing and posing and taking random pictures for God only knows how long. We can keep ourselves entertained forever, I swear. This is when I wish I could post video clips and pics so that I could show you how ridiculous we were being.

When Bill and Karlyn finally called us down from our ocean-rock-stage, we all packed back into the bus for the drive to the Cape of Good Hope. This was the first time I really felt like I was even close to being in Africa. While we were driving, we say an ostrich in the reserve, and on the way back guess what we saw??? Baboons!!! I was ecstatic beyond belief. This whole trip everyone else has had part of their major at Duke come alive through history or policy or politics or whatever. But this time, my primates finally made their appearance into my life. Unfortunately, the poor animals are about to go extinct and the ones in the reserve are so accustomed to humans and their food that they are in even more danger of dying out, but it was still awesome to see them. We climbed up to the lighthouse at the Cape which looks over an amazing view of the ocean. This part of the world is really breathtaking. It almost feels like we’re actually at the bottom of the globe and that looking out you could maybe but not really see the South Pole if you squinted hard enough. Such a beautiful country with a horrendously ugly past. On the way home, I passed out on Anthony, literally until we got back to the hotel. I was exhausted after jumping on rocks and climbing a little mountain all day. But not too tired to go out at night of course. Julian, Anthony, and I were the only ones up for going out, so we made our way to Joburg and Pretoria, two semi-sketchy places on Long Street. Note: I went out in a long sleeve t-shirt and tennis shoes. But it's all good because I'm pretty sure that I'm the only female in the whole place that came in with two guys :) Life is good.

Welcome to South Africa ladies and gents: Spend the morning reflecting on history, the afternoon appreciating the torn country's beauty, and the evening partying it all away. Kind of sounds like Lebanon actually...

Ukuthula,

Lynn