Today my friend Lauren and I volunteered to help with a Habitat for Humanity group here in Cape Town. We from town around 8:45am and drove to a far away township which was our worksite for the day. There were a bunch of guys from the township already working there and then we showed up as two white girls ready to work. There was also a UCT graduate, Ian, with us. All morning we mixed cement and moved cinderblocks around until a group of addicts came to volunteer for the day. The first thing they told us was that they were in rehab. Some were drug addicts, some were alcoholics, one was anorexic and then they said there was even sex addicts living in the rehab house! Lauren and I found it quite interesting to hear all their stories all day. The most interesting part for me was the fact that this one rehab center of 25 people treated all these kinds of addicts and druggies. I feel like they are all very different problems and should be dealt with differently instead of all together under one house. So anyways, some of them helped out at the sight but others were too small or just really didn’t want to work. One lady worked really hard and one guy walked around all day with his shirt off getting a tan instead of helping! Halfway through the day we had a tea break and found out that one of the girls was a police officer in England for 6 years, was a rehab counselor but is now in rehab herself! It was a very interesting day but they left early before lunch. Throughout the day Lauren and I talked with the neighbors who were helping and learned a lot about the Zulu culture. When the wife gets married, the ceremony is held at the husband’s house. She wears a black head scarf and black clothing as a sign of respect during the ceremony. This respect is towards her husbands ancestors. Everything is done to protect the husband’s ancestors and never the wife’s. For the first week after the marriage, the wife must sleep with the husbands elders and then go back to her husband the second week to get pregnant. Once the women are married, they must always wear a head scarf and something around their waste to show respect. After the rehab people left, we had chicken curry made by the neighbors which was fabulous! So we ate lunch and then left right after because we were tired and sun burned! Overall it was a really fun day because hey, we built a house!!!
South African Fact: respect is a big part of Xhosa culture. Must respect husband's ancestors, yours don’t matter. Even if it’s a cross-cultural marriage, you have to obey and respect the ancestors of the husbands’ side and no one else.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Trip to Durban, South Africa
So this week is study week so my friends and i thought it would be nice to get out of cape town for a little bit so me Aya and Poetry went to go visit poetrys friends in Durban which is a 2 hour flight from Cape Town. now Durban is known for its beautiful beaches and warm water but of course when we went it was raining but we still touched the Indian Ocean and did lots of shopping instead!
Overall the trip was a lot of fun but the weather sucked. we left tuesday and came back today so it was short and sweet lol. everything went fine except a little hiccup in the beginning when we went to check in and found out that poetry had booked her ticket for the 20th instead of the 21st so she had to pay like 400R which is less than $40 to change her flight. but then everything was smooth rolling from there on out. we arrived in durban and got a cab to a nearby mall where poetry's friend Zoe picked us up and brought us to his apartment. we then put our stuff down and then went to walk by the beach near his house and get lunch. the weather was rainy but aya and i still dipped our feet in the indian ocean!!! at night we just hung out at their apartment which was such a bachelors pad with two red couchs where we slept and white walls. we cooked dinner and then just hung out, you know my limited cooking skills so i helped where i could lol. then on saturday we went to this huge mall, did some shopping cause the exchange rate was at $11 for 1Rand. then we went to the indian district and the market and did more shopping. the Indian District and market was a lot like the ones in cape town but they were Indian people selling African things which was werid to me. like the lady would say "o i cant drop the price too much because i have to make a profit but then if you think about it, the Black Africans make everything and the Indians sell it so who should really get the profit?? also in the Indian District we went into a music store which had tons of african club music blasting and the black guys working there were all dancing. since i was the only white person in the store, they wanted me to dance for them so i did and made a complete fool out of myself but the guys enjoyed it and i had fun so thats all that matters! just another crazy south african experience to add to the list!!
After the market, aya and i went to the aquarium right by zoes appartment and say nemo and dory fish!!! then at night we went out to dinner with our girlfriends from CIEE and then out to a dance club. it was a lot of fun and really relaxing which is what we needed cause these next two weeks are going to be full of studying!
Durban is a pretty cool city but definitly a lot different from Cape Town. It is more diverse and cuturally mixed. The only time I saw a large number of white people was when we went to the dance club called 80s on wednesday night. I think that if i went to Durban at the beginning of my trip i would have been really uncomfortable but i have grown so much and realized that race really doesnt matter so i felt completely comfortable the whole time i was there.
South African fact: the music played in all the clubs here is called House music and apparently there is a certain way to dance to it but im not sure exactly how it is. i just dance like i do at home and probably get looked at funny but yet again half the time we are in clubs, no one even acknowledges us because we are American!!
Overall the trip was a lot of fun but the weather sucked. we left tuesday and came back today so it was short and sweet lol. everything went fine except a little hiccup in the beginning when we went to check in and found out that poetry had booked her ticket for the 20th instead of the 21st so she had to pay like 400R which is less than $40 to change her flight. but then everything was smooth rolling from there on out. we arrived in durban and got a cab to a nearby mall where poetry's friend Zoe picked us up and brought us to his apartment. we then put our stuff down and then went to walk by the beach near his house and get lunch. the weather was rainy but aya and i still dipped our feet in the indian ocean!!! at night we just hung out at their apartment which was such a bachelors pad with two red couchs where we slept and white walls. we cooked dinner and then just hung out, you know my limited cooking skills so i helped where i could lol. then on saturday we went to this huge mall, did some shopping cause the exchange rate was at $11 for 1Rand. then we went to the indian district and the market and did more shopping. the Indian District and market was a lot like the ones in cape town but they were Indian people selling African things which was werid to me. like the lady would say "o i cant drop the price too much because i have to make a profit but then if you think about it, the Black Africans make everything and the Indians sell it so who should really get the profit?? also in the Indian District we went into a music store which had tons of african club music blasting and the black guys working there were all dancing. since i was the only white person in the store, they wanted me to dance for them so i did and made a complete fool out of myself but the guys enjoyed it and i had fun so thats all that matters! just another crazy south african experience to add to the list!!
After the market, aya and i went to the aquarium right by zoes appartment and say nemo and dory fish!!! then at night we went out to dinner with our girlfriends from CIEE and then out to a dance club. it was a lot of fun and really relaxing which is what we needed cause these next two weeks are going to be full of studying!
Durban is a pretty cool city but definitly a lot different from Cape Town. It is more diverse and cuturally mixed. The only time I saw a large number of white people was when we went to the dance club called 80s on wednesday night. I think that if i went to Durban at the beginning of my trip i would have been really uncomfortable but i have grown so much and realized that race really doesnt matter so i felt completely comfortable the whole time i was there.
South African fact: the music played in all the clubs here is called House music and apparently there is a certain way to dance to it but im not sure exactly how it is. i just dance like i do at home and probably get looked at funny but yet again half the time we are in clubs, no one even acknowledges us because we are American!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I know mom, i havent updated my blog in a while!!! well, here you go :)
So I know I haven’t written on this blog for a while but I have been really busy. Anyways lets start with after spring break which was like a month ago lol. It rained a lot in September including one day of me getting completely soaked and having to buy sweatpants at the UCT campus store so I could have dry pants, well sort of dry, for the rest of the day. I have been writing a lot of papers and doing lots of work but having fun too. The second weekend in September we went to a beach called Muizenberg where we hung out all day in the beautiful sun. Since i’m that dangerous type, my friend Mike and I jumped into the freezing cold ocean of South Africa just to get wet but then was dry in a matter of 10 mins after I got out of the water!! But then it was nice so me, Mike and my friend Lindsay from the service learning program made a sandcastle J but it wasn’t very good because we didn’t have any buckets so us girls decorated it with pretty shells instead!! Then we spent all day sitting back and watching the little kids walk past our masterpiece to make sure that they didn’t step on it!!! Luckily no one did but a dog did pee on it lol.
Seminar Experience
I am taking a seminar through CIEE on Wednesday afternoons called Living and Learning in Cape Town. It’s a group of 20 American students and we talk about a lot of issues in South Africa and things that come up here and in classes like race, the presidency of South Africa and general differences. Some of the conversations get pretty intense but most of the time they are very good. In the beginning of October we drove to the University of Western Cape to listen to a lecturer speak about South African politics. Most of the information was over my head but still interesting to hear about.
African Dance
Another exciting part of my semester has been African Dance Class. It’s a really fun class and I enjoy the workout twice a week. So even though i’m not registered for the actual class, I can still go and take the class for free. Anyways, on Friday September 19th, all the international students/semester abroad students performed at the school of dance during lunch time. We were all really nervous but thought it would be fun to do. Now some of you may know that I don’t like performing in front of my peers especially if I can see their faces when I perform. So we figured no one what come but sure enough the bleachers in the studio were filled with at least 150-200 people most of them which I knew. It was a really fun show and everyone liked it but it was still embarrassing at times.
South African experiences/adventures
Other exciting things we have done on the weekend was going to Hermanus to see the whales and go sea kayaking to the whales!!! We actually saw more whales standing on the rocks outside of the water but it was still fun to go in the kayaks. We also had a great sushi lunch before we went kayaking which was amazing. One weekend I went out to dinner with some of my girlfriends and their friends from the Semester at Sea program that had docked in Cape Town for a couple days. Sounds like a pretty cool program but couldn’t get into the culture as much because you are only in one place for a week at the most. Then a couple of weekends ago we went to the West Coast to the see the flowers which really weren’t that pretty but the scenery of the ocean was beautiful. Then we went to a seafood braai on the beach and ate a 10 course seafood meal with all kinds of fish, mussels, veggies, and crayfish (aka smaller lobster). After the seminar people plus a couple others went to this small town called Darling where we had dinner and watched a satire performance of South African presidency.
Church
I have been going to Jubilee Community Church every week which has been interesting and I have been trying to bring my friends each week. Sometimes I really like the sermon but other times I don’t agree with it at all. But it really has let me think more about my life and my Christian faith. I also went to a township church a couple weeks ago which was similar to Jubilee but more family orientated. There were lots of kids who stood on the side and sang and danced to the music…so cute!!! Glad that I have found this church and really happy that I can go every week.
Recent News
So now that I have updated you with all the past events I can tell you about this weekend. Since my work is coming to an end, well sort of, before finals, this weekend was definitely more fun then work. On Friday I went with my friends Poetry, Ravi, and Lauren to Long Street to go shopping and get our cameras fixed. But of course i'm a space cadet and forgot my camera so ill go back later this week. So we got lunch at this really good burger place called Royale and then Poetry and I went shopping since the exchange rate was $9.50!! Then we came home, changed, and went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant with a bunch of our friends. Saturday we spent the day at that Old Mill Market which has a bunch of cute little shops and an open air food market (dad you would love this!). it was basically a huge market where you could taste and try as much food as you want for free. We did end up buying some food for lunch but it was better to just taste! Then at night we went to our friend Ravi’s house to watch a movie but half way through their water mane broke which caused a slight delay. Then today 5 of my friends were running the half marathon in town (ya I know they’re crazy!!) so me and two of my friends went down to the finish to say congrats on running like 15 miles!!! After me, Sarah and Ravi went to the market to buy gifts and other fun things. The market is such a cool place but also bad cause I just want one of everything lol. Overall, it was a great weekend!!
South African fact: Even though the economy in America is doing poorly, us study abroad students in south africa are loving it. as i said before, last weekend the exchange rate was $9.50 but get this on wednesday night it was $10.50!!! i think its time to go shopping again :)
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