Monday--The music to the musical "Working"
For those of you who know nothing about Namibia, Namibia used to be a German colony during the 1800's (around 1871 I believe). I learned today that about 80% of Namibians speak German, although their official language is currently English. But around the 1960's, South Africa gained control of the country and many European colonies exploited it's mining and fishing industries. It gained independence in 1990 from South Africa and had it's first free elections in 1995.
Tuesday--We Are the World by Michael Jackson
Today was a refresher because we saw the Mondesa Youth Opportunities program (MYO) and the Medi Clinic, a private medical hospital. MYO is a program for kids in grades 4-8. They pretest the kids in English reading comprehension and select 25 every year to be in the program. essentially, its for gifted students. They can only afford to take the top of their classes because their funding comes from the Rossing Foundation, a fund set up by the Rossing Uranium mine. At MYO, the kids do sports, receive extra help on their homework, and get to take wonderful fun fieldtrips out at places like AfriCat, a feline sanctuary for the big cats in Africa. We got to eat lunch with the kids and tour around their school. They use old storage containers for classrooms, but the containers are referbished and they even have a Lennox computer system. We were sad to learn that there were no other programs to help the kids at the bottem of the barrel in the community however. Or that they weren't using success stories of locals to motivate the kids. They're so dependent on foreign aid and foreign help that it almost seems patronizing at times. i hope its something they can overcome in the future.
Then we went to the Medi Clinic. Its a 52 bed hospital with doctors around the corner. They treat everybody who comes in, but because it's private, its also more expensive. Fun fact, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had their child Shiloh at this hospital. We saw the room where she had the C-Section and saw the thank-you note they wrote after their stay (For Grand-Mama, you should know that the note was NOT in cursive and was like a sentence long...not as impressive as mine or Gumbo's...). Something that struck me about this hospital was that they were expanding it, but it didnt' look like much was going on. We have yet to go to a public hospital yet, but I'm sure the two are night and day different. I just wish the medi clinic could use more of their facilities to treat those who are really sick, like the people with TB in this country. Did you know that every 20 seconds, someone dies of TB? Anyways, just an observation...
Wednesday--Send me on my Way by Rusted Root
At last, our time in Swakopmund came to an end. We liked it, but we were clearly ready to leave. Most of us were not meant for the desert life (or the briney tasting H20). On the way to Windhoek, we stopped at the Rossing Uranium Mine. It employs over 3000 people in the three main towns surrounding the mine. There were many interesting comparisons to the De Beers Diamiond Mine in Kimberly. For one, Rossing seemed so concerned with keeping their workers safe and in a good environment (obviously, as they're mining a radioactive substance). The hole where they dig the element is 3 km long, 1 km wide, and 322 m deep. It's the third largest open pit uranium mine in the world. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. Like how we shouldn't be mining uranium in the first place because its bad for the envioronment when we use it for nuclear power...or weapons. But if I lived in Namibia, with a 50% unemployment rate, why would I care about the ethics of uranium use? I would have a job. I could feed my family. So it's a sticky situation. Other than contemplating the ethical issues, it was interesting to learn how uranium was found in alaskite rock, ground into sand, mixed with chemicals that strip the uranium, mixed again with ammonium sulphate, packed into yellow cake and roasted in the oven at 800 degress Celsius (sp?) to become uranium oxide so it can be transported to the UK, the US, and Japan.
After the mine, we drove for 3 more hours. We watched the desert mountains become sparsely populated with grass, then bushes, then small trees, then mountains covered in vegetation. It was almost like being near Mamba in Thabazimbi again, but a little greener because it was the rainy season.
We arrived in Penduka, our abode for the next two days, ate a lovely meal, and had a student lead discussion about all that we've done in Namibia for the last few days.
Thursday--Pick a song
So I didn't realize this when I went to bed last night, but Penduka is a place where women with physical disabilities come and work on a specific craft to sell to places in Europe. I have so much more respect and love for this place now!
We've gone on a tour of Katatura, the township around Windhoek. The more I go on these tours in buses, the more I feel like I'm in a zoo looking at animals. It makes me uncomfortable, even though I know its for safety and distance reasons. The townships are all the same. No electricity, no water. All are looking for jobs, but there are none to be had because there isn't enough incentive to expand job opportunities, among other issues. We did get to go to an open market again, though, which was wonderful. Dad, you would have thought this one was interesting because they were chopping meat on tables with machettes, flies everywhere on the beef. but then they grilled it and it was delicious! I also bought a "fat cake" (fried dough) and that was also arterie clogging and fabulous.
I'm not going to be on for a while cause I have limited access to computers from here on out. 2 more home stays and then to Botswana. Love you all!
Hill
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
"Eyes Like Yours"
Friday--"Arabian Nights" from Aladdin
We arose this morning very early and headed to the Cape Town airport. After a brief time, we loaded on a very small plane and headed to Swakupmond, Namibia.
So dad, remember that joke you like telling about sending people who live in deserts U-hauls? I'm telling you, that place in Namibia! For those of you who don't know, Namibia is a very arid country. Swakupmond is right smack in the middle of the Namib Desert. We were flying over the country and literally, there were no trees in sight for miles. We finally landed and a few of us freaked out because it was the first time we had been in a desert. We wizzed through the "international airport" (it was literally a building with about 20 employees) and got into vans with our guide from the Center for Global Education.
When driving, there was literally NOTHING in sight. Emily, in fact, said "The first person who sees a tree gets a hug from me." I said I saw a bush about my height. Melinda promptly replied, "That's not hard, Hill." We then went to eat lunch at a local restaurant that also doubles as an ATV place where you can ride sand dunes. The lunch was amazing. Pasta with alfrado and ham, tempaura, and another type of starch that I can't remember.
We got to the Bungalows and I'm rooming with Melinda, Laura, Sophie, and Mallory. We then went to the store and bought dinner. All in all, not the most exciting day. A good, quiet introduction to Namibia.
Saturday--"Danger Zone" from Top Gun
Sleeping in till 9 today was beautiful. At 10:00, we had our first econ class since Furman. We learned about what makes competitive markets fail and got into a heated debate about negative and positive externalities. Basically, 4 people chose to raise their personal quiz grade at the expense of everybody else in the group losing 4 points. Ask Sophie and Alicia about it, they're still upset.
We then went to a local township in Namibia, heard a local acapella group, and saw the DRC (Democratic Relocation Community, I believe, is what it stands for) which is a Kliptown or Orange Farm equivalent in Swakupmond. The houses in the DRC were built from scrap pieces of wood in the local dump a few kilometers away. We were pretty affected by it. In the township, a lot of the children would come up to us and stand by us/hold our hands. Josh in particular was pretty popular. We couldn't tell if it was because of his blond hair/fair skin or something else.
Next, we proceeded to go to Dune 7, this absolutely spectacular dune in the middle of the desert. I'm serious, it felt like I was in Aladdin. It was a beast to climb, but well worth it. Got tons of fablous picures doing thoughtfully-looking/mountain-conquering poses.
We then proceeded to go back, wash the sand off our bodies, and go to a braai with other participants in the CGE program. We met a lot ofpeople who are doing the same activities as us. They even had the same homestay families as we did! So it was really fun to compare and contrast some of the things we had done. They also gave us good suggestions for what to do around Namibia since they were going to be there for longer.
Sunday--"Eyes like Yours" by Shakira
Today was our free day, and let me tell you, it has been incredibly fun! Unfortunately, a bunch of people are starting to feel sick. We think it's from the h2o, which is a little briney. I seem to have the stomach of a billy goat, so "knock on wood" that I remain helathy!
The song for the day reflects a very Arabian feel, and there's a reason for that. From 9:30-1:30, a bunch of us went sand-boarding on a bunch of the dunes! It was so legit and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do it ever! On one of them, I reached a speed of 69 km/hr! The fastest was 73 km/hr. I don't quite remember who got that speed. It was probably Charlee, Matt, or Cam. Josh kept doing 360's and not going straight at all, and then he wipped out a few times. All of you Wesleyians would have loved seeing it! We then got off the dunes, sand everywhere on our bodies and inside every parcel of clothing we had on, and had lunch by the vehicals.
When we got back, we decied to go the local market. There were a lot of woodworks, but everything was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Note to self: if you want to buy anything in Africa, buy it in Durban in the Indian market. Everything is cheaper there. But I did buy a few woodworks for some people. And comparatively speaking, they were a bargain for how much they would bein the US. We then went to the beach and some people played in the ocean. Tandy, Charlee, Josh, Em, Cam, Katie, and I burried Matt in the sand and it was hystarical.
At 6 tonight, we're goint to watch a DVD of our sand boarding experience and probably will finally work on our homework tonight. It's not going to be the most fun night, fur for what we've done today, it's cool.
Yay Namibia!
Love,
Hill
We arose this morning very early and headed to the Cape Town airport. After a brief time, we loaded on a very small plane and headed to Swakupmond, Namibia.
So dad, remember that joke you like telling about sending people who live in deserts U-hauls? I'm telling you, that place in Namibia! For those of you who don't know, Namibia is a very arid country. Swakupmond is right smack in the middle of the Namib Desert. We were flying over the country and literally, there were no trees in sight for miles. We finally landed and a few of us freaked out because it was the first time we had been in a desert. We wizzed through the "international airport" (it was literally a building with about 20 employees) and got into vans with our guide from the Center for Global Education.
When driving, there was literally NOTHING in sight. Emily, in fact, said "The first person who sees a tree gets a hug from me." I said I saw a bush about my height. Melinda promptly replied, "That's not hard, Hill." We then went to eat lunch at a local restaurant that also doubles as an ATV place where you can ride sand dunes. The lunch was amazing. Pasta with alfrado and ham, tempaura, and another type of starch that I can't remember.
We got to the Bungalows and I'm rooming with Melinda, Laura, Sophie, and Mallory. We then went to the store and bought dinner. All in all, not the most exciting day. A good, quiet introduction to Namibia.
Saturday--"Danger Zone" from Top Gun
Sleeping in till 9 today was beautiful. At 10:00, we had our first econ class since Furman. We learned about what makes competitive markets fail and got into a heated debate about negative and positive externalities. Basically, 4 people chose to raise their personal quiz grade at the expense of everybody else in the group losing 4 points. Ask Sophie and Alicia about it, they're still upset.
We then went to a local township in Namibia, heard a local acapella group, and saw the DRC (Democratic Relocation Community, I believe, is what it stands for) which is a Kliptown or Orange Farm equivalent in Swakupmond. The houses in the DRC were built from scrap pieces of wood in the local dump a few kilometers away. We were pretty affected by it. In the township, a lot of the children would come up to us and stand by us/hold our hands. Josh in particular was pretty popular. We couldn't tell if it was because of his blond hair/fair skin or something else.
Next, we proceeded to go to Dune 7, this absolutely spectacular dune in the middle of the desert. I'm serious, it felt like I was in Aladdin. It was a beast to climb, but well worth it. Got tons of fablous picures doing thoughtfully-looking/mountain-conquering poses.
We then proceeded to go back, wash the sand off our bodies, and go to a braai with other participants in the CGE program. We met a lot ofpeople who are doing the same activities as us. They even had the same homestay families as we did! So it was really fun to compare and contrast some of the things we had done. They also gave us good suggestions for what to do around Namibia since they were going to be there for longer.
Sunday--"Eyes like Yours" by Shakira
Today was our free day, and let me tell you, it has been incredibly fun! Unfortunately, a bunch of people are starting to feel sick. We think it's from the h2o, which is a little briney. I seem to have the stomach of a billy goat, so "knock on wood" that I remain helathy!
The song for the day reflects a very Arabian feel, and there's a reason for that. From 9:30-1:30, a bunch of us went sand-boarding on a bunch of the dunes! It was so legit and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do it ever! On one of them, I reached a speed of 69 km/hr! The fastest was 73 km/hr. I don't quite remember who got that speed. It was probably Charlee, Matt, or Cam. Josh kept doing 360's and not going straight at all, and then he wipped out a few times. All of you Wesleyians would have loved seeing it! We then got off the dunes, sand everywhere on our bodies and inside every parcel of clothing we had on, and had lunch by the vehicals.
When we got back, we decied to go the local market. There were a lot of woodworks, but everything was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Note to self: if you want to buy anything in Africa, buy it in Durban in the Indian market. Everything is cheaper there. But I did buy a few woodworks for some people. And comparatively speaking, they were a bargain for how much they would bein the US. We then went to the beach and some people played in the ocean. Tandy, Charlee, Josh, Em, Cam, Katie, and I burried Matt in the sand and it was hystarical.
At 6 tonight, we're goint to watch a DVD of our sand boarding experience and probably will finally work on our homework tonight. It's not going to be the most fun night, fur for what we've done today, it's cool.
Yay Namibia!
Love,
Hill
Thursday, February 24, 2011
"I'll Make A Man Out of You" from Mulan
This morning, we visited the settlement of Bo-Kaap, the Muslim settlement in Capetown. When the VOC landed on the Cape, they were not allowed to technically enlave the native Khoi San people. First of all, it was illegal. Second of all, the Khoi-San wouldn't have been able to perform the types of jobs the Dutch needed. So the VOC imported slaves from North Africa, Indonesia, India, and other Islamic countries. And when the Group Act was passed, it confined "colored" people to one section of the town. It was a very beautiful part of town. There were many mosques that were as elegant as any cathedral. The houses around the neighborhood were painted like Rainbow Road in Charleston. Don't worry, Mrs. Prickett, Sarah got a bunch of pictures for you! :-)
After that, we decided to have lunch around the settlement. It was Cape Malay food, which meant it wasn't quite as spicy as some Indian foods. It was so delicious and I felt bad that I got so full so quickly!
Then, the final event for the day happened: We tried to go up Table Mountain. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that they weren't running the cable up to the top of the mountain. A small group of 9 (myself, Kristen, Sarah P., Sarah T., Matt, Cam, Josh, Charlee, and Melinda) decided to try and brave the wind and hike up it. It was a rough hike. Like the stairmaster times 20 with rocks. Eventually, time, the wind, and the clouds got the best of us. We hiked down, sad that we couldnt' get to the top, but happy that we were together and talking about all things fun and exciting.
Since it's our last night SA (ahhhhhhh!), we have already gone out for a nice dinner (don't worry, Gumbo and Ruthie, I look cute lol). I hope I'll have the chance to go out with some friends to get a springbok shot later on tonight. Don't worry, I don't do anything crazy. We've got to leave in about 10 hours to catch a flight to NAMIBIA!!
Can't believe it's already halfway done!
Love,
Hill
After that, we decided to have lunch around the settlement. It was Cape Malay food, which meant it wasn't quite as spicy as some Indian foods. It was so delicious and I felt bad that I got so full so quickly!
Then, the final event for the day happened: We tried to go up Table Mountain. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that they weren't running the cable up to the top of the mountain. A small group of 9 (myself, Kristen, Sarah P., Sarah T., Matt, Cam, Josh, Charlee, and Melinda) decided to try and brave the wind and hike up it. It was a rough hike. Like the stairmaster times 20 with rocks. Eventually, time, the wind, and the clouds got the best of us. We hiked down, sad that we couldnt' get to the top, but happy that we were together and talking about all things fun and exciting.
Since it's our last night SA (ahhhhhhh!), we have already gone out for a nice dinner (don't worry, Gumbo and Ruthie, I look cute lol). I hope I'll have the chance to go out with some friends to get a springbok shot later on tonight. Don't worry, I don't do anything crazy. We've got to leave in about 10 hours to catch a flight to NAMIBIA!!
Can't believe it's already halfway done!
Love,
Hill
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Invictus
Wednesday--The Album from "Invictus"
While I saw the movie Invictuse over a year ago, I remember distinctly being upset with how little they actually covered about the Apartheid state of government. Granted, it was supposed to be a movie about rugby, but the actions of the characters in the movie don't convey the amount of racism that was present during the 90's (or even today, 15 years later). But today was a special day because we got to see the Mecca for the political opposition of Apartheid: Robben Island. Robben Island (Seal Island in Dutch) is an island off the coast of Cape Town which served as a place where the Dutch East India Company could board and trade with the city. It was later used as a place to put lepers and mentally ill people. During the Apartheid state, however, it was used as an island for political prisoners (mostly people from the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress). After a 20 minute ferry ride, we got off and got onto a bus. We toured around and saw the lepers' graveyards, the church where the lepers worshipped (the last remaining building from the leper colonies) and the very prison where the leader of the Pan African Congress (PAC) was held. He was detained indefinitely and not allowed to speak for the first 4 years on the ilsand. His cell wwas smaller than the cells the guards used to keep their guard dogs. We then went to the Robben Island Prison, the very prison Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years. Mandela and the other prisoners (some political, some convicts) worked in a limestone quary mining limestone for the island's roads 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Many of the prisoners are still living on the island today and work in the museam. Our prison guide was an ANC member who tried to bomb an intelligence agency. The bomb went off and 52 people received minor injuries. Nobody died. If they had, he would have been sentenced to death. Instead, he was sent to live out the rest of his days on the island. While on the island, he endured all sorts of unspeakable tortures from the prison guards, which I will not say on this blog. But he was tortured until he could no longer distinguish pain. Also, whenever they would try to have visitors come, the visitors were interrogated months before they actually set foot on Robben island. Our guide's father was actually shot 8 times by secret police the day before he came to visit him. He lived, but was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Not all guards were cruel. He said that some had pity on them and helped them smuggle things in, like birthday cake. One even smuggled one of Mandela's children to Mandela so he could give him/her a hug (I'm not sure which child was smuggled in). The only problem is that they rotated the guards every 2 years and brought in fresh new ones. Our guide made some interesting comments about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee though (for those of you who don't know about it, look it up on Wikipedia. I wish every country would do this). He said that his torturers were allowed to be absolved of their crimes to him and his father, and are now successful businessmen. I never expected to hear any negative thing about TRC. I didn't even think about how it might have been insufficient. It reminds me about the parable of the Vinyard in the Bible. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. But how do you measure fair, and how do you grapple with justice?
If you've got answers, let me know!
The rest of the day, we walked around Cape Town and saw the craft markets. Its just like when my family and I came to the Cape and I love it! Tonight, we're having Econ class, going to dinner, and then to see a play! Talk to you soon!
Love,
Hill
While I saw the movie Invictuse over a year ago, I remember distinctly being upset with how little they actually covered about the Apartheid state of government. Granted, it was supposed to be a movie about rugby, but the actions of the characters in the movie don't convey the amount of racism that was present during the 90's (or even today, 15 years later). But today was a special day because we got to see the Mecca for the political opposition of Apartheid: Robben Island. Robben Island (Seal Island in Dutch) is an island off the coast of Cape Town which served as a place where the Dutch East India Company could board and trade with the city. It was later used as a place to put lepers and mentally ill people. During the Apartheid state, however, it was used as an island for political prisoners (mostly people from the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress). After a 20 minute ferry ride, we got off and got onto a bus. We toured around and saw the lepers' graveyards, the church where the lepers worshipped (the last remaining building from the leper colonies) and the very prison where the leader of the Pan African Congress (PAC) was held. He was detained indefinitely and not allowed to speak for the first 4 years on the ilsand. His cell wwas smaller than the cells the guards used to keep their guard dogs. We then went to the Robben Island Prison, the very prison Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years. Mandela and the other prisoners (some political, some convicts) worked in a limestone quary mining limestone for the island's roads 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Many of the prisoners are still living on the island today and work in the museam. Our prison guide was an ANC member who tried to bomb an intelligence agency. The bomb went off and 52 people received minor injuries. Nobody died. If they had, he would have been sentenced to death. Instead, he was sent to live out the rest of his days on the island. While on the island, he endured all sorts of unspeakable tortures from the prison guards, which I will not say on this blog. But he was tortured until he could no longer distinguish pain. Also, whenever they would try to have visitors come, the visitors were interrogated months before they actually set foot on Robben island. Our guide's father was actually shot 8 times by secret police the day before he came to visit him. He lived, but was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Not all guards were cruel. He said that some had pity on them and helped them smuggle things in, like birthday cake. One even smuggled one of Mandela's children to Mandela so he could give him/her a hug (I'm not sure which child was smuggled in). The only problem is that they rotated the guards every 2 years and brought in fresh new ones. Our guide made some interesting comments about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee though (for those of you who don't know about it, look it up on Wikipedia. I wish every country would do this). He said that his torturers were allowed to be absolved of their crimes to him and his father, and are now successful businessmen. I never expected to hear any negative thing about TRC. I didn't even think about how it might have been insufficient. It reminds me about the parable of the Vinyard in the Bible. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. But how do you measure fair, and how do you grapple with justice?
If you've got answers, let me know!
The rest of the day, we walked around Cape Town and saw the craft markets. Its just like when my family and I came to the Cape and I love it! Tonight, we're having Econ class, going to dinner, and then to see a play! Talk to you soon!
Love,
Hill
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Live like You were Dying
Sunday--The "Shark-bate" chant from Finding Nemo
Ok, so I intentionally didn't inform y'all of my plans for the weekend because I wanted to make sure that I survived before I wrote about it/I didn't want to freak out my parents. But whilst many of you were sleeping Sunday night, I was out and about diving with great white sharks.
We were picked up by a van from this shark diving program and driven 2 hours away to Gansbaai in the Indian Ocean. The owners and boat driver were very nice and friendly. The cost was only $200 (about 50 for transport and the rest for the actual cage diving experience). They fed us breakfast and then took us out near Shark Alley. For those of you who don't watch Shark Week or haven't seen Planet Earth, Shark Alley is home to the biggest population of Great White Sharks in the world! The reason being is because of this island called Seal Island. On this island, thousands of seals were basking on rocks, mating, etc. (Don't be fooled by the cuteness factor...while they are adorable creatures, seals reak to high heaven!). The sharks wait eagerly to have a seal snack. Meanwhile, we were on a boat taking turns in a cage at seeing sharks. We had a chum line that was put out and a ton of sharks would come and try to eat it. Don't worry, they only got the chum line once. I was very pleased at how they ran the program. They fed us lunch and took every saftey precauation. Honestly, you had a bigger chance of dying from hypothermia than from a shark attack cause the water was absolutely freezing! Our cage fit 8 people at a time. The sharks were lured near us, but never bashed themselves on the gage. And they never outright fed the sharks. They recognized that as a safety hazard and didn't want to operationally condition humans with food. I got some stellar pictures from above on the top deck of the boat. Can't wait to show them to you!
Monday--If We Could Only Get Out of our Heads by Sheryl Crow
Yesterday was our first day with Dr. Cook, the econ professor. We have designated him with the nickname of "Captain Cook" (as in the explorer). He seems to be adapting very well to us, although we're uncertain as to how much Dr. Boucher told him to beware of us. yesterday, we went to the township of Khaylelitsha, which is kind of the Cape Town equivilant of Soweto. We walked around and then went to a Kresh (a daycare/preschool) and played with some of the kids. They were absolutely precious! I got attacked when I engaged in a tickle fight with all of the children. We then went and had a wonderful lunch of spinich, beef, this beans and rice mix, and fruit with ice cream for dessert.
we then went to the Slave Lodge. This reminded me of a lot of the Gullah history I had read over the summer. Except most of this history was concentrated around the VOC (Dutch East India Company). The tour guide was interesting. It seemed like she was using a lot of "reverse racism" on the tour. It could have been a lot better, but we didn't get to investigate most of the museam and we received a lot of the same rants we had already heard: how the government wasn't doing anything to help relieve inequality and poverty. But there was a lot more emphasis on color and how she was accepting of everybody. Don't get me wrong, I don't think she was being overtly guilt-inducing, but I thought her talks about how multicultural she was was a little extreme. She did have a good point about the Khoi San people: there are a lot of monuments honoring the Dutch and British governors, but nothing honoring the Bushmen who settled this land in the first place.
Tuesday--She's not Just a Pretty Face by Shania Twain
Today we visited the township of Manenburg, a so called "Colored Township." Colored people were the category of people who didn't fit into the white, black, or Indian categories laid out by the Apartheid government. They are mixed peoples of all different ethnicities from all different continents. And they were brought to live there by the Group Act in the 1950's and 60's, and even 70's. The organization we visited was Self Help Manenburg, a place that focuses on counseling, community empowerment, hospitality training (training people to work in hotels as hosts, hostesses, cooks, waiters, etc), and youth programs that help steer youth away from the huge drug/gang problems they have in the 70,000 population township. Along the tour, we visited the Hospitality class and got to ask them questions and they got to ask us questions. I wish we had had more time to talk with them, because that was the first group of young adults we had really been able to interact with. Most of them were women, and they seemed like they had overcome a whole lot of struggle. They were more than pretty faces. They were hopefuls who wanted to eventually work their way into a vacation and travel the world. I hope they get to do so one day. Also, we stopped by a community center, an environmental park (which was a little sad compared to the ones back home), and a police station. We didn't see any of the prisoners, but got to see some empty cells and some people they were taking finger prints of. That was a little terrifying. The person who showed us around there was also a woman. I wondered at how difficult/hard/scary it was to work in this area of town. Like I've been saying, there is a lot of gendered violence. I don't know if I would feel safe as a woman police officer. But maybe this is speaking as a white woman visiting South Africa.
Our last stop for yesterday was the District 6 Museam. This museam was dedicated to an area of Cape Town where color, religion, and race didn't matter. A nice "Colored"/Indian man gave us a talk in the museam. He told us about his family, how he had had the largest family in the whole settlement (about 400 cousins, 29 aunts and uncles). Then the Apartheid government, in order to maintain power, separated and tore down the settlement and dispursed everybody. Over 11 years, starting about 1970, they demolished the township and removed everybody to segregated townships. They demolished houses whether people had moved out or not. There seemed to be such solidarity in that community before it was gone. But I can understand why the Apartheid government felt threatened by it. If you want to maintain power, you have to create barrieres between people. You have to "other" people, so that you can maintain the line between evil and good.
I don't think much has changed since then. The other is now the immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, etc. But I'm hoping that more people are learning that we're not all that different. I hope we're learning that our humanity is worth more than the color of our skin or the economic class from which we come.
Love,
Hill
Ok, so I intentionally didn't inform y'all of my plans for the weekend because I wanted to make sure that I survived before I wrote about it/I didn't want to freak out my parents. But whilst many of you were sleeping Sunday night, I was out and about diving with great white sharks.
We were picked up by a van from this shark diving program and driven 2 hours away to Gansbaai in the Indian Ocean. The owners and boat driver were very nice and friendly. The cost was only $200 (about 50 for transport and the rest for the actual cage diving experience). They fed us breakfast and then took us out near Shark Alley. For those of you who don't watch Shark Week or haven't seen Planet Earth, Shark Alley is home to the biggest population of Great White Sharks in the world! The reason being is because of this island called Seal Island. On this island, thousands of seals were basking on rocks, mating, etc. (Don't be fooled by the cuteness factor...while they are adorable creatures, seals reak to high heaven!). The sharks wait eagerly to have a seal snack. Meanwhile, we were on a boat taking turns in a cage at seeing sharks. We had a chum line that was put out and a ton of sharks would come and try to eat it. Don't worry, they only got the chum line once. I was very pleased at how they ran the program. They fed us lunch and took every saftey precauation. Honestly, you had a bigger chance of dying from hypothermia than from a shark attack cause the water was absolutely freezing! Our cage fit 8 people at a time. The sharks were lured near us, but never bashed themselves on the gage. And they never outright fed the sharks. They recognized that as a safety hazard and didn't want to operationally condition humans with food. I got some stellar pictures from above on the top deck of the boat. Can't wait to show them to you!
Monday--If We Could Only Get Out of our Heads by Sheryl Crow
Yesterday was our first day with Dr. Cook, the econ professor. We have designated him with the nickname of "Captain Cook" (as in the explorer). He seems to be adapting very well to us, although we're uncertain as to how much Dr. Boucher told him to beware of us. yesterday, we went to the township of Khaylelitsha, which is kind of the Cape Town equivilant of Soweto. We walked around and then went to a Kresh (a daycare/preschool) and played with some of the kids. They were absolutely precious! I got attacked when I engaged in a tickle fight with all of the children. We then went and had a wonderful lunch of spinich, beef, this beans and rice mix, and fruit with ice cream for dessert.
we then went to the Slave Lodge. This reminded me of a lot of the Gullah history I had read over the summer. Except most of this history was concentrated around the VOC (Dutch East India Company). The tour guide was interesting. It seemed like she was using a lot of "reverse racism" on the tour. It could have been a lot better, but we didn't get to investigate most of the museam and we received a lot of the same rants we had already heard: how the government wasn't doing anything to help relieve inequality and poverty. But there was a lot more emphasis on color and how she was accepting of everybody. Don't get me wrong, I don't think she was being overtly guilt-inducing, but I thought her talks about how multicultural she was was a little extreme. She did have a good point about the Khoi San people: there are a lot of monuments honoring the Dutch and British governors, but nothing honoring the Bushmen who settled this land in the first place.
Tuesday--She's not Just a Pretty Face by Shania Twain
Today we visited the township of Manenburg, a so called "Colored Township." Colored people were the category of people who didn't fit into the white, black, or Indian categories laid out by the Apartheid government. They are mixed peoples of all different ethnicities from all different continents. And they were brought to live there by the Group Act in the 1950's and 60's, and even 70's. The organization we visited was Self Help Manenburg, a place that focuses on counseling, community empowerment, hospitality training (training people to work in hotels as hosts, hostesses, cooks, waiters, etc), and youth programs that help steer youth away from the huge drug/gang problems they have in the 70,000 population township. Along the tour, we visited the Hospitality class and got to ask them questions and they got to ask us questions. I wish we had had more time to talk with them, because that was the first group of young adults we had really been able to interact with. Most of them were women, and they seemed like they had overcome a whole lot of struggle. They were more than pretty faces. They were hopefuls who wanted to eventually work their way into a vacation and travel the world. I hope they get to do so one day. Also, we stopped by a community center, an environmental park (which was a little sad compared to the ones back home), and a police station. We didn't see any of the prisoners, but got to see some empty cells and some people they were taking finger prints of. That was a little terrifying. The person who showed us around there was also a woman. I wondered at how difficult/hard/scary it was to work in this area of town. Like I've been saying, there is a lot of gendered violence. I don't know if I would feel safe as a woman police officer. But maybe this is speaking as a white woman visiting South Africa.
Our last stop for yesterday was the District 6 Museam. This museam was dedicated to an area of Cape Town where color, religion, and race didn't matter. A nice "Colored"/Indian man gave us a talk in the museam. He told us about his family, how he had had the largest family in the whole settlement (about 400 cousins, 29 aunts and uncles). Then the Apartheid government, in order to maintain power, separated and tore down the settlement and dispursed everybody. Over 11 years, starting about 1970, they demolished the township and removed everybody to segregated townships. They demolished houses whether people had moved out or not. There seemed to be such solidarity in that community before it was gone. But I can understand why the Apartheid government felt threatened by it. If you want to maintain power, you have to create barrieres between people. You have to "other" people, so that you can maintain the line between evil and good.
I don't think much has changed since then. The other is now the immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, etc. But I'm hoping that more people are learning that we're not all that different. I hope we're learning that our humanity is worth more than the color of our skin or the economic class from which we come.
Love,
Hill
Saturday, February 19, 2011
It's A Beautiful Day
Friday: In The Name of Love by u2
For those of you who looked at my blog 2 days ago and noticed my PS note at the bottom, yes, I did in fact go to a U2 concert. They played 2 shows on the whole African continent. One in Joburg, the other in Capetown. And we just happened to snag 12 seats to see them last night.
Yesterday, we left Durban and it was very sad. Mostly because we had to leave Peter, our beloved guide, and Michael, our bus driver. They will be greatly missed. Now, we hadn't had any drama up till this point. Bad news: yesterday was the breaking point. Mama K and 7 other students almost didn't make it on to the plain. The plane company we were flying with overbooked our flight and they almost were left behind. On top of that, one person lost their boarding pass while another left his passport on the bus (which had to come back and give it to him). Thankfully, however, everything worked out. But it was pretty intense on the TA end. I would have had to take charge with the concert people while Mama K would have had to stay in Durban and miss the concert (she had bought a ticket too...definitely coolest professor ever!).
We're staying at a place called River Lodge, which is a backpacking style place. We quickly unpacked and had a group meeting and then left for the concert. Everything was CRAZY! There were thousands of people downtown. We ate at a grocery store on the way. Mama K, Sophie, Ana, and I decided we wanted a t-shirt and waited in line 1 hour for them. Definitely worth it, but it could have been done a lot more efficiently.
At last, we finally saw U2! Hands down the best concert ever! I highly encourage you to find the concert online somewhere! The whole performance was incredible. Their stage had walkways that rotated, with a circular screen above them that would separate into different panels. Sophie told us the stage had to be imported from Australia. Oh, and it was shaped like a space ship (kind of like the Star Fox emblem almost).
A few reasons why this was/should count as a Cultural Life Program (yay CLPS!)
1) Bono mentioned the "rainbow people" while he was on stage. The population at the concert was very much NOT representative of all of SA. You would have had to look very very carefully to find a black person in the crowd. True, most of his fans are white, but it was just very interesting to me that these people love their music, but don't understand the religious ferver behind it.
2) During the song "In the Name of Love," Mandela's face appeared on the screen. It amazed me to see that not everybody rejoiced when they saw it. This man who was the biggest advocate for nonviolence during Apartheid's fall in the 1990s and Reconciliation, the Gandhi of SA and people didn't go crazy with joy. A lot of them just stared and remained silent. This makes me wonder how many people at that concert were Afrikaner? How many people really understand the level of inequality in SA, and how some have to fight tooth and nail to resist their own oppression? Again, how do you listen to this music of Jesus without wanting liberation for your impoverished neighbor?
3) Zackie Achmet was there!! For those of you who don't know him, Zachie Achmet is an AIDS activist who protested taking medication until everybody in South Africa had access to it. He began this grassroots group called TAC (Treatment Action Campaign). When Mbeki became president of SA, he refused to provide education materials or antiretrovirals to HIV positive people. So people like Zackie started educating people themselves, trying to prevent unprotected sex and promoting HIV testing. They would go to bars, schools, etc. to do this. Eventually in 2003, they got the government to have a treatment care plan for HIV positive individuals. Now, they're focusing on female impowerment in SA. According to one of the Articles we're reading, SA is the most dangerous country to be a woman. There is a lot of gender inequality, and women are very disinfranchised. This has lead to huge rates of domestic violence in this country. A woman is raped every 10 seconds. So organizations like TAC are very helpful and I'm glad we have them.
Saturday--All of the songs from The Pebble and the Penguin
Today was a very touristy day. Right off the bat, we got up and started for the Cape of Good Hope. Never did I imagine that when I was studying Portugese explorers in middle school did I think I would actually visit the point that changed trade history for good. The Cape was discovered by Bartholomew Diaz in 1488. When we got there today, the tide was down and we were able to go climb on the rocks. I found a couple of old shells that I hope to bring back home (sorry, family, I couldn't find any pretty ones, but they are African!). Then, we went up to a light house that was fairly historical on the Cape Point. The view was absolutely gorgeous. We could see this rock way out at see where waves were crashing. I asked Mama K if this was where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. She said that those were probably just rocks with waves hitting them, but that it's up for debate as to whether the two oceans meet at Cape Point. Believe what you will. As for myself, I think I'll keep thinking the rock is the meeting point.
Then, my favorite part happened. WE SAW AFRICAN PENGUINS (hence the Pebble and the Penguin soundtrack suggestions for the day). They were adorable, for realz! I got lots of cute pictures, some of them grooming each other, some holding hands, some laying on eggs, some just looking at the camera. We then got to have lunch and celebrate Liz's birthday (she turns 20 manana, but its our free day so we won't have a lot of time to be together). Then we got to go shopping at a local market.
Finally, the best thing happened. We got to talk to Bishop Peter Storey. Bishop Storey was pastor of Central Methodist Church during Apartheid. He spoke at Furman on my birthday last fall and I brought a voice recorder to hear his speech for today. He talked about the 5 pillars of Apartheid: Building an Ideology and Theology on Racism, Making group areas to control Africans, Bantu Education (i.e. ensuring there is no black competition to counter white supremacy, and thus educating them to be domestic servants to whites only), Bantustan Policies (retribalizing Africa), and having a repressive police force that operates like the Gestapo. This was countered by 4 pillars of resistance from churches. This came from churches asking "What does it mean to be a Christian during Apartheid? And for Bishop Storey, it meant this: 1) You ust speak hthe truth and expose the lie of Apartheid (that the differences btw. people are greater than their humanity) without fear of failure, 2) That if you are going to be a witness in Africa, you must idtentify with the oppressed and stand with them so that they are not destroyed by those who would rather have them destroyed, 3) You need to demonstrate the alternative, not just denounce what's wrong, but live what's right (i.e. put integration into practice within the local churches), and 4) Find ways and means consistant with empowering the oppressed in a nonviolent, civily disobedient way.
Absolutely incredible, no?
Love,
Hill
For those of you who looked at my blog 2 days ago and noticed my PS note at the bottom, yes, I did in fact go to a U2 concert. They played 2 shows on the whole African continent. One in Joburg, the other in Capetown. And we just happened to snag 12 seats to see them last night.
Yesterday, we left Durban and it was very sad. Mostly because we had to leave Peter, our beloved guide, and Michael, our bus driver. They will be greatly missed. Now, we hadn't had any drama up till this point. Bad news: yesterday was the breaking point. Mama K and 7 other students almost didn't make it on to the plain. The plane company we were flying with overbooked our flight and they almost were left behind. On top of that, one person lost their boarding pass while another left his passport on the bus (which had to come back and give it to him). Thankfully, however, everything worked out. But it was pretty intense on the TA end. I would have had to take charge with the concert people while Mama K would have had to stay in Durban and miss the concert (she had bought a ticket too...definitely coolest professor ever!).
We're staying at a place called River Lodge, which is a backpacking style place. We quickly unpacked and had a group meeting and then left for the concert. Everything was CRAZY! There were thousands of people downtown. We ate at a grocery store on the way. Mama K, Sophie, Ana, and I decided we wanted a t-shirt and waited in line 1 hour for them. Definitely worth it, but it could have been done a lot more efficiently.
At last, we finally saw U2! Hands down the best concert ever! I highly encourage you to find the concert online somewhere! The whole performance was incredible. Their stage had walkways that rotated, with a circular screen above them that would separate into different panels. Sophie told us the stage had to be imported from Australia. Oh, and it was shaped like a space ship (kind of like the Star Fox emblem almost).
A few reasons why this was/should count as a Cultural Life Program (yay CLPS!)
1) Bono mentioned the "rainbow people" while he was on stage. The population at the concert was very much NOT representative of all of SA. You would have had to look very very carefully to find a black person in the crowd. True, most of his fans are white, but it was just very interesting to me that these people love their music, but don't understand the religious ferver behind it.
2) During the song "In the Name of Love," Mandela's face appeared on the screen. It amazed me to see that not everybody rejoiced when they saw it. This man who was the biggest advocate for nonviolence during Apartheid's fall in the 1990s and Reconciliation, the Gandhi of SA and people didn't go crazy with joy. A lot of them just stared and remained silent. This makes me wonder how many people at that concert were Afrikaner? How many people really understand the level of inequality in SA, and how some have to fight tooth and nail to resist their own oppression? Again, how do you listen to this music of Jesus without wanting liberation for your impoverished neighbor?
3) Zackie Achmet was there!! For those of you who don't know him, Zachie Achmet is an AIDS activist who protested taking medication until everybody in South Africa had access to it. He began this grassroots group called TAC (Treatment Action Campaign). When Mbeki became president of SA, he refused to provide education materials or antiretrovirals to HIV positive people. So people like Zackie started educating people themselves, trying to prevent unprotected sex and promoting HIV testing. They would go to bars, schools, etc. to do this. Eventually in 2003, they got the government to have a treatment care plan for HIV positive individuals. Now, they're focusing on female impowerment in SA. According to one of the Articles we're reading, SA is the most dangerous country to be a woman. There is a lot of gender inequality, and women are very disinfranchised. This has lead to huge rates of domestic violence in this country. A woman is raped every 10 seconds. So organizations like TAC are very helpful and I'm glad we have them.
Saturday--All of the songs from The Pebble and the Penguin
Today was a very touristy day. Right off the bat, we got up and started for the Cape of Good Hope. Never did I imagine that when I was studying Portugese explorers in middle school did I think I would actually visit the point that changed trade history for good. The Cape was discovered by Bartholomew Diaz in 1488. When we got there today, the tide was down and we were able to go climb on the rocks. I found a couple of old shells that I hope to bring back home (sorry, family, I couldn't find any pretty ones, but they are African!). Then, we went up to a light house that was fairly historical on the Cape Point. The view was absolutely gorgeous. We could see this rock way out at see where waves were crashing. I asked Mama K if this was where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. She said that those were probably just rocks with waves hitting them, but that it's up for debate as to whether the two oceans meet at Cape Point. Believe what you will. As for myself, I think I'll keep thinking the rock is the meeting point.
Then, my favorite part happened. WE SAW AFRICAN PENGUINS (hence the Pebble and the Penguin soundtrack suggestions for the day). They were adorable, for realz! I got lots of cute pictures, some of them grooming each other, some holding hands, some laying on eggs, some just looking at the camera. We then got to have lunch and celebrate Liz's birthday (she turns 20 manana, but its our free day so we won't have a lot of time to be together). Then we got to go shopping at a local market.
Finally, the best thing happened. We got to talk to Bishop Peter Storey. Bishop Storey was pastor of Central Methodist Church during Apartheid. He spoke at Furman on my birthday last fall and I brought a voice recorder to hear his speech for today. He talked about the 5 pillars of Apartheid: Building an Ideology and Theology on Racism, Making group areas to control Africans, Bantu Education (i.e. ensuring there is no black competition to counter white supremacy, and thus educating them to be domestic servants to whites only), Bantustan Policies (retribalizing Africa), and having a repressive police force that operates like the Gestapo. This was countered by 4 pillars of resistance from churches. This came from churches asking "What does it mean to be a Christian during Apartheid? And for Bishop Storey, it meant this: 1) You ust speak hthe truth and expose the lie of Apartheid (that the differences btw. people are greater than their humanity) without fear of failure, 2) That if you are going to be a witness in Africa, you must idtentify with the oppressed and stand with them so that they are not destroyed by those who would rather have them destroyed, 3) You need to demonstrate the alternative, not just denounce what's wrong, but live what's right (i.e. put integration into practice within the local churches), and 4) Find ways and means consistant with empowering the oppressed in a nonviolent, civily disobedient way.
Absolutely incredible, no?
Love,
Hill
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Consequence of Sound by Regina Spektor
There have been a lot of things I can't explain over the internet that have happened to this group last week, but I shall try to do my best right now. The lack of communication hasn't exactly helped things either for remembering/writing. So I'm just being sporatic and putting whatever comes to mind. So this blog post is just like the song title that inspired it: the consequence of sound. Every time we tried to go to an internet cafe, we ended up getting there too late or too close to our departure time. So sorry that this is a long update. For those of you who didn't look at the last post/comments, I was trying to publish my last post last week, and the webpage came up with an error. When I tried to go back to it, all of my text was gone and I didn't realize until yesterday that it had just been saved to my blog drafts. So I posted things from 2 weeks ago yesterday. My apologies!
Monday--"The Colors of the Wind"/Red October Revolution Song
These are strangely enough the two songs which come to mind that best fit what's happening. Right after we got back from our homestays, we went to the University of Johannesburg and talked with an ethnobotanist! He was a professor who shared with us a few things about South African plants. First, he dispelled the myths that ethnomedicine didn't do anything. "If natural herbs didn't help your health, why would people continue to use them for thousands and thousands of years?" Some of the basic herbs were things like aloe. Some were so powerful that they helped slow the effects of HIV/AIDS. Right now, a lot of this knowledge is dying off, and so he's trying to collect it before the medicine men and women become extinct. His talk was absolutely fascinating! Gumbo, you should definitely look into this, even though it doesn't involve animals. Go to this website (ipuf@uj.az.za). I'm pretty sure it's a website and not an e-mail.Later that day, we went to the Witwatersrand Medical School. We looked at the Adler Museam of Medicine and learned about what it takes to be a doctor in South Africa. We saw artifacts, a history of modern medicine (Pavlov and Freud were both mentioned. Unfortunately Freud had his picture on the wall. Not Pavlov. Major fail.). Later, a public health person came and talked to us about what's happening with the health sector of SA. Apparently, there's a "brain drain" going on: lots of doctors are going to 1st world countries after med school. Other doctors are leaving the public sector for the private sector. So a lot of problems, but hopefully getting better. They make all med students practice half of their training in rural areas now. So there's hope for that now.
Tuesday--"Taking Care of Business"by Bachman Turner Overdrive
Wednesday--"God Help the Outcasts" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney Cartoon)
This was the day I was most excited about. This was the day we visited Central Methodist Church. Since we didn't get to go to it yesterday, I was particularly excited about it today. We were to first speek with Bishop Verryn, the man in charge of the church. He had been there for over 10 years and made his home in Soweto (which is unusual, since he's white). He was the most pleasant, most endearing man I had met. He said that Central Methodist has the most progressive policy on immigrants in the world. They have literally opened their doors the the poor. They give them shelter and they refuse no one. They have had situations where theives have come in to hide, and they try and deal with the police as best as they can. They have relationships with lots of organizations and they are trying to say afloat. Interestingly enough, UMCOR has cut funds from Central Methodist. I'm not sure of the details of it, but it seems pretty political and very unfortunate. That money is especially necessary when the church hosts 1400 people in it a night (the Bishop said in it's highest point, they've had 3500). The church is 6 stories. But it smells of poverty and inequality. The piping is old and overwhelmed from use. Bathrooms are backed up and overflowing. The whole place is very unclean. But that wasn't the most difficult thing to watch. After touring the church, we went to the sanctuary and were told that we were going to lead a workshop with the women staying in the church about ways to deal with stress. We all froze. We thought we would be doing a service project like watching children. What did we have to say to refugees about destressing? It was like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I wanted to sing "God Help the Outcasts" because there didn't seem to be a whole lot of help in site. These women were all unemployed. They didn't have food. The water in the church was basically undrinkable. They were afraid to leave their kids because they thought somebody would steal them and sell them and kill them for their body parts. And what did we have to offer? Our western, luxury-minded destressing techniques. But those only work for things in our world. Grades, for instance. Do these women care about GPAs or over-filled social schedules? They're starving, they're tired. But they can't go back to their homeland because things are even worse back there. They're running out of trust...and running out of hope.It was the most uncomfortable thing we had ever done. Dr. Boucher was amazing and didn't seem flustered at all. When it finished, we got back on the vans. I was in the "deep-thinking" van, so some of us started to cry. Some of us laughed at the ridiculousness of what had just happened, how feeble our advice seemed to these women who had experienced so much.
And then, very inappropriately, we went to a place called Lesiti--for dinner and a show.
When we got to Lesiti, we were greeted by a bunch of people dressed in native African dress. All of us were angry. This was not the Africa we had just seen. It's like the Cherokee, NC of South Africa. You know it's fake, you know it seems humiliating. It plays on the myth that all Africans run around with lions doing the "tribal thing." It skipped over Apartheid and wars with the british, like everything was happy and good.
This was the worst day. On the way back the only solice we had was singing on the bus: Sophie, Mallory, Katie, Sarah P. and I sang.
Thursday--"For Good" from the musical Wicked
This day, we drove a long way from Jo-Burg to Kimberly. We hated leaving because we had grown rather fond of St. Peters (and we still look back at it with nostalgia). But alas, we had to leave.
The drive there seemed pleasant enough. A lot of it was filled with moments of deep thinking and processing from the events of yesterday. It didn't help that we watched the movie "District 9" on the way also. The movie is about immigration in South Africa. At least, that's what the metaphor is supposed to be. These aliens come to earth and they can't get back to their planet. So humans take them in and they start to live in shacks. But then people panic because they start taking jobs and are using up resources (sound familiar?). So they make reforms and try to put them in concentration camps. Then one man in charge of the policy reform towards the aliens is transformed into an alien.
The place where we were staying was fairly gross. Ruthie, you would have rather gone camping than stay in this place. They were former mining compounds, but not very well managed. The woman who ran the place at first put all 17 girls in one room, even though we had requested triples MONTHS ago. But then Dr. Maher pulled out a copy of their correspondence, and we got our rooms. We kind of hung around for a while. Some people swam for a bit, some of us tried to do our homework. At last, we had a student-led discussion about what had happened the day before. Y'all, I've never been more touched by community. Everybody talked about their pows and wows from that day, how frustrated that we had had food and we couldn't give it to anybody because we didn't know we would give it to, how the church expected us to actually have something helpful to tell refugees from Zimbabwe about destressing, and howwe felt powerless against these systems in place...because we were just visiting students who couldn't be there long enough to make a difference in the first place. But there was hope. People found hope in some of the refugees determination to succeed and survive. We were reminded of the generosity of "asking and receiving," and that all it takes sometimes is showing people the hurt of the world and then they awaken. People cried and hugged, and expressed a thankfulness for these newfound friendships. Sarah Tandy expressed it best: the most amazing thing about this group was our Ubuntu (If you're not sure what this is, look it up. I'm sure I'll be explaining it to you later in a more indepth fashion). If we're not changing each other for the better, at least we're changing each other "For Good."
The place where we were staying was fairly gross. Ruthie, you would have rather gone camping than stay in this place. They were former mining compounds, but not very well managed. The woman who ran the place at first put all 17 girls in one room, even though we had requested triples MONTHS ago. But then Dr. Maher pulled out a copy of their correspondence, and we got our rooms. We kind of hung around for a while. Some people swam for a bit, some of us tried to do our homework. At last, we had a student-led discussion about what had happened the day before. Y'all, I've never been more touched by community. Everybody talked about their pows and wows from that day, how frustrated that we had had food and we couldn't give it to anybody because we didn't know we would give it to, how the church expected us to actually have something helpful to tell refugees from Zimbabwe about destressing, and howwe felt powerless against these systems in place...because we were just visiting students who couldn't be there long enough to make a difference in the first place. But there was hope. People found hope in some of the refugees determination to succeed and survive. We were reminded of the generosity of "asking and receiving," and that all it takes sometimes is showing people the hurt of the world and then they awaken. People cried and hugged, and expressed a thankfulness for these newfound friendships. Sarah Tandy expressed it best: the most amazing thing about this group was our Ubuntu (If you're not sure what this is, look it up. I'm sure I'll be explaining it to you later in a more indepth fashion). If we're not changing each other for the better, at least we're changing each other "For Good."
Friday--"Workin' in the Coal Mine" by The Judds/"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
Ok, so technically it's the diamond mines I'm talking about. Kimberly is famous for being the hometown of Cecil Rhodes's De Beers Diamond Company. De Beers basically runs a monopoly on the diamond business. It also has a museam called "The Big Hole," which is a gigantic hole in the ground where miners dug for years trying to find diamonds. It is truely an impressive site. The Hole is over 2 kms deep at least (maybe a mile? not sure...). As I looked across it, I wondered how many thousands of people died digging it by hand. The VAST majority of it was dug by black Africans. They lived in mining barracks, poor conditions, the works. They were not allowed to go back home to their families for weeks at a time. They would maybe see them 2 or 3 times a year. The mining museam neglected to give this information. Most of their stuff was about the diamond making process, how it's formed, measured, and cut. It also gave a history of De Beers and which events paralleled other things going on the world (for instance, one change in De Beers happened the same year Michael Jackson died). They actually didn't mention black Africans anywhere but the parts about crime.The last thing we did this day way a game drive. Not going to lie, my ABSOLUTE favorite part of the trip at that point. It was your typical safari drive on a safari vehical. We saw eland, kudu, zebra, impala, blesbok, white blesbok (Dad, you would have flipped!). I was sad I wasn't with my family at that point. It brought back nostalgia for the hunting trip in Thabazimbi. Needless to say, I wished I could have shot at least something while I was there. The coolest part of the place, however, were the lions. This man raised lions to hunt. I admit it was very impressive to see the 33 lions, hear them, and play with 1 month old lion cubs, but at the end of the day, I was very sad for them. When I was in Thabazimbi 3 years ago, John Henry (our Professional Hunter) told us that he didn't like lion hunting and would never raise lions because it was dangerous. You feed them and they come to associate humans with food. Then when you hunt them, they are more likely to try and kill you instead of run away from you. The lions we saw were also kept in a fairly small enclosed area, and too close together at that. That was not fun to see.
Dinner that night was amazing though. Wonderful steak, potatoes, a wine, and fun conversations about my previous safari experience.
Dinner that night was amazing though. Wonderful steak, potatoes, a wine, and fun conversations about my previous safari experience.
Saturday--"Bye Bye" by Jo Dee Messina
This day (thankfully!) we left Kimberly. Gum Tree was not a hugely pleasant experience, and the woman who ran it did not seem like she knew how to run a hostile. We drove 8 hours this day to the Drakensburg Mountains. On the way, we watched the movie Inception on the bus. GREAT Movie! By the time we got to Giants Castle, it was dark and rainy. We had history class and planned a little about which trails we would take the next day. Sarah Tandy and I had already talked about taking a trail that lead to Lesotho, one of the 2 countries within SA. Her friend Sarah Barton and another guy from the Africa 2010 trip last year made it all the way there, and we wanted to be just as hardcore. Afterwards, we went promptly to sleep.
Sunday--"On the Trail We Blaze" by Elton John (The Road to Eldorado cartoon)
OH MY GOSH! So Kristen, Sarah Tandy, and I hiked like 19 miles this day all the way to Lesotho and back! It was crazy and stupid, and took us 10 hours and 18 minutes, but we did it! The map said it would take 8 hours, but it didn't factor in the thunderstorms that would come and delay you significantly. I wish I could describe it to everybody. but imagine the Apalachain trail like 2X more steep than anything at Jones Gap (except for maybe the Hospital Rock trail...but imagine that one for 19 miles!). On the way, we fund porcupine quills, a herd of eland (I know, right dad??), two baboons, plane reckage from a plain crash, and 2 thunderstorms. Honestly, words can't describe the experience/soreness we felt afterwards. A shower was heavenly, needless to say.Monday--"Waiting Here" by Nora Jones
This day, we had to say goodbye to the Drakensburg I literally thought about running away so that I could stay in this mountain range. It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. But alas, we had to go to Durban.
Durban is a very beautiful city, like a Myrtle Beach, but prettier. We got there and had to say goodbye to Dr. Boucher, which was very sad :-( We ate lunch and then had class later on. Dinner was kind of a big ordeal. A big group of us went out to the mall and stopped at this restaurant called News Cafe. After 2 hours, we only got 1/2 our meals, missing forks, and very poor service. It was not the best Valentines Day, but I was still happy because I loved being with my newfound friends. And yea, that was pretty much the day.
This day, we had to say goodbye to the Drakensburg I literally thought about running away so that I could stay in this mountain range. It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. But alas, we had to go to Durban.
Durban is a very beautiful city, like a Myrtle Beach, but prettier. We got there and had to say goodbye to Dr. Boucher, which was very sad :-( We ate lunch and then had class later on. Dinner was kind of a big ordeal. A big group of us went out to the mall and stopped at this restaurant called News Cafe. After 2 hours, we only got 1/2 our meals, missing forks, and very poor service. It was not the best Valentines Day, but I was still happy because I loved being with my newfound friends. And yea, that was pretty much the day.
Tuesday--"Do You Hear The People Sing" from Les Miserables
Today we went to the Phoneix Settlement, an indian settlement where Gandhi lived for about 10 years before he went back to India and change the world. He began his nonviolence work in South Africa. There were things about Coexisting peacefully together, which I definitely appreciated. The tour was a little sporatic, though. It could have been better, but it was a little unorganized. But no worries. Right after the tour, we drove by a group of grandmothers (Gogos) playing soccer! That was awesome and made me smile!
After this, I decided that the best thing to do was go with Sarah Tandy, Katie Coleman, Ana Spratley, Josh, Kristin, and Laura to the beach. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! I wasn't full-out in my bikini, b/c of my sunburn. The rip-tide was incredible, and body surfing was almost lethal. I acutally caught air when I was body surfing. That is, before the wave flipped me over and dragged my face on the bottom of the ocean. But it was fabulous regardless.
That night, we had a talk from Patrick Bonds, a professor at University of Kwazu-Natal. He was just like Mama K (Dr. Maher) said he would be: a hummingbird in a shoebox. He was very intelligent, and wonderful to listen to. But he went through his slides like he had ADD. It was a lot of the things Dale McKinley had to say, but with more hope. He said that we actually did have the power to change things, and he said it without anger. It definitely made me want to fight global health inequality. Not sure how I'm going to do it yet, but you never know!
Wednesday-- "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles
This day, we went on a Muti tour (sp?). Muti is the kind of traditional healing practice by indiginous Africans. We were lead there by a woman who's name was Faith. Interesting note about her: she was HIV positive and recovering from having TB a third time (no worries, Dad, I'm not coughing up blood.) She gave us the history of Muti, the differences between seers and healers, and just the general ins and outs of traditional healing. She is an activist and I wish we coul d have talked to her even more. Walking through the market was interesting. We didn't spend a lot of time in there (Dr. Maher was paranoid about pickpockets) but lots of herbs and animal parts (snake skins, horns, etc). We then got to go shopping in a nearby market. I'm starting to like this process.
Thursday: "Toxic"by Brittany Spears
I invoke this song only to say that we went on a "Toxic Tour" of Durban. In this one area of Durban, there are 2 petrol plants, a paper mill, a swewage plant, and a container storage place. Needless to say, there are a lot of fumes around this one area. Studies were done in 2002 on school children and people around the plants and about 52% of them were affected by the toxcitity. Lots had asthma and cancer. The land actually used to be townships, but people were kicked off their land to make the plants. And while there are regulations in place, they are not inforced. The companies have lobby the government, making it very hard to control things like toxic spills and clean air. The specific NGO we went to was actually taking samples of the air whenever people feel there is a high percentage of toxins in the air. They also help schools and companies practice in case of an emergency evacuation due to toxins.
Tomorrow I have a test in sociology, so if y'all could pray that I pass, that would be very wonderful :-)
Love you bye!
PS--Guess what? Tomorrow, I'M GOING TO SEE THE BAND U2 IN CAPETOWN!!!!
Today we went to the Phoneix Settlement, an indian settlement where Gandhi lived for about 10 years before he went back to India and change the world. He began his nonviolence work in South Africa. There were things about Coexisting peacefully together, which I definitely appreciated. The tour was a little sporatic, though. It could have been better, but it was a little unorganized. But no worries. Right after the tour, we drove by a group of grandmothers (Gogos) playing soccer! That was awesome and made me smile!
After this, I decided that the best thing to do was go with Sarah Tandy, Katie Coleman, Ana Spratley, Josh, Kristin, and Laura to the beach. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! I wasn't full-out in my bikini, b/c of my sunburn. The rip-tide was incredible, and body surfing was almost lethal. I acutally caught air when I was body surfing. That is, before the wave flipped me over and dragged my face on the bottom of the ocean. But it was fabulous regardless.
That night, we had a talk from Patrick Bonds, a professor at University of Kwazu-Natal. He was just like Mama K (Dr. Maher) said he would be: a hummingbird in a shoebox. He was very intelligent, and wonderful to listen to. But he went through his slides like he had ADD. It was a lot of the things Dale McKinley had to say, but with more hope. He said that we actually did have the power to change things, and he said it without anger. It definitely made me want to fight global health inequality. Not sure how I'm going to do it yet, but you never know!
Wednesday-- "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles
This day, we went on a Muti tour (sp?). Muti is the kind of traditional healing practice by indiginous Africans. We were lead there by a woman who's name was Faith. Interesting note about her: she was HIV positive and recovering from having TB a third time (no worries, Dad, I'm not coughing up blood.) She gave us the history of Muti, the differences between seers and healers, and just the general ins and outs of traditional healing. She is an activist and I wish we coul d have talked to her even more. Walking through the market was interesting. We didn't spend a lot of time in there (Dr. Maher was paranoid about pickpockets) but lots of herbs and animal parts (snake skins, horns, etc). We then got to go shopping in a nearby market. I'm starting to like this process.
Thursday: "Toxic"by Brittany Spears
I invoke this song only to say that we went on a "Toxic Tour" of Durban. In this one area of Durban, there are 2 petrol plants, a paper mill, a swewage plant, and a container storage place. Needless to say, there are a lot of fumes around this one area. Studies were done in 2002 on school children and people around the plants and about 52% of them were affected by the toxcitity. Lots had asthma and cancer. The land actually used to be townships, but people were kicked off their land to make the plants. And while there are regulations in place, they are not inforced. The companies have lobby the government, making it very hard to control things like toxic spills and clean air. The specific NGO we went to was actually taking samples of the air whenever people feel there is a high percentage of toxins in the air. They also help schools and companies practice in case of an emergency evacuation due to toxins.
Tomorrow I have a test in sociology, so if y'all could pray that I pass, that would be very wonderful :-)
Love you bye!
PS--Guess what? Tomorrow, I'M GOING TO SEE THE BAND U2 IN CAPETOWN!!!!
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