Freshly Ground Concert
All I want to say is “I’m Obsessed!!!!!” Freshly Ground is a band from South Africa and they played Thursday February 14, Valentine’s Day, at a bar in Obs called Armchair. It was awesome! Me, Ashley, Kalyn, and Renee were like in the second row, there weren’t really rows but you know what I mean, we were close! It was hot and sweating in there but it was totally worth it. They sing mostly in English but they have songs that are in Xhosa and the lead singer is this short, cubby African girl who is absolutely beautiful (and she is bald and still beautiful. I wish I could have no hair and look so good!) Anyways I will attach a link to their website so you can see how awesome she is. And they sang this song about being cubby and still being a ‘good lover’. It was awesome! They had such good energy on stage. They danced together and had any amazing connect with each other. I have never seen a band that seemed to be so in sync with each other. They are coming again in April and I’m definitely going to go. I don’t know how else to describe how awesome it was but if you every get a chance to see them its totally worth it (and it was only 60 rand, which is less than ten dollars in America!)
!Khwa ttu
This we went to on Saturday morning. It is like a reserve that teaches people about the bush people, the people who still live like they did hundreds of years ago, they hunt and live in huts (If you ever get a chance see the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” and you’ll see what I’m talking about). Anyways so they have this reserve that is dedicated to a specific group called the San people. It was kind cool. We got driven around in this safari looking thing that was pulled by a tractor. We got to see some animals, the spring bock which is South Africa’s national animal, zebra, and then some other animals which I don’t know the name of. Then we walked along a trail and looked at how they hunted, what they looked for in the sand and then how they set up traps to catch the animals. Next we got to see a mini village with like six huts which would be typical of one of their tribes. They showed us how they made their clothes, food, and jewelry. There were a million ants around though so it was hard to pay attention. Finally we went in this tent area and they taught us the different languages of the bush people and how to use the different clicks they have in each language. It was pretty cool but I still suck at doing the clicks. I better get it by the time I come home.
Canyoning
The highlight of my week! Sunday we woke up at 6 in the morning and all pilled in a van to drive an hour and a half to this mountain range. There we got all our equipment and had breakfast before we headed up the mountain. So what we were doing is starting at the top of a river and following the river all the way down the mountain. When there was a waterfall we would abseil down it, which is like the opposite from rock climbing. It was beautiful. There were 5 waterfalls that we went down and the second one you had to go right into the falling water. At the bottom of the second waterfall they had a really deep body of water that you could jump of different level cliffs into. You had to jump off the lower cliffs before they would let you jump of the 15 meter (45 feet) high cliff. I decided that I wanted to jump off the high cliff. So they keep telling people to make sure to keep their arms in so they didn’t dislocate their shoulder but they didn’t tell us that at the top you had to have your arms out for balance. So when I was jumping I was really paranoid that I wouldn’t keep my arms in so I crossed them right away. This made my body turn and I ended up landing in the water on my side. Man did my butt hurt! The girls still at the top said they could see how red my butt was from there. Also one of the lead girls told me about how she almost busted her ear drum jumping off the cliff and so because of the pressure I couldn’t hear anything when I came up and I thought I had busted my ear drum. But I hadn’t and in the end it was really fun! I can’t believe I jumped off a 45 feet high cliff!!!! Hey man I’m just getting ready for the bungee jumping. Anyways it took the entire day to get down the river and we got to see the sun set behind the mountains, which was gorgeous! Overall it was a phenomenal day with nature! I’ll have pictures up ASAP!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
My Second Week in Cape Town!!!
Classes at UWC
So I am taking 5 classes at the University of Western Cape, two theology classes(Theology of Forgiveness and the Doctrine of Christ), an Ethics course, a Film course, and a Grassroots Leadership course. My first day of class was on Wed., after going through an insane line to drop and add classes because they change the class schedule on the first day, and I had my ethics course and the Doctrine of Christ class and they were both amazing! My ethics teacher was really cool, he looked like a guide for an African safari and was extremely smart. Plus the stuff we talked about in class was actually relevant to real life unlike Phil 50 ever was. Then my theology class was unbelievable. There were only 6 people and the teacher sat down and talked to us like he was a part of the class. Since the theology dept. at UWC is really small only people who are going to be priests or pastors or who are already pastors are taking theo. My entire class was pastors or in some kind of ministry. I cant imagine what I’m going to learn from them this semester! I’m so excited! Then on Thursday I had my first English/Film class. All we did was watch Shakespeare in Love. We get to watch movies every week, its going to be awesome! Friday I had the classes that are Marquette affiliated, Theology of Forgiveness and Grassroots Leadership. My grassroots class was boring, the teacher had a really annoying voice, but I think it will get better because we have a ton of really cool speakers that are going to be coming in. We did talk about how the free housing works around here and I couldn’t imagine living in a home in the township, my room is bigger than a home for 5 people. Next I had my Theology class and our teacher is awesome. He said that he is really concerned with our growth this semester instead of grades. He wants us to learn the material and learn how it pertains to us. We also have a lot of really awesome speakers coming into this class too. You guys will hear about them in later blogs.
Service Site
So for my service twice a week I work at an Engineering company called Shonaquip that produces wheelchairs. Renee and my project is really awesome, a bit challenging but something I think would really help us. We are going to be working on redesigning and building the redesign of a machine Shonaquip received from a company in the Netherlands. This machine is a seating simulator and it is used to make custom wheelchairs for people with extreme disabilities. How it works is… there are three bags that are filled with air and this bean bag like material. These are placed on a chair that cant be adjusted in many ways but changing the angles and lengths of the boards that make up the chair. Then a child with a disability is placed on the chair and adjusted while a foot pedal is used to suck the air out of the bags making them harder. When it is all done the bags are hard and contain a mold of the child sitting in an aligned position that could normally not be obtained in a regular wheel chair. Before the company used plaster to make a mold and then a reverse mold so as to make a wheelchair customized for the patent. Now the company has a program that can scan the mold into a computer and use another machine to cut that exact mold out of Styrofoam saving months worth of work, but they have never tried it before. Also with scanning the mold in they can do more than one mold per day and since a lot of people in the bush, that is the poorer part South Africa where people live in huts, do not have transportation to get to the company to get a mold of their wheelchair having a portable seating simulator that can scan in the mold will allow more access to the people of Africa. Renee and my job is to remake the machine so that can be produced totally in South Africa because it is extremely expensive to import the parts. We also need to modify the machine to make it lighter and compactable so that it can be placed into a van to go to the bush. Also with that we need to create a battery to operate the actuators and pump that can also be run on wall power or out of a car outlet. All of this will make the cost of customized wheelchairs cheaper, allowing more people access to wheelchairs.
2nd Party on Friday
So Friday night we decided to have people over, just a couple of friends and of course it turned into a crazy amount of people. However, it was really fun. There was a lot of dancing and I got to know a lot of local people. But the next day we got told by our supervisor that the neighbors said it was too loud and we can only have parties once a month. I’m ok with that, it’s hard watching after all those people.
District 6 Museum
District 6 is an area in Cape Town where thousands of blacks and colours were moved from their homes during the apartheid. The community was made out of a mixture of different kinds of people, but the apartheid government decided it would be better to have it be a whites only community (They claim that this had nothing to do with the fact that the location of the properties, you could see the ocean and the mountains from anyone’s doorstep, made them extremely valuable). However properties were never built due to the amount of time it took to demolish the old houses. The museum is there to remember what happen and to hopefully encourage the government to hurry up on rebuilding the homes for the people whose homes were taken from them, one about 200 have returned. Well when we went to the museum we had a tour guide who was from one of the oldest families displaced from District 6. He told us his story about how he watched he house get bulldozed from across the street, all his families personal items dumped into the ocean, and his family moved far out of the city into a coloured community. He also told us stories of other families and one was really moving… in one family the dad was coloured and the wife was black. They had three children which were considered black because the mom was black. Therefore when the apartheid government decided to displace the people of District 6, the dad was moved to a coloured township and the mom and children to a black township. To even see his wife, the husband needed to go to the police station and get permission to see her and even then he was only allowed to see her and the children for two hours every three months! I couldn’t believe it! I have only been here two weeks and talked to people from home multiple times, I couldn’t imagine not talking or seeing my family for three months and then only getting to see them for two hours.
Church
So Ashley, Renee, Robbie, and I went to this church I found in Obs called Jubilee. It is a nondenominational church made up of a diverse group of people, some English speaking, some Afrikaners and some Xhosa speaking people. It’s a huge congregation too, 1000 people! It was amazing though. We sang a song in Xhosa during worship and people where jumping and dancing around all through worship. I have never seen so much energy and excitement. After the sermon they had a visitors room where they feed us and gave us tea and coffee(something they do everywhere in Africa) and we got to know people. Then we found out that they were having a picnic for the college students that day but because of the weather, it was raining, they were having it in the church. So we stuck around and mingled. I meet a lot of really cool people, there was this one girl from Zimbabwe and she told me the story about how she came to South Africa and how life was in her country and how she didn’t go home during election times because “Its took scary, people get really into it”. If you know anything about Zimbabwe, there government has been run by the same guy for years and if anyone tries to run against him they end up dead. He has completely ruined their economy but they can’t get anyone else to take his place, but now there is this other guy who seems like he might actually be competition s its really interesting to see how the election turns out. Anyways we meet a lot of other people and learned about the life groups were are kinda like small groups in the states and I think Ashley and I are going to join one for college students. I will be nice to get to know other Christian our age here in Africa. In the end it was super fun, super moving (the guest speaker was phenomenal) and overall unbelievable. I can’t wait to go again.
So I am taking 5 classes at the University of Western Cape, two theology classes(Theology of Forgiveness and the Doctrine of Christ), an Ethics course, a Film course, and a Grassroots Leadership course. My first day of class was on Wed., after going through an insane line to drop and add classes because they change the class schedule on the first day, and I had my ethics course and the Doctrine of Christ class and they were both amazing! My ethics teacher was really cool, he looked like a guide for an African safari and was extremely smart. Plus the stuff we talked about in class was actually relevant to real life unlike Phil 50 ever was. Then my theology class was unbelievable. There were only 6 people and the teacher sat down and talked to us like he was a part of the class. Since the theology dept. at UWC is really small only people who are going to be priests or pastors or who are already pastors are taking theo. My entire class was pastors or in some kind of ministry. I cant imagine what I’m going to learn from them this semester! I’m so excited! Then on Thursday I had my first English/Film class. All we did was watch Shakespeare in Love. We get to watch movies every week, its going to be awesome! Friday I had the classes that are Marquette affiliated, Theology of Forgiveness and Grassroots Leadership. My grassroots class was boring, the teacher had a really annoying voice, but I think it will get better because we have a ton of really cool speakers that are going to be coming in. We did talk about how the free housing works around here and I couldn’t imagine living in a home in the township, my room is bigger than a home for 5 people. Next I had my Theology class and our teacher is awesome. He said that he is really concerned with our growth this semester instead of grades. He wants us to learn the material and learn how it pertains to us. We also have a lot of really awesome speakers coming into this class too. You guys will hear about them in later blogs.
Service Site
So for my service twice a week I work at an Engineering company called Shonaquip that produces wheelchairs. Renee and my project is really awesome, a bit challenging but something I think would really help us. We are going to be working on redesigning and building the redesign of a machine Shonaquip received from a company in the Netherlands. This machine is a seating simulator and it is used to make custom wheelchairs for people with extreme disabilities. How it works is… there are three bags that are filled with air and this bean bag like material. These are placed on a chair that cant be adjusted in many ways but changing the angles and lengths of the boards that make up the chair. Then a child with a disability is placed on the chair and adjusted while a foot pedal is used to suck the air out of the bags making them harder. When it is all done the bags are hard and contain a mold of the child sitting in an aligned position that could normally not be obtained in a regular wheel chair. Before the company used plaster to make a mold and then a reverse mold so as to make a wheelchair customized for the patent. Now the company has a program that can scan the mold into a computer and use another machine to cut that exact mold out of Styrofoam saving months worth of work, but they have never tried it before. Also with scanning the mold in they can do more than one mold per day and since a lot of people in the bush, that is the poorer part South Africa where people live in huts, do not have transportation to get to the company to get a mold of their wheelchair having a portable seating simulator that can scan in the mold will allow more access to the people of Africa. Renee and my job is to remake the machine so that can be produced totally in South Africa because it is extremely expensive to import the parts. We also need to modify the machine to make it lighter and compactable so that it can be placed into a van to go to the bush. Also with that we need to create a battery to operate the actuators and pump that can also be run on wall power or out of a car outlet. All of this will make the cost of customized wheelchairs cheaper, allowing more people access to wheelchairs.
2nd Party on Friday
So Friday night we decided to have people over, just a couple of friends and of course it turned into a crazy amount of people. However, it was really fun. There was a lot of dancing and I got to know a lot of local people. But the next day we got told by our supervisor that the neighbors said it was too loud and we can only have parties once a month. I’m ok with that, it’s hard watching after all those people.
District 6 Museum
District 6 is an area in Cape Town where thousands of blacks and colours were moved from their homes during the apartheid. The community was made out of a mixture of different kinds of people, but the apartheid government decided it would be better to have it be a whites only community (They claim that this had nothing to do with the fact that the location of the properties, you could see the ocean and the mountains from anyone’s doorstep, made them extremely valuable). However properties were never built due to the amount of time it took to demolish the old houses. The museum is there to remember what happen and to hopefully encourage the government to hurry up on rebuilding the homes for the people whose homes were taken from them, one about 200 have returned. Well when we went to the museum we had a tour guide who was from one of the oldest families displaced from District 6. He told us his story about how he watched he house get bulldozed from across the street, all his families personal items dumped into the ocean, and his family moved far out of the city into a coloured community. He also told us stories of other families and one was really moving… in one family the dad was coloured and the wife was black. They had three children which were considered black because the mom was black. Therefore when the apartheid government decided to displace the people of District 6, the dad was moved to a coloured township and the mom and children to a black township. To even see his wife, the husband needed to go to the police station and get permission to see her and even then he was only allowed to see her and the children for two hours every three months! I couldn’t believe it! I have only been here two weeks and talked to people from home multiple times, I couldn’t imagine not talking or seeing my family for three months and then only getting to see them for two hours.
Church
So Ashley, Renee, Robbie, and I went to this church I found in Obs called Jubilee. It is a nondenominational church made up of a diverse group of people, some English speaking, some Afrikaners and some Xhosa speaking people. It’s a huge congregation too, 1000 people! It was amazing though. We sang a song in Xhosa during worship and people where jumping and dancing around all through worship. I have never seen so much energy and excitement. After the sermon they had a visitors room where they feed us and gave us tea and coffee(something they do everywhere in Africa) and we got to know people. Then we found out that they were having a picnic for the college students that day but because of the weather, it was raining, they were having it in the church. So we stuck around and mingled. I meet a lot of really cool people, there was this one girl from Zimbabwe and she told me the story about how she came to South Africa and how life was in her country and how she didn’t go home during election times because “Its took scary, people get really into it”. If you know anything about Zimbabwe, there government has been run by the same guy for years and if anyone tries to run against him they end up dead. He has completely ruined their economy but they can’t get anyone else to take his place, but now there is this other guy who seems like he might actually be competition s its really interesting to see how the election turns out. Anyways we meet a lot of other people and learned about the life groups were are kinda like small groups in the states and I think Ashley and I are going to join one for college students. I will be nice to get to know other Christian our age here in Africa. In the end it was super fun, super moving (the guest speaker was phenomenal) and overall unbelievable. I can’t wait to go again.
Monday, February 4, 2008
My First Week in Africa
The Airplane
So i didnt know what to expect for the plane ride to london and then to south africa. i wasnt really positive about it at first because it was late and therefore we missed out layover in london so i didnt get to go downtown londonn, but the plane ride to london was amazing. First of all, the plane was like half empty so we got to sit all by each other and had space to spread out. Then they had personalized televisions with movies, music and tv shows and guess what show they had, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, my favorite cartoon. I think i was the only adult watching cartoons on the tv, but they had a ton of movies to watch and tons of different tv shows, although they only had one episode for each show. well on top of that the flight attendents are sooooo friendly. we became friends with this flight attendent who was from england and because he is an FA he gets to go all over the place and he told us all about cape town and the cool places to go. Next we got the most addorable little meals, where there were like 3 courses, but like miniature size, plus you got coffee or tea at the end of each meal. Alcohol was also free, which the other girls we super excited about, it seems to be a necessity for europeans and africans. We also got this little tube of toothpaste, a mini toothbrush, and socks in case you want to take off your shoes. The second flight was more crowded but we had the coolest flight attendent, he was soo nice and he always said cheers after he served you. they all really talked awesome! Neways we finally made it into cape town after a 7-8hour flight to london and a 12 hour flight to cape town.
Kimberley House and Obs
After arriving in cape town we went straight to observatory, or as we call it obs, which is the town we live in. It is sooooo cute. There are a bunch of little shops, art shops, book shops, coffee shops, dress shops, and african shops. it kinda reminds we of a little street in purdue where they had really cute shops, but it is definity a city town. i, like many other americans, thought that it would have dirt roads and be further from the city, but its right next to the city and looks like a mini city in itself. the best part of obs is the coffee shops. we went to this coffee shop, mini's, one morning to get breakfast and guess what they had there, tea and crumpets! i didnt even need to go downtown london! anyways the coffee is unbelievable! i had this white hot chocolate latte that was to die for! plus the greatest thing about cape town is everything is cheap. you will here it in my blogs alot about how i had amazing food for really cheap. Neways, we live on kimberley street so our house is called kimberley house and it is adorable. we each have a roomate, there is a kicten, a dining room with a huge table, a living room, 5 bathrooms, and a nice size backyard. the best thing is we have hardwood floors!Im sharing a room with one of the girls named mallory and we have the huge wardrobe and guess what, i can burn incense in my room!
Welcome party and the black out
So the first friday we were here we had a blockparty to welcome us to the neighborhood and get to know the neighborhood. only some of our neighbors showed up but they were really nice. also these girls we met at school, UWC, came over and they are both from Zambia, a country a little north of south africa. They were really nice and we played cards together, they really liked to play spoons! but then at like 8 we got a blackout. it was kinda weird not having any lights but we decided to tell scary stories and we talked about the different ghosts they have in american and south africa. then we started talking about dancing and the girls decided to show us some of the dancing they have to learn when they grow up, and they were amazing. its so cool how they can move and control their bodies. i dont think i could ever move like that. but there is only so much you can do in a blackout so they had to leave, overall though it was a really cool night and i learned alot about the traditions in south africa and zambia.
UWC
My new school! We went to UWC on wed to register but they werent ready for us so we justed picked out our classes and then took a tour around the campus. its really nice, like any other campus in the states. they have an olympic sized swimming pool because i guess the south african swimmers practice there. they also have playing fields for rugby, cricket, and football(our soccer, unfortunately football isnt popular here but soccer is). There student union is my favorite part of campus. its huge inside and they always have music playing, they really like american music here but like older american music so its nice to hear some songs i havent listened to in a while, and in this place they have a bunch of places to eat. they sell fruit on campus. they also have a lot of different stands we they sell jewelry and cell phones and other cool stuff. UWC is pretty far from campus so they need to have alot of stuff on campus for the students. They also have this chinese resturant that some of their foreign students created and run where you can get an entire plate of chinese food for less than a dollar!! Food is really cheap on campus and i love it! As lovely as campus is there scheduling system is really weird. i had class for the first time today and it turns out that the times for both my classes completely changed. it was really frustrating, but im going to have to work it out. it wouldnt be as bad but i have to take all my classes in 2 days. overall though i love the campus. cheap food and a lot of green area to sit and tan or sleep.
The Township
Friday we went to one of the girls service learning sites which was in a township, the cities where they moved the blacks during the aparatid. it was really sad but kinda cool. it was sad because to see the living conditions these people were forced to live in is horrible, but it was really cool because we got to here alot about the culture in the townships. Family is super important. also having guests over is a big thing. whenever someone has a guest over, no matter how poor they are they will have something to offer there guest. Thats one thing i noticed alot about people in south africa, they are really concerned with being polite to their guests and think of others before themselves. they also have alot of traditional events, braais(barbacue) and dances. i cant wait till we can go into the township for one of those. the place we went had art work and crafts from people in the township to raise money for the HIV/AIDS problem. it was really cool how they were using their skills to help their neighbors. neways they feed us and the food was amazing! i really like their braai chicken!
Robben Island and Muizenberg beach
Robben Island is the location of the prision where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisioner for 18 years. This was a really moving experience to learn about the prision. First we did a bus tour and saw the island and learned about the placed where they made the prisioners work. it was upsetting to learn that they would make them work for ten hours a day and only give them a glass of salt water. Many people died while working. We also learned about one of the less known prisioners and the man who starteds to revolution against the aparatid, Robert Sobukwe. He was forced to live in this tiny little yard. he couldnt leave the yard and they made he not talk to anyone, not even the guards for six years. when he was finally allowed to talk to someone he couldnt because his vocal chords were damaged. to make it worse he was being held there after he had already completed his sentence at a jail in jo-berg. in the end, since he didnt get to speak for six years he got throat cancer and died. Thats his story in a nutshell there is more to the torture he went through, but he was an unbelievable man and you should read up on him on your own. Our tour guide was a grad student who did tours on weekends because he was proud of his country and what the people in it have accomplished, peace and reconciliation, but the coolest thing he said was that not one country, not one race, but human kind unitying as one can save this world.He said it alot better than i did but it was really moving. After we finished the bus tour we went into the jail for a tour. our tour guide was an ex- political prisioner. he showed us the room he stayed in with 80 other men, it was tiny. then we got to see Nelson Mandela's room, which was a 2 by 2 cell, the dogs there had a 3 by 3 cage. i couldnt imagine staying in such a small space. plus prisioners were only allowed to see their loved ones at first every six months and then if they were good once every month, but there were contact and none contact visit. i couldnt imagine going 18 years and only being able to hold my wifes hands at most once a month and sometimes only getting to see her through glass. Neways there is alot more to what went on in the prision, how these men were treated all to stand up for the freedom of other black south africans. our tour guide was tortured before he got to prision, and the worst was that they mutilated his privates so bad that we though he would never have kids, they wanted to take aways his manhood, his ability to have children which having a family is really important in south africa. Neways there is alot more we learned but you will have to read up on it on your own.
Kirstenbosch sunset concert
So yesterday night we went to a concert in the gardens, kirstenbosch, which is absolutley beautiful, you will have to see my pics to get an idea of the beauty. neways the concert was on a hill overlooking the mountains and it was this native african singing in what i believe was half french and then mostly his native language. neways people brought little pinics and ate and listened to the music but by the end everyone was up and dancing. it was really good music! and lots of fun! i think we are going to go back every sunday because its only 35 rand, $5, to go. it was amazing. look at my pictures and you will see why
So i didnt know what to expect for the plane ride to london and then to south africa. i wasnt really positive about it at first because it was late and therefore we missed out layover in london so i didnt get to go downtown londonn, but the plane ride to london was amazing. First of all, the plane was like half empty so we got to sit all by each other and had space to spread out. Then they had personalized televisions with movies, music and tv shows and guess what show they had, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, my favorite cartoon. I think i was the only adult watching cartoons on the tv, but they had a ton of movies to watch and tons of different tv shows, although they only had one episode for each show. well on top of that the flight attendents are sooooo friendly. we became friends with this flight attendent who was from england and because he is an FA he gets to go all over the place and he told us all about cape town and the cool places to go. Next we got the most addorable little meals, where there were like 3 courses, but like miniature size, plus you got coffee or tea at the end of each meal. Alcohol was also free, which the other girls we super excited about, it seems to be a necessity for europeans and africans. We also got this little tube of toothpaste, a mini toothbrush, and socks in case you want to take off your shoes. The second flight was more crowded but we had the coolest flight attendent, he was soo nice and he always said cheers after he served you. they all really talked awesome! Neways we finally made it into cape town after a 7-8hour flight to london and a 12 hour flight to cape town.
Kimberley House and Obs
After arriving in cape town we went straight to observatory, or as we call it obs, which is the town we live in. It is sooooo cute. There are a bunch of little shops, art shops, book shops, coffee shops, dress shops, and african shops. it kinda reminds we of a little street in purdue where they had really cute shops, but it is definity a city town. i, like many other americans, thought that it would have dirt roads and be further from the city, but its right next to the city and looks like a mini city in itself. the best part of obs is the coffee shops. we went to this coffee shop, mini's, one morning to get breakfast and guess what they had there, tea and crumpets! i didnt even need to go downtown london! anyways the coffee is unbelievable! i had this white hot chocolate latte that was to die for! plus the greatest thing about cape town is everything is cheap. you will here it in my blogs alot about how i had amazing food for really cheap. Neways, we live on kimberley street so our house is called kimberley house and it is adorable. we each have a roomate, there is a kicten, a dining room with a huge table, a living room, 5 bathrooms, and a nice size backyard. the best thing is we have hardwood floors!Im sharing a room with one of the girls named mallory and we have the huge wardrobe and guess what, i can burn incense in my room!
Welcome party and the black out
So the first friday we were here we had a blockparty to welcome us to the neighborhood and get to know the neighborhood. only some of our neighbors showed up but they were really nice. also these girls we met at school, UWC, came over and they are both from Zambia, a country a little north of south africa. They were really nice and we played cards together, they really liked to play spoons! but then at like 8 we got a blackout. it was kinda weird not having any lights but we decided to tell scary stories and we talked about the different ghosts they have in american and south africa. then we started talking about dancing and the girls decided to show us some of the dancing they have to learn when they grow up, and they were amazing. its so cool how they can move and control their bodies. i dont think i could ever move like that. but there is only so much you can do in a blackout so they had to leave, overall though it was a really cool night and i learned alot about the traditions in south africa and zambia.
UWC
My new school! We went to UWC on wed to register but they werent ready for us so we justed picked out our classes and then took a tour around the campus. its really nice, like any other campus in the states. they have an olympic sized swimming pool because i guess the south african swimmers practice there. they also have playing fields for rugby, cricket, and football(our soccer, unfortunately football isnt popular here but soccer is). There student union is my favorite part of campus. its huge inside and they always have music playing, they really like american music here but like older american music so its nice to hear some songs i havent listened to in a while, and in this place they have a bunch of places to eat. they sell fruit on campus. they also have a lot of different stands we they sell jewelry and cell phones and other cool stuff. UWC is pretty far from campus so they need to have alot of stuff on campus for the students. They also have this chinese resturant that some of their foreign students created and run where you can get an entire plate of chinese food for less than a dollar!! Food is really cheap on campus and i love it! As lovely as campus is there scheduling system is really weird. i had class for the first time today and it turns out that the times for both my classes completely changed. it was really frustrating, but im going to have to work it out. it wouldnt be as bad but i have to take all my classes in 2 days. overall though i love the campus. cheap food and a lot of green area to sit and tan or sleep.
The Township
Friday we went to one of the girls service learning sites which was in a township, the cities where they moved the blacks during the aparatid. it was really sad but kinda cool. it was sad because to see the living conditions these people were forced to live in is horrible, but it was really cool because we got to here alot about the culture in the townships. Family is super important. also having guests over is a big thing. whenever someone has a guest over, no matter how poor they are they will have something to offer there guest. Thats one thing i noticed alot about people in south africa, they are really concerned with being polite to their guests and think of others before themselves. they also have alot of traditional events, braais(barbacue) and dances. i cant wait till we can go into the township for one of those. the place we went had art work and crafts from people in the township to raise money for the HIV/AIDS problem. it was really cool how they were using their skills to help their neighbors. neways they feed us and the food was amazing! i really like their braai chicken!
Robben Island and Muizenberg beach
Robben Island is the location of the prision where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisioner for 18 years. This was a really moving experience to learn about the prision. First we did a bus tour and saw the island and learned about the placed where they made the prisioners work. it was upsetting to learn that they would make them work for ten hours a day and only give them a glass of salt water. Many people died while working. We also learned about one of the less known prisioners and the man who starteds to revolution against the aparatid, Robert Sobukwe. He was forced to live in this tiny little yard. he couldnt leave the yard and they made he not talk to anyone, not even the guards for six years. when he was finally allowed to talk to someone he couldnt because his vocal chords were damaged. to make it worse he was being held there after he had already completed his sentence at a jail in jo-berg. in the end, since he didnt get to speak for six years he got throat cancer and died. Thats his story in a nutshell there is more to the torture he went through, but he was an unbelievable man and you should read up on him on your own. Our tour guide was a grad student who did tours on weekends because he was proud of his country and what the people in it have accomplished, peace and reconciliation, but the coolest thing he said was that not one country, not one race, but human kind unitying as one can save this world.He said it alot better than i did but it was really moving. After we finished the bus tour we went into the jail for a tour. our tour guide was an ex- political prisioner. he showed us the room he stayed in with 80 other men, it was tiny. then we got to see Nelson Mandela's room, which was a 2 by 2 cell, the dogs there had a 3 by 3 cage. i couldnt imagine staying in such a small space. plus prisioners were only allowed to see their loved ones at first every six months and then if they were good once every month, but there were contact and none contact visit. i couldnt imagine going 18 years and only being able to hold my wifes hands at most once a month and sometimes only getting to see her through glass. Neways there is alot more to what went on in the prision, how these men were treated all to stand up for the freedom of other black south africans. our tour guide was tortured before he got to prision, and the worst was that they mutilated his privates so bad that we though he would never have kids, they wanted to take aways his manhood, his ability to have children which having a family is really important in south africa. Neways there is alot more we learned but you will have to read up on it on your own.
Kirstenbosch sunset concert
So yesterday night we went to a concert in the gardens, kirstenbosch, which is absolutley beautiful, you will have to see my pics to get an idea of the beauty. neways the concert was on a hill overlooking the mountains and it was this native african singing in what i believe was half french and then mostly his native language. neways people brought little pinics and ate and listened to the music but by the end everyone was up and dancing. it was really good music! and lots of fun! i think we are going to go back every sunday because its only 35 rand, $5, to go. it was amazing. look at my pictures and you will see why
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