Islands

Monday:

• Psych class was interesting. I am still having a lot of trouble getting all of the cultural references (stereotypes and locations and whatnot), but I think I am catching on. 
• I tried to go to the girls rugby practice today, but it was cancelled due to rain (Boooooo! What wimps). But next week, I shall be there! At last!
• Driving in circles. Poor Pearnel (our driver) had to turn around so many times today it became so comical. Meribeth left her computer at home, then he had to come back to school for me because practice was cancelled, and then Jessica Burkard wasn't finished at her work site so we left and then came back for her.
• Obz cafe 2 for 1 burger night is still going strong! Stuart and I were the only ones to go this week, but the staff knows us. That's right. We are regulars. They even said that they will see us next Monday. What now.

Tuesday:

• Work site. Not much was happening, but I got a ton of reading done.
• The weather has been very temperamental. Some days have been gorgeous, tank top weather, and others I do not possess enough clothing to bundle me up enough. It has been getting steadily nicer though, but I am not looking forward to the winds that people say are a'comin.
• We have also met a ton of people, but due to the fact that we are all over always, we don't have very permanent friends yet, so I will keep you posted if our social skills improve.
• I have been cooking up a storm! And getting quite accomplished at it, if I do say so myself. 
• I miss pizza. Truly, I do.
• Pets, I am in need of more pets in my life. Although the cats here are ridiculously friendly and approachable. So that is nice. I also like the neighbor dogs.
• I am finding people's accents easier and easier to understand, but I still cannot for the life of me reproduce them. But I am working quite diligently on being able to do so.

Wednesday:

• The ANCYL (African National Congress Youth League) wanted to protest living conditions and sanitation among other things, so they had planned to blockade highways and make it impossible for anyone to leave or enter the city via highway. Here is the link:  http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/we-will-shut-down-cape-ancyl-1.1355605. Melikaya was telling us that if it seemed bad, then Pearnel couldn't drive us in the big bus because we would look like a public taxi and seeing as the taxi drivers would also be on strike, they would try to kill him. No big deal. However, the strike was called off, and only certain areas were affected. So that was good.
• Ethics class: we talked about groups and different facets of oppression. To demonstrate how fluid grouping people is, the professor had us stand up and move from side to side according to different groups (South Africans/Americans, boys/girls, wearing a hat/not wearing a hat, etc.)
• Hillary Clinton came and spoke about South African/American relations. I felt like it was rather vague and mostly fluff and the South Africans say that she said pretty much the same thing as every other politician. But it was still an experience.

Thursday:

• Today is National Women's Day. So we got school/work off.
• Robben Island! We have been putting this off for so long! It has been getting cancelled last second and we were so happy to finally get to go!

• It was an amazingly gorgeous day. Just absolutely stunning. I am in love with the ocean and the mountains. Despite the terrible things that have transpired on the island (it was a leper colony and then used as a prison for political prisoners), I think it has been one of the more beautiful places I have seen. The colors were just wonderful and everything was so vibrant. Despite the fact that it was a prison, all of the buildings had a certain element of beauty to them as well. The water here is so unbelievably clear; we could see right down to the ocean floor which was covered in starfish!
• On the ferry ride over, I made some friends. There was a group of 27 women from South Africa (very near to Zimbabwe) that had been touring around Cape Town for the past two weeks. They were dressed in traditional garb, but they were using beach towels as shawls! Their outfits were superb. One of the women started to clap and dance around on the boat ride over, so, naturally, I joined her and they all got a big kick out of that.

• On the return journey, one of the women beckoned me over to their group, and the one I had been dancing with gave me two of her bangles!! I was very flattered. She didn't speak any English, so one of the other ladies translated a little for me and I got to talking to them about Cape Town and their travels and my travels. And then one of the other ladies gave me one of her bangles! The translator lady said that she would give me one too, but my wrists were very small and hers would slide right off because she was a "big Mama!!"
• Animal sightings: sea lions, whale, penguins, tortoises, starfish, jellies!!!
• Waterfront wanderings followed. We saw some acrobats and tribal dancers. Then we ate at Spurs, the American wild west/native chain restaurant.
• Sofi's parents are here, and oddly enough, we ran into them as we were walking downtown to catch the public taxis.

Friday:

• First thing in the morning, we all piled into the buses and went to the airport to pick up Sophie! She has finally returned to us after a month of being in the states to deal with medical issues. We had a joyous reunion!
• We had our presentations on different case studies dealing with participatory development and our professor was quite impressed with all of them. My crew did a Norwegian case and then Brazil as a country.
• In theology we had a guest lecturer who spoke with us about the Kairos Documents. The first one was written in 1985 as a challenge to the church to stand up against Apartheid and proclaim that something was wrong. At the time, South Africa was about 80% christian, so the churches were the only groups other than the National Party that were not banned. As such, they held a lot of influence yet at the time just stood on the political and social sidelines. The second Kairos letter was written in 2011 in anticipation of 2012, the hundredth year anniversary of the ANC (African National Congress which is in power today). It applauded the successes that has been made, yet brought up certain grievances with today's issues. These included factionalism and distribution of wealth.
• Muizenberg! I took the train to this beach town with Sarah, Shatevia, and Jason. It was half blue-skyed beautiful, and half ominous storm clouds. We walked along the beach and took many pictures of the golden mountains bathed in sunlight. We then walked to an indoor market and I fell in love. Every stand had incredible smelling food from all over the world, falafels to cheesecake! I personally indulged in some butternut samoosas. We then walked back to the beach and watched the sunset. As we were approaching the beach, Jason yelled out that he saw something spout. Whales! Three of them! That was a really great surprise. We then decided to walk back to the market in which we ran into some friends of our housemate and his roommates. One of them had gone to high school with Shatevia and was in her graduating class! Crazy small world we live in.

• Sophie's return meant that we had to celebrate! We went out to Long Street and I had such a great hot dog, it was unreal. My roomie, Mary Claire had her purse pickpocketed, so she is out a credit card and cell phone. Although she got lucky because her debit card and iphone were in her pockets and not her purse. Shatevia almost had even worse luck. She lost her ids, money, credit cards, and atm card. But then these random girls came up to her and told her that they had been looking for her everywhere. Their friend had found Shatevia's things on the ground and they gave it all back to her! Ah, the kindness of strangers.

Saturday:

• Gloriously lazy day. Which was quite alright because there was such a glorious thunderstorm brewing. Apparently lightening and thunder is quite rare here, so we were lucky to see it.
• I am getting sick. But I am feeling proud of myself for holding out this long; everyone else has been really sick and I am the last to catch it.
• We had a braai at the house! A group of Fordham graduate students who are staying in Pretoria were touring around Cape Town and our program directors organized a "barbecue" for our two groups. They were all very interesting people, about 20 of them, and most of them were international (Philippines, Russia, Dominican Republic...). Three of them had previously volunteered for the Peace Corps, so we talked to them about their experiences (mom and dad, I'm getting ideas). 

Sunday:

• Lazy day round two!
• Family dinner was cooked by Sam and Maggie. They made a beast of a chilli and our visual entertainment consisted of Slumdog Millionaire. One of my personal favorites.