Wenches and Welps

This week in the life:

Monday:

• I walked to the Old Biscuit Mill, which is a market-like place, with Meribeth and Sarah. It was a beautiful day and a lovely walk. The market is really popping only on Saturdays, so there wasn't much to see, but we are definitely making plans to go back!
• Finally! Psych class!
• During class we discussed the difference between racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The professor was asking us about our definitions of racism and one girl made a comment about "non-whites" so he asked her to leave class. She told him that she didn't understand why, so he made her come down and sit on the table next to him and he explained that he considered the term "non-white" to be worse than a swear word. We are all something, we are not nothing and we should not be defined as not something. He even went so far as to say that if any of us used that word on a paper, it would be an automatic zero. It was quite a reality check for us all.
• Obz cafe night! It's turning into such a great tradition :)

Tuesday:

• Work site day
• I just helped out with some research around the office. They are planning a huge talent show as a fundraiser so I needed to find contacts of people that could potentially judge singing and specialty acts.

Wednesday:

• Ethics class. I was a little annoyed because the professor said since she didn't assign a summary of the reading, the lecture would just be an overview. I felt it was a little unnecessary, since I had actually read the articles, but such is life. We talked about why morality is or is not necessary.
• Worked out at the track again, but my shoes were hurting so I ran around barefoot and did some yoga and proudly upheld my "Americans are so weird" image.

Thursday:

• Work site day part two for the week.
• A new woman, named Angela just started on Wednesday of this week. She is supposed to be in charge of finances and fundraising, but she was telling me that she used to be a social worker. With that being said, she wants my help putting together programs on life skills for kids involved in the township outreach program. Finally, psych stuff.
• We went to a play because some of the folks I am living with are in a theater class. It was a 'campfire' play in that most of it came from audience members sharing their personal stories and the actors portraying it. It was a neat concept, but I felt like the stories were a little too

Friday:

• In my Community Development class we just discussed literally what we thought of the words "community," "development," and "community development." I guess that's a pretty good place to start. We were all supposed to do presentations on case studies of participatory development in different countries, but we didn't know that she wanted visual aids, so we are all making powerpoints for next week. 
• No Robben Island. We had planned to go today, but our program director went to pick up the tickets, and they told him he had just put them on hold and that they had already been giving away. So we are moving that adventure to next Thursday instead.
• Bo-Kaap! I went with Shatevia and Stuart to explore the Malay sector of downtown. We took the public taxi to get there, and I am a fan. We also checked out the museum there. There are a lot of Muslims in the area, and some gorgeous mosques. We checked out this great cemetery that had an incredible view of all downtown, from the mountain to the waterfront! We also saw a crested guinea fowl and it made the most obnoxious noise in the entire world!

Saturday:

• Saturday is a rugby day!
• We met some ruggers from UCT on Wednesday, and they informed us that there were to be games and general rugby festivities, so we went to go check it out. There were literally hundreds of ruggers and multiple games. It was great. I am missing rugby more and more. 
• I indulged in a light lunch of a quadruple-deckered pizza. I think God has a favorite pizza joint.
• We have discovered a place called Gandalf's. A LOTR themed bar. Your jealousy may begin now.

Sunday:

• More hiking and tree climbing shannonigans ensued 
• Family dinner night! We had orzo with chicken and oven roasted potatoes (not as good as at home, but nostalgic)! The film entertainment was Salt with Angelina Jolie. It was actually a lot better than I expected. 
• Seeing as everyone has returned from The Foot, I expect the courtesy of updates. No updates, no more blog posts. That is all.