Catching up

Monday:

·         Service day

·         I voted! WHOO!!! Huzzah, civic duty!

Tuesday:

·         psych class, almost done! Needless to say, my focus is waning and it is feeling more and more like summer here!

·         At our weekly house meeting, we reflected on the Ignatius spirit. We all go to Jesuit universities and St. Ignatius is a very strong figure within that community. It was interesting to discuss how the ideologies of our universities, particularly in a theological manner, coincided with what we were doing here in terms of service.

·         St. Ignatius lived the life of a party boy until he was wounded in battle and underwent a severe life epiphany brought upon by prolonged solitude due to his injury. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola. He focused on the idea that God is present in everyday life, and combines that with the value of service to others.

Wednesday:

·         Ethics class, almost done! I can almost taste freedom!

·         I had a very productive day, I just need to begin my finals and figure out everything for back home. USF is ever  diligent at answering my emails; there is no bureaucracy anywhere.

·         I have also noticed an extreme increase of white people on campus. Previously, it was a little odd to not recognize them all, but today I saw at least ten that I haven’t seen before. I’m wondering if they are coming here for summer classes or something.

·         We went out to Poncho’s to celebrate Bridget’s boyfriend Peter being here and Caroline’s parents showing up. It was also Caroline’s mom’s birthday, so we made her put on a sombrero and do a tequila shot! The food was so good, and I am in love with their jam jars. Caroline’s parents treated us, which was really nice of them.

·         Earlier in the day, Sofi, Michelle, and Maggie were walking to McDonalds when three guys mugged them. They ran up from behind and grabbed Michelle’s purse, and they tried to grab Maggie’s purse too, but it was around her body, so one of the guys hit her in the face. Some neighbors ran out when they heard screaming and the guys ran off. They were pretty shaken up by it, and Melikaya brought them to the police. Later, they arrested one of the guys. It was just weird because it was broad daylight and they were in a group. I guess you can’t be too careful though.

Thursday:

·         I finished writing up the over view of my social program for Dance For All, now I just have to wait for the staff to review it and comment so I can refine it some more.

·         I am quite sad because a ton of people are leaving for the weekend. Some are going to Coffee Bay (in the Eastern Cape, I went there on my midsemester trip and rode horses and surfed), and some are going to Cape Agulhas, the very southernmost point of all Africa.

·         We went out to Cubanos for dinner and we met up with some friends from UCT. However, I am not so inclined to return, the food was great but the service was terrible. Seriously, we waited for a half hour just for menus. But I had a grand time meeting some new UCT exchange students.

·         Afterwards, we hit up Tiger Tiger, a dance club in Claremont. It was all white people, which was so weird. But they played some great songs (Stacey’s Mom, Scotty Doesn’t Know, Call Me Maybe, Gangnam Style, and SANDSTRORM, which naturally made me think of high-school aged Kane). I was happy as a pig in a puddle.

Friday:

·         We had gone out the night before because we were all certain that we had a lecturer coming to meet us at 2pm. However, Sofi gets a call from Melikaya at 8:30, asking if we were on our way. Surprise morning lecture! I really liked the lady a lot; she spoke about her experience as a director for multiple NGO’s.

·         Mary Claire (my roommate)’s mom is here! And she came with us to our second lecture of the day.

·         The second lecturer looked familiar, and then Jess Burkard realized that we had had her as a substitute in our Ethics class. She talked to us about gender and sexual violence within South Africa.

·         We went to the Hout Bay market, which is about a half an hour south of us by cab. The market had some really great booths, actually there was a lot of really cool art for sale. And everyone’s food was great, especially the tomato basil soup. It was kind of funny though, because most cabs don’t dispatch that far away, we ended up getting lucky that a cab driver offered us a ride because he had been waiting. We just pull out and he gets a call from the people he was waiting for. We had stolen the cab from Mary Claire and her mom! Poor Mary, the driver was trying to tell the dispatcher to send another cab for her, but the dispatcher was too dense to figure out why he couldn’t just do it (there were a lot of us squeezed into one cab already on our way back to Obz). Eventually she got a cab back to her mom’s hotel, but she must have been pretty stressed about getting stuck in Hout Bay for the night. All of us in the cab were laughing.

Saturday:

·         I went with Shatevia, Sofi, and Jess Buck to a big kid party. One of Shatevia’s work friends was having a surprise 28^th birthday party (her boyfriend was throwing it for her) at a sushi bar in Seapoint that was right on the water.

·         I had a good time talking to people, they were from all over the world (there were a couple Americans!) and were all in the same MBA program at UCT.

·         Afterwards, I went with Shatevia and her Brazilian friend, Carolina, to Fish & Chips Co. in Rondebosch. My stomach officially cannot deal with greasy food anymore, but it was so worth it. Carolina is great, she was too funny because she didn’t realize how far away Fish & Chips Co. was from home, so she was yelling at Shatevia the whole time we were walking home.

·         We watched Paranormal Activity 3, so I slept in Shatevia’s bed with her, because like hell can she make me watch that and then make me sleep alone.

Sunday:

·         The weather hates us all. It was rainy and cold and I was grumpsicles about it.

·         Everyone that went to Cape Agulhas came home!!! Sophie’s best friend came to visit as well, so I finally got to meet her (they went to Cape Agulhas too)

·         Family dinner was hosted by Meghan and Kholeka. They made fried rice, chicken and seafood, an amazing salad, and root beer floats for dessert!

Jess Burkard has also replaced Mary as my roommate, because Mary is staying at the hotel with her mom and Jess claims that her bed is so much more comfortable (plus we get internet in our room haha)

Oct 8-14: slipping by

Monday:

·         Work site day. Still plugging away at finding resources for the kids.

·         I checked the news today. Notable news: most about the proposed Pretoria name change (the capital). Which I find interesting. You would think all of the violence a little bit lower down the page would take the headlines.

·         SUSHI NIGHT! I embarked on a many hour adventure to track down ingredients with Shatevia for her family dinner. We ended up rolling sushi, making veggie and crab tempura, green tea ice cream, and pad thai. It was so great, we were all running around the kitchen, and then a song by Die Antwoord (who I love) came on the radio! It was the biggest mess we have ever made of that kitchen, and we ended up eating at 9:30, but it was such a great time. So much food was made. So much.

Tuesday:

·         We had dinner at Chima’s (Dr. Korieh). He is our academic advisor from Marquette. He’s from Nigeria originally, so he made us some traditional Nigerian food! It was a little hot, but bearable, I guess Nigerians are known for their spice.

Wednesday:

·         After class I was really feeling an adventure, so I went graffiti hunting with Jason around Woodstock.

·         There is some amazing art just sort of tucked away.

·         At one point, we got a little bit sucked off the main road, following the graffiti. I didn’t think too much of it, until we happened upon a little grove of shacks and a guy telling us we had to give him something. Jason said he would, but after he was done taking his pictures. So the guy designated himself as our personal tour guide and kept saying things like “come this way!” and I was just thinking that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go where he wanted to take me, and both Jason and I were taking corners pretty wide, just in case someone was on the other side. He ended up showing us some cool pieces, and we paid him R20 for his help. A couple guys were hanging out on the corner and they kept yelling over at us in Xhosa, but I think they were making fun of him. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that situation, but in the end, it was a neat experience.

·         I also ended up practicing a bit of my par cour. I needed to climb up a wall and stand on a ledge the width of a brick to get a better picture. I felt pretty bad ass, and the photos came out great.

·         We also got invited to an art show. We were passing through this center with a ton of galleries, although most of them looked like they were still in the process of opening, and this guy invited us. I’m bummed that we had a program meeting on Thursday when the show was.

·         I also found out (after googling Banksy to show people back home who he is http://www.banksy.co.uk/) that there was a street art exhibit in Cape Town! However, I just missed it because it ended September 8^th. I was so happy when I found the ad for it, and then all of my hopes and dreams were smashed in one second when I saw the dates had passed.

Thursday:

·         After going to my work site, I went to Lotus Park (the place where we had that traditional African dinner where I ate a sheep’s head) to help with a tutoring program that Caroline and Jess Buck are a part of.

·         There ended up being a lot more volunteers than kids, so we read a couple of kid’s books and hung out with some of the older Lotus people. We then got a walking tour of Lotus Park! Which was great. We stopped in by their bar, which boasted a pool table, and we saw inside one of the guy’s home, and then he showed us his friend’s shack that had a recording studio in it!! They showed us the music video they were working on and it was pretty good! (better than that Solange Knowles video that just came out that was filmed in Langa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9W_mrY_Vk)

This is the Bar in Lotus Park. Everyone who is anyone hangs out here

·         Unfortunately, the bus breaking down did not stop trusty Pearnel from obtaining other cars to get us all to UWC for a silly seminar on test anxiety. Not one of us was happy about it, even Pearnel. Although we cheered up at the end when they gave us snack boxes with Quali-juice, NikNaks, and apples.

Friday:

·         We had to present on the autobiography of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom we met earlier this semester. He is such an interesting guy and was a major voice during Apartheid and on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission afterwards.

·         We gathered with some of the UCT students to compete in team Olympics! I was on Kenya, and we had the best facepaint, by far! Below are the ladies and the gents of team Kenya

Saturday:

·        Today, I took the train out to Grassy Park to go to a market and hike. Little did we know, that Meghan found a market 3 miles from the train station and made us walk all the way there.

·         It was rather nice though. It looked oddly like Yakima, Washington. Actually, this area had bigger streets and real yards and trees, so it looked the most like the US that I have seen yet. Plus we got to pet some horses.

·         After we went to the market and sampled all the tasty food, we were meandering around this summer-camp-like place and found a SLIP N’ SLIDE!

·         So we commandeered the slip n’ slide until a security guard started meandering over towards us.

·         Then we hiked up through the Tokai  Forest (trees! This place had real trees!) to get to Elephant’s eye- a huge cavern at the top of the mountain.

·         My Achilles tendon is strained from overuse and I got a bee sting. But we ran the whole way down the mountain and had a blast… until we realized we had to walk three miles back to the train station.

Sunday:

·         Sun-day!

·         I caught up on work and lounged in the sun, working on my tan! (yes, I am actually achieving a nice dusting of color)

·         Jess and Michelle made a spaghetti bar for family dinner, complete with garlic bread, homemade meatballs, seafood, and three sauces! The video entertainment was Shawshank Redemption. Classic.

Rockn'rollin Daisies!

Monday:

·         At my site, I am still working on my resourcing project. I made a sheet for the teachers to fill out with the information that therapists/social workers would need to know, etc. It looks like putting a solid system in place is going to be a lot more work than I anticipated and will probably be my goal for the end of the semester.

·         I was on such a high from Lion’s Head that I wanted to go back. However, I didn’t get my stuff together in time for sunset, so instead I climbed the bottom of Devil’s Peak, and there were fireflies! I have only seen them maybe twice before in my life, so that was a very pleasant treat.

Tuesday:

·         I decided to be a rebel child and skip class. Yet, in true Shannon form, it was still a very educational day. I went with Meghan and Stuart to the art museum!

·         I really liked a lot of the art that they had. It was certainly smaller than the one in Portland, but they had a good collection. I particularly liked the exhibit that showed the use of animals in art from colonial era to the present. You walked in and the first thing you see is a giant iron horse rearing with a colonial black woman in full dress riding it. 

Additionally, there were these weird alien-people statues entitles "The Butcher Boys" that were very eerie. It felt like they were going to stand up at any second and start talking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butcher_Boys

·         The museum also had a “dialogue” segment. This paired two or more pictures together in a way that they each commented on each other. For example, there was a colonial depiction of city hall next to a vibrant purple and blue night life depiction.

·         Lastly, there was even an exhibit from UWC (my school here)! There were a lot of prints that were found archived in some basement somewhere and they mostly came from Apartheid era when the college was first established. (In the beginning it was a colored only school, so there was a very specific perspective represented in all the prints).

·          After the museum, we lay in the grass of the downtown gardens and walked to Greenmarket Square. I liked what the market had, but seeing as it was a Tuesday, there were hardly any shoppers. This meant that the vendors were quite pushy and adamant to show us their wares. I spoke Spanish for the day so that I had an excuse to ignore them.

·         After that, I walked all the way home from downtown with Stuart. It only took us about an hour, and I felt productive for the exercise.

Wednesday:

·         So the jerk who has been insulting everyone finally presented today.

·         It was actually a rather disappointing ending to the saga. The professor took this opportunity to show that the guy’s presentation did not cover any subject within the scope of the class and that he should have seen that on the syllabus (his was about autonomy and oppression, as in if people believe in the reasons that they are oppressed, does that make it okay? It was actually really interesting). And she went on to embarrass him by bringing up some college degree that he had put on his facebook, but then he said he did not indeed have any degree yet. It was satisfying to see him squirm, but I felt like it was a conversation for her office, outside of the public eye and I felt an overwhelming amount of immaturity from both parties. I guess people just handle confrontation differently here.

Thursday:

·         Service again. I am working on a referral sheet for the teachers to explain specific problems that their kids are having, the background, and other information needed to get assistance to these kids. For example, a lot of the problems include not going to school, not having enough to eat, not having safe living conditions or supervision, to more serious problems such as depression and abuse. I think that I am going to need to make a rough version to use for now until I get a more permanent concept in place.

·         At this point, I think I need to take a step back and design the system as a whole, then work on filling in the little parts with more concrete things like my referral sheet. This is going to take a lot of research.

 Friday:

·         During my community development class, we had a talk from a lady who was originally from the states, but then she moved to South Africa to work in the community development sector. Needless to say, since a lot of the people that I live with want to do just that, everyone was pretty intrigued.

·         After, we left for Rocking the Daisies- the South African version of Sasquatch!

·         It was located north of Cape Town, at a wine estate in Darling.

·         It was easily the whitest place I have been in South Africa. I think that the entire cape population of Afrikaners was there. But as it was a festival, everyone brought their A game outfits and it was fun to see it all.

Saturday:

·         The festival grounds had a pond with a “beach” on it, complete with beach-side bar. There were also quite a lot of great booths to look through (even a “swap store” where people brought old things and they would give them to you if you tweeted a picture and where you got it!). I spent most of the day walking around, seeing the sights, listening to the bands (many of whom I could not tell you their names), and meeting new people!

·         There were also a lot of Europeans and Americans there. I met a girl named Jessica who moved to Cape Town to get her masters from UCT (getting ideas, mom and dad), and some people that lived around obz (where I live)! There was even a guy wearing a USF shirt, but I was so stunned that I didn't think to say anything before he walked away.

·         There was one band that reminded me of Steam Powered Giraffe, and they had a lot of brass (trumpets, tuba, etc.), and that was a really fun show. I also had a good time listening to Desmond and the Tutus (clever band name). To be honest though, I was not really feeling the headliner, Bloc Party. They just sounded flat and it started to rain during their show.

·         I am told that last year had scorching weather; we were not so lucky this year. The first night was so freezing cold, I ended up in a pile with Jess Burkard and Mary Claire so we could keep warm. Additionally, we got the tent that did not have a functional zipper on the door, so it was open all night and the wind came and went as it pleased. Also, on Saturday night we enjoyed a bit of rain with our open tent door.

Sunday:

·         We woke up wet, chilly, exhausted and utterly loving life.

·         The venue was such a zoo to get out of, so we ended up walking up the road a ways to meet Xolile so that he wouldn't have to brave the parking lot.

Lions galore!

Monday:

·         Bridget’s mom came to town, so we went to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting!

·         It was like another world over there, a lot more European looking and gorgeous.

·         The wine was fabulous, we went to three different wineries and I ended up buying a Chenin Blanc (which surprised me; normally I’m more of a red drinker).

We then ended our day out with a trip to the lion sanctuary! We got there right at feeding time!!! So they were all prowling around the fences near us, munching on their chickens.

   

·         As we were leaving, these three little kids were talking to these big black birds in a cage. They were teaching them to say “Hello, lion food!” to people as they enter the park. They were my heroes.

Tuesday:

·         Psych class is getting increasingly more boring and by the textbook. It is a good opportunity to practice my drawing.

Wednesday:

·         In Ethics, the drama continues! There is this one guy who is on a personal crusade to prove the entire class (the students, professor, and curriculum) is ignorant and un-academic. It is getting really ridiculous. The other group of us Americans presented today and he spent the entire time telling them that their moral question (part of the ethics requirement for the project) was insufficient as a question. And that all the other groups didn’t even have a moral question (debatable). The professor then defended us all (she rocked it, serious props to her) and asked if we were going to stick up for ourselves. At that point, I started asking him questions to get him to defend his bigotry, but shortly into his explanation, he insulted the entire class by referring to us as “empty vessels” that did not realize our ignorance. At this point, the whole class walked out. Although, truth be told, I think that ‘empty vessel’ is now one of my favorite insults. I found out later that he then wrote a letter to the head of the department, claiming that the class should not count for credit and that the professor was not doing her job. So the department came in on that Thursday (for which I was at service) and asked about the class’ opinion on that matter. We promptly told the head that he is crazy.

Thursday:

·         Work site, I am putting together resources for the students. This mostly includes a list of social work/mental health resources for the township of Nyanga, one of the poorest and most dangerous areas around Cape Town http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyanga,_Cape_Town

·         The main reason that I am doing this is that the teachers constantly deal with students who need help dealing with stress, depression, and sometimes trauma, and they are very well-meaning, but not licensed social workers and certainly do not have enough time for every student. So I am working on a referral system for them to get further help for their kids.

Saturday:

·         We all went to Cape Point for the day! Which is the South-Western most point of Africa! The drive to get there was so freaking beautiful, it is known as one of the world’s most scenic drives.  A lot of really famous people have houses along this stretch (Will Smith and more).

·         Along the way, we stopped at several places to take pictures and sight-see. These stops included watching some baboons and visiting an ostrich farm. Ostriches are so weird, but so great. Seriously, look at their feet, they have one giant toe. We also stopped at a small shop that was dedicated to selling the work of local artists and helping them out (I bought three paintings and a bracelet, I just could not help myself).

·         The park of Cape Point was so beautiful. The wind was whistling and the waves were crashing all over. I climbed up on the rock face with a couple other people, and we got yelled at when we got down (I suppose they aren’t too fond of tourists being reckless).

·         We then climbed up to the lighthouse that overlooks all of False Bay and the point. We could see clear to Table Mountain!

·         Our last stop of the day was to have dinner in Simonstown. It was great because there were penguins just chilling on the patio right outside our window!

Sunday:

·         We had a family brunch instead of a dinner, courtesy of Meribeth and Sophie. Dear lord, how I have missed pancakes.

·         After brunch, we all trekked over to Lion’s Head (the final of the three peaks that I have needed to climb). I guess that it is a really big thing around here to hike up to watch the sunset and tonight was the full moon!!

·         It was so beautiful! The hike only took us around 45 minutes to an hour. The first part was a nice, gentle slope, and then the top part was more rock climbing with ladders and handles and chains bolted into the rocks. The view was perfect, you could see out over the ocean for miles, all of downtown, Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak, Signal Hill, and even further down the coast and places along the peninsula like Camps Bay.

·         We go there an hour before sunset so we picnicked at the top, I brought some apple pie (Pick N Pay makes wonderful pie for a dollar twenty-five) and some wine.

·         As we were sitting there, the clouds started to roll in from the ocean over the town around us. As the sun went down, it made everything look like it was in heaven and we felt like we were sitting on top of the world!

·         The stars were pretty dim because of the light from the city and the brilliant full moon. It was wolf-howling bright. Thankfully, it was light enough to help us climb down. There is an easier path that does not require chains and ladders, but we couldn’t find the turn off for it, so Mary Claire, Sam, and I blazed down fearlessly. I have many years of climbing the mountain at Bigfoot in the dark to thank for my success. 

dancing with the sharks

Monday:

·         Work site success! Lisa, the volunteer from Germany had her last day, so there was a farewell party for her. Including cake! She had been here for an entire year, so she was very sad to leave, but it was a really nice event. In lieu of her leaving, there are now three new volunteers, a boy and a girl from Germany and a girl from Holland.  I am now working on a project to help organize everything (it is seriously such a mess). Additionally, I’m helping to gather resources for social work with the kids.

Tuesday:

·         Psych class today. It is getting rather non-eventful. I really miss our old professor, but alas, what can I do.

·         I have been reading Game of Thrones! (Sam, I know you are giggling with excitement, we shall talk of this soon!)

Wednesday:

·         Ethics presentation was today, which means that all I have left is the final!! Such a difficult and strenuous semester.  My group talked about gender theory, specifically masculine and feminine traits within an individual through the use of our case study Mrs. Doubtfire. It made me miss San Francisco, I’ll be honest.

·         I walked to Claremont for the first time. It is sort of the L.O. here. It was a lovely long walk and it was good to finally see what everyone has been talking about.

·         Mary Claire’s favorite movie as a child was Beatlejuice, so I grabbed the chance to finally see it for the first time. We are soulmates.

Thursday:

·         Work site. I went to Hope’s class at Hlingisa again. This time with a mission. I am taking photos to use for promotional reasons (get the people with the money interested, etc.). Most of those are available for your viewing pleasure on Facebook. The kids are so swag.

Friday:

·         For class, we had a past mayor of Cape Town come and speak with us, it was really interesting to get someone’s opinion who has actually been involved in politics. With that being said, I feel like more people here know about politics of the U.S. than most of us Americans do. It is a little embarrassing. It’s also really interesting because I never truly realized what a huge effect America, as a country, can have for everyday life for people in different hemispheres. I heard someone say “When America sneezes, the rest of the world gets a cold.”

·         We then heard Easy and Tobago, two men that were convicted of the murder of a 27 year old American woman, Amy Biehl in an act of political protest.  The story gets really interesting after they served several years in prison, they went before the Truth and Reconciliation Council where the parents of Amy Biehl actually advocated for their release. Now they work with her parents, who began the foundation in her honor, to educate and give skills to kids in the townships. Talk about going beyond just forgiving. It was so fascinating to listen to them describe what it was like to grow up when people were being shot in the streets on their way home from school every day and what it was like to be part of the Apartheid resistance and even how afraid they were when they first met Mr. Biehl.

·         Later that night, I went to go play on the beach at Muizenberg and get falafels at the market. Meghan and I then took the train to Simonstown to meet up with Sam, Mary Claire, and Jess Burkard at the hostel. We crashed pretty early because we had to wake up for….

Saturday:

·         SHARKS! Yes, this wench went cage diving with the great whites at Seal Island! (look for it during shark week).

·         There were about fifteen of us total on the boat including the crew, and we all had a lovely time. The sunrise was so glorious, and the water was not too rough. We dragged a seal dummy around the island, hoping for an attack, but no luck.

·         Sam, Meghan and I were the first ones in the water. Three wetsuit attempts later, and after listening to Meghan’s shouts of “what am I doing!?!?” I was in the sharks. We got to see a female named Deauxrossi, and she even gave our cage a good nuzzle right by Sam’s head. The skipper was telling us how all the sharks have different personalities. She was rather gentle; the guy holding the bait was able to guide her around with just one hand as she nibbled on it.

·         In total, we saw three different sharks, and they were all so great and beautiful! Once I become super rich, I think I will make a habit out of going to see them.

·         I then went to Dance For All’s Heritage day celebration. I ended up making it just for the last performance, a choir, and they were rocking!

Sunday:

·         I finally went to church with Kholeka and Jason. They sang a ton, but all of the songs were in Xhosa! At least I got to work on my pronunciations.  

·         Family dinner, courtesy of Bridget and Sofi. Homemafe falafels. Awwwww yeaaaaahhhh.