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 8th. 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
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.
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