South African Adventure

Updated

2008-07-08T21:45:00.002+02:00

I added two new posts about our roadtrip to East London/Cintsa and one about the final two weeks of school. I posted them below my entry about this chapter ending because I thought that would be a better order. So scroll down to read these entries. I will be posting about our coast to coast roadtrip and Festival before I leave Thursday morning.

A Chapter Finished...

2008-07-07T14:27:00.002+02:00

Today I finally realized that I'm actually going home in 3 days. I can't believe it. Festival is over and all the visitors are gone; Grahamstown is back to normal, which is only making this ending more difficult.

It sounds stupid, but today we went to our favorite coffee shop for the last time and said goodbye. It was a killer. We were there EVERY DAY except Sundays and over the last month we had become very close with the family who runs the shop. Mad Hatter's is our spot - everyone who knows us knows this. People don't believe that we spend as much time there as we do until they see our interactions with the staff. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our favorite waitress and this morning we enjoyed our last snack of cake and coffee with the owner. They gave us beautiful books of Grahamstown. They wrote us personal notes in the front; it was very sweet of them.

I also had to say goodbye to a good friend this morning which is really sad. Although we had a real love/hate relationship he definitely helped shape my experience here. It was sad saying goodbye. I was in res for the last time today, as well. The last 6 months of my life were spent in the residence halls of Rhodes University and today I walked through the halls for the last time. I can't believe it.

It seems so premature for the next chapter of my life to begin, or to resume in this case. As ready as I thought I was for home, as the time is approaching I'm realizing how scared and sad I really am. The thought of not waking up to the sounds of South Africa is devastating. I know that I've grown up and changed a lot since I've been here, but I'm not ready to face this changes in my normal surroundings. I can't expect myself to fit in the space that I left myself in the States. I'm sure that being home is going to be bittersweet and I'm prepared for that, but I don't think that I'm going to be prepared for the reversed culture shock that I thought I wouldn't have.

Grahamstown is an amazing place, as is the rest of South Africa. I couldn't have asked for a better study abroad experience. Here I am saying goodbye to a place that has become home. How do you do that? I know I'll be back, but I also know that it won't be soon enough. South Africa has been a dream come true.

First Two Weeks of June

2008-07-05T21:11:00.003+02:00

After returning from our trip to East London/Cintsa I had a lot on my plate. When I got back to my room I found it an absolute disaster. While I was away my 350lb package of donations from the States had come. Since the package was so huge they couldn't fit it through the door so they had to unpack it and individually put everything into my room. It was a mess and I had a lot to deal with. In one day I was able to separate everything and box it up for all the organizations I was taking it to. The following two days I worked with Dani from the Rhodes Centre for Social Development (where the volunteer program runs out of) to distribute my items throughout the township. It was a really rewarding experience. I got to meet a lot of the people who the supplies were going to affect.

One of the places we went to we had just randomly passed. Dani, who works with all of the organizations in the township didn't know this preschool, but we went in anyway. As I explained to the woman there what I was doing she started to cry.

"It's as if you knew," she said.

"Knew what?" we asked.

"That this is all we have left," she replied. She walked through the crowd of 25 or so toddlers to grab a tupperware container. She handed it to me. Inside were 3 broken crayons. I was so grateful for the support I got at home that enabled me to provide for this school. It was wonderful. "Can we take a picture?" she eagerly asked. And we did.

Once the distribution was taken care of I had to focus on getting ready for Festival. I mounted all of the printed 8"x10" photographs on 5 squares of cut foam board. It was so tedious. I had to cut them all with scissors because I couldn't find an X-acto knife here. It was awful. After they were all cut I had to spray mount them all on. In total I did almost 50 pictures on my own. Then I solicited Tracie's help (the American from VA that lives in my res). She read me the women's stories and I typed them to be printed for the exhibit. It was great hearing their stories. The women opened up so much.

After that was completed I actually had to study. Since I only had one exam this wasn't too bad. I just had to do a little reading and preparation for art history.

Grace and I also got to visit the boys at Eluxolweni. I had extra cameras from my project so we took three up there and let the boys play with them. They took a lot of fun pictures.

3.

(1.) Sine's self-portrait (2.) Simphiwe's self-portrait (3.)Siyavuya and me (at his request)

The week of June 9th I just studied and packed. Neither were fun. I took my art history exam on June 11th and it went well. On the 12th I picked up Dave from the PE airport and we began our coast to coast journey which I will post about ASAP.

Road Trippin': East London and Cintsa (May 24-31)

2008-07-05T13:42:00.000+02:00

During SWOT week (campus exam study week) Grace, Sonya and I rented a car and drove from Grahamstown to East London and then to Cintsa. East London is a small city about two hours from Grahamstown and Cintsa is at the bottom of the Wild Coast, an area of untouched beaches on South Africa's east coast.

At first it was crazy driving on the "wrong" side of the road. It was hard to get used to, especially when turning. The drive to East London was super long, but we had a lot of fun on the way. Grace made a roadtrip CD with great sing-along songs like "Summer Lovin'" and "American Pie". On the way we bought a pineapple from one of 50 women selling them on the side of the road. The fresh pineapples here are amazing!

Once we finally got to East London we got super lost searching for our hostel. Eventually we found it. We were given our own little cabin on the top of a hill. It was cute and perfect for us. We had dinner and headed for bed.

The next day we decided to go shopping. We laid on the beach for awhile then headed to the mall. East London was a lot like Port Elizabeth: a small city on the beach. It was really nice having the freedom of having a car. We walked around the mall for awhile and just had a little bit of a girl day. We decided to cook dinner that night at the hostel so we picked up some pasta and bread. We got back and made ourselves a feast! It was delicious. Afterwards we sat around watching TV and drinking wine. A foreign boy on crutches came into the common room and started talking to us. It turned out he was from Portugal. He had hitch-hiked from Portugal to Senegal, then flew from Senegal to Johannesburg. I couldn't believe it. He was telling us about his injury, as well. He was in Coffee Bay and jumped down 3 steps. He slipped and broke his leg in a few places. It was left untouched for almost a week and then when his insurance company finally got their act together he was airlifted from Coffee Bay to East London. His insurance company was paying for him to stay at the hostel and receive physical therapy in East London. It was a pretty crazy story. He was a really cool guy.

In the morning we woke up early to go to a lion park to play with baby lions and then to go sandboarding. The whole day it was the 3 of us, a guide and a random British couple. The group of us got to be pretty friendly by the end of the day.

The lion park was very cool. We got to play with baby lions. They were really cute and a lot of fun. There we also got to feed a giraffe, play with a "baby" cheetah and play with a meercat. The cheetah was really scary. It was running around its pen and going crazy. In the pen with it was a wiener dog. The guide said that they were best friends and that the dog didn't want to be anywhere else except with his best buddy, the cheetah. In my opinion this was not the case. That "vienna dog", as they call them here, was doomed. That cheetah was waiting for us to leave so it could eat it! In the cheetah pen the 3 of us looked like big babies. We kept screaming and hiding behind the guide, Rocco. The cheetah was all riled up and it's the only cat that cannot retract its claws - that was pretty unappealing to me. I honestly thought that the headlines were going to read: "Three American college students mauled by 'docile' cheetah". It was terrifying, but it was still a lot of fun. In the end the cheetah calmed down a bit and let us pet it. That was nice.

After the lion park Rocco took the 5 of us sandboarding. I had seen sandboarding on TV before, but never saw it in the States. This was something that Sonya really wanted to do so Grace and I went along. It ended up being a lot of fun. It was a lot like snowboarding, but on sand. We got to the dunes just before dusk so we were doing it as the sun set. It was beautiful. The dunes were gigantic! I had a really good time.

Afterwards we decided to cook another feast for ourselves and our new friends. We invited the British couple, Portugal and Rocco. When we got back from sandboarding the three of us hit the showers. As Sonya and Grace were finishing up in the shower and I was outside of the shower in my towel talking to Portugal the electricity just shut off: load shedding. We were so angry. We had to go to the grocery store to get more stuff for dinner. As we were driving there we realized that all of the traffic lights were out, too. Driving was insane. No one was following the correct protocol; everyone was just fending for themselves. It was so scary. Luckily we made it to the store safe and sound. We got back and cooked our meal and everyone joined us. We sat outside on the deck and enjoyed a great meal with great company. During dinner it was still load shedding time so we ate by candle-light. We all stayed around the table until late talking, eating and drinking wine. It was a great time.

The next morning we woke up and drove to Cintsa. As previously mentioned, Cintsa is at the bottom of the Wild Coast. It was a beautiful place. It reminded me a lot of Matoaka, a place on the Chesapeake Bay where we used to vacation every summer. My parents would have loved it. We stayed at Buccaneers, a hostel that was made up of a bunch of cabins and cottages. There was also a pool, two bars and a nice dining area. It was a great place to stay. We had our own little cottage with a cute little sitting room and kitchen. It was nice. The first night it was just the 3 of us in the cottage, but the next night two older women from Canada/Netherlands who were literally traveling the world joined us.

[View from our cottage]

Our first day there we just read in the cottage and eventually made it down to the beach. Every night the hostel had a big meal for all of the guests so we ate with everyone - the food was delicious. The following day we decided to go on a 22km bike ride through Cintsa and a traditional Xhosa village. The ride was through the mountains overlooking the coast. It was INTENSE and our guide hated us - as usual. In the Xhosa village we met Mama Tofu. She was an elderly Xhosa woman in charge of her village. She was wonderful. She taught us a lot about growing up in a Xhosa family as a girl. It was really interesting. After the village we really hit the road and drove through the mountains. It was rough! We finally made it back to the hostel after 3 hours - I was so happy to be back! After our exhausting morning/early afternoon Grace and I just wanted to relax and read until dinner. We sat by the pool, read and had lunch. It was great.

On our last day in Cintsa we just sat around and read/relaxed all day until the late afternoon when we went on an elephant-back safari. That was interesting and a lot of fun! We rode the elephants through a game reserve. At the end of the ride we saw zebra and giraffe from the back of the elephants. It was really cool, but the elephant was uncomfortable to ride. It was really hard to keep your balance, especially when going up hill. It was worth it for the experience, though.

On Saturday (May 31) we woke up VERY early and drove back to Grahamstown. We made it back a lot earlier than expected so the 3 of us had breakfast in town, dropped off our bags and Grace and I went to Port Elizabeth to return our car.

All in all we had a really great trip. I enjoyed the trip a lot and it was a welcome distraction from studying.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2008-07-04T00:24:00.003+02:00

Yet again we've had a change of plans. Seems that we've gotten ourselves on "African Time" and we waited too long to book our bus tickets. By the time we went to do so it was too late and the next available bus isn't until the 8th.

This isn't actually all that bad. I love Grahamstown and wasn't quite ready to leave. I am upset, however, that we won't get to see Kruger before we leave, but now we're on a mission to see lions! Because of this we'll be here for the rest of Fest which is nice and we'll also get to celebrate the Fouth here, which will be fun. I'll be back to South Africa, anyway and I can see Kruger then.

I've written out all of the entries I haven't yet posted, so they'll be up soon.

Still Here...

2008-07-01T21:52:00.003+02:00

It's been forever since I've written and I have so much to write about, but I just wanted to quickly write a note saying that I am indeed alive! I'm in Grahamstown, recently back from a coast-to-coast adventure. It's Festival time and it's going well. The exhibit was featured in the Festival's news/review publication Cue today. Read the review here.

I'm leaving Gtown on Thursday and I board the plane for America a week later. I can't believe it. It's all so bittersweet.

I'll post all of my other stories ASAP.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

2008-05-25T00:19:00.003+02:00

Plans have changed for this week - Grace and I were originally supposed to head up to Kruger/Mozambique this week, but due to the ongoing violence that has swept the country we've decided to postpone our plans. Instead we're leaving tomorrow for East London for three days and Cintsa (at the beginning of the Wild Coast) for another three days. We'll be spending a lot of time outdoors, relaxing, enjoying our week of before exams. I'm excited for this trip. We've rented a car and Grace, Sonya and I are leaving in the morning and then our friend Isabel (she's a South African Rhodes student) will meet us on Wednesday and go with us to Cintsa. It will be nice to have a girl's week!

We will still be going to Kruger/Moz. We're going to go for a week in July, the week before we head home. We'll fly up to Johannesburg on July 3rd and spend a few days in Nelspruit/Kruger/Blyde River Canyon and then a few days in Moz and one day in Johannesburg before flying out on the 10th. I'm glad that we've gotten to have our cake and eat it, too. Although we're upset to not be up there now, it's definitely better safe than sorry and we'll still get to see two really great places in the Eastern Cape, away from the violence.

I'll update and post pictures when I get back on Saturday!

For more info on the situation here visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7416256.stm

The Exhibition is Official!

2008-05-19T15:25:00.000+02:00

Today the booking kit for Festival was made official and put online. The project, Defined by Four Letters, is now listed with a venue. The venue is just up the road here, so it's not far at all. It's actually only a block from the Raphael Centre, which is good for the women. They can get a ride to the Centre then walk down from there. I'm very excited that this is ACTUALLY happening. I had my doubts along the way, but it's for real now! The photos are on their way, as well. I picked up the pictures from the first camera today. They're pretty good. I'm excited to get the rest back.

To see the Fringe Booklet from Festival: Defined by Four Letters, page 40.

Pictures & Narratives

2008-05-15T22:46:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I gave out the cameras at the Raphael Centre. The women were all very excited. I also gave them an assignment to write about life with HIV/AIDS. I wasn't expecting the narratives back too soon, but today when Grace went up there to do her English class two of the women gave her their papers saying that they "stayed up late" to do their "homework." I never expected them to take it so seriously, although now I'm glad they have. I've posted pictures from when I gave out the cameras and the two narratives on my other blog. Click the link below to check everything out.

Art for AIDS Blog

Winding Down and Gearing Up

2008-05-14T23:42:00.001+02:00

The semester is over a week from Friday. After that we have three weeks of exams beginning May 31. I cannot believe how quickly things have gone by. It’s crazy. I only have one more paper due (thank God) and then I’m done until exams. I only have two exams (thank God, again). I have a take home exam for my WAC seminar and then an art history exam on June 11.

Grace and I have planned a trip to Kruger National Park (supposedly the best in all of Africa) and Mozambique for a little over a week. We’re leaving May 24 and flying up to Johannesburg. From there we’re getting a ride to Nelspruit (outside of Kruger). We’re then spending one night camping in Kruger which should be incredible. We’re also visiting the Blyde River Canyon which looks a lot like the Grand Canyon. I can’t wait. It looks incredible up there. Then on the 28^th we’re taking a Greyhound into Mozambique and staying in Maputo until the 31^st. On the 31^st we’re taking the bus back to Nelspruit, staying there for the night and flying back to PE on June 1^st. I’m really excited for this trip. It should be amazing and certainly an adventure. We get to take our malaria pills which excites us for some reason. Also, we get to see our first country outside South Africa, which is an amazing opportunity. On top of that we will get to see our first lion! How stereotypically American (according to South Africans). What can I say? I want to see a lion in the wild!

I’ll then be in Grahamstown from June 1^st to the 11^th. I have my exam on the 11^th then I pick Dave up from the airport on the 12^th. We’re then spending two days in PE on the Indian Ocean, then another two days in Addo National Park (the closest national park to where I am). On the 16^th we’ll come to Grahamstown to pick up Grace and the three of us are roadtripping to Cape Town again on the Garden Route. We’re stopping at a few of the places that we stopped at last time, but for the most part everything is new. We’re spending our first night in Jeffrey’s Bay because we loved the hostel last time and they cook great South African food. It’s jus t a great place with great people and a lot of fun. The next day we’ll go to Storms River to do the world’s highest bungee jump. I’m really excited for that. We’ll stay there for the night. The next day we’ll stop in Plettenberg Bay for lunch (I found this to be the most beautiful place I’ve been here). From there we’re going up to the Cango Caves which are supposed to be fantastic. They were recommended to me by a lot of people, so I wanted to see them before I headed home. After that we’re going to Cape Agulhas, the lowest point in Africa – where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet – to go whale watching, as it will be whale season. We’re then staying there for the night. The next day we head to Cape Town for four days. In Cape Town we’re going to do everything we didn’t do before – the Cape Peninsula, Robben Island, general exploring. We also have to pick up things we neglected to get before. I’m really glad we’re going back. My last trip to Cape Town didn’t end well, so I’m hoping this will make up for it. On the 24^th we’re taking an overnight Greyhound back to Grahamstown. Then it’s time for Festival!

Those are my plans for the next month or so. I’m really excited for everything that’s coming up. It’s going to be a lot of fun and great experiences for everyone. I can’t believe that we’re already halfway through May. I’m going to be home before I know it, which is both bad and good. I can’t wait to be back at home. I miss a lot of things. But at the same time, this places feels a lot like home now and it will be hard to leave. I don’t want to say goodbye to the Eluxolweni Boys, and the Nyaluza kids and the women at the Raphael Centre. It’s going to kill me!

This experience has been life changing, but I don’t know if I’ll fully appreciate the magnitude until I go home. We’ll see. Until then, there’s still a country to explore, fun to be had, an exhibit to prepare and kids to teach.

Holiday in Hogsback

2008-05-14T23:25:00.006+02:00

The WAC Kids in Hogsback - our last trip...

Friday after Nyaluza the WAC kids headed up to Hogsback in the Amathole Mountains for the weekend. I was really excited to get away for the weekend and this was our last trip together. It was a great trip, probably the best of all.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel. There were two people to a room so Grace and I were together as usual. We got a nice bathtub so we were able to relax in the bath, something that I haven’t done since leaving in February. It was nice to sit in the bath and read. We got to relax a little upon arrival. Then we got to go to dinner. It was AMAZING! It was buffet for starters and dessert and then you had a choice for your entrée. It was so exciting. Also, we had free reign on drinks and the wine list. We got a ton of wine and got to charge it all to Rhodes. It was beautiful. We were toasting up a storm since it was our last trip together. It was a lot of fun. We sat around the table for a few hours just laughing, telling stories and having a great time. Ashwin joined us later on and we just continued the party. It was great.

The next morning we rose early for breakfast (buffet again, delish!) and then headed out for a morning of hiking. We started with a walk to a waterfall close to our hotel. It was called 39 Steps. It was very pretty, but nothing compared to the others we saw during the day. Then we headed out for a long hike. We started by going to the “Big Tree,” a tree that’s supposed to be 800 or so years old. It was a big tree. The hike down there was a rock scramble so we were tripping all over the place. I had to slide down this big rock on my butt and for the rest of the day I was filthy. It was a lot of fun though. Then we headed to our next waterfall, Swallowtail Falls. This was a lot bigger than 39 Steps and the hike was a lot more intense. We sat at the bottom of the fall looking up and realized that we could go higher so we hiked up to the top of the fall. The view was incredible. We could lay on the edge of the fall and see the water go down to the bottom where we had been before. It was beautiful. From there you could walk back up to where we started. On the way we passed a field of cows. It was pretty random. Before lunch we drove to the Madonna and Child waterfall. This is the biggest in Hogsback. There were wooden steps most of the way down, so it didn’t seem that bad. When we got to the fall there were a lot of Rhodes students doing some sort of science class. The fall was big and gorgeous. The water was freezing. On the way back up we had to climb all of the stairs again. It almost killed me. It was so much harder going up than it was going down. It was pretty rough. After our strenuous morning we headed to a pub for lunch.

After lunch everyone wanted to go horseback riding, but due to my extreme allergy to horses, I couldn’t go. I got dropped off back at the hotel and go to relax and do a little work for school.

When everyone got back we got to have another delicious, wine-filled meal. It was even better than the first night! I was a happy camper. Again we sat at the table talking until the restaurant closed. It was a lot of fun. After dinner Grace, Sonya and I cuddled in bed and watched some really random movies. It was nice to relax and forget about school!

Sunday morning we had another buffet breakfast (yes!) and then headed out to do another walk and see more of Hogsback before we left. We went to Hobbiton. Since Hogsback is supposedly where Tolken got his inspiration for the Lord of the Rings (most likely untrue) there is a Lord of the Rings themed walk. Since I know nothing about LOTR this was just a pretty walk for me. Then we headed to a place called the Edge where there was an incredible viewpoint and a labyrinth. It was amazing. Grace and I sat at the edge of the cliff for awhile. It was beautiful. There we also go to do some shopping. Hogsback is famous for its jam so we were able to pick some up to bring home. Before lunch we went to the Eco-Shrine (www.ecoshrine.co.za). It’s this beautiful artwork set on the edge of a mountain overlooking Hogs 1, 2 & 3 of Hogsback. From there you could see the Madonna and Child waterfall. It was incredible. The artwork is about connecting humans and their environments. It was a beautiful piece that combined painting, mosaic, relief, sculpture and natural elements. I thought it was fantastic. In fact, I decided to incorporate it into a paper I had to write the following day.

We left the Eco-Shrine and got lunch at the Edge. It was nice to relax before heading back to student life. The weekend was fantastic, a great getaway and a nice distraction from all the work that we have to do here.

For more pictures with descriptions see my Flickr page

Where in the World is … South Africa?

2008-05-14T23:16:00.003+02:00

Bright and early Friday morning Grace, Kevin and I headed to Nyaluza to teach English and Geography. Grace and I had prepared worksheets for our classes during the week and we were looking forward to being like real teachers!

I was teaching eighth-grade geography. I wanted to assess how much the kids knew about geography since last time they looked perplexed when we were talking about locations on a map. To do this I made three worksheets. The first focused on the seven continents and five oceans. I thought this might be too easy for the kids, but it would be a good jumping off points. The second worksheet was an unlabeled world map. I listed eight countries that I thought would be easy to find on a map: South Africa, the US, Russia, China, Australia, Brazil, England and Italy. I asked the kids to put the corresponding number on the country. The final worksheet was a map of South Africa. I then asked the kids to label the nine provinces, the two oceans and two interior countries. Then I listed five major cities and asked them to name the province where the city is and asked them to name a city that is on the Atlantic and a city that is on the Indian.

I was worried that these worksheets might be too easy for eighth-graders, but I thought it would be better to have them too easy than too hard. Once the kids got working on the first worksheet (oceans/continents) I realized how wrong I was about them being too easy. The kids were having the hardest time with this and we had to give them a word bank. A good amount of kids knew where Africa was, but one kid label Asia as Africa. We did our best to help them out and still encourage them to figure it out for themselves, but it was really tough. The next worksheet was even worse. Most of the kids couldn’t figure out anything but South Africa. They had no idea where America was. The only reason they could figure out Australia was because of the previous worksheet. Then one kid had a tin pencil case with a labeled world map on it and he started to use his resources. We encouraged this. In the real world if you don’t know where some where is you go and look it up. This kid was doing the same thing. We only have a little bit of time with them, and if this kid learned to use a map by having to search for those countries that is fine with us.

The South African worksheet went the worst, by far because this was something I just assumed the kids would know. First of all we had to give a word bank for the nine provinces. Then a lot of the kids didn’t know what province they were in (the Eastern Cape). That would be like living in the U.S. and not knowing what state you live in when there are nine states. It was scary. As the worksheet progressed the kids were having more and more trouble. It’s hard to believe that they know so little about their own country for one, and on top of that, about the world. I wish that we had more time with them to help out, but our time is so limited.

We’ve decided to focus on South Africa for the next two weeks. We figure that’s most important for them to learn. On Friday we’re going to go in depth into four of the provinces and then continue with the other five next Friday. I hope that this is more successful.

Grace’s English classes went well though. She taught apostrophes in one class and then figures of speech in the other. For the figures of speech class we’re having a little contest for the best simile, metaphor, alliteration and onomatopoeia on Friday. I’m excited to hear what they come up with. One kid made a simile that really made me laugh: “that boy is as ugly as a baboon.” It was great because he clearly understands what a simile is and he’s put it into a South African context which just cracked me up. It’s great!

After school we were invited by our favorite Nyaluza student, Sanele, to watch a rehearsal of a play they were performing this past weekend. The play was in Xhosa, so we didn’t understand much. I think it was about the battle that brought the Fingo people into what is now Grahamstown. Fingo Village is the name of the part of the township where Nyaluza is, so it had context for the students. There were less than ten kids in the performance. There was singing, dancing, drumming and scenes. It was amazing! I loved watching it. I was able to get a lot of it on video. I’ve watched it a bunch of times. It’s just so fantastic!

We return on Friday to teach again. I’m very excited! I love going up there. After school we’re going to the shelter to see the boys. That should be a lot of fun. Kevin has never gone, so that will be exciting for him. Grace and I haven’t been up in a few weeks, so it’ll be good for us to get up there, too. We’re planning on bringing up a CD of “house music” (their request). Maybe we’ll have a dance party. I’m pretty excited for that!

Thank you, Gracias, Danke...

2008-05-05T01:00:00.007+02:00

I want to quickly thank all of the people who have helped me here by donating art supplies, cameras, beading materials, clothing and money. I am so appreciative of the help and am honored that so many people want to help make a difference, even if it's in a small way. Many people have had things sent to me and I'd like to acknowledge them here and they will be acknowledged in my exhibit at the Arts Festival, as well.

A Very Special Thanks To:

The Bead Society of NJ

DHL Shipping

Ms. Everett

The Gsellmeyer Family

Helby Imports/Beadsmith

Miss Horowitz

The Hye Family

Kodak

Mill Lake Elementary School

Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell

Ms. Modell

Monroe Township High School National Arts Honor Society

The Mulvey Famiy

Ms. J. Paulkovich

Ms. P. Paulkovich

Rhodes University - St. Mary's Hall

The Roman Family

Ms. Ruggerio

Ms. Schamberger

Ms. Spang

Ms. Sprague

The Artisan Framer, Jamesburg, NJ

Mr. Torreano

Mr. & Mrs. Ungerlieder

Ms. Van Hise

Washington College Fine Art and Psychology Departments

Thank you again for all of your help. It is not only appreciated by me, but also by those you are helping - the women of the Raphael Centre, the boys of Eluxolweni, the children of Amasango and Nyaluza, as well as the greater Grahamstown community.

[If I have missed anyone, please let me know, as I would like to be sure to acknowledge everyone at the exhibit. Thank you]

Check This Out -

2008-05-02T18:08:00.006+02:00

Grace sent this to me the other day. She's posted it on her blog and I thought it needed to be put up here, as well.

The Washington Post did a piece here in Grahamstown recently. It's a multimedia photo essay. Material was gathered over the past three years during three separate trips to Grahamstown and Vukani, the local squatter camp here. There are several cultural events explored such as funerals, the coming of age of Xhosa boys to men and the ritual slaughtering. This should give anyone a good view of traditional life here in Grahamstown.

Unfortunately my internet is so horribly slow so I haven't been able to watch everything, but Grace and Jason both enjoyed it. Grace says that you can see parts of the township, as well as town. I have posted the link below. Let me know what you think!

Washington Post Vukani Photo Essay

Still Alive

2008-05-02T17:33:00.005+02:00

Last Friday Grace and I taught for the first time at Nyaluza. It was an interesting experience. We got picked up by the principal at 7:15am. He drove us up to the school. We were introduced to the students at their morning assembly. We were then led to our classroom and waited while the kids cleaned up the filthy room. The students hadn't had a teacher for over a month so the room was a mess and the kids were restless. We weren't told what grade were with or what subject we were teaching, so we had to figure it out on our own. We led introductions by having the students tell us their name and grade, their favorite subject, their life goals and a special fact about themselves. Our first class was tenth grade English. The majority of the class was interested in economics and wanted to become accountants. The kids were respectful and helped us figure out where they last left off and what needed to be done next. Our second class was eleventh grade English. They were a little bit more difficult than the first class. The boys were a riot. The girls were your stereotypical sixteen year old high school girls, chatty and self obsessed. Our last two classes were eighth grade history/geography. Our introduction session went by very quickly with these classes so we actually had to do some teaching. They were learning about settlements and the next topic to be covered was civilizations. We had to talk about the beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia. It was horrible. We looked very silly. In our last class we knew one of the students from Eluxolweni and he just shook his head at us while we taught. It was embarassing. Considering the amount of preparation we had (none) and the amount of direction and guidance we were given (none) I think we did OK.

We plan to prepare some worksheets for next week so that we can really start teaching. We have to prepare the students for their exams in June, which is a scary idea. I can hardly prepare myself for my exams in June, none the less prepare high school kids for an exam I've never seen in subjects I haven't covered in years.

Between our third and fourth class we got a visit from our favorite freshman, Sanele. He came to hang out. We told him about our horrible teaching skills. He made fun of us at first, but then gave us a demonstration of how to properly teach. He spoke loudly and moved around the room pointing out things in the textbook. "Teach like Jason," he said as he jumped around the room, his voice booming. He clapped his hands a lot and kept his imaginary class in line. This inspired us for our final class.

We only had four classes so we got to leave before noon. The walk from the township into town took forever, but we got to see parts of Grahamstown we'd never seen before.

Wednesday at the Raphael Centre I planned the beginning of the beading at the centre. They will start on Monday. The women are very excited. I will get to go up there and lend a hand, which will be nice. The arts festival is right around the corner, so I'm spending a lot of time trying to collect funds to help pay for the photo printing which was given by Kodak at a steep discount. Also, I'm trying to prepare the women to get the cameras and let them know what we expect and how to take a good picture. It's hard because many of the women do not speak English, they only speak Xhosa, so I have to find a Xhosa translator to translate my worksheets and then their narratives in the future. No one wants to do it for free, and I can't afford to compensate anyone. I'm also waiting for some important packages to get here, but everything is getting stopped in customs, which is both annoying and upsetting. I hate the customs system here. Everything takes forever and often packages get stolen.

This week we had three days off for public holidays. Sunday was Freedom Day, celebrating the first democratic elections in 1994 and yesterday was Worker's Day, like our Labor Day. It was nice to have two days off. Since there was no school Thursday, Wednesday ended up being a big night out. It was fun night spent with all of my favorite South Africans.

We only have three more weeks of school, which is mind boggling, but I guess what blows my mind more is that WAC is done with classes and only has exams next week. That makes me a little homesick. I wish I was going home, not because I don't love it here, but because the idea of being home is so appealing. I'll be home before I know it, though, and then I'll be wishing I was here!

Next weekend the WAC kids are going to Hogsback Mountain. It's about three hours from here, I believe. It's supposed to be beautiful. I'm excited to get away. A lot of people went away for this long weekend, but we couldn't drop that kind of money. We're saving up to go away during the last week of May when there are no classes. We want to fly up to Johannesburg and go to Kruger Park. We can't leave South Africa having not visited the famous park. I'm really excited for that trip.

Other than that there's not too much going on. We're enjoying Grahamstown while we can. Today we went to Mad Hatter's, our favorite coffee shop. We were eating our brunch (at 4pm), when the waitress came over with two shots. "The manager sent these over for being such great customers," she said. Grace and I just laughed and exchanged looks. We toasted to Mad Hatter's and downed our shots. This is the third time he's sent things over for us. He's a great guy. The restaurant has an Alice in Wonderland theme so I am planning to draw a few scenes to give them before we leave. Grace has selected them and I will draw them. I'll take photos before I give them away.

This weekend will be spent getting some things done. I have three papers due this month, so I need to start preparing for them. Other than that there's not too much going on.

Overdue Update

2008-04-21T23:57:00.007+02:00

I've been back in Grahamstown for awhile now, but have been drowning in a wave of laziness. I don't know why my problem is, but I've been very lazy. It's been nice being back. I've been to the Raphael Centre a few times now and everything is going very well. We're just waiting for the large package of donations from home to arrive. When the package comes I'll finally get to start the photography project which will be exhibited at the National Arts Festival. Finally everything is coming together. We titled the exhibit "Defined by Four Letters," and hope that it will make the impact we want it to.

Also, we finally got back up to Nyaluza and Eluxolweni on Friday. They've been out of school so last week was their first day back. Grace and I headed up to Nyaluza to find out about helping out around school since Jason's gone now. We then were told that we were need to teach English, Life Orientation, and History/Geography. Needless to say we were pretty overwhelmed. I think we'll be starting Friday, we're just waiting for Mr. Mushwana (the principal) to give us the teacher's guides. It's such a surreal idea, me in front of a classroom. I can barely take myself seriously, I don't know how to get them to take me seriously. We were also told that we will need to prepare the kids for their big exams in June. That's pretty nerve wracking.

After we left the school on Friday we met up with some of the students we knew through Jason. We got to walk with them for awhile and catch up. It was nice spending time with them again! Grace and I headed up to the shelter to see the kids. We haven't seen them in forever. Luckily the were all there. It was amazing seeing them again. We spent awhile there listening to music, dancing, talking, cracking jokes. It was great. I really missed those kids. There were a few new kids and a few kids who have left. We got permission to come up every Friday after we're done at Nyaluza. It will be great. We plan to play games and listen to music. It's a lot of fun hanging out with them.

Aside from the volunteering I haven't been doing too much. I'm only taking Art History and my WAC Course now, so I've had a few papers to do, but not much other than that. Weekends are great, I really look forward to them. This past weekend Grace and I randomly met a kid who lived in NJ for awhile working as a camp counselor. It was great talking to him. He's the first person that I've met here so far that doesn't hate NJ. I don't know what the deal is. I certainly didn't think the stereotypes would follow me all the way here! I still get the "armpit of America" stuff here. It was nice to laugh about it with someone though.

Two weeks ago the WAC kids took a trip to Nieu Bethesda. It was fun and relaxing. Nieu Bethesda is an artist community about four hours away from here. It's famous for the Owl House, which was a pretty interesting place (http://www.owlhouse.co.za). It was very beautiful, but rather spooky. We also got to see a lot of fossils. The fossils were pre-dinosaurs which was pretty mind blowing. They are unique to the Karoo (where we were) and prove a lot about the history of the world. Also, the farm where we stayed had old bushman cave paintings that dated back over 7000 years. That was incredible. It was amazing to see artwork that old that was just painted on the walls of a cave.

Other than that I haven't been up to too much, but hope to spice things up soon. We have one last WAC trip to Hogsback Mountain, which should be very nice, but cold. We also have a very long (almost week long) weekend coming up in a few weeks. We want to take a trip then to the beach perhaps. Up the coast a bit it's still warm enough to swim. In fact, in Durban, where we might go in June or so, you can swim all year. That's pretty wild. We're also hoping to plan a trip to Kruger Park during the week before exams. That will be our last big adventure before we go home. I don't want to leave South Africa without having seen Kruger.

Backpacking - Friday March 21 - Saturday March 29 - Cape Town

2008-04-21T22:59:00.005+02:00

We arrived in Cape Town late in the evening. The Baz Bus drove us down Long Street to our hostel, Inn Long Street. Grace, Sonya, Ryan and I moved into our room and immediately opened the doors to the balcony off our room. It faced out into the buzzing night life of Long Street, the infamous party street of Cape Town. Alive with energy from our final destination we went out for dinner and drinks at the cafe across the street. Our energy didn't last long and we ended up in bed early as usual.

The next day we headed out to explore Cape Town as well as pick up somethings that were left in the Baz Bus back in Plettenberg. I approached a nice looking older couple on the street hoping for directions to the BazBus office, instead they kindly drove us. The office wasn't nearby and when we arrived we found out that the items that they thought were ours were not. We'd have to come back on Tuesday. We were angry and embarrassed. I couldn't believe that we had gotten this free ride and they didn't have our stuff. On our way back from the office we found a great African street market. There was so much to see. It was the first I've seen since being in South Africa. We were able to get a lot of gifts there. We relaxed for the rest of the day and went out for Indian food for dinner - our first ethnic food since being in South Africa.

Sunday was Easter so Grace and I got up early and headed to church. To our surprise we met a group of you American missionaries, one of whom was from New Jersey. It was nice to talk to them. I didn't enjoy the service at all, but it was nice to be in church on Easter. After the service we walked down Long Street looking for somewhere to have brunch. We found a great cafe for brunch across from the street market. Again we lazed around the rest of the day, reading/sleeping in the hammocks on the porch. For dinner we had Chinese - the first I've had since I've been here - it was delicious. It tasted so fresh! We even got to do some Sake Bombs, which apparently they don't do in South Africa.

Monday we lazed around some more and attempted to go out in the evening. It was a public holiday, Easter Monday, so not too much was going on.

Tuesday Grace and I had scheduled a winetour. We got up early and waited around for the person to pick us up. When he was extremely late in coming, the boy at reception called him to see where he was. The driver claimed he was never told to pick us up. We were not happy. Instead we headed down to the waterfront where we met up with Ryan and "Germany" who we had met in Mossel Bay. The waterfront was nice, but reminded us a lot of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Since we could now go to pick up our things from the BazBus office, Grace, Ryan and I walked down there to do so. The walk was very long and it was very hot. I wanted to kill someone. On the way we got to see the up-and-coming Cape Town soccer stadium for the 2010 World Cup. It's not coming along so well. We also got to see a big of the beach where we could see all the way to Robben Island (where we never got to go). Once we got to the office we actually got our stuff and headed back to Long Street.

Wednesday Grace and I were rescheduled for our winetour and headed out early to embark on that. It was all Americans and one Scot on our bus. The winelands were beautiful, surrounded by mountains. At our first stop we got to see where they keep the different kinds of wines. Then we learned how to do a proper tasting. Once we tried our first wine with the group we got a list and got to try six different wines from the list (although we tried a few more than that). Along with the wine tasting was a cheese tasting. The cheeses were very good, many were goats cheeses. At our next stop we did a seated tasting with a group. We did a lot of wines. I lost count. At the end we tasted the World Champion brandy. It was made at this vineyard. I did not enjoy that AT ALL. It burned and I thought for sure I'd have hair on my chest afterwards! I did purchase a few small bottles as gifts for people at home, though. Also, they had a little trivia contest at the end and the winner won a bottle of wine. I won at my table. The question was "what year did the brandy win the world championship?" 2003. I got a nice bottle of Rose. At our next stop we got to enjoy lunch. Mine was amazing. I had a lamb burger that is soaked in red wine. It was delicious. We tried a lot of sparkling wines there, but at that point I was not in the mood for wine any longer, I just wanted to eat. By our final stop I was finally sobering up, but was in no mood to continue trying wines, but they just kept on coming. It was not appreciated on my end. When we finally returned to our hostel we found out that we had to rush to go pick up our Greyhound tickets for our trip home. Grace and I raced down to do that, just before the office closed then enjoyed a dinner alone. Afterwards we headed down to an outdoor jazz festival where the African market usually is. We met up with "Germany" and spent the rest of the evening with him. He is a jazz lover so we had a lot of fun with him. When the concert was over we headed down to a pub across the street from our hostel. Every night we had heard cover bands playing great "white people music" as we call it - your normal cover band material: Build Me Up Buttercup, Brown Eyed Girl, 80s music. We decided to go check the place out. We ended up having a great time. The music was fun. There were a ton of people there. It ended up being a great night.

Thursday we headed up Table Mountain. We got a cab to the cable car, then took the cable car up to the top. Once we hit the top we all went our separate ways. I ended up walking the entire perimeter of the mountain. It was beautiful. I got to see the views from every angle. It was amazing. I could've stayed up there forever. I really enjoyed it. When we got back we had lunch and took naps. When I woke up I wasn't feeling very well but thought I was fine. Next thing I knew I couldn't keep anything in my stomach and was very sick. I ended up spending the rest of our time before going back to Grahamstown on Saturday out of commission. It was awful. I spent all of Friday, our last day in Cape Town in bed. I was not very happy. Being sick made me so homesick I thought I was going to die.

Saturday morning we had to get up at 5am to catch our Greyhound back to Grahamstown. I was still not feeling my best, but prepared myself for the 15 hour ride with crackers and ginger ale. I slept on and off most of the ride, but had a hard time keeping things down. It was a terrible, terrible experience. When we finally reached Grahamstown I don't think I could've possibly been happier. It was so nice to be back in "my" room and "my" bed. It was a dream come true.

The trip was amazing. I had so much fun and met great people. It was the experience of a lifetime, but it was nice to finally be immobile.

Backpacking - Friday March 21, Day 8 – Hermanus

2008-04-02T23:00:00.002+02:00

We arrived in Hermanus late, but decided to grab dinner out at a nearby Italian restaurant. It was delicious. We were in bed early again, which was good since we had our shark dive first thing in the morning.

At 9am we headed out for our shark cage dive. A large van picked us up and we piled in. In the backseat I met a young boy with an American accent. I found out he was from Washington DC and was traveling South Africa for his spring break with his father, grandfather, older and younger brothers. We all got to talking and were excited about our impending dive. The boys were probably the smartest, most well-rounded kids I’ve ever met. They’ve been across the world, all over Asia and Australia; I was jealous.

We arrived at Shark Diving Unlimited right across from Shark Alley on the Indian Ocean – home to great white sharks. Shark Diving Unlimited has seen the likes of Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio and Prince Harry, so we were pretty excited. I got the chance to talk to one of the crew members who did the dives with all three guys and he had some interesting things to say. He hated Leo, saying that he was a rich brat. He said Brad was very down to earth, as was Harry. It was pretty cool.

When we got to the building we were served a fresh, hot breakfast. It was amazing. We ate as much as we could get in us before heading to the boat. The ride there was quick, but the sea was really rough and we were falling all over the place. The water was a beautiful turquoise color, surrounded by mountains. It was gorgeous. We made our way to the cage which was anchored and baited to keep the sharks around. We anchored next to the cage and the crew members attached the cage to the side of the boat. All of a sudden it was chaos across the deck as everyone was trying to get into wetsuits while the sharks were around. The cage held six, so the first six people ready got to get in. Grace was one of them. She jumped into the freezing water and waited while the sharks came back. They had a rope with fish heads attached that they threw out and pulled back to attract the sharks. As soon as one came near the crew yelled, “DOWN!” and the divers went under preparing to have an up close and personal view of the giant sharks.

When Grace’s group was done Ryan and I headed into the cage for our shot at seeing some sharkies. When we first got in someone yelled, “DOWN!” so down I went. The underwater experience was strange. It’s a cage, so there are places for your hands and feet, but the sharks charge the cage, so I didn’t want to come back up missing any fingers or toes. When the shark comes around it’s a bizarre experience; it’s so cold and quiet underwater and the shark is obviously aware that you’re there and there’s a blur between who is watching who. After our first viewing we waited for a very long time for another – something had startled the shark. It was freezing, but we were willing to tough it out for another sighting. When the shark finally came back we went under again. The beast whizzed past me and bit the cage on the right side (opposite me). I screamed underwater! It was amazing. After that we waited again, but nothing seemed to be coming so we got out of the cage and Sonya’s group went in.

After everyone got their fill of shark diving and the sharks stopped coming back, we cruised back to shore for lunch. Our hot lunch was delicious. When we arrived back at our hostel we unfortunately were unable to take a hot shower so we went shopping instead to pass the time before we took our final ride on the Baz Bus.

We boarded the bus at dusk and made the hour and a half drive to Cape Town. Just before entering the city we drove over a hill and the driver told us to look to our left – there was Cape Town, all lit up and waiting for us…

Backpacking - Wednesday March 19 and Thursday March 20, Day 6 and 7 – Mossel Bay

2008-04-02T20:38:00.005+02:00

After kloofing we boarded the Baz Bus headed for Mossel Bay. On the Baz Bus I struck up conversation with a British man who had just done the bungee jump, I later found out that he stayed with Kevin and Chris and jumped with them, as well. He strongly encouraged me to do the jump. We had been on the Baz Bus with this guy between Plettenberg and Wilderness, and I sat with him again between Hermanus and Cape Town. We talked a lot and I found out that he's currently spending a year traveling the globe with his friend. They've been in Africa since the first week of January and are heading to India April 4th. From there they're going all over Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, then ending Time Square on New Year's Eve - we hope to meet up. He was a really interesting guy.

Between Wilderness and Mossel Bay the Baz Bus stopped for lunch at a mall – the first I’ve seen, and parked in the McDonald’s parking lot – also the first I’ve seen. We Americans refused to eat at McDonald’s so rushed to eat lunch at a café instead.

When we arrived at Mossel Bay, we boarded the abandoned train that our hostel was housed in. The rooms are inside a stationary steam engine on the beach. It was very cool. Although the accommodations weren’t quite as nice as many of our others, it was very cool to sleep in a train on the beach. As we were unloading our things from the Baz Bus trailer I looked over to see a car pulling up with Kevin and Chris. We were shocked to see them, as we didn’t expect to see Kevin again until we got back to Grahamstown. We all ended up in the same dorm and the group of us headed down to the beach. After some lounging on the beach exchanging Dane Cook quotes we got showers and had dinner at the train. Then we got a cab to go to the nearby casino.

Grace, Sonya and Ryan got the first cab and I waited with Chris and Kevin for the next one. As we waited we met a nice German man named Stefan, or “Germany” as we now call him. We invited him to join us at the casino and we all spent a few hours there. I only gambled 10 rand and won 11, so I gained one rand. I was pretty proud of myself. The boys, on the other hand, did much better. Both Kevin and Chris were playing blackjack. Chris ended up losing over 500 rand, while Kevin was walking out up 200 rand. We called a cab and waited nearly 2 hours for it to come. Towards the end of our wait Chris told Kevin he was feeling lucky and they decided to place one bet on roulette. Five minutes later they both came back up another 200 rand each. We were pretty jealous. When the cab finally arrived we decided to pack the seven of us, plus the driver into an Audi sedan. It was a difficult task, but we managed. Grace had the most uncomfortable ride sitting in the front passenger seat on Germany's lap, face pressed into the windshield.

The next morning we had planned a boat ride to Seal Island, but due to weather conditions – it was pouring - we sat around and eventually went shopping instead. To get to town to go shopping we followed a shady set of railroad tracks blindly to a set of a stairs ending in town. This was all in the name of saving six rand (less than $1). Once there we hit a few cute little shops in Mossel Bay. One of the last places we visited was a large community art studio. I ended up talking to the owner who then introduced me to one of the artists, a young man from the local township who was heavy into drugs and crime before finding his talent as an artist. His work is upbeat and reflects township life through rose-colored glasses. He was a sweet, shy boy and I was really honored to meet him. I purchased a few pieces of his art. He, along with one other boy, gets the full profit for their work, rather than just a commission. I was happy to support him.

When we got back we grabbed a quick lunch and hit the Baz Bus again headed for Hermanus. The ride was long – about four hours – but they entertained us with a crappy movie. I attempted to sleep. We made one stop before getting off in Hermanus. Kevin and Chris continued on to Cape Town.

Backpacking - Tuesday March 18 and Wednesday March 19, Day 5 and 6 – Wilderness

2008-04-02T20:28:00.004+02:00

Wilderness turned out to be just that – wilderness. It’s a very small down settled in the mountains, but still on the Indian Ocean, as well as a river. It was a very pretty town, but had very little to do, as we would found out.

After getting settled in we asked the front desk what we could do in the area. She encouraged us to walk up to the nearby National Park claiming that it, and the local town, was not far away. We made the long trek there to find that the trail was closed and that the water was a suspicious brown color, so we played cards and journaled instead of doing anything too exciting. When we decided to head back we thought it would be a good idea to go into town for dinner before it got too dark. Before we knew it we were walking for kilometer after kilometer with no town in sight. Eventually we made it, but the walk felt like forever. As we were enjoying our well-deserved pizzas the electricity went out for the daily load-shedding. We couldn’t believe our luck. By the time we finished dinner it was dark and we thought we should call a cab. We called a cab to pick us up and ended up waiting for almost an hour in front of the restaurant in the dark dressed like hobos and wrapped in our towels. We were turning away customers we looked so ridiculous. As we were standing there we noticed that “Jersey,” the couple we met back in J-Bay were at the restaurant, as well. We found this a lot on our trip, we’d run into many of the same people over and over. That was one of the coolest parts.

When the cab finally picked us up we made the three minute drive from the restaurant back to our hostel. When we pulled in the driveway the cabbie informed us that it would be costing us 90 Rand. We couldn’t believe it. A drive at least twice as long was a third of the price back in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. We were really ripped off and angry. The last two days weren’t really going too well for us!

In an attempt to be more social Sonya and I spent some time around the campfire. Sitting there I met a guy from Germany. He was in South Africa doing an internship for his studies as a doctor. We was doing surgery in a township hospital in Cape Town. He was so great to talk to. We talked a lot about township life, which we’ve both become too familiar with. It was great talking to someone who could relate and teach me about an aspect of township life that I knew nothing about. He’s studying orthopedics and he talked a lot about the diabetes statistics in the townships. He told me that 80% of amputations in township hospitals are diabetes related and the majority are above the knee because people go untreated for so long. He also said that they estimated that over 35% of township dwellers have diabetes and most go untreated. We talked for a really long time and he gave me suggestions about our next destination, Mossel Bay. We discussed Germany and America, and made lots of Borat references - he was a lot of fun. I also found out that before he decided to go into medicine he thought about being an art therapist. That was a really fun thing to discuss with someone. Unfortunately our time together was short, but he was definitely the most amazing person I met along the way.

The next day we woke up early for a morning of kloofing, something I’ve only heard of rarely in the States. It was a lot of fun and a great workout. First we squeezed ourselves into wetsuits and were then driven to the top of a mountain on a river. There were started hiking down the mountain to the river. The hike took about a half hour and was super hot. The wetsuits were not a great hiking accessory. It was strange to be wearing sneakers with wetsuits and since it was so hot we had the suits pulled down to our waists leaving our tops covered only by bikinis. It was an awkward hike. When we finally reached the water we were debriefed on how exactly to kloof - just make your way through the rocks and river however you can, and we got into the water.

It was freezing, but the wetsuits helped. We started off swimming then we had to do some climbing. It was so much fun! At some points there were rapids that sucked you through them. That was the best part. This waster was also the unnatural brown color, which we later found out was actually quite natural. It was colored by the same ingredient that makes tea brown - it looked and felt like a river of iced tea. It took us about three hours to make our way down the river. At several points we had relatively long distances to swim, which was awful in our ill fitting life jackets. We got to do some high jumps, too, which was really cool. I felt so free jumping from the top of these cliffs into the water on a gorgeous day in Africa. At one point we also encountered a waterfall that came straight down the gorge into the river. It was SO HIGH. We got to swim under it in the river and it felt like rain coming down. It was beautiful.

By the time we finished our kloofing adventure we came close to missing our Baz Bus to Mossel Bay, but made it just in time.

Backpacking - Monday March 17, Day 4 – Plettenberg Bay

2008-04-02T20:20:00.004+02:00

The Baz Bus dropped us off before noon at Plettenberg Bay. The drive there was beautiful. We passed over a huge gorge which is home to the biggest bungee jump of some sort in the world (I plan on doing it before I leave). The view of P-Bay from the car was gorgeous. The beaches looked amazing and we couldn’t wait to get down there.

When we got off the Baz Bus at our hostel, Albergo, we ran into a few other Americans from Rhodes, including Tracie, the other American that lives in my res. We all quickly got ready, stopped for lunch and headed to the beach.

The beach was very touristy, but very pretty. It is an inlet surrounded by mountains. It was amazing. The water was so clear that no matter how far out Sonya and I swam we could see the bottom even if we couldn’t touch it. We swam for a long time and hung out on the beach reading and napping, as well.

On the way back from the beach we decided to have a braai so Grace, Kevin and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up meat and food for dinner, while Ryan and Sonya went back to the hostel. When we got back from the store and we were getting ready to start braaiing we found out that Sonya was really sick. She couldn’t keep anything down. Ryan and I headed back to the store to pick up stuff to make her feel better, while Kevin and Grace cleaned up. When Ryan went to pay for everything he found that he had no cash, it was all gone after leaving his wallet in the room while we were at the beach. When we got back to the hostel we found out that other people in our room were missing their money, too. It was a terrible feeling. Luckily all of our valuables like laptops, cameras and iPods were still there. To bring our spirits back up Kevin, Grace and I started braaiing. We invited a British boy, Chris, from our room to eat with us since Sonya wouldn’t be eating. It turned out that he’s on his gap year and he spent the previous two months teaching and coaching soccer in Tanzania. He had a lot of crazy stories.

Since it was St. Patrick’s Day we decided to join Chris and some other Brits and Irish people at the nearest bar. We enjoyed a few drinks and someone bought a round of shots for the bar. It was a fun night.

In the morning we found out that Kevin would be going back to the bungee jump with Chris and we’d meet up with him a day or two later. The rest of us spent the morning waiting for the Baz Bus and driving to Wilderness, our next stop.

Backpacking - Saturday March 15 and Sunday March 16, Day 2 and 3 – Jeffrey’s Bay

2008-03-31T10:50:00.006+02:00

We had another early morning getting picked up by the Baz Bus from PE for J-Bay. The weather was awful. It was gloomy for most of the drive between hostels and the minute we out of the Baz Bus at our next hostel, Island Vibe, the skies let loose. Since the Baz Bus dropped us off so early we had a lot of time to hang out before being taken to our room. The hostel was set right on the beach with steps going down to the sand. We were warned by the woman at the front desk not to travel too far to the right though, as there are a lot of problems there. The next day when the weather cleared and the sky was blue we headed to the beach. Trying to stay away from the surf lessons taking place we went to the right. There we encountered a sign that read, “BEWARE: Muggings beyond This Point.” We all had to laugh. This was our second “TIA” moment. I wondered what would happen if a mugging happened before that point, would they have to move the sign?

Our room was perfect, as there were only four beds so we didn’t have to share the room with any strangers. We spent the day lazing around, napping and exploring the tiny beach town of Jeffrey’s Bay. It reminded me of a slightly less run-down version of Asbury Park, NJ. It had a lot more young people, but it had the same feeling. We couldn’t figure out how this crappy beach town could be the surf capital of South Africa, and one of the most desirable surf spots in the world. In fact, in July the annual Billabong Pro Tournament takes place on the beach near our hostel. The town has a large BMX culture, as well. We stumbled upon a rooftop BMX park overlooking the beach. My brother Mike would have loved it.

Later in the evening they had a braai and we got to have a delicious homemade dinner. There were lamb chops, salad, couscous and sausage. It was great! The four of us also enjoyed two fish bowls, a giant drink filled with various liquors and beers. You drink them through a hose. They were very good, but got old quickly because of their size.

At one point when I was waiting at the bar a couple asked me where I was from,

“America,” I responded.

“Obviously,” he shot back, “where from?”

After informing him of my Jersey roots I found out that they too were New Jersey natives, from the sad town of Ocean City, NJ. It was crazy coming halfway across the world and meeting someone from so close by. “Jersey,” as we continued calling them stayed for the next night also and told us about shark diving and other South African experiences they’d had. They were fun to talk to.

The next morning we got up early so we could do a little more shopping before the stores closed (it was Sunday) and then we headed down to “Mugger Beach,” as we call it. We enjoyed a picnic of our now usual PB&J and Simba chips (so much better than American potato chips!) and relaxed some more. The sea was pretty rough so we didn’t do any swimming, but the relaxation was nice.

Later on we heard from Kevin, another American from WAC who was traveling the same route as us with less formal planning. He came and met us at Island Vibe. The five of us took a walk down the beach at sunset. It was gorgeous. Along the way we saw a few GIANT washed-up jelly fish. I’ve never seen jellyfish so big. The boys also stumbled upon a dead baby tiger shark which was really cool to look at up close. It had so many razor sharp teeth. Seeing the baby shark up close got me really excited for our upcoming shark dive. After our walk we got to enjoy another home cooked meal. We had fish and rice and a few cosmos – delicious.

In the morning we packed up and hit the Baz Bus headed for our next stop, Plettenberg Bay.

Backpacking - Friday March 14, Day 1 – Port Elizabeth

2008-03-31T10:38:00.006+02:00

The four of us, Grace, Ryan, Sonya and I, left Rhodes at 8:30am. We made the 1.5 hour journey to the PE airport where we took a cab to our hostel. In the cab we curiously asked the driver how close the hostel was to the beach and he responded, “not close at all.” This confused us since the website said that it was right on the beach and had a picture of a deck overlooking the sun setting on the shore. Luckily this was an easy preparation to the “TIA-ness” of our trip – your expectations will only be met to a certain point, after all, this is Africa.

We arrived at our hostel and quickly made our way to food and the beach. The beach was beautiful and the weather was wonderful. The four of us were very excited to be beginning our two week backpacking adventure and this beach was the perfect place to start. After the previous week of tests and papers we were all happy to relax with our books and iPods in the sand. A few times we made our way into the water, which was unbelievably warm and clear. We explored the beach a little. We found a rocky inlet near a popular surf spot. The waves crashed there creating huge pools of warm water and waterfalls of foam.

We had dinner in an area that they called the Boardwalk. It wasn't on the beach and it didn't resemble any boardwalk I've been to in the States, but dinner was good. We headed back to the hostel early to shower and prepare for another early start. Exhausted, we were all asleep by 8:30 on our first night!

Quickly - P.E., JBay & PBay

2008-03-18T10:48:00.004+02:00

We're now on the third stop of our 2 week trip. It's a lot of fun so far and things have been going really well. I don't really have time to write too much, as it's costing me per minute, but we're alive and really enjoying our trip. I have a lot of pictures to post when I get the chance. Backpacking is a pretty crazy lifestyle and I'm glad that the trip isn't too long, but I'll be backpacking here again, I hope. Today we're off to Wilderness in the mountains near the Indian Ocean and some rivers. I think we may kayak to some waterfalls. It should be beautiful. I'll try and write again soon.

Adventure

2008-03-13T23:55:00.002+02:00

Quick post -

Tomorrow morning at 8:30am Grace, Sonya, Ryan and I (all WAC kids) will embark on our 2 week backpacking trip down the Garden Route to Cape Town. We will be stopping in 5 beach towns and one "wilderness" town (called Wilderness) along the way. We will be shark diving on March 20 in Hermanus, outside of Cape Town. We will then spend a week in Cape Town and return to Grahamstown on March 30. I am very excited for this trip. I will try and post along the way and will certainly take plenty of pictures.

Happy Days!

2008-03-04T23:34:00.002+02:00

Saturday I went skydiving. It was unbelievable. It's something I've always wanted to do and I figured where better than South Africa? It was the most amazing thing I thing I've ever done. The adrenaline rush was unreal. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I did it tandem and my instructor was crazy. After everything he said he smiled with his thumbs up and said, "happy days!" I got a DVD of me doing the training, the flight and the jump and the whole thing is filled with lots of thumbs up and "happy days!"

Friday Grace and I were back at Nyaluza at the request of Sanele. We helped with the photo project that Jason's doing. I interviewed the kids on paper, while Grace interviewed them on film. Jason posted the interviews I did online here. The kids told me some really incredible stuff. The assignment from Jason was for them to read to me a passage from their journal. The idea comes from Freedom Writers. These kids wrote about some really powerful issues, I encourage everyone to read them. Also, it will give you a good feel for the amount of English these kids know in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. It's astonishing.

After Nyaluza we walked through the township with Jason and some students to Eluxolweni, the shelter for street children. Most of the kids were playing soccer in a field across the street, so Grace and I got a little bit of breathing room before all of the kids came back. I got to speak with Bramwell, one of our favorite boys, for awhile. He's 16 and very funny. He was wearing a T-shirt with drawings on the back. I asked him if he had done these drawings, as they were very good and excitedly he told me yes and offered to show me more. Bramwell and I sat on the stoop while he showed me his inspiration book and drawings. We agreed that next time we're up there (this Friday), he'll draw a portrait of me and I'll draw one of him. I also promised to bring him nice drawing paper and color to use. I'm excited to see what comes of this.

We spent a little time at Eluxolweni with the kids. They were fun, funny and adorable as usual. Once it was getting late Jason selected a few to walk us back safely. The seven of us began the trek to Jason's part of town. Along the way they sang to us. They have the most beautiful voices. It was very nice. Bramwell joined us and he joked with Jason about how heavy is bag was (the boys help Jason carry his bags home since they are full of very valuable things. i.e iPod, laptop, camera, etc.). Bramwell had me cracking up. We made a stop at the BP for Jason to use the ATM and as we stood outside we talked to the boys about life in South Africa. Bramwell admitted to hating white people, a theme for the day. Again I was ashamed, although he does not consider us to be the same as the whites he hates because we're American. I was ashamed of the way these kids have been treated and the things they have witnessed that lead to them hating an entire race.

Once we arrived at Jason's place he had the boys walk us the rest of the way to campus so we could get used to being around them and build up some trust since Jason is leaving in a few weeks. We walked past one of the upper class, local prep schools. The kids stared at us as we sauntered past joking, singing and dancing. I was so proud to be with these kids, while the children on the other side of the fence were probably appalled. By the end of our walk, though, I found out first hand that it's not only whites that don't want racial interaction, but blacks are accusing toward their own race.

We were coming near campus when we all noticed an older black man following us closely. He began speaking to two of the boys that we a little further behind than Grace and me. I was holding the hand of the youngest boy and began holding tighter and walking faster. This was the only time thus far that I've actually been frightened in South Africa. After an exchange in Xhosa Grace and I demanded to know what it was that this man was saying to the boys. The boys then explained that the man wanted to know if the boys were robbing us, when they answered no he accused them of begging from us, or bothering us. I felt a rush of emotion. I was scared, embarrassed for the boys, ashamed of the current state of mind in South Africa. I couldn't believe that a black man would hold the same ignorant mindset of many white South Africans. Any time a group of black boys are with white people they have to be begging or committing a crime. What really perplexed me was that I was holding one of their hands! Why would I hold someone's hand if they were trying to steal from me?! Unfortunately this is all a shocking reality of life in South Africa. One of the Nyaluza kids that Grace interviewed admitted to the camera that "apartheid isn't over." This is something that any outsider can see instantly, but many of the kids that I interviewed didn't have that kind of insight. They are convinced that people here have equal rights. You can walk down High Street any day of the week and see the inequality.

Saturday morning we got to witness the extreme differences in the lives of whites and blacks. A taxi bus picked up four of the WAC kids from the beauty of Rhodes and we drove a few miles up the hill toward the Township. Although Grace and I have seen parts of the township already we got to see a lot more. We drove around and got to see different landmarks and a few different areas of the township. The township itself is sprawling. I was surprised about how big it is. When I was flying above Grahamstown getting ready to jump out, I noticed this, too. The township could easily be double the size of the rest of Grahamstown. We picked up a township resident and he drove with us and showed us somethings like his gym, his schools and his church. He seemed proud of where he lives. He seemed most proud when we got to tour his house. He lives in a self-built mud hut behind his sister who kicked him out for having too much ambition. It was a lovely one room house. He had his cats, his bed and his computer - all I would need. He made it himself, literally out of mud. He was very humbled by our compliments. This was the first township house I have visited.

Yesterday I had an art history field trip to Hamburg, South Africa, a small coastal village about 2 hours away. All 50 of us piled onto the AC-less-coach-bus in the 111 degree heat. Luckily I was able to sleep both ways, so it wasn't too bad. We went to Hamburg to see a cross-stitching project that has been started in Hamburg to help alleviate poverty in the area. Women get paid to stitch for the foundation and then the items are sold. Some huge projects are commissioned up to 100 people might work on it. Currently an altar piece they did is on display at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. That was exciting to hear about. The organization also does a lot to help with HIV/AIDS and there is a clinic in Hamburg that is decorated with wonderful mosaics made by the artists. The women were very sweet and their work was beautiful, but with the heat and being so close to the sea we couldn't help but go to the beach. We all were shuttled down the the beach in cars and we treated with lunch on the beach. It was lovely. Unfortunately I was unaware of the beach plan and wasn't wearing or carrying an adequate amount of sunscreen so I now have a sunglass burn on my face. It's not too bad though, although I do kind of look like an idiot. It was a really nice field trip and nice to get out of Grahamstown for a little and see more of South Africa.

We have our Easter break in 2 weeks so at that point we're going to travel for the entire break (2 weeks). I think we're taking the Garden Route to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth on the Baz Bus. It should be interesting, but I'm really looking forward to it. I am not, however, looking forward to all of the work I have to do before then. It's hard to remember that I'm here for school and not for all of the other stuff I want to do. Not even going to the bars, but volunteering even. I'd rather hang out with those wonderful boys from Eluxolweni than do my work any day. Unfortunately, you can't factor volunteer hours into a GPA, so I'll still have to do some work!

First Visit to the Raphael Centre and Blogging Lessons

2008-02-27T22:39:00.004+02:00

This morning I had an appointment with the head of the Raphael Centre, Jabu. I thought that we were just going to discuss the logistics of what I am doing there, but on the way out the door I grabbed some supplies, too, just in case. I made the long trek up the hill to the Raphael Centre and spoke with Jabu about my ideas. She is more excited than I am. We talked about doing drawing and painting, leading up to a photography project in late April, early May. Between now and then I will use the other sessions to get the women thinking about art and photography. The photography project will be a sort of photo journal that will illustrate the daily life of someone living with HIV/AIDS in Grahamstown. I want the women to photograph symbols of their life. The best part is that Jabu will be getting me exhibition space at the National Arts Festival here in June/July. This is the most exciting thing I can think of. Grace and I booked our flights especially so that we could attend the festival, as it begins just after school is done. I couldn't be more thrilled about this opportunity.

After speaking with Jabu she thought that I should be introduced to some of the women and we decided once I got down to the room that I would start working with them here and now. I thought I would begin with talking about symbols. I asked the women to draw something that they believed symbolized who they are. Many of the women struggle with English and they asked me to make an example for them to see.

I drew a brain. "I drew a brain," I explained, "I think this symbolizes who I am. I value my education. I work very hard to feed my brain. My brain is why I'm here in South Africa at Rhodes." This helped them understand and they got to work.

The ladies then asked of they could write as well as draw.

"Absolutely," I responded, hoping to encourage them to really put themselves into the work. I couldn't have imagined that I would end up getting the response that I did.

At the end of about 45 minutes of drawing and writing the women began to share their projects. Each woman got up and showed her drawing and explained what it meant. They were all incredible. The common theme was family. Everyone really believe that their family symbolizes who they are. Some women became emotional as they told their tales and you could tell this was the first time they were sharing some of these things with these people that they see everyday.

I have typed up the narratives that the women wrote and posted them on a new blog which you can view here. Each week I will update this with the work from the Raphael Centre. They ladies seemed to be very excited about the work that we did and they asked that we paint next time. That should be easier to photograph, so I should be able to post images next time.

I was really surprised that the majority of the women wrote their stories in English. Even women who did not speak English to me wrote in English on their page. I had a Xhosa translator with me for awhile, but once we all got comfortable together she left and the English-speaking women helped me with translating.

This was an amazing experience. I never thought that our first session would be so successful. The women were very receptive and really used the project as a medium for self-expression. I was so proud. I'm looking forward to next week. We'll be painting and I think we'll talk about family, since it seems to be a big theme in their lives. Apparently there will be about 25 women regularly, so not all of them have told their stories, I hope perhaps a change in media will allow the women who I worked with today to tell more.

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Later in the afternoon Jason invited Grace and me to help teach three students from Nyaluza how to make and use blogs. Grace and I were very excited to join. We met Asie and Nopinki, and were excited to again be in the presence of Sanele, an inspiration to both of us (see the entry from last Friday to learn more about Sanele). Grace and I were paired with the girls, I had Pinki and Grace had Asie, while Jason worked with Sanele. We helped them set up an email address, showed them how to send and read email, then helped them set up their blogs. Pinki was very excited to write on her blog and after we finished her first entry and she saw everything published her face lit up. She's 16 years old, but very different from the 16 year old girls I know. She's smart, sweet and reserved. She was very nice to be with. When I told her that her blog could be seen all over the world she couldn't believe it. I have put links to the three blogs on the right. They each have very little written, but hopefully soon they will be updating more and more. I am looking forward to reading more about these kids. All three of them are truly inspirational and I think that I have a lot to learn from the kids in this area, especially those in the Township.

On Friday Grace and I will be returning to Nyaluza and Eluxloweni. Sanele asked us to come back to Nyaluza on Friday and we couldn't refuse. He is so sweet and charming. An entry on his blog is titled, "Charmer Boy," and he is just that! I'm glad that we've already been able to make an impression on the kids that we've met and I wish there was a way for them to know the effect that they've already had on me. This is going to be a wonderful few months full of excitement, change and realization. I can't wait to see what else South Africa has to offer and what I can give back.

Camping & Addo

2008-02-24T19:36:00.007+02:00

I am exhausted after our second trip. Yesterday the WAC kids left bright and early for a nature reserve. We arrived around noon and cooked up some egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch and hung out until our guides took us for a walk through part of the nature reserve. We walked for awhile and our guides, whom we found out later we both younger than all of us, pointed out interesting things like aardvark burrows and termite mounds. We walked for awhile and they showed us a pond we could go swimming in. We walked back to the luxury campsite carrying the wood for our braii and the six of us that were going back to swim changed and we headed back to the pond. As we were walking it started raining, but we were all still excited for the swim. We all headed into the murky water. It was so nice after the hot day. Once we were in the water and we looked down at our limbs we realized that we were the color of Oompa Loompas. It was funny/disgusting. We swam for awhile and Bryce, Kevin and Kieran found overhangs for us to jump off of into the water. It was a lot of fun. We got a chance to test out the waterproof capability of my digital camera, producing several portraits of Bryce, Sonya and me in the orange water. We all walked back after our swim to take showers in the outdoor showers. Each tent, which were very, very nice, had an outdoor bathroom with it. They were nice bathrooms, not like an outhouse, it just looked like a regular bathroom with three. So when you were showering/using the bathroom you were just out in the open. We all ended up taking naps and meeting up a little later for our braii. The boys had a tough time getting the fire started, but in the end we had a great flame-grilled meal of steak, sausage, garlic bread, veggie burgers and salad, fruit and wine. It was delicious. Afterwards we all stayed up for a few hours, enjoyed some drinks and one another's company and talked for a few hours. It was an incredibly funny/interesting/unforgettable conversation. The boys are crazy.

We had to wake up at 7am to leave for Addo and we all crawled out of our tents and onto the bus for the trip to Addo National Park. The scenery along the drive was beautiful. There are just these rolling hills and mountains. Everything is so green and lush. It's gorgeous. At one point we saw a pack of baboons on the side of the road. That was really cool! There were baboons at the campsite; we could hear them, but we never saw any.

We arrived at the park for our Game Drive. Our driver was very fun and the drive was really exciting. Our first animal spotting was an elephant near the road. From there we saw many more elephants at the watering holes (Addo is known primarily as an elephant park, although they have the "big seven"). We also saw warthogs, kadoo, antelope, ostrich, zebra, buffalo, turtles and African birds. It was all very cool. The zebras were close to the road and the a turtle and kadoo crossed the street in front of us. This was something I've always wanted to do. It was amazing seeing the animals in their natural setting. The elephants were very entertaining. They were playful and they had babies with them, it was very cute. Up close a zebra's stripes look painted on. Warthogs are much cuter than they look. Unfortunately we didn't see any lions, but I'm not going home without seeing them. The surroundings at Addo were absolutely beautiful. The mountains and the billowing clouds. It was breathtaking. I plan to return before I go back to the States.

Be sure to check out my Flickr page (link to the right) to see all of the pictures!

Quickie.

2008-02-22T19:00:00.003+02:00

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Addo Elephant Park where we will spend the night on a game reserve. We're going to be camping and having a real South African braii (BBQ). It should be a lot of fun and we're going to get to see some real game! I'm excited. I'll be sure to post pictures Sunday night.

Also, I start teaching art classes at the Raphael Center on Wednesday. That should be exciting. I'm hoping to start receiving donations of art supplies for the classes that I will teach there and at Amasango. It's really hard to get things going without art supplies, but I have faith that I will receive enough donations to do my classes and then have new supplies to leave them with. At the Raphael Center I'm going to be doing a photo-journal project that will put a face to HIV/AIDS. I want to show the real lives of real people dealing will the virus. For that I would like to provide each person with a disposable camera to take pictures of their homes, their lives and what may be left of their families. This is going to be a costly project, so I'm especially asking for donations for this. I think that it will be well worth it since the head of the Raphael Center, Jabu, has now told me a couple of times that she will be getting me exhibition space at the National Arts Festival in June/July. This will be huge. I can't think of anything more exciting! Grace and I flew here separately from everyone else in order to attend the festival and this is the second biggest arts festival in the world. I couldn't be more pleased.

Things are really moving for me here and so far I've had some really enriching experiences, especially because of Jason. No one else has experienced anything like we have, so far. Grace and I were just saying today how lucky we were that he was asked to give a talk in our WAC class. I would never have gotten to meet these really special kids and I can't wait to be a part of their lives!

[anyone interested in donating art supplies please email me at karenhye@aol.com. thank you]

Nyaluza & Eluxolweni

2008-02-22T17:38:00.009+02:00

Today was another amazing day thanks to Jason. Around noon Grace and I took a cab into the township to meet him at the Nathaniel Nyaluza High School. We were escorted to Jason's English classroom by a very nice young man named Kanya. Immediately upon entering the room we were faced with whistling, cat calls and laughter, but Jason quickly put an end to that.

"If Karen and Grace are going to be a problem, than you are going to be the ones that leave, not them," yelled Jason. Grace and I were alarmed, but the kids we quick to go back to work.

Jason was in the middle of en English lesson about there/their/they're, so we got to help these tenth grade students out with that. We both found it really difficult to explain the differences, even though this is something that comes naturally to us. These are Xhosa speakers learning to speak English from people with unusual accents. I think it would be hard for anyone.

In the middle of the practice problems the bell rang for the students to move onto their next class. Jason waited for a minute for the next class to come in before realizing that the whole school was attending a drama production for the last period. Lucky for us we got to sit in. It was really hard for us to understand what was going on because most of the skits were in Xhosa, but their costumes and their enthusiasm were so exciting. Two skits were mimed and they were hilarious. Another longer skit was entirely in Xhosa, so we didn't know what was going on, but the rest of the audience found it really funny. As I sat outside in this courtyard I found myself looking around at the other faces when I realized that we were the only three white people there. I asked Jason and he normally is the only one, so he was grateful for the company.

After school Jason had to meet with some students about a photography project that he is doing with them. He did a similar project at Amasango and it was very successful. He exhibited the photographs here at Rhodes and at home in Buffalo, and he's going to be doing the same with this new group of students. This is sort of like what I will be doing with the AIDS patients. While we waited for the students to come in Jason showed us some of the photos from Amasango where the kids are rougher and tougher. There were pictures of homes, family, the Eluxolweni Shelter and a few of these very young kids doing drugs. Unfortunately this is the reality of their lives. To lighten the mood Jason then showed us a video of the kids from Nyaluza dancing during recess. Jason sets up his laptop so that the kids can make videos of themselves dancing to popular music in front of the camera. It was so funny. These kids were having the greatest time!

Following the meeting Jason got us two body guards (2 older, tough boys) to walk us to Eluxolweni, since the walk isn't very safe, especially for two white girls and a white guy. On the way I got to see some of the township homes. I walked for awhile with two 14 year old girls who live in the township. They told me about their aspirations to become actresses and move to the States. They asked me questions along our walk.

"Do you have houses like that in America," one asked, pointing to a rusted, tin shack. I wasn't sure how to reply. Earlier Jason had made references to "the Projects" in NYC and LA, so I told them about our ghettos instead, not wanting them to realize that I've never seen a home like this.

They talked to me about their love of reading and how they want to come to Rhodes. We talked about animals as we passed a cow, goats and chickens roaming the streets.

"Do you have animals in America," the other girl asked.

"Yes," I replied, realizing that she meant these kinds of animals, "but at home they're on farms, not walking through the streets."

"Do you have donkeys in America," they asked after telling me about the donkeys people have at their homes.

"Yes," I said, "but people don't usually keep them at their house. Do you ride it?"

"No," they laughed.

A ninth grade boy named Sanele also walked with us. He talked to me about America and college. Asking me questions about phone numbers and "what I do for a living." He was very curious, extremely smart and incredibly polite. Just before we left Nyaluza to head to the shelter Jason sat Sanele down in front of his laptop to give the boy a chance to record a news briefing. Jason, having worked in news business, knew exactly what he was doing. He wrote a short script, turned on news music and Sanele did his best to become a news anchor. He told me all about wanting to be a journalist and as we walked down the train tracks toward town, he shared pieces of news about places we passed. He's well on his way.

Eventually we split up with the two girls and Sanele and our guards escorted Grace, Jason and me the rest of the way to Eluxolweni. Having visited here last week Grace and I knew what we were in for - hyper, excited, funny street kids.

As we waited for the gate to be opened boys stood waiting for us to come in. The boys were everywhere grabbing at Jason, asking our names, telling us theirs. We walked around talking to the boys, joking around, having a great time. We talked to a boy named named Bramwell who cracked us up. He told us about wanting to come to America to go to Las Vegas and gamble. Then he showed us the poker chips in his pocket and told us we could get in on a game for 10 rand. The boys vary in age from 7 to 18, so there's a lot of variety in what was around us. There was an eight year old boy in Superman pajama bottoms running around yelling about pignoses. There's another boy who fancies himself an American thug who had me in tears I was laughing so hard. We asked him to rap for us, but he was too shy, so we challenged him to a battle next time we're at Eluxolweni. He then did his best rapper imitation grabbing at his crotch and throwing his arms around talking about his "brothers," and I almost died. It was so funny. It amazes me that these kids who are living under such awful circumstances can still have such high spirits. It's an inspiration.

As we were getting ready to leave a boy who we've met before (I have no idea how to spell his Xhosa name) was talking to me at the door. He grabbed my un-flexed bicep and made it jiggle. With his hand still on my arm he gave me a disgusted look, so I flexed. His face changed. "Woah," he said, followed by something I couldn't understand. I looked up at Jason for a translation, "it means strong, in shape," he answered. I laughed as the boy had me flex my other arm. Now all the boys were interested in our muscles and they grabbed at the three of us as we all flexed. Then the boy that I was with started playing with Grace's watch. He took it off of her wrist and put it on mine. Then he took her hair-tie off of her wrist and put it on mine. He smiled as he gave me my two "gifts."

We walked outside and Jason had gathered a group of four boys to walk with us back into town so that they could help him gather things in order to sleep at the shelter tonight. As we all walked towards the gate Grace and I were bombarded by boys giving us hugs and saying their goodbyes. The seven of us walked into town, down High Street. Roger, the only white boy at Eluxolweni, kept singing an Eminem song that was rather inappropriate for his age. He kept asking Jason to "shake it." Next thing we know Roger starts "shaking it" as we walk down the street. Yet again I am brought to tears by the antics of these boys. They are so funny. Roger was being difficult and hard to control, but he cracked me up. It was hard to not notice the looks of passerbys as this group of four street children and three white Americans rolled down High Street.

We said goodbye to the boys and Jason for now. We'll be going back next week to see them again and I can't wait. I think spending time with these kids today was the highlight of my week. They are so full of energy and excitement despite their unfortunate circumstances. And although many of these boys fall to drugs or violence, they don't seem to let anything get them down.

TIA

2008-02-21T20:27:00.006+02:00

The last two days have been pretty eventful and super hot! Yesterday during our WAC course we got a tour of campus by a woman from a museum on campus. She told us a lot about the historical context of Rhodes, which was interesting. The main building on campus (the clock tower) was a military base in the 19th century. We learned that part of campus was a military prison and another building was a military hospital. She also pointed out some buildings in town that are historically significant. That was interesting.

After the tour Grace and had dinner with Jason to talk about volunteering. It was a great dinner. He took us to Gino's, an Italian restaurant in town, and surprisingly a restaurant we haven't been to yet! We all got pizza and talked briefly about volunteering then we just vented about the huge differences between America and South Africa. We all appreciate the culture here, but a lot of things that take place here could NEVER happen in the States, and for good reason. Power cuts, brown water, and poor service would never be tolerated at home and it's hard to put that behind us and deal with the situation here. It's easy to get worked up by everything. Right now my biggest woe is no air conditioning. It is so hot. I don't think I've ever been this hot before indoors. It's inescapable, which is something that doesn't exist at home. You can always find AC. This conversation led to us teaching Jason about our secret phrase, "T.I.A." It's from Blood Diamond. It stands for, "this is Africa," and it's the perfect phrase to mutter when anything goes wrong. Power's out? TIA. It's 91 degrees with no AC? TIA. It's genius.

Jason offered to bring us to Amasango (the street school) to see the school and meet the kids, so we went this morning. The walk is mostly down High Street, but on the other side of the Cathedral things get a little shady. The school is behind a set of railroad tracks and this morning the tracks were sprinkled with people walking from the township to work, or into town. It was really interesting scene, I hope to get a picture next time. We had to be let into a locked gate and immediately we were greeted by the students. Many of the boys were from the shelter that we visited last week. They were all very sweet and introduced themselves to us. Jason took us around to the classrooms and to meet the teachers. The teachers were all very kind and welcoming. The classrooms, on the other hand, were a lot to handle. In one room the chalkboard had a big gash in the middle of it. The board was just missing. Many of the desks are broken and the chairs are uncomfortable and not sturdy. I didn't see textbooks or supplies. Meanwhile, I recall complaining in high school about there not being enough room in the hallway, or not having a copy of The Great Gatsby. Things like this would never be a concern here. For one, Grace and I spent a little time reading with two boys ages 16 and 17 (the age when we're taught The Great Gatsby) who read at a 6th grade level. These two boys were out of a handful of boys in the 6th grade classroom. Jason asked them who wanted to read before Grace and I left and they raised their hands. While the rest of the class sat back fooling around these boys read to us from a book of Nelson Mandela's stories. It was really eye-opening. Jason also took us to the art room, which was surprisingly the nicest classroom of all (something that definitely wouldn't be the case in America). There were ceramic projects everywhere. The school has a kiln and the kids get to work a lot with clay. I was very excited to see this. I'm going to work on painting and drawing with them, so it should be a little bit of a change for them, but hopefully still exciting. We also got to see the kitchen, where breakfast was not being served today because of a lack of food. This made my stomach turn. When we left the kids waved from all of the classrooms that we passed. It was a nice goodbye.

Jason walked us back a few blocks, until we reached a nicer area. As he was turning to leave he ran into one the boys he used to work with, Mango. Mango is a troublesome boy who has been known to be very violent. Grace and I kept walking as Jason talked to Mango. On the way back to campus we stopped for muffins at a bakery and Mango came in behind us. As I paid our 15 rand (approximately $2) bill for our muffins and water I noticed Mango at the other end of the counter begging for yesterday's leftovers. I offered to buy him a fresh roll and he gladly accepted and chose a roll that cost 80 South African cents (or less than 10 American cents). Mango thanked me and left the bakery. He went outside to share the roll with a friend. As we walked away we marveled at the fact that the kids at the school were not served breakfast, meanwhile that roll cost me less that 10 cents. It's a sad concept. There are many street children begging in front of popular spots in town all day, every day. They all ask for money for food or for a drink, but we've all been made well aware that this money goes to drugs. However, unlike in the States where we have this problem, these kids openly accept food. Last night at dinner I didn't eat my pizza crust. When the waiter came to clear my plate Jason had him wrap it. I then gave it to a kid on the way home. I couldn't believe I was giving this poor child the scraps of my food. It felt so degrading, but the two kids I gave them to were so happy to have them.

This evening we were treated to a trip to the bell tower in the St. Michael and St. George Cathedral in the center of town. The husband of the woman from the museum who took us on the tour of campus is the bell ringer so we got to attend a ringing. It was really cool. The view was beautiful. Grace and I may go back on Monday to start taking lessons and in a month we'll be able to ring the bells which would be something pretty exciting to tell. I believe he said that they are the oldest bells in Africa. It looked like fun and it's something to do! I love the cathedral. I think it's so beautiful. Even though I'm not religious I would like to attend church in it just once because it's so big inside and it's difficult to imagine how a service is run.

Tomorrow morning after classes Grace and I are taking a cab to the township high school to see Jason's English class. He teaches there twice a week and he says it's a big contrast from Amasango. The children there aren't violent and are there to learn, he says. That will be exciting. We haven't really seen the township too much.

Classes

2008-02-19T00:05:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow I will have been in classes for a week now and I think I've finally gotten the hang of things. I assumed that classes here would be more straight forward than they were. I didn't think that class structure could differ that much abroad, but I was definitely wrong. Fortunately I only have two regular courses and then my WAC Seminar Course which covers a wide range of topics surrounding South Africa. Both of my regular classes are very large compared to WAC. I have a couple hundred in my Anthropology 1 class and fifty or more in my Art History 3 class. At WAC Anthro would have 30 and Art History would have 15. In all of my classes my professors switch every few weeks. You don't have the same professor for the whole semester you have a few different ones. This makes things very complicated. Unlike at home where we have the same classes at the same time Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, here your times change everyday. It's really annoying. Also, since the classes are so big they have these tutorials once a week which are mini classes where we get to have more in-depth discussions. Those are nice, they feel more like WAC!

I like Anthro a lot, it's interesting, but the structure is difficult. Art History is cool, too, but it's very different than at home. I feel like what we're learning does not go along with the theme of the class at all, but I guess I'll just see where we go with it. We fly through things and we don't learn about individual works like at home. It's just a big contrast. I love my art history professor at home, so it really makes me miss her!

Rather than just having a textbook, both of my classes have a lot of outside readings which you have to get at the library. So they have this mini-library where all of the professors put books on hold for their classes then there are a dozen copy machines where students have to photocopy the readings. I went to do my art history copies the other day and I couldn't afford it! There are a ton of them and they're costly. That's another nuisance of academic life here at Rhodes.

Overall, I think I'll get something out of these classes and they're both exciting classes to take in Africa, Anthro for obvious reasons and Art History because it goes along with my major, but also because of the Arts Festival in June/July. I will have a decent background in South African art to take with me to the festival which will come in handy.

Our WAC course is a lot different. It's taught by a different professor from a different department every week (we only have class once a week), this way we'll get a good background in a variety of South African themes: economics, politics, music, etc. This class has a lot of work, but it will all be very rewarding in the end I think. This class was one of the reasons I chose to come to Rhodes/South Africa. It's nice to have time once a week where all the WAC kids get to see each other, and also we get to become more connected to the country through this class.

Amasango & Eluxolweni

2008-02-13T22:27:00.005+02:00

Today the WAC kids had our first "core course" of the semester. It was interesting. We were just given a brief overview of South African history since 1994, a talk on "anti-Americanism," something I think we've all encountered in small dosages, and then Jason, a former Rhodes student from Buffalo came to talk to us about the "real" Grahamstown. He talked to us about safety and places to help out around town. He is especially involved with the Amasango School for Street Children, a local school that gives street children the opportunity to learn even if they have abandoned school in the past.

Jason has volunteered at the school and the affiliated shelter off and on for the past two years. Following our lecture he offered to take us up to the shelter to meet the boys before they went to bed. We walked up there and we were introduced to the "dodgy" parts of town, mainly anything past the cathedral. The area was very different from those around campus or on the upper stretch of High Street where the shops and restaurants are. For once since I've been here I felt unsafe, but luckily our guide was knowledgeable about the location. When we arrived at the shelter we were immediately greeted by at least half a dozen smiling faces. The boys, ranging in age from lower elementary to late teens, greeted us each individually. They were interested in shaking our hands, learning our names and asking us how we were. The boys then gave us tours around the home, showing us the bedrooms and the kitchen. My tour guide took me by the hand and showed me his room and his bed and then proceeded to break-dance for me. It was very exciting! All of the boys crowed with the six of us in a small hallway. We all talked and they danced for us, it was a great moment.

Something that really struck me was an older boy wearing a Washington DC sweat shirt. The shirt was worn and in poor shape, but that wasn't what bothered me. It was heartbreaking to know that this boy has never visited Washington DC and that most likely that boy will never get the chance to visit our Capitol. Being privileged enough to be in South Africa in the first place makes it harder to put yourself in their places. As privileged as I am being able to afford to come to a place as beautiful and exciting as South Africa, this experience, and similar ones in the future, will stick out more in my memory in years to come than the trip to the beach or our prospective trips to Cape Town or Addo. To me, the life that these children lead is more foreign than any lion or elephant could ever be. It may sound pretentious or snobby, but I think that most people would agree. There are few places that I know of that could compare to the picture we've been painted of the daily lives of these young boys. I may be naive, but I think that it would be difficult to find a fourteen year old drug addict who is routinely involved in begging, stealing and stabbings in the States. Luckily for these boys there is a place like Amasango where they can go to stay safe during the day and continue their education. We met some boys at the shelter who "graduated" from Amasango and are now in high school in the township. I think that's so inspiring.

I plan now to volunteer at the school. Although the children are dangerous and often difficult I do not think that they deserve to be forgotten. Jason informed me that there are far fewer girls at the school than there are boys and that often they are very much forgotten and neglected, so I have elected to teach an art class for just the female students. He and I both think that the girls will be very receptive to the art, but also to a female presence. I am very much looking forward to this experience. In addition, I will be leading a sort of weekly art therapy session at a local adult AIDS center in town. There I will engage the patients in artwork and then lead a discussion in the end allowing them to practice English, which is usually their second language. I knew that I would be coming to South Africa to give back to the community, but I never thought that South Africa would be able to give so much back to me. I've only been here for a week and a half and already I have learned so much in and out of the classroom. The people are genuine and kind, the landscape is breathtaking and every day is just becoming more and more eye opening.

Day Trippin'

2008-02-10T15:53:00.000+02:00

Friday night some of the WAC kids went out together. First we went to the Union (a bar/club on campus) for some drinks and dancing. Once that became overwhelming Grace and I headed to the Old Gaol. It's a really cool place. It's literally an old jail which has been made into a bar/hostel. Those who use it as a hostel stay in old jail cells, which I think it's the coolest thing! They were celebrating their 10 and 1/2 birthday and we got to see a reggae band. We each had a South African beer and listened to the music for awhile before heading back to get rest for our day trip on Saturday. Grace and I live on opposite sides of campus so we walked away in opposite directions and as I was walking up the main campus walk I could still hear the band playing and they started doing a cover of Bob Marley's "Jammin'" and as I walked in this midsummer heat past the beautiful flowers and palm trees back to my room, I finally felt at home...

Anyway, yesterday we took our first day trip with Ashwin. It was absolutely wonderful. In the morning Grace and I woke up early and went to an African farmer's/craft market at the Old Gaol. They had the most beautiful veggies and homemade sauces, chutneys and jams (which I will be purchasing next week). We bought a fresh, home-made loaf of olive, rosemary and garlic bread. It was still warm! It was SO DELICIOUS!! We munched on it most of the morning and luckily shared it with everyone else so it's not as bad as it sounds! We also had tea and toast at the Mad Hatter's, a coffee shop near the top of High Street in town. Around 11:30 we met Brian, the owner of the Old Goal who was our driver/guide for our day trip. We drove out of Grahamstown in a direction that we haven't gone before so we all got to see something a little different which was nice. We got to see a lot of the townships which are up on the hill while the campus and town are more in a valley. It was very interesting - extremely colorful.

Our first stop was the town of Bathurst. It's a small, old town on the way to the beach. There they have the claim to fame of housing the country's oldest pub, the Pig and Whistle. We went for drinks (no one booze it up, so I can't comment on the beer) and then continued on to a pineapple farm, or Bikini Bottom as I like to call it! Evidentially this is "Pineapple Country" and giant pineapples are what you find in Pineapple Country. This pineapple unfortunately does not house Spongebob Squarepants, but you can climb to the top and see all of the fields of pineapples and the surrounding landscape. It was a very fun and interesting stop.

Following Bathurst we headed to Port Alfred, a small coastal town. Ashwin told us that it is home to a lot of retirees. It was quaint and quiet, but very pretty. We only stayed for a few minutes. It was very windy, but really nice. Some other international students were staying there for the weekend and we were all talking about going back soon while the weather is still warm.

Next we drove down to Kenton-on-Sea. We arrived at this wooded area with virtually no beach in sight. Ashwin then proceeded to enter this forest and lead us blindly through the woods. After a rather challenging climb we reached the top of this giant, forested dune and we could see down to the water. It was beautiful. The journey still wasn't over, but from here it was all downhill. As we slid down the sand the beach became more and more visible and more and more beautiful. We came out to this private inlet surrounded by large cliffs. The water was absolutely beautiful. We all immediately put on our sunscreen and headed into the water, which was colder than expected, but much warmer than any of us would be used to considering we were at the beach in February. We spent a good about of time in Kenton. Grace and I make the trek to the top of the cliffs, followed by Kevin, Kate and Ryan. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking. I've never seen anywhere more beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen water this color in person, nor have I ever been on a beach so utterly untouched. It had such a pure vibe. It was amazing.

We stayed here for awhile enjoying the scenery and we then headed for lunch in a nearby town. Lunch overlooked a gorgeous river. The restaurant was home to several interesting animals including an African parrot, a beautiful, very limber black cat and an ENORMOUS pig. The pig was quite possibly the biggest animal I have ever seen up close and personal. It was gigantic.

On the drive home we got our first real taste of African wildlife. We saw giraffe, zebra, buffalo, impala and antelope. It was very cool. The giraffes were so cute. They were eating off the tops of the trees. These sightings definitely wet my appetite for safari. That's going to be another amazing experience!

In other, far less exciting news, classes start tomorrow. I am ready for them to start. I'm getting a little antsy, especially now that the horrors of orientation are over. It will be nice to actually feel like I'm accomplishing something on a daily basis. I did decide to drop Sociology, so I will only be taking Art History and Anthropology, as well as our mini WAC course which will introduce us to South African culture and history. Grace and I have anthro together, but I don't think I have anything with anyone else, except the WAC course, which is just the WAC kids. Luckily I am taking a third-year course (art history) so I won't be with freshman all the time like a lot of other international students are. That will be refreshing!

Registration & Out on the Town

2008-02-08T08:58:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we got to register for our classes which is exciting. I cannot wait to start classes; I'm looking forward to the routine and seeing the differences between the American education system and the way in which classes are taught here. The classes are much much larger here than they are at WAC, so that's going to be a big adjustment, but luckily it's only one semester. Apparently it's very independent and there is very little work. For the most part it seems like your overall grade depends on your final exam, which will be held in June. Currently I am registered for 3 "real" classes, but I may drop one since I don't really need to take it. I'm registered for Anthropology I, Sociology I and Art History III. The art history seems really exciting since it covers a lot of African art and we're going on a field trip which will be very cool. Also I get double the credit for it, which is great and that's why I can drop one class if I wish. I'm going to feel it out next week (classes start Monday) and see how I like Sociology. That would be the one that I would drop if I were to drop a class.

Last night all of the WAC kids were treated to dinner with our professors (called lecturers here) in town. The restaurant was beautiful, the food was fantastic, and the wine kept on coming. Grace, Ryan and I engaged in conversation with 3 of the lecturers. It was a lot of fun. We discussed everything from apartheid, to the American election, to environmental issues and even Britney Spears and Anna Nicole. One of the lecturers, head of the Anthro department (a class I am taking this semester) was hilarious! He made the funniest comments about Britney. I'm very excited to be in a class with him. It's very interesting how engaged in American culture, news and politics people here are. I'm rather ashamed of the reputation we have here. It's not quite the image I like to promote, but hopefully we will be able to shed a better light on Americans.

Following dinner Grace, Kana, Sonya and I went out on the town. We first went to the Rat and Parrot, a local pub and talked to people and we also hung out with some South Africans from Grace's res. After that we went to Friars, a bar/dance club and danced for a while. It was a lot of fun. It was hard getting up to serenade this morning, though. Luckily today was our last time!

Tomorrow Ashwin, our adviser, is taking all of the WAC kids to the beach which should be a lot of fun. I'm excited to relax; however I have an absolutely horrible sunburn on my chest that I'm afraid of exacerbating. I'll certainly post pictures from that later this weekend.

So far although the adjustment has been extreme, Africa is everything and more than I thought it would be and I'm really looking forward to spending the next few months here. I'm sure that I'll be home before I know it, but I really want to ensure that I make the best of my trip. We're currently trying to plan our first few excursions, around South Africa as well as other Southern African countries. Grace has a few Dutch kids in her res that are really interested in traveling so I think that we'll all be trekking together. We're even thinking about renting a car, which will be very interesting, considering that they drive on the other side of the road here.

We're Here... For Real

2008-02-05T20:45:00.000+02:00

We arrived here at Rhodes on Sunday evening. We spent some time registering and then we were placed in our rooms. We all (there are 7 of us from Washington College aka WAC) have singles and we are all in different halls. My room is very nice. It has a window that overlooks a porch with lots of tropical plants. It's very nice. I have a large closet, a built in dresser, a bookshelf, desk, bed and a sink. I love the sink, I wish they had those in dorms at home! The first night I did a lot of stuff with the girls in our residence (res for short). We need the standard meet and greet and ice breaker kind of stuff. We also went over some of the house rules - there are a lot. The residences are MUCH stricter here than they are in the States.

I went to bed very early that night and was awoken at 4:30am for serenading. They have a tradition here that during Orientation Week (O-Week). Every morning at 5am you get up and the boys from one or two reses come to the girls reses and serenade them and we serenade them back. Following the singing (outside mind you) we then precede to a meet and greet with those boys. The girls have to put their keys in a pile and each boy gets a key. You then have to get to know one another and introduce each other to the group. I have now done 4 of these and I hate them! Breakfast starts very early (7am) and ends at 8:30, so in order to eat you have to be up early. There are a lot of rules about the dining hall/food and the portions are tiny. Clearly they're much smaller than American portions, but I mean these are teeny-tiny!

We have orientation activities throughout the day and all of the international students are together, which is really nice. I have a girl from VA on my hall and we've been getting along quite well. Yesterday and today Grace and I, as well as some of the other WAC kids took a walk into town for lunch (the food is dirt cheap here, and much like American food - restaurant food at least) and then we went back down to do some errands. The town is very cute, much like Jamesburg or Chestertown. Everything is very Americanized and everyone speaks English which is nice. The university is kind of in a valley and surrounded by mountains with what we've gathered to be townships on top. The view from the main campus building is beautiful. I'm going to take a photo tomorrow and try to post it here.

Last night I went out on the town for the first time. Our sub-wardens (kind of like RAs) took us all out pub-hopping. It was a really nice time and I got to spend time with the girls from my hall (all freshman - very young). It's strange to me that these 17/18 year old girls can go out drinking and I can't even do that at home for another year! We went to a few clubs/pubs around town and they were all very different, but fun. Tonight Grace and I are going out again together. This will be our first time out to the pubs together which should be nice.

We're registering for classes this week, so I'll be picking those out tomorrow which is good. I can't wait to get into a routine and start working. I also starting getting ready to begin some AIDS volunteering/research soon. I have some applications to do, but I should be able to do what I want and really get a lot out of my visit.

Saturday our advisor, Ashwin, has planned a trip for us to the beach. I'm excited for that. It will be really fun. It's just the WAC kids and we'll be on the Indian Ocean which is a very strange concept for me!

I have posted some photos on Flickr from the drive in be sure to check those out. It's beautiful here.

We're Here...Kind of

2008-02-02T20:14:00.000+02:00

Grace and I arrived in Johannesburg safely a few hours ago. We're currently in our hotel room resting/showering/getting something to eat. The trip was long, but not as bad as I expected. We fly to Port Elizabeth in the morning and will meet our adviser and fellow students in the morning. I'm looking forward to sleeping horizontally and eating real food tonight.

Almost There

2008-01-30T23:17:00.000+02:00

I leave in 2 days. I'm getting really excited! I have to finish packing, cleaning and saying my goodbyes. Unfortunately I did not go back to WAC to say goodbye, but it has been very stressful trying to prepare everything in order for me to leave and the two and a half hour trip just wasn't going to work well for me. I still haven't been able to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm leaving in 2 days. It seems like I've been thinking about this trip and wishing for the day to come and now it's almost here. I can't figure out how it's possible. Today we got an email with our addresses and our room assignments. I'm living in the John Kotze House which is conveniently located across from the library and the psych department. It's on the main campus road. My address there is:
Karen Hye
John Kotze House
Private Bag 1032
Grahamstown
6140
South Africa

I look forward to receiving mail! I also got a mic so that I can finally make use of my webcam (and possibly YouTube?). I'm looking into getting Skype, as well. I have to figure out the logistics of that, but I think then I could make cheap phone calls home through my computer.

I'll be updating as soon as I arrive and taking plenty of pictures along the way - my pictures will be able to be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karenhye - those will be updated with all of my pictures from along the way.

Here we go...

Goodbye WAC!

2007-12-12T16:49:00.000+02:00

Today is my last day at WAC, which must mean that South Africa is just around the corner (50 days?).

I am very excited, but beginning to get more and more nervous as time goes by. It seems crazy and I feel ill prepared. It's going to be an amazing experience, but right now it just feels like a kooky idea! I guess we'll see...

Hitting the Airport to Follow My Dreams...

2007-11-19T06:17:00.000+02:00

One step closer...the flights are booked, we leave February 1, 2008 for an arrival in South Africa on February 3! Obviously the longest flight in history. I cannot wait!

Things Are Finally Moving...

2007-11-13T06:26:00.000+02:00

Today we had our orientation. We received an overwhelming amount of information, but I feel a lot more comfortable with preparing to go abroad for so long. I have a lot of things to take care of in the coming weeks. The semester is coming to an end rapidly, but I am looking forward to the break. Unfortunately I'm going to have to work like crazy in order to support myself on this trip. I'm really looking forward to experiencing such a different country and really immerse myself in the culture. I want to travel and really see all that southern Africa has to offer...

81 days!

93 days!

2007-11-01T04:04:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was a big day in the beginning stages ...
1. We found out when we leave (February 2)
2. I got my passport

My passport is horrible. I think that might be the law, although Grace's isn't bad, but mine looks like a "meth-addict mug shot," as Grace told me. :-) I am glad to have that taken care of. Next on the list is Visa application, but first I think Grace and I need to figure out how much longer we're staying. The program ends June 21, but we want to stay for the arts festival, which I don't think starts until the very end of June/beginning of July. We're going to need to figure this stuff out soon and book our flight.

My application was turned in last week. I picked the classes that I am interested in: Art and Visual Culture, Anthropology, Linguistics, Sociology, History 101, and Health Disease and Society. We're not sure how many classes we have to take. We heard that 2 classes give us 16 credits here, which sounds good to me, but I'm not sure. Maybe we'll find out soon.

We haven't gotten the list of attendees yet, but Grace and I have kind of figured them out on our own. There are 7 people total going, most of whom are girls. We're not even 100% sure if any guys are going. We're supposed to find out soon.

I'm getting more and more excited and really starting to plan things out and look into travel opportunities. I bought a South Africa travel guide last weekend and it's so exciting to look through; there are so many places I want to go. It seems like it's going to be pretty easy and pretty inexpensive for us to travel in and around S.A., which is good for us. The exchange rate is in our favor, but our gender evidently is not. We might have to toughen up before we leave!

It's Official!

2007-10-19T02:56:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday Grace and I received our official acceptances into the WAC study abroad program!

Today we picked up our packets and signed the forms...the journey is just beginning. My head is clouded with ideas and excitement, as well as to-do lists and all the things I need to remember to bring/buy. I am counting the days!