Movies in Cape Town

Today is a very cold and rainy day and I'm sitting here in my room under my blankets watching the drops hit the window and I thought I would update you on the last few days. Last night, a couple of us decided to go out for dinner and a movie. The Dark Knight opened up on Friday here in South Africa so we were all really excited to see it. After wandering around Cavendish Mall for a while trying to figure out where the movie theater is, we found it. I'm pretty sure they purposefully construct the malls as a labryinth so that you are continually caught in commerce. If you're stuck long enough, you're bound to buy something! Ok, that was a tangent...sorry. Anyways, movies are a bit different here--it's not as easy as you think to just go and buy tickets and sit with your friends. They have ASSIGNED seats! So, in order to sit with the people you came with, you must buy them all together at one time and hope that its in a decent row. It's really not a big deal, just something you have to get used to, but we were all a little shocked when we got there. Apparently this only happens in South Africa too. If you go to a movie in Mozambique, you choose where you sit. The movie was great though! I thought it was going to end several times, but it just kept going. It definately lived up to its name as it was a very dark movie, but it was still very entertaining. For dinner, we went out to a nice italian place and laughed the evening away. For now, I think I will brew my 3rd cup of tea for the day! When there is no central heating and it's cold and rainy, tea is the only thing that will keep you warm!

A Weekend in the Bush

Housemates Around the Campfire (L-R): Marissa, Drew, Elizabeth, me, Marianne, Rachel, Deepa, Alyssa (the last 3 are kids of the program leaders)

This weekend was called our "Expectations Weekend" although none of us knew quite what to expect. We got into our 20 person bus and rode out of Cape Town, 2.5 hours north through the mountains to the absolute middle of nowhere (aka- the bush). It was absolutely gorgeous! Mountains, vineyards, dirt fields, rivers.....you name it, the bush had it. Most of us expected to sleep in tents (we were told to bring lots of warm clothes for the evening) and to fend off lions, elephants, etc.....Oh how American we were! We ended up staying at nice lodge that had a very camp feel. We slept in cabins, hung out in the lodge and had amazing meals prepared for us. If this was roughing it in the bush--we were treated like royalty!

Basically, it was a weekend for us to bond together as housemates and a service-learners. We had meetings where we discussed what the program looks like, what our objectives were, what exactly we were doing for our projects. When we weren't in meetings, we did team building activities, climbing walls, and sat around camp fires under the stars. Wow, the stars here are absolutely amazing! It's a little disorienting looking up and not seeing the same stars as back in the Northern Hemisphere, but I'm slowly learning the constellations here.

As many of you know, there is a service component to my study abroad program. I am required to spend at least 160 hours in service work and my capstone project is a report of the sociological research findings within my service. I have talked a little about Khayalitsha before, but now I am officially going to work in that township at a SHAWCO community center. They have a strong need for an IT class for women and no one has stepped up to the challenge. Although I came here expecting to work in an orphanage with kids, there is a huge need for this class and it would be selfish for me to ignore that plea just because I want to work with children. I will still be working with kids once or twice a week by helping them learn how to read English, but that is apart from my research. I'll write more later about what I will actually be doing within the IT center and how I will construct my social research once I actually figure that out. My hope is that I (along with my housemate, Marianne) will be able to give these women the skills and more importantly the confidence to go out in the workforce and get a job. We'll see how it actually shapes up! Please keep it in your prayers if you think about it. Thanks so much!

First Week of Classes...oh wait...class

Well, today I wrapped up my first week of classes at the University of Cape Town. If you will remember correctly, I have 2 classes and 1 seminar. My first class is on Mondays and Tuesdays at 8m which is a bit of a chore to get to on time. You see, I live on lower campus and the class is on the far end of upper campus. These campuses are called "upper" and "lower" because they are literally up and down the side of the mountain. It takes about 30 minutes of steep incline followed by about 100 stairs just to get to the building and then 4 more flights of stairs to get to the classroom. Talk about an early morning cardiovascular workout! It's barely light when we leave the house at 7.30 (remember that it is winter here in the southern hemisphere) and making it up that hill is definately a challenge. BUT, by the end of the semester I will have some killer leg muscles so it all works out. Now, those 2 8am classes that I had this week were all for nothing because the teacher never showed up. I guess that happens a lot here.... Hopefully she will be here next week!

My Xhosa teacher showed up every single day to teach us the clicks of the tribal language. "De clicks are de spice of de language!" That's a direct quote! He is a really great teacher who talks very slowly and pronounces everything many times so we can understand. Even though it's going to be a hard class, I think I'm really going to enjoy it.

Tomorrow my housemates and I are headed to the African bush in High Africa. I don't really know where that is or what we will be doing, but we were told to pack warm clothes for the evening. Hopefully I will meet some real African bushmen! How cool would that be? As for now, I think I will get some sleep. I don't know if I'll get much in the bush! :)

Townships

On Sunday, my service-learning group spent all day touring around 2 different townships. For those of you who don't know, a township is an area of land that the government of South Africa forced all coloured and black people to move to under the apartheid regime. (yes, there is a difference between black and coloured here, you should look it up) It is the essence of poverty here in Cape Town. You know when you see all those little tin and cardboard shacks all shoved together in rows on tv? They all look like they could fall over with any sort of wind, nevermind leaning up against them, right? Well, that's what these townships looked like and that's where I'll be working this semester.

The first one that we went to was Langa and our guide grew up there so he knew all the ins and outs of the community. We were able to go into people's houses and play with the kids there, I even bought some jewelry from a really sweet lady. It was so interesting to see all the people there out playing around and having a good time. We also went into a shebeen which is where they brew home made beer in the townships. Now, there are certainly no federal regulations for any of this and I'm pretty sure it's illegal, BUT we went into one man's little hut and had some true South African beer. I don't think it gets any more authentic than that! It was in this old tin bucket and we each passed it around taking a sip each time it came to us. Now, I don't like beer in the States, and this stuff was a milky color and really grainy--DISGUSTING!! I actually faked my last two sips because it was so gross, but I tried it! Not many Americans can say that they have had homemade (in a shack no less!) South African beer.

The next place we went was Khayalitsha and it is where over 1/4 of Cape Town's population lives. That's over 1 million people living in tiny shacks for as far as the eye can see. It was really hard to just look over that vast expanse of poverty and to realize that this wasn't just the result of a social racism--this was the result of a planned community by the Afrikaaners in the 1950's. That's what broke my heart, that an entire political plan was based entirely on race and if you did not have pure white skin you were automatically less human. Sick! I know I'm only one person, but if I can change the minds of even a few blacks in the community or help a few people realize that not all white people are evil, then I can consider myself successful. Anyways, that's what has been going on recently. I've started school on Monday, but I will have a post about that later in the week. Hope you all are enjoying the summer!

P.S.- Enjoy the pictures!

Full Week

Wow! This week has been absolutely crazy! I've had orientation meetings every single day of the week and finished yesterday with registering for classes which was an adventure in and of itself. The way they do things here in Africa is a bit different than the "click and drag your classes" method we have at Mizzou. We started off on upper campus in a long que to get a form, then we had to stand in another que to hand in the form once we'd filled it out (the form was our class list). Then we had to walk to middle campus to get our computer passwords and back up to upper campus to register the password. Then to the student center to register for the gym and clubs I joined. Keep in mind, most of this is standing in long lines. The last line was for our student ID which took at good 45 minutes. Whew! Lots and lots of lines!

But, good news! I'm now registered for Social Research Methods (in Cape Town context) and Xhosa (yes, I am taking the clicky language). I also have another seminar that will happen once a week called Understanding Cape Town. I also registered for 3 clubs--Mountain and Ski Club, East African Society, and Wine Culture. I know I won't have time to be super involved in all of them, but at least I can go to a couple of the meetings and maybe a few events--especially with the Mountain and Ski Club.

We also visited a couple of the townships that I can potentially work in, and now I just have to choose which one. It was incredible to see the conditions that these people live in. There is one township called Khayalitsha which is home to over 1 million people and they all literally live in tin and cardboard houses. We stopped on this one bridge and literally, for as far as you could see, there were these tiny little shacks crammed into the tiny lot of land the governement gave them. We are going on another tour of the township tour tomorrow so I will write more about it then, but for now I am off to cook some dinner!

Fast Facts

So I thought that it might be helpful to post a few facts about South Africa, Cape Town itself, and the University of Cape Town where I'm studying (sort of, more on that later) since this is where I'll be living for the next 5 months. Enjoy!

South Africa
Population: 79.5% Black African
9.6% White
8.9% Coloured
2.5% Indian/Asian

Languages: There are 11 national languages. Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans are the top three; English is 5th on the list.

AIDS prevelance is 21.5%

Capital: There are 3-- Cape Town (legislative), Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial)

President: Thabo Mbeki

Cape Town
Population size: 3.5 million people

Attractions: It is the only city that has an entire floral kingdom (Cape Floral Kingdom) in its borders.
Table Mountian
Cape of Good Hope
Numerous Scenic Beaches

Climate: Mediterranean

UCT: #1 University in not only South Africa, but the entire continent of Africa; ranked 200th in the world.

The world's first successful transplant was by doctors at UCT's medical facilites

Over 101 nationalities represented annually (most prominent=Zimbabwe)

Hopefully this gives a little bit better picture of where I am right now. I'm sure there will be much more information to come as the semester progresses. I hope you all are enjoying the summer weather in the States! It was about 50 degrees and raining all day today--yuck! I can hardly complain....I'M LIVING IN AFRICA!!!!! :)

A Day Full of Views

Today was long bus tour day for all of the international students at the University of Cape Town. We piled into 9 coach busses and headed all around this glorious city! Our first stop was a scenic overlook of the Cape Bay where we had muffins and juice. [sidenote: muffins with cheddar cheese on top is not only common here, it is expected! new taste sensation: 8.5] Anyways, we drove around downtown learning about the history of the city and country as a whole. The next 2 stops were places that I have visited before, but they both still took my break away a second time.

Boulders Beach: Home of the Cape Penguins! As many of you know, penguins are my favorite animal and seeing them crawl around the beach was so much fun! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day to visit too--the sun was shining brightly (yes mom, I wore lots of sunscreen) and there was not a cloud in the sky. All the penguins were out and about scuttling along in the sand and throwing their bodies into the waves. They are hilarious little creatures!

Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope: OH.MY.GOODNESS! I wish I could upload all of my pictures from this place. Probably one of the most beautiful places on the earth thus far. The blues and greens are astounding! It takes about 30 minutes to drive from the park entrance out to point and then from there you must take a rather trecherous hiking trail out to either point. Today, I hiked only out to the Cape of Good Hope which is where the settlers came and landed for the first time on South African soil. It was actually called the Cape of Storms by Vasco de Gamma, but his king told him to rename so people would venture down there again, thus Cape of Good Hope came about. Anyways, we were also told not to go down to the beach because there were strong rip currents, but along the trail out to the point there was a rather inviting staircase that led down to the beach....naturally, with my love for the beach AND adventure, my housemates liz, drew and I decided we should go for a little detour. We climbed the rickety staircase down the side of the mountain to the water's edge, took our shoes off and ran through the sand down to dip our toes in the ocean. GLORIOUS!! Hopefully these pictures will give you just a glimpse of the magificent beauty that is on this south-western most tip of the whole of Africa. We still had to make it back to the bus in time so after dipping our toes in, we went scurried back up the side of the mountain and continued out to the very tip of the Cape of Good Hope and just sat enjoying God's beauty. I love going to new places in different parts of the world and admiring God's handiwork. It is vastly different and meticulous all at the same time, but it still screams of a greater being, only someone so infinately wise as our God could design something this beautiful and full of variety. I am simply in awe!

Goodbye States, Hello South Africa!

Hey Everyone! I arrived safely here in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday afternoon. Sorry for all of those wondering if I ever made it here. I had limited internet access at the hotel I was staying at for CIEE orientation and wasn't able to access this site. Anyways, I'm all moved into my house now and have full internet access! I live in a house on lower campus with all of the other service-learning students (all American) and a house representative who is a UCT student. Her name is Vavi and she is from Zimbabwe. That means that all together there are 8 girls and 1 guy living in our house. Poor Drew. :( We all have our own rooms and share 4 bathrooms so it's not a bad set up at all.

Cape Town is beautiful this time of year, even in the dead of winter! There is nothing as majestic as waking up in the morning and looking out your window to see Devils Peak shining above the clouds--simply glorious! I haven't done a lot of seeing the town yet because we have been stuck in orientation meetings all day, but we did go out for a traditional African dinner last night complete with African dance lessons! I can't dance back in the states, let alone Africa! Let's just say it was a great time with some hilarious memories.

Tomorrow we have the day off so my house mates and I are going to go shopping for some much needed household appliances (ie-coffee pot!!!) oh yeah....and food. :) There seem to be plenty of coffee shops around too so I think I will be just fine. Also, there is a frozen yogurt place just down the street so I can live with all the comforts of home....except heating..... As you may have guessed, I'm in the Southern Hemisphere which means its winter here and only a few buildings have heat. My room has a heating pad on the wall which is about 1.5ft by 1.5 ft and takes about an hour to "heat" up which is more of a warm than hot. If the sunshine is out, its not too bad at 50-60 degrees, but when you have no place to warm up, it's cold all the time Oh well, I only have a month and half more to be cold, then I'll be warm again.

Well, there's plenty more to write about, but we'll save that for another day. Until then, stay warm in the summer sunshine for me! Miss you all!

Trial Run

Hello all- This is just a trial run to figure out how this blog works. The next post should be from Cape Town, South Africa! Yay!! Thanks for visiting!