Brett's First Blog Entry

Brett at Genadendal, oldest mission in South Africa

Hello to everyone in the states, I send my best regards, I hope life is treating you fairly. 

I am chilling in a spare room in our house right now, we are getting ready to go out with Vernon to a rural community for a field trip today. He is a half an hour late, and I am taking advantage of the time, but that is the story of South Africa, half an hour late and relaxed about it.  He didn’t tell us many details about the trip today, but I am looking forward to moving beyond the bustling metropolis that is Cape Town, and the crowded townships that surround it. I go on runs from time to time, up to a place on table mountain called Rhodes memorial, a monument similar to the Lincoln Memorial, but recognizing a man who played a large role in the exploitation of blacks for the mining industry, but also a large contributor to the University of Cape Town. When I sit on the memorial I can see out maybe ten or fifteen miles. I can see the commons, a large grass field, 1.6 mile around, which I walk through to get to downtown Rondebosch, I can see the roads with the small cars busily going to and from, and two large water towers in the distance. In between these landmarks are dwellings, of people, in all directions, as far as the eye can see. Closer to the mountain and university, the houses are larger, more suburban, two stories, and as my eyes look of into the distance, as the houses blur into the indistinguishable haze, I know lie the townships, Khayelitsha, Guguletu and others.

Well, Vernon arrived, and I stopped writing for the day, so now, it is the next morning. What was I saying. Well, yesterday, what I was getting at was that there seemed like there were so many people in and around Cape Town, and simply not enough space or natural resources for them all to sustain themselves. But, after driving into ‘the country’ I’m not sure the problem is that there isn’t enough land. There is land, it’s just that the people don’t own it, and don’t have the means to buy it. Also, the land doesn’t look very fertile, unless it is irrigated. The unemployment rate in this country is very, very high, so I have been looking to bridge the gap, in my mind, wondering first, if it was because of a large population, or secondly, not enough natural resources. It seems like the problem is one common to the history books, the difference between the proportion of land owned by the richer versus the poorer. Little land, and little education about the land.  I am working with refugees, who face terrible xenophobia as they look for jobs and try to establish themselves here. But, I feel that, as I help the refugees find jobs, how can I ignore the people who were born in and around here, who cannot find jobs.

I am enjoying learning about these dilemmas, and seeing the reality of them in my internship and day to day life. I am finding the world to be quite real here, as real as hunger pains in the stomach, and fear in a refugees eyes as they struggle to explain a dilemma to me in a language they brokenly speak. In the midst of this world, where staying alive, and healthy, is enough, I am beginning to find my place. 

But, one strange thing I have noticed coming to South Africa is the love affair the people have with America. From here, America is the land of milk and honey, the promised land, where rich people drive around fancy cars and party and listen to pop music. In the spirit of the great Gatsby, the American dream is alive and real, here, far enough from the green lights to distinguish what the green lights actually are, merely a neon sign on a store that reads, ‘open’, so that one can come and buy and spend money. And so, instead of a recognition of life in a small scale, and appreciation for beauty and community on a local level, there seems, at least economically, not to be the self-reliance and community cohesiveness that I expected, but rather a longing towards the American mystique. The relationship between The United States and South Africa is not that of a Parent investing in their child’s future, but rather the treatment of an older sibling to a younger sibling, one looking up to the other and the other picking on the first. Yes, the citizens of the United States may be importing businesses, and therefore jobs, but they are also by and large exporting the profits.

These are some of the problems that are beginning to emerge in my visual field as I spend time here. It seems the world, at large is quite immature, and as I grow older, this is the world I am inheriting. For now, I am still a student.

Half of the time studying abroad, I have been hiking, going to nice restaurants, relaxing in the pool at our house, and hanging out with all the good people on this trip. The other half of the time I have been working through the real issues I talked about above, in my mind, and in person. It is a nice balance, one that at some point I will have to reconcile the discrepancies. But, for now, I am enjoying both sides thoroughly.  

Brett enjoys  Chapmans Peak view: 21 January 2010

Katherine's First Post

Katherine at Moyo

I have definitely been enjoying my stay in Cape Town, South Africa.  While all the security talks we were given did make me nervous about maneuvering around the city, I am quickly becoming accustomed to Cape Town.  Not to fear parents, to get into our house (which is very nice and spacious) you need to use at least three keys.  If your child is one of the six of us who lives in the pool house, we received an extra key or two to make our way through the house and then to the backyard to our bedrooms.  The gate on the front door took most of us several days to master because it is tricky to unlock.  Rachel, however, was a pro from the start.  I stood at the front door gate for twenty minutes one day before I could get it unlocked.

While we were told by one of our security briefers that riding the minibus taxis is not safe, I find it to be one of the most entertaining parts of my week when I ride them to get to and from downtown for my internship at Black Sash.  A minibus taxi is basically a large white van that supposedly seats about 15 people but during the busier hours of the day the minibuses tend to stuff more people in.  There are two minibus “employees” (I guess that is what they should be called); the driver and the wingman.  The drivers squeeze in and out of the tiniest spaces in traffic and manage to come away unscathed.  The wingman sits in the passenger area of the van and is usually screaming and whistling out the window at passersby.  His job is to recruit as many people to hop on the van as possible.  I have learned that they will do anything to get you on the bus and get your money, including tell you they’re going somewhere and then once you are on and the van is moving you realize that the bus is not going directly where you are going!  This happened to me on the first afternoon of my internship.  While at first I was nervous and wasn’t sure what to do, the fellow commuters on the bus were quite helpful and steered me in the right direction. I had to get off at an area called Mowbray and switch to a minibus headed toward the Red Cross Hospital.  Since that first day I have toughened up and learned how to better negotiate my way onto the correct minibus home.  The minibuses play older American pop and rap music and sometimes the wingman even sings along.  Most of the people who ride the minibuses are commuting to work from the surrounding suburbs.  It takes about thirty minutes to get into downtown Cape Town via minibus because they stop several times to let people on and off before reaching the city.

In addition, there are a few funny subtle differences I have noticed over the past three weeks.  If you ask for directions and someone tells you to go down to the next robot and take a right, they are not crazy.  A robot is a street light and while I had been told this ahead of time I was still surprised to hear such a funny term used by people.  When greeting someone in the U.S., we are used to saying “Hi, how are you?”  Yet here most people say, “Howzit?”  I have been trying to remember to say this instead of the previous greeting so that I can begin to blend in a little better.  The most confusing difference here is that they drive on the opposite side of the road.  Attempting to cross the road when I go for a jog or walking to the grocery store is quite a dilemma.  I look both ways several times because it is not easy to break the habit of looking for traffic the way I do at home!  My favorite difference is of course the animals.  We have seen ostriches, baboons, weird birds, cheetahs, and penguins.  I am both very scared and extremely intrigued by the baboons.  They are very accustomed to people and will come up and snatch your food away from you.  Sadly we have not gotten close enough to any to have that type of interaction with them.  They also lay around on and near the roads.  I want to bring a little baby baboon home, but I don’t think my parents would appreciate that…

Katherine at Chapmans Peak

Meredith's First Post

Meredith looking down on Cape Town

Twenty days. Enough time to learn to cook. Enough time to make solid friendships. Enough time to feel at home.  Enough time to realize who you are.  Enough time to realize who you want to be.  Enough time to begin feeling your life changing. Twenty days.  The amount of time we have been in South Africa so far.  I never would have thought that half of a month could be this impacting on my life.

It is absolutely impossible to pick one word to describe the past few weeks because they have been filled with a broad spectrum of emotions: excitement, frustration, astonishment, satisfaction, helplessness, hopefulness, and happiness just to name a few.

Though all of these emotions reflect what I have naturally felt since we have arrived in Cape Town on the fifteenth of January, one emotion specifically I have not been able to get out of my mind.  Happiness. What exactly is happiness? I have given this question a lot of thought these past few weeks.  What I have established is that happiness is just a very simple emotion.  Just like any other emotion, it comes and goes as it pleases in you depending on the situation you are in.  A child who looks under a glistening Christmas tree at the presents they are about to receive is happiness.  It is an emotion that is great at the time, but what happens after the presents are opened and Christmas is over?  The feeling of happiness is gone.  Happiness is a temporary, superficial emotion that comes from external situations.  How in anyway can that satisfy anyone’s life?  It is the void that cannot be filled.

Being here in Africa has really helped show me a distinction between happiness and joy.  I made this differentiation after we went to a Baptist Church service in Guguletu.  Before the service, we had the opportunity to drive through a few of the townships.  What I saw was shocking.  Families living in tin shacks that were crammed together on the side of the road, trash everywhere and wild dogs running loose.  This is definitely the hardest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life.  Knowing that they were placed there not by choice but by force made me furious and incredibly disconnected to what is truly going on in the world.  This first impression made me extremely nervous about traveling

into the township the next day for the church service.  In the church though, what I saw wasn’t poverty or even bitterness; what I saw was love, faith, and most of all joy.  They could have very easily spent

there time dwelling on the past and having anger build up inside of them.  Anger is just an emotion though; it comes and goes just as happiness does. The people of the church were not angry because they have consistent joy in there hearts.  They were all just so thankful for their lives and for their families. The amount of forgiveness they have towards the way they were poorly treated is unfathomable.  The joy that I saw in the hearts of those in that church service shined through.  I know for a fact that they are wealthier then any of us could ever be.  Every material possession they owned was stripped away but it really shows that the wealth in your heart is far greater than any mansion could ever be.

I feel like everywhere I go this same message is continuously pounded into my head.  We had the opportunity to start our internships a few days ago and what I have seen has been nothing but pure joy.  My internship takes place at Christel House, a school with the strong dedication to help children break the cycle of poverty they are immersed in.  The school does such wonderful things for these children by giving them a full education, meals and even digs down to the roots of poverty by educating the parents.  For my internship specifically, I have the pleasure of working with Grade R, or kindergarteners.  I really was not sure what to expect with these children especially because I knew I would be the minority in the classroom.  As I entered the classroom, all of my nervousness completely vanished.  Without even knowing me for more than five minutes, they welcomed me into their home away from home with huge smiles and hugs.  What I have learned the past few days at Christel House is that these kids have so much love and joy in there hearts that is just bursting out of there little bodies.  These kids need to give and receive love in order to feel joy and at Christel House the teachers truly make that possible each and every day.  Today the children squealed with laughter as they hugged me so hard that I ended up on the ground and I could just feel the joy radiating off of them.  The fact that the kids want to be in school as opposed to doing anything else was joy in itself.  I know as a child the last thing I wanted to do was be in school, I would rather be doing almost anything else.  These children want to learn and it is amazing how there lives will change.  They will break the cycle of poverty.

Even reflecting on the group of twelve of us living on Loch Road that decided to embark upon this journey reflects joy and dedication.  The fact that we are a mixture of very distinctive people who can come together for a common cause is so wonderful.  Though throughout the semester I’m sure we will all have our disputes and debates, we are all united by a cause because we have joy in our hearts for this place that we can now call home.

Table Bay from Lion's Head

Adam's first blog entry

My experience is South Africa so far has been amazing. In my first few days here I was jet lagged and felt as if I was walking around in some sort of surreal dream world. I listened to people talk, I smelled the smells, and tasted the food yet none of it registered. Then after a few naps and a good nights rest I started to awaken a bit. The clouds drifted away revealing Table Mountain in all of its grandeur and all of a sudden the people and places became real.

I walked down Main Street in Rondebosch at first a bit startled by the mini-bus taxi hawkers leaning out the windows shouting the names of places like Wynberg and Belleville. Then after riding on these crowded mini-bus taxis a couple of times it started to become the norm. After becoming a little more acclimated to my surroundings I became more able to take in all of activities that were packed into orientation week.

I started to get the flavor of the real South Africa by visiting places like Swingers, Greenmarket Square, and the University of Cape Town. I started to discover a vibrant culture in places like Long Street and a Baptist Church, but soon saw Cape Town’s underbelly in the townships and the faces of the beggars on the streets. It was then that I realized that South Africa still has a long way to go.

I became more informed about South Africa’s history by visiting the Slave Lodge and the District 6 Museum. Robben Island proved to be an emotional test for some, but I tried to take it for what it was: a sad and unfortunate history. I attempted to focus more on South Africa’s future and not dwell on its past.

The warmth and hospitality that I have received from Vernon, Marita and Ben made me feel truly comfortable from the time I stepped out of the airport. Everyday I have learned or discovered something new. It is because of this that I know my experience in South Africa will be a life changing one.

Sarah's 1st blog entry

Sarah on Signal Hill

I’m not sure if this still makes sense, but I don’t think it will ever hit me that I’m here.  I have come to learn more from meeting different people and getting to know them than I ever have in a classroom. 

We did have our first class a couple of day ago, but the notes I was taking sent chills up my spine, as simple statistics became faces I knew, people I’ve met.  As I listened to Vincent lecture on the protests in Soweto, my mind immediately went to our tour guide at Robben Island. This man marched along side his classmates who were no older than me only to see his pregnant girlfriend get shot through the face by police.  The deaths among those oppressed by a ruthless and malicious government are no longer a statistic to me; they are as real as the people I have met every day.  I can picture this man in his mid-twenties spending bleak nights in Yemen or Angola resisting persecution and oppression in the only way he could: violent desperation.  And now, in 2010, this same man can shake my hand outside the maximum security barbed wire fences that used to detain him and so many others.                                                                                                             

      

Benjamin, former political prisoner, current Robben Island tour guide.   

What has impressed me most about this country is those who were cruelly oppressed for so long are so incredibly forgiving and thankful for how far they’ve come.  I’ve heard those who lived for decades in the tin and packing crate allotted to them for creating a home tell me that they still have to pinch themselves when they can stay out as late as they want, when they can walk through the front door of their favorite restaurant, when they can travel wherever they please without a passbook.  This hope and optimism is something I will admire and hope to aspire to for the rest of my life.

 That being said, one of the things that surprises me the most is an intangible effect of the apartheid regime.  While the poverty and social class of those most affected is something I could have predicted, the brainwashing involved in such an evil system has caught me off guard.  The physical separation and classification of apartheid has left so many feeling they belong in some places and don’t in others.  It has left those who once found pride in their African heritage confused, simply because their hair falls when one wraps a pencil around it or their skin is a shade lighter than their neighbor’s.  When I really stopped to think about it, I found this exists everywhere, though maybe not as blatant on account of such obvious divide and conquer techniques imposed by the apartheid government.  People get so concerned as to where they belong, that they don’t realize they can “belong” any where.        

I went out to a bar with a few friends that, as far as I could see, had never seen three white girls walk in for a drink.  While the experience initially left me feeling jittery, I began to feel as if I had rebelled in my own little way.  Not that anyone really had a problem with us being there, I just felt as if I had crossed a line, bridged a gap so to speak.  I think people would feel connected to more people and on a greater level if they stopped worrying about where they belong.  This assumption, however, is based on very little since 99% of the people I have met have been more welcoming than I ever would have imagined.

I feel as if one of my main goals for the next few months (as of now) is to “belong” in this country.  It is hard not to walk through the townships and feel some sense of accountability, some feelings anger towards myself for having everything handed to me simply because I was born in a certain part of the country with light skin.  I remember leaving Robben Island, in all of its beauty and horror, wanting to track down our tour guide and ask him, “What do you want me to do?”  It is no secret that just by having the money to stay here for three or four months puts me in an extremely privileged class of people.  Now my main concern is what can I do with that?  I am not a tourist.  But what is my role?  How do I belong to a nation of people? 

Pamela's first blog entry

Molo! (Hello)

Howzit?

I’ve been in South Africa for two weeks now, and these past weeks have been the most amazing! On January 16th we landed at Johannesburg Airport after a 13 hour long airplane ride and then we took another 2 hour airplane ride to Cape Town. I was exhausted but as soon as I landed in Cape Town and saw the beautiful view of table mountain top, I forgot all about my exhaustion and the fact that I had been on a plane for the past fifteen hours. So far we have been meeting so many people and it seems to me that the more I meet people the friendlier they are, this is such a welcoming and friendly nation. The people , the culture and the scenery are beautiful!

On our first week in Cape Town we have been doing a lot of touristy activities and getting to know our neighborhood.

-We’ve eaten Ethiopian and traditional South African dishes that were

very good and different from what I’m used to but it was very delicious! It was a wonderful experience.

- We visited the University of Cape Town (UCT) where we will be taking our classes for the next 3 months… it is such a large and beautiful campus.

- We went to the Kirstenbosh Botanical Garden were I saw the most beautiful garden with all kinds of plants and trees , and there I had a very beautiful view of Table Mountain.

-We also been visiting museums … we went to the Slave Lodge where our host Lucy Campbell gave us a tour. The Slave Lodge is where slaves were held to be sold in Cape Town . Lucy gave us a detailed tour it was very powerful because she said a few things that really touch me such as “ Ten years ago, I didn’t know where I was from. Ask me today . I am from everywhere . I am from Africa!”. That’s where I started to understand the past of this country where people were separated because of the color of their skin , some didn’t know where they came from but now they know.

-In the same day we also visited the District six museum where Mr. Joe Schaffers gave us a tour and made me understand in depth the apartheid laws where in the district 6 the people classified as “colored” or “black” were taken away from their homes and put in townships. Mr. Schaffer said “ Not until we bleed different colors do we have a different race. Until then we are one race… Humans” that sentence made me realize that race doesn’t really matter it’s the person that we are that matters.

-The next day we departed for Robben Island where I had the chance to seethe jail cell of Nelson Mandela and the other prisoners who fought for this country. There again we had an amazing tour guide, he used to be a political prisoner at that prison, he told us his story and made me realize there is so much more to learn about the motivation of these people to liberate this country that people on the outside don’t know, it was a very painful experience for these people living under apartheid laws.

- I also got to visit the National Baptist Church in Gugulettu which is one of the townships, where I experienced profound faith. Even though I did not understand most of what the people were saying because they were speaking in Xhosa. Through their singing I could feel their strength, faith and pain . I came to the conclusion that language is never a barrier , even though I did not understand what they were saying but we

did connect on the spiritual level. We visited some of the township where I saw extreme poverty, I saw worse poverty before but then again that’s where I realized how fortunate some us are and most of the time don’t even realize it.

- We went to Cape Point where I had the most beautiful view of both the Atlantic and Indian ocean. I felt like I was on top of the world. In that same day I had the chance to observe Ostriches, Baboons, Zebras, Cheetahs, and penguins in the wild. That was such a beautiful day.

The second week we spent visiting the different internships we will be working at. I had the chance to visit Christel house where I met the kids from grade R. I was very happy to meet them and I have the chance to help them write the number one. Most of these children came from impoverished backgrounds and predominantly speak Xhosa , they were very welcoming and happy. I was very happy and excited to meet them. I cannot wait to start my internship on Monday where I get to help and become closer to these kids and hopefully I will be able to help make a difference in their lives.

Coming to South Africa was one of the best decisions that I made . This journey will be a learning and growing experience for me. I will be learning many different things both personally and academically. I am very thankful for this opportunity and I will make the best out of it.

Thandhokulu ! (much love)