Stopped by the Cops!?

As a preface to my story I feel like I should explain a bit. During our orientation, CIEE cautioned us on getting into trouble with the cops because jail in South African is much more gruesome than that of America. So already I had this notion that I REALLY didn’t want to go to jail in Africa. I mean it wasn’t a huge concern because I have never been in trouble in the states, but also I am in a new place and still don’t know all the rules.

Anyways so on to my story. Friday night I had an opera performance just like the rest of the week previous. The opera starts at 7:30 and usually wouldn’t finish until at least 10:00pm. Usually Vongani and I would take a shuttle home but sometimes we would miss the timing and Vongani had a friend who would take us. Well on Friday, Vongani’s friend took us home. There were 6 of us crammed into this car so it was pretty cramped and illegal due to seat belt laws. But regardless it wasn’t a long trip so it was supposed to be fine. I was the only foreigner in the car and so I just went along for the ride. Anyways, we got on the road and came across a roadblock. This is where they stop every car. This is when I found out that the driver didn’t have his license and that we were breaking the law in terms of seat belt laws. As we were driving cops were yelling at us because we had too many people in the car. I was pretty scared. It was late and night and I thought for sure I was going to go to jail. I don’t really know why but I didn’t know how it worked. I kept my mouth shut and went with the flow though even though beneath my skin I was petrified.

We finally were pulled over and we all had to get out of the car. The lady cop asked us to go up to the wall and that is when I thought they were going to arrest us. In fact, Vogani put his hands over his head and faced the wall. But fortunately the cop said that wasn’t necessary. She asked to search the car and we were fingerprinted and another cop took our addresses. She apparently didn’t find anything of interest and we were allowed to get back in the car…all six of us…and drive off.

Once back in the car, I still didn’t know what happened. There had been no mention of a fine or misconduct or anything. No one really seemed to know or to care all that much. To me it was a great relief. I have heard stories about the corruption of the cops here and really have tried to avoid them so I am glad that my first run-in left me unscathed and God watched over me.

Though the weirdest thing is that I am not scared of the cops in America. They are a body that is supposed to instil safety so I am not sure why I felt so scared here in South Africa. It poses an interesting question.

Brooklyn TB hospital

I have had the opportunity to volunteer at Brooklyn TB hospital for the semester. CIEE arranges my transportation, which is convenient. I go for about 2 hours a week. The hospital is a long-term care hospital for drug resistant TB patients. The patients are required to stay there for at least six months so it is a very extensive process for the patients to decide that they need this type of care.

In the adult wards, patients suffer from more than TB. We were told that many are not motivated to do anything. Many will lie in bed for the entire time they are there. It is the goal of the hospital to heal not only their physical ailment but actually help motivate them to get a job and be a positive role once outside again. I volunteered in the adult ward but it is harder because I don’t speak the language of the locals and we have to wear masks to protect ourselves so I can’t even communicate through facial communication. I found that I was more use in the pediatric ward so I think that is where I will stay for the rest of the semester.

I usually volunteer in the pediatric ward. Ages range from newborns to about 13 or 14. Many of the little ones have parents that are also in the hospital being treated, but most are abandoned and left at the hospital. Many of the kids also have TB that has begun to affect their brain. Mostly it is our job to stimulate them in whatever way we can. If that is to play a game we do that. If it is just a stroke on the head then we do that as well. The nurses are very busy and thus the kids love when we come and play with them.

The first time I went to the hospital, we arrived and we didn’t know where we were supposed to go. We decided to go into the pediatric ward and we kind of stood there aimlessly waiting for someone to greet us saying “oh you are the American group coming to volunteer.” No such greeting ever came. Instead, the head nurse asked us who we were and why we were there. We told them that we were from UCT and were here to volunteer. To our response she said that it was feeding time and to find a kid who was struggling and feed them. It was such a shock. None of really knew what we were supposed to do but found out it was to our own discretion. If we did not know ask but, basically we were supposed to find things to do and do them.

It was a completely different experience. In the states when you volunteer, you aren’t allowed to do anything. They give you orientation after orientation specifically illustrating your duties and things that you can do. It is very liberating to just do and feel like a help. The nurses are really nice people and it has been nice to chat with them as well.

Most of the kids don’t speak English. Many spoke Afrikaans I think but regardless it reminded me of playing with the kids in the HIV/AIDS orphanage in the DR, due to the lack of communication ability. It reminds me that playing doesn’t require language. Kids display everything in their faces. It has been refreshing to go there every week.

Homestay in Ocean View

I firstly apologize for not posting as regularly as I should. Of course the course load of academia has caught up with me. I have much more to right about and will get to it eventually. My homestay in ocean view actually happened two weekends ago now so bear with me.

CIEE organizes a homestay for a weekend in the township of Ocean View. I think I have spoken about Ocean View previously, but it is an all colored community that was forcibly removed from their land during apartheid. I knew that staying in this homestay would be very different from my normal lifestyle as a middle class American. However, I was bothered by different aspects of my stay than I thought that I thought would bother me. I am glad for a very eye-opening experience. I learned that I need to respect people for who they are and not judge based on values that I uphold and find important. It is important to know that everyone is a creation of God; we should accept them for who they are and the gifts they bring to society.

The first night we all had dinner together and ironically watched the same program that we had seen previously in the Peninsula tour. I met my host mom (Carmen) and my host dad (Darrel). They were very nice but I found it hard to maintain a conversation with these complete strangers. For every family, two CIEE members were assigned, so I also met the other person from CIEE who was staying with me. Anyways, dinner consisted of riani (don’t think I spelled that correctly), a rice dish that is pretty traditional for this community. It was very good.

On the way home, we stopped by Darrel’s parents in order to pick up Tristan (age 9) and Haley (age 5). Before they got in the car, Carmen and Darrel warned us that they were a handful. I think that really they are like any other kids. Haley especially has a free and independent spirit. Tristan loves to play soccer and Haley loves to be crazy (typical for a 5 year old). Their house was small but cozy. They were in the process of remodeling (for about 2 years now. A contractor didn’t uphold his contract ) to give each of the kids their own room. They showed us the renovations that were happening and were really excited because the construction is in its final stages. Due to the remodeling, we all slept in the same room. The other CIEE girl (Ari) and I slept in the two bunk beds. Ironically, I had the Barbie bed. The rest of the family slept on the queen sized bed right next to the bunk beds. I felt a little awkward to be given a bed to myself when I knew that the rest of the family was cramped and squished. I really value what they gave to me.

On Saturday, Ari and I went with Carmen to work. She worked at the public library in Ocean View. I thought that it gave me a very interesting perspective and a chance to work on some homework. The library was pretty small but the pride and joy according to Carmen were the five PC’s that were connected to the internet. The library was one of the few places that people could go in that town to get internet. In fact, for the first time, many people were gaining access to e-mail and a world beyond anything they had ever imagined. When I was there I witnessed the library in use. Quite a number of people ventured through in the three-hour stint that I was there. Some people were being tutored. Little kids were reading books. People were using the computers. I always love to see libraries being used.
After work, Carmen took us to the mall where we met up with Darrel. It was interesting because I rode my first ever Golden Arrow bus. It is just one of the public transit busses but I had never felt comfortable enough to ride due to safety concerns. Anyways, it was an experience. We ate a nice lunch out and did some shopping at the grocery store. It seemed like the grocery store was a very social place. At almost every bend, Carmen and Darrel found someone that they knew and were speaking with them.

On that note, I was surprised at the amount of people that they knew and were friends with within their community. Frequently, driving around the neighborhood, we would honk at people that they knew. I swear it was once per block. Finally we rented some movies and enjoyed a night in watching movies.

Sunday, we were going to go to church, but because we hadn’t had a chance to go sightseeing we did that instead. They took us to Simon’s Town, which was the town that most of them lived before moving to Ocean View. We toured the town. It was very pleasant. We also toured the coast. We saw penguins on the beach and baboons in the road. One or two came right up to the car. It was a little scary.

The whole weekend was very pleasant. I was thrown off by some of the family dynamics but I realized that I shouldn’t let them distort my memory of the family. They showed me a very nice time and showed me an authentic look into the life of a family in Ocean View. I am very gracious to them for the experience that they gave to Ari and me.

Hodge Podge

This latest blog is going to be a hodge podge of things that I find interesting but that maybe don’t necessarily relate in any way.

1. National Women’s Day: Monday August 10th was a public holiday to celebrate Women’s Day on August 9th. It was nice to have the day off especially after a busy first couple of weeks of school. I decided that for my own edification and those around me that I would look up why this day was so significant that it blessed me with the day off from school. This is what I found out from Wikipedia.
On August 9, in 1956 20,000 women (mostly black or colored) marched in Pretoria to protest against amendments to the Urban Area’s act. Many of these women had been stripped of rights for being non-white and thus they were protesting being segregated for being gendered as well. Many of the women had their children or if they were nannies they had the children that they were watching. The women sang a song of protest that translates to “Now that you have touched the Women, you have struck a Rock.” The day commemorates women’s strength and courage in Africa.

2. Toilet Water does in fact go the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere. I stare in awe every time the toilet is flushed watching the water swirl counterclockwise. Now you are thinking about it and wondering if you have ever noticed which way the water swirls. If should swirl clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the South Hemisphere due to gravity and the rotation of the Earth. Interesting!

3. Fire Alarms: A couple of weeks ago I woke up at 5:30am to hear the fire-alarm going off in our residence. As the trained American that I am, I decide to get out of bed and investigate. As I am outside, I notice that no one else has ventured outside. Apparently, it was a drill and the guy running the drill was perturbed by the fact that in the whole complex I was the only person to venture out of the doors after the alarm had been going off for about ten minutes. Then the alarm malfunctioned and he allowed me to go back to bed. It was a weird experience. Number one, it was not comforting that the fire alarm malfunctioned. Number two, if there really was a fire everyone would automatically think that it was a drill and subsequently burn in the inferno. Though the other day, I somehow got in a conversation with a South African student while in the microbiology computer lab concerning the issue of fire alarms. He said that because there were so many different alarms for different things people pay no mind to any of them, however he is confident that if a fire to really occur that someone would come down the hall screaming so we would know. I don’t know; I am somewhat skeptical.

4. Quaver?!: The first day that I went to orchestra practice, the conductor was talking about crochets and quavers. I had no idea what he was talking about. I understood what he meant due to the context but it was not until later when I asked Vongani, that I learned that a quaver is equivalent to an eighth note. I had never heard of such a thing. He told me all the names for all the different notes. A crochet is a quarter note. A quaver is an eighth note. Then you can have semi, hemi, and demi-quavers, which become progressively smaller. Whole notes are called a semibrevet and a I don’t remember what a half note is called. I have learned since that these terms come from the British colonization and are all derived from that system. I don’t know why they have ridiculous names for these notes. My system makes so much more sense to me. Oh well!

There is so much more that I could write but I need to make a list so I will continue the list once I remember what I was going to write. Really I figured that it was more important to post what I had than to wait. Sorry it has been so long. This week has really been a beast. But I think that I will write about that in a separate blog!

Rugby and Soccer!

This weekend CIEE gave us the opportunity to go to the South Africa vs. Australia rugby game. In addition our seminar class paid for us to attend the Orlando Pirates vs. Cape Town Ajax as a mode of comparison. Having attended both, there could not be any two sports more different.

We met 2 hours before the game and set out for the walk to the stadium. It was really only a couple miles from UCT. Already people were tipsy and with alcohol in hand were headed to the stadium. Our tickets were in the standing room only section. In this section, there were bars to lean on but other than that it was as it promised…standing room only. The mass of people made it difficult to see also compounded by the large overhang above us. In addition, a large population of people smoke here and so as the game began a haze enveloped the stadium. At one point, I was completely surrounded by people smoking cigarettes. I can only hope that my lungs recover at some point.

People around us were a mix of all races but looking out on the entire stadium there was a sea of white. I don’t think that I have seen a larger population of white people in one place since arriving in Cape Town. In addition, the entire South African team was white. I asked one of the Solmates about this and he said that is was really difficult to play rugby and be black. I think this comes from the heritage of the sport, being a European concoction. I learned a lot about rugby while there, but mostly I had no idea what was going on. South Africa won and played a good game as far as I could tell. The crowd really wasn’t too rambunctious but people did get into it. There was a guy in front of us yelling obscenities every time South Africa lost possession, which in rugby happens quite often. Also, most people had these plastic drums and would get a beat going. There was a bit of security guarding the field and we were patted down before going into the stadium but that is common protocol anywhere so really it was quite normal except that it was a game that I didn’t know.

Sunday we met for the soccer game and much to our relief we had actual seats. It was interesting our rugby seats (if you can call them that) were 125 rand, which is about $20, and we were standing while our soccer seats were only 20 rand, which is only $1.50. However, the soccer game was a much lower game because it was only a league match vs. an international match. Still I was quite happy that I could sit down for the game. Soccer was quite different. For one, in rugby, they ban the use of the plastic horns but soccer has not yet done that so on the way to the game was a series of annoying horns. Actually as the game started, so many people were playing them that it was like being in an amplified beehive. I am sure that I lost some hearing. Also in the vein of musical calamity, as we were being herded towards the gates, the Africans started in song and began dancing. It was great all around.

Looking around everyone was black. I think we were probably the only white people in the entire stadium. I have no idea why there aren’t more white fans in soccer except that maybe they all go to cricket and rugby games instead. It was definitely interesting to see though. Even the teams were solely black racially. Talk about contrast. It was very bizarre. In addition, they didn’t sell alcohol or allow any glass into the game which is contrast to the rugby game. This comes from the demeanor of the typical soccer fan. Many times riots will actually break out, at least in other countries. The amount of security at this game was unbelievable. I think we crossed 4 or 5 security check points before we actually got into our seating area.

The Orlando Pirates were the favored team to win. In fact, I only saw a few Ajax fans in the entire stadium and they were the home team! Orlando fans predominated followed closely by Chiefs fans that were there to see Orlando lose. It was quite interesting. Orlando won as expected but they didn’t really play a very good game. I really enjoyed the game though despite the poor playing by the Pirates. Vongani came with us. He is a big Orlando fan and it was nice to hang out with him.
I had two great opportunities this weekend to experience some of the heart of the African peoples. It was great to see games in a different context and then be able to compare them, not to mention they were just fun to watch.

Post Apartheid Legacy

Coming to Africa, a topic on my mind was racism. How do people acknowledge one another based on race? Everyone knows about apartheid and the forced segregations of people. What is little known to the American public eye is the idea of race in the post apartheid era.

Recently I had a conversation with Vongani. It really didn’t have anything to do with race at the beginning. In fact we were talking about this girl that he liked. This is somewhat normal for Vongani. He is pretty open about who he finds attractive and so on. Anyways, I mentioned that if he liked her why not date her. He said no he could never date her and upon my enquiry as to why he said that she was Xhosa. Xhosa (pronounced Kosa…though the K is really a click…I haven’t mastered the art of its pronunciation yet) is an ethnicity of many of the black South Africans in the Cape region. Vongani is not Xhosa, but actually a mix of two other tribes. I still didn’t understand why he couldn’t date her. So what if she was Xhosa? He tried to explain to me that he wasn’t racist but tribalist. He wouldn’t date anyone that was not his own tribe. He explained that there are many customs within each tribe that he doesn’t want to negotiate that he prefers not to date anyone that is not of his own tribe. This is still a weird concept. I have had some friends whose parents have persuaded them to look for a mate within a certain ethnicity but for the most part I feel like there are so many caucasian people around me that it would be hard to find someone who wasn’t from a European American background. In that way ethnicity doesn’t even come into the picture.

Cape Town is a mixture of so many peoples. There are the blacks which include may of the indigenous tribes (Zulu, Xhosa, Banatu, and others that I cannot spell). Then there are the colored which I have think are the pacific islanders, Indians, Chinese, and so on. They were brought here with some of the slave trade when the Cape was a thriving port town. Finally most of the white South Africans are Afrikaans speaking. (I have since found out that calling them Afrikaaners is a derogatory word because it harkens back to their title during the apartheid. They prefer to be called Afrikaans speaking but most people still call them Afrikaaners) There is such a medley of people that were forcibly separated during the apartheid that for most I think that race and ethnicity are always on the mind.

I have also experienced a lot more more anti-Americanism than I anticipated to encounter. America is a big deal in the world eye. Many of my classes use texts that come from there and make comparisons to how the Americans do certain things. But also, the white South Africans have a severe resentment towards the Americans. I talked to Lane’s roommates about this feeling and they agreed that white South Africans are jealous of Americans. Americans don’t have the baggage of being the oppressors during apartheid. Black South Africans don’t hate them and actually befriend Americans whereas there is a lot of resentment still against white south africans. This is in no way all of the white south africans that I have met but it is just a generality that I have noticed. I think it has to do with post-apartheid legacies and people have not totally moved on. Most all of my classmates have lived through the apartheid and it is still fresh in people’s mind. It will be interesting to see how things develop and what I uncover in my investigation. I am not really sure how I feel about what I have heard and seen but it is definitely interesting and something that I wasn’t expecting.

Pictures!

This is the picturesque view from Upper Campus at the University of Cape Town. At least the view makes up for the endless climbing that occurs everyday to get to class!



This is one of two stadiums being built for the World Cup in 2010. It is a big deal here and many people are excited!



The Nelson Estate Vineyard that I was talking about in my last blog.



Baboons at Cape Point National Reserve!



A picture of me at Cape Point. Interestingly this is the place that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Also I misjudged the weather that day and I was very warm in that sweater.



Jackass Penguins (well formerly known) Now they are called South African penguins but I think that a name like Jackass Penguin just makes them so much cooler.

Hope that this quells some requests for pictures. More are for sure to come but I have run out of internet at the cafe..:(

First Week of School!

This week has been an absolute whirlwind as was expected. I registered last week on Friday but unfortunately, they couldn’t actually enter me into the system until Monday so that meant that I couldn’t get my student card or access my campus e-mail, or find the venues for my classes, etc. It is somewhat stressful to know that you are starting class and you don’t even know where they are or if you are registered correctly for them. Monday rolled around and I left really early to try and get everything sorted out. I was able to get my student card and find my classes. Though, in my first class I realized that I had a class conflict with the lab times. I resorted to starting the add/drop process which unfortunately is not so simple. I selected another class to take, which conveniently was the next period and went to that class. I found out in that class that we would start labs TODAY. As if I didn’t already have a busy day. I was able to get an add/drop form during lunch and find the course convenor (which may or may not be the lecturer at any given time) to make sure that I could add the class. Then I went to my first lab. I was supposed to have a lab coat though I wasn’t aware of that before I came so I had to borrow one. To make matters worse, I was the only one left without a partner so I had to work by myself. Generally, I am fine to work by myself but I was flustered because I didn’t know protocol in the lab and due to the sheer chaos of the day thus far. Luckily, I finished the lab(though I was definitely the last one done) though not without major mistakes. I could only hope that my data was presentable. I had many more things still left to do but I was exhausted. I left to go home at 4:30 with barely a break since I arrived that day at 7:30am.

Tuesday and the rest of the week was much better. I was able to go early to get my password to access all of the campus online utilities (e-mail and Vula, an online tool like Sakai that allows teachers to upload resources and assignments so that students can access them from a remote location) and finish adding and dropping classes.

I learned this week that I was going to play with the UCT orchestra for the opera that is playing in a few weeks. That should be really fun! Vongani, one of Lane’s flat mates, is a chorus member in the opera. He was telling me all about it. He mentioned that the conductor was a short-tempered American. I wasn’t too scared. I know how to deal with that type (hehe jk.) Actually, I was disappointed because I wanted to be taught by someone different than an American. An American can teach me any time, but it should be interesting nonetheless. I went to my first rehearsal for the opera on Friday. It was a typical rehearsal but I did learn that they tune to A442. It sounded so sharp to my ears. In addition, the principle oboist’s reeds were bizarre. It is hard for me even to explain what they looked like but it was more like a slab of cane really than a shaped reed. Most of the reed still had bark on it and only the top third was scraped at all. From the top third it was a gradual decrease in thickness until the end of the reed. I guess that means I am on my own for making reeds.

My first African studies class was great. We talked about the identity of Cape Town and how it is has changed from pre-apartheid, apartheid, and post apartheid. It was interesting to find out that UCT was actually built to resemble many of the Western colleges such as Oxford or Cambridge. Up until recently, the buildings must be structurally constructed so as to hold ivy if it is planted. In addition, Jammie steps, the main entrance to upper campus, looks out upon all of Cape Town. According to my professor this was deliberate construction so that the intellectuals during this time could look down on the teeming city but be removed from it so as to distance themselves. It was interesting perspective on the history of a university that prides itself on being one of the first integrated universities in South Africa. We also learned that during the forced removals in the apartheid, the land that was freed up in this process was sold very cheaply. In fact, the Cavendish mall, a really big mall close to the university, was built on forced removal land. Personally, this is really ironic because this mall is the quintessential western archetype and it was built on removed Africans. However, no one ever mentions these great ironies. In fact, in common everyday interactions people do not talk about the apartheid at all. However, the legacies of apartheid are everywhere and I cannot wait to uncover the influences behind everyday life in Cape Town.

Speaking of history, today CIEE arranged an outing to a winery near Stellenbosch. The Nelson family started a family winery in 1989. However, Mr. Nelson came from a law background and did not know too much about grapes. So, when he started his winery he wrote a contract that stated if the laborers made award winning wine then he would give 16 hectares of land to the families to do as they please. Well in 1996 the Nelson's Creek won the Trophy for South Africa's Best Chardonnay and was adjudged the Champion Wine Producer in this region. Mr. Nelson kept his word and donated that land to the families. They decided to start their own wine business, making them the first black people to own a winery. It is rather tragic however. These laborers were good at taking care of the vines but not great with the business aspect. The New Beginnings winery, as they were called, stopped producing wine in 2003 due to financial reasons and is currently going to sell the land. The legacy of black ownership will continue because built into the contract, the land can only be purchased by black empowerment groups and can only be used by agricultural means. It was a very interesting tour and I think that it outlines some of the struggles of the black people in South Africa since apartheid.

Anyways, everything is going well. I am hoping that the next week of school is less chaotic and that I will learn many more things that I can share with everyone. I know that next week I will be going to a rugby game (my first) so a report on that will be a must for sure. Also, I have a variety of pictures that I want to upload to my blog, though I am going to wait until I get to a internet café and devote a whole post to pictures and explanations so you can look forward to that as well. I am hoping that it will be before the end of next week. Maybe even tomorrow, some time. I hope that everything is going well at home!