Cynthia in Cape Town

Day 55. Temporary Goodbye!

2009-08-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm still out-of-date on this, but as I write this I am winding down my last minutes in the office and can only say that you'll have to stay tuned until I get back to the States and can fill in Monday-Wednesday and tomorrow through Saturday. It has been a good week and jampacked with work, surprisingly - and it has just flown by.

I can't believe I'm leaving. I know everyone says it and it's unbelievably trite, but it has not sunk in yet. Tomorrow is the march that I have been helping the Triangle Project prepare for for the last three weeks, and should be a fitting culmination of my work here. Just had my leaving speech from Theo, which is unbelievable because I've sat through so many and never thought I'd have my own. Friday night I'm not sure what we're doing for my leaving night, but hopefully it is a good time nonetheless.

For any who are wondering, I'm flying out at 635 PM on Saturday (Cape Town time) and will be arriving at home at noon on Sunday (EST). I'll see you all then :)

It's been amazing. I can't have asked for more this past eight weeks. I knew at the beginning that it would be good, that time would fly by, but I did not count on how very true that would be. I feel like after the first two weeks, every time I blinked, another 7 days would be gone. And now I only have one blink left!

Thank you so much to everyone who shared this incredible experience with me. I'll take it with me for the rest of my life.

Now to enjoy my last 72-odd hours in this spectacular, kickass city. :)

Days 45-51. Week 7, Spa, Muizenberg.

2009-08-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

The time keeps passing more and more quickly!

On Monday, the weather was amazing yet again - even warmer than on Sunday - so after work I actually laid out in the Martins' backyard for a few hours ;) Not that it did anything, really, but the imagined effect was quite nice. Tuesday was Lavender Hill as usual - this week we did a workshop with the women on health and wellbeing. Something pretty awesome happened on the way back - we have a minibus driver to pick us up from Steenberg named Clinton, and when Clint came to get us for the way back, a guy was sitting next to him in the passenger seat. Upon a short conversation with him we found out that he was a police officer with Muizenberg Police Station, which we've only been trying to contact for, oh, the last month and a half? So I jumped on that and got his number, and I think he's going to be able to come talk to our women next Tuesday. I was so pleased with that, you have no idea. How crazy is that?

Wednesday was yet another day with the Triangle Project and Alex's last night :( Can't say we didn't do it big for the little boy's farewell, though. Thursday I spent at Triangle calling partner organizations to remind them of the march next Friday. Friday morning was a planning meeting for the march, in which I found out something kind of spectacular: the poster that I helped design was featured in an article in a national Afrikaans newspaper called Die Burger. I was pretty much floored by that! (If I plan to go into publishing, can I say now that I've been published? Ha.) Friday afternoon we went back to downtown Cape Town and I got my haggle on in Greenmarket Square and finally bought some paintings! We'll see how they look in my apartment.

This weekend we didn't have much planned. I went out of my character a bit and went to a spa on Saturday ;) It cost less than half of what it would to get the same thing done back home so I figured I might as well take advantage of it because I don't think I ever would at home? Anyway, it was pretty much amazing and so unbelievably soothing. The spa was located in a really elegant hotel tucked into the mountains a little ways away from the main road in Newlands. Unexpectedly beautiful for being so close to malls and bars and such.

Sunday a few of the volunteers from the house went to Table Mountain, but as this is the third time that people from my house have gone to Table Mountain since I've been here, I went to Muizenberg instead to revisit the flea market and the beach since it was again sunny. It was really pretty:Can't believe that this was my last weekend in Cape Town, though. I'm getting to the point where every moment I think, "This is my last Sunday," or "This is my last train ticket I'll buy," or something else ridiculously sentimental. :'( The sadness approaches.

Day 44. Camps Bay! (BEACH!!)

2009-07-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Woke up on Sunday morning and went to Clay Oven, again (less than 12 hours after we'd been there previously, fact). God I love their pizza. :) After that, we finally did what I've been hounding everyone about since I checked the weather on Tuesday (sorry, guys). We went to the beach!

YAY.

So I finally used those damn bikinis I thought I packed for nothing. I've been kicking myself like crazy for packing useless clothes for the past six weeks, so I was so glad to get some mileage out of those. Not to mention it was just completely and utterly amazing to get out to the beach! The weather was one of the best days we've had so far. Camps Bay was beautiful, and we actually went in the freezing water a few times (props to Fergs and Ronni for manning up - and kind of Alex).

Amazing. After a few hours of enjoying the sunshine and the beach, we headed back home for another braai. It was just as delicious as the first one, and the perfect cap to a great weekend. I think this last weekend has very nearly checked off every last thing I came to Cape Town to do (even some that I didn't know I wanted to do). Even more than usual, I couldn't have asked for more from this gorgeous place and this wonderful country.

Day 43. SKYDIVING, Shaheed's Show, and Saturday Nights.

2009-07-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

I finally went skydiving!!!!! And it was everything I thought it would be. Freaking mindblowing - I am so, so glad I went. And so glad that Emily talked me into it the first week I was here! I can't believe it took me six weeks to find a time and date that worked, but I also can't believe I was ever scared or that I ever thought I couldn't do it. From the moment I paid in the middle of June til the moment I landed on the ground this morning, I was just completely excited. I've got no words. Totally unbelievable.

Anyway, by 'no words' I mean 'lots of words,' so I'll keep writing about the experience :) Fergal drove me out to the jumpsite (30-min drive, way out past Bloubergstrand and Melkbosstrand) at 9 AM this morning and Alex, being the saintly, wonderful, amazing, kind and magnanimous person he is (sucks for you if you don't end up reading this!) came along to go up in the plane with me. Aw, boys - I couldn't ask for better friends, could I? :)

They didn't let me take a camera up in the plane with me, but for proof's sake here is a picture of the hangar: When we got there, I met my tandem instructor, a dashingly handsome guy with a scraggly beard and a pile of dreadlocks who reminded me of the hobbly old man that Jafar disguises himself as in Aladdin. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, we got in the plane, which was barely large enough to hold me, my hottie tandem instructor, the other diver and his instructor, Alex, and the cameraman. The way they positioned me, I sat flush up against the plane door, which was an overwhelming comforting thing that looked like old Tupperware and slid shut with no apparent locks or bolts to hold it closed. As we were flying up to the appropriate altitude, I kind of wondered what would happen if the pilot tipped the plane - if the hatch just slid open and I just plopped out.

Well, that didn't happen, and after about 20 minutes, Julian put me on his lap (hot) and attached me to his harness. (Which means, yes, I wasn't attached to anything or any parachute of any type until 20 minutes after I was in the air and 2 minutes before we jumped. Dad, don't worry, this is all after the fact and I am obviously still alive). He told me the instructions - put my legs out over the edge of the plane and underneath the fuselage, hold onto my harness, and look up. After that, he put my goggles on for me, I waved to Alex, and he slid open the hatch (glad that that didn't happen earlier) - and we jumped.

The first few seconds were the only moments in which there was an acute sensation of falling. I remember I grit my teeth, hard, and thinking that if this was the way it was going to be the entire way down I was utterly and completely screwed. Not at all, actually - after the first few moments, we flattened out onto our stomachs and it was just simply like flying. It was the most exhilarating thing I think I've ever done. Julian shouted to me, "And now you know what the world looks like without the glass of the airplane between you!" We spun around a few times, and I was able to see all of Table Mountain, Robben Island, and miles of coastline. Unbelievable.

After probably 20 seconds of freefall, Julian pulled the parachute and we shot upwards (or so it felt). I hear for guys this is not the best part of the jump ;) For me, wind rushed up my pants and my shirt, which was slightly uncomfortable, but before I knew it we were floating down underneath a huge parachute and Julian had removed my goggles for me. Absolutely amazing.

While we were floating down, Julian put my hands into the handles of the parachute so that I could steer. At one point, he yelled to me, "Do you like rollercoasters?" My answer: "NO!!!!!" Nonetheless, he jerked one side of the parachute down and we went careening around in the air; I screamed my lungs out for him to stop and he almost couldn't get me to loosen my arms so that the parachute could float properly. Well, I did say no. He didn't do that again, anyway (having learned better) and after about 5-10 minutes of floating we landed back at the jumpsite.

Ha, with the exception of the rollercoaster ride I didn't ask for - and I suppose that was still fun, in a way - the entire thing was just as good or better than I could have dreamed. I am so unbelievably glad I did it - and thank you Emily for getting me to do this! One of the coolest things I've ever done.

After skydiving, we went back to Plumstead to watch Ronni and Fergal play soccer (football). Ronni scored and Ferg's a beast in goal ;) Love you guys!

That night was Shaheed's hip hop show. It was pretty much the best thing ever, made even more so by one particular thing: at one point, a small but sturdily built woman appeared onstage and began to sing. We didn't think anything of it - until someone tapped us on the shoulder and informed us that that was Shaheed. Yes, Shaheed was in drag, and yes, he was fabulous: Haha, I couldn't have asked for more. At night, we went out to Long Street and stayed in a hostel for the night, which was a good change of pace, I think. The new house is definitely a little crazier than the old one!

Days 38-42. Week 6.

2009-07-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Another week in Cape Town gone by! I can't believe it. Alex only has a week left now, though the other Alex might extend her stay :) And then after that it's my turn to go ... I honestly can't believe it.

This week was my first week working with the Triangle Project (ha, only took five weeks). I started off the week with a meeting with them on Monday morning - I was so very sad to miss the IRM - and then Monday afternoon, did a money management workshop with the women at St. Anne's as usual. Tuesday was Lavender Hill, though a brief transportation snafu (i.e. no trains arrived for a full hour) made it so that I only managed to make the last twenty minutes of the workshop with the women. Tuesday night's jazz lessons was good, as usual! The two Alexes and Philippa came along, which was fun. Alex learned the dip, courtesy of Shaheed, who makes a much better female partner than I think I ever could. ;)

Wednesday and Thursday were my first two days of work at the Triangle Project. If I haven't explained before, they are a gay rights organization in Cape Town. My focus while there is to help them prepare for a march they're organizing on August 7 - which is, fortunately, the day before I leave, so I'm able to participate. We are marching from the Grand Parade on Darling Street in downtown Cape Town to the Cape High Court on Wale Street in order to raise awareness for the murder case of Zoliswa Nkonyana, a 19-year-old lesbian beaten and killed in Khayelitsha because of her sexual orientation. The murder took place in Feb 2006 and the case has failed to go forward in the last three years, with more than 20 court appearances and subsequent postponements. The march is in order to advocate for the case to be transferred from the Khayelitsha Magistrates Court to the Cape High Court (which explains the venue for the march).

My job on Wednesday and Thursday was to help design campaign posters and flyers for the march. Here they are!

I don't know how much they'll change it up before they actually print them, but hopefully I've at least contributed something.

Thursday night was Tarila and Sandra's last nights :'( so we went back to Hemisphere (the view never gets old!) It was memorable, to say the least, but I'm really sad two more are gone. They keep leaving ...

Little to comment on with Friday's IRM. In the afternoon we were fit for nothing, really, so once we got back from work we spent a few hours just milling around the house. The power went out at night, though - Ronni scared the crap out of me (shocker) and made me knock Alex over onto the floor. (Sorry, Alex.) Other Alex was in the shower at the time and we forgot where she was until about five minutes later, when we heard a faint "I can't find my towel!!" from the recesses of the house. Ha. My idea of an exciting Friday night.

SKYDIVING tomorrow morning! Finally!

Day 37. Boulders Beach (Take 2) and Cape Point.

2009-07-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Absolutely beautiful day today. I have a new roommate, finally! She's a German girl from the UK named Philippa, and she arrived this morning just in time to come with us to Cape Point (reminds me of my first night). Along the way we stopped at Boulders Beach again for those who hadn't seen it yet; it felt strange to realize that it had been a full five weeks since I'd been there last, and all the people I'd previously gone there with had gone home. Nonetheless (or maybe because of that) it didn't feel repetitive - the weather was better this time around and we took a different route along the beach to see the penguins. As Nikki would say, it was absolutely gorgeous:
After Boulders Beach we drove on to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. I was told before we went that on especially good days you're able to see subtly the different colors of the two oceans and the line where they come together - wasn't able to discern that, unfortunately, but nonetheless it was a breathtaking view. To actually see Cape Point, you have to climb up to the top of a small cliff to a lighthouse, which some of us didn't do (I wonder why) but it was not a long or strenuous climb at all and the weather was just perfect. The view from the top was unbelievable:
Jen and Liz went out to Camps Bay when we came back to watch the sunset but the rest of us were too tired, so we just headed back home and had dinner at the Martins'. We met our other new roommate, a Danish guy named Ronni, and spent the night just talking and chilling. All in all, a wonderful weekend - I couldn't have asked for more. :) (Basically the entire story of my time in Cape Town!)

Day 36. Safari!

2009-07-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

Safari today! We woke up at the godless hour of 515 and left at 540. Mishik drove us in a minibus and I burrowed under a blanket he’d brought (godsent) and my North Face and slept until we got there (Aquila Nature Reserve) at around 8 AM. The game lodge was, in a word, luxurious - there was a pool for the summer months and they served us hot breakfast before our safari at 9. (Best samosas ever!)

It was really fun! It wasn’t as natural or real as I thought it would be because Aquila was actually a game reserve where they buy animals from elsewhere and bring them there to have them all kind of just live in the same general area. To keep the animals from preying on each other and disrupting the "equilibrium" the game owners create, they fence off predators from the prey and your safari is basically you driving around that plot of land. Nonetheless, the area totaled 11,000 acres, and so it was at least more natural than a zoo. We saw buffalo, wildebeest, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, springboks, and lions. Pretty awesome. I won't post all the pictures of the animals, but here's one of the giraffes:

Halfway through the safari, our guide stopped the jeep and served us sparkling grape juice and wine in the middle of the reserve ... Like I said, swanktastic. When we got back, we sat around outside for a little while, ate lunch (it was actually warm enough to wear a t-shirt! I know, no way!) and then we headed home.

Went out to Long Street when we got back to Cape Town - Dubliners and FTV. Not a bad time, really.

Day 35. Interlude: Music.

2009-07-17T02:07:00.000-07:00

So here I am on Friday in the office. In a few hours I'm going to head down to the waterfront to meet some other volunteers currently at Robben Island, and perhaps see Transformers 2. (Saw Harry Potter on Wednesday! It was pretty good, for a Harry Potter movie - the books are still the way to go.)

I really don't even think that this is very useful, but I thought I'd post some of the music I've been hearing a lot in Cape Town (and jazzing to!)

"Hatin' On The Club (feat. The Dream)" - Rihanna
"Love Sex Magic (feat. Justin Timberlake)" - Ciara
"The Beat Goes On (feat. Kanye West)" - Madonna
"Maybe" - Jay Sean
"T-Shirt" - Shontelle
"Sandcastle Disco" - Solange Knowles
"Valerie (feat. Amy Winehouse)" - Mark Ronson
"Insomnia" - Craig David

Happy weekend, everyone!

Days 30-34. Week 5.

2009-07-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

So it's been a month! I can hardly believe it.

This week went on as usual, though without my beloved Nikki - I went to St. Anne's on Monday and forgot, again, to give the pictures to Cindy. On Tuesday, we did a divorce and child maintenance workshop with the women in Christine's support group (there are two) in the townships. One of the women had a foster child who was absolutely angelic. She was telling us about how he had been very sick from birth (she didn't say what illness, though some of us thought HIV) and the medical expenses associated with his upbringing. Oh my God, he was gorgeous; he had this beautiful, smooth café au lait skin and slanted eyes and the most adorable smile. I was in love, seriously.

On Wednesday, I had another meeting with the Triangle Project and it looks as though I will honestly be starting work with them next week. That gives me only three weeks to work with them but that's great, nonetheless! Hopefully this is a relationship that can start up between Projects Abroad and Triangle and continue after I leave.

On Thursday, we went to Parliament to take a tour of the building. It was really breathtaking - I didn't expect the building to be quite as majestic as it was. Tons of marble pillars and grand staircases, and the facade is a deep maroon highlighted by white trim. Really beautiful. Shockingly, I forgot my camera (and kicked myself so many times for it) but I'll have to steal the pictures from someone else to post here.

This weekend, we're going on safari on Saturday and Cape Point on Sunday. I've had to, once again, postpone skydiving because I had originally booked for Saturday (I was so excited!) before realizing that most people in the office were going on safari and it would be a better idea to go as a group rather than find myself wanting to go alone. It's okay, I'll find a time to skydive ... we hope. Grrr.

Days 28-29. Stellenbosch and Rainy Sundays.

2009-07-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

So today was our Stellenbosch tour. It started at 8:45 AM – Fergal, girl Alex, Nikki, Snayha and I left from our home in Plumstead and a bunch of other volunteers joined us. It was called Alternative Tours because it evidently was designed to show us both the posh side of Stellenbosch and the poorer side, the farm workers’ side. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that when I first found out, but I ended up really enjoying the tour.

We split into a car and a van (a lot of volunteers came with us) and went to our first winetasting at a farm called Somerbosch. It was a pretty small place, but the wines were fairly good – my first time trying any different kinds of wine or trying to differentiate between them so that was an experience. They took us through a tour of the vineyard, the holding tanks for the wine, and then we had the tasting. I liked the chenin and the chardonnay but not really any of the red wines. After that, we went out to the farm workers’ homes, which were located out in the vineyards.

When we left Somerbosch, we drove for about an hour and a half – I’m not really sure why, TIA – and I completely passed out. When I woke up we were in a township in a different area of Stellenbosch. A lot of the other volunteers thought it was valuable to see, but Alex, Nikki and I didn’t particularly agree. I don’t think I like the idea of “taking tours to townships” like poverty is a spectacle. I do suppose that it is educational and eye-opening to some, but for us, who already volunteer in townships, I’d more rather spend my Saturday seeing things that are different rather than being paraded around without making a difference in the community I’m being led to see.

I do have to say that it was shocking to go from that township across the street to the next farm that we visited. This one was, in a word, nice – as in, they had a helipad. That nice. The décor was immediately and blatantly posher than the last farm we visited, with a bar set up with glasses and wrought-iron stools, etc. Remembering that a mere five-minute walk across the street would place us instead in the most dire straits of poverty was probably the most valuable part of this "Alternative Tour," I think.

The wine here was absolutely amazing. I adored the Shiraz and actually finished the glass they poured me (I know, no freaking way, right?) and bought a bottle to take home to my parents. The dessert wine ended up being exquisite, too, so I asked for a bottle of that as well. Get ready, Mom and Dad!

After that, we went to a brandy and Belgian chocolate tasting, which actually didn’t end up being as horrible as I thought it would be. We sampled a 5-year brandy, a 10-year brandy … some other brandy … and a 20-year brandy. (I guess a good guess for the missing brandy would be 15-year old brandy, huh?) After sampling all the brandies initially, the woman had us take a bite of chocolate (each glass of brandy was assembled on a paper with assorted chocolates) and take a sip of the brandy again. It was a really interesting taste – the 5-year-old brandy went with a hazelnut and really brought out the hazelnut taste of the praline, etc. I liked the tasting a lot, actually.

Our last stop was a cheese farm. The wine at Fairview Cheese Farm was actually pretty terrible – I hated all of them – but the cheese was absolutely fantastic. I guess it makes sense. I bought a bleu cheese with cranberries that tasted basically like cheesecake. Really gorgeous.

That night, we went to Bongo’s for Nikki’s last dinner. Marcy, Shaheed, and Angelo came as well as all the volunteers in our house. It was fun, though sad - Nikki has been my closest friend here and basically my Siamese twin (I don't think we ever did a mission apart) since the beginning. Afterwards, boy Alex and John stayed out until freaking 3 AM doing god knows what (evidently a 60-year-old hit on Alex, hot) and went back to Purple Onion and Pirates, but we all came home straight after dinner and I was asleep by 1230.

Sunday was pretty much the epitome of a rainy Sunday. It absolutely poured rain the entire day, so with the exception of a brief sojourn to see Annie for Nikki to say goodbye, we spent the whole day holed up in the house listening to the rain pour. Nikki left at 1 (I admit I cried) and the rest spent the afternoon and night watching movies. I spent most of the day in bed churning through some slush romance novel that was another volunteer had left behind.

So, pretty lazy Sunday, but I enjoyed it. It’s been my first day of nothingness since I got to Cape Town and it was a welcome relief. I really miss Nikki, though - I can’t believe she’s gone. :(

Day 27. Braais and Plumstead Nightlife.

2009-07-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

I start today's entry with an anecdote that only others, not myself, found amusing.

We were in a dive of a nightclub on Friday night, out in the suburb where we live, Plumstead. We'd already been inside for awhile, and a few of us were outside taking a break (a smoke break for some). It was me, Alex (remember that he's seventeen, please, just remember that), and a few others. After a few minutes, we went to head back inside. As I walked past the bouncer, he stopped me. "I'm going to need to see your ID," he said, my favorite eight words (and one contraction) of all time.

Well, that would normally be fine. I get carded. I look fifteen. I get it. Except I didn't have my ID. Because it's a club the size of a thumbnail. And it's in Plumstead. And we made up half the patrons of the place. And we'd already been inside! For an hour! And I am three years older than I need to be!"I don't have it," I snapped, incredulous. "I've already been inside. I'm twenty-one."

Unmoved, Rude Fat Bouncer repeated, "I need to see some ID or you can't get in." He was further unconvinced by my impassioned recitation of my birthday (March 28, 1988, in case you didn't know), the fact that I have one more year of university, the (repeated) fact that I was already inside, and, the golden kicker that I am twenty-one twenty-one twenty-one you stupid man.

At this point, Alex, child with the birthday in 1991, decides to intervene and be Mr. Smooth. He had the gall to produce a 20 rand note. "She's old enough," he said confidently, flicking out the note between his index and middle finger, giving the "knowing nod" to the bouncer, and basically invoking every cliche in the book (and thoroughly pissing me off.)

And, what's more, the BOUNCER TOOK IT. FROM THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD. WHO WAS THE ONE ACTUALLY UNDERAGE.

"Okay," he muttered, and waved me in.

1. I AM OLD ENOUGH.
2. HE ISN'T!
3. WHY DIDN'T YOU CARD HIM?
4. I AM OLD ENOUGH.
5. NOW IT SEEMS LIKE I AM NOT. AND I AM LYING.
6. I AM NOT LYING. I AM OLD ENOUGH.
7. THREE US DOLLARS IS NOT ENOUGH TO COMPROMISE THE TRUTH.

There is no justice in the world.

Oh, and Alex even got into a fight with a creepy, Grim Reaper-like old man because he was staring at the girls. ("What the f*** do you think you're doing staring at lil girls, man? What the f***?") As much as I, um, enjoyed seventeen-year-olds crusading on behalf of my virtue, the guy really did look like the Grim Reaper. And this was after I became the illicit underage child who indirectly bribed a bouncer to get into a dilapidated closet of a nightclub.

Oh, Africa. Fun times. (And I really mean that, despite my vitriol.)

Anyway, honestly tonight was probably one of the best nights in Cape Town thus far. :) We had a braai, the South African word for barbeque, at home. As usual, the food was unreal - Mrs. Martin made two warm salads (pasta and rice) and the guys barbequed hamburger, chicken, and sausage. It was raining outside so we had to move inside, but it didn't feel cramped - the kitchen doors opened straight onto the patio and we spread out between the kitchen and the patio, which is covered by an overhang. After we ate, we sat around talking and/or dancing to the music on the radio. (Mrs. Martin can break it down, let me tell you. Age ain't nothing but a number, fact.) One of my favorite things about the Martins is that the radio is always on - there's always music. And where there is music, there's dancing, and we know why I love that.

Around 10, a few of us decided to go out to the main street in Plumstead (where that abominable incident of law-breaking and unspeakable injustice occurred). I was tempted to type "the clubs and bars in Plumstead," but there may not actually be more than one of each, so I'll stick with my original phrase. At this point I should probably explain (since I don't think I have yet) the areas that we live in. Cape Town is made up of the actual city, called, surprisingly, Cape Town, and many suburbs and neighborhoods by different names. Most of the Projects Abroad volunteers live in the southern suburbs, along the subway line that the Human Rights Office is nearest. We work in Rondebosch, and between Rondebosch and the beach (Simon's Town) are a string of suburbs/areas that we are most familiar with - Newlands, Claremont, Harfield, Kenilworth, Wynberg, Wittebome, Plumstead, Diep River, Steenberg, Retreat. Plumstead is fairly far from downtown but not as far as some other suburbs. And thus, it being a suburb located a bit remotely, it doesn't have the best nightlife, but it has some. Hence the singular Plumstead nightclub and bar. There are a few more, though I haven't been to them.

Anyhow, we stopped by in Pirates, a bar, and then went across the street to The Purple Onion (or as the boys like to call it, "The Purple Scallion" or, poetically, "The Purple Chive"). The Purple Chive/Onion/Scallion/Potato was where The Age Incident occurred; the description "nightclub" is loosely fitting for a place like the Purple Onion, but at least it had character. A lot of us were there, too, which is all that really matters (and good music). They played "Let Me Think About It" (OXFORD 2008 HOLLA) among other songs, before launching into Bob Marley and, amazingly, the Grease soundtrack. No complaints.

So we had a lot of fun, with a few notable exceptions.

Days 23-26. Week 4.

2009-07-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

So my work here has become fairly routine, hence the more seldom posts. (I don't think you'd actually want a play-by-play - it would probably sound like a skipping record.)

This Tuesday we went back to the townships to distribute some domestic violence surveys to the men in the community, which was different from the approaches we've taken before (we've never talked to the males). It was really, really interesting to talk to them. The boys with us, Daniel and Alex, were brilliant - I think they're going to be really great in getting the men to open up to them and to be natural with them ("My man!") With the girls, I’m not sure how open they were. Debs said that some of the answers she got were still very straightforward ("Do you hit your girlfriend?" "Yes.") For me, though, one of the guys I interviewed changed his answers midway through:

"Do you think it's okay to hit your girlfriend?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"Why?"

"Because I want to make her look like a woman to me."

At this, I asked, "What do you mean by that?" I'm guessing that I made my probing too obvious, because after some prodding he just started laughing, shook his head, and wouldn't talk. I backtracked and asked him again, "But you would hit your girlfriend?"

At this, he replied, "No."

Surprised, I asked, "No?" and he reaffirmed, "No, I never hit my girlfriend."

So.

Nonetheless, a lot of guys said that they did engage in domestic violence, and all of them said that domestic violence was very common. It was really eye-opening, and I’m really, really looking forward to Alex and Daniel doing a men’s workshop on domestic violence and seeing what they can get out of it. For the workshops with the women, it’s not that there isn’t dialogue, but there’s only so much you can do because women are definitely coming to know more about their rights, and they’re the victims more often so there’s only so much they can do to defend themselves. The root of the problem isn't that the women are ignorant, I think it lies in children growing up in environments with domestic abuse and men thinking domestic abuse is okay. Well, and the effectiveness of the police. Yeah … so there are a lot of problems.

That afternoon, we did do a domestic violence workshop with the women to which fifty-two women showed up. That was absolutely brilliant, and it was great to talk to so many members of the community. We actually had to split into three smaller groups to be able to engage in more active dialogue.

On the way back, an incident occurred that really brought this whole issue closer to home. Walking back to Lucinda’s house, we passed through some of the formal settlements (some rather aged apartment buildings that were constructed decades ago) and at one point, we noticed that there were people crowded up and down one of the staircases and children lined up at the foot of the stairs. There was a commotion, and we weren’t sure why it was occurring.

“There, you see,” said Jilly (I think that was her name), one of the women who helps us organize these workshops. “There's domestic violence in that apartment, that's why these people are here. Domestic violence before your own eyes.”

Evidently, domestic violence was occurring in the apartment in that stairway. People crowd around trying to see it whenever it happens, like gathering around a spectacle – because, as Jilly told us, “it’s like a movie to them. It’s like their entertainment.” It was really chilling to see it happen right there, and know that the very thing we were trying to get rid of was happening right beneath our noses with nothing we could do to stop it. Sickening.

Jazz class was amazing as usual - this Tuesday Cold Fusion performed for us, a dance group that Shaheed choreographs and coaches. They're all kids who have been through rough times and grown up on the streets - they've been taken in by a woman whose name escapes me, and Shaheed engages them in dance to kind of channel their energy positively. Anyway, positively is a light way to put it - they were freaking amazing. Like DefMo on crack. So. So. Good.

Wednesday, we had Emily's last night celebrations :'( We went out in Camps Bay and had a really great time, though I don't think that for some Thursday morning was nearly as great for that reason. Emily left on Thursday afternoon. :(

So my first roomie has left Cape Town. It feels like the beginning of the end, a little bit! Nikki is leaving on Sunday and Snayha on Monday and then no one will be in the house who was here when I arrived four weeks ago. It feels strange, and even stranger to know that I've already burned through half of my trip! Nonetheless, there's another four weeks to come, and the new volunteers in the Martins household are really great.

Days 20, 21, 22. Garden Route!

2009-07-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

Get ready for an epic post!

FRIDAY: First day of Garden Route! We spent most of Friday just driving to Plettenberg Bay, our first stop. It was an adventure to say the least - we had two normal (little) cars and eleven people, meaning one car had to squash four people into the backseat, which is totally fine except for when you consider that it's for six hours straight. And it's also against the law. Haha, awesome.

Anyway, we stopped off outside a place called Heidelberg in this adorable little orchard shop and I found Stroopwafels! Oh my God, they were so good. We stopped briefly in Knysna at the waterfront – so pretty – before driving on to Plettenberg Bay. We got there at 7 PM and checked into our hostel, Nothando Backpackers (so nice!) and went to get pizza in town, which was pretty eerily dead. Off season to be sure. There were tons of nice restaurants around but no one really in any of them except for our pizza parlor.

Friday was fun, even though we didn't end up getting to do anything on our first day.

SATURDAY: Happy Fourth of July! We woke up early and were on the road by 830 or so headed to the Elephant Sanctuary. The elephants were amazing. The sanctuary had six elephants, and we saw three of them (Thandi, Jabu, and one more I can’t remember). We started off with three people walking them (Liz, Emily, and Nikki) over to a clearing, where trainers did a demonstration. It was really neat because the sanctuary takes care not to train the elephants to do anything they wouldn’t do in the wild, so they had them shake their heads (what they do after they wallow in mud to shake the mud off), blow through their trunks (obvious uses) and “talk,” which is a rumble in their throats to communicate with each other.

After that, they let us touch the elephants (their trunks, tusks, ears, behind their ears, their sides, and tails, which are so weird and bristly). Then the remaining three of us walked the elephants back to where we were. Walking the elephants was incredible; you put your palm up behind you and the elephant places its trunk in your hand and follows you wherever you go. Isn’t that absolutely adorable? When they travel together, they wrap their trunks around the tail of the elephant in front of them and follow each other. So cute. At the end, Emily, Jen, and Liz rode them and we watched. Very cool. Lastly, we bought footprints of the elephants we had worked with (they look like this). Mine was named Jabu (it means love) and the footprint had been made that day, incidentally, so it was labeled with the day we'd been there and the name of my elephant - awesome. My first piece of decoration for my apartment!

At around noon, we went to Tsitsikamma - world's highest bungee jump. Jen and Alex bungee'd (bungied? bungeed?) and ... we watched, and then we left. Haha but the view was still pretty incredible.

At around 2, we headed out from Tsitsikamma back towards Cape Town to go to a town called Oudtshoorn, where the rest of our planned activities were. The Irish wanted to watch the rugby game at 3 PM so we stopped in George, and by the time that we all met up (Fergal's car had gotten a bit behind) most of the parks had closed and we didn't get a chance to do any more activities for that day. The bar that we stopped by had PIMMS, though, which totally made my day!

At around 5 or 6, we drove up to Oudtshoorn. We got to our next hostel, Backpackers Paradise and Joyrides (weird name?) at around 7. The sun sets so early in South Africa! It’s dark by 6, and it messes with me totally because I start thinking it’s midnight at 7 PM. We didn’t do much that night, chilled around the fire, got some Chinese food. Funny story about the Chinese food - evidently the restaurant was more like a counter in the back of a 7-Eleven run by one woman, who was conveniently out at a barbeque (hopping Saturday night) and had to come back to make our food in her kitchen behind her one counter at the back of the 7-Eleven. Anyway, it was still good, even three hours later. I hope she got back to her barbeque in time.

SUNDAY: Woke up at 8 AM, had breakfast, and split up into two groups, one of which went to go see the Cango Caves, and the other of which - including me - went to the ostrich farm.

So we went to Cango Ostrich Farm and rode ostriches oh my God funniest thing I've ever seen. FUNNIEST EVER. I was first for some reason! And I had no idea what was going to happen, I thought they were just gonna let go and let me careen around on the ostrich and DIE (two men actually hold the ostrich to make sure it doesn’t like try to throw you against a fence or something). Anyway, even with the guys holding the ostriches it pretty much is careening wildly around the ranch and trying not to die. You sit on their kind of tail area, hook your legs around the fronts of their legs underneath their wings, clutch their wings, and lean back. The trainer kept telling me "like you're on a Harley!" Like I would know. It was hilarious. Check out Nikki:
Afterwards, we met up with the others and went to Cango Wildlife Ranch. This was actually a bit of a disappointment, or at least the least exciting out of the activities that we did. The ostrich farm was surprisingly nice, and I loved the Elephant Sanctuary for its really natural and conservationist qualities, not touristy in the least. The Wildlife Ranch, on the other hand, may as well have been a zoo, but I did get to pet a cheetah, which was really just a very large cat and purred when I scratched its neck. Pretty cooool. And I touched a wallaby!

On the way home was when things started getting a little interesting. We were headed home all peaceful and everything – Fergal left first because they had planned to go to the ostrich farm and then go back before us because some of the girls wanted to go out when they got back. After about 45 minutes, we caught up to Fergal, which we thought was really funny - until we saw his car backfiring and sparking. Fergal pulled it over and it wouldn’t start anymore. This was only something like 70k outside of Oudtshoorn. We figured it was out of oil, so our car drove on to the next town, about 20 min away, a place called Ladismith. It was a tiny town – generous to give it 300 people – but we found oil and then drove back. By this time it was about 330.

We added the oil and waited. At this point we figured that once we added the oil we’d be good to go, and we were joking around and hanging out on the side of the highway (you know, the usual Sunday afternoon on Route 62) when we realized the car still wouldn’t start.

Crap.

So then we started trying to figure out what we could do. (Note: whenever I say "we" did something, I mean other people did things and I waited around and ate Cadbury's.) We called AA and they sent a tow truck, but they said they were sending it from Worcester, which was 2 hours away. So we decided we’d take the girls into town until the tow truck got there. We didn’t think we’d be able to get a rental car, so for awhile John was thinking he would drive us all the way back to Cape Town (!) then drive back to Oudtshoorn to get the rest and drive back home again. As in, driving until 5 AM. We didn’t know what else we could do, though, so John drove us into town (so that he could go back and get the others and bring them there as well to wait for us while we drove TO CAPE TOWN).

We got out and went to this little gas station shop run by the sweetest lady (who ran back and forth in the town trying to figure out information for us once she knew our situation) and bought like seventeen packs of wine gums and jelly tots and AllSorts (they're pretty big on British candy here if you couldn't tell) and sat around playing cards and waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

We tossed around a few ideas, like John driving us to Stellenbosch and us taking the train the remainder of the way rather than him driving all the way to Cape Town (that would save maybe 3 hours on the trip), but mostly we just sat there and waited - we did send the number of the rental car place in Oudtshoorn to the other group.

Also, we saw a tow truck going in the opposite direction and got really excited before we realized it was driving in the wrong direction.

After two hours and change of waiting in the gas station in Ladismith, we found out that they got a rental car! And the tow truck was on its way! And finally, John pulled back into the gas station with the girls. (It is unbelievable the number of white cars on the road, by the way. We were looking for John’s white car and every one we thought that it was him.)

After another 30 minutes (when we all had toasties and I had a samosa and a steak pie) the tow truck went by, which was incidentally the same one we saw drive by 2 hours before, just going in the wrong direction because AA gave them the wrong location. TIA. And then, finally, at long last, Alex and Fergal showed up (poooor guys stranded there for so long) and the rental place showed up with a brand-new VW Golf, and we got on our way.

The drive home was pretty miserable because we were all tired by this point and still crammed four to a seat. We stopped off twice and each time fairly tumbled out of the car. We bought chocolate, which helped – chocolate always helps – but it was still brutal. I can’t even imagine what it was like for Fergal and John driving such long ways after all the stress of the day. Fergal said his eyes were rolling back (thank God he didn’t crash!)

We got back around midnight, and then finally the weekend was over.

I thought that it was a great weekend, all told. Some complications came up, but that happens with any trip (especially with such a large group). I had a great time, loved it all.

Days 18 and 19. Metro, boulot, dodo!

2009-07-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

Pretty unexciting two days as far as our work goes! At 230 yesterday, I went down to Triangle Project with Lyndon to talk about volunteering there. None of the higher-ups were available, so we just got volunteer forms and left. The receptionist said that the Triangle Project was recruiting new volunteers right now anyhow, but they were going to have a new volunteers meeting soon to orient them all. Lyndon’s going to talk to a director about building a relationship between Triangle Project and PAHRO so that we don’t have to wait for them to have that volunteer meeting (whenever it may be). You never really know when things are going to be here.

In the afternoon, I did ... nothing? Feebly worked on workshops for next week. We found out that the Human Rights Office burned through 3GB of Internet bandwidth in six hours today – pretty impressive. Dana warned us about not using Facebook and downloading pictures and things because evidently that uses a lot of memory. Personally, I'm inclined to play the brat and say that it costs a lot for us volunteers to be here and as a result, yall can just buy us more internet if we use it, you obviously have the (our) money ...

Last night, we went out to Cubana's (my second night out in two and a half weeks, I am such a wild child) for a drink and came back at the late, late hour of 10 PM. Rebels.

Andddddd today, I've just been in the office in the morning! Booked the hostels and activities for our weekend trip on the Garden Route (Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Tsitsikamma, and Oudtshoorn) and worked (kind of) on the workshops for next week. I'm excited, the Garden Route should be lots of fun!

Until next time, happy Fourth of July weekend! Time for another IRM.

Also, Pesh wants me to tell my American friends that he "is a hoot." Yes, he is. He is a hoot and a half.

Day 17. Lavender Hill Townships.

2009-06-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today was our visit to the townships to do the domestic violence workshop. It was really interesting – I’ve been looking forward to visiting the townships since I got to Cape Town and saw them on my first drive into the city, so this was really amazing. We talked to a support group of about ten women about what domestic violence is, common myths, and legal action one can take. Domestic violence in townships is especially prevalent, and a lot of the women seemed to take the information we gave them as extremely relevant to themselves. A few told us stories, especially one woman, who was particularly distraught about her daughter, whom she suspected to be in an abusive relationship. It was tough to talk to them, but I really, really enjoyed it. This, of all things, seems to be where I’ve really gotten to be hands-on, to get into the culture of Cape Town and the things that need work. St. Anne’s has been rewarding but the poor turnout is discouraging, because we can only visit when most of the women are out working. In the townships, we can really reach out.

It was also interesting to see the townships up close. The way they live isn’t as shocking to me as I thought it would be because I think I’ve been somewhat exposed to comparable lifestyles in China, but it was still a level of poverty that I haven’t closely experienced to prior to today. It is really something to be in actual buildings made of scrap metal and boards hammered together. The shacks can’t have been more than 100 to 200 square feet total, but despite their ramshackle materials, they actually contain separate rooms and house multiple people. To sit on, the women in the support group brought in makeshift benches made of three pieces of wood hammered together at right angles; in the house we held the workshop in, there was a sink with a bucket underneath the drainpipe, and a single switch to a fluorescent light. I think those amenities were probably a sign of extreme privilege in the informal settlement – in the townships, there is one toilet for every 200 people, and very little source of running water.

What’s especially amazing to me is how much care the people in the townships take to furnish their homes and to render them homelike. The home that we were in for the workshop had a makeshift shelf that displayed six plates, and above the sink was a shelf that displayed a set of glass tumblers. As bare and flimsily constructed as the buildings were, the inhabitants still take great care to make them homely. It reminds me of the absolute shitholes (excuse my language) that I’ve seen at Duke – Central apartments that are totally trashed and filled with empty beer bottles, caked food, remnants of vomit. Comparatively, our Central apartments are a luxury for these people, and yet some of our homes at Duke are not nearly as cared for. It makes you think, that’s for sure.

In the afternoon, we headed back to the office, where there was no internet, as usual, so we spent the afternoon in the internet café to finish up our work. Dinner at the Martins was delicious as usual, and then Snayha and I tried to go to jazz class but it was cancelled :( A tragedy. Now I’m just back at home finishing this blog … Today, we also got a new volunteer in our house (also with the Human Rights Office) named Alex, who’s 17 and from Oregon. These young volunteers totally blow my mind, I would never have been capable of taking such initiative when I was 17!

Day 16. Monday, Monday.

2009-06-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

This morning started off with a bang – when we got to the office, two refugees that I recognized from Youngsfield were talking really emphatically at Theo and gesticulating wildly; the woman was pointing to her skirt and saying something about fire. We skirted past them to put our things down in the office, settling down for only a moment – we had enough time to find out that the internet was out, surprise – before Theo came in to get us with a barrage of information. A tent at the Youngsfield Refugee Camp had burned down, who could go to Youngsfield now, the refugees would drive us, and did anyone have cameras because they needed us to take pictures and to see the damage.

So before we knew it, and less than ten minutes after arriving at the office, five of us were in the bed of a small rusty blue truck, speeding through Cape Town to Youngsfield. On the way, we were under the impression that the big tent at Youngsfield – the one I’ve mentioned earlier, that holds around forty people – had burned down completely, which would mean a logistical nightmare for finding shelter. When we got there we found that it was actually a smaller tent, one that had housed four people - though less catastrophic in terms of what aid we could provide. How awful is it that these people have lost everything only to lose it again in a fire? It was less logistically terrifying, but it was still heartbreaking. It was awful to take those pictures (I thought about uploading them, but I'm going to go with inappropriate on that one). There were charred remains of beds, clothing, photographs … after talking to the refugees about what they needed (other than the umbrella term of "everything"), we headed back to the office at around 10.

After that, a few people got down to collecting money from the volunteers and going to buy clothes and blankets for the displaced (cruelly ironic word) refugees. Nikki and I finished looking over our workshop and at 1, we went back to St Anne's Home. It was interesting because it was the first one that Nikki and I had prepared on our own (Katy and Tarila, who had not been before, also came along) but a little disappointing because Esmerelda and Cindy (finally got her name!) were the only ones there again. We talked about their rights in the office and what they should look for in employment contracts, etc. (The most fascinating material in the world, haha). Esmerelda really doesn’t like talking … She didn’t talk this week either. Though we did meet her son, Jordan – what a cutie :)

We got back to the office to find that not only had the internet gone out again, the power had gone out too! Haha, typical. So we picked up camp and moved to the internet café to finish a workshop on domestic violence that we’ll be giving at Lavender Hill tomorrow at the township. I’m really, really excited for my first visit to the townships. I’ve been waiting for this since I saw them from the van coming from the airport on my very first evening.

Then I went home and had more fabulous dinner from Mrs. Martin - some kind of lamb biryani, with sides of broccoli, sweet potato (yummm), and cauliflower. And, since we had so many people, she brought out some amazing pasta casserole with ground beef and cheese. Seriously, how does she do it. And why does she want me to be so fat?!

I'm also happy (is happy really the right word?) to report having gained at least five pounds since arriving here (thank you Mrs. Martin!) In two weeks, I find that impressive.

Day 15. Leaving Hermanus, Camps Bay.

2009-06-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

For our last morning in Hermanus, I went horseback riding with Amanda, Maggie, and Beth. It was really, really great – the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. When we got there, the instructor asked us who was experienced and who wasn’t; naturally, my hand shot up at the first question and so I was given a small, older mare named Jessie. She was really sweet and incredibly responsive, and I was really happy to have her. Some of the other girls got horses that were slightly (or significantly) more spirited, like Beth, who demanded the "toughest one you've got," and got a tricksome guy named Rembrandt. Amanda also rode a slightly finicky horse named Duke (ha), but more about that later.

We rode for about half an hour in the mountains and then half an hour on the beach. (To the right is a picture of Beth with Rembrandt, acting up as usual.) It was all just beautiful, but when we were headed back after our half hour on the beach, a husky (there were a ton of dogs on the beach, as expected) started following us as we went back. I think he started nipping at the horses’ feet, because all of a sudden I heard a scream – I wheeled around to see one of the horses sprinting up into the dunes and one of our girls tumbling off his side and landing on her back in the dunes. At first I thought it was Beth, because Rembrandt had been pretty feisty the entire ride, but it was Amanda on Duke. Luckily, she managed to hang on enough that the fall wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but the whole thing was pretty scary. It turned out that the husky had gotten underneath Duke's feet, so he started galloping in every which direction and zigzagging, so it’s really something that Amanda didn’t get more hurt. Remarkably, she sprang up as soon as she hit the dunes, but like most people after a big shock, she didn’t seem quite sure of herself or even sure what hurt or what she’d hit. Later she said her back hurt and her head, so she must have hit some of the rocks in the dunes. :(

So that was a little more than we bargained for. The husky actually kept following us, the stupid thing, and I have no idea where his owner was. Finally our guide chased him off and we got back to the ranch and headed back to the hostel, where we packed up our stuff and left for Cape Town again. I decided to go healthy and get some good ol’ KFC for lunch. Healthy living to the max.

We took a different route on the way back to Cape Town, which pissed me off because I wanted to be on the side of van facing the water this time! But we did see some nice views of some random city (I don’t know which one) on the way back, so I guess that was worth it. :P We actually ended up getting back much earlier than expected, at 230 rather than 4, and almost were able to meet up with Nikki, Fergle, and the Irish on their way to Cape Point, but were just an hour too late ... So instead we went back to the waterfront. We didn't do much but eat - I had some fries from St. Elmo's, which are mystically heavenly because of some kind of seasoning they put on them. I don’t even normally like fries, but these are amazing. (Food, the theme of my life.) After that, we went to Ocean Basket again and Emily and Snayha had sushi and I had the grilled fish. We eat a lot.

Ferg picked us up at 630, and after a joyful reunion (yay roomie), we went out to Camps Bay for a drink on somewhat of a whim. We ended up, funnily, at that swanktastic bar that hosted the Duke reception. I actually ordered a gin and tonic – and actually finished it! – meaning I’ve finally celebrated my LSAT with a proper drink, I guess. I suppose I might as well, since the G&T cost a whole US$3.60 even in the most expensive part of Cape Town. Though it still stands that all I need for a true celebration is a lot of dancing!

Walking to the bar in Camps Bay was breathtaking because there were so many stars. The number of stars you can see in South Africa is just freaking unbelievable! It’s so clear that you can see so much tinier stars than in the US – they look like sprays of diamonds in clusters across the sky. In Hermanus, too, the night sky was unthinkably beautiful. It’s weird because it makes me feel like it’s a fake sky or something – not only are there so many stars, but they seem all out of order because they’re constellations I’m not used to, haha.

After we got back, we watched some of the US v. Brazil game – oh well, we tried – and now I’m about to go to bed. All in all, I loved the weekend – I thought it was great.

Days 13 and 14. Hermanus!

2009-06-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

So we spent this weekend in Hermanus, a seaside town about 2 hours away from Cape Town on Walker Bay.

Friday morning I woke up feeling pretty crappy from a cold I had. Mrs. Martin put Vicks VapoRub in a large mixing bowl with boiling water, and had me sit bent over the bowl with a towel over my head to “steam it out.” Haha, aside from feeling kind of like a druggie, it actually worked really well! I felt a lot better after that. Too bad I can’t do that all weekend in Hermanus.

The weather was finally back to sunny on Friday – it’s been absolutely horrible this week, rainy, windy, wet, and freezing. The temperature itself is not too unbearable, but with the rain and wind, it’s even bad by the standards of our UK folk. It’s been miserable. It gives me pause when I complain about the weather, though, when I consider the folks I went to see at Youngsfield Refugee Camp last week – people living in flimsy tents with no socks and/or shoes and very few blankets. This week, they reported that the tent poles had broken and the tent had ripped because of the severe winds. It’s enough to make me shut up, that’s for sure … Never forget how much you actually have.

We left the Newlands office at around 1230 (TIA/college kids are always late). The drive down to Hermanus was absolutely gorgeous – huge mountains on one side (the side I was sitting, unfortunately) and beaches and water on the other side. It was really, really gorgeous, almost as beautiful as Amalfi. On the way back, I’m going to have to remember to sit on the same side of the van so I can get the pictures I missed on the way there.

Well, the hostel did have some internet, so I checked my email when I got there and got a really unexpected surprise. It was insane because I signed into Gmail, saw the header “Your June 2009 LSAT Score,” clicked on it, and saw my score all before I could process a single true thought. I had barely enough time to realize that the email might contain my score before I actually saw it. I thought I was getting my score on Monday. (Everyone, including Emily, evidently knew that we'd be getting it earlier, though.) Haha, so I unexpectedly got my LSAT score in front of a dozen Projects Abroad volunteers ... and I had no clue.

Anyway, in that state of mind, I walked with everyone down to the water, where there was an absolutely breathtaking view – cliffs, craggy rocks, water breaking in huge sprays against the rocks and the mountains in the background. We spent about an hour just sitting down by the water. It was probably one of the most gorgeous views I've ever seen, and one of the most content afternoons I've ever spent. Pretty great.

For dinner, we all went down to Ocean Basket, where we had fish and chips. After that, we all chilled at the hostel bar (the hostel has adorable cats by the way!) and talked. And I had like half a cider to celebrate my score. Ew, I can think of so many ways I would rather celebrate than with alcohol. Yuuuck. Haha.

At around 11, I was absolutely exhausted and losing my voice, so I went back upstairs and got ready for bed. I got a call from Karim :) and then got into bed and fell asleep pretty promptly.

On Saturday morning, I woke up and felt like absolute death. Every time I swallowed it felt like someone was shoving a poker down my throat. Our sharkdiving expedition was scheduled for Saturday morning, and I knew at that point that I really shouldn’t consider getting in the water, and I was really close to not going out on the boat at all, but my feeble complaints to Emily were met with only the brisk reply, "You'll feel better once you wake up." So at the last minute I pulled on my oh-so-attractive one piece Speedo and headed down to the van.

True to form, I did feel much better once I woke up - at least, decently human - but Maggie wasn’t doing so well so we had to pull over. I remember thinking at that point that if she was already motion sick, the boatride was gonna be hell. (They had warned us repeatedly that the sharkdiving trip made a ton of people throw up). We got to breakfast at 8 AM and had some toast and eggs, and then we headed down to the waterfront to get on the boat. Maggie had bought some seasickness pills so I took one.

Actually, the ride out to the sharkdiving location wasn't bad at all. The view was gorgeous, and I'm sure we were all thinking that we were total pros at this, why the hell did they make such a big deal, those poor other guys with stomachs of mere mortals, etc. Haha, little did we know. It wasn’t til we stopped (and I feel bad looking back because at that point I told Emily, who was already feeling queasy, “Look, we made it! The worst is over!” how wrong I was) that the true trouble began. With the boat moving over the water, the swells aren’t bad, but once you stop, the boat is rocked really, really severely by all the swells. It wasn’t more than two minutes with the boat at a standstill before Emily threw up over the side of the boat. And, as I was holding her hair back, I looked up and saw Hunter vomiting over the top deck, too.

After that, it was basically downhill. I think only five out of our fourteen people didn’t get sick by the time it was all said and done (me included, hollaaa!)

Gives a new meaning to the word sicknasty.

Nonetheless, everyone but me, Jen, and Emily went into the cage to see the sharks. I decided with my cold that it would just be plain dumb to get into 60 degree water and then sit in the biting wind with wet hair and clothes for another hour afterward. I was really upset to be sick and to have missed out, but nonetheless, you’d be surprised what you could see form the side of the boat anyway. I saw every single shark, and I stayed dry and non-pneumonic - I'm not regretful. Maybe next time! And I got some really cool pictures:
After sharkdiving, we had our lunch and watched the DVD that they'd filmed of our entire trip. I wasn’t in it very much but I laughed at the parts that I was – it was all awkwardly perky one-word answers (“Was it a good trip?” “Yes!” … “Bye!”) or else you could see me in the background holding Emily while people got into the water. Poor Emily threw up the entire trip after we stopped at the diving location. I don't think she should have to pay. :/

In the afternoon we went to some brewery. I could have cared less, but the place was in a beautiful location, nestled at the foothills of some mountains and you could see the vineyards in the distance. Absolutely gorgeous. I hear Stellenbosch is like this so I’d love to go at some point.

The weekend has been really fun thus far. At night, we just spent more time at the hostel and in the hostel bar talking and (watching people) playing pool. The cost to go through Projects Abroad and Cape Extreme was really extortionate, probably at least $50 to $100 too much (it was $245 for the entire weekend, expensive by South African standards) but I haven't spent much at all on cab rides or drinks because I don't go out, so I haven't minded the extra cost. I paid for the company and the experience, and the luxury of not having to do any planning myself :) So it's all good from my perspective.

One more half-day tomorrow (horseback riding!) and then back to Cape Town!

Day 12. All that jazz.

2009-06-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

Not much happened at work today, other than our fabulous Internal Review Meetings, joy of my life. At night, I went on my own to jazz class with Shaheed and Marcelle (note that I now know how to spell both their names) in Kuilsriver.

It was a pretty eventful night for jazz, actually. Well, first, we stopped to pick up Shaheed and I said hi to Annie : ) I love seeing her, she’s so amazing. She was actually the longest-ranking number one women’s volleyball player in South Africa, and told me about how, since she's not as tall as some players, she's had to work extra hard on her game to keep herself as competitive as the taller girls (sounds familiar, Rachael!)

On the way to class, Shaheed was telling us absolutely ridiculous stories about how he's pretended to be a woman (named "Skylah") on the phone with men he meets on this South African mobile texting website mxit.com ... "And then he called me on Friday and he said, 'Skylah, I did it! I broke up with her! I'm all yours!' And I was soooo shocked!"

Class was good, but it was a little dramatic because some people hadn’t been paying and Shaheed yelled at them, and then someone got in his face and Shaheed got all huffy and red-eyed and was like “Can we just warm down now?!” Poor Shaheed!

Oh, and I thought this was interesting – so at one point Shaheed almost paired me up with this white woman (the only one at the class), and she took one look at me and turned to him like I wasn't there, asking him with obvious concern, “Is she a foreigner? She's a foreigner? She's not South African?” So Shaheed nodded, and she said, decidedly, “Oh, then I’ll just speak English very slowly.”

All of this is without shooting me a wayward glance.

Very pointedly I said, “Um, I do speak English, I’m American.” At that point she laughed embarrassedly and exclaimed that she’d thought I was from the East. Well, if I had been from the East, why wouldn't you have asked me if I could speak English?

Tomorrow, we're going to Hermanus for the weekend! Possible shark cage-diving and more. :) Should be really fun!

Day 11. Bonnytoun and Food Lovers.

2009-06-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Another day! Today started with us finishing up the work we had; we did the handout for the St. Anne’s workshop on Monday and I emailed a few gay rights organizations in Cape Town. Waiting for responses still. At 1, we left for Bonnytoun House, a safety home for boys who have been convicted of crimes and are waiting on their trials. Dipesh, Nikki, Emily, and I went to do an HIV/AIDS workshop with the boys to educate them on the disease – common myths, prevention, transmission, etc.

I’d say the workshop was fairly successful, though near the end the boys started getting a little restless. There were a lot of instances where they – being boys – were acting out a little and asking questions that were clearly not related. Here’s an example:

At some point in the middle of the workshop, three boys were nudging each other and looking somewhat intent on speaking. Since they’d been quiet for most of the time, I had one ask his question.

“Say that someone smoke something out of a pipe,” he asked me, “and that he has HIV.” He demonstrated ‘smoking a pipe’ by cupping his hand around an invisible pipe and holding it to his mouth.

“If someone else smoke that pipe,” he cupped his hand again and held it to his mouth, “will that person get HIV?” All three boys stared intently at me, waiting to burst out laughing.

I won’t spell it out for you (in case there are some people out there who are easily offended) but I caught myself in the midst of beginning to imitate their hand movements – which is what they wanted – just in time. Well, it’s a good thing I went to high school, right?

So Bonnytoun was certainly an experience. It’s not that the boys weren’t friendly, because they absolutely were (some were too friendly) but actually, many of the boys were really, really informed about HIV and AIDS. One of them brought up ARVs without prompting and told us about the immune system. (None of them, however, felt that using one condom was safer than using two or three.)

Anyway, I did like the visit, but I think I want to focus on women’s rights and LGBT rights (if I ever get the project off the ground). Refugee rights, as always, is an area that I feel like is in such a dire need of help (and is also so applicable to any other area of human rights), but it’s also the area that receives the most attention from volunteers. So I’m trying to figure out what I can do that is both helpful and needed.

After work, we went to Greenmarket Square, where I had my first experiences bartering on my own. Emily bought a malachite necklace and malachite elephant for 180R total, when the saleswoman originally offered them for 230R total. This is worth more comment when the process began like this:

Emily: How much for the elephant?
Saleswoman: 70R.
Emily: How much for the necklace?
Saleswoman: 150R.
Emily: Well, how much for both put together? Can you give me a deal if I buy both?
Saleswoman: I give you best price for both – 230R.
Us: … But that’s more than each separately.

So, you can draw your own conclusions about how that went.

At night we got half-price sushi (!!) at a restaurant in Newlands called Food Lovers. Sounds like they were waiting for me. Oxford people get this: they had a conveyor belt for sushi! :) The sushi was pretty delicious, made even more so because it was half-price. I won't say no to two 8-piece sushi rolls for 6 bucks.

At night, I watched part of the US v. Spain semifinals of the Confederations Cup. Someone tell me when the USA got good at soccer? Anyway, I hate Spain so I'm not complaining. Tomorrow night, Brazil plays South Africa - bafana bafana!

So tomorrow we have our IRM, and at night I'm going to jazz classsss! :)

Day 10. "Welcome to Cape Town."

2009-06-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

First of all, hi to Emily's friends and family who are reading this too! :) Sorry for anything in the blog that may not apply to what Emily's doing in Cape Town, too - but I think those instances are few and far between :)

Anyway, today was mostly uneventful, except for the weather. Okay, seriously? Really. When we first got here, we were told by some South Africans that some days you see all four seasons in a day – today was our first up-close-and-personal experience with that phenomenon. We walked to the train station in blustery but somewhat sunny weather, got on the train as it began to drizzle, sat down in the office amid torrential downpours, went to lunch in spots of sunshine, and then watched the rain come down and the sun come out simultaneously. In one afternoon, there have been howling gales of wind (I got to watch a dozen birds fly backwards), blinding sunlight, more torrents of rain, and all-around ridiculousness.

When we were in the kitchen last night and the wind sounded like it was about to knock the house down, all the Martins had to say was, "Welcome to Cape Town!"

Anyways, in terms of work, today was actually fairly productive! I finally finished my LGBT reading and started doing some research about which organizations to collaborate with. The internet went out for four hours again in the afternoon (surprise) but we still managed to get a little work done. While the internet was out, we sat in on a case consultation and then we had an office meeting about Bluewaters Refugee Camp, which we finally have access to. It’s a much larger refugee camp than Youngsfield, with about 400 refugees, so it’s really exciting for the volunteers at the office who managed to succeed in making that breakthrough, because previously the camp had been really difficult and stubborn about letting Projects Abroad volunteers in.

Then at night we had our jazz class again, which was amazing as usual! On Thursday Projects Abroad is hosting a social, but it's at the same time as our other jazz class in Kuilsriver. I'm torn, and I'd really like to go out and spend more time with the other volunteers, but knowing the writer of this blog, yall shouldn't need me to say which choice I'm going to pick nonetheless.

Time for bed! I’d say this was our first fairly routine day in South Africa. Is that good, bad, or weird as hell?

Day 9. St. Anne's.

2009-06-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Today, we spent most of the day struggling with our internet, moving to Kauai (no internet there either?!) and then to an internet café. TIA. In the afternoon, we went to St. Anne’s, which is a rehabilitation-type women’s shelter for abused women getting back on their feet and back to work.

I absolutely, absolutely loved it. We talked to only two women today because the rest were out working (I think), and the topic of discussion was unhealthy relationships. It was really interesting to interact with them, especially because one of the women had been there for four months and the other, only one. The woman who was there for four months was much more open and responsive to our discussion about relationships, whereas Esmerelda, the one who had just arrived, refused to say a word. I couldn’t tell what her temperament was when she refused to answer our questions, but she turned out to be such a sunny and enthusiastic person when we asked to meet her son and about other aspects of her life outside of abuse. I’m not sure what word to use other than ‘interesting’ (and that kind of sounds inappropriate, too) to observe the women as they arrive in the home and how they progress in dealing with the problems they’ve faced. Esmerelda was clearly not ready to discuss the circumstances that brought her to the home - and understandably so.

After the workshop, both women took us down to the crèche (daycare) to see their kids. Their babies were ADORABLE. The first woman (I wish I could remember her name) had this adorably chubby-cheeked baby who was pretty amazingly quiet and well-behaved. He had this deep-throated tiny little chortle that was just precious. The caretaker at the home gave him some papaya, which he put in his mouth, threw on the ground, picked up, and repeated multiple times. In the end, I was charitably offered the carefully prepared delicacy - papaya a la floor - but I just had to pass. I guess I just wasn't hungry. :)

Nikki and I are going to work on an employment rights workshop for St. Anne’s. I really, really like this home and I really want to go back. Talking to the women seemed to really touch them, and because of that I feel as though I can truly try to reach out to these women and help them. It’s kind of like the counseling I’d done at REAL, so I feel more like my resources can be used in this regard as opposed to refugee rights. I’m still going to Bonnytoun (the boys’ shelter for juvenile delinquents) tomorrow for Emily's workshop in order to explore other options, but I’m really and truly excited about helping these women.

After that, we went home and had another delicious meal. QUESTION: HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE WITHOUT MRS. MARTIN’S COOKING WHEN I GO HOME? She is unbelievable. She made a lamb three-bean curry and a bread pudding with orange custard. Soooooooo gooooood. I want her recipes but I know I won’t even be able to make food like this. Ahhh. Afterwards, Snayha and Emily went to Tin Roof, and Nikki and I stayed in (sound familiar?) Mrs. Martin talked to us about some of her past volunteers, and talked about how much she loves cooking. She said her idea of a holiday is just to cook all day long (SERIOUSLY?) The last holiday she and Mr. Martin went on was a vacation to Hermanus for two weeks – twelve years ago. Crazy. She is seriously like a Duracell Battery.

It's really amazing how much work Mrs. Martin does for the community. Every Friday she buys crates and crates of groceries to give to charity, and every time there's leftovers - and there always is despite our ravenous appetites - she gives them away to homeless people who come by to collect her food. When we walked past homeless people on some of the street corners in Plumstead, she pointed them out and told us how she used to specially deliver her food to that one, or this one, and so on. Mrs. Martin really makes me realize how very little I do for my own community back home, and I hope I keep her altruism at heart when I go back home and when I eventually have my own family and living.

Day 8. Skydiving Fail, Muizenberg.

2009-06-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

IT'S CLOUDY. I WANTED TO GO SKYDIVING. UGH.

So our skydiving was cancelled because of stormy weather, so we'll have to figure out a time to reschedule. >:(

The good side is that because of that, Emily and I got to go along with the host family to Muizenberg, where the flea market and beaches are. (A lot of people surf in Muizenberg.) Also, Mrs. Martin made us an amazing breakfast this morning! She cooked breakfast for Mr. Martin (Happy Father's Day!) and for us too. Fried eggs, fried tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and bacon. Yummmm.

I was really glad to have gone to Muizenberg because it's really pretty. They have adorable colored beach huts all along the beach and really quaint, somewhat European-influenced buildings. Of course, the weather wasn’t that great – stupid skydiving – but the beach was still gorgeous. The flea market was also really fun, and they sold excellent food. I had a lot of samosas (which are really popular here, funnily! South Africa has some Indian influences) and split an absolutely phenomenal apple tart with Emily. We bought another to take home and have with ice cream! It’s sitting on my nightstand tempting me right now.

When we got home, we had “a spot of tea” and I helped Mrs. Martin make chicken a la king and showed her my Indian dance videos. It turns out that South African TV shows Bollywood movies every week! And the Martins really love it! hahaha! She asked me to send her a DVD of the dances that we do, so I'll probably send her the Awaaz DVD this fall.

Dinner was delicious as usual. And I did the minutes for the IRM which actually took quite a bit of time. Back to work tomorrow! Will edit this post with pictures later.

Day 7. Robben Island and the V&A Waterfront.

2009-06-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

Another paaaacked day. We woke up at around 915 (I slept for TEN hours! Seriously?) and had breakfast and tea as usual, before Emily, Nikki, and I went down to the waterfront at around 1030. Snayha went on the Robben Island tour at 11 AM with the DukeEngage group so she left earlier, at around 830. We grabbed lunch in the waterfront mall – the area is just so lively and exciting, and I’d love to go back.

Anyway, the tour was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the most exhilarating thing, but it’s something you just have to see, I think. I've included pictures of the main entrance to the camp and of Nelson Mandela's cell. The tour guides were all former prisoners of Robben Island, which was really something. On the one hand, it was especially informative, but on the other, how terrible for them to have to return every day to a place with such horrible memories? The guides were telling us all about how they were beaten, tortured, etc. etc. So I couldn’t decide if that was really cool or really twisted.

The island is surprisingly beautiful for a prison island: After the tour, we sat on top of the ferry on the way back and got fantastic pictures of the entirety of Table Mountain, which was absolutely beautiful: And we saw whales really briefly! And an ostrich on Robben Island! And penguins and A CRAPTON OF RABBITS. So … yes, local wildlife.

We met up with Emily after the tour and walked around the mall, got Mr. Martin a Father’s Day card, and got SUSHI YEESSS at a restaurant called Willoughby’s. The sushi was pretty freaking good, though not the best I’ve had and it really hit the spot after being starving for the afternoon. And, at the end of dinner, I got a phone call :)

Archie took us home, and we talked to the Martins for awhile (I went with Mr. and Mrs. Martin to the pharmacy just because) and then watched The Secret Life of Bees. I cried a lot, surprise. I also got a phone call from my parents!

And now I’m here, at the conclusion of my first full week of South Africa. It feels simultaneously like it’s been a really long time and like it’s been nothing.

Days 5 and 6. Work and Table Mountain!

2009-06-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday was quick – we had case consultations for most of the day and then I talked to Theo about pursuing a project in homosexual and LGBT rights. At night, we had another jazz class farther away from our host home, in Kuilsriver. I thought it was absolutely amazing. We were at a more advanced class and all the people there were really good, and so I got to be partners with some amazing dancers who did a lot more to teach me how to actually dance and improvise jazz to the music and not just practice moves we’re taught. As long as the guy is forceful, you really don’t have to think all that much – you just move and spin and don’t let go of his hands. Hahahaha but this one guy Marco when he danced with me, spun me a few times and such and then as we were dancing he suddenly says “So when I say go, lift your knee up! Lift your knee up when I say go!” and I kept saying what? What? What? And all of a sudden I’m 5 feet in the air with my knee over his shoulder, and he’s tossing me around like I’m a rag doll, and I’m sure it would have looked SO COOL if I had been expecting it/had known what to do, but instead I was just like OHMYGODLETMEDOWN hahaha. Fail.

I’m not sure we’ll keep going to the Thursday classes because transportation is a problem, but I really hope so. Dance twice a week – what more could I ask for? (Dance four times a week, dance six times a week … nevermind.) Really, though, who knew I’d actually get to dance this much during the summer. I couldn’t be happier in that regard.

On the way back, we stopped off at Annie’s and visited her. They have the most amazing dogs! A big husky who yowls when you don’t pay attention to him and an adorably somber St. Bernard who looks up at you with the most poignantly forlorn puppy-dog (literally) eyes you could possibly imagine.

Hahaha, oh, and on the way back Fergal took a wrong turn and Shaid/Syed told him to back up and said “This is Africa, man! This is Cape Town! We do this shit!” hahahaha.

Speaking of TIA, this morning was a definite classic TIA moment. One of the trains had broken down in Rondebosch, so we got to the train station at 830 and ended up waiting until 910 for a train to arrive. The trains were all running late and one had been cancelled. It was totally okay that we got to work like 30 minutes late, though, because even Johnlyn, the woman who runs the program underneath Theo, was late because of the train situation. She says everybody in South Africa is used to it. It’s really funny to see quirks like this in a different culture – that punctuality is not quite as all-important as it might be in another societies, and that mishaps in the infrastructure and the systems of the country are not as unexpected.

Here's a picture of the view from the train station. It's just so amazing to me that Table Mountain forms the backdrop of any single point in Cape Town.

Anyway, we got to the office at around 930 and still had another hour before our Internal Review Meeting. The IRM was basically to review what we had done that week and discuss plans for next week, and it took up the bulk of the day. On Fridays, we’re let out early at 1 because the IRM is the only thing scheduled.

After work, we had our big adventure of the day – climbing Table Mountain! And what a climb IT WAS. We had no idea it was going to be as strenuous as it was. But it was literally CLIMBING A ROCK. Nikki and I, to make things worse, had brought all our work stuff and this dumb laptop was in my bookbag so it weighed about 20 pounds. And I lugged it up a mountain. For two and a half hours. Are you serious.

The climb was really fun, though - I’ve never done anything this adventurous! We were definitely struggling (I tried to count the number of times we said “Holy s---” or “Oh my f---ing God” or basically just any kind of breathless, gasping expletive, but my rough estimate is in the thousands). We also kind of had to book it because the last cable car down was at 6 and we would have been stranded at the top if we didn’t make it. (And have to walk down again in the dark and get attacked by rabbits or something.) We started hiking at 3 and got there at 530. It was more like scrambling over rocks than hiking, really, and it was uphill the entire way (well, obviously, but still). There was a stretch of flat paths cut across the rock, but other parts were literally walking across sills of rock, and clambering over 45 degree inclines or even steeper of boulders. (With a 20lb bookbag FML). For 2.5 straight hours! I was gasping for breath the entire time. By the time I got up, I was drenched in sweat (and then it was cold).

But what a great view, and what great pictures. It was so amazing, and I’m so glad I finally went out and did something adventurous.

Speaking of which … I’m going skydiving on Sunday. Yes, really. Yes. Yes. Really!

What an awesome day. Tomorrow, we’re going to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated) and having SUSHI AT THE WATERFRONT like I missed out on last time! Yaaaay.

Day 4. First Day of Work; Youngsfield.

2009-06-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

So this morning was my first real day of work. We had a case review meeting in the morning, where we discuss where we stand on the cases that the Human Rights Office is handling. A lot of the cases are refugees who are seeking help regarding their situations; the office tries to sort out their applications for refugee status, asylum seeker status, and to figure out if they can appeal to the UN for protection (this is what I think, anyway, from what I've been able to pick up on my first day).

The lawyer who runs our program is really remarkable (I may have mentioned him before). His name is Theodore Kamwimbi and he's Congolese himself; he speaks something like five languages and really seems to be the lifeblood of our program. He does consultations with refugees throughout the day (one of which we sat in on right after the case review) and invites all the interns to sit in on them. Interns then take on responsibilities like writing up the minutes of consultations and assisting with things from scholarship applications for refugee students to preparing files for clients to submit to the UN.

In the afternoon, we went to a refugee camp called Youngsfield to drop off medicine. A retired doctor volunteered to come check out the refugees and prescribe medicine, and Projects Abroad paid for the medicine and delivered it this afternoon. South Africa has refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia mostly. The South African government is not receptive to refugee camps and does not particularly acknowledge their existence here. Visiting was tough; it's frustrating for both the refugees and the volunteers, because for the refugees I imagine it must be immensely frustrating to see these students come from places of privilege to visit them and yet do little to nothing to help; for us, on the other hand, it's hard not to be able to help more. It's difficult to discern whether the way in which you speak to them is appropriate - if I were in their shoes, would I feel like people were compassionate or condescending, or would I feel like a spectacle?

South Africa has a big problem with xenophobia, particularly starting in May of last year, because there's a lot of resentment towards refugees and blame for taking resources (much like illegal immigrants in the US) and increasing the crime rate. Somalians are frequently attacked because they're usually the ones who have managed to start up businesses and shops and started to make livings for themselves. Ironically, those who have managed to eke out livings and get back on their feet are the ones who are targeted - because they're the ones who have something to lose. It's unfair that those who actually contribute are often those who have everything taken away from them.

I'm really excited to get more involved with work. We don't have many projects regarding sexual orientation and homosexual rights, and I think I'm looking to start up something concerning that, though I'd also like to help with refugee rights.

After we got home, Mrs. Martin made the most amazing pasta with chicken, it was so, so delicious! I've seriously got to get her to teach me how to cook better. Or at all. After dinner, Nikki and I decided to stay in - it was amazing to sit at the table and talk with Angelo (our host brother) and just chiiilll. I'm a homebody and I embrace it.

Also, an Irish family came in today who will be working with Future Factory with Annie. The house is quite busy now because we have eight volunteers in addition to Fergle and Angelo, meaning that Mrs. Martin (who makes us box lunches every night!) made something like FORTY sandwiches last night (two each) for us. She might as well have opened a sandwich shop!

Day 3. Potjie and Jazz!

2009-06-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

This morning, we woke leisurely at around 9 AM and had some tea and breakfast before heading out to the social that Lucinda hosted. It was my first really well-rested night, which was great, and I felt awesome heading out. It was a bit of an adventure to get there, because we had to wait quite awhile for a train and ended up missing the group that we were supposed to meet at Steenberg station to take a minibus with, so we went to Wynberg instead and tried to find our own minibus. A few drivers tried to rip us off, asking for 120 rand to take us to Grassy Park, which is the next suburb over, and Snayha found us a minibus for a much better rate (aka 5 rand). Minibuses are these taxis that pick up like a dozen people and squeeze them into one van and drop them off stop by stop. Or at least that seems to be the basic idea. Our minibus dropped us off a short way from the site of our social, Gilray Scouts Camp, and we walked the rest of the way. (We actually went to the wrong side of the camp, but Lucinda came to pick us up.)

The social was a “cook-off” with music, and we were making a South African stew called potjie. Basically, there’s a big black iron pot in a fire, and you stack onions, pumpkin, peppers, squash, green beans, mushrooms, garlic, cauliflower, meat, and potatoes into the pot and let simmer with oil, water, spices, and cream of mushroom or onion soup. It takes hours to make, but it’s very involved and fun to do and it was a great way to get to know some of the traditions of South Africa! We had two teams, one of which made a chicken potjie, and the other seafood (fish, crab, calamari, and shellfish). It was absolutely delicious.

At home, Mrs. Martin made us a chicken salad that was delicious (I’ve heard from absolutely everyone that she’s a phenomenal cook and it turned out to be every bit as true as reported). Then we had our jazz class, WHICH WAS AMAZING. The teacher is an absolute firecracker of a little guy (he's only a little taller than me!) who is a friend of Mrs. Martin's. I came out of my room to be swept into a huge hug by SOMEONE who was already kissing my cheeks and telling me it was fantastic to meet me, and it turned out to be him. His name is Syed (I KNOW that's spelled wrong but I'm just spelling it how Hanif does! His name is pronounced "Shai-yeed") and he's just the funniest thing ever. Right after that, a woman named Annie (whom I'd already heard so much about) saw me, hugged me and then picked me off the ground! With ONE arm. I was really glad to finally meet this woman - Annie is absolutely dynamic. She was the top volleyball player in South Africa for awhile, and now does work with Future Factory (http://www.futurefactory.co.za) bringing sports back into South African schools and trying to keep kids on the right track (no pun intended). She was named Woman of the Year and Community Builder of the Year in 2007. It's pretty fantastic to be sitting around a table eating chicken salad and biscuits with someone who's been so many places and done so much for her country and city.

One thing I love about my household – and Cape Town culture in general, it seems – is that there are constantly visitors and relatives in and out of the Martins household. They sit around the table and chat with all of us and the Martins; before the jazz class, Annie’s niece Marsalle (probably spelled that wrong too), Annie, and Syed sat around the table, had dinner with us, and generally made dinner hilarious and eventful.

After our jazz class (a-mazing) I've just been here, updating my blog and answering emails. We don't have internet at home, but I've been drafting the blog entries and emails and sending them once I get to work before doing things. Tomorrow will be my first real day of work, and I hope to get out to do some field work.

Day 2. Orientation and Duke in Cape Town Reception.

2009-06-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our orientation. The first part of the day was intense and really cool. We got up at 8 AM and had our orientation at 9. A guy named Jason came to pick us up to take us to the train station, and we took the train into Newlands, where the main Projects Abroad office is. There, we met another volunteer named Kathryn, from Houston, TX. We had our general program orientation with a woman named Lucinda, who runs a project in the townships directed towards women’s rights and working with abused women and children. She took us to get our phones and gave us a general briefing; I liked meeting her a lot because it is so clear that she devotes so much to what she does.

After that, we went back to the Projects Abroad office and briefly met Amit, who’s another volunteer who will be here for a whopping 4 months working in the Human Rights Office, too. (And he graduated from UNC! Small world.) He left for his orientation and we went back to the train station to go one more stop to Rondebosch, which is where the HRO is.

At this point, things got interesting. We went into the office and immediately sat in on a consultation that Theo, the lawyer who runs the HRO, was doing with a Congolese refugee. The jet lag was pretty intense, but the refugee’s story was really gripping and heartwrenching. The DRC is being ravaged right now by war and people are forbidden to return there from other countries by international law. The experience really made me aware that there’s so much I need to learn about the current events in Africa and the many conflicts that are ongoing every day.

After he left, Theo gave us our introduction specifically to the HRO. He listed the areas of human rights and the specific groups they aim to help. I have no idea what I want to work on right now - there are areas ranging from women's to children's to refugee rights and more - but I am really interested in LGBT rights and then, I think, one other area.

After work, we had an opportunity to use the office internet to check mail and such – and I updated this! – and then we left the office, ostensibly to get sushi down by the waterfront. Unfortunately, Snayha and I needed to meet up with DukeEngage kids at 630 to go to the Duke reception, so Emily and Nikki went on their own. We’ll have to go back at a later date!

The Duke reception was good; it was located in an upscale part of Cape Town in Camps Bay. Afterward, I was pretty wiped from the jet lag and the full day, so Nikki and I split a cab back to Plumstead. Because of the safety issues in Cape Town, the train isn’t safe after about 6 PM, and girls aren’t recommended to walk around the city after dark. So really the only viable means of transportation is cabs, and even some cab services aren’t guaranteed to be legitimate, so Projects Abroad gave us a list of specific cabbies who have worked with the volunteers for a long period of time. We’ve gotten to know two already, Archie and Michik. It’s fun to get to know the cab drivers because it feels like getting to know another piece of Cape Town. Michik drove us last night and was telling us he comes out with the volunteers!

Tomorrow, we’ve got the day off work because of Youth Day, in memory of the Soweto Uprising, and because we’ve got no work Lucinda is hosting a social where we’re going to cook South African food. Then, at night, the four volunteers in my house are going with our host mom to a jazz dance class! I miss dance so much and I’m super excited for that. Jazz is a social, salsa-type partner dance (not like jazz dance in the US) that the Martins have been showing us and that Emily and Snayha have learned starting last week. I’m really excited to go. Okay, time for bed. It’s raining really hard today – Cape Town winters are quite rainy – but it’s so cozy when you’re inside ;)

(By the way, I keep telling people ‘by the end of the summer x and y should happen’ and then realizing that they have no idea what I’m talking about and think that I mean by the end of February or March, since their summer is opposite of ours!)

Day 1. Mama Africa, Hemisphere, Mama Martin's Birthday, and Boulders Beach!

2009-06-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

I'm here! It's incredible how much has already happened. I flew into Cape Town at 530 PM on Saturday and was picked up by Denver, the Projects Abroad driver, and driven to Plumstead, a southern suburb of Cape Town where my host family lives. On the way, Denver pointed out the townships - what looked to me, initially, like piles of scrap metal - on the outskirts of the city, which already gave me a taste for the wealth distribution in this city.

It was actually less than an hour after I got to the Martins' home before I met the other volunteers living in my house, Emily, Fergle, and Snayha (whom I obviously already know), and ended up going out with Emily, Snayha, and seven or eight other people to dinner at a restaurant called Mama Africa. It was actually for another volunteer's last night (people in Projects Abroad decide their own program start and end dates so there are constantly volunteers coming and going, I think by the time I leave there will have been almost a complete rotation save for one person) which was sad and slightly ironic. It was really great to meet all the people - the program is incredibly diverse, with volunteers from the UK, Switzerland, Australia, the US, France, Italy, and more. Everyone's incredibly friendly, and the Projects Abroad community is definitely both more of an entity and more welcoming to newcomers than I expected.

After dinner, we went to Hemisphere, a club at the top floor of a highrise called the ABSA Center. The view was absolutely phenomenal; the club had windows around 3/4ths of the place and it is so high up that you can see all of Cape Town at night. I left early with a few other volunteers because - surprise - I was exhausted, but it was a great introduction to the Projects Abroad community.

Today, we woke up late, around 11, and then went out to lunch for Mrs. Martin's birthday. I also got to know my roommate Nikki, who is from Scotland and has just finished her law degree. We had lunch at a restaurant called Seaforth Café, which had an absolutely gorgeous view (above).

Then we walked around the beach, where we saw penguins OH MY GOD, SO COOL and bought some postcards. On the way back, we stopped off at an internet café, so I got to send off emails letting people know I actually am alive and in Cape Town! :)

After that, we got back, and basically just spent hours talking to Mrs. Martin about her life and South Africa. We had some cake and tea (since it was her birthday!) and just chatted for a really long time. Nikki and I, being new, learned the house rules: make our beds, keep our rooms neat (maybe someone will finally really make me do that!), conserve the water because of the water shortage problem in South Africa, don’t follow the curfew, haha, and etc. And now I’m here, finally writing all this down.

There’s so much to tell, still. I’ve learned a lot about Cape Town since getting here, because Mrs. Martin is extremely frank about her experiences growing up. She grew up in a township, without running water or toilets, and she and her husband were one of the first colored families to move to a white neighborhood. In South Africa, there are three classifications that are very definite – colored, black, and white. On my first night here, she came in to check on me and mentioned to me that the government, today, announced that food prices are going up and the people of South Africa must “tighten their belts.”

“Do you know what I think when I hear that?” she asked me. “Been there, done that, for REAL,” she said, rolling the r emphatically in her South African accent. She told me that growing up, when her mother had no food for them, she and her brothers would drink jugs of water.

“‘Here is a string for you, a belt for you, a rope for you,’” she said, imitating her mother. “‘Drink your bellies full of water and tie those around your waist, tight, so that you will not feel the hunger.’ For the government, I say, for you, it is a saying. For me, it is real. Been there, done that – for REAL.”

She has another daughter, Michelle, and I think an older son. Her daughter is married and runs a radiology practice in East London, South Africa (yeah, I was confused too). We have work off on Tuesday because of Youth Day, in memory of the Soweto Uprising, which she told us about. 700 children were killed, gunned down by the South African police, because they protested the new laws that only Afrikaans be spoken in schools, and no Xhosa or English or any other language. Michelle had to sleep somewhere else, she told us, because she was protesting as well, and the police would come and search the Martins’ home for her because they wanted to arrest her. Kristin, another girl visiting the house, told us of how she and her older siblings would come home with the police close behind them releasing tear gas. Mrs. Martin told us stories about children running away from the police, of her opening her door to them and telling them to hide under the bed when the police came by. Standing out on the porch, she’d yell to them, pointing down the street, “I saw the children! They ran that way! Follow them!” And let the children out afterward.

There’s so much life and history to this woman and this family that it is unbelievable – and incredibly humbling. My life consists of, what? Thousands of square feet, gleaming paint, my shiny Volvo, a warm bed every night. I’ve never hid children under my bed or been exposed to tear gas. It’s incredible. I am really, really thankful to have selected a program with a homestay, because I don’t see how one can really get a grasp of what it’s like to live here in this country without getting to know people on a very personal basis such as this. I’m incredibly thankful for that.

What’s most incredible is the nonchalance. She definitely puts a lot of gravity into what she tells us, but at the same time, she's showing us how to dance jazz, a South African Latin-type social dance, and singing along to the radio (which is almost always playing in the kitchen). I think it’s incredible that she’s so frank! I’m so glad I have a host mom like this, and I know I’m going to learn so much from her. We’re already learning a lot.

Tomorrow, I have my orientation for Projects Abroad, then we’re going to get our phones and stuff like that, and walk around by the waterfront and get sushi, then we’ve got a Duke reception and we’ll be going out (I think) after that. It is really great here. I’m really excited for my first day of work!

Day 0.

2009-06-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport right now, waiting for my first flight. I have nothing to update, other than to report proudly the simple and singular fact that my check-in baggage, before I split it into two bags, weighed not one ounce less than 70 lbs.

Yep, 70 lbs. I thought Baldeep would appreciate that, having been the one to struggle to get it into his car. Thanks, Balu! :)

Day -5. Sharks, Disease Control and Logic Games.

2009-06-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

So, five days left until I fly to South Africa! By now, I know which host family I'll be staying with, in Plumstead. Ironically, it's the same family as Snayha, though we submitted our applications totally separately! That was a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure yet exactly what I'll be doing at the Human Rights Office, but it looks like I should get a good idea from the orientation - and I guess I should give it some more thought on my own. I've been apprehensive about the summer, simply because this is my first time in a country (and continent) I've never been to and doing work I haven't had experience with, but I'm excited. It helps that I got an email yesterday about our first Projects Abroad weekend trip, to Hermanus! Apparently, you can go shark diving. :) I'm definitely in, though once I actually get in that cage I may think differently. I imagine myself floating in the middle of the cage, screaming bubbles and peeing my swimsuit.

In other news, last Monday I got my typhoid and hepatitis A shots, most fun of my life, and had a mild panic attack in the office when the travel clinician was telling me information about a visa I didn't have. (No, I don't actually need one. Thank God.) It was a little scary to hear the possible diseases I could contract, half of them solely from mosquitoes (doesn't 'dengue' just sound like a creepy word to you?), so I think I'll be buying a lot of OFF! Deep Woods Formula. Of course, Cape Town is definitely one of the least risky areas in terms of disease, so there's really not a lot of reason to worry. It must be said that I have a ridiculous and uncanny ability to attract mosquitoes wherever I go, though - think of me as a sanguine P.F. Chang's - so I'm glad I'm not tempting fate.

Anyway, the disease omens aside, I still have a jampacked couple of days before I actually leave on that first leg to Atlanta. The LSAT is the day after tomorrow (yay) and then I'm heading to New York City, actually directly after the test, until the 11th, when I'll come home for one night before flying out on the 12th. Should be a really fun week after Monday afternoon.

When will I pack? TBD.

PS Rocking the stolen background picture until I take some of my own. Forgive me.