HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOOZLE HEAD!!

Just wanted to say happy birthday to my beautiful mom! I hope you have an incredible day and dad showers you with gifts and treats you like a princess because you deserve it! I love you so much and I miss you everyday! You are my rock and my best friend. I love you and will see and talk to you on sunday! Have a great day! Love you marmy!

"A crazy, beautiful, tortured place"

I am sitting in my room as I write in this blog, while I ice my ankle waiting for my appointment to the doctor with mama H… needless to say, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote in (don’t worry mom its nothing serious!!).

The first few entries I have on this blog have been nothing but positive experiences during my time in Africa, and since then, I have finally seen some of the ugly parts of this country.

Firstly AIFS whom I came here with has experienced our first loss of a family member within our group. Brooke, one of my closer friends within the group, found out almost three weeks in to the program that her brother had committed suicide. She immediately flew home for the funeral and to be with her family, and came back only a week later. She is truly an inspiration and one of the strongest people I am so grateful to have ever met. I honestly do not think I could have come back here if I were to have experienced something as similar. One thing she said that stuck out to me when I talked to her about her coming back and how strong she is for doing so is, “it was never a matter of whether or not I would come back, but when”. I can only imagine going through something like that and I have become even more incredibly grateful for my family and friends in my life and so much more aware of how short life is.

As I have mentioned before, I am taking a Cultural differences and Peacemaking class with an instructor who inspires me everyday to be a better person. I can only wish I had him with me when I experienced my first taste of racism in my life.  One of me and Hannah’s friends who we met here was having his last night in Stellenbosch before he moved to New York to go get his doctorate in hopes of becoming a surgeon. We planned on taking him out for some drinks and to celebrate this new chapter he was about to embark on in his life. (I must mention, in order to understand this experience, that this friend of ours is African American and from Cape Town) I left our group of people to go get some drinks for all of us when a young guy sitting next to me asked if he could buy me a drink. I am a baller on a budget and if anyone is going to offer to pay for anything, I can’t say I am going to turn it down. While I talked to him for a little while he asked me what I was doing talking to “that guy” over there. Me being the clueless American, I explain that it’s his last night in Stellenbosch and is going to become a doctor. He proceeded to make a number of statements about how it is wrong to associate with black people, that interracial relationships are looked down upon and that it plain and simply was not right. I explained to him that indeed I used to date someone who was black and that I couldn’t believe what he was saying. After getting a number of rude comments from him because I did not have the same beliefs and how disgusted he was to have bought me that drink, I had to leave. The next day in my peacemaking class Terry (my instructor) spoke about how we are all on this “Africa high” and soon enough we are all going to have that moment where we experience the ugly and messed up part of this country. He spoke about how to handle people like the man I met, and how to stay calm, don’t get upset, don’t get worked up, don’t swear, don’t raise your voice and don’t resort to violence. Just take yourself out of the situation, and politely leave. In other words, don’t do at all what I did. If I could I would go back and handle it in a completely different way and not get so offended, but I can’t so all I can do is handle it better next time. On the positive, at least I got a free drink and he lost money.

Although that was probably the most negative experience I have had since I have been here, in some ways I am happy that it did happen. It has made me much more aware that I really am in a different country with different views and a history that is still so prevalent and how grateful I really am to live in a country where race is not an issue. One thing Terry said in class that has stuck in my head is that “Africa is a crazy, beautiful, tortured place and one needs to experience every aspect of it good or bad.”

On a much lighter note, my classes are amazing. I am making a pair of swanky earrings in jewelry and am getting back in to drawing. I obviously love my peacemaking class and always look forward to it (minus the 9 in the morning part). I had my first HIV and AIDS: a South African Perspective class last Thursday and it was eye opening. We took a trip to Kayamandi where we broke into groups along with kids who are from Kayamandi in order to come up with ideas to help their community. Khanysi ( our member from Kayamandi) talked to us about the prevalence of AIDS in the community as well as how uninformed people are about simple tasks like cooking, cleaning and especially things like using tools in order to fix up things in their houses. She took us on a tour around her community and for the first time I felt like the minority. I couldn’t help but feel like I wish I wasn’t white when we were walking through people’s houses that housed up to 8 people in two rooms, had roofs that needed mending and neighborhoods with trash scattered everywhere. It was hard to ask Khanysi questions about her community because I didn’t want to offend her or make her feel uncomfortable, but she was open about all that we were seeing and let us know that the Kayamandi community needs help not only for the children, but also for the adults. I am really eager to start on my groups’ project for the community and will keep updating about it on the blog.

Last night I just got back from the Cederberg trip and it was incredible. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been and one of the most memorable weekends I have had yet. We went on an incredible hike where we climbed through these caves that led us to the top of the mountain just outside of where we were housed. I can’t really even explain the beauty of the trip and the pictures don’t even give it justice.

Last week I had rolled my ankle pretty badly and like the stubborn person I am, I denied the fact that it was bad at all and just explained to people I had kankles. After the hike mama H noticed it and the jig was up. She has put me on bed rest with ice strapped to me and is bringing me to the doctor later this evening to make sure everything is fine. Don’t know what I would do without her.

Otherwise I feel great, I am having the time of my life and have never felt as happy as I am here.

Settling In

Day 15 in South Africa and still having the time of my life. I have never felt so happy and excited and just an overall thrill for life.

Since the last time I blogged, I have made another trip into Cape Town as well as making a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and visited the most southern tip of Africa.

Our beach day in Cape Town ended up being a windy disaster. Found sand in places I never knew existed and we all seemed to forget that clouds can still burn you. The next day we all soaked ourselves in aloe vera and wrapped up in wet towels. None the less it was a great time. Went around and saw all the venders and I am excited to bring home some incredible gifts for my friends and family.

Yesterday we drove to boulder beach where we saw penguins and got to spend some time near the ocean, and then we drove to Cape of Good Hope. If anyone has seen the Planet of the Apes movie; it’s happening. Baboons were everywhere and have come to find they’re the ass holes of the monkeys. Example one, while I was walking back to the bus a baboon stole my muffin and I am pretty positive I saw it give one of its friends a high five afterwards. And example two, apparently a poor kid got his wallet pick pocketed by one only an hour before our group had arrived. What monkeys are doing with currency is beyond me but all I have to say is the monkey apocalypse is here.  

I am still meeting some great people here and having lots of fun. Me and my friend Hannah met some locals and got to go watch the sun rise then hiked up and swam in a river a little bit outside of Stellenbosch. It was an amazing experience and it was nice to hear what this country has to offer from actual locals and not from reading a pamphlet.

Friday I had my first meetings for a couple of the classes I am interested in and they both seem like a lot of fun. I also had my meeting for a volunteer group called LCE. It’s a volunteer opportunity where we get to go visit a school Kayamandi and help kids with their school work and get to do activities like dancing, art, sports and music. The instructor for the class is absolutely amazing. He was incredibly inspirational and just the meeting alone was very moving. He does amazing work for these kids and he has an amazing outlook on the circumstance that these children are in. They even refer to him as the ghandi of Africa. Because of my schedule for school, the timing for the volunteer group happens to conflict with my schedule, but I have been talking to the instructor and am trying to arrange a different opportunity to volunteer and see a different side to South Africa.

I have my very first class today in drawing and I am incredibly excited! I need structure and routine back in my life because I was starting to feel like everyone is just on vacation here. It also doesn’t help with a handful of people turning 21 that it has made the idea of sleep a completely new concept to me. But I am finally somewhat well rested and ready for my first class as a student at Stellenbosch University. I also am finally starting to understand my way around here with the occasional walking the exact opposite direction of where I was intending to go. So I am hoping that I don’t look too foreign on campus.

Although it has only been a little bit over two weeks here, I can already tell how much this experience is going to change me as a person. I already feel like I have grown so much. I feel like time is going by too fast and before I know it, I will be on the plane back home. As much as I miss all of my friends and family, I can’t help but feel nervous about going back home to my usual way of life as a person who has grown so rapidly and has developed a completely different perspective on life then when she came here. But I can’t wait to come home and share my experience with all of you besides having to read it.

I still feel like I am living in a fantasy land and I am not really sure if it will ever register in my mind that I am in Africa. I still can’t wait for more memories to make and more things to share.