If there is anyone who has summoned the patience to keep reading this blog, then you are probably wondering if perhaps I died in Egypt...the answer is obviously no, however, my lack of updating this blog for so long would perhaps indicate otherwise. How do I sum up two jam-packed weeks into a brief blog post though? How do I explain in words the wonder of the pyramids or the chaos of Cairo or the beautiful colours of the Red Sea? In sum, I can't do those sights and experiences proper justice. I can however, recommend that you all go to Egypt if you possibly can. Can't afford it? Don't have time? Both of those thoughts crossed my mind too, but I just did it anyhow. Don't dream, do.
As mentioned previously, Ilya and I had been discussing a trip to Egypt for awhile, but really only made the decision to go 2 days before our plane departed. Thus, we had only 2 days to furiously study the Lonely Planet guide and try to sort out an itinerary. Let me first say that getting there was my biggest challenge...I have forever feared EgyptAir as the scariest major airline in the world (I'm not sure why or when I actually decided this). As luck would have it, EgyptAir was also our only reasonably priced option for getting to Egypt. It took pills and prayers to force myself onto that flight, but I will now say that EgyptAir is a decent way to fly. We arrived in Cairo very early on a Friday morning (5:30am to be exact). We had booked a mid-range hotel who arranged a driver to pick us up from the airport. Many people will tell you that Cairo is not worth spending any time in, but I would have to disagree. If you get over the fact that every car ride is a near-death experience and that the city is blanketed in a dense layer of smog, you will find that the city is quite charming. We wasted no time on our first day in Cairo. By 9am, we had already set off to see the pyramids at Giza. I was quite shocked to discover that the pyramids are literally on the edge of the city. Buildings end and sand begins, with the pyramids not even a km away. We toured the pyramids with awe and excitement, climbing down into their hidden tombs and riding camels out into the desert to get a view of all of them. We also saw the Sphinx (which I already knew was much smaller and less awe-inspiring than we are often led to believe) and toured an apothecary shop, where we were coerced into buying essences. In the evening, I phoned up a local Rotaract Club president (who I had contacted before we left South Africa) who had agreed to show us around the city. Mohammed picked us up at our hotel and took us out to the Khan al-Khalili (the city's main market) and the Coptic quarter. The city was alive with festivity at night as we happened to be visiting during the holy month of Ramadan and after the sun goes down, everyone is out to celebrate and break fast. The streets were all brightly decorated with the traditional fanoos lanterns. Mohammed took us out to share in an Egyptian Ramadan break fast and introduced us to fool (stewed bean substance on flatbread). It was an incredible cultural experience. The following day, we were joined by Mohammed once again, as well as some other local Rotaract Club members, who escorted us to the Egyptian Museum. The highlight of the museum was most certainly the King Tut exhibit, where we saw the very famous mask and sarcophagi.
The next leg of our journey took us south to the city of Aswan via a sleeper train. In Aswan we stayed at a budget hotel (note: budget = no toilet paper) and visited local sites such as the Unfinished Obelisk (super boring), the High Dam, the Aswan Dam and the Isle Temple of Philae (gorgeous). As a sidenote, the priciest part of Egypt is undoubtedly the entrance fees to see the tourist sites. Apart from that, the next biggest threat to one's budget is the local custom of bakshish (or baksheesh), which refers to the required tipping of EVERYONE for EVERYTHING. We thoroughly enjoyed the night life once again and observing all of the Ramadan festivities as we walked along the Nile at night. Our second morning in Aswan, we awoke at 3am to catch a bus to Abu Simbel (40 km north of the Sudan border). The bus ride was soooo long, but the temples in Abu Simbel were incredible and had spectacular statues guarding their entrances. Later that day, upon our return to Aswan, we boarded a felucca (a small Egyptian sailboat) for a 3 day Nile cruise. The boat was very small...we shared a cushioned area of about 4 meters by 3 meters with our Nubian captain and cook, as well as a young Icelandic couple. The cruise was incredible! We just cruised the Nile, read and pondered life for 3 days. For meals our cook prepared us such local delights as babaganoush and camel, and to sleep we tied up the boat on shore each night. The only difficult part of the experience was bathroom breaks, as there was no toilet on board the boat! While cruising, we got to swim in the Nile (braving all of the warnings of bilharzia...I got tested when I got back to South Africa and I do not have the parasite) and visit a very poor Nubian village (which reminded me a lot of the poverty in Niger).
After our cruise down the Nile, we ended up taking a bus up to Luxor, where we spent a couple of days enjoying the wonders of the Valley of the Kings (23 tombs), Valley of the Queens, and Hatshepsut's Temple (made me feel like I was in Indiana Jones). From there, we decided to take an internal flight up to the Sinai Penninsula rather than brave an excruciatingly long bus ride that would have cost almost the same amount. I stupidly attempted that 45 min flight without any pills and paid the price. Ilya fell asleep while I sat in my seat with my fingernails dug deeply into the armrests and every muscle in my body tense.
Arriving in Sharm el-Sheik was like entering into a completely different world. Our dirty old desert trekking clothing was seriously out of place in this lively resort town. The taxis were 15 years newer than any other city we'd been to! Our hotel was laid out like a resort that you would see in Cuba, with a large pool, bars, discotheque, and shops. We were not on the beach, but a short drive to it. When we arrived at the beach for a day of lounging, I couldn't believe my eyes...the water was the most spectacular turquoise colour and the beach was packed out with European tourists (we were the only North Americans that anyone had seemed to come across...this is due to the terrorist attacks that occurred a couple of years ago in this town). We spent a whole day swimming in the Red Sea and investigating the beautiful fish that swam in the reefs below. At night, we took a short cab ride into Na'ama Bay, which is like Vegas. Long streets are filled with thousands upon thousands of people and lining those streets are restaurants, cafes, bars, and stores. We spent each night here, sitting in cafes and smoking shisha (hookah). On our second day in Sharm, we went on a snorkelling trip. Talk about living the high life! We boarded a yacht with several other tourists and enjoyed a fantastic day of yachting along the Red Sea coast, stopping a number of times to jump in and snorkel along the reefs. This is one of the best locations in the world for scuba diving by the way, although we are not certified divers, so we stuck to snorkelling instead.
After a few glorious days doing the resort thing in Sharm, we headed further east to Dahab, which is also on the Red Sea coast, but which is more favourable to young independent travellers, as it has a sort of bohemian charm to it. From Dahab, we took a trip to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the 10 Commandments from God. We arrived at the mountain late at night and began a 3 hour ascent with hundreds of other pilgrims and tourists at about 1am. That climb was the most brutal experience I have ever had!!! By the end of it, I was literally having my dead-weight ass dragged up steep rock steps by our Bedouin guide! The summit was absolutely freezing and we waited for an hour and a half before the sun rose, but when it did, it was an incredibly breath-taking experience. The sunrise shone out over miles of mountain peaks, lighting up the colours of the rocks. So beautiful. My excitement ended however, when I realized that there was a brutal climb down ahead of us. We took a different way down, which consisted of very steep stone steps. The descent wasn't nearly as bad as the ascent though! At the bottom of the mountain we arrived at St. Catherine's Monastery - the oldest functional monastery and the site of the Burning Bush (in which God revealed himself to Moses). Back in Dahab we entertained ourselves with a desert ATV adventure and more relaxing days by the beach.
We opted to take a bus from Dahab back to Cairo. The bus ride was very very long, but not completely intolerable. I was sad to leave Sinai, but happy to be back in the hustle and bustle of Cairo. On our last night there, various local Rotaract Clubs arranged a special meeting for us. At that meeting we made lots of new friends and Ilya gave a brief presentation on Rotary's Ambassadorial Scholarship while I gave a presentation on the UWO Rotaract Club. The hospitality and warmness of the people in Egypt was exemplified by this group of young adults. They made us feel so welcome and so comfortable in a foreign country and their hospitality truly is unmatched anywhere else that I have ever visited. I would honestly return to Egypt just for the richness of its people and not for any of the tourist sites.
All in all, the trip was phenomenal. It was impulsive and nothing was planned in advance, but it was a fun way to do it. You can literally go to Egypt and shell out major cash and see all the sites and stay in 5 star hotels and fly from city to city, but "roughing it" here and there truly does let you see so much more of Egypt and its culture and its people. Each part of the country is so incredibly different...from the big-city people in Cairo, to the rural Nubian villages to the Bedouin people who live in the mountainous Sinai region, the country is so rich in culture. If anyone wants to check out pictures, I have attached links to my 4 online albums below (warning: there are a lot!!)...
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226394&l=1ecb4&id=58000997
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226400&l=d37ef&id=58000997
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226404&l=a8d53&id=58000997
http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226483&l=02f70&id=58000997
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
EGYPT!!!
Okay the secret is out!! My next big adventure on this side of the world entails a 2 week vacation up in Egypt!!!! Ilya and I leave this Thursday (2 days from now) for 2 weeks of hectic Egyptian adventuring! It's a totally last minute plan and we are not doing much more than grabbing a copy of Lonely Planet and working the details out as we go along. We're hitting up Cairo for a few days, where we will check out Giza and the Great Pyramids, Sphinx, etc. Then we're off to Aswan and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. We're taking a couple day cruise up the Nile and maybe some snorkelling along the way too. Should be awesome and I hope to have amazing pics to show. We're going during Ramadan, so that will make the trip interesting. Apparently it's going to be impossible to get anything to eat during the day, but every night it's a big party.
Also, this should hopefully cure me once and for all of my fear of flying since I will be facing my arch nemesis, Egyptair. It's the airline that has always terrified me and that I vowed to myself that I would never fly on because it scares me so much. But I'm doing it, so I'll pop some pills and cross my fingers and hope for the best! Wish me luck!!
Also, this should hopefully cure me once and for all of my fear of flying since I will be facing my arch nemesis, Egyptair. It's the airline that has always terrified me and that I vowed to myself that I would never fly on because it scares me so much. But I'm doing it, so I'll pop some pills and cross my fingers and hope for the best! Wish me luck!!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Still A Princess...
For those of you who have been hoping that somehow living in Africa would shed me of my princess ways, I'm sorry to tell you that you will be very disappointed!! Although I have taken to cooking the odd meal, driving myself around (when I absolutely HAVE to), and washing dishes by hand (GASP!), I have still managed to stay true to my princess roots while living in South Africa. I still put on full makeup and do my hair before I step a foot out of the house, I still don't eat leftovers (no one gets that here), I still won't drink from a bottle of wine that hasn't been opened that same evening, and one of my happiest days in Hout Bay was discovering a spa that is a 5 minute walk from my house! Now although I attribute growing up in Canadian suburbia for my pampered ways, part of this is to blame on the fact that Cape Town (and specifically, Hout Bay, where I live) is where many a pampered individual has chosen to dwell. It's a place where women go to the gym in jeans and makeup (sorry if any of you do that out there), it's a place where people drink fine wine at little coffee shops in the middle of the day, it's a place where everybody gets their laundry cleaned for them and where everyone has someone come clean their house for them. In short, my kinda place! And so, I may be coming back as more of a princess than ever!
In other news, we have recently been experiencing power outtages here in Hout Bay, which I honestly thought would have happened more often by now, considering there are constantly electricity warnings on the television stations. When the power went out in eastern Canada and northeastern US a few years back, I was working in downtown Toronto and I remember the entire city being absolutely paralyzed by the outtage. People were franctic and everybody was worried about how much money they were losing and how much of their food would go to waste, not to mention how they could keep on working and doing business. When the power went out here a couple of weeks ago, it was an entirely different scene - people just relaxed. People left work, went to local cafes and just sipped their lattes (or whatever food/drink could be prepared without electricity) and chilled out. I think most people were actually sad when the lights came back on and I don't think many people rushed back to work. A recent Economist article mentioned that one major factor holding the continent of Africa back economically is lack of power. At night from space, the continent is almost completely in the dark. The other night the power went out just in our house for several hours (this time we didn't forget to put credits on our electricity meter) and it was actually really nice. With no TV or internet to divert our attention, we were forced to light candles and just sit in peace, talking or writing or just thinking. Too bad the power doesn't go off more often back in North America because at least it forces people to stop the chaotic pace of daily life and enjoy the peace of good company and personal reflection.
Lastly, I have been asked many times about what driving is like here for some reason, so I thought I would take a brief moment to make some notes about that. So of course everyone drives on the left side of the road here, almost all cars are standard (except those that belong to foreigners like me who don't know how to drive standard), almost all cars are small cars and the size of lanes on the road and parking spaces reflect this. Speaking of parking, there are barely any parking lots, which means LOTS of parallel parking, as well as parking up on curbs, lawns or wherever one can fit a car (note: I suck at parking in this manner and usually have to find a helpful guy to do this for me). To help people with parking, most places have parking attendants (often random people who want to make a buck or two) who wave you into the most impossibly small spots and then watch your car for you. Many robots (stoplights) have been replaced by roundabouts. Driving on most roads is an obstacle course of dodging people on bikes (again, very small lanes so this is tough to do), crazy kombi (minibus taxi) drivers, and random pedestrians. I have no idea how much gas costs because it isn't posted at any gas station...occasionally the national rate is mentioned on the news or in the paper, but I do know that we put diesel in our car which is strange to me. Highways are similar to North America, but in better condition and often with pretty landscaping in the median. Speed limits on most roads is 60km/hr. Most highways in and around the city are 100km/h. Cameras enforce the speed limits. Most people have adopted an "I'll get there when I get there philosophy", which is refreshing. And finally, people seem to do a LOT of honking.
We have another week-long holiday from school next week and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, though I have a couple of really cool ideas, so I will post when I know what I'm doing and hopefully it will be something exciting and adventurous! It is "flower season" here right now and after a very wet winter, there are fields and fields of beautifully coloured flowers everywhere, so I will try to post pictures soon. And for all the flower lovers out there who pay close to $10 per callalily, you will be bitterly jealous to know that callalilies grow wildly all over the place here.
In other news, we have recently been experiencing power outtages here in Hout Bay, which I honestly thought would have happened more often by now, considering there are constantly electricity warnings on the television stations. When the power went out in eastern Canada and northeastern US a few years back, I was working in downtown Toronto and I remember the entire city being absolutely paralyzed by the outtage. People were franctic and everybody was worried about how much money they were losing and how much of their food would go to waste, not to mention how they could keep on working and doing business. When the power went out here a couple of weeks ago, it was an entirely different scene - people just relaxed. People left work, went to local cafes and just sipped their lattes (or whatever food/drink could be prepared without electricity) and chilled out. I think most people were actually sad when the lights came back on and I don't think many people rushed back to work. A recent Economist article mentioned that one major factor holding the continent of Africa back economically is lack of power. At night from space, the continent is almost completely in the dark. The other night the power went out just in our house for several hours (this time we didn't forget to put credits on our electricity meter) and it was actually really nice. With no TV or internet to divert our attention, we were forced to light candles and just sit in peace, talking or writing or just thinking. Too bad the power doesn't go off more often back in North America because at least it forces people to stop the chaotic pace of daily life and enjoy the peace of good company and personal reflection.
Lastly, I have been asked many times about what driving is like here for some reason, so I thought I would take a brief moment to make some notes about that. So of course everyone drives on the left side of the road here, almost all cars are standard (except those that belong to foreigners like me who don't know how to drive standard), almost all cars are small cars and the size of lanes on the road and parking spaces reflect this. Speaking of parking, there are barely any parking lots, which means LOTS of parallel parking, as well as parking up on curbs, lawns or wherever one can fit a car (note: I suck at parking in this manner and usually have to find a helpful guy to do this for me). To help people with parking, most places have parking attendants (often random people who want to make a buck or two) who wave you into the most impossibly small spots and then watch your car for you. Many robots (stoplights) have been replaced by roundabouts. Driving on most roads is an obstacle course of dodging people on bikes (again, very small lanes so this is tough to do), crazy kombi (minibus taxi) drivers, and random pedestrians. I have no idea how much gas costs because it isn't posted at any gas station...occasionally the national rate is mentioned on the news or in the paper, but I do know that we put diesel in our car which is strange to me. Highways are similar to North America, but in better condition and often with pretty landscaping in the median. Speed limits on most roads is 60km/hr. Most highways in and around the city are 100km/h. Cameras enforce the speed limits. Most people have adopted an "I'll get there when I get there philosophy", which is refreshing. And finally, people seem to do a LOT of honking.
We have another week-long holiday from school next week and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, though I have a couple of really cool ideas, so I will post when I know what I'm doing and hopefully it will be something exciting and adventurous! It is "flower season" here right now and after a very wet winter, there are fields and fields of beautifully coloured flowers everywhere, so I will try to post pictures soon. And for all the flower lovers out there who pay close to $10 per callalily, you will be bitterly jealous to know that callalilies grow wildly all over the place here.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Politics and Activists
A lot of crazy things have been happening in the political realm in South Africa since I arrived here in February. There have been various scandals and there was the big strike that I mentioned previously, but perhaps the most controversial and well-known (and incredibly frustrating!!) political craziness that has been going on surrounds Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manto_Tshabalala-Msimang). I first heard about Manto at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto last August. Many other Torontonians would have heard of her too, since she was ridiculed in local papers during the conference. Manto was under heavy fire at the conference for her very public views on HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa. She publicly did (and does) not support the use of antiretroviral therapy (the only scientifically proven form of AIDS treatment) by South Africans and instead has promoted concoctions of African potatoes, garlic, etc. to treat AIDS. Not only is this absolute nonsense, but it also creates great confusion among South Africans when their own Health Minister is telling them not to use the one thing that actually will give them a chance at living longer and healthier with AIDS. Needless to say, many people have petitioned to get the lady sacked. Many books by top people in the field have been written naming her as an AIDS denialist and discrediting her stance. At the conference in Toronto, Stephen Lewis himself stood up and called her out on her ridiculous AIDS opinions and blamed her for countless avoidable deaths in South Africa. A petition was also written to President Thabo Mbeki by numerous top scientists, researchers, doctors, experts, etc. from around the world, asking him to remove Manto from her position.
Not long after I arrived here, Manto took ill (at the time many people felt perhaps through some twist of irony that she herself had AIDS) and was forced to hand over her duties to her Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozizwe_Madlala-Routledge), while she was getting treated and recovering. Nozizwe proved to be a breath of fresh air for frustrated South Africans, speaking openly and honestly about what is happening in this country in regards to the AIDS crisis and drafting plans to get the government to start acting.
In a shocking and angering news broadcast last week, the nation learned that the Deputy Health Minister had been fired from her position by President Mbeki. Mbeki had proclaimed that Nozizwe had used taxpayers' funds to pay for an unauthorized trip to an AIDS conference in Spain (note: she was not told that she was not allowed until she was already in Spain, at which point she returned to South Africa on the first available flight back). At the same time more and more stories have been, and are still being, published in local newspapers and international media, such as The Economist, speaking out about Health Minister Manto's shady past. For example, Manto was granted a liver transplant even though her liver condition is reported by the Sunday Times (and not denied by her doctors) as being caused by alcohol use/abuse. As well, this past weekend's Sunday Times newspaper ran with a story about how Manto was a convicted criminal after being charged for stealing from patients at a hospital in Botswana. The scandal really comes down to the fact that former Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe has had a history of defying the denialist attitudes of the government, completely counter to her boss, the Health Minister, and President Mbeki. She has gotten into hot water in the past and this current reason for her dismissal is seen as Mbeki siding once again with Manto, who was being made to look bad by her Deputy, who the public was incredibly excited about and who they hoped would help turn South Africa's AIDS crisis around. The irony is that Manto doesn't need any help looking bad...she is one of the most ridiculed democratic government officials around the world and Mbeki also loses international credibilty for keeping her around for God only knows what reasons. Apparently general public scorn and public ridicule is not enough to have a person be removed from a leadership position in a democratic system these days.
In other, but related news, I have recently taken an internship at TAC (Treatment Action Campaign, http://www.tac.org.za/). It's a huge national AIDS organization in South Africa and one of the most well-known AIDS organizations internationally. Zackie Achmat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zackie_Achmat) started the organization in December of 1998 and since then it has become well known as the champion of AIDS in South Africa, fighting numerous lawsuits against the South African government, big pharmaceutical companies, AIDS denialists, etc. Under Zackie's passionate leadership they have fought to get antiretroviral medication provided for HIV positive mothers in the country in order to prevent transmission of the virus to babies. They have also fought to get cheaper medication provided for AIDS patients. For full background on who they are and what they do, check them out at www.tac.org.za because I could go on and on. I will be working at TAC two full days a week, working for Zackie in his national office on various projects that come up. I'm super excited to be involved with something so cool, where I will surely learn a tremendous amount, and hope that I manage to find time to balance my new TAC involvement with two classes and some time to work on my Masters thesis. At the very least, I am sad to give up my lazy days in Hout Bay, walking the beach and contemplating life. I have still given myself some time for that, however I fear that I will no longer be able to come up with all the answers to life that I had intended to ponder. These are the sacrifices that must come with a life of activism I suppose...
Not long after I arrived here, Manto took ill (at the time many people felt perhaps through some twist of irony that she herself had AIDS) and was forced to hand over her duties to her Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozizwe_Madlala-Routledge), while she was getting treated and recovering. Nozizwe proved to be a breath of fresh air for frustrated South Africans, speaking openly and honestly about what is happening in this country in regards to the AIDS crisis and drafting plans to get the government to start acting.
In a shocking and angering news broadcast last week, the nation learned that the Deputy Health Minister had been fired from her position by President Mbeki. Mbeki had proclaimed that Nozizwe had used taxpayers' funds to pay for an unauthorized trip to an AIDS conference in Spain (note: she was not told that she was not allowed until she was already in Spain, at which point she returned to South Africa on the first available flight back). At the same time more and more stories have been, and are still being, published in local newspapers and international media, such as The Economist, speaking out about Health Minister Manto's shady past. For example, Manto was granted a liver transplant even though her liver condition is reported by the Sunday Times (and not denied by her doctors) as being caused by alcohol use/abuse. As well, this past weekend's Sunday Times newspaper ran with a story about how Manto was a convicted criminal after being charged for stealing from patients at a hospital in Botswana. The scandal really comes down to the fact that former Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe has had a history of defying the denialist attitudes of the government, completely counter to her boss, the Health Minister, and President Mbeki. She has gotten into hot water in the past and this current reason for her dismissal is seen as Mbeki siding once again with Manto, who was being made to look bad by her Deputy, who the public was incredibly excited about and who they hoped would help turn South Africa's AIDS crisis around. The irony is that Manto doesn't need any help looking bad...she is one of the most ridiculed democratic government officials around the world and Mbeki also loses international credibilty for keeping her around for God only knows what reasons. Apparently general public scorn and public ridicule is not enough to have a person be removed from a leadership position in a democratic system these days.
In other, but related news, I have recently taken an internship at TAC (Treatment Action Campaign, http://www.tac.org.za/). It's a huge national AIDS organization in South Africa and one of the most well-known AIDS organizations internationally. Zackie Achmat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zackie_Achmat) started the organization in December of 1998 and since then it has become well known as the champion of AIDS in South Africa, fighting numerous lawsuits against the South African government, big pharmaceutical companies, AIDS denialists, etc. Under Zackie's passionate leadership they have fought to get antiretroviral medication provided for HIV positive mothers in the country in order to prevent transmission of the virus to babies. They have also fought to get cheaper medication provided for AIDS patients. For full background on who they are and what they do, check them out at www.tac.org.za because I could go on and on. I will be working at TAC two full days a week, working for Zackie in his national office on various projects that come up. I'm super excited to be involved with something so cool, where I will surely learn a tremendous amount, and hope that I manage to find time to balance my new TAC involvement with two classes and some time to work on my Masters thesis. At the very least, I am sad to give up my lazy days in Hout Bay, walking the beach and contemplating life. I have still given myself some time for that, however I fear that I will no longer be able to come up with all the answers to life that I had intended to ponder. These are the sacrifices that must come with a life of activism I suppose...
Saturday, August 4, 2007
It is 16 degrees in my bedroom!!!
I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted. That is much the South African way of life though, just getting around to things when you get around to them. I do, however, have a bit of an excuse...I went on an impromptu quick visit back to Canada! For those who I was not able to see, I apologize, however there was not enough time to journey far to visit all those who are near and dear to my heart. I assure you however, that I will make time to see you when I am home again in November.Here is a quick catchup regarding what transpired in the lead up to my trip home: my roommate, Jen, returned home to Canada at the very end of May for just over two months. That left just Ilya and I to entertain ourselves (and cook for ourselves! AHHH!) for awhile. Needless to say, with our resident chef out of the country, there were a lot of dinners that consisted of soup or salad and a great many dinners eaten out at restaurants! Ilya was also planning on going home for awhile and although I had not intended to go home at all until November, I decided that I did not want to stay in Cape Town alone and that the weather was too cold and wet for it to be worthwhile for anyone to come and visit. Thus, I decided to hop on a plane and head back to Canada for a bit. The experience of being home however, was a very unusual experience and one worth sharing...
Reverse culture shock is very difficult to explain to anyone who has not personally experienced it themself. I can really only best describe it as feeling "lost". It is difficult to travel to what one considers "home" and feel that it really doesn't feel like the same old "home" anymore. For the first week I felt sad, unsettled and frustrated and I know that at first I may have disappointed my friends and family who were so excited to see me. The second night I was home I went to a bar to party with all of my friends and by the end of the night I was in tears because it felt so weird to me. You see, South Africa feels like a temporary home and yet my home in Canada didn't feel like a place where I fully fit in anymore and this gave me a terrifying sense of being "ungrounded". It was really scary. I resented the materialistic and robotic routine that I felt when being at home at first and I missed the poverty that quite frankly keeps me humble. I missed the slower pace of life and the emphasis on taking time to really ponder life. I love Canada and I love my family and friends dearly and this bizarre experience was no reflection of changing feelings for my country or my loved ones. But it did however reflect upon the fact that I have changed and that my values and my view on life and myself and the world have drastically changed beyond anything that I could have imagined. The important lesson that I learned from all of this is that it is easy to get caught up in a fast pace of life and not take time to really think about what is important and who one is as a person, but when one is removed from that fast pace of life, things are put into perspective and a person can one day wake up and realize that the routine they lived was really only just day-to-day motions that he/she never questioned. We must therefore always question everything that we do on a day to day basis and weigh out its value. How much do we do because we really want to and because it makes us truly happy or provides us with self growth or self discovery and how much do we do just to fill the time or because it seems to be what everyone else is doing?
Now I am happy to say that with a bit of time, I adapted to life in Canada a bit more, but in a way I almost didn't want to. It's so easy to jump back into routine and I didn't want to forget what it felt to be on the outside of that. I spoke to a past co-worker who visits Kenya every year and she said that she experiences reverse culture shock when she comes back every single time, but it keeps her humble, forcing her to remember what it's like to be outside of that routine. I guess that if I end up living in Canada for the rest of my life, I will make regular trips to South Africa to keep myself humble and to remind myself of what is important in life.
Since arriving back in South Africa I have been balancing touristy activities with a brand new school semester. Ilya's sister is visiting, so we have made trips down to Cape Point, where we saw baboons and penguins again. We also went to the wine regions for some wine tasting. The highlight however, has been driving east up the coast to Hermanus, where we saw whales!! We took the most breathtaking drive along the ocean for about 2 hours and ended up at this sleepy town which has some of the best whale watching in the world. People line the cliffside to watch southern right whales play around in the bay. You don't even have to go out in a boat and you really don't even need binoculars, you just stand or sit there and look out and you can see whales. It's absolutely amazing and something that I was incredibly excited to have seen. We ate lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the bay and while we ate we were able to gaze out at the beautiful mountains and the odd whale popping out of the water. I think we will return to Hermanus at the end of September when there is a big whale festival because at that point there can be up to 70 whales in the bay!! (note: I added a pic of Hermanus and a pic of a whale, but I was always way too slow with the camera to get a good whale pic, so I gave up on the camera and just enjoyed...I will get better whale pics later cuz the one I have posted sucks, sorry.)
As for school, I have two new classes...one is called "Economics of AIDS in Africa" and the other is "International Organizations". The Economics class is taught by a very well-known researcher named Nicoli Nattrass, so I'm very excited to be in her class. There are only 7 of us in the class and the class format is basically just group discussion on various AIDS topics so I absolutely love it!
I apologize again for my very long absence and I promise to blog again very soon...weekly at least!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Youth Day
Today is Youth Day in South Africa. It is a national holiday celebrated every June 16 that commemorates the infamous "Soweto Uprising". In 1976, young black students in Soweto, a community near Johannesburg, rioted to protest being forced to learn the Afrikaans language in school. Afrikaans is a language that was associated with apartheid and thus, the forced use of it in schools was seen as oppressive by the black community. Thousands and thousands of students went on strike from school in a protest that was meant to be peaceful, but were met by a police barricade. The scene quickly escalated when the police threw tear gas at the unarmed marching students. In retaliation, the students began throwing rocks at the police officers. One of the male police officers then fired a shot which sent the students into a panic. Students ran screaming from the scene. Police continued firing at the fleeing youths however, and many of the black students died that day while attempting to run away.
June 16 is remembered not only as a day of mourning for the lives lost that day, but also as a day when young people stood up for what they believed in. They stood united, as one voice, and insisted that they be heard in a country which at that time, under apartheid, was largely divided amongst atrocious inequality. This year, the holiday is even more timely, since the country is currently undergoing a large civil servant strike that has been going on for a few weeks. Many students across the country haven't even been able to attend school because their teachers are striking, along with public health care workers and other civil servants. The strikers and the government are in a deadlock about improving wages and it doesn't appear as though either side is ready to budge anytime soon. In terms of my own personal interests here in South Africa, this striking is of particular concern because it means that poorer AIDS patients, who would normally be accessing public health services, may not be getting their antiretroviral medications. This has the potential to create mass resistance to antiretroviral medications!!!
Today for Youth Day, I attended a Hoops for Hope event with Ilya. Hoops for Hope is a charity that Ilya is involved with here, which teaches life skills to vulnerable children through basketball. We went to a coloured township here in Hout Bay, which was quite the experience. I have seen the conditions that black people live in within the black townships, but the coloured people live in shocking poverty as well. There are some brick houses, but most homes are made out of tin roofs and various scrap materials and there is a large amount of overcrowding. As we were driving through, we had to be careful not to hit the many dogs and toddlers who were running along the dirt roads. At one point, one of the Hoops volunteers had to use the bathroom, so I went with her into one of the shanties. It was crazy inside. Just scraps of material strewn together. It is a wonder how people survive the winter cold here with such poor shelter. The Hoops event was part of a larger event targetting the coloured youths, which promoted saying no to drugs and HIV/AIDS education.
Living in Hout Bay is an amazing opportunity to be reminded of the beauty of South Africa, as well as the inequality that still exists everyday. We live in the affluent white section in the middle of Hout Bay, but to one side of us is a large black township and to the other side is the coloured township. Each day we have the choice of going to ritzy mainly white shops or the dodgy mainly black shops on the next block. Each day we drive our car home from school, passing numerous poor black and coloured people standing on the sides of the road, waiting for someone generous to stop and give them a lift home from a day's work. Each day we go to bed, setting our alarm, as each of our white neighbours also do, so that we may sleep easy, feeling as though we are protected from impoverished burglars. It is a truly bizarre life here. One of attempted racial mixing and ever-present racial fears. From what I understand, it is a vast improvement from the apartheid era, but it is hardly the 'Rainbow Nation' that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has dreamed of.
June 16 is remembered not only as a day of mourning for the lives lost that day, but also as a day when young people stood up for what they believed in. They stood united, as one voice, and insisted that they be heard in a country which at that time, under apartheid, was largely divided amongst atrocious inequality. This year, the holiday is even more timely, since the country is currently undergoing a large civil servant strike that has been going on for a few weeks. Many students across the country haven't even been able to attend school because their teachers are striking, along with public health care workers and other civil servants. The strikers and the government are in a deadlock about improving wages and it doesn't appear as though either side is ready to budge anytime soon. In terms of my own personal interests here in South Africa, this striking is of particular concern because it means that poorer AIDS patients, who would normally be accessing public health services, may not be getting their antiretroviral medications. This has the potential to create mass resistance to antiretroviral medications!!!
Today for Youth Day, I attended a Hoops for Hope event with Ilya. Hoops for Hope is a charity that Ilya is involved with here, which teaches life skills to vulnerable children through basketball. We went to a coloured township here in Hout Bay, which was quite the experience. I have seen the conditions that black people live in within the black townships, but the coloured people live in shocking poverty as well. There are some brick houses, but most homes are made out of tin roofs and various scrap materials and there is a large amount of overcrowding. As we were driving through, we had to be careful not to hit the many dogs and toddlers who were running along the dirt roads. At one point, one of the Hoops volunteers had to use the bathroom, so I went with her into one of the shanties. It was crazy inside. Just scraps of material strewn together. It is a wonder how people survive the winter cold here with such poor shelter. The Hoops event was part of a larger event targetting the coloured youths, which promoted saying no to drugs and HIV/AIDS education.
Living in Hout Bay is an amazing opportunity to be reminded of the beauty of South Africa, as well as the inequality that still exists everyday. We live in the affluent white section in the middle of Hout Bay, but to one side of us is a large black township and to the other side is the coloured township. Each day we have the choice of going to ritzy mainly white shops or the dodgy mainly black shops on the next block. Each day we drive our car home from school, passing numerous poor black and coloured people standing on the sides of the road, waiting for someone generous to stop and give them a lift home from a day's work. Each day we go to bed, setting our alarm, as each of our white neighbours also do, so that we may sleep easy, feeling as though we are protected from impoverished burglars. It is a truly bizarre life here. One of attempted racial mixing and ever-present racial fears. From what I understand, it is a vast improvement from the apartheid era, but it is hardly the 'Rainbow Nation' that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has dreamed of.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
I Found My Heart In South Africa
There is something intensely spiritual about this place.
Previously I’ve had two moments when I felt what I would call a “spiritual surge”. One was when I was chasing a herd of giraffes in Niger and the other was when I was standing atop a sand dune in the desert in Qatar. At both times, it felt like the world just shut off for a moment and I was able to feel such intense joy at being alive. Here in South Africa, I feel that kind of a surge everyday and on a few occasions I have felt it so intensely that I have been brought to tears of joy.
And so, I have fallen in love with South Africa because it makes me appreciate every single day that I am alive. It lets me shut off the world and take time to just feel. To watch a cloud grow out of the ocean. To watch the sun set over the water and electrify the colours of the mountains. To hear the crashing of the waves along the shoreline. Imagine a place where everyday you can see something or experience something that makes you mutter under your breath, “God I love this place”.
Whether it’s climbing a mountain, sitting on a beach or walking around the lush Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, this place forces one into life altering contemplations. In Canada (and the West in general), our lives move so quickly and we often get so caught up in daily routines that we rush through life without really taking time to reflect upon what is important and the kind of people we want to be. We rush through our drive-thrus, plough through as many emails as we can on the internet, and send flurries of text messages on our cellphones, but we never stop and take it all in. In the West we focus on quantity and not on quality.
I have frequently found myself walking to Hout Bay Beach (a 5 minute walk from our house) and sitting in the dunes, staring out at the mountains and watching the waves crash gently against the shore. I sit and I stare and even if I have brought a book to read, I rarely ever get around to reading it because all I want to do is sit and take it all in. You’d think that living here in Cape Town for four months, I wouldn’t still be appreciating it all so much, but I do and I will miss it intensely when I leave. I think that perhaps a piece of my heart will always be in South Africa.
Previously I’ve had two moments when I felt what I would call a “spiritual surge”. One was when I was chasing a herd of giraffes in Niger and the other was when I was standing atop a sand dune in the desert in Qatar. At both times, it felt like the world just shut off for a moment and I was able to feel such intense joy at being alive. Here in South Africa, I feel that kind of a surge everyday and on a few occasions I have felt it so intensely that I have been brought to tears of joy.
And so, I have fallen in love with South Africa because it makes me appreciate every single day that I am alive. It lets me shut off the world and take time to just feel. To watch a cloud grow out of the ocean. To watch the sun set over the water and electrify the colours of the mountains. To hear the crashing of the waves along the shoreline. Imagine a place where everyday you can see something or experience something that makes you mutter under your breath, “God I love this place”.
Whether it’s climbing a mountain, sitting on a beach or walking around the lush Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, this place forces one into life altering contemplations. In Canada (and the West in general), our lives move so quickly and we often get so caught up in daily routines that we rush through life without really taking time to reflect upon what is important and the kind of people we want to be. We rush through our drive-thrus, plough through as many emails as we can on the internet, and send flurries of text messages on our cellphones, but we never stop and take it all in. In the West we focus on quantity and not on quality.
I have frequently found myself walking to Hout Bay Beach (a 5 minute walk from our house) and sitting in the dunes, staring out at the mountains and watching the waves crash gently against the shore. I sit and I stare and even if I have brought a book to read, I rarely ever get around to reading it because all I want to do is sit and take it all in. You’d think that living here in Cape Town for four months, I wouldn’t still be appreciating it all so much, but I do and I will miss it intensely when I leave. I think that perhaps a piece of my heart will always be in South Africa.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
TB, HIV and.....Ducks???
It's been a long time, so I will give you all the excuse that I have been swamped with work as an indication that I am being super studious over here cuz I know it seems like all I ever do is go on extravagant trips! Haha.
TB
Tuberculosis is a disease that underscores how different South Africa's public health strategy is from North America's. They say that as soon as you have taken a ride in a kombi (a mini-bus taxi) here, that you can pretty much guarantee that you have contracted TB (though it remains latent in healthy people). Others argue that you have it in your system the second you step off the plane at the airport! At any rate, TB is all around us in South Africa. The high rate of TB infection is intricately linked to the high rate of HIV prevalence as well, since TB is the number one killer of people who have AIDS here. The more terrifying stats reflect the number of MDR (multi-drug resistant) and XDR (extreme drug resistant) TB strains that are popping up more and more here in South Africa. As their names indicate, these strains of TB cannot be fought by the regularly prescribed TB medications. As well, since TB is so infectious, MDR and XDR can travel very quickly through poor communities in particular, where people are living very close together. In North America, people with TB are quarantined in hospital, however it is impossible to quarantine everyone here who has TB unfortunately because there are just too many people who have it. Even worse, many local people who I have spoken to believe that forced quarantine is a human rights violation and that for example, a woman could not be quarantined if she had small children to care for.
A couple of weeks ago, the local news stations ran a story about a man who had XDR TB and who was released from the hospital back into the poor township where he lived. The hospital did not know that he had XDR when they released him, but the fact that he was allowed to return home to a densely populated township with an extremely drug resistant strain of TB was terrifying nonetheless. It reveals how susceptible South Africa is to an epidemic of resistant TB strains that will undoubtedly kill massive amounts of people.
In the North American newspapers this morning, an article was run about an American man from Atlanta who travelled to Europe and then back to the USA through Montreal who had XDR TB. The response to this has been a federally-enforced quarantine and notification of all those who may have come in contact with him on his flights. Food for thought when you look at the reaction to TB in the Western world and the reality of the situation here in southern Africa.
HIV
I have been spending a lot of time learning about the local response to the HIV epidemic here and it is absolutely fascinating so I thought I would share some of it with you all. First of all, South Africa has a two-tiered health care system - the private system and then the government-funded public system. In terms of HIV and AIDS, a person who goes through the private system can pay to go to AIDS-specialist doctors (there really aren't that many of them who claim to be AIDS-specialists) and they can pay for first, second and often third-line drug regimens. In the public system, the government provides free antiretroviral drugs to those who need it. When a person discovers that they are ill and need to be on antiretrovirals, they must go to a series of workshops to make sure that they have an understanding of their illness and the drugs that they will be taking (in the Medicins Sans Frontiers programme, the people must attend a number of appointments over a certain period of time before they can be given drugs in order to ensure that they are committed to taking the drugs). The government system then provides the patient with an adherence counsellor. The adherence counsellor is responsible for making sure that the patient understands how to take their medication (often, a regimen of antiretrovirals, combined with vitamins and Bactrin to fight off any infections, can mean taking dozens of pills 2 or 3 times a day). Many professionals argue that the adherence counsellor is the most important piece of the puzzle and some also argue that because the adherence counsellor is only made available in the public system, that the public system therefore has better adherence to drugs than the private system. The importance of taking all of those drugs at the same time for everyday of the rest of their lives is not only to ensure the maximal health of the person, but also to ensure that resistant strains of HIV do not develop. HIV is the fastest mutating thing on Earth. If a person doesn't take their drugs properly, then that gives the virus a chance to develop a strain that is then resistant to those drugs. Normally, if a person takes their antiretroviral medication properly, a resistance does not develop for years. At that point they then switch to a second-line treatment (and third and fourth line in North America). Eventually they are resistant to all the drugs that are offered to them and then the disease will run its course in the body. Resistant strains are detrimental not only to the person but also to others who they may further infect. For example, if an HIV positive person passes a resistant strain of HIV onto another person - even if that person already has HIV themself - then that second person could then contract the resistant strain, which would make that medication non-functional within them as well.
I recently attended a training workshop for people who have been selected to be adherence counsellors in the public system. During the workshop, the group got into a discussion about antiretroviral medicationt that is available here versus in the Western world. The group was outraged that they were receiving what they perceived to be "lesser medications" than North Americans when their country was carrying a much greater burden. I had no idea what to say. I felt embarrassed to be North American for a minute. The truth is, they cannot afford the latest drugs. Their government cannot afford the latest drugs. They don't use bad drugs by any means, but they don't have access to the third and fourth-line regimens that North Americans do because the drugs are so expensive. This gets into a whole discussion of the WTO and patent laws that I won't get into at this time, but I wanted to cry for these people because they are carrying the burden of the disease and they must make do with whatever their goverment is willing and able to provide them.
Some people argue that prevention is key and that money should not be "wasted" on treating people with AIDS. Apart from being a human rights violation however, treating people IS prevention. The viral load is decreased within people who are on antiretrovirals, which means that they are less likely to pass the virus on to others. There are various other economic reasons as well, including not losing a huge proportion of the labour force by providing ARVs and keeping employees healthy enough to continue working (afterall, the disease takes the biggest toll on young adults who make up the majority of the labour force), etc.
Ducks!
Some people may be thinking that I have a comment to make on the current Stanley Cup final series between the Ducks and the Sens. For the record, as a die-hard Leafs fan I do not like the Sens at all!!! However, this is not what I wish to discuss under this heading. What I do want to discuss is the fact that I have now been bitten by a third African bird!! If you recall from previous postings, I got too curious with a penguin and I did not use proper technique when feeding an ostrich. The other day, I attempted to call over a duck who was clearly used to people feeding it, so when I put out my hand to beckon him over, he launched at my hand, beak wide open and chomped down on two of my fingers. Fortunately, no skin was broken. I'm not sure why there is this great bird conspiracy against me, but I am just thankful I have not had the same run-ins with sharks or snakes!
TB
Tuberculosis is a disease that underscores how different South Africa's public health strategy is from North America's. They say that as soon as you have taken a ride in a kombi (a mini-bus taxi) here, that you can pretty much guarantee that you have contracted TB (though it remains latent in healthy people). Others argue that you have it in your system the second you step off the plane at the airport! At any rate, TB is all around us in South Africa. The high rate of TB infection is intricately linked to the high rate of HIV prevalence as well, since TB is the number one killer of people who have AIDS here. The more terrifying stats reflect the number of MDR (multi-drug resistant) and XDR (extreme drug resistant) TB strains that are popping up more and more here in South Africa. As their names indicate, these strains of TB cannot be fought by the regularly prescribed TB medications. As well, since TB is so infectious, MDR and XDR can travel very quickly through poor communities in particular, where people are living very close together. In North America, people with TB are quarantined in hospital, however it is impossible to quarantine everyone here who has TB unfortunately because there are just too many people who have it. Even worse, many local people who I have spoken to believe that forced quarantine is a human rights violation and that for example, a woman could not be quarantined if she had small children to care for.
A couple of weeks ago, the local news stations ran a story about a man who had XDR TB and who was released from the hospital back into the poor township where he lived. The hospital did not know that he had XDR when they released him, but the fact that he was allowed to return home to a densely populated township with an extremely drug resistant strain of TB was terrifying nonetheless. It reveals how susceptible South Africa is to an epidemic of resistant TB strains that will undoubtedly kill massive amounts of people.
In the North American newspapers this morning, an article was run about an American man from Atlanta who travelled to Europe and then back to the USA through Montreal who had XDR TB. The response to this has been a federally-enforced quarantine and notification of all those who may have come in contact with him on his flights. Food for thought when you look at the reaction to TB in the Western world and the reality of the situation here in southern Africa.
HIV
I have been spending a lot of time learning about the local response to the HIV epidemic here and it is absolutely fascinating so I thought I would share some of it with you all. First of all, South Africa has a two-tiered health care system - the private system and then the government-funded public system. In terms of HIV and AIDS, a person who goes through the private system can pay to go to AIDS-specialist doctors (there really aren't that many of them who claim to be AIDS-specialists) and they can pay for first, second and often third-line drug regimens. In the public system, the government provides free antiretroviral drugs to those who need it. When a person discovers that they are ill and need to be on antiretrovirals, they must go to a series of workshops to make sure that they have an understanding of their illness and the drugs that they will be taking (in the Medicins Sans Frontiers programme, the people must attend a number of appointments over a certain period of time before they can be given drugs in order to ensure that they are committed to taking the drugs). The government system then provides the patient with an adherence counsellor. The adherence counsellor is responsible for making sure that the patient understands how to take their medication (often, a regimen of antiretrovirals, combined with vitamins and Bactrin to fight off any infections, can mean taking dozens of pills 2 or 3 times a day). Many professionals argue that the adherence counsellor is the most important piece of the puzzle and some also argue that because the adherence counsellor is only made available in the public system, that the public system therefore has better adherence to drugs than the private system. The importance of taking all of those drugs at the same time for everyday of the rest of their lives is not only to ensure the maximal health of the person, but also to ensure that resistant strains of HIV do not develop. HIV is the fastest mutating thing on Earth. If a person doesn't take their drugs properly, then that gives the virus a chance to develop a strain that is then resistant to those drugs. Normally, if a person takes their antiretroviral medication properly, a resistance does not develop for years. At that point they then switch to a second-line treatment (and third and fourth line in North America). Eventually they are resistant to all the drugs that are offered to them and then the disease will run its course in the body. Resistant strains are detrimental not only to the person but also to others who they may further infect. For example, if an HIV positive person passes a resistant strain of HIV onto another person - even if that person already has HIV themself - then that second person could then contract the resistant strain, which would make that medication non-functional within them as well.
I recently attended a training workshop for people who have been selected to be adherence counsellors in the public system. During the workshop, the group got into a discussion about antiretroviral medicationt that is available here versus in the Western world. The group was outraged that they were receiving what they perceived to be "lesser medications" than North Americans when their country was carrying a much greater burden. I had no idea what to say. I felt embarrassed to be North American for a minute. The truth is, they cannot afford the latest drugs. Their government cannot afford the latest drugs. They don't use bad drugs by any means, but they don't have access to the third and fourth-line regimens that North Americans do because the drugs are so expensive. This gets into a whole discussion of the WTO and patent laws that I won't get into at this time, but I wanted to cry for these people because they are carrying the burden of the disease and they must make do with whatever their goverment is willing and able to provide them.
Some people argue that prevention is key and that money should not be "wasted" on treating people with AIDS. Apart from being a human rights violation however, treating people IS prevention. The viral load is decreased within people who are on antiretrovirals, which means that they are less likely to pass the virus on to others. There are various other economic reasons as well, including not losing a huge proportion of the labour force by providing ARVs and keeping employees healthy enough to continue working (afterall, the disease takes the biggest toll on young adults who make up the majority of the labour force), etc.
Ducks!
Some people may be thinking that I have a comment to make on the current Stanley Cup final series between the Ducks and the Sens. For the record, as a die-hard Leafs fan I do not like the Sens at all!!! However, this is not what I wish to discuss under this heading. What I do want to discuss is the fact that I have now been bitten by a third African bird!! If you recall from previous postings, I got too curious with a penguin and I did not use proper technique when feeding an ostrich. The other day, I attempted to call over a duck who was clearly used to people feeding it, so when I put out my hand to beckon him over, he launched at my hand, beak wide open and chomped down on two of my fingers. Fortunately, no skin was broken. I'm not sure why there is this great bird conspiracy against me, but I am just thankful I have not had the same run-ins with sharks or snakes!
Friday, April 27, 2007
Arachnophobia
I've been compiling a list of things that I find interesting about Cape Town culture so here are a few...
1. Nobody seems to use coffee makers here. It's all about the French press, which in my opinion is far more efficient cuz the coffee is ready so much faster.
2. Liquor stores are closed on Sundays. Usually wine is sold in grocery stores and even though grocery stores are open on Sundays, the section with the wine is covered with a tarp and roped off. There are only a few places in the greater Cape Town area that sell wine on Sundays and fortunately for us, we happen to live right around the corner from one of them (note: this may or may not have influenced our decision to move where we have).
3. People don't barbeque here, they braai. That means cooking on broquettes instead of using propane. You can't control the heat and the braai takes 45 minutes to heat and you have to throw the used broquettes away afterwards and buy new ones every time, but there is a culture to chilling around the braai, having a beer or wine and waiting for the food to cook.
4. The movie theatres have preferred seating, which is awesome. So when you buy your ticket you get to look at the seating plan and which seats are still available and decide which seats you want to sit in. This is amazing because you don't have to sit in the movie theatre guarding a seat an hour before the show...in fact, most people seem to show up when they think all the commercials and previews are done!
5. Car parking garages at malls, etc. have car washes in them.
6. A lot of people go barefoot out in public. This is seen a lot on the UCT campus. Students walk around with no shoes on and it's not because they are poor and can't afford shoes - these are affluent students who just prefer to go barefoot.
7. One of the most frustrating things about South African culture is the use of the phrase "just now". When someone says to you, "I'll be back just now," or "I'll get that for you just now," you are pretty much guaranteed to be waiting forever. Translation: "just now" = "whenever the hell I feel like it and possibly never!" However, the less commonly used phrase "now now" is a much better thing to hear because "now now" means pretty much immediately.
We have had our first spider victim here in Cape Town. My roommate Ilya suffered a rather painful and weird-looking bite on his ankle that got progressively more swollen. He went to the clinic yesterday (we thought he was being a hypochondriac at first) and he returned to tell us that the doc said he was bitten by a sac spider. Sac spiders are venomous and the doctor had to spray the bite with a neutralizer so that the bite area wouldn't decompose into a crater! This whole process of course spawned a few hours of looking up spider bites on the internet, which was a VERY STUPID IDEA!!! I nearly went into shock reading about tarantulas (called baboon spiders here) that live in the Cape Town area and a similar big hairy species that are COMMONLY FOUND IN PEOPLE'S HOMES IN THE CAPE TOWN AREA!!! Although the venom will only make you sick and won't kill you, they have been known to cause death in animals due to shock because they stand up on their hind legs and hiss at you when they are going to attack! I quickly proceeded to clean my bedroom so that there is no pile of clothes for any spiders to hide in. I also nearly died when I walked upstairs and saw my roommate's hair clip, which resembles a trantula, sitting in the middle of the floor. I wish I could go back to the innocence of yesterday when I didn't know that these spiders existed here!!!
On a happier note...I was asked to fill in for a colleague on Wednesday to give a presentation to refugee leaders on HIV and AIDS. The law school at UCT hosts a series of workshops for refugee leaders that discusses topics such as property laws, human rights, etc. and the refugee leaders had desperately requested that HIV and AIDS be a part of their programme as well. I was told that I would be speaking in front of 40-50 leaders from the community, so I prepared an elaborate powerpoint presentation that covered everything from the basics on HIV and AIDS, right up to how refugees can run into trouble accessing treatment in South Africa, even though they are entitled to the same access to treatment as citizens. I invited my roommate, Jen, to come along and help me since she is in the same programme as me. The presentation portion went fairly well, though it was difficult to compact so much important information into a 20 minute talk. Then came the question and answer portion and WE WERE GRILLED. This period lasted for about an hour and people were throwing questions about biomedicine, politics, history, religion, treatment, etc. at us. It was amazing!! Jen and I were able to answer every single question. The crowd was a bit intense...some people got pretty heated when they spoke to us and they often got heated with one another since they were all from different countries and had different views on whose country had the worst HIV problem and whose country was handling it the best, etc. I was sweating profusely from the intensity of questions that were being thrown at us. The topic is incredibly controversial and people are very opinionated about it. After the session was done, numerous leaders came up to Jen and I and hugged us and thanked us for our presentation. Many took town my email address to ask even more questions. I must admit one man made me blush with his "practical" questions that he asked me afterwards. Haha. Jen and I left the presentation on an amazing high. We felt like our performance had somehow shown that we have graduated into AIDS experts in the few months we've been here. Amazing, amazing feeling.
1. Nobody seems to use coffee makers here. It's all about the French press, which in my opinion is far more efficient cuz the coffee is ready so much faster.
2. Liquor stores are closed on Sundays. Usually wine is sold in grocery stores and even though grocery stores are open on Sundays, the section with the wine is covered with a tarp and roped off. There are only a few places in the greater Cape Town area that sell wine on Sundays and fortunately for us, we happen to live right around the corner from one of them (note: this may or may not have influenced our decision to move where we have).
3. People don't barbeque here, they braai. That means cooking on broquettes instead of using propane. You can't control the heat and the braai takes 45 minutes to heat and you have to throw the used broquettes away afterwards and buy new ones every time, but there is a culture to chilling around the braai, having a beer or wine and waiting for the food to cook.
4. The movie theatres have preferred seating, which is awesome. So when you buy your ticket you get to look at the seating plan and which seats are still available and decide which seats you want to sit in. This is amazing because you don't have to sit in the movie theatre guarding a seat an hour before the show...in fact, most people seem to show up when they think all the commercials and previews are done!
5. Car parking garages at malls, etc. have car washes in them.
6. A lot of people go barefoot out in public. This is seen a lot on the UCT campus. Students walk around with no shoes on and it's not because they are poor and can't afford shoes - these are affluent students who just prefer to go barefoot.
7. One of the most frustrating things about South African culture is the use of the phrase "just now". When someone says to you, "I'll be back just now," or "I'll get that for you just now," you are pretty much guaranteed to be waiting forever. Translation: "just now" = "whenever the hell I feel like it and possibly never!" However, the less commonly used phrase "now now" is a much better thing to hear because "now now" means pretty much immediately.
We have had our first spider victim here in Cape Town. My roommate Ilya suffered a rather painful and weird-looking bite on his ankle that got progressively more swollen. He went to the clinic yesterday (we thought he was being a hypochondriac at first) and he returned to tell us that the doc said he was bitten by a sac spider. Sac spiders are venomous and the doctor had to spray the bite with a neutralizer so that the bite area wouldn't decompose into a crater! This whole process of course spawned a few hours of looking up spider bites on the internet, which was a VERY STUPID IDEA!!! I nearly went into shock reading about tarantulas (called baboon spiders here) that live in the Cape Town area and a similar big hairy species that are COMMONLY FOUND IN PEOPLE'S HOMES IN THE CAPE TOWN AREA!!! Although the venom will only make you sick and won't kill you, they have been known to cause death in animals due to shock because they stand up on their hind legs and hiss at you when they are going to attack! I quickly proceeded to clean my bedroom so that there is no pile of clothes for any spiders to hide in. I also nearly died when I walked upstairs and saw my roommate's hair clip, which resembles a trantula, sitting in the middle of the floor. I wish I could go back to the innocence of yesterday when I didn't know that these spiders existed here!!!
On a happier note...I was asked to fill in for a colleague on Wednesday to give a presentation to refugee leaders on HIV and AIDS. The law school at UCT hosts a series of workshops for refugee leaders that discusses topics such as property laws, human rights, etc. and the refugee leaders had desperately requested that HIV and AIDS be a part of their programme as well. I was told that I would be speaking in front of 40-50 leaders from the community, so I prepared an elaborate powerpoint presentation that covered everything from the basics on HIV and AIDS, right up to how refugees can run into trouble accessing treatment in South Africa, even though they are entitled to the same access to treatment as citizens. I invited my roommate, Jen, to come along and help me since she is in the same programme as me. The presentation portion went fairly well, though it was difficult to compact so much important information into a 20 minute talk. Then came the question and answer portion and WE WERE GRILLED. This period lasted for about an hour and people were throwing questions about biomedicine, politics, history, religion, treatment, etc. at us. It was amazing!! Jen and I were able to answer every single question. The crowd was a bit intense...some people got pretty heated when they spoke to us and they often got heated with one another since they were all from different countries and had different views on whose country had the worst HIV problem and whose country was handling it the best, etc. I was sweating profusely from the intensity of questions that were being thrown at us. The topic is incredibly controversial and people are very opinionated about it. After the session was done, numerous leaders came up to Jen and I and hugged us and thanked us for our presentation. Many took town my email address to ask even more questions. I must admit one man made me blush with his "practical" questions that he asked me afterwards. Haha. Jen and I left the presentation on an amazing high. We felt like our performance had somehow shown that we have graduated into AIDS experts in the few months we've been here. Amazing, amazing feeling.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Jaws!!!
So as I mentioned previously, last week was my end of first quarter holiday from school. My roommates (Jen and Ilya) and I set off on a jam-packed roadtrip with two of Jen’s friends from Canada along the Garden Route and up to Lesotho. Our first destination was Gansbaai for cage diving with great white sharks. We signed our lives away, suited up in full piece wetsuits (booties and hoodies too), endured a brutal 20 minute boat ride out to the dive site and got ready for the thrill of a lifetime. The cage was about 3 feet wide, 7 feet long and 10 feet deep. The five of us squished in side by side into the cage and waited at the surface of the water. The dive masters threw massive amounts of chum in the water around our cage and when they saw sharks coming, they yelled at us to dive down under the water into the cage. We wore weight belts so that we could pull ourselves down easily, but we still had to put our feet and hands on the cage bars in order to move up and down which was really freaky. We were all constantly terrified about our feet going outside the cage and being bitten off. The first shark sighting was crazy…we pulled ourselves down and excitedly panicked as a 3 meter shark grazed our cage. We spent as long as we could tolerate in the water (the water was freezing) and all in all we saw about 13 sharks. Some came at our cage with jaws wide open, others thrashed against our cage violently as they competed for the chum. It was probably the most amazing experience I have ever had and it was an opportunity of a lifetime to see such a powerful predator up close and personal. I highly recommend it for any thrill seekers who come to South Africa.
The next stop on our road trip was Oodtshourn, where we spent a day visiting the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm. The caves were fun, but the ostrich farm was particularly cool because I got to RIDE an ostrich!!! Ostriches are terrifying FYI…I got bitten by one when I was trying to feed it, bringing my record of African birds that have bitten me to 2! They are even crazier to ride. I didn’t have a saddle, I just climbed up on one and held onto its wings as it ran around crazily. I held on for dear life because the ground was covered in ostrich poo and there was no hope in hell I was going to be tossed into that! I took a video of it, so I will attempt to attach it if I can. After Oodtshourn we headed to Knysna, where we stayed in an amazing lodge for two nights. We visited the nearby Tsitsikamma forest and did a treetop canopy tour, which essentially involves flying from tree to tree via huge ziplines. It was a nice way to see the forest, but it wasn’t as scary or as thrilling as I was hoping for. Then we headed to the Bloukrans Bridge, which has the world’s highest bungee jump. At a whopping 216 metres, the bungee jump is incredibly terrifying. I had every intention of doing it, but wasn’t ready on that particular day. Glen was brave enough to do it though. I took a video of him so that I can study the tape for the next few months until I have the balls to do it! Ironically enough, the biggest threat to safety is not the jump itself but the walk along the path to the bridge…puff adders and cape cobras (both can be lethal if you get bitten) sunbathe on the path so you have to watch your step!
Next we headed off to see elephants in the wild. We drove around a game park for 4 hours hunting them down. Fortunately the hunt was really easy for us since on many occasions the elephants walked across the road right in front of us. At one point, a family of elephants walked right past our car and if I had wanted to, I could have touched them through my window – they were that close! Apart from tons of elephants, we also saw kudu, “Timons” and “Pumbas”, zebras, ostriches, a jackal, the back end of a lion, and a bunch of other grazing animals. It was a really awesome wildlife experience. To see the “Big 5” animals you have to go up to Kruger near Jo’burg, but we knew that the area we went to was popular really only for seeing elephants so we were not disappointed.
We continued up the coast to East London where we spent the night at a hostel. Then we headed up to a small town outside of Lesotho where we spent an evening enjoying the natural hot springs. The experience was a bit tough for me because the water smelled like rotten eggs thanks to the sulfur content and because there were lots of “floaty things” in the water, but I managed to suck it up and stick it out for awhile for the sake of beautifying my skin! Haha.
The next morning we headed off to Lesotho, which is its own country within South Africa. What a crazy place! Unlike much of South Africa, which completely surrounds the country, Lesotho is not very modern at all from what we saw. It is very rural and very poor looking. It reminded me of my experience in Niger. Let me also say that there was an absence of bathrooms as well, so I am slightly biased against the country since I drank a considerable amount of water that day! Haha. When we crossed into Lesotho we went searching for dinosaur tracks. I wasn’t overly psyched, but it was kinda cool to see fossils of dinosaur footprints in the ground instead of in a museum somewhere. We didn’t spend as much time in Lesotho as we would have liked, since it was Easter weekend which is a crazy big deal here. There was no place for us to stay, so we had to drive straight through and back into South Africa to stay the night in Bloemfontein. And that was pretty much it for our amazing adventure. We drove all the way home the next day and reminisced about our trip. It was amazing to just get away given the housing drama we had been facing and it was even nicer to return home to our house in Hout Bay knowing that it is at last OUR HOUSE!! One thing I’ve learned though is that we have become Western Cape snobs in our two months of being here. It felt like we were in a foreign land when we headed to the Eastern Cape. The Western Cape is pure money and luxuries and quite frankly I’m not ashamed to say that I feel at home with that. Haha.
The next stop on our road trip was Oodtshourn, where we spent a day visiting the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm. The caves were fun, but the ostrich farm was particularly cool because I got to RIDE an ostrich!!! Ostriches are terrifying FYI…I got bitten by one when I was trying to feed it, bringing my record of African birds that have bitten me to 2! They are even crazier to ride. I didn’t have a saddle, I just climbed up on one and held onto its wings as it ran around crazily. I held on for dear life because the ground was covered in ostrich poo and there was no hope in hell I was going to be tossed into that! I took a video of it, so I will attempt to attach it if I can. After Oodtshourn we headed to Knysna, where we stayed in an amazing lodge for two nights. We visited the nearby Tsitsikamma forest and did a treetop canopy tour, which essentially involves flying from tree to tree via huge ziplines. It was a nice way to see the forest, but it wasn’t as scary or as thrilling as I was hoping for. Then we headed to the Bloukrans Bridge, which has the world’s highest bungee jump. At a whopping 216 metres, the bungee jump is incredibly terrifying. I had every intention of doing it, but wasn’t ready on that particular day. Glen was brave enough to do it though. I took a video of him so that I can study the tape for the next few months until I have the balls to do it! Ironically enough, the biggest threat to safety is not the jump itself but the walk along the path to the bridge…puff adders and cape cobras (both can be lethal if you get bitten) sunbathe on the path so you have to watch your step!
Next we headed off to see elephants in the wild. We drove around a game park for 4 hours hunting them down. Fortunately the hunt was really easy for us since on many occasions the elephants walked across the road right in front of us. At one point, a family of elephants walked right past our car and if I had wanted to, I could have touched them through my window – they were that close! Apart from tons of elephants, we also saw kudu, “Timons” and “Pumbas”, zebras, ostriches, a jackal, the back end of a lion, and a bunch of other grazing animals. It was a really awesome wildlife experience. To see the “Big 5” animals you have to go up to Kruger near Jo’burg, but we knew that the area we went to was popular really only for seeing elephants so we were not disappointed.
We continued up the coast to East London where we spent the night at a hostel. Then we headed up to a small town outside of Lesotho where we spent an evening enjoying the natural hot springs. The experience was a bit tough for me because the water smelled like rotten eggs thanks to the sulfur content and because there were lots of “floaty things” in the water, but I managed to suck it up and stick it out for awhile for the sake of beautifying my skin! Haha.
The next morning we headed off to Lesotho, which is its own country within South Africa. What a crazy place! Unlike much of South Africa, which completely surrounds the country, Lesotho is not very modern at all from what we saw. It is very rural and very poor looking. It reminded me of my experience in Niger. Let me also say that there was an absence of bathrooms as well, so I am slightly biased against the country since I drank a considerable amount of water that day! Haha. When we crossed into Lesotho we went searching for dinosaur tracks. I wasn’t overly psyched, but it was kinda cool to see fossils of dinosaur footprints in the ground instead of in a museum somewhere. We didn’t spend as much time in Lesotho as we would have liked, since it was Easter weekend which is a crazy big deal here. There was no place for us to stay, so we had to drive straight through and back into South Africa to stay the night in Bloemfontein. And that was pretty much it for our amazing adventure. We drove all the way home the next day and reminisced about our trip. It was amazing to just get away given the housing drama we had been facing and it was even nicer to return home to our house in Hout Bay knowing that it is at last OUR HOUSE!! One thing I’ve learned though is that we have become Western Cape snobs in our two months of being here. It felt like we were in a foreign land when we headed to the Eastern Cape. The Western Cape is pure money and luxuries and quite frankly I’m not ashamed to say that I feel at home with that. Haha.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Bitten By a Penguin!!!
I apologize once again for the length of time between my blog posts as of late. Unfortunately, we have had quite an ordeal with our housing situation, which I will not discuss here for legal purposes since they are not yet resolved. Just know that we have all been under a great deal of stress - emotional, mental and physical - but we hope to be turning over a new leaf very soon.
SURFING - My introduction to surfing has not quite transformed me into an overnight surfing success. The first time out the conditions were crazy...the waves rolled in too quickly to set up and I therefore spent a lot of time being tossed around on the ocean floor. The conditions were SO bad that one girl who was out there with me had to be taken to the hospital because she got her chin sliced open by her board. As well, I cut both of my hands up really badly. There was lots of blood in the water and I was terrified of attracting sharks. It took two weeks for all the cuts to heal. I have since invested in a pair of surfing gloves to protect my dainty hands. I'm totally able to get up and enjoy myself out there, so although I'm not the pro I was hoping to be just yet, I am definitely loving it out there and I am committed to going surfing on a weekly basis.
AIDS CLINIC - I have been working very closely with some AIDS contacts here who have created an extra-curricular AIDS program for me that will include visits to private and public AIDS clinics, townships, etc. etc. Last Thursday I went to a private clinic where I sat in with the medical practitioner while he saw AIDS patients. This amazing opportunity provided me with a window into the lives of AIDS patients at the private clinic level. Beyond just their physical ailments (which ranged from TB to shingles), I was also given a window into the emotional trauma that they face with finding out whether or not their CD4 count has dropped low enough that they must go on rigorous treatment for the rest of their lives, with coming to terms with how they contracted the virus, with the stigma that they face in their home communities (some people travel a day's drive away to go to a clinic where no one knows them), with wanting to have children, etc. etc. It was a very emotional experience for me and I cannot possibly convey the depths of the experience via a blog, however, I will say that it has been the highlight of my trip thus far for so many reasons. I know that the public clinics will be much more difficult to handle emotionally and so going to a private clinic first was a good introduction to what AIDS patients must face here. I would also like to point out that the patients that I saw were black, white, young, old, married, single, male and female. It is not just a black African problem and I want people to know that if nothing else.
PENGUINS - I returned to see the penguins with two of my roommates. This time I wanted to see how closely I could interact with one. The signs say "do not pet the penguins" and I knew that there was probably a good reason why there were signs posted that said that, but stupidly enough, I tried to pet a penguin and the little devil bit me!!! Hard!!! Fortunately he got mostly my fingernail so he didn't break the skin, but I advise all of you to heed the warnings about petting wild animals! Haha. I promise not to attempt the same level of interaction with any sharks or lions!
VACATION - This weekend kicks off the start of our end of first quarter vacation. My roommate Jen has two friends visiting from Canada and so Ilya, Jen, her two friends and I are all travelling up the coast on a camping trip along the Garden Route to Lesotho. We have the craziest trip planned along the way including cage diving with great white sharks, riding ostriches, bungee jumping off the world's highest commercial bungee jump, going to see elephants in the wild, going caving, going white water rafting (gotta look out for crocs apparently), going pony trecking in the mountains of Lesotho, and going repelling down a 200m waterfall. WISH ME LUCK!!! Haha. This could quite possibly end up being the best week of my life. At any rate, I will DEFINITELY be blogging about it as soon as I get back so stay tuned!!
That's all for now. The weather is still fantastic and my classes are good. Other than a few troubles that we have had to be facing, I am thoroughly loving it and I wish everyone could get to South Africa at some point to see its natural beauty, get involved in its cultures and to feel its histories. Oh and I am currently trying to learn to speak Afrikaans, though I have not yet mastered the tongue clicking required to speak Xhosa!
Until next time, peace out!!
SURFING - My introduction to surfing has not quite transformed me into an overnight surfing success. The first time out the conditions were crazy...the waves rolled in too quickly to set up and I therefore spent a lot of time being tossed around on the ocean floor. The conditions were SO bad that one girl who was out there with me had to be taken to the hospital because she got her chin sliced open by her board. As well, I cut both of my hands up really badly. There was lots of blood in the water and I was terrified of attracting sharks. It took two weeks for all the cuts to heal. I have since invested in a pair of surfing gloves to protect my dainty hands. I'm totally able to get up and enjoy myself out there, so although I'm not the pro I was hoping to be just yet, I am definitely loving it out there and I am committed to going surfing on a weekly basis.
AIDS CLINIC - I have been working very closely with some AIDS contacts here who have created an extra-curricular AIDS program for me that will include visits to private and public AIDS clinics, townships, etc. etc. Last Thursday I went to a private clinic where I sat in with the medical practitioner while he saw AIDS patients. This amazing opportunity provided me with a window into the lives of AIDS patients at the private clinic level. Beyond just their physical ailments (which ranged from TB to shingles), I was also given a window into the emotional trauma that they face with finding out whether or not their CD4 count has dropped low enough that they must go on rigorous treatment for the rest of their lives, with coming to terms with how they contracted the virus, with the stigma that they face in their home communities (some people travel a day's drive away to go to a clinic where no one knows them), with wanting to have children, etc. etc. It was a very emotional experience for me and I cannot possibly convey the depths of the experience via a blog, however, I will say that it has been the highlight of my trip thus far for so many reasons. I know that the public clinics will be much more difficult to handle emotionally and so going to a private clinic first was a good introduction to what AIDS patients must face here. I would also like to point out that the patients that I saw were black, white, young, old, married, single, male and female. It is not just a black African problem and I want people to know that if nothing else.
PENGUINS - I returned to see the penguins with two of my roommates. This time I wanted to see how closely I could interact with one. The signs say "do not pet the penguins" and I knew that there was probably a good reason why there were signs posted that said that, but stupidly enough, I tried to pet a penguin and the little devil bit me!!! Hard!!! Fortunately he got mostly my fingernail so he didn't break the skin, but I advise all of you to heed the warnings about petting wild animals! Haha. I promise not to attempt the same level of interaction with any sharks or lions!
VACATION - This weekend kicks off the start of our end of first quarter vacation. My roommate Jen has two friends visiting from Canada and so Ilya, Jen, her two friends and I are all travelling up the coast on a camping trip along the Garden Route to Lesotho. We have the craziest trip planned along the way including cage diving with great white sharks, riding ostriches, bungee jumping off the world's highest commercial bungee jump, going to see elephants in the wild, going caving, going white water rafting (gotta look out for crocs apparently), going pony trecking in the mountains of Lesotho, and going repelling down a 200m waterfall. WISH ME LUCK!!! Haha. This could quite possibly end up being the best week of my life. At any rate, I will DEFINITELY be blogging about it as soon as I get back so stay tuned!!
That's all for now. The weather is still fantastic and my classes are good. Other than a few troubles that we have had to be facing, I am thoroughly loving it and I wish everyone could get to South Africa at some point to see its natural beauty, get involved in its cultures and to feel its histories. Oh and I am currently trying to learn to speak Afrikaans, though I have not yet mastered the tongue clicking required to speak Xhosa!
Until next time, peace out!!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Settling In
It has been awhile since I have written so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. Here are a few highlights of what has happened over the past couple of weeks…
For starters, last weekend I went to see a play with some friends. It was called “Truth in Translation” and it was centered around the people who served as translators at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. The chairman of the TRC was Desmond Tutu and the hearings were meant to initiate healing from the atrocities that the country faced during apartheid times. Rather than attempt to prosecute an impossible number of people, the TRC encouraged people to come forward and tell the truth in exchange for amnesty. The thought was that the truth would allow for greater healing and bring the country closer to the Rainbow Nation that Tutu was striving for. The play highlighted the fact that the translators had the emotionally trying job of having to speak the words of the families who had suffered great losses, as well as of the people who told the stories of the horrendous crimes against humanity that they had committed. Inevitably, the translators had to shoulder a lot of psychological duress themselves as they recounted horrors such as “necklacing”, where people had tires put around their necks, filled with petrol and lit afire. The play had a great cast, including one of the actors from “Hotel Rwanda” and definitely opened our eyes to the brutal history this country has suffered.
This past week the university had a huge HIV testing campaign. On Friday, a couple of my friends and I decided to go get tested in support of the fact that my roommate and I are in the HIV/AIDS Masters program. I can safely say it was the most nerve-wracking experience any of us had ever been through. We waited with hundreds of other students to go through pre-test counseling, which highlighted questions about how we predicted we might act if we got a positive test result…how can a person honestly predict that? Then we waited in a long queue again for our turn to have our blood tested. Finally, we sat and waited nervously for our results. Even though none of us had anything to worry about, the tension of hundreds of other people around us drove us nuts. What if someone there with us tested positive? One by one they called our names and took us to private stalls to give us our results. We all tested negative of course, but it was an extremely mentally draining hour and a half long process. I can’t imagine how people handled being told that they were HIV positive, how their lives would change forever. How did the counselors mentally prepare themselves to deal people such life shattering news? That is the scenario for so many South Africans everyday…what a thought…
On a happier note, we bought a car!!! It’s a 1991 Mazda 323. It sure as hell isn’t flashy, but it should do its job of getting us around the city. On Saturday we drove to Table Mountain and took the cable car to the top. What a view! The entire city was covered in a thick layer of clouds and we were way above them. Pretty incredible.
On the Rotary front, I’ve been doing some volunteering with my roommates’ sponsoring Rotary clubs. We helped out painting kids faces at a huge fair last week and then this weekend we were marshals at the Cape Argus, which is a huge internationally renowned bike tour. We were responsible for marshalling the most dangerous part of the course and I guess we didn’t do too good of a job because there was a ginormous crash that resulted in a few bikers being taken to hospital. We were basically supposed to flag the riders into a bottleneck that led to a sharp turn around a corner at the bottom of a hill. Now imagine 100 bikers going 70 km/hr, suddenly being forced to bottleneck…didn’t work. We literally ended up standing in the middle of a herd of flying bicycles, just standing still and desperately hoping that they wouldn’t hit us. It was still a lot of fun though.
This week I’m going surfing so I’ll let everyone know how that goes. Until then, peace out!
For starters, last weekend I went to see a play with some friends. It was called “Truth in Translation” and it was centered around the people who served as translators at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. The chairman of the TRC was Desmond Tutu and the hearings were meant to initiate healing from the atrocities that the country faced during apartheid times. Rather than attempt to prosecute an impossible number of people, the TRC encouraged people to come forward and tell the truth in exchange for amnesty. The thought was that the truth would allow for greater healing and bring the country closer to the Rainbow Nation that Tutu was striving for. The play highlighted the fact that the translators had the emotionally trying job of having to speak the words of the families who had suffered great losses, as well as of the people who told the stories of the horrendous crimes against humanity that they had committed. Inevitably, the translators had to shoulder a lot of psychological duress themselves as they recounted horrors such as “necklacing”, where people had tires put around their necks, filled with petrol and lit afire. The play had a great cast, including one of the actors from “Hotel Rwanda” and definitely opened our eyes to the brutal history this country has suffered.
This past week the university had a huge HIV testing campaign. On Friday, a couple of my friends and I decided to go get tested in support of the fact that my roommate and I are in the HIV/AIDS Masters program. I can safely say it was the most nerve-wracking experience any of us had ever been through. We waited with hundreds of other students to go through pre-test counseling, which highlighted questions about how we predicted we might act if we got a positive test result…how can a person honestly predict that? Then we waited in a long queue again for our turn to have our blood tested. Finally, we sat and waited nervously for our results. Even though none of us had anything to worry about, the tension of hundreds of other people around us drove us nuts. What if someone there with us tested positive? One by one they called our names and took us to private stalls to give us our results. We all tested negative of course, but it was an extremely mentally draining hour and a half long process. I can’t imagine how people handled being told that they were HIV positive, how their lives would change forever. How did the counselors mentally prepare themselves to deal people such life shattering news? That is the scenario for so many South Africans everyday…what a thought…
On a happier note, we bought a car!!! It’s a 1991 Mazda 323. It sure as hell isn’t flashy, but it should do its job of getting us around the city. On Saturday we drove to Table Mountain and took the cable car to the top. What a view! The entire city was covered in a thick layer of clouds and we were way above them. Pretty incredible.
On the Rotary front, I’ve been doing some volunteering with my roommates’ sponsoring Rotary clubs. We helped out painting kids faces at a huge fair last week and then this weekend we were marshals at the Cape Argus, which is a huge internationally renowned bike tour. We were responsible for marshalling the most dangerous part of the course and I guess we didn’t do too good of a job because there was a ginormous crash that resulted in a few bikers being taken to hospital. We were basically supposed to flag the riders into a bottleneck that led to a sharp turn around a corner at the bottom of a hill. Now imagine 100 bikers going 70 km/hr, suddenly being forced to bottleneck…didn’t work. We literally ended up standing in the middle of a herd of flying bicycles, just standing still and desperately hoping that they wouldn’t hit us. It was still a lot of fun though.
This week I’m going surfing so I’ll let everyone know how that goes. Until then, peace out!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Beauty Beyond Words
As you can all tell from the pictures (that my dear brother took the time to post for me), I have been busy exploring the beauty that Cape Town has to offer. Last week, I climbed Lionshead, which is a mountain peak that is part of the Table Mountain range, but that kind of sits off by itself. It was supposed to be a "light walk" up, but I don't consider having to use my hands to scramble up rock faces to be a light walk by any means. The view was incredible though - we were climbing as the sun was setting and there were some incredible views of paragliders against the backdrop of the sunset.
Friday was my first AIDS seminar and it made me cry, it was so amazing. It really made me realize the value of coming here to study something like that because the lectures are presented in a context that has a lot of emotional background to it. These people have lived and are living through a crisis and you can't replace that with what you may read in a textbook in a classroom in North America. For example, one of the "coloured" women in my class (they can't decide on the politically correct terms to use here), was a schoolgirl during the infamous Soweto school incident. We were learning about that incident as part of our South African history lecture here and she was able to tell us from a firsthand perspective what it was like to be a coloured girl and be pulled out of class by young white male soldiers and hosed down. Many of her friends were murdered during that time. As well, many "African South African" (again, a stupid attempt at PC terms here) women in my class experienced the horrors of apartheid and are experiencing the horrors of AIDS in their own communities. Therefore, there is an opportunity to learn about the AIDS crisis in South Africa in a more connected way by being here. It's amazing and it's inspiring and on Friday it brought me to tears cuz I could actually FEEL the problems of this country.
Last week I also visited an adult education centre in a poor township with the Rotary Club of Hout Bay. It was the age-old story of how one man with little resources but a lot of heart was able to inspire the creation of an entire adult education centre in a township that desperately needed it. Very cool.
On the weekend, my roommates were all at a conference, but I hung out with a Canadian guy for the day. We drove down the cape coast to the most southwesterly point in Africa, which is called Cape Point. We saw African penguins waddling around on the beach, we saw baboons run down a cliff face and attack people's cars, we saw ostriches, we saw gorgeous empty white sand beaches, we saw so much beauty. I have tried to show pictures, but they just don't do the place justice. Beauty is all around here and people need to come here to understand what I am talking about.
More adventures to come so stay tuned!!
Friday was my first AIDS seminar and it made me cry, it was so amazing. It really made me realize the value of coming here to study something like that because the lectures are presented in a context that has a lot of emotional background to it. These people have lived and are living through a crisis and you can't replace that with what you may read in a textbook in a classroom in North America. For example, one of the "coloured" women in my class (they can't decide on the politically correct terms to use here), was a schoolgirl during the infamous Soweto school incident. We were learning about that incident as part of our South African history lecture here and she was able to tell us from a firsthand perspective what it was like to be a coloured girl and be pulled out of class by young white male soldiers and hosed down. Many of her friends were murdered during that time. As well, many "African South African" (again, a stupid attempt at PC terms here) women in my class experienced the horrors of apartheid and are experiencing the horrors of AIDS in their own communities. Therefore, there is an opportunity to learn about the AIDS crisis in South Africa in a more connected way by being here. It's amazing and it's inspiring and on Friday it brought me to tears cuz I could actually FEEL the problems of this country.
Last week I also visited an adult education centre in a poor township with the Rotary Club of Hout Bay. It was the age-old story of how one man with little resources but a lot of heart was able to inspire the creation of an entire adult education centre in a township that desperately needed it. Very cool.
On the weekend, my roommates were all at a conference, but I hung out with a Canadian guy for the day. We drove down the cape coast to the most southwesterly point in Africa, which is called Cape Point. We saw African penguins waddling around on the beach, we saw baboons run down a cliff face and attack people's cars, we saw ostriches, we saw gorgeous empty white sand beaches, we saw so much beauty. I have tried to show pictures, but they just don't do the place justice. Beauty is all around here and people need to come here to understand what I am talking about.
More adventures to come so stay tuned!!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
animals stop and pose for cameras here
south africa is all about the water sports
some sick kiteboarding moves...i must try this but i fear that i may lack the upper body strength and will therefore likely be swept off to sea to become the dinner of a great white shark...
gorgeous empty white sand beaches
the water is colder than it looks...do not be deceived!!
view from the lighthouse at cape point (the most southwesterly point in africa)
a pack of baboons ran down the cliffside and onto and INTO people's cars...they appear to be both dumb and vicious animals
special for you Trev!
African penguins
view from the cliffside drive down the cape
view of table mountain from camps bay beach (nicest beach ever!)Friday, February 23, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
I Likes To Party Here...
Really amazing weekend in Cape Town...
Friday night I was invited to attend a "school party" with the Zambian guys I met earlier in the week. My flatmate, Ilya, and another Rotary scholar, Emily K., came along as well. We went to a residence on campus where we waited with hundreds of drunk freshers to buy tickets for some place called Ratanga Junction, which we knew nothing about. They piled us all on buses and drove us some 30 minutes to the Northern Suburbs I think. Our bus was really rowdy...the local South African boys were singing freedom songs and stomping and banging. When we arrived we were really impressed with the place. It was like a giant outdoor theme park area with a big indoor complex that housed at least a dozen venues playing different types of music. We ended up in a hip hop venue and broke it down a little bit for the locals. Haha. They played amazing music though - much like at clubs in Canada. Nelly Furtado was played frequently so there was some Canadian pride there. Drinks were only 8 rand, which is like $1.50 Canadian, so that was a bonus too. Really good times there.
Saturday morning we all got up and took the train out to Muizenberg beach (first class this time)! The beach was hosting a surfing competition and the waves were wicked. Lots of kiteboarding going on too. So we tanned our bodies for a bit and then grabbed lunch and hung out with some homeless people in a local park. Good times.
Saturday night I rounded the troops again (as the local social convenor) and headed out to a place called Cool Runnings. It's a local hit with students and backpackers. It is an indoor/outdoor bar with sand and Christmas lights strung up all over the place. Scoped out the hot surfer boy scene there...haha. Met up with some other girls who we knew there as well, two of whom were South African and who insisted that we go to a house club called "All Nations" down the street. House music is very big with black South Africans here. Emily A., Emily K., Ally and I were the only non-black people in the place and that caused some tension at first. A super creepy black South African man tried to pick me up. I refused and the girls pulled me away from him, but he kept coming back. I learned that men are super persistent here. Security literally had to intervene and even then he was screaming at security about how he wanted to talk to me. It was slightly unnerving. Lots of cool dance offs going on in the place though. Very tribal looking dance moves. I ended up in the middle of a dance off circle and panicked when I realized I didn't have the hips for any of the dance moves! Hahaha.
Sunday morning our flatmates all assembled again to go to a Rotary/Rotaract/Interact event that was put on for underpriveleged black children from the townships. We helped facilitate the games and had an amazing day giving back a little bit to the community. We all plan to do a lot more community service activities with the local Rotary and Rotaract Clubs.
Friday night I was invited to attend a "school party" with the Zambian guys I met earlier in the week. My flatmate, Ilya, and another Rotary scholar, Emily K., came along as well. We went to a residence on campus where we waited with hundreds of drunk freshers to buy tickets for some place called Ratanga Junction, which we knew nothing about. They piled us all on buses and drove us some 30 minutes to the Northern Suburbs I think. Our bus was really rowdy...the local South African boys were singing freedom songs and stomping and banging. When we arrived we were really impressed with the place. It was like a giant outdoor theme park area with a big indoor complex that housed at least a dozen venues playing different types of music. We ended up in a hip hop venue and broke it down a little bit for the locals. Haha. They played amazing music though - much like at clubs in Canada. Nelly Furtado was played frequently so there was some Canadian pride there. Drinks were only 8 rand, which is like $1.50 Canadian, so that was a bonus too. Really good times there.
Saturday morning we all got up and took the train out to Muizenberg beach (first class this time)! The beach was hosting a surfing competition and the waves were wicked. Lots of kiteboarding going on too. So we tanned our bodies for a bit and then grabbed lunch and hung out with some homeless people in a local park. Good times.
Saturday night I rounded the troops again (as the local social convenor) and headed out to a place called Cool Runnings. It's a local hit with students and backpackers. It is an indoor/outdoor bar with sand and Christmas lights strung up all over the place. Scoped out the hot surfer boy scene there...haha. Met up with some other girls who we knew there as well, two of whom were South African and who insisted that we go to a house club called "All Nations" down the street. House music is very big with black South Africans here. Emily A., Emily K., Ally and I were the only non-black people in the place and that caused some tension at first. A super creepy black South African man tried to pick me up. I refused and the girls pulled me away from him, but he kept coming back. I learned that men are super persistent here. Security literally had to intervene and even then he was screaming at security about how he wanted to talk to me. It was slightly unnerving. Lots of cool dance offs going on in the place though. Very tribal looking dance moves. I ended up in the middle of a dance off circle and panicked when I realized I didn't have the hips for any of the dance moves! Hahaha.
Sunday morning our flatmates all assembled again to go to a Rotary/Rotaract/Interact event that was put on for underpriveleged black children from the townships. We helped facilitate the games and had an amazing day giving back a little bit to the community. We all plan to do a lot more community service activities with the local Rotary and Rotaract Clubs.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Canadian Mojo
Over the past week, I have been to campus every single day to work out registration. It's not like Canadian universities where you do it all online with a few clicks of your mouse. This is days and days of standing around in long queues and running around to obtain signatures from anyone remotely associated with every course one is taking. For me this meant running around to multiple campuses, which wasn't fun. The good news is that Canadian charm works wonders here! I managed to bypass a lot of lines and a lot of signatures by using good ol' Canadian mojo on the course convenors and the dean!
I still have to get the internet and banking set up. Both take forever here. Patience is something I must learn. We were originally told internet set up would take 12 weeks. More Canadian mojo had to come into play to get that cut down to only a few weeks.
I have met many amazing people from around the world here. There have been a lot of orientations and social events for international postgrads and we have all gelled really well. I have met people from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Switzerland...It's a really cool experience.
My roommates and I all have serious political conversations every night before we go to bed. It's really interesting to have that kind of stimulating exchange between people from vastly different backgrounds. All of the roommates have now moved in. The other Canadian girl and I actually know mutual people from Ontario, which is really cool.
So sadly, nothing too exciting has been going on yet. Tomorrow my diggsmates and I are all going to Muizenberg beach (it's like 30 degrees here!) and then next week school starts up. I am planning on doing a sundowner (drink beer and watch the sun go down) up Lionshead (mountain peak) next week. And then believe it or not, I think I am going on a camping trip next weekend. I don't know if my high maintenance tendencies will jive with camping in Africa, but I'll let you all know! Haha.
Peace out!
I still have to get the internet and banking set up. Both take forever here. Patience is something I must learn. We were originally told internet set up would take 12 weeks. More Canadian mojo had to come into play to get that cut down to only a few weeks.
I have met many amazing people from around the world here. There have been a lot of orientations and social events for international postgrads and we have all gelled really well. I have met people from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Switzerland...It's a really cool experience.
My roommates and I all have serious political conversations every night before we go to bed. It's really interesting to have that kind of stimulating exchange between people from vastly different backgrounds. All of the roommates have now moved in. The other Canadian girl and I actually know mutual people from Ontario, which is really cool.
So sadly, nothing too exciting has been going on yet. Tomorrow my diggsmates and I are all going to Muizenberg beach (it's like 30 degrees here!) and then next week school starts up. I am planning on doing a sundowner (drink beer and watch the sun go down) up Lionshead (mountain peak) next week. And then believe it or not, I think I am going on a camping trip next weekend. I don't know if my high maintenance tendencies will jive with camping in Africa, but I'll let you all know! Haha.
Peace out!
Monday, February 12, 2007
In South Africa!!
Hi Guys!!
This is my very first visit to an internet cafe and it will be difficult for me to be up on internet for awhile since we have no DSL connected yet (that may take quite awhile) and I'm not registered to use campus internet yet.
My roommates are very nice. We have two other scholars crashing with us til the remaining two roommates arrive. Emily, Ilya and I are looking into getting a car. unfortunately it is impossible to get around without one here. Example: yesterday Emily and I went into the City Bowl by train (not recommended) and we ended up riding third class (DEFINITELY not recommended). We couldn't buy train tickets cuz it was a Sunday so we had no choice but it was terrifying. We were the only non black people on board and everyone was really poor and dodgy looking. I DID NOT want to do this, but Emily seemed confident that it was fine. Won't be doing it again though. We rode a double decker tour bus all around Cape Town and it was awesome. Saw District 6, went up the mountain to where the cable car runs (beautiful view from up there), drove past the wealthy areas along the beach (one American just bought the most expensive place in africa for 46 million rand which is like a little less than 10 million dollars canadian which is a hell fo a lot for Africa!). It's a hop on hop off bus but we decided we just wanted to ride it around instead of getting off places. We ended up in the V&A Waterfront which is where you can definitely let your guard down. Kinda like Pier 39 in San Fran only more posh according to Emily. We shopped around, watched some operformers and took in the sights of really wealthy white south africans - talk about witnessing the duality of Cape Town in one day! Some new friends met us for dinner on the pier and drove us home afterwards cuz it was too late for us to take public transportation.
Today I did preregistration and everything went smoothly. Went to a social sci postgrad students orientation and met a bunch of people from my programme. There are a few of us canadians in it. Learned that it is a super competitive programme apparently. 20 people in it. Have six books I have to read before next Fri. Tomorrow is course registration. Have to run around campus getting signatures from all the lecturers and then get paper signed by the course convenor so that will be super frustrating. Met a girl who told me to take an economics course called Economics of AIDS in Africa. Apart from that and the core course and my research courses, I think my other elective will be witht he faculty of Public Health. That means I have to go to another campus nearby but I want diversity of disciplines since the course is interdisciplinary afterall. The campus is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! Qutie the workout to walk up since it is all on an incline, but the buildings are gorgeous and the view from the top of the steps out into the southern suberbs is awesome. Then of course the moutnain in the background. Joined the mountain club and the surf club as intended.
We are very close to everything we need in terms of shopping, internet cafes, groceries and just about anythign really. Close walk and I think safe enough to do alone during peak hours, but have mostly gone with others except this morning when I went to get a cellphone.
Catherine is really nice - the party we went to at her house was nice cuz we got to mingle with soem other grad students. Had a wicked conversation with a young couple from Stellenbosch (the wine region). They have invited me out to their home for a Sunday dinner at some point cuz they like talkign politics and policy with me! Haha.
That's all for now, hopefully I will be getting DSL soon so I will be able to update this more.
Mel...
This is my very first visit to an internet cafe and it will be difficult for me to be up on internet for awhile since we have no DSL connected yet (that may take quite awhile) and I'm not registered to use campus internet yet.
My roommates are very nice. We have two other scholars crashing with us til the remaining two roommates arrive. Emily, Ilya and I are looking into getting a car. unfortunately it is impossible to get around without one here. Example: yesterday Emily and I went into the City Bowl by train (not recommended) and we ended up riding third class (DEFINITELY not recommended). We couldn't buy train tickets cuz it was a Sunday so we had no choice but it was terrifying. We were the only non black people on board and everyone was really poor and dodgy looking. I DID NOT want to do this, but Emily seemed confident that it was fine. Won't be doing it again though. We rode a double decker tour bus all around Cape Town and it was awesome. Saw District 6, went up the mountain to where the cable car runs (beautiful view from up there), drove past the wealthy areas along the beach (one American just bought the most expensive place in africa for 46 million rand which is like a little less than 10 million dollars canadian which is a hell fo a lot for Africa!). It's a hop on hop off bus but we decided we just wanted to ride it around instead of getting off places. We ended up in the V&A Waterfront which is where you can definitely let your guard down. Kinda like Pier 39 in San Fran only more posh according to Emily. We shopped around, watched some operformers and took in the sights of really wealthy white south africans - talk about witnessing the duality of Cape Town in one day! Some new friends met us for dinner on the pier and drove us home afterwards cuz it was too late for us to take public transportation.
Today I did preregistration and everything went smoothly. Went to a social sci postgrad students orientation and met a bunch of people from my programme. There are a few of us canadians in it. Learned that it is a super competitive programme apparently. 20 people in it. Have six books I have to read before next Fri. Tomorrow is course registration. Have to run around campus getting signatures from all the lecturers and then get paper signed by the course convenor so that will be super frustrating. Met a girl who told me to take an economics course called Economics of AIDS in Africa. Apart from that and the core course and my research courses, I think my other elective will be witht he faculty of Public Health. That means I have to go to another campus nearby but I want diversity of disciplines since the course is interdisciplinary afterall. The campus is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! Qutie the workout to walk up since it is all on an incline, but the buildings are gorgeous and the view from the top of the steps out into the southern suberbs is awesome. Then of course the moutnain in the background. Joined the mountain club and the surf club as intended.
We are very close to everything we need in terms of shopping, internet cafes, groceries and just about anythign really. Close walk and I think safe enough to do alone during peak hours, but have mostly gone with others except this morning when I went to get a cellphone.
Catherine is really nice - the party we went to at her house was nice cuz we got to mingle with soem other grad students. Had a wicked conversation with a young couple from Stellenbosch (the wine region). They have invited me out to their home for a Sunday dinner at some point cuz they like talkign politics and policy with me! Haha.
That's all for now, hopefully I will be getting DSL soon so I will be able to update this more.
Mel...
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