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!!
Friday, March 30, 2007
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!
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