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March 30, 2006
Cape Town never ceases to amaze
I went a few weeks ago with from friends to the Clifton Beaches on a Monday evening for a picnic and a sunset. A friend of Sasha's told her before she came to go to this location on a Monday evening for a surprise:
[the Clifton Beaches area]
[going, going...]
[gone]
[my crew for the night (clockwise from me: Susie, Sasha, Morgan, Monica)]
The surprise:
[the beach from above]
We're at the time when mid-term papers are due and everyone's busy and working hard. Only a week until spring break!
Posted by jcg24 at 08:27 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
March 24, 2006
My living quarters
I guess it's time for a more mundane post, so here are some shots of my lovely home here in Cape Town:
[front of our house]
Notice the fence. I haven't seen a single residence here that does not have a fence around it, though many in my neighborhood aren't too serious, only symbolic 3-feet-tall fences. In other parts of the city you'll find much higher fences. This is all left over from Apartheid, and a lot of people still feel that they're necessary because of the high incidences of crime here. Of course, the crime is a symptom of the severe poverty created by Apartheid.
[my room]
This room is bigger than the ones in the Village at 115th. I hope that makes you kids who live there jealous.
[Our kitchen and living room. Clockwise from top middle: Evan, Courtney, Lauren, Susie]
A bit small for 11 people but definitely manageable. This area is constantly full of people eating and talking, mostly about food and/or politics, or the zillions of things we want to do before we leave.
[back yard]
[back porch]
[back of house]
[Our pet spider]
This sucker is about 4.5 inches from back leg to front, and is currently hanging out between a tree branch and a bush in our back yard. I'm not so fond of the arachnids, but I guess it does look kind of cool. I'm sure it must be poisonous, though.
[Our pet cat]
This cat seems to think that it lives in our back yard and tries sometimes to come into the house. It's friendly enough, but I'm sure one day I'll see it eating food on our kitchen table and have to chase it out.
[The gem of the house; one of the upstairs bathrooms.]
Who wouldn't love this view while taking a shower or relieving oneself?
So that's home for now, and it's suiting me (and my roommates) quite well. It's a nice place to live, for sure, and it's conveniently located near a lot of important things (like multiple grocery stores, restaurants, etc.), and is also only a 15 minute walk from upper campus (of course, the walk is uphill, as I've mentioned several times). It's pretty far from where all of the other kids on the interstudy program are staying, but it's kind of nice for us to forge our own way without the entire pack tagging along.
In other news, I went on a pleasant outing on Wednesday evening with the Wine Cultural Society (one of the clubs I joined--we get to join three for free here, my other two being the Surf Club and Treatment Action Campaign, or TAC, which deals with HIV/AIDS awareness, education, and other programming--more to come on each of these groups in the future). It was a dinner with the wine maker night at Manuka, a nice restaurant in the Tyger Valley area, just outside of Cape Town. I met a lot of European kids and made some new friends and tried some excellent wines. It's really interesting how the more I learn, the more I can appreciate a wider variety of wines and the more I can recognize in the "bouquet" and "pallate", or smell and taste for those of you who think, as I do, that those terms are snobby.
Posted by jcg24 at 11:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 20, 2006
Excursion Weekend Update (finally)
On the weekend of February 24-6, the interstudy crew went to Oudtshoorn, which is about 5 hours from Cape Town. We saw the beautiful South African countryside on the way; this place is truly amazing. Everywhere you look, the landscape is just incredible. In Oudtshoorn, we had an action-packed weekend with lots of great food, good times, and interesting experiences.
We went to the Kango Caves, which were really beautiful. I've been in caves before, but these were the most spectacular caverns I've ever seen. The main chambers were so large and really breathtaking; there was also an option for a bit more intense caving experience, and I went on this little expedition with some of the other students in the program. The spaces we had to climb through and up were quite tight, and we had to hoist ourselves through the "Devil's Chimney", and crawl on our bellies through the "Tunnel of Love". It was great fun.
[A shot of the main chamber; concerts used to be held there until the 1960s when vandalism became a big issue.]
[Two of my housemates, Evan and Christy, and I pose for a shot in the "Tunnel of Love". This portion of the tunnel was small, but it was much larger than some of the other areas through which we made our way. We definitely had to squeeze through a lot of small spaces.]
We also went to the Klein Karoo Ostrich Farm. This is a commercial farm which harvests just about everything possible from its ostriches, including the meat, leather, feathers, etc. We had a tour of the farm and learned about the farming process, and got to interact with a few ostriches (though most are naturally hostile towards people). We also had an ostrich meat lunch, which was quite tasty. Ostrich is a red meat, but apparently without all of the negative aspects one would typically associate with red meat, so it's an ideal food. It's extremely delicious, and for those who know how much I love to eat, this was a great part of the weekend for me. I have taken to buying ostrich for a couple meals a week now (you can get it in any grocery store here), and it's really easy to prepare and is really good for you.
[This is one of the oldest ostriches at the farm (I think her name was Lucy, but I forget), and she was somewhere around 16 or 17 years old. She was very friendly, but most ostriches will attack humans, out of fear, of course, by kicking at them with their extremely powerful legs and clawed feet.]
[They had Lucy (?) "kiss" the guys in the group; they all helt bits of ostrich feed in their mouths and she pecked it out. Hilarious.]
[They also allowed a lucky few to ride the ostriches. They assured us that this was humane and placed a lot of restrictions on the rides, so I guess it was ok for the birds. It was definitely funny watching the riders. This is Nate, one of the interstudy students.]
We also went to a Wild Life Ranch, which was somewhat like a zoo. I had seen most of these animals before at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, but it was still fun and we learned a lot about the habitats in South Africa for these animals and the challenges their species are facing, etc. This ranch raised funds for habitat preservation and protection of the animals. For all of you animal lovers out there, I have included some shots:
[Crocodile]
[Otter]
[Who knew storks were so ugly? Check out the hairy, saggy necks.]
[White Bengal tiger, and for those of you who didn't know, they're just albino Bengal tigers.]
[Lion and lionesses]
We also went on a township tour on that Saturday night, which raised a lot of mixed feelings among many of the students. It was a really weird experience for lots of reasons. Township tours in this particular place are normally done in small groups of people. We, however, pulled up in two coach buses(this was the first time a group this big came to this township). Sixty people piled out of the buses and we definitely interrupted the neighborhood for the evening. People had been informed that we were coming, but it still felt like an imposition. Some people were very openly welcoming of us being there, while others stood in their doorways far from us. The little kids were excited to see us, as we walked off the bus, and ran up to us and talked to us and held our hands. Some of the adults came over and engaged in conversation. All the while, though, there was some strange tinge of voyeurism to it all. Were we tourists going on a field trip to look at poverty for a few minutes and then leave on our merry way? Is it important for us to see first-hand what these people's poverties were, and were we having a valuable experience? Could we come close to understanding any of it with the short visit? Were we imposing on people or were we welcome in the neighborhood? It was all really strange and uncomfortable. We were invited into the homes of some people. All of the homes in this township were fairly identical; 2 bedrooms, a living room/kitchen area, and a bathroom. They were small and cramped and most of them housed around 6 people, sometimes more.
We walked around the neighborhood for a while and talked with people and learned the history of the township's founding during Apartheid from our guides, who also lived in the township. The guides expressed the importance of our being there, to learn about the reality of township life and to expose it. While I think that this was true, it was still a very uncomfortable experience for many other reasons.
After walking around the township, we went to a local shabeen, or pub. The people there were so friendly and made such great efforts to come and talk to us. It was nice to have some time just to talk with the people of the area. After the shabeen, we went to have a traditional Xhosa dinner in the township. The food was really good and we also tried home-brewed beer, which was really interesting. I can't describe it very well, but it was sort of thick and kind of the color of cream-of-wheat. [As a side-note, the home-brewed beer is interesting in a historical context because women in townships during Apartheid used to sell it as a means of income; however, it was made illegal and police raided homes and destroyed home brewed liquor so as to encourage men to use municipal beer halls. In response, women attacked the beer halls and destroyed equipment and buildings and also organised a highly successful boycott of the beer halls.]We also saw some dancing, known to Americans as "Stepping".
[A picture from the bus window. Even though we were told we could take pictures while we walked around the neighborhood, it didn't seem right.]
Unfortunately, this township is far better off than the ones nearer the cities. For instance, in Cape Town, many homes in townships are made of only corrugated tin and the homes are much closer together and sanitation is much worse. I will eventually have more to tell on this topic because I will do my interviews in Mannenberg. To get a glimpse of what township life is like, I'd reccomend watching the film Tsotsi, which recently won an Oscar for "Best Foreign Film". This film definitely doesn't represent a broad sector of South African culture and portrays the very worst you might find here, so please do watch it with those thoughts in mind. However, it does show what townships really look like, featuring one outside of Johannesburg. Also note that Johannesburg is very different from Cape Town.
All in all, living in South Africa has been full of dichotomous and simultaneous experiences for me. I'm really glad I came here, though,and I'm learning a lot.
Posted by jcg24 at 06:17 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 08, 2006
Stairs, pt. II and Mannenberg
206 stairs every morning. Plus the uphill walk.
I spoke with one of my professors today about getting into the townships to do interviews for my Experiential Learning Fellowship project. I now have some contacts and have a place to start. I'm going to make some trips to Mannenberg township to meet some women and do interviews for the project; it will be an interesting experience, certainly, and I'll have to be sure to bring a friend along for safety reasons. I do think it will be entirely worthwhile, though, and definitely a good way to understand the lives that so many people lead here, post-Apartheid.
I also have an interesting topic for my series of papers for my gender study course; I'm going to look at Western feminism(s) and its applicability elsewhere in the world. I'm going to do some definitive and theoretical comparative stuff for my first shorter paper, and then for my final paper I'll build on the theory stuff with primary research; I'm going to speak to women who are a part of the "New Women's Movement" here in South Africa, and talk with them about Western feminism and the issues that they think are important for the women's movement versus what the "West" thinks. I also want to talk about the ability of Western women to study and understand women's issues in other parts of the world. This description doesn't include many details, but I think this is going to be a great project to work on because it will allow me to explore some of my questions and reservations about feminism along with learning simultaneously about women's movements here in South Africa.
I also need to get started on my papers for both my history course and my sociology course. I think for the history essay I'm going to do a comparative paper on liberation struggles through two biographical sketches, using Sobukwe and ... someone else yet to be named. I think this will also be an interesting project.
I am definitely getting a lot out of the courses that I'm taking here and I'm glad to be learning so much about people and cultures that aren't presented very often at home.
Posted by jcg24 at 06:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 07, 2006
Elephant Stairs
And every morning, I think to myself how anyone who EVER complained about the Elephant Stairs at Case (including myself) should really get over it, because I do a 15 minute walk up a steep hill and probably over a hundred stairs every morning. And by the time I get to the top, I'm sweaty and gross, and then I walk into class and wonder how everyone else looks so not sweaty. This school, in case you didn't notice from my pictures, is built into the side of a mountain, and there are stairs and inclines everywhere.
I hope everyone at home appreciates the great legs I'll have by the time I get back.
Posted by jcg24 at 07:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Getting down to business
School is fully underway and I feel obliged to give a report for those of you at home who must be wondering what it's like to go to school in South Africa. For those of you who just tuned in, my course list is:
SOC2030F: Poverty, Development, and Globalisation
HST3025F: Liberation in Southern Africa
AGI3000F: Theories, Politics, and Action
The first course, which comes from the Dept. of Sociology, is definitely a valuable course for me to take. I've been quite interested in poverty and globalisation for quite some time now, and so it's great to get into the theory and the way theory plays out in real life. The professor, Dr. Jacques de Wet, is a really friendly and engaging person, and he worked in the development field before going into academia so he's got a different perspective on things. This course is giving me a lot of insight into the poverties that exists in South Africa and the ways in which people live and struggle, and the ways in which people are still affected by Apartheid. Looking at the cases in SA, however, provide a lot of opportunity to understand poverties around the world and how development works (and why it often doesn't). I really appreciate his emphasis on people-centered development, though, and I think I'm going to learn a lot of valuable information and gain a lot of insight from this course.
The history course is also going to be very interesting. The professor, Dr. Christopher Saunders, looks a bit like the classic white-haired professor one might picture as a little kid, but he seems incredibly friendly and is also a very engaging lecturer. "Liberation in Southern Africa" obviously covers a multitude of liberation struggles in many countries, so I'm looking forward to gaining a lot of knowledge from this course. I do have to confess, however, that the reading list is a bit daunting; he provided us with a list of 7 or 8 books he highly reccomends, and then four more pages of book titles grouped under various headings as optional reading. There is no timeline to the reading schedule, so you just do as you please. This is an interesting way to prepare for a final exam that accounts for 50% of one's grade, but we'll see how it goes. I do think that class is going to be extremely interesting.
Finally, my last course comes from the African Gender Institute, and covers women's movements throughout southern Africa. This course is really going to be rewarding. Not only am I learning a lot of feminisms, gender construction, etc., etc., etc., in Africa, but I'm also FINALLY getting a really good critical look at Western feminism(s). The readings are very interesting and are drawn from a variety of sources, and the other students in the class seem to be generally very smart. The professor, Dr. Elaine Salo, is again, very friendly, and also has some views that I share but hadn't seen expressed by other academics. She's giving me a bit of assistance in working out some of my research for next year, as well.
I keep emphasizing the "friendly" aspect of all of these professors because I was told numerous times (even after I got here) that I couldn't expect to have the same kind of contact and relationship with professors here as I could at home because of the different style of education. I have found, however, that professors seem even more personally accessible here than at home. UCT has over 20,000 students, but professors are entirely willing to meet with you and talk with you after class, etc.
There are some differences in eduation, however, including our tutorial sessions, which are exist (and have mandatory attendance) for most classes. A tutorial (or "tut") is supposed to be a once-a-week meeting with a smaller group of students (considering most courses are large lectures) with a tutor for discussion and clarification of what's going on in the lecture hall. I have only had one tut so far, and have another tomorrow. I'm not sure yet if I think they are important parts of the educational system. I am a bit irked, however, because I was told that education overseas generally has fewer assignments (typically about 2 papers and one final exam), but with the tuts in session now, I have to write up short papers each week. Right now it seems like busy work and merely a way to make the unmotivated students engage with the material, but it might end up worthwhile. We'll see.
And having said all that, I also want to contest the notion that school is "easier" outside of the U.S. Perhaps it's just because I'm studying at UCT, which is apparently the dream school for students on the African continent, but there is hardly less reading, and with these tut assignments, certainly more work than at home. Furthermore, work is much harder to get done because a majority of readings come from the library and are on short loan (or "reserve", for you Case kids), so you only have limited time (the library closes in the evening and has few hours on Saturday and is closed on Sunday).
I do like it here, though. There is in some ways a more laid-back atmosphere than at Case, but people are smart. Students from all over Africa vie to get into this school and the diversities in history and culture here make for an interesting experience.
Posted by jcg24 at 07:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 05, 2006
Dancin in the dark
We think... maybe... that the electricity will be fairly stable from now on. It's hard to tell because it still randomly goes off. It's not so much of a big deal, except when you're trying to get work done that can only be completed on a computer. And for those of you who wonder about Africa and if this might be a normal thing, I can assure that in South Africa it is not. Well, at least not in the cities. Once you get into the areas that were created as "homelands" for Black and sometimes Coloured people during the Apartheid era, it might be a different story. We'll see how this goes, but I'm not too worried. When else would I get a chance to read by candle light?
I have only a few minutes to write, but I want to comment on public transportation here. It's entirely interesting. There are public buses, but I've not even used them yet because there is a more fabulous way of getting around: the minibus! 16-passenger vans mob the streets every day during daylight hours and it's a cheap ride into the city center, where you can switch to another minibus to get just about anywhere in the city. If you need to get a bit further, the train is also a nice option. Inexpensive, though a bit unsafe after business hours. On the minibuses, though, each one seems to be independently owned and operated, and many people "trick out" their vans, if you will, with massive appliques on the windows and thumping sound systems. I think I might try and find one great minibus applique saying for each entry that I post from now on. While I haven't memorized any at this point, I can note that there have been several very pro-American buses, with flags and sayings, and then my favorite ride has probably been on the "Pleasure Bus" which plays loud trance music and has a tiny disco ball spinning where there was formerly a light on the interior of the van.
More pictures to come soon from my adventures in Oudtshoorn.
Posted by jcg24 at 04:26 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack