It was also great to see old friends and make new ones. I'm certain that I want to get back to Cape Town now, and can't wait for my next trip there.

After I finish this last semester, that is. Only a few more months to go and I'll be done with my degree! Crazy.

I'll continue to update the blog once I get some pictures of the trip and also as my research progresses.

I also went up to UCT today to visit with the interstudy staff, which is the program I came here with last year. It was nice and when I was done, I tried to visit several campus offices to find translators for my projects since my friends didn't seem to have connections. Unfortunately, though, I felt as though these places weren't going to come through for me, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and made posters appealing for assistance with my research and hung them at various places on campus (slightly against campus rules because I should've probably had the approval stamp on them, but oh well! What can they do other than take them down, and that will not likely happen before I leave). This was a partially successful effort as I was contacted by a young woman who wanted to serve as my Xhosa translator! So she and I are meeting tomorrow afternoon at 4, after my clinic visits, and I will be done with the Xhosa-speaking women portion of my project. All that will be left is finding a translator for Afrikaans-speaking women and I'll have to do 5 more interviews. I hope someone else responds to my advertisement. Anyway, things are good and I'll only have a bit of work left to complete during Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, which should leave time for one last trip to the beach if I'm lucky and a proper goodbye outing with friends on Sunday evening to Kirstenbosch, the amazing botanical gardens here, for the summer sunday evening concerts in the gardens.

Yeah, I think all is good here. Let's hope I can find that last translator. And I still can't believe my good fortune for meeting with Dr. Ivan Toms, Executive Director of Cape Town City Health -- I think this connection could prove to be quite useul in the future.

I love Cape Town!

Wow.

I missed that perhaps more than Table Mountain... just kidding. But boy, was it good.

This week I got some other things done -- market trip, some research at the UCT library, and slowly but surely getting things together for my project's interviews. I did one interview with a woman from Marie Stopes, who is a private reproductive health providor -- and I interviewed them to contrast with the state-sponsored care. In my search for the correct contacts at clinics, I was given the contact info for who ended up being the Director of City Health of Cape Town -- the big kahuna for all public health clinics - and he offered to help me out and then offered to meet with me, which we did today, at his home. Nice, nice guy! And cool house. Anyway, he was a HUGE help and we selected some clinics for me to visit and then he's contacting all of them tomorrow morning to let them know I'm going to contact them, and then he says I should be able to get in with them all on Friday because it's a slow day. So hopefully all works out and if for whatever reason I can't get them all on Saturday I can try to schedule some on Monday, too. I just have to make sure my dude Cecil, or one of his friends, might be able to drive me around all day to these places. Hope they don't charge me too much. SO anyway, Dr. Ivan Toms, Dir. City Health, also gave me an interview, which is quite valuable.

Anyway, so that's exciting. I'm still working on getting interpreters for my interviews of women -- but the Case IRB still hasn't gotten back to me on all that so I really don't know what to think. If I can get people as interpreters(and I do intend to), then I will just do them anyway and only use them for my classroom presentation and not for anything else I do with this project later on, I guess. Not ideal but doable.

In other news, I went into "town" as it's called here, a.k.a. "downtown" and was at the market and decided to stop by the place where Jean Luke, the guy I met last week, was supposed to have worked. Unfortunatey, it turns out he didn't work there anymore, but I ended up having friendly conversation with some of the other people who worked there, and now I can certainly say that I have one more good friend in this city when I come back again by the name of Kenny. Always exciting -- and he has shown me some really cool spots along Long Street that I never knew about before, as well as provided me with plenty of fascinating conversation, both political and personal. This city definitely has its fair share of interesting people and I am enjoying meeting people that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet before. My last experience here was so insulated and I learned a lot and had a great time but I realize there was so much more I could've done. I think I knew it at the time but wasn't sure how to access the rest of things, and now I think I have the resources and knowledge to do so in the future.

I do love this city as much as I did before, I think, though it represents more to me now than it used to (which is good). And I am glad to be back. It's still sometimes weird to be in this house without the people who made it so great for me, and I don't know that staying here was entirely a good idea -- in some ways it's been really helpful and great but in other ways I think it might have been hindering my enjoyment of the city.

Anyway, it's been good. I am enjoying myself. Lots of work yet to do and I hope it all comes together... we shall see!

At 10:47 I was feeling extremely lonely and sad, staring at the barren walls of my room, where I’d lived for 5 months previously. I had a great day yesterday, but after it ended, in my absolute exhaustion from traveling and hardly sleeping over the last three or four nights, I felt really alone. I went to sleep here in this stark, empty room, which I had made a comfy, cozy home to myself at one point, very early at about 8:30 PM, and kept waking up through the night with those recurring feelings.

This morning, when I woke up at 5:15 or so I realized how this house I’m staying in used to be full of my friends, and harbors a lot of great memories for me. Now I’m here and none of that is here with me. All I wanted to do for about ten minutes was to go back home, a thought which I knew was ridiculous because I’m only here for two weeks and I’ll be home soon enough, working my ass off doing school stuff and preparing for real life to start in May.

I made a phone call back home which definitely made me feel a little better. I think that being here and feeling alone recalled a lot of the memories that I have of being here, in this very room, when I first arrived – I was excited but I was terribly sad and lonely, having left behind a significant, long-term relationship, and those feelings were a huge part of my first several weeks here. Being here again, on my own – as I felt that I was when I got here last February – brought all of that back to me. In the end, I know I’m going to have a blast here – I have fun plans for today and I think I’m going to be able to carry out my project just fine, and it’s been great seeing people again. I was just worried there for a bit that perhaps my big life plans of coming back here after graduation some way, some how, weren’t perhaps the best plans for me. I realize now that I should definitely try to get back here again, and I know by the time I leave here that I’m going to be so sad to leave it. I’m not worried. Things will work themselves out, as they always do.

The church bells are ringing and it’s 7 AM. What’s funny is that I don’t think I ever heard the church bells ring at 7 AM before. In fact, I don’t know if they ever rang on any other hours, either. I wonder if the church (which is down the street) just started doing this while I was gone, or if I just didn’t ever wake up early enough to hear them – maybe they signify the start of school or something. Odd. I lived in this very room for months and never noticed before…

Anyway, let’s give the recount for yesterday – I got up and arranged to meet my friend and the coordinator of the program that brought me here last year. I got a ride across town from the taxi driver who always gave me great rates because he had a crush on me (Cecil – he’s a nice guy, and it was good to chat with him again), and then got to the house. It turns out a friend of the landlord is staying here, too – a young guy, about my age, who is a serious cyclist. It’s kind of nice knowing I’m not totally alone in this big house at night. Anyway, I went then to the Coffee Bean, the local coffee spot, to see Braam, the owner and probably the friendliest guy in all of Cape Town, and then took care of some business at the internet café… then called up my friend, Shawn, who met me for lunch and coffee. We ended up spending the afternoon together at my house and had a really nice time. I then ate dinner and proceeded to fall asleep early…

And today, I have plans for the beach, and hopefully some stuff for the research. I think I’m going to try to go out tonight in Obs, or Observatory, a nearby neighborhood where I spent a lot of my social time while I was here last year.

I am bound and determined to have a blast, and I am quite confident that I will. It’s just really weird being here alone. I do miss my friends a lot, and I think that was part of it, too – I forged some amazing friendships in this house and it’s hard to allow them to be a big part of my life right now because we’re scattered across the country and are all really busy. Anyway, I guess this is just motivation to try harder to maintain those friendships and a big push to take on Cape Town by myself. That was one huge regret that I have about my last stay here – it took me so long to get out and about and be confident about it, and even then I feel like I used my friends as a crutch to experience this place. I now have to do it on my own, and I’m both nervous (and was nervous about this before I got here) and excited about it.

Eventually I’ll get some pictures together and get them up here for everyone to see.

I can’t believe I’m back in Cape Town. Relatively uneventful flights, lots of movie watching. Met some nice people on the plane. Blocked in when I had to go to the bathroom for hours by sleeping row mates.

I got back to Cape Town in one piece…. And it’s just as amazing and great as I remembered it.

Went out tonight when I got in for a bit (about 2 hours) and ended up meeting a guy named Jean Luke, who was waiting for a friend (I met the friend eventually, too), and I think I have made two new friends. Great conversation, political, social, silly, serious… all of the above. Jean Luke is an Afrikaaner --- an exceptional one, which is nice – I realize I have had perhaps an unnecessary prejudice against most Afrikaaners. Interesting history (walked, literally, about 1/3 of the African continent for a little over two years, completely loving and supportive of his lesbian mother in a country where lgbtq issues aren’t exactly always accepted), and great friendly personality. Think I’ll meet up with him later.

I love this city. So good to be back. I think I belong here.

I am sitting here in the Amsterdam airport, waiting for my connecting flight into Cape Town, South Africa. It has been slightly over six months since I was last in Cape Town, and on my flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, I decided I should bring my blog up-to-date. Well, I don’t know that I can truly do that, but I do want to recount, recall, and anticipate a little before setting foot back in Cape Town.

I wrote that I was going to update about my trip to Namibia and that I was going to do some wrap-up on my whole experience. I never got around to that, though I think my neglect was a little bit intentional. When I left Cape Town, I was afraid that I’d never get back there, to a place I’d grown to love and in which I had discovered so much more about myself. Cape Town is an amazingly wonderful city, and anyone who has spoken with me since my return should know that I feel that way. The place is just beautiful and full of good people and has a great vibe, and art and music and excitement and … the list goes on, I really cannot say enough about that place. I found it inspirational and gained hope from it, and I was lent so much perspective on my life and my goals through living in the city. I think that I was keeping the Cape Town chapter of my life open by not writing my conclusion to the experience. I can write it now because I know that I’ll be there again in a mere 12 or 13 hours and I am bound and determined to find a way back for a much longer period of time following my graduation from Case in May.

Where to begin… I know that I have so much to say about Cape Town and so little time to type it in, before my laptop’s battery dies.

I love Cape Town. That love is certainly based in all of the attributes of the city, but it’s also based in what I experienced while I was there. I learned so much about everything under the sun, personally, politically, socially, historically. The world was clearer, sharper, made more sense after having spent some time in that place, and especially after going back home and re-examining my local surroundings. I grew up a lot, even though I’d always fancied myself an extremely mature person relative to my peer group, and I grew to know myself so much better. I figured out a lot more about who I am, or at least saw it more clearly, I was able to examine and understand the place and effects of a serious relationship, causing me to end it but also to appreciate it immensely for its impact upon my life. I understood my own insecurities and doubts and also was able to find my dreams and aspirations as they emerged from the muddled mess of questions and concerns which left Cleveland with me at the end of January in 2006.

I also learned more academically in that one semester than I had in any other semester previous, and the courses were so well-taught and the readings so interesting. Class was rewarding every time I went and the issues seemed so much more relevant to real life and to my interests. I do love many things about Case, but this academic experience at the University of Cape Town was incredible and I am so thankful that I was able to have it. My professors were great and it was so fascinating to learn from a non-US perspective, particularly one which had gone through so much recent political turmoil. I could talk about how rewarding this academic experience was for quite a while, but I’ll limit myself and stop here.

There is so much to reflect on and I don’t think I can do it all now, and even if I tried, I don’t think I could do it well enough to do justice to all of the experiences I had. I’ll move on.

I am excited and very nervous about this return trip. I am going back with funds from the Experiential Learning Fellowship I was awarded in the fall of 2005. I will be working on interviews for my senior project, which deals with a comparative study of the evolution of reproductive rights legislation in both Cleveland and Cape Town (US/Ohio and South Africa), as it was affected by the feminist movement, and how that evolution plays out on the ground in terms of what services are offered for women and how women experience those services. I am targeting poor, urban women because they are a demographic that has historically often been notably excluded from the concerns and causes of the feminist movement, and I am interested in seeing how reproductive rights, which are a championed cause of the feminist movement, affect women’s lives and how these particular women feel they are served by the movement. I’m doing the Cape Town half of the interviews with legislators, clinic administrators, and women, and I’m nervous about getting it all done and doing it well in the time I have in Cape Town, and also how I’ll fit it all into the final paper and if it will be good. I have loose ends to tie up with the Case IRB and all of this is a bit nerve-wracking because I’m on a very tight schedule.

I’m also nervous for my return because Cape Town is going to be very different than the last time I was there; all of my friends with whom I lived are back at home in the US and Canada, and many of my UCT friends have graduated and are no longer in Cape Town. I’ll be moving about the city by myself with a much smaller social network than the last time I was there, and staying by myself, etc. I am excited for all of this, but I’m also nervous for my safety, and also how the experience will compare to my previous one. I’m sure it’s going to be amazing, but that can’t stop me from being a bit uneasy right now.

Only one hour till my plane takes off for Cape Town. I’m much less nervous than I was yesterday, and much more filled with anticipation. I am looking forward to the 80 degree weather and the beach and the blue skies, several food items, a few hot social hang outs, and many friends. I am also excited about the interesting experiences that my research will inevitably provide.

On a side note, I wish I could explore Amsterdam. I’m here for a short while now, but have a five hour layover on the way back. Too short to go an explore but too long to not feel confined by the walls of this 60s-style (ugly!) airport.

Onward and upward.

More notes to come.

I have really mixed feelings about leaving and a huge knot in my stomach for some reason I can't identify.

I'm really going to miss this place. I love it here. I suppose I'll just have to make my way back sometime soon.

Farewell, Cape Town.

So after my time in Namibia, I rode a bus up to Victoria Falls to meet up with some of my friends from my first trip there. I spent a bit of time in that part of the country, and a day in Zambia, as well.

[Zambia as viewed from the bus on the way into Vic Falls.]

Shortly thereafter, I went down to Bulawayo, the second biggest city in Zimbabwe. I rode a bus down there, which had a temporary break down as every bus I have ever ridden in Africa seems to have had, but the landscape was incredible. This part of the world is just beautiful -- there's no other way to put it.

I had a great time in Bulwayo once I got there, and strangely enough, it kind of reminded me of home. It's odd to think that Cleveland and Bulawayo could have a similar feeling for me, considering their drastically different circumstances and histories; however, I really felt at home in that city and had so much fun. It's full of old, colonial-era architecture mixed with 50s, 60s, and 70s stuff, and is generally a little dilapidated, but the city has a lively, friendly vibe.

[The streets in Bulawayo were made big enough so that a cart being pulled by 16 oxen could do a U-turn.]

[Bulawayo City Hall]

[The train station.]

[The headquarters of the MDC, which was the primary political opposition in recent elections. They had a chance of ousting Mugabe that was stopped by elections that were not entirely free and fair and by violence carried out for[by] the governemtn particularly in this part of the country, where support for the opposition ran high. The MDC is much weaker now due to splits in the party, but there is still hope in Zimbabwe for the future, especially once Mugabe is no longer president (and he's getting old, so that time will come soon).]

I also spend a day in the township in Bulawayo visiting the family of my friend, Vusa.

[Vusa in front of his family's house, where he grew up. If you look at the foundation on the right hand side of the photo, in front of the house, you can see where walls used to stand. The Zimbabwean government went through the townships throughout the country and wiped out entire households, or in this case, forced the families to knock down the parts of their homes they'd added on over the years as a way to "control the informal economy". The people in the township will tell you that it was a threat against supporting the political opposition.]

[This is the epicenter of social activity in the township. Because of the high level of unemployment due to Zimbabwe's failing economy(inflation is at 1000%, the highest of any country not in a war-time economy), you can find people here all day long.]

Bulawayo was a great place, and it was amazing that in a country with so much poverty and so much political unrest that it was safer to walk the streets than in Cape Town.

There's much more to tell, but I'll continue when I post about Namibia.

[the cut! two days after initial injury]

[My silly bandage in action!]

It's pretty funny, all around. It's just unfortunate that one of my rare instances of irresponsibility had to cost me R800(equivalent to about $135).

In other news, I have travel plans for after classes end and before exams start; I will go up to Namibia for a few days and then travel back to Zimbabwe, where I will make my way down from Vic Falls to Bulwayo and get to see a lot more of the country than I did last time. Should be excellent.

I can't believe how little time there is. I definitely need to take advantage of my UCT club memberships before I go. I haven't been surfing in several weeks, but I am sure to go next week and the following weeks. I have a lot of skill to gain before I'm back to ocean-less Ohio, so I better brush up as quickly as possible.

[Muizenberg, the town where we take surfing lessons - this is the beach at which we [try to] surf.]

[Colleen, one of my fellow interstudy friends, and me.]

I'm a bit apprehensive about exams, however; they do count for about 50% of the final grade, so there is no room to mess around. I'm sure I'll be fine, but with trying to take advantage of travel opportunities before I go, I might not leave a lot of time for studying or for packing my belongings at the end of my stay. I'm sure it will all work out, but there will be no time for rest.

It's amazing how short one semester can be.

There were people from all sectors of South African society -- black, coloured, Indian, white, and whomever else, men and women, young and old. There were a lot of school groups in attendance, in fact, from primary through secondary school ages. There were people from the townships and people from the university, and really, just a great diversity of individuals who all had come together to address the concerns facing South Africa and to share their thoughts on HIV prevention and the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on their society.

Between speakers during the town hall meeting, someone would start singing and then the whole room would simultaneously burst into song with beautiful harmony and people would dance and clap. There was a play put on and people in the audience spoke out about why it was important for everyone to have come together to address HIV. During the rally/march, people were joyful, optimistic, and had such a positive energy with songs and dance. I've been to a number of marches in the last few years of my life, but this one was, by far, the most spirit-filled and fun, and it seemed to move everyone in a way that reached into the depths of their being and people were determined to make a tangible difference in their lives.

On Friday, I went with Lauren, one of my roommates, to a few museums downtown. We checked out the National Gallery, which was really a great art museum and I reccomend to anyone who comes to Cape Town that they should see it. There was a good mix of both the classic art you'd find in any museum and also contemporary art, including a lot of political art. There was special Picasso exhibit going on, but I think I enjoyed an exhibit entitled, "A Premonition of War" the most. For a glimpse of it, click here. We also went to the South African Museum, which is kind of a natural history museum. There were exhibits on everything from prehistoric animals to rocks and minerals to sharks and whales, and a really old exhibit room on "African peoples". That exhibit was particularly interesting because it hadn't been updated since... oh, I don't even know when... but everything in it is definitely politically incorrect.

The whole day was great! Cape Town is amazing.

The trip began by travelling from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and then to Vic Falls, via Air Zimbabwe (or Air Zim), an airline affectionately called by many "Scare Zim". The plane was unexpectedly small, but the flight was fine and the food was the best I've ever had on any airline.

We stayed at Shoestrings Lodge, a really great hostel, and we made great friends with the soem of the local crowd, with whom I'm sure we'll continue to keep in touch. Victoria Falls is a small tourist town, though it didn't feel overrun with tourists because most of them tend to stay in the compounds of their ridiculously lavish hotels. Seeing as we stayed in the hostel, quite close to the main road through town, we had a much different experience. The people there were so incredibly friendly and helpful, and it was nice to be living the relaxed pace of small town life. I would love to return one day, and I even wish I could live there for a while.

[At the hostel with (clockwise from bottom right) Chris (one of the local guys), Lauren, Sasha, Sam (our Aussie traveller friend), and Vusa (another local friend of mine)]

In Zimbabwe I was a millionaire for the first and most likely the last time in my life. The inflation rate for Zim dollaras is not so hot, with the official bank rate going at 99,000 per 1 US dollar, though on the black market it's about 180,000 per 1 US dollar. Every time we payed for something we had to use a huge stack of money, and because the inflation continues to worsen every day, it wasn't surprising to go to a restaurant twice in the week that we were there and have the prices go up 200,000 between visits.

[Our stack of 14.8 million Zim dollars was equivalent to $80 US]

On the first full day we were at Vic Falls, we went to the national park to walk along the path opposite the falls. The views were incredible and so amazingly breath taking. The falls are 1.7 km long and I can't do justice to their absolute beauty in words. While we walked along the path we were entirely soaked at certain look out points because the mist rising from the falls is like constant rain, and the rising mist forms directly into clouds above the falls. Victoria Falls are understandably one of the seven natural wonders in the world.

After walking through the park, we went across the border into Zambia for a bit and travelled to the nearest town, Livingstone, for a bit of exploration.

On the second day we started things off with a bungi jump. Yes, that's right, I went bungi jumping, and off of the 3rd highest jump in the world (at 111 meters). It was incredible because as you fall, you can see the end of the falls in one direction and into a beautiful gorge in the other.

It was amazingly beautiful and I jumped right through a rainbow.

[The view of the falls from the bridge where we jumped]

[From the gardens of the Victoria Falls Hotel, with the bungi bridge in the background]

Later that night, we went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River and saw a lot of wildlife along the way and a beautiful transition into night.

[Full moon rising over the Zambezi]

[Hippos on the Zambezi]

The next day we relaxed and explored town. On Tuesday, we went on a day trip to Chobe Park in Botswana and went on a river boat safari in the morning and a land safari in the afternoon. Going to the zoo is fun and I never expected safari stuff to be too fun, but it really is incredible to see these animals in their natural habitat, as wild animals.

[The first animal we saw on our drive, this elephant walked within 15 feet of our vehicle.]

[Female kudu]

[More kudu]

[More elephants; we almost got charged a couple times by elephants, once by a playful younger one, and once by angry parents (we drove too fast around one corner and startled a family)]

We saw so many types of animals and I could post pictures all day, so ask when I get home if you want to see more. I kept a running list of everything that we saw, as well.

The next day we went on a helecopter ride over the falls which provided some incredible views.

[The Zambezi drops off at the falls and continues into this beautiful twisting gorge]

On my last full day, I went on a walk with a friend down to the banks of the Zambezi and just took it all in. One of the strangest things to me was having to think about what to do if an elephant, baboon, or who knows what suddenly appeared on the road, and how I would react. The scene at the banks of the Zambezi was beautiful, though, and it was really nice to see the river far away from any of the tourist destinations.

We also spent some time sneaking into The Kingdom throughout the week to use their pool; this was probably the most posh place in town, but the decor was rather culturally offensive, as everything was "African" and on a huge, extravagant scale. Considering the $400+/night rate, we didn't feel bad about a little free swim.

This was the most amazing vacation I've ever been on and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to see Victoria Falls and to meet so many great people and learn so much. I also got to add a bunch of new stamps to my almost-empty passport (now including Zim, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa) and to see bits and pieces of this part of the continent. It was really sad to leave, but school was calling, so we went home to Cape Town. And Cape Town does feel like home now, which is kind of funny to consider, and doing so also makes me wish I could stay longer than the next two months. It's hard to believe that's all the time I have left here. I also wish we could've stayed longer in Zimbabwe; it was a beautiful country and I felt instantly at home in Vic Falls. Maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to go back. I think I have really fallen in love with southern Africa and I hope I can return here after this semester is over.

[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!