Travelling on My Own

Undoubtedly, this has been my second best week of my semester in South Africa so far.

My week of travelling began at 6AM on Saturday when I took a taxi to the Cape Town airport. I had gotten to the airport a tad too early, but I did get through the security check very quickly. On the plane heading to Jo’burg, I leafed through the in-flight magazine and read an article on the lexicon of South African English. Currently, I’ve more or less taken this as a sign that, if I ever come back to South Africa for research purposes, I would indeed come back to study just that. Thesis-wise, I posit that South African English will one day become a national identifier in saying what makes a South African a South African, as exemplified by such words as ‘né,’ ‘bra/bru,’ and ‘braai.’ Moreover, I believe that words from both Afrikaans and the Nguni languages are infused through the lexicon (dictionary) of South African English, thus preserving the cultural nuances of these ethnic languages. Should these languages ever die out (which I would never hope for), they would to some extent still exist within the resistant-dominant English used in South Africa.

Within two hours, I arrived at the airport at Jo’burg and was picked up by Willy (pronounced ‘Villy’) from Diamond Diggers and returned to Diamond Diggers, the orientation site for our SIT programme. It was great to be back there, and I definitely felt accustomed to South Africa enough that I had very little fear in walking around the streets by Diamond Diggers by myself. That first night, I met two girls from London (who seemed to have brought potentially their entire DVD collection with them), a guy from London who has great plans for helping out kids either in Zimbabwe or South Africa (maybe both), and a guy from Paris. Due to the long day of travelling around (plus the incredible heat of Jo’burg), I just spent the day relaxing at Diamond Diggers, after taking a grocery trip at the nearby mall.

On Sunday, I went by myself to SOWETO to revisit Regina Mundi, a historically famous Catholic church. My only complaint of the day was the unset prices from Kensington (suburb of Jo’burg where Diamond Diggers is located) to SOWETO; as a result, it ended up being the second most expensive travel expense (the plane ticket cost about 200 rand more). Despite that, it was quite a moving experience, even more so than the first time I went there with our SIT group. I had expected the Mass to be in English, and was thus surprised to find myself at a completely Xhosa service. Thankfully I had been to Xhosa services before and was ready for the long service; thankfully the order of Mass is more or less standardised so I was able to follow along. After the service, I looked for the priest with the hope I could interview him; unfortunately he had a Zulu Mass to get ready for, so our interview will have to be via telephone. I was quite intrigued at that point what Regina Mundi as a parish is all about, as neither Xhosa or Zulu are mentioned on the Mass schedule on-line. In any case, I took a quick look around the church as Xhosa-speakers were leaving and Zulu-speakers were entering. Finally, I got to see the three things I had hoped to see the first time we went to the church: the Black Madonna up-close, the bullet holes in the ceiling and the handless Christ statue (the last two of which I had read about over the summer). [Towards the latter half of the apartheid years, gatherings of 10+ blacks were considered as conspiracies against the government and therefore banned. The only groups that were exempt from this were churches. Thus, people met in churches to talk politics, but under the guise and safety of spiritual gatherings. One day, out of contempt for God, etc., police forces stormed Regina Mundi, releasing tear gas canisters, shooting bullet holes in the ceilings and cutting off Christ's hands as if to say 'your God has no hands... who can save you now?' After the reconstruction of the church, people still continue to visit this historic site. You can still see bullet holes in the ceilings, left behind to remind people of what happened there. (ref. Yaw Perbi)] As I went closer to the statue of Christ, arms outstretched, I felt myself getting smaller and shrinking in the statue’s presence. It was indeed a chilling experience, but one that I had anticipated since I knew I would be coming to South Africa.

The next day, I planned to go to Pretoria and for 400 rand, was able to do so. By far, this was my most important research day, as I only had a span of about six hours to get to everything I wanted to do. Mandla, a Diamond Diggers driver got me safely to Pretoria and pointed out a few sites, especially given that he ‘s also a tour guide. My day in Pretoria started off with an interview with Archbishop George Daniel (he confirmed that he’s the same archbishop mentioned in the book I’m reading on the Sharpeville Six, They’re Burning the Churches; this book is perhaps the single text that steered me toward my current research topic). After the interview, I checked my voice recorder and one of the second worst things that could happen happened: my recorder stopped recording. Luckily, a good majority of the interview was on there. Leaving the Chancery, I headed for the Khanya House, the site of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. There, I met a very friendly and helpful woman, Anne, who invited me to come back and look through the archives should I need anymore information. I purchased the current collection of The Bishops Speak, which should have a lot of the ‘official’ opinions of the Catholic church on such issues as apartheid and language policy. Finally, I concluded my day in Pretoria with a visit to the National Cultural History Museum. The adult entrance fee is R20; the student entrance fee is R12, the difference of which I used to buy a very good ham and cheese grilled sandwich in the café. The museum was very easy to navigate and their was quite a bit to see for being a relatively small museum. The first exhibit I saw reminded me very much of my art history research last semester. Back at Diamond Diggers, I met the first wave of Americans outside the SIT programme, and ended the night watching a 90s version of Romeo and Juliette.

Tuesday morning, Emmanuel (the French guy) and I went to Sandton, the site of Nelson Mandela Square. We spent a good part of the day walking around Sandton and the nearby city of Sandowne?, checking out the architecture. All over the cities, snake-light sculptures could be found; it must be a great sight to see at night. Within our four-ish hours there, we went through three malls and an open-air market; the only thing I bought was food and airtime. J As I was cooking my dinner, I met the second wave of Americans. Later that evening, S.J. came to visit me at Diamond Diggers, as he lived nearby, ‘across the valley.’ After catching up over the past few days and talking about some of the most random things, I met his mom and they both went back home. As I was leaving Diamond Diggers the next day, I decided to sleep a bit early.

On Wednesday, I decided rather late to visit the cathedral in Jozie and got to the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King just in time. Afterwards, I went to the chancery and spoke to a few people about the language question and what this meant for the Church, particularly in Johannesburg. I was able to purchase an explanation of the Roman Missal and the response to it by the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. I find it quite important that there is indeed a great deal of work put into enculturation and inclusion of the ethnic communities within the standardized English service. I also saw, for the first time in-person, an Africanised crucifix, in the chancery. I then went to Park Station, where I soon got on the bus heading for Bloemfontein. The bus left for (and reached) Bloemfontein on-time (a six hour ride); at the station, I was greeted by taxi drivers ready to go; Gertjie drove me to the cathedral presbytery. I was greeted at the door by Fr. Leo, who showed me to my room (which was marked as reserved for Mark Arceno). Apart from my room in Stellenbosch, I think this may have been one of the biggest rooms I’ve had to myself. After a long day of activities and travelling, I slept quite well that night.

There was, however, a period of time when I couldn’t sleep and by the time I got back to sleep and woke up again, I realised I had missed breakfast. I eventually decided to get up and walk downstairs. In the dinner room, I met Carmel, a retired teacher from Ireland who came to South Africa with her family to volunteer to teach English at a Catholic school in Bloemfontein. I then met the cook and the parish secretary, followed by Carmel’s husband, Joe, who invited me to join them to see some lions. As I had nothing else to do that morning, I gratefully joined them. I met their youngest daughter, Aoife (a French and music major), and we went with one of the school drivers to pick up two Belgian priests, a young priest from Germany and the principal of the grade school, all of whom would be joining us on the mini-safari trip. It truly was a multilingual group! At the reserve park, we received the unfortunate news that the lions weren’t being fed that day. Nevertheless, we were able to see the three lionnesses relatively close-up (but still within our combi), followed by three cheetahs in a separate portion of the park, which were having a field day chowing down on some animal’s insides. After the ride, I got dropped off at the Waterfront, yet another mall I’ve come across during my journey. It was quite overwhelming and aside from food, I think I only spent R60. I then aimed to find the movie theatre but by the time I walked around the Rose Garden and picnic areas, I realised the theatre was only a few steps away from where I ate lunch and I was late for all of the movie showing. From there, then, I made my way back to the presbytery and took a bit of a nap when I got back. Later, I joined the Irish family, Fr. Leo and Fr. Nolan for dinner. Following the dinner, I was finally able to meet with Ananja, the youngest daughter of two of the host parents back in Stellenbosch. Maureen and I were supposed to have stayed with them, but eventually got resifted to different families. When I told them I would be Bloemfontein, they suggested I try and get in contact with Ananja and luckily everything worked out. Guided by Tommie, they found the presbytery and from there, Ananja and I went to the Euro Caffé at Mimosa Mall. It was quite an interesting experience going to a mall at night when all of the other shops were closed. Mimosa is closer in proximity to the University of the Free State, and thus the majority of the people in the mall were university students. Apparently, the mall itself is open from 9am to ‘late.’

On my last big day of travelling alone, I interviewed Fr. Leo and talked about religion, language, academia, and the like, for quite a bit of time. Of all the days, I would peg this one as the most informative days of research thus far. At half-12, Ananja and Tommie picked me up at the presbytery and took me to Oliewenhuis, perhaps the only art museum in the Free State of its kind. After looking through the galleries, we went to Vida E Caffe, where I had a great chilled chocolate drink and some dark chocolate. I then made it back in time for my interview with Mr. Brislin, S.J.’s uncle. I had another wonderful interview with him and now find myself having quite a bit to transcribe. Luckily, both of the day’s interviews were saved in their entirety. After doing a little packing following the interview, I went to the dining room to find that there wasn’t any actual dinner at the presbytery that evening. I came across the Irish family again, and they invited me to join them. As soon as we got out of the taxi, I found out that it was Joe’s birthday. They definitely were too kind to let me join in on his celebratory day. We ended up eating at Spur, and talked about religion, identity, ethnicity, nationalism, language, and the rest of that lot, inevitably coming to the decision that it’s all so very complicated. Indeed, it is, and that’s why I love research in those areas! At the end of the dinner, two further signs of Irish generosity came through my meal being paid for as an Irish treat (despite the fact that it was Joe’s birthday to begin with), followed by the luck of the Irish in finding a ring that I had dropped during dinner. Back at the presbytery, we exchanged e-mails and then I was off to the bus station to head back to Cape Town. While I waited for the bus to arrive, Gertjie, the guy who drove me to the presbytery two nights ago, found me sitting in the indoor café, remembered me, and after a few (positive) verbal exchanges, was off to wait for another taxi run. I’m now back at Cape Town at Kolbe House, nearly fifteen hours later, finishing up this blog entry.

This has been one of my best weeks so far this semester.

Hyuu! It's work time!

I'm quite frustrated with myself that I wasn't able to keep up a set of proper journal entries, but these past few weeks have flown by so fast! We had spent a week in the Bo Kaap with the so-called "Coloured" population and, unfortunately, much of my time was spent studying and writing up my capstone assignment on monolingualism and the Catholic Church. Coincidentally (?), my ISP research is on multilingualism and the Catholic Church. At the end of our stay, we mvoed to our new ISP homes, for me, the first of many homes.

It's been an awesome experience for this first week, though I must say that much of it has felt more like a time of retreat than anything else. My first location was Kolbe House, the Catholic Chaplaincy at UCT, where I met some of the most amazing people I've come across so far in South Africa. Many aren't originally from here, so it was cool to learn about their cultures and how they try to navigate their identities within South Africa. I really formed some great friendship there that I hope to continue for a while; I feel that my connections with Kolbe are currently so strong that a return to South Africa in the near-future doesn't feel to be out of the question. When I go back home, there'll definitely be many stories to share about Kolbe, among some of them being my attempt at dredlocks, my voyage to Rhodes Memorial, my alien encounters and Hillsong.

A LLOONNGG UPDATE

4 October 2008

Well, we’ve now reached the point in the journey when it’s time to leave Langa. Yesterday, I said a temporary good-bye to my host family (as we’ll be returning for two nights in mid-October) and left with the rest of my classmates and Nomawethu to Tschabo, a rural village near the cities of Berlin and East London. As we drove past the cities and began getting deeper and deeper into wooded areas, it really hit me that we’re really in South Africa. We passed the hills to our left and those in our van began to sing and dance to African/spiritual music. With this in mind, we pulled in front of Nowawe High School and were enthusiastically greeted by our homestay mamas, their hands waving in the air and giant smiles on their faces; for me, at least, it was a rather emotional experience of utter joy and happiness. They were definitely as excited (if not even more so) as us to begin the rural homestay.

After introducing ourselves and meeting the homestay mamas, we soon departed to our new homes for the upcoming week. Rather than go into the homestay alone, we were all told that we would sign ourselves up in pairs. Back in Rondebosch, Collin and I sign up as a homestay pair and I couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out so far. Of the many things to get used to, language communication has perhaps been one of the most difficult yet most important. In the rural villages, especially, families are highly proficient in one language, and in our case, Xhosa. When we got to the house, we met one of Mama’s grandsons, Thembi. To my amazement, he spoke to us in very good English and was able to show us around Tschabo and help us to get oriented with daily life in Tschabo. One of the things I quickly had to get oriented to was the use of the outhouse, a cultural experience on its own special level. In actuality, it’s not too bad; it also doesn’t hurt that the cattle and goats are nearby. We also met Luto, a nearby neighbour who has been equally helpful with the transition to Tschabo.

On our walk around Tschabo, the four of us (Collin, Luto, Thembi and I) stopped by the houses of many of our classmates and after about an hour or so of walking, we made our way to an open field for a pick-up game of soccer. When we got back, around 6:30p, we went back outside to help bring in the cattle and goats. The sun was getting ready to set and it gracefully illuminated the surrounding villages; it was such a wonderful sight. It was equally as cool to see Thembi directing the cattle back to the house. With a single word and a few hand gestures, as if mechanically, the cattle made their way back home without further instruction to do so. Back into the house, perhaps a little after 7pm, we all ate dinner, with Thembi’s grandfather and his grandfather’s cousin. (Some time before then, Collin, Luto, Thembi and I watched sang some songs and watched a few Mariah Carey music videos, one of which Collin and Luto danced to). After dinner, Collin and I presented our homestay gifts, the response to one of the gifts (a boxed set of fifty games) being a request to teach them how to play the games (Mama really liked the Target bag). We soon got ready for bed and brushed our teeth outside. Back in the house, Collin went to sleep as I taught Thembi how to play Bingo in the kitchen. We were all asleep by 11-ish.

At 6:30am, the rooster began to crow… and crow he did for about an hour and a half, signalling me to finally get up. For the first time, I tasted porridge, the consistency of which I seem to be having some trouble getting down. After, I washed up in a basin (something I can’t recall ever doing), but faced the question as to how I should wash my hair. I finally decided to go outside and wash my hair directly under the tap; Maureen and Hayley just happened to walk right on by as I was getting ready to wash my hair, and as I was doing so, Maureen took pictures of « An American Washing His Hair » (or something to that effect). The pictures turned out pretty well. After I finished getting ready for the day, I went into the kitchen and found Mama kneading some dough. She was making fat cakes and pan cakes. I finally figured out how to properly say Ndingakunceda?, and in response to my inquiry, she let me help her cook the fat cakes. Unsurprisingly, the fat cakes reminded me of the States, as they tasted just like beignets, only without the powdered sugar on top.

Everyone met at the school at 10a to talk to Mr. Yaka, our homestay coordinator in Tschabo. For about two hours fifteen, we asked him various questions regarding rural life in Tschabo. Afterwards, we walked down to Dongwe, a neighbouring village, and the homestay site for four of our group. We went to one of the houses and greeted everyone in the one-room, six-cornered house. After stepping out for a bit to visit a pair of our classmates’ house, we returned to watch a ritual that was part of a continued ceremony for the slaughtering of an ox (the meat of the ox hadn’t finished cooking when we first got there). We sat on a hill overlooking the kraal, which was later explained to me that the kraal was considered holy ground and accessible to only the immediate members of the family that owned the house. We sat next to a group of women, a few of which were amagqirha, as denoted by their face paintings, and who sang as part of the ritual out of the house to the kraal. There, we joined in on the feast and (I didn’t expect to say this, but) the ox tasted REALLY good; it was perhaps the best tasting meat I’ve had since I’ve been here, and I’ve had some great-tasting meat in South Africa.

On the way back home, I found myself trailing behind and talked with Mr. Yaka about the bit of ceremony we witnessed, Xhosa spirituality and Christianity, and his faith. It was such a wonderful discussion that what was a 20-30 minute walk from Dongwe ended up being a personal, one hour-ish long question-and-answer session. Tomorrow, I’m planning on visiting him to continue our discussion of the parallels between African (though, specifically Xhosa) spirituality and Christianity (interesting how this fits nicely into my research, eh?).

When we got back, Collin and I watched Gremlins, which is perhaps one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, while Mama did her beadwork. Yesterday, she had been working on it and said that we would be making our own on Monday (can’t wait!). While we watched the movie, we tried the pan cakes that Mama made earlier in the day which seriously tasted like pan de sal. It was so good and once again reminded me of home; we ate the bread with creamy peanut butter that added to its overall goodness. We then watched the end of Survivor and began playing chess. Midway through our game, Amy, Jenny and Jess came over for a brief visit with their sisis. We ate more pan cakes and after they left, Collin and I finished our game. In the end, I won the first game and he the second game. We then took a bit of a break and, listening to songs from American Idol and Across the Universe, got caught up with our journals. After a while, Mama told us that dinner was ready and we ate some great tasting umngqusho. As we attempted to finish the huge bowl of it, we watched a great Bernie Mac movie. Collin also received his Xhosa name, Zolani (« guy with no troubles »).

Tomorrow’s another day, and who knows what’ll happen. Still on the agenda are a church service and potentially getting my hair braided.

5 October 2008

Well, I suppose I shall cut away the suspense and say that I was unable to get my hair braided today. However, I was able to attend a church service.

Today, Brittney, Ebony, Hayley, Kelsi, Lara, Maureen, Mike, Nate and I, along with Mike and Nate’s Mama, went to Tschabo 1 to celebrate a Zionist service. To get there, our Tata drove all of us, as well as a few others, (15 in total - I ended up sitting on Mike’s lap) to Tschabo 1. The service was a very interesting and welcoming experience for me, one which I really got into. (The ride over wasn’t so bad either, haha.)

We all got there about twenty after ten, and the service started about a quarter after eleven. The service was held within a single-roomed house structure, and the light blue traditional uniforms worn by the Church members signalled that they’re Zionist, the church of which blends African spirituality and Christianity. In total, the Zionists made up a little over fifty percent of us that were present. They prayed and read in Xhosa and interestingly enough (as noted in my first interview for my mini-ISP), they spoke in English in order to make sure that we understood what was going on and that we felt comfortable and welcome. From what I gathered, they read three readings followed by a gospel reading, each one distinguished by a different song/response. There were essentially three major symbols constantly present: a lighted candle, a large drum, and a circle (kept in tact as we circumscribed the house). We were later explained that, after the gospel reading (which I think was from Luke’s writing), different people from the church were taking turns explaining the meaning of the gospel (the story of which was the tax collector who climbed the tree to see Jesus), rather than having one person interpreting the story’s meaning. After the first hour, I was getting quite tired and, soon, I recognised that the music was taking over my body. This got me thinking about the notes I had written about in terms of the power of music I experienced both in the Catholic and Methodist churches in Langa. At 2pm, the service finished and we went outside where most (if not all) asked different people to take their photos. They offered us some refreshments and, by 2:30, we left. However, instead of Tata picking us up, we found ourselves walking back to Tshabo 2. It was a scenic walk, but one that took us an hour to complete.

Afterwards, Collin and I went to Dyana’s house to see if I could get my hair braided. They were finishing Elisabeth’s hair, but were then off to go back home to a neighbouring (but relatively far) village. We played « cellphones » (as opposed to Spoons) and, as the light rain came down, Collin and I left to get back home.

When we got home, we met Mama’s sons and daughters, as well as their children.

Before we all went to sleep, our new sisi, Zandile (who also has a three-month-old baby) asked Collin and I questions about our lives in the States.

10 October 2008

I’m currently writing from Buccaneers, a backpacking resort existing in a world highly separated from Tshabo. Before I continue writing about this place, here’s a brief summary of our remaining time in Tshabo:

Monday: Standing in light rain and cold wind (it really felt like I was back in the States experiencing usual weather for the this time of the year), Mr. Yaka talked to us about the paprika cooperative in place in Tshabo. In the afternoon, we all met at Brittney and Lara’s house (to be soon called the « Bead House ») to bead with our host mamas. At 8pm, Collin and I joined the rest of the family in watching Generations. Collin and I played a tie-breaker game to our chess series, which eventually ended up in a stalemate.

Tuesday: We were divided into two groups to visit different schools. The group I went with went to Nowawe High School. The nine of us there further split ourselves up into three groups of three, allowing us to collectively see more of the school. Our biggest challenge, however, was the fact that our timing brought us to the school a day after its opening from holiday and the end of a marking period. With that said, we were unable to really witness how teachers actually teach their students. Instead, we were able to speak to students about their daily life in school and within the rural setting. In one classroom, Amy, Yana and I found ourselves teaching economics to one of the classes (bearing in mind that I was the only one out of the three of us that actually took an economics class). Amy and Yana utilised logic and patterns while I tried to figure out what the acronyms on a problem we were working on stood for. In the end, all three of us worked together to fill in a part of a problem that looks as if it was part of an AP Economics exam. What confused me, however, was why it seemed that none of the stuff in the problem appeared in the text the students were using. This specific problem, as well as the others in the set, were from the East London mathematics matric preparation booklet; the resource materials the students have do not appear to really help the students with their final exam. With that said, I can only hope that it’s the teachers that make up for what the texts lack. After the schools visit, we went back home for lunch, followed by a school debriefing, which in turn was followed by a good-bye dinner cooked by all of the host mamas. The food was excellent as always and it was such a great way to end our rural homestay experience. The kids danced and sang for us while we waited for the food to be done cooking and, towards the end, they sang the National Anthem.

Right before the school debriefing, one of Zandile’s friends came to the house saying she was there to braid my hair. Unfortunately, I had to ask her to come back later, as I needed to be at the debriefing session. When we got home after the dinner and 8pm rolled by, I didn’t think she would come. We all watched Generations and, at 8:30pm, I heard someone say « I’m here to braid your hair now ». I was a little surprised that she was there; there was no turning back. I sat in the chair and she immediately got to braiding. I must say that the pain wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, except for whenever she would have to braid shorter strands (she had to pull tight in order to make sure they would braid correctly). While she was braiding my hair, Tata was explaining some Xhosa family history to Collin and every now and then Collin would distract me from the dulling pain I was feeling. After one and a half / two hours, Zandile’s friend finished. Although I wasn’t in pain, it felt as though either my entire scalp was bleeding or a hand was resting on my head tightly. In actuality, neither was true, and it looked pretty cool, especially as the hair wasn’t in straight, parallel cornrows.

Wednesday: We said our first set of final good-byes by 10 o’clock and made our way over to the Bead House (which also happened to be the site of our good-bye dinner) for an oral rural homestay debriefing, followed by a few rounds of good-byes to the families that have taken such wonderful care of us over these past few days. We then got on the road to Vincent to see a paper-making cooperative that was slowly but surely becoming its own business. After a brief explanation of the paper-making process, many of us took turns sieving and pressing some paper pulp into A4-size sheets of paper (some of which ended up looking as thick as cake bases). Next, we went to a mall where we were able to get some shopping done (I finally found a rain jacket I liked, but let’s see how much I use it now that it’s beginning to feel like summer here). At 3:30pm, we made our way to Buccaneers.

Buccaneers really is a world apart. When the guide books said this was one of the best backpackers’ lodges, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What we got was an awesome location for what we would soon find out is our « vacation ». I’ve been on this adventure with my classmates for six weeks now and so SIT thought it best for us to really have some downtime before getting back into the groove of academia. While this certainly has been a wonderful experience, I still can’t help but remain cognisant of the world we left a few days ago. Very few, if any at all, from Tshabo will ever get to experience this place.

For me, Buccaneers reminds me a bit of the Philippines landscape (whether this is true or not is up to interpretation), but in any case, I really do like it here. On our first night, we all had a burger night dinner and Ebony, Elisabeth and I watched Generations together, as well as the copious amount of news surrounding the worldwide economic crisis. Before all of that, eleven of us played tag football on the beach; prior to that, Mike decided it would be a fun idea for him to swim in the Indian Ocean for a bit. After dinner, I was able to get online and found out that I am accepted to the Paris internship programme for next semester; now all I need to do is just balance my life in SA with preparation for France… that’ll be fun.

Yesterday, I woke up at 6am without an alarm clock and went outside hoping to catch the sunrise. To my surprise, however, the sun was already fully up. I ran on the beach for a bit and went back to the lodge to sleep. At 8:30am, I had a wonderful breakfast, soon followed by what I hope to be a successful final oral exam in Xhosa. For lunch, Ebony, Elisabeth and I made our way across the beach to a tucked away restaurant where I had a chicken Caesar salad and one of the best milkshakes I have had in South Africa to date. Apparently, though, we didn’t follow the usual path to get to the restaurant but thankfully we were able to utilise our Xhosa to ask some women how to get there. We made our way back to Buccaneers after lunch when I soon began to not feel so well (I’m thinking it may have been because of some jelly beans I ate, as the others who had salad were perfectly fine). I took what I think was an hour and a half long nap, only to find myself still not feeling that great. Last night was Mexican night and I barely ate anything (though the dessert was excellent), while watching Generations with an even bigger group of us (Collin, Dyana, Ebony, Elisabeth, Kelsi, Jenny and I, if I remember correctly). I went to sleep shortly thereafter.

Today, I woke up feeling great and ready to tackle the day. I started off with an Internet update, followed by a yoga class with Elisabeth. I definitely found myself not as flexible as yoga would like me to be, but thankfully I was able to get some yoga time in. Annie, the yoga instructor, really helped me out in getting the form as correct as my body would allow, and explained each step well. Apparently, though, the horseback riding that was scheduled for quarter to ten was actually scheduled for quarter to nine. With me not feeling so good yesterday, I didn’t catch the time change and held back the others from riding. The horseback riding leader, Penny, finally found me at the yoga class at 9:30am, and she drove me and Ebony to where the others (the volunteers and another rider) were waiting for us. With everything then settled, I « signed my life away », was given a helmet and told I would be riding Fat Freddie. Today, however, Fat Freddie isn’t so fat, as he has lost a little over 50kgs. Given this was my first actually riding lesson, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, regardless of how fat my horse was.

As I would soon find out, there’s a lot of drama amongst the horses, to the point that Freddie can’t be next to certain horses or would prefer to be by others. At one point, he didn’t want to be by any horses. I was also told that Freddie likes to go off the regular path, so I would be getting a lot of practice with steering. Freddie also happened to be apparently constipated the first half of the ride so it was difficult to steer him. With all of this, plus his later temper tantrums, this was to be a horse ride I don’t plan on forgetting for a while.

One of the first things I learned was how to steer, especially given Freddie’s condition. For what I think was about forty-five minutes, the horses slowly walked their way to the beach. At one point, we went down a steep decline and began walking on slabs of rocks to get to the beach. As we walked along the beach, we were able to see some wonderful views of the water and I felt comfortable enough to take my camera out for some pictures while riding. We then switched over to trotting and I soon found the importance of having proper form while doing so. With no one in sight, we attempted to cantor, yet with Freddie’s weird behaviour, he refused to do so. Penny said that while other horses were behind him, he wouldn’t cantor. Soon with no one behind me, Freddie broke into a trot and then a cantor and I quickly found the rhythm I needed. (Haha, now I just needed to find the courage to go along with that.) On our way to the half-way point, we saw some of the girls relaxing on the beach, and on our way back, we saw the guys getting ready to do some canoeing.

Passing the guys, we made our way up a huge hill and at one point had to trot in order to get up a steep incline. Towards the very end, we all broke into a final cantor up the hill. Throughout the whole portion of the second half, I had to fight the fear of looking down and realising that one slip of Freddie’s foot could potentially send us down the hill. Yet, in the end, it was a wonderful experience to be able to have traversed the beach and get up the hill on horseback. I wasn’t as scared as I thought I would be, especially not knowing what to expect. Penny was a really great guide, and Rachel and Pauline, two of the visiting volunteers, were wonderfully supportive.

After Penny and the others put all of the equipment away and brought the horses to their different pastures, Penny drove Ebony and I back to Buccaneers. (On a side note, Penny, her sister and their mother currently take care of 37 horses.) I went back to the lodge and took a shower, and then went to have lunch, where I soon met Joe. He had driven from Cape Town since yesterday and arrived a few hours prior. Tonight is braai night and surely another good episode of Generations awaits. Tomorrow, we begin our trek for Durban.

15 October

We finally arrived in Durban a few days ago, after two days on the road from Cintsa. A little over midway through the van ride, we stopped at an off-the-road inn outside of Kokstad’s city center. We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner and a great breakfast (with lots of bacon) in the morning. After dinner, a group of us watched the fifth Harry Potter movie and then went to bed. The guys ended up shoving all of our beds into one room, one that reminded me so much of my godparents’ home.

On Sunday, we got to Surf ‘n Dreams, our home lodge while in Durban. After a group of us helped Tabisa do the grocery shopping for the days to follow, the group dropped me off at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The Mass was amazing-- multiculturalism at its best. I think I was particularly excited for the service for two reasons, reasons I discovered as soon as I stepped into the Church. First, I found out that the 5:30pm service was the teen service (I later found out that a basis of the service comes from the States, via Life Teen). Undoubtedly with the aid of a worship band, it ended up having a rather contemporary feel to it and reminded me of services back home. Second, I noticed the multiculturalism right off the bat and further realised that my experiences in previous churches over the past few weeks have been almost exclusively mono-ethnic, mono-linguistic. Of the entire Mass, I really enjoyed the priest’s homily, in which he incorporated elements of basic Catholic teaching surrounding aspects of the Bible. He asked the congregation how many books of the Bible exist in each testament (46 in the old, 27 in the new), and stated that the purpose of the Bible is to provide commentary on values and instructions on living morally, not to act as a scientific text nor as a concrete historical timeline. Following the priest’s homily was an interesting presentation by the youth minister of the parish. Following the service, I went to Debonair’s pizza for dinner and came back to the lodge.

The following day, we left to go to the same building that the SIT Durban class has their courses. We had a seminar on the basic history of Indians in South Africa and then visited the Cato Manor memorial. Afterwards, we went to a family-run Hindu temple, then had a bunny chow (extremely spicy, by the way) at an Indian restaurant, and made our way to what used to be (since last year) the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere. After an excellent tour of the mosque and explanations of Islamic practice in South Africa and around the world, we were introduced to the Indian market across the street. While everyone checked the market out, Tabisa walked with me to what I found out to be Emmanuel Cathedral, the cathedral of the archdiocese of Durban. It was a beautiful cathedral and reminded me of cathedrals and churches back home. I went to the main office, where I received contact information for my projects and later research. Following our day’s travels, we went back to Surf ‘n Dreams. Soon after, Collin and I went to Spar to get some dinner.

On Tuesday, we went to Howard College, a division of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. There, we had a great lecture discussion on race and how it plays out in terms of Indian and Black identity, particularly given the KZN context. We had lunch on campus and then made our way back to the Durban classroom. Unfortunately, our guest lecturer who was to talk to us about Bollywood and its influences in South Africa could not make it to the lecture (as a result of some miscommunication). Instead, we went to perhaps one of the worst places for me to go (in actuality, it was so great): the Pavilion, one of the largest mall complexes I have ever seen. Naturally, I did quite a bit of spending, but really got items that I had already planned on getting (somewhat surprisingly at a cheaper price!). We returned to Surf ‘n Dreams afterwards. Collin, Ebony, Elisabeth and I then went to a place called Something Fishy where we had an enjoyable dinner. At the Pavillion, I bought a travel chess set for R10, and Collin and I followed up dinner with a game. At the conclusion of the game, Collin ended up tying our series 2-2-2.

Wednesday hit and so too did I really feel the mosquito bites I had accrued over the past few days. Thanks to my anti-itch cream purchase the evening prior, I feel quite a bit better for a consistent period of time. Today, we went back to the Durban classroom where we had an amazing lecture discussion, followed by another spicy lunch at Bayflats. There, we spent the afternoon discussing community activism. When we got back to the backpackers’, Tabisa and I convinced each other to go to the African market at the Stables; essentially, this particular timing was an outdoor, evening market, with individual shops located within old horse stables. I found a few things on my list of must-bring-back-home-things. When I thought I had finished shopping, Tabisa came up to Joe, Martin and I and very enthusiastically told us about a great find on her part: past curriencies both in bill and coin form. Martin, Tabisa and I took a look at the great collection, and I ended up getting a first issue apartheid one rand note and a set of three franc notes. After the market, we all went to a place called Spur’s where we ordered some take away (or rather, take-out in the States). Today’s been a great day.

22 October

Oh my goodness! I LOVE Stellenbosch! And, haha, I’ve been here for less than 24 hours. But first, a bit of an update on days prior:

After our stay in Durban, we made our way a few hours north to Isinkwe, which greatly reminded me of a set from Survivor. Collin and I stayed in a blue-box-type room in the middle of the Isinkwe backpacker grounds. Everyone had great meals and saw five bush babies which we consequently named after each of the guys, and continued our animal sightings on our safari ride at Isinkwe National Park. Along the way, we saw, among others, white rhinos, giraffes, springbok, zebra, etc.… Unfortunately, we didn't see any elephants (but we smelled and heard them!).

The following day, we made our way back down to Durban where we flew back to Cape Town. Upon landing, we collected our bags and travelled to Langa to stay with our homestay families for the weekend. On Monday, we went back to our Rondebosch classroom and, after a group 2 processing session, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Within that free period, I finally got the chance to meet with my ISP advisor, Neville Alexander. He was immensely helpful and I’m excited to work with him on my project. Back at home, I tried cooking crêpes for my host family and, after about an hour and a half of trying, finally got them to work. Tuesday, we then made our way to the beautiful town of Stellenbosch.

23 October

Yesterday, I met my Stellenbosch family, at the wine and cheese party that followed a day of orientation to Stellenbosch. I have a host mom and dad, as well as five host siblings, each of whom have wonderfully bright and enthusiastic personalities. They’re also more of a organic/as raw-as-possible family so I can already tell that I’ll really be able to see (and hopefully get used to) how healthy eating and living is played out in reality.

After the initial meet-and-greet, we drove to the house where I was introduced to the family dog (a golden retriever) and then shown my room (which seems more like a one-person flat, and in so many respects, better than most hotel rooms in the States). As Liesl (the mom) was preparing dinner, I continued my long day of chess games by playing a game with Paul (the middle child). After the family prayer (which unlike I’ve seen in the States the children were eager to be the one who prayed--weird English sentence construction, I know), we enjoyed a very colourful garden salad with lettuce fresh from their garden (the space of which I must say I’m a tad bit jealous) and couscous with even more vegetables for dinner. This evening, we had salad again, along with spaghetti with fresh basil, tomatoes and cheese. Pietr (the dad) and Andre (the second to youngest and perhaps the one with the cutest mischievous smile I’ve ever seen) had a good helping of garlic to go along with their pasta.

In the morning, I left the house at quarter past 8 with Pietr; he dropped me off at the University of Stellenbosch’s Botanical Garden on his way to work. Unfortunately, our « classroom » got double booked, so we then moved to a classroom in the U.S. (i.e. Univ. of Stellenbosch) art department. There, we had two sessions (totalling a combined period of about 3-3.5 hours) on Afrikaner history. Following the lectures, I made my way to the student centre to find a fax machine; the rest of the afternoon was ours for lunch, research, exploring and so forth. I luckily found a great Internet centre and spent about two hours, most of the time spent catching up on life abroad, as well as checking up on my e-mails.

When I got back home from classes, Daniel (the eldest) greeted me and showed me all of the stuff he built (with some extra help here and there), which included a wooden canon, the start of a chariot and a ladder. He’s also got a garden and is finishing up a door to it. As he and the others rarely watch TV, he definitely shows many signs of huge potential and awesome imagination. He’s also very entrepreneurial (he bakes his own bread on Fridays to sell at the markets the following day; he’s saving up money for, among other things, three horses and wood so that he can build his tree house). Along the tour of the backyard and garden plots, Nikola (the only daughter and second eldest) showed me her ballet moves. Neil is the youngest and is five months old. Before dinner, we watched what I think is The Swan Princess, part 2. I didn’t know such a movie existed. Unfortunately, we had to stop halfway for dinner, and between breaks as I was talking to Pietr and Liesl (and obviously not finishing my food as quickly), Paul kept telling me in Afrikaans to eat quickly. Even more unfortunately, I didn’t finish in time and so, the kids finished the movie without me. I’ll have to see the end some time; I missed out on it but in exchange, saw how Pietr makes homemade, healthy chocolate (more of an experimental approach) and how Liesl makes rusk (quite scientific and exact)… not too bad of a trade-off.

2 November 2008

HYUU! I was thinking I was going to sit down and write a short entry, but then I saw that it’s been more than a week since I’ve written anything. So, first a very brief summary of some Stellenbosch highlights:

1) I went with one of my homestay family’s neighbours to St. Mark’s, one of three area Catholic churches (two in Stellenbosch, one in the neighbouring township, Kayamundi). Later in the evening, I went with another neighbour to the University of Stellenbosch student service of the Dutch Reformed Church. As students were gearing up to write their exams and would not be in school over the Christmas holiday, the service was focused on Advent. In some respects, it was a bit of a sad service, as it reminded me of the shortening time I have in South Africa. Beyond that, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The student service was run half-way between a Cru and Chapel service, and the contemporary music undoubtedly brought me back to great times at Albion. Though the service was majority Afrikaans-spoken/-sung, the songs were rather familiar to me, as they were Advent/Christmas-related. After the service, I interviewed our neighbour on his involvement in the DRC.

2) We visited the Taal Memorial, a monument dedicated to the Afrikaans language. It was built in 1975, just one year prior to the SOWETO uprisings. There has been some controversy surrounding it, but the reality remains that it stands as a testament to the power of the Afrikaans language, given South Africa’s history.

3) Following a trip to an organic farm, perhaps one of the biggest highlights of our Stellenbosch visit was our visit to a local wine estate. Though it isn’t one of the more well known estates, it’s nevertheless huge and gorgeous. We tried many of the estate’s wines coupled with a great lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon sipping our wines and sitting under the shade overlooking the grape trees.

4) Nicola turned 7 and had a carrot cake birthday cake in the shape of a mouse (think « Angelina Ballerina »). Liesl also made a delicious chocolate cake for the adults.

5) I played chess with Daniel, Nicola and Paul, each at least once a day every day I was in Stellenbosch; Daniel beat me once. I was told by the kids on my last night there that I must play many games with all of them, as it was indeed my last night there. Following this day of games, I spent about 1,5 hours showing my host family pictures and sharing stories of my journey so far in South Africa.

I’ll be visiting my Stellenbosch host family again around Thanksgiving time.

Following our week in Stellenbosch, we spent a night at Sunflower and then two nights at Mountain Manor, both of which are backpacker lodges. At Mountain Manor, I met and spoke in French to the Cameroonian employee, who also happened to graduate from the same university as one of my French professors. I also watched Rafael Nadal beat Gael Monfils on the tele- excellent match.

After moving out of Mountain Manor, we made our way to the Bo Kaap, the traditionally Muslim area comprised of the ‘so-called Coloured’ population (during the apartheid era). My host family here is great, bringing me to 4/4 wonderful families throughout this period of travelling. I also feel fortunate to have even more cultural integration here, as there is also a student from Saudi Arabia and two from Brazil, all of whom are here to study English. On my first night at the Bo Kaap, my host family and Faisal (the one from Saudi Arabia) went to the District 6 Reunion, a three-day event principally sponsored by the Muslim radio station that especially welcomes all those who used to live in District 6, before the government forced everyone to move out. It was a great experience as people across racial and lingual lines gathered together in this space in Epping. There were numerous market-type stalls, company booths, music venues and food stands. Today, I made my way over to the Catholic cathedral in Cape Town, St. Mary’s Cathedral; twelve students celebrated their First Holy Communion and the choirs and singers were especially great additions to the service.

And now, perhaps two of the most exciting things (that perhaps only I may think are exciting) that have happened recently:

1) I saw ‘High School Musical 3: Senior Year’ today! And AAAAAAAAGGGHHH! I think it’s absolutely amazing. Just enough cheeziness and wonderful music, singing and dancing to go along with it. There were multiple times when I forgot I was in a movie theatre and not watching a live play; my host brother also told me that I laughed too much. Oh, and ps/ the movie ticket only cost 29,5 ZAR and my popcorn-pop-Astro kiddie combo was only 20 ZAR. Hmmm… a movie and treats for about 5 USD? Yeah, I wouldn’t mind going again, haha.

2) On Friday, we had our two ‘heavy hitters’ to end our formal lecture series. The second lecturer was Zimitri Erasmus, a senior UCT lecture; the first was my ISP advisor, Neville Alexander. After the lectures, I went to UCT to have my second meeting with NA. My interview questions are currently undergoing revision following his suggestions, and am very glad that he took to liking my introduction. We continued talking about different contacts for interview purposes and, with only a few days to go until the ISP portion of this study abroad experience begins, I feel quite comfortable in the position I’m in, as well as how this all fits into my Honors thesis. Following my meeting with him, I went down to check out my accommodation site for the first third of my ISP, the Catholic chaplaincy at UCT. At this point, I have much of my itinerary and logistics settled, am currently finishing off my ISP proposal and will soon begin writing up my capstone assignment. Hyuu, so much to do now!

Until next time,
MA