First week of classes

Here's what I’ve been up to the last week or so (except for today- that’ll be for next week).
After the beach on Saturday I went to mass at the church I can see from my balcony with a few other students. It made me smile that it’s called Corpus Christi, just like my church back in Roseville. While the church layout and service wasn’t just like home, I was able to follow along just fine. The priest (Father Noel- still has an Irish accent after many years of living here) was very happy to see us- when he shook our hands after mass he asked each of us (and a few other younger people in the congregation) if we were one of the American students. When I replied yes he said he’d guessed so because of my American smile. I’m not exactly sure how my smile is instantly recognisable as “American”, but I know it’s big & can be infectious, so I hope he meant it in a good way. That night we went to a traditional South African braai. While the food took a long time to cook, it ended up being delicious. Our hosts were very welcoming and I enoyed talking to some native South Africans about their country.
On Sunday I woke up early to go watch Nikki, one of my flatmates, swim in a open water race taking place on one of the nearby beaches. It was actually quite a cool morning and it rained a bit as well (I felt downright cold in my capris and t-shirt!), but I was happy to be a part of the group there supporting her. There were a few kids swimming in the race from a local swim club- whlile they did’t win or anything, I was super impressed since I’m not even sure if I could have swum the 1 or 2 km in the large waves when I was on my high school swim team! Some of the people organizing the race were a little confused when they found outNikki was from America (you came all the way to South Africa to swim this race?), but they figured it out when she explained she was studying here for the semester. Nikki even got interviewed- the interview might have been shown on tv some time & place, but since we don’t really get many channels in our flat we didn’t get to watch it.
That afternoon the whole group went to a football (soccer) match. The temps had increased a bunch since the morning so now I was hot. In about a 10 minute walk we reached the stadium the local team shares with the local rugby team. The security before we got in was intense- several group members got patted down and all our bags were thouroughly searched. When a guard discovered my metal water bottle, he refused to let it in- containers are not allowed in because they could be used as weapons by a rioting crowd. After explaining to him that I really wanted the bottle back after the game, he agreed to hold it for me until the end of the game- I could come and retreive it from him 10 minutes before the end of the game. Still slightly nervous about getting my bottle back after the game, I proceeded into the stadium. The football match wasn’t that exciting. The local team was ranked in the bottom 4 in a league of 12 and the game seemed to drag. The crowd wasn’t as Friday’s cricket crowd- although this might have been due to the lack of available alcohol and the fact this was a Sunday afternoon, not a Friday night. The crowd was almost entirely blacks (the cricket crowd was a little mixed, but probably majority white) and we stuck out.
A few minutes before the end of the game I left with a friend to try and find the security officer. We almost walked right by him on the way out, but he had my water bottle and all was well. While Brooke and I were sitting on the curb outside the stadium waiting for the rest of the group to come out, a police officer approached us and asked us why two white girls were sitting here. We explained that we were waiting for the rest of the group to come out. He started chatting with us about why we were in South Africa and what we thought of it so far. While he seemed friendly, I thought it was a bit of a strange conversation to be having with a random police officer. Eventually he wandered away and soon after that the rest of the group came out. The local team ended up loosing the game. That night I went out to a local jazz club to listen to some South Africa jazz. The place was quite full and had a good atmosphere. To me it didn’t sound much like jazz- I guess I was expecting something along the lines of early American jazz or the jazz club I went to in Kansas city last spring, but it was pleasant to listen to.
We all woke up early Monday morning since we were supposed to go to Pendla primary school, our other option for our service work, for a welcoming ceremony by the children. We got down to the parking lot of the flats only to discover after a good half hour of waiting that “the combis and taxis aren’t running today”. In South Africa, that means the combi drivers are on strike. Our director informed us that there had been talk of a strike for at least a week (supposedly people were expecting it to occur Thursday or Friday of last week). He wasn’t sure of all the reasons why the drivers were striking, but it is something to do with the government’s plan to institute a better public transit service for the country. If more buses become available for people to use, the combis will loose business. He thought the strike probably wouldn’t last more than one or two days, three at most, since the combi drivers can’t afford to not have any income for a longer period of time. While our group wasn’t going to take a combi to Pendla, the vans we were renting from a private service look like combis. The owner of the company decided for the safety of his employees not to run his combi-like vans (crowds might attack them since they were breaking the strike).
Gary, Vilma (our co-director of the program who is living in Port Elizabeth with her family for the semester), and a private taxi service (whose vehicles don’t look like combis) shuttled us to campus for our afternoon class. We had a bit of time before our class so a bunch of us went up to the library to try and get our ID cards activated so we could enter the computer lab (only NMMU students can enter the lab). Upon entering the libraray we discovered that the system for activating our cards was down. By this point we were all a bit frustrated at things not working as planned, but we’re getting used to a little slower pace of life here. Thankfully my schedule here isn’t as busy as it was last semester on campus, so I don’t have to worry too much about sitting around waiting sometimes. When we finally got in to the computer lab (sick of all the students knocking at the door asking to come in to the computer lab, someone had just stuck a chair in the handicap entrance) and started our accounts, we discovered the internet speed wasn’t quite what we were used to at CSB/SJU. I think I’ll be able to adapt fine, but it takes a lot of time for all our picture filled e-mails about student events on campus to load so checking e-mail is a very long process (and I’d really like to look through and delete many of the e-mails I received while I was in Europe, but that will take a long time).
Our first class of the semester was South African Music. We started learning about traditional Ngumi music, the traditonal music of the Xhosa, Zulu, and some other South African tribes. With my years of piano I was able to follow most of the musical terminology she was talking about, but I was surprised how much about actual music (instruments, singing, rhythms, chords) we learned. I think a good portion of the class is about jazz and it’s role in the anti-apartheid movement, but we have to get through some older stuff first. Three hour classes will take a bit of getting used to (I was hungry a half an hour into the class that ran from 2:45-5:45pm . . .), but it should be a good time. Although we covered quite a bit of information, it wasn’t too overwhelming (I hope the other classes are as well!). I’m not sure where our professor is from, but she seemed quite comfortable with Katie pronounced in the British manner (more like KT- actually saying each syllable, versus the American kaydee). When we returned to our flats, we found out that our maid had been afftected by the combi strike and not made it in to work that day. While we are perfectly able to live without her services for a while, it was a bit of a shock to have to do some dishes (and 3 meals worth of dishes for 5 people is a lot of dishes!) for once. While affluent people like us still managed to get around despite the strike, this isn’t much of an option for thost living in the townships. No matter how much the wealthy (mostly white) rely on their cleaning ladies, nannies, and construction workers to do the dirty work, at the end of the day they will cope. Without the day’s pay these laborers earn from their jobs they might face some hardships. It’s sad that the combi drivers end up hurting those who rely on their services in their attempt to make their point to the government.
Tuesday morning was free so I did a little grocery shopping, dropped off my laundry at the laundromat down the street (self service laundry doesn’t exist here, but thankfully a large load of clothes only costs 35 rand-approx $3.50, and it is convenient . . .), and headed to the beach. For the first time in a while the weather was perfect for the beach- it was sunny and not very windy. I made a sand pyramid with a moat around it with another girl. We could tell from the lack of noise in the morning that the combi drivers had decided to extend their strike another day. Usually we can hear the combi drivers call of “downtown, downtown” as they rattle down the street outside our windows from whenever we wake up- I usually can sleep in until at least 7am if I want to, but several members of our group are lighter sleepers and they have been woken up at 5:45am every other day. Somehow the flats’ administration had figured out the cleaning lady situation, since at some point in the morning our beds got made and some dishes washed.
We didn’t go into NMMU for our senior seminar class in the afternoon. Since it was just us and our CSB/SJU professor (who’s also staying in a holiday flat in our building) we met in the Sunday School/dining room of the church. We started talking about Nelson Mandela (we’re reading his autobiography for the class) and listened to a lecture about the beginnings of apartheid in the early 20th century. So far I’ve really enjoyed reading about Mandela’s life. It’s interesting to learn about the experiences and people that influenced him. His book is also a nice introduction to modern South African history- he’s lived through most of it and his life gives me some context for the dates & events. I think this class will be a bit tougher than the music class (we have papers to write!), but I hope our discussions are good.
Wednesday morning dawned and still no combis. The combi drivers must have some money saved up in order to afford haliting their income for three full days (or maybe they’re suffering without the income, but they believe the point they’re trying to make is that important). We returned to the university for our community service class in the morning. We’re getting used to the slow process of getting to school each day. To coincide with our volunteer work the lecture included some background information about South African poverty and the theorty of community development (working with the community and community members to make improvemetns that the community can sustain). I enjoyed seeing the overlap between some of the community building I participated in & saw happening last summer and what we might be doing at our sites this semester. The organizer of the class will be giving a few more lectures throughout the semester (not quite as often as our other classes) and visiting our volunteer sites with us a couple of times as well. Our first assignment is to write a journal after each time we volunteer. I was slightly surprised how similar this community learning class is to the service learning component of my upper level theology class I took last spring- I had to do a journal about my experiences doing that as well.
After lunch I hung out on campus, mostly in the computer lab. Most of the rest of the group had a South African literature class (I elected to take the Marine Biology class, which meant I had to choose another class to not take). I attempted to talk to the chair of the music department about joining a musical group that I could play percussion in, but he was not around so I chatted with his secretary about my options instead. I finally saw my first monkey on campus. Since the whole campus is on a nature reserve, they live in the lands around the campus and stop in around meal times to try and get some food. I’d been seeing the large “Don’t feed the Monkeys” signs for days, but now I actually know what to look out for. They’re rather small monkeys- they reminded me a bit of spider monkeys. They looked quite cutre, but I’ve been told they’re a bit of a hassle. Students who live on campus have to close their windows around dinner time since the monkeys are apt to climb in and steal the food. The church hosted a dinner for us that night. We all enjoyed the delicious food (it tasted like some sort of mild curry to me, but someone else said it had a different name)- it was certainly a little more complicated than the basic pasta/rice & chicken/ground beef we’d been making. We also met with a few college students who are members of the church. A student from a neighboring Africa country (Malawi, I believe, but I can’t remember for certain) sat near me and a few of us chatted with him.

Until next week, thanks for reading!